August 1, 2016

Stefanie Bennett has published several books of poetry and had poems appear in Dead Snakes, IS&T, The Galway Review, Boston Poetry Magazine. Illya’s Honey, Shot Glass Journal, The Paterson Literary Review, High Coupe, Mad Swirl, and others. Of mixed ancestry [Irish/Italian/Paugussett-Shawnee] she was born in Queensland, Australia. Stefanie’s latest poetry collection “The Vanishing” is published by Walleah Press and available from Walleah and Amazon.

Melissa Fitzgerald is a daydreamer masquerading as a student at Northeastern University. She has an imaginary website that is super cool and gets tons of web traffic and hopefully will exist in material form one day.

Nicole Surginer resides in the small, country town of Lockhart, Texas. She currently has pending publications with anti-heroine Chic as well as one recent publication with Tuck Magazine. She constantly finds inspiration to write through the enchantment of nature, the passion to create beauty with words and the desire to express powerful, raw emotion.

Tamsen Grace is a published author and poet, inspirational speaker, martial artist,  and a cancer survivor. She lives in the Midwest with her three children. She enjoys reading, writing, spending time outdoors and teaching children Martial Arts.

Samuel Franklin lives in Bloomington, Indiana. He's a tech writer by day and a poet by night. His first poetry book, The God Of Happiness, is forthcoming.

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.

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.

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.



Lakesha Landrum lives in Atlanta, GA.


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.

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.


Adreyo Sen is pursuing his MFA at Southampton College. 




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.

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.

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.

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.


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/ 




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



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.

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

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.

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


This issue wells up from the heart of humanity. Poets and authors from many different countries, including the USA, give us a glimpse of their life, their hopes, their cries for justice, and their struggles for freedom. Topics are as diverse as racial stereotyping; intolerance for gender identity; immigration; elections; the horrors of rape, war, poverty, and genocide. But there is also an exuberant cry rising up from the many voices: one of gratitude, joy, compassion, and...humor. I apologize for the delay with the July issue, but I promise you, it is worth the wait. 

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?"

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]

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. 

Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri, an immigrant from Chicago. Amid the hubbub in the United States today over illegal immigrants, he remembered that his parents were illegal immigrants from Ireland a long time ago. They came because of the freedom the United States offered. Technically they were illegal but his father had no choice but to come and his mother likely did not know she was illegal. This is their story.

Sharon Frame Gay grew up a child of the highway, playing by the side of the road.  Her work can be found in several anthologies, as well as BioStories, Gravel Magazine, Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, Halcyon Days, Frontier Tales, Mid American Fiction and Photography, Write City, Literally Orphans and others.  She is a Pushcart Prize nominee.

"Muhammad Nasrullah Khan is from Pakistan currently living in Saudi Arabia, where he is Lecturer in English at Taif University. Writing is his passion and teaching his profession. His 15 years of experience in the field of writing has honed his capacity to compose basic fascinating stories about the human experience. Enlivened by the stories of great English and Russian writers, he has taken a pinch of fact and a cup of fiction to weave an embroidered creative work of adoration, trust, and agony in his stories. His work has appeared in Indiana Voice Journal,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 "

Tom Sheehan has published 23 books and has had multiple work in most of the following publications: Ocean Magazine, Rosebud, Linnet’s Wings, Serving House Journal, Eclectica, Copperfield Review, KYSO Flash, La Joie Magazine, Soundings East, Vermont Literary Review, Literary Orphans, Indiana Voice Journal, Frontier Tales, Deep South Magazine, Western Online Magazine, Provo Canyon Review, 3 AM Magazine, Vine Leaves Journal, Nazar Look, Eastlit, Rope & Wire Magazine, The Literary Yard,  KYSO Journal, Green Silk Journal, Fiction on the Web, The Path, Faith-Hope and Fiction, The Cenacle, etc.

Jay Faulkner resides in Northern Ireland with his wife, Carole, and their two boys, Mackenzie and Nathaniel.  He says that while he is a writer, martial artist, sketcher, and dreamer he's mostly just a husband and father.His work has been published widely, both online and in print anthologies, and was short-listed in the 2010 Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition.  He is currently working on his first novel. Jay founded, and edits, 'With Painted Words' - www.withpaintedwords.com - a creative writing site with inspiration from monthly image prompts, and 'The WiFiles' - www.thewifiles.com - an online speculative fiction magazine, published weekly.  He can also be found as a regular co-host on the Following The Nerd radio show-www.followingthenerd.com

J L Higgs is a recently retired financial services executive. His short stories focus on the lives of black Americans. In addition to writing short fiction, he spends his time drawing people and places both home and abroad. J L and his wife currently reside outside of Boston. Their adult son and daughter live nearby.

Michael Anthony is a writer and artist currently living in New Jersey. He has published fiction, poetry and illustrations in multiple literary journals including The Opiate, SQ Magazine, and The Wilderness House Literary Review. Michael’s photojournalism essay on the waning of the textile industry in Paterson, New Jersey was exhibited by the American Labor Museum.

