Tod Davies, editorial director and publisher, has worked as a screenwriter, film and television producer, social activist, radio show host, actor, and amateur cook. She’s the author of The History of Arcadia visionary fiction series, as well as the Jam Today cookbook/memoir series. She lives in the mountains of Oregon with her husband, filmmaker Alex Cox, and their slightly crazy dogs. She passionately believes that culture is formed at the story level, and that many of the most ignored stories tell us the most about ourselves. . .and can help us change our world. Which world definitely needs some change right now.
Mike Madrid, popular culture editor and EAP art director, is a San Francisco based refugee from the world of advertising. His personal goal is to take all of the trivial information that he has collected in his brain for the last 40+ years and produce something that will inform and entertain the other citizens of planet Earth. He never leaves the house without a handkerchief, appreciates a good margarita, and dreams of a world free of Julia Roberts movies. Like Joan Jett, he loves rock n’ roll.
R.C. Irwin, photography editor, lives in San Francisco where he takes a lot of pictures.
Marissa Bell Toffoli, poetry editor, calls Berkeley, CA home, where she lives with her marathon-runner husband and a wily kitty, but she is ever eager to pack her suitcase and go explore far-flung places. She treated herself to an MFA in Writing at California College of the Arts because she loves stories, wordplay, and thinking about things through writing. By day, she is an editor and creative writing teacher—by night, a poet. You can find her interviews with writers at Words With Writers. A lifelong booklover, Marissa is a believer in the power of words and ideas to reshape ourselves and our world.
WEBMASTER.
David Gordon, webmaster, is a painter as well as a web designer. He paints mostly in oils and designs websites mostly in WordPress. See more of his web designs here and have a look at his artwork here.
WRITERS AND ARTISTS.
Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in a dozen countries and has authored three books of poetry. His poems have appeared in Ascent, Reed, Arkansas Review, Poem, Slant, Aethlon, Florida Review, South Carolina Review, Carolina Quarterly, Roanoke Danse Macabre, Ohio Journal, Sou’wester, South Dakota Review, North Dakota Quarterly, New Texas, Midwest Quarterly, Poetry Midwest, Adirondack Review, Worcester Review, Adirondack Review, Connecticut River Review, Delmarva Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Maryland Literary Review, George Washington Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Ann Arbor Review, Plainsongs, Chiron Review, George Washington Review, McNeese Review, Weber, War, Literature & the Arts, Poet Lore, Able Muse, The Font, Fine Lines, Teach.Write., Oracle, Hamilton Stone Review, Sequential Art Narrative in Education, Cardiff Review, Tokyo Review, Indian Review, Muse India, Bombay Review, Westerly, and many other journals. Gale has taught tertiary English courses in the US, PR China, and Palestine.
Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had four hundred stories and poems published so far, and six books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of nine review editors. He’s also lead editor at The Scribes Micro Fiction magazine.
Lana Hechtman Ayers makes her home in an Oregon town famous for its barking sea lions. Her work appears in print and online in places such as Dodging the Rain, Pushing Out the Boat, and The London Reader, as well as in her nine poetry collections. Her favorite color is the swirl of Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Tom Ball is the author of Leftforkbooks.com, a novel. Down in the Dirt Magazine, published 12 novel excerpts, 2 short stories 126 flash and one novella. Defenestrationism.net, 24 pieces. Conceit Magazine, and its imprints: dozens and dozens of short pieces. Gargoyle Magazine, 1 long novel excerpt and 45 short pieces. Spillwords.com/author/tomball, 4 novel excerpts, 4 short stories, and 25 flash. Exterminating Angel Press, 2 long novel excerpts, 1 short story. PBW magazine, 6 short flash collections and 11 short stories. And numerous pieces in Fleas on the Dog Online. He has also appeared in AlternateRoute.org, 6pieces Sparrows Trombone, TRNSFR/ Sip Cup, Lit.201.org, Blank Spaces Mag, “Granfalloon.org, Newark Library Literary Journal, Also Fresh Words Magazine, Literary Yard, 2 short pieces and a short play. Also Airgonaut, Lone Star Magazine and the now defunct Local Train Magazine, and the defunct postcardshorts.ca and others. He has also self-published two novels with now defunct, American Book Publishing and another one with Xlibris. And co-authored, Of Heaven and Hell, a graphic novel with Zen Wang. Tom is currently senior editor at “FLEAS ON THE DOG” (fleasonthedog.com).
Denis Bell is a writer and a professor of mathematics at the University of North Florida. He grew up in London, England, and studied at the Universities of Manchester and Warwick. He has received several awards for his scientific work, including an Outstanding Scholarship Award from the University of North Florida and a Research Professorship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California. A spinner of small tales for many years, he started publishing short fiction seven years ago. His writing has since appeared in many literary magazines, both online and print. A collection of his short/flash fiction, titled A Box of Dreams, was published by Adelaide Books in 2017, and a second edition is in the works.
