Issue 5.1 Contributors
It is because our own human existence is so dependent on the help of others that our need for love lies at the very foundation of our existence.
— Dalai Lama
Cole Hammer is a 13 year old who writes poetry about his life problems and mental health. He has recently been selected to appear in the next issue of Oyster River Pages as an emerging poet.
DJ Hills is a writer and theatre artist from the Appalachian Mountains. Their work appears most recently in Free State Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Wigleaf. Find them online at www.dj-hills.com
Anurika Ngozi is a writer whose work tends to revolve around patriarchal violence and the negotiations women make or don't make in their efforts to live in a world where they cannot escape it. She is currently completing her MFA.
Allison Benz is a Deaf poet, writer, runner, and bread-baking enthusiast who currently lives in Pennsylvania. Allison graduated with a BA in Classics with Latin emphasis from University of Arizona and an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. She now spends her time reading, writing, running, and baking bread to refuel after long runs.
Nic Job is a student of the world, and spends as much time as they can traveling and observing; cultures, places, people, and themself.
Madeleine Bazil (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and storyteller. She is interested in memory, intimacy, and the ways we navigate worlds — real and imagined. She holds an MA Hons (First Class) in English Literature from Scotland’s University of St Andrews and is currently an MA candidate of Documentary Arts at the University of Cape Town. Her visual and written work has been published and exhibited in the UK, US, and South Africa.
Iggy Oddity is a nonbinary musician, poet and digital artist based in the Chicago area. In 2017, they founded Cinema in Paradise, a magazine dedicated to celebrating the legacy of film throughout time. Their debut album, Desired Particle is currently streaming on all platforms.
Rigel Portales has been writing poetry and creative nonfiction for over five years. He bases his works on his Twitter account at @rijwrites and on Wattpad where his past titles are regularly read by hundreds. His biggest inspirations for writing are Danez Smith, Charles Bukowski, Ava Guihama, and his grandmother. He's currently planning to take up Political Science after he graduates.
Donna Cameron’s career has been spent working with not-for-profit organizations and causes. She is the author of the 2018 book, A Year of Living Kindly. Cameron’s articles and essays have been featured in The Washington Post, Seattle Times, and many other publications. Visit her website: https://ayearoflivingkindly.com.
AJ Strosahl is a writer who lives and works in Oakland, California. She recently completed an MFA in Fiction at St. Mary's College of California, will attend the Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences in summer 2021, and has work forthcoming in MARY: A Journal of New Writing and other outlets. Her short story “Dayton” was long listed for the Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction in 2020, and her story “57 Days” placed second in the 2019 NYC Midnight Fiction Contest. She co-owns a small tech firm that provides web consulting and an online fundraising platform for progressive non-profit organizations and is an avid quilter and garment-maker in her spare time. She's currently at work on her first novel and a collection of short stories.
Alexandra Fössinger is a German/Italian native speaker from Italy. Having lived in Germany, Sweden, and France, she is fluent in several languages; her poems, which she writes mainly in English, try to express those multilingual experiences. She has just recently started submitting them, and so far, two pieces are forthcoming in Eunoia Review. She currently works as a creative director for an Italian advertising agency.
Alissa DeLaFuente lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in scientific and literary journals including Photonics Focus, Gold Man Review, and others. She has creative work included in two Girl God Books anthologies. In response to the pandemic, she self-published a book on time management and gentle goal-setting to help young people manage the chaos. It came out in May 2020, and is titled Get Your Life Together: A practical guide to getting organized. She regularly serves as a prose judge for the International Latino Book Awards. Visit her at www.alissadelafuente.com to learn more.
Emily Jay is interested in writing human stories about growth and epiphany. Her poetry has been published in the journal 30 N, and she’s currently working on a collection of short fiction. She’s also a nitpicky-but-kind editor and has worked on multiple journal staffs throughout her undergraduate career. You can contact Emily via her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/emily.r.jay/
Jiaqi Gao is a New York City native and a recent graduate from the University of Chicago. In her spare time, she reads and writes creative non-fiction. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jqig_/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jqig_
Virginia Watts is the author of poetry and stories found in Illuminations, The Florida Review, CRAFT, Sunspot Literary Journal, Sky Island Journal, Permafrost Magazine, Bacopa Literary Review, Streetlight Magazine, among others. Winner of the 2019 Florida Review Meek Award in nonfiction and nominee for Best of the Net Nonfiction 2019 and 2020, her poetry chapbooks The Werewolves of Elk Creek and Shot Full of Holes are upcoming for publication by The Moonstone Press. She has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize.
