Contributors

Issue 66 April 2024

Stephen Baily‘s short fiction and plays have appeared in the Southern Indiana Review, Atticus Review, The Offing, Liars League-London, Millennial Pulp, and some fifty other journals. He’s also the author of three novels, including Markus Klyner, MD, FBI (Fellow Traveler Press). He lives in France.

Cy Hill spent 11 years in the Navy, and 15 years in manholes and climbing telephone poles for a phone company. He coached youth athletics for many years. He is currently majoring in Biology.

Jeniya M.A.R.D. is a Greek and Chaldean author from Metro Detroit and a teaching artist in Detroit Public Schools. She received a Bachelor of Science in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from Central Michigan University. Her writing has appeared in Five on the Fifth, Marrow Magazine, Mistake House Magazine, Artemis Journal, The Central Review, and many others. Her piece “Catharsis” was nominated for the 2023 PUSHCART PRIZE in fiction.

Réka Nyitrai is a spell, a sparrow, a lioness’s tongue — a bird nest in a pool of dusk. She is a Hungarian-Romanian poet, the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2020 for her debut haiku volume “While Dreaming Your Dreams” (Valencia Spain: Mono Ya Mono Books, 2020). “Moon flogged”, her full length debut collection will be out with Broken Sleep Books in September 2024.

Post-Covid, Richard Weaver has returned as the writer-in-residence at the James Joyce Pub in Baltimore. Other pubs: conjunctions, Louisville Review, Southern Quarterly, Birmingham Arts Journal, Coachella Review, FRIGG, Hollins Critic, Xavier Review, Atlanta Review, Dead Mule, Vanderbilt Poetry Review, & New Orleans Review. He’s the author of The Stars Undone (Duende Press, 1992), and wrote the libretto for a symphony, Of Sea and Stars (2005) which has been performed 3 times in Alabama, and once at Juilliard in NYC. He was one of the founders of the Black Warrior Review and its Poetry Editor for the first three years. His 200th prose poem was recently accepted.

Emily Yzquierdo lives in Cranberry Township, PA. Her poems can be found in the Alchemy and Miracles anthology. She is most inspired to write after a hike in the woods. The right words always seem to be tucked away at the end of a long and deserted path.

Issue 65 February 2024

L. is a lit professor at National Taiwan University with photography published in Autostraddle, Invisible City, Sycamore Review (cover and featured artist), and elsewhere. Twitter and Instagram: @acadialogue

Mary E. Croy lives in Madison, Wisconsin where she works as an administrative assistant. She spent nine years teaching English Language Learners in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. During her free time, Mary likes reading poetry and hanging out with her cats, Buster and Gabby. Her work has appeared in Better than Starbucks, Woven Tale Press, and Valley Voices, among others.

Ryan Harbert graduated with a BA in English from Kent State University. He’s made ends meet as a waiter, a fast-food cook, a veterinary receptionist, and a night janitor. His hobbies include running, obscure Asian films, video games, and petting every cat he sees.

Kevin Hogg is a high school teacher in British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains. He holds a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Carleton University. Kevin is a longtime Chicago Cubs fan and also enjoys Lime Pepsi, grapefruit juice, and lemon tea. His website is https://kevinhogg.ca.

Justine McCabe is a cultural anthropologist and practicing clinical psychologist with several academic publication credits.  Her letters have been published in The New York Times, op-eds in The Hartford Courant, CT Mirror, The New Haven Register, and  Green Horizon Magazine.   Her poetry has appeared in Avalon Literary Review. Pennsylvania English, Brief Wilderness, Perceptions and Flights.

Michael Moreth is a recovering Chicagoan living in the rural, micropolitan City of Sterling, the Paris of Northwest Illinois.

Amit Parmessur spent his adolescence hating poetry before falling in love with its beauty. His poems have recently appeared in magazines like Setu, Borderless Journal, miniMAG, Aphelion, and The Lumiere Review. He lives in Quatre-Bornes, Mauritius, where he is constantly Bunburying. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086717162441
https://twitter.com/AmitParmessur

Diane Pickett is an emerging writer whose award -winning debut novel, “Never Isn’t Long Enough” reflects the edgy style of her stories based on growing up in the South. Her latest novel, “The Tea

Wasn’t Always Sweet, out 2024,  portrays the immense societal changes of the mid-century South.

Issue 64 December 2023

Kristin Fouquet is a photographer and writer from lovely New Orleans. Her photography appears in online journals and magazines, on chapbook and book covers, on album artwork, and occasionally in galleries. When not behind the camera, Kristin writes literary fiction. She is the author of six books. Visit Le Salon- https://kristin.fouquet.cc

Philip Jason’s stories can be found in Prairie Schooner, The Pinch, Mid-American Review, Ninth Letter, and J Journal; his poetry in Spillway, Lake Effect, Hawaii Pacific Review, Pallette and Indianapolis Review. He is the author of the novel Window Eyes (Unsolicited Press, 2023). His first collection of poetry, I Don’t Understand Why It’s Crazy to Hear the Beautiful Songs of Nonexistent Birds, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. For more, please visit philipjason.com.

Susan Laurençot is a Connecticut writer who lives and writes in an old farmhouse by the Long Island Sound with her husband and mean, old cat. She’s an active member of the Connecticut Writing Project and sometimes escapes to beautiful locations with these writer friends to write and revise.

Dan Pinkerton lives in Urbandale, Iowa. Poems of his have recently appeared or are forthcoming in New Ohio Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Harpur Palate, and The Fourth River.

Jean-Sebastien Surena is a poet and spoken word artist from Queens, NY. In June 2021, Jean published his debut chapbook Quarantined Thoughts. He co-directed a short film based on one of its pieces, “Unbroken,” and was selected to six film festivals, winning “Best Poetry” and “Best Performance.”   https://www.instagram.com/jeanthemachine_

David Waters is a semi-retired cardiologist who lives in San Francisco with his wife Bobbi and his Kerry Blue terrier Trey. His short stories have appeared in the San Antonio Review, 34th Parallel, the Dillydoun Review, Flash Fiction, Beyond Words, Amarillo Bay, Marrow, The MacGuffin, and Cleaver. Mastodon: @WestCoastCliche@creativewriting.social.

Issue 63 October 2023

B. C. Nance is a writer who hasn’t given up his day job. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, he works by day as a historical archaeologist. At night, after roaming his neighborhood, he writes fiction and poetry, then stays up too late reading.

John Brantingham is currently and always thinking about radical wonder. He was Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ first poet laureate. His work has been in hundreds of magazines and The Best Small Fictions 2016 and 2022. He has twenty-two books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. 

Mark J. Mitchell has been a working poet for 50 years. He’s the author of five full-length collections, and six chapbooks. His latest collection is Something To Be from Pski’s Porch Publishing. He’s fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Dante, and his wife, activist Joan Juster. He lives in San Francisco where he points out pretty things. https://www.facebook.com/MarkJMitchellwriter/

A primitive web site now exists: https://www.mark-j-mitchell.square.site/

I sometimes tweet @Mark J Mitchell_Writer

R.V. Priestly is a singer/songwriter, holistic lifestyle coach, and co-owner of Studio In The Heights, a fitness studio in New York City. He writes a fitness blog, “My Studio In The Heights.” He has worked as a singer/songwriter/performer, studio owner, personal trainer, and martial arts instructor.

Subramani trained as a physician in India and then moved to the US. He started writing feeling the urge to share memories of unique life experiences and perspectives which could not be done otherwise. He is a co-editor of the Textbook of SARS-CoV2 and Covid-19 published by Elsevier in 2022.

Issue 62 August 2023

Abigail Gahagan is a first year undergraduate at Clark University, where she is pursuing a major in psychology and a minor in creative writing. She wrote “Nineteen” as an English 101 assignment —the piece follows a young narrator grappling with OCD in what should be the prime of her life.

Lenny Levine enjoyed a twenty-year career as a recording studio singer and composer of many successful jingles, including McDonald’s, Lipton Tea, and Jeep. His stories have been widely published in literary magazines and journals, and he received a Pushcart Prize nomination for short fiction. His website is lennylevinewriter.com.

An artist, maker and story teller, Mavis Gamble got her BFA at Colorado State University. Her work explores folklore and personal mythology through installation and illustrated stories. At home with her wife and two small dogs she enjoys day drinking and digging in the dirt.

Matthew Boxer has a JD degree and a BA with a major in chemistry. He has drafted hundreds of US patents. Matthew has worked as a lawyer, chemist, and summer camp counselor. Matthew writes using the pen name Matthew Wherttam. His work has been published in Voices de la Luna.

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble. His seventh collection, Tell Us How to Live, is forthcoming in 2024 from Fernwood Press. https://aceboggess.wixsite.com/aceboggess

Salvatore Difalco is a Sicilian Canadian poet and short story writer. He lives in Toronto.

Dominik Slusarczyk is an artist who makes everything from music to painting. He was educated at The University of Nottingham where he got a degree in biochemistry. His poetry has been published in various literary magazines including Fresh Words, Berlin Lit, and Home Planet News.

Issue 61 June 2023

Douglas Steward has been published in Blackworks, Brief Wilderness, El Portal, Euphony Journal, Louisiana Literature, October Hill Magazine, SLAB, Summerset Review, and Waxing & Waning. Semi-retired from a career in the automotive industry, Douglas now devotes his time to writing and taking care of his two collie dogs.

Claire Davies is currently studying English and Creative Writing at Clark University. From St. Paul, Minnesota, Claire hopes her writing provides more warmth to her readers than the weather back home. She looks forward to living more, loving more, learning more, and writing all about it.

Ed Patterson was a finalist in Bellingham Review’s 2021 Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction. He received his bachelor’s degree with an English minor from SUNY Plattsburgh. He lives and writes in Glastonbury, CT. His work has been published or is forthcoming in Umbrella Factory Magazine and Voices De La Luna. http://stirringthestrange.com/

Ronan Cartwright is a playwright, poet and fiction writer. His work explores issues surrounding grief, family dysfunction and solitude. He lives in London.

Juanita Rey is a Dominican poet who has been in this country five years. Her work has been published in Mixed Mag, The Mantle and The Art Of Everyone.

Mykyta Ryzhykh is the winner of the international competition Art Against Drugs and Ukrainian contests: Vytoky, Shoduarivska Altanka, Khortytsky dzvony; laureate of the literary competition named after Tyutyunnik, Lyceum, Twelve, named after Dragomoshchenko. Finalist of the Crimean Ginger competition. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.

Issue 60 April 2023

David Sheskin is a writer and artist who has been published extensively over the years. Most recently his work has appeared in Quarterly West, The Satirist, Chicago Quarterly Review and Shenandoah. His most recent books are Art That Speaks, David Sheskin’s Cabinet of Curiosities and Outrageous Wedding Announcements.

James W. Fried has four novel manuscripts (various stages of completion) and over fifty short stories ready for submission. His works of fiction are drawn from his forty-five years of experience as a banker, legislator, and lobbyist. Previously, he co-authored The Winning Edge with Jack Fried, a nonfiction sports book. His url is jameswfried.com. 

Loren Stephens debut novel, All Sorrows Can Be Borne,” was published by Rarebird. She has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Leo Daughtry, the senior partner, is a North Carolina law firm and was for 28 years a member of the North Carolina House and Senate. His debut novel, Talmadge Farm, will be published in 2023

P.A. Callaro, a native New Yorker, stumbled into a love of literature in college. Now, he runs for miles in the early morning searching for clarity of thought. Occasionally he finds it and invents characters for his fiction who discover, or stumble into, some of life’s small but stubborn truths.

Issue 59 February 2023

Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver, and has published 15 poetry collections in English. Early in 2022, Yuan began to write fiction, with short stories appearing in Aloka (UK) and Bewildering Stories (Canada) or forthcoming in Lincoln Review (UK), Word For/Word (US), and StylusLit (Australia), among others. Currently, Yuan is working on his trilogy. Meet Yuan: poetrypacific.blogspot.ca

Sarah Daly is an American writer whose work has appeared in As It Ought to Be Magazine, The Spotlong Review, Rejection Letters, Down in the Dirt, and elsewhere.

Dylan Gilbert’s stories have appeared in Slow Trains, Potomac Review, Sleet Magazine, and Kansas City Voices, among others, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Meet Dylan: https://dylansstories.weebly.com/

Patrick Meeds lives in Syracuse, NY and studies writing at the Syracuse YMCA’s Downtown Writer’s Center. He has been previously published in Stone Canoe literary journal, the New Ohio Review, Tupelo Quarterly, the Atticus Review, Whiskey Island, Guernica, The Main Street Rag, and Nine Mile Review among others.

Alan Swyer is an award-winning filmmaker whose recent documentaries have dealt with Eastern spirituality in the Western world, the criminal justice system, diabetes, boxing, and singer Billy Vera. In the realm of music, among his productions is an album of Ray Charles love songs. His novel ‘The Beard’ was recently published by Harvard Square Editions. His newest film is called “When Houston Had The Blues.”

John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals since 2009.  fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.

Jozzie Stuchell Velesig is graduating from Harvard University Extension School with a Master’s in Creative Writing and Literature. Born and raised in Appalachia, she now resides in Charleston, SC. She squeezes writing between her son’s soccer practices, walking their dogs, and kicking one of the three cats off her laptop.

Issue 58 January 2022

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, MFA in Writing program. In 2019 her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, and in 2021 her collection Alice in Ruby Slippers was short-listed for the Grand Prize. (UPDATED)

Ellis Shuman is an American-born Israeli author, travel writer, and book reviewer. His writing has appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, and The Huffington Post, and many online literary publications. He is the author of The Virtual Kibbutz, Valley of Thracians, and The Burgas Affair. https://ellisshuman.blogspot.com/ (UPDATED)

Jennifer Ostromecki is an alumna of both the Yale and Sarah Lawrence Summer Workshops for Writers. Her work has been published in Across the Margin and Pif Magazine. She is querying her first novel and working on a second. Connect with her on Twitter or Instagram @jomecki (UPDATED)

Joe Gianotti has taught English at Lowell High School in Northwest Indiana for twenty-five years. He is from Whiting, a blue collar city just outside Chicago. He studied English, history, and education at the University of Indianapolis and Purdue University. In 2015, he was among the poets who represented Northwest Indiana in the Five Corners Poetry Readings hosted by then Indiana poet laureate, George Kalamaras. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Blaze Vox, Umbrella Factory, Genuine Gold, Steam Ticket, The Tipton Poetry Journal, and other places, as well as collected in the second volume of This is Poetry: The Midwest Poets.

Patricia Ljutic’s poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Bards and Sage Quarterly, upstreet Literary Magazine, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Everyday Fiction and Dark Fire Fiction. Patricia lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, son and a Siberian Husky named Scarlett. Learn more at patricialjutc.com.

As a corporate executive for years Susan Weinstein often heard from co-workers that her emails read like stories, so she decided to start writing outside the office. She is almost done with her first novel and her stories have been published in Potato Soup Journal and The Lakeshore Review. (UPDATED)

Issue 57 October 2022

Ethan Cunningham is a writer and lifelong student of the human experience. He has lived in many places, but for now resides in California. 

Kjersti Ehrie studied graphic design and photography and worked in media communications before getting an MBA, working in digital marketing management roles, and eventually starting her own consulting company. She has resided in the Netherlands since 2011 and is currently on the faculty of HZ University of Applied Sciences.

Leah Browning is the author of Two Good Ears and Loud Snow, mini-books from Silent Station Press. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Harpur Palate, Four Way Review, Flock, Watershed Review, Newfound, Parhelion Literary Magazine, Superstition Review, The Broadkill Review, Belletrist Magazine, Poetry South, The Stillwater Review, and elsewhere. Website: https://www.leahbrowninglit.com

Michael Howard‘s work has appeared in numerous print and digital publications including the Mekong Review, Creative Loafing, Paste, Hypertext Magazine, the Forge, and the Loch Raven Review. He lives in Vietnam. 

Nicholas Katsanis is a writer of (sometimes magical) realism blended with historical elements. His poetry and short stories have been published in The Delmarva Review, Literally Stories, and The New Verse News, amongst others. Nico enjoys traveling and has visited half the planet; laptop and notebook underarm, he hopes to visit the other half while editing his debut novel. Follow him on twitter @NicholasKatsan1 

Bob Walters is from Cheyenne, Wyoming. As a lawyer, he was published in a law journal about Japanese business culture. In Shiin: Cause of Death, Bob presents a fictional account of rape in a Japanese internment camp and the ripples of vengeance. Shiin: Cause of Death is Bob’s first book. 

