Two Poems by Cynthia Eddy: "Mamas" and "Pardon"

Cynthia Eddy lives on the eastern shore of Virginia and holds a BA in Art History, Her poetry has been published in Willard and Maple, Emerand several other journals. She has been published in Third Wednesday, Eunoia Review, Epiphany, Z-composition, Deep South Magazine and in Emerge Literary Journal.

Three poems by David Lohrey: Hyphen for Me", "Attacking China", and "Someone"

David Lohrey grew up in Memphis. His poetry can be found in Otoliths, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Easy Street and Quarterday. In addition, recent poems have been anthologized by the University of Alabama (Dewpoint), Illinois State University (Obsidian) and Michigan State University (The Offbeat). Work can also be found in The Stony Thursday Book (Limerick) and Hidden Channel Zine (Mall Sligo). David is a member of the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective in Houston. Recent fiction can be read in Crack the Spine, Brilliant Flash Fiction and inshadesmag.com. He teaches in Tokyo.

A Poem by David Rodriguez: "Epitaph"

David Rodriguez is a writer and teacher with an MFA from Florida State University. He has previously been published in the New Orleans Review, The Southeast Review, Poetry Pacific, The Literateur, and The Double Dealer Redux, among other places.

Two Poems by Edilson Afonso ferreira: Dear few Friends" and Nostalgia"

Edilson Afonso Ferreira, 73, is a Brazilian poet who writes in English rather than Portuguese. His poetry has appeared in Right Hand Pointing, The Lake, Spirit Fire Review, Young Ravens, Indiana Voice Journal, Creative Talents Unleashed, Algebra of Owls and others. Ferreira lives in a small town with his wife, three sons and a granddaughter and, unhurried, is trying to publish his first Poetry Book. He began to write at age 67, after retirement as a Bank Manager. He was nominated for The Pushcart Prize in 2016.

Four Poems by Faleeha Hassan: "Waiting for You", "My Mother Was Lying", "Persuasion", and "Faces of Love"

Faleeha Hassan is a poet, teacher, editor, and writer born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967. She now lives in the United States. She is the first woman to write poetry specifially for the children in Iraq and was part of the feminist movement in the holy city of Najaf. She is considered one of Iraq's most celebrated poets and her work has been heavily awarded and translated into dozens of languages. She has a master's degree in Arabic literature, and published sixteen collections of poetry in Arabic. Hassan emigrated to the US in 2012 after her books of poetry landed her on "death lists" published by radicals. Her poems and short stories have been published in several American magazines, such as The Galway Review, Words Without Borders, Scarlet Leaf Review, and the Inner Child press. The Guardian published this interview of Hassan in 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/oct/04/faleeha-hassan-iraqi-maya-angelou-refugee-us-video.

Three Poems by James Dennis Casey IV: "Unbridled Birds", "Singular Universal Being", and "Talking to Myself in Public"

James D. Casey IV  is a published author of two poetry books: "Metaphorically Esoteric"’ & "Dark Days Inside the Light While Drunk on Wine." He is also working on his third under the title “Tin Foil Hats & Hadacol Coins” that is expected to be published within the next few months. Mr. Casey’s writings have been published in international ezines and on several websites. Poetry Life & Times, Artvilla, Realistic Poetry International, and Poetry Super Highway have him listed in their poet archives as well. You can find links to his books, social network profiles, and other projects on his website at http://louisianakingcasey.wixsite.com/big-skull-poetry.

Three Poems by Joe Gianotti: "Beans and rice for Lunch", "Daedulus, Cunning Worker", and "Clothespin"

Joe Gianotti grew up in Whiting, Indiana, an industrial city five minutes from Chicago. He currently teaches English at Lowell High School. He is a proud contributor to Volume II of "This is Poetry: The Midwest Poets." Among other poets, he represented Northwest Indiana in the 2014 Five Corners Poetry Readings. His work has been published in Blotterature, The Chaffey Review, Folly, Mouse Tales, Steam Ticket: A Third Coast Review, This, Yes Poetry, and other places. You can follow him on Twitter at @jgianotti10.

Three poems by David Allen: "I Never Wrote a Poem About My Mother", "The Day Mom Died" and "What Comes Next"

David Allen is a freelance writer and poet now living in Central Indiana. He is the poetry editor of the online Indiana Voice Journal and vice president of the Poetry Society of Indiana . A native of Long Island, he is retired journalist, reporting for papers in Virginia, Indiana and the Far East. He was part of the “Eat Write Café and Traveling Poets Society” on Okinawa, doing open mic readings and publishing an E-zine. 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. He has a blog, “Type Dancing,” at https://davidallenpoet.net.  Here's some poems for Mother's Day.

Three Poems by Lois Greene Stone: "Ribbons and Spools", "Pants Suit", and "Phi Beta Kappa: 14K Standard"

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.

