Contributors

Lori D'Angelo is a grant recipient from the Elizabeth George Foundation and an alumna of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. Her first book, a collection of short stories, is forthcoming from ELJ Editions. Recent work has appeared in All Existing Literary, Bullshit Lit, Chaotic Merge, Divinations Magazine, Ellipsis Zine, Major 7th Magazine, North Dakota Quarterly, Rejection Letters, Sophon Lit, and Voidspace. Find her on Twitter and Bluesky @sclly21 or Instagram and Threads at lori.dangelo1.

Lori has spent the bulk of her career in business communications and public relations. A versatile writer and editor, she has produced materials ranging from articles, brochures and online text - to technical manuals, annual reports and video scripts. Writing flash fiction presents some unique challenges. Interestingly, she approaches it in the same way as her non-fiction work: keep the audience top of mind, write tight, and strive to give people content worthy of their time and attention.

Lori Romero won the Spire Press Chapbook Competition with her entry entitled “The Emptiness That Makes Other Things Possible.” Her first poetry chapbook, “Wall to Wall,” was published by Finishing Line Press. Lori’s poetry and fiction have been published in more than one hundred journals and anthologies.

Lotté Jean is a writer based in Northern England. She is the published author of a fiction novel THE MONSTERS CLUB, poetry collections LETTERS TO JUPITER, 눈 덮인 정원의 밤, and an upcoming screenwriter. She has works featured in Literary Mark, Brave Voices Magazine, Sledgehammerlit and BBC Newcastle.

Louie Leyson write on the unceded ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Louie's work has earned a CBC Literary Prize in Nonfiction (2023), long-listed for the CBC Literary Prize in Poetry (2024), was a notable selection for the Best Canadian Poetry anthology series (2024), and has received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. You can find Louie's works in Nimrod Journal, The Malahat Review, The Account, DIAGRAM, Pedestal 95, Radar Poetry, and elsewhere.

LM is a member of the Snake Den Writer's Nest Consortium. He is drinking black coffee, with the sun shining through the blinds, next to a blue/red betta. Louis has been published, in print, on the internet, and is in some dusty basement of a university. Plus, three newspapers. Very hard boiled, noir.

Louise Worthington’s dark poetry and flash fiction have recently been published in The Horror Zine, Chamber Magazine, Sirens Call Publications and many others. She is the author of six novels and two short story and poetry collections and can be found at https://linktr.ee/louiseworthington

South African born, Luke Beling, left home at 19. In 2007, he graduated from Campbellsville University with a BA in English. Luke has had several short stories published in magazines, including: Quiet Shorts (2012), Eyelands (2019), and New Reader Magazine (2021). Luke is the director of tennis for a private club on the Big Island of Hawaii and a content writer for a popular surf brand. Luke is also an indie-folk singer-songwriter. Twitter: @BelingLuke Instagram: luke.beling Facebook: facebook.com/luke.beling Spotify: Luke Beling

Luke Campbell is a 21-year-old writer from Silver Spring, Maryland. His work is influenced by authors such as William S. Burroughs and Charles Bukowski, often exploring the darker sides of American youth culture. When he is not writing fiction, Luke is also a vocalist and guitarist in the punk band Rickety Cricket.

Lunar Vampyre is almost twenty-five years of age. I am a devout vegan, and I care for many jumping spiders (that are in need of new homes). I love reading, and I have written many poems and short stories. I can be contacted through the following e-mail: lunarvampyre@hotmail.com.

Lynda Scott Araya is a short fiction writer from New Zealand, She has most recently been published in The Bangalore Review and has work forthcoming in a Weasel Press anthology.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her poetry is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/

M.R. Mandell (she/her) is a poet and photographer based in Los Angeles. She lives by the beach with her muse, a Golden Retriever named Chester Blue, and her longtime partner. You can find her work in JAKE, Roi Fainéant, sage cigarettes, Anti-Heroin Chic, Stanchion Zine, Fine Print, Maudlin House, Punk Monk, The Hooghly Review, Unbroken, Five Minutes, Writers Resist, and others. Forthcoming: The McNeese Review.

Born in Singapore, M.A Amru is an avid writer and a struggling university student. Formerly the secretary of Temasek Polytechnic's Writing Club, he is mainly interested in Science Fiction but also delves into other genres. His works include First Under Heaven and A song for Zenith. His favourite authors include Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemingway. You can find him on Instagram @Endeavourwrites.