G.D. Brown has worked as a literary editor and as an award-winning newswriter. His literary work has appeared in Full Stop, Jokes Review, Ginosko, Westview, PopMatters, Oracle Fine Arts Review, Peeking Cat Poetry, The Tulsa Voice, and elsewhere. He is a Goddard College MFA graduate and production editor at MAYDAY. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can find him on Twitter @daddest or on Instagram @slam_punk.
Joe Baumann possesses a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he served as the editor-in-chief of Rougarou: an Online Literary Journal and the Southwestern Review. He is the author of Ivory Children: Flash Fictions, and the founding editor and editor-in-chief of The Gateway Review: A Journal of Magical Realism. In 2019, he was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Fiction Writing. Find him on Twitter: @jbaumann035. More information is available at joebaumann.wordpress.com.
Ashley Cowger is the author of the short story collection Peter Never Came, which was awarded the Autumn House Press Fiction Prize. Cowger’s stories and essays have appeared in several literary journals. They hold an MFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and work as an Assistant Teaching Professor at Penn State Harrisburg. Learn more at www.ashleycowger.com.
Erica Jenks Henry’s work has appeared in Pithead Chapel, Lit Hub, Zone 3, Maudlin House, New World Writing, and Thimble and is forthcoming in The Caribbean Writer. With a Master's in Public Health, she has worked with the Chicago Housing Authority and in Honduras. Her twitter handle is @wabisabiwoman, and her Instagram is @wabisabai.
Nandini Bhattacharya was born and raised in India and has called the United States her second continent for the last thirty years. Wherever she's lived, she's generally turned to books for the answers to life's questions, big or small (that includes philosophy and recipes). Her first novel, Love’s Garden, was published in 2020.
Cathy Ulrich wore sneakers to prom. They were really comfortable. Her work has been published in various journals, including Ecotone, Alien Lit Mag, and Jet Fuel Review.
Grace Segran is a former journalist and global nomad who lives in Boston, MA. Her work has been published in Pangyrus, The Common, Brevity, The Smart Set, the L.A. Times, and elsewhere. She was a finalist in Columbia Journal's 2019 Fall Contest, and the winner of the 2019 and 2020 Keats Literary Contests and other awards.
Liz Chang was the 2012 Montgomery County Poet Laureate in Pennsylvania. Chang published her second book of original poems and literary translations, What Ordinary Objects, with Book & Arts Press in 2012. Her chapbook, Animal Nocturne, is available now from Moonstone Arts Press. She is an Associate Professor of English at Delaware County Community College.
Wayne Glausser is Professor Emeritus of English at DePauw University, where for decades he taught literary nuance to future global leaders. He has published three books and many essays, on a dizzy variety of topics—semicolons, LSD, Locke, Limbo, you name it. His most recent book is Something Old, Something New: Contemporary Entanglements of Religion and Secularity (Oxford University Press, 2018). Personal essays appeared earlier this year in Montana Mouthful and Wilderness House Literary Review. His presence on social media is negligible, but if Google Scholar counts, it keeps pretty good track of the writing.
Fei Sun was born and raised in Shanghai, and first came to the U.S. for school. She studied physics at MIT and pursued a PhD in the same discipline at UIUC, but she left the program in the third year to try writing. She then earned her MFA at Northwestern University. Since then her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Pleiades (winner of the Kinder-Crump Prize for Short Fiction), Mississippi Review (fiction prize winner), Five Points, Wigleaf, and elsewhere
Ọbáfẹ́mi Thanni is a genre-bending writer whose poetry was the third-place winner of the Nigerian Newsdirect Poetry Prize 2020. He is a reader at The Masters Review and is currently making attempts at beauty while applying for a citizenship in Lucille.
Adeline Cruz is based in the United States, braving the long, bitter winters of Minnesota with the help of her trusted yaktrax. She has work forthcoming in Penumbra. When she isn’t composing poetry, you might find her whipping up a new recipe or meandering through a state park.