Sharon Lopez Mooney, poet & retired Interfaith Chaplain from the death and dying field, lives in Mexico. She received a CACouncil Grant for a rural poetry series; co-published an anthology; facilitates poetry workshops. Mooney’s poems are in publications like: “The Blotter, Ginosko, Tipton Journal, The Avalon” and others nationally and internationally Her work is indexed at: www.sharonlopezmooney.com

Issue 56 August 2022

Ruby Peru’s studies with Kurt Vonnegut and David Foster Wallace inspired her illustrated novel Bits of String Too Small to Save, which won NYC Big Book Award’s “distinguished favorite” (2021). Her website www.rubyperu.com highlights a career that includes: humor columnist for Local-Flavor Magazine, proofreader for McGraw-Hill Publishing, and memoir ghostwriting.

Jason Boling is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas and dreams of a world where cowards are shamed, art is rewarded, and jobs are optional. He writes short fiction and poetry using the pen name Jon Fotch. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Avalon Literary Review, Avatar Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, BoomerLitMag, Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, and Carbon Culture Review to name a few.

Judith Ford writing has been published in Better Than Starbucks Poetry & Fiction Journal, Caveat Lector, Clackamas Literary Review, Confluence, Connecticut Review, Evening Street Review, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Jumbelbook, The Laurel Review, The Meadow, New English Review, North Dakota Quarterly, The Paragon Journal, The Penmen Review, Pennsylvania English, Pine Hills Review, Quarter After Eight, Rubbertop Review, Southern Humanities Review, Voices de la Luna, Waxing & Waning, Willow Review, Young Ravens Literary Review, and many other journals. She coauthored a poetry collection with Martin Jack Rosenblum, Burning Oak, published by Lionhead Press (1986).

Lenny Levine enjoyed a 20-year career as a singer/songwriter, composing jingles for McDonald’s, Lipton Tea, and Jeep. He wrote and sang backup for Billy Joel, Diana Ross and the Pointer Sisters, among others. His short stories have been widely published, and he received a Pushcart Prize nomination for short fiction.

Peycho Kanev is the author of 10 poetry collections and three chapbooks, published in the USA and Europe. His poems have appeared in: Rattle, Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Hawaii Review, Barrow Street, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, Sierra Nevada Review. His new book of poetry titled A Fake Memoir was published in 2022 by Cyberwit.

S. Marlowe hung around the streets of Denver from birth to death. Posthumously, this is his second publication.

Issue 54 April 2022

Cynthia Yancey was an English major before she became a mother then a medical doctor. Now after working 30 years in the trenches of public health, from the Himalayas to the Andes to her downtown clinic in Asheville, NC, she is writing the stories of her life. 

Daniel Burnbridge practices law in Cape Town, South Africa. At night, in his study overlooking the city bowl, he sits with words, reading and writing. He loves doing that. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2014. Daniel dreams of living on Mars, whenever that becomes a real thing. His husband scorns the idea.

DS Maolalai has been nominated nine times for Best of the Net and seven times for the Pushcart Prize. He has released two collections, “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden” (Encircle Press, 2016) and “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” (Turas Press, 2019). His third collection, “Noble Rot” is scheduled for release in April 2022.   

Gary Rogowski’s piece, Falling, is a bit of an experiment. He writes now under this pseudonym, Giga Roodski. Named thus by a 3 year old, and a misprint on The Bobs mailing list. Gary likes these misspellings much better than the other ways his name has been mangled. His fiction has been published in Coldnoon, Praxis, and with Umbrella Factory in 2019. Rogowski’s latest book is entitled Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction. Larry McMurtry’s Leaving Cheyenne is still his favorite novel.    

James Miller is a native of the Texas Gulf Coast. He is published in Best Small Fictions 2021 (Sonder Press) and in the Marvelous Verses anthology (Daily Drunk Press). Recent pieces have appeared or are forthcoming in The McNeese Review, Kissing Dynamite, On the Seawall, Phoebe, Yemassee, The Madison Review, Neologism, Press Pause, Coal Hill Review, The Shore and Indianapolis Review. Follow on Twitter @AndrewM1621. Website: jamesmillerpoetry.com.  

James Seawel’s essays have been featured in Arkana, The Bitter Southerner, and Tales from the South. His editorials frequently appear in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Currently he travels with the U.S. Military as a civilian counselor. James grew up in the Ozark foothills, absorbing the stories of his family and community.  

John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals since 2009. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online. 

Kim O’Hara helps people write books in Los Angeles, with a prior career as a movie producer and screenwriter. Many of her clients have achieved top ten placement on notable lists such as WSJ Business Books, USA Today and Barnes & Noble Top Ten Non-Fiction. Her self-help book on sexual abuse denial will be published in 2023 with WriteLife Publishing, and she hosted a successful podcast You Should Write A Book About That in 2021 

“Eighteen months ago, I bought a home in South Central, the 50-mile radius of Los Angeles commonly known for the LA Riots, Boys in the Hood, and most recently the Super Bowl. Those of us that live here know it for what it is – a disenfranchised food desert with as many churches as liquor stores. As a single white woman, my decision to move onto my block was initially financial, but I quickly assimilated with my black and brown neighbors. Once they saw I was here to stay, I grew to be simply another resident in the block. The existence was quiet for the most part, and uneventful (barring frequent fireworks and roosters). Recently, the dynamic shifted. For two weeks, a local black youth known as Din Din took residence on our block in the throes of mental illness and addiction post-incarceration. As the situation unfolded violently, with multiple calls to the local police by myself and my neighbors, it was brought to my attention that 2022 is the 30th anniversary of the LA Riots. The intersection of Florence and Normandie is only blocks from my home, where Reginald Denny was pulled from his cab. His young assailant Damien Monroe Williams grew up around the corner. As we watched Din Din unravel, I was swept up into the multi-layers of a systemic issue of the ages that is far from over. I Now Know Your Name is a firsthand account of how little the needle has moved from the ancestral and systemic pain exemplified in the riots 30 years ago.” 

Morgan Boyer is the author of The Serotonin Cradle (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and a graduate of Carlow University. Boyer has been featured in Kallisto Gaia Press, Thirty West Publishing House, Oyez Review, Pennsylvania English, and Voices from the Attic. Boyer is a neurodivergent bisexual woman who resides in Pittsburgh, PA.  

The author, Richard Weaver, hopes to return as the writer-in-residence at the James Joyce Pub where has written 485 prose poems since 2016 and freely admits he was one of the founders of the Black Warrior Review, and its Poetry Editor for a time. His pubs: North American Review, crazyhorse, New England Review, Umbrella Factory, Southern Quarterly, Loch Raven Review, & Poetry Magazine. He’s the author of The Stars Undone (Duende Press, 1992), and provided the libretto for a symphony, Of Sea and Stars (2005), performed 4 times to date. Recently, his 150th prose poem was published.

Issue 53 February 2022

Alex Carrigan (@carriganak) is an editor, writer, and critic from Virginia. He has had fiction, poetry, and literary reviews published in Quail Bell Magazine, Lambda Literary Review, Empty Mirror, Gertrude Press, Quarterly West, North of Oxford, ‘Stories About Penises’ (Guts Publishing, 2019), ‘Closet Cases: Queers on What We Wear’ (Et Alia Press, 2020), ‘ImageOutWrite Vol. 9,’ and more. He is also the co-editor of ‘Please Welcome to the Stage…: A Drag Literary Anthology’ with House of Lobsters Literary.  

Alan Swyer is an award-winning filmmaker whose recent documentaries have dealt with Eastern spirituality in the Western world, the criminal justice system, diabetes, boxing, and singer Billy Vera. In the realm of music, among his productions is an album of Ray Charles love songs. His novel ‘The Beard’ was recently published by Harvard Square Editions. 

Gerald Wagoner‘s childhood was divided between Eastern Oregon and Montana. Gerald says memory is a theme in his poems. Memory does not require factuality. Memory triggers imagination. After earning a Creative writing BA Gerald pursued a sculptor’s life in Oregon, then moved east to continue his education. He has resided in Brooklyn, NY since 1982.  Gerald was a Studio-in-a-School Artist in Residence 1986-87 then taught Art and English for the NYC Department of Education from 1988 to 2017. 2018: Visiting Poet Residency: Brooklyn Navy Yard. 2019: Installation and poetry event The Tides Of Time, Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse. 2021: Created and hosted the outdoor poetry reading series: A Persistence of Cormorants. 

Publications: Right Hand Pointing, Ocotillo Review,  BigCityLit, The Lake, Coffin Bell. J-Journal, Blue Mountain Review, Night Heron Barks, the Maryland Literary Review, October Hill Magazine, and others. Forthcoming: Beltway Poetry Quarterly, 

Education: BA Creative Writing U of Montana (1970), MA & MFA Sculpture, SUNY Albany, NY (1982) 

Jim Beane‘s writing has appeared in numerous print and online literary journals and the anthologies Workers Write and DC Noir. His short story collection By the Sea, by the Sea… was published by Wordrunners eChapbooks in 2019. He is a mentor for the Veterans Writing Project, an instructor at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Look for new stories in El Portal, The Evening Street Review and pioneertown in 2022. Jim lives west of Baltimore with his wife and their dog Lily. 

Poet and photographer Margaret B. Ingraham is the author of a poetry collection Exploring this Terrain (Paraclete Press, 2020); This Holy Alphabet, lyric poems based on her original translation of Psalm 119 (Paraclete Press, 2009); and a poetry chapbook, Proper Words for Birds (Finishing Line Press), nominated for the 2010 Library of Virginia Award in poetry. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Evening Street Review, The Hollins Critic, Mount Hope Magazine, Nonconformist Magazine, Spiritus, THINK Journal, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. 

Peter Obourn’s work is forthcoming or has appeared in Blue Lake Review, Bombay Gin, The Brooklyn Review, CQ (California Quarterly), Crack the Spine, descant, Door is a Jar Magazine, El Portal, Evening Street Review, Forge, Gastronomica, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Griffin, Hawaii Pacific Review, Inkwell, Kestrel, The Legendary, Limestone, The Madison Review, New Orleans Review, North Atlantic Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Oyez Review, PANK, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Quiddity Literary Journal, Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine, Riddle Fence, The Round, Saint Ann’s Review, SNReview, Spillway, Stickman Review, Switchback, Valparaiso Fiction Review, Verdad, Viral Cat, Voices de la Luna, Wild Violet, The Write Room, and The Blueline Anthology 2004. His short story “Morgan the Plumber,” which appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. 

Vivian Lawry is Appalachian by birth, a psychologist by training, and a writer by passion. She now lives and works near Richmond, Virginia. She has published four books. Her short pieces have appeared in more than sixty literary journals and anthologies. Visit vivianlawry.com to learn more and to see a complete list of her work. 

Issue 52 December 2021

Beth Escott Newcomer’s story “Tightrope”was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014. She has been published in Alembic, Close to the Bone, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Switchback, Bluestem, Paterson Literary Review, The MacGuffin, Sand Hill Review, Sanskrit Literary Arts Magazine, Umbrella Factory Magazine (“No One Is Fat In Taiwan,” Issue 36), The Writer’s Workshop Review, and other journals.

Nikki is a 22 year old Colorado based photographer with a passion for taking photos since childhood. She loves to travel and capture the moment.” https://leavinghere.tumblr.com/

Wood Reede’s work has been featured in (mac)ro(mic), Cobalt Review, Puerto del Sol, Quiet Lightning, Freshwater Literary Journal, Waving Hands Review and Penmen Review. His YA novel, Remy, was a semifinalist for the Allegra Johnson Prize in Novel Writing.

Sasha Hilas is a gender fluid analog photographer from Argentina. He enjoys taking pictures of daily life, he finds beauty in the simple emotions of every day. He makes a photo diary, his own way of doing it and recreates his memory, and he keeps the memories of himself and others over time.https://s-hilas.tumblr.com/ https://www.instagram.com/palido.fuego/

Lisa L. Leibow’s  work has been published or is forthcoming in Coe Review, CommuterLit, Courtship of Winds, Crack the Spine, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Eleven Eleven, Entropy Magazine, Evening Street Review, Five on the Fifth, Folly, Griffin, Mulberry Fork, NoVA Bards, Pisgah Review, Red Rose, Rougarou, Sand Hill Review, Sandpiper, and Sanskrit. Her work has also been nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize. She earned her master’s in writing with a concentration in fiction from Johns Hopkins University, and she currently teaches writing at several schools, including George Washington University and Northern Virginia Community College. She recently launched and co-founded an activism through storytelling arts movement with Julia Alvarez called The Scheherazade Project. She is a Faulkner-Wisdom Award novel finalist, a two-time merit-based grant recipient and resident at the Vermont Studio Center, and the winner of Pitchapalooza D.C. She has attended numerous conferences, including AWP, Algonkian Workshop, and the Writer’s Digest New York Conference, among others. In addition, she was a member of the planning committee for the Washington Writers Conference from 2017-2019, and she holds leadership positions with both ShutUp&Write and the Johns Hopkins Writing Program Alumni Association.

Taylor Glover’s grew up in the beautiful state of Colorado. She spent her childhood amongst the natural world and draws a lot of her inspiration from just that. She is a graphic designer out of Longmont Colorado under the business name of Eagle Hill Design. She studied Graphic design and Multimedia at Front Range Community College. Aside from graphic design, Taylor loves making graphic art and sells her prints on Etsy. Her favorite topics are nature and industry. Focusing on bold colors and hard vector lines, her art is loved by many. When she is not making art, she likes to enjoy nature and spend quality time with her husband and many pets at home.

Issue 51 October 2021

Doris Ferleger is a winner of the New Letters Poetry Songs of Eretz Prize, Montgomery County Poet Laureate Prize, Robert Fraser Poetry Prize, and the AROHO Creative Non-Fiction Prize, among others. In 2020 she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Delmarva Review. She is the author of three full volumes of poetry: Big Silences in a Year of Rain (finalist for the Alice James Books/Beatrice Hawley Award), As the Moon Has Breath, and Leavened, as well as a chapbook entitled When You Become Snow. Her work has been published in numerous journals including The Cape Rock, Cider Press Review, Cimarron Review, DASH Literary Journal, Delmarva Review, El Portal, Euphony, Evening Street Review, Flights, Glint Literary Journal, Good Works Review, L.A. Review, Meadow, Off the Coast, Packingtown Review, Poet Lore, Rougarou, The Virginia Normal, Whimperbang, Whistling Shade, and South Carolina Review. She holds an MFA in Poetry and a PhD in Psychology and maintains a mindfulness-based therapy practice in Wyncote, PA.

Jacqueline Henry is a NY-based writer/editor and creative writing instructor. Her poetry credits include: Abstract: Contemporary Expressions, Clarion, After the Pause, BoomerLitMag, California Quarterly, The Cape Rock, Carbon Culture Review, The Courtship of Winds, El Portal, Euphony, Evening Street Review, Front Range Review, Mad River Review, Prism Review, The Round, Slant: A Journal of Poetry, Streetlight Magazine, Whistling Shade, and Writer’s Digest magazine.

Jim Speese holds a PhD in post-WWII American Literature from Lehigh University. He is a singer/songwriter with the band Cloud Party, and wrote a weekly column on music for the Reading Eagle for over a decade. Jim currently teaches literature, film, and creative writing at Albright College. He lived in and worked for Yellowstone National Park for four years and spent three months hiking the Appalachian Trail. In addition to Umbrella Factory, His fiction is published in Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Potato Soup Journal, and Voices de la Luna, and in the collection The Library of Babel.

Joe Sumrall is a professor of science education at the University of Mississippi whose academic nonfiction can be found in various science-based journals, such as Science and Children, Science Scope, Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research, Journal of Literacy and Technology, etc. He has also authored and co-authored several textbooks. He completed a writing workshop with One Story in January of 2021. Dr. Sumrall collects sports memorabilia and enjoys exploring the treasure troves of garage sales and antique stores. He writes under the pen name of Bradley J. Scott III.

John Tustin is currently suffering in exile on the island of Elba but hopes to return to you soon. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.

He began writing poetry in February 2008 after a ten year hiatus and finally became brave enough to submit to magazines in April of 2009. In August of that year received his first acceptance from Poem and from Straylight that December. Since then his poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals, online and in print – including Umbrella Factory Magazine.  fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.

