the museum of americana is an online literary review dedicated to fiction, poetry, nonfiction, photography, and artwork that examines, revives, or repurposes the old, the dying, the forgotten, or the almost entirely unknown aspects of Americana.
Founded on two core beliefs, the museum of americana embraces the complexity and diversity of America’s cultural heritage. The first belief is that, while not all aspects of Americana ought to be praised or celebrated, there is great value in holding even that which is embarrassing or difficult up to the light to see what it is made of. And the second, there is much to love and celebrate in historical American culture. Our publication is driven by a fascination with the big, weird, wildly contradictory collage that is our nation’s cultural history.
the museum of americana is not a literal museum with galleries of physical objects. Instead, but serves as a figurative space for curating cultural artifacts, framing life and experience in novel ways. Founding editor Justin Hamm envisioned this project as a means to re-envision the notion of Americana and much like a contemporary museum, the journal presents ideas that reframe cultural experiences from positions outside the traditional space of Americana. As Hamm describes, the museum of americana examines the huge tub of spare parts that make up the contemporary experience of living in the United States.
We publish three issues annually—in the winter, summer, and fall—along with Americana Stories, a weekly feature of poetry and prose. Our focus is on reimagining Americana, offering fresh perspectives on American culture. This includes voices from the margins and unexpected viewpoints through juxtaposition, voice, or point of view. Our aim is to illuminate the unexpected that exists in everyday life.
Executive Editor Justin Hamm lives near Twain territory in Missouri. He is the author of a full-length collection of poems, Lessons in Ruin, and two poetry chapbooks, Illinois, My Apologies and The Everyday Parade/Alone With Turntable, Old Records.
His work has appeared, or will soon appear, in Nimrod, The New York Quarterly, Cream City Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Sugar House Review, and a host of other publications. Recent work has also been selected for the 2013 Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize from the St. Louis Poetry Center. Justin earned his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2005.
Production Manager Jenn Hendricks is a Queens-based freelance writer and urban researcher. She grew up in the rural west, living in Wyoming and Arizona.
She studied urban policy at Hunter College and served on the Editorial Board of the Urban Review and BetaNYC. Her work focuses on comparative urban policy, with a specific interest in regional understandings of community development and public space.
Poetry Co-Editor Curtis L. Crisler was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. Crisler, an award-winning poet/author, has a new book called Doing Drive-bys on How to Love in the Midwest. He has six poetry books, two YA books, and five poetry chapbooks. He’s been published in a variety of magazines, journals, and anthologies. He’s co-editor of poetry. He created the Indiana Chitlin Circuit and the poetry form called the sonastic. He’s the Indiana Poet Laureate and Professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW). He can be contacted at www.poetcrisler.com.
Poetry Co-Editor Lydia Renfro holds a BA in Literature and Creative Writing from Colorado State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Adelphi University.
She is the recipient of the Donald Everett Axinn Award for Fiction, and her prose and poetry have appeared in Litro US, Red Fern Review, Siblini Journal, The Blue Nib, Witches Mag, Miletus International Literature Magazine, and others.
Lydia currently lives in Colorado with her dog. Read her work here.
Prose Co-Editor Andy Harper (he/him/his) grew up near the confluence of the Des Moines and Mississippi Rivers, studied near that of the Platte and Missouri (MFA, University of Nebraska Omaha) and of the Ohio and Mississippi (PhD, Southern Illinois University), and now lives where the Missouri meets the Mississippi in St. Louis. An essayist and American literature scholar at Saint Louis University, his teaching, research, and creative work are interested in place, community, and social change. Recent academic and creative works have appeared in MELUS, Rain Taxi, Longridge Review, and Boston Accent Lit.
Prose Co-Editor Montéz Jennings was born and raised in Baltimore City, where she discovered her love for the art of storytelling. In 2020, she drove across the country to settle in Orange, California, to complete a dual master’s program. She is currently a PhD student at UT Austin studying rhetoric and writing, and teaching the rhetoric of AI and Automation.
She writes fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction. Much of her work, including her academic writing, speaks to Black experience in America.
She has received the Harriet Williams Emerging Writers Award and presented at RSA (Rhetoric Society of America) conference and writes under the name Montéz Louria. Listen to her podcast, Where are all the Black Kids on Elm Street? and read her work here.
