Contributors

Editor

Jeffrey Partridge, Ph.D. is Professor of English at CT State Community College Capital and director of the Hartford Heritage Project, a place-based education initiative that makes Hartford’s history, museums, landmarks, theater, and more integral to learning at the college.

Illustrator

Hudson Partridge is an animator and musician based in Vancouver, Canada. His animation credits include Rick and Morty, Trollstopia, and Carmen Sandiego, among others.

Administrator

Khalil Quotap

Technical Support

Joo Eng Lee-Partridge, Ph.D., Professor of Management Information Systems at Central Connecticut State University from 2002-2026, is happy to support this project with her coding expertise. 

Contributing Essayists

Nicole Ankrah

Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut’s 8th State Poet Laureate, is an author, editor, educator, and consultant.  She is a Professor of English at CT State Capital.

Beth Burgess

Katie Burton, Ph.D., is a public humanities educator whose work in museums, universities, and nonprofits prioritizes inclusive storytelling, empathy-building, and critical thinking. She is the Director of Education & Interpretation at Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center in Ridgefield, CT.

John Christie, Ph.D., 

Jana Colacino

Katie Cook

Steve Courtney has been a writer and editor for nearly five decades. He is the author of Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain’s Closest Friend (Georgia, 2008) and other works.

Richard Deming is the author of six books, including This Exquisite Loneliness and Day for Night. He teaches at Yale University. 

Aliyah Freeman-Johnson

James Golden, DPhil, is Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of Museum Studies at Tufts University in Medford, MA. Previously, he was the Director of Education at the Mark Twain House & Museum and Director of Museum Education & Interpretation at Historic Deerfield. 

José B. González, PhD, is Professor of English at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a poet, and the Editor-in-Chief of LatinoStories.Com. He is the author of Toys Made of Rock, When Love Was Reels and (upcoming) Tongue Wrapped in Twine. Instagram: @dr.josebgonzalez  

Lian Kania is a development officer at CT Humanities. She holds an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Jacques Lamarre is a Hartford-area playwright whose works have been seen at TheaterWorks Hartford, Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, and at theatres around the country. He has worked as a marketing professional at Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Mark Twain House & Museum, and BuzzEngine. JacquesLamarrePlaywright.com @JerkLamerk on Instagram.

Joy Lee is a historian and museum educator based in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Jeffrey J. Mainville is Executive Director of the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society. He holds degrees from Eastern Connecticut State University and Trinity College and has taught History at Goodwin University and held positions at The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford Public Library, and the New Britain Museum of American Art. 

Amanda Matava is an archivist at Trinity College’s Watkinson Library, where she specializes in digital and digitized collections. She is also a creative writer.

Jenn Matos

Glen MacLeod, Ph.D., is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Connecticut.  He has published three books and numerous articles on Wallace Stevens.

Frank Mitchell, Ph.D., is a cultural organizer in visual arts and public humanities. His curatorial projects include the exhibitions The Nutmeg Pulpit: Hartford’s Talcott Street Church & Black Community Formation, Love Overflowing: HOME and the Décor of Freedom, and Timeless: Telling Our Neighborhood Stories—Chapter 1: Constance Baker Motley. His publications include the catalog Afrocosmologies: American Reflections, the anthology African American Connecticut Explored, and the culinary study African American Food Culture.

Daniela Ragusa, Ph.D., is an English professor at CT State Capital. Growing up, she and her family would frequently visit Limina, her parents’ village in Sicily, where she would look out over the mountains and see the coast of Reggio di Calabria from across the Ionian Sea. She is honored to have the opportunity to profile Juliet Grames, an author with Calabrian roots, for The Hartford Anthology 

Michael Miranda Sawyer is a Historian and Programs Coordinator at Connecticut’s Old State House, whose work explores the intersections of race, civic engagement, and cultural memory. Michael is also a bachelor’s and master’s student at Trinity College pursuing American Studies with a focus on Cultural institutions. 

Eric Stoykovich, Ph.D., is an archivist and historian who lives in West Hartford.

Steve Thornton is the creator of the Shoeleather History Project website, documenting stories from Hartford’s grassroots. He leads workshops and walking tours that feature ordinary people who are the real makers of history and is the author of four books including Radical Connecticut: Peopłes History in the Constitution State. 

Andrew Walsh, Ph.D.,  

Demetrice Worley