Bio

Bill Vernon

by

Bill Vernon served in the United States Marine Corps, studied English literature, then taught it. Writing is his therapy, along with exercising outdoors and doing international folkdances. His poems, stories and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including Rogue Worlds; From Beyond; Bridget’s Temple; Fantasy Today (Fantasy, Folklore, and Fairytales); Wanderings;… Read more »

Marc S. Cohen

by

Marc S. Cohen is a writer, artist and musician born in the United States and residing in Toronto, Canada. He writes existentially tinged fiction about people grappling with indeterminacy in life, language, and love. His stylistic forebears include Samuel Beckett, Sheila Heti, David Foster Wallace, and Joel and Ethan Coen.

Laryssa Wirstiuk

by

Laryssa Wirstiuk lives in Jersey City, NJ with her dachshund Charlotte. She teaches creative writing and writing for digital media at Rutgers University. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Crab Fat, Gargoyle Magazine, Word Riot, and Up the Staircase Quarterly.

David James

by

David James’ third book, My Torn Dance Card, was published in 2015; his second book, She Dances Like Mussolini, won the 2010 Next Generation Indie book award. James teaches at Oakland Community College. An interview with David James can be found at the following: http://michiganderspost.com/2015/03/19/6-questions-with-michigan-poet-david-james/

Liza Case

by

Liza Case is the author of four full-length plays including The Unspoken Ones (Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award; Stark Award for Drama) and Baby Strike!, (Honorable Mention, Jane Chambers Award). Her short film Destiny played on the Emmy-award-winning PBS show The Short List and on IFC. She founded and published the New York Independent Film… Read more »

Alan Coats

by

Alan Coats is a graduate student at the University of Georgia, studying forest hydrology. He likes dogs, gardening, and stories about human interaction with the natural world. His writing has also appeared in River and South Review.

Cindy Marvin

by

Cindy Marvin lives in a rural area of TN where she writes and is raising her teenage son. Prior, she lived in Los Angeles and worked as an English as a Second Language teacher. She has several online publications and was recently a finalist in a Glimmer Train short story competition.

Charles Rafferty

by

Charles Rafferty’s tenth book of poetry is The Unleashable Dog (2014, Steel Toe Books). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Oprah Magazine, The Southern Review, and Prairie Schooner. His stories have appeared in Sonora Review, Pedestal, Cortland Review, and Staccato. His collection of short fiction is Saturday Night at Magellan’s (2013, Fomite Press)…. Read more »

Daniel W. Thompson

by

Daniel W. Thompson’s work has appeared recently or is forthcoming at publications like Bartleby Snopes, decomP, WhiskeyPaper, Wyvern Lit, Noble/Gas Qtrly and Cheap Pop. He lives in downtown Richmond, VA, with his wife and daughters, cleaning up diapers and dog fur.

M.V. Montgomery

by

M. V. Montgomery is a professor of English and film at Life University in Atlanta. His most recent fiction collection is Speculations, which is now available through Winter Goose Publishing in Sacramento.

Daniel Grear

by

Daniel Grear is a fiction writer from Fayetteville, AR and a graduate of Hendrix College. His work has been published in the Aonian. He was the Managing Editor for Scintilla‘s eighth issue.

Robert Vivian

by

Robert Vivian has published four novels and two books of meditative essays. He’s currently working on a collection of dervish essays.

Bethany Rivers

by

Bethany Rivers has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Cardiff University. Previous poems published in Cinnamon Press anthologies, The Lampeter Review, English Chicago Review, and Bare Fiction.

Frederick Pollack

by

Author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure and Happiness, both published by Story Line Press. Has appeared in Hudson Review, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Die Gazette (Munich), The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Representations, Magma (UK), Bateau, Chiron Review, etc.

Dennis Thompson

by

Dennis Thompson teaches writing and film at Des Moines Area Community College. His work has appeared in Mississippi Review, Colere Literary Review, Out of Line: Writings on Peace and Social Justice, and Wabash Review. His fiction “Jesus in the Eighth Race,” was nominated for a 2007 Pushcart Prize.

