Staff

We have a staff that is always growing. We are lucky to have a team of strong writers and administrators who also happen to be strong friends. We are all unpaid volunteers. The readership makes it all worth it!

Editor:Franny Olsen

Bio: I'll level with you: I'm writing this whole website, so my bio is not in third person. I love layout and journalism and I've been writing and working on publications forever. I used to write for my high school paper, a magazine in California called Skratch, and the Poughkeepsie Journal, most notably. I graduated from New Paltz with a sociology BA. I assign articles, edit, and lay out the magazine, as well as coordinate everything and pick up the odd tasks that need to be done. I started Read It Now because we need to preserve independent media in this country and in the Hudson Valley, and because there were no publications before this one in the Hudson Valley that weren't for weekenders or the older "arts" scene. Now we can record our cheap beer drinking, DIY subculture for real, and from the front lines.
Email: Editor@readitnowzine.com

Music Editor: Janine Stankus

Bio: In addition to being music editor, Janine Stankus also is an administrator of the Read It Now Myspace and Facebook accounts. She has a degree in English with a minor in communications from Mount Saint Mary College. She has won multiple English honors in her academic career and is President of the Alpha Mu Epsilon chapter of Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society. Stankus is especially interested in the high concentration of poverty in river cities in relation to the wealthy art subculture and its interest in starting artistic communities in the same areas, and who will win!
Email: janine@readitnowzine.com

Reviews Editor: Jeffrey Paggi

Bio: Jeff is an expert reader and amateur writer. He is very serious about himself. He is a senior at SUNY Binghamton, and if you ask him for a lit mag, he will probably have several in the trunk of his car for you to choose from. Jeff is in charge of local album reviews for Read It Now, so send him an email if you have a new album! He is an avid contributing writer for Read It Now, and in the past has written a ton of content about the local music scene. If you ask him about poetry, make sure you are sitting down.
Email: jeffrey.paggi@gmail.com

Administrator: Charlotte Seley

Bio:Charlotte Seley is an administrator of Read It Now's Myspace and Facebook accounts. She received her Bachelor's Degree from Eugene Lang College of the New School in New York City and has been home appreciating the Hudson Valley ever since. Her degree was focused on poetry and she even had a poem or two published in the area's own Chronogram. She is interested in all kinds of culture, high and low, and feels strongly in particular about restaurants. Charlotte is a social networking junkie and happy to be doing so for Read It Now.
Email: charlotte@readitnowzine.com

Columnist: Matt Pietrogallo/River Rants

Bio: Matt Pietrogallo is a native Hudson River man and proud of it. He is passionate about music, semantics, and consumer quality. He has been playing in bands locally for over ten years, and currently sings in Fishkill-based rock band Glass Half Empty. He's sick over the rising prices in Dutchess County, as well as the rise in rudeness, carelessness and people per square mile. He loves a good debate. Pietrogallo's column, which appears in every issue, highlights overdressed organizations that produce mediocre results.
Email: Riverrants@readitnowzine.com

Columnist: John Bryan/Two Tangents and A Microphone

Bio: Referred to by friends and well-wishers as "the cinnamon kingpin", John has wasted no time making his mark on the local scene. He currently plays guitar in local wonderband Cove Road, and runs his own graphic design company, Revolution Dream Design. You may recognize his art from nearly every single flyer from Glacial Productions, nearly every single shirt design from nearly every single local band, and so on and so forth. John graduated from Marist College with a degree in Public Relations. His column, which appears in every issue, highlights the most annoying (but entertaining) things about local life-living.
Email: John@revolutiondreamdesign.com

Distribution: Alison Schwartz

Bio:Alison graduated from SUNY Oneonta with an English degree last year. She recieved an excellence award in French, of all things, while studying there. Alison uses her savvy connections to copy and distribute Read It Now; if you ever pick up an issue on colored paper, you now know whose idea that was. She also helps edit submissions. She sometimes acts as a publicity agent for the zine, and solicits submissions from shy writers fairly often. She is currently pursuing her graduate degree in education (a dual certification in secondary education as well as special ed) from Mount Saint Mary College.
Email: alison@readitnowzine.com

Staff Photographer: Adam Freeman


Bio:Adam Freeman is the senior photographer at Read It Now and goes to high school in Cornwall. He is a senior and likes photography and can't wait to graduate. He is hoping to go to School of Visual Arts or some other more art oriented school once he is out of high school. He is happy to take photos for Read It Now, and we are happy to have him. He is working on taking not only live show photos but candids of what our local scene is really like.
Email: rockfanatic5@aol.com

Web Developer: Alex Mouravieff-Apostol


Bio:Alex is an excellent person. He takes care of the website with loving, tender code. He eats everything with a ton of salt on it.
Email: webdev@readitnowzine.com


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