Volume 11 Contributors

Lorelei Bacht is a poet of complex European heritage living in Asia. A former political analyst and lobbyist, she has been using poetry to explore the universal, psychological, embodied nature of political violence through history. Her work has appeared / is forthcoming in such publications as The Wondrous Real, Quail Bell, The Wells Street Journal, and Abridged Magazine. She is also on Instagram: @lorelei.bacht.writer

Julie Brooks Barbour is the author of two full-length collections, Haunted City (2017) and Small Chimes (2014), both from Kelsay Books, and three chapbooks, including Beautifully Whole (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2015) and Earth Lust (Finishing Line Press, 2014). She teaches writing at Lake Superior State University where she co-edits the journal Border Crossing.

C. Beston grew up on the edge of the woods in Delaware and currently pursues writing and filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest. Her work has been featured in X-R-A-Y, Smokelong Quarterly, and others. More at cbestonwork.com and @caro__linear.

Photo by Bob Godwin

Lauren Camp is the author of five books, most recently Took House (Tupelo Press), which Publishers Weekly calls a “stirring, original collection.” Her poems have appeared in DIAGRAM, Kenyon Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Boston Review. Honors include the Dorset Prize and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award, the Housatonic Book Award and the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. Her poems have been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, and Arabic. www.laurencamp.com

Susana H. Case is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Dead Shark on the N Train, from Broadstone Books, 2020, which won a Pinnacle Book Award for Best Poetry Book, a NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite, and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. She is also the author of five chapbooks. Her first collection, The Scottish Café, from Slapering Hol Press, was re-released in a dual-language English-Polish version, Kawiarnia Szkocka by Opole University Press. The Damage Done is forthcoming in 2022 from Broadstone Books. She has co-edited, with Margo Taft Stever, the anthology I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe, forthcoming in 2022 from Milk and Cake Press. www.susanahcase.com.

Ava C. Cipri is a non-binary queer writer, educator, & activist in Pittsburgh, PA, who co-found and serves as poetry editor for The Deaf Poets Society: An Online Journal of Disability Literature & Art. A Pushcart, New Poets, & Best of the Net nominee, their work appears or is forthcoming in Boulevard, Stirring, & Whiskey Island Review, among others. Ava is the author of the chapbook, Leaving the Burdened Ground (Stranded Oak Press, 2018), which was a finalist for both the Robin Becker Series Contest & the Grazing Grain Poetry/Hybrid Contest. Their second chapbook is Queen of Swords (dgp 2018). Ava is a Zoeglossia fellow with an MFA from Syracuse University & takes Carlow University's Madwomen in the Attic Workshops, where they run in the company of other Mads. They reside at www.avaccipri.com.

Juliet Cook is brimming with black, grey, silver, purple, and dark red explosions. She is drawn to poetry, abstract visual art, and other forms of expression. Her poetry has appeared in a peculiar multitude of literary publications. You can find out more at JulietCook.weebly.com.

Nina Johnson Photography

Brittney Corrigan is the author of the poetry collections Daughters, Breaking, Navigation, and 40 Weeks. Solastalgia, a collection of poems about climate change, extinction, and the Anthropocene Age, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press in 2022. Brittney was raised in Colorado and has lived in Portland, Oregon for the past three decades, where she is an alumna and employee of Reed College. She is currently at work on her first short story collection. For more information, visit brittneycorrigan.com.

Lauren du Plessis is a writer based in a patch of bluebells in the British countryside. She writes about transformation and chaos, and is currently working on her first novel. She is represented by The Good Literary Agency. Find out more about her work at laurenduplessis.com or on Instagram @laurendp_writes.

Katherine Fallon is the author of DEMOTED PLANET (Headmistress Press, 2021) and The Toothmaker's Daughters (Finishing Line Press, 2018). She is Lead Poetry Editor at MAYDAY Magazine and reads for [PANK]. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Colorado Review, Juked, Meridian, Foundry, and Best New Poets among others. She shares domestic space with two cats and her favorite human, who helps her zip her dresses.