Three Poems by Milton Montague: "a funny bird", "magic of poetry", and "she loves me"

Milt Montague was born and raised in New York in the 1920’s, fought in world war ll, graduated as an engineer, was in several businesses, found love, marriage, raised three lovely daughters, while pursuing a career, with his wife, in high fashion ladies clothing. He has recorded many tales from a long and busy life, all true. So far, 15 of his memoirs and 118 of his poems have been published in under 4 years.

Three Poems by Nan Friedley: "Hand Me Down", "In the Center of the House", and "Unfinished Basement"

Nan Friedley was born in Huntington, Indiana, but spent most of her formative years in the Fort Wayne area. She graduated from New Haven High School and received a BA and MS degree from Ball State University in the area of Special Education/Deaf Education. She retired from a 30-year teaching career in Indiana and California. She has published a poetry collection related to teaching special kids called "Short Bus Ride" by BadKneePress. Her poetry has  appeared in the Inlandia Institute's Anthology, "Orangelandia," and PushPenPress.

Two poems by Shelley Converse-Rath: "Was You" and "You Always Leave"

Shelley Converse-Rath attended Whittier College and graduated in 2010 with a major in English and a minor in Sociology. She is an active member of Sigma Tau Delta and Alpha Kappa Delta. She was the President of the Creative Writing Society at Indiana State University, where she received her Master's in English and was a Teaching Assistant for the English Department. She was also Editor-in-Chief of Indiana State University's Allusions Magazine.

Visual Art by Carlos Franco-Ruiz

Carlos Franco-Ruiz (°1987, Managua, Nicaragua) is an artist who mainly works with painting. In 1988, as the civil war was winding down his parents immigrated to Miami, FL.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Miami in 2011. In 2013, he moved to Uruguay and continues to follow his passion for painting where he recently had a group exhibition "La Mirada del otro" at Museo de las Migraciones to showcase his latest body of work. Currently lives and works in Sauce, Uruguay.

Personal Essay by Lois Greene Stone: "Cardboard and Canvas"

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.

Personal Essay by Janine Pickett: "Lasting Impressions"

Janine Pickett is Founding Editor of Indiana Voice Journal and Spirit Fire Review. Her work has been published in various online and print journals, and commercial magazines.

Fiction by Nancy de Guerre: "Tiny Cracks"

Nancy de Guerre is a freelance writer and editor happily pursuing her passion for creative writing. While her degree in English Literature and French has taken her in many directions, she is delighted to come back to what she loves most. She writes short stories, poetry and creative non-fiction and has been published in the Globe & Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, among others. www.wordwise.ca

Fiction by Sunil Sharma: "Burn the Library"

Mumbai-based, Sunil Sharma is a widely-published Indian critic, poet, literary interviewer, editor, translator, essayist, freelance journalist and fiction writer. He has already published 14 books: four collections of poetry, two of short fiction, one novel, one a critical study of the novel and co-edited six anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism. His six short stories and the novel Minotaur were earlier prescribed for the undergraduate classes under the Post-colonial Studies, Clayton University, Georgia, USA. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award---2012. Another milestone is that his poems were published in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, in the year 2015.

Sunil edits the English section of the monthly bilingual journal Setu published from Pittsburgh, USA:
 http://www.setumag.com/p/setu-home.html

For more details, please visit the blog:
http://www.drsunilsharma.blogspot.in/

Fiction by DC Diamondopolous: "1945"

DC Diamondopolous is an award-winning short story and flash fiction writer published worldwide. DC’s short stories have appeared in online literary magazines: Antioch University’s Lunch Ticket, Fiction on the Web, Eskimo Pie, Five on the Fifth, Five 2 One and many more. DC’s stories are also in print anthologies: Crab Fat Lit, Blue Crow and Scarborough Fair. DC won second place in the University of Toronto’s Literary Contest for 2016 for the short story, Taps, and won two Soul Making-Keats honorary mentions in 2014 for the short stories,The Bell Tower and Taps.

Fiction by Robert Wexelblatt: "Hsi-wei Cured"

Robert Wexelblatt is professor of humanities at Boston University’s College of General Studies. He has published the story collections, Life in the Temperate Zone, The Decline of Our Neighborhood, The Artist Wears Rough Clothing, and Heiberg’s Twitch; a book of essays, Professors at Play; two short novels, Losses and The Derangement of Jules Torquemal, and essays, stories, and poems in a variety of scholarly and literary journals. His novel Zublinka Among Women won the Indie Book Awards first-place prize for fiction.  A collection of essays, The Posthumous Papers of Sidney Fein, is forthcoming.

Fiction by Z.S. Diamanti: "Playing in the Dirt"

I am an author of short and long form fiction.  I have earned degrees from the Community College of the Air Force, Liberty University, and Denver Seminary, and am currently in the Creative Writing Graduate program at the University of Denver.  My wife and I reside in Colorado with our four children where we enjoy hikes, camping, and many other outdoor adventures. @zsdiamanti

https://zsdiamanti.wixsite.com/zsdiamanti