Chloe Miller, co-founder
Chloe Yelena Miller lives in Washington, D.C., with her family. She is the author of Viable (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021) and Unrest (Finishing Line Press, 2013). Chloe teaches writing at American University and University of Maryland Global Campus, as well as privately. She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA from Smith College. She has received residencies from Bread Loaf, A Room of Her Own and Vermont Studio Center. In 2022 and 2020, she was granted a DC Arts and Humanities grant for her writing.
Sara Winick, Communications Intern
Sara Winick is currently pursuing an undergraduate education in Journalism and Creative Writing at American University. In addition to her academic work, Sara is an editor at her university newspaper The Eagle, and an avid writer and reader in her free time. Following graduation, Sara hopes to pursue a career in writing or editing and become more involved in the literary world.
Shasta Grant, co-founder
Shasta Grant is a writer and editor based in Indianapolis. She is the author of Gather Us Up and Bring Us Home (Split Lip Press, 2017). Her stories and essays have appeared in cream city review, Epiphany, Heavy Feather Review, wigleaf, and elsewhere. She won the 2015 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, selected by Ann Patchett. She was selected as a 2020 Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow and the 2016 SmokeLong Quarterly Kathy Fish Fellow. She has received residencies from Hedgebrook and The Kerouac House. She holds an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and is the Coordinating Editor at SmokeLong Quarterly.
Demitra Moutoudis, PR Intern
Demitra Moutoudis is currently a Public Relations major with a minor in Creative Writing at American University. Being from Massachusetts, she loves the cold weather and rainy days which are perfect for writing, painting, or just relaxing with a hot cup of coffee. When she's not busy cramming her assignments, she loves to partake in her creative hobbies in any way she can.
Ok, but who are we really?
We are writers, readers, mothers, editors, teachers — and friends for almost twenty years. We met in 2003, at a reading in Slonim during the first weeks of our MFA programs at Sarah Lawrence College. We probably both had glasses of white wine and were looking around the room nervously for a friendly face. And we found that face in each other and have been friends ever since! Over the years, we’ve continued to share work with each other (despite writing in different genres), presented at conferences together, attended AWP together, and perhaps more importantly, we’ve seen each other through life changes including getting married, becoming mothers, moving cross country or across the world. We’ve celebrated each other’s wins, and supported each other through the inevitable disappointments that come with the writing life. In short: we are each other’s community. And now we want to invite you to join our community too. We launched Brown Bag Lit with the hope of creating a warm and inviting community of writers - one welcome to writers of all stages and ages. We hope you’ll join us.