Contributors
Emily Adams-Aucoin is a poet from Upstate New York who now writes from South Louisiana. Her work has been published in three anthologies, as well as in Electric Literature’s The Commuter, The Rappahannock Review, Variant Literature, and The Chaffin Journal, among other publications
Jerome Berglund graduated from the cinema-television production program at the University of Southern California, and has spent much of his career working in television and photography. His work has been featured prominently in many journals, including on the cover of the most recent issue of pacificREVIEW. A selection of his black and white fine art photographs was showcased at the Pause Gallery in New York last winter, and his fashion photography is currently on display at the BG Gallery in Santa Monica. Berglund follows a principle of fatalistic discovery within the chaos of natural elements spiraling through his daily experience and environment to seek out and construct—via a scavenger hunt of sorts—a series of allegorical tableaus centered upon subjects of addiction, recovery, alcoholism, mental illness, depression, anxiety, alienation, loss, heartbreak, gentrification, corruption, hope, and acceptance.
Aditi Bhattacharjee is a writer from Bombay. She spends her days humoring her brain chatter and reading war histories. She likes to explore the mundane, the everyday machinations of daily life through poetry. Her works have appeared in Lunch Ticket, Vagabond City, The Remington Review, Ayaskala Magazine, The Banyan Review, The Alipore Post, ChaiCopy MCH and The Remnant Archive.
Christoph Black grew up all along the east coast of the U.S. Born In New York, but lived in Maine and Florida and Minnesota as well. They currently reside in Seattle WA where they work with individuals who have physical or intellectual disabilities. At home, you can find Black gaming, writing short stories and poetry or, of course, painting. Within Black’s pieces one can see, love, lust, struggles with addiction and mental health and recovery.
Olivia Boomhower is a student, writer, freelance artist, and muralist living in the Pacific Northwest. Olivia's art is emotionally influenced by their experience of being a queer/ gender non-conforming person. Spending the majority of their life in a conservative, rural town, they use their challenging upbringing as a foundation for their work. Olivia's goal is to connect with her audience through honest writing, transparency, and expression.
Lawrence Bridges’ poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, and The Tampa Review. He has published three volumes of poetry: Horses on Drums, Flip Days, and Brownwood with Red Hen Press.
Joanna Brown is a writer and community-health physician living in Providence, Rhode Island, with her spouse and two children. Her poetry has been published in a variety of venues, including Gertrude, Eclectica Magazine, Earth's Daughters, Angel's Flight Literary West, and the chapbook 2Horatio.
Barbara Candiotti is a retired High Tech Worker. She enjoys photography, collage, and writing. Her poems have been published in Star*Line and Eye to the Telescope. Her photography has been accepted by Reservoir Road Literary Review. The pandemic has changed and divided society in never before seen ways. Geographic areas have reacted and responded in different ways. Common ground has virtually disappeared. Her artwork in this issue is a small glimpse of one of the changes that have appeared in society.
Celeste Cortes is a junior at George Mason University, they have a soft spot for nature and anything aesthetically pleasing. Although they prefer working digitally, they will occasionally dabble in traditional media, such as using posca pens.
RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017), easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles, (Patrick Heath Public Library of Boerne, 11/2021) The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press, 12/2021), in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, The Ogham Stone, Twelve Mile Review, York Literary Review among many others and appears in numerous online literary journal.
Sadie Divoux is a multimedia artist and writer who has exhibited in Australia and Europe. They are based in Sydney, Australia.
R. Gerry Fabian is an internationally published poet and novelist. He has published four books of his published poems, Parallels, Coming Out Of The Atlantic, Electronic Forecasts and Ball On The Mound. In addition, he has published three novels : Getting Lucky (The Story), Memphis Masquerade, and Seventh Sense. His web page is https://rgerryfabian.wordpress.com Twitter @GerryFabian2 He lives in Doylestown, PA.
Michael Hardin is originally from Los Angeles and now lives in rural Pennsylvania with his wife, two children, and two Pekingeses. He is the author of a poetry chapbook, Born Again (Moonstone Press 2019), and has had poems published in Seneca Review, Connecticut Review, North American Review, Quarterly West, Gargoyle, Texas Review, Tampa Review, among others. He recently finished his memoir, Touched.
Eloise Klein Healy is the author of nine books of poetry and was named the first Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2012. She was the founding chair of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University Los Angeles. Her forthcoming book, A Brilliant Loss, will be published in 2022.
Abigail Hillrich-Dawdy is a poet from the midwest whose work focuses on growth, change, and forgiveness. They live in Berkeley, CA on a farm with their two cats.
Erika Street Hopman is a Chicago-based writer, radio producer, and filmmaker. They hold an MFA in film production from Boston University, and their poetry was most recently published in IthacaLit. On any given day, you’ll find Erika writing outside, with a dog at their feet and two chickens pecking nearby
Sean Kang is a sixteen-year-old sophomore attending Korean International School in Seoul, S. Korea. His hobbies are indulging himself in any creative and artistic way. He is currently putting together his portfolio for university.
Kate Krautkramer’s work has appeared in such publications as North American Review, Colorado Review, Fiction, National Geographic Magazine, Washington Square, Mississippi Review, Orca, The Normal School, and the New York Times (Modern Love). She’s been included in The Beacon Best, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and Best of the West anthologies, and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Kate has stories currently in South Carolina Review and forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review. She lives in rural Colorado with her husband and children.
