Tina Casagrand Foss

Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief

Tina Casagrand Foss is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of The New Territory. Raised in the Gasconade River Valley of the northern Ozark border, her love for mossy woods knows no bounds. She graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in magazine journalism and anthropology and worked as a freelance environmental journalist before starting The New Territory. As executive director of The New Territory Magazine nonprofit, she looks forward to a long future of reaching more readers, fostering Midwestern writers and editors, and nurturing connections among New Territory readers both on and off the page. In the summers, she teaches classes in Missouri ecology, nature writing and print media at the Missouri Scholars Academy. She lives in Jefferson City, Missouri, with her husband, stepdaughters and giant dog.

Katie Foster

Creative Director, Project Director

Katie Young Foster is the creative director and project manager of The New Territory magazine. Since joining the team in 2018 as a fellowship recipient (and later literature editor), her role has expanded to include layout, design, editorial coordination and art procurement. She grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska on the Niobrara River, where her family ranches. She graduated with a degree in English and Graphic Design from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, after which she pursued an M.F.A. in creative writing from Vanderbilt University. She is passionate about nurturing and showcasing regional artistic talent, especially those artists and photographers hailing from rural locales and those with a commitment to living and working in the lower Midwest. She currently lives in south central Iowa.

Andy Oler

Literary Landscapes Editor

Andy Oler is the editor of Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest (U of Illinois Press, 2025), which is a collection of essays from Literary Landscapes, the series he founded and edits for The New Territory. He also wrote Old-Fashioned Modernism: Rural Masculinity and Midwestern Literature (LSU Press, 2019) and edited Michigan Salvage: The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell (MSU Press, 2023) and Pieces of the Heartland: Representing Midwestern Places (Hastings College Press, 2018). He teaches writing and literature classes in Florida, which is further from the Midwest than he’d like.

Andy Oler wrote Old-Fashioned Modernism: Rural Masculinity and Midwestern Literature (LSU Press, 2019) and edited Pieces of the Heartland: Representing Midwestern Places (Hastings College Press, 2018). For The New Territory, he founded and edits the online series Literary Landscapes and edits the Here section for the print magazine. He teaches writing and literature classes in Florida, which is further from the Midwest than he’d like.

Shannon Silberman

Literature Editor

Shannon Silberman is a poet, live lit groupie and aspiring librarian. Although she earned a BA in creative writing from Creighton University and an MLIS from Indiana University, she earns a living googling industrial supplies in Chicago. She enjoys punk rock, savory breakfast foods and taking the bus.

Melanie Pierce

Reviews Editor

Melanie Pierce grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and after several years on the east coast and in Taiwan, returned to the Lower Midwest, this time to Kansas City, Missouri. She holds an MFA in fiction from Stony Brook University. Currently, she is completing a residency at the Charlotte Street Foundation, works at The Story Center at Mid-Continent Public Library, and teaches writing at the Kansas City Art Institute. Her work can be found at www.melanie-pierce.com. 

DeAni Blake-Britton

Editorial Assistant

DeAni Blake-Britton recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English creative writing at Lincoln University of Missouri. She was the president of the Omega Pi chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and held the position of Associate Student Rep. for the Midwest region. When she isn’t reading books or writing poetry, she enjoys strumming tunes on her guitar and eating what she believes is the best fruit in the world: mangos. 

Jordan P. Hickey

Contributing Editor

When he moved to Arkansas in 2013, Jordan P. Hickey was pretty sure that his stay in The Natural State would be a brief one. And then he just … never left. Nowadays, he works as a Northwest Arkansas-based freelance journalist, with work in The Washington Post, Garden & Gun, VQR, Investigate Midwest, Southern Foodways Alliance, Arkansas Advocate, and, of course, The New Territory. In 2025, he was a James Beard Award finalist in profile writing, and is currently a Food Systems and Public Health Fellow at Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Find more of his work at jordanphickey.com.

Editorial Fellows

Callie Arnold

Literature Reader Editorial Fellow

Callie Arnold is a writer and editor from small-town Kansas with a deep appreciation for storytelling rooted in place. Earning a BA in English from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, she discovered her passion for publishing when she helped establish a student-run press and produced an anthology of local fiction, poetry, and artwork. She currently resides in her hometown near the Flint Hills, writing grant proposals and editing podcast footage for her community. When she’s not reading medieval epics or experimental poetry, she can be found in her kitchen listening to true crime and baking her favorite: pumpkin bread.

