The Bread Loaf Teacher Network Journal, published annually, is edited by Tom McKenna, BLTN Director of Communications, assisted by Kurt Ostrow (MA ’22). Beverly Moss, BLTN Director, provides the guiding vision for the network and its digital initiatives. Contact Beverly Moss or Tom McKenna for more information or to submit content for upcoming issues.

Voices of Resilience

The contributors to this issue of BLTN Journal—teachers and students—offer many voices.  Listen to Mackensi Crenshaw’s students’ podcasts and you won’t see (or hear) Louisville the same way again. Wonder, with Katie Cheng and collaborators, about how “our ways of speaking mark the rich histories and people we come from.”  Hear Bantu chants, Gullah oral stories, Beyonce’s “Lemonade” and Toni Morrison’s almost musical ruminations on what’s “true,” as Angela Jones adds her academic voice to the dialogue on the endurance of oral story and the metaphor of flight in African American literatures. Ponder how sacred speech creates the world with Valeriana Dema and her students. Hear Rabiah Khalil and her Singapore students narrate with imaginations stretched by Shelley Fort and Craig Maravich of Beyond the Page.

Pay attention to what youth in the BLTN NextGen and What’s the Story? networks speak up about—what they resist, what they celebrate. Listen, too, to Fallon Abel’s students’ lessons — honed by understanding across geographic and cultural differences with their Finnish peers—wise reflections on improving our society. You may find, as we do, that Susan Miera’s reflection on how the network has learned over 30 years is more important now than ever. “Unless we hear the voices of different people in different situations, then we don’t get the full effect of what literature or culture is all about,” she remarks. 

A voice you may not hear directly in this issue is that of Assistant Editor, Kurt Ostrow. Kurt’s kind, incisive, and generous approach to hearing stories and helping authors shape them has been key to helping this issue enact what Valeriana’s students realize about creation stories: “Vocalizing our dreams to others can help them become reality.” 

Resilience implies both enduring and springing back into place. We believe these diverse teacher and student voices should and do speak for what is most essential in our profession—opportunities to make meaning and use literacy broadly, creatively, and for the greater good. 

Enjoy the issue and please feel free to comment.

-Tom McKenna, Editor
May 27, 2025