Davina Morgan-Witts

Davina started BookBrowse in 1998 while a stay at home mother of two small children who wouldn't stay still long enough for her to visit a bookstore. Davina is a recognized authority on book clubs and a popular speaker and writer on the topic of books and book groups; she has given talks at many library, publisher and bookseller conferences, to the media and to private groups. More information.

Nick Stager

Nick is a technologist and avid reader. He has a wide breadth of experience in ecommerce and startups, and is working to expand BookBrowse's digital presence while continuing the longstanding high quality of its content. He has a degree in the Comparative Study of Religion from Harvard, where he volunteered for the Harvard Review. He lives in Plymouth, MA with his wife Hannah and their chihuahua mix Mia; when he's not working, you'll find him at the beach.

Elisabeth Cook

Elisabeth (she/her) is a published poet, a frequent reader of translated literature and a freelance writer. In addition to reviewing books, she occasionally writes about language learning and indie film. You can follow her latest reads on her blog, Lit All Over, and at BookBrowse.

Lisa Butts

Lisa (she/her) is a poet and freelance critic living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She studied Creative Writing at The New School and Sarah-Lawrence College. In addition to editing and writing for BookBrowse, she writes regularly for Publishers Weekly and BookRags, among others.

Norah Piehl

Norah is a former bookseller who has also worked for several publishing companies. Currently the literary director for the Bay Area Book Festival and an editor at BookBrowse, Norah reviews books and writes interviews and features for a number of print and online publications including BookBrowse. She lives with her family in Berkeley, California.

Kim Kovacs

Kim Kovacs is an avid reader in the Pacific Northwest. All those rainy days give her the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of books that span many genres.

Katharine Blatchford

Kate is a freelance writer and livelong lover of literature. The fascination with varying cultures and perspectives that grew from this love led her to pursue an education in the social sciences. Her favorite genres are fantasy, historical fiction, and history. She is also a passionate fiber artist who designs knitting and embroidery patterns. In her free time she can be found experimenting in the kitchen, attempting to teach herself to sew, or enjoying the outdoors.

BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers

Each month, BookBrowse members have the opportunity to review books through our First Impressions program. Books that our member-reviewers rate particularly highly are featured as "Top Picks" selections. All books recently reviewed for First Impressions can be seen here, and Top Picks are listed below.

Rebecca Foster

An American transplant to England, Rebecca is a freelance proofreader and writer. She is an associate editor of Bookmarks magazine and reviews books for a myriad of print and online publications in the USA and UK, including the Times Literary Supplement and her blog, Bookish Beck.

Peggy Kurkowski

Peggy is a professional copywriter for a higher education IT nonprofit association by day and major history geek at night. She hosts her own YouTube channel, The History Shelf, where she features and reviews history books (new and old), as well as a variety of fiction. In addition to BookBrowse, she also reviews for Library Journal, the Historical Novels Review, Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Jordan Lynch

Jordan Lynch is a scientist by training, but her true passion is books. She currently lives in St. Louis, MO, where she spends her days caring for her son and reading during naptime. She also works to educate and advocate for phenylketonuria (PKU) research on behalf of her son. You can see what she’s been reading or explore some interesting science at The Literary Laboratory. You can see what she’s been reading or explore some interesting science at her blog The Literary Laboratory.

Rose Rankin

Rose Rankin (she/her) lives and writes outside of Chicago. A historian by training, she primarily reviews non-fiction with an emphasis on women's studies. She recently completed a comparative study of female-authored poetry in Late-Renaissance Italy titled Cautious if Not Chaste: The Poetry of Tullia D'Aragona and Veronica Franco. In addition to freelancing for various publications, she is also a marketing copywriter with experience in technical writing.

Kathleen Basi

Kathleen Basi is a novelist and musical composer who has been reading and writing for so long, she can’t even remember when she started. Her first novel, A Song for the Road debuted in 2021. Visit her at kathleenbasi.com.

Christine Runyon

Christine is a writer and library assistant from Florida. She's written marketing content on various topics, but books are her true love. Currently she's taking a Discworld deep dive. In addition to BookBrowse, she also reviews at BookTrib. She’s most content outdoors, reading or taking long birding hikes. Find her on Goodreads.

Joe Hoeffner

Joe Hoeffner is a writer and critic who recently earned his MLitt degree from the University of Stirling. He currently lives on Long Island.

