A Poem by Fizza Abbas: "Words"

Fizza Abbas is a struggling writer and poet from Pakistan, who loves to explore the world with visionary eyes. Her work has been published in many online publications, including Best New Poems, The Legendary, Eye On Life, Express Tribune, Poetry Pacific, Health TV, and many others.
Read some of her work at https://newlondonwriters.com/tag/fizza-abbas/

Two Poems by Ellae Lawton: "Musings of a Retired Suburbanite," and "After My Daughter's Wedding"

Editor and English professor emerita Ellae Lawton has been a feminist since she discovered Queen Elizabeth I at age six but has considered motherhood her greatest privilege for nearly half a century. Born a Hoosier, she now lives near her daughter in southeastern North Carolina. Some of her work has appeared in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Referential, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Iodine Poetry Journal, and When Women Waken.

Three Poems by Doni York: "A Deep Thought in the Middle of a Carnival Date," "Another Joke About the End of the World," and "Drive"

Doni York is a graduate student and teaching assistant at Indiana State University where she is majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing. She currently acts as Vice President of her college's Creative Writing Society and is also a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the National English Honor Society. After graduation she plans on pursuing a career that allows her to write and work with books.

A Poem by Daginne Aignend: "Complacent"

Daginne Aignend is a pseudonym for the Dutch poetess Inge Wesdijk. She started to write English poetry four years ago and posted some of her poems on her Facebook page and on her website.
She likes hardrock music, photography and fantasy books. Daginne is a vegetarian and spends a lot of time with her animals.

A Poem by Carol Ann Moon: "1969 Hasbrouck Heights: The Show Must Go On"

Carol Ann Moon is a library professor at Saint Leo University and an MFA candidate at Stetson University. Her slice-of-life poetry often features the wonderful and indomitable women in her family.

Three Poems by Jo Barbara Taylor: "Inauguration," "Cultivating Words," and "Higher Order Operations"

Jo Barbara Taylor lives near Raleigh, NC. Her poems have appeared in journals, anthologies and online; she leads poetry writing workshops through Duke Continuing Education, chairs the workshop committee for the North Carolina Poetry Society, and coordinates the poetry reading series for Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. Of five poetry books, the most recent is How to Come and Go, published by Chatter House Press, 2016.

A Poem by Angel Edwards: "Wintry"

Angel Edwards can be found here:  http://www.reverbnation.com/angeledwards

Visual Art by Charlene M. Brown

CHARLENE M BROWN FINE ART

Original Drawings & Oil Paintings

“I’m an artist because I’m greedy for life; I want to capture and preserve the significant moments that move me. When I draw or paint, I like to work from what I see. My desire is to discover and share the essence of what it is about a person, place, or thing that arrests my attention. It’s a great mystery how to do this using mere pigment on a flat surface.” 

Flash Fiction by Debra Brenegan: "Shaking Hands"

I have a Ph.D. in creative writing from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and am an English Professor and Director of the Graduate Program at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For my fiction, I have received a Ragdale residency, and was a recent finalist for Glimmer Train’s Family Matters Short Story prize, the Snake Nation Press’s Serena McDonald Kennedy Award for a short-story collection, the John Gardner Memorial Fiction Prize, the Cincinnati Review’s Schiff Prose Prize, and the Crab Creek Review Fiction Prize. My work has been nominated for a Pushcart prize and has been published in journals such as Calyx, Tampa Review, Natural Bridge, The Laurel Review, Cimarron Review, Bluestem, Milwaukee Magazine, Phoebe, RE:AL, The Southern Women’s Review, Knee-Jerk, Literary Orphans, Circa Review, and elsewhere. My novel, Shame the Devil (SUNY Press), about nineteenth-century American journalist and novelist Fanny Fern, was named a finalist for Foreword Reviews 2011 Book of the Year Award for Historical Fiction.

www.debrabrenegan.com

Fiction by Sneha Subramanian Kanta: "Meta-narratives"

Sneha Subramanian Kanta believes all writing is a form of dissent. Her work has forthcoming in Fallujah Magazine, 7X20 mag, In Between Hangovers Magazine, Sahitya Akademi, Noble/ Gas Qtrly, Epigraph Magazine and the print anthology of Peacock Journal. Her work has been published in poetry anthologies such as Dance of the Peacock (Hidden Brook Press, Canada), Suvarnarekha (The Poetry Society of India, India) and elsewhere.

