CONTRIBUTORS
(Still under construction)
Wayne Amtzis, Pittsburgh, PA
Amtzis is the author of the poetry books: City on their Backs, poems & photos from the streets of Kathmandu and Sandcastle City/Quicksand Nation. He was a longtime resident of Nepal, a student and practitioner of Himalayan Buddhism and a teacher of meditation.
Valerie Bacharach, Pittsburgh, PA
Bacharach is a proud member of Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic Workshops. She received her MFA from Carlow University in 2020. Her book, Last Glimpse, was published by Broadstone Books in August 2024. She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes and two Best of the Net.
Joseph Bathanti, Boone, NC
Bathanti is the former North Carolina Poet Laureate (2012-14); recipient of the North Carolina Award in Literature, the state’s highest civilian honor; and an inductee of the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. Author of over twenty books, his latest volume of poems, Steady Daylight, was published by LSU Press in 2026.
Jan Beatty, Pittsburgh, PA
Jan has been published in the Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, and Best American Poetry. In 2024, her eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by University of Pittsburgh Press. Beatty won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award for American Bastard. She worked as a waitress, abortion counselor, and in maximum security prisons.
Kelley Beeson, Pittsburgh, PA
Holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Library and Information Science from The University of Pittsburgh. She’s the recipient of the 2023 Lefty Blondie Press Chapbook Award for her book, Undress. Her work appears in Kestrel and Rogue Agent, and has been twice-nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Kate Bowers, Cranberry Township, PA
Bowers has published with Sheila-Na-Gig, Rue Scribe, The Ekphrastic Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, So It Goes!, the anthologies Pandemic Evolution: Poets Respond to the Art of Matthew Wolfe and The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain. Kate is a Tupelo Press 30/30 Project alumna, 2024 Pushcart nominee, 2026 Clarissa Dalloway Prize finalist and social media writer for The Ekphrastic Review.
Louis J. Boyle, Pittsburgh, PA
Boyle is Professor Emeritus of English at Carlow University and served as the Chair of the Department of English (later the Department of Art, Communication and English) for twenty-one years. He is the co-founder of the Carlow University MFA Program in Creative Writing.
Charles Brice, Pittsburgh, PA
Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Poetry Magazine Poetry Contest and placed third in the 2021 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. His tenth poetry collection is A Brief History of the Sixties (Alien Buddha Press, 2026). He’s been nominated for the Best of Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Atlanta Review, Ibbetson Street, Chiron Review, and elsewhere.
Daniela Buccilli, Pittsburgh, PA
Buccilli’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in ONEART, The Pedestal, Prime Number, Quarter After Five, and Broad Ripple Review. Her chapbook, What it Takes to Carry, and Show Us Your Papers, a co-edited anthology, were published by Main Street Rag. She is the poetry editor at Northern Appalachia Review.
Anne Ciecko, Amherst, MA
Ciecko is a multimedia poet/writer/filmmaker/researcher/educator/lifelong-learner with Pennsylvania roots. She earned her B.A. from LaSalle, Masters (Poetry concentration) from Penn State, and Ph.D. (Cultural & Critical Studies) from Pitt. She received formative training at Pittsburgh arts organizations including Carnegie Museum of Art (Film & Video), Pittsburgh Filmmakers, and Brew House. She is currently an Associate Professor (International Cinema) at UMass-Amherst.
Gary Ciocco, Canonsburg, PA
Ciocco teaches Philosophy at Carlow University and West Virginia University. He has published poetry in Pittsburgh Quarterly, Backbone Mountain Review, Northern Appalachia Review and in several anthologies. He reviewed poetry and philosophy books for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2023-2026 and now does so for PRoB and Vox Populi. He has an essay forthcoming in 2026 in Classic Rock & Philosophy.