Massimo Fantuzzi is a British-Italian dual national born in Milan living in Leicestershire. Author of a collection of poems and prose poems, Marcia Gioie (Alkalea, 1999). After his degree in Education, since 2001, works in supporting SEND individuals of all ages in schools and residential settings. Member of the editorial board at Triggerfish Critical Review, recently his poems have appeared in Alba, Morphrog, Poetry wtf?!, Grey Sparrow Journal, LiteLitOne, In Parentheses, Bosphorus Review of Books, Bombay Gin, The Honest Ulsterman, Poetry Salzburg Review, Orbis, Poetica Review, Straylight, Red Ogre Review, and Danse Macabre. From his window on the National Forest, he dares to keep score of the lasting proceedings between treetops, low clouds and other liminal frontiers.

STEVE FAY's collection what nature: Poems was published by TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press in 1998, and was cited by the editors and board of the Orion Society as one of their 10 favorite nature/culture-related books of the 12-month period in which it appeared. His poetry has been published in Ascent, Beloit Poetry Journal, Field, Hamilton Stone Review, Moving Force Journal, Spoon River Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Write Launch, and other journals and anthologies, and is forthcoming (or may have just appeared) in The Comstock Review and Burningword Literary Journal. He writes fictional and non-fictional poetry and fictional prose, and makes photographs. He lives in Fulton County, Illinois.

Kindall Fredricks is a practicing registered nurse and an MFA candidate at Sam Houston State University, focusing on both poetry and the intersection of literature and the medical sciences. Her work has appeared in New Letters, Rust + Moth, Sugarhouse Review, Quarterly West, NELLE, The Coachella Review, Jet Fuel Review, The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, The Concrete Desert Review, The Academy of American Poets, and more

Cal Freeman is the author of the books Fight Songs (Eyewear, 2017) and Poolside at the Dearborn Inn (R&R Press, 2022). His writing has appeared in many journals including The Oxford-American, River Styx, Southword, Passages North, and Hippocampus. He currently serves as Writer-In-Residence with Inside Out Literary Arts Detroit and teaches at Oakland University.

Dr. Kate Gale is co-founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of the Los Angeles Review. She teaches in the Low Residency MFA program at the University of Nebraska in Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.

She is the author of the forthcoming The Loneliest Girl from the University of New Mexico Press and of seven books of poetry including The Goldilocks Zone from the University of New Mexico Press in 2014, and Echo Light from Red Mountain in 2014 and six librettos including Rio de Sangre, a libretto for an opera with composer Don Davis, which had its world premiere October 2010 at the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee.

She speaks on independent publishing around the US at schools like USC and Columbia and she speaks at Oxford University. Her opera in process is thewebopera.com and an opera on Che Guevara is in process with Cuban composer Armando Bayolo.

Anthony Gomez III is based in Brooklyn, New York. An emerging writer and current PhD student at Stony Brook University, his research explores questions of race, diaspora, and the Anthropocene. His stories have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Shenandoah, Gone Lawn, 3Elements, and others. Read more at anthonygomeziii.com.

 

Beth Gordon is a poet, mother and grandmother currently living in Asheville, NC. Her poetry has been widely published and nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, and the Orison Anthology. She is the author of two previous chapbooks, and her full-length poetry collection, This Small Machine of Prayer, was published in 2021 (Kelsay Books). Her third chapbook, The Water Cycle, was published by Variant Lit in January 2022. She is Managing Editor of Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, Assistant Editor of Animal Heart Press, and Grandma of Femme Salve Books. Twitter @bethgordonpoet and Instagram @bethgordonpoet.

Robin Gow is a trans poet and young adult author from rural Pennsylvania. They are the author of Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books 2020) and the chapbook Honeysuckle (Finishing Line Press 2019). Their first young adult novel, A Million Quiet Revolutions, is forthcoming March 2022 with FSG Books for Young Readers. Gow's poetry has recently been published in POETRY, Southampton Review, and Yemassee. Gow received their MFA from Adelphi University where they were also an adjunct instructor. Gow is a managing editor at The Nasiona, a poetry editor at MAYDAY, and the assistant editor at large at Doubleback Books. They live in Allentown Pennsylvania and work as a community educator.

