Contributors
Mike Alexander's first book, Retrograde, was recently published by P&J Poetics (www.pandjpoetic.com). His last chapbook, We Internet in Different Voices (Modern Metrics), is still available through EXOT books. His poems have recently appeared in River Styx, Measure, Raintown Review, Abridged, Southword, The Nervous Breakdown, & other journals.
Ace Boggess is the author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). He is an ex-con, ex-husband, ex-reporter, and completely exhausted by all the things he isn't anymore. His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, RATTLE, River Styx, North Dakota Quarterly and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.
Carl Boon lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey. Recent or forthcoming poems appear in Posit, The Tulane Review, Blast Furnace , JuxtaProse, The Blue Bonnet Review, and many other magazines.
Lauren Britt-Elmore, EdD likes to refer to herself as an "artist enabler.” A recent graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education, her dissertation analyzed the motivating factors behind fine arts faculty’s decisions about massive open online courses (MOOCs). She has also conducted research on leadership in fine arts schools and departments in higher education, the organizational relationship between fine arts departments and their parent institutions, and the role of the creative arts in students with psychological issues on college campuses. These interests are the direct result of her professional experiences in theatre and higher education, where for three years she served as a director in a graduate level theatre school in New York. She has also worked in theatre companies in Washington, DC and New York. In addition to her academic research at Harvard, Dr. Elmore has taught and assisted for courses in higher education administration, adult development, statistical methods, and group learning. Dr. Elmore has also worked as a facilitator for various Programs in Professional Education. In this capacity, Dr. Elmore used her training as a theatre artist, her experience in artistic organizations, and her study of effective educational leadership to inform her practice. Currently, Dr. Elmore serves as a pedagogical consultant for Anna Deavere Smith’s production of Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education at Boston’s A.R.T. this fall and is looking for her next long-term professional adventure. She is also working on turning her dissertation into a book. In addition to her EdD, Dr. Elmore holds an MFA from Columbia University, and a BA from Wesleyan University.
Amee Broumand is an Iranian American poet from the Pacific Northwest. She has a background in classic literature, logic, philosophy, and photography.
Sandy Coomer is a poet, mixed media artist, and endurance athlete. Her poems have most recently been published in Big Muddy, Main Street Rag, and Clementine Poetry Journal among others. She is the author of two poetry collections: Continuum, published by Finishing Line Press, and The Presence of Absence, winner of the 2014 Janice Keck Literary Award for Poetry. She lives in Brentwood, TN.
William C. Crawford is a writer & photographer in North Carolina. Crawford developed the Forensic Foraging technique of photography with his colleague, Sydney lensman, Jim Provencher.
Meredith Derecho loves learning foreign languages and traveling to new places, but the subsequent goodbyes break her heart. She grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts with supportive parents, an excellent little brother, and encouraging teachers, all of whom she feels very grateful for. Now Meredith is a rising junior at Yale University who really likes singing. Actually, she would have written that she 'loves' singing, but she already used that verb in the first sentence.
Nancy Devine teaches high school English in Grand Forks, North Dakota where she lives. Her poetry, short fiction and essays have appeared in online and print journals.
William Doreski’s work has appeared in various e and print journals and in several collections, most recently The Suburbs of Atlantis (AA Press, 2013).
Javier Espinoza is currently a graduate student of social work at UCLA. He is a first generation Chicano from California, the youngest of five children, and the son of a single immigrant mother. In high school he started a non profit providing basic necessities to families living in domestic violence shelters. Today,he is developing this non profit through his UCLA program. Aside from his non-profit work, he's spent a number of years teaching sociology, gender studies, and race studies to students in juvenile hall.
Born in Canada and bred in the U.S., Allen Forrest has worked in many mediums: computer graphics, theater, digital music, film, video, drawing and painting. Allen studied acting in the Columbia Pictures Talent Program in Los Angeles and digital media in art and design at Bellevue College (receiving degrees in Web Multimedia Authoring and Digital Video Production.) He currently works in the Vancouver, Canada, as a graphic artist and painter. He is the winner of the Leslie Jacoby Honor for Art at San Jose State University's Reed Magazine and his Bel Red painting series is part of the Bellevue College Foundation's permanent art collection. Forrest's expressive drawing and painting style is a mix of avant-garde expressionism and post-Impressionist elements reminiscent of van Gogh, creating emotion on canvas.