Erin Trampler Bell is an actress, musician, and writer. It mostly depends on the day, though she has been known to do all three at once. When she’s not hunkered down at her computer, she performs with various theatrical and musical groups around the Denver metro area. Otherwise, she enjoys knitting, powwow dancing, running (even when not being chased), and hanging out with her composer husband, two rescue dogs, and a cat who, as is her right, rules the house.
Virginia Bell is co-editor of RHINO POETRY and author of Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around (Forthcoming, Glass Lyre Press), and From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry, 2012). Her poems and essays have appeared in Five Points, Denver Quarterly, BPQ, Riversedge (Honorable Mention, 2019 Poetry Prize), Nelle (Winner, 2020 Nonfiction Prize), Hypertext, Fifth Wednesday, Gargoyle, Spoon River Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Keats Letters Project, Wicked Alice, and Cider Press Review, among others. Bell teachers at Loyola University Chicago.
Mark Benedict is a graduate of the MFA Writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. Previous publications include short stories in Columbia Journal, Hobart Online, and Menacing Hedge. Mark enjoys hiking trails and watching movies. He first saw Vertigo as an undergrad and has never been the same since.
R. C. Bentley is English. He once worked as an engineer on a project to build a Zeppelin, which is the only interesting thing he has done in his entire life. He collects mechanical adding machines and dictionaries. His book, Greenbeard, a literary masterwork featuring Pirates vs. Aliens, was published by Exterminating Angel Press in Spring 2013.
David Bolton, after earning an M.A. in Literature, stuck his thumb out on I-70 in Baltimore and hitchhiked to California. He spent the next six years driving a cab in San Francisco and living the writer’s life. He edited the New Deep City Press, now in the Smithsonian as an example of working-class writing.
His second book of poetry, A Mind Full of Nothing, is available online at: poetscoop.org/free.htm#MFON_DAVIDB
He recently completed Love Is Where You Find It, a collection of stories inspired by James Joyce’s Dubliners, and is looking for an agent or a publisher.
Wendy BooydeGraaff has been published in Emrys Journal Online, Little Old Lady Comedy, Border Crossing, Bending Genres, Litro Online and elsewhere. She lives in Michigan, but grew up in Ontario, Canada, where she spent much time imagining the worlds she now writes about. Find out more at wendybooydegraaff.com.
David Budbill’s last books of poems are Happy Life (Copper Canyon Press, 2011) and Park Songs: A Poem/Play (Exterminating Angel Press 2012). He died in 2016. We miss him more than we can say, but are grateful to still have his work.
Rachel Burgess grew up in Massachusetts, and her New England-inspired art explores the bittersweet combination of permanence and loss that we experience during moments of peace. She currently lives in New York, making prints and paintings for gallery shows, illustration projects and private commissions. Her images exhibit nationally and internationally at galleries and museums, and also feature in books and magazines. She has been recognized by publications such as CMYK Magazines, 3×3 Magazine of Contemporary Illustration and the Society of Illustrators Annual; she is also the recipient of several awards. Her work can be seen at www.rachel-burgess.com.
Laura Carter writes as if she lives in the early days of a better world. Originally from London, she now resides in the Pacific Northwest with her wife and several parakeets. You can see more of her writing and research at https://www.lauracarter.net/.
Alex Cox, house illustrator for EAP,is otherwise an extremely independent filmmaker and revolutionary. You can find him in those guises at www.alexcox.com.
Ralph Dartford lives in Yorkshire and flaunts about being a theatre producer of sorts. He is widely published as a pretentious poet, short story author and occasional journalist. Ralph only talks about himself in the third person in moments of high stress and is currently completing his first novel.
Marie Davis and Margaret Hultz are partners in every sense of the word. Internationally syndicated cartoonist Marie Davis’ career spans twenty years of seriously disciplined whimsy. Cowardly, and unwilling to stand up to her brain, the dominatrix of her workday, Marie writes and draws everyday – no holidays – blame the brain. She and writing partner Margaret have been working together for the last ten years and are the co-creators of Besos…Kisses…Bisous…поцелуи…which is a multilingual lesbian cartoon strip found in five languages (Belarusian, Russian, French, Spanish and English).
Margaret can often be found in Indiana living in her new house with dog Lucy and five finicky felines. A proverbial crazy cat-lady, she is also allowing her orchid addiction to rage unimpeded. She was once threatened by a naked man with a ten pound salmon, exorcized demons from a woman’s bedroom, and climbed the pyramid of the sun once – only once. If you are thinking about a house warming gift, think sock monkeys – she loves them too.
Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Tampa Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, and her published books include Walking Twin Cities, Music Theory for Dummies, and Ugly Girl.
