At Unbound Authors, we believe everyone has a story — and that storytelling is more powerful when we do it together.
If you’re a reader, writer, creative, organizer, or just someone who believes in second chances and strong communities, we’d love to have you with us.
Ways to Shine With Us
- Read and respond to writing from inside
- Support our in-person writing labs (Colorado-based)
- Help organize and prep submissions for publication
- Editing with writers
- Share skills in editing, design, tech, or outreach
- Be part of our circle of care and creativity
We offer orientation, clear roles, and lots of appreciation. Most roles are flexible and remote-friendly — and every contribution lights up our work.
Ready to connect?
Reach out through our Volunteer Contact Form or email volunteer@unboundauthors.org. We’ll follow up with next steps.
Meet Our Volunteers
The following volunteers currently serve as facilitators and respondents on behalf of Unbound Authors:
Alexander Shalom Joseph, MFA
Alexander is the author of five published books: the novella “the last of the light” (2024), two prose poetry collections (2022, 2023), the chapbook “buttons and bones” (2020), as well as the short story collection, “American Wasteland” (2021). His short stories, poetry, and essays have been shortlisted for many awards and have been published widely. Alexander has an MA in English Education and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School.
Emily Eads, MFA
Emily comes to Unbound Authors with an MFA in poetry and dual BA in English and Political Science from Colorado Western University. With experience as an academic program coordinator and university instructor, Emily facilitates workshops and provides asynchronous feedback to incarcerated writers across the state of Colorado.
Anita Mumm, MFA
Anita comes to Unbound Authors with a decade of experience in the publishing industry and a lifelong passion for books. A seasoned editor, ghost writer, instructor, and writing facilitator, Anita runs writing workshops for Unbound Authors in Southern Colorado.
Frédérique Chevillot, PhD
Frédérique Chevillot is professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of Denver. A dedicated teacher of French language, narrative, and history, her pedagogical work and research is shaped by antiracist, feminist values. Sister Fred brings compassion, inquisitiveness, and joy to writers at Denver-based corrections facilities.
Kate LeMasters, PhD
An Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the CU School of Medicine-Anschutz, Kate is a social epidemiologist and a community-engaged researcher focusing on how mass incarceration creates and exacerbates health inequities. Kate brings her expertise in teaching, health advocacy, and mental health to incarcerated writers across the Front Range, using writing to support resident well-being.
Tobi Jacobi, PhD
Professor of English and Director of the Community Literacy Center at CSU Fort Collins, Dr. Jacobi brings decades of experience as a teacher, scholar, and administrator in carceral spaces. She has published essays on prison writing, community service learning and activism in the writing classroom, and the ethics of university-community collaborations in journals such as English Journal, Community Literacy Journal, and The Journal of Correctional Education. She is also co-editor of the book Women, Writing, and Prison (2014), prefaced by Sister Helen Prejean.
David Riche, PhD
As Associate Professor of Writing at the University of Denver, Dr. Riche emphasizes the importance of creative thinking and student-centered authorship, notably through creative nonfiction and game design. Drawing on his scholarship examining rhetorical vulnerability (2017) and ongoing youth D&D facilitation at the Littleton Learning Lab, David brings deep listening, compassion, and a spirit of play to the incarcerated writers he supports across Colorado.
Peter Anderson
Writer, poet and editor Peter Anderson’s most recent book is Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide. Other books include Heading Home: Field Notes, a collection of flash prose and prose poems exploring rural life and the modern day eccentricities of the American West and First Church of the Higher Elevations, a collection of essays on wildness, mountains, and the life of the spirit. He lives with his family on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado where he launched the Crestone Poetry Festival, an annual gathering of southwestern poets.
Stephanie Dungan
Stephanie Dungan is a former elementary and middle school teacher.
