NELLE is a literary journal focused on women and their experiences. The journal is an academic publication staffed by faculty, students, alumni, and community members. Writers of all backgrounds are welcome to submit to this journal. It was founded by Linda Frost in 2001 under the title poemmemoirstory, and edited by Kerry Madden from 2010-2017. The journal was renamed NELLE for its 2018 issue edited by Lauren Slaughter.
Past contributors include Erica Dawson, Wandajune Bishop-Towle, Bryn Chancellor, Naoko Fujimoto, Dorothy Allison, Carrie Jerrell, Patricia Brieschke, Edwidge Danticat, Jennifer Horne, Leslie Nipkow, Carys Brays, Li Yun Alvarado, Irene Latham, Tara Isom, Christina Nettles, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Molly Peacock, Heather Dundas, Cynthia Ryan, Lucia Perillo, Sonia Sanchez, Diana Wagman, and Natasha Trethewey.
NELLE STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Lauren Goodwin Slaughter is the author of the poetry collections, Spectacle (2022) and a lesson in smallness (2015). She is a NEA Fellow and also a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her fiction, poetry, and essays appear or are forthcoming in Harvard Review, Image, 32 Poems, Tupelo Quarterly, and Texas Review among many other places. She is an associate professor of English at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Find her online at www.laurenslaughter.com.
Managing Editor
Sophie Isham is a trans-feminine nonbinary writer based in Birmingham, AL. They write both creative nonfiction and short stories. Sophie earned their B.A. in English at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where they are currently pursuing their M.A. in English, Creative Writing. When not writing, Sophie can be found at their small homestead with their partner, two kids, two cats, four dogs, and fourteen chickens.
Fiction Editor
Angela Mitchell is the author of the story collection, Unnatural Habitats & Other Stories (WTAW Press). Her fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, New South, Carve, Midwestern Gothic, storySouth, and other journals. Her story, “Animal Lovers,” was awarded Colorado Review’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction; more recently, her work has been featured in The Best Small Fictions 2018 (Braddock Avenue Books). An eighth generation native of the Ozarks of southern Missouri, she now lives in St. Louis with her family.
Nonfiction Editor
Emily Krawczyk is the founder of the online publication The Laughing Lesbian, a platform for the LGBTQ community. She is the nonfiction editor of UAB's NELLE (previously PMS) and cast member of Listen To Your Mother Birmingham 2016, where her personal work in nonfiction was turned into spoken word. She is a UAB graduate and works as a freelance editor and writer.
Poetry Editor
Kristin Entler was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at six months old, and first came out as LGBT+ several years after her diabetes diagnosis at 12 years old. She currently serves as Poetry Editor for NELLE and lives with her service-dog-in-training, Azzie, whose name is short for the Greek god of medicine. Entler can be found in publications such as The Bitter Southerner, Hobart, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and Poet Lore among others, as well as on twitter @findmycure.
Contributing Editor/Design & Production
Halley Cotton is the former poetry editor for NELLE. Her work has appeared in places such as The Greensboro Review, Poetry South, and Smokelong Quarterly, among others. She is the director for the SPARK Writing Festival and teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham when she’s not busy kayaking or finding four-leaf clovers.
Assistant Editors
Rachel Houghton, Jasmine Maye, Jace Rose, Laura Jane Stallo, Mary Johnson Butterworth, Sophia Isham, Ryann Grace Howard