Danielle F. Sedbrook is a writer and American expat living in rural Germany. She has a doctorate in chemistry, but quit science to write. Before she had children her science writing appeared on smithsonianmag.com, the NRDC.com, and her blog, birdstobosons.com. This is her first published piece of creative nonfiction.
K. A. Polzin graduated from The University of California, Davis, with a B.A. in creative writing. His fiction has appeared in Natural Bridge, and his short humor has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency and The American Bystander. He lives in New York City. Find him on Instagram: @k.a.polzin.
Aidan Dolbashian is a graduate of University College Dublin's M.A. Creative Writing program, where he served as the poetry editor for the HCE Review, the UCD M.A. program's literary journal. He obtained his B.A. in English from the University of Vermont, where he produced an honors thesis centered on the prose poem. He is the recipient of the Benjamin B. Wainwright award for poetry. His work has been previously published in Catfish Creek and the HCE Review.
Jim Marino's stories have appeared, or will soon appear, in Alaska Quarterly Review, Santa Monica Review, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and elsewhere. He lives in Cleveland where he teaches Shakespeare and reads bedtime stories aloud. He can be found online at jamesjmarino.com and on twitter as @doctorcleveland.
Emily Brisse’s essays have appeared in publications including The Washington Post, Creative Nonfiction's True Story, Sweet, Tahoma Literary Review, and River Teeth. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, a Curt Johnson Prose Award finalist, and a recipient of a Minnesota Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. She teaches high school English, and lives just outside Minneapolis with her family.
Porsche B. Yeary is a writer and mom living in Atlanta, Georgia.
Porsche has appeared on the Nightlight Podcast, Death’s Head Press and Thrice-Told Tales under the now abandoned pen name C.J. Silver.
This diva of dyslexia is currently working on a series of murder mysteries as well as a small collection of children’s books, while still dabbling in other short stories and chasing a toddler around.
To learn more about Porsche, what she reads and what she writes, please visit her website https://porscheb211.wixsite.com/my-site-1
Mary Pacifico Curtis is the author of Between Rooms and The White Tree Quartet, both chapbooks published by WordTech's Turning Point imprint, as well as poetry and prose that have appeared in The Crab Orchard Review, The Rumpus, The Tupelo Quarterly, LOST Magazine, The Naugatuck River Review, and Narrative Magazine. Her work is also included in numerous anthologies. She was a 2012 Joy Harjo Poetry Finalist (Cutthroat Journal), 2019 Poetry Finalist in The Tiferet Journal, a non-fiction finalist in The 48th New Millenium Writings contest, and a 2021 finalist in the Tupelo Quarterly non-fiction open.
She holds an MFA from Goddard College. When not writing, she leads a Silicon Valley life in PR and branding, and advise technology startups.
Denise Robbins is an author and climate activist from Madison, Wisconsin, now living in Washington, DC. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Barcelona Review, The Forge, Grimscribe Press, Neutral Spaces, Flash Fiction Magazine, and more. She was named finalist for the University of Louisville’s The Calvino Prize in 2020. She has a cat named Elephant.
Olivia Cheng works in technology and lives in Cambridge, MA. She still remembers the bad bowl haircut she had in middle school. Her Instagram handle is @realmontymole, where she investigates the parts of her life that involve moles. She has no representation and is working on a book about sex, death, and the terrors of being mediocre. You can reach her at olivia.yt.cheng [at] gmail [dot] com.
Oliver Egger is a poet born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. He is a rising Junior at Wesleyan University studying English and Religion. His poetry has previously been featured in Moonstone Press. He is also a rare books enthusiast, running the online bookstore: Broken Wing Window Books. You can find out more about the bookstore as well as Oliver’s work at brokenwingwindowbooks.com or on instagram @brokenwingwindowbooks.
Sherry Shahan's work has appeared in Oxford University Press, Los Angeles Times, Exposition Review, Confrontation, Progenitor, and forthcoming from Hippocampus. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Carolyn Wilson-Scott holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in education from Stanford University, where she was a recipient of the Bocock/Guerard fiction prize. She lives in Denver and is at work on a novel.
