EDUCATION
MFA Creative Writing, Butler University, 2016
Thesis: Only One Went Through the Green Door, Chair: Alessandra Lynch
4.0 GPA
BA English, Indiana University, 2001
3.82 GPA
- Dean’s List for Academic Excellence, Indiana University
- Golden Key National Honor Society, Indiana University
- Academic Scholarship
CURRENT POSITION
Executive Director, The Big Silence Foundation. Oversee administration, programs and strategic plan of the organization; including fundraising, marketing, and community outreach.
PREVIOUS
Executive Director, Indiana Writers Center. Oversee administration, programs and strategic plan of the organization; including fundraising, marketing, and community outreach.
AWARDS
Executive Director, Literary Champion Award, 2021 – Indiana Author Awards
GRANTS
Executive Director, National Endowment for the Arts, Projects Grant, 2021.
Executive Director, Indiana Arts Commission, General Operating Support, 2021.
Executive Director, Arts Council of Indianapolis, General Operating Support, 2021.
Executive Director, Amazon Literary Partnership, 2021.
Executive Director, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Restart with Hope, 2020.
Executive Director, National Center for the Book, Emergency Literary Fund, 2020.
Executive Director, Indiana Arts Cultural and Destination Marketing Organization Support Grants, 2020.
Executive Director, Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, General Operating Support, 2020.
Executive Director, Indiana Arts Commission, General Operating Support, 2020.
Executive Director, Amazon Literary Partnership, 2020.
Executive Director, Arts Council of Indianapolis, General Operating Support, 2020.
Project Director, Humanities Initiative Grant, Indiana Humanities, 2017.
Project Director, Quantum Leap Grant, Indiana Humanities, 2018.
Project Director, Humanities Initiative Grant, 2018.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor, Indiana Writers Center, various community workshops
Instructor, Write to Thrive, therapeutic writing with victims of rape and assault, the Julian Center
Instructor, Indiana Writers Center, Julian Center, Memoir Project Writing Group
Instructor, Butler University, Writing for Wellness, Eskenazi Hospital Community Writing Workshop
PUBLICATIONS
Poetry:
“Refuge for the Displace Persons,” Scoundrel Time March 7, 2022.
“Baba’s Blueberry Vareniki,” Scoundrel Time March 7, 2022.
“I brush my hair to shed the dead,” South Dakota Review 54.2, Spring 2019.
“Iron Shoes,” South Dakota Review 54.2, Spring 2019.
“It Cannot Be Called Ambition,” South Dakota Review 54.2, Spring 2019.
“In the Shadow of the Headless Muse,” Indiana Humanities Poetry Blog, April, 29, 2017.
“Childhood,” Radar Poetry 12, 2016.
“Homeless,” Radar Poetry 12, 2016.
“I Cannot Drive to Her House,” Radar Poetry 12, 2016.
“Linda,” Radar Poetry 12, 2016.
“Make,” Radar Poetry 12, 2016.
“The Road,” Radar Poetry 12, 2016.
“My Locks Tangle in the Manhole Cover,” Wabash Watershed, July 2014.
Awards in Writing:
- Finalist, Conniston Prize, Radar Poetry
- First Place, Indiana Poetry Awards, Wabash Watershed
- Third Place, Seventeen Magazine Fiction Contest
Nominations:
- Pushcart Prize, “Childhood,” 2016.
- Intro Arts Journal Awards, “For My Mother in the Drain,” 2013, and “The Rosary of Clipped Wings,” 2015.
Reviews:
The Indianapolis Anthology, editor Norman Minnick, Indiana Author Awards, September 2021
Oliver Bendorf, The Spectral Wilderness, in Southeast Review 35.1, 2017.
Jennifer Givhan, Landscape with Headless Mama, in Red Paint Hill 12, 2016.
Amy Strauss Friedman, Gathered Bones are Known to Wander, in Red Paint Hill 12, 2016.
Ross Gay, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, in Nuvo Newsweekly, Vol. 27, No. 40, 2016.
EXHIBITIONS
The Story of Jonah, The 2020 Exhibition of the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Program
PROFESSIONAL WRITING EXPERIENCE
Associate Editor, The Indianapolis Review, 2017-Present.
Editor, Joy Comes in the Morning: Writing through the Darkness at the Julian Center for Domestic
Violence, INwords Press, 2017.
Editor, Not Like the Rest of Us: An Anthology of Contemporary Indiana Writers, INwords Press, 2016.
Poetry Editor, Booth: A Journal, Butler University, 2015-2016.
MEDIA
Featured Poet, “ ‘Poetry saved my life’: Indiana poets are healing and connecting with their communities,” The Indianapolis Star, April 28, 2019.
Featured Poet, WQRT National Poetry Month Special, April 2019.
Featured Poet, “No Limits,” WFYI, April 2017.
PUBLIC READINGS & SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Featured Poet, Poets Attack, Irvington Vinyl & Books, January 2020.
Featured Poet, National Poetry Month, Indianapolis Artsgarden, April 2018.
Presenter, Emily Dickinson Day, Franklin Central High School, February 2018.
Featured Poet, Writers Resist, Indy Reads, November 2017.
Featured Poet, IPO, Indy Reads, September 2017.
Featured Poet, Poetry in the Afternoon, Bookmamas, April 2017.
Speaker, Ask an Expert Webinar Series, Indiana State Library, April 2016.
Speaker, To Kill a Mockingbird Screening Talk Balk, Central Library, January 2016.
Featured Poet, International Women’s Day Celebration, IUPUI, March 2014.
Discussion Leader, IMCPL Big Read & Great American Read, 2015-present.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Purposeful Boards, Powerful Fundraising, The Fundraising School, 2019.
Fundraising for Small Nonprofits, The Fundraising School, 2018.
Attended Community of Writers Poetry Workshop, Squaw Valley, CA, June 2015.
Attended The Home School Conference, Miami, FL, January 2016.
SERVICE:
Board Member, The R/Evolution Fund, 2021
IAC Grant Review Panel, Indiana Arts Commission, 2017, 2019, & 2021
Judge, Central Indiana Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, 2016-2019
Member, Indy Literary Arts, 2016-Present
Rachel Sahaidachny 