Richard L Ratliff is a baby boomer, born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, his Midwest ties have built the foundation and setting for his poetry. He is a Purdue University graduate with two years of engineering turned into a degree in English Literature; along with being a two year letterman in wrestling. All of these eclectic combinations have given him a career as a boiler and combustion expert and poet.He has two published books: It’s About Time and 3420:Backyard conversations, both available on Amazon.
August 1, 2016
A Poem by Ross Polen: “Kids at Trampoline”
Ross Polen is a high school English teacher and adjunct college composition instructor in Jasper, Indiana. He says poetry is his greatest content passion. His work has appeared in The Poet’s Haven.
Three Poems by Kristen Williamson: "Chaos," "Daisy," and "Falling Apart"
Kristen Williamson is currently a Graduate in English Literature and Creative Writing at Binghamton University In New York, where her fields of study include poetry,and fiction. She has been featured in: Slink Chunk Press, The Stray Branch, The Zine and others.
Three Poems by Timothy O'Grady: "From Walks Along the Eno River," and two translations from the Korean, "Vase," and "Here and Now"
After thirty-five years, Tim has finally retired as a college English instructor, most recently with the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. He has written a fair amount of poetry and fiction in his life but has seldom ventured to get it published. Maybe that will change, now that he has even more time to scribble.
Essay by Scott Thomas Outlar: "The Opening Salvo"
Scott Thomas Outlar hosts the site 17Numa.wordpress.com where links to his published poetry, fiction, essays, and interviews can be found. His chapbook "Songs of a Dissident" was released in 2015 through Transcendent Zero Press and is available on Amazon. His poetry collections "Happy Hour Hallelujah" (CTU Publishing) and "Chaos Songs" (Weasel Press) are both forthcoming in 2016.
Essay by Susan P. Blevins: "There's a Bear in my Apple Tree"
Susan P. Blevins was born in England, lived 26 years in Italy, and has now resided in the USA for the past 24 years, first in Taos, NM, and currently in Houston, TX. While living in Rome she had a weekly column in an international, English-language newspaper, writing about food and restaurant reviews primarily, though not exclusively. Since living in the USA she has written pieces on gardens and gardening for N. American and European publications, and she is now writing stories of her life and travels and gaining traction in various literary publications. She loves reading, writing, cats, classical music, and stimulating conversation.
Essay by Steve Colori: "Who's to Help?"
Steve Colori has had schizoaffective disorder since age 19
and is currently 29. He has eight articles published with Oxford
Medical Journals and has been authoring essays for Mclean Hospital
since 2011. He has also been lecturing Mclean Hospital’s Harvard Residents
since 2012, he lectures regularly at Simmons College Graduate School of
Social Work, has lectured at Mass General Hospital’s Schizophrenia Day,
and has lectured at NAMI GBCAN. He regularly writes for the Health &
Wellness and Social Justice Sections of The Good Men’s Project. He also
has a memoir titled "Experiencing and Overcoming Schizoaffective
Disorder". He has a website with links to all my publications and more
info about me @ SteveColori.com.
Essay by Connie Bedgood McWilliams: "Sam the Man"
When Connie’s grandson, Sam was three years old she
took him to a Luau for a night of entertainment and food. This is the short short of the beginning
of that trip.
The Gem, Woman’s Touch, White Harvest Church
Newsletter, Read Me, Christian Single, Writer’s World and a newspaper for
Northwest Houston how being single called Today’s People published her
writing.
Connie was published in Gotta Write, Working Woman and
Sagacity magazines
Soon she will be published in Good Old Days, Screamin
Mamas and Conceit Magazines.
Fiction by Susan Duke: "Ruby"
Susan Duke has had stories published in Timber Creek Review, Straylight, The
Griffin, The MacGuffin, Downstate Story Magazine, New Author's Journal,
Nostalgia, The Storyteller, Clackamus, The Advocate, Thema, Bloodroot,
Evening Street Press, Talking River, Chaffin Review, Whetstone, Oracle,
Conceit, and The Santa Fe Review.
Retired from teaching children with special needs, I enjoy morning
walks, reading, and writing, and treasure time spent with my husband,
three adult children and two grandsons.
