Josiah Meints

Interim Director

Email osuwritingcenter@okstate.edu

About Me

Dr. Josiah Meints is a Visiting Assistant Professor as well as the Interim Director of the Writing Center at Oklahoma State University. His research and teaching focuses include writing center studies and administration, game and sports studies, multimodal rhetoric, and science fiction. Above all else, talking about writing and helping writers is his mission as faculty and an administrator.


Katie Long

assistant director

Email kaitlyn.long@okstate.edu

About Me

Katie Long is in her second year of the Master’s Rhetoric and Writing Studies program and is a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Department of English. She loves cats, updating her planner, and teaching. She loves promoting individuality in writing and critical reasoning and thinking skills, both in the classroom and out. You can frequently find her at the Writing Center in the Student Union, or at her favorite coffee shop, Dutch Bros, getting a Strawberry Blue Razz Rebel.


A. Poythress

assistant director

Email a.poythress@okstate.edu

About Me

A. Poythress is currently enrolled in Oklahoma State University’s PhD program for creative writing and received their MFA from Columbia College Chicago. They've been published in The Rumpus, The Lit Pub, Write City Magazine, AWP Writer’s Notebook, The New Southern Fugitives, received honorable mention for both The Ghost Story’s 2020 The Screw Turn Flash Fiction Competition and Fractured Literature’s 2021 Ghost Flash Fiction Contest, was runner up in the Button Eye Review 2021 Summer Fiction and Poetry Contest, was a semi-finalist in the 2022 St. Lawrence Book Award, and a finalist for the 2022 Iron Horse First Book Prize. As a non-binary lesbian, they primarily write surreal horror and fantasy about women, kids, and queer folk. 


Tara Jo Lenertz

Assistant Director

Email tara.lenertz@okstate.edu

About Me

Tara Jo Lenertz is a PhD student in the Screen Studies program at Oklahoma State University. She has nearly a decade of tutoring experience and has also taught English Composition and Introduction to Film and Television. As a first-generation and non-traditional student, Tara believes education positively changed her life in ways she never thought possible. She is approaching her dissertation work and plans to explore the intersection of film reception and carceral studies. Her love for film and passion for social justice inspire her search for innovative ways to apply her research. In her spare time, she enjoys screenwriting and hopes to someday see her work come to life.


Drake Swails

assistant director

Email johnathan.swails@okstate.edu

About Me

Drake is currently enrolled in the English PhD program at Oklahoma State University where their focus areas flux between poetry, gender & women’s studies, and sexuality studies. Their Best of the Net losing (but nominated) poetry appears in Full House Literary, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere. Drake’s research areas primarily focus on queer poetics, anti-carceral feminism, and gender violence. They pitched, started, and now run and host Inquiry: A Writing Center Podcast. At the Writing Center, their work focuses on social media and communication, fostering professional development, and promoting outreach into digital landscapes and faraway places.


Aidan Rodriguez

Assistant Director

Email aidan.rodriguez@okstate.edu

About Me

Aidan Rodriguez is an undergraduate student studying Applied Exercise Science: Strength and Conditioning at Oklahoma State University. After graduation, she plans on getting her masters in Athletic Training. She loves reading, her dog Nova, and watching movies. In the Writing Center, her work focuses on special projects, mentoring, and fundraising.