Lynde Iozzo started her writing career as a child by writing about being she a GIANTESS who ate an entire medieval forest when she was served fresh broccoli. A member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and the Denver Woman’s press club, much of her published work is from her newspaper portfolio the club required. The short story “Chains of Freedom” is soon to be published in The Second Law anthology by OTI. Although she does well in writing contests, such as an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future, she doesn’t have a rabid cult following. She promises to bring the rabid if somebody brings the cult. When not writing, she is teaching teenagers almost as wild as she is. You can catch her occasional random thoughts on Twitter by her name. You’ve found her when you find the icon of her standing under the sign for Gothic Street in Gunnison, Colorado, wearing a Siouxsie and the Banshees T-shirt.

Stephen J. Dempsey, Jr. is an introspective explorer of thought and language. Often his musing and writing contain both bitter and comic elements, easing the worst with a smile. He earned a BA in English/Writing and Communications from Fairfield University and continues to fill notebooks with poetry and songs. His best days are finding a lost line on a slip of paper long forgotten and seemingly discarded.

Yvonne Higgins Leach is the author of Another Autumn (2014). Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies including The South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review, Spoon River Review and POEM. She spent decades balancing a career in communications and public relations, raising a family, and pursuing her love of writing poetry. Her latest passion is working with shelter dogs. She splits her time living on Vashon Island and in Spokane, Washington. For more information, visit www.yvonnehigginsleach.com

Issue 50 August 2021

Alise Versella is a Pushcart nominated contributing writer for Rebelle Society whose work has been published widely. Her full length collection When Wolves Become Birds is available now and you can find her at www.aliseversella.com.

Barbara Tramonte has had poems published in many literary journals. She has published one book of poems and a chapbook. She worked for over a decade as poet-in-the-schools in New York City.

Tramonte worked as a professor in the school for graduate studies at SUNY Empire State College for many years and has worked as a poet-in-the-schools in New York City for a decade. She formerly owned a children’s bookstore in Brooklyn Heights, NY.

Isabel Brome Gaddis wonders if this pre-pandemic picture still looks like her. (Maybe, if she got a haircut. And highlights.) She used to be a geophysicist, but it’s been a while. That was New Orleans, then there was Seattle, the Microsoft years. Now she’s a proud and grateful member of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective who has published poems and short fiction.

Judy Wachler lives in Pleasant Ridge, just outside of Detroit, Michigan and is a teacher of language and drama as well as a new writer. She has a BA in French from MacMurray College, an MA in French Literature from the University of Michigan and is currently finishing an MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts.  Recently published in Renewal and Passager magazines, she is currently working on an essay collection, tending her flowers, and singing with friends.

Karl Meade’s work has been longlisted for four CBC Literary Prizes, shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s Open Season Creative Nonfiction Award and Arc Poetry Magazine’s Poem of the Year, and appeared in many literary magazines, including Literary Review of Canada, Contemporary Verse 2, Event, and The Fiddlehead. His novel, Odd Jobs, was a finalist for the Foreword Review’s Book of the Year for Humor, and an iTunes Top 20 Arts and Literature podcast. The podcast is also available at his website, www.karlmeade.com.

Lenny Levine attended Brooklyn College, graduating in 1962 with a BA in Speech and Theater. Immediately thereafter, he forgot about all of that and became a folk singer, then a folk-rock singer and songwriter, and finally a studio singer and composer of many successful jingles, including McDonald’s, Lipton Tea, and Jeep. He has composed songs and sung backup for Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Peggy Lee, Diana Ross, Barry Manilow, the Pointer Sisters, Carly Simon, and others. Lenny’s short stories have been widely published in literary magazines and journals, and he received a Pushcart Prize nomination for short fiction.

Peter Breyer was born to immigrant parents who fled war-torn Europe in 1942. He came to writing late in life when he discovered that his parents—Holocaust escapees—left a daughter in Germany when they fled to America. He has worked as a healthcare consultant while pursuing his passion for building and writing. He is currently a CBD hemp farmer in the Hudson Valley. His books are available on Amazon and his short stories, under Peter Breyer and his pseudonym, Max Bayer, have appeared in numerous journals.

Richard Weaver lives in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and volunteers with the Maryland Book Bank. His book, The Stars Undone, was published by Duende Press. Four poems from the same MS later became the libretto for a symphony, Of Sea and Stars, composed by Eric Ewazen of Juilliard. The symphony has been performed four times to date. One day he hopes to have his student loan forgiven. Publications: conjunctions, Crack the spine, Dead Mule, Gingerbread House, Kestrel, Louisville Review, Magnolia Review, Modern Poetry Quarterly Review, OffCourse, Quiddity, Southern Quarterly, Steel Toe Review, & Triggerfish. Every third Wednesday he admits to being one of the founders of the Black Warrior Review. Rarely does he reveal he was once its Poetry Editor.

Robert Kinerk writes short stories, novels, plays, poems and children’s books. He grew up in Alaska. He has made his living as a newspaper reporter and editor. He recently completed a 10-year stint as co-editor of Harvest, the on-line literary magazine of the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. He and his wife Anne live in Cambridge, MA.

Issue 49 June 2021

Growing up, Deborah Prespare lived in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya due to her father’s Foreign Service career. She majored in economics and philosophy during her undergraduate studies at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. After graduating, she worked for the federal government in Washington, D.C., and pursued, on a part-time basis, her Master of Arts in Writing at Johns Hopkins University. She now works and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Prespare’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Amarillo Bay, Blue Lake Review, Cadillac Cicatrix, Common Ground Review, decomP, Diner, Diverse Arts Project, Diverse Voices Quarterly, The Fiddleback, Front Range Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Grub Street, The MacGuffin, Marathon Literary Review, Menda City Review, North Atlantic Review, The Penmen Review, Potomac Review, Prospectus: A Literary Offering, Qwerty, Red Rock Review, Rougarou, Sanskrit Literary-Arts Magazine, Soundings East, Third Wednesday, and Valparaiso Fiction Review.

Ed Davis is the author of the novella In All Things, a fictionalized account of his training year as a psychiatric technician at the country’s largest institution for the developmentally disabled. His travel collection, Road Stories details adventures from skid rows to the Sierras, an African hospital to ancient Inca ruins high in the Andes. His death row thriller, A Matter of Time, was written in real time, twenty-four hours, as the last day of the hero’s life unfolds.

His work has appeared in Gris-Gris, New English Review, Potato Soup Journal, The Penmen Review, Rougarou, and The Umbrella Factory Magazine. A runner, backpacker, and master’s level discus thrower, Ed and his wife Jan life in Northern California, not far from Jack London’s Beauty Ranch.

Ed’s upcoming novel, The Last Professional, will be released by Artemesia Publishing in January of 2022.

Eileen Skidmore has been published in The Chicago Tribune; The San Francisco Chronicle; Brain, Child; Oxford Magazine; Green Hills Literary Lantern; Full Grown People; The Meadow; and Monarch Review. She has attended the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. Eileen graduated from California State University, worked in advertising and marketing copywriting, and is now retired. Most of the time, her favorite novel is the last one she read, which was “Luster.” Her very first favorite novel was “The Good Earth.” She writes using the pen name Eileen Bordy.

Jay Carson, a seventh-generation Pittsburgher, has taught creative writing, literature, and rhetoric at Robert Morris University, where he was a faculty advisor to the literary magazine, Rune. Retired, he is now a full-time writer. His short stories have appeared in Barely South Review, The Tower Journal, Storgy, and moonShine Review. His poems have appeared in more than 100 local and national journals, magazines, and collections, including Alabama Literary Review, Connecticut Review, Eclipse, Euphony, Hawai’i Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, The Louisville Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Nebo, The Penmen Review, Two Cities Review, Vox Poetica, Willard & Maple, and Willow Review. He has also published a poetry chapbook, Irish Coffee, with Coal Hill Review, and a longer book of his poetry, The Cinnamon of Desire, with Main Street Rag.

John Tustin – I began writing poetry in February 2008 after a ten year hiatus and finally became brave enough to submit to magazines in April of 2009. In August of that year received my first acceptance from Poem and from Straylight that December. Since then my poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals, online and in print – including Umbrella Factory Magazine. John Tustin is currently suffering in exile on the island of Elba but hopes to return to you soon. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.

Kathryn Lipari – A writer from Portland Oregon, my short stories have been featured in numerous journals including The Puritan, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and Smokelong Quarterly; my nonfiction was recently featured in the Washington Post. In addition to a writer, I am a mother and graduate student in Clinical Mental Health. Currently what I mostly do is the dishes of my three children at home doing online school. Frankly, I have forgotten what I hope to be, but I am hopeful I will remember when the sun comes out again. It would be impossible for me to come up with one favorite novel, but recent favorites are MILKMAN and THE IDIOT.

Lancaster Cooney graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a B.F.A. in Playwriting. His work can be found or is forthcoming at decomP, Alice Blue Review, Everyday Genius, Gone Lawn, Matchbook Lit Mag, The Indianola Review and Heavy Feather Review, among others. He lives with his wife, two daughters and pups in the Northern Kentucky area. He is currently working on his first novel.

Rob Granader’s work has been featured in Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, New York Times, borrowed solace, Doubly Mad: A Journal of Arts and Ideas, and Mariashriver.com. He has won writing awards from Bethesda Magazine and Writer’s Digest. He has attended various workshops at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, as well as the Key West Literary Seminar and Writer’s Digest Conference in Los Angeles. Rob has a BA in English from the University of Michigan and a JD from The George Washington University. He has published more than 350 short stories, articles and essays in over fifty publications and is now the CEO of Marketresearch.com.

William Heath has published two chapbooks, Night Moves in Ohio and Leaving Seville; a book of poems, The Walking Man; three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led (winner of the Hackney Award), Devil Dancer, and Blacksnake’s Path; a work of history, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest (winner of two Spur Awards); and a collection of interviews, Conversations with Robert Stone. www.williamheathbooks.com

Issue 48 April 2021

Avik Dutta – “I’ve pursued a diploma in Photography from RIPT Jadavpur.” (Provided cover photo, and other)

Barrett Mohrmann is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet whose work has appeared in Apricity Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Umbrella Factory Magazine, and other journals. He studied English at the College of William & Mary where he was a finalist for the Glenwood A. Clark Fiction Prize. Barrett also worked for several years as a reporter with The News & Advance in Lynchburg, Va.

Celia Meade is a poet, novelist, and painter attending Sarah Lawrence for an MFA in poetry. Celia is presently studying under Marie Howe. She has studied writing with Kathy Page and Pauline Holdstock, Trevor Cole and Joan Barfoot. Celia’s work has been published or is forthcoming in BoomerLitMag, Brushfire Literature and Arts Journal, Euphony Journal, Five on the Fifth, Headway Quarterly, Lake Effect, The Louisville Review, Lunaris Review, (mac)ro(mic), Paragon Journal, Perceptions Magazine, Plainsongs, Sheila-Na-Gig, Streetlight Magazine, and Whistling Shade. Celia also has an MFA in painting from the University of Calgary, and studied at the Royal College of Art in London. She enjoys oil painting, traveling, and dogs.

Eleanore Lee worked for many years as a academic policy analyst for the University of California system. She has BA from Barnard College in English. She has also worked for Time Inc in public relations and part time as a reporter. Her poetry has appeared in a range of journals, including Alabama Literary Review, Atlanta Review, Carbon Culture Review, Existere Journal, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Portland Review, and Tampa Review. She was selected as an International Merit Award Winner in Atlanta Review’s 2008 International Poetry Competition and also won first place in the November 2009 California State Poetry Society contest.

Fabrizia Faustinella is a physician and film maker. She grew up in Italy, where she obtained a medical degree at the University of Perugia Medical School and a PhD degree at the University of FlorenceMedical School. Fabrizia currently practices as an internist in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. She has published numerous research articles, educational books, and several essays inspired by her personal and professional experiences. Through her writing, she explores the fragility of life, human relationships, and the individual’s struggle for survival, while searching for elements of shared humanity.

John Ballantine is an economics/finance professor at Brandeis International Business School, and took his Bachelor’s degree in English at Harvard, with an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Economics from NYU Stern. He has published economic commentary in *Salon *and the *Boston Globe*. His literary work has appeared in *Adelaide Literary Magazine,* *Apricity Magazine, Arkansas Review, Bluestem, Carbon Culture Review, Caveat Lector, Cobalt, Existere Journal, Forge, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Hawaii Pacific Review, Manhattanville Review, The Meadow, The Penmen Review,* *Oracle Fine,* *Saint Ann’s Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, Santa Clara Review, The Smart Set, SNReview, Slippery Elm, Streetlight Magazine and many others*. He writes to understand the world we walk in and touch.

Joseph Kerschbaum’s most recent publications include Mirror Box (Main St Rag Press, 2020) and Distant Shore of a Split Second (Louisiana Literature Press, 2018). Joseph has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Indiana Arts Commission. His work has appeared in journals such as Failbetter, Panoply, Flying Island, The Battered Suitcase, and The Delinquent. Joseph lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his family.

Phyllis Carol Agins has long found inspiration in Philadelphia, PA. Two novels, a children’s book, and an architectural study of synagogues and churches were all published during her years there. Recently more than 50 short stories have appeared in literary magazines, including Art Times, Eclipse, Lilith Magazine, The Minetta Review, Soundings East, Pennsylvania English, Valparaiso Fiction Review, Verdad, Santa Fe Writers Project, Westview, Whiskey Island Magazine, and Women Arts Quarterly Journal. For many years, she divided her time between Philly and Nice, France, adding the Mediterranean rhythms to her sources of inspiration. Please visit: phylliscarolagins.com.

Issue 47 February 2021

Douglas Young is a research writer whose research paper “How to Master the Local Bypass Challenge” sold over 20,000 copies in the B2B telecom market. He has a master’s degree from Harvard and studied fiction writing with Peter Taylor at the University of Virginia. His work has been published in Paragon Journal. Douglas attended ThrillerFest and the Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference. His hobbies include rowing and kitesurfing on the San Francisco Bay.

Jeffrey Kingman is a poet and musician who lives in Vallejo, CA. His chapbook, ON A ROAD, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019.

Marc Tretin’s writing has been published or is forthcoming in Bayou Magazine, Caliban Online, The Diagram, Free State Review, The Griffin, Litbreak Magazine, Minetta Review, The New York Quarterly,
Pennsylvania English, The Saint Ann’s Review, Whistling Shade, Sweet Tree Review, and Willow Review. He was an attorney in private practice and is now retired.

Margo McCall’s short stories have appeared in Pacific Review, Heliotrope, In*tense, Sidewalks, Rockhurst Review, Toasted Cheese, blank spaces, and other journals. Her nonfiction has appeared in Herizons, Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir, Pilgrimage, the Los Angeles Times, and a variety of other publications, and her poetry in Amethyst Review and Surprise the Line. She is a graduate of the M.A. creative writing program at California State University Northridge, and lives in the port town of Long Beach,
California. For more information, visit http://www.margomccall.com.

Marlene S. Molinoff is a former university literature teacher and marketing strategist, and has traveled and photographed extensively in Africa, Antarctica, the Middle East, and South America. Her short
stories, many of which are about the countless transitions made in life, either by will or by chance, have appeared in The Alembic, Amarillo Bay, Breakwater Review, Crack the Spine, Ducts, EDGE, Evening Street Review, Forge, Good Works Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Litbreak Magazine, Magnolia Review, Steam Ticket, Sweet Tree Review, and the Iowa Summer Festival Anthology. Marlene completed her bachelor’s degree in English literature at Barnard College and received her master’s degree from Tufts University. She continued her education at George Washington University, where she earned my PhD in English literature, and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a certificate in business administration. Marlene studied with Rick Hillis, Andrew Porter, Amber Dermont, Myla Goldberg, Marie-Helene Bertino, and Will Allison, among others, and have attended the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Rittenhouse Writers’ Group, and the One Story Summer and other Workshops.

Melody Sinclair graduated from the MFA program in Creative Writing at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. She has been published at Adelaide Literary Magazine, Heavy Feather Review, Bull: Men’s Fiction, Avalon Literary Review, Adanna Literary Journal, Prometheus Dreaming, and more. She’s won the Denver Women’s Press Club Unknown Writer’s Contest and is on the Fiction Reading Committee for Carve Magazine. Melody lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with her husband, dog and two kids. www.melodysinclair.com.

Ramona Scarborough has written eleven books and over one-hundred of her stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. Her favorite read in recent times is a selection from the book club she attends called, “The Husband’s Secret.” When she reached the page which revealed his secret, she gasped. She admired how the author had given hints, but I never expected what it really was.