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over nine hundred of his poems and fictions appear in literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net for work published in 2011 through 2014. His novel, Two-Headed Dog, based on his work as a clinical psychologist in a state hospital, is available for Kindle and Nook, or as a print edition. He lives in Denver. He works at combating his own ego, as Ego is the source of Greed, and Greed is destroying our world.
Dolores Hayden’s first two collections are American Yard (2003) and Nymph, Dun, and Spinner (2010). Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, Ecotone, The Common, Shenandoah, Yale Review, Raritan, Southwest Review, Solstice, Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, American Scholar, Poetry Daily, and Best American Poetry. She has won awards from the PSA and from the New England Poetry Club. In her day job she is a Professor of American Studies at Yale and also the author of several non-fiction titles on the history of American landscapes.
Thomas Healy was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. His stories have appeared in the Anterior Review, Gravel, the Hawaii Review, and Welter.
Kyle Hemmings lives and works in New Jersey. He has been published in Your Impossible Voice, Night Train, Toad, Matchbox and elsewhere. His latest ebook is Father Dunne's School for Wayward Boys at amazon.com. He blogs at http://upatberggasse19.blogspot.com/
Faith S. Holsaert has published fiction in journals since the 1980s and has begun to also publish poetry. She co-edited Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC (University of Illinois). She received her mfa from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. After many years in West Virginia, she lives in Durham, NC with her partner Vicki Smith, with whom she shares ten grandchildren.
Kirsten Dinnall Hoyte is an English teacher at Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts. Her novel, Black Marks, was published by Akashic books in 2006.
Seth Jani currently resides in Seattle, WA and is the founder of Seven CirclePress (www.sevencirclepress.com). His own work has been published widely in such places as The Foundling Review, The Devilfish Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, Hawai`i Pacific Review and Gravel. More about him and his work can be found at www.sethjani.com.
Michael Jeffries is an Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College. He writes the following: I am broadly interested in the sociology of race and ethnicity, identity and politics, and popular culture. My new book, Paint the White House Black: Barack Obama and the Meaning of Race in America, uses Obama-related topics to demonstrate how race relies on other social forces, like gender and class, for its meaning and impact. It features discussions of race and nationhood, discourses of "biracialism" and Obama's mixed heritage, the purported emergence of a "post-racial society," and popular symbols of Michelle Obama as a modern black woman. I have also written widely on hip-hop music. My first book, Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop, puts the spotlight on hip-hop fans, as I document the ways everyday listeners define hip-hop and use it in their lives. Additional articles and essays include pieces about hip-hop feminism and representations of love in hip-hop performances. At Wellesley, I teach Introduction to American Studies, as well as courses on race and politics, and the sociology of sports. I also teach advanced seminars for third- and fourth-year students on Barack Obama and hip-hop studies. I enjoy teaching students about the benefits of interdisciplinary learning, and helping them apply academic work to experiences and cultural events from their daily lives. My non-academic writing has been published by The Atlantic and The Guardian, and you can follow me on Twitter@M_P_Jeffries.
Zainab bint Younus Kathrada is a Canadian Muslim woman of colour. She is a freelance writer who has been published in various Muslim-based publications (SISTERS Magazine, Al Jumuah Magazine, OnIslam.net, MuslimMatters.org).
Robert S. King, a native Georgian, now lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where he edits the literary journal Kentucky Review. His poems have appeared in hundreds of magazines, including Atlanta Review, California Quarterly, Chariton Review, Hollins Critic, Kenyon Review, Main Street Rag, Midwest Quarterly, Negative Capability, Southern Poetry Review, and Spoon River Poetry Review. He has published eight poetry collections, most recently Diary of the Last Person on Earth (Sybaritic Press 2014) and Developing a Photograph of God (Glass Lyre Press, 2014). His personal website is www.robertsking.com.
Tricia Knoll is an Oregon poet whose work appears in numerous journals and anthologies. Her chapbook Urban Wild (Finishing Line Press 2014) examines interactions between humans and wildlife in urban habitat. Ocean's Laughter (Aldrich Press 2016) combines lyric and eco-poetry to look at life in a small town on Oregon's north coast. Website: triciaknoll.com
Sandra Kohler's third collection of poems, Improbable Music, appeared in May, 2011 from Word Press. Her second collection, The Ceremonies of Longing, winner of the 2002 AWP Award Series in Poetry, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in November, 2003. An earlier volume, The Country of Women, was published in 1995 by Calyx Books. Her poems have appeared over the past thirty-five years in journals including Prairie Schooner, The New Republic, Beloit Poetry Journal, APR, Slant, The Missouri Review, The Gettysburg Review, Tar River Poetry, and The Colorado Review.