Lanny DeVuono is an artist, art writer and former professor of art. Illustrating EAP: The Magazine’s Summer 2019 issue, Terraforming 1 (2017) is part of a larger group of paintings and drawings about our relationship to outer space. Terraforming is from a series of 10 works that examine ideas of terraforming other planets while we neglect our own. https://www.lannydevuono.com/
Colin Dodds is a writer. His work has appeared in more than 250 publications, been anthologized, nominated and shortlisted for numerous prizes, and praised by luminaries including Norman Mailer and David Berman. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter. See more of his work at thecolindodds.com.
T.C. Eisele is a Professional Astrologer, Psychic Counselor, and Author who lives and works in New York City. He has published several books during the course of his career including, “Psychic Reading” (A Play) Rebel Satori Press 2017, “Liber Tao” (A New Tao Te-Ching) Rebel Satori Press 2015, “The Exalted Man” (Poetry) Rebel Satori Press 2014, and “Liber Quantum” (Essays on the Occult) Rebel Satori Press 2011. He has also been a frequent contributor to The Astrology Quarterly in London, Cosmopolitan Online, The New York Quarterly, Poetry East, and Ashé Magazine. He can be found online at the13thpath.com
Carol Gordon Ekster was a passionate elementary school teacher for 35 years and began writing unexpectedly at the end of her career. Her first published book, Where Am I Sleeping Tonight?-A Story of Divorce, Boulden Publishing, 2008, was an About.com Readers’ Choice 2012 finalist for Best Children’s Book for Single Parents. A picture book, Ruth The Sleuth and The Messy Room, was on Character Publishing’s debut list, 2011 and was awarded the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval. Her picture book, Before I Sleep: I Say Thank You, Pauline Books and Media, released January 1, 2015 and was the 3rd place winner in the Catholic Press Association’s 2016 Book Awards in the children’s category and was a finalist for the ACP Excellence in Publishing Awards 2016. Her first e-book came out spring 2015 as part of a digital library with Schoolwide, Inc. Her new book with Clavis Books is coming out first in Dutch, fall 2016, and in English, fall 2017. Carol spends time in critique groups, doing exercise and yoga, and working on her books. She is grateful that her writing gives her another way to communicate with children. Find out more at www.carolgordonekster.com
Nick Engelfried is a freelance writer and an environmental community organizer, who spends equal amounts of time being dismayed at human avarice and inspired by human compassion. He has lived all over the Pacific Northwest and currently resides in northern Washington State.
Robert Estes, whose roots are in Texas, has by now lived more than half his life in the Boston area. He got his PhD in Physics at UC Berkeley and had some interesting times using physics, notably on a couple of US-Italian Space Shuttle missions. Since then, 30-odd of his poems have appeared in 20-odd publications, including Cola Literary Review, The Moth, Gargoyle Magazine, the museum of americana, Alba: A Journal of Short Poetry, Constellations, Sierra Nevada Review, and the anthology Moving Images: Poetry Inspired by Cinema.
Chris Farago would like to shamelessly borrow from the first biography he was asked to write for himself for a small, local poetry review some dozen or so years ago: “Chris Farago once had a dream wherein he rhymed ‘Byronic’ with ‘ironic,’ but he would not dare do so in his waking hours.”
Charles Fischman is pleased to contribute to Exterminating Angel Press: The Magazine. He lives in Southern Oregon.
Charlotte McGuinn Freeman lives, writes, and gardens in Livingston, Montana. She’s the author of Place Last Seen (Picador USA, 2000) and the former CookbookSlut at Bookslut.com (2008-2013). Publications include Dark Mountain, Terrain, Big Sky Journal, Montana Quarterly and The Best Food Writing of 2010 and is a graduate of the UC Davis (M.A) and University of Utah (PhD) creative writing programs.
Joel Glover is a former waiter in a Love Boat themed restaurant, reformed mandarin, and extroverted accountant, Joel is a cuddly teddy bear, really. He is also, due to an administrative error, Afghanistan’s all time leading goal-scorer in Gaelic Football’s European League. When not herding his two smøls to various extracurricular activities, or performing his powerpoint related day job functions, he writes and consumes caffeine (black, strong, if you’re asking). He invites you to follow him @booksafterbed on the website formerly known as Twitter for links to his various creative endeavours.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Schuylkill Valley Journal, Stillwater Review and Big Muddy Review with work upcoming in Louisiana Review, Columbia Review and Spoon River Poetry Review.