Issue 46 December 2020

Casey Killingsworth has worked in The American Journal of Poetry, The Writing Disorder, Two Thirds North, and other journals. His book of poems, A Handbook for Water, was published by Cranberry Press in 1995. As well he has a book on the poetry of Langston Hughes, The Black and Blue Collar Blues (VDM, 2008). Casey has a Master’s degree from Reed College.

Dan Pinkerton lives in Iowa. His work has appeared most recently in Folio, Reunion, Green Mountains Review, and the Carolina Quarterly and The Normal School websites.

Originally from Ohio, Eddie Fogler currently lives in Virginia with his husband and two spoiled dogs. He has his MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University. His works have been featured in From Whispers to Roars, Haunted Waters Press, Literally Stories, Exoplanet, The Sirens Call, Capsule Stories, Umbrella Factory, and Gravitas. The first chapter of his novel-in-progress was featured in Seven Hills Literary Review. You can see his antics @ eddiewritesthings.com

Elizabeth Bernays grew up in Australia, became a British Government Scientist in London, and then a Professor of Entomology at the University of California Berkeley. From there she was appointed Regents’ Professor at the University of Arizona where she also obtained an MFA in Creative Writing. She has published forty nonfiction stories in literary magazines and last year, her memoir, “Six Legs Walking,” won the 2020 Arizona/New Mexico Book Award for memoir.

Fabrice B. Poussin teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry, his work has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and many other magazines. His photography has been published in The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review as well as other publications.

Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, THE ADVENTURE and HAPPINESS (Story Line Press; the former to be reissued by Red Hen Press), and two collections, A POVERTY OF WORDS (Prolific Press, 2015) and LANDSCAPE WITH MUTANT (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018). Many other poems in print and online journals.

John Tustin began writing poetry in February 2008 after a ten year hiatus and finally became brave enough to submit to magazines in April of 2009. In August of that year received his first acceptance from Poem and from Straylight that December. Since then his poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals, online and in print. He is currently suffering in exile on the island of Elba but hopes to return to you soon. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.

Peycho Kanev is the author of 6 poetry collections and three chapbooks, published in the USA and Europe. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, such as: Rattle, Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Front Porch Review, Hawaii Review, Barrow Street, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others. His new chapbook titled Under Half-Empty Heaven was published in 2019 by Grey Book Press.

William Heath is the author of two chapbooks, Night Moves in Ohio and Leaving Seville; a book of poems, The Walking Man; three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led, Devil Dancer, and Blacksnake’s Path; an award-winning work of history, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest, and a collection of interviews, Conversations with Robert Stone. visit: www.williamheathbooks.com.

Issue 45 October 2020

Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi has spent a decade penning award-winning short- and feature-length screenplays, while working as a full-time artisan baker. His prose work explores the trials and tribulations of ordinary people, slice-of-life examinations anchored in real and surreal settings. His short stories have appeared in over twenty-five literary journals, including Raconteur Literary Magazine, Scrittura Magazine, and The Helix Magazine.

Jane Snyder’s stories have appeared in Pithead Chapel, Summerset Review, and Rue Scribe. Right now her favorite novel is “In A Summer Season” by Elizabeth Taylor.

Jody Strimling-Muchow is a playwright, an actor and a crazy knitting lady in addition to writing stories. Characters, their desires and dreams, their ideas of themselves and others, drive her writing. Recent favorite projects include her pandemic play, Untitled, produced on Zoom by Kitchen Dog Theater; and her memoir, Mark, published in BoomerLitMag. She is currently finding inspiration in her own back yard in the Hudson Valley.

Leah Holbrook Sackett published her debut book of short stories, Swimming Middle River, with REaDLips Press in 2020. Additionally, she is an adjunct lecturer in English, as well as Communications and Media departments at the University.of Missouri – St. Louis. This is also where she earned her B.A. in English and M.F.A. in creative writing. Learn more about Leah at LeahHolbrookSackett.website.

Len Kruger lives in Washington, D.C. His short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Zoetrope All-Story, The Barcelona Review, and Gargoyle. He has a piece in the forthcoming anthology, This is What America Looks Like: Fiction and Poetry from DC, Maryland, and Virginia to be published in early 2021 by The Washington Writers’ Publishing House.

Nigel Ford works fulltime as a writer and visual artist, he is British and lives in UK and Sweden. His stories, artwork, poetry, short plays, flash fiction and essays appear regularly in literary magazines in USA, UK, Germany, Ireland and Norway.

Raymond Deej lives in Idaho with his kids. That’s everything. The daughter makes the rules.

Issue 44 August 2020

Born in Zimbabwe, Clive Aaron Gill has spent time in Southern Africa, Europe and North America. He creatively draws from his experiences in these continents. His inspiration also stems from his imagination, listening to people’s stories and reading.

DS Maolalai has been nominated four times for Best of the Net and three times for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in two collections, “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden” (Encircle Press, 2016) and “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” (Turas Press, 2019).

Fabrice Poussin teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry, his work has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and many other magazines. His photography has been published in The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review as well as other publications.

Heath Callahan writes poetry and literary and genre fiction, with a focus on the experimental. @Heath_Callahan.

James Thurgood was born in Nova Scotia, grew up in Windsor, Ontario, and now lives in Calgary, Alberta. He has been a labourer, musician, and teacher – not necessarily in that order. His poems have appeared in various journals, anthologies, and in a collection (Icemen/Stoneghosts, Penumbra Press). He is also the author of His Own Misfortune, a work-in-progress.

Richard Luftig is a professor emeritus of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio, who now resides in California. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. One of his poetry chapbooks books was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Two of his poems have been included in The Ten Best Years of Dos Madres Press. His full-length book of poems, A Grammar for Snow, has been published by Unsolicited Press. His poems and news can be viewed at richardluftig.com. Luftig’s wife of forty-seven years has been nominated for sainthood.

Richard Weaver volunteers with the Maryland Book Bank, CityLit, the Baltimore Book Festival, and is the writer-in-residence at the James Joyce Pub. Recent pubs: FRIGG, Mad Swirl, Spank the carp, Adelaide, Dead Mule, and Magnolia Review. He’s the author of The Stars Undone (Duende Press, 1992), and provided the libretto for a symphony, Of Sea and Stars (2005), performed 4 times to date.

Robert P. Bishop, a former soldier and teacher, lives in Tucson. His short fiction has appeared in The Literary Hatchet, The Umbrella Factory Magazine, Commuter Lit, Lunate Fiction, Spelk, Fleas on the Dog, Corner Bar Magazine, and elsewhere.

Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include Pushcart nominations, chapbooks, & publications in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry & BestNewPoemsOnline, among others.

Issue 43 June 2020

Adam Brantley is from Kula, Hawaii, on the island of Maui. He graduated with a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University and is currently attending the University of Texas Long School of Medicine in San Antonio. “Green Light Angels” is the first creative writing piece he has published.

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a ten-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012 she won the Red Ochre Chapbook Contest with her manuscript, Before I Go to Sleep. In 2018 her book In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for a national book award and her poem A Mall in California took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. In 2019 her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. She is the former Editor-in-Chief for The Orchards Poetry Journal and Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Tule Review. She is a member of the Sacramento Poetry Center Board of Directors and Saratoga Author’s Hall of Fame. She is currently enrolled in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing program.

Colton Ragland is from Choctaw, Oklahoma. As soon as Ragland graduated high school he came to Boulder, Colorado to pursue his Associate’s Degree in Culinary Arts at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. He aspires to do one thing in this world and that is to become someone that makes a difference. Colton believes words are the elite weapons of today’s society and he is wielding this weapon to cause serious impact in every community he inhabits. As a chef he understands how to balance his grammar and ingredients to make anyone truly smile. This is his very first published piece and he could not be more excited that not just his story finally got told but Connor’s as well. Colton’s favorite novel is “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” because the distraining battle of mental health truly can be beaten with just yourself. You can be your own hero in the story, you just have to believe you can.

Don McLellan has worked as a journalist in Canada, South Korea, and Hong Kong. He has been shortlisted (in 2016) and longlisted (2018) for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and has published two story collections, In the Quiet After Slaughter (Libros Libertad, a 2009 ReLit Award finalist) and Brunch with the Jackals (Thistledown, 2015). More at donmclellan.com.

Michael Kemp is a father, aging punk rocker, former stand-up comedian, and a writer from Hillsboro, New Hampshire. His work has appeared in Yellow Chair Review, Broadkill Review, Subtopian Magazine. and Dual Coast Magazine. He has an undying love for his three children, fiancée and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Stephen Ground graduated from York University, then settled in a remote, fly-in community in Saskatchewan’s north. He’s since returned south, co-founding Pearson House Films, where he acts as writer/producer. His fiction has been featured in Thin Air Magazine, Orca Lit, Bending Genres, Sky Island Journal, Flash Fiction Magazine, and elsewhere.

Issue 42 May 2020

Barrett Morhmann studied English at the College of William & Mary in Virginia where he was a finalist for the Glenwood A. Clark Fiction Prize. He worked for several years as a journalist with The News & Advance in Lynchburg, Va. and received various award nominations through the Virginia Press Association for his articles. He now writes for enjoyment and to run his brain through the occasional car wash.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Transcend, Dalhousie Review and Qwerty with work upcoming in Blueline, Hawaii Pacific Review and Clade Song.

Mark Hamilton considers himself a neo structuralist, and works in both Eastern and Western traditions. His perspective is environmental in these three poems which are inspired by the Eastern travelogues, especially those written in haibun by Basho. Please see www.MarkBHamilton.WordPress.com.

Brad Shurmantine lives in Napa, Ca. He spends time writing, reading, tending three gardens (sand, water, vegetable), keeping bees, taking care of chickens and cats, and working on that husband thing. His fiction and personal essays have appeared in Pettigru Review, Potato Soup Journal, Every Day Fiction, Avalon Literary Review, Adelaide Magazine, and Nightingale & Sparrow. His poetry has been published in Oddball Magazine, Jam and Sand, Ariel Chart, and Mom Egg. He backpacks in the Sierras and travels when he can, and has a serious passion for George Eliot.

Robert P. Bishop, a former soldier and biology teacher, lives in Tucson, Arizona. His short fiction has appeared in The Literary Hatchet, The Umbrella Factory Magazine, CommuterLit, Lunate Fiction, Fleas on the Dog, Corner Bar Magazine, and elsewhere.

Ryan Borchers is a writer from Omaha, Neb., and holds an MFA in fiction writing from Creighton University. His work has been published by Flash Fiction Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Spelk, 50-Word Stories, Blue River and other places. He is also the author of three unpublished novels titled “The Revengers,” “Tranquility’s Broomballers” and “The Darkness Below.” His favorite novel is “Miss Lonelyhearts” by Nathanael West. One day, he would like to realize perfect clarity.

Issue 41 March 2020

Andrew Wittstadt was born and raised outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He holds graduate degrees from McNeese State University and is currently teaching in Las Vegas, Nevada. His work has appeared in Bending Genres, New Limestone Review, Foothill, and Cider Press Review. You can follow him on twitter @andrewwittstadt.

Dmitry Blizniuk is an author from Ukraine. His most recent poems have appeared in The Pinch, Press53, Magma Poetry, The Nassau Review, Havik, Saint Katherine Review, Star 82, Naugatuck River, Lighthouse, The Gutter, Palm Beach Poetry Festival and many others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he is also the author of “The Red Fоrest” (Fowlpox Press, 2018). He lives in Kharkov, Ukraine.

Eddie Fogler, originally from Ohio, currently lives in Virginia with his husband and two spoiled dogs. While overseas, he received his MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University. His work has been featured in From Whispers to Roars, Haunted Waters Press, Literally Stories, Exoplanet, The Sirens Call, and Capsule Stories. You can see his antics on Instagram @eddiewritesthings.

Kate Lutzner’s poetry and stories have appeared in such publications as The Brooklyn Rail and Mississippi Review. She has been featured in Verse Daily and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize as well as the Best of the Net. Her chapbook, Invitation to a Rescue, was published by Poet Republik.

Joseph Cruse is a writer, actor, a teacher, and a bad painter. Recently graduated with a masters in Rhetoric and Composition, he explores New Orleans, sprays graffiti scenes of movies onto canvas, and doesn’t exercise. His other recent work can be read in Fleas on the Dog Magazine. His other short story work has also been featured in Phree Write and Viewfinder Magazine; while small spacklings of poetry can be found at Cacti Magazine and W.I.S.H Press.

Richard Krause has had two collections of fiction published titled Studies in Insignificance (Livingston Press, 2003) and The Horror of the Ordinary (Unsolicited Press, 2019). A third collection, “’Crawl Space’ & Other Stories of Limited Maneuverability,” will be published by Unsolicited Press in 2021. He also has had two collections of epigrams, Optical Biases (EyeCorner Press in Denmark, 2012) and Eye Exams (Propertius Press, 2019). He has a story upcoming in GNU Journal. He lives in Kentucky where he is retired from teaching at a community college. His favorite novel is Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.

Issue 40 December 2019

Julia Gerhardt is a writer from Los Angeles, now living in Baltimore. Her work is upcoming or has been published in The Airgonaut, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Cease, Cows, Literary Orphans, Rogue Agent, Flash Fiction Magazine, Monkeybicycle, and others. She is currently working on her first novel.

Alicia Marie Lawrence has fiction and poetry included in various print and online journals, including Grain Magazine, The Nashwaak Review, As/Us Journal, Tightrope’s The Acrobat, and others. She was an ARC Magazine Poet-in-Residence mentee, and her poetry was nominated by Umbrella Factory Magazine for The Pushcart Prize. She holds a Baccalaureate Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College, and resides on Vancouver Island in BC.

Richard Luftig is a former professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio and now resides in California. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States (Including Umbrella Factory Magazine) and internationally in Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia. His latest book of poems recently appeared in Realms of the Mothers: The First Decade of Dos Madres Press. His latest book of poems will be published by Unsolicited Press in July 2019. His poems and blogs may be found at richardluftig.com.

Gary Rogowski is the author of Handmade, Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction. He is a furniture designer and maker and teaches classes at The Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, OR. His essays and fiction have been published in Coldnoon Journal, Craftsmanship.net, and Praxis Magazine Arts & Literature.

Heather Sager is an author of poetry, short stories, and flash fiction. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Alba, Mantis, New World Writing, Sweet Tree Review, Little Patuxent Review, and other journals. Heather grew up in rural Minnesota and lives in northern Illinois.

Robert Joe Stout’s poetry reflects experiences from childhood in Wyoming, adolescence in northern California, the Air Force, college in Mexico, marriage, fatherhood, years of journalistic activity, emigration. His poems have appeared in Sublimal Poetry, The Tishman Review, Poem, Third Wednesday and elsewhere. He’s been the recipient of journalistic awards including spot news writing.

Issue 39 October 2019

Sara Oliver Gordus is a Baltimore-based writer and editor. Her writing has appeared in the Rumpus, Nebo, Radius Lit, The East Bay Review and Sleet among other publications.

DS Maolalai has been nominated for Best of the Web and twice for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in two collections, “Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden” (Encircle Press, 2016) and “Sad Havoc Among the Birds” (Turas Press, 2019)

Mitchel Montagna is a corporate communications writer for a professional services firm. He has also worked as a radio news reporter and special education teacher. Publications include Amarillo Bay, Leaves of Ink, White Liquor Journal, and Penwood Review. He is married and lives in New Jersey.

Ann Randlette retired from a 33 year career in cardiac ultrasound, took some poetry writing classes and is published in Algebra of Owls, The Remembered Arts, The Stray Branch, Rats Ass Review, Minute Magazine, and upcoming in Sybil Journal.

Tim Suermondt is the author of five full-length collections of poems, the latest JOSEPHINE BAKER SWIMMING POOL from MadHat Press, 2019. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Stand Magazine, Galway Review, Bellevue Literary Review and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.

Issue 38 August 2019

Dave Bengtson’s a guy who occasionally likes to write. He is also a hack.

Robert P. Bishop, a former soldier and biology teacher, holds a Master’s degree Biology and in Public Administration. He started writing short stories, novels, and poetry following his return to the US after working in other countries for many years. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. His work has appeared in The Literary Hatchet.

Michael Dittman lives, writes and works just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His books include Small Brutal Incidents, Jack Kerouac and Masterpieces of The Beat Generation. He has won, among others, a Pennsylvania Arts Council Grant and multiple Pennsylvania Partner in the Arts Grants. Contact him at michaeldittman.com.

