Rebecca Davis-Brown is a Co-Founder and the Editor-in-Chief of Orange Beach Literary Journal. She is an award-winning and published writer, with pieces featured in Phantom Kangaroo, Loomings Literary Journal, The Susquehanna Review, and more. She is also an established dance instructor, director, and choreographer working along the Mississippi/Alabama Gulf Coast for over a decade. She graduated from the University of South Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in English and is currently working towards her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing, specializing in poetry, from Queens University of Charlotte. Rebecca has worked as an editor for Negative Capability Press and was the head poetry editor for The Oracle, the University of South Alabama’s literary journal. She now serves as the head poetry editor for QU Literary Magazine, a publication by Queens University of Charlotte. She currently teaches creative writing classes for Orange Beach’s Expect Excellence Program, in addition to her work as a dance instructor and choreographer for multiple Gulf Coast dance studios and fine arts programs. She has choreographed and danced professionally in numerous productions, including The Little Mermaid, The Wizard of Oz, Swan Lake, Hercules, The Nutcracker, Dracula, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and more. Rebecca is wildly passionate about fine arts, and she is an advocate for increasing arts access and participation in her community.
Jessica Langston is a Co-Founder of Orange Beach Literary Journal, Creative Director for the City of Orange Beach, and serves as the Arts and Enrichment Coordinator for the Expect Excellence Program. She graduated from the University of South Alabama with a Bachelor’s in English in 2007, and a Master’s in Creative Writing in 2009. Jessica published her first book of poetry and photography in 2009, and has published individual poems in journals such as The Birmingham Arts Journal and Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry. Her poetry awards include the Shelley Memorial Scholarship and contest awards by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Poets and Patrons Chicagoland and the Alabama State Poetry Society. She has also written, directed, and produced the following plays: The Violinist, an adaptation of American Fairy Tales, and Molly Magpie Finds Her Colors. In 2014, she formed Poetic Presence, a 501 (c)3 designed to promote poetry in the community and to share the experience of written word artists with rising poets and writers. She served as the chairperson for the Alabama Poet Laureate nominations board and newsletter editor for the Alabama Writers’ Conclave, and event coordinator for the Alabama State Poetry Society. She now holds the position of President and Program Chair for the Alabama Writers’ Cooperative.