Of Burgers & Barrooms

An Anthology
of poems and stories

Edited by Jonathan K. Rice & M. Scott Douglass
Editorial Assistant Madison Allums

ISBN: 978-1-59948-658-1, 472 pages, $17.95

Released: December 6, 2017

 

CONTRIBUTORS

 

Gwen Akerman, Tsur Hadassah, Israel.
Gwen Ackerman is a short story writer, novelist and journalist who has covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—day in and day out—for the last three decades. Her work is informed by her reporting and is an attempt to lift the curtain of newscasts and newspaper articles and give readers a chance to see the people trying to live through conflict the best way they know how.

Jeffrey Alfier, St. Torrence, CA.
Jeffrey Alfier lives in California with wife and fellow poet, Tobi Alfier. A poet and photographer of Place, he is keen on the tactile intersections of lives and landscapes. Poetry collections include Fugue for a Desert Mountain, Anthem for Pacific Avenue, The Wolf Yearling, Idyll for a Vanishing River, The Storm Petrel—Poems of Ireland, Bleak Music: a photograph and poetry collaboration with Larry D. Thomas, Southbound Express to Bay Head: New Jersey Poems and The Red Stag at Carrbridge: Scotland Poems. He is founder and co-editor of Blue Horse Press and San Pedro River Review.

Tobi Alfier, St. Torrence, CA.
Tobi Alfier (Cogswell) is a multiple Pushcart nominee and a Best of the Net nominee. Her current chapbooks include Down Anstruther Way (Scotland poems) from FutureCycle Press, and her full-length collection Somewhere, Anywhere, Doesn’t Matter Where is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. She is co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.bluehorsepress.com).

Jack Anderson, New York, NY.
Jack Anderson is a poet and dance writer, whose most recent book of poetry, his eleventh, is Backyards of the Universe (Hanging Loose Press). He writes on dance for the Dancing Times of London and The New York Times, and reads his poetry in venues ranging from colleges, churches, and coffeehouses to a tattoo parlor on Long Island and a vintage subway car in a Brooklyn transit museum.

Rita Anderson, Austin, TX.
Rita Anderson, an award-winning playwright and poet, has an MFA Creative Writing and an MA Playwriting. A winner at the Kennedy Center, she went on scholarship to the O’Neill. Frantic is the Carousel was the National Partners American Theatre nominee, and Rita won the Ken Ludwig Playwriting Award for “Best Body of Work.” Her plays are widely produced and she has almost 100 publications to include Early Liberty, a “Best-Selling Play” for the international publisher (www.offthewallplays.com), three plays with www.indietheaternow.com, and two books of poetry: The Entropy of Rocketman, and Watched Pots (A Lovesong to Motherhood). Contact Rita at www.rita-anderson.com

Sam Barbee, Winston-Salem, NC.
Sam Barbee’s poems have appeared in Poetry South, Crucible, Asheville Poetry Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology VII: North Carolina, Potato Eyes, Georgia Journal, Main Street Rag, Iodine, and Pembroke Magazine, among others; plus on-line journals Vox Poetica, Pyrokinection, and The Blue Hour. He is a Pushcart Nominee. His Second collection, That Rain We Needed (Press 53, 2016), was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. He is the 2017 President of the NC Poetry Society and Past-President of Winston-Salem Writers.

Dave Barrett, Missoula, MT.
Dave Barrett lives and writes out of Missoula, Montana. His fiction has appeared most recently in Midwestern Gothic, Gravel and the Potomac Review. His vignette—Red of 10,000 Years—can be heard in Episode 86 of the No Extra Words podcast. His story—El Paradisio—will appear in Issue 24 of Quarter After Eight. He teaches writing at Missoula College and is at work on a new novel.

Margaret Benbow, Madison, WI.
Margaret Benbow recently won the Many Voices Award in Fiction from New Rivers Press. Her collection Boy into Panther and Other Stories will be published this October. Benbow is now writing a novel about outsider artists: their loves, enemies, battles, passions, and incredible persistence.

Henri Bensussen, Fort Bragg, CA.
Henri Bensussen has published stories and poems in various journals, including Sinister Wisdom, So To Speak, Common Ground Review, Behind the Yellow Wallpaper: New Tales of Madness, and Blue Mesa Review. A chapbook of poems, “Earning Colors,” was published by Finishing Line Press, 2015. She has a B.A. in Biology; her writing is often based on personal experience. She enjoys the concept of bars, their somber, sometimes grungy darkness that encourages loud drama or silent tears. The secrets imparted to strangers one hopes never to meet again. The unforgettable stories.

Adam Berlin, New York, NY.
Adam Berlin is the author four novels, including Belmondo Style (St. Martin’s Press/winner of The Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award) and Both Members of the Club (Texas A&M University Consortium Press/winner of the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize), and the poetry collection The Standing Eight. He teaches writing at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and co-edits the litmag J Journal: New Writing on Justice. For more, please visit adamberlin.com

Jane Blanchard, Augusta, GA.
A native Virginian, Jane Blanchard studied English at Wake Forest University before earning a doctorate from Rutgers University. She currently divides her time between Augusta and Saint Simon’s Island, Georgia. Her poetry has appeared in journals, magazines, and anthologies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Austria, France, India, and Australia, as well as online. Her collections are Unloosed and Tides & Currents, both available from Kelsay Books.

Mark Blickley, Long Island City, NY.
Mark Blickley is the author of Sacred Misfits (Red Hen Press) and his most recent play, The Milkman’s Sister, was produced last Fall at NYC’s 13th Street Repertory. His text based art collaboration with photographer Amy Bassin, Dream Streams, was chosen as an art installation for the 5th Annual NYC Poetry Festival. Their video, Speaking In Bootongue was selected for the London Experimental Film Festival. He recently published a text based art book, Weathered Reports: Trump Surrogate Quotes From the Underground (Moira Books, Chicago). Blickley is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and PEN American Center.

Rick Blum, Bedford, MA.
Rick Blum has been chronicling life’s vagaries through essays and poetry for more than 25 years during stints as a nightclub owner, high-tech manager, market research mogul, and, most recently, old geezer. His writings have appeared in Boston Literary Magazine, Thought Notebook Journal, and The Satirist, among others. He is also a frequent contributor to the Humor Times, and has been published in numerous poetry anthologies. Mr. Blum is a two-time winner of the annual Carlisle Poetry Contest. His poem, “Tomfoolery,” received honorable mention in The Boston Globe Deflategate poetry challenge.

Moore Bowen, Presque Isle, ME.
Moore Bowen is the author of Oppression for the Heaven of it, winner of the 2013 Kenneth Patchen Award for an Innovative Novel, published by Journal of Experimental Fiction. Under another name, Alice Bolstridge, this author has published more than 100 poems, stories, and essays in many magazines and anthologies. Writing awards include Oklahoma State University Short Fiction Award and American Academy of Poets Prize; 1995 Passager Poet Award; finalist 1998 Pablo Neruda Poetry Award; 2005 & 2011 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, Poetry Awards. Chance & Choice, a chapbook of poems, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017.

Jerry Bradley, Beaumont, TX.
Jerry Bradley, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, is Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Lamar University. He won the 2016 Boswell Poetry Prize and is the author of 8 books. Bradley’s work has appeared in New England Review, American Literary Review, Modern Poetry Studies, Poetry Magazine, and Southern Humanities Review. He is poetry editor of Concho River Review and past-president of the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers. The Southwest Popular and American Culture Association endows a writing award in his name. More information is available on his Wikipedia page and personal website www.jerrybradley.net.

Shirley J. Brewer, Baltimore, MD.
Shirley J. Brewer graduated from careers in palm-reading and speech therapy. She serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for the Arts & Technology in Baltimore. Shirley earned an MBA from the Maryland Bartending Academy. Her award-winning poems garnish Naugatuck River Review, Passager, BarrowStreet, Poetry East, Slant, Gargoyle, Comstock Review, and many other journals. Shirley’s poetry chapbooks include A Little Breast Music (Passager Books, 2008) and After Words (Apprentice House/Loyola University, 2013). In June, 2017, Main Street Rag released her first full-length collection of poems, Bistro in Another Realm.

Les Brown, Troutman, NC.
Les Brown holds BS and MA degrees from Appalachian State University and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Southern Mississippi. Additionally, he has studied art and pottery, and has participated in writing workshops at Hindman Institute and Wildacres, NC. A painter and potter, he has published poetry and short stories in journals including Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Iodine, and Moonshine Review. Les lives in Troutman, NC.

