Deni Naffziger is a poet who has over 30 years of experience teaching English and Creative Writing at Hocking College (Ohio), Ohio University, and Kendal College (Kendal, England - Fulbright Scholar).

She served as editor of Riverwind Literary Magazine (Hocking College, Nelsonville, Ohio) for seventeen years. Naffziger's work has appeared in journals including The New Ohio Review, Atticus Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Spoon River Review, West Branch, Main Street Rag, Pikeville Review, YARN, Pudding Magazine, Asylum, The MacGuffin, and Northern Appalachian Review. She co-authored Revenants: A Story of Many Lives, which was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Special Projects grant. Naffziger's first full-length collection, Desire to Stay, published by Stockport Flats Press, was nominated for the Weatherford Award; her second collection, Strange Bodies, is forthcoming in September, 2023 (Shadelandhouse Modern Press).

In addition, she has published 3 chapbooks (Spoon River Review, Pikeville Review, Crazy River) In 1999, she co-founded The Writers’ Collaborative that partnered university writing students and adults with disabilities at the Passion Works Collaborative Arts Studio (Athens, Ohio) to write poems, short stories, and songs.  The works, spanning nearly 20 years, were shared with regional musicians and dancers, resulting in two C.D.s., funded by the Ohio Arts Council, and a 3-day performance in celebration of community, collaboration, and the arts at the historic Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio.

She currently serves as poet-in-residence at the Passion Works Collaborative Studio, Athens, Ohio.

Deni Naffziger earned a BFA from Bowling Green State University, Ohio, in Creative Writing.  She earned an MA from Ohio University in 20th Century Literature with Creative Emphasis.