Carol Edelstein, with Robin Barber, co-founded Gallery of Readers Press. With Liz George, she edits Switch, a journal of micro fiction. She is the author of three books of poems, most recently Past Repair (Simian Press, 2021). Her poetry and fiction have been featured in numerous anthologies and literary magazines, including The Massachusetts Review, The Georgia Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review. 

Born 1947 in Northampton, Robin Barber, M.A., is a writer, teacher, and photographer. Certified by Amherst Writers and Artists leadership program, Robin has been in writing workshops since 1987, and leading the Wednesday evening and Monday morning workshops since 1997. Robin is the managing director of Gallery of Readers Press.

David Klimczak is a transplanted resident of the Pioneer Valley for over 44 years, first in Northampton, now in Deerfield, David had a long career in nonprofit financial management. He served as the Financial Director for several nonprofit service organizations and then for 23 years as Accounting Supervisor for Historic Deerfield. Now retired, he continues to volunteer his time in the role of treasurer for the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association in Deerfield, and for Gallery of Readers.

Susan Cocalis is a stand-up comedian (she’s also funny sitting down). When she retired from teaching film studies at UMass, she left the Amherst campus cleaner than she’d found it. Her instructive book of rhyming verse, Lessons Out of School, was published by Gallery of Readers Press in 2011. She lives in Northampton with her wild boxer Cocoa.

Marc Berman is board member and advisor to media companies both publicly and privately held. He lives in Florence

Lisa Ekus majored in American literature at Barnard College (’79) and worked in a literary agency, followed by stints at Random House and Crown Publishers in Manhattan. She founded The Ekus Group, LLC in Hatfield in 1983, a full-service culinary agency. Lisa has represented a diverse selection of food personalities, writers, cookbooks, restaurants, and food products. She also is the proud owner of more than 7,000 cookbooks. The Guinness Book of World Records recently awarded Lisa the honor of having the largest personal cookbook collection in the world. Lisa is deeply committed to volunteerism and donates her time to several non-profit organizations in the hunger, health, and humanitarian arenas.

Laurie Loisel, a freelance journalist and former reporter and editor at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, is author of two books: Those Left Behind: The Secret Club Inside the Nation’s Opioid Epidemic, published in 2021 by Gallery of Readers Press and On Their Own Terms: How One Woman’s Choice to Die Helped me Understand My Father’s Suicide, published in 2019 by Levellers Press. She lives in Northampton.