Contributors

Emily De Angelis comes from a long line of visual artists, musicians, and storytellers. She has spent many years developing her writing through involvement in the writing community, independent study, workshops, conferences, and courses. Emily has western and Japanese-style poems as well as short stories published in various periodicals and anthologies and has also won or placed in the top three of 4 short story contests. Her first YA book, The Stones of Burren Bay, released in May 2024 (Latitude 46 Publishing) and has won two gold medals in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2025. Her chapbook, In the Space Between: The New Woman in the Writing of Florence Carlyle, was released in October of 2024 and showcases her Japanese form ekphrastic poetry as well as the writing of late 19th century Canadian painter Florence Carlyle. Emily and her husband live in Woodstock, Ontario and spend summers at their cottage on Manitoulin Island.

Emily Toliver is currently a sophomore at The New School where she is studying Literary Studies with a concentration in writing and minoring in Psychology. Her love and admiration for storytelling began as a child after being introduced to Rod Serling’s, “The Twilight Zone” and since then has grown even more. In her sophomore year of high school she wrote a play titled, “Behind the Frame” that tackled the idea of capitalism’s effects on artists who simply want to pursue their professions because it's what they love rather than what they make. This play was then published by Samuel French through their LEAP OnStage program and performed at Baruch College. She continued her earlier studies in creative writing, working with TDF and NYU in specialized programs made for high schoolers in the arts. Now, she is focusing on her classes all while learning new forms of storytelling and working as a social media intern.

Eric Burbridge has been writing short fiction for years and after his retirement started to pursue his passion for story telling in earnest. He is currently working on a novel.

Eric H Janzen is the author of two fantasy series, The Dreamtrekker Journals and The Essence Tales—both available on Amazon. He also writes non-fiction and has had numerous essays on the spiritual life published online in the Clarion Journal of Spirituality and Justice. Recently, his short story, Fair Field Gate was an honourable mention in Off Topic’s July 2022 writing challenge. He lives in British Columbia, Canada, and plans to continue writing… forever.

Eric Twa (he/him) is a gay writer living with schizophrenia. He has published fiction or is forthcoming in Qwerty, Bull, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, decomp journal, and others. He also has poetry published in The Nashwaak Review.

Erich von Hungen is a writer from San Francisco, California. He lives under a giant Norfolk pine in a century old house between Golden Gate Park and the Pacific Ocean. His writing has appeared in The Write Launch, Versification, Green Ink Press, The Hyacinth Review, IceFloe Press, Fahmidan Journal, Hearth and Coffin and others. He is the author of four poetry collections, the most recent being "Bleeding Through: 72 Poems Of Man In Nature". Find him on twitter @PoetryForce.

Ernest A. Youhouse, Jr. was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He attended Kent Preparatory School before being awarded a Morehead Scholarship to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated in 1981. He also received a Masters of Arts in English from the State University of New York in Binghamton in 1983. After returning to North Carolina , he worked in Advertising and Marketing. When Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005, Ernest decided to apply his communication skill-set and a heightened sense of urgency to the Disaster Recovery and Property Restoration Industry. In the next several years, Ernest is looking forward to retirement and the abundance of time to write fiction.

Evelyn Moriarty is a native of Co. Limerick in the West of Ireland. She holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from University of Limerick, a B.A. in English Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, and has particular interdisciplinary research interests in 21st century poetry and music. Previously published in The Ogham Stone (2019) literary journal, Evelyn is an active member of the Killaloe Writers Group and draws inspiration from liminal spaces, boundaries within and without, and the poetics of silence.

Faith Allington (she/her) is a writer of the mysterious and speculative who resides in the Pacific Northwest. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in journals such as Hexagon MYRIAD, Flash Frontier, Pyre Magazine, Cease Cows, and Crow & Cross Keys. When not writing, she's drinking too much tea and reading many books.

Faye Susan is a Canadian American poet and writer. Her passion for writing is fueled by her experiences as a queer, autistic woman and her belief in the healing and transformative nature of art. She proudly calls Toronto home and is pursuing a degree in Creative Writing and Publishing from Sheridan College.