Greg Clary, Sligo, PA
Clary is Clarion University Professor Emeritus of Rehabilitation and Human Services, and now lives in the Pennsylvania Wilds. His writing and photographs have been widely published including The Sun Magazine, Looking at Appalachia, Rattle, Pine Mt Sand & Gravel, Untelling, Watershed Journal, Northern Appalachia Review, The Bridge, and Trailer Park Quarterly, Rye Whiskey Review, and the Literary Underground.
Elisabeth Crago, Pittsburgh, PA
Crago holds degrees in English, nursing and an MFA in poetry. She lives in Pittsburgh and is active in Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic program. Her work has appeared in Dreamer’s Creative Writing, OneArt, Dolomite Review, Zest of the Lemon, Shot Glass Journal, and several anthologies, including Love is for All of Us.
Jim Daniels, Pittsburgh, PA
Daniels’ latest books include Late Invocation for Magic: New and Selected Poems, (Michigan State University Press, 2026) and An Ignorance of Trees, essays (Cornerstone Press, 2025). Daniels teaches in the Alma College MFA Program and lives on the south side of Pittsburgh.
Karuna Das, Pittsburgh, PA
Das writes literature flavored by mysticism. He’s published two award-winning novels, several short stories, and works of drama, creative nonfiction, poetry, and scholarship. As another sacred calling and profession, he engages in embodied connection with others. He shares his home in Lawrenceville with five cats rescued from Allegheny Cemetery. Website: www.karunadaswriter.com. Social media (Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky): @karunadaswriter.
Golapri Rose Ila Dasgupta, Pittsburgh, PA
Dasgupta (they/them, he/him, ze/zir) is a queer, non-binary, disabled Bengali American writer who has lived in Pittsburgh for the past ten years. Golapri Rose primarily works in the healthcare space, and they hold five degrees, including a PhD in Biomedical Informatics. They write about chronic illness, neurodivergence, healing, and spirituality on Substack. Their initials spell GRID, which they quite enjoy.
John Davis, Pittsburgh, PA
Davis began to write poems when he was in mortuary school in an attempt to try to explain himself to explain as he was embalming the unclaimed dead of the city. Since then his awareness has grown of how the semi-rusted textures of Pittsburgh and its weathered terrain has become fused with the inner imaginal landscapes that he writes from.
Emily De Ferrari, Pittsburgh, PA
De Ferrari is a retired midwife living with her husband in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Her pieces have appeared locally in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Vox Populi Sphere, Uppagus, and the anthology, The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain: A Pittsburgh Poetry Anthology. She strives to demand humanity from her writing, and is appreciative of the camaraderie of The Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop.
Fred DeMeo, Brentwood, PA
Raised in Phoenix after his family left western Pennsylvania during the steel collapse, DeMeo began writing poems as a child. His work has appeared in Appalachian Journal, Uppagus, and Canyon Voices. He now lives in Pittsburgh and writes about urban landscapes, working-class life, pop culture, and usually bicycles.
Shaheen Dil, Pittsburgh, PA
Dil’s poems have been short-listed for the James Hearst Prize for Poetry (North American Review), the 49th Parallel Award in Poetry (Bellingham Review), and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Dil has published three full-length collections of poetry: Letters to My Younger Self (Gyroscope Press 2025), The Boat-maker’s Art (Kelsay Books 2024) and Acts of Deference (Fakel 2016). Website: https://shaheendil.com.
M.P. Donegan, Pittsburgh, PA
Donegan (She/her) is a retired doctor of counseling psychology who fell in love with Pittsburgh, PA as a child and choose to live her life as an adult near the three rivers. She is an emerging poet who has recently published in Voices from the Attic and Uppagus.
M. Scott Douglass, Edinboro, PA
Douglass grew up in and around Pittsburgh. His poems have appeared in North American Review, Gargoyle, Salvation South, Kakalak, and others. Living in a Red State Blues (Paycock Press, 2022) is his most recent poetry book. He’s been a bookstore owner, a coach, a construction worker, and a dental technician (among other things). Currently transitioning back to his native climate.
