Jennifer Abbott

FOOD COLUMNIST

Big Easy Bites

Kerem Ozkan

HORNETS BEAT REPORTER Kerem Ozkan is a 24-year-old writer, pedicab driver, and explorer from Istanbul, Turkey. He previously edited the sadly-defunct blog Hoops, I Did It Again, and has won his fantasy basketball league for four consecutive years. He is a firm believer in corner threes, zone defense, liberated fandom, and Ryan Anderson. His work has appeared in Offbeat Magazine, Advertising Age, The Week, and Creative Loafing. Follow him on Twitter at @HornetsDefender, or e-mail him at kerem.ozkan@ncf.edu.

Mary Kilpatrick

CRIME REPORTER: Mary Kilpatrick is a senior at Tulane University, and will graduate with a B.A. in English and art history in May of 2013. When not studying or falling victim to senioritis, Mary splits her time writing for the NOLA Defender and The Times-Picayune. Her immediate future plans include semi-weekly panic attacks about the future. She hopes to either secure a job as a reporter or a position in a Masters of Journalism program soon -- or, in the alternative, a position under a bridge. In her spare time, Mary enjoys keeping up with celebrity gossip, eating chocolate and reading T. S. Eliot. Her other likes include white wine, her dog and sitting under oak trees. 

Philip Yiannopoulos

THEATRE WRITER

A native New Orleanian, Philip has also lived in Portland, Oregon, and Paris, France. He may have spent a lot of time studying dead French writers, but no legitimate job-offering entities seem to care.  While he has no idea where life will take him, he believes that regularly walking on three foot stilts gives him a better perspective for the future.  During his constant pursuit for the best Bloody Mary in town, he somehow came across the entirety of the Nola Defender staff, who accidentally offered him a spot covering theatre and general city shenanigans.

Derick Dupre

CONTRIBUTOR

Derick Dupre was born in New York City in 1985 and reared in Connecticut. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut in 2007, and shortly thereafter began a string of unpaid internships in the publishing industry. His record there was so poor that he was asked not to return, and the next year he spent wandering about the country and working odd jobs. In 2011 he drifted down to New Orleans, where he happens to be employed.