Authors & Artist - ISSUE 2
BRUCE MCRAE, a Canadian musician currently residing on Salt Spring Island, BC, is a Pushcart nominee with over a thousand poems published internationally in magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. His books are The So-Called Sonnets, published by Silenced Press, ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy’ (Cawing Crow Press) and ‘Like As If” (Pskis Porch), all available via Amazon. bpmcrae@live.com // GOD'S DOG, PAGE 37 & LOVESTRUCK, PAGE 38
CAROLINE HARDAKER lives in northeast England and earned her BA and MA from Newcastle University. Her non-fiction work has been published worldwide and her poetry has been featured or is forthcoming by The Stinging Fly, The Emma Press, Neon Magazine, and Shoreline of Infinity. Caroline is a poetry and drama reviewer for the Three Drops From a Cauldron e-zine, and the in-house blogger for Mud Press. Her debut chapbook Bone Ovation will be published by Valley Press in November 2017. // PICASSO CAPTURING THE WOMAN HE LOVES, PAGE 5 & THE GIRL WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOUNTAIN, PAGE 6
DAVID ANTHONY SAM has four collections and has been the featured poet in The Hurricane Review and Light: A Journal of Photography & Poetry. His poetry has appeared in over 60 journals and his chapbook Finite to Fail: Poems after Dickinson won the 2016 Grand Prize in GFT Press’s Chapbook Contest. // RESURRECTIONS OF LICE, PAGE 13 & VOICES DONE WITH MIRRORS, PAGE 14
DINA PAULSON-MCEWEN (née Dina Paulson) is a poet, essayist, and flash fiction writer. Her chapbook manuscript was a 2017 finalist in the Finishing Line Press: New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition and is forthcoming in their New Women’s Voices Chapbook Series. Her work appears in journals including: Flash Fiction Magazine, FlashFlood, Minola Review, Dying Dahlia Review, The Ham Free Press, and elsewhere, and has been exhibited at Hudson Guild Gallery in New York City. (Some work appears under her maiden name, Dina Paulson).
She is assistant managing editor at Compose | A Journal of Simply Good Writing and editor at Flash Fiction Magazine. Dina holds a B.A. in Writing & Rhetoric from William Smith College and an M.A. in International Educational Development from Columbia University. She lives in Detroit. You can connect with her on Twitter @writeandsea. // DÄMON, PAGE 27
DORIAN J. SINNOTT is a graduate of Emerson College's Writing, Literature, and Publishing program. He currently lives in upstate New York where he runs a writing group for local youth. When he's not busy in the writing world, Dorian spends his time horseback riding, playing violin, and cosplaying at comic cons on the weekends. His work has appeared in Crab Fat, Alter Ego, and The Bleeding Lion. // GHOST IN THE MACHINE, PAGE 7
ERYNN PONTIUS grew up in Ogden, Utah. In the spring of 2017 she graduated with high honors from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Arts in Writing and Rhetoric Studies and a minor in Creative Writing. During her studies she lived in Viterbo, Italy as a study abroad student studying travel writing and art. Most recently, her poems have appeared in the Canticle Literary Journal. // THE FISHERMAN'S AMULET, PAGE 17
JAN WIEZOREK has taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago and his poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The London Magazine, Southern Pacific Review, Scarlet Leaf Review, Bindweed Magazine, Literary Juice, FIVE:2:ONE, Random Sample, Squawk Back, Tuck Magazine, Panoplyzine, Better Than Starbucks, and Schuylkill Valley Journal. He is author of Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011) and holds a master's degree in English Composition/Writing from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Visit him at janwiezorek.weebly.com // SOUND HUNT, PAGE 36
JOHN R. BEYER is an internationally known author with numerous short stories and three highly praised novels - Hunted (2013), Soft Target (2014) and Operation Scorpion (2017). He lives in Southern California with his spouse on a small ranch and holds two Doctorates – Ed.D. in Education and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.
