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, writes and teaches in south central Iowa, where she also has a nascent interest in agroforestry on her partner’s family homestead.

Editors

These are the volunteers who keep The New Territory running. 

Andy Oler

Departments Editor

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

Spring 2024 Intern

DeAni Blake-Britton is a current senior majoring in English creative writing at Lincoln University of Missouri. She is the president of the Omega Pi chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and holds 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. 

Grace Datil

Spring 2024 Intern

Emily Blackshear

Food & Philosophy Editor

Emily Blackshear directs the Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Oral History Project for the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at the Oklahoma State University Library in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She also produces and co-hosts the Dear Oklahoma podcast, a collaboration with KOSU radio and the Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa. Emily grew up in northeast Arkansas and moved to Oklahoma in 2005. She owns way too many cookbooks and is probably reading one with her daughter, Madeleine, right now. She edits The New Territory’s Food & Philosophy section, which is making its comeback in Issue 16.

Support

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.

Ella Redford

Mailing Manager

Ella Redford is the mailing manager for The New Territory. She was born and raised (along with many dogs and chickens) on a couple acres of land just outside of Ashland, Missouri. She currently lives about 25 minutes away from home while she pursues a bachelor’s degree in Plant Sciences at Mizzou. In her free time, Ella enjoys The Great British Bakeoff, baking things inspired by the former, and reading realistic fiction.

Thank You

Founding Team Members

Katerina Hazell

Sara Strong

Kate Strum

Bryce McElhaney

Past Team Members

Conor Gearin

Lauren Gateley

Silas Glaude

Julia Shiota

Dan Holtmeyer

Sara Maillacheruvu

Jenna Dobyns