M.E. Proctor is currently writing a series of contemporary detective novels. The first book will come out from TouchPoint Press early 2023. Her short stories have been published in Vautrin, Bristol Noir, Pulp Modern, Mystery Tribune, The Bookends Review, Shotgun Honey and others. She lives in Livingston, Texas. Twitter: @MEProctor3

M.W. Irving is a teacher and writer from Vancouver Island in B.C. He hopes you enjoy reading the poem as much as he enjoyed writing it. He's had his work most recently published in Factor Four, OnSpec, and The Lyre. To see more of his work visit mwirving.ca.

M F Drummy holds a PhD in historical theology from Fordham University. The author of numerous articles, essays, poems, reviews, and a monograph on religion and ecology, his work has appeared, or will appear, in Allium, [Alternate Route], Anti-Heroin Chic, Ars Sententia, Deal Jam, Emerge, FERAL, Green Silk, Last Leaves, Main Street Rag, Marbled Sigh, Meetinghouse, Poemeleon, The Word’s Faire, Winged Penny Review, and many others. He and his way cool life partner of over 20 years enjoy splitting their time between the Colorado Rockies and the rest of the planet. He can be found at: Instagram @miguelito.drummalino Website https://bespoke-poet.com

MK Walsh lives in Denver with their partner and four rescue cats (who now run the house). They bike, climb, and write when not vegging on the couch or trying out new forms of peanut butter ice cream. Their short fiction has also been featured in The Viridian Door and PopCULT! Literary Magazine.

Mackenzie Kemp is an aspiring writer with a focus on short stories and poetry. She can be found on Twitter @MackenzieKemp22.

Madeleine D'Este is a writer of dark mysteries from Melbourne. Growing up in Tasmania, obsessed with books and the shadows at the end of the bed, Madeleine now writes female-led speculative fiction. Her supernatural mystery novel The Flower and The Serpent was nominated for the Australian Shadow Award for Best Novel 2019. Find Madeleine at www.madeleinedeste.com or on Twitter @madeleine_deste

Maggie Nerz Iribarne is 54, lives in Syracuse, NY, bakes up sometimes crispy, sometimes dense, sometimes fluffy cakes of curious people and places, recurring thoughts of dread, haunting memories, and the occasional sugar cookie. She keeps a portfolio of her published work at https://www.maggienerziribarne.com.

Marc Egnal is a retired professor, living in Toronto, Canada, and author of several history books on the US and Canada. He's had stories published in Freedom Fiction Journal and Lowestoft Chronicle. When not writing, he can be found walking his French bulldog, Holden, or playing with grandchildren.

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Marcy H. Nicholas is a writer from York PA who fantasizes about living somewhere warm. Her creative work has appeared in Molecule: A Tiny Lit Mag, Barely South Review, Change Seven, and CEA Mid-Atlantic Review.

Marda Messick lives in Tallahassee, Florida on land that is the ancestral territory of the Apalachee Nation. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Mama, Gyroscope Review, Delmarva Review, Radix and other print and electronic publications.

Margaret Adams Birth is the author of Borderlands (Finishing Line Press, 2016). Her poetry has appeared in more than 50 journals including Plainsongs, Lunch Ticket, Third Wednesday, The Pointed Circle, Medusa’s Kitchen, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. She has also published short stories and novellas (including romance and “sweet” stories as Maggie Adams, and mysteries as Rhett Shepard), short nonfiction, and even a few comic books. She is a native North Carolinian who has lived in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, upstate New York, southern California, a rain forest on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, and now New York City. She’s online at https://www.facebook.com/MaggieAdamsRhettShepard.

Margaret Randall immigrated to Canada from England at the age of 11. She has written in several genres throughout her life, beginning with children's stories, one of which was published last year. Her writings include a collection of poems, many of which are on the dark side. Margaret raised three children who are now successful adults and currently lives in Woodstock, Ontario.

Margaux Williamson (she/her/they) is a queer reader, writer, and legal associate who works in advertising. Her work has appeared in Complete Sentence, Transients Magazine, EDGE CITY, and elsewhere. She lives in the Midwest with her wife.