Saliba Sarsar

by

Dr. Saliba Sarsar, born and raised in Jerusalem, is Professor of Political Science and Associate Vice President for Global Initiatives at Monmouth University. He is the author and editor of several works on the Middle East, as well as two books of poetry.

Gary Blankenburg

by

Septuagenarian Gary Blankenburg is a retired English teacher whose doctoral dissertation treated the “confessional” poets. While working on this project he often consulted with his mentor and friend W. D. Snodgrass. Blankenburg is the author of eight books of poetry and fiction and was a founding editor of The Maryland Poetry Review and Electric Press. His new manuscript, The Times Theatre, depicts the spiritual angst of an aging persona. Nowadays he reads Victorian novels and paints while gathering himself up for eternity and a meeting with The Great Perhaps.

Lee Slonimsky

by

Lee Slonimsky’s work has appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, Measure, The New York Times, Poetry Daily, and 32 Poems, and has received seven Pushcart Prize nominations.

Sid Gustafson

by

Novelist and veterinarian.
New York Times writer.
Equine behaviour educator for the University of Guelph.

Rod Merkley

by

Rod Merkley is an Iraq War veteran and former Army Medic. He is currently a clinical psychology intern and looks forward working as a psychologist with military service members and veterans after finishing graduate school.

Daniel A. Olivas

by

Daniel A. Olivas is the author of eight books including the novel, The Book of Want (University of Arizona Press). Widely anthologized, he has also written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Fairy Tale Review, Superstition Review, Codex, Exquisite Corpse, La Bloga, PANK (online), and Pilgrimage

M. Macpherson

by

MF Macpherson is the prose editor of Redactions: Poetry, Poetics, and Prose. Her work appears in The Coachella Review and Hypothetical Review as well as the anthology Love Rise Up, published by Benu Press. She enjoys crime procedurals, Candy Crush, and tumblr a little more than is probably healthy.

Margaret Divish

by

Margaret Divish completed an MFA in fiction writing at Queens University in 2009 and have been working on short stories and YA novels since.

Matt Jones

by

Matt Jones grew up in Kingston, Ontario, where he studied English Literature at Queen’s University. As a serving member of the Canadian Navy, Matt’s travels have taken him to Greenland, Nunavut, Alaska, and Iceland.

Julio A. Olivencia

by

Julio A. Olivencia is a writer and member of the New York Air National Guard. He deployed to Afghanistan in April 2013 as a vehicle mechanic attached to the US Army’s 335th Signal Command.

Randy Brown

by

In 2010, Randy Brown was preparing for deployment to Eastern Afghanistan as a member of the Iowa Army National Guard’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division.

Kathy French

by

Kathy French is a retired Professor from Utah Valley University.  Her interest in peace and justice is strengthened by collecting an oral history of peace activists in Utah, her experiences in Uganda, and as a member of the Quaker faith. Kathy is currently a happy vagabond in the American West. On Facebook at www.facebook.com/kathy.french.927.

Charity Winters

by

Charity Winters is a 2003 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. During her six years on active duty as an Air Force Security Forces Officer she deployed three times to Iraq, conducting security operations.

Cameron Mount

by

Cameron Mount served as an officer in the US Navy from 2001 to 2007, rising to the rank of Lieutenant before leaving to pursue a career in writing and teaching.

Robert Wallace

by

Robert Wallace has received an Emerging Artist grant from the Durham Arts Council, and a Writer’s Fellowship from the NC Arts Council.  He has had fiction and nonfiction published in various journals and newspapers, including the Bryant Literary Review, Wellspring, Aethlon, The O. Henry Festival Stories, and the Raleigh News & Observer.  His work has… Read more »

Violet Cathcart

by

I joined the Marine Corps at eighteen. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, and recently was honorably discharged. I now live in Oregon and attend Oregon State University.

John C. Mannone

by

John C. Mannone is the poetry editor for Silver Blade and Abyss & Apex, and an adjunct professor of physics in east TN. His work has been nominated three times for the Pushcart.

