About Our Web Writing Team

Javy Gwaltney, Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Web Writer

Javy Gwaltney is an aspiring author, screenwriter, and essayist from South Carolina. He recently graduated from Winthrop University with a BA in English and is now pursuing graduate studies at Kennesaw State University.  You can find his works in The Glass Coin, The Smoking Poet, and Unlikely 2.0.His other talents include reading prodigiously, serving as a fiction editor at THIS—A Literary Magazine, and making a killer oven pizza. He is currently working on a novel and believes that the key to good storytelling  is persistence and trusting readers’ critiques. You can reach Javy at javy@aywi.org.

Heather Buzzard, Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction Web Writer

Heather is a word and a flower. As such, she arranges herself accordingly in planters full of flutes, feathers, festivals, friends, and a pinch of miracle-gross income. She minored in creative writing and majored in something less important at Emory University, and is currently the artist-in-residence at a spiritual and environmental retreat center. She has been a writer since age one-half, kicking off her career with a radio lit series called Focus on Fun at age one and one-eighth. Heather writes with collectives Kill Your Darlings and Hyde Atlanta, as well as directing the storytelling summer programming at SoulShine. Stories, according to her, live in the funny bones of their owners.

She mostly enjoys playing words, playing with kindergarten pop band We the Lion, and writing with things that aren’t ink or keyboards. Most recently, she co-founded the poetry/music/performance art series OMIGODHELLOHOWAREYOU, and is working on a play in which all the characters are native Georgia flora and fauna, including a protagonist named Farmer Dillo, the armadillo. She has been published both in zines and journals locally and nationally, because writing is the one thing she can’t help but do. You can reach Heather at heather@aywi.org.

Jenn Flanagan, Poetry  Web Writer

Jenn Flanagan is a poet and blogger from Brooklyn, New York.  She has a BA in English from Binghamton University and an MST in Adolescent English Education from Pace University, both in New York.  Jenn taught middle and high school English for five years before relocating to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue a life devoted to writing and sharing her craft with others. Her original work can be found at her website, The Poetry Warehouse.

Creativity, written and spoken language, and the pursuit of knowledge are fundamental to Jenn’s existence. She is at peace during the creative process, whether that means drafting anew poem, creating a blog entry, scrapbooking, painting with watercolors, or letting her imagination run amok while sitting in silence.  Jenn hopes to always bring a fresh, honest voice to any writing she creates.  You can reach her at jennifer@aywi.org.

Jessica Williams, Freelance Writing  Web Writer

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a B.A. in English, Jessica began working as a writer and editor for a large, Web-based advertising agency. After nearly two years, department dissolution forced her to make a change, and she ventured into freelance. Today, she contracts her online content development and search engine optimization services to a variety of employers and a small client base of her own. She’s also a glass artist and ceramicist working from studios in the cities of Woodstock and Tucker, Georgia. You can reach Jessica at jessica@aywi.org.

Leslie Quigless, Fiction and Creative Nonfiction  Web Writer

Leslie Quigless is a writing teacher who has taught literature and creative writing courses in New York, Brazil, and Georgia. She received a journalism degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and holds two master-level degrees in education from New York University and Harvard University. She has written features for The Champion Newspaper (Decatur, GA), The Gwinnett Daily Post, and has blogged most recently for Peaches Magazine. She is excited to help connect Atlanta’s vibrant writing community to young writers who are passionate about the craft. She is hard at work completing her second novel. You can reach her at leslie@aywi.org.

Justin Krivanek, Fiction and Creative Nonfiction  Web Writer

Justin received a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing at Georgia State University. An essay of his was published in GSU’s First Arguments: A Peer Approach to Persuasion, and he worked as the fiction editor of Underground (GSU’s newest literary journal). He is fascinated with complex fictional characters that force a reader to evaluate small, everyday situations and see how they affect the characters around them, as some of the greatest lessons we learn in life are from the smallest events. Good storytelling takes these small, specific events and links them to a universal feeling that all readers can share and learn from.  You can reach Justin at justin@aywi.org.

Amira Williams, Fiction  Web Writer

Amira Williams is a seventh grader at Whitefield Academy. She likes to read, write, and hang out with her friends. On weekends, she tutors third and fourth graders, and on holidays, she volunteers with Hosea Feed The Hungry. Amira participates in basketball and track at Whitefield and enjoys being part of a team. Along with her athletics, she also has a passion for the violin and participates in her school’s advanced orchestra. She loves to write because it gives her a chance to express her feelings and release ideas that she has. Her favorite authors are Suzanne Collins, Sarah Dessen, and Meg Cabot. Her favorite books include Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen, Jinx by Meg Cabot, and My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.