Victoria Dym, Tampa, FL
Dym is the author of Class Clown, and When the Walls Cave In, published by Finishing Line Press in 2015 and 2018. Spontaneous was published by the West Florida Literary Federation in 2022, and her full-length manuscript, The Hatchet Sun, was published by Finishing Line Press in August 2023. Victoria is a Certified Laughter Yoga Leader and an improv artist.
Donna Wojnar Dzurilla, Pittsburgh, PA
Dzurilla’s poetry appears in Untelling Magazine, Trailer Park Quarterly, Griffin Poetry, Kaleidoscope, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Backbone Mountain Review and anthologized in The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain: Pittsburgh Poems, Tributaria and North Coast Voices 2025. Support for Dzurilla’s writing includes SAFTA 2025 Artist Residency and a 2025 ARPA Support for Artists Grant awarded by the City of Pittsburgh.
Angele Ellis, Pittsburgh, PA
Ellis is the author of Arab on Radar (Six Gallery), whose poems on her Arab American heritage won a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Spared (A Main Street Rag Editor’s Choice chapbook), and Under the Kaufmann’s Clock (Six Gallery), a poetry/fiction hybrid inspired by her adopted city of Pittsburgh.
Tikvah Feinstein, Pittsburgh, PA
Feinstein has won awards for her poetry and short fiction. She is widely published in the USA and internationally, including The BeZine, Verbal Art, Loyalhanna Review, Boston Poetry Magazine, India’s Phenomenal Literature, UK’s Friday Flash Fiction and others. She wrote on the staff of a daily newspaper, founded Taproot Writer’s Workshop Inc. and is author of four books.
Angela Gaito-Lagnese, Pittsburgh, PA
Angela Gaito-Lagnese is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Famished (Mainstreet Rag, 2025) and a poetry chapbook, Squalling (Main Street Rag, 2021). Her poems have also appeared or are forthcoming in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. Angela earned her Ed.D. and M.F.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and is also a Carlow University Madwoman.
Sarah Good-Lang, Pittsburgh, PA
Good-Lang graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 2024 with a BA in History & English Writing. Her poems have been published in The Northern Appalachia Review, included in events such as Poet Tree Town 2025 and 2026, and her short story won 1st Place in The Pitt News annual writing contest.
Roberta Hatcher, Pittsburgh, PA
Hatcher’s work has appeared in The Comstock Review, Main Street Rag, St. Petersburg Review, Storm Cellar, Voices from the Attic, Vox Populi, and Yawp among others. She is the author of the chapbook French Lessons (2016). She lives in Pittsburgh where she has workshopped with the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange, Madwomen in the Attic and the Porch Poets.
Tori Hirsh, Pittsburgh, PA
Hirsch is a writer, multimedia designer, and artist. She graduated with a BA in Media Arts from Carlow University in 2019 and returned to her alma mater in 2024 to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing. She has been published in the Northern Appalachia Review, FLARE Magazine and Exclamation Mark.
Elizabeth Hoover, St. Louis, MO
Hoover is the author of the archive is all in present tense, winner of the 2021 Barrow Street Book Prize. She received the Pat Holt Prize for Critical Art Writing from Lambda Literary and has published creative nonfiction in the North American Review, the Southeast Review, and StoryQuarterly. She is an assistant professor of English at Webster University in Saint Louis.
Mike Kane, Johnstown, PA
Kane was born in Pittsburgh. He holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Emerson College. His poetry has appeared in Nimrod, Phoebe, Talking River Review, and others. In addition, several poems have appeared on Gathering Place: Songs and Poems of Western Pennsylvania by Mark Weakland and Mike Kane (CD, Springwater Music, Inc.)
Mark Karason, Pittsburgh, PA
Karason is a published poet, appearing in six anthologies, most recently in Pennsylvania Bards Western PA Review 2026. Originally from Akron Ohio, raised in Minneapolis near the Mississippi River, his now poetry flows from Pittsburgh between the banks of Three Rivers, pulling verses with the current, down the Ohio and back into the Big Muddy.
