Poetica Publishing Company

                                           Poetica  Publishing  Company
                   Mizmor Poetry Anthology

Editors

Poetica Publishing Editors

          Michal Mahgerefteh: Managing Editor


Michal (Mitak) Mahgerefteh is an award-winning artist and poet from Norfolk, Virginia. Her poetry has been published in over one-hundred magazines, in print and eEditions. She received many awards for her poetry, most recently from The Poetry Society of Texas, Green River Writers, The Poetry Society of Pennsylvania, Austin Poetry Society, and Bethesda Writing Competition. Michal is The Poetry Society of Virginia student contest judge and was the 2015 book award chair. Since 2013, Michal is The Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award chair and Committee Member (to learn more about the award please visit www.PoeticaMagazine.com).

She is the author of four poetry collections: Field of Harps (2016) ; Sipping Memories: A Poetic Journal to Morocco (two editions released in 2014 and 2016 ); What's Left Behind  (2015); In My Bustan (2009). Her fifth collection, Solely Entwined, is a work-in-progress, forthcoming March 2019.  Michal is currently developing a new digital media technique by using four artist apps on iPad. You are invited to visit her poetry and art: www.Michal-Mahgerefteh.com



          David King: Copy Editor

Mr. King is a retired educator who has taught in public schools and colleges in numerous levels and disciplines. He has 
over twenty years of experience in teaching college-level English, literature, and composition as well as implementing a program in which advanced high school students enroll in freshman composition for both high school and college credit. He is active as the web editor for the Poetry Society of Virginia and a board member and Facebook editor of Friends of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University. Mr. King has published a book of poetry titled, This Side of Forever. His interests include studies in the Civil War, the architecture of Virginia’s Colonial Churches, Victorian Era cemeteries, bicycling, hiking, and amateur photography. He resides in a restored bungalow in Colonial Place, Norfolk, Virginia, along with his beloved wife and four rescue dogs ranging from a Scottish Terrier to Chihuahuas. He has both Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Old Dominion University, in addition to his thirty-nine years of professional teaching. He has taught classes at pre-school to college level. He offers personal editing services in grammar, style, format, and content. 

          Dr. Israel Zoberman: Book Reviews / Award Judge

Dr. Israel Zoberman is the founding rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach and Honorary Senior Rabbi Scholar of Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach as well. He was born on November 12, 1945 in Chu, Kazakhstan to Polish Holocaust survivors and spent his early childhood in Displaced Persons Camps in Austria and Germany following an escape from Poland.

Immigrating to Haifa, Israel in 1949 with his family, he served in the Israel Defense Forces. He earned a M.A. degree in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1971. He was ordained as a Reform Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1974, along with a M.A. in Hebrew Letters. His alma- mater granted him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1999. He is the only rabbi to earn a doctoral degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the McCormick Theological Seminary (affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA) in Chicago, Illinois in 1980.

He offered prayers twice in the US Senate and twice in the US House of Representatives. He was the guest of Presidents Bush and Obama at White House Chanukah receptions. Cox Cable and Mayor Oberndorf of Virginia Beach honored him as a “Great Citizen of Hampton Roads” in 1989. On the occasion of his 30th Anniversary of ordination he was honored by the Senate of Virginia Joint Resolution No. 134. Both Mayors Oberndorf and Sessoms honored him respectively with “Rabbi Israel Zoberman Day.”

He is the first rabbi to serve as chairman of the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. He is past national interfaith chair of Jewish Counsel of Public Affairs. He served as president of the Hampton Roads Board of Rabbis and Cantors, as well as President of the Virginia Beach Clergy Association. He is the only Hampton Roads rabbi to serve as a police chaplain, with the Virginia Beach Police Department. He is a commissioner with the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission. Rabbi Zoberman contributes editorials, book reviews and poetry to a variety of publications including Poetica, the Congressional Record, the Virginian Pilot, Daily Press, Southeastern Virginia Jewish News and CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly.

          Daniel L. Pearlman: Visiting Editor 

Daniel L. Pearlman is a native of Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA. He earned his BA in English from the University of Maryland and MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. He is a twenty-year veteran English teacher/professor, mostly at Norfolk State. Pearlman has also taught at H.B. Woodlawn High School in Arlington, VA, and the Muse Writers Center, and has directed writing workshops for the Poetry Society of Virginia as well as the Virginia Beach Public Library. Under his pen name, Daniel Pravda, his poetry has appeared in over forty journals, including Poetica, American Dissident, Blue Collar Review, Cedar Creek Review, Dead Mule, Hamilton Stone Review, PoetrySuperHighway, Solo Novo, Vine Leaves, and Virginia Literary Journal. His first book of poetry, A Bird in the Hand Is a Dumb Bird, was published in 2011, and he has edited text books for Kendall Hunt Publishing, including Introduction to World Literature, Rites of Passage. Pearlman has served as judge for PSV's annual student contest for years and more recently for Poetica's Rosenberg Prize. Pearlman has performed hundreds of readings, anywhere from universities to dim bars. He also fronts a rock band called The Dunes, which has released four albums, most recently Making Bad Decisions, in 2017. The band has sold in excess of 40,000 songs online and played gigs in New York, Washington, DC, Hatteras, NC, and all over Virginia. Lastly, Pearlman enjoys producing and promoting art-based benefit shows, including two in 2016: Heartsongs, a music benefit for the American Heart Association, and Food From Thought, a poetry benefit for the Foodbank. 


          Natalie Rose: Typesetting 



Natalie Rose earned BA in Finance from Old Dominion University School of Business. She is the CEO of SUN Credit Financial and a senior accountant at Capital Investments. Rose's passion is animal rights, nature photography, making art using oyster shells, world travel, pottery, and family time. We welcome Rose as our new typesetting specialist: converting hand written manuscripts to digital files. Natalie lives in Virginia by the tranquil waters and gorgeous sunsets of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, Virginia.