Contributors

Paul Robinson lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch. He is an award winning chef and recent convert to creative writing, mainly flash fiction and prose poetry. He currently attends the Linwood Arts creative writing classes in Aotearoa New Zealand. His latest creative work has been previously published in takahe, 2024.

Paul is a career journalist whose work has included daily newspapers (including the Baltimore Sun), science and tech writing, and a well-regarded book on the stock market. He has an English degree from Wesleyan University and did coursework in the Johns Hopkins part-time writing program.

Paul Smith is a civil engineer who has worked in the construction racket for many years. He has travelled all over the place and met lots of people from all walks of life. Some have enriched his life. Others made him wish he or they were all dead. He likes writing poetry and fiction. He also likes Newcastle Brown Ale. If you see him, buy him one. He is a featured poet at Mad Swirl.

Paulette Hampton holds a Masters in Reading Education and is a multi-genre writer. She is the author of the YA paranormal novel Of the Lilin, the memoir When Life was Yellow: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and a sci-fi novella entitled Singing to the Fere Moon. Her poems have appeared in Immortal Hymns Rewritten Realms, Secret Attic, WildSound, and elsewhere. She loves to draw and spend time with family and friends. She lives with her husband and two cats in North Carolina. https://paulettehampton42.wixsite.com/website.

Petar Penda is a professor of English and American literature (University of Banja Luka) and a translator. His translations have been published in renowned journals in the USA and the UK. His poetry was published by "Fevers of the Mind", " Lothlorien Poetry Journal", "A Thin Slice of Anxiety", "Trouvaille Review" and others.

Peter Roberts is a mathematically educated poet who sometimes writes fiction. He has been contributing to various magazines and journals, online & off, for more than 45 years. See his slightly dated personal page, www.god-and-country.info/personal.html, where you can find links to lists of all his published poems & stories, if you look carefully. Some may find the rest of the website interesting as well.

Philip Madden is a freelance writer based in Poland.

Philip Matcovsky is a lightworker and a cosmic traveler based in New York. His work has been featured, or is forthcoming, in Brilliant Flash Fiction, Braided Way Magazine, Odyssey Magazine, Amethyst Review, Aethlon and Pangolin Papers. Website: philipmatcovsky.com

Pitambar Naik is an advertising copywriter for a living. When he’s not creating ideas for brands, he writes poetry. His work appears or is forthcoming in The McNeese Review, The Notre Dame Review, Packingtown Review, Ghost City Review, Rise Up Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, The Indian Quarterly and elsewhere. He’s the author of the poetry collection, The Anatomy of Solitude (Hawakal). He grew up in Odisha and lives in Bangalore, India.

Plamen V. is an award-winning freelance writer/poet with published works online and in a dozen US magazines who has been writing since the age of 10. Plamen has won numerous writing contests and have awards from different parts of the world.

I am a creative person with big dreams and also love to help people. I also have Certificates on Creative Writing from the UK writing centre, from the Open University in Scotland, Oxford Study Centre and from Harvard University.

Nipping at the heels like a pup way too attentive. Poetry has pursued this word student all his life. The muse has a funny way of showing up when it wants to make its presence known. He can do no other but to follow. Previously published in The Louisville Review, The Thinker Review and The Birmingham Poetry Review. Publication pending with The Main Street Rag.

R.P. Logan is a retiree residing in Oakville, Ontario. When not visiting small towns with his wife in search of bakeries specializing in pies, butter tarts and that rare treat, Eccles Cakes, he can be found entertaining his one-year-old grandson or walking his three-year-old Havanese, Poppy. After graduating from York University with a degree in Geography and before embarking on a career in transportation he spent an episodic summer hitchhiking from Prestwick, Scotland to Barcelona, Spain. Married life and three children did not discourage the passion to travel as witnessed by road trips to the east and west coast; holiday excursions to St. Lucia and Mexico and a memorable trip to Italy. A cancer survivor he is thankful for every succeeding day since he rang the bell and is looking forward to future travel destinations including Costa Rica and or Iceland.

Rachael Llewellyn (she/her) is the author of two novels and a collection of short stories. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies and journals, including Divinations Magazine, Crow & Cross Keys Magazine, The Manchester Review and Polari Press's Creating in Crisis Anthology. Her poetry has been featured in Poetry Wales Magazine. She was awarded a PhD from Swansea University for her thesis on trauma and memory in folklore and has spoken at the Jaipur Literary Festival and the Dylan Thomas Birthplace on writing. In 2019 she was awarded a Francis W Reckitt Grant. She lives in South Wales with her family.