Sheila Kelly, Pittsburgh, PA
Kelly leads generative writing workshops in libraries, community centers, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She also guides writers in ekphrasis at art galleries. Kelly’s poems have been published in journals, anthologies and in a book of craft, Diane Lockward’s The Practicing Poet.
Diane Kerr, Pittsburgh, PA
Donald Krieger, Pittsburgh, PA
Krieger is a retired clinical neurophysiologist, university professor, and biomedical engineer. He is a member of Pen America and author of three hybrid collections: Discovery (2020), When Danger Is Past, Who Remembers? (2022), We in America (2024; download free from DonsPoetryPage.com). He was a 2020 Creative Nonfiction Foundation Science-as-Story Fellow. His poetry and essays have appeared widely.
Anita Kulina, Pittsburgh, PA
Kulina grew up near Schenley Park. Her books include Millhunks and Renegades: A Portrait of a Pittsburgh Neighborhood and two cozy mysteries: A Question of Devotion and Reason for Concern. Her latest book is Write Your Family Story: Even If You’re Not a Writer, You Don’t Have Time, and You Don’t Know Where to Start.
Gerry LaFemina, Frostburg, MD
LaFemina is the author of over 20 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, the most recent being After the War for Independence (poems, Stephen F Austin University Press). He teaches at Frostburg State University and in the low residency MFA program at Carlow University. In 2025 he was appointed by Governor Wes Moore as a councilor of the Maryland State Arts Council.
Gail Langstroth, Pittsburgh, PA
Raised under the Big Skies of Montana, Langstroth is a tri-lingual lecturer, international eurythmy performer, translator, poet, and visual artist. Through her decades-long dedication as an international, multifaceted artist, she realizes the urgency and responsibility artists have—to delve deep. Langstroth presents and performs her poetry internationally. Her two books are the bilingual firegarden and Ghost Friends – in Praise of Jean Valentine. www.wordmoves.com
Beth A. Lawry, Pittsburgh, PA
Lawry has worked in public libraries for over 30 years and often hosts poetry readings and other cool programs for adults. She previously worked backstage for theatre companies and has been a freelance writer. She can usually be found tromping around the woods taking photos of spring ephemerals and butterflies.
Susan Lederhouse, Yardley, PA
Lederhouse received an Honorable Mention in poetry from the 51st Westmoreland Arts and Heritage Festival for “What Remains” and was published in Pennsylvania Bards Eastern PA Poetry Review 2026. She also placed third in the Bucks County Short Fiction Contest for her short story “Dear Adrienne.”
Joan Leotta, Fairfax, VA
Leotta is a Pittsburgh native. Internationally published as poet, essayist, novelist, and fiction writer, she’s a multiple Pushcart and Best of Net nominee. On stage, she tells folk and personal tales and a show featuring Louisa May Alcott, writer and Civil War nurse. Her most recent book is Feathers on Stone, published by Main Street Rag.
Marjorie Maddox, Williamsport, PA
WPSU-FM Poetry Moment host, Presence assistant editor, and Professor Emerita at Commonwealth University, Marjorie Maddox has published over 20 books—including most recently the poetry collections Hover Here, Seeing Things, and Small Earthly Space—a story collection, 5 children’s books, and two anthologies. Her middle-grade biography is A Man Named Branch: The True Story of Baseball’s Great Experiment. www.marjoriemaddox.com
Danielle McMahon, Monroeville, PA
Danielle is the author of four poetry chapbooks and two micro-chaps. Her latest chapbook, irl, can be purchased from Stanchion Books (https://www.stanchionzine.com/product-page/irl). Author website: d-mcmahon-writes.net. Bluesky @dehm000.bsky.social. Instagram: @dehm000.
