Mary Azrael
Editor
Mary Azrael, Passager editor for over thirty years, said, “I’ve come to know remarkable people, ages 50 to 103, through their poems, stories, memoirs, and letters. What they say continues to surprise me and enrich my life.” Author of four books of poetry and the libretto for Lost Childhood, an opera, she has led poetry workshops for people ages 8-80 through Maryland’s Poets in the Schools and the Johns Hopkins Odyssey (continuing studies) program. As a Feldenkrais practitioner, she guides people through lessons to improve flexibility of movement and thinking. Words that make her heart leap up: bird, puppet, book, boots, post office. She loves finding real letters in her mailbox. Born in 1943, she is the oldest Passager staff member.
Kendra Kopelke
Editor
Baltimore native Kendra Kopelke holds degrees from Ohio University and The Johns Hopkins University; she also often holds the leashes of her two poodles, Gracie and Mimmy, who delight and astonish her as much as good poetry. She directed the University of Baltimore’s MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from its inception until her retirement. Founding editor of Passager, she is the author of four books of poems, plays ukulele so she can sing along, and loves to pretend she’s Matisse making cutouts. She said, “Passager is a dream [Mary and] I have been having for over 30 years. We make it up as we go along, and in that creative process have had so many marvelous encounters it’s impossible to stop.”
Christine Drawl
Managing Editor & Design
Christine Drawl comes from a family of farmers, carpenters and historians. She’s a small town Ohio girl and proud of it. A fiction writer and designer, Christine received her MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore. Her book of short stories, Grandmother Tree, was a 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist. Christine spends at least some of her non-Passager time “reviving” the 1890s house where she and her musical husband Peter live. She said that “as the youngest Passager staff member, I am continually inspired by writers decades older than me whose voices have given me a tremendous amount of hope for my own future.”
Rosanne Singer
Assistant Editor
After 25 years as a teaching artist of poetry in the Maryland schools and two years in northern California where her husband pursued a late-career job, Rosanne is back in Maryland doing the unexpected: getting an MFA in Creative Writing & Publication Arts at the University of Baltimore. She said, “Although I’ve had my work published over the years, I never knew what went on behind the scenes at a small press. I’m still in awe of the careful and loving process Passager’s editors go through as they read and choose material for their twice-yearly journals and individual collections.” Rosanne’s own most recent publication is a collection of poems, Little Red Dot.
Jon Shorr
Podcast Producer
Growing up, Jon Shorr loved listening to radio drama, the “theatre of the mind.” He still does. Over the course of his career, along with teaching high school and college, he’s hosted a late night “classic” poetry show on Baltimore’s big band radio station and written and produced audio and video documentaries. Now that he’s retired (and, ironically, wearing hearing aids), he spends a lot of his time writing short stories and essays, writing and producing Passager’s weekly podcast Burning Bright, and looking for ways to bring more attention to Passager’s mission of publishing work by older writers.
Guest Readers
2025 Poetry Contest
John Biggs
Pat Brown
Joyce Stevens Brown
Niki Leopold
David Pickering
Joel Savishinsky
Joyce Schmid