 Photo credit: Daion Chesley Amy Shimshon-Santo is a writer and educator from Dogtown, a place that no longer exists. Her interdisciplinary work connects the arts, education, and urbanism. Her work crosses genres from poetry and creative non-fiction to choreography and social science. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her creative non-fiction (2017), Best of the Net for her poetry (2018), and was recognized on the National Honor Roll for Service Learning.
Her writing has been published by Yes Poetry, Zócalo Public Square, Lady Liberty Lit, Full Blede, Rose Quartz Journal, Awkward Mermaid Press, Inscape, Rag Queen Periodicals, Anti-Heroin Chic, Lady Liberty Lit, Entropy, SAGE Publications, UC Press, SUNY Press, Public!: A Journal of Imagining America, Teaching Artist Journal, Critical Planning Journal, and the Tiferet Journal. Her choreography has been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Singapore — from the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C. to grunge clubs in New York, terreiros in Salvador da Bahia, and cafetoriums in Point Barrow, Alaska. Amy holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in urban planning (University of California, Los Angeles); an M.F.A. in creative writing (Antioch University), and a B.A. in Latin American Studies (University of California, Santa Cruz). She is currently an Associate Professor at Claremont Graduate University (CGU). She taught artists and classroom teachers for seven years while directing the ArtsBridge Program for UCLA Arts. Amy was on the founding committee of Create CA. She co-founded the Brasil Brasil Cultural Center and served as its Executive Director over a 15-year period. She has taught creative writing, dance, capoeira, and media literacy for youth and adults in community centers, schools, and spaces of incarceration. She began her creative career as a dancer and choreographer in California and New York.  Chuck Harp is a writer of various forms who currently resides in Los Angeles. He published Before I Forget with Black Rose Writing, What Must Go On with Unsolicited Press, and Blooming Insanity with Dostoyevsky Wannabe.
Anuja Ghimire was born in Kathmandu, Nepal and came to America to attend college. She began seriously writing and publishing since 2008. A Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, she has published poetry, creative nonfiction and flash fiction in the U.S., Canada, Nepal, and the U.K. Most recently, her work appeared in Finished Creatures (UK), Glass: A journal of poetry, Medusa’s Laughs Press Microanthology, and EcoTheo Review. She works as a senior publisher in an education-based company near Dallas, Texas. She lives with her husband and two young daughters near Dallas.
 Caleb Nichols is a queer poet and musician from California and is in the band, Soft People. Nichols has been a musician for more than a decade and has been actively writing poetry. His work has been featured in Unstammatic: a Microlit Journal, Brain Mill Press and Inklette. His poem, “Ken,” won an Academy of American Poets University Prize. His music has been featured on Out.com, Paste, and many other places. Novelist and translator and the author of fourteen books, Tsipi Keller is the recipient of several literary awards, including New York Foundation for the Arts Fiction Grants, and National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowships. Her latest novel, Nadja on Nadja, was published by Underground Voices.
Wayne-Daniel Berard teaches English and Humanities at Nichols College in Dudley, MA. Wayne-Daniel is a Peace Chaplain, an interfaith clergy person, and a member of B'nai Or of Boston. He has published widely in both poetry and prose, and is the co-founding editor of Soul-Lit, an online journal of spiritual poetry. He lives in Mansfield, MA with his wife, The Lovely Christine.
Scott Poole is best known for his 11 year stint as the "House Poet" of Public Radio International's Live Wire! radio program. He is the author of 3 previous books of poetry and Vacancy, an art chapbook of paintings and poems. In his spare time, he's a painter and software developer. He lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife and family.
Scott Poole is the co-author of The Last Tiger Is Somewhere. Rob Carney is the author of six previous collections of poems, most recently Facts and Figures (Hoot ’n’ Waddle) and The Book o.f Sharks (Black Lawrence Press), which was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and won the 2019 Artists of Utah Magazine (15 BYTES) Book Award for Poetry. Accidental Gardens—a collection of 42 flash essays about the environment, politics, and poetics—is forthcoming from Stormbird Press. He is a Professor of English and Literature at Utah Valley University and lives in Salt Lake City.
Rob Carney is the co-author of The Last Tiger is Somewhere  Tyler James Russell lives in Pennsylvania with Cat, his wife, and their children. He teaches English and Creative Writing, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of British Columbia. His work has appeared in Riddle Fence, Apiary, and Inwood Indiana, among other publications, and was a nominee for the 2011 Rhysling Award. You can find him at Tylerjamesrussell.com. Books by Tyler James Russell At once delicate and visceral, the poems in To Drown a Man chronicle the long gauntlet from a life of secrets to a life of intimacy. “The only difference between imprisonment and hiding,” Russell writes, “is who shuts the door.” Exploring the meaning of redemption and shame as related to the personal, the marital, and the spiritual, these are the poems of a soul at war with itself. They read like chunks of ore being burned of their dross.