Jason Melvin, Conway, PA
Melvin is a father, grandfather, husband and writer from Western PA. His book Brother, from Anxiety Press is available on Amazon. A student short film, The Dog Doesn’t Know, based off poems from Brother, written and directed by his daughter Jersee Melvin, is currently on the festival circuit.
Abigail Michelini, Bethlehem, PA
Michelini is a Pushcart-prize nominee whose work can be found in SWWIM, Hole in the Head Review, and Thimble Literary Magazine, among other publications. She is the author of Brace (Thirty West Publishing, 2025) and teaches writing at Northampton Community College. Find her at www.abigailmichelini.com and Instagram @abigailmichelini.
T.R. Mykhal, Pittsburgh, PA
Mykhal is a Pittsburgh-based author, scholar, and outdoor enthusiast who takes inspiration from his time spent hiking, canoeing, and climbing, as well as the natural landscapes these activities bring him to. He currently works as a professor specializing in argumentation and rhetoric and has published research on aloneness and solitude.
Don Narkevic, Buckhannon, WV
Don has an MFA from National University. His poetry appears in The Trillium, Agape, Blue Collar Review, and Dappled Things. In 2022, Main Street Rag published a novella of poetry, After the Lynching. In 2024, The Potomac Playmakers produced From Birth. In 2025, the author won the Ziolkowski Poetry Prize.
Michael O’Connor, Medina, OH
O’Connor was born in Broadhead Manor and grew up in the Ingram, Sheraden, McKees Rocks areas of Pittsburgh. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He’s a former kick boxer, hunter, traveler, cancer survivor and grandfather of six. He has published work in Pig Iron Press, Voices International, and Creative Pittsburgh, among others.
Dora Odarenko, Leetsdale, PA
Odarenko, originally from New England, publishes locally and beyond and is a member of several writing groups. After a career as a university teacher of literature and writing, she taught in inner-city public schools. In Connecticut, she created a sanctuary for farm animals. She is passionate about environmental justice and confronting climate disruption.
Nina S. Padolf, Pittsburgh, PA
Padolf’s poems in Uprooted (Kelsay Books, 2021) cover her being adopted. Her recent early reader picture book, Samantha the Peanut Butter Detective (Pegasus, 2026) invites the reader to solve the mystery. Retired from instructing college courses, she co-curates Greenhouse Poetry Reading Series. Her poems are published in over 50 journals.
Patricia Passeltiner, Pittsburgh, PA
Passeltiner is a New Yorker, retired physician and actor who performed with Saint Louis Repertory Theatre and Purdue University Professional Theatre. Passeltiner’s poems have appeared in The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain: Pittsburgh Poems (Main Street Rag, 2025), Poems of Hope, the Macclesfield Samaritans (Amazon, 2024), and Poetry News, Fall 2023, The Poetry Society of the UK.
Walter Peterson, Pittsburgh, PA
Peterson is a writer and teacher who has spent his life in Da’ Burgh with a short exception out of state in Teacher Corps. He has won awards for his poetry and short fiction. “Imitation of Immortality…” is a salute to Michael Wurster’s PPE. “Havana” a paean to a lost love, Dad’s ‘50 Buick.
Jeannine Marie Pitas, Swissvale, PA
Pitas is a teacher, writer, and Spanish-English literary translator living in Pittsburgh. She teaches at Saint Vincent College and is on staff at Eulalia Books, a small press publishing experimental Latin American poetry. She is the author of the poetry book Or/And (Paraclete Press 2023) and the translator of thirteen books by Latin American writers.
Mark Possanza, Pittsburgh, PA
Possanza is the author of seven poetry collections, most recently A Street Artist (2025), and Workshop Opus (2026). He lives in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood with his wife Jennifer and their cat Tilly.
Anne Rashid, Pittsburgh, PA
Rashid is Professor of English and Director of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Carlow University. She has published poetry in Adagio Verse Quarterly, Lit Candles: Feminist Mentoring and the Text, The Metro Times, City Paper, Broad River Review, Paterson Literary Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Fourth River, Sampsonia Way, Walloon Writers Review and The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain.