Fiction by Charles E.J.Moulton: "Whenever He Thinks of Home"
CHARLES E.J. MOULTON has been a stage performer since age eleven. His trilingual, artistic
upbringing, as the son of Gun Kronzell and Herbert Moulton, lead to a
hundred stage productions, countless cross-over concerts, work as a
bandleader and as an acting teacher. He is a regular contributor for
Idea Gems, has written for Shadows Express, Cover of Darkness, Vocal
Images and Pill Hill Press. He is a tourguide, a big-band-vocalist, a
filmmaker, a painter, a voice-over-speaker, a translator, is married and
has a daughter. Charles E.J. Moulton's passion is creative versatility. His short story collection, Aphrodite's Curse: 21 Tales of Love and Terror can be purchased by clicking the link. Homepages: http://www.reverbnation.com/charlesejmoulton/
Fiction by Arthur Powers: "Venus If You Do"
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.
Arthur received a
Fellowship in Fiction from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and
numerous other writing awards. He is author of two books of fiction and
of a poetry chapbook, Edgewater. His poetry has appeared in many anthologies & magazines,
including America, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Christianity &
Literature, Hiram Poetry Review, Kansas Quarterly, Main Street Rag,
Roanoke Review, South Carolina Review, & Southern Poetry Review. www.arthurpowers.com
Author of: A Hero For The People http://www.press53.com/
Flash Fiction by Stuart Luke: "San shi wu"
Stuart is an artist, musician and writer with a fondness for comic books and travel. He is a Mario Kart champion and a fan of whiskey. His favourite colour is green.
Fiction by Christopher Hivner: "One for the Thumb"
Christopher Hivner writes from a small town in Pennsylvania surrounded
by books and the echoes of music. He has recently been published in Illumen, Dead Snakes and Jitter. A collection of short stories, “The Spaces Between Your Screams” was
published by eTreasures Publishing. website: www.chrishivner.com, Facebook:
Christopher Hivner - Author, Twitter: @Your_screams
Fiction by Philip Matthew Butera: "The Shiny Blue Button"
Philip Matthew Butera grew up in
Buffalo, NY, earned a BS degree From Gannon College in Erie, PA, went on to
serve in the US Navy then received a MA in Psychology from Simon Fraser U. in
Vancouver, Canada. He expanded his education with post graduate courses in
Psychology and Creative Writing. He is the
author of two books of poetry, “Mirror Images and Shards of
Glass” and "Dark Images at
Sea." His first
novel, “Caught Between” - the true story of an off duty
NYC cop who killed a mafia leader’s
son is due out shortly. He is a
contributing editor who writes a weekly Art and Literature column for
EatSleepWrite.net. He also has a column in the quarterly magazine, Per
Niente. He lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Fiction by Jim Boswell: "Hunting for Turtles"
Jim Boswell calls himself "a writer of the spirit from the
heartland." A native of Culver, Indiana, he now lives in North Carolina,
but continues to write stories and novels that take place in a the
fictional Indiana town. He is the author of one published novel, "The
Sower's Seeds." More of his work can be found on his blog at:
www.indyboswell.com.
July 7, 2016
July 2016 "Freedom" Issue #24
Special thanks to Joan Leotta, Ken Allan Dronsfield, Cindy Bousquet Harris, and everyone else who offered their kindness, prayers and assistance during this mad rush to publication.
Huge shout out to IVJ editors Jennifer Criss and David Allen for putting in "late hours" to get this issue "live"-I'm buying lunch! ~Janine Pickett
NONFICTION/ESSAY
Donal Mahoney: "My Parents Were Illegal Irish Immigrants in the United States"
Bear Jack Gebhardt: "Consequences that We Rue: An optimistically contrary view of the American Revolution"
Sharon Fame Gay: "4th of July at Birch Lake, Michigan"
FICTION
Muhammad Nasrullah Khan: "Eternal Freedom"
Tom Sheehan: "I Am What I Am Not"
Jay Faulkner: "Shave"
J.L. Higgs: "Something About Her"
Michael Anthony: "Glendora Mississippi-1953"
Donal Mahoney: "Jesus, Can We Talk?"