Richard Weaver lives in Baltimore City (home of the original Umbrella Factory (1826)) where he volunteers with the Maryland Book Bank, acts as the Archivist-at-large for a Jesuit college, and is the Official poet-in-residence at the James Joyce Pub and Restaurant. He is the author of The Stars Undone (Duende Press). His poems have appeared in River Poet’s Journal, Southern Review, Little Patuxent Review, Loch Raven Review, Adelaide, Slush Pile, and Elsewhere. Yes, there is a magazine named Elsewhere.

Issue 37 June 2019

Mary Breaden lives and writes in Portland, Oregon, where after work she can often be found gardening or stitching feminist sentiments onto fabric. She co-manages Visitant, an experimental literary outlet. Mary’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Bennington Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Joyland, and Daedalus Magazine, among others.

Deana Collins is a Bay Area photographer who prefers to work in black and white 35mm film. She finds the darkroom both a nostalgic and a familiar feeling; it’s in the wait involved in the process. She tends to work in a documentary style. Although her subjects are contemporary, they are reminiscent of the past at times. Her work is part of the permanent collection at Grasshopper Gallery in San Francisco. Her work has shown recently at Photoworks, Harvey Milk Photo Center and Rayko.

Monty Jones is a writer in Austin, Texas. His book of poems Cracks in the Earth was published in 2018 by Cat Shadow Press of Austin. It is available from Malvern Books (info@malvernbooks.com).

Dane Karnick grew up by the Colorado “Rockies” and lives north of Seattle. His poetry has appeared in Poppy Road Review, Ephrastic Review, Bluepepper and is forthcoming in El Portal. Visit him at www.danekarnick.com.

Issue 36 April 2019

Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in The Cape Rock, New Ohio Review, and Gargoyle. Her newest poetry collections are A Perfect Day for Semaphore (Finishing Line Press), In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), I’m in a Place Where Reason Went Missing (Main Street Rag Publishing Co.), and The Yellow Dot of a Daisy (Alien Buddha Press).

S. Marlowe hung around the streets of Denver from birth to death. Posthumously, this is S. Marlowe’s first publication.

Beth Escott Newcomer grew up on Normal Avenue in Normal, Illinois, came of age in Chicago, was chewed up and spit out by New York City, licked her wounds in Los Angeles, and now lives a quiet life with her husband and a pack of dogs in rural Fallbrook, California.

Meghan Louise Wagner is a fiction writer and professional chef from Cleveland, OH. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing from Cleveland State University. Her fiction has appeared in places such as Flash Fiction Magazine, 101 Words and Literally Stories.

Issue 35 February 2019

Mark Conkling, Ph.D., is a New Mexico author from Rio Rancho. He is a former University Professor (Philosophy, Psychology), a retired Methodist minister, and now works as a Medical Practice Manager. Mark Conkling’s “Blues” novels explore ways that spiritual forces found in nature and in other people can transform broken lives. Prairie Dog Blues (2011), Dog Shelter Blues (2012), Killer Whale Blues (2014), and now Honey Bee Blues (2017) all show how hope and love can heal our deepest wounds. In addition to the four novels in the “Blues” series, he is the author of articles in scholarly journals years ago and writes contemporary short stories available at www.markconklingauthor.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of ten poetry collections, most recently “Lady, You Shot Me”, which was published by 8th House Publishing. He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louis Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Kate St. Germain is an American writer and teacher. Kate lived throughout Asia for the past six years where she taught English as a second language. She currently resides in Massachusetts with her Taiwanese puppy Francis where she continues to teach and write.

Ellen Stone’s poems have appeared in Passages North, The Collagist, The Museum of Americana, and Fifth Wednesday among other places. She is the author of The Solid Living World (Michigan Writers’ Cooperative Press, 2013). Ellen’s poems have been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart prize and Best of the Net.

Issue 34 December 2018

Rey Armenteros is a Los Angeles-based painter whose expressionistic brand of surrealism was largely shaped by the Far East iconography he encountered during his several years in Seoul, Korea. He writes a blog on the methodologies of art titled, Through Concentrated Breath.

For as long as he has been working, Don McMann has made his living by writing. He’s written speeches, magazine articles, technical manuals. He spent time in public relations which is possibly where he developed his interest in fiction. McMann has an MFA from Bennington and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. He’s currently an assistant professor of English at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada.

James Croal Jackson is the author of The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017). His poetry has appeared in Columbia Journal, Rattle, *82 Review, Reservoir, and elsewhere. He edits The Mantle, a poetry journal, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Find him at jimjakk.com and @jimjakk.

Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Orange, J.R. Solonche has been publishing poems in magazines and anthologies (more than 400) since the early 70s. He is author of Beautiful Day (Deerbrook Editions), Won’t Be Long (Deerbrook Editions), Heart’s Content (chapbook from Five Oaks Press), Invisible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize by Five Oaks Press), The Black Birch (Kelsay Books), I, Emily Dickinson & Other Found Poems (Deerbrook Editions), In Short Order (Kelsay Books), Tomorrow, Today & Yesterday (forthcoming from Deerbrook Editions), and coauthor of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). He lives in the Hudson Valley.

Issue 33 September 2018

K. M. Huber grew up in the Pacific Northwest, spent a decade in NYC, then moved to South America. Her work has appeared in Earth Island Journal, Diner, McGuffin, Post Road, and ViceVersa among others. Huber is currently seeking a home for her historical novel set in sixth-century Nazca, Peru.

Amy Lee Kite is a poet, blogger, social media strategist and children’s book author who loves the written word in all of its many forms. When she is not busy being a mom to her three children or taking care of her three rescue dogs, she is most often writing. www.amyleekite.com

Ann Harper Reed has rappelled from helicopters to fight fires in the Sierra Nevada, traipsed the Peruvian Amazon in search of God, and worked the Iowa factory-floor. Her first novel Element of Blank was well reviewed. Midwest Book Review described Reed’s writing as “raw, dark, gritty, and undeniably compelling.”

Issue 32 June 2018

Victoria Anderson is a former writing program director at Loyola University Chicago, and received her doctorate in American Literature with a Creative Writing concentration from Binghamton University, New York. She has published three books of poetry: This Country or That (Mid-America Press), Vorticity (MAMMOTH Books), and The Hour Box (Kelsay Books). She’s a three-time recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from Illinois Arts Council, and had residencies at Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Michael Cohen’s short fiction work has appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine, American Writers Review, FRiGG, Furious Gazelle, Penmen Review, Streetlight Magazine, and STORGY magazines. His short story “The Cantor’s Window,” was acknowledged as a Shortlist Winner Nominee in Adelaide Literary Magazine’s 2018 “Voices Literary Award for Short Stories” and was included in the 2018 Literary Voices Anthology published this February. In 2017 he published his first novel, Rivertown Heroes.

Dr. Juanita Kirton earned a MFA from Goddard College and is on the editorial staff at Clockhouse Literary Journal; published in several anthologies, Juanita works for Pennsylvania Dept. of Education and a US Army Veteran. She resides in with her spouse, PA. Besides writing, Juanita enjoys touring on her motorcycle.

Dan Pinkerton lives in Urbandale, Iowa. His work has appeared in Cutbank, Barrow Street, Subtropics, Boston Review, Indiana Review, and Quarterly West.

Issue 31 March 2018

Taylor García’s short stories and essays have appeared in Chagrin River Review, Driftwood Press, Fifth Wednesday Journal, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Writing Disorder, 3AM Magazine, Evening Street Review and others. He also writes the weekly column, “Father Time” at the GoodMenProject.com He lives in Southern California with his wife and sons. www.btaylorgarcia.com

Mark B. Hamilton has a new chapbook, “100 Miles of Heat” (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Recent work has appeared in Albatross, About Place Journal, The Listening Eye, Poetry Salzburg Review, Ship of Fools, Slipstream, and Plainsongs, and is forthcoming in Oxford Poetry, UK. Please see www.MarkBHamilton.WordPress.com

N. Marc Mullin’s short story “Milkweed” was a finalist in Middlesex University London’s international fiction contest. He’s studied one-on-one with Alice Eliot Dark and Kate Pullinger. A native of the Bronx, he drove a taxi and spent years as a sheet metal worker before he became an attorney specializing in civil rights and employment law. He currently has his own firm, Smith Mullin, P.C., and has successfully argued cases in front of the United States Supreme Court and the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Freddy Torres is originally from Houston but is now a New York City transplant. His designs are inspired by his skateboarding,

design, and musical influences. You can keep up with his current projects on Instagram, @saladnewyork or saladnewyork.com

Sanjida Yasmin is a Bengali-American storyteller and poet whose work explores South Asian traditions, transient movements from East to West, and most importantly, the mystery of time. Raised in the Bronx, NY, she graduated from The City University of New York where she wrote her MFA thesis on the senescence of mortals. She is a lecturer by day, wordsmith by night.

Issue 30 December 2017

Charles Edward Brooks was born in North Carolina and took degrees at Guilford College and Duke University. Following his qualification as an actuary, he went on to do a doctorate at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. For some years his work involved international travel and communication in a number of languages. In addition to translations, his literary output includes novels, novellas, and especially short stories which have appeared in magazines such as Alembic, Big Muddy, The MacGuffin, Wellspring, Westview, and Xavier Review.

Michael Hunter is a Cincinnati based freelance illustrator and fine artist. He completed a BFA In painting at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1986, at the dawn of computer graphics. Interested in this new media, he went on to study Computer Graphics at Pratt Institute earning his MFA in 1991. https://michaelhunterportfolio.com/

Ben Kline lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he writes about our modern digital existence, his many former lovers, the Eighties, and growing up Appalachian. His work is forthcoming or has appeared in IMPOSSIBLE ARCHETYPE, Kettle Blue Review, The New Verse News, The Birds We Piled Loosely, and many more. He thinks aloud, comments, and visualizes at benkline.tumblr.com

Abigail Warren lives in Northampton, Massachusetts and teaches at Cambridge College. Her work has appeared in Tin House, The Delmarva Review, Brink Magazine, Sanskrit, Emerson Review, Hawai’i Pacific Review, among others. She was a recipient of the Rosemary Thomas Poetry Prize while at Smith College. Her chapbook, AIR-BREATHING LIFE (Finishing Line Press, 2017) is out.

Lucinda Watson’s book of nonfiction, How They Achieved, was published in 2001 by Wiley Publishing. She has work published or forthcoming in Jelly Bucket, Louisville Review, Poet Lore, SLAB, and others. http://www.abigailwarren.org/

Patricia Warren lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She has attended writing conferences hosted by One Story, Tin House, and Bread Loaf in Sicily. Her work has appeared in SNReview and The Tower Journal.

Issue 29 September 2017

Elias Andreopoulos lives in Ohio and does not have any major life revelations, but is hoping to have some soon. His favorite novel is This Side of Brightness.

Natalie Crick, from the UK, has poetry published or forthcoming in a range of journals and magazines including Interpreters House, The Chiron Review, Rust and Moth, Ink in Thirds and The Penwood Review. This year her poem, ‘Sunday School’ was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her first chapbook will be released by Bitterzoet Press this year.

Born in Italy some decades ago, Gabriella Garofalo fell in love with the English language at six, started writing poems (in Italian) at six and is the author of “Lo sguardo di Orfeo”; “L’inverno di vetro”; “Di altre stelle polari”; “Blue Branches”.

Paula Spurlin Paige is an Adjunct Professor Emerita of Romance Languages and Literatures at Wesleyan University. An emerging writer, she has recently published short stories online in A Diverse Arts Project and Stirring. Another story, which was first runner-up for the Red Hen Press Short Story Award in 2015, has just appeared in the 150^th anniversary issue of Reed Magazine. An earlier story, set during the flu epidemic of 1918, is forthcoming in Newfound.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio is also a sometime writer living in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com

A recovering economics professor, Steve Slavin earns a living writing math and economics books. His short story collection, “To the City, with Love,” was recently published.

Issue 28 June 2017

Yuan Changming, nine-time Pushcart and one-time Best of Net nominee, published monographs on translation before moving out of China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver; credits include Best of Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, Threepenny Review and 1299 others.

Jessica Dealing currently resides in Miami, Florida. She enjoys family, cheese, and discovering all the macabre creatures that romp around in her imagination.

Paul Ewing lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his wife Liz. He is a stay at home parent to their two small sons, Jackson and Davis. His stories have appeared in The Allegheny Review, The Baltimore Review, Pennsylvania English, and Word Riot.

Lou Gaglia is the author of Poor Advice (2015) and Sure Things & Last Chances (2016). His fiction has appeared in Eclectica, Columbia Journal, Umbrella Factory, Drunk Monkeys, and elsewhere. He teaches in upstate New York and is a long-time T’ai Chi Ch’uan practitioner. Visit him at lougaglia.com

After ten years of writing prose, Zav Levinson has emerged as an active poet, inspired by his life of rebellion, love, loss, politics, religion, and woodworking. Zav’s poems have appeared in Poetry Quebec and SWEPTmagazine. Sky of Ink Press will publish his chapbook this fall.

Sean Madden is an analyst at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The John Updike Review, Dappled Things, and elsewhere. He lives in Lincoln, California, with his wife and son.

Jim Zola has worked in a warehouse, as a security guard, in a bookstore, as a teacher for Deaf children, as a toy designer for Fisher Price, and currently as a children’s librarian. His poetry has been published in many journals through the years. His publications include a chapbook — The One Hundred Bones of Weather (Blue Pitcher Press) — and a full length poetry collection — What Glorious Possibilities (Aldrich Press). Zola currently lives in Greensboro, NC

Issue 27 March 2017

Jason Bransma is a multimedia artist, born and living in Colorado. He is on a creative mission to express his fascination with the nature, the universe, and the human experience. http://artbyjasonbrandsma.weebly.com/

Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Oyez Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, while her recently published books include Nordeast Minneapolis: A History, A Brief History of Stillwater Minnesota, and Ugly Girl.

Nicholas Ilacqua lives in Sacramento, where he develops software, posts vinyl on Facebook, and organizes a Scotch Club. According to those closest to him: “His hair is like a bird’s nest, sans bird.” “There is a crazy world that actually makes sense buried somewhere deep within his head.” “He should visit Bali.”

Richard Weaver lives in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. He volunteers at the Maryland Book Bank, and acts as the Archivist-at-large for a Jesuit College founded in 1830. He is also an unofficial snowflake counter. (There are real ones). His recent poems have appeared in the Red Eft Review, Gnarled Oak, and Conjunctions. Forthcoming poems will be appearing in Crack the spine, Steel Toe, Clade Song, Aberration Labyrinth, Triggerfish, Kestrel, & Gingerbread House.

Caleb Wright currently studies history at Indiana State University. He has been published in Allusions Literary Magazine, and has won the Mary Reed McBeth Award for outstanding nonfiction writing. He plans to pursue an MFA shortly.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio is also a casual poet living in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. His piece,The Bead Factory is this issue’s front cover.

Issue 26 December 2016

Deana Collins is a photographer living in San Francisco, CA. She has been using an analog camera and printing in the darkroom since 2008. Most recently she has been working on several documentary projects in numerous cities.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, Stillwater Review and Big Muddy Review with work upcoming in Louisiana Review, Columbia College Literary Review and Spoon River Poetry Review.

Kyle Heger, former managing editor of Communication World magazine, lives in Albany, CA, with his wife and three sons. His writing has won a number of awards and been accepted by 43 publications, including Blue Collar Review, Nerve Cowboy and U.S. 1 Worksheets.

Scott Laudati lives in NYC. He is the author of Hawaiian Shirts In The Electric Chair (Kuboa Press). Visit him on instagram @scottlaudati

Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician, is a Pushcart nominee with over a thousand poems published internationally in magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. His latest book out now, ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy’ is available on Amazon and through Cawing Crow Press, while in September of this year, another book of poems, ‘Like As If’, will be published by Pskis Porch. His poems on video can be viewed on YouTube’s ‘BruceMcRaePoetry’

Mike Mulvey is an adjunct instructor of American Literature at Central Connecticut State University, has an MFA, and has had over two dozen short stories published in lit mags and journals such as War, Literature and the Arts, Johnny America, Prole (UK), Literary Orphans, Roadside Fiction (Ireland), and Umbrella Factory Magazine. In 2013 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He lost.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio is also a casual poet living in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. His pieces: Rubber Band Factory (on orange) is this issue’s front cover and Rubber Band Factory (on green)is on back.