 Joseph Allen Costa is a freelance writer and adjunct English professor in Tampa. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Tampa and his BA from the University of South Florida. His short fiction has appeared in BULL men’s fiction, Rabble Lit, the HCE Review, The Write Launch and in December Magazine as a finalist for the Curt Johnson Prose Awards. Costa is the author of three novels (The Good, The Bad and The Goalie, Discovering Dynamite! and Eye of the Storm), and one linked collection of short fiction (Comets, published by Unsolicited Press). Having worked in his father’s cabinet shop for more than a dozen years, Costa’s most recent work, Comets, captures a microcosm of blue collar problems with implications that go beyond economic and cultural boundaries, illuminating a greater understanding of the human experiences we all share. Costa began his career writing advertising for Macy’s on 34th Street in New York City and soon after was recruited by one of the largest advertising agencies in the world — Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt — where he worked for 6 years as a copywriter. Costa lives in Tampa with his wife Teresa, their two children, and their dogs Bella and Dash. Christopher G. Bremicker was a Special Forces medic stationed at Ft. Bragg NC from 1968 to 1970. He has a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a BA in English Literature, both from the University of Minnesota. He is a downhill skier, grouse hunter, fisherman, and newspaperman. He plays handball and reviews theater. His current job as a sales associate at Walgreens in St. Paul MN is his forty-sixth job since high school. His hometown is Cable WI.
 Credit: Amy Anderson Victoria Lin lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and she facilitates workshops across the US. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as Poetry Quarterly, Paper Nautilus, and Apeiron Review. She holds an M.A. in English literature from the University of St. Thomas and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Hamline University. Victoria is currently working toward a doctorate in counseling psychology at the University of St. Thomas, with plans to research and practice poetry therapy. Rebecca A. Spears, author of Brook the Divide (Unsolicited Press) and The Bright Obvious (Finishing Line Press), has her work included in TriQuarterly, Calyx, Crazyhorse, Barrow Street, Verse Daily, Ars Medica, and other journals and anthologies. She has received awards from the Taos Writers Workshop, The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, and Vermont Studio Center. She is also a recent Pushcart nominee.
 Photo Credit: Ben Krantz Terry Tierney is a writer who hails from the Midwest, but has planted roots in the San Francisco Bay Area. After serving in the Seabees, he completed his BA and MA at Binghamton University; Tierney completed a PhD in Victorian Literature at Emory University. For years, he taught college composition and creative writing courses, and survived several Silicon Valley startups as a software engineer. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Michaelyn Burnette, a Librarian from the University of California, their son, and their goofy Golden Retriever. Tierney’s work has appeared in countless publications. Lucky Ride (Unsolicited Press), an irreverent Vietnam-era road novel is set to release in 2022. More can be learned at http://terrytierney.com.
Adam Gibbs’ writing has been honored by the Tipp City Arts Council and the Hayner Cultural Center, as well as appearing in Fourth & Sycamore and The Mark Literary Review. He lives in Grove City, Ohio, with his wife Lindsay and their daughter Clara. Gibbs is the author of Dumb Luck. Catherine Moore is the author of three chapbooks and the collection ULLA! ULLA! (Main Street Rag). Her work appears in Tahoma Literary Review, Roanoke Review, Southampton Review, Appalachian Heritage, Mid-American Review and in various anthologies. She’s been awarded Walker Percy and Hambidge fellowships; her honors also include the Southeast Review’s Gearhart Poetry Prize, a Nashville MetroArts grant, inclusion in the juried BEST SMALL FICTIONS, as well as Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. Catherine holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and she teaches at a community college. David Michael Slater is the author of 20+ books for children, teens, and adults, several of which have received notice in the NYT, PW, the NYJB, and others. Slater’s on-going seven-part teen series, Forbidden Books, is being developed for film by Producer Kevin Bannerman (Lion King/Curious George/Ice Age). I have a six-part early chapter book series launched, and my first book of nonfiction, We're Doing It Wrong: 25 Ideas in Education That Just Don't Work -- And How to Fix Them, is out now to fabulous reviews. David Michael Slater is the author of DICTIONARIES OUT OF ORDER.
