February 2, 2016

By Cassidy Marie
Linda Cook is an author, archivist, professional genealogist, and certified librarian assistant.  She earned a Bachelor's in Education from Milligan College, and Master's in Education from Indiana Wesleyan University. She taught for 12 years in the public school system.  Following her passion for genealogy and archives, Linda obtained additional certification in Genealogical Research from Boston University.

Jennifer Criss graduated from Ball State University with a minor in Creative Writing, a life long passion.  She is currently collaborating on an anthology for older adults and helps lead a writing support group. Jennifer writes mostly short stories but has discovered a love for writing poetry.  Her poetry has been published in Poebita Magazine. She now works at Ball State, is a busy mother of two girls, but her pen keeps moving. She is an editorial assistant with Indiana Voice Journal.



JD DeHart is a writer and teacher.  His chapbook, The Truth About Snails, is available from RedDashboard.




 David Dominé teaches at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany and his articles, stories, translations, and poetry have appeared in publications such as the Wisconsin Review, Golden Walkman Magazine, Danse Macabre, and Book Ends Review. His non-fiction books range in topic from folklore and architecture to bourbon, travel memoirs and regional cooking. Current projects include the forthcoming novel Peter Paul’s Kitchen and a true-crime book about the 2009 murder of Jamie Carroll and the subsequent trials of alleged killers Jeffery Mundt and Joseph Banis.

Ken Allan Dronsfield is a Published Poet/Author/Digital Artist originally from Hampton New Hampshire, now residing in Oklahoma. He has been writing for many years and enjoys spending time hiking, playing guitar and spending time with his cats Merlin and Willa. His published work can be found at numerous print venues.


Angel Edwards, a member of SOCAN, BMI and VMA owns a small music publishing company. A dozen of her songs are published by Saddlestone Publishing. She currently performs as a solo acoustic electric singer songwriter guitarist. Her poems have been published in numerous magazines and journals. Angel is preparing her first book of poetry and short stories and has one completed fantasy novella.She is seeking a publisher for her works. http://www.reverbnation.com/angeledwards

Mr. Ferreira is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than Portuguese, in order to reach more people.  Has been published in four printed British Anthologies, online or printed reviews like Cyclamens and Swords, Right Hand Pointing, Boston Poetry Magazine, The Lake, The Stare’s Net, The Provo Canyon, Amomancies, Snapdragon, The Gambler, Whispers and some others. Short listed in four American Poetry Contests, lives in a small town with wife, three sons and a granddaughter and began writing after retirement as a Bank Manager. He is collecting his works for a forthcoming book.  See more at www.edilsonmeloferreira.wordpress.com.  


Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India. He has been writing and publishing poetry for the last thirty years.


I live with my wife and 2 sons and teach across the Miami river in the suburbs of Cincinnati Ohio. From this very “mid-American” perspective, I try to write with an eye on the convergence of the human and natural worlds, i.e. how nature finds a way of adapting to the changing landscape imposed on it, and how those adaptations (or failures) reflect on our own condition. I’ve published in several journals recently, including Miller’s Pond Poetry Review, Bird’s Thumb, and Blue Line, and have recently attended both the Sewanee Writer’s Conference and The Bread Loaf Conference for Writers of the Environment.
 http://cargocollective.com/markluebbers

After earning master’s degrees from Indiana State University and Western Michigan University and teaching for 25 years, Alice Jane-Marie Massa retired from teaching writing and public speaking at a Wisconsin technical college.  Alice invites you to visit her blog:  http://alice13wordwalk.wordpress.com, where she posts her poetry, essays, short stories, recipes, or memoirs each Wednesday.  Her writings on Wordwalk frequently focus on her guide dogs, her Hoosier hometown of Blanford (25 miles northwest of Terre Haute), her Italian family heritage, and holidays.  Recently, her writings have also appeared in Magnets and Ladders, Newsreel (audio magazine), Dialogue, and The ACB Braille Forum.  Being the current president of Behind Our Eyes (an international group of writers with disabilities) also fills hours of her retirement.  Away from her desk, Alice most enjoys long walks with her third Leader Dog (Zoe), container gardening, and the television program Jeopardy.

Valerie Muensterman is a senior at Mater Dei High School in southern Indiana. She is actively involved in theatre and has written and directed four plays at her school. In addition to writing, Valerie enjoys playing the piano, banjo, guitar, and ukulele. She plans to pursue writing in college.




Melissa Parietti is a writer from Long Island who has produced poems, short stories, novels, and business literature. Find Melissa on Twitter @MelissaParie.


