Contributors

A.R. Arthur (formerly A.R.Salandy) is a Black Mixed-race poet & writer who has spent most of his life in Kuwait jostling between the UK & America. Anthony's work has been published over 240 times internationally. Anthony's Flash Fiction was shortlisted and received an honourable mention in the 2022 The Dillydoun Flash Fiction Prize Competition. Anthony has 3 published chapbooks titled 'The Great Northern Journey' 2020 (Lazy Adventurer Publishing) & 'Vultures' 2021 (Roaring Junior Press) as well as a novel 'The Sands of Change' 2021 (Alien Buddha Press). Anthony's Chapbook 'Half Bred' was the Winner of the 2021 'The Poetry Question' Chapbook contest. Anthony is the EIC of Fahmidan Journal/Publishing & Co, Review Editor at Full House Literary & Poetry Editor at Chestnut Review.
Twitter: @ararthurwriter
Instagram: @ararthurwriter https://ararthurwriter.wordpress.com/

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, including Escape Envy (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2021), I Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So, and The Prisoners. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble.

An Upstate New York native, Adrienne Newcomb is a middle school ELA teacher who writes to process the wild world around her.

Retired children’s librarian Alan Bern is the author of three books of poetry and fifty years ago cofounder with artist/printer Robert Woods of the fine press/publisher Lines & Faces, linesandfaces.com. Recent awards include: honorable mention for Littoral Press Poetry Prize (2021); flash fiction finalist for Ekphrastic Sex (2021); first runner-up for Raw Art Review’s Mirabai Prize for Poetry (2020); medal from SouthWest Writers for a WWII story set in Assisi (2019). Recent and upcoming writing and photo work: HAUNTED WATERS PRESS, Aletheia Literary Quarterly, CERASUS, Feral, and Mercurius. Alan is a published/exhibited photographer and performs with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES: dance and poetry fit to the space and with musicians from Composing Together.

Ali Arya grew up in Iran and migrated to Canada for work and study, only to find and raise a family that gave him a new understanding of what he was looking for in life. Ali is a professor of Information Technology at Carleton University, Ottawa, and a geek at heart. He develops games and interactive stories with his students, investigates how people use computers, and have written books and articles in his professional field. He has studied children's story writing at Gotham Writers, and has been a member of the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for years. Recently, he self-published some of the bedtime stories he made for his son, “the Adventures of Mr. Filio”.

Ali Ashhar is a poet, short story writer and columnist from Jaunpur, India. He is the author of poetry collection, Mirror of Emotions. His works appear in Indian Review, The Raven Review, Bosphorus Review of Books, among others.

Anastasia Arellano is originally from California but now lives in Dublin, Ireland as a freelance writer. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, and holds a Master’s in Creative Writing. She’s had short stories published in The Honest Ulsterman, Honey + Lime, The Hellebore, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Dragon Soul Press, as well as some poetry published in Smithereen’s Press. She recently completed her first solo YA novel which is now making the querying rounds. When she’s not writing, she’s cooking, plastering her bedroom walls in storyboards, or seeking inspiration from the Irish landscape. You can follow her on Instagram @writeranastasia26 and Twitter @AnastasiaArell5

Aneeka Usman is a teacher, a writer, a mom, and a realtor from Chattanooga TN. She teaches first-year college writing at Dalton State College. Previously, her work has been published in Litro magazine.

Angela Hinton is teacher, public servant and published author. Her French prose poems, "Soltices, Équinoxes” appeared in the literary review, Trois. Peinture. Punctuation. Vol. 9, No. 3, Spring-Summer, 1994.

Ann Privateer grew up in the Midwest where she began writing poetry in her late teens. She now resides in Northern California. Some of her recent work has appeared in Voices 2022, Sacramento Voices 2018, and Wild Edges to name a few.

Anne Mikusinski has been writing poetry and short stories since she was seven years old and most probably making them up long before she could hold a pen or pencil in her hand. She finds inspiration in music and art, and sometimes, even little things that happen every day. Her influences range from Robert Frost and Dylan Thomas to David Byrne and Nick Cave, and she hopes one day, her work will inspire others in the same way these writers have been a true inspiration on her.

Basiliké Pappa lives in Greece. She is a translator, a copy editor, the mother of a dog and the partner of a fire-star. She writes fairytale and myth retellings, poetry, short stories sometimes. If she is not at home, I don’t know where she is. But you may find her work in Dead Fern Press, Heron Tree, Carmina Magazine, Timeless Tales, Ubu., DarkWinter Literary Magazine, Sledgehammer Lit, Glitchwords, Punk Noir and other journals, as well as in the anthologies Hidden in Childhood (Literary Revelations, 2023), Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (Experiments in Fiction, 2022) and Shaping Water: Erotic Haiku and Tanka (Moth Orchid Press, 2022).

Bill Garvey's poetry has been published or is forthcoming in several journals including Cimarron Review, Rattle, New Verse News, Quiddity, Margie, Nixes Mate Review, The Worcester Review, 5AM, Slant, Concho River Review, New York Quarterly, Cloud Lake Literary and The Amethyst Review. Finishing Line Press published Bill's chapbook, The Burden of Angels, in 2007.

Bojana Stojcic teaches mostly high school and college English and is notorious for making her students laugh. A little nonsense now and then is all they sometimes need to make it through the day. Ftr she’s not saying let’s go kill all the stupid, unnecessary people, somehow hoping the issue will sort itself out. If you ask her, though, the only thing worth killing, at least for now, is the powerful gun lobby.

Braden Matthew holds a BA in Religious Studies and a MA in Philosophy at McMaster University and is currently completing a MA in Psychotherapy at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he lives with his partner and child. A Canadian-born writer living in Edinburgh, the fiction he writes is often set within cold and wet climates. He has also worked as a journalistic writer for two universities in Canada. He has published two short stories in The Nassau Literary Review and Quibble Literary Journal.

Brahmani is a Indian based writer in the United States of America. She loves writing and reading short stories and poetry and is planning on majoring in communications. In her free time, she plays the piano and loves to watch stand up comedy.

Brian Michael Barbeito is a Canadian poet, writer, and photographer. Recent work appears at The Notre Dame Review.

Britany Schaffer is a native New Mexican living the dream in Colorado. Her day job is a criminal defense lawyer, but she writes short stories and essays to stay sane. She has two amazing dogs, who inspire her daily, and she spends all her time outside of the courtroom outside.

Raised on a rice and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas, CL Bledsoe is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the poetry collections Riceland, The Bottle Episode, and his newest, Driving Around, Looking in Other People's Windows, as well as his latest novels Goodbye, Mr. Lonely and The Saviors. Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.

Cadeem Lalor is a Jamaican-Canadian writer. His short story “Memory Catcher” was published by Idle Ink on August 1st. He has since had three more short stories published, “Embers,” “Feed” and “Pet Stalker.”

Caleb is a librarian and aspiring writer that can be seen haunting the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. When he's not in the swamplands or raising his chickens, he can be found masquerading the streets as a superhero. Twitter: octoleal

CANDICE KELSEY [she/her] is a poet, educator, and activist currently living in Augusta, Georgia. She serves as a creative writing mentor with PEN America's Prison & Justice Writing Program; her work appears in Grub Street, Poet Lore, Lumiere Review, Hawai'i Pacific Review, and Poetry South among other journals. Recently, Candice was chosen as a finalist in Iowa Review's Poetry Contest and Cutthroat's Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. Her third book releases September '22. Find her @candicekelsey1 and www.candicemkelseypoet.com.

Carys Crossen has been writing stories since she was nine years old and shows no signs of stopping. Her fiction has been published by Lunate, Halfway Down the Stairs, FlashBack Fiction, Honey and Lime Lit and others, and her monograph The Nature of the Beast is available from University of Wales Press. She lives in Manchester UK with her husband, their daughter and their beautiful, contrary cat.

Cecilia Kennedy (she/her) taught English composition/literature and Spanish language/literature in Ohio for 20 years before moving to Washington state with her family, which includes a very demanding cat. Since 2017, she has published her stories in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and England. Her work has appeared in Maudlin House, Coffin Bell, Idle Ink, Tiny Molecules, Streetcake Magazine, Wrongdoing Magazine, Rejection Letters, Open Minds Quarterly, Headway Quarterly, Flash Fiction Magazine, Kandisha Press, Ghost Orchid Press, and others. The Places We Haunt (2020) is her first short story collection. Additionally, she thoroughly enjoys being a volunteer adult beverages columnist for The Daily Drunk, a proofreader for Flash Fiction Magazine, and a concept editor for Running Wild Press. Twitter: @ckennedyhola

Cecily Ross is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, The New York Times, Zoomer, Chatelaine, The Literary Review of Canada, ON Nature and other publications. Her novel, The Lost Diaries of Susanna Moodie, is published by HarperCollins Canada. A memoir, Love in the Time of Cholesterol, is published by Viking Canada. She lives and writes in Creemore, Ontario.

Ceinwen Cariad Haydon lives near Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and writes short stories and poetry. She is widely published in online magazines and in print anthologies. Her first chapbook is 'Cerddi Bach' [Little Poems], Hedgehog Press, July 2019. Post-retirement from social work, she is developing practice as participatory arts facilitator. She believes everyone's voice counts.

Celia Lisset Alvarez is a writer and educator from Miami, Florida. She has four collections of poetry, Shapeshifting (winner of the 2005 Spire Press Poetry Award), The Stones (Finishing Line Press 2006), Multiverses (Finishing Line Press 2021) and the upcoming Bodies & Words (Assure Press 2022). Her stories and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, most recently in Last Leaves Magazine, dyst, and Blue Mountain Review. She was also the editor of the literary journal Prospectus.

Charles Rammelkamp’s latest poetry collection, The Field of Happiness, has just been published by Kelsay Books. Rammelkamp is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books. He contributes a monthly book review to North of Oxford and is a frequent reviewer for The Lake, London Grip and The Compulsive Reader. A collection of flash fiction, Presto!, will be published in 2023 by Bamboo Dart Press.

Charlotte Rahme is an Ottawa local writer inspired by history, archaeology, and the interesting people she meets. She has been published in Common Deer Press and North Literary Journal.

Chris Klassen lives and writes in Toronto, Canada. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in history and living for a year in France and England, he returned home and worked the majority of his career in print media. He is now living a semi-retired life, writing and looking for new ideas. His work has appeared in Short Circuit, Unlikely Stories, Across the Margin, Fleas on the Dog, Vagabond City, Dark Winter, Literally Stories and Ghost City Review.

Christina Chin is from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. She writes haiku, short poems, paints for art exhibitions, creates meaningful short videos of her poems and art. She has haiku, haiga, senryu, tanka and gogyoshi featured and published both in print and online with several reputable anthologies and journals.

Christina Hennemann, shortlisted for our 1st Anniversary Contest, is a poet and prose writer based in Ireland. Her poetry pamphlet “Illuminations at Nightfall” was published by Sunday Mornings at the River in 2022. She’s the winner of the Luain Press Prize, was shortlisted in the Anthology Poetry Award, and longlisted in the National Poetry Competition. Her work appears in The Moth, fifth wheel, Ink Sweat & Tears, Moria, National Poetry Month Canada, and elsewhere. Twitter: @chr_writer Instagram: @c.h_92 www.christinahennemann.com

A former university instructor, Christine Overall has published books, book chapters, and journal articles in philosophy. Contrary to the expectations of her discipline, some of her publications are based on her experiences as a disabled woman, a mother, and an academic in a field dominated by men. For more than a decade she wrote a weekly column called "In Other Words" for the Kingston Whig-Standard. She is now working on the fifth draft of her memoir, an exploration of the risks, in her life, of choosing to have children and the choice whether to be a care giver. She is also writing short creative non-fiction essays and short fiction.

Originally from Corner Brook Newfoundland and Labrador, Christopher Butt, shortlisted for our 1st Anniversary Contest, is a retired member of the Canadian Forces navigating his way to a life of being a writer. His genres include Science Fiction, Fantasy, weird fiction and the occasional humorous piece. He lives in St. Catharines, and you can find his work on his Wattpad page under the name “Buttster”.

Christopher Sworen is an aspiring writer currently living in Poland.

Christopher Waldrop is a writer and library assistant living in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and a horde of wild Dalmatians. He's had work published in the anthologies Static Dreams Volume 2, Feathers 1, a collection of poems about birds, as well as in Unstamatic Magazine, DarkWinterLit, and elsewhere.

Clara Burghelea is a Romanian-born poet with an MFA in Poetry from Adelphi University. Recipient of the Robert Muroff Poetry Award, her poems and translations appeared in Ambit, Waxwing, The Cortland Review and elsewhere. Her second poetry collection Praise the Unburied was published with Chaffinch Press in 2021. She is Review Editor of Ezra, An Online Journal of Translation.

Collins Aguilar is an Asheville based writer and current master's candidate at Queens University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in The Angle Street Review, Touchstone Journal, After the Pause, Unleash Press, and The Rising Phoenix Review.

Courtenay Gillett is a corporate content creator, short fiction, and poetry writer usually found at her desk, engulfed in the latest horror podcast drops for the week while she whips up new copy. Originally from Kansas but took a hop, skip, and a jump over to Northwest Arkansas in 2017 and has not looked back since. She resides with her partner Timothy, doggo Arya, and kitty Athena – they all seem to put up with her pretty well, so it must be a good fit. Courtenay's aspirations for the future include living in a hut in the forest and dancing under the moon more frequently, ultimately rising enough in notoriety to be known as the local witch woman.

Craig Izard is a musician, published songwriter and attorney. He lives in Birmingham, AL, USA.

