Staff
Robbin Farr, Founder, Editor
(She/Her/Hers)
Robbin Farr is a founder and the editor of River Heron Review since 2018 and River Heron Writers’ Workshops, offering a variety of workshops and retreats since 2019. Returning to her own writing after twenty-three years facilitating high-school education as a literature and creative writing teacher, she has since published two books of poetry, Transience (2018) and Become Echo (2023) and has published poems and lyric essays in numerous journals and anthologies. Robbin has also presented panels and informational sessions at conferences and with various writers’ groups. When not helming River Heron, she mentors novice writers and volunteers for the regional arts council, where she provides support for its literary arts programs. Robbin lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Richard, cat Charlie. and precariously piled stacks of poetry books.
Dawn Terpstra, Poetry Editor
(She/Her/Hers)
Dawn Terpstra is the poetry editor for River Heron Review (2023) and a River Heron Writers’ Workshop instructor. Dawn began serious pursuit of poetry after working in corporate communications and with marketing teams, teaching high school and college English and social studies, and working in the broadcast industry. She has published a chapbook, Songs from the Summer Kitchen (2020), and is currently shopping a collection, Jello in Hard Times. Her poetry has been published in several journals and anthologies. She is currently the president of the Iowa Poetry Association and hosts a monthly Zoom program, IPA LIVE, focused on poetry craft and community. Over the past few years, she has been involved with bringing live regional and national poetry events to Iowa. She is currently a low-residency MFA student in creative writing at the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University. She and her husband, John, live in rural Iowa where they plant trees, enjoy birding and keep bees.
Joanell Serra, Interviews Editor
Joanell Serra is a Northern California writer with work published in numerous journals and anthologies. Her books include The Vines We Planted (Wido, 2018) and (Her)oics Anthology, a collection of women’s essays about the pandemic (Regal House Publishing, 2021). A licensed therapist, she offers personal coaching, women’s retreats, and writing workshops. She is currently an MFA student at Randolph College.
Juanita Smart, Assistant Poetry Editor
Juanita Smart holds a Ph.D. in English and Composition from Washington State University, but received her best schooling in the humanities after college, while working the 3 to 11pm shift at the Salvation Army Crisis Intervention and Emergency Shelter in Hartford, CT. Her work has appeared in About Place Journal, Rise Up Review, and others. She finds nourishment and joy in the company of other writers and animal lovers, and drafts her best ideas for poems while rummaging through local Pennsylvania wilds “off leash” with her three dogs Gabe, Liberty, and Wilson.
Virginia Smith, Assistant Poetry Editor
A frequent Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, VA Smith has work published in several anthologies and in dozens of literary journals, among them: Southern Review, Calyx, Crab Creek Review, West Trade Review and Quartet. Her first two books are Biking Through the Stone Age and American Daughters (Kelsay Books, 2022 and 2023). Her third book, the recently completed manuscript, Adaptations, is under review. A former Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence awardee at Penn State University, and a Professor of Teaching in The Department of English, VA gigs now as Assistant Poetry Editor at River Heron Review, as well as a poetry reader for Crab Creek Review. Her bliss is writing, cooking, hiking and loving on friends and family. Learn more about Virginia’s work at vasmithpoetry.com, or on Instagram and YouTube @vasmithpoetry.
Sandra Fees, Poetry Staff
Sandra Fees is the author of Wonderwork (BlazeVOX Books, 2024), as well as two chapbooks, The Temporary Vase of Hands (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and Moving, Being Moved (Five Oaks Press, 2017). She lives in southeastern Pennsylvania where she is a Unitarian Universalist minister and past poet laureate of Berks County (2016-2018). Her poems have been published in Whale Road Review, Crab Creek Review, Witness, River Heron Review and elsewhere. You can learn more about her work at sandrafees.com.
Mary Jo LoBello Jerome, Poetry Staff
Mary Jo LoBello Jerome is the author of Torch the Empty Fields (Finishing Line, 2022). As a Poet Laureate of Bucks County (PA), she edited Fire Up the Poems, a book of poetry prompts for secondary school teachers, released in 2021. Mary Jo was a poetry editor of the Schuylkill Valley Journal, holds an MFA in Creative Writing, and is thrilled that one of her poems was recently reprinted in the best-selling anthology, The Wonder of Small Things. Her fiction and poetry have been published in many literary journals, and she has written for The New York Times, Scholastic and others. Now retired from teaching, she lives with her husband within rock-skipping distance of a lovely river.
Lindsay Rockwell, Poetry Staff
Lindsay Rockwell is poet-in-residence for the Episcopal Church of Connecticut and hosts their Poetry and Social Justice Dialogue series. She's recently published, or forthcoming in CALYX, EcoTheo Review, Gargoyle, Radar, River Heron Review, The Dewdrop, among others. Her first collection, GHOST FIRES, was published by Main Street Rag, April 2023. She’s received fellowships from Vermont Studio Center and Edith Wharton/The Mount residency. Lindsay is also an oncologist.
Linda Mills Woolsey, Poetry Staff
Linda Mills Woolsey (She/Her/Hers) is a Western Pennsylvania native whose work is rooted in the human and natural world of northern Appalachia. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Christian Century, The Windhover, Northen Appalachia Review, Wild Roof, St. Katherine Review, Quartet and other journals. Having retired from teaching literature and writing to undergraduates, she is rediscovering the joy of writing and of participating in a wider writing community. She lives in the rural village of Rushford, New York with her husband, Stephen, and cats Pippa and Pierre.
