I-70 Review
Writing and Art from the Middle and Beyond
The Editors and Staff of I-70 Review Magazine
Managing Editor—Gary Lechliter
Gary Lechliter is a birder, poet, and editor. He has written poetry since 1981 and gives credit to Michael Heffernan, Jim McCray, Tom Wilson, Brian Daldorph and Philip Miller as mentors. James Tate, William Stafford, Mark Strand and Anne Sexton have influenced his writing style. He is recipient of the Langston Hughes Award and the David Ray Award. He is the author of three books of poetry and edited the anthology The Shining Years. In addition to managing editor of I-70 Review, Gary is an editor for Woodley Memorial Press. He holds an advanced degree in psychology and worked in the Mental Health field for many years. Gary is long-married to a Quilter, and doesn't know how she's stayed with him all these years, except that he is a Crazy Quilt himself.
Editor—Maryfrances Wagner
Maryfrances Wagner has spent most of her life writing or teaching others how to write. She has taught creative and academic writing and literature from youth writing workshops to graduate classes. She has published nine books of poems, edited three, and is probably one of the few to be hit by a car two different times while walking. She also survived growing up in an Italian family with one foot still in Italy. She once had the smartest Russian Blue cat named Gino Bellini as well as the smartest dog named Emily Dickinson Dog. Currently, she and her husband Greg Field live with their rescued dogs Annie Sexton and Lucille Clifton. Maryfrances' favorite books are Heart of Darkness, Blood Meridian, Walden, the two Alice in Wonderland books, and The Bald Soprano, so it's easy to see how conflicted, complicated and strange she might be. She's also still walking--only on a trail now where there are no cars. In 2020 she was the Individual Artist honoree for the Missouri Arts Awards, the state's highest honor in the arts. She is presently the Missouri Poet Laureate 2021–2023.
Editor, Layout and Typesetting, Webmaster—Greg Field
Greg Field has been a chemist, journalist, teacher, and teenage outlaw. Currently he is a writer, visual artist, drummer in an improvisational jazz band, sailor, computer geek, and website designer. He plays in the River Cow Orchestra, and his paintings hang in private collections all over the country. His poems have appeared widely in literary magazines, and his first book The Longest Breath was a finalist for the Thorpe Menn Award. His book Black Heart, published by Mammoth Press, portrays his American Indian background, and his latest poetry book published by Woodley Press is Uncertainties.
Proof Reader—Pat Lawson
Pat Lawson has published fiction, poetry, and some non-fiction.· Her work has appeared in Pleaides, New Letters, The Chariton Review, I-70 Review, Big Muddy, Nimrod, Bit City Lit, The Dalhousie Review, and elsewhere. She serves on the Riverfront Readings Committee and the Program Committee at The Writer's Place.· Her stories and poems appear in Why We Love Our Cats and Dogs (co-author, Philip Miller, Unholy Day Press), her stories in Odd Ducks (BookMark Press), and her poems in The Little Book of Me (Spartan Press).
Operations Manager—Tina Hacker
Tina Hacker thought she'd be “singing for her supper” and teaching music for a living. But that was not to be. When she switched majors, she felt adrift and wrote a poem. The first serious poem she'd ever written. Encouraged by friends, she spent every spare moment during her college years writing poetry. She was rewarded when journals from the Universities of Wisconsin and Illinois published her work. Snoopy influenced Tina's next steps. A poster showed Snoopy typing, ”Dear Hallmark, I can write and I can edit, hire me you won't regret it.” This advice proved true. After a long career at Hallmark Cards, Tina retired as an Editorial Director. But she never stopped writing poetry, appearing in a wide range of journals and anthologies and authoring two poetry collections, Cutting It and Listening to Night Whistles and, in 2021, GOLEMS.
Production Editor—Gay Dust
Gay Dust, aka the Grammar Queen, is a retired Yearbook, Spanish, English, and writing teacher. Born in Colon, Panama, she lived in the U.S. Canal Zone for 9 1⁄2 years before her 1st exposure to S.W. Missouri, a culture shock from which she has yet to recover. What she loved best about teaching was her students, although helping her writing classes revise their papers and grading the final drafts often drove her to the dark side: bags of Snickers, Panache dark chocolate truffles, dozens of brownies, and gallons of ice cream. With a self-righteous glare, she deemed any faculty or committee meetings which could have dispersed information on a printed handout a personal affront on her lesson planning and grading time.