Ona Akinde is a Nigerian writer based in Lagos. She is deeply passionate about telling honest stories and shaping narratives. Her work appears in Kalahari Review, Arts and Africa, Wawa Book Review, and elsewhere.
Janet Goldberg's novel The Proprietor's Song is forthcoming from Regal House Publishers in Summer 2023. She also has a short story soon to appear in Deep Wild and poetry in Salt.
Lindsey Danis is a queer writer of Young Adult, literary/upmarket fiction, and essays, based in the Hudson Valley. Her writing has appeared in Voyage YA Journal, Longreads, New World Writing, and elsewhere. She's received a notable mention in Best American Travel Writing and was long listed for the #WriteMentor Children's Novel Award. She serves as the Creative Nonfiction editor at Atlas & Alice and is currently working on a novel. Lindsey's writing centers LGBTQ voices, with a focus on fostering resilience and celebrating queer joy. When not writing, you'll find her hiking, kayaking, or cooking. You’ll find her on Instagram @lindsey.danis.writer, twitter @lindseydanis, and online: https://www.lindseydanis.com
Uchenna Awoke lives and writes in Nsukka, Nigeria. His short stories “Shallow Grave” “Badlands” and “A Plate of Rice” appeared in Transition, Elsewhere Lit, and Trestle Ties. He received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Vermont Studio Center in 2018 and 2019 respectively. He is working on his first novel, The Liquid Eye of a Moon.
Daliah Angelique is a neurodivergent lesbian poet chronicling memory, trauma, and the queer experience of grief and joy. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Exhume Mag, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Off Menu Press, Spilt Milk, Anti-Heroin Chic, and NTCH Mag. She is a feminist healer growing through it in Seattle, Washington. Her social media for her poetry is instagram.com/daliahangelique/
Erik Wilbur teaches writing at Mohave Community College in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He is also the program director of Real Toads Poetry Society, a literary organization that provides opportunities for residents of Northwestern Arizona communities to learn about, experience, and share works of literary art. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Southampton Review, Sandhills, Aquifer, and Poet Lore.
Stephanie Staab's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Crab Creek Review, Summerset Review and Chiron Review among others. Her first chapbook, Earthling, was published in April 2020 by Selcouth Station press. Her poem 'I have this secret see' was nominated for Best of the Net 2020.
Elizabeth DeBunce is a writer from Southern Oregon with a double major in English and Classical Studies from Lewis & Clark College. She enjoys listening to The Mountain Goats and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She was the recipient of the 2017 Lewis and Clark College Fiction Prize, and her poetry has previously appeared in (parenthetical): the zine, The Gold Man Review, Words Dance, Heart and Mind Zine, Glass Mountain, and The Timberline Review.
Abdulmugheeth Petersen is passionate about language, culture and social justice. He teaches High School English and is chairperson of a faith-based LGBT+ Organisation. Much of Abdulmugheeth's writing reflects his experiences as a young muslim gay man. He enjoys hiking and running, and consuming movies, books and too many cat videos with his partner. They live in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have been published in the pages, and on the covers of The Hunger Journal, Steam Ticket, Apercus Quarterly, Apeiron, and Red Weather, among others. She has authored four chapbooks, with one being a collection of her collage art, entitled What Do You See?
Trisha Faye is a trans poet and writer whose poetry has previously appeared in Gyroscope Review and Variant Literature. She has also published poetry under a different name.
As a poet, writer, educator and owner of a small content writing business, every aspect of Melanie Robinson’s work—both creative and professional—is steeped in a reverence for communication. She holds an MFA in poetry from Texas State University and was the 2019-2020 Poet in Resident at the Clark House in Smithville, Texas. She was the recipient of a Damsite Residency in New Mexico in 2015 and has been published by Rust + Moth, Barren Magazine, Burning House Press, The Boiler, Black Bough Poetry, and University of Hell Press (print). She was also a commissioned, featured artist for Luminaria: San Antonio Arts Festival in 2017.
Ilaria Cortesi is an Italian digital artist based in Shanghai, China.
They can be found at https://www.behance.net/ilariac
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/icmanekineko/
Mike Carbuccia is an artist who is mostly self taught. When not reading comic books or recording his podcast, he's experimenting with digital art, ink and paper, even his wife's Cricut when she's not using it! He believes in artistic expression and activism, and appreciates when the two intertwine. You can find him on Instagram @onemike_art.