Artur Grabowski was born in Kraków, Poland. He is a poet, playwright, prose writer, author of essays, dramaturg and scholar. He has published six books of poetry including his Collected Poems, six collections of essays on literature and theatre, and two volumes of plays. He studied Polish and Comparative Literature, Literary Theory, and Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, where he received his PhD and currently teaches at the rank of professor (modern Polish and Comparative Literature, Theatre and Creative Writing). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago and SUNY in Buffalo, and a Fulbright scholar at the University of Washington. Artur translates poetry from English and Italian. His personal website: www.grabowski.art.pl
Brian Griffith grew up in Texas, and now lives just outside Toronto, Ontario. He is an independent historian who views historical research as a means to understanding how cultural history influences our lives and can point toward contemporary solutions for the world’s biggest problems. He’s the author of several books, including Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing the Story, published by Exterminating Angel Press in 2009. Recently featured in a B & N Nook promotion, Correcting Jesus drew comments from people who hadn’t actually read it, warning readers that they would burn in hell if they did—after which, the book proceeded to break all EAP records for sales in a day. Thanks, fundamentalists!
His most recent EAP book (May 2012) is A Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization. He’s presently at work on another book, after being nagged by both Tod and his wife, Pari, on the history of Iranian women.
David Griffith is a retired nurse and ex-carpet layer who paints pictures about the predicaments, absurdities, and outrages of life in America, as witnessed over the course of his life in Texas.
Brendan Hamilton is your weird cousin who won’t shut up about the Great Comet of 1861. Did you know that it’s expected to return in the year 2265? He is the author of Jerusalem Plank Road, history editor for Alternating Current Press, and an occasional contributor to Irish in the American Civil War.
Jeffrey Hantover is the author of the novel, The Jewel Trader of Pegu and the forthcoming novel, The Three Deaths of Giovanni Fumiani (Cuidono Press, 2022). His poetry and short fiction have appeared in Bamboo Ridge, Natural Bridge, Raven Review, October Hill, The Centifictionist, Blyden Square Review, and other literary journals. )
Clarinda Harriss was greeted at age of one hour by H. L. Mencken, who’d introduced her parents and thus became her “common law godfather.” He pronounced her ‘intelligent looking.” Other than that she has no claims to fame at all except her children and grandchildren. Oh, and this: a couple of decades ago Michael Stipe of REM fame mistook her for a corpse as she lay floating on a Georgia pond. Her most recent books are “Dirty Blue Voice,” “Mortmain,” and “The White Rail.”
Charles Holdefer is an American writer based in Brussels. His short fiction has appeared in the North American Review, New England Review, Chicago Quarterly Review and in the 2017 Pushcart Prize anthology. His recent books include DICK CHENEY IN SHORTS (stories) and GEORGE SAUNDERS’ PASTORALIA: BOOKMARKED (nonfiction).
David D. Horowitz founded and manages Rose Alley Press. In 2007 he edited and published Limbs of the Pine, Peaks of the Range, an anthology of contemporary poetry of the Pacific Northwest. His own most recent poetry collections, all from Rose Alley Press, are Wildfire, Candleflame; Resin from the Rain; and Streetlamp, Treetop, Star.
D. A. Hosek’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Meniscus, Southwest Review, Switchback, Popshot, Blue River Review and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in fiction from the University of Tampa. He lives and writes in Oak Park, IL and spends his days as an insignificant cog in the machinery of corporate America. http://dahosek.com
Jeff Howard is a poet and environmental analyst living in the Connecticut River valley, where he teaches environmental studies at the University of Connecticut. He recently sent his Introduction to Environmental Studies curriculum for a week-long wheat grass cleanse. He since has enjoyed showing his students “Koyaanisqatsi” and springing on them the idea that our potential genetic ties to interstellar dust clouds might just hold a lesson or two for how we should think about the so-called environment. His poems have appeared in Green Ink, The Thinking Republic, and a couple of Unitarian pulpits. His piece “Arrival” won first place in the tri-state Great Neck Plaza (New York) Poetry Contest in 2022. He might be writing The Book of Larry.
Chuck Ivy is a research artist and copywright, a photographer, musician, and, generally speaking, a man of many hats—mostly fedoras
JW James is an outsider poet because who has lived with chronic disabling illness for 30 years. This informs their life but does not define it. Before that they had 3 tough years in a hospital nursing program and worked as an RN in oncology. They haven’t been rich in money or formal education, but are wealthy in time, images, dream, curiosity. They have had work published for 30 years and a book-length poem, Fish Dreams.
Rose Jermusyk is a storyteller who happened to grow up under a rock shaped like Bill Murray, but now she lives in a room at the top of a tower in downtown Providence with her sweetie. She never leaves the tower without her rosary beads and tarot cards, and can often be found online talking about how folks need to take responsibility for their fairy tale lives: periscope.tv/
Robert Johnson lives and writes in Wichita Falls, Texas. His last fiction placements were stories in SHORT STORY and KESTREL, and in the fall number of EAP: THE MAGAZINE.
