From a young age, Theodore “Teddy” Anganes harbored a fascination with stories and fictional worlds, spurring a great desire to create in any manner possible. His work pulls from a bottomless well of inspirations and fascinations with a deep love for film, music, literature, video games, art, and the unique ways each can tell their stories. His stories often explore the strange, the surreal, the horrifying, and the personal, using the vessel of his characters’ fears and mistakes to better understand the world around us.
Beck Babcock is an artist, and sometimes-writer, who is enrolled at MCC for liberal arts and sciences. They hope to be a paleoanthropologist someday, but for now they settle for crafting and writing at their art studio in Lowell.
Cayleigh Baillargeon
Raley Beggs
Conor Burrell is an undergraduate at University of Massachusetts Lowell pursuing a degree in English. He loves writing fiction, poetry, and has begun to dabble with memoirs. He is an alumni of Middlesex Community College and is a former editor of the Dead River Review with works published in Issue #9. It was at Middlesex that Conor discovered his passion and love for writing and has immersed himself in it ever since. Conor also volunteers at local open mics with the poetry organization, Lowell Poetry Wheel.
Michael Campos
Jessica Carbonneau has been writing since she was eight. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Jessica believes the secret to having it all is to know that you already do. Jessica lives with her wonderful husband, Ricky, and their four fur babies.
Hey, it’s me, Bllu Catalano, and I just got off the train. I’m partial to floating down the Liffey and walking Abby Lane. My Cape Cod roots are strong, yet I’ve lived lots of places. Wherever I am, connection to growing things is what matters most. This era finds me a student at Middlesex Community College studying creative writing and business. Music is another root where most of my writing is fed. I live with my family—my deepest root—and a very scaredy-cat rescue dog on the northern edge of Massachusetts.
Adam Coffey is currently a student pursuing an English degree. He is heavily passionate about reading and writing, and he mostly specializes in Fiction but also enjoys poetry and songwriting. His biggest goal is to make things that people will enjoy and be influenced by.
A Lowell local since the age of four Lakeisha Davis tends to find herself indulging in whatever pop up event she can find from book readings at the local library to open mic nights and small band shows around the city. On sunny evenings she tends to find herself hidden away in small parks and gardens with a book and a sweet drink while enjoying the beautiful weather between classes in the Spring or settling down in the library during the winter. She is a health science major aspiring to get into the Radiologic Technology program at MCC and currently works full time as a pharmacy technician, which she was able to accomplish due to the certificate program at MCC, as well. She tends to write in her spare time when she is hit with a spontaneous urge of emotion or a random dream that has left her vulnerable. Due to taking an introduction to humanities class, her exposure to literature assigned in the classes inspired her sudden creative exploration, thanks to authors such as René Ménil and Aimé Césaire whose works have left an impressive impact on her heart.
Yesenia De Jesús is a proud Lawrence, Massachusetts native and a Culinary Arts and Business Administration student at Middlesex Community College. She blends her love for storytelling and cooking to honor her Puerto Rican roots, believing that every dish carries a memory and every story holds flavor. Yesenia writes to preserve her family’s traditions, uplift her community, and nourish hearts—one recipe at a time.
Eliezer Engerman is a poet and writer in his 6th semester at MCC. He is a creative writing major, and will be for the foreseeable future. He hopes to graduate eventually but is currently stuck in a timeloop.
Neal Finnegan
Lucas Guerrero is an instrumentalist who loves music! He is a Performing Arts major at MCC who has begun studying music for the past three years. Within those three years he has discovered classical guitar, piano, voice, and composition. Every day, he puts 100% of himself during practices and performances. He will never give up on music because he never has enough. He has had many performances, including paid ones, such as a guitar ensemble at Lowell City Hall; guitar, voice and piano solos at the Bedford and Lowell student recital since Winter of 2023; solo of the United States National Anthem at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in the upcoming MCC graduation ceremony; and drummer for the Dead River Review Release Party of May 2024. ¶ He also set up and recorded the audio of the Dracut Arts Online Concert series in Fall of 2024 and the previous and current student recitals. He was a member of the newly founded Liberal Arts Student Ambassador advisory board run by Matt Hurwitz, and he has received the Music Award for Outstanding Performance by the Music Department of MCC. He has been accepted into the Berklee College of Music for a Bachelor of Music Degree and is auditioning and interviewing at the University of Lowell. He would like to study Audio Engineering. Currently, he interns with a Professional Sound Engineer at Chillhouse Studios.