Callum McLaughlin

Callum McLaughlin (he/him) is a writer of words, a reader of books, and a lover of cats. Based in Scotland, he operates on a freelance basis, producing content for blogs, websites, and magazines. His fiction and poetry have also featured in several literary journals, both online and in print. You can find him on Twitter @Callum_M1, and he chats about all things bookish over on his blog callummclaughlin.wordpress.com

Valerie Morales

Valerie Morales' non-fiction work has been featured in Huffington Post, The Talented Tenth Review Medium and The Committed Generation. She loves books that inhale the future and exhale the past. James Baldwin’s novel Another Country was her beginning of all things literary, life and truth.

Chloe Pfeiffer

Chloe Pfeiffer (she/her) is a technical writer living in Chicago. She has an MFA in creative writing from Oregon State University.

Jo-Anne Blanco

Jo-Anne Blanco was born in Brazil to an English mother and Spanish father. Holder of an MA in languages and an MPhil in media and culture, she is the author of the Fata Morgana series of novels, which follow the life and adventures of Morgan le Fay. Book reviewing gives her the chance to discover exciting new authors and share her love of literature with others. Visit her at jo-anneblanco.com.

Danielle McClellan

Danielle McClellan has been a bookseller, a managing editor of two small presses, and a senior editor for the University of California, Irvine, School of Humanities. She is currently the managing editor of the academic journal Law & Society Review and also runs a small academic editorial business. She divides her time between Granada, Spain, and the US Pacific Northwest. Danielle loves connecting readers with good books and will always be a bookseller at heart. She reads widely and reviews literary fiction, literature in translation, poetry and essays, mysteries, and food writing.

Alex Russell

Alex Russell is a freelance writer from Scotland, now living in France, who holds degrees in English Literature from the University of St Andrews and Charles University in Prague. When he’s not reading, he’s writing for 14 Degrees East, a blog focusing on his travels throughout Europe.

Jillian Bell

Jillian Bell is a Toronto-based writer whose work has appeared in several Canadian and international magazines. She is a voracious reader who devours at least 150 books per year.

Pei Chen

Pei reads to immerse herself completely in a fictional world and writes to share that world with other readers. She has a penchant for books that leave her wrecked emotionally afterwards, either from the beauty of the story or the complexity of a character. BookBrowse is the first publication for which she has written. She practices family medicine in her spare hours.

Michelle Anya Anjirbag

Michelle Anya Anjirbag recently completed her PhD at the Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Cambridge, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Work based on her dissertation has appeared and is forthcoming in several academic journals and edited collections. Having earned her MSc at the University of Edinburgh and her BA at the University of Connecticut, her research interests include Disney, adaptations of fairy tales and cross-period approaches to narrative transmission across cultures and societies, deep stories, and fantasy and the library in the fantastic. She has worn a lot of different hats including essayist, local journalist, leadership facilitator, book reviewer, and shopgirl. More information on her academic and other work can be found at michelleanjirbag.com

Rachel Hullett

Rachel Hullett (she/her) is an avid reader, feminist, and cat enthusiast. A graduate from Tulane University, she currently lives in Vermont and works as the Editor of an indie children's book publisher. You can find her on Twitter @paceamorelibri, and you can read more of her thoughts on books over at her personal blog at paceamorelibri.wordpress.com.

Erin Lyndal Martin

Erin Lyndal Martin is a writer and artist living in Blacksburg, VA.

Elisabeth Herschbach

Elisabeth Herschbach is an editor and writer from Maryland.

Jane McCormack

Jane McCormack is an avid adventurer, whether it be hiking through the woods or traversing through the pages of a good book. She is the mother of two blue heelers, a horse, and a boy. Additionally, she also aspires to influence a hundred or so high schoolers to make friends with literature, pen their dreams, and be curious, on a yearly basis. In addition to teaching ELA at her local high school, she writes book reviews, and teaches riding. She can often be found reading in a grassy paddock, with Gus, her trusty steed, grazing beside her.

Sara Fiore

Sara (she/her) is a writer and reference librarian who lives on the east coast with her husband and two sons. She is a passionate lover of the written word and is rarely seen without at least one book in hand. When not talking loudly and at length about whatever she just read, Sara can be found cuddling her cats, baking something sinful, going down another true crime rabbit hole, looking for the door into Narnia, and spending every second she can with her family.