Jonathan Katz is Professor of Practice in Cultural Policy & Arts Management at George Mason University. He helped establish the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), serving as its CEO for almost three decades. In that capacity, he was a founder of the Arts Education Partnership and of Poetry Out Loud. He chairs the board of American Poetry Review and has authored three poetry collections from C&R Press: Love Undefined, Objects in Motion, and Lottery of Intimacies.
Rogan Kelly is the author of Demolition in the Tropics (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019) and the editor of The Night Heron Barks.
Charles S. Kraszewski is the author of two volumes of poetry: Beast (Alexandria, VA: Plan B Press, March 2013) and Diet of Nails (Boston: Červená Barva Press, June 2013), as well as articles and books in literary history and criticism, most recently Irresolute Heresiarch: Catholicism, Gnosticism and Paganism in the Poetry of Czesław Miłosz (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012) and On the Eternal Happiness of the Saints, an annotated translation of St Robert Bellarmine’s De aeternal felicitate sanctorum (St Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2012).
Jonah Kruvant is the author of the novel, The Last Book Ever Written, published by PanAm Books in April 2015. His work has appeared in Digital Americana, The New Jersey Jewish News, Bewildering Stories, On the Verge, Fiction on the Web, Scarlet Leaf Review, and LIMN Literary and Arts Journal. www.jonahkruvant.com.
Yahia Lababidi (@YahiaLababidi), Egyptian American, is the author of ten books of poetry and prose. His most recent works are a collection of spiritual reflections, Learning to Pray (2021), and a love letter to the deserts of Egypt, Desert Songs (2022). You can subscribe to receive a contemplative daily quote from Lababidi’s books here: Daily Yahia Lababidi Texts: https://dailywisdomtexts.com/yahia_lababidi )
Cal LaFountain‘s words and sounds have appeared in various publications including Information Today, Maudlin House, and Silent Auctions. He cut the cloud at callafountain.com.
Richard LeDue (he/him) lives in Norway House, Manitoba, Canada. He has been published both online and in print. He is the author of ten books of poetry. His latest book, “Sometimes, It Isn’t Much,” was released from Alien Buddha Press in February 2024.
Nick LeGrand lives in the flats of Delaware with his wife and two dogs where he works full-time as a physical therapist. His love of the written word is only matched by his love of the outdoors, and when he’s not writing he enjoys fly-fishing, hiking, and camping. He has previously been published in Brilliant Flash Fiction, and Mystery Weekly. More info can be found at NicholasLeGrand.com
Marilyn Jaye Lewis is an award-winning writer of fiction, short memoirs, plays and screenplays. Over the years, her popular erotic novellas and short stories have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Japanese. Currently, Marilyn’s stage adaptation of her award-winning screenplay, Tell My Bones, about the life & paintings of the Kentucky Outsider Artist Helen LaFrance, is in pre-production in New York City. Beginning in Spring 2020, she will oversee the annual Writer’s Retreat at Villa Monte Malbe in Perugia, Italy – open to English-speaking writers from anywhere in the world. “The Guitar Hero Goes Home” is excerpted from her new novel, Blessed By Light. Please visit Marilyn on the web at: marilynjayelewis.com
Harvey Lillywhite has always been amazed and amused by the world. His two sons and wife are the center of his world—from which he looks out. He loves working with the students he teaches at the local university, how their eyes are just starting to open up to all that’s around them. His work always seems to involve how we use language, how we “talk” to each other. He doesn’t believe in an afterlife, but he does believe in bringing as much lovingkindness as we can to this one.
Christian Livermore was named a Notable Contender for the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize and Highly Commended for the 2020 Cambridge Short Story Prize and was longlisted for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2019/20. Her writing appears in literary journals such as Salt Hill Journal, The Texas Review and The Undertow Review. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of St Andrews in the UK and has taught creative writing at Newcastle University and medieval literature at the University of St Andrews. Before moving to the UK for her postgraduate studies, she worked for ten years as a journalist in Savannah, Ga. and New York.
Tamra Lucid is an executive producer of Viva Cuba Libre: Rap is War the award winning documentary about Cuban hip hop legends Los Aldeanos, a producer of Edward James Olmos Presents Exile Nation: The Plastic People, and associate producer of The Gits documentary. Writing from her riot grrrl zines was reprinted in A Girl’s Guide To Taking Over The World: The Zine Revolution and in Zine Scene. Tamra also blogs for Reality Sandwich where her most recent project has been a series of interviews with water protectors and filmmakers at Standing Rock. She’s a founding member and primary singer of Lucid Nation.
Rue Matthiessen is based on the East End of Long Island, and has been writing journals, poems and stories since she was six years old. She had her own photography studio in Los Angeles for six years. She considers her writing to be visually inspired, and carries on a photography practice to this day. She has published fiction and non-fiction in various literary journals. In 2021 she self-published Buttonwood Cottage, a short work on creating a vacation and income property in the Antilles. She has a completed a full length memoir and travelogue together called Castles and Ruins, a novella called The Toast, and a collection of essays on family life, loss, creativity and fulfillment, called Blastocyst. She is currently at work on a novel about the art world, Woman with Eyes Closed. An excerpt of her memoir/travelogue was nominated for the Pushcart prize.
DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as “a cosmopolitan poet” and another as “prolific, bordering on incontinent”. His work has nominated twelve times for Best of the Net, ten for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and has been released in three collections; Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016), Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019) and Noble Rot (Turas Press, 2022).
Brendan McBreen is a poet and artist from the Pacific Northwest. Brendan is a collector of oddities and an imaginer of new worlds, an admirer of seashells and weeds, and a player with words.
Kunal Mehra is a multimedia artist who likes photography, filmmaking, writing and hiking. He grew up in India and has been living in Portland, OR, since 2002. His writing has been published by the Press Pause Press, The Mindful Word and Across the Margin magazines, amongst others.
Jim Meirose’s short work is widely published,
and his novels include “Sunday Dinner with Father Dwyer”(Optional
Books), “Le Overgivers au Club de la Résurrection” (Mannequin Haus), “No
and Maybe – Maybe and No”(Pski’s Porch), “Audio Bookies” (LJMcD
Communications), “Et Tu” (C22 press), and “Game 5” (Soros Books). info:
www.jimmeirose.com, X id @jwmeirose
Mindi Meltz lives with her husband, cat and goats in an off-grid home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the author of Beauty, a poem-novel about wilderness and desire, Lonely in the Heart of the World, a literary fairy tale about personal and planetary reconnection, and Animal Wisdom Cards decks. She’s currently at work on After Ever After, a mythical trilogy about seeking the sacred feminine on the other side of the happily-ever-after. Find her at www.mindimeltz.com
John Merryman thinks hard about the stuff that matters and is somewhat bemused by the stuff that doesn’t.
David Milley has written and published since the 1970s, while working as a technical writer and web applications developer. His work appears in Painted Bride Quarterly, Bay Windows, Friends Journal, RFD, and Capsule Stories. Retired now, David lives in southern New Jersey with his husband and partner of forty-six years, Warren Davy, who’s made his living as a farmer, woodcutter, nurseryman, auctioneer, beekeeper, and cook. These days, Warren tends his garden and keeps honeybees. David walks and writes.
Peter Mladinic has published three books of poems, Lost in Lea, Dressed for Winter, and Falling Awake in Lovington, all with the Lea County Museum Press. His fourth book Knives on a Table is soon to be published by Better Than Starbucks Publications. An animal activist, he lives with his six dogs in Hobbs, New Mexico.
Diana Morley has published in print and online journals as well as publishing “Spreading Like Water”, a chapbook, “ Splashing”, a poetry collection (2019-2020), and “Oregon’s Almeda Fire”, a book of photographs and poems (2021) about the 2020 wildfire destroying much of two towns. After the fires she moved to Weaverville, N.C., where walks around Lake Louise, while working on prompts. Back at home, she feeds squirrels out back when they jump up to the door handle, visible past her computer. She writes to connect with readers, hoping they will find the surprises she finds while writing.
Sean Murphy has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and been quoted in USA Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and AdAge. His work has also appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, The New York Post, The Good Men Project, Memoir Magazine, and others. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and served as writer-in-residence of the Noepe Center at Martha’s Vineyard. He’s Founding Director of 1455 (www.1455litarts.org). To learn more, please visit seanmurphy.net/ and @bullmurph.
Tim J. Myers is a writer, songwriter, storyteller, visual artist and university lecturer. He won a poetry contest judged by John Updike and and has published much other poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His Glad to Be Dad: A Call to Fatherhood is out from Familius.com. He’s also published 11 children’s books. Find him at www.TimMyersStorySong.com.
Danbert Nobacon, born in Burnley, Lancs, is now living in the mountain wilds of Twisp WA. USA with his immediate clan. He was in the band Chumbawamba for 22 years, and now performs and records solo or with any raggle taggle band of gypsies who will have him, and will; celebrate 30 years in showbiz in October 2009. He is lately to be found gardening and branching out into writing fiction, hosting a community radio show and acting.
Zhinia Noorian is a post-doctorate fellow working on an ERC Advanced Grant project called “Beyond Sharia: The Role of Sufism in Shaping Islam” at Utrecht University. She is interested in exploring the role of gender and sexuality in Islamic culture. Her research examines practices involving transgression of Islamic gender norms by Sufi saints as non-conformist expressions of spirituality.
B.E. Nugent is Irish and lives with his wife in rural County Limerick, with their two adult children nearby. Having nibbled at creative writing prior to the pandemic, he decided to buck the trend during lockdowns by writing and baking brown bread. With a primary focus on short fiction, his bread is beyond critical
Alice Nutter is a playwright, anarchist, musician, and mom.
