Contributors

Stacy Wentworth is a board-certified radiation oncologist. Caring for thousands of patients over her decade-long career has given her the opportunity to tell the amazing story of science every day. In 2019, she opened a multi-disciplinary cancer survivorship clinic and she continues to oversee this program. She is an active member of the cancer patient support community. Her research has been selected for presentation at national conferences and publication in many peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Wentworth lives with her husband (@deadbrokeboards) on a farm in North Carolina with a menagerie of animals including 3 fat horses, 2 fainting goats, 7 loud chickens, four rescue dogs and one opinionated cat. When not seeing patients or mucking stalls, she is working on her first book.

Stefanie Rose Shapiro started writing as a young girl but decided to pursue it seriously as an adult when she entered a Doctorate program at Drew University focusing on creative writing. She also holds a MA in forensic psychology and a MPH from Harvard. When she is not working on her memoir, she tutors undergraduate and graduate students in writing. She has served as an Adjunct Instructor at the college level. In her free time, she enjoys pickleball; tennis; Scrabble; walking outdoors; and spending time with her son and dog.

Steph Moore is a queer guy pursuing a PhD in Mathematics with a sardonic bite. Owing to his upbringing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Steph seeks to harness the motifs and lived experiences of the Gothic South to voice his feelings of whimsy and melancholy - and often when those coincide.

Stephen Leach is a writer and editor based in London. He has an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing from the University of Winchester and an MA in Contemporary History and International Politics from Birkbeck University. In 2023 his debut stage play Can't Wait To Leave opened at Waterloo East Theatre. He is currently working on a poetry collection as well as his first novel.

Stephen Mead is a retired Civil Servant, having worked two decades for three state agencies. Before that his more personally fulfilling career was fifteen years in healthcare. Throughout all these day jobs he was able to find time for writing poetry/essays and creating art. Occasionally he even got paid for this work. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall, The Chroma Museum

Steve Denehan lives in Kildare, Ireland with his wife Eimear and daughter Robin. He is the author of two chapbooks and three poetry collections. Winner of the Anthony Cronin Poetry Award and twice winner of Irish Times' New Irish Writing, his numerous publication credits include Poetry Ireland Review and Westerly. Twitter @SteverinoD Website: stevedenehan.wixsite.com Facebook: facebook.com/denehan

Steven Baird is an author, amateur photographer, and 40+ year newspaper compositor -- 28 years in Southeastern Ontario, 14 years in North Carolina. He has published three novels and is currently working on a short story collection and an ambitious forth novel. Steven is a native Canadian living in Virginia with his wife Angela, their gorgeous Great Pyrenees/German shepherd cross, and an incalculable number of chickens. Find him on Twitter @SMBairdOrd or on his website Ordinaryhandsome.com

Steven Bruce is a writer and multiple-award-winning author. His poems and short stories have appeared in numerous international anthologies and magazines. In 2018, he graduated from Teesside University with a master’s degree in creative writing. An English expatriate, he now lives and writes full-time in Poland.

Steve has been a writer for several years, recently expanding his writing online via Substack and working towards his first full-length novel. While earning his undergraduate degree, Steve enrolled in a creative writing course on a whim during his final semester, which inspired him to pursue writing after a few kind words of encouragement from his professor. The professional part of Steve’s life has been spent serving in the United States Marine Corps, having just retired in 2023. He lives near Washington, D.C. with his beautiful wife and two children, all of whom support and encourage him to follow his newfound passion.

Streeper Clyne lives in North Carolina and writes poetry, micro fiction, and short stories. Her work has appeared in print and online in The Wake Forest Review and Vine Leave Press.

Sugar de Santo is a visual artist and writer/poet from Berlin, Germany. He loves to travel and hopes to live once at his beloved sea. Some of his work got published online at „The Writers Club - Grey Thoughts“. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @sugar_de

Sujata Sahani is a Ph. D candidate at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack in the Department of Odia Literature. Her writings appear in numerous Odia journals. Her debut book of poetry, Naritie Kalam Dhariba Dina (Pakshighara Prakashani) was published in 2017 and was shortlisted for the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar twice. Her literary awards include the Akhil Mohan Foundation Puraskar, Ananya Puraskar of NAWO, Nabanita Patrika Puraskar, and Bhakti Smruti Puraskar among others. She grew up in Gobindapur and lives in Bhubaneswar, Odisha in India.

Susan Cronin earned an MFA in poetry from the New School. She attended the 2023 Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has been accepted to attend the 2024 Tin House and Community of Writers summer poetry programs. Her poems are forthcoming in Pine Hills Review and have appeared in journals such as Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Grim & Gilded, Blood Tree Literature, LIGEIA, Southwest Review (2022 Elizabeth Matchett Stover Award), A-Minor, Nashville Review, and DMQ Review.

Susan Israel is the author of two crime novels, Over My Live Body and Student Bodies (The Story Plant) She lives in Connecticut.

Susan Kay Anderson lives in southwestern Oregon’s Umpqua River Basin. Her long poem "Man’s West Once” was selected for Barrow Street Journal’s “4 X 2 Project” and is included in Mezzanine (2019). Anderson also published Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir, Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast (2021). https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/susan_kay_anderson

Susan Richardson is an award winning, internationally published poet. She is the author of “Things My Mother Left Behind”, from Potter’s Grove Press , and also writes the blog, “Stories from the Edge of Blindness”. You can find her on Twitter @floweringink, listen to her on YouTube, and read more of her work on her website.

Susan Wingert (she/her) is an emerging writer from Winnipeg (Treaty 1 and the homeland of the Métis Nation). She holds a doctorate in sociology from Western University. Susan is an Amherst Writers and Artists-certified workshop facilitator who works with the Alan Klass Program in Health and Humanities at the University of Manitoba. She has led generative writing workshops with health professionals, medical students and residents, cancer patients, caregivers, parents, and middle schoolers.

Suzanna Fitzpatrick’s poetry has been aired on BBC Radio 4 and widely published in magazines and anthologies, including Writing Motherhood (Seren), The Emma Press Anthology of Contemporary Gothic Verse, The Emma Press Anthology of Slow Things, Furies (For Books’ Sake), and Birdbook III (Sidekick Books). She was shortlisted for the 2019 Bridport Prize, longlisted for the 2018 National Poetry Competition, won third prize in the 2023 Shepton Snowdrops Competition, second prize in the 2016 Café Writers and 2010 Buxton Competitions, and won the 2014 Hamish Canham Prize. Her pamphlets are Fledglings (2016), and Crippled (due 2024) (both Red Squirrel Press).

Sven Walther is a new writer drawn to the edges of things—grief and grace, suspense and surprise. He writes flash fiction, poetry, and is currently working on his first novel. His stories lean into quiet tension and unexpected turns, where even the darkest shadows might carry something kind.

Author of her memoir- ‘A Turbulent Mind-My journey to Ironman 70.3’, Swetha Amit is currently pursuing her MFA at University of San Francisco. She has published her works in Atticus Review, JMWW journal, Oranges Journal, Gastropoda Lit, Full House literary, Amphora magazine, Grande Dame literary journal, Black Moon Magazine, Fauxmoir lit mag, Poets Choice anthology, and has upcoming pieces in Drunk Monkeys, Agapanthus Collective, The Creative Zine, and Roi Faineant Press. She is one of the contest winners of Beyond words literary magazine, her piece upcoming in November. She is also, alumni of Tin House Winter Workshop 2022 and the Kenyon Review Writers’ workshop 2022.

T. Quinn Hurley is a born and raised Hoosier. He enjoys his cat, Kaiju movies, and hardcore. His sole other publishing credit is in the Graphic Panel Review. He’s currently, probably, listening to the latest Botch single. Social medias are: Quinnvstheworld on all platforms.

T. M. Bemis is a writer and producer from the Hudson Valley. His fiction has appeared in The Nude Bruce Review, For Page & Screen Magazine, Johnny America, The Oddville Press, Projected Letters, and other publications. Hobbies include dusting, phrenology, and over-the-shoulder trick shots using a mirror.

Tamiko read Latin and French at New College, Oxford. She is a sometime wedding pianist from South West London.

Tara Zafft has a BA from UC San Diego and Ph.D in Russian literature from the University of Bath, UK. She began writing poetry when she was thirteen, and only recently began submitting her work for publication. She has poems published in the anthology, Rumors Secrets and Lies, Poems about Abortion, Pregnancy and Choice, Write-Haus, Aether Avenue Press, The San Diego Poetry Annual, Vita and the Woolf Literary Journal, and Dumbo Press.

Ted Naughton (he/him) is a writer who lives far, far out in the boggy woods with his rescue dogs and his demons.

Canadian writer and farmer Terry Trowbridge has appeared in Darkwinter Lit before. He is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for writing grants during the polycrisis.

Theresa Hartenstein lives in the woods of Minnesota with her husband and dog. She serves as VP for her area writer’s group, Lake Area Writer’s Alliance. Most recent published work was a short story called 2575, published on December 31 2024 by online Literary Magazine, The Metaworker.

Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry has appeared in such publications as The Journal, Poetry Salzburg, Modern Literature, The Museum of Americana, South African Literary Journal, and Home Planet News. His books of poetry are Ballad of Billy the Kid, Monterey Bay Adventures, Mercurial World, Aurora California, and Opus Borealis.

Thomas Zimmerman (he/him) teaches English, directs the Writing Center, and edits The Big Windows Review https://thebigwindowsreview.com/ at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His poems have appeared recently in horror senryu journal, Red Wolf Editions, and Urtica. His latest book is Dead Man's Quintet (Cyberwit, 2023). Website: https:/thomaszimmerman.wordpress.com

Tim Goldstone has roamed widely and currently lives in remote rural Wales. Published internationally in numerous print and online journals and anthologies - including Veil: Journal of Darker Musings, Pyre Magazine, 11 Mag Berlin, The Offing, Horror Tree, Wretched Creations, The Chamber, The Cafe Irreal, Dark Fire Fiction, Hallowzine, Toil & Trouble, Altered States. Material forthcoming in Suicidaliens Anthology, I Become The Beast, For Page and Screen, and elsewhere. His prose sequence was read on stage at The Hay Festival, and his poetry presented on Digging for Wales. Scriptwriting credits for TV, radio, theatre. Loiters in twitter @muddygold 'Sisters of the Marsh' was previously published in the print only anthology 'Ellipses Zine: THREE' (2018)

Tina lives in Waterloo, Ontario, and is a writer and retired regional library assistant. She is currently working on three projects: a novella, a short fiction collection, and a dark poetry collection. Most of her work has appeared on the horror website TBM Horror. She has also been published on Spillwords and Luna-Pen to Paper and is a member of the KW Writers Alliance. When she isn’t writing, she spends time with her family, tries to reduce her TBR pile and watches movies.
Her website can be found at Tina McFarlane- Poet and Writer she is also on Instagram at mcfarlane_tina.

According to the NYT, the average American knows only six hundred people well enough to remember their first names. From this small group he/she will search for a life partner, while passing by hundreds of thousands of others on the freeway, any one of whom might have proven a perfect match. Tom Barlow's poetry explores the distance between.

Toni Juliette Leonetti is a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writings include short stories, poetry, plays, and a mystery novel. Her fiction has been published in Elegant Literature and CafeLit.

Tony Dawson was born in London in 1937 and has lived in Seville since 1989. He only took up writing in earnest as a way to stay relatively sane during the pandemic. He has published 3 collections: Afterthoughts A Collection by Tony Dawson, published by Cyberwit.net; Musings: Poems by Tony Dawson, published by Impspired; Reflections in a Dirty Mirror. Poems and Short Fiction by Tony Dawson, published by Impspired; plus a flash fiction collection: Curiouser and Curiouser Flash Fiction by Tony Dawson, published by Cyberwit.net. He has published over 100 poems in magazines, both online and in print.

Torian Bay is an artist and writer living on Vancouver Island.

Trent Lewin is a climate scientist, educator and writer. A BIPOC artist and immigrant to North America, these elements shape his fiction, as does the blending of genres. Trent has twice been a winner in Grain’s Short Grain Contest, has won Boulevard’s Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers, and has shortlisted in the CBC Short Story Contest and the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Vikki C. is a British-born writer and poet from London whose work features vivid imagery inspired by existentialism, science, nature and surrealism. Her poetry appears (or is forthcoming) in both print anthologies and online journals. These include Black Bough Poetry, Kobayaashi Studios, Acropolis Journal, Loft Books, Literary Revelations and Ice Floe Press. In December 2022, Vikki released her debut chapbook 'The Art of Glass Houses' - a collection of aesthetic poetry and prose on intersecting themes of life, existentialism and art. Whilst London is home, Vikki has also lived and worked in cities across Asia, attributing her artistic perspectives to such cross-cultural influences. She is an avid pianist and musician who composes with a focus on "cinematic style" accompaniments for spoken poetry and prose. Her voice and poetry have been featured in various spoken word and audio collaborations. Twitter @VWC_Writes

Virginia Wilson is an American author looking to break into the writing industry. She specializes in stories that have elements of familial drama, magical realism, and underlying horror. Often, her work is character-driven, focusing on the development of people and the relationships they form.

Wayne Russell is a creative jack of all trades, master of none. Poet, singer, artist, rhythm guitarist, photographer, and author of the poetry books “Splinter of the Moon” and "Waves of Lucidity", both published via Silver Bow Publishing, they are both available for purchase on Amazon in paperback and digital formats such as Ingram Distribution at your local library.

Wendy Bloom is an emerging writer, living in Southern Oregon. She mostly focuses on poetry, but is keen on expanding her expressive vision, to a variety of forms of writing, including YA fiction, and memoir.

Whitney Egstad is a writer, dancer, and educator in the Denver area. Her poems and essays have appeared in various publications including The Best of the Net Anthology and The Rumpus. Her research, professional, and personal projects are centered on the intersection of healing and the arts.

Born in Missouri and raised in North Dakota, William Aarnes taught in South Carolina before retiring to Manhattan. His fourth and latest collection in The Hum in Human (Main Street Rag, 2024).

William Campbell is currently enrolled in his fourth year as a student at Central Washington University majoring in music. He is working towards achieving a double major in music and history that will allow him to become an ethnomusicologist and composer. In regard to poetry, he has been writing poetry for two years and have done so as a good replacement for expression apart from composing music. The motivation for deciding to become published was acted upon after being encouraged by friends and family.

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. His most recent book of poetry is Cloud Mountain (2024). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in various journals.

William Falo lives with his family, including a Papillon named Dax. His stories have been published or are forthcoming in various literary journals. He can be found on Twitter @williamfalo and Instagram @william.falo

Wren Donovan (she/her) lives in Tennessee. Her poetry appears or is upcoming in Emerge Literary Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Harpy Hybrid Review, Moist Poetry, and elsewhere in print and online. Her first two chapbooks are forthcoming. In addition to creative writing and literature, she studied folklore and mythology. Wren also reads Tarot, practices dance meditation, and talks to cats. She lurks on twitter @WrenDonovan.

Yuu Ikeda is a Japan-based poet. she loves writing, drawing, and reading mystery novels. She writes poetry on her website: https://poetryandcoffeedays.wordpress.com. Her published poems can be found in Nymphs, Selcouth Station Press, New Note Poetry, Remington Review, and more. Her poetry collection “The Palette of Words” has been published from Lighted Lake Press. Her Twitter and Instagram: @yuunnnn77

Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb is the author of the chapbook, Shapes That Stay (Kelsay Books, 2021). Her work has appeared in The Midwest Quarterly, About Place Journal, The Conium Review, Earth’s Daughters, Eastern Iowa Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, Medical Literary Messenger, Clockhouse, AJN: The American Journal of Nursing, Terrain.org, and many other journals, with work forthcoming in Slipstream and elsewhere. She holds an interdisciplinary MA and has served in various capacities as an educator, a researcher, and an editor.

Zary Fekete was shortlisted for our 1st Anniversary Short Story Contest and has worked as a teacher in Hungary, Moldova, Romania, China, and Cambodia, lives and works as a writer in Minnesota, has been featured in various publications including Zoetic Press, Bag of Bones Press, and Mangoprism, has a debut chapbook of short stories out from Alien Buddha Press and a novelette (In the Beginning) out from ELJ Publications, as well as a debut novella forthcoming in early 2024 by DarkWinter Press. Zary enjoys books, podcasts, and long, slow films. Twitter: @ZaryFekete