Margo McCall’s short stories have been featured in Pacific Review, Heliotrope, In*tense, Wazee Journal, Sidewalks, Rockhurst Review, Toasted Cheese, and other journals. Her nonfiction has appeared in Herizons, blank pages, Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir, Pilgrimage, the Los Angeles Times and other publications. She is a graduate of the M.A. creative writing program at California State University Northridge. Born in Winnipeg, she lives in the port town of Long Beach, California. For more information, visit http://www.margomccall.com

Margot Block has been writing since the age of fourteen and has been published in Zygote Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Juice, Voices, the Collective Consciousness, Grub Street Literary Magazine, Bakwa Magazine, Cholla Needles, Black Scat Review, Blank Spaces and in the online journals BlazeVox, Kaleidoscope Online, the Bombay Review, Oddball Magazine, Brief Wilderness, the Blotter Rag, Kritikos:A-Postmodern-Journal-of-Cultural-Sound-Text-Sound-&-Image, Scissors and Spackle:A-Journal-of-the-Written-Word, the American Diversity Report, the Big Windows Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal blog, Rusty Truck, Literary Yard, Impspired Magazine, Cajun Mutt Press & Poppy Road Review. She participated in the high school mentorship program with the Manitoba Writers Guild, working with canadian poet, Carol Rose. She won first prize in a poetry contest with the Writers Collective and an honorable mention with the Lake Winnipeg Writers Group.

Maria Elena is an editor who can't see without glasses. She has finally coaxed herself into writing her own stories and has one publication, appearing in Abandon Journal, to her name. She lives with her husband, daughter, and menagerie of animals near the South Texas Coast where they all slowly melt from the humidity every day.

Marion Lougheed was shortlisted for our 1st Anniversary Poetry Contest. Marion Lougheed grew up in Canada, Benin, Belgium and Germany. As far she knows, her family was not running from the cops. Her poem "Rooftops" won the Prime 53 Poem Summer Challenge, and her poem "Pavane for a Dead Letter" was featured in the League of Canadian Poets' "Poem In Your Pocket Day" series in 2021. Marion works as an editor, writer, and anthropologist, and remains hard to pin down. www.mledits.com

Mark Tulin is a former family therapist, joke writer, and fruit huckster. He started writing poems and stories in high school and has never stopped writing and publishing. His books include Magical Yogis, Awkward Grace, The Asthmatic Kid and Other Stories, Junkyard Souls, and Rain on Cabrillo. Mark usually writes with a cup of tea to the right of his mouse. He lives in Long Beach, California, with his wife, Alice. See more of his work at www.crowonthewire.com.

Mary Anne Griffiths (she/her) is a poet and fiction writer living in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. She shares space with a spouse, a tortie and tuxie and is presently working towards her debut collection of poetry and microfiction.

Mathieu Parsy is a French-born author who grew up on the French Riviera. In his twenties, he relocated to Canada and embarked on a career in the travel industry. When he's not immersed in his writing, you'll often find him cycling in Toronto. Instagram: @mathieu_parsy

Mathew Gostelow is a dad, husband, and author, living in Birmingham, UK. His CV is a chaotic patchwork quilt including journalism, pheasant farming, catering, and marketing. His taste in literature, art, music, and film is equally eclectic, although he tends to gravitate towards anything with a creepy, dreamy aesthetic. If you catch him staring intently into the middle distance, he will either be thinking about Twin Peaks or cooked breakfasts. Some mornings he wakes early and writes strange tales. He has published two collections: a book of speculative short stories called See My Breath Dance Ghostly (Alien Buddha Press) and Connections, a flash fiction chapbook (Naked Cat Publishing). Mat was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2022 and Best of the Net in 2023. You can find him on Twitter: @MatGost

Maureen O’Leary lives in California. She appears in Dark Winter Lit, Bourbon Penn, The Esopus Reader, Reckon Review, Occulum Journal, Flame Tree Press' Alternate History, Penumbric Speculative Fiction, Sundog Literary, Sycamore Review, Nightmare, Sequestrum, Roi Faineant Press, Barren Magazine, Ellipsis Zine, Tahoma Literary Review, Sierra Nevada Review and upcoming in Chthonic Matter. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a graduate of Ashland MFA.

Max Westler supervised the Creative Writing Program at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. His poems have appeared in The Minnesota Review, Poetry East, The Sycamore Review, Artful Dodge, The Greensboro Review, Religion and Literature, among others. His chapbook Civil Defense was published in 2011. He now lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife Robyn and several cats.

Maxine Flam lives in North Hollywood, California with her aquatic friends, 2 feral cats, a squirrel, and the occasional opossum and raccoon looking for some dinner. She likes to read and write. Before covid, Maxine took writing classes at the local community college. She has two A.A. degrees, one in Natural Science and one in Liberal Arts. She has been published in the Los Angeles Daily News op-ed section several times, an essay about her WWII hero father in the Epoch Times, and a microfiction in the online publication Nail Polish Stories.

