SOREN LIT provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from creatives with connections to the lingering South.

Produced by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. 

SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com

Episode: InnaRae- SOREN LIT. December. 2023

InnaRae’s work as a singer/songwriter, poet, and teacher exemplifies an appreciation of the human spirit, knowledge of purpose, and love of beauty. In veneration to and with assistance from her maternal and paternal ancestresses who, throughout time and space, have moved in their spiritual giftings with full acceptance and authorization from Spirit, InnaRae walks in the energy of balance and the divine feminine. Her beloved ancestors also assist her while traveling through this earthly realm on a frequency of love that, despite hardships, has held onto its spiritual dignity throughout many generations in her bloodline.

Through her art, she encourages readers and listeners to return “home”, transform, and discover that absolutely no circumstance can diminish the life and light that shines within each soul. Her music fuses her poetry with a Neo-Soul sound in celebration of an African concept Sankofa, which defines the process of going back to our roots, searching out, and acquiring what would be helpful to move forward in life. To date, InnaRae has recorded albums, Rena’s Moan (2008) and most recently, The Brooding of Emaline Oliver (2018). Both works are enjoyed by listeners who seek a healing path and opportunity to face their spiritual truths.

InnaRae has also worked with NYC motion picture director Rosalyn Williams of Red Wall Productions to produce a short documentary, titled The Journey to Rena’s Moan (2011), which compels women who struggle with sexual shame and generational wounds to start the healing journey and allow their authentic gifts shine.  This powerful work serves to bring art to healing centers and now homes, where art is often overlooked as a viable contributor to the healing process. Currently, InnaRae writes reflective articles, essays, and poetry to scribe her experiences on the ancestral healing path.  She also teaches, trains onboarding professors at an online University, facilitates workshops, and performs upon request. Recorded in 2022, her latest poetic offerings, Growth Mates and The Nile River, can be viewed on YouTube. To learn more, please visit www.innarae.com

The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is produced by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com

Cynthia Manick. SOREN LIT. Fall 2023.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023) which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. For 10 years she curated Soul Sister Revue, a quarterly reading series that promoted poetry as storytelling and featured emerging poets, poet laureates, and Pulitzer prize winners. Manick’s poem “Things I Carry into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems and debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A storyteller at literary festivals, libraries, and museums, her work has also featured in VOICES, an audio play by Aja Monet and Eve Ensler’s V-Day, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, the Rumpus and other outlets. She currently serves on the editorial board of Alice James Books. She lives in Brooklyn, New York but travels widely for poetry.

Cynthia Manick's Social Media

Website: http://www.cynthiamanick.com/nswb

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/cmanickpoet

Twitter

https://twitter.com/cmanick

SOREN LIT: A Southern Renaissance literary journal... for storytellers with connections to the south. We showcase writers and artists who are women, femme-identifying, and/or non-binary creatives. The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is hosted by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT. 2023. Lilli Lewis

As the story goes, Lilli Lewis should never have been. Before she was born, Lewis’ mother was told her baby probably wouldn’t survive due to lung trouble, so the fact that Lewis now makes a living singing with those same lungs is a gift she never takes for granted. Lewis uses her voice to bring what she calls sacred songs into profane spaces, and though she’s abandoned trying to define her sound, she hopes her audiences leave shows knowing two things: that they are brilliant as they are, and that they have the ability to use that brilliance to make a better world.

Trained as an opera singer and classical pianist, Georgia native Lewis has been a composer, producer and performer for over two decades. After carving out space as an African American queer woman of size, Lewis’ career has culminated in her album Americana being a top pick everywhere from NPR’s All Songs Considered to Rolling Stone. 

The FolkRockDiva is a musical polyglot who glides easily between folk, roots, country soul, gospel, and jazz, and has integrated New Orleans traditions by singing lead for Dirty Dozen Brass Band founding member Kirk Joseph’s Backyard Groove. Lewis’ Louisiana Red Hot Records releases include The Henderson Sessions, We Belong, and Americana.

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT Editor & Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sorenlit

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT: A Southern Renaissance literary journal... for storytellers with connections to the south. We showcase writers and artists who are women, femme-identifying, and/or non-binary creatives. The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is hosted by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website:

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT. 2023. YANI DAVIS

Iyana “YaNi” Davis, is a graduate of Claremont School of Theology with her Masters of Divinity. Rev. YaNi received her B.A. from Spelman College, with an English degree. YaNi has always been passionate about the impact of words, storytelling, truth-telling  and the therapeutic nature of writing one’s words and sharing one’s story.YaNi believes firmly in our power as storytellers and sets this example everyday of her life as a coach, creative and community leader.Rev. YaNi, is a minister with The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has been a featured speaker, poet and teaching-artist around the United States, throughoutEurope and across Asia. YaNi uses her words wisely as a Hip Hop artist, an inspiring speaker, an effective educator, a profound poet, a modern day prophet and griot. She has shared the stage with top performers, theologians, creatives, and healers around the world, an honor that she does not take lightly. YaNi is the founder of, My SupaNatural Life, an organization that provides education and wholistic care for people living with disabilities and their caregivers.YaNi has founded several spiritual communities/churches around the country, is the author of, Love Poems for Peace, is a kidney transplant survivor and near completion of a second masters (Professional Studies-Business of Art and Design) via MarylandInstitute College of Art. YaNi is the essence of peace personified!