Tim J. Myers is a writer, songwriter, storyteller, visual artist, and senior lecturer at Santa Clara University. His children’s books have won recognition from the New York Times, NPR, and the Smithsonian, with 16 out and more coming. He’s published over 140 poems, won a first prize in a poetry contest judged by John Updike, has five books of adult poetry out, published a nonfiction book on fatherhood, and won a major prize in science fiction. He also won the West Coast Songwriters Saratoga Chapter Song of the Year and the 2012 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction. www.TimMyersStorySong.com
https://www.facebook.com/TimJMyers1
Twitter: @TMyersStorySong
https://www.instagram.com/tmyersstorysong/
Clyde Always is an accomplished cartoonist, poet, painter, novelist and Vaudevillian entertainer. He lives in San Francisco, CA with his adoring wife Kaylee the Ukulele.
His recent work includes the fully illustrated children's novel The Tale of Samantha Muffinbaker and the Funny Land of Flinck. https://www.amazon.com/Samantha-Muffinbaker-Funny-Land-Flinck/dp/B08FKVJRPX
Sixteen-year-old Toronto-based artist Amy Ai, is now a grade 11 student studying in the Etobicoke School of the Arts. By utilizing skills in illustrations, paintings, and figure drawings, Amy defines her purpose for her passion in arts and add on her perception to the world during her art making process. Artist CV: 2019 Gladstone gallery 2019 ESA end of the year art show 2020 Us contemporary gallery 2021 Because I’m a Girl exhibition 2021 Neilson Park collaborative artshow 2021 art of buying art online art show 2021 Us Contemporary Gallery 2021 Growth Magazine 2021 Ultraviolet Magazine Volume 25 2021 TDSB Chinese heritage Poster Contest 3rd place 2021 art show international figure contest Honerable mentioned
James K. White is an amateur photographer living in San Diego, CA. He has been taking pictures since the age of 15, and continued using the camera to document crime and traffic collision scenes in his former career as a law enforcement officer. It wasn't until after his retirement in 2013 that he began exploring more artistic themes in photography. His influences include photographers like Carrie Mae Weems, Dana Scruggs, and the many Renaissance and Baroque painters who employed the technique of chiaroscuro. White has no social media presence.
Zoleka Mannie is a 27-year-old multidisciplinary artist, poet, and aspiring Creative Director from Johannesburg but currently residing in Nelspruit, South Africa. She describes herself as a hyper-romantic Xhosa Social ape that is passionate about the mysteries of creation and its intelligence, anthropology, intimacies, discoveries and dominance of the human condition. She is part of the Design Indaba Emerging Creative Class of 2020 program. With not much spotlight as an emerging artist,t Zoleka the young poet has had her poetry published with Outcast Magazine, Button Poetry, Plants & Poetry Journal, Active Muse Journal, and articles published with Heart of Alpha Magazine and a featured article on the Street Culture Code site. Her most celebrated project is 'Talk Like A Painting, a poetry book written and self-published in April 2019 but is currently working on more collections. Mannie is currently completing her Diploma in ICT and App Development at the University of Mpumalanga. Some of her projects include the digital series "YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR ART BACK", "IMPHEPHO" and “DECOR YOURSELF” ”which are inspired by African masks, ancestral blood, and black/melanin royalty. Bernice sees herself as living in the abstract wildlife of her existence and resists anything that dehumanizes her melanin identity. Passionate about art, indigenous knowledge, literature, gender equality, youth and childhood development, mental health, sustainability, and intellectual disability sports.
To find out more:
Artsthread Profile: https://www.artsthread.com/profile/bernicemannie/
Design Indaba Profile: http://www.designindaba.com/profiles/bernice-mannie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xoamannie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/XoaMannie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemannie/
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/xoamannie
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Talk-like-Painting-social-trilogy/dp/1093118938
Saúl Hernández is a queer writer from San Antonio, TX. He was raised by undocumented parents and as a Jehovah's Witness. Saúl has a MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. He's a finalist for Palette Poetry 2020 Spotlight Award. Also, a finalist for the 2019 Submerging Writer Fellowship, Fear No Lit; semi-finalists for the 2018 Francine Ringold Award for New Writers, Nimrod Literary Journal. His work is forthcoming/featured in Cherry Tree, Atlanta Review, Quarterly West, PANK Magazine, Pidgeonholes, The Acentos Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, The Normal School, Rio Grande Review, and Adelaid Literary Magazine. He's also part of the Macondo Writers Workshop. He's the Managing Editor for Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and lives in Austin, TX.