Claudia Reder, Pittsburgh, PA
Claudia M. Reder, winner of the Bright Hill Press Award for My Father & Miro, has also authored How to Disappear (Blue Light Press), winner of the Pinnacle and Feathered Quill awards, and Dizzying Words (Main Street Rag, 2024). She has also received a Charlotte Newberger Poetry Prize from Lilith Magazine.
John Repp, Erie, PA
Repp is a writer, collagist, and folk photographer. His most recent of many collections of poetry are Civil Service (Neo-Mimeo Editions, 2025) and Never Far from the Egg Harbor Ice House (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2025). Copies of all of Repp’s books and chapbooks are available via his website: www.johnreppwriter.com.
Jennifer Richards, Pittsburgh, PA
Richards is a writer who finds inspiration in nature, stillness, travel, and the strange adventure that is the human experience. Her work has appeared in Taproot Literary Review and Literary Kick’s Action Poetry anthology. If you’re looking for her, you can find her in her garden.
Mary Rife, Washington, DC
A graduate of Carlow University, Dr. Rife has been a “Madwoman” for six years in their creative writing program. Dr. Rife taught in the English Department of the University of Maryland for 10 years before consulting in public health. She currently teaches poetry to women living in a long-term homeless shelter in Washington, DC.
Karen Rigby, Gilbert, AZ
Rigby is the author of Fabulosa (JackLeg Press, 2024) and Chinoiserie (Ahsahta Press, 2012). A National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow, her poems have been published in SAND, Australian Book Review, The London Magazine, Poetry Northwest, Bennington Review, and other journals. She lives in Arizona. Learn more at www.karenrigby.com
Judith Robinson, Pittsburgh, PA
Robinson is an editor, teacher, fiction writer, poet, visual artist; published 100+ poems, five poetry collections, one fiction collection; one novel; edited or co-edited eleven poetry collections. Teacher: Osher at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Newest Ekphrastic Collection: The Painted Poem, Forest Woods Media; 2026 First Prize, The Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition, Voices Israel, 2024.
Fred Shaw, Pittsburgh, PA
Fred Shaw teaches writing at Point Park University and is a member of the Advisory Board for the International Poetry Forum. He is a reviews columnist for Pittsburgh Quarterly where he also curates the online poetry feature, “PQ Poem.” His 2nd collection of poems, Shivaree, will be published by Spartan Press.
Michael Simms, Pittsburgh, PA
Simms is the author of Cities I Can Never Return To (Ragged Sky, 2026). His poems have appeared in Poetry (Chicago), Plume and Scientific American. He lives in the historic Mount Washington neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 2011, Simms was recognized by the Pennsylvania Legislature for his service to the arts.
Craig Sipe, Orrs Island, ME
Craig Sipe is the author of the poetry collections Lovely Dregs, and Here It Comes...and It’s Gone. His work has also appeared in numerous journals. He is a poetry editor, and audio editor for the quarterly art and poetry journal The Café Review out of Portland, Maine.
Scott Bradley Smith, Pittsburgh, PA
Smith’s poems have appeared in Kalliope, The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His stories have appeared in Subtropics, The Lemonwood Quarterly, and Hawaii Pacific Review. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and resides in Pittsburgh, where he plays bass with Mike and Bill in The Impositions.
Kevin Sweeney, South Portland, ME
Sweeney’s latest book is Imminent Tribulations from Moon Pie Press. His poems have appeared in Gargoyle, The Main Street Rag, Nerve Cowboy, 5 AM, Wormwood Review, Free Lunch, and Big Hammer. He’s an assistant poetry editor for The Café Review and has done interviews with Kim Addonizio, Carl Dennis, Martin Espada, Margaret Randall, Gerald Locklin and William Carpenter.