Issue 25 September 2016

Darren C. Demaree is the author of five poetry collections, most recently “The Nineteen Steps Between Us” (2016, After the Pause Press). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

A.J. Huffman’s poetry, fiction, haiku, and photography have appeared in hundreds of national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com

Kelley A. Pasmanick is a thirty year old woman with cerebral palsy from Atlanta, Georgia. She lives and works in Napa, California as an advocate for individuals with disabilities. Pasmanick’s work has appeared in Wordgathering, Squawk Back, Praxis Magazine, The Mighty, Loud Zoo, and The Jewish Literary Journal. She can be reached at: https://www.facebook.com/kelley.pasmanick

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio is also a casual poet living in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. His piece: Umbrella Factory is this issue’s cover.

Issue 24 June 2016

Carl Boon lives and works in Izmir, Turkey. His poems appear in dozens of magazines, most recently Two Thirds North, Jet Fuel Review, Blast Furnace, and the Kentucky Review.

Joseph Kerschbaum’s most recent publications include Ken: a man for all seasons (2012) and Your Casual Survival (2010), both were published by Plan B Press. Joseph lives Bloomington, Indiana. For more information, please visit www.ThirstyOcean.com.

Adam Phillips makes his living teaching at-risk junior high kids how to read, write, and dominate on the hardwood (these are three separate things; the kids rarely read or write while playing basketball). When not thusly occupied, he’s f**king s**t up old school on the coastline of Rockaway Beach, Oregon, with his inimitable wife and two small sons. If you’re interested, recent/impending publications include Upstreet, Blotterature, Shark Pack Poetry Review, Raven Chronicles, Contemporary American Voices (featured poet in August), and Blue Monday Review. His first novel, Something Like My Name, is forthcoming from Propertius Press.

Rudy Ravindra attended a summer writing workshop at Iowa and trained under ZZ Packer. His prose has appeared in Ginosko, Chicago Literati, Saturday Evening Post online, and others. He lives in Wilmington, NC More at: http://rudyravindra.wix.com/rudy

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio is also a casual poet living in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com

Issue 23 March 2016

Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Mark Aufiery has lived in Florida and currently lives in Maine. He’s 58 and has two beautiful daughters.

William C. Crawford (AKA Crawdaddy) is a writer & photographer living in Winston-Salem, NC. He was a a combat photojournalist in Vietnam. He later enjoyed a long career in social work. Crawdaddy also taught at UNC Chapel Hill. He photographs the trite, trivial, and the mundane. Crawdaddy developed the Forensic Foraging technique of photography with his colleague, Sydney lensman, Jim Provencher.

Brian D. Morrison completed his MFA at the University of Alabama, where he was an assistant editor at Black Warrior Review. His poetry has appeared at West Branch, The Bitter Oleander, Verse Daily, Copper Nickel, Cave Wall, and other journals. Currently, he works as an Assistant Professor of English at Ball State University.

Juanita Rey is a Dominican poet who has been in this country five years. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in 2 River View, Harbinger Asylum, Petrichor Machine and Madcap Poets.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at http://www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com/. His piece Umbrellas vs Scribbles from Outerspace this issue’s cover image.

Issue 22 December 2015

Diane Allison is an invested salvager of estate sale photos and an accomplished photographer in her own right. When she is not occupied with snapping photos of skyscapes with her trusty assistant chihuahua Lou, she peruses estate sales for hidden treasures, fusses with a vintage motorcycle, and glides down snowy mountains. You can find Diane on Instagram: @photobroad

AN Block’s stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Foliate Oak, Down in the Dirt, Contrary, Blue Bonnet Review, and The Binnacle. He has an MA in History and is a Master of Wine who teaches at Boston University. A Contributing Editor at the Improper Bostonian he has published dozens of non-fiction pieces on wine and food.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of four poetry collections, most recently “Not for Art nor Prayer” (2015, 8th House Publishing). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Ariel Kusby is a poet currently living in Los Angeles. She is the founder of the literary-arts publication Nothing New, which can be accessed digitally at http://nothingnewzine.com. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Spires, Chaparral, Eunoia Review, and The Riveter Review.

Sonnet Mondal is the founder of The Enchanting Verses. He has authored eight collections of poetry and is one of the featured writers at International Writing Program at The University of IOWA. His latest works are upcoming in the The Mcneese Review and Common Ground Review. Meet Sonnet at: www.sonnetmondal.com

Vero Stewart is a writer, maker, gardener, dog lover, and carer of many interesting fish. She’s been previously published in Catfish Creek and Cypress Dome. When not doing any of those things, she is a student of Creative Writing and Anthropology at UCF.

Issue 21 September 2015

Elinor Abbott has been previously published by The Hairpin, Human Parts, Bright Wall/ Dark Room and other publications. Her chapbook, ‘Is This The Most Romantic Moment of My Life?’ is forthcoming from Banango Editions. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland and blogs at littlethousand.tumblr.com.

Amanda Bales hails from Oklahoma. She received her MFA from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Her work has appeared in The Nashville Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Maine.

Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has recently appeared in Uppagus, Gingerbread House and Dark Matter Journal. Meet her at www.andreadeangelis.com. Andrea also sings and plays guitar in the indie rock band MAKAR who are in the midst of recording their third album, Fancy Hercules www.makarmusic.com.

Rosa del Duca is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, journalist and musician. When she’s not cranking out the news at KNTV, she is writing fiction and creative nonfiction or making music with her folk band Hunters. Her work has been published in literary journals including Cutbank, Grain, River Teeth, and CALYX.

Janice Hampton lives in northern Colorado and is currently on hiatus from corporate America. A writer by nature, Janice spent years developing corporate training programs in the public transportation and newspaper industries. Although often published, “Leonard’s Bad Day” is her first fiction publication since 1998. She currently functions as the copy editor for Umbrella Factory Magazine.

Anthony ILacqua‘s third novel Warehouses and Rusted Angels is forthcoming in 2015. His former novels, Dysphoric Notions (2012) and Undertakers of Rain (2013) are both published through Ring of Fire Publishing. He currently functions as editor in chief for Umbrella Factory Magazine that he co-founded in 2009. Meet Anthony at his blog: anthonyilacqua.blogspot.com

Donnelle McGee is the author of NAKED (Unbound Content, 2015) and SHINE (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012). He earned his MFA from Goddard College and is a faculty member at Mission College in Santa Clara, California. His work has appeared in Controlled Burn, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Iodine Poetry Journal, River Oak Review, and The Spoon River Poetry Review, among others. His work has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His novel, GHOST MAN is forthcoming from Sibling Rivalry Press.

Michail Mulvey is an instructor of English in the Connecticut system of higher education. He holds degrees in English and an MFA in Creative Writing, and has had over two dozen short stories published in various literary magazines, journals and anthologies, print and electronic, in the US, the UK, and Ireland, some noteworthy, some dubious, some you’ve probably never heard of, and a couple that are now belly up. But in 2013 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He lost.

Justin Ridgeway’s fiction and non-fiction (culture, design, fashion and film) have appeared internationally in publications including Azure, Details, Documentary, Dose, Lost in Thought, Numb and previously in Umbrella Factory. In the spring of 2012 he was a participant in The Banff Centre Writers’ Studio. His writing has received a Pushcart nomination (2013) and an Ontario Arts Council grant (2014). He is a former associate fiction editor for Broken Pencil, an independent literary arts magazine. He is represented by Transatlantic Literary Agency.
Justin presently divides his time between Toronto and Brooklyn.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com.

Issue 20 December 2014

Yvonne Conza is a writer of short stories, plays, fiction and nonfiction. She received her BA at The New School and is the co-author of Training for Both Ends of the Leash. The Examiner plugged her book: Every Dog Owner Should have This Tool On Their Bookshelf. The Off Center Theatre and Lee Strasberg Lab, both in New York City, produced two of her plays. She lives in Miami Beach and has a serious addiction to yoga. Great life revelations: As a child I’d do a series of cartwheels in a row, soaring for seconds at a time in kaleidoscopic-motion where life transformed into 360-degrees of fantastic possibilities.

Chad Copeland was raised in Northwest Indiana where some of the most beautiful landscapes abruptly end at the fences of giant industrial complexes. Urban landscapes that once thrived are now in a tailspin of economic and environmental disaster. These scenes have embedded themselves in his subconscious and this has led him down a unique path of artistic exploration. Chad attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago where he studied traditional Oil painting. His Undergraduate degree is from Ball State University in Indiana where he focused on Steel Fabrication and Sculpture. Chad now resides in Denver, Colorado. He has assembled a shop and studio to create personal work as well as offer fabrication services to the public via commissioned work, open studio space and classes to those interested in learning to fabricate and build sculpture. Look him up at www.C-SquaredStudios.com

Peycho Kanev is the author of 4 poetry collections and two chapbooks. He has won several European awards for his poetry and he’s nominated for the Pushcart Award and Best of the Net. Translations of his books will be published soon in Italy, Poland and Russia. His poems have appeared in more than 1000 literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Hawaii Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, The Coachella Review, Two Thirds North, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others.

André le Roux is a legal adviser at the provincial legislature in Cape Town, South Africa. He debuted in Prick of the Spindle in 2013, which piece was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work appeared most recently in Pif Magazine and Liquid Imagination.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. Fabio is a regular contributor to Umbrella Factory Magazine. His piece “Constellation Umbrella” is this issue’s back cover art.

Tim Suermondt is the author of Trying To Help The Elephant Man Dance (The Backwaters Press, 2007) and Just Beautiful (NYQ Books, 2010). He lives in Cambridge, MA. with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.

Issue 19 September 2014

Rosa del Duca is a writer, journalist and musician. She is very close to finishing a memoir, War Against the War, which chronicles her transformation from military recruit to conscientious objector. When she’s not working on creative writing, Rosa fronts the San Francisco folk band we.are.hunters., and helps crank out the news at NBC Bay Area. Her work has been published in Cutbank, Grain, River Teeth, CALYX and Crack the Spine. You can read much of that work and listen to her music at www.rosadelduca.com.

Joe Love lives in St. Louis and teaches at universities both east and west of the Arch. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Poetry Pacific, Poetry Super Highway, The Oddville Press, Crack the Spine, Bangalore Review, From the Depths, Drunk Monkeys, Bellowing Ark, and other journals.

Cynthia Olson completed a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh with a focus on fiction. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Every Writer, Bite Magazine, The Hackney, and Read This. During the day she works as a freelance writer and editor for UNICEF and other non-profits. She is currently chronicling an obsessive process of reading Joyce’s Ulysses with a forthcoming memoir, Looking for Leopold, and can be found online here https://twitter.com/7ecclesstreet

James Owens‘s poems, reviews, translations, and photographs appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in Superstition Review, Poetry Ireland, The Stinging Fly, The Cresset, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in central Indiana and northern Ontario.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. Fabio is a regular contributor to Umbrella Factory Magazine. His piece “Drops and Brollies” is this issue’s cover art.

Lauren Yates is a San Diego transplant who is currently based in Philadelphia. Her poetry has appeared in FRiGG, Melusine, The Bakery, and The Legendary. Lauren is also a poetry editor at Kinfolks Quarterly. Aside from poetry, she enjoys belly dancing, baking quiche, and pontificating on the merits of tentacle erotica. For more information, visit http://laurentyates.com.

Issue 18 June 2014

Danielle Bukowski is not related to Charles but has many other odd relatives if you’d like to hear about them. A reader, writer, and unreliable narrator, Danielle is a Vassar grad living in New York City.

Sarah Clayville‘s work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, StoryChord, and Literary Orphans, among other journals. She is a recent Pushcart Prize nominee and currently teaches American Literature and Creative Writing. In between moments of parenting the best toddler and teen in the world, she is finishing a literary mainstream novel.

Holly Day was born in Hereford, Texas, “The Town Without a Toothache.” She and her family currently live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches writing classes at the Loft Literary Center. Her published books include the nonfiction books Music Theory for Dummies, Music Composition for Dummies, and Guitar All-in-One for Dummies, and the poetry books “Late-Night Reading for Hardworking Construction Men” (The Moon Publishing) and “The Smell of Snow” (ELJ Publications).

Richard Luftig is a past professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio who now resides in California. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature and a semi finalist for the Emily Dickinson Society Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Japan, Canada, Australia, Europe, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. One of his poems was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Poetry Prize. He and his wife recently celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary.

Fabio Sassi makes photos and acrylics using tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com

Issue 17 March 2014

Noha Al-Badry was born in the heart of Cairo and likes medical terminology, word-play, bad puns, exploring the gaps between the English language & the Arabic  and writing as a form of cooking. Currently an intern at the Winter Tangerine Review and previously published in Prime Number, Otoliths and Fail Better. Visit Noha’s blog: http://hush-syrup.tumblr.com

Christopher Allsop is a graduate of the Creative Writing MFA program at Antioch University in L.A., and recipient of the 2012 AWP Intro Journals Award. When he’s not writing fiction, he’s reviewing cheese: fromology.wordpress.com, and when he’s not reviewing cheese, he’s tinkering pointlessly with his website: www.callsop.com. He lives in Bath in the UK.

Ricky Garni  is a writer living in Carrboro, NC. His poetry and short fiction publications has been published widely in print and on the Web, in several anthologies, and he has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, most recently for a poem about Buittoni Butternut Squash Ravioli (in brown butter sage sauce.) His titles include THE ETERNAL JOURNALS OF CRISPY FLOTILLA, MAYBE WAVY, MY FIFTEEN FAVORITE PRESIDENTS, and IT’S JUST LIKE WHATEVER, slated for publication in 2014. 

Christopher Mulrooney has written two books recently, Symphony (The Moon Publishing & Printing), and Jamboree (Turf Lane Press).

Nanette Rayman, author of Shana Linda Pretty Pretty and Project: Butterflies (Foothills Publishing) is the first winner of the Glass Woman Prize. Two-time Pushcart nominee, a poem was included in Best of the Net 2007 and a memoir piece in Best of the Web: DZANC.

Fabio Sassi started making visual artworks after varied experiences in music and writing. He makes acrylics with the stencil technique on board, canvas, or other media. He uses logos, tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He still prefers to shoot with an analog camera. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. He is a regular contributor to Umbrella Factory Magazine. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. His feature work on our cover is entitled Outerspace.

Issue 16 December 2013

Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection The Middle of Nowhere (Olivia Eden Publishing) and the forthcoming poetry chapbooks Echo’s Bones and Danger Falling Debris (Red Bird Chapbooks). He co-edits White Knuckle Press with Dale Wisely. http://apocalypsemambo.blogspot.com

Christina Guillén is the creator of Half Moon Jefa, the mixed people’s super hero who lives in her blog halfmoonjefa.tumblr.com. She is currently pursuing her MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in fiction. She is interested in multiculturalism, bilingualism, and mesoamerican and indigenous studies.

Gregory Letellier is student of Writing and Literature at Emmanuel College in Boston. He has poems and stories published or forthcoming in Emerge Literary Journal, Poydras Review, Linden Avenue Review, Hobo Camp Review, Indigo Rising Magazine and Clutching at Straws.

Merlin Ural Rivera was born in Bulgaria and raised in Turkey, where her short stories and a short film script received awards and were published. Her work was also published in Ping Pong, Warscapes and Hot Street. She holds an MFA from the Creative Writing program of The New School, and she’s living the dream, as they say, in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Fabio Sassi started making visual artworks after varied experiences in music and writing. He makes acrylics with the stencil technique on board, canvas, or other media. He uses logos, tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He still prefers to shoot with an analog camera. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. He is a regular contributor to Umbrella Factory Magazine. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com. His feature work on our cover is entitled Yellow Factory.

Issue 15 September 2013

Jean-Luc Bouchard is a student of English, Music, and Asian Studies at Vassar College. When he isn’t pretending to know what he’s talking about in class, he’s interning at a publishing house in New York City. He is an occasional stand-up comedian, a full-time nerd, and a lover of ragtime piano. He is originally from New Hampshire. Meet him at his blog: jeanlucbouchard.com

M.E.McMullen‘s work has appeared in numerous print and online journals and been cited for Editor’s Choice, Pushcart, Hugo and Free Library Fiction (EBSCO), among others. Most recently his fiction has appeared in Temenos, Newport Review, Straitjackets, eFiction and Offcourse. His regular reviews of classic short stories appear at untowardmag.com.

Dan Pinkerton lives in Des Moines, Iowa. Poems of his have appeared in New Orleans Review, Indiana Review, Boston Review, Subtropics, Willow Springs, and Hayden’s Ferry Review, among others.

Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood writes in order to make sense of the world and in hope to connect with others just as lost on our human journey. Her works have previously been published at BlazeVox, The Missing Slate, The Bad Version, Pens On Fire, Greenhills Literary Lantern, and others. She studies Creative Writing at Southern Oregon University and works as as editorial assistant at The Missing Slate. In 2012, she received the Michael Baughman Fiction Award from Southern Oregon University. She can be reached at www.abbigailnrosewood.com.

