March 5, 2017

Vatsala Radhakeesoon is a poet from Mauritius. She is the representative of Immagine and Poesia for Mauritius, She is also a regular contributor to "Different Truths Magazine" and other literary journals and magazines. Her first poetry book When Solitude Speaks was published in 2013 .

Karen Ankers lives in Anglesey, North Wales, where she draws inspiration for her writing from the landscape and Wales’ mythical tradition. As well as writing poetry, she enjoys writing one act plays, in which she tries to give a voice to those usually ignored and unheard. Her plays have been performed in the UK, America and Australia, and she is currently working on a novel.

Marianne Lyon has been a music teacher for 39 years. After teaching in Hong Kong, she returned to the Napa Valley and has been published in various literary magazines and reviews.  She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2016. She is a member of the California Writers Club, Healdsburg Literary Guild. She is an Adjunct Professor at Touro University Vallejo California

Katelin Rice is a middle-school English teacher. Her brand of feminism was reborn with her first child and continues to evolve as she wends her way through the cornfields in her small-town home. When she's not teaching, directing middle school musicals, writing poetry, reading excellent literature, or taking care of her son, she enjoys sporting overalls, cooking, and doing yoga.

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 in Indiana Voice Journal, Midnight Dreamers Of The Yellow Haze, The Poet Community.com, Whispers Of The Wind, Leaves Of Ink, and 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.

Jan Ball started seriously writing poetry and submitting it for publication in 1998.
Since then, she's had 220 poems accepted or published in the U.S., Canada,
India and England. Her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Calyx, Connecticut Review, Main Street Rag, Nimrod, Phoebe and many other journals. She has two chapbooks, Accompanying
Spouse (2011) and Chapter of Faults (2014),  published by Finishing Line Press and available on Amazon. She is a member of The Poetry Club of Chicago. She is a former Franciscan nun and is married with two children.

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/

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.

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.

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.

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.


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.

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


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.” 


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


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.

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


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.

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  

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.

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.

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

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

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

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


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.


Amy Bee regularly writes for the Sacramento News & Review and her work has appeared in NANO Fiction and Manifest Station. When she isn’t writing, Amy likes to backpack long distances and marinate in her constantly nagging existential worries. Find her worries at www.lionbythetail.com and her backpacking adventures at www.mountainsforbreakfast.com

Diane Quick-Machaby is a native Floridian living her entire life in North and Central Florida.  She has two grown daughters and has lived in the Jacksonville area for over 28 years.
After being a Stay-At-Home Mom, Room Mom, PTA Mom and Community Activist, Diane began her career working with nonprofits in Northeast Florida.  Since the early 1990’s, she worked for the City of Jacksonville’s Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Programs, Habitat for Humanity in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, and Home Again St. Johns, an agency that works directly with the homeless of St. Johns County.
In 2015, Diane joined her husband to start their own business, Art 4 Charities, which partners with nonprofits in their fundraising efforts.

Lois Greene Stone, writer and poet, has been syndicated worldwide. Poetry and personal essays have been included in hard & softcover book anthologies.  Collections of her personal items/ photos/ memorabilia are in major museums including twelve different divisions of The Smithsonian.

Toti O’Brien’s work has most recently appeared in Rooted, Wordland, Pilcrow&Dagger, and Bindweed Magazine. More about her can be found at totihan.net/writer.html   


Stacy E. Holden is an Associate Professor of History at Purdue University in Lafayette, IN.  Her research and teaching focus on the modern Middle East and North Africa as well as American engagement with these regions.  To understand how Americans have imagined the Arab world, both in the past and the present, Dr. Holden is now traveling in the footsteps of Edith Wharton, who visited Morocco in 1917 as a guest of French colonial authorities.  You can learn more about Dr. Holden at https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/history/directory/index.aspx?p=Stacy_Holden, and her email is [email protected].   

Kate M Carey writes about people and the crazy and chaotic, painful and prideful, wild and wonderful things they do for love. She is married to an Episcopal priest, has children living in Ohio and Florida. Carey lives in Lexington, North Carolina, and prays every night that the owl in her neighborhood eats the snakes in her backyard.