McLord Selasi is a Ghanaian writer, poet, public health researcher, and performing artist. His work explores identity, memory, and our deep connections to the world around us. His recent works have been accepted for publication in Apricot Press, Isele Magazine, Our Poets for Science, Subliminal Surgery, Eunoia Review, Poetry Journal, The Nature of Our Times, Graveside Press, and elsewhere. Connect with him on X (@MclordSela64222).

Meg Freer grew up in Montana and lives in Ontario, where she is a writer, piano teacher, and editor. Her award-winning work has appeared in many journals, and she has published three poetry chapbooks. She proofreads for Arc Poetry, is co-poetry editor for The Sunlight Press, and belongs to The Ontario Poetry Society and the League of Canadian Poets. She holds two music degrees and a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing.

Mehreen Ahmed is an award-winning Australian novelist/short fiction born in Bangladesh. Her historical fiction novel is Drunken Druid's Editor's Choice. Midwest Book Review and DD Magazine have also acclaimed her other works. Her recent publications are with Chiron Review, Litro, Icefloe, Popshot Quarterly, Panorama Journal. In addition to the awards, she has also received botN, James Tait, and Pushcart nominations.

Melanie was born in Utah 62 years ago and has lived in Utah her whole life. She got into writing at a young age, drawing cartoon strips and making up the dialogue. Her mother was named “Poetess Laurate” of one of the towns the family lived in, so the writing tendency is honestly come by. She is an active blogger and has gotten some great inspiration from fellow bloggers who host writing prompts, although most of her work is from her own ideas. Melanie lives with her chihuahua/terrier mix dog whose name is “Ziggy.” Writing brings her a lot of pleasure and her hope is that others will enjoy her writing as well.

Melissa Pleckham is a Los Angeles-based writer, actor, and musician. Her fiction and poetry has been featured in or is forthcoming from Rooster Republic Press, Timber Ghost, Hungry Shadow Press, Sliced Up Press, Flame Tree Fiction, Luna Luna, and more. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association. She also plays bass and sings for the garage-goth duo Black Lullabies. Find her online at melissapleckham.com.

Melissa Ridley Elmes is a Virginia native currently living in Missouri in an apartment that delightfully approximates a hobbit hole. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Black Fox, Poetry South, Haven, Star*Line, Eye to the Telescope, World of Myth, Reunion: The Dallas Review Online, and various other print and web venues. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Dwarf Star award for best short speculative poem, and her first collection of poems, Arthurian Things, was published by Dark Myth Publications in 2020 and nominated for the 2022 Elgin award.

Meredith Rose’s poetic journey began with feverish scribbles on the backs of napkins, journal
covers, and book margins. Her work is known for exploring the interplay between contrasting
themes, such as family, relationships, and the delicate balance between joy and sorrow. Residing
in Georgia, Rose draws inspiration from fields of peach trees and sunflowers, which infuse her
writing with a sense of warmth and natural beauty.

Michael Cocchiarale is the author of the novel None of the Above (Unsolicited, 2019) and two short story collections--Here Is Ware (Fomite, 2018) and Still Time (Fomite, 2012). His creative work appears online as well, in journals such as Fictive Dream, South Florida Poetry Review, The Wild Word, and Fiction Kitchen Berlin. More information may be found at his website: https://michaelcocchiarale.wordpress.com/

Michael Gigandet is a retired lawyer living on a farm in Tennessee. His stories have appeared in Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Bending Genres, Quarencia Press and Transfigured Lit and in anthologies by Great Weather for Media, Palm Sized Press, Pure Slush and Down In The Dirt. His published stories are available here http://michaelgigandet.com.

Michael Igoe, instructor at Boston University's Center for Psych Rehab. Neurodiverse, city boy, Chicago now Boston.. Numerous works appear in journals and anthologies(available at amazon.com, lulu.com, barnesandnoble.com). NationalLibrary of Poetry Editor's Choice Award 1997. Twitter: MichaelIgoe5; poetry-in-motion.org

Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada, during the Vietnam era. Today he is a poet in the greater Chicagoland area, IL. He has 264 YouTube poetry videos. Michael Lee Johnson is an internationally published poet in 44 countries, several published poetry books, nominated for 4 Pushcart Prize awards, and 6 Best of the Net nominations. He is editor-in-chief of 3 poetry anthologies, all available on Amazon, and has several poetry books and chapbooks. He has over 453 published poems. Michael is the administrator of 6 Facebook Poetry groups. Member Illinois State Poetry Society: http://www.illinoispoets.org/.