Kelly Gray (she/her) is the author of Instructions for an Animal Body from Moon Tide Press and the audio chapbook My Fingers are Whales & other Stories of Cetology from Moon Child Press. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Passages North, Pithead Chapel, Hobart, Dream Pop, The Normal School, BULL, Harbor Review, Superstition Review, and elsewhere. Kelly's book of short stories, Tiger Paw, Tiger Paw, Knife, Knife, is forthcoming from Quarter Press in 2022 and she is an Assistant Editor at Bracken Magazine. You can read more of her work at writekgray.com.

Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick's work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Salamander Magazine, Salt Hill, Maudlin House, The Texas Observer, PANK, Four Way Review, Harpur Palate, Passages North, among others. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College's MFA program, Hardwick serves as the poetry editor for The Boiler Journal.

Kathleen Hellen’s collection meet me at the bottom is forthcoming in Fall 2022 from Main Street Rag. Her credits include The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, her prize-winning collection Umberto’s Night, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily, her work has appeared in Ascent, Barrow Street, The Carolina Quarterly, Colorado Review, jubilat, New Letters, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Subtropics, The Sycamore Review, and West Branch, among others. For more on Kathleen, visit kathleenhellen.com.

Tiffany Hsieh was born in Taiwan and moved to Canada at the age of fourteen. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, The Malahat Review, Poet Lore, Room, Salamander, The Shanghai Literary Review, and others. She has been nominated for Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net. She lives in southern Ontario.

D.J. Huppatz is a writer who lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Kaitlin Kan is a product of a multicultural upbringing, New England boarding school, and Yale University, where she is currently studying English and psychology. She has been published in Ponder Review, New Plains Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Sincerely Magazine, Hektoen International, and Sky Island Journal. When she is not writing, she is spending time with her dogs and playing piano.

Lucinda Kempe’s work has been published or is forthcoming in newSouth, Midway Journal, New World Writing, Matter Press, Bending Genres, The Southampton Review, and the Summerset Review. Wigleaf long listed her micro fiction in 2018, 2019 and 2020. One of Those Girls, an excerpt from her memoir The Dirty Debutantes’ Daughter, was short listed for the Fish Memoir Prize in April 2021. She lives on Long Island where she exorcises with words.

Linda Malnack is the author of two poetry chapbooks, 21 Boxes (dancing girl press) and Bone Beads (Paper Boat Press). Her poetry appears in Prairie Schooner, the Seattle Review, Amherst Review, Southern Humanities Review, Blackbird, and elsewhere. Linda is an Assistant Poetry Editor for Crab Creek Review.

Autumn McClintock lives in Philadelphia. Poems of hers have recently appeared in The Account, Cimarron Review, Denver Quarterly, The Georgia Review, Sonora Review, and others. Her chapbook, After the Creek, was published in 2016. She is a staff reader for Ploughshares and Associate Poetry Editor of Doubleback Review.

Image Credit: Abantu Book Festival

Rémy is a Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer. He is the founder, chairperson, and artministrator of Doek, an independent arts organisation in Namibia supporting the literary arts. He is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, Namibia’s first and only literary magazine. His debut novel "The Eternal Audience Of One" is available from Scout Press (S&S). His work has appeared in The Johannesburg Review of Books, American Chordata, Lolwe, Granta, and many other places.

He won the Africa Regional Prize of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. He was shortlisted for the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing in 2020 and 2021. He was also longlisted and shortlisted for the 2020 and 2021 Afritondo Short Story Prizes respectively. In 2019 he was shortlisted for Best Original Fiction by Stack Magazines. More of his writing can be read on his website: remythequill.com.

Sophie Panzer grew up in New Jersey, earned her BA in Quebec, and currently lives in Philadelphia. She is the author of the chapbooks Survive July (Red Bird Chapbooks 2019), Mothers of the Apocalypse (Ethel Press 2019), and Bone Church (dancing girl press 2020). Her work has appeared in Defenestration, HOOT Review, Josephine Quarterly, Gingerbread House, PULP Literature, carte blanche, and others.