Judith Camann, Seattle, WA.
Judith Camann, a poet & education specialist, enjoys motorcycles in the Pacific Northwest. She co-founded the writing groups Overcoming Oranges and Parents Are Writers Too as well as co-owning a portfolio critiquing business for professional educators. Presently an MFA candidate, Camann claims a lifetime of madness has carried her thus far; questioning how that very same madness has not yet killed her. Her work has been featured with Eyedrum Periodically, Weasel Press and The Wild Word. Outside of her literary life, she holds degrees in Early Childhood & Elementary Education and an M.Ed. in Counseling.

Michael Catherwood, Omaha, NE.
Michael Catherwood’s first book was published by the Backwaters Press entitled Dare. His second book, If You Turned Around Quickly, is from Main Street Rag. His third book, Projector, is forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin Press in 2017. His poems have appeared in AGNI, Bluestem, Borderlands, Louisiana Literature, Measure, The Midwest Quarterly, the minnesota review, New Plains Review, Solstice, Red River Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and other journals. He has taught at the University of Arkansas, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Creighton University. He’s been an associate editor at Plainsongs since 1995, where he writes essays.

Ann Cefola, Scarsdale, NY.
Ann Cefola is the author of Free Ferry (Upper Hand Press, 2017), Face Painting in the Dark (Dos Madres Press, 2014), chapbooks St. Agnes, Pink-Slipped (Kattywompus Press, 2011) and Sugaring (Dancing Girl Press, 2007), and the translation Hence this cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007). A Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency recipient, she also received the Robert Penn Warren Award judged by John Ashbery. Her work appears in journals such as Feminist Studies and Natural Bridge, and translations in Eleven-Eleven, Exchanges, and Inventory among others. For more about Ann, see www.anncefola.com and www.annogram.blogspot.com.

Jan Chronister, Maple, WI.
Jan Chronister lives and writes in the woods near Maple, Wisconsin. She is trying to get a second chapbook published and has a full-length collection coming out in Spring 2018. She currently serves as president of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.

Esperanza Cintrón, Detroit, MI.
Esperanza Cintrón is a native Detroiter whose poetry and fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and journals. Her books include three collections of poetry, Chocolate City Latina (Swank Press, 2005), What Keeps Me Sane (Lotus Press, 2013), which won the 2013 Naomi Long Madgett Award, and Visions of a Post-Apocalyptic Sunrise (Stockport Flats Press, 2014). She holds a doctorate in English Literature from The University of the State of New York at Albany. Currently, she is working on Shades: Detroit Love Stories, which includes “The Riverfront Bar and Grille.”

Sandra Clough, Burnsville, MN.
Sandra Clough fell into creative writing unexpectedly. After 25 years in the corporate world, she started journaling and recording family memories. Eventually, she became bored with her own life, and that’s when the fun started. (Fictional characters can do and say anything!) Sandra lives in Minnesota and divides her time these days between adored grandchildren, a lovingly tolerated (read: retired) husband and her unpredictable fictional characters. Her work has appeared in Talking Stick (a literary journal published in MN), Whisperings—A Literary and Visual Culture Magazine (published in CA) and Cricket Magazine (for children ages 9 to 14).

Samuel E. Cole, Woddbury, MN.
Samuel E. Cole lives in Woodbury, MN, where he finds work in special event/development management. He’s a poet, flash fiction geek, and political essayist enthusiast. His work has appeared in many literary journals, and his first poetry collection, Bereft and the Same-Sex Heart, was published in October 2016 by Pski’s Porch Publishing. His second book, Bloodwork, a collection of short stories, will be published in June/July 2017. He is also an award-winning card maker and scrapbooker.

Daniel Roy Connelly, Rome, Italy.
Daniel Roy Connelly was the winner of the 2014 Fermoy International Poetry Festival Prize, a finalist in the 2015 Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Prize and winner of the 2015 Cuirt New Writing Prize for poetry. His pamphlet, Donkey See, Donkey Do was published by Eyewear in June 2017. His first collection, Extravagant Stranger: A Memoir, will be published by Little Island Press in July 2017. He is a professor of creative writing, English and theatre at John Cabot University and The American University of Rome. www.danielroyconnelly.com

Robert Cooperman, Denver, CO.
Robert Cooperman was born and raised on the not-so-mean streets of Brooklyn and now lives in Denver, with his wife Beth. His latest collections are Draft Board Blues (FutureCycle Press) and City Hat Frame Factory (Kelsay Books). Forthcoming from Liquid Light Press is the chapbook, Saved by the Dead. Main Street Rag has published A Tale of the Grateful Dead and The Words We Used. In the Colorado Gold Fever Mountains (Western Reflections Books) won the Colorado Book Award for Poetry.

Linda M. Crate, Meadville, PA.
Linda M. Crate’s works have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She is the author of the Magic Series, three published chapbooks: A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn, Less Than A Man, and If Tomorrow Never Comes; and the forthcoming fantasy novel Phoenix Tears. She enjoys nature; anime; the fantasy genre; reading poetry, novels, and short stories; learning; flowers; museums; friends and family; the beach; the ocean; crime shows; and alone time.

Jackie Craven, Schenectady, NY.
Jackie Craven writes poetry, fiction, and commentary about architecture and the arts. Her books include a poetry collection, Secret Formulas & Techniques of the Masters (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2018), and a chapbook, Our Lives Became Unmanageable (Omnidawn, 2016), which won the publisher’s Fabulist Fiction Award. Recent poems appear in Columbia Poetry Review, Nimrod, River Styx, Salamander, Spillway, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. She lives in upstate New York, central Florida, and Cyberspace. Find her at www.JackieCraven.com.

Sage Curtis, San Jose, CA.
Sage Curtis writes and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she earned her MFA from University of San Francisco. Her work has been a finalist for the Rita Dove Award in Poetry and an Honorable Mention for Wrolstad Contemporary Poetry Series. She is most interested in grit and glitter and giving in. Find more of her work in The Santa Clara Review, Luna Luna Magazine, Yes, Poetry, and at her website sagedaniellecurtis.wordpress.com.

Josh Daniel, Bowling Green, KY.
Josh Daniel currently lives in southern Kentucky, where he writes poetry when he’s not studying for class. He’s working to obtain his Masters in English Literature and hopes to one day teach at the college level. He also hopes that this poem doesn’t make him seem like too much of an asshole. He thinks poetry is as good a place as any to confess one’s sins and attempt to work through their implications.

Ed Davis, Yellow Springs, OH.
West Virginia native Ed Davis retired from teaching writing full-time at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio in 2011. His most recent novel, The Psalms of Israel Jones, was published by West Virginia University Press in 2014. His stories and poems have appeared in anthologies such as, Every River on Earth: Writing from Appalachian Ohio, and Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry from West Virginia. He lives with his wife in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he bikes, hikes and blogs mainly on literary topics at www.davised.com.

John Davis, Bainbridge Island, WA.
John Davis is the author of Gigs and The Reservist. He has published poems in journals including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Cream City Review, Cutbank, Georgetown Review, The Laurel Review, The North American Review, Oxford Magazine, Poetry Northwest and Sycamore Review. He served on the editorial staff of The Seattle Review and The Duckabush Journal. He has been a high school teacher for over thirty years. In 1979 he set an unofficial world record running a two-man relay across Death Valley National Monument. John teaches and plays guitar and harmonica in the band Never Been To Utah. He adores peaches.

Margo Davis, Houston, TX.
Margo’s poems have appeared in Light: A Journal of Photography & Poetry, Wisconsin Review, Midwest Quarterly, Slipstream, Agave Magazine, and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, and several Texas Poetry Calendars. Forthcoming poems are to appear in Civilized Beasts and Vine Leaves Literary Journal. Her comments on Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art are to appear in Houston’s Favorite Poems Anthology. Margo says she thrives on closely observing others, film, photographs, and natural settings.

Michele Ivy Davis, Escondido, CA.
Michele Ivy Davis has owned several businesses over the years including the pub mentioned in her story. She is now a freelance writer and photographer whose writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. Under the name “Mickey Davis,” she and her writing partner, Jim Weiss, have sold over 400 articles and photographs to law enforcement and other publications. Her young adult novel, Evangeline Brown and the Cadillac Motel, was published by Dutton (Penguin Group USA) and has won national and international awards. Learn more at www.MicheleIvyDavis.com.

Anthony DeGregorio, Kent Lakes, NY.
Anthony DeGregorio has published poetry, essays, and short fiction in several dozen magazines and journals. His writing has appeared recently (or is forthcoming) in various publications including mattermonthly.com, youandmemagazine.com, Eastern Iowa Review, Naugatuck River Review, and The Westchester Review. He teaches writing in the Education Department at Manhattanville College. In another life or two (or three) he worked in various capacities for the Department of Social Services for too many years.