Godfrey Green: "This Is Your Chance"
Lakesha Landrum: "Don't Look Back"
Stacy Post: "Desperate Pomegranates"
JD DeHart: "Snub"
Lisa Reily: "Into the Sky"
Susan P. Blevins: "Crossing"
VISUAL ART/PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography by Steph Kay
POETRY
Bruce Owens: "Quiet Within" and "Taking a Walk"
Dan Jacoby: "Fort Holabird," "tay ninh 1970," and "national anthem"
Mercedes Webb-Pullman: "The Harbour of Freedom" and "The Dairy-woman's Dance"
Jeff Burt: "Election" and "Independence Day"
Jessica Goody: “Unanswered Prayers” “War Declared” and “Liberty Ladies”
Robert Beveridge: "Freedom," "Liberty" and "Liquid Prisoner"
Prerna Bakshi: "Coming Out," "This Morning," and 'What's the Name of your pind?"
Judy Moskowitz: "Born Into Freedom"
Lazola Pambo: "I Am of This Gender," "Sexual Discourse," and "The Dignity of Human Rights"
David Allen: "What is Freedom," "Freedomland" and "Preparing for the Reunion"
Donal Mahoney: "When My Wife Is In Her Garden," and "The Whole Mad Swirl"
Denise Segal Umans:"The Limestone Quarry," "A Township after Apartheid," and "Gaudi's Parc Guell"
Vincent Francone: "When We Are Not Together...," "Announcement," and "Butter and Bread"
Kara D. Spain: "Era of the Hills," "A Wish: Written on occasion during a stormy day," and "On Dumping Tea in the Boston Harbor"
Candice Louisa Daquin: "Suffrage"
Don Beukes: "Existential Consequential"
Jennifer Hambrick: “Andy Dufresne Speaks at TEDx Zihuatanejo,” “Leaving,” and “Inside Out”
Ken Allan Dronsfield: "1775 Finally Homeward 1783", "Hand to Heart", "Let Freedom Reign"
Jo Barbara Taylor: "Flight," " Finding Your Way," "Liberation," and "Spring Chiamus"
Ruth Sabath Rosenthal: "For Want of Green," "This Parrot," and "You're Free,"
Ryn Holmes: "All-American," "Gray Socks," and "Isolata"
Michael Marrotti: "One Of Life's Lessons"
Pramila Khadun: "The Land of Freedom"
P.J. Reed: "World in a Suitcase" and "Haiku Regarding Freedom"
KJ Carter: "Alas, to be Truly Free" and "A LIfe in the Great War"
Marcia Conover: "Independence Rings," "Summer Visitors," and "Seasons of Color"
Helmi Ben Meriem: "Ara Veug"
Patrick Daniel Read: "The Patriot"
Sherry Howard: "In Memoriam"
Jude Walsh Whelley: "Loose"
John Mark Brown: "Cold Season" and "a burial"
Angel Edwards: "Old Flame"
Lynda McKinney Lambert: "Book of Remembrance in Lidice"
Stephen Regan: "URGH! They have a problem," "Red-bricked," and "Freedom at a price."
Tim Philippart: "Feel Free to Mourn"
Zoe Maynard: “The Shire Horse”
Elizabeth P. Brooks: "Cry Out," " My Freedom," and "Oh Freedom."
Joan Leotta: "Bridge to Freedom."
Mikel K: "I'm a challenge to the process."
Andy Brown: "Freedom Lost," "Death's Freedom," and "Is this Freedom?"
Editorial by Cindy Bousquet Harris: "Let Freedom Ring"
Cindy Bousquet Harris is a poet and a licensed marriage and family therapist. Her
poems can be found in Indiana Voice Journal, Blue Heron Review,
Eclectica, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, and an anthology from Poetry
Contests for a Cause. Cindy has
given poetry readings at the Claremont Library and at Beyond Baroque
Literary Arts Center in Venice, CA. She’s had the pleasure of working
with adults and children in a variety of settings, including as a visiting writer at juvenile hall through Women Wonder Writers. You can contact her at: [email protected]
An essay by Bear Jack Gebhardt: "Consequences that We Rue: An optimistically contrary view of the American Revolution"
Bear Jack Gebhardt says: I'm an old guy living in the foothills of northern Colorado with wife of a hundred years. I’ve been a free-lance writer for many decades. I’ve published nine books, two of the latest being, A Wave of Thanks, and Other Human Gestures: 31 Quick Stories and The Potless Pot High: How to Get High, Clear and Spunky without Weed I’ve also published hundreds of articles, stories, essays and poems in known and little known places.
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