Reviews/Interviews Editor Ann Beman, co-publisher and nonfiction editor of Tahoma Literary Review, has been writing a book about thumbs forever. Or at least since she earned her MFA from the short-lived but sweet Northwest Institute of Literary Arts.
Her work has appeared in DIAGRAM, The Literary Review, Bombay Gin, Stone’s Throw, and Canoe Journal, among others.
She lives in California’s Sierra Nevada with her husband, a chihuahua, and two whatchamaterriers in Kernville, on the Kern River, in Kern County. Cue the banjoes.
Music Editor Cal Freeman was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He is the author of the books Brother Of Leaving (Marick Press) and Fight Songs (Eyewear Publishing).
His writing has appeared in many journals including New Orleans Review, Passages North, The Journal, Commonweal, Drunken Boat, and The Poetry Review. He is a recipient of The Devine Poetry Fellowship (judged by Terrance Hayes); he has also been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and creative nonfiction.
He regularly reviews collections of poetry for the radio program Stateside on Michigan Public Radio. He is the lead singer and chief songwriter of the Detroit-based Americana group The Codgers.
Humor Editor Sue D. Gelber is a New Englander turned Chicagoan now living in Colorado where she writes fiction, humor, and grocery lists.
Her work has appeared in several publications including The New Yorker Daily Shouts, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Electric Literature, The Belladonna, The Chicago Tribune, and Weekly Humorist.
You can track her down here or follow her on Twitter at @suegelber.
Production Assistant Chelsea Carrick is a Queens-based freelance writer specializing in food, culture, and politics. Her work has been featured in publications such as Good Beer Hunting, NACLA, and Rest of World. Chelsea is a James Beard finalist for her reported feature “Waiting for the Rain — How Drought in Northern Mexico Impacts the Country’s Beer Industry.” Currently, she is researching food policy in the West. Read her work here.
Contributing Editor Lauren Alwan’s fiction has appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Southern Review, StoryQuarterly, the Alaska Quarterly Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Nimrod, and other journals. Her essays have appeared in ZYZZYVA, The Millions, Catapult, World Literature Today, Alta Journal‘s California Book Club, the anthology A Map Is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home (Catapult), and received a citation of Notable in Best American Essays. Learn more at www.laurenalwan.com.
Former Staff
Art Editor Sapira Cheuk is an ink painter and installation artist interested in proprioception, ways of knowing through the body, and how these modes of knowledge reflect or internalize external experiences. Her practice incorporates traditional Chinese Sumi painting techniques and geometric elements to depict the complexity of the Subject, agency, and corporeality, while building an alternative narrative of not only bodily experiences, but also intersubjective relations.
Cheuk has exhibited in numerous exhibitions, including those at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Orange County Contemporary Art Center, Center for Contemporary Art Texas, Masur Museum, The Netura Museum, Yellowstone Art Museum, Rochester Contemporary Art Museum, and Culver Center for the Arts. She received her BA at University of California, Riverside and MFA from California State University, San Bernardino, and she currently works as an instructor for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Social Media Editor Marybeth Niederkorn is an award-winning writer and historian. Her work has appeared in various outlets, including Black Coffee Review, Trailer Park Quarterly, and a history column in the Southeast Missourian newspaper, among others. She is the author of poetry collection Times Knew Roamin’ (Spartan Press) and director of the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center. Educated at Southeast Missouri State University, Marybeth holds a master’s degree in professional writing and a bachelor’s in philosophy. She lives between a forest and farmland with her awesome husband, Dave.
Former Poetry Editor Clara Burghelea is a Romanian-born poet with an MFA in Poetry from Adelphi University. Recipient of the Robert Muroff Poetry Award, her poems and translations appeared in Ambit, Waxwing, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. Her second poetry collection, Praise the Unburied, was published with Chaffinch Press in 2021. She is review editor of Ezra, An Online Journal of Translation.
Former Executive Editor Allison Blevins is a queer disabled writer. She is the winner of the 2023 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award from Persea Books and the 2022 Laux/Millar Poetry Prize from Raleigh Review. She is the author of three collections, most recently Cataloguing Pain (YesYes Books, 2023). She is also the author of five chapbooks. Allison is the Founder and Director of Small Harbor Publishing. She lives in Minnesota with her spouse and three children. For more information, visit allisonblevins.com.
the museum of americana: A LITERARY REVIEW 