Matt Dennison, Columbus, MS.
After a rather extended and varied second childhood in New Orleans (where “At Ease” was experienced/written), Matt Dennison’s work has appeared in Rattle, Bayou Magazine, Redivider, Natural Bridge, The Spoon River Poetry Review and Cider Press Review, among others. He has also made short films with Michael Dickes, Swoon, and Marie Craven.

Juan Pablo Duboue, Mendoza, Argentina.
Born in Mendoza, Argentina, Juan Pablo Duboue is currently working on his MA thesis on contemporary English Literature as well as teaching at the Teacher Training College in Mendoza. He is a teacher of English as a Second and Foreign Language and has always enjoyed writing poetry and critical essays. He has had poems published in The Main Street Rag, The Criterion, Elsewhere Literary Mag, among other journals and magazines.

Lucy DuRoche, Minneapolis, MN.
Lucy DuRoche is a poet, spoken word artist, songwriter, musician and longtime labor and community activist. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has performed with the In Your Face poetry troupe, In The Heart Of The Beast Puppet And Mask Theater, the Twin Cities Labor Chorus and Voices For Peace. Her work has appeared in Prairie Fire, Sojourner, Blue Collar Review, Redhawk Review, Home Planet News and New Millennium Writings.

John Dutterer, Glen Burnie, MD.
John Dutterer is a poet and short story writer whose fiction has most recently appeared in the 2016 anthology In Medias Res and online at Right Hand Pointing, where his story “Marilyn Apocrypha” was among their nominations for Best of the Web. An employee in the book and music industry, John lives in suburban Maryland with his wife and three sons.

Theodore Eisenberg, North Caldwell, NJ.
Theodore Eisenberg is married, with four children and six grandchildren. He is a retired labor attorney and former managing partner. His poems have appeared in The Listening Eye, Midstream, Jewish Currents, The Aurorean, Podium, Poetica, Thema, Rattle, Halfway Down the Stairs, Slipstream Press, Crosswinds Press and The Ragged Sky Anthology. His chapbook, This, was published by Finishing Line Press in March, 2017. He has described his poems as “what becomes this for him—small encounters—fragments seized from the world and received within the circle of his intimacy.”

Michael Estabrook, Acton, MA.
Michael Estabrook is retired. No more useless meetings under florescent lights in stuffy windowless rooms, able instead to focus on making better poems when he’s not, of course, endeavoring to satisfy his wife’s legendary Honey-Do List. His latest collection of poems is Bouncy House, edited by Larry Fagin (Green Zone Editions, 2016).

Gary Every, Cottonwood, AZ.
Gary Every is the author of two science fiction novellas, one book of short stories (Mariachi Skull), three books of poetry, two compilations of nature essays and Shadow of the OhshaD, an anthology of the best of his newspaper columns including award winning stories such as “Losing Geronimo’s Language” and “The Apache Naichee Ceremony.” He is the host of a reading series in Sedona, Arizona called the Pumphouse Poetry and Prose Project. Mr. Every performs throughout the southwest both as a poet and storyteller.

Brian C. Felder, Milford, DE.
Brian C. Felder (a 48-year veteran of the American poetry scene, with coast-to-coast publishing credits to show for it) is delighted to be included in this anthology, as the themes of food and drink have often figured prominently in his work. Other notable appearances include the Atlanta Review, Big Muddy, Chiron Review, Ship of Fools, Connecticut River Review, Trajectory, Perfume River Poetry Review, Iconoclast and Humanist Magazine. From the Midwest originally, Felder now writes from his home in rural Delaware.

John Findura, Towaco, NJ.
John Findura is the author of the poetry collection Submerged (Five Oaks Press, 2017). He holds an MFA from The New School as well as a degree in psychotherapy. His poetry and criticism appear in numerous journals including Verse; Fourteen Hills; Copper Nickel; Pleiades; Forklift, Ohio; Sixth Finch; Prelude; and Rain Taxi. A guest blogger for The Best American Poetry, he lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife and daughters.

Jenny Fiore, Tuscon, AZ.
Jenny Fiore was raised in the high-desert copper mining town of Globe, Arizona. She now lives in Tucson. Fiore is a 2007 Pushcart Prize special mention honoree for creative nonfiction and is the author of After Birth: Unconventional Writings from the Mommylands (Possibilities Publishing, 2013). Her work has appeared nationally in Brain, Child magazine and the celebrated anthology Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now (Putnam, 2015). Her second book, Speaking to the Mountain, the true story of a rocket scientist’s extraordinary physical and spiritual recovery from a medical catastrophe, is in the works.

Sue Mayfield Geiger, Bacliff, TX.
Sue Mayfield Geiger is a freelance writer living on the Texas Gulf Coast. She is a contributor to Coast Monthly magazine (Galveston); Life is Good magazine (Houston, Texas); Sasee magazine (Myrtle Beach, S.C.); Arlington Heights Almanac (Illinois) and other national and regional publications. Her literary work has appeared in: Grayson Books, Blood and Thunder (U of Oklahoma College of Medicine), Kind of a Hurricane Press, RiverLit, Dos Gatos Press, The Binnacle (U of Maine), EAB Publishing, Blue Hour Press, Sprout, Fringeworks (UK), Write Place at the Write Time, Cell2Soul, Bayousphere (U of Houston), and Perfume River Poetry.

Kathleen Gerard, Township of Washington, NJ.
Kathleen Gerard writes across genres. Her short fiction has been nominated for and awarded many literary prizes including Best New American Voices, The William Faulkner-William Wisdom Prize, The Mark Twain House Humor Prize, The Saturday Evening Post “Great American Fiction” Prize and Short Story America. Kathleen’s prose and poetry have been widely published in magazines, journals and anthologies. Her essays have been broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). Kathleen is also the author of The Thing Is and In Transit.

Devin D. Germain, Shelby Township, MI.
Devin D. Germain lives in Ferndale Michigan and teaches twelfth grade English Language Arts in the city of Detroit. He worked as a short order cook for seven years while earning his undergraduate degree in English Literature from Oakland University and a Master of Urban Education from the University of Michigan, Flint. His short story, “Kitchen Smell,” is a selection from a much larger work in progress about life in Suburban Detroit’s service industry during the great recession. Mr. Germain spends his summers writing and fishing in the seclusion of Northern Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula.

Annika Gidley, Holland, MI.
Annika Gidley is an avid reader and writer from Farmington Hills, Michigan who enjoys traveling the world, sipping coffee, and soliloquizing on Harry Potter. Her short fiction has previously appeared in Blinders Journal and she currently lives in Holland, Michigan where she is a full-time student at Hope College, pursuing a B.A. in Creative Writing and Spanish.

Kathie Girorgio, Waukesha, WI.
Kathie Giorgio is the critically acclaimed author of three novels, two story collections and a poetry chapbook. Her fourth novel, In Grace’s Time, will be released on 9/7/17. Giorgio’s short stories and poems have appeared in countless literary magazines and anthologies. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Write Well Award, the Million Writer Award, and for the Best of the Net Anthology. Giorgio’s teaching career spans 21 years. She is the director/founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop, an international creative writing studio located in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Tina J. Gordon, Ocean, NJ.
Tina J. Gordon lives and writes on the coast of New Jersey, but can often be found traveling, eating, and blogging through Europe. She is the author of Hardscrabble Way, a coming-of-age novel. She has published poetry, travel features, and essays. The short story “Secrets” is an excerpt from her forthcoming psychological thriller Goodbye, Lover which was inspired by actual events.

Monica Graff, Pole Bridge, MT.
Monica Graff spent two decades editing for university presses before she decided to put down the red pen and pick up the black one. When she’s not exploring foreign countries, she lives off-grid in the Montana wilderness with her husband and idiot-savant cat, Bosworth. A winner of Book Passage’s 2016 Travel Story contest, she posts tales from around the world at Postcards from Polebridge. Monica is currently an MFA candidate in the Creative Nonfiction program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Aytree Gupta, Sacramento, CA.
Atreyee Gupta is a writer who examines how we connect: individually, in society, with nature and place. She writes about ways in which our shifting perceptions alter at the crossroads of science, history, and philosophy. She loves traveling and writes about its inspiration in her Bespoke Traveler blog (http://www.bespoketraveler.com). Her work has been published in Hayo Magazine, Elephant Journal, Vagabond City Journal, Pink Pangea and Rebelle Society among others. She is currently working on a compilation of creative nonfiction short stories.