James Tasillo, Pittsburgh, PA
Tasillo is a native Pittsburgher. Jim is a storyteller whose stories can take the form of a poem, essay, flash fiction or a photograph. Jim was a regular storyteller at The Moth Story Slams and currently can be found at Story Club. His poetry and essays have been published in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain: Pittsburgh Poems.
Christine Telfer, Pittsburgh, PA
Telfer is an ESL teacher, language lover, poet, and native Pittsburgher. She spent two years teaching English in Bulgaria. Her poems have appeared in various publications, including Along These Rivers: Poetry & Photography from Pittsburgh, Nasty Women and Bad Hombres, The Boom Project, Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange 50, and once, a long time ago, The Main Street Rag.
Brooks Thomas, Forest City, PA
Thomas is a history teacher, runner, and poet who writes in a lyrical style. In addition to his current location, he’s called Pittsburgh and the DC/Maryland/Virginia region his home. Brooks has been published in several anthologies and literary magazines in the United States, Britain, and Canada. You can find his most recent works on Instagram @brooks_thomas_poetry.
Erica Tolin, Pittsburgh, PA
Tolin is writer, theatre artist, and Realtor. Her work has been published in several print anthologies and online journals. She was a Poetry participant in the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, with workshop mentor Robert Hass, and a member of the Madwomen in the Attic at Carlow University. She lives on the North Side of town with her two kids and ever-evolving number of cats.
Kat Trushchankova, Oakland, CA
Trushchankova (Kat T) is a whimsical fae thing fluttering around, exploring new nooks, and learning to better identify the natural world around them. Often found in forests, waters, and occasionally a concrete jungle near you. On their travels, Kat rarely misses a chance to play tag with ghosts… erm, visit local graveyards.
Michel Tsouris, Pittsburgh, PA
Tsouris is a painter and writer exploring the cross pollination of art forms. Her works are evocative narratives, rich with iconography. Since 1978, Michel has been actively exhibiting in the U.S. + EU. Representation: Carmel Art Association + AAP. Publications include: Mad Women in the Attic, NAR, Canary, Ravensperch, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize by The Main Street Rag.
Meghan Tutolo, Pittsburgh, PA
Tutolo is a writer, artist, recovering adjunct instructor and comedian from the once-booming aluminum town of New Kensington, PA. She works as a copywriter romancing olives and pasta and as an artist peddling her creations all over Pittsburgh Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Nerve Cowboy and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette among others.
V.C. Viola, Pittsburgh, PA
Viola is an emerging writer, currently residing in Pittsburgh, PA. Her work consists of poetry, fiction, and short stories that magnify the little details adorning our lives. From reflections on global travel to daydreams during monotonous commutes, she seeks inspiration from both the grand and granular.
Matthew Wallenstein, Bennington, NH
Wallenstein is a writer and tattooer living in Millville, Pennsylvania. He is a past recipient of the Writer Of The Year Award for poetry from The Nassau Review. He lives with his bull terrier Abby.
Robert Walicki, White Oak, PA
Robert’s aesthetic speaks to the rich tradition of working-class poetry and the blue-collar sentiment that informs his poetry. His work has appeared in Chiron Review, among others. His most recent collection is Watershed (Broadstone Books, and his latest collection, American Crush is forthcoming from Luchador Press.
Arlene Weiner, Pittsburgh, PA
Weiner is active in Pittsburgh community poetry groups. Her poetry has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Arlene has held a MacDowell fellowship. She also writes plays. Her fourth poetry collection, Stay, is forthcoming from Ragged Sky Press.
Christine Aikens Wolfe, Pittsburgh, PA
Wolfe’s book, Mary McDermott Wolfe, is from Main Street Rag. Her book, Garlanding Green, is from Dos Madres Press. She’s in Gargoyle, Nerve Cowboy, Paterson Literary Review, RUNE, Sonnetto Poesia and anthologies Eastern Sea Bards, Phoenix Rising from Ashes, Love & Ensuing Madness, The Gulf Tower Forecasts Rain. She’s president of Pittsburgh Poetry Society.