Natalie Kwon is a 15-year-old 10th-grader attending St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. Besides creating artwork, she enjoys playing golf and the trumpet in the school orchestra.
Barbara Martin is a visual artist who grew up on three continents -- and has lived in twelve states coast to coast. She currently lives outside Philadelphia. Her work is contemporary in style and leans toward the abstract and sometimes surreal or visionary. She has completed several residencies in the West, and her paintings have been displayed in galleries and museums across America, as well as published in numerous online and print publications. She earned an MBA, is a certified creativity coach and occasionally teaches art class.
Edie Meade is a Pushcart-nominated writer, artist, and mother of four in Huntington, West Virginia. Recent work can be found in Still: The Journal, New Flash Fiction Review, Fractured Literary, Janus Literary, and elsewhere. Say hi on Twitter @ediemeade or https://ediemeade.com/.
Erin Moore is a nonbinary printmaker and designer from Philadelphia. They live and work in Baltimore, where they attend the Maryland Institute College of Art. They enjoy making zines about lesbian history and writing poems that focus on their queer experience. You can find their work at @bugprints on instagram.
Sophia Ordaz is a Chicana writer based in Arkansas. She is currently a master's student in the Comparative Literature program at the University of Arkansas. You can read her music writing in Slant Magazine and The Idle Class and reliably find her in a mosh pit, on her longboard, or in bed reading a book.
Annie Palmer received her M.Ed. in Community Arts in 2015 from Lesley University. Her thesis centered around research on sexual violence and claiming identity as a young womyn on co-ed college campuses, which resulted in a poetry workshop for womyn. Since then, she has written and performed spoken word and nonfiction around the Greater Boston area. She is now a business coach and freelance copywriter based out of Providence, RI. She is the guest judge for this issue’s Creative Nonfiction Contest.
Holly Peckitt is a poet, writer, and student from Manchester, UK. She recently completed her MA in English Literature at Bangor University and is now pursuing a career as a freelance writer. Holly's work has been previously featured in Moonchild, Black Bough, Chitro, MuggleNet and The Stage.
Donna Pucciani is a Chicago-based writer who has published poetry worldwide in Shi Chao Poetry, Voice and Verse, Meniscus, Poetry Salzburg, ParisLitUp, Not Very Quiet, and other journals. Her latest book of poetry is EDGES.
Loraine Reitman is a writer and human rights advocate working in San Francisco, CA. Her writing has been published in Room, the Nation, and U.S. News and World Report, among others. Reitman graduated from Bard College with a degree in Multidisciplinary Studies: Creative Writing, Russian, and Gender Studies.
Cristina Stancu is a Romanian poet and amateur photographer searching for ways to combine words with images. In 2017 she made her poetry debut with teritorii, a book published in Romanian by Tracus Arte Publishing. In 2021 she published her second poetry book, apără pe cineva de tine (CDPL). Through her photography she tries to document her feelings using a colorful and sometimes minimalist or conceptual approach.
Jiesha Stephens is a creator, cat mom, and fifth-year English Ph.D. student at the University of Oregon with an interdisciplinary passion for art and literature. Her specialization is U.S. Black Literature and Culture, drawing from Black Visual Culture, Black Feminisms, and Women of Color Feminisms. Her work reflects mixed media training and lived experience as a first-generation neurodivergent Afro-Latina navigating white spaces. Her medium is digital art, mix media, acrylic, and ceramics. She plays with texture, organic materials, and the body as a way to honor the small black girl who lost her voice.
Christine Sloan Stoddard has a photo still from her film Sirena's Gallery in this issue. Sirena's Gallery is an independent feature film about a Salvadoran-American woman’s struggle as an art gallery owner after losing her husband to suicide. The film takes place during the COVID pandemic and was shot in Richmond, VA.
Alice Tolan-Mee is a queer composer, performer, and writer originally from Brooklyn, now based in Los Angeles. They make words and music, often together, sometimes apart. They compose for the human voice, found sounds, effected samples, synths, and strings. Their work is "open and inquisitive" (electric sound of joy), "beguiling" (New York Times), and "introspective and dynamic" (Impose Magazine). They are currently working on a composition commission for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, setting their original text 'home on earth / home in body' to be performed in Spring 2022. Visit them at www.linktr.ee/alicetolanmee
Anne Whitehouse’s most recent poetry collection is Outside from the Inside (Dos Madres Press, 2020) and her most recent chapbook is Escaping Lee Miller (Ethel Zine and Micro Press, 2021).
Elizabeth Wing’s work has appeared in 25-30 venues, mostly sweet little journals like the Decadent Review, 7x7, and Up North Lit, among others.
Amy M. Young is a gardener, a painter, a poet, and one of those people who enthusiastically sings along with the car radio (even with the windows down). She teaches Global Cultures and English Composition at a college in Houston, Texas.
Emma Zhang is an emerging writer from the San Fransisco Bay Area. Aside from writing, she loves art, philosophy, rain, and houseplants.
Huina Zheng was born and grew up in south China. She has worked as a college essay coach since graduating from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China, where she studied English (British and American Literature). She currently lives in Guangzhou city, China with her husband and a daughter, and is pursuing an online M.A. in English at Arizona State University.