Paul Hadella, Talent, OR.
Paul Hadella has been publishing fiction and poetry in literary magazines since the 1990s. Stories from the same semi-autobiographical series as the story in this anthology have been published in J Journal, Nerve Cowboy, GW Review, Nebo, Extract(s), and elsewhere.

Debbie Hall, Escondido, CA.
Debbie Hall is a psychologist and writer whose poetry has appeared in the San Diego Poetry Annual, City Works Literary Journal, A Year in Ink, Serving House Journal, Swamp Lily Review, Sixfold, Tuck Magazine and Bird’s Thumb. Her essays have appeared on NPR (This I Believe series), in USD Magazine, The San Diego Psychologist, and the San Diego Union Tribune. She recently received an honorable mention in the Steve Kowit Poetry Prize and just completed an MFA at Pacific University.

Jennifer Hambrick, Worthington, OH.
A Pushcart Prize and Ohioana Book Award nominee, Jennifer Hambrick is the author of the chapbook Unscathed (NightBallet Press) and two forthcoming collections of poetry. Her poetry has been published in dozens of literary journals and anthologies worldwide, including the Santa Clara Review, Third Wednesday, Mad River Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, and Modern Haiku, which has been translated into five languages, and has won prizes in numerous international competitions. A classical singer, public radio broadcaster and Web producer, Jennifer lives in Columbus, Ohio, and chronicles the expressions of her creative “voices” on her blog, Inner Voices¸ at jenniferhambrick.com.

EC Hanlon, Salem, MA.
EC Hanlon works and writes in Salem, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband and twin sons. Her previous publications include the novella The One Friend Philosophy of Life, and the collection Unredeemed. Her latest book is under contract and due out later this year.

Gary Hanna, Dogsboro, DE.
Gary Hanna lives with his wife, the painter Anne Hanna, on an estuary off the ocean in southern Delaware. He has received 5 Artists Awards and two Fellowships from the Delaware Division of the Arts and a residency Fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He has published many poems and two chapbooks: The Homestead Poems and Sediment and Other Poems, both from the Broadkill Press.

Katharine Harer, San Rafael, CA
Katharine’s poetry has been published in six small press collections. A volume of new and selected poems, Jazz & Other Hot Subjects, came out in 2016 from bombshelter press in Los Angeles. Katharine’s work has been published widely, and she performs her poetry with jazz musicians. Her nonfiction projects include a book about women who played pro baseball, a travel/memoir about Pablo Neruda, and personal essays. Her essay, Delle Donne, appears in Best Women’s Travel Writing 2016. She teaches at Skyline Community College in San Bruno where she is Co-Vice President of the teachers’ union.

Gloria Heffernan, Syracuse, NY.
Gloria Heffernan’s poetry chapbook, Some of Our Parts, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Her work has appeared in over forty journals including Chautauqua Literary Journal, Stone Canoe, Columbia Review, Louisville Review, Gargoyle, Jabberwock and The Healing Muse. She conducts a poetry workshop called Defying Gravity: Poetry as a Spiritual Practice, in Fayetteville, NY, and teaches part-time at Le Moyne College in Syracuse. Gloria holds a Master’s Degree in English from New York University.

Kathleen Hellen, Baltimore, MD.
Kathleen Hellen is the author of the collection Umberto’s Night, winner of the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Her poems have appeared in American Letters and Commentary, Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Nation, North American Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, The Sewanee Review, Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, and elsewhere. She is a past recipient of the Thomas Merton poetry prize, the H.O.W. Journal poetry prize, and the Washington Square Review Poetry Prize, with poems nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes.

Lynn Hoffman, Philadelphia, PA.
Lynn Hoffman, Ph.D., used his degree in cultural anthropology explore such diverse areas as culinary arts, maritime culture and the history of wine and beer. In addition to creating the first 4-year culinary arts program in America at Drexel University, he is a graphic designer and poet who had many poems published before the publication of Philadelphia Poems (Kelsay Press, 2016). Lynn is the author of 7 books, including Short Course on Beer; bang-Bang, a gun control novel; Radiation Days, a cancer memoir; and The Bachelor’s Cat, a love story in which a man matures through bonding with a cat.

Richard Holinger, Geneva, IL.
Richard Holinger’s poetry and prose have appeared in The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, Boulevard, Witness, and elsewhere. His flash fiction collection, Not Everybody’s Nice, won the 2012 Split Oak Press Flash Prose Chapbook Contest. A graduate of the UIC Creative Writing program, he writes an award-winning newspaper column, teaches high school English, and facilitates a writing workshop, all in the Fox River Valley, an hour west of Chicago. An innovative short story collection, In the Contemporary Mode, structured like an eclectic contemporary art museum, is in progress.

Andrea Hollander, Portland, OR.
Andrea Hollander’s fourth full-length poetry collection, Landscape with Female Figure, was a finalist for the 2014 Oregon Book Award; her first, House Without a Dreamer, won the 1993 Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. Her many other honors include the 2017 Vern Rutsala Award, a 2013 Oregon Literary Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes (literary nonfiction and poetry), and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2011, after living in the Ozark woods of Arkansas for 35 years, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she conducts writing workshops in literary nonfiction and poetry. Her website is www.andreahollander.net.

Paul Hostovsky, Medfield, MA.
Paul Hostovsky is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently, Is That What That Is (FutureCycle Press, 2017). His poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net awards, and five poetry chapbook contests. He has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer’s Almanac on NPR, and he was a Featured Poet on the Georgia Poetry Circuit. He makes his living in Boston as an ASL interpreter and Braille instructor. Website: paulhostovsky.com

Sally Houtman, Wellington, New Zealand.
Originally from the United States, Sally Houtman now lives and writes in Wellington, New Zealand. Her fiction and poetry has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in such places as Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, burntdistrict, Constellations, Stoneboat, Flash Frontier, and many others.

Earl Carlton Huband, Durham, NC.
The poems of Earl Carlton Huband have appeared in journals such as America, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Lyric, The Main Street Rag, and RiverRun; in anthologies such as Earth and Soul, Kakalak, and Pinesong; and in the textbook Unlocking the Poem. Earl’s poem “In the Paw of a Muscat Lion” placed 2nd in the McDill category of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2017 annual contest. Also in 2017, a group of 28 of his poems placed 4th in the inaugural Peace Corps Fund contest for writings by former volunteers that convey the perspectives of other cultures.

A.J. Huffman, Ormond Beach, FL.
A.J. Huffman has published thirteen full-length poetry collections, thirteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses. Her most recent releases, The Pyre On Which Tomorrow Burns (Scars Publications), Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers. She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2600 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya.

Eileen Hugo, Stoneham, MA.
Eileen Hugo is retired and doing all the things she loves. She loves to cook and make quilts. She spends the summer in Spruce Head, ME., where she belongs to The Poetry Corner, a wonderful workshop group. In the winter she resides in Stoneham, MA., and belongs to the Middlesex Writers Group. She has been published in various anthologies. She won first prize in the David Osgood Poetry Contest and also served time as the Poetry Editor for The Houston Literary Review. In April 2015, her book Not Too Far: A Journey of Words was published.

Jeffrey Johnson, Sudbury, MA.
Jeffrey Johnson is the author of two books and the editor of a book of essays by poets on sacred songs, forthcoming from Orison Books. His blog is Harbors of Heaven.

Emma Judy, East Hampton, CT.
Emma Judy recently graduated Southern Connecticut State University where she studied Creative Writing, Communications & Media Studies. This is the first time a piece of her work has been published. Emma’s work focuses on the feelings and thoughts of a post grad girl as she attempts to find her place in this world.

Ginny Kaczmarek, New Orleans, LA.
Ginny Kaczmarek writes, edits, and reviews literature for adults and for kids. After earning an MFA in poetry from the University of New Orleans, she served as the poetry editor for Literary Mama and as a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews. Her publications include Calyx, The Oxford American, Rattle, Women’s Review of Books, and the Louisiana Poetry Project, as well as the anthology Birth Writes: A Collection of Real Life Birth Stories. Pull up a stool to talk books and the writing life at GinnyKaczmarek.com.

Pat Landreth Keller, Hawkinsville, GA.
Pat Landreth Keller, of Hawkinsville, Georgia, is caregiver for her special needs son. She dedicates her free time to writing and to organizing Southern pottery and folk art exhibits in Middle Georgia and working to advance Southern folk art and artists and Southern material culture in general. Toadlily Press published her poetry chapbook, Draglines, in its Quartet Series volume, An Uncommon Accord. Her poetry has been included in many journals, most recently in The Atlanta Review, as well as in The Southern Poetry Anthology: Georgia, Volume V.