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT Editor & Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sorenlit

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT: A Southern Renaissance literary journal... for storytellers with connections to the south. We showcase writers and artists who are women, femme-identifying, and/or non-binary creatives. The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is hosted by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT. 2023. Fiona Zedde

Jamaican-born and Atlanta-raised Fiona Zedde is the author of over thirty sapphic novels, novellas, and short stories including the Lambda Literary Award finalists Bliss and Every Dark Desire. Her novel, Dangerous Pleasures, received a Publishers Weekly starred review and was the winner of an About.com Readers' Choice Award for Best Lesbian Novel/Memoir. Her website is www.FionaZedde.com.

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT Editor & Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sorenlit

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SORENLIT. 2023. Lori Thomasson

At age eight, Lori Thomasson created original stories and one-girl shows entertaining her friends and family. By age ten, however, several traumatic events would silence her for the next 26 years. She kept her thoughts to herself during that time, penning them in poetry, songs, and prose. This native of Maryland, currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia, is settling into her new home and writing. In Spring 2023, Lori graduated from Full Sail University, earning her Bachelors in Fine Arts in Creative Writing.  Lori Thomasson is the author of the poetry collection Filling the Cracks in My Head and the self-help guide  Do One Thing: The 30-day Plan for Getting Unstuck and Living Your Purpose.

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT Editor & Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sorenlit

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT. 2023. Christy Petterson

Christy Petterson is an artist and writer from Atlanta, GA. Since 2005, she has organized an award-winning craft market called the Indie Craft Experience, and since 2014 she's been a Teaching Artist at the High Museum of Art. She graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1999 with a BA in Literature/Creative Writing. Christy lives in East Atlanta Village with her husband and their son, and spends her time naturally dyeing fabric, printmaking, reading, and writing.

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT Editor & Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sorenlit

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT. 2023. Raquel Battaglia.

www.sorenlit.com

Raquel Battaglia is an American southerner living ‘across the pond’ in the UK. She is a social psychologist by education and a hospice and palliative care researcher by job who uses writing to explore the qualitative nature of the human experience. Her poetry and flash fiction can be read in Fellowship & Fairydust, The Tower, and 50 Give or Take.

SOREN LIT

www.sorenlit.com

Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

SOREN LIT

A Southern Renaissance literary journal... for storytellers with connections to the south. We showcase writers and artists who are women, femme-identifying, and/or non-binary creatives. The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is hosted by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT's on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT. 2023. Anjali Enjeti

Anjali Enjeti is a former attorney, organizer, journalist, and MFA instructor based near Atlanta. She is the author of Southbound: Essays on Identity, Inheritance, and Social Change, and The Parted Earth. Her other writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Harper’s Bazaar, Oxford American, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing in the MFA programs at Antioch University in Los Angeles and Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia.

Anjali is the recipient of the 2022 Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel, a gold medal for Best Regional Nonfiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and is a finalist for the 2023 Townsend Prize for Fiction.

SOREN LIT

www.sorenlit.com

Producer: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

SOREN LIT

A Southern Renaissance literary journal... for storytellers with connections to the south. We showcase writers and artists who are women, femme-identifying, and/or non-binary creatives. The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is hosted by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT's on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorenlit/

SOREN LIT...A Southern Renaissance of women, femmes, and/or non-binary creatives exploring the lingering South...

www.sorenlit.com

SOREN LIT. 2023. Karin Pendley Koser

Karin Pendley Koser has been a writer the majority of her life since penning poetry for contests as a child to writing everything from journalistic TV features and articles to every form of public relations and marketing material as an adult. From speech backgrounders for two US presidents and several Georgia governors and travel writing for tourism departments, the diversity of her work means she’s rarely been bored. She and her small marketing/digital content company and its employees and contractors have been recipients of regional and national awards for videos, films, social media and marketing campaigns and more. 

Despite the seesawing ups and downs since the pandemic began, Karin feels fortunate to have had a variety of teaching, writing, and video production projects.

She is a graduate of the UGA Grady College of Journalism and in 2019 received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction & Screenwriting from Queens University of Charlotte. A photographer since she was young, she also enjoys applying creative, literary writing techniques to client work as well as to her personal work on a memoir, essays, poems, and screenplay. She volunteers any leftover time to political campaigns, voting rights equity, and arts nonprofit fundraising.

Producer and Editor: Melodie J. Rodgers, MFA

www.sorenlit.com