Fiction by Janice Rodriguez: "Black Wednesday"

Janice E. Rodríguez inhabits two realities—the rolling hills and broad valleys of her native eastern Pennsylvania, and the high, arid plains of her adopted land of Castilla-León in Spain. She currently teaches Spanish at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. When she’s not teaching, writing, or gardening, she’s in the kitchen working her way through a stack of cookbooks. She can be found online at janiceerodriguez.com

Historical Fiction by BonnaSue: "An Unsettling Truth"

BonnaSue has retired to Southern California to resume writing a historical fiction book based on family history. This is her first  novel. All previous writing has been academic. She became interested in this part of her family story because they were slave owners and Loyalists in the Revolutionary War. Embarrassed by the racism inherent in owning other people and troubled by the legacy as "enemies" of our country, she immersed herself in research. She balances the story with slave and Scots-Irish dialects. She draws her characters' shadow sides into the story while offering redemptive qualities. BonnaSue is supported in her writing by a weekly writer' group, comrade writer and as her two cats.

Fiction by Diane Stallings: "More than Patchwork"

Diane lives in the lush desert foothills just beyond the Phoenix metropolis.  Her stories have appeared in Indiana Voice Journal, The Flash Fiction Press, Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul. She's into energy healing and biophotons - that light coming out of your hands. (Her daughter is a music therapist.) Check out Diane's blog at joystreamhealth.wordpress.com  

Flash Fiction by Sherry Howard: "When the Snow Stopped"

I live with my children and crazy dogs in Middletown, Kentucky, a stone's throw from the beautiful horse farms Kentucky is always bragging about. During my career in education, I served as middle school principal in one of the largest school districts in the US; I share many skills with cat-herders. I love to read, write, cook, and sit in the sand watching the waves when I can. My poems and stories have appeared in several journals and anthologies.

Fictional Memoir by Eleanor Scott Meyers: "I Don't Know Why I Didn't See that Cloud"

Eleanor Scott Meyers lives in Claremont, California where in her retirement she writes, paints and teaches watercolor and oil painting classes.  She has just completed her first novel.  Writing fictionalized accounts based on characters from her extended Midwestern family, Eleanor enjoys putting stories together that highlight real people living everyday lives that challenge old stereotypes.

Fiction by Jennifer Holdich: "The History Channel"

I was born and grew up in the East Midlands in England and now live in South Wales.

I've written for pretty much all this time and has had a few short scripts performed at venues around Cardiff. I completed an MA in Scriptwriting, but have recently returned to prose, where it all started.

Short scripts tend to take a light entertainment/ reality TV format, give it a twist and watch it go bad, as in "A Magpie's Nest". I also love a ghost story. My wordpress site is: https://jenniferholdich.wordpress.com

CNF/Essay by Cecilia Soprano: "When the Seer is the Seen"

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

CNF/Essay by Carol Smallwood: "Excerpt from Midwestern Spring"

Carol Smallwood's most recent books include Water, Earth, Air, Fire, and Picket Fences (Lamar University Press, 2014); Divining the Prime Meridian (WordTech Communications, 2015); and Writing After Retirement(Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Interweavings: Creative Nonfiction has garnered wide acclaim.  Carol has founded, supports humane societies. https://www.prlog.org/12616387-this-collection-of-short-essays-will-make-you-rethink-lifes-ordinary-moments.html

Essay and Visual Art by Ayesha Adam: "Waiting for Mandela"

Ayesha Adam is a South African visual artist. Her paintings and her text reflect the deep love she has for her country. Many of her pieces are inspired by the socio political condition in South Africa during the 80's and the 90's.You can see more of her work here:
Ayesha Adam/South African Visual Artist

CNF/Essay by Lynda McKinney Lambert: "Great-Grandmother Speaks of Summer Days"

Lynda McKinney Lambert, a retired professor of fine arts and humanities, taught at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. She authored the book, “Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage,” by Kota Press. It features poetry and creative non-fiction essays she wrote during her summers while living in Salzburg, Austria where she taught for many years. Lambert also created and taught an annual course each spring in Puerto Rico as part of an inter-disciplinary course with colleagues from Geneva College.