Fija Callaghan is a storyteller who writes poetry, love letters, and fiction that can be found in venues like Gingerbread House, Mythic Magazine, Corvid Queen, and elsewhere. Her work has been featured in podcasts, recognised by international short story competitions, and nominated for Best of the Net. Originally from the Cascadia region, she now lives in Dublin, Ireland with her books.

Foster Trecost writes stories that are mostly made up. They tend to
follow his attention span: sometimes short, sometimes very short.
Recent work appears in Fabula Argentea, Across the Margin, Flash
Boulevard, and Roi Fainéant. He lives near New Orleans with his wife
and dog.

Frances Boyle was shortlisted for our 1st Anniversary Short Story Contest. She is the author most recently of Openwork and Limestone (Frontenac House 2022). In addition to two earlier poetry collections, she has also written Tower, a novella (Fish Gotta Swim Editions 2018), Seeking Shade, an award-winning short story collection (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020) and Skin Hunger, a novel (The Porcupine’s Quill, forthcoming 2024). Recent fiction publications include work in Paris Lit Up, Bandit Fiction and Echolocation. Originally from the prairies, Frances has long lived in Ottawa. For more, visit www.francesboyle.com or follow @francesboyle19.

Frank William Finney is a prize-winning poet from Massachusetts who taught literature in Thailand for 25 years. His poems have appeared in Bitter Melon Review, Dark Poets Club, Persephone, Tales from the Moonlit Path, Toil & Trouble, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbooks The Folding of the Wings (Finishing Line Press, 2022), and Birds in a Boneyard (Bainbridge Island Press, 2025).

Author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure (Story Line Press, 1986; reissued April 2022 by Red Hen Press) and Happiness (Story Line Press, 1998), and four collections, A Poverty of Words (Prolific Press, 2015), Landscape with Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), The Beautiful Losses (Better Than Starbucks Books, 2023), and The Liberator (Survision Books, Ireland, 2024). In print, Pollack’s work has appeared in Hudson Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Manhattan Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Main Street Rag, Miramar, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Poetry Quarterly Review, Magma (UK), Neon (UK), Orbis (UK), Armarolla, December, and elsewhere. Online, his poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Diagram, BlazeVox, Mudlark, Occupoetry, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, Big Pond Rumours (Canada), Misfit, OffCourse and elsewhere. Website: www.frederickpollack.com.

GL is a 19 year old writer from Toronto, Ontario. He is currently an undergraduate humanities major in Nova Scotia, and hopes to complete an English or Philosophy degree. Prior to starting university, GL struggled with mental health and addiction before graduating high school. Prose became his form of choice, but he wants to expand his horizons as a writer and experiment with other forms of poetry.

Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in fourteen countries and has authored three books of poetry. His poems have appeared in Ascent, Reed, Arkansas Review, Poem, Slant, Aethlon, Florida Review, South Carolina Review, Carolina Quarterly, Roanoke Review, Danse Macabre, Ohio Journal, Sou'wester, South Dakota Review, North Dakota Quarterly, New Texas, Midwest Quarterly, Poetry Midwest, Adirondack Review, Worcester Review, Adirondack Review, Connecticut River Review, Delmarva Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Maryland Literary Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Ann Arbor Review, Plainsongs, Chiron Review, George Washington Review, McNeese Review, Weber, War, Literature & the Arts, Poet Lore, Able Muse, The Font, Fine Lines, Teach.Write., Oracle, Hamilton Stone Review, Sequential Art Narrative in Education, Cardiff Review, Tokyo Review, Indian Review, Muse India, Bombay Review, Westerly, and many other journals.

Garry Engkent is a Chinese-Canadian. He has co-authored three texts: Groundwork: Writing Skills to Build On; Fiction/Non-Fiction: A Reader and Rhetoric; and Essay: Do's and Don'ts. His fictional stories have appeared in Exile, Many-Mouthed Birds, Emerge, and Ricepaper Magazine. Most stories have a Chinese immigrant slant: "Why My Mother Can't Speak English", "Eggroll", and “Rabbit". His recent published foray into horror is “I, Zombie: A Different Point of View.”