Andre F. Peltier (he/him) is a Pushcart Nominee and a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches literature and writing. He lives in Ypsilanti, MI, with his wife and children. His poetry has recently appeared in various publications like CP Quarterly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Provenance Journal, Lavender and Lime Review, About Place, Novus Review, Fiery Scribe, and Fahmidan Journal, and most recently in Magpie Literary Journal, The Brazos Review, and Idle Ink. In his free time, he obsesses over soccer and comic books. Twitter: @aandrefpeltier Website: www.andrefpeltier.com.

Sydney Sackett is an aspiring artist, author, and D&D enthusiast currently pursuing an English major in Frostburg State University. Her biggest creative influences come from dark urban fantasy and horror.

Darryl Shupe is new to poetry (even though he's middle aged) and enjoys collaborating with his partner. In his spare time he likes to work on cars because as he says, "how else does one come up with new swear words?"

Ellen McGrath Smith teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and in the Carlow University Madwomen in the Attic program. Her poetry has appeared in The Georgia Review, The New York Times, The American Poetry Review, Talking Writing, Los Angeles Review, and other journals and anthologies. Books include Scatter, Feed (Seven Kitchens 2014) and Nobody’s Jackknife (West End Press 2015).

Meghan Sterling’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, The Pinch Journal, Rust & Moth, The West Review, Colorado Review, Pacifica Literary Review, SWIMM, Sky Island Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and many others, and was the winner of Sweet Literary’s 2021 Annual Poetry Contest and Equinox’s 2021 Annual Poetry Contest and a Finalist in River Heron Review’s 2021 Annual Poetry Contest and Gigantic Sequins’ 2021 Annual Poetry Contest. She is Associate Poetry Editor of The Maine Review, a Hewnoaks Artist Colony resident in 2019 and 2021, and her debut collection, These Few Seeds, came out in 2021 from Terrapin Books. She and her family live in Portland, Maine. Read her work at meghansterling.com.

Jan Stinchcomb is the author of The Kelping (Unnerving), The Blood Trail (Red Bird Chapbooks), and Find the Girl (Main Street Rag). Her stories have recently appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Flash Frog, and No Contact. A Pushcart nominee, she is featured in Best Microfiction 2020 and The Best Small Fictions 2018 & 2021. She lives in Southern California with her family. Find her at janstinchcomb.com or on Twitter @janstinchcomb.

Survival themes derive from Jean‘s clinical counseling with disabled students and teaching at Columbia University.

Jean studied in Italy and traveled with homestays throughout Asia and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Iran and Vietnam.

She grew up in Madison, Wisconsin with keen interest in rural and urban life. The Red Cross picked her first to help supervise the 9/11 recovery in New York City. She served as an NGO liaison to the United Nations.

The University of Wisconsin, Smith College and Sarah Lawrence College M.F.A. with Ragdale Foundation grants enabled her writing and publishing in over thirty college-related and independent periodicals.

Her documentary historical fiction novel Last Gentleman in the Middle Distance (New York and Lisbon, Portugal: Adelaide Books, 2020) was based on innumerable interviews with wartime survivors here and in Europe.

Marianne Villanueva is the author of the short story collections Ginseng and Other Tales from Manila, Mayor of the Roses, and The Lost Language, as well as the novella Jenalyn, which was a finalist for the UK's Saboteur Award. Born and raised in the Philippines, she received a creative writing fellowship from Stanford University and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she teaches creative writing online for UCLA Extension's Writers Program. During the pandemic, she finished a new short story collection and started two novels-in-progress. She is iblieveindragons on Instagram.

Christian's work has been published or is forthcoming in The Mays, Anthropocene, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Menacing Hedge, Bad Betty Press, Ekstasis Magazine, The Tiger Moth Review, Notes, 6'98, The Dial, and the jfa human rights journal, among others; it won the Arthur Sale Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the CUPPS Poetry and Prose Prize 2021. His work has been performed at the Lancaster and Singapore Poetry Festivals, and he was a semi-finalist at UniSlam 2021 with Cambridge.