Caroline S. Knickmeier, Madison, MI.
Caroline S. Knickmeier was born along the Mississippi River where she dodged rattlesnakes and caught fish. Later she studied at the University of Minnesota and the University of Montana earning a BA in Liberal Studies and Wilderness before continuing her studies in art and design and living off the grid protecting endangered species in Hawaii. Her art and writing explore human experience concerning loss, hope, connections, and processes and designs that might improve lives. She exhibits widely and is published in a variety of literary journals and projects.

Michael Kriesel, Wausau, WI.
Winner of North American Review’s 2015 Hearst Prize, Michael Kriesel is a past President of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. His poems and reviews have appeared in Alaska Quarterly, Antioch Review, Rattle, Right Hand Pointing, and The Progressive. Books include Chasing Saturday Night: Poems about Rural Wisconsin (Marsh River Editions), Whale of Stars, Moths Mail the House, and Feeding My Heart to the Wind: Selected Short Poems (all from Sunnyoutside). During the 1980s he was a print and broadcast journalist in the U.S. Navy. Read his latest book, Every Name in the Book, at http://www.righthandpointing.net/michael-kriesel-every-name

Karen Kubin, Kirksville, MO.
A violinist by training, Karen Bjork Kubin works by day as a free-lance musician, teacher, and conductor in a small Midwestern city. She loves music for the way it can bypass words but also loves words for the way they live beyond performance, waiting patiently for you once committed to paper or screen. Her poems and essays have appeared in Rock & Sling, Whale Road Review, Off the Coast, How to Pack for Church Camp, and American Suzuki Journal, among other publications. She blogs occasionally about life, art, and other things at www.kbkubin.blogspot.com.

Jennifer Lagier, Marina, CA.
Jennifer Lagier has published thirteen books, taught with California Poets in the Schools, co-edits the Homestead Review, and helps coordinate Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Sunday readings. She maintains literary web sites for the Monterey Poetry Review, Ping Pong Free Press and Misfit Magazine. Her work has appeared in national and international print and online journals. Her newest books published in 2016 include Scene of the Crime (Evening Street Press, Helen Kay Chapbook prize winner), Harbingers (Blue Light Press), Camille Abroad (FutureCycle Press). Forthcoming book: Like a B Movie (FutureCycle Press, 2018). Website: http://jlagier.net

Ron. Lavalette, Barton, VT.
Ron. Lavalette lives in Vermont, land of the fur-bearing trout and the bilingual stop sign. He’s been widely published, both in print and online. A reasonable sample of his work can be found at Eggs Over Tokyo: http://eggsovertokyo.blogspot.com

Richard LeBlond, Richlands, NC.
Richard LeBlond is a retired biologist living in North Carolina. His essays and photographs have appeared in numerous U.S. and international journals, including Montreal Review, High Country News, Compose, New Theory, Lowestoft Chronicle, Concis, and Still Point Arts Quarterly. His work has been nominated for Best American Travel Writing and Best of the Net.

Elda Lepak, Hendersonville, NC.
For years Elda’s work involved numbers, but nearing retirement she was drawn to poetry which complements her photography hobby. She observes things others miss, describes things differently, and has a sense of humor. Memories, nature, and the absurdities of life provide ample topics for her free verse. Elda’s solo book is Sky Canvas. She has been published in: The Main Street Rag, Song of the San Joaquin, Free Verse, Verse Wisconsin, The Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar, Empty Shoes, A Long and Winding Road, Seasoned Poetry, Changing Seasons, and Poetry is Blooming in Our Corner of North Carolina.

Adrian C. Louis, Marshall, MN.
Adrian C. Louis grew up in northern Nevada and is an enrolled member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. From 1984-97, Louis taught at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He recently retired as Professor of English at Minnesota State University in Marshall. His most recent book of poems is Random Exorcisms (Pleiades Press, 2016) and his new collection, Electric Snakes, will be published in 2018. More info at Adrian-C-Louis.com

Valerie Macon, Fuquay-Varina, NC.
Valerie Macon’s poetry decorates the walls of businesses, has been put to music, and appears in a variety of anthologies, magazines, newspapers, and online venues. She has won several awards from the NC Poetry Society, has been a Gilbert Chappel student winner, a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and was recently a Winston Salem’s Poetry in Plain Sight winner. She has written four books of poetry, Shelf Life, Sleeping Rough, A String of Black Pearls and soon-to-be-published The Shape of Today. She manages a garden she started for the homeless and also enjoys teaching the elderly to write poetry.

Marjorie Maddox, Lock Haven, PA.
Sage Graduate Fellow of Cornell University (MFA) and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Lock Haven University, Marjorie Maddox has published 11 collections of poetry—including True, False, None of the Above (Poiema Poetry Series and Illumination Book Award medalist); Local News from Someplace Else; Wives’ Tales; Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation (Yellowglen Prize); and Perpendicular As I (Sandstone Book Award)—the short story collection What She Was Saying (Fomite Press), and over 500 stories, essays, and poems in journals and anthologies. Co-editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (Penn State Press), she also has published 4 children’s books. For more information, please see www.marjoriemaddox.com

Clint Margrave, Los Angeles, CA.
Clint Margrave is the author of Salute the Wreckage (2016) and The Early Death of Men (2012), both published by NYQ Books. His work has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, as well as in New York Quarterly, Rattle, The American Journal of Poetry, Chiron Review, Cimarron Review, Verse Daily, Word Riot, Ambit (UK), and in the recent LA Fiction Anthology: Southland Stories by Southland Writers by Red Hen Press. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Salvatore Marici, Port Byron, IL.
Salvatore Marici’s poetry has appeared in Toasted Cheese, Descant (Canadian publication), Spillway, Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland, Three Line Poetry, Earth’s Daughter, and many other magazines and anthologies. He has two broadsides Lee County Alliance for Arts and Midwest Writing Center published. He has a chapbook, Mortals, Nature and their Spirits and two books Swish Swirl & Sniff and Fermentations (all poetry and Ice Cube Press). Marici served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala, he is a civil servant retiree as an agronomist and never drove a tractor.

Preston Martin, Chapel Hill, NC.
Preston Martin has published in New Ohio Review, Iodine, Chaffin Journal, Kakalak and other literary journals, won awards or recognition by the North and South Carolina Poetry Societies and the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival. He has published in the anthologies, including Every River on Earth: writing from Appalachian Ohio (Ohio University Press), and Heron Clan III. He reads, writes and teaches in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC.

David Mathews, River Hills, WI.
As a young boy, Mathews was taught to obey his parents, respect his elders, be polite to women, and be kind to animals. He delivered newspapers while in grade school, and baled hay, cleaned hog pens, and chased cheerleaders when his family moved from the inner city to an Indiana farming community 20 miles from just about anywhere. Like many boys in the 60s, his life revolved around cars and girls. More than 30 of his stories, essays, and articles have appeared in national publications.

Marsha Mathews, Dalton, GA.
Marsha Mathews’s chapbook, Growing Up with Pigtails, was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for books published in 2016. The book presents both narrative and lyrical reflections on that sometimes troubling, sometimes triumphant experience of growing up, girl. Earlier books include Hallelujah Voices (Aldrich, 2012), Sunglow & a Tuft of Nottingham Lace, a Red Berry Editions chapbook winner, and Northbound Single-Lane, (Finishing Line, 2010). Marsha’s work appears in Appalachian Heritage, Greensboro Review, The Los Angeles Review, and others.

Dennis Maulsby, Ames, IA.
Dennis Maulsby is a retired bank president living in Ames, Iowa. His poetry and short stories have appeared in Lyrical Iowa, The North American Review, Haiku Journal, Spillway, The Hawai’i Pacific Review, The Briarcliff Review (Pushcart Prize nomination), and numerous other journals and anthologies. His book of poetry, Remembering Willie, won a silver medal from the Military Writers Society of America. Prolific Press released Near Death/Near Life, a third book of poetry, (MWSA gold medal winner) in May 2015. Prolific Press released his book of Scifi short stories, Free Fire Zone, in December 2016. For more information go to: www.dennismaulsby.com.

Catfish McDaris, West Allis, WI.
Catfish McDaris won the Thelonius Monk Award in 2015. His 25 years of published material is in the Special Archives Collection at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is listed in Wikipedia. His ancestors are related to Wilma Mankiller and from the Aniwaya Clan of the Cherokee Nation. Catfish has been in more magazines, chapbooks, and broadsides than a porcupine has quills. He’s from Albuquerque, NM and West Allis, WI. Currently he’s selling wigs in a dangerous neighborhood in Milwaukee.

