editors

Shyla Shehan
Princess Peach
Gets her best work done between first and second sleep

Contact: shyla@thegoodlifereview.com

Tacheny Perry
Managing Editor
Loves drinking pickle juice and watching terrible TV

Contact:
tacheny.perry@thegoodlifereview.com

Annie Barker
Associate Editor, Copy Editor, Short & Micro CNF Editor
Puts “R” sock on right foot; “L” sock on left foot

Bianca Swift
Guest Editor for Spoken Word

Bianca Swift has an MA in English, Creative Writing and a Bachelors in English with minors in French and African American Studies. Bianca has performed in Spoken Word Poetry Competitions in Philadelphia, PA, Houston, TX, and Richmond, VA. Bianca is an Assistant Researcher on the Charles Chesnutt Archive and works for the Nebraska Writers Collective as a Teaching Artist, bringing poetry to middle schoolers and high schoolers across Lincoln. Bianca is a published author and when she is not working she is performing at venues around Lincoln and Omaha as a performance poet.

Shyla Shehan
Spoken Word Reviewer
Takes too many pictures of flowers, sunsets, and her cats

Shyla Ann Shehan is an analytical Virgo from the Midwest with an MFA from the University of Nebraska. Her writing has appeared in The Pinch, Moon City Review, Summerset Review, Sunlight Press, and is forthcoming from Citron Review, Puerto del Sol, and New York Quarterly. Her poetry collection, Mining the Gap, was published by WSC Press in 2025, and she’s the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize. She lives in Omaha with her husband, children, and three cats. ❀ More at shylashehan.com.

Michelle Battle
Spoken Word Reviewer and Poetry Co-Lead Editor
Never met a ball of yarn she didn’t like

Michelle holds an MFA in Writing-Poetry from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her work has appeared in 13^th Floor Magazine, Fine Lines, and Taxicab Literary Magazine. She has conducted creative writing workshops for urban youth and Backwaters Press. Her daughters are lifelong supporters on her journey as a writer.

Toni Allen
Audio Editor, Poetry Reader, and Short Fiction Reader

Cat Dixon
Co-Lead Poetry Editor

Cat is the author of Eva and Too Heavy to Carry  (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2016, 2014) and The Book of Levinson and Our End Has Brought the Spring (Finishing Line Press, 2017, 2015), and the chapbook, Table for Two (Poet’s Haven, 2019).  She has poems (co-written with Trent Walters) in They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing (Black Lawrence Press, 2018).  

Michelle Battle
Co-Lead Poetry Editor
Never met a ball of yarn she didn’t like

Michelle holds an MFA in Writing-Poetry from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her work has appeared in 13^th Floor Magazine, Fine Lines, and Taxicab Literary Magazine. She has conducted creative writing workshops for urban youth and Backwaters Press. Her daughters are lifelong supporters on her journey as a writer.

Terry Belew
Poetry & Micro Poetry Editor
Strongly dislikes the word ‘poet’

Terry Belew lives in rural Missouri. His debut collection, The Deep Blue of Neptune, won the 2024 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Kent State University Press. He received his MFA from University of Nebraska-Omaha, where he won the 2022 and 2023 Helen W. Kenefick Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Recent work can be found in journals such as Meridian, Southern Humanities Review, Storm Cellar, Gulf Stream, and Tar River Poetry, among many others. 

Cid Galicia
Poetry Editor

Cid Galicia has lived, and taught, in New Orleans for the past twelve years. He has an MFA from the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is a poetry reader for The Kitchen Table Quarterly. He received honorable mention for the 2021 Academy of American Poets Prize and his most recent work has appeared in the National Poetry Month Issue of The Elevation Review. 

Stepha Vesper
Poetry Editor
Horror movie and basset hound obsessed!

Originally from Ohio, Stepha Vesper holds a BA and MA in poetry from Miami University and an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Stepha’s poems can be found in Fruita Pulp, COAST|noCOAST, and other journals.  Currently residing in Omaha with her husband and hound, she also works as a copywriter and marketing specialist.  

Carina Faz
Fiction Editor
If you let her pick what’s for dinner, it will always be tacos!

Carina is an award winning screenwriter/filmmaker residing in Brooklyn (NY), but originally from Dallas, Texas. She received her BA in Radio/Television Production from Texas A&M University at Commerce, and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Nebraska Omaha. Carina spends her time traveling back and forth between the Lone Star State and the Big Apple. When not working to pay the bills, Carina enjoys watching films directed by Robert Rodriguez, baking fresh Mexican pastries, and buying just one more book.

Amy Crawford
Fiction Editor

Amy recently completed an MFA in Writing and MA in English at UNO, with writing that ranges from speculative fiction to creative non-fiction, often informed by trauma studies and ecocriticism. In addition to putting pen to paper, Amy spends downtime with a little rescue tabby cat, reading the next novel in the pile, trying a new tea, watching movies or playing games, and traveling to new places.

Lea Pounds
Fiction Editor

Lea Pounds holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska Omaha. Her writing focuses on the complex and fluid relationships we have with our natural, social, and political environments. She loves to explore those brief interactions that tell a deeper story. Lea is an avid people watcher and gets her best story ideas by eavesdropping on snippets of other people’s lives. She’s published in Sand Hills, The Novice Writer, After Dinner Conversation, and Grand Dame Literary. 

Ciara Hoff
Fiction Editor
Plays too much Sims, eats too much cheese

Ciara Hoff is a fiction writer, freelance editor, and undergraduate creative writing instructor with an MFA in Writing from the University of Nebraska. Her early short fiction has appeared in 13^th Floor Magazine, and she is currently working on her first novel. When not writing, editing stories/essays, or explaining how to use Microsoft Office to college students, she is either walking her dog or playing The Sims 4 (often while eating cheese).