Katherine Isabella Olsen is a poet, writer, and sailor. Currently studying Rhetoric at UC Berkeley, she workshops her poetry whenever she can. Her work appears online and in print in places such as Livina Press and 7th-Circle Pyrite. When she isn’t writing, she’s probably catching up on assignments she procrastinated on in order to write poetry.
Casey Orr, originally from Delaware, USA, now lives in England where she works as a photographer, researcher and Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. She uses portrait photography to explore ideas and is endlessly excited by its ability to seem uncomplicated, to be simply a tool to document reality – whilst exploring photography’s more complex relationships to metaphor, to shape shifting and to poetry. Her work has most recently been shown in Look15, Liverpool International Photography Festival, The Observer Magazine, The Royal Photographic Society’s Contemporary Photography Magazine and as part of the Tour De France cultural program as well as The Yorkshire Sculpture Park and (the first time the walls of a prison have been used as a space for art) at HM Prison Leeds.
Darren Payne has been writing short stories for years, but up until now has only inflicted them upon his two kids. Having always wanted to be a writer when he grew up, and realizing that, at the tender age of 50, he’d better grow up fast or it’ll be all over, he finally plucked up the courage to let a few stories loose to the world. Darren lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, two kids, and a couple of mangy barn-cats.
Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, THE ADVENTURE and HAPPINESS (Story Line Press; the former to be reissued by Red Hen Press), and two collections, A POVERTY OF WORDS (Prolific Press, 2015) and LANDSCAPE WITH MUTANT (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), as well as many other poems in print and online journals.
Ronnie Pontiac has authored a sentimental novel based on the Yi Jing and Chinese mythology The School of Outlaws, and co-authored a non-fiction book Dialogue with a Spirit. Ronnie has produced award winning documentaries including Cohen on the Bridge, Grrrl, and Viva Cuba Libre: Rap is War. He was poet in residence for Newtopia magazine. He is a founding member and primary guitarist of Lucid Nation.
Ellen Morris Prewitt is the author of three novels, a short story collection, and a “how-to” on making crosses from broken and found objects; she edited the anthology, Writing Our Way Home: A Group Journey Out of Homelessness. Her works has appeared in dozens of journals, including Barrelhouse, Hotel Amerika, Gulf Coast, Image, Alaska Quarterly Review, Alimentum, The Pinch, Connotation Press, and Literary Orphans. She’s twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize where she received a Special Mention. She’s lived all over—but not outside of—the American South. She’s currently making fabric art from dryer lint.
Dawn Raffel is the author of four books, most recently The Secret Life of Objects. She edits The Literarian, the magazine of the Center for Fiction in New York and will teach at Summer Literary Seminars in Vilnius for the second time next summer. “Daphne” was commissioned for a collection of new myths edited by Kate Bernheimer, forthcoming Penguin 2013. That the story revolves around a storm might have something to do with the fact that it was conceived in Hoboken during Hurricane Sandy.
Robert Ready, of New York City and Cape Cod, writes stories that try to re-imagine and counter forces seemingly in control in our culture. He resonates with writers who narrate ways from obsession into clarity, confusion into vision. “Rice Rising” is from his collection, Rice & More, which includes stories about different characters named Mary Rice.
Mark Robinson earned his BA in English Literature from the University of Iowa and is a MFA candidate at Lindenwood University. His poems have appeared in The Red Flag Poetry Postcard Series, Naugatuck River Review, Levee Magazine and Bending Genres, among others. A chapbook, Just Last Days, is scheduled for release in 2020. Mark currently lives in West Des Moines, IA with his wife Jen and their children Lyla, Aya, Liam, Cora, and Minni.
Patrick J. Sacchetti is married to Annie, his lovely wife he has known for the past 10 years. They share joint custody for a hybrid dog that is part Husky and part Pomeranian. A :Pomsky named Grady. They all reside in the NorthWest suburbs of Chicago in a residence that Grady allows them to live in.
Jeff Schiff is the author ofThat hum to go by (Mammoth books, 2012), Mixed Diction, Burro Heart, The Rats of Patzcuaro, The Homily of Infinitude, and Anywhere in this Country. His work has appeared internationally in nearly a hundred periodicals, including The Alembic, Grand Street, The Ohio Review, Poet & Critic, The Louisville Review, Tendril, Pembroke Magazine, Carolina Review, Chicago Review, Hawaii Review, Southern Humanities Review, River City (The Pinch), Indiana Review, Willow Springs, and The Southwest Review. He has been a member of the English and Creative Writing Department faculty at Columbia College Chicago since 1987.
David Selzer was born in London, UK, in 1942, but has lived most of his life in Hoole, a Victorian suburb of Chester, a city, of Roman origins, in North West England. He was a teacher from 1966 to 1986, and an education project manager from 1987 to 2001. From 2001 to 2011 he was chair of the board of Action Transport Theatre, a professional theatre company specialising in work for children and young people.