Rose Mclarney, Opelika, AL.
Rose McLarney’s collections of poems are Its Day Being Gone, winner of the National Poetry Series, and Forage, forthcoming in 2019, both from Penguin Books, and The Always Broken Plates of Mountains, published by Four Way Books. Rose has been awarded fellowships by the MacDowell Colony and Bread Loaf, among other prizes. Her work has appeared in publications including The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, and Prairie Schooner. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Auburn University and Co-Editor in Chief and Poetry Editor of The Southern Humanities Review.

Damon McLaughlin, Tuscon, AZ.
Damon McLaughlin is the author of two poetry collections, the full-length Exchanging Lives and Olduvai Theory, winner of the Toad Hall Press Chapbook Contest. He lives in Tucson with his family and their dogs and their horses. When not trail riding or cooling off at an establishment like the Red Garter Saloon, where “Into the Dance Pit” was conceived, he is wishing he was.

Joanna C. Migdal, New York, NY.
Joanna C. Migdal has travelled in New York City bohemian art circles in the company of Larry Rivers and Roy Lichtenstein. She has also lived in San Miquel de Allende, a vibrant expat artists’ and writers’ colony in Mexico, where she composed and collaborated with visual artists. She is a member of Women You Should Know (WYSK). Her cento poem, “Good night, Moon,” honors women poets of the past and is available on their website. She is currently working on a chapbook of centos, Wild Nights, that will weave together lines from both male and female poets.

Jeanette Miller, Iowa City, IA.
Jeanette Miller, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, taught creative writing at Scattergood Friends’ School, a boarding high school and, as an adjunct, at the University of Southern Indiana before earning her masters in counseling psychology. She practiced as a mental health counselor in not-for-profit clinics in Iowa. Now retired, she’s writing a memoir about becoming primary caregiver for her elderly parents, excerpts from which were published in Yuan Yang: a Journal of Hong Kong & International Writing by the English department of the University of Hong Kong.

Harmony Neal, Northfield, MN.
Harmony Neal was the 2011-2013 Fiction Fellow at Emory University. Her stories and essays have been published in Shadows & Tall Trees, The Fantasist, Interzone, Black Static, Eleven Eleven, Gulf Coast, Nashville Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Paper Darts, among others. Her essay “Simulacra” is included in the 2015 Best of the Net Anthology. She still sometimes eats McDonald’s, always while considering what a historical privilege it is. She encourages women everywhere to get hysterical. harmonyisawitch.com

Heather Nelson, Cambridge, MA.
Heather Nelson is a poet, teacher, mother and recovering attorney based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She studied writing under the poet C.D. Wright as an undergraduate at Brown University. Most recently she has studied poetry with Tom Daley and Barbara Helfgott Hyett. Her work has appeared in The Compassion Anthology, The Somerville Times, Boston Area Small Press’s “The Sunday Poet,” The Ekphrastic Review and Constellations.

James B. Nicola, New York, NY.
James B. Nicola’s poems have appeared in The Main Street Rag, The Antioch, Southwest and Atlanta Reviews, Rattle, Tar River, and Poetry East. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. His first full-length poetry collection is Manhattan Plaza (2014); his second, Stage to Page: Poems from the Theater (June 2016). A Yale graduate, James has been giving both theater and poetry workshops at libraries, literary festivals, schools, and community centers all over the country.

Kirsty A. Niven, Dundee, Scotland.
Kirsty A. Niven is from Dundee, Scotland where she lives with her husband and two cats. Her poetry has appeared in The Dawntreader, The Machinery, GFT Presents: One in Four, Sarasvati, A Prince Tribute, LOVE: A Collection of Poetry and Prose on Loving and Being in Love, Poetry Super Highway, Artificial Womb, the Ground Fresh Thursday series, Journeys Dundee and numerous other publications. Kirsty also contributed towards the Dylan’s Great Poem Project in 2016. She is currently working on a novel and a graphic novel, as well as her poetry.

Blake Offret, New Orleans, LA.
Blake Offret was raised in Maine & currently works as a chef in New Orleans via Boston & Chicago, spending far too much time in Cities of the Dead & writing like hell. Educated at public university and in kitchens across America. Writes of sex & god, and what in the hell else is there worth writing about? Love is cannibalism, god is narcissism; in-between we live out our days, one after the other.

W.P. Osborn, Grand Rapids, MI.
W.P. Osborn’s collection, Seven Tales and Seven Stories won the 2013 Unboxed Books Fiction Prize, selected by Francine Prose. He has short fiction is in After Coetzee: an Anthology of Animal Fictions, and in journals such as Mississippi Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Cream City Review, Gargoyle, and Gettysburg Review. His poetry is in Hotel Amerika, The Main Street Rag, Pinyon Review, and San Pedro River Review. wposborn.com

Jeanne-Marie Osterman, New York, NY
A native of Everett, Washington, Jeanne-Marie Osterman began writing poetry while working as an advertising copywriter in New York City. She has taken poetry-writing workshops with Cornelius Eady and Mark Bibbins at New York’s 92nd Street Y, and with the late William Packard at NYU. Jeanne-Marie is a member of the Writers Room, an urban writers’ colony in New York City. Her work has appeared in The California Quarterly and Bluestem Magazine.

Elaine Fowler Palencia, Champaign, IL.
Elaine Fowler Palencia, Champaign IL, is the author of two short story collections, Small Caucasian Woman and Brier Country; three poetry chapbooks; and a monograph, The Literary Heritage of Hindman Settlement School. Her work has received six Pushcart Prize nominations. The moderator of the Red Herring Fiction Workshop and a member of the Quintessential Poets, she has published poetry, essays, and short fiction about being the mother of a son with severe intellectual and physical disabilities. Her volunteer work for disabilities organizations inspired “Fast Food.”

Vincent Panella, South Newfane, VT.
Vincent Panella grew up in Queens. His father was a bar owner. Three of his books are a memoir called The Other Side, a novel, Cutter’s Island, and Lost Hearts, a story collection. His stories have appeared in The MacGuffin, Paterson Literary Review, WIPS Journal, The Carbon Culture Review, Voices in Italian Americana, and The Long Story.

Howard Pflanzer, New York, NY.
Howard Pflanzer is a poet, playwright, and lyricist. Dead Birds or Avian Blues, his book of short poetic satiric plays and poetry, was published by Fly By Night Press (2011). His hybrid performance piece, Walt Whitman Opera, adapted from Whitman’s poetry with music by Constance Cooper, was presented at the undergroundzero festival in New York in July 2014. He has read/performed his poems at KGB, LaMaMa, Theaterlab, The Living Theatre, The Cornelia Street Cafe, Medicine Show, A Gathering of the Tribes, The Bowery Poetry Club, the Saturn Series, the Phoenix series, Brownstone Poets, TRACT 187 and San Diego Writers Ink.

Rachel E. Pollock, Chapel Hill, NC.
Rachel E. Pollock received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans in 2013. She teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Costume Production MFA program, where she makes a lot of random stuff for actors to wear. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and literary journals, including Fourth Genre, the Harvard Summer Review, and Steampunk (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer). She has also been a retail clerk, a sewing instructor, a comedienne, a bartender, a house painter, a transient, a nomad, a pianist, a pageant judge, and a hot mess.

Adrian S. Potter, Minnetonka, MN.
Adrian S. Potter writes both poetry and short fiction. He is the author of the fiction chapbook Survival Notes (Červená Barva Press, 2008) and the winner of the 2010 Southern Illinois Writers Guild Poetry Contest. When he’s not busy crafting a groundbreaking third-person bio for himself, he is contributing poetry and/or fiction to publications such as North American Review, Jet Fuel Review, The I-70 Review, Obsidian and The Tishman Review. He blogs, sometimes, at http://adrianspotter.com/.

David Radavich, Charlotte, NC.
Radavich’s recent poetry collections are America Bound: An Epic for Our Time (2007), Middle-East Mezze (2011), and The Countries We Live In (2014). His plays have been performed across the U.S., including six Off-Off-Broadway, and in Europe. He has served as president of the Thomas Wolfe Society, Charlotte Writers’ Club, and North Carolina Poetry Society and has presented in such far-flung locations as Egypt, Germany, Greece, and Iceland. His new book, This Myriad, is forthcoming in 2018 from Červená Barva Press in Boston.

