Writer and journalist Johnny Masiulewicz is author of the poetry collection Professional Cemetery (Puddin’head Press) and creator of the award-winning Happy Tapir zine series. His artisan publishing house, Happy Tapir Press, not only publishes the zine but also produces and distributes the work of other northeast Florida creatives. He has written locally for Folio, The Mandarin News and the Times-Union, and his poetry has appeared in a wide variety of literary journals, sites and anthologies including Curbside Review, The Main Street Rag, Third Wednesday, Ash & Bones, Clever Fox and The Alembic. A Native Chicagoan, Johnny now lives and works in St Johns.

You can hear Masiulewicz read at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VIII on Saturday, October 16, 2021.

Yvette Angelique is a poet and storytelling facilitator. She runs Narratives for Change, an art, culture, and social change practice. Studying creative writing at the University of Denver and transformative language arts for personal and social change at Goddard College, Yvette completed her graduate work to produce poetry and prose that speak to the context and complexity of Black women’s lives. She works with women and girls to use storytelling for healing, literary art-making, consciousness-raising, and advocacy. Yvette balances her practice between writing, teaching, and coaching leaders committed to a healthy and just society. 

Yvette Angelique will be the Featured Poet at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VIII on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at the Jessie Ball DuPont Center in Downtown Jacksonville. She will also present a workshop on advocacy writing entitled “Writing for Civic Engagement and Social Justice.”

For event details, go to: https://www.jaxbyjax.com/event

Photo credit: Amanda Rosenblatt

Erica Saffer is a writer, educator, and literacy advocate, living in Jacksonville, Florida with her three children. She graduated from the University of Tampa MFA Program as the Distinguished Graduate and her work has been featured in print and online publications for High Shelf Press, the University of Tampa Press, Women Writing for (a) Change, and others. She currently teaches composition for the Communications Department at Florida State College at Jacksonville and is a two-time Jax by Jax reader.

Hear Saffer read her work on Saturday, October 16th at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival at the Jessie Ball DuPont Center downtown.

On Saturday, November 8, 2014, Dr. Tim Gilmore and his wife, Professor Jo Carlisle, both of FSCJ, gathered fourteen writer friends into nine venues near the corner of Park & King Streets in Riverside for the inaugural JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival.

As described in the archival 2014 events page, lovers of literature were invited to “Wander from venue to venue. Have a drink. Come hear a playwright, then a poet, then a novelist, and in the process visit a pub, a coffeehouse, the offices of Jacksonville magazine. Buy a t-shirt, nosh on some vegetarian snacks, and listen to a poet in the shaded back courtyard of a Riverside bungalow. And do it all in any order you want. Choose your own adventure. At Park & King. In the heart of Riverside.”

Most of the writers are still around the Jacksonville area; sadly, many of the venues are not. Take a walk through the archives from 2014 to 2020 to see how JaxbyJax has evolved, and watch this space daily to keep informed about all the exciting plans for JaxbyJax VIII on October 15 and 16, 2021.