Citizen Lit is about extending the conversation beyond the writer. Each week this literary podcast explores what it means to be an active member of the writing world through reviews, interviews, and recorded performances. Art is about connection and engagement—how the work speaks to us and how we respond back. From writers to publishers, to venues and festivals, Citizen Lit is your weekly invitation to share your voice and join the conversation.

Host and Studio Engineer / Jim Warner

Jim Warner’s professional resume includes stints as Managing Editor for Quiddity, Assistant Director of Wilkes University’s MFA program, and his current role as MFA Faculty at Arcadia University. Jim is the author of two poetry collections Too Bad It’s Poetry and Social Studies (Paper Kite Press). His poetry has appeared in The North American Review, RHINO poetry, New South, PANK, and various journals. He also writes the column "Best Worst Year" for Sundog Lit. Jim is a 2006 Norris Church Mailer Fellowship recipient and a finalist for the 2015 Erskine J. Poetry Prize. He received his MFA at Wilkes University.

Jim is the founder and former host/coordinator of The AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Conference Afterhours Reading and Poetry Slam. Since 2006, The Afterhours Reading has grown to include prizes from Etruscan Press and Akashic Books for winners and has provided an opportunity for student voices to be a part of the conference. He has also co-coached The Breaking Grounds teen poetry team, helping to lead them to the Brave New Voices International Teen Poetry Slam Festival on multiple occasions. Jim has served as a regional coordinator and judge for national programs including Poetry Out Loud, Letters about Literature, and The James Jones First Novel Fellowship. He brings nearly two decades of audio production and literary experience to his role as host and show runner for Citizen Lit. Jim tweets @whoismisterjim.

Executive Producer / Aubrie Cox

Aubrie Cox went to university to write a novel and came out writing haiku. After receiving her MA in creative writing from Ball State University, she has served as an editor for both the online journals A Hundred Gourds and Juxtapositions: A Journal of Haiku Research and Scholarship. Currently she is an MFA student at Temple University.

Aubrie is the author of the chapbooks tea’s aftertaste (Bronze Man Books) and Out of Translation (Kattywompus Press), which also won third place in the 2014 Turtle Light Press Haiku Chapbook Competition. Her poetry and prose have been published in journals such as The Mondegreen, NANO Fiction, Whiskey Paper, Haibun Today, and Modern Haiku, and she was one of 17 poets included in A New Resonance 8: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press). She has received multiple awards for haiku and tanka, including the Museum of Haiku Literature Award and a Touchstone Award from The Haiku Foundation. Most recently she received the grand prize in Wyvern Lit’s first annual flash fiction competition. She tweets @aubriecox and manages day-to-day operations, social media, and coordinates interviews for Citizen Lit.

Website and logo design by Jensine Williams and intro music courtesy of Bedford.

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