Sara Schaff is an associate professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, where she teaches fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. A 2025 NYSCA Support for Artists Grant Recipient and a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Fiction, she is the author of the story collections The Invention of Love (Split/Lip Press) and Say Something Nice About Me (Augury Books), a 2017 Firecracker Award Finalist and a Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Short Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Kenyon Review, Catapult, LitHub, Yale Review Online, and elsewhere. Find her work at saraschaff.com.

Gbolahan Adeola holds an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University, where he was awarded the John Hawkes Prize and the Feldman Prize in fiction. His work has received recognition and support from the Best American Short Stories anthology, MacDowell, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He is currently pursuing a PhD in English at Yale University.

Shawna Kelty is an associate professor and chair of theatre at SUNY Plattsburgh, where she teaches directing, dramatic literature, history, and performance. She is a director, dramaturg, and performer. She is a KCACTF Region 1 invited National Playwriting Program play respondent. As an artist, Shawna works primarily in new play development at universities and on some professional stages, and through several theatre organizations like ATHE, MATC, Great Plains Theatre Conference, and the Valdez Theatre Conference. Her recent directing projects include Joe Stollenwerk's Jan and Joe, the world premiere of Kristen Ritter's Nefarious, and Caitlin Turnage's In a Darkroom, The Lord Knows. Upcoming projects include directing Emily Krause's Something for the Fish, Ayesha Siddiqui’s The Intervention, and artistic direction for SUNY Plattsburgh's 2023 Climate Play Festival.

Benjamin Landry is the author of three poetry collections (Particle and Wave, Chicago, 2014; Burn Lyrics, Spuyten Duyvil, 2016; Mercies in the American Desert, LSU, 2021). His poems appear widely in journals including The New Yorker, Ploughshares and Poetry Daily. He has twice been a finalist for the National Poetry Series, and his work has been supported by grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts. He earned his MFA from the University of Michigan and also holds degrees from Brown University and the Bread Loaf School of English. Ben is the creator and host of VerseCurious, the podcast of new poetry reviews, which focuses on forthcoming poetry collections by women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and debut authors.

Lamar Childs served as Editorial Assistant on Issue 18. He will graduate this spring from SUNY Plattsburgh with a degree in Writing Arts. He enjoys reading and writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. He hopes to enter the writing world in some way.

Ivonne Edrington is a recent graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh, with a degree in Writing Arts. They served as a tutor for the Educational Opportunity Program at (EOP) at Plattsburgh during the summer. Their favorite genre to read and write is horror. 

Johan Robinson was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Her fascination with literature began when she read her first novel series, Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne. Her need to consume as many different stories as possible was fulfilled when her mom took her to the local public library every Friday. She later went on to attend St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, where she majored in English. For her master's degree, Johan attended Relay Graduate School of Education through Teach for America. During her two-year corps commitment, she worked at a Coney Island charter school, teaching eighth-grade English. Johan later taught Humanities to fifth graders at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn Heights. When she is not reading a mystery/thriller novel, Johan loves spending time outdoors.

Kelli Charland (she/her) is an alum of SUNY Plattsburgh. She studied English literature and creative writing and now manages a charming used bookshop. She has worked as copy editor for SUNY Plattsburgh’s student-run literary magazine, North Star, as well as editorial intern and social media manager for Saranac Review. Her poetry can be found in Gandy Dancer and Anacapa Review. She writes and loves poetry that melds the external, conscious natural world with the internal, subconscious one. She also loves horror literature, good coffee, and hamsters.

Luke De Jager is a senior Creative Writing major. The recipient of the George and Nina Winkel Humanities Award in English, he enjoys reading and writing fiction, particularly drama and screenplays.

Lauren Waldron is the Administrative Assistant in the English department at SUNY Plattsburgh. She was born and raised in the North Country and is raising her daughter and two beagles in Peru, New York. Lauren loves to be outside whenever possible and enjoys hunting and fishing with her husband. Saranac Review could not function without her calm and meticulous approach to solving any problem that comes her way.

Jenna is a senior Creative Writing major at SUNY Plattsburgh. She has worked as the fiction editor of North Star, a student-run literary and arts magazine based on Plattsburgh’s campus. A few of her most recent publications are in North Star’s 2025 issue, including a poem titled “The Lovers.” Jenna loves writing, reading, archery, playing Phasmophobia, and any other hobby she can get her hands on.