Gary Garafola currently resides on Long Island in New York. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee. He has written some very dark fiction, A children's book and a play. His poems have appeared in Impossible Archetype, The World of Myth Magazine, DarkWinter Literary Magazine and OH YEAH A Bear Poetry Anthology, edited by Raymond Luczak and published by Bearskin Lodge Press.

Gary Kuchar is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Victoria. A specialist in English Renaissance literature, he is the author of four academic monographs, including George Herbert and the Mystery of the Word: Poetry and Scripture in Seventeenth-Century England (2017) and Shakespeare and the World of Slings & Arrows: Poetic Faith in a Postmodern Age (2024). His poetry has appeared in Scintilla and Sky Island Journal.

Gary Porter likes to stay home and hang out with his beautiful family. He listens to all kinds of music, but the electric guitar makes his favorite sounds. He also loves vocal harmonies and handclaps. He works at a homeless shelter, and he's just trying to get a little better every day.

Geoffrey Heptonstall is the author of Heaven's Invention, a novel (Black Wolf 2017) and two poetry collections published by Cyberwit: The Rites of Paradise (2020) and Sappho’s Moon (2021). Recent fiction has appeared in Pennsylvania Literary Journal. Recent poetry has appeared in Fixing Earth, an anthology of eco-awareness from Zimbabwe. He lives in Cambridge, England.

George Freek's poem "Enigmatic Variations" was recently nominated for Best of the Net. His poem "Night Thoughts" was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His collection "Melancholia" is published by Red Wolf Editions.

Geri Lipschultz teaches writing at Hunter College and Borough of Manhattan Community College. She has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, as well as a Ph.D. from Ohio University. Her manuscripts have been finalists for Willow, Gertrude Press, Black Lawrence Press and for Iron Horse Literary Review. Her one-woman show (titled 'Once Upon the Present Time') was produced in NYC by Woodie King, Jr.

Gina Carrillo, aka Black Widow is a Spoken Word Artist from Franklin,TN.
Also the Creator of The Prodigal Poets Poetry Collective, we perform all over Nashville & surrounding cities!
Also the Author of Kaleidoscope, which can be found on Amazon & Barnes and Noble Websites.
Peace, Love & Poetry
Instagram: @blackwidowpoet @prodigalpoets

Gina Manchego Zufall is a multi-medium artist and poet. She has been penning since childhood, and loves nothing more than painting beautiful scenes with the written word. Gina lives in the wild mountains of Colorado, USA.

Glen Armstrong (he/him) holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters. His poems have appeared in Conduit, Poetry Northwest, and Another Chicago Magazine.

Glenn Ingersoll works for the public library in Berkeley, California. Videos of his poetry reading & interview series Clearly Meant can be found on the Berkeley Public Library YouTube channel. Ingersoll's prose poem epic, Thousand, is available from bookshop.org and as an ebook from Smashwords. He has two chapbooks, City Walks (broken boulder) and Fact (Avantacular). His poem "Personal Testimony" was given a Special Mention in the 2022 Pushcart Prize anthology. He keeps two blogs, LoveSettlement and Dare I Read. Poems have recently appeared in Thieving Magpie, Furious Gazelle, and Trash Panda. http://lovesettlement.blogspot.com http://dareiread.blogspot.com twitter @lovesettlement instagram @thelovesettlement

Greg Lehman earned an MFA in creative writing from Lindenwood University and a BA in journalism from California State University at Fullerton. He has published and edited as a professional writer and journalist, and his independent work can be found at loudowl.org. His poetry and artwork has appeared on the “Global Poemic” blog, on the Power 2 the Poetry Instagram account, Ink Smith Publishing’s blog “The Inkwell and Quill,” Heart magazine, and Like the Wind magazine. He is sponsored as a runner by Chaski Endurance Collective, and enjoys training and racing competitively on a variety of terrains and distance, from 1-milers on track to 100ks on trail. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and you are welcome to follow him on Instagram under the handles @bestcoastgreg and/or @gregwriting, TikTok at @gregwritesnworksout, Medium at @glehman84, and Wattpad at @GregWriting84.

