Ithaca College
New Voices Literary Festival
Spring 2020
Official Dates to Be Announced
Each author at the festival is placed with two Ithaca College Student Guides. These guides get the opportunity to converse with their author, help their author navigate campus and the various festival events, and introduce their author at their readings. Below are the Guides for the 2017 Festival!
Erika Walsh
Erika Walsh is a junior Writing major with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies from Long Island, NY. She is a poetry editor for Stillwater Magazine and writes poetry, personal essay and short fiction. She is super excited to be a part of the festival!
Maddie Stengel
Returning for a third consecutive year with the festival, Maddie Stengel is a native Texan pursuing a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Acting with a minor in Deaf Studies. When she’s not experimenting with vegan cooking or publishing her travel/lifestyle blog, The Independent Optimist, Maddie can be found working at Moosewood Restaurant or translating rap music into American Sign Language.
Nikki Kramer
Nikki Kramer is a sophomore writing major with a minor in sociology. She writes poetry and creative nonfiction and this is her first year participating in the New Voices Festival.
The 2017 Student Guides
Alexis Farabaugh
Alexis Farabaugh is a senior writing major with an Integrated Marketing Communications minor. She's the Prose & Cons editor for Buzzsaw Magazine, whose tasks include editing fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Alexis also works at IC's writing center. In her spare time, she loves cooking gluten-free and vegan.
Tyler Macri
Tyler is a Junior Ithaca College student majoring in Cinema and Photography with a minor in Writing. He was raised in Central Connecticut where, from an early age, he first began to explore and reinvent the spaces around him with words and photos.
Jordan Gallant
Jordan Gallant is a First-Year Student double majoring in Writing and Documentary Studies. She is a Connecticut native with a passion for storytelling in both nonfiction and fiction mediums. Her main creative writing focus? Poetry.
Thomas Pettitt
Thomas is a freshman Writing Major from Syracuse, New York. He likes romantic comedies, YA fantasy, and is thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in this festival!
Rachel Balzano
Rachel is a junior English major and writing minor and is thrilled to be a guide in the New Voices Festival this year after attending for the past two years! You can find her with a book in her purse "just in case", crying over videos of Kristen Bell, and identifies with sea turtles.
Liam Whalen
Liam is a senior Writing major with an English minor. He aspires to become a published author and one day a professor. He enjoys writing fiction and is experimenting with image-text and screenwriting. He has interests in both film and music, which have been a major inspiration for his writing. He is currently exploring themes of gender and sexuality in the formation of public and private identity.
Annie Batterman
Annie Batterman is a sophomore English major with minors in Writing and Art History. She loves to read and write fiction, and is super excited to be involved in the New Voices Festival for the first time.
Mireya Chiriboga
Mireya Chiriboga is a junior English and Writing double major. She is from the Bronx, NY. When not exploring NYC, she is enjoying some poetry and sipping tea. This is her first time being a New Voices guide, and she is excited to be a part of this year's festival!
Hakeem Hopper-Collins
Hakeem Hopper-Collins is a senior Writing major with a minor in African Diaspora Studies. He writes with the pen name: hakeem anthony, which has the ability to translate into “praiseworthy wisdom”. He enjoys writing from the BreakBeat and Afrofuturism tradition. He is currently working on his first, future Pulitzer-Prize winning piece, an indreamtion of a spaceship.
TJ Vogelman
I am a Junior Writing Major with a concentration in Creative Writing. I enjoy writing fiction (science or fantasy), news articles, and creative nonfiction. I hope to one day be a writer for National Geographic and novelist.
Laura Miller
Laura Miller is a sophomore English/Education major at IC. She loves books and poetry and Dungeons & Dragons, and is so excited to work on this festival!
Crista Messenger, Graphic Designer
Student Workers
Parker Callister, Composer
Jason Eldridge, Composer
Parker Callister is a multi-instrumentalist and composer born and raised in Ithaca, NY. Outside of academic composition, Parker also plays bass in Monolith, a local sludge/doom metal band, and collaborates with filmmakers by scoring short films. He is currently studying to earn a Bachelor's of Music in Music Composition at Ithaca College.
Jason Eldridge is a composer and guitarist currently completing a degree in Music Composition. His music reflects an abiding interest in extended instrumental techniques, electronics, blurring the composer/performer distinction, and black metal.
Hannah Livernois
Hannah Livernois is a junior Writing major with a minor in Women’s and Gender studies. They enjoy spoken word poetry, dismantling the hetero-patriarchy, and long walks on the beach.
Kelly Twardziak
Kelly Twardziak is a junior Communications Studies major with a minor in Writing from Philadelphia. Kelly enjoys making tacos, graphic novels, and telling people she is totally going to start running again.