February 1, 2017



February often seems like one of those months where nothing ever happens and there is not anything to look forward to until the crocus’ break through the snow. The holidays are over and we are well into the new year, but spring is not quite within our reach just yet. What color is it outside? Gray.  What color was it yesterday? Gray. Sigh.  But, I am reminded that there are, in fact, several things to look forward to this month: Groundhog Day (we are hoping Punxsutawney Phil will tell us that Spring is on its way,) President’s Day, Black History Month, Lincoln's Birthday, and “Tell a Fairy Tale Day” on February 26th. I like that one!  And, of course, let us not forget Valentine’s Day. We have incorporated stories and visuals throughout this issue paying homage to Valentine’s Day and stories of love and its importance in our lives. It is not a greeting card holiday if you celebrate it wildly, and with passion. These days we need to stop, remember, and appreciate the loved ones in our lives. If 2016 taught me anything- it was that. ~Jennifer Criss

POETRY

Three Poems by Edilson Afonso Ferreira
A Poem by Judy Moskowitz: "Making Friends with Fear"
Two Poems by Lea Boyd: "Stupid Humans" and "First Sight"
Three Poems by Steven Petersheim: "Castaways of College," "The Chase," and "Dormant"
Three Poems by Sugar Tobey: "Someday," "Gut Feeling," and "Night"
Three Poems by Sunil Sharma: "Missing," "Haze," and Earthquake Different"
Three Poems by Tameka Jarmon: "Reminder," "Sleepless," and "Haunted"
Two Poems by Thomas Alan Orr: "Doppelganger" and "Moose Into Osprey"
Three Poems by Deborah Petersen: "We, Scent," "The Portal Called the Kitchen Window," and "What a Cast of Characters"
A Poem by Andrew Hubbard: "Nostalgia"
Five Poems by Michael Lee Johnson: "Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy," "Ding Dong School," "Compliance," "Give Me Booze or Give me Jesus," and "Journaling, Labeling Theory"
Three Poems by Scott Thomas Outlar: "Magnetic Pulse," "Both Sides of the Same Soul," and "Counting Stars"
Three Poems by Gary Glauber: "A Valentine Ponders the Powers of Love (A Double Abecedarian)," Icarus No More," and "Apogee"
Three Poems by David Subacchi: "Clouds of Existence," "North Africa," and "Not Impressed"
Two Poems by Claudine Nash: "Beginner's Guide to Loss in the Multiverse" and "Magnolias"
Two Poems by Ananya S. Guha: "Kashmir" and "In Saharan Africa"
Two Poems by Lynda McKinney Lambert: "Nine Postcards from Prague" and "der Hirsch"
A Poem by Thomas Piekarski: "Donner Lake"
A Poem by Bilkis Moola and Artwork by Shameeg van Schalkwyk

VISUAL ART

Visual Art by Darrell Urban 
Visual Art by Junior McLean

ESSAY

Autobiographical Essay by Raymond Greiner: "The Marietta Hole"

FICTION

Flash Fiction by Kip Hanson: "Losing Clint Eastwood"
Fiction by Martin Chan: "And the Oscar Goes to Jail"
Flash Fiction by Elena Croitoru: "Da Capo Al Fine"
Fiction by Jason Ford: "A Hidden Identity"
Flash Fiction by Jennifer Criss: "The Chocolates"

Scroll to browse...

Edilson Afonso Ferreira, 73, is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than Portuguese, having been published in venues like Right Hand Pointing, The Lake, The Stare’s Nest, The Provo Canyon, Red Wolf Journal, Whispers, Indiana Voice Journal, Synesthesia, Algebra of Owls and some others. Ferreira lives in a small town with wife, three sons and a granddaughter Has been recently nominated for The Pushcart Prize.

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 in Indiana Voice Journal, Midnight Dreamers Of The Yellow Haze, The Poet Community.com, Whispers Of The Wind, Leaves Of Ink, and 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.

Lea Boyd lives in Southern Indiana. She has been published in a book, "Upon Arrival," and is soon to be published in Spillwords.  Lea Boyd says she is "A Murky Mind on Facebook."

Steven Petersheim is Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University East in the Whitewater Valley region of Indiana, where he teaches American literature and writes poetry between pilgrimages to Walden Pond and runs through the woods of Hayes Arboretum. His poetry has appeared in Wilderness House Literary Review, The Wayfarer: A Journal of Contemplative Literature, and elsewhere. Much of his poetry explores the conjunction of nature, memory, and human activity - some of it drawn from memories of his Amish childhood.