Rachel Schmidt is a registered nurse and military spouse. She holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and has been published by Bath Flash Fiction with work forthcoming in Winged Penny Review, Collateral, and Flash Fiction Magazine.

Raquel Fletcher is a poet, journalist, and editor. She was formerly a political correspondent in Quebec City for both Global News and Bell Media for close to a decade before moving to the Canadian prairies. She is the author of Who Belongs in Quebec? (Linda Leith Publishing, 2020). She is also the recipient of the 2025 Saskatchewan Writers Guild Prize in Poetry. Her poems have been published in anthologies and literary magazines.

Born in Newmarket, ON, Rebecca Dunlop is a homebody with a knack for romanticising the mundane. From their days of adolescent Pinterest quote boards to their current stack of bedside table books, poetry has long held a special place in their heart. A young, queer, creative, they write to find connection, relief, and meaning in a world that often doesn’t make sense.

Reed Venrick lives in Florida; usually writes and publishes poems
with nature and cultural themes.

Rene F. Tyo is an author of horror stories and an aspiring novelist. He is a jack-of-all-trades, by nature, having used his varied background in everything from business, marketing, and entrepreneurship to manufacturing and hard labour as inspiration for much of his writing, as there is no more thorough research than ingrained personal experience.



He lives in Brockville, Ontario, is married, has two sons and has had one or more dogs by his side most of his life and the occasional cat. He has published one short story collection; The Hostage Chronicles. Rene is also working on his first novel as yet untitled. A tale about a small city besieged by evil forces; man made and otherwise.

Renee Cronley is a writer from Manitoba that stepped away from nursing to prioritize her children, and has been channeling her knowledge and experiences into a poetry book about nursing burnout. Renee can be found at https://www.reneecronley.com/

Richard Krause has three collections of fiction published titled Studies in Insignificance, The Horror of the Ordinary, and Crawl Space & Other Stories of Limited Maneuverability. He recently has had writing in Club Plum Literary Journal, Mobius, Northwest Indiana Literary Journal, Blue Lake Review, Digging through the Fat, and Modern Literature. Krause lives in Kentucky where he is retired from teaching at a community college. His website is richardkrausewriting.com

Richard LeDue (he/him) lives in Norway House, Manitoba, Canada. He writes poems. His last collection, “Another Another,” was released from Alien Buddha Press in May 2025.

Richard M. Ankers is the English author of The Eternals Series and Britannia Unleashed. Richard has featured in Expanded Field Journal, Love Letters To Poe, Spillwords, and feels privileged to have appeared in many more. Richard lives to write. His website is: http://richardankers.com/?p=24343

Richard Schreck is the author of over 30 fiction and non-fiction pieces and a former publication editor for a large professional association. “Just In Case” explores a fictional world he is developing in Brain Game, a novel set in Baltimore and New Orleans. Brain Game background stories also appear in The Razor, Gargoyle, The Loch Raven Review, The Write Launch, and other literary magazines. See links to his stories at richardschreck.com and commentary at Instagram @richardschreckwriting and Bluesky @richardschreck.bsky.social.

Richard-Yves Sitoski (he/him) is a songwriter, performance poet and the 2019-2023 Poet Laureate of Owen Sound, on the territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Arc, Prairie Fire, Train, The Fiddlehead, The Maynard, and elsewhere. BOTN nominee 2021, 2021 John Newlove Award winner, 2022 Don Gutteridge Award winner (2nd place). His most recent works are the chapbook How to Be Human (Bywords.ca, 2022) and the full-length collection Wait, What? (Wet Ink Books, 2023). He is co-editor, with Penn Kemp, of Poems in Response to Peril: An Anthology in Support of Ukraine (Pendas Productions/Laughing Raven Press, 2021), profits from which will go to displaced Ukrainian cultural workers.

Rick Kast is a lawyer who never quite got over being an English major and has written fiction and humor pieces since the late Pleistocene. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife and Nigel Tawny, a large orange cat. In addition to writing, his hobbies include cooking, gardening, listening to music, and engaging in snappy repartee with computerized phone calls. In addition to this fine publication, his works have appeared in The First Line, Sixfold Fiction, Defenestration, and other literary publications living and dead. He has also published two novels, Romance with Variations and Three-Part Invention, which can be found in entirely too few bookstores but can be tracked down online.

Rikki Santer’s collection, Resurrection Letter was grand prize short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and Shepherd’s Hour, won the Paul Nemser Book Prize from Lily Poetry Review Books. In 2023, she was named Ohio Poet of the Year. Please contact her through her website, https://rikkisanter.com.

Rizza writes code to make a living. She writes stories and songs to feel alive.

Robert Earle’s short fiction has appeared in scores of literary journals, including Mississppi Review, Parhelion, Pangolin Papers, Typishly, december, Eclectica, Chiron Review, Ocotillo Review and many others. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Robert McDonald’s poetry and prose have been appearing in journals and magazines for well over 20 years, including, among others, Allium, Disquieting Muses Quarterly, Emerge Journal, The Tiny Journal, Le Petite Zine, Hearth & Coffin, Pank, Sentence, and West Trade Review. He lives with his husband in Chicago.

Born in Montreal, Robert Steckling lives in Toronto and has studied at the Humber School for Writers. His work has appeared in The Antigonish Review, the Gay & Lesbian Review, The Puritan, Canadian Literature, and is forthcoming in Queen’s Quarterly.

Robert Steward teaches English as a foreign language and lives in London. His stories have appeared in Scrittura, Literally Stories, Across the Margin, The Ogilvie, The Door Is A Jar and others. You can find them at: twitter.com/theroadtonaples

Roger Mills is retired from medicine after 30 years of teaching in university medical centers and another 10 years with Janssen Pharmaceuticals. After retiring, he contributed to and edited JFK. The Last Speech, a multi-author companion volume to a documentary film with the same title. The Massachusetts Review (Summer 2018) published an early version of one of his book chapters, an essay titled, “The President and the Poet. He is currently enrolled in the 2-year Stanford Online Writing Course.

Rohan Clifford is a senior school English teacher in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. He is married with two grown children and two equally grown dogs, one of whom is a retired greyhound (the dogs). He loves guitars and is far better at collecting than actually playing them. He is also the author of the young adult title “Frank Davies and the Amazing Frog Catapult” (Penguin/Puffin). He is extraordinarily grateful when anybody reads his work.

Ron Wetherington is a retired professor of anthropology living in Dallas, Texas. He has published a novel, Kiva (Sunstone Press), and numerous short fiction pieces in this second career. He also enjoys writing creative non-fiction. Read some of his work at https://www.rwetheri.com/

Rosemary Porto has studied fiction writing at VCFA’s Novel Retreat for nine years and has taken courses at Grub Street, The Loft, and StoryStreet. Connie May Fowler and Tommy Dean mentor her one-on-one. She is working on a novel-in-progress and Flash Fiction. For her day job, Rosemary is an award-winning interior designer specializing in contemporary kitchen design. She has been practicing for more than twenty years on projects locally and nationally. Her newsletter, The Next Chapter, has been expanding in circulation since 2020.

Rowan Tate is a Romanian creative and curator of beauty. Her writing appears in the Stinging Fly, the Shore, Josephine Quarterly, and Meniscus Literary Journal, among others. She reads nonfiction nature books, the backs of shampoo bottles, and sometimes minds.

Royden V Chan was born in Guyana in 1932 and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1978. In 1958 one of his early short stories won a prize and was published in the Guyana Christmas Annual. Several years ago a Guyanese friend of his asked him to publish some of his stories in the online website Guyanese Online. Other than that, he wrote for his own pleasure and was not interested in publication. But now that he is an old man, he would like to share his stories with others.

Ruth Emeroe is an emerging Canadian writer living in British Columbia. She writes stories, essays, and poetry, and has been published in Folklife magazine.

Ryan C. Eubank is a regional Emmy award-winning television producer/director, visual artist and writer based in Richmond, Virginia. His work can be found in Whitefish Review, VCU Health’s Medical Literary Messenger, Gabby & Min’s Literary Review and his storytelling has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.