Robert Rahula, Olympia, WA.
Robert Rahula is an American poet and novelist, who started writing during the creative arts explosion in Madrid, Spain, known as la movida madrileña. Over the past 30 years, Robert has published over 14 books of Spanish prose and poetry and more than 18 English novels and books of poetry. He currently divides his time between Spain and the United States. His poetry can be heard on his YouTube Channel, and his books are available on Amazon. His short story “Scarlet’s” is from his novel Panamaniac.

Charles Rammelkamp, Baltimore, MD.
Charles Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore, where he lives. His latest books include a collection of poems called Mata Hari: Eye of the Day and another poetry collection, American Zeitgeist, both published by Apprentice House. A poetry chapbook, Jack Tar’s Lady Parts, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag Publishing Company.

James Reed, Omaha, NE.
James Reed’s fiction has appeared in such magazines as The Gettysburg Review, West Branch, Juked, Stand, and The Saturday Evening Post. Among other honors he holds a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tony Reevy, Durham, NC.
Tony Reevy’s previous publications include poetry, non-fiction and short fiction, including the non-fiction books Ghost Train!, O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line and The Railroad Photography of Jack Delano, the poetry chapbooks Green Cove Stop, Magdalena, Lightning in Wartime, and In Mountain Lion Country, and the full books of poetry, Old North, Passage and Socorro. He resides in Durham, North Carolina with wife, Caroline Weaver, and children Lindley and Ian.

Ryan Reid, West Monroe, LA.
Ryan Reid is an award-winning writer and educator who has dabbled in poetry, non-fiction, children’s literature, and scripts for film and stage. The topics of his work are as varied as the genres. For “Somewhere Near Ellerbe Road,” Reid was influenced by the barroom experiences he had while in a Southern rock group called The Hoodlum Circus. Though that time was the source of many memories, life has since changed dramatically for the better for Reid. Of his greatest accomplishments, he is now married and a father of two. His cats, though, are effectively worthless.

Diane Martini Richard, Golden Valley, MN.
Diane Martini Richard has lived in Washington DC, Boston, Paris, and mostly Minneapolis where she was raised Polish-Catholic. She’s held diverse jobs from copy editor of defense journals to ghost painter near Montparnasse. In addition to poetry, she is working on a memoir based on her father’s letters from WWII; and various pieces on beauty and nostalgia. Diane has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Minnesota and an executive MBA from the University of St. Thomas. Her poems can be found in Dying Dahlia, Four Chambers and other various publications.

Carol Rucks, Minneapolis, MN.
Carol Rucks has been published in Abraxas, West Branch, Earth’s Daughters, Colere, and elsewhere. She is actively involved with the Loft Literary Center and its classes and readings. She has traveled widely in Eastern and Western Europe, and in Latin America. She studied with Roseann Lloyd in Guatemala, as part of Art Workshops in Guatemala. Her collection of poems, Evidence of Rain, was published by Nodin Press and nominated for a Minnesota Book Award. She lives in Minneapolis.

Jean Ryan, Napa, CA.
Jean Ryan, a native Vermonter, lives in Napa, California. Her stories and essays have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. Nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize, she has also published a novel, Lost Sister. Her debut collection of short stories, Survival Skills, was published in 2013 by Ashland Creek Press and was short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award. Lovers and Loners, her second story collection, was published in April 2017. She also has written a collection of nature essays, Strange Company, which is available in digital form, paperback and audio.

Peter Schmitt, Miami, FL.
Peter Schmitt has published three full-length collections of poems: Renewing the Vows (David Robert Books), and Country Airport and Hazard Duty (Copper Beech). He is the recipient of The “Discovery”/The Nation Prize, The Lavan Award (Academy of American Poets), The Julia Peterkin Award, and multiple grants from The Florida Arts Council and Ingram Merrill Foundation.

Ann Sheils, Savannah, GA.
Ann Sheils lives and writes in her native Savannah, Ga. She is a former teacher and current real estate agent, and lives with her husband of 42 years. Ann has published poetry and short stories in a variety of publications, including The Anglican Theological Review, Dappled Things, Gray’s Sporting Journal, The Wayfarer, Time of Singing, and others. Finishing Line Press has recently published her chapbook, In The Perennial Garden, and she has another chapbook being published by Kelsay Press titled Rust, Shadow, Dream.

David Sheskin, Bethel, CT.
David Sheskin is a writer and artist whose work has been published extensively over the years. His writing and art have recently appeared in The Tampa Review, Puerto del Sol, The Florida Review, Gargoyle, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, Sonora Review, Notre Dame Review, The Cream City Review, Folio, The Offbeat and Permafrost. His art can be found on his websites theartofdavidsheskin and djsheskin.com.

Vivian Shipley, North Haven, CT.
CSU Distinguished Professor Vivian Shipley teaches at SCSU. The Poet (SLU) and Perennial (Negative Capability Press, Mobile, AL), nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and 2016 Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist, were published in 2015. All of Your Messages Have Been Erased (SLU, 2010) won 2011 Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, NEPC’s Sheila Motton Book Award, and CT Press Club’s Prize for Best Creative Writing. Shipley won 2015’s Hackney Literary Award for Poetry and PSA’s Lucille Medwick Prize, Robert Frost Foundation’s Poetry Prize, USC’s Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, NEPC’s Daniel Varoujan Prize and Kent State’s Hart Crane Prize.

Shoshauna Shy, Madison, WI.
Shoshauna Shy’s poetry has been included in anthologies by Marion Street Press, Random House, Midmarch Arts Press, Grayson Books, Ragged Sky, Dos Gatos Press and others. She is the author of five collections of poetry, and was a recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Poetry Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. She is also the founder of Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf and the Woodrow Hall Top Shelf awards, and is a flash fiction author—(but that’s another story)!

Claude Clayton Smith, Madison, WI.
Claude Clayton Smith, Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University, is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of two others, the most recent being MEDITATIONS After the Bear Feast: The Poetic Dialogues of N. Scott Momaday and Yuri Vaella (Shanti Arts, 2016). His own work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. He holds a DA from Carnegie-Mellon, an MFA in fiction from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, an MAT from Yale, and a BA from Wesleyan (CT). For further information see: claudeclaytonsmith.wordpress.com.

Edward W. L. Smith, Saesboro, GA.
Answering the call of multiple muses, Edward W. L. Smith has published nine non-fiction books, more than fifty essays, multiple magazine articles, mémoires, some short stories, and a good bit of poetry. His work has appeared in diverse publications including The Creative Truth, Energy and Character, Eternal Remedy, Flash Bang Mysteries, The Haunted Traveler, Parabola, Pilcrow & Dagger, Pilgrimage, Poetry Haiku, The Stray Branch, Vagabonds, and Voices. His latest book is The Psychology of Artists and the Arts. Edward is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Georgia Southern University, and lives part-time on a small barrier island off the Georgia coast.

Mark Smith-Soto, Greensboro, NC.
Along with three prize-winning chapbooks, Mark Smith-Soto has authored three full-length poetry collections, Our Lives Are Rivers (University Press of Florida, 2003), Any Second Now (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2006) and Time Pieces (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2015). His work, which has appeared in Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Literary Review, Nimrod, Rattle, The Sun and many other publications, has received several Pushcart Prize nominations and was recognized in 2006 with an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing. His Fever Season: Selected Poetry of Ana Istarú (2010) and his lyrical memoir Berkeley Prelude (2013) were both published by Unicorn Press.

Laurence Snydal, San Jose, CA.
Laurence Snydal is a poet, musician and retired teacher. He has published more than a hundred poems in magazines such as Caperock, Spillway, Columbia and Steam Ticket. His work has also appeared in many anthologies including Visiting Frost, The Poets Grimm and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Some of his poems have been performed in Baltimore and NYC. He lives in San Jose, CA, with his wife Susan.

Paul Sohar, Warren, NJ.
Paul Sohar recieved BA in philosophy and started writing in every genre. His poetry: Homing Poems (Iniquity, 2006) and The Wayward Orchard, Wordrunner Prize winner (2011). Other awards: first prize in the 2012 Lincoln Poets Society Contest, second prize in RI Writers Circle 2014 Prose Contest, Janus Pannonius Translation Prize (Budapest, 2016). Prose work: True Tales of a Fictitious Spy (Synergebooks, 2006) and three plays from One Act Depot (Canada, 2015). Magazine credits: Agni, Gargoyle, Kenyon Review, Rattle, The Main Street Rag, Seneca Review, etc. “The Avenger of Skid Row” was inspired by his jaunts in Manhattan.