// WINGS OF DOUBT, PAGE 31
JOSEPH CURIEL arose into life in Southern California in the year 1996 during the information age. It has been inspired by surrealism, the dada movement, the grotesque, graffiti, and the nonlinear formats of television based Adult Swim animations. Its childhood was spent listening to its father’s vinyl record albums, drawing cartoon characters, and learning all different styles of typography. As a young child, its favorite source material from which to create its own images were the surrealistic Frank Zappa and Grateful Dead record album covers; as well as its older brothers’ drug induced personal artwork. Preferring mediums of both watercolor and spray paint, It works in both traditional 2-D media and in 3-D modeling and animation. Currently residing in the artist community of Fallbrook, CA, it studies visual arts with an emphasis on painting while pursuing academic endeavors. It frequently displays artwork at Miracosta College and has participated in numerous exhibitions in both San Diego and Riverside County.
// SPIRIT OF THE SPINE, PAGE 16, POKEYO, PAGE 20 , & SLOBBER, PAGE 29
KEITH NUNES (New Zealand) lives beside Lake Rotoma where the two of them undertake a great deal of reflecting. He’s had works published around the globe, is in anthologies, been commended in competitions (means 4th) and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. His book of poetry/short fiction, catching a ride on a paradox, is sold by the lunatic fringe. // Bequeath, page 35
MARK HAVLIK's work has appeared in Trajectory, Drunken Boat, the anthology Flying South, Kaleidoscope, PassingThrough, South Florida Arts Journal, Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Journal, and Washington The Magazine. In 2014 his creative nonfiction piece placed first in the Winston-Salem Writers Competition. In spring 2013 he won the Pamlico Literary Contest 1st Place Prose Fiction Award. His short story was a Short List Finalist in the 2015 Faulkner-Wisdom Writing Competition. // A LIGHT IN THE BLACK, PAGE 39
MARK JACKLEY's work has appeared in Fifth Wednesday, Sugar House Review, Natural Bridge and other journals. His new book of poems, On the Edge of a Very Small Town, is available for free if you send an email to chineseplums@gmail.com. // A YEAR LATER, PAGE 15
MICHAEL BROSNAN's poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Confrontation, Borderlands, Prairie Schooner, Barrow Street, New Letters,The Moth, and Rattle. He is the author of Against the Current, a book on inner-city education, and serves as senior editor for Teaching While White (www.teachingwhilewhite.org). He lives in Exeter, NH. // AFTER RAIN, PAGE 23, STRING THEORY, PAGE 24, THE WARMEST NIGHT IN FEBRUARY, PAGE 25
PETER H. DIETRICH is a reporter/film-maker/spinner-of-tales originally from the UK. He has been traveling the world nonstop for over 40 years and writing nonstop all the way in different forms. He has traversed the Sahara, been to the Amazon rain forest, and spent four seasons in the French Alps. Eleven years passing in the Ukraine meant eleven summers in the Crimea, where his films were among the first to extol the virtues of that fabulous place, before the political upheavals. He is currently living in Bulgaria, working on two musicals, one a comedy, the other a tragedy. The musical-comedy has also been published as a children’s storybook, with original illustrations. He is completing a new collection of poems called Forty Days & Forty Nights, from which the poem published here is taken. // THE EMPTY THEATRE, PAGE 21
SARA STEVEN decided to get back into pursuing her own educational endeavors after several years of avoiding it. Her first class had been Fiction Writing 101, reigniting a passion she's had for short stories since the age of six. She recently received an English in Excellence Award at the community college she attends. In her free time, she is an associate book reviewer for a women's Chick Lit website, and runs the occasional half marathon at a slow pace; as long as she finishes, that's good enough for her. She lives in Arizona with her husband and two sons, along with a cat, mouse, and red-clawed crabs. // THE RABBIT, PAGE 9
SCOTTIE CRAGUN lives in Orem, Utah and attends Utah Valley University where he studies Creative Writing. He’s originally from Corona, California.
// THERE WAS A TUMOR IN MY JAW, PAGE 30
SUSAN RICHