Contributors

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”. His short story collection In The Lair Of The Kraken is published by DarkWinter Press

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.

Christopher Woods is a writer and photographer who lives in Texas. He has published a novel, THE DREAM PATCH, a prose collection, UNDER A RIVERBED SKY. His novella, HEARTS IN THE DARK, was published in an anthology by RUNNING WILD PRESS in Los Angeles. His monologue show, Twelve from Texas, was performed in NYC by Equity Library Theatre. He has received residencies from The Ucross Foundation and the Edward Albee Foundation, and a grant from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation.

Cithara Patra currently lives in NC with their family. They've written for a few literary journals including CafeLit, Poetries in English, The Quasar Review, Instant Noodles, and 50 Word Stories. In their spare time, they travel and check out brand new places to eat.

​

Clive Aaron Gill’s stories and poems have been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies. He has shared his tales and engaged audiences at writers' workshops, and at public and private events.

Clyde Liffey lives near the water.

Cole Bisson is a literary fiction, sci-fi, and literary horror fiction writer from Fergus, ON. He's been published by Broken Pencil Magazine and the White Wall Review. He graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University, and he is currently an academic advisor for medical and veterinary programs.

Colette Maxfield lives in the U.K. near the point where the Thames river meets the Kennet canal. Currently working in a University/union setting. Writing free verse poetry and has poems published via The Broken Spine, DarkWinter Literary Magazine and Silly Goose Press.

Colin James has a couple of chapbooks of poetry published. Dreams Of The Really Annoying
from Writing Knights Press and A Thoroughness Not Deprived of Absurdity from Piski's Porch Press
and a book of poems, Resisting Probability, from Sagging Meniscus Press.

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.

Craig Kirchner is retired and living in Jacksonville. He loves the aesthetics of writing, has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels, and has been nominated three times for a Pushcart. Craig's writing has been published in Chiron Review, Main Street Rag and dozens of others. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems on a laptop; these words help keep him straight. Craig can be found on Bluesky.

Faculty Emeritus and recovering poet, Crystal Hurdle is reinventing herself in retirement by mentoring writers through the League of Canadian Poets, the Writers Union of Canada, the Canadian Artists Network, and teaching Creative Writing to seniors. She also crafts junk journals, paints, weaves tapestry, and writes fiction. She is author of After Ted & Sylvia, Teacher’s Pets, and Sick Witch; Syl-lo-Therapy will be published in 2026. Her website is https://crystalhurdle.ca

D A Angelo is a UK-based poet with work in Sage Cigarettes, Flights of the Dragonfly, Impspired, The Amazine and Petrichor Mag. New work is forthcoming in Autumn Sky Daily, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Moss Puppy, SurVision and Skipping Stone Review.

D.C. Nobes is a physicist, poet, and photographer who, aside from 2 years on Vancouver Island, spent his first 39 years in or near Toronto, Canada, then 23 years based in Christchurch, New Zealand, 4 years in China, and has since retired to Bali. He used to enjoy winter but admits that he doesn’t miss the snow or the cold. He thinks almost all poetry is meant to be read aloud. His poetry and art photographs have been widely published, including in Consilience Journal, Dreich, Fevers of the Mind, Heterodox Haiku, miniMAG, Moss Puppy Magazine, Paddler Press, Porch Literary Magazine, The Hooghly Review, Transients Magazine, and Whimsical Press. Twitter:@sebon521 Instagram: sebon52

DS Maolalai has been described by one editor as "a cosmopolitan poet" and another as "prolific, bordering on incontinent". His work has been nominated fourteen times for BOTN, ten for the Pushcart and once for the Forward Prize, and 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)

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

Damon Hubbs: gardener / casual birder / lapsed tennis player / author of the chapbooks "Coin Doors & Empires" (Alien Buddha Press) and "The Day Sharks Walk on Land" (Alien Buddha Press) / recent work appears/is forthcoming in Dreich, Cutbow Quarterly, Broken Antler, Crab Apple Literary, Eco Punk Lit, and elswhere. On the bird @damon_hubbs

Dan MacIsaac’s short stories have appeared in a wide variety of Canadian and U.K. journals, including The Dalhousie Review, Grain, Stand and The New Quarterly. His work was short-listed for the CBC Short Story Prize. Brick Books published his poetry collection, Cries from the Ark.