Matthew J. Spireng, Kingston, NY.
Matthew J. Spireng’s book What Focus Is was published in 2011 by WordTech Communications. His book Out of Body won the 2004 Bluestem Poetry Award and was published in 2006 by Bluestem Press at Emporia State University. His chapbooks are: Clear Cut; Young Farmer; Encounters; Inspiration Point, winner of the 2000 Bright Hill Press Poetry Chapbook Competition; and Just This. Since 1990, his poems have appeared in publications across the United States including North American Review, Tar River Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Louisiana Literature and The Main Street Rag. He is an eight-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

C.W. Spooner, Aliso Viejo, CA.
C.W. Spooner earned a B.S. in Management (no pun intended) from Golden Gate University, San Francisco. His stories have appeared in The Storyteller, Spitball, Lost Coast Review, and Monday Update. Spooner is the author of ’68 – A Novel, a collection of short stories titled Children of Vallejo, and a collection of essays, memoirs, poems, and reviews titled Yeah, What Else? He resides in Aliso Viejo, California, where he pursues his passions for jazz, golf, home grown tomatoes, and grandchildren—not necessarily in that order.

Dana Stamps II, Riverside, CA.
Dana Stamps, II. has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cal State University of San Bernardino, and he has worked as a fast food server, a postal clerk, a security guard, and a group home worker with troubled boys. His chapbook For Those Who Will Burn was published in 2016 by Partisan Press. His recent publications include: Rattle, Chiron Review, Front Range Review, Trajectory, Slant, Blue Collar Review, and Sierra Nevada Review.

Richard Swanson, Madison, WI.
Richard Swanson lives in Madison, Wisconsin. A retired teacher of English, he has published two chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections, the most recent Slow and other Poems (Fireweed Press, 2016). This work contains story poems about common, contemporary individuals as well as narratives about historical figures. In addition, the book ends with a section of personae pieces using stand-up comedy techniques.

Bruce Taylor, Chippewa Falls, WI.
Bruce Taylor, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, is the author of eight collections of poetry, including The Longest You’ve Lived Anywhere: New & Selected Poems, and editor of eight anthologies including Wisconsin Poetry (Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts & Letters). His poetry has appeared in such places as Able Muse, The Chicago Review, The Cortland Review, The Nation, The New York Quarterly, Poetry, Rattle, Rosebud, and in The Writer’s Almanac. He lives in Lake Hallie, Wisconsin with the writer, Patti See.

William Torphy, El Sobrante, CA.
William Torphy enjoys writing about outsiders, characters who peer through bar and restaurant windows but don’t always step inside. His poetry, critical reviews and articles have appeared in Sebastian Quill, Artweek, High Performance, Expo-see, and the Occupy SF anthology. Ithuriel’s Spear in San Francisco has published Love Never Always (poetry), Snakebite (young adult fiction) and A Brush With History (biography). Short stories were recently featured in The Fictional Café, ImageOutWrite Volume 5, Sun Star Quarterly and Chelsea Station. He is an art curator in the San Francisco area.

Rodney Torreson, Grand Rapids, MI.
Rodney Torreson, poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan from 2007-2010, is the author of four books of poetry. His most recent, a chapbook titled The Secrets of Fieldwork, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2010. His work has appeared in such places as the Beloit Poetry Journal, New York Quarterly, Seattle Review, and Margie. In addition to The Main Street Rag, he has new poems forthcoming in Miramar, Naugatuck River Review, Negative Capability and Third Coast.

Lee Upton, Eaton, PA.
Lee Upton’s most recent books are Visitations: Stories and Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles: Poems. Her first collection of short stories, The Tao of Humiliation, was the winner of the BOA Short Fiction Award, was a finalist for The Paterson Prize, and was named one of the “best books of 2014” by Kirkus Reviews.

Sylvia Riojas Vaughn, Plano, TX.
Sylvia Riojas Vaughn is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. She has been selected as a Houston Poetry Fest Juried Poet three times. She belongs to the Dallas Poets Community. Her work appears in Red River Review, Triadæ, HOUSEBOAT, Diálogo, Desde Hong Kong: Poets in conversation with Octavio Paz, Bearing the Mask: Southwestern Persona Poems (Dos Gatos Press, 2016), The Arachneed Journal, Highland Park Poetry’s The Muses’ Gallery, and anthologies and journals in the U.S. and abroad. Her play, La Tamalada, was produced in Fort Worth.

Suellen Wedmore, Rockport, MA.
Suellen Wedmore, Poet Laureate emerita for Rockport, Massachusetts, has been widely published. She was awarded first place in the Writer’s Digest’s Rhyming Poem Contest and, most recently, in the digest’s Non-Rhyming Poems contest. Her chapbook Deployed won the Grayson Press annual contest and her chapbook Mind the Light won a first place in Quill’s Press’s “Women on the Edge” contest. In 2014 she won first place in the Studios of Key West Contest, and three of her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She graduated from the MFA Program in Poetry at New England College in 2004.

Estha Weiner, New York, NY.
Estha Weiner’s newest poetry collection, at the last minute, is forthcoming in Spring, 2018 (Salmon Poetry). She is author of In the Weather of the World (Salmon Poetry); Transfiguration Begins at Home (Tiger Bark Press); The Mistress Manuscript (Asheville Book Works); and co-editor /contributor to Blues for Bill: A Tribute to William Matthews (University of Akron Press). Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The New Republic and Barrow Street. Winner of a Paterson Prize, she is founding director of Sarah Lawrence NY Alumni/ae Writers Nights, and Advisory Board member of Slapering Hol Press.

Rodd Whelpley, Chatham, IL.
Rodd Whelpley is the secret, self-declared writer in residence at the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency. His poems have recently appeared in Driftwood Press, Triggerfish Critical Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Literary Orphans, Right Hand Pointing, Spillway, The Naugatuck River Review, Shot Glass, Antiphon, The Chagrin River Review and others. His all-time favorite bar is Mac & Joe’s in Oxford, Ohio, where he met and courted his wife Lisa. He may soon learn to make a Web site.

Rob Whitbeck, Fossil, OR.
Rob Whitbeck is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Oregon Sojourn and The Taproot Confessions. He has labored for many years in the outlands of eastern Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

Chelsea Whitton, Ridgewood, NY.
Chelsea Whitton is a poet and essayist. Born and raised in the Carolinas, she received a BA in Literature from the University of North Carolina-Asheville and an MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in various publications including Cimarron Review, Sixth Finch, Bateau, Ilk, Forklift Ohio, WomenArts Quarterly, Valley Voices and Poetry Ireland Review. Her first chapbook, Bear Trap, is forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. This fall, she will join The University of Cincinnati as a doctoral candidate and teaching fellow. She lives and writes with her husband, Matthew, and their cat, Puck.

Warren Woessner, Minneapolis, MN.
Warren Woessner is the Senior Editor of Abraxas. His poetry has been widely published, e.g., in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, 5 AM, The Nation, Nimrod, Midwest Quarterly and Cut Bank. His most recent collection is Clear All the Rest of the Way (The Backwaters Press, 2008) which includes “North Leeds, Wisconsin.” Warren currently reviews poetry for Rain Taxi, a book review published in Minneapolis. He has received poetry fellowships from the NEA, the McKnight Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Jeff Worley, Lexington, KY.
Jeff Worley probably hangs out at bars too much. At least that’s what his psychiatrist says. Jeff has published six books of poetry and was editor of What It Comes Down To: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets (University Press of Kentucky, 2009). His latest collection is A Little Luck (Texas Review Press), which won the 2012 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The Threepenny Review, Poetry Northwest, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, DoubleTake, The Southern Review, The Sewanee Review, and others.

Kim Drew Wright, N. Chesterfield, VA.
Kim Drew Wright has fiction and poetry in numerous journals and several anthologies. The Strangeness of Men, her debut collection of short stories and prose poems, won a Silver IPPY and Finalist in USA Best Book Awards. Kim is a human rights activist. She enjoys a hoppy beer, paddle boarding, and spending time with her husband and three children. Kim lived in seven states before calling Richmond, Virginia home.

Andrena Zawinski, Alameda, CA.
Andrena Zawinski’s full collection of poetry, Something About (Blue Light Press), received a PEN Oakland Literary Award. Her Traveling in Reflected Light (Pig Iron Press) won a Kenneth Patchen prize. She has authored four chapbooks and is editor of Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down: An Anthology of Women’s Poetry. Her work has appeared in Blue Collar Review, Gulf Coast, Nimrod, Pacific Review, Rattle, Progressive Magazine, and others. Her new collection, Landings, is from Kelsay Books. She is Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com and the founder and organizer of the San Francisco Bay Area Women’s Poetry Potluck and Salon.