Andrey Goubanov is a student at Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Massachusetts, pursuing an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts, World Languages. He began writing poetry in Russian during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 and later developed an interest in writing poetry in English. As a bilingual poet, Andrey enjoys experimenting with translation, weaving his works between Russian and English while embracing his ethnic identity and deeply personal experiences. Andrey’s poetry is heavily influenced by Japanese culture, particularly anime and manga, and he often incorporates Japanese language into his work.
Jasmine Haqi is a student at Middlesex Community College and currently lives in Lowell. Her childhood dream job was to be a writer. She has never done it professionally, but writing has become a habit that helps her feel calm. She is also an Instagram blogger where she shares her daily life living in the U.S., and she has over 100K followers.
Stacie Hargis is a Professor and Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator at Middlesex Community College. When she is not focused on helping small businesses and advocating for entrepreneurial endeavors as a form of economic justice, you can find her hiking and traveling. She has always had a healthy interest in creative writing, poetry, and art and recently has committed more free time to these pursuits. Her undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus in Graphic Design.
Melissa Hessler is an enigmatic, eldritch swamp horror disguised as an MCC student, a little girl, a tomboy, a foodie, a hedonist, a relativist, and an existentialist who tries to prioritize seeking grace, comfort, and connection in any form in the post-colonial, post-capitalist modern society she’s been forced to assimilate into. She wants to know about your special interests and every facet of your life. She hopes you enjoy curiosity and always asks “Why?” or “How?”
William Jewell is a student at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Massachusetts, currently studying Creative Writing. He enjoys writing fantasy-fiction, poetry, as well as just writing anything in general. Having shared at open mic events previously, he is eager to share his literary work with other readers!
Cierra Justiniano is a student at MCC studying communications. She has always loved storytelling, especially screenwriting. She had never liked poetry before, but found the fun in it from a creative writing class.
Gregory Kasabian is a 1993 graduate of Middlesex Community College. He has worked in global corporate communications and higher education administration. An avid art, film, music enthusiast, and songwriter, he plays guitar and sings. He has been a member of several Boston-based bands, with his first band, Wednesday, being founded at Middlesex Community College’s Bedford campus in 1992. He has gone on to play in bands Glint, plume, and the Deep State, and is currently rhythm guitarist for the band Shepards out of Somerville, Massachusetts.
Annie Lamarche is a student at Middlesex Community College. Throughout her life she has learned that storytelling is her favorite thing to do, regardless of the medium. She started with drawing, attempted animation, and eventually chose to pursue creative prose to focus on the storytelling itself. Inspired by horror novels and slasher movies, she began writing stories involving such themes. These stories often include her love for the horror genre, her favorite animal the shrimp, and/or experiences like hers regarding being queer and having poor mental health. Annie is currently working on a dark fantasy novel about a suicidal girl’s experience in the afterlife, and how she finds an appreciation for the world and herself despite being at her lowest. She aims to write stories that give people hope without shying away from the darkest parts of life, as the people experiencing that darkness are in need of hope more than anyone else.
Iris Liao is a writing enthusiast from China with over a decade of experience in the healthcare industry, where she contributed to several editions of industry development reports. She loves life and travel, and her travel reflections have appeared in various tourism journals. Through writing in her second language, she hopes to build connections and shared understanding with the world.
Middlesex Community College guitarists banded together to form the MCC Jazz Guitar Ensemble and to perform Joseph Kosma’s legendary jazz standard “Autumn Leaves”; members included Michael Campos, Neal Finnegan, Lucas Guerrero, Taye Olasedidun, Victor Melendez, Navarre Williams, and Raley Beggs, MCC faculty member. The performance features guitarists establishing the melody of the song with chord accompaniment, followed by improvised solos to showcase each player’s unique interpretation of the song.