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

Daniel DeLucie is a software architect living in Los Angeles, California. He played guitar in the heavy metal bands Destiny’s End and Crescent Shield, releasing four albums in the late nineties and two-thousands. He self-published a heavy metal-themed self-help book called Heavy Metal is my Life Coach in 2021 and has been writing poetry for much of his life because it's fun. He started submitting poetry this year and has a few pieces pending publication.

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).

Dave Cuzzolina is a published, award-winning fiction writer and former journalist. His published fiction includes: “Off the Hook” by The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, “First One’s the Hardest” by The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, “Loose Ends” by Propertius Press Short Story Anthology, “The Girl Who Liked Cats” by Short Circuit and “The Debtor” by Short-Story.me. He has captured honorable mentions in both the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition and the Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition in the Genre Short Story category.

Dave Spencer is a retired firefighter from the Halifax Regional Municipality, with 32 years of service. He is retired and resides in Halifax Nova Scotia. It’s the events and the situations that he has experienced that have inspired him to write.

David Estringel is a Xicanx writer/poet with works published in literary publications like The Opiate, Azahares, Cephalorpress, DREICH, Somos en escrito, Ethel, The Milk House, Beir Bua Journal, and Drunk Monkeys. His first collection of poetry and short fiction Indelible Fingerprints was published April 2019, followed Blood Honey and Cold Comfort House (2022, little punctures (2023), and Blind Turns in the Kitchen Sink (scheduled for late 2023). David has also written six poetry chapbooks, Punctures, PeripherieS, Eating Pears on the Rooftop, Golden Calves, Sour Grapes, and Blue. Connect with David on Twitter @The_Booky_Man and his website www.davidaestringel.com.

David Hanlon is a poet based in Cardiff, Wales. His work appears in numerous magazines and journals, including Rust & Moth, Anthropocene, and trampset. His latest collection, Dawn's Incision, was published by Icefloe Press. You can follow him on Twitter @davidhanlon13 and Instagram @hanlon6944.

David Larsen is a writer who lives two miles from the border with Mexico in West Texas. His stories and poems have been published in more than forty literary journals and magazines including Cholla Needles, The Heartland Review, Floyd County Moonshine, Aethlon, Oakwood, Change Seven, The Literary Heist, Coneflower Cafe, El Portal, The Raven Review, Canyon Voices and Mobius.

David Pratt’s poetry and short fiction have been published in over 100 journals in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia, His op-eds have appeared in national newspapers in Canada and the United States. He is the author of Apprehensions of van Gogh (Hidden Brook Press, 2015), and Nobel Laureates: The Secret of Their Success (Branden Books, 2016). He lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

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.

David Richard Beasley lives in Simcoe Ontario. Born Canadian he lived in Europe and Manhattan for 40 years, has a PhD in political economics, worked for years at the New York Public Research Libraries where he was the president of the union of library workers. He has written over a score of books in all genres including biographies of Canada’s first novelist, of North America’s greatest actor, of the great artist Clay Spohn, of the curator Douglas MacAgy, a major force behind modern art, historical novels of WWII in Burma, and many other entertaining social novels, short stories, novellas. His Episodes and Vignettes; an Autobiography. Sarah’s Journey, the story of a slave escaping to Upper Canada in 1820, won a literary prize and From Bloody Beginnings; Richard Beasley’s Upper Canada won a Brag Medallion. He was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his writings. See www.davuspublishing.com.

Dawn is a two-time heart transplant recipient and trauma survivor. Her work has most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Insider Magazine, Blue Villa Magazine, Open Secrets, Remington Review, Alchemy Spoon, and Wishbone Words. You can find her online at www.dawnlevittauthor.com or on Twitter/X @2HeartCore4U.

