Contributors

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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Marco Etheridge is a writer of prose, an occasional playwright, and a part-time poet. He lives and writes in Vienna, Austria. His work has been featured in over one hundred and fifty reviews across Canada, Australia, Europe, the UK, USA, and India. Marco’s short story “Power Tools” was nominated for Best of the Web for 2023 and is the title of his latest collection of short fiction. When he isn’t crafting stories, Marco is a contributing editor for a ‘Zine called Hotch Potch. In his other life, Marco travels the world with his lovely wife Sabine.

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/.

Michael Londra's poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in The Arts Fuse, Asian Review of Books, The Fortnightly Review, and The Blue Mountain Review, among others. He also contributed six essays and the introduction to New Studies in Delmore Schwartz, forthcoming from MadHat Press.

Michael Pendragon is an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher currently residing in New York State. He published a pair of small press literary magazines: "Penny Dreadful" and "Songs of Innocence & Experience" (1996-2005). His poems have appeared in "Terror Tales," "The Horror Zine," "Danse Macabre," "The Romantics Quarterly," "The Dream Zone," “TheHypertexts,” "The Raintown Review," "The Roswell Review," "Boston Poetry Magazine," and "Forge."

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Michael Roque discovered his love for poetry and prose amid friends on the bleachers of Pasadena City College. Now he currently lives outside of the US and is being inspired by the world around him. His poems have been published by literary Magazines like Aurora Quarterly, Veridian Review, and CascadeJournal.

Michael writes from a shack overlooking the ocean just south of the edge of the world. He has been published in several literary magazines and plans a short story collection sometime before the Andromeda Galaxy collides with ours and …

Michelle C Jacobs is of Kanien'kehaka First Nations and European descent. Creative artistry has always been her passion. Beadwork, painting, and writing have been her creative outlets since youth. She has recently taken time from travelling the Powwow Trail to focus more on her writing. While she misses the nomadic life and the people of the Powwow Trail, she is pleased with her choice. Her two fur babies and four scaly babies make excellent artistic companions. Michelle currently resides in the Similkameen Valley of British Columbia on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the Similamix people.

Miguel Rodríguez Otero’s poems appear in The Lake, Book of Matches, Red Fern Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, Scapegoat Review, Last Leaves Magazine, The Bluebird Word, DarkWinter Literary Magazine, The Raven’s Perch and Feminine Collective. He likes walking country roads and is friends with a heron that lives in the marsh near his home.

Miriam Dieckmann is a twenty-year-old woman, writer, and undergraduate student studying Creative Writing and Sociology at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario. Her work has been published in Brock University’s Creative Writing Anthology, The Phoenix Rising.

Mitchel Montagna has worked as a special education teacher, radio journalist, and corporate communicator. He is married and lives in Florida.

Mona Mehas (she, her) writes from the perspective of a retired disabled teacher in Indiana USA. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in over 70 journals, anthologies, and online museums. Mona’s chapbooks are forthcoming from LJMcD Communications in 2024: ‘Questions I Didn’t Know I’d Asked’ in March and ‘Hand-Me-Downs’ in July. Two of her poems received first place honors in her state contest in 2023. Tweets @Patienc77732097. Follow everywhere at https://linktr.ee/monaiv or https://monamehas.net.

Monica has been involved in Community Theatre since the age of ten. In 1995 she received her Diploma in Film and Theatre from William Davis Centre for Actor’s Study. Since then, she has worked in Film and Television in Vancouver and has continued her work in Theatre in Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast, BC. In addition to her work in theatre arts, she has been writing since her early teens. She has worked for a variety of small town newspapers as a reporter and theatre critic and has had some of her poetry pieces featured in a variety of smalltown publications.

Monique Berkin is currently working on her debut novel Sacrifice. When she isn’t writing, Monique enjoys running on forest trails, boating, or watching a good movie. Monique’s home is in Canada on Vancouver Island, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Uchechukwu Onyedikam (mystic poet) is a creative artist based in Lagos, Nigeria. He’s been published in Amsterdam Quarterly and several print and online journals and magazines. With regards to the intense passion he nurtures for poetry, he’s open to work with other creatives from around the world. He looks forward to exploring all of humanity with words in a world where everyone else is hurting from bombs and guns. His poem, ‘Ten Years’, is on YouTube at https://youtu.be/rXxmuJseh8w

N.K. Rowe is Chair of Fosseway Writers in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and was instrumental in the development of the group’s recent books, Burning Old School Ties (a collaborative novel) and The Brinwade Chronicles (a Gothic collection), writing several short stories for the latter. He has just finished writing his first novel, an adventurous jape set just before the Trojan War.
Twitter: @phoenicks_uk
Wordpress: https://babbitman.wordpress.com/

Nancy Bell lives in an old river city in the midwestern U.S., where she makes theatre and teaches at Saint Louis University. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in StoryQuarterly, Shenandoah, Terrain, and Flyway Journal. More about her work as a theatre artist and writer can be found at www.NancyEllenBell.com.

Natalye Childress (she/her) is a Berlin-based editor, writer, translator, and sad punk. She has an MA in creative writing, and her first book, The Aftermath of Forever, was published by Microcosm Publishing. Find her on Twitter @deutschbitte, Instagram @natalyereads, or https://www.natalye.com.

Nate Ritchie is a journalist, transcriptionist, and poet. He also enjoys writing horror fiction and often roams the wilderness in search of inspiration.

Nathan Scott Herzog is a screenwriter and playwright who lives and plays in Burlington, VT. Some of his previous work has appeared in Neat magazine and Minnesota Monthly.

Nathaniel Krenkel lives in Portland, Maine. He is the host of Rhizome Radio at WMPG, and runs the record labels Team Love and Oystertones. He’s a graduate of Bowdoin College and grew up in small-town Utah. Published work can be found at nathanielkrenkel.com

SOCIAL MEDIA: https://bsky.app/profile/krenkel.bsky.social
WEBSITE: nathanielkrenkel.com

Navraj Goyal lives in New Delhi, India with his beautiful wife and two gorgeous boys. He works as a commissioner in Indian Revenue Services and writes poems as a hobby. For him, writing is something that brings joy, something that happens spontaneously and sometimes it is the fun of capturing a fleeting thought as sometimes an idea could be gone as soon as it comes. He enjoys sharing his thoughts and feelings in this form with his friends and family.