Mission Statement

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Rachel R. Baum is a Best of the Net nominated poet, founder of Moving Mountains Poets, a group of women poets over age 50, and the Saratoga Peace Pod, crafters who create warm items for families in crisis. She is the founder and host of the Saratoga Senior Center Poetry Open Mic, and co-founder of Capital Region Poems on Wheels. She initiated the position of Poet Laureate of Saratoga Springs, NY. Rachel is the editor of the award-winning Funeral and Memorial Service Readings, Poems and Tributes, and two poetry chapbooks: Richard Brautigan’s Concussion and How to Rob a Convenience Store. A third chapbook Secrets She Has Saved will be published in 2026. She is the author of the long-running blog Bark! Confessions of a Dog Trainer. For more information, visit https://rachelrbaum.net.

Kim Bolan has spent her career helping communities reimagine what a library can be. As Executive Director of the Southern Adirondack Library System, she leads a cooperative network supporting 34 public libraries across four counties. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer of the Allen County Public Library (IN) and founded Kimberly Bolan & Associates, a consultancy that guided libraries nationwide through transformative building and strategic planning projects. A nationally recognized author and speaker, Kim brings both big-picture vision and on-the-ground expertise to everything she does — including her commitment to expanding access to the written word.

Lâle Davidson’s novels Blue Woman Burning (2021), Against the Grain (2022), and Beyond Sight (2023) were published by Emperor Books. Against the Grain won two National Indie Excellence Awards in 2023. Her collection of experimental short stories, Strange Appetites, won the Adirondack Center for Writing’s People’s Choice Award in 2016. She is a distinguished professor of writing at SUNY Adirondack, where she won the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity and the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Visit laledavidson.com for more.

Theresa relocated from the Buffalo area (Go Bills!) to the Capital Region in 2022 to begin a new chapter alongside her now husband, Sam. Deeply rooted in her relationships, she values time spent with family and friends, who continue to be a constant source of support, inspiration, and joy in her life. Theresa is an associate member of the Sisters of St. Francis and visits the sisters as much as possible. She is proud to be part of the small but dedicated team at Saratoga Arts, where she supports local artists and helps create programming that brings people together. 

In recent years, Theresa felt inspired to reconnect with the creativity she cherished as a child; returning to writing poetry, beginning to draw and create visual art, and has developed a journaling practice centered on everyday sources of joy—from fantasy literature and internet recipes to quietly observed moments. Through this renewed creative practice, Theresa brings not only her operational skills but also her artistic voice to the Saratoga Writers Center.

Carol Graser is the author of the poetry collections, Prayer for the Sorrowful Brain (Kelsay Books, 2025) and The Wild Twist of Their Stems (Foothills Publishing 2007) She hosts the fourth Tuesday of the month poetry reading at Caffe Lena, a series that she initiated in 2003. Her work has been published in many literary journals, including Apricity Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Evening Street Review, Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwifery Today, So to Speak, Southern Poetry Review, and Midwest Quarterly. She lives with her husband in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, where they raised three children, countless chickens, and a few cats.  

Elaine Handley is a poet, writer, and longtime educator living in Middle Grove, NY. A Professor Emeritus of Empire State University, she has spent her career cultivating language, imagination, and the courage to speak plainly about what matters.

A three-time winner of the Adirondack Center for Writing’s Best Book of Poetry Award (with Mary Sanders Shartle and Marilyn McCabe), her poetry book, Heartbreak Grass, will be published in Spring 2026. Elaine’s work reflects her deep engagement with place, memory, and the inner life.

She now brings that same commitment to community workshops, where she helps writers experience the page as a democratic space — open to every voice, every season of life, and grounded in the conviction that creativity fosters healing, connection, and resilience.

Kristina Kulin is the founder and creative director of Lit Night, a literature appreciation series that brings classical and diverse contemporary voices into conversation through live readings and lectures. Growing up in a family of artists, writers, teachers, and musicians in Brooklyn, NY, she developed a fascination with and appreciation of human expression from an early age. Kulin has explored the art of performance as a dancer, actress, singer, public speaker, and musician. Drawing on a deep knowledge of literature and culture, she started Lit Night as a way to draw community together around enjoyment of the arts and continual learning.

Mark Mayer (markgmayer.com) is the author of two story collections: About, Above, Around (TRP, 2026), winner of the George Garrett Fiction Prize, and Aerialists (Bloomsbury, 2019), shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize. He's received fellowships from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Ucross, Djerassi, the BAU/Camargo Foundation, and the American Library in Paris and published fiction in American Short Fiction, The Kenyon Review, Guernica, The Iowa Review, Best American Mystery Stories, and BOMB. He is an Assistant Professor at Skidmore College.

Jay Rogoff is Saratoga Springs Poet Laureate for 2026-27. He has published seven books of poetry, most recently Loving in Truth: New and Selected Poems, from LSU Press. Other collections include The Cutoff, The Long Fault, The Art of Gravity, Venera, and Enamel Eyes. His latest book, Becoming Poetry: Poets and Their Methods, also from LSU, won the Lewis P. Simpson Award for outstanding literary criticism. In addition to organizing the Laureate Poetry Series of readings by featured poets and conducting poetry workshops, he hosts a monthly Poetry Repair Café at Northshire Bookstore.

Michael Walterich is a local writer and teacher who has been immersed in the written word for over thirty years. Michael's first novel was published in 2013. He continuously writes in a variety of genres, including: fiction, poetry and drama. As a teacher of high school English, Writing, and AP Literature he has worked with thousands of students over two decades to encourage a love of the written word. He is active in the Saratoga community, participating in many local initiatives that celebrate writing.