Nancy Bell

Shop Talk Section Editorial Fellow

Nancy Bell grew up in Marietta, Georgia, went to school in New York and California, then landed in St. Louis fifteen years ago. She is both professor of theatre at Saint Louis University and MFA candidate in creative writing at Mississippi University for Women. Her writing is published or forthcoming in StoryQuarterly, Shenandoah, Terrain, and Flyway Journal. As Playwright-In-Residence and Literary Manager at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, she was the founding director of the Confluence Regional Writers Project and a lead artist on the community-based Shakespeare in the Streets program. When she isn’t pursuing her life’s mission to dwell inside great stories alongside other people, she can be found sprouting and growing anything she can.

Claire Burke

Features Editorial Fellow

Claire Burke is a writer and editor. Originally from Shawnee, Kansas, she grew up with a love of wide skies and tall grass. Claire recently graduated from Barnard College with a degree in English and environmental humanities. She enjoys painting, live music, freshly brewed coffee, and writing that takes its time.

Caroline Dohack

The Dabbler Newsletter Editorial Fellow

Caroline Dohack grew up on a goat farm in the Ozark foothills. A graduate of Cottey College and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Caroline has been the lifestyle editor at The Columbia Daily Tribune, a communication instructor with the Stephens College fashion program and a staff writer for The Hustle. She’s also helped launch a clothing line, developed ESG/CSR content for Dell Technologies and crafted playful puns for Joe’s Crab Shack. In her spare time she enjoys long runs, long reads and long afternoons lazing with her dog, Stevie Nicks. Caroline and her family make their home in Columbia, Missouri.

Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Here Section Editorial Fellow

Jeanetta Calhoun Mish is a poet and essayist who was born on the southwest plains of Oklahoma, in Hobart, which is situated in the former Kiowa-Apache-Comanche Reservation. She was raised in the Cross Timbers of east central Oklahoma, in Wewoka, the capitol of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. She has recently returned to her home state, to Tulsa, Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Her obsessions are regional flora and fauna, Oklahoma literary and cultural history, and keeping her 2,400 (+/-) books properly organized.

Clayton Steward

Photography Editorial Fellow

Clayton Steward is a photographer, filmmaker and educator based in Kansas City, Missouri. His early years were spent near where the Ozarks and the Plains meet on a 40-acre farm outside of Montrose, Missouri, the place where his love of being in nature and chasing light with his camera began. He graduated from the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas with a degree in Digital Communications; Journalism and a minor in chaplaincy. In 2024 Clayton received his M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in Photojournalism. After a brief stint as lead photographer and photo editor at a newspaper out west, he returned to the Show-Me state to pursue his freelance career in the region he loves so deeply. He has a passion for telling the stories here, as well as finding the next best gluten-free dish in the KC metro and working through his mountain of a TBR list.

Community Relations

Duncan Casagrand Foss

Customer Service

Duncan Foss is both jack and master of trades. Unverified as Jefferson City’s first male vegan yoga teacher, he has since rolled through careers as varied as home remodeler, burner of prairies, and wildland firefighter. His proudest accomplishment, other than raising his wild children to the double digits, is serving as The New Territory’s customer service manager, where he has won “best customer service” all seven years of publication.

Jessica Vaughn Martin

Events Coordinator

Jessica Vaughn Martin is a writer, food journalist, and gastronomic enthusiast. Her writing centers around foodways, forgotten histories, and other mostly Midwestern motifs. She is a co-founder of Missouri Women Who Write, a writing retreat series for women, and Leftovers Community, a food media platform. She lives in Jefferson City, Missouri, with her young family in an old bungalow, where she’s running out of space for her growing collection of vintage Missouri cookbooks.

Kelsey Snowden

Patreon Community Intern

Kelsey Snowden is an undergraduate student pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in English Writing at Southwest Baptist University. She serves as Vice-President of the Digital Media Athletics Committee, leading a group of student journalists and editing stories about SBU’s athletes. When she finds a moment away from her homework of sentence diagramming, Kelsey escapes to the practice room to seek solace in her gentle piano music or scavenges campus for Dr. Pepper.

Grace Rieder

Donor Community Intern

Ever Cole

Design and Community Engagement Intern

Thank You