Scarlet Martin

by

Scarlet graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, in May 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, creative writing.

Rick Gray

by

Rick Gray was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2014, and received the Veteran’s Scholarship from the Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop. He served in the Peace Corps in Kenya, and has since lived in Nigeria, South Africa, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where he currently teaches at the American University.

Patrick Walsh

by

After graduating from college, Patrick Walsh served four years as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division.

Robert Earle

by

With more than sixty stories and three novellas in print and online journals, Robert Earle is one of the more widely published short fiction writers in America.

Meredith Trede

by

Meredith Trede’s book, Field Theory, was published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. As a founder of Toadlily Press, her chapbook, Out of the Book, was in the inaugural Quartet Series.

Mark Barr

by

Mark Barr was reared in the wilds of central Arkansas. His fiction has appeared in the Wisconsin Review, Optic, Twice Removed, and other journals, and earned him fellowships from Jentel Arts Residency, Blue Mountain Center, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, I-Park Artists’ Enclave, the Millay Colony, and Yaddo. Mark signed on as Fiction Editor starting with… Read more »

Graham Tugwell

by

Graham Tugwell is an Irish writer and performer and recipient of the College Green Literary Prize 2010. His work has appeared in over sixty journals, including Anobium, The Missing Slate, The Quotable, Pyrta, Jersey Devil Press, L’Allure Des Mots and Poddle. He has lived his whole life in the village where his stories take place…. Read more »

Kris Kunz

by

Kris Kunz graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in elementary education and received a Masters in English literature from Oakland University. Her poetry has also appeared in the Dunes Review. She taught for many years in suburban Detroit and now lives and writes in Frankfort, Michigan, with her dog, horse and husband.

Margaret Abigail Flowers

by

Margaret Abigail Flowers originally hails from Houston, Texas but currently resides at a boarding school in lower northern Michigan. She is the winner of numerous regional and national awards for her poetry and playwriting, and this is her first official publication. She will be attending Stanford University in the fall of 2013 as an undergraduate… Read more »

Herbert Woodward Martin

by

Herbert Woodward Martin is the author of eight volumes of poems including: Inscribing My Name published by Kent State University Press. He has published in a number of American and European journals. He is closely associated with Paul Laurence Dunbar the 19th African American poet whose works he has performed across the United States. Dunbar, born… Read more »

Chuck Rybak

by

Chuck Rybak lives in Wisconsin and is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay. He is the author of two chapbooks, Nickel and Diming My Way Through and Liketown. His full-length collection, Tongue and Groove, was released in 2007 by Main Street Rag. His new collection, </war>,… Read more »

Z.G. Tomaszewski

by

Born within whispering distance of Lake Michigan and riddled by the Grand River, Z.G. Tomaszewski currently serves on the boards of Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters and Lamp Light Music Festival. Poems have been published in numerous literary and poetry journals in both the U.S. and Ireland.

Robert Earleywine

by

Robert Earleywine has been teaching literature and fiction writing at Washington University in St. Louis since 1983. He served in the Air Force as a sentrydog handler during the Vietnam era, but in Southern California. He has worked as a shoe salesman, bartender and high school teacher in the inner city. He has two sons,… Read more »

David Olsen

by

David Olsen’s third poetry chapbook, Sailing to Atlantis, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, which also published his New World Elegies (2011). His Greatest Hits 1983-2000 (2001) is among the volumes in the Greatest Hits invitational series of poetry chapbooks published by Pudding House. David’s poems, plays and stories have earned recognition in more than… Read more »

Scott Weaver

by

Scott Weaver lives in Austin, Texas, and is working on his first book of poems. You can find him on Twitter @scottweaver.

Laura Grothaus

by

Laura Grothaus hails from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her work has also appeared in Plum Creek Review and Attention: People with Body Parts.