Alison Turner
Alison Turner grew up in the Colorado mountains and studied literature and writing at CU Boulder, the University of Alberta, Bennington College, and the University of Denver. Her work has appeared in journals such as Callaloo, American Indian Quarterly, and Western American Literature, and her debut short story collection was published by Torrey House Press in 2023. A former ACLS Leading Edge Postdoctoral Fellow, she has also collaborated on community writing and oral history projects with people experiencing homelessness in Denver.
Ben LeRoy
Ben LeRoy started and ran two critically acclaimed independent publishing companies — Bleak House Books and Tyrus Books — until the latter was sold to Simon & Schuster in 2017. Ben was a frequent speaker at writing and publishing conferences. He was named to Publishers Weekly “40 Under 40” list of people making a change in the publishing industry. He co-founded Collaborist in 2022 with Jason Buchholz.
Donald L. Heymann
For more than 35 years, Don Heymann has been an independent writer, editor, communications coach and strategist, working across many industries and fields, including healthcare, science and technology, consumer products, finance, social services, public affairs, criminal justice, and philanthropy. In addition, Don has been an adjunct instructor in marketing and strategic communications writing at NYU’s School of Professional Studies. He also conducts effective writing workshops for businesses, non-profit groups, and individuals, most recently working with incarcerated individuals through Unbound Authors.
Robert Sanchez
Robert Sanchez is the senior staff writer at Denver’s 5280 magazine, where he specializes in narrative features. Robert has been named the City and Regional Magazine Association’s writer of the year three times. He previously has been an American Society of Magazine Awards finalist, as well as a three-time finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. Robert’s work is anthologized in five books, and he serves an adjunct professor within the University of Denver’s Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies. The Colorado native earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Mia Alvarado
Mia Alvarado is a writer, educator, and literary organizer whose work bridges classrooms, communities, and the arts. She has taught at the University of Iowa, the University of Colorado, and Colorado College, and her teaching has also taken her into shelters, high schools, and workshops across the country. Her writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, VQR, The Boston Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of two books and a chapbook, with work shortlisted three times in The Best American series. She is the founder of Brave Irene’s, a new nonprofit building literary culture in Colorado and beyond.
Kareem El Damanhoury
Kareem El Damanhoury is an Emmy Award–winning journalist, producer, and professor with over 15 years of experience in broadcast journalism and digital media, working with outlets including CNN and PBS. He is the founder of DU Media, an award-winning platform recognized by the Emmy, Telly, SPJ, BEA, Webby, and CBA, and serves as professor and graduate director at the University of Denver. Named SPJ’s 2024 Colorado Educator of the Year, Kareem teaches and mentors students in journalism, storytelling, and media studies while publishing widely, with more than 25 peer-reviewed articles, multiple top research paper awards, and two books with Oxford University Press and University of Georgia Press.
Maya Yesharim
Maya is a full-time PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Denver, where her research focuses on the school-to-prison pipeline, higher education in prison, and transformative teaching theories. She holds a Master’s degree in Leadership Development with a focus on Higher Education from Chapman University’s Donna Ford Attallah School of Educational Studies.
Bradley Allf
Bradley Allf is a writer and environmental historian whose work examines the intersections of land, power, and public memory. A PhD candidate in Public History at North Carolina State University, his research focuses on conservation, settler colonialism, and outdoor recreation in the American South. His essays and reporting have appeared in The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, The Rumpus, Environmental History, and Belt Magazine, and his work has been supported by the National Park Service, the National Humanities Center, and Humanities for the Public Good. Through his scholarship and storytelling, Bradley seeks to connect academic research with public audiences to spark deeper conversations about history, place, and justice.
Tatiana Flowers
Tatiana Flowers is a journalist who has reported on crime, courts, education, health, and housing in Colorado, Connecticut, Israel, and Morocco. Most recently the equity and general assignment reporter for The Colorado Sun, supported by a grant from The Colorado Trust, she covered the full housing spectrum from homeownership to homelessness. A graduate of Penn State University and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, she has won multiple awards, including an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award, a New England First Amendment Coalition FOI Award, and several Society of Professional Journalists honors.