Arthur Powers is from Illinois.  In 1969 he went to Brazil as a Peace Corps Volunteer and lived most of his adult life there.  From 1985 to 1992 he and his wife lived in the Brazilian Amazon, working with subsistence farmers in a region of violent land conflicts; through his experience with the farmers, Arthur came to appreciate more deeply his own Midwestern heritage.

Cecilia Soprano lives in Westchester County and makes her living as an organic gardener and artist. Her poems and artwork have been published in La Joie magazine and UC at Santa Barbara among others.  Her artwork is often featured on the covers of Inner Directions magazine. She is a member of the Greenwich Art Society and the Katonah Museum Art Association. She has published three small books and has had several one woman art exhibits.  Her love of nature and gardening provides the space for uninterrupted inspiration.  Her intention is to make images and words that describe beauty and uplift the human spirit.   My art is about making the simple sacred and the ordinary extra-ordinary.

"The reason why we exist is to remember why we exist and to realize our interconnectedness with all things."    WEBSITE:  www.Amichiart.com or CeciliaSoprano.com

Christopher Stolle’s poetry has appeared in more than 100 magazines in several countries, including Labyrinth (Indiana University Honors Program), The Plaza (Japan), El-Shaddai (Singapore), Poetechniciens (England), Ultimate Ceasefire (Australia), and recently or forthcoming in the Burningword Literary Journal, the Tipton Poetry Journal, Flying Island, Writing Raw, Branches, and Snapdragon, and in three anthologies (In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself [volumes 1 and 4; 1997 and 2002] and Reckless Writing [2012]). He has also published two nonfiction books with Coaches Choice: 101 Leadership Lessons From Baseball’s Greatest Managers (2013) and 101 Leadership Lessons From Basketball’s Greatest Coaches (2016). He works as a development editor for Penguin Random House, and he lives in Indianapolis.


Ajise Vincent is a Nigerian Poet. His poem “Song of a Progeny” was a shortlisted poem at the Korea- Nigeria Poetry feast, 2015. His works have been published in London grip magazine, Kalahari Review, Sakonfa literary magazine, AfricanWriter, Indian periodical, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Afrikana ng, Poetry Pacific, The Poet Community,  Whispers,  Commonline Journal, Novel Afrique, Black Boy Review, Tuck Magazine and various literary outlets. He is currently finishing up a major in Economics at the University


 Jocelyn Zarco is from Shortridge IB High School.

Matthew Fort teaches American literature and rhetoric at Central Lakes College in Central Minnesota. As the son of an underground miner, his stories explore the joys, sorrows, and dreams of people who live in small, mining towns, similar to the one he grew up in as a child.  

In addition to writing fiction and poetry, Belinda Hubert is currently working on a  a collection of short stories about life in the Midwest. Her novel, Shrink Wrapped is available on Amazon. Belinda works as a clinical psychologist in a private practice in Lowell, Indiana.  http://buelasprairiepractice.blogspot.com/


My fiction has appeared in The Bryant Literary Review, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, The Driftless Review, Crack the Spine, The Broadkill Review, Happy Magazine, and The Cynic Online Magazine, with a forthcoming publication in Infernal Ink Magazine. I have also published a collection of short stories, Sometimes Things Go Horribly Wrong (Outskirts Press). I have previously published two short stories in the IVJ, "Dairy Queen" in February 2015, and
 "The Witch of Malibu" in September 2015. 

Jenny Sturgill is a nurse living in Louisville, Kentucky. Publications include:
Page&Spine, Long Story Short, The Enchanted File Cabinet, Ky Story, Kentucky Explorer, and The Pink Chameleon.


L.D. served seven years in the Navy, which included a combat tour in Vietnam on river boats, and five years aboard nuclear-powered, Fast Attack submarines. At 65, his life is quieter now, and is a member of The Bold Writers.

L.D.’s short stories have been published in: Red Fez, Indiana Voice Journal, Remarkable Doorways Online Literary Magazine, The Writing Disorder, The Furious Gazelle, Slippery Elm, and The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society.  His website is: ldzaneauthor.com

Raymond Greiner's writings include short stories and essays published frequently in various literary journals and magazines:  Branches magazine, La Joie Journal, Literary Yard Journal, Nib Magazine, Canary Literary Journal, Bellesprit Magazine, Freedom Journal, Grace Notes Literary Magazine. His latest book, "Queenie; a novella" is available on Amazon. Raymond lives in a remote area of southern Indiana in a cabin far off a lightly traveled road with his two dogs Orion and Venus. 