T. Fox Dunham

by

T. Fox Dunham resides outside of Philadelphia PA—author and historian. He’s published in over 100 international journals and anthologies and writes for Team Obama. He’s a cancer survivor. His friends call him fox, being his totem animal, and his motto is: Wrecking civilization one story at a time. http://www.facebook.com/tfoxdunham & Twitter: @TFoxDunham

Daniel Gustafsson

by

Daniel was born in Sweden in 1983. He now lives in York, England, where he works at a boarding school while also completing a PhD in Philosophy, on the topic of Christian art. In addition to his Swedish and English influences, Daniel draws much inspiration from Russian sources. His poems have appeared in many journals… Read more »

Lesley Fletcher

by

Lesley Fletcher is at artist living in Quebec, Canada. You can view more of her work here: http://www.lesleyfletcher.com.

Jim Krosschell

by

Jim Krosschell worked in science publishing for 30 years, starting as a 29-year-old production assistant, avoiding the real world until then by grad school, Peace Corps, travel and TESOL teaching. He has mostly retired now, writing essays and a blog One Man’s Maine http://www.onemansmaine.blogspot.com and dividing his time between Newton, MA and Owls Head, ME…. Read more »

Askold Skalsky

by

Originally from Ukraine, Askold Skalsky, a professor of English at a community college in Western Maryland, has published in numerous small press magazines and journals, including Notre Dame Review and Southern Poetry Review. He has also published in Canada, England, Ireland, and mainland Europe. He has received two poetry awards from the Maryland State Arts… Read more »

Daniel Romo

by

Daniel Romo is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte, but represents the LBC. His poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Gargoyle, The Los Angeles Review, MiPOesias, > kill author, and elsewhere. His first book of poetry, Romancing Gravity, is forthcoming from Pecan Grove Press. More of his writing can be found… Read more »

Samuel Snoek-Brown

by

Samuel Snoek-Brown is a writing teacher and a fiction author, though not always in that order. He also works as the production editor for Jersey Devil Press. His work has appeared in Ampersand Review, Red Dirt, Red Fez, Red Wheelbarrow, and others, and is forthcoming in SOL: English Writing in Mexico. An excerpt from his… Read more »

Steve Klepetar

by

Steve Klepetar’s work has appeared in nine countries, in such journals as Antiphon, Boston Literary Magazine, Chiron, Deep Water, Red River Review, Snakeskin, Ygdrasil, and many others. Several of his poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, including four in 2016. The most recent of his eleven collections include… Read more »

William Cordeiro

by

Will Cordeiro has an MFA in poetry from Cornell, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate studying 18th century British literature. He has been awarded residencies form Risley Residential College, Ora Lerman Trust, Provincetown Community Compact, and the Petrified Forest National Park. His recent work has been published or is forthcoming in journals such as… Read more »

Nancy Flynn

by

Nancy Flynn grew up on the Susquehanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania, spent many years on a downtown creek in Ithaca, New York, and now lives near the mighty Columbia in Portland, Oregon. Her writing has received an Oregon Literary Fellowship and the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Her full-length poetry collection, Every Door Recklessly Ajar… Read more »

Elizabeth Krieg

by

Elizabeth Krieg is a poet in West Hollywood, California, where she lives with her husband and their enormous cat, Ronnie. She holds an M.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in elimae and Petrichor Machine.

Ernest Williamson III

by

Dr. Ernest Williamson has published poetry and visual art in over 380 print and online journals. His artwork “Censored” was used for the cover of Issue 2. Visit his website: www.yessy.com/budicegenius.

Maria Apichella

by

Maria has lived in the ancient seaport town of Aberystwyth for eight years. She finds being surrounded by the sea, mountains and blustery Welsh weather invigorating for her poetry. Maria earned her BA and MA in English and Creative Writing at The University of Aberystwyth where she is currently in the midst of her PhD…. Read more »

MaryAnne Kolton

by

MaryAnne Kolton’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous literary publications including the Lost Children Charity Anthology, The Toucan Magazine, Lost In Thought Literary Magazine, Anatomy, Her Circle, and Connotation Press among others. Her story “A Perfect Family House” was shortlisted for The 2011 Glass Woman Prize. Author Interviews have appeared most recently in… Read more »

Pablo Peschiera

by

Pablo Peschiera lives in Hickory Corners, MI, and teaches creative writing at Hope College. He translates poems from Spanish, writes poems, and teaches, and has published in Pleiades and Shenadoah, among others. He also enjoys his family very much.

