RYW Staff
Bird Cox
Executive Director / Co-Founder
Email: richmondyoungwriters@gmail.com
Bird co-founded the organization in 2010 with writer Valley Haggard. Bird graduated from the University of Virginia in its first class of creative writing majors, and she has written for Richmond Magazine, C-ville Weekly, and the literary magazine McSweeney’s. Her work with RYW won her the Emyl Jenkins Award in 2021. Bird invites you to support young writers who are experiencing incarceration via the Free Verse program.
Quarry, where some RYW programs take place, is Bird’s creative community space for adults.
Catherine Carson
Catherine is a Richmond native with a deep love for teaching and writing. She graduated from James Madison University in 2019 with a B.A. in English literature and a concentration in Creative Writing. Catherine is the poet behind The Land of Opposite Attractions (Brandylane Publishing, 2022). In her free time, Catherine loves to journal, take on art projects, read, and be outside. She is currently working on her second poetry collection and a memoir project, as well as applying to graduate programs for creative writing. Catherine teaches art and creative writing classes around Richmond and loves every moment of it.
Elise Steele
Assistant Director / Teacher
Email: esteelewrites@gmail.com
Elise is a creative writer with an honors degree in English from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. While her work gravitates toward poetry, she loves to experiment with short-stories, often dabbling in horror-fiction.
Elise split her childhood years between midwest Ohio and Appalachian Tennessee. She’s lived in Richmond for the past few years and currently works as a freelance writer and a substitute teacher for local elementary schools.
Evan Fleischer
Teacher
Evan Fleischer is a writer, editor, and recent MFA currently graduate living in Richmond, VA. He has regularly run D&D sessions for people of all ages and experience levels over the past two years. He is currently locked in a third-person bio and is trying to find his way out.
Grace Gentry
Teacher
Grace is a dancer, writer, artist, and teacher from Ohio who dropped anchor in Richmond after being blown about by a Oaxacan whirlwind, cleaned out by a Las Vegas gamble, and washed ashore in the midst of a Texas thunderstorm. Forever fascinated by words, Grace is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and freelance resume writer who boasts a dual-major degree from Wittenberg University in English Literature and Communication Studies, and a Master’s of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Arizona State University. Grace speaks English natively and Spanish fluently, and she is currently learning French and Dari (Persian). She spends most of her free time dancing, or with her Shih Tzu/toy poodle mix Louie, whose bark is untranslatable to anyone but his mother.
Kisha Hughes
Teacher
Kisha Hughes graduated from James Madison University in 2007 with a BA in English/Creative Writing. She has spent her summers teaching children ages 6-15 at the Furious Flower Poetry Camp in Harrisonburg, VA since 2009. During the year she works at the Army Logistics University Library as a library technician, where she gets to share her love for education, research and writing. She lives in Richmond with her artistic spouse and three troublesome felines.
Lila Jones
Teacher
Lila is thrilled to be a teacher at Richmond Young Writers. As the first alumna to return to teach, she’s very excited to be part of this team of mentors, offering classes and summer camps to the next generation of young writers. Lila received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and Visual Arts/ Photography from Guilford College. Upon graduation, she received a grant from the English/Creative Writing department to fund her role as RYW’s first teaching fellow in 2020. During her time as a fellow, Lila had the privilege of serving as co-editor of RYW’s online literary magazine, Whose Ghost, alongside RYW’s executive director and co-founder, Bird Cox. Later that year, Lila was promoted to editor. Since then, Lila has grown into her role as a teacher and taught at schools and partner organizations across Richmond such as Lois Harrison-Jones Elementary, Collegiate School, Studio Two Three, and more. Some of her classes and summer camps have included The Art of Storytelling, Sharing Circle, and Spring into Nature: Creatures & Their Stories. Lila’s grateful to be part of the Richmond Young Writers community. Deeply committed to providing safe spaces to learn and thrive, Lila also collaborates with local and international communities to build sustainable food systems and preserve our natural ecosystems.
Merlyn Mayhew
Teacher
Merlyn grew up in Massachusetts but her heart was set on Virginia. She recently made the big move to Richmond and loves it! Her most recent degree is an MFA in Creative Writing with a genre focus on Writing for Young People. In her free time, you can find Merlyn scouting out the Richmond restaurant scene, at the barre studio, taking walks with Bingo, or watching too much reality tv.
Mikey Stough
Mikey Stough is a Richmond Native with a lifelong passion for storytelling and filmmaking. They graduated from VCU in 2017 with a Bachelor's of Cinema, and minors in English and History. Mikey worked professionally in many aspects of the film and television industry before transitioning their career to animal shelter work. They are currently a member of the local filmmaking collective "No Fun Films," where they write, produce, and direct music videos, documentaries, and narrative films.
Valley Haggard
Co-founder / Advisor
After traveling through New York, Italy, Colorado, Arkansas and Alaska, Valley returned to live in the house she grew up in, in her hometown of Richmond, Virginia. She is now the director of Life in 10 Minutes, home of Richmond’s most vital creative writing workshops for adults, which shares a home with Richmond Young Writers. She is the author of The Halfway House for Writers and Surrender Your Weapons, and was the winner of the 2018 James River Writers’s Emyl Jenkins Award. Visit her at www.valleyhaggard.com.