Daniel Lassell has been featured recently (or is forthcoming) in Slipstream, Reed Magazine, Atticus Review, Pembroke Magazine, Split Lip Magazine, The Citron Review and Agave Magazine, for which he won the 2015 National Poetry Month Haiku Contest. His poems have also been anthologized, most recently in New Poetry from the Midwest 2014. He lives with his wife in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Helen Reed Lehman’s memoir was published in Catamaran Literary Reader, Spring 2015 issue. Quail Bell magazine will bring out her story, “California Murder Mystery,” soon. She is from Southern California. After college, she went into theater. She acted at the Cleveland Playhouse, Firehouse Theater, San Diego Rep and City Lights of San Jose, among others.
Mary Leonard has published chapbooks at 2River, Pudding House, Antrim House Press and RedOchreLit. Her poetry has appeared in The Naugatuck Review, Hubbub, Cloudbank and others. She lives in an old school house overlooking the Rondout Creek in Kingston, NY. Away from her own personal blackboard, she teaches workshops for all ages through Bard College.
Charlotte Mandel's most recent book of poetry, Through a Garden Gate, poems in response to color photographs by Vincent Covello, was published this year by David Robert Books. Previous titles include two poem-novellas—The Life of Mary and The Marriages of Jacob. Critical essays include a series on the role of cinema in the life and work of H.D. Visit her at charlottemandel.com.
Corey Mesler has published in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Gargoyle, Five Points, Good Poems American Places, and Esquire/Narrative. He has published 8 novels, 4 short story collections, numerous chapbooks, and 5 full-length poetry collections. His new novel, Memphis Movie, is forthcoming from Soft Skull Press. He’s been nominated for many Pushcarts, and 2 of his poems were chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. With his wife he runs a bookstore in Memphis. He can be found at https://coreymesler.wordpress.com.
Bob Meszaros taught English at Hamden High School in Hamden, Connecticut, for thirty-two years. He retired from high school teaching in June of 1999. During the 70s and 80s his poems appeared in a number of literary journals, such as En Passant and Voices International. In the year 2000 he began teaching part time at Quinnipiac University, and he began once again to submit his work for publication. His poems have subsequently appeared in The Connecticut Review, Main Street Rag, Red Wheelbarrow, Tar River Poetry, Concho River Review, and many other literary journals.
Mark A. Murphy’s first full length collection, Night-watch Man & Muse, was published in November 2013 from Salmon Poetry (Eire). He is currently looking for a publisher for his first full length play, Lenny’s Wake.
Toti O’Brien’s work has appeared in Synesthesia, Wilderness House, The Harpoon Review and Litro NY among other journals and anthologies.
Kenneth Pobo has a new book out from Blue Light Press called Bend of Quiet. Forthcoming from Urban Farmhouse Press is Booking Rooms in the Kuiper Belt.
Frederick Pollack is author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure and Happiness, both published by Story Line Press and a collection of shorter poems, A Poverty of Words, 2015 from Prolific Press. He has appeared in Hudson Review, Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, Die Gazette (Munich), The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Representations, Magma (UK), Iota (UK), Bateau, Main Street Rag, Fulcrum, etc. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Allegro, Hamilton Stone Review, Diagram, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Mudlark, Occupoetry, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, Thunderdome, etc. He is an adjunct professor of creative writing at George Washington University.
Michael Salamone is an Assistant Professor of Politcal Science in the School of Politics, Philosophy, & Public Affairs at Washington State University. He also serves as Director of the Pre-Law Resource Center. His research focuses on politics of the American courts. He is especially interested in how courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, shape and are shaped by external political forces such as public opinion, the news media, and organized interests. His current book project examines the role of political polarization in affecting the popular perception of the U.S. Supreme Court and its opinions.
Jonathan Sawday holds the Walter J. Ong, SJ Chair in the Humanities at Saint Louis University in the Department of English. He moved to the US from the UK six years ago. His books include: Engines of the Imagination (2007); The Renaissance Computer (2000) (with Neil Rhodes); The Body Emblazoned (1995); Literature and the English Civil War (1990) (with Tom Healy). As well as writing academic essays and reviews he has been a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and 4 on literary, historical, and cultural topics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, the English Association, and the Royal Historical Society.