Jessica Kim is a disabled poet from California. A two-time 2021 Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Wildness Journal, Diode, Cosmonauts Avenue, Grain Magazine, Longleaf Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and more. She is the founding editor of The Lumiere Review. Find her at www.jessicakimwrites.weebly.com and @jessiicable on twitter.
Joseph Pfister’s fiction has appeared in PANK, New World Writing, Juked, X-R-A-Y, and decomP, among others. He is a graduate of the MFA Writing program at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their dog, Roary. He is currently at work on his first novel. Find him on Twitter: @joe_pfister
Emily Hawkins is a Louisiana-born writer currently living on the Front Range with her partner, Sam, where she is a proposal writer for an environmental consulting firm. She is a recent fiction graduate of Pacific University's Master of Fine Arts program.
Alan Basting earned an M.A. in English/Creative Writing at Colorado State University and a M.F.A. from Bowling Green State University. His chapbooks include Singing from the Abdomen, Stone-Marrow Press; What the Barns Breathe, Windows Press; Suddenly, Herons, The Writers’ Cooperative of Toledo; and Deep Time, Daily Habits and Events, from The Arts Commission of Toledo, Ohio. Nothing Very Sudden Happens Here was published by Lynx House Press, Spokane, WA, in late 2013. His most recent collection, Home and Away (2019), is available from Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, KY. Visit www.alanbastingpoetry.com to view selections from his work. He lives in the middle of the Manistee National Forest near the village of Bitely, MI. His website is: alanbastingpoetry.com
Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Elina Katrin now resides in Appalachia. She is an MFA candidate at Hollins University and a baking enthusiast. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Emerson Review, Rappahannock Review, Voices & Visions, Gravel, and Prometheus Dreaming.
Maya Kachra is a student majoring in Contemporary Art at Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto, Ontario. Her work has been in multiple publications, as well as exhibited with galleries, such as Arts Etobicoke, and Us Gallery Contemporary. Maya currently works in sculpture, photography, and mixed media, with a focus on the process of art making.
Meghan Sterling’s work has been published in Rattle, Glass, Sky Island Journal, Red Paint Hill, and many others. She has been awarded a Hewnoaks Artist Colony Residency in 2019 and 2021. Her first full-length collection, These Few Seeds, is forthcoming from Terrapin Books in 2021. Read her work at meghansterling.com or find her on Instagram at meghansterlingpoet.
Pete Madzelan is an artist who lives with his wife in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His writing and photography have appeared in The Courtship of Winds, Bellingham Review, Cargo Literary Journal, Four Ties Lit Review, New Mexico Magazine, Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Shows, Photography Center of Cape Cod, San Pedro River Review, Sky Island Journal, Switchback, and others.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is an Indian-Australian artist, poet, and pianist. Her recent artworks have been showcased in Otoliths, 3 AM Magazine, and The Amsterdam Quarterly, and on the covers of Ang(st) the Body Zine, Pithead Chapel, Uppagus, Periwinkle Literary, and The Rat’s Ass Review. She is a chief editor for Authora Australis. Find her @oormilaprahlad and www.instagram.com/oormila_paintings
Joanna B. Johnson is a Spanish-English bilingual educator with a Masters in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education from the University of Washington. She was runner up for the 2019 Wasafiri/Queen Mary New Writing Prize in Poetry. Her writing can be found in Midway Journal, F(r)iction, Sky Island Journal and The Meridian (forthcoming). She works as a teacher and translator in Córdoba, Spain where she lives with her partner and their dog, Chispa.
Valerie A. Smith speaks on behalf of those who do not have a voice. She earned the MA in Professional Writing at Kennesaw State University and now studies poetry in the PhD program at Georgia State University. Her social media handles are www.facebook.com/ValerieASmithPoetry, @valeiresmithwriter, and @valeriepoetry.