David James

by

David James’ second book, She Dances Like Mussolini, won the 2010 Next Generation Indie book award for poetry. He’s also published four chapbooks. Dozens of his one-act plays have been produced from New York to California. He teaches writing at Oakland Community College

Alison Swan

by

Alison Swan’s poems and prose have appeared in many publications, including Michigan Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, Dunes Review, and Willow Springs. Her book, Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes, was named a Library of Michigan Notable Book. She teaches in the Environmental Studies Program at Western Michigan University and lives in Saugatuck, Michigan.

Jennifer Sperry Steinorth

by

Jennifer Sperry Steinorth is a designer for a small green building firm in northern lower Michigan.  Her poems have appeared in The Southeastern Review Online, Mobius: The Journal for Social Change, Damselfly, The Dunes Review, The Bear River Review, and Re: Union.  Her first collection, Forking the Swift, was published in 2010. She is a frequent contributor to Foreword Reviews and the vice-chair of Michigan… Read more »

Holly Wren Spaulding

by

Holly Wren Spaulding is a writer and teacher of creative writing living in western Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness, The Nation and elsewhere. She is founder of Poetry Boot Camp and Poetry Forge.

Rachel Hruza

by

Rachel has her MA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her husband and their 4-year-old peekapoo.

Melissa Fondakowski

by

Melissa Fondakowski is a freelance writer whose reviews, articles, poetry and fiction have been published in magazines and journals including Girlfriends Magazine, Curve Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Lodestar Quarterly, and Many Mountains Moving. Her poetry chapbook, “Impatiens,” was the winner of the 2001 Sow’s Ear Review poetry chapbook competition and was published in 2002…. Read more »

Eric Heyne

by

Eric Heyne teaches American literature and critical theory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (http://www.alaska.edu/english/people/faculty/heyne/).

D.R. James

by

D.R. James’s poems have appeared in various magazines and three chapbooks (Finishing Line and Pudding House). His first full-length collection, Since Everything Is All I’ve Got, is forthcoming in 2011 from March Street Press. He lives in Holland, Michigan, where he has been teaching writing and literature at Hope College for 25 years.

Elizabeth McBride

by

Elizabeth McBride writes from Grand Ledge, Michigan. Her poetry has appeared in Dunes Review, Red River Review, Third Wednesday, Seeding the Snow, Scintilla, Poetry Breakfast, and the SCBWI-MI Bulletin. She is a Fellow of the National Writing Project, an Affiliate of Amherst Writers and Artists, and is deeply appreciative of the teaching and insight that… Read more »

Ben Moeller-Gaa

by

Ben has a degree in English Writing from Knox College, is a contributing editor to River Stix, and is a member of The Haiku Foundation. His poems appear in The Heron’s Nest, Acorn, Shamrock, Glint, The Cape Rock, Roadrunner and Haiku Ramblings. Learn more about Ben at http://sites.google.com/site/benmoellergaa/

Linda Nemec Foster

by

Linda Nemec Foster is the author of nine collections of poetry including Amber Necklace from Gdansk (finalist for the Ohio Book Award in Poetry) and Listen to the Landscape (short-listed for the Michigan Notable Book Award).  Her most recent book, Talking Diamonds, was selected by ForeWord Magazine as a finalist for the 2010 Book of the Year.  Foster’s poems have also been… Read more »

Jack Ridl

by

Jack Ridl is the author of the collections Broken Symmetry, co-winner of The Society of Midland Authors Best Book of Poetry Award and Losing Season, named Best Sports Book of the Year by The International Institute of Sport. His next collection, Practicing to Walk Like a Heron will be published by Wayne State University Press… Read more »