Debbie Smith likes to play with words to capture life’s moments from on and off her front porch in a place called Paris, Ontario.

Deborah Blenkhorn is a writer and teacher living on Bowen Island in British Columbia, Canada. Some of her stories have been published in Blank Spaces Magazine, Queen's Feminist Review, and This Island, We Celebrate (a collection of Howe Sound regional writing). She's done several book reviews for the Canadian Literature periodical journal, and several entries for the Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada.

Debra J. Nordyke, is a retired office manager for a small family law firm in rural Missouri, United States. She lives on 80 acres of fields and timber where her neighbors are owls, eagles and blue herons. She enjoys running 5K, 10K and half-marathon races; tennis, pickleball and hiking.

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.

Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California U.S.A. Active in creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 10 books--Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and his newest, The Mansion--and 78 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.

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.

Deryck N. Robertson lives and creates in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong,
Ontario, where he is an elementary educator. Work has appeared with
The Minison Project, Orchard Lea Press, Loft Books, and forthcoming
with Vital Minutiae Quarterly. His first chapbook, All We Remember,
was realeased by Alien Buddha Press in 2021. He is the EIC of Paddler
Press and has a couple of songs on Spotify. When not writing, he can
usually be found drinking maple roast coffee around a campfire or in
the stern of his canoe in Algonquin Park. You can find him online
@Canoe_Ideas, @PaddlerPress, and deryck.ca.

A native of upstate New York, Devin James Leonard prefers the countryside over cities, and animals over humans. His favorite word is urchin, though he’s never used it in a sentence. When he isn’t writing or devouring books, he likes to make crop circles in random cornfields to entice the Men in Black. His published stories can be found on Instagram @devinjamesleonard

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.

Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is a memoirist, poet, workshop leader, thought-leader and award-winning author of fourteen books. Her work has been widely published and anthologized. She frequently speaks and writes on writing for healing and transformation. Her latest memoir is Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors, A memoir with reflection and writing prompts (Modern History Press, 2024). Raab writes for Psychology Today, The Wisdom Daily, The Good Men Project, Thrive Global, and is a guest blogger for many others. Raab lives in Southern California. Visit her at: https:/www.dianaraab.com.

Diane Funston writes poetry of nature and human nature. She co-founded a women's poetry salon in San Diego, created a weekly poetry gathering in the high desert town of Tehachapi, CA and most recently has been the Yuba-Sutter Arts and Culture Poet-in-Residence for the past two years. It is in this role she created Poetry Square, a monthly online venue that features poets from all over the world reading their work and discussing creative process. Diane has been published in Synkronicity, California Quarterly, Whirlwind, San Diego Poetry Annual, Summation, and quite a few other literary journals. Her first chapbook, “Over the Falls” was published this July 2022 from Foothills Publishing. Diane is also a visual artist in mosaic, wool felting, and collage. Her pieces have been in galleries in the Sacramento Valley. noparadise@e.com

Dinah Susan Alobeid writes fiction to grapple with the ever-complicated state of the world. In trying to make sense of it all for herself as a first-generation Syrian American, late-Millennial mother, she hopes to shed light for everyone. Her work is deeply influenced by her experience as a woman in tech of Arab descent and she hopes to continue to explore personal meaning and diverse perspectives in her fiction, short stories, essays, and poetry. Infusing languages including Arabic, Spanish, and French into her writing as well as the heady visceral descriptions of food, drink, and heartache, much of her fiction centers on relationships between two or more inaccessible hearts.
She lives in New Jersey with her partner and their rambunctious toddler.

Dominique Weldon is a Black biracial writer who grew up in Iowa. She is a first-generation college graduate of the University of Iowa and received her MFA in Fiction from Butler University, where she served as the nonfiction editor of Booth. Her fiction has been previously published in Lover’s Eye Press. She lives in Indiana, where she teaches at Butler University, and reads fiction for Split Lip Magazine. She is currently working on her first novel as well as a graphic novel.