Alicia Calvo Hernández

Alicia is an editor and book cataloguer from Madrid, Spain, who is now based in Ireland. She holds a bachelor´s in Journalism and Humanities and a master's in Literature and Publishing. She has worked with various media outlets as a freelancer, where she has contributed literary and human interest pieces. Her writing references other artistic and literary works, and aims to uncover and amplify diverse points of view and untold stories.

Isabella Zhou

Isabella is a bookworm from the NYC metro area with a degree in English literature from Columbia University. She also writes book reviews for Foreword Reviews and poetry study guides for BookRags. Her interests, in no particular order, include women and paintings (in them, painting them, looking at them, etc.), fairytales and retellings, Impressionism, 19th century tomes, unrequited loved, cats, the persistence of memory over time, the Sisyphean toil of writing a novel, and the language of flowers and gemstones. Between all of that, her favorite hobby is ballroom dancing because she likes pretending she is a spirited young lady who has snuck into a masquerade ball held by the kingdom's nobility. You can check out more of her work at isabellazhouwrites.wordpress.com.

Lisa Ahima

"Lisa Ahima is a New Orleans-based, black writer and content creator. She works for a major literary agency, a black-owned bookstore, and judges fiction for a literary magazine. She especially loves lyric essays, fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. She owns "The Black Joy Podcast," a visual podcast about breaking out of the idea behind a "black monolith," exploring in a digestible manner the different facets of black media representation while balancing academic sources, accessible language, and meme culture, which you can view here.

Maria Katsulos

Maria Rosario Katsulos is a lifelong reader and writer. The daughter of a journalist-turned-writer and an editor-turned-librarian, she grew up considering books to be some of her best friends. She is currently a senior at Southern Methodist University, where she is a President's Scholar studying English, history, and more with the goal of becoming a professor of gender and sexuality history. She is the editor-in-chief of Kairos Creative & Literary Magazine and a 2021 winner of the SMU.

Jennifer Hon Khalaf

Jennifer Hon Khalaf (she/her) is a lawyer and writer based in Los Angeles, CA.

Jacob Lenz-Avila

Jacob Lenz-Avila is a writer from Southern California. He is an ardent reader and writer currently studying the arts of short stories, poetry, and criticism.

Abby Edgecumbe

Abby Edgecumbe is a writer and reviewer, but mostly a reader. She holds a degree in Literature and Creative Writing, and a minor in French. Known to consider reading as forced meditation, she reads not only to learn about the world and the depth of feeling experienced by others, but she believes reading is a way to find yourself, slow life down, and open your mind both outwards and inwards. Learn more about her from her online portfolio.

Aditi Upadhyaya

Aditi is studying Political Science and Sociology at the University of Toronto. She is an avid reader and lover of all books mythological, thriller, political, and feminist. She is especially fond of female Indian authors and narratives. She hopes to introduce you all to some of her favorite books!

Tina Choi

Tina Choi, a graduate of Western Washington University, is a Special Education/English teacher living in the Northwest. Although she's taught in Seattle and surfed the Oregon Coast, she prefers to 'dry out' in northeastern Oregon. She currently writes and lives there with her husband.

Amanda Ellison

Amanda Ellison is a writer, teacher and labradoodle owner, hailing from Northumberland in the UK. She writes regularly for various publications, exclusively on subjects she is passionate about – including, of course, books!

Grace Graham-Taylor

Grace Graham-Taylor is a freelance writer and content creator living in London, UK. She relies on books to refract the absurdity of the present day, so that she can laugh about things she would otherwise find unbearable. An insatiable media-consuming machine, she also loves film and has conducted interviews for an underground music magazine. She is particularly fond of experimental and post-modern fiction.

Gabriella Harrison

Gabriella is a freelance writer, editor, social media manager, and virtual assistant. She is an avid reader, passionate about sharing her opinion about the books she reads. In addition to writing for BookBrowse, she also reviews books for Foreword Reviews, Pacific Book Review, OnlineBookClub, and a few other platforms.

Tasneem Pocketwala

Tasneem is a freelance writer and journalist based in Mumbai, India. You can find her documenting the reading-and-writing life on Instagram at @tasneemsworld05, and on her blog.