Gregg Norman is a Canadian poet living and writing in a lakeside cottage with his wife and a small dog who runs the place. His work has been placed with many international poetry journals and literary magazines. He has been nominated for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize.

Grey Traynor is a transfemme, nonbinary writer who has been published in XRAY, Time Out SF, Beacon Quarterly, Gold Man Review, Doubleback Review, and BULL (forthcoming). They attended the 2025 Tin House Summer Workshop and can be found on Instagram @greytraynor and www.greytraynor.gay

Hannah Birss is a writer and aspiring magpie based out of Ontario, Canada. She lives with her partner, children, and multiple animals. She can usually be found in a nest constructed of books, writing journals, and shiny trinkets. You can follow her on instagram @hannahbirsswrites for upcoming news on upcoming and current publications, tips, tricks, and other writerly things.

Hannah Dilday is an emerging American writer currently residing in the Netherlands. Prior to relocating to the Netherlands in 2020, she earned her BS in philosophy from The University of Oregon. Hannah's poetry has appeared in ONE ART, Anti-Heroin Chic, Red Eft Review, Poem Stellium, and Book of Matches. Hannah is the granddaughter of a Mortician and attributes her interest in the strange and spooky to her family. When she is not writing poetry, Hannah enjoys photography, traveling, and practicing Dutch with locals.

Hannah Walker grew up in the Scottish Borders writing short stories with fantasy elements and strong female leads. Her writing has previously been published by Lucent Dreaming. She hopes to one day have her own novel on the shelves beside the writers who inspired it.

Harrison Kim's short story Pushing Out The Snakes was awarded second place in our 3rd Anniversary Short Story Contest. Harrison Kim lives and writes in Victoria, Canada.  Recent stories have been published in Bull Literary Magazine, Literally Stories, Bewildering Stories, and others. His blogspot, including publication credits and music videos, can be found here:

https://harrisonkim1.blogspot.com/

Heath Brougher is editor-in-chief of Concrete Mist Press and poetry editor of Into the Void Magazine, winner of the 2017 and 2018 Saboteur Awards for Best Magazine. He is the author of eleven books and received the 2018 Poet of the Year Award from Taj Mahal Review.He is a multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee and received the 2020 Wakefield Prize for Poetry.

Heather is a sight-impaired spoonie and emerging working-class writer from Yorkshire. Her work has been published by Fictive Dream, The Phare, Free Flash Fiction and others. Find her at https://haigh19c.wixsite.com/heatherbooknook

Helen Laycock is a Pushcart-nominated poet, recent winner of Black Bough Poetry’s Chapbook contest and current shortlistee of Broken Spine Arts’ Chapbook contest. She has been both recipient and nominee of several awards and her collection ‘FRAME’ has featured as Book of the Month at the East Ridge Review. Winner of the inaugural Lucent Dreaming Flash Fiction contest, she writes short stories for adults as well as children’s fiction.

Her writing has appeared at Reflex Fiction, the Ekphrastic Review, the Cabinet of Heed, Visual Verse, Onslaught Press, Folkheart Press, Prattlefog and Gravelrap, The Wombwell Rainbow, Poetry Roundabout, Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis, Paragraph Planet, Serious Flash Fiction, Flash Flood, The Best of CafeLit, The Beach Hut, Popshot, Lucent Dreaming, Full Moon and Foxglove, The Caterpillar, The Dirigible Balloon, Literary Revelations, Black Bough, The Storms Journal, Broken Spine Arts, Fevers of the Mind, The Winged Moon, Blink Ink, Frazzled Lit.

Hemanta Dalpati teaches in a DIET College with an MA and a B Ed. degree. His work has appeared in numerous Odia journals. He edits Derna, a journal of Dalit-Bahujan literature. He has a book of poems, Tirare Lekhilu Naa Tamara (Nisaan Publications). He grew up in Balangir, Odisha in India.