He has been writing poetry since he was 14. He had a poetry collection, ‘Elsewhere’, published in 1973 by E.J. Morten, Manchester, UK, and, in 2012, a poetry collection, ‘A Jar Of Sticklebacks’, published by Armadillo Central . For more, go to www.davidselzer.com .
Terese Svoboda has temporarily and regretfully deserted the world of the made-up writing of fourteen books of fiction and poetry for that of footnoted biography, the 1920s of the radical poet Lola Ridge. When Svoboda is not walking her ancient fifth dog of her life, slowly every so slowly around the gentrification, she obliterates the letters on her keyboard with some weird acid from her fingertips. The monkey in her keeps at it. Her two grown boys left and are now back. A husband makes noise-as-art. She also likes plants.
Joanie Terrizzi is a writer, grief coach, and mind-body medicine professor who is fascinated with depth, human potential, and healing. She is a former school librarian who can still often be found with a book in her hands, and she is blessed with too many hobbies, so you can also find her gardening, baking, meditating, writing, painting, hiking, swimming, or snuggling with her puppy. She dwells in the mountains around Asheville, North Carolina, taking in the beauty and peace of the land around her, and avoiding getting eaten by a bear.
Bruce E. R. Thompson writes poetry, teaches philosophy, plays the violin, tends a flock of chickens, and occasionally appears on the stage in various capacities, not excluding character actor and ballet dancer. His past vocations also include dish-washer’s assistant, reference librarian, and puppeteer. He has lived in central Colorado, northern Texas, western Pennsylvania, and currently in southern California. How he pays the bills is a mystery both to himself and to everyone who knows him.
Seth Turman was born and raised in Texas, descended from farmers and cattlemen. He now resides in Minnesota, with his wife and daughter, and is currently at work researching and writing his second and third novels. The first will find a home someday.
John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals in the last dozen years. John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals in the last dozen years. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.
John Van Pelt was raised in Latin America, England, and the United States, and has been privileged to enjoy a creative livelihood working for newspaper, digital media, and software companies. He now lives in central Maine, where he writes, edits, and designs for the indie publishing house that he and his partner operate alongside their sheep farm and fiber empire. His writing has appeared at Daily Science Fiction and Farmer-ish Journal.
Barry Vitcov is a retired middle school teacher, principal, university instructor and educational consultant living in Ashland, Oregon with his wife and two standard poodles. He began writing poetry and short stories in his teens, and fondly remembers his father carrying some of his poems in his billfold and proudly showing them off to friends and clients. After retirement, he began writing again, participating in a local poetry open mic reading group, and submitting poems and stories to publishers for their consideration.
Boff Whalley was born and raised in northern England and came of age during punk’s Year Zero. These two factors run through everything he has written, from large-scale community theatre to choral music. He is the author of Run Wild (Simon & Schuster) and a lifelong fan of Burnley Football Club, or at least until they are bought out by a Russian billionaire who wants to sell the club’s particular brand of plucky small-town success. Boff was a founder-member of the band Chumbawamba for 30 years and currently directs the Commoners Choir, an experiment in combining anti-capitalist spittle with mass four-part harmonies, sung by a fifty-strong bunch of bolshie ex-punks. He combines eternal optimism with targeted cynicism and named his son after an artwork by Marcel Duchamp.
Benjamin B. White retired from 22 years of masquerading as a Soldier (2 years in the infantry) and a Coastie (20 years in the Coast Guard) to better spend his time keeping his degrees in Social Science (AA), Philosophy (BA), Creative Writing (BA & MFA), Quality Management (MBA), Educational Technology Leadership (MA) and Human & Organizational Learning (EdD) well-dusted. Raised in Monticello, KY, he married into New Mexico’s Spanish culture and hasn’t looked back (except, perhaps, to write). He currently teaches Business Administration in Albuquerque and coaches a local high school team. His baseball dream has been a constant in his life – mainly because that dream has continually ridiculed his lack of talent. He is a prolific poet because he is a lazy fiction writer, and vice versa – a personality combination that has led him to his own genre, “stoetry.”
Simon Widdop is a punk performance poet from Wakefield, England. He blends love, humour and the world around us with a cutting edge tongue and sharper eyes. Somewhat moderately Tattooed, he can carry a tune, but can’t dance and doesn’t know karate…
Guinotte Wise lives on a farm in Resume Speed, Kansas. His short story collection (Night Train, Cold Beer) won publication by a university press and not much acclaim. Two more books since. His wife has an honest job in the city and drives 100 miles a day to keep it.
Kenneth Womack is the author of the novels John Doe No. 2 and the Dreamland Motel and The Restaurant at the End of the World. He serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Penn State University’s Altoona College.