27-year-old Ryan Frost lives in Toronto's east end with his wife, Dale McCabe, and his cat, Tyco. He graduated with a Master's degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Toronto in 2022, hoping to pursue a career researching ways to make society more sustainable. After realizing that job prospects in his targeted field were regrettably scarce, he began to focus on another life-long passion; literature. Today, he works at the Toronto Public Library, aspiring to one day see a book of his own creation on the shelves. His favourite authors include, in no particular order, Orson Scott Card, Terry Pratchett, Iain M. Banks, Jim Butcher, and Neil Gaiman. Outside of his professional and literary life, he enjoys endurance running, 3D modelling and printing, tabletop role-playing games, and DIY projects around the house.

S. M. Beal (she/her) is a fiction writer, poet, and nap enthusiast. After serving as Southern Utah University’s first student poet laureate from 2021-2022 and working as an editor for Kolob Canyon Review for two years, she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in creative writing and a minor in psychology. A Utah native, she now works at the University of Idaho as the Academic Publications and Curriculum Coordinator. Her pieces have been published by Owl Hollow Press, Every Day Fiction, and Kolob Canyon Review in their 2020-2023 editions. To see more of her work, follow her on Instagram at @writersmbeal.

SL Walsh recently earned their undergraduate degree in Creative Writing & Publishing from Sheridan College, and will begin their Masters in Communication & New Media at McMaster University in the fall of 2025. SL enjoys writing science fiction and poetry, and is inspired by concepts in physics and ecology. They have had a short story on AI titled Webworld published in Alchemy by Sheridan College, multiple articles published in McMaster’s Facility Services News, as well as poetry to be published in Phylum Press’ and Consilience Journal’s upcoming issues.

Sabrina Shabana Vellani is a South Asian-Canadian actress & writer from BC. She studied Theatre Acting & Creative Writing at UBC and graduated in 2018. Some of her poetry can be found in The Malahat Review, Event Magazine, and Filling Station Magazine under her pen name, Rozina Jessa. Her poetry can also be found in Carousel Magazine, the New York Quarterly, Pulp Magazine and Prism International Magazine under her real name. She recently wrote two pieces for the Creatus Project's Tales of the Theatre- Participation for Professionals Of All Ages, which was an interactive creative forum presented at the PAL Studio Theatre. She also works as an actor in both the Film/TV and Theatre industries. At the moment, her work aims to focus on the Magic of the Seasons and the comforts we can find through their offerings. More of her creative work can be found at https://www.instagram.com/themagicalseasons/

Sadee Bee is a queer artist and writer inspired by magic, strange dreams, and creepy vibes. Sadee is the Visual Arts Editor for Sage Cigarettes Magazine and the author of Pupa: Growth & Metamorphosis and Magic Lives In Girls. Sadee can be found on the web at linktr.ee/SadeeBee.

Salina Tellis is a lover of hiking, hockey, and books. She is studying Integrated Business and Humanities at McMaster, with a specialization in Sustainability, and Global Peace & Social Justice. Her greatest inspirations draw from nature's gifts, mental wellness, femininity, and the trials of growing up.

Sally Zakariya’s poetry has appeared in some 100 publications and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her publications include All Alive Together, Something Like a Life, Muslim Wife, The Unknowable Mystery of Other People, Personal Astronomy, and When You Escape. She edited and designed a poetry anthology, Joys of the Table, and blogs at www.butdoesitrhyme.com.

Salome Vera is currently a student at Cal State University Long Beach and is a partial caretaker for her father who is disabled. Her story, El Doctor Cortez, was inspired by the last doctor's visit she accompanied her father on.

Sam Hendrian is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, poet, and playwright striving to foster empathy through art. From writing personalized poems for passersby outside of LA's oldest independent bookstore every Sunday, to making Chaplin-esque silent films about loneliness and human connection once a month, Sam lives to make other people feel seen and validated. More poems and films can be found on Instagram at @samhendrian143.

Samantha Lee Curran is a poet, writer, author and editor of trash to treasure lit. Her poetry collection ‘exposure to existence’ is forthcoming with Alien Buddha Press in February 2023. She has had work published through Stereo Stories, Anaerkillik, Mamamia, SourCherry Mag, DED Poetry, Soft Star Magazine, among others. Samantha was chosen as a Vessels of Love poet for the City of Sydney poetry event and she is attending an Artist's Residency in France in 2023. When she’s not writing (or trying to) you can find her at a bakery, having a picnic in the park or napping. Twitter: @slcurran & Instagram:@s.l.curran