Fabio Sassi started making visual artworks after varied experiences in music and writing. He makes acrylics with the stencil technique on board, canvas, or other media. He uses logos, tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He still prefers to shoot with an analog camera. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. He is a regular contributor to Umbrella Factory Magazine. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com

Steven D Stark is a Boston artist and writer of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. artofstark.com.

Issue 14 June 2013

Emily Carroll is a freelance writer, editor, designer, teacher, and waitress. She is a regular reader at the Cantab Lounge and works as a teaching artist with the Mass L.E.A.P. collective. She lives in Boston with her partner and PJ, the wonder pug of Jamaica Plain.

Darren Demaree is living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children. He is the author of “As We Refer to Our Bodies” (Spring 2013) and “Not For Art Nor Prayer” (2014), both are forthcoming from 8th House Publishing House. He is the recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations.

Chris Fischer is a visual artist studying at the University of Saskatchewan. His creative endeavors as a freelance Videographer have yielded awards. Constantly challenging himself, Chris is currently building his artistic portfolio. This is his first appearance in Umbrella Factory Magazine.

Ric Hoeben  homes it in eastern South Carolina, holds an MFA from The University of Florida, and hopes his recently finished short story collection Sandlappers, will be a real smash.

Alicia Marie Lawrence has an MA from the University of Victoria where her focus was on comparative literature. Island Writer Magazine, ditch, The Acrobat, This Great Society, and As/Us Journal have included her poetry in their pages. She has attended Fernwood Writers creative writing workshops, and lives in Victoria, B.C.

Michail Mulvey, the illegitimate offspring of a gin-addled Dorothy Parker and a Guinness-stained Brendan Behan, is an instructor of English at Central Connecticut State University. He holds degrees in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. He’s been published in various literary magazines and journals, print and electronic, based in the United States and the UK, some of which you’ve probably never heard of and several that are now defunct.

Fabio Sassi started making visual artworks after varied experiences in music and writing. He makes acrylics with the stencil technique on board, canvas, or other media. He uses logos, tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He still prefers to shoot with an analog camera. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. He is a regular contributor to Umbrella Factory Magazine. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com He wraps up our issue with a work titled It’s Raining Umbrellas adjacent to this page.

Issue 13 March 2013

Born and raised in the square-mile suburbs of Detroit, Matthew Fogarty currently lives and writes in Columbia, where he is an MFA candidate at the University of South Carolina. He is an alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Revolution House, WhiskeyPaper, Zero Ducats, and Utter Magazine.

Les Kay is a doctoral candidate studying poetry at the University of Cincinnati. He earned an MFA from the University of Miami, where he was a James Michener fellow. His poetry has appeared in a variety of literary journals including Tar River Poetry, Eclipse, PANK, Jabberwock Review, South Dakota Review, la fovea, Blue Earth Review, Redactions, Cellpoems, and is forthcoming in Whiskey Island and The Santa Clara Review.

John Matthews graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 1991. He has worked as an office equipment mover and in many different library jobs. As the “M” half of the comic “A.M.”, he drew artwork for the Evanston-based monthly, Strong Coffee, also contributing short stories. He did illustration work for the website, FamousDreams.com which cataloged dreams about celebrities. He used to play drums for Villa Park rakehells, Six Slug Vacation.

His writing has appeared in the anthologies What Happened to Us These Last Couple Years? And It’s All Good: How Do You Like It Here Now? His work has also appeared in Wisconsin Review, Pindeldyboz, Opium Magazine, Word Riot and several others.

He lives near Chicago with his wife Rachel and their American bulldog, Darla.

Robert McDonald‘s work has appeared recently in Right Hand Pointing, Pure Francis, Sentence, and kill author, among others. He lives in Chicago, and blogs at livesofthespiders.blogspot.com.

D.I. Sanders is originally from Ohio but now happily resides in Chicago. He primarily writes fiction and has been published in magazines such as The Broadkill Review and Mosaic (OSU). Currently, he is writing a novel, traveling when possible, eating too much and not reading enough. www.disanders.com

Fabio Sassi started making visual artworks after varied experiences in music and writing. He makes acrylics with the stencil technique on board, canvas, or other media. He uses logos, tiny objects and what is considered to have no worth by the mainstream. He still prefers to shoot with an analog camera. Fabio lives and works in Bologna, Italy. His work can be viewed at www.fabiosassi.foliohd.com

 Issue 12 December 2012

Lianuska Gutierrez has her B.A. from Harvard University and M.A. from Fordham University, and she is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her primary area is creative writing, but she also focuses on twentieth-century American poetry and poetics, modern and contemporary Spanish poetry, Lacanian theory, and phenomenology. She was a 2008 Saltonstall Poetry Fellow. Lianuska was raised in Queens, NY by parents emigrated from Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Recent work of Philip Kobylarz appears or will appear in Connecticut Review, Basalt, Santa Fe Literary Review, New American Writing, Poetry Salzburg Review and has appeared in Best American Poetry. His book, Rues, was recently published by Blue Light Press of San Francisco.

Kimberly Ann Southwick is the editor in chief of Gigantic Sequins, a print-based, bi-annual black & white literary arts journal that publishes a collection of unique voices and illustrations twice a year. Her poetry can be found in Barrelhouse, Big Lucks, PANK, Everyday Genius, Whole Beast Rag, and Paper Darts, amongst others. 

Thomas Kearnes is a 36-year-old author from East Texas. He has published over 100 stories in print and online. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His first short-fiction collection, Pretend I’m Not Here, will debut from Musa Publishing in 2013. He runs like a girl. 

Lauren Smith‘s work has appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle, Prick of the Spindle, New Madrid, NewPages, Bookslut, and The Toledo City Paper. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from Bennington College, and teaches English at Delta College in Bay City, Michigan. 

Kevin Tosca‘s stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Fleeting, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, Prick of the Spindle, Underground Voices, Atticus Review, The Smoking Poet, and elsewhere. He lives in France. Read more at www.kevintosca.com

Issue 11 September 2012

Stephanie Dickinson  raised on an Iowa farm now lives in New York City, a state unto itself. Her novel Half Girl is published by Spuyten Duyvil as is her new novella Lust Series. Her stories have been reprinted in Best American Nonrequired Reading and New Stories from the South, Best of 2008 and 2009. She is the winner of New Delta Review’s 2011 Matt Clark Fiction prize judged by Susan Straight. Her work has appeared in many journals most recently Fjords, Nimrod, Bluestem, Menacing Hedge, Prime Mincer and the Main Street Rag Anthology The Book of Villains. She is an associate editor at Mudfish and along with Rob Cook and the cats Vallejo and Sally Joy, she edits Skidrow Penthouse. 

Alisha Kaplan’s writing has appeared in Lilith Magazine, The Mansfield Revue, and HOOT Review. She is a recipient of the Lenore Marshall 2011 Barnard Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the W.B. Yeats Society of New York 2012 Poetry Competition. A native of Toronto, she currently lives in Brooklyn. 

Timothy Kercher has spent the last six years overseas―four years in Georgia and two in Ukraine― and is now moving back to his home in Dolores, Colorado. He continues to translate contemporary poetry form the Republic of Georgia. He is high school English teacher and has worked in five countries overseas―Mongolia, Mexico, and Bosnia being the others. His poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of recent literary publications, including Crazyhorse, Versal, Plume, upstreet, Bateau, The Minnesota Review and others.

Ben East served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, Southern Africa before taking up various teaching and diplomatic assignments in West Africa, the Middle East, and throughout the Americas. A native of Connecticut, he lives with his wife and two sons in Mexico City, working on a novel about the West African nexus between drug trafficking, cyber-crime, and terrorism, and a satire of diplomacy for the War on Terror. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Atticus Review and The Foreign Service Journal. 

Kristin Faatz  is a pianist, teacher and writer. She studied engineering and music at Swarthmore College, piano performance at the Peabody Institute, and fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University and the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops. She lives in the Baltimore, Maryland area with her husband Paul and cats Max and Robin, and frequently sequesters herself to work on her novel-in-progress about the classical music world. “Guardians” is her first published story.

 Issue 10 June 2012

John H. Matthews’ writing has appeared in Wisconsin Review, Pindeldyboz, Opium Magazine, Cellstories, The 2nd Hand and other publications. He lives near Chicago with his wife and their American bulldog. Visit him online at www.sixslug.com. 

Arthur Diamond was born in New York in 1957. He received degrees from the University of Oregon and Queens College and has published 12 non-fiction books used as school texts. Diamond’s short stories have recently appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, From Here and Global City Review. He lives in Queens, New York.  

Ezekiel Black is a lecturer of English at Gainesville State College. Before this position, he attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he received an MFA in Creative Writing. His poetry and reviews have appeared in Verse, Sonora Review, GlitterPony, Skein, Invisible Ear, Tomfoolery Review, Tarpaulin Sky, InDigest, Drunken Boat, CutBank, iO, Four and Twenty, and elsewhere. He also edits the audio poetry journal Pismire. He lives in Duluth, Georgia.

S. D. Stewart reads and writes in a cramped city while his mind roams open spaces. When not walking in the woods, he works as a librarian. His poetry recently appeared in Stone Highway Review and Gone Lawn. Read more at www.thoughtworm.com. 

Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a six-time Pushcart nominee and Best of the Net nominee. She has authored eight chapbooks along with her latest full-length collection of poems: Epistemology of an Odd Girl, newly released from March Street Press. She is a recent winner of the Red Ochre Press Chapbook competition for her manuscript Before I Go to Sleep and according to family lore she is a direct descendent of Robert Louis Stevenson. www.clgrellaspoetry.com  

Gregg Chadwick creates his artwork in an old airplane hangar in Santa Monica, California. The recurring sound of airplane take-offs and landings from the active airport runaway outside his studio reminds him of his own history of travel. Chadwick has exhibited his artworks in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree at UCLA and a Master’s Degree at NYU, both in Fine Art. He has had notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, The Netherlands), Space AD 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), and the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove) among others. He has participated in a variety of group exhibitions including the LOOK Gallery (Los Angeles), the Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica), and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington DC). Chadwick is frequently invited to lecture on the arts; in 2011-12 he spoke at UCLA, Monterey Peninsula College, the Esalen Institute, and at the World Views forum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Website is at www.greggchadwick.com.
Gregg’s blog, Speed of Life: http://greggchadwick.blogspot.com/
Chadwick’s flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggchadwick. 

Issue 9 March 2012

William C. Blome writes poems and short fiction. He lives in-between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and he is an MA graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. His work has previously been published in such fine little mags as Amarillo Bay, Prism International, Taj Mahal Review, Pure Francis, This, Salted Feathers and The California Quarterly.  

Michael J. Grady is an educator, playwright, would-be novelist and sometime stand-up comic, living in Las Vegas with a beautiful wife, Julie, and a hyper-intelligent polydactyl tabby. His favorite book is The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.

Thibault Raoult, born in Pithiviers, France, and raised in Rochester, NY, holds an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University. He has published two chapbooks—El P.E. (Projective Industries) and I’ll Say I’m Only Visiting (Cannibal Books)—as well as a full-length collection, Person Hour (BlazeVOX). Other work has appeared in Caketrain; typo; VOLT; and Forklift, Ohio. Thi lives in Boulder, CO, teaches in Denver, and sings in DA SO DO DA. 

Justin Ridgeway was a competitive snowboarder living and traveling throughout the mountains of the Rockies, the Alps and the Andes. He also lived in a remote ocean-side jungle village in Central America where his existence consisted solely of surfing, reading and writing. His fiction and journalism (culture, fashion, music) have appeared in publications including Details, Documentary, Dose, The Fashion Spot and Numb. This spring he will attend, with scholarship, the Banff Centre for the Arts Writer’s Studio.

Frank Scozzari‘s fiction has previously appeared in various literary magazines, including The Kenyon Review, South Dakota Review, Roanoke Review, Pacific Review, Reed Magazine, Eureka Literary Magazine, Foliate Oak Journal, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Chrysalis Reader, and many others. His writing awards include Winner of the National Writer’s Association Short Story Contest and two publisher nominations for the Pushcart Prize of Short Stories.   

Fabio Sassi has had several experiences in music, photography and writing. He has been a visual artist since 1990 making acrylics using the stenciling technique on canvas, board, old vinyl records and other media. Fabio uses logos, icons, tiny objects and shades to create weird perspectives. Many of his subjects are inspired by a paradox either real or imaginary and by the news. He lives in Bologna, Italy.

Melanie Whithaus is currently studying creative writing at Southeast Missouri State University. Her work has been featured on websites such as deviantart.com
(blackballetshoes.deviantart.com) and fanfiction.net. Her writing is known for its raw and straight-forward voice, and her “no-bars-held” style.

Issue 8 December 2011

Andrea DeAngelis is at times a poet, writer, shutterbug and musician living in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Ditch Poetry, Heavy Bear, Clockwise Cat, The Blue Jew Yorker, Word Riot, Denver Syntax, and Writers Bloc. Andrea also sings and plays guitar in an indie rock band called MAKAR. www.makarmusic.com

Eleanor Leonne Bennett is a 15 year photographer and artist who has won contests with National Geographic,The Woodland Trust, The World Photography Organisation, Winstons Wish, Papworth Trust, Mencap, Big Issue, Wrexham science, Fennel and Fern and Nature’s Best Photography. She has had her photographs published in exhibitions and magazines across the world including the Guardian, RSPB Birds , RSPB Bird Life, Dot Dot Dash, Alabama Coast , Alabama Seaport and NG Kids Magazine (the most popular kids magazine in the world). She was also the only person from the UK to have her work displayed in the National Geographic and Airbus run See The Bigger Picture global exhibition tour with the United Nations International Year Of Biodiversity 2010. Only visual artist published in the Taj Mahal Review June 2011. Youngest artist to be displayed in Charnwood Art’s Vision 09 Exhibition and New Mill’s Artlounge Dark Colours Exhibition.

Lou Gaglia‘s short stories have appeared recently in Breakwater Review, Rose & Thorn Journal, and Bartleby Snopes, among others, and are forthcoming in Spilling Ink Review and Sheepshead Review. One of his short stories was nominated for story South’s 2011 Million Writers Award. It didn’t win, though. He teaches in upstate New York.

Austin Rory Hackett is a medical student and writer. He interrupts people too much and should eat less saturated fat. We all probably should. His work has appeared in The Potomac Review, Swink, Monkeybicycle, Dark Sky Magazine, and, most recently, Nanoism. He edits Columbia Medical Center’s literary magazine, Reflexions, and knows it’s a real bad name for a journal, so don’t bother reminding him.

Sara Hughes is a graduate student at Georgia State University where she is pursuing a PhDin English with a concentration in poetry. She is an assistant editor for Five Points. Her poems and reviews have been published in Rattle, Rosebud, Ouroboros Review, Burnt Bridge, Red Clay Review, Old Red Kimono, and Arts and Letters.

Michael Keenan received his MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University. His first chapbook, TWO GIRLS, was published by Say No Press in 2009. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry International, Fence, Arsenic Lobster, A Minor and Paul Revere’s Horse, among others. He currently works in a rock n roll superstore in Northern Florida.

Emily O’Neill is a proud Jersey girl who tells loud stories in her inside voice because she wants you to come closer. Her favorite things to whisper through are disappearance documentaries and long night drives in her ’92 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera Supreme. Her work has appeared previously or is forthcoming in The Pedestal, Side B, Pank, Neon, and Nap Magazine, among others. It has also seen stages from Portland to Orlando. She has a degree in the synesthesia of storytelling from Hampshire College and splits her time between Somerville, MA and Providence, RI.

Sy Rosen was a TV writer for over 30 years, writing for The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, MASH, Maude, Sanford, Rhoda, The Jeffersons, Northern Exposure, The Wonder Years, Frasier, and dozens of other shows best left unmentioned. He also has had six of his plays produced and has recently started writing essays for magazines and newspapers that have appeared in The Writer, Written By Magazine, Obit Magazine, The Writing Disorder, BRICKrhetoric, and the Los Angeles Times. When Sy was young America was a forest.

Issue 7 September 2011

Gary Anderson is a editor/writer for an educational company. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines, including Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, Berge Gasse 19, Event, and more. His first novel, Animal Magnet, was published by Emmerson Street Press in July, 2011. He lives in Southern Alberta, Canada, with his wife and two small children.