Hibah Shabkhez is a writer of the half-yo literary tradition, an erratic language-learning enthusiast, and a happily eccentric blogger from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has previously appeared in Black Bough, Zin Daily, London Grip, The Madrigal, Acropolis Journal, Lucent Dreaming, and a number of other literary magazines. Studying life, languages, and literature from a comparative perspective across linguistic and cultural boundaries holds a particular fascination for her. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/HibahShabkhez

Hilary Ayshford is a former science journalist and editor based in rural Kent in the UK. She writes mainly micro and flash fiction and short stories and has a penchant for the darker side of human nature.

Howie Good's latest book, Frowny Face (Redhawk Publishing, 2023), is a mix of his prose poems and handmade collages. He co-edits the online journal UnLost, dedicated to found poetry.

Husain Abdulhay has poems published in Cacti Fur, Eskimo Pie, Fib
Review, Foliate Oak, Jellyfish Whispers, Madness Muse Press, Muse Pie
Press, Quail Bell Magazine, Scarlet Leaf Review, Soul-Lit, Sweetycat
Press, Synchchaos, Trouvaille Review, Whisky Blot, and Ygdrasil. His
haiku appears in Failed Haiku, Five Fleas, Haikuniverse, Pkankmaton,
and Wales Haiku Journal, likewise.

Ian C Smith’s work has been published in BBC Radio 4 Sounds,Cable Street,The Dalhousie Review,Griffith Review, Honest Ulsterman, Offcourse, Stand,&,Westerly. His seventh book is wonder sadness madness joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide). He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island.

Itto and Mekiya Outini write about America, Morocco, and all those caught in between. They’ve published fiction and nonfiction in The North American Review, Modern Literature, Fourth Genre, The Good River Review, MQR, Southland Alibi, Chautauqua, The Stonecoast Review, Mount Hope, Hidden Peak Review, Jewish Life, The Brussels Review, Eunoia Review, New Contrast, DarkWinter, Lotus-Eater, Gargoyle, and elsewhere. Their work has received support from the MacDowell Foundation, the Steinbeck Fellowship Program, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and the Fulbright Program. They’re collaborating on several books and running The DateKeepers, an author support platform.

Ivanka Fear is a Slovenian born Canadian writer. Her poems and stories appear in numerous publications, including Understorey, The South Shore Review, Blank Spaces, Montreal Writes, Orchards Poetry, October Hill, Mystery Tribune, and elsewhere. The debut novel of her Blue Water mystery series is scheduled for release by Level Best Books in January 2023. You can read more about her at https://www.ivankafear.com and follow her @FearIvanka

J. Kerr is an enigma.

J.R. Andrews was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but has lived as far afield as Los Angeles, California, and Anchorage, Alaska. At present, he lives in North Central Florida with his three-legged cat, Lovey. His fiction has appeared in Dark Dossier Magazine and is upcoming in The Vanishing Point Magazine. When he's not writing, he enjoys watching old movies and building Gundam models. You can sometimes find him on Twitter: @andrewshorror.

JP Relph, shortlisted for our 1st Anniversary Contest, is a working-class Cumbrian writer mostly hindered by four cats and aided by tea. She volunteers in a charity shop where they let her dress mannequins and source haunted objects. A forensic science degree and passion for microbes, insects and botany often influence her words. JP writes about apocalypses quite a lot, but hasn’t the knees for one. Recently found in Free Flash Fiction, Reflex Press and WestWord. Find her on Twitter: @RelphJp

Jack is a multidisciplinary creative and writer. She formally studied art history in her undergraduate career, then went on to immerse herself in the research of historic building preservation. She took a slight pivot from her curriculum requirements to write about British burial grounds, their rise and subsequent fall, and their future in the urban realm, reimagining their function as a public space in an exponentially populated Earth. Jack loves macabre, but she won't watch a horror film. she appreciates the cyclical aspects of life. To suffer, to be content, to be happy, to ponder, to fight. She also loves the idea of connecting with others in unconventional ways. In many ways, she uses different media to relay her emotions. Jack lives in New York City, with her black cat Casper, and her beloved beta fish Devon.