L.B. Sedlacek’s poetry has appeared in publications such as Pure Francis, The Broad River Review, Main Street Rag, Third Wednesday, Mastodon Dentist, Big Pulp, and others. She is the author of 11 chapbooks, the most recent being Spy Techniques. L.B. publishes a free monthly poetry newsletter resource for poets, "The Poetry Market Ezine." She received her MA from Wake Forest University and she is also a former Poetry Editor for ESC! Magazine.
Professor Olga Shurchkov joined the faculty at her Alma Mater, Wellesley College, after receiving her Ph.D. in Economics from MIT in 2008. At Wellesley, she teaches courses in macroeconomics and a seminar on behavioral and experimental economics. She has also taught Global Economic Environment: Business Cycles and Financial Markets at Columbia Business School. Professor Shurchkov’s recent research focuses on using the experimental methodology to investigate issues in various types of discrimination in the labor market. For example, she has explored gender differences in performance under competition and appearance-based discrimination. Professor Shurchkov is thrilled to be able to continue her research and teaching at Wellesley for many years to come, as she was recently granted tenure there. Her new projects will include a broad range of topics from gender differences in leadership productivity to the influence of a country’s institutional background on the development of social norms. As a fourth-degree black belt, Professor Shurchkov enjoys teaching and practicing Taekwon-do.
Louis Staeble lives in Bowling Green, Ohio. His photographs have appeared in Agave, Blinders Journal, Blue Hour, Digital Papercut, Driftwood, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Four Ties Literary Review, Iron Gall, Microfiction Monday, On The Rusk, Paper Tape Magazine, Revolution John, Rose Red Review, Sonder Review, Timber Journal, Up The Staircase Quarterly and Your Impossible Voice. His web page can be viewed at http://staeblestudioa.weebly.com.
Douglas Steele is a member of the Academy of American Poets, is published in Literary Nest Magazine, as well as being founder and sole contributor to the Poetic Blog Sunset In Cheeseland http://sunsetincheeseland2.blogspot.com/
John Stocks is a UK based poet, novelist and free lance journalist, who has had work published in magazines worldwide and has been widely anthologised. Since 2010 his work has appeared in the anthology Soul Feathers, alongside Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy, Maya Angelou, Sharon Olds and others. He also had the honor of sharing a page with Maya Angelou in the anthology Heart Shoots. Heart Shoots and Soul Feathers are anthologies published to aid the work of Macmillan Cancer Support in the U.K. He has a poem in This Island City, the first poetry anthology of poems about Portsmouth and is also featured in The Cinnamon Press anthology, Shape Shifting, The Northern Writers anthology, Type 51, and in the Red Claw press anthology, Seek it. In May 2013 he had poetry in the international anthology For Rhino in a Shrinking World. He is the poetry editor of Bewildering Stories magazine and has published a number of creative anthologies. He spends a considerable amount of time encouraging and working with young poets, many of whom have been published for the first time.
From 2007-2010, Rodney Torreson served as the poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of four books, the most recent being The Secrets of Fieldwork, a chapbook of poems published by Finishing Line Press in 2010. His two full-length books are A Breathable Light (New Issues Press) and The Ripening of Pinstripes: Called Shots on the New York Yankees (Story Line Press).
Fred D. White’s poems have appeared in The Cape Rock, Rattle, South Carolina Review, Visions International, etc. He lives near Sacramento, CA.
Dr. Ernest Williamson III has published creative work in over 600 journals. Professor Williamson has published poetry in over 200 journals, including The Oklahoma Review, Review Americana: A Creative Writing Journal, Pamplemousse, formerly known as The Gihon River Review, and The Copperfield Review. Some of his visual artwork has appeared in journals such as The Columbia Review, The GW Review, New England Review; and The Tulane Review. He has published articles on comparative education in the academic journal Academic Exchange Extra (University of Northern Colorado),and his research has been cited in journals such as The Urban Review and The Public Purpose(American University). Many of his creative works have been published in journals representing over 75 colleges and universities around the world. Williamson is an Assistant Professor of English at Allen University and his poetry has been nominated three times for the Best of the Net Anthology. Williamson holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English/Creative Writing/Literature from the University of Memphis, a PhD in Higher Education Leadership, Management, & Policy from Seton Hall University, and a certificate from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.