Born and raised in Bihar, India, Shambhavi Roy is a graduate of IIT, Kharagpur, UC Berkeley, and the MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She currently lives and works as a writer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in J Journal (CUNY), Western Humanities Review, The Chapter House/Mud City Journal, BlazeVOX, and others. Her fiction was shortlisted for the 2021 Winter Short Story Award for New Writers of The Masters Review, the Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Contest, the Stories That Need to be Told Contest, and others.
Anca Vlasopolos has authored eight books, of which four are poetry collections. She has over 300 poems and short stories in literary magazines. She spent her career in Detroit, MI, and now lives on Cape Cod, MA. Links to her work and more information about her life are at http://www.vlasopolos.com. She is also on Facebook and Twitter.
Emily Patterson is a curriculum designer, poet, and mother in Columbus, Ohio. She holds a B.A. in English from Ohio Wesleyan University, where she received the Marie Drennan Prize for Poetry. Emily's work has been published or is forthcoming in Literary Mama, Mothers Always Write, Thimble Literary Magazine, Quillkeepers Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Sunlight Press, The Magnolia Review, and elsewhere. She can be found on Instagram at @helloemilyjean.
Sean Murphy has appeared on NPR's "All Things Considered" and been quoted in USA Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and AdAge. His work has also appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, The New York Post, The Good Men Project, Memoir Magazine, and others. His chapbook, The Blackened Blues, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and served as writer-in-residence of the Noepe Center at Martha's Vineyard. He’s Founding Director of 1455 (www.1455litarts.org). To learn more, please visit seanmurphy.net and bullmurph.com. His twitter and insta are @bullmurph and @1455LitArts.
Youssef Alaoui is a Moroccan Colombian American. His family and heritage are an endless source of inspiration for his varied, dark, spiritual and carnal writings. He has an MFA in Poetics from New College of California. His work has appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Big Bridge, 580 Split, Dusie Press, RIVET Journal, Paris Lit Up, The Opiate, Bioptic Review, Dryland, and nominated for a Pushcart at Full of Crow. His short story collection "Fiercer Monsters" was published by Nomadic Press of Oakland, CA. His poetry collection "Critics of Mystery Marvel" was published by 2Leaf Press of NYC. Based in SLO CA. www.youssefalaoui.info twt@iuoala insta@iuoala777
Airea Johnson's work appears in 'FLARE: The Flagler Review', 'Third Wednesday Magazine', and forthcoming in 'Lucky Jefferson.' In another life she was probably Bieber's 'One Less Lonely Girl', but in this life she creates playlists and listens to her cat wail.
Sara Caporaletti is a visual artist from Maryland. Caporaletti received her BA in studio art from McDaniel College in Westminster, MD and her MFA in interdisciplinary fine art from American University in Washington DC. Her multi-media work explores various autobiographical elements related to Catholic religious practices or beliefs and makes connections to the human body form. She has participated in several artist residency programs and has exhibited her artwork in group exhibitions in art centers/galleries around the DC/Maryland/Virginia (DMV) area. She has also had her work published online in various art or literary publications. Learn more at https://www.saracaporaletti.com/.
Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after a rewarding public health career. With a graduate degree from Howard University, in six years he’s published poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and photography in over 150 journals on four continents. Examples: Columbia Journal, Hippocampus, Ilanot, Kestrel, Manchester Review, The Atlantic, Typehouse. He and his wife split their time between city and mountains. You can reach the artist at jamesross355 at gmail.com
Edward Moreta Jr. (he/him/his) is an Afro-Latino student currently on gap year from Kenyon College and a Milton Academy alum. He is from Dorchester (a neighborhood in the city of Boston) and has been published in the Tahoma Literary Review / The Offing / The Void / The Adroit Journal (where he was a finalist for the Adroit Prize in Poetry 2020) / and Sixth Finch. Instagram: e_moreta Twitter: emoretajr
Frankie A Soto is a 2x winner of the Multicultural Poet of the year award from the National Spoken Word Poetry Awards in Chicago. His (New York Times) performance called him an absolute force. He’s been featured on ABC news and has traveled all across the country featuring at over 130 Universities & Colleges actively touring/performing and running workshops. He’s been published worldwide for online and print publications.