Michael Bagwell lives and writes in West Chester, Pennsylvania. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Dark Sky Magazine, Breadcrumb Scabs, Short, Fast and Deadly and Collective Fallout, among others.

Amanda Bales hails from rural Oklahoma and resides there once again. Her work has been nominated for the Best New American Voices series and has appeared in such journals as Bateau, Painted Bride Quarterly, and The Southern Humanities Review.

Peycho Kanev is the Editor In Chief of Kanev Books. His poems have appeared in more than 400 literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, The Monongahela Review, Steam Ticket, Ann Arbor Review, Midwest Literary Review, Third Wednesday, Burnt Bridge, Istanbul Literary Review, Loch Raven Review, In Posse Review, The Penwood Review, Mascara Literary Review, The Mayo Review and many others. He is nominated for the Pushcart Award and lives in Chicago. In 2009 his short story collection “Walking Through Walls” (Ciela), and in April 2010 his poetry collection “American Notebooks” (Ciela) both were published in Bulgaria. His new poetry collection “Bone Silence” was released in September 2010 by Desperanto, NY. http://www.kanevbooks.com

Donnelle McGee is a Jimi Hendrix freak and wishes he could dunk a basketball. He earned his MFA from Goddard College. He is a faculty member at Mission College in Santa Clara, California. His work has appeared in Controlled Burn, Colere, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Home Planet News, Iodine Poetry Journal, Permafrost, River Oak Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, and Willard & Maple, among others. His work has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Nathaniel Tower writes fiction, teaches English, and manages the online lit magazine Bartleby Snopes. His short fiction has appeared in over 50 online and print magazines. A story of his, “The Oaten Hands,” was named one of 190 notable stories by storySouth’s Million Writers Award in 2009. His first novel, A Reason To Kill, was released in July 2011. Visit him at www.bartlebysnopes.com/ntower.htm

John Sibley Williams is a literary publicist with an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in Book Publishing. He has served as Acquisitions Manager of Ooligan Press and Publicist for Three Muses Press. His poetry was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Rumi Prize for Poetry and won the 2011 Heart Poetry Award. His chapbooks include: “A Pure River” (The Last Automat Press, 2010), “Door, Door” (Red Ochre Press, 2011), “Autobiography of Fever” (Bedouin Books, 2011), “From Colder Climates” (Folded Word, forthcoming), “The Longest Compass” (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming), and “The Art of Raining” (The Knives Forks and Spoons Press, forthcoming). Some of his over 200 previous or upcoming publications include: The Evansville Review, RHINO, Rosebud, Ellipsis, Flint Hills Review, and Poetry Quarterly.

Issue 6 June 2011

Ethan Chatagnier has been many things: a construction worker, a graduate student, a telemarketer, and a newspaper editor. Currently though, he limits it to being a writer, a teacher, and the lucky husband of a beautiful wife. His fiction has previously appeared in Fringe Magazine and is forthcoming from Hot Metal Bridge. His favorite novel is an eight-eight way tie, but the one currently closest to him physically is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Libby Cudmore’s stories and essays have appeared in PANK, Knee Jerk Magazine, Connotation Press, Needle, Hobo Pancakes, The MacGuffin, The Yalobusha Review, The Chaffey Review, The Southern Women’s Review, Sunsets and Silencers, Red Fez, In ertia, Big Pulp (with Matthew Quinn Martin) Xenith, Pop Matters, Pulp Pusher, Daily Love Stories, Curly Red, Espresso Stories, Mysterical-E, The Midnight Diner (where she also serves as an editor) and the anthology Relationships and Other Stuff. She is a frequent contributor to Crime Factory, Shaking Like a Mountain, Battered Suitcase, Celebrities in Disgrace, Hardboiled, a Twist of Noir and Thrillers, Killers ‘n’ Chillers, where her story “Unplanned” won a Bullet award in 2009 and was a finalist for the 2010 Derringer award in flash fiction. Her work will also be featured in upcoming issues of Independent Ink, Criminal Class Press, Arkham Tales, Emprise Review and The Writer (all three with Matthew Quinn Martin), as well as Fridge, All Things Girl and the anthology We’ll Always Have Chicago. She blogs at http://recordofthemonth.blogspot.com/

Marit Ericson is originally from New England. At the moment, she lives and writes in northern New Jersey. Her poems have appeared in several journals including M Review, Blood Lotus, and The Monongahela Review.

Victoria Large is a Massachusetts native who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her short fiction has appeared in such publications as Blink Ink, Cafe Irreal, and Wordriver.

Graeme Lottering was born on the edge of the Kalahari desert in South Africa during the height of Apartheit. His work has been published in NAP, Pulpit, and Lost in Thought Magazines. He currently lives and works in Kyoto, Japan. In 2011, he self-published his first novel, 98% Grey through Amazon.com.

Christopher Robinson is a writer, teacher and translator currently living in the wind. He earned his MA in poetry from Boston University, and his MFA from Hunter College. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Night Train, Kenyon Review, Chiron Review, Flatman Crooked, McSweeney’s Online, and elsewhere. He is a regular contributor at THEthepoetry.com.

Chris Smith lives in Cleveland and is a graduate student in the NEOMFA: Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts. His poem “The Classroom” won a 2011 AWP Intro Journal Award, judged by Cathy Essinger, and is forthcoming in Puerto del Sol. He works for the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and is the poetry editor for Whiskey Island.

Barry Spacks looks forward to his next poetry collection from Cherry Grove in August of 2012, a collaboration with his friend Lawrence E, Leone. It’s called A BOUNTY OF 84s and consists of a selection from ten years of interchanges in cyber-form, the 84 being a stanza limited to 84 characters exactly, that number chosen as a light-hearted homage to the Buddha, who is said to have left us 84,000 different teachings because humans come in so many different styles with so many different needs.

Issue 5 March 2011

Anne Babson has written the libretto to an opera currently on tour, lyrics for a small-label hip-hop CD released in 2007, and four chapbooks. Her poetry has been published in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. She was recently interviewed by Leonard Lopate on New York public radio in conjunction with a short non-fiction prize she won, and her blog —carpetbaggersjournal.com— has gotten picked up by punditry website Y’all Politics and discussed on the radio in Mississippi.

Hugh Fox – dying of prostate cancer spreading everywhere….originally from Chicago, through marriage getting totally involved with Andean culture, anthropology, archaeology. 50 books of poetry published, 5 on pre-Columbian archaeology.

Aaron Jacobs once tried kangaroo meat at a Brazilian barbecue restaurant, though that experience did not inspire this story. His writing has appeared at Atticus Booksonline and is forthcoming in the Foundling Review. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Scott Alexander Jones is the author of a chapbook of poetry: “One Day There Will Be Nothing to Show That We Were Ever Here” (Bedouin Books, 2009). He holds an MFA from The University of Montana, and in the fall of 2009 he was Writer-in-Residence at The Montana Artists Refuge. Currently averting earthquakes in Wellington, New Zealand, he is co-founder of Zerø Ducats, a literary journal assembled entirely from stolen materials, and he releases music as Surgery in the Attic. http://www.scottalexanderjones.com and here: http://www.zeroducats.com/

Meredith Luby is a senior at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is currently working on a collection of short fiction. This is her first publication.

Becky Margolis lives in Missoula and is completing an MFA at the University of Montana. She is the winner of the 2011 Prism Review fiction contest. Her work has been recently published in Necessary Fiction and is forthcoming in the Owen Wister Review.

Lauren Nicole Nixon is a Brooklyn-based teaching artist, choreographer and poet. Her work appears in The Tulane Review, No, Dear, What You Do| Eat a Peach, RELEASE, We’ll Never Have Paris, The Writing Disorder, In Posse and Leveler and she was recently nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Nixon’s choreography has been presented through the Dance Theater Workshop’s College Partnership Program, Triskelion Arts Collaborations in Dance Festival, VIP(arty) Performance Series and Dixon Place Theater. www.laurennicolenixon.com

Robert Rebein appeared here at Umbrella Factory Magazine.

Jay Rubin teaches writing at The College of Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area and publishes Alehouse, an all-poetry literary journal, at www.alehousepress.com. He holds an MFA in Poetry from New England College and lives in San Francisco with his wife and son.

Amber West is a poet, playwright and teaching artist born and raised in California. Her work has been published in journals such as Opium, Yerm Ahm, and the Journal of Research on Women & Gender. She is an English PhD student at University of Connecticut and co-founder of NYC-based nonprofit arts organization Alphabet Arts. www.alphabetarts.org

Issue 4 December 2010 

Author Bios from Issue 4 were lost in the great factory fire of 2011.  In our relentless reconstruction of UFM, please be patient. Anyone with bio info for these Issue 4 contributors please contact UFM. We are grateful to have run these pieces.

Marc Taurisano “The Veneration of Saint Delilah”

Toni K. Thayer “Burning Lavender”

Dan Darling “The Icon Collection”

Robert Rebein “The Search for Quivira”

Yulya Deych “go on transmitting because we ache to” “soft and hard excavating is actually” “listen, we are coming down to straighten everything out”

Issue 3 September 2010

Author Bios from Issue 3 were lost in the great factory fire of 2011.  In our relentless reconstruction of UFM, please be patient. Anyone with bio info for these Issue 3 contributors please contact UFM. We are grateful to have run these pieces.

Jessica Hollander “Mr. Bulky”

Professor Arturo “Last Time I Saw Jeanine: Confessions of A New Orleans Jazz Poet”

Victor David Giron “Motorcycle Maintenance”

Alex Park An Interview with Richard Rodriguez

Dolly Lemke “The Giant, the Insect and the Philanthropic-looking Old Gentleman” “Epithalamion: Seth and Danielle”

Zach Savich “Curtain Light” “The Eye is Trained, As In Educated” “Loves Necessity”

Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde “a haiku is diego velazquez at home” “realism is sandstone haiku” “a haiku is a raggamuffin”

Issue 2 June 2010

David Bartone is an editor of Microfilme Magazine and writes a blog for the Kenyon Review. Some recent and forthcoming poems can be found in Denver Quarterly, H_NGM_N, InDigest, Tammy, Now Culture, and Thermos. David teaches writing at UMass Amherst.

Dale Bridges appeared here at Umbrella Factory Magazine.

Heather Leah believes that everybody has a right to speak and has the right to tell his and her own story. She’s been everything from a Hooters girl (for five minutes) to a model to an aspiring stunt woman to a dog-wrangler (just to name a few “professions”), and is now a yogi-in-training and, of course, a writer. She observes the world as a compassionate witness and dares to recapture and recount the beauty of what she sees. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and works as a freelance writer. Her favorite stories are ones of human interest that defy preconceived notions. Because there are way too many stories to read in the world, she can’t possibly name a favorite; let’s just say after reading To Kill a Mockingbird, she knew she wanted to be a writer. She wanted to do with her words what that book did to her: It changed the way she saw things and how she felt about the world. Put simply, it made her cry, which, she believes, is the highest honor one can achieve through writing.

Shane Joaquin Jimenez is the author of the forthcoming story collection Rue the Day (Fallout Books). Originally from San Diego, he has spent the past fifteen years living in rural Arizona, Las Vegas, Austin, Brooklyn, Boulder, and now Seoul. He holds an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa University, is a former editor of Bombay Gin, and is co-founder and prose editor of the literary magazine Zero Ducats. He has fiction in Hunger Mountain, Greensboro Review, Bat City Review, and elsewhere.

Michael Onofrey is from Los Angeles, but now lives in Japan, where he teaches English as a Second Language. His favorite novel is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. He hopes to exchange teaching for writing. He’s a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz. His stories have appeared in Cottonwood, The Evansville Review, and Natural Bridge, as well as in other literary journals and anthologies in the United States, Japan, and Canada.

Collin Schuster lives in Boulder, Colorado. He used to want a time machine, but now he just wants a new pair of sandals. Collin teaches Creative Writing and is pursuing an MFA Degree from the University of Colorado.

Paige Taggart’s chapbook Polaroid Parade is forthcoming with Greying Ghost Press. Her e-chapbook, Won’t Be A Girl is available worldwide with Scantily Clad Press. She was a 2009 recipient of the New York Foundation of the Art’s grant. To find a listing of her publications and jewelry peruse here: mactaggartjewelry.blogspot.

Arianne Zwartjes is an EMT and teaches for the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS, as well as in the English department at the University of Arizona. She is the author of The Surfacing Of Excess(awarded the Eastern Washington University Press 2009 poetry prize) and(Stitched) A Surface Opens(Diagram/New Michigan Press, 2008). She lives in Tucson, and is currently completing a collection of medically-themed lyric essays, from which this piece is drawn.

Issue 1 March 2010

Elinor Abbott is a world traveler, an ex-stripper and a comic book aficionado—three things that rarely find themselves grouped together. Her favorite things are, her husband, Harry Potter novels and a cold bottle of San Pellegrino. She has been published in Adbusters, Matter and The Denver Syntax. She lives in Denver, Colorado and is 28 years old.

Elizabeth Bernays grew up in Australia then studied agricultural pests in developing countries. After being professor of entomology at the University of California Berkeley and Regents’ professor at the University of Arizona, she also obtained a MFA in creative writing. She has published twenty-five essays in a variety of literary journals and has won several awards including the X.J. Kennedy prize for nonfiction. Website:elizabethbernays.com.

Serena Chopra is a 2009 graduate of the MFA program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has recent publications in the Denver Quarterly, Monkey Puzzle,Fact-Simile, Pax Americana, and Pilgrimage. She sleeps under the streets of New York City and is currently enjoying Steinbeck and Eugene O’Neill.

Erin Costello is a writer interested in the digital possibilities of all art forms. Her video, “Girls Risk High Morals” won first prize in the 2009 Issue Lab Remix Contest and work has appeared most recently in Edge, Palimpsest, Crash and Trickhouse. She is the co-founder and editor of Spring Gun Press and lives in Denver, Colorado where she studies and teaches creative writing at the University of Colorado.

T.L. Crum is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at CSU Fresno, where she also works at the literary magazine, The Normal School. One of her stories was recently selected as a semi-finalist in the 31st Nimrod Literary Awards, and another is forthcoming in Fringe Magazine. She was also honored to attend the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont last August.

T. M. De Vos received an MFA in 2004 from New York University and a Hopwood Award in 1999 from the University of Michigan. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming in, Washington Square, Small Spiral Notebook, Yuan Yang, Pebble Lake Review, Global City Review, Dark Sky Magazine, Alimentum, the Pedestal Magazine, the Saint Ann’s Review, Ars Medica, the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, HOBART, the Douglas Post, Bosphorus Art Project Quarterly, Sakura Review, Dossier Journal, the Los Angeles Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly. She is a staff member of Many Mountains Moving and the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, a performer with the Poetry Brothel, and a contributor to Fiction Writers Review.

Seth Landman lives in Denver, CO, where he edits a poetry journal and chapbook series called Invisible Ear. He has poems appearing or forthcoming in Wolf in a Field,Glitterpony, Skein, Jellyfish, Model Homes, Notnostrums, Jubilat, Boston Review, and some other places.

Charlie Malone is an independent writer living in Colorado. He serves as the Poetry Editor for Matter Journal in Fort Collins. Charlie’s poetry and prose has appeared or is forthcoming in The Laurel Review, Boneshaker, Harpur Palate, Permafrost, Pheobe, Matter Journal and elsewhere.

John McManus is the author of three widely praised books of fiction: the novel Bitter Milk and the short story collections Born on a Train and Stop Breakin Down. In 2000 he became the youngest-ever recipient of the Whiting Writers Award. His fiction has also appeared in Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, Tin House, and The Oxford American, among other journals. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1977, he lives and works in Norfolk, Virginia, and teaches at the MFA creative writing programs at Old Dominion University and Goddard College.

Originally hailing from the small town of Owensville, Indiana, Samantha Robinson is a 2008 graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and currently attends Iowa State University in pursuit of an MFA degree in Creative Writing and Environment. Robinson writes both fiction and nonfiction and has, since early 2009, been collecting material for a memoir tentatively titled There Are Sanctuaries Happening. When she is not writing, Robinson spends much of her time studying dog behavior and the literature and history of Apartheid Resistance, and she also has interests in film, comedy, and classic television.

Justin Runge lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he pursues an MFA in creative writing and serves as editor of Blue Hour Press. His work has been previously published in Hot Metal Bridge, Fawlt, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere.

Mathias Svalina is the author of Destruction Myth(Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009), as well as four chapbooks and four chapbook-length collaborations. His work has appeared in such journals as Boston Review,Denver Quarterly, and Jubilat. He is the co-editor of Octopus Magazine and the press Octopus Books.