Telling a story is my priority no matter what the Medium or Style … A Seduction of Color, Composition, Light/ Shadow revealing a sensation of being.
I draw images from the unconscious by spontaneous action over a ‘Section de Or’ grid, then apply Elements of Abstract, Cubism, Symbolism, Expressionism, to heighten the sensation / meaning. I want to leave the Viewer with an insight into the Interior Worlds, like an inward looking Mirror.

January 4, 2016

"They Transition Easier If We Indulge Their Whims" by W. Jack Savage

This painting by W. Jack Savage pretty much sets the tone for the January issue of IVJ.   It's strange and terrifying... and wonderful.  I hope you enjoy this big edition and don't forget to leave comments on your favorite posts. Writer's love feedback. Have a blessed 2016. ~Janine Pickett

POETRY 

Caleb Allison, Alison Moncrief Bromage, JD DeHart, Ken Allan Dronsfield, Ricky Garni, John Grey, Ananya S Guha, David Howerton, Lindy Hubert, Frances Klein, Milton Montague, Simon Perchik, Gerard Sarnat, David Subacchi, Y.X. Xia

FICTION

Glenna Blomquist, Simon Brown, DB Cox, Nels Hanson, Muhammad Nasrullah Khan, Jim Kjeldsen, Jack Daniel Miles, Colin Rowe, L.D. Zane

NONFICTION/ESSAY/MEMOIR

Lynda McKinney Lambert, Charles E.J. Moulton, K.R. Riordan, Bruce F. Rosen, Adreyo Sen

VISUAL ART
W. Jack Savage, David J. Thompson

These poems were inspired by the local Cretan culture in Greece while being in the Navy stationed at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay on the island of Crete.  They spring from my observations of the local culture and environment as well as my feelings associated with being separated from my wife and family for long periods of time.  There is an odd juxtaposition of being able to enjoy the beauty of a paradise location but experiencing it without my wife and family and it is from this that my inspiration stems.

Alison's poems have been published in the Paris Review, Denver Quarterly, Barrow Street and in Drunken Boat (which has just nominated her poem "Teratoma" for a Pushcart). The following three are appeals to Daedalus, the tinkerer from mythology.

 
JD DeHart is a writer and teacher.  His chapbook, The Truth About Snails, is available from RedDashboard.


 
Ken Allan Dronsfield is a Published Poet/Author/Digital Artist who resides in Oklahoma. He has been writing for many years and has, only recently, been published in a variety of print venues. 



Ricky Garni is a writer and machinist born in Florida and living in North Carolina. His most recent publications can be found in BOAAT, BITCHIN’ KITSCH, YELLOW CHAIR REVIEW and SECTION 8 MAGAZINE. His latest works are PINKY EMBRACE, via 101 Secret Wing Dings, and a bonbon collection of six poems by BITTERZOET, to be released in the sultry-heat of late summer, 2015



John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, Perceptions and Sanskrit with work upcoming in South Carolina Review, Gargoyle, Owen Wister Review and Louisiana Literature.



Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India. He has been writing and publishing poetry for the last thirty years.


David's a part time programmer and lives in the American River Canyon outside of Auburn Ca. He has done some landscaping sign painting cooking and made jewelry to pay the bills. He lives a rather quiet life. His wife and he live with a bossy cat. He has three adult daughters and eight grandchildren. His hobbies include type design, soapstone carving, walks in the woods, collecting dragons, and a growing library of Science Fiction. 

In addition to writing fiction and poetry, Belinda Hubert is currently working on a  a collection of short stories about life in the Midwest. Her novel, Shrink Wrapped is available on Amazon. Belinda works as a clinical psychologist in a private practice in Lowell, Indiana.  http://buelasprairiepractice.blogspot.com/



Frances Klein is a high school English teacher and poet.  She was raised in Southeast Alaska, and has since migrated to Indianapolis, where she lives with her husband Kris.



milt montague was born and raised in new york city, survived The Great Depression, the school system, and World War ll.  After 20 years back at college he discovered poetry at 85.  Now at 90 plus he has 54 poems published in 14 different magazines.     



Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. His most recent collection is Almost Rain, published by River Otter Press (2013).  For more information, including free e-books, his essay titled “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com

Gerry and his wife of 45 years live in the room above a daughter’s family’s garage. Grandkids wander in and out all the time. It’s great! When we’re not there, we live in a yurt where our son’s family lives off the grid between the Klamath River and Marble Mountains.
Gerard Sarnat MD received his education at Harvard where he was the editor of the freshman literary magazine The Yardling, and Stanford.  He established and staffed clinics for the disenfranchised, has been a CEO of healthcare organizations, and was a Stanford professor.  