Sugar Tobey was born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, received a degree from the School of Visual Arts, and now lives in NYC above a pizza parlor.

Mumbai-based, Sunil Sharma has published 14 books, some solo; some joint. He is a  recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award for 2012. His poems were published in the UN project: "Happiness: The Delight-Tree, An Anthology of International Poetry."

Tameka Jarmon is a blogger and social media content creator/curator. She has an obnoxious love for her alma mater, The University of Alabama, and moonlights as a radio announcer.

Thomas Alan Orr is a native New Englander who has lived in Indiana for the past forty years. He lives on a small farm in Shelby County. He raises and shows Flemish Giant rabbits. His most recent book,Tongue to the Anvil, was published in 2014 by Restoration Press. His poetry has been featured in Good Poems, edited by Garrison Keillor, and has appeared in numerous journals.

Deborah Petersen is from Bluffton, Indiana and is president of the Poetry Society of Indiana. She says: "What first influenced me as a poet, were the prayers of my childhood. Then, I became intoxicated by the complexity and cadence of William Shakespeare’s works. The most recent years have been influenced by the writings of the Persian Poet and Sufi Mystic, Rumi, and by the Japanese Haiku Master, Basho. And, as a source of inspiration, I study the many languages of the Divine, the tongues of transcendence. As artists, I believe, we are mere conduits. When I am in the moment of being a conduit, I find myself in an omniscience, a moment of vastness and grace, a connection to a universal wisdom and discerning perception.

Andrew Hubbard recently moved back to Indiana after ten years in Houston, Texas. He has had five books published, including, most recently, his first book of poetry, "Things That Get You," which was produced by Interactive Press. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2015. His new book, The Divining Rod, is available at: http://ipoz.biz/portfolio-single/the-divining-rod/

Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, editor, publisher, freelance writer, amateur photographer, small business owner in Itasca, Illinois. He has been published in more than 915 small press magazines in 27 countries, and he edits 10 poetry sites. His author's website is at: http://poetryman.mysite.com/. Michael is the author of several chapbooks of poetry and has more than 108 poetry videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/poetrymanusa/videos). He has been nominated two Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net 2016. He is also the editor/publisher of anthology, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, available at Amazon. A second anthology, Dandelion in a Vase of Roses, Editor Michael Lee Johnson, is due for release soon.

Scott Thomas Outlar hosts the site 17Numa.wordpress.com where links to his published poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, and books can be found. He recently received three Pushcart Prize nominations for his work in 2016. Scott is a member of The Southern Collective Experience. He serves as an editor for Walking Is Still Honest Press, The Blue Mountain Review, and The Peregrine Muse.

Gary Glauber is a poet, fiction writer, teacher, and former music journalist. His works have received multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. He champions the underdog to the melodic rhythms of obscure power pop. His collection, Small Consolations (Aldrich Press) is available through Amazon, as is a chapbook, Memory Marries Desire (Finishing Line Press). His next collection, Worth the Candle, is forthcoming from Five Oaks Press.

David Subacchi lives in Wales where he was born of Italian roots. He studied at the University
of Liverpool and he has 4 published collections of his English Language poetry First Cut (2012),
Hiding in Shadows (2014), Not Really a Stranger (2016) and A Terrible Beauty (2016). His work
has also appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies.
More about David and his work can be found at: http://www.writeoutloud.net/profiles/davidsubacchi

Claudine Nash’s collections include her full-length poetry book Parts per Trillion (Aldrich Press, 2016) and her chapbook The Problem with Loving Ghosts (Finishing Line Press, 2014). She also recently edited the collection In So Many Words: Interviews and Poetry from Today’s Poets (Madness Muse Press, 2016) with Adam Levon Brown. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart prize and has appeared in such publications as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Cloudbank, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal and Yellow Chair Review amongst others. She also is a practicing psychologist. Website: www.claudinenashpoetry.com.

Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India. He has been publishing his poetry over thirty years. He is a senior academic in India's Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Lynda McKinney Lambert writes Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction Essays. Her book, “Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage,” was published by Kota Press and is available on Amazon. Her work has appeared in literary magazines, newspapers, academic books and journals since 1985. She is a retired professor of fine arts and humanities from Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA. Currently, Lynda has 3 books in development for publication in 2017.

Total Pageviews