Donal Mahoney has worked as an editor for U.S. Catholic Magazine, Loyola University Press, and The Chicago Sun-Times. Retired now, he keeps busy writing poetry, fiction and nonfiction. One of the most important aspects of “freedom” for him is freedom of religion and the opportunity in this country to practice it or not practice it. Some of his work can be found at http://eyeonlifemag.com/the-poetry-locksmith/donal-mahoney-poet.html#sthash.OSYzpgmQ.dpbs=


Godfrey Green resides in new York.


Lakesha Landrum lives in Atlanta, Georgia 


       A Midwestern writer in multiple forms: plays, poetry and fiction www.stacypost.com



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



Lisa Reily is a former literacy consultant, dance director and teacher from Australia. She is now a full-time budget traveler with two bags, one laptop and no home. You can find out more about Lisa at lisareily.wordpress.com

Susan P. Blevins was born in England, where she spent the first twenty years of her life, followed by twenty-six years in Italy recovering from the first twenty, and fourteen years in Taos, NM.   She had a weekly column on food for a Rome newspaper, and since living in the USA, has written for various garden magazines both here and in Europe.    She now lives in Houston and is writing and publishing stories based on her many life experiences.

Steph is, and she states this boldly, a Hoosier at heart. Raised in the west side, attended college in the north, and now living in the tip of Broad Ripple, she's caught the bug of being a Midwesterner. Well, she was born in Ohio, but we can ignore that.

Bruce Owens has been writing poetry for 50 years. One of his poems appeared in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter (No. 93 & 94, Winter & Spring) in tribute to friend, and fellow poet William Everson. He has been a guest lecturer at various colleges in California, lecturing on the nature of the creative process, and he has conducted poetry workshops, mainly with young adults, especially those struggling with various addictions or having come from an abusive household, using poetry as an instrument of discovery for both self, and as an entry into the world around us. His collection of poems: Eddies in the Rush (ISBN 0-971256-0-0 [149 pg.]) was endorsed by C.C. Bailey and poet William Stafford (1914-1993) a "National Book Award recipient."

Dan Jacoby is a graduate of St. Louis University, Chicago State University, and Governors State University. He lives both in Beecher and Hagaman, Illinois. He has been published in many magazine, including Anchor and Plume(Kindred), Arkansas Review, Belle Rev Review, Bombay Gin, and Indiana Voice Journal. He received the "Western Writers Spur Award" from Cowboy Poetry Press-Unbridled 2015. He is a former principal, teacher, coach, and former counterintelligence agent and green beret. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2015. He is currently looking for a publisher for a collection of poetry.

Mercedes Webb-Pullman graduated from Victoria University Wellington with an MA in Creative Writing 2011. Her poems and stories have appeared in Turbine, 4th Floor, Swamp, Reconfigurations, The Electronic Bridge, Otoliths, Connotations, The Red Room, Typewriter, and Cliterature, among others, and in her books. She lives on the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand.

Jeff Burt works in mental health and has been published in Amarillo Bay, The Nervous Breakdown, Atticus Review and forthcoming in Per Contra and Clare Literary Journal. He has work published previously in Indiana Voice Journal.

Jessica Goody writes for SunSations Magazine and The Bluffton Sun. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Reader’s Digest, The Seventh Wave, Really System, Event Horizon, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and The Maine Review. Her poem “Stockings” was awarded second place in the 2015 Reader’s Digest Poetry Competition.

Robert Beveridge makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry just outside Cleveland, OH. Recent/upcoming appearances in Chiron Review, Riverrun, and Third Wednesday, among others.

Prerna Bakshi is a writer, poet and activist. Her work has been published widely, most recently in Indiana Voice Journal, Off the Coast, TRIVIA: Voices of Feminism, and Peril Magazine: Asian-Australian Arts & Culture.  She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of the recently released book, Burnt Rotis, With Love, which was long-listed for the 2015 Erbacce-Press Poetry Award in the UK. More of her work can be found at: http://prernabakshi.strikingly.com/

Judy Moskowitz started playing piano at the age of three and became a professional jazz musician. She has performed throughout the New York City area and was part of the jazz scene in New York. Judy started writing poetry three years ago and has been published by Michael Lee Johnson in Midnight Dreamers Of The Yellow Haze, The Poet Community.com, Whispers Of The Wind. Leaves Of Ink, Robin Hislop editor of Poetry Life & Times. She currently resides in Boca Raton Florida where she continues to play jazz and write poetry. They live side by side in her veins and soul.

Lazola Pambo is a South African poet, novelist and essayist. His poems have been published in “The Kalahari Review,” “Aerodrome,” “New Coin,” “Nomad’s Choir,” “Black Magnolias Literary Journal,” “Sun & Sandstone,” and “Aji Magazine,” among others. You can follow him on Twitter @LPambo.

David Allen is a freelance writer and poetry editor of Indiana Voice Journal. He was born in South Carolina and raised on Long Island, NY, which is enough to make anyone a bit crazy. He is a former sailor, war resistor, and journalist, writing for newspapers in Virginia, Indiana, and the Far East before retiring to Central Indiana. His poems and short stories have been published in several journals and he has two books of poetry, "The Story So Far," and "(more)," both available from Amazon.com. He has a blog at www.davidallen.nu and is an active member of the Last Stanza Poetry Association in Elwood, Indiana.

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