David Subacchi lives in Wales (UK) where he was born of Italian roots.
He studied at the University of Liverpool and his poetry collections
FIRST CUT (2012) and HIDING IN SHADOWS (2014) are with
Cestrian Press. You can find out more about David and his work

Y.X. Xia is a scientist by day, poet by daydream. His work has been published or is forthcoming from Strong Verse,  Society of Classical Poets, Boston Literary Magazine, Otoliths, Pantheon Magazine, Star*line, Eunoia Review and elsewhere (see yuxingxia.wordpress.com). He also really likes boards that promote justice such as the washboard. Like really, all kinds of flat boards.


W. Jack Savage is a retired broadcaster and educator. He is the author of seven books including Imagination: The Art of W. Jack Savage (wjacksavage.com).  To date, more than fifty of Jack’s short stories and over six-hundred of his paintings and drawings have been published worldwide. Jack and his wife Kathy live in Monrovia, California.


Glenna Blomquist has lived in Florida for 15 years and is still exploring what it is to be a "Floridian".  Now retired, she has time to recollect and time to experience each moment as new.  So she writes, weaving her childhood appreciations into the experience of her older self, offering up lyrical pieces with universal appeal.


Please visit Simon Brown's blog at:  thetypewriteraddiction.wordpress.com
His twitter handle is: Simon Brown @typewaddition
Featured here: These Pretty Roses



DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. He grew up in a Southern Baptist Orphanage called Connie Maxwell Children’s Home in Greenwood, SC. He graduated from high school in 1966, and joined the Marines Corps right after the Vietnam TET Offensive in 1968. After being discharged in 1972, he spent several years playing guitar in bars, juke joints, and honky tonks across the South.

Nels Hanson grew up in California’s San Joaquin Valley and has worked as a farmer, teacher and writer/editor. His fiction received the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award and Pushcart nominations in 2010, 12, and 2014. Poems appeared in Word Riot, Oklahoma Review, Pacific Review and other magazines and received a 2014 Pushcart nomination, Sharkpack Review’s 2014 Prospero Prize, and 2015 and 2016 Best of the Net nominations.

Muhammad Nasrullah Khan is from Pakistan currently living in Saudi Arabia, where he is Lecturer in English at Taif University. His short stories are well recognized internationally for his unique prose style, and really naive innocence of rural life of Pakistan. His short story Donkey-Man was selected among the Notable Online Short Stories of 2003 in the StorySouth Million Writers Award. His work has appeared in Newtopia Magazine, Gowanus Books,Offcourse literary Journal University at Albany, The Raven Chronicles, and many others. He exists on twitter as @nasar_peace ,at  [email protected], [email protected],  and https://www.facebook.com/nasar.peace 

Jim Kjeldsen is a historian-journalist who lives in Bellingham, Washington. His previous books include the nonfiction "The Mountaineers: A History" (Mountaineers Books, 1998, still in print) and the forthcoming "The Carnival of Speculation" (WSU Press, due in  2016). He is a finalist for Best Online Short Story 2015 for "The Giant Gila Monster," Indiana Voice Journal, June 2015.



Jack Daniel Miles currently resides in Gainesville, Florida, with his wife and daughter.  Jack is a writer, multi-instrumentalist, and volunteer educator.  Some of Jack's most recent work is forthcoming in the spring 2016 issue of Down in the Dirt magazine.  You can also check out him and his sporadically updated blog at jackdanielmiles.com.


Colin Rowe lives in Santa Fe, NM and has been published by Cracked.com, The Boston Literary Magazine, The Eunoia Review, and a dozen other flash fiction zines. He tweets under the handle @lowericon and can also be found on WriteOn and Scribophile.
 Zombie Colin (@lowericon) | Twitter
 Colin's Write On Profile

L.D. served seven years in the Navy, which included a combat tour in Vietnam on river boats, and five years aboard nuclear-powered, Fast Attack submarines. At 65, his life is quieter now, and is a member of The Bold Writers.
L.D.’s short stories have been published in: Red Fez, Indiana Voice Journal, Remarkable Doorways Online Literary Magazine, The Writing Disorder, The Furious Gazelle, Slippery Elm, and The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society.
His website is: ldzaneauthor.com.

Total Pageviews