Damian Anastasia Onyinyechi is a creative writer and blogger who loves to tell stories and infuses a witty style into her writing. Her stories are usually fiction but can feature non-fiction works based on real events or past life experiences. When she's not writing, she's watching a movie, drawing, reading a book or two (biased to Mythology and crime novels), or designing. What each hobby does for her, aside from relaxation, is serve as an avenue to recharge her creative side. Feeding her mind with ideas. In her spare time, she runs a personal movie blog which is her journal for movies she has seen. There's also a design blog where she shares her design ideas and stories with others, and finally a WordPress blog where she updates readers on new stories or life events. Check out her blogs: stasiascolumn.wordpress.com
thewittyreview.medium.com
stacemelda.medium.com

Dana Brewer Harris is a voiceover artist, British tv fan, and lover of every dog everywhere. She currently lives in New York City and writes about things that frighten her. Her work has appeared in Atticus Review and the Stanford Writer’s Spotlight. She’s on Twitter @DBrewerHarris

Daniel A. Rabuzzi (he / his) has had two novels, five short stories, twenty poems, and nearly 50 essays / articles published (www.danielarabuzzi.com). He lived eight years in Norway, Germany and France. He has degrees in the study of folklore & mythology and European history. He lives in New York City with his artistic partner & spouse, the woodcarver Deborah A. Mills (www.deborahmillswoodcarving.com), and the requisite cat. Tweets @TheChoirBoats

Danila Botha (she/her/hers) is a Jewish fiction writer based in Toronto, Canada. She’s had two collections of short stories published, Got No Secrets, and For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I've Known, which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature and the ReLit Award. She has a new collection coming out with Guernica Editions, called Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness in 2024. She’s also the author of the novel Too Much on the Inside, which won a Book Excellence Award for contemporary fiction. She has a new novel coming out in 2025 called A Place for People Like Us. Danila teaches Creative Writing at the Humber School for Writers and at University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies.

Dave Cline writes fiction and software from atop the lowliest mountain in the Northwest US. The software for money, the fiction for fun, although someday he wishes that reversed (at which point he will no doubt cease writing code).

Born in 1964 in Liverpool, England, David didn't find his voice until his youth. He spent years thinking he was nobody and being treated as such, including a period of homelessness in the desperate Thatcher Years. However, he papered over the scars and found understanding and belief through words. He has been published and performed widely on the BBC, The Tate, galleries and pubs and everything in between. Now a resident in Turkey, he has continued his literary career. His poems and writings are autobiographical, while others are topical.

Debra Zannelli was raised in Cumberland, Rhode Island. She lived in Salem, Connecticut with her husband for twenty-four years, working for eighteen years at Chelsea Groton Savings Bank. While working at the bank, she earned a business degree from Mitchell College. In 1996, Debra was diagnosed with a non-cancerous brain tumor. During her recovery, she wrote her first novel, Dark Night of the Soul. Returning to work, she put her book aside and did not pursue her writing career. When her husband was transferred to Newport, they moved to Exeter, Rhode Island, where she continued her education. After receiving a certificate as a teacher’s assistant, she was hired by the Exeter/West Greenwich School District. Retiring, she once again found time to return to her first passion. She still lives in Rhode Island with her husband of forty-four years. She has one adult son. Debra enjoys hiking with her dog Boots, traveling and writing.

Dennis Stein lives in Brockville, Ontario, not far from the scenic Thousand Islands. He has lived in Eastern Ontario for most of his life, and he and his wife love to mold their backyard into a slice of paradise on weekends. Stein enjoys writing in a variety of genres, and regularly writes historical and human interest articles for several local publications. He has published several novels, including two series, and is currently working on several large projects for younger readers.

Devonne Brown is a West Virginia author, teacher, and mother of twin boys. She has taught English from Shakespeare to basic Reading in a career that spans closer to a half than a quarter of a century. A scary “Warhorse English Teacher,” she has divided her professional time between alternative and traditional schools in West Virginia, North Carolina, and in the UK. Her first book, Norris Tales, the Adventures of an Awful Housecat, an anthology of anecdotes and short stories revolving around family tyrant Norris, a cat of unusual presence and demeanor. Her upcoming historical fiction in women’s literature, In the Time of the Sonnets: 127 -154, explores the tale of Shakespeare’s Dark Lady, and is on track for publication in February 2023.

Diana writes domestic noir novels. She has been writing since she was a child and her dad inspired her to write. She lives with her husband, and German Shephard Rottweiler. A mother of two grown up children, she is also a proud grandmother. She has been writing since she was a child. Her first novel ‘’Sticks and Stones’’ was self-published in 2005. Her second novel ‘’It Won’t Happen Again’’ was self-published last year on Amazon. It is a fictional story about a woman called Martha (a victim of domestic violence). Her daughter and best friend tell her to leave, but it takes a catalytic event to change her life forever. Diana joined a playwright group, where she was part of a group of amateur writers. ‘’The Kingswood Beast’’ premiered at The Corby Cube.