Nora McClellan attended Middlesex Community College and UMass Amherst, and actively participated in the creative writing communities at both. She was formerly an editor and contributor for the Dead River Review and is glad to be involved again.
Connor McDonough is a writer with an interest in neo-noir and television. He is a Middlesex alum currently working in criminal investigations.
Livkate Mejias is a student at Middlesex Community College, Lowell, Massachusetts, majoring in Creative Writing. She never thought writing was her thing, until finishing her first year at MCC. She writes poetry, fiction, and anything coming to mind. Her work has previously been published in Communal Resilience, a Massachusetts Poetry Anthology. Using her words, she hopes to inspire others by connecting her life through her creations. Her free time consists of reading, writing, gaming, or going to bookstores and cafes. She hopes to own a bookshop someday!
Victor Melendez
Paul Melkonian is a reader, writer, and student living and working in the Acre Neighborhood of Lowell, Massachusetts. He is graduating from Middlesex Community College in May with a degree in Liberal Studies. He has been accepted to the English/Creative Writing program at UMass Lowell and looks forward to starting there in September.
Robert M. Mendonsa is a fiction writer born in Lowell, Massachusetts, and raised in nearby Tewksbury. An outsider from early on, he wrestled wordlessly against the metaphysical structures upheld by social paradigms. After struggling academically in high school—failing English more often than any other subject—he later graduated summa cum laude from Ithaca College in 2022 with a B.A. in Writing. His fiction is shaped by a lifelong fascination with dark philosophical inquiry, the emotional gravity of horror and neo-noir films, Southern Gothic landscapes, and the layered storytelling of authors such as Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Shirley Jackson, and others.
Gabriella Nkinzi is a psychology major at Middlesex Community College. She lives in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her main goal is to bring awareness about people’s mental health.
Taye Olasedidun
Alexandra “Lexi” Perry is a Senior Creative Writing student at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and an alumna of Middlesex Community College. Her work has appeared in Venture, The Offering, Mass Poetry, and previous issues of Dead River Review. She will be attending the Seamus Heaney Centre’s Poetry Summer School in Belfast, Ireland.
Finn Phillips came to Massachusetts at the tender age of twenty-two on the back of a great white bird, escaping the faerie court of Las Vegas. He writes poetry when the poems come to him. In his free time, he likes to look at birds.
Sreya Pyles
Born and raised in Massachusetts, k.r. taylor is a Radiologic Technology graduate who still tends to her writing. Her work can be seen in past editions of Dead River Review, Ghost City Review, The Somerville Times’ “Lyrical Somerville”column, Teen Ink, and The Weight Journal. She writes in ways to promote one to think, to accept or not accept, and to address the things left unspoken.
Ash True is an artist that works predominantly with acrylic paintings and ceramic sculpture. They have been practicing art since they were a child and pursuing art professionally for the last few years. Ash pulls inspiration from aquatic life and facets of history, and when they are not working on a project, you can find them visiting every possible aquarium and museum around them. They also enjoy hikes through the forest or walks through their local historic graveyards, finding inspiration through nature or the carvings on Puritan headstones. Ash is currently a student at Middlesex Community College working on an Associates in Studio Arts.
Having living near all three coasts of the U.S., Cian Verati uses their experiences to inform their speculative fiction and poetry, and will be releasing their first novel this year.
Michelle Whalen is a student at Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Massachusetts. She is a Liberal Arts & Sciences major with a concentration in Creative Writing, which she is using to augment her previous career as graphic designer-turned-Marketing Director. A severe medical event paused her life in 2021, and now she seeks new skills to help bring more purpose to her work. Her heart is split between her hometown of Boston and her adopted home of Tampa, Florida, where she spent twenty-five years. In her downtime, Michelle would rather be outdoors in nature than anywhere else, regardless of the season.
Navarre Williams
.
.