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John Sullivan was an American College Theatre Festival Playwriting finalist, received the 'Jack Kerouac Literary Prize,' 'Writers Voice: New Voices of the West' Award, AZ Arts Fellowships (Poetry & Playwriting), Artists Studio Center Fellowship, WESTAF Fellowship, was a featured playwright at Denver's Changing Scene Summer Play, and an Eco-Arts Performance Fellow from Earth Matters On Stage (University of Oregon). He was Artistic / Producing Director of Theater Degree Zero, collaborated with the Bi-National Theatre Project (Instituto Tecnológico de Nogales-Sonora, Mexico / Cochise College, Douglas AZ) and directed the Augusto Boal / Theatre of the Oppressed focused applied theatre wing at Seattle Public Theater. For the past decade, he has used Theatre of the Oppressed with vulnerable communities to promote dialogue on toxic exposures-cumulative risk / environmental justice issues with NIEHS environmental health scientists. He was a writer for the online journal, Community Arts Network / Art in the Public Interest and has published articles on Community-Based Participatory Research in scientific journals such as New Solutions, Environmental Health Insights and Local Environment: the International Journal of Justice & Sustainability. His work has been published in a variety of print and online journals including: Hayden’s Ferry Review, Black Bear Review, Argy-Bargy, Prose Kitchen, California Quarterly, The Lucid Stone, Oddball, OVS, Scarlet Leaf Review, Steel Toe Review, Squawk Back, Razor: a Literary Magazine, BeZine, Pudding Magazine, Birds Piled Loosely, Madness Muse Press, Harbinger Asylum, Anti-Heroin Chic, Tumblewords: Writers Reading the West, and the Houston Poetry Festival Anthology.  Raki is a queer, Jewish fiction and poetry writer. She is the author of The Memory House (The Muriel Press 2019) which was a finalist for both the Red Hen Press Nonfiction Award and the Minnesota Book Award, and The Other Body (Dancing Girl Press 2017). Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for fiction. She lives in Minneapolis. You can find her here: https://rakikopernik.wixsite.com/mysite and follow on Instagram @rakikopernik  Credit: Kaitlin LaMoine Martin Margaret DeRitter is the poetry editor and copy editor of Encore, a regional magazine based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She was a winner of the 2018 Celery City Chapbook Contest, sponsored by Kalamazoo’s Friends of Poetry, for her chapbook Fly Me to Heaven By Way of New Jersey. Her writing has appeared in the anthologies Surprised By Joy (Wising Up Press) and Queer Around the World (Qommunicate Publishing) and in a number of journals, including The 3288 Review, which nominated her poem “At the top of Sleeping Bear Dunes” for a Pushcart Prize. DeRitter has also written numerous magazine and newspaper articles. She worked for 22 years at the Kalamazoo Gazette and has taught journalism at Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College. She was born and raised in New Jersey and has lived in Michigan since college. When not writing or editing, she often paddles Michigan lakes and rivers. About DeRitter's Book Singing Back to the Sirens explores the many ways that desire and love, loss and grief, can shape a woman’s life. The poems in this two-part collection look at the loneliness of a newborn for her sick mother, the first stirrings of sexual desire for a best friend, the treacherous leap from a sheltered world of faith into lesbian life, the frustrations of falling for straight women, the alchemy of falling in love, the aftermath of losing it. In the first section, the poet sings back to the many women she has loved. In the second, she sings back to the one who sang the sweetest and the saddest songs.
 Chris Drabick is a former rock music journalist whose fiction has appeared in Cease, Cows, Midwestern Gothic, After the Pause and Great Lakes Review, and non-fiction in BULL and Stoneboat, among others. He is a graduate of the NEOMFA, the northeast Ohio consortial program. He teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Akron in Ohio.
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Poet Laureate of Silver City, NM (Land of Enchantment) 2017 - 2019, Beate Sigriddaughter grew up in Nuremberg, Germany, close to the castle and World War II ruins. Her poetry and prose are published in many literary magazines, by several small presses, and have received Pushcart Prize nominations and independent prizes.
Beate Sigriddaughter is the author of Emily Kayla Jeswald is a writer based in Youngstown, Ohio. She holds an master’s in Creative Writing from Youngstown State University, and currently teaches composition.
The author of numerous published short stories as well as the novella In the Service of the Boyar (Strange Fictions Press, 2016), Jason Graff loves both reading and producing writing that has a strong, clear voice and conveys a deep connection to the characters. In high school, his passion for the written word was well and truly ignited when he took a sucker punch for writing his crush a poem. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Bowling Green State University and later, his MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College. The intense nature of that program allowed him to be mentored by a diverse group of talented writers which included: Sarah Schulman, Richard Panek, Darcey Steinke, and Rachel Pollack.
Jason currently lives in Richardson, Texas with his wife, son, and their cat. He is currently working on a science fiction novel about the beginning of the end of the universe and another about a romancing con-man. You can follow him on Twitter at @JasonGraff1 , on Facebook at Author Jason Graff and/or visit his website: www.jasongraff.wordpress.com. Erin Cisney is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and currently resides in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. Stay connected with Erin Cisney: Tumblr: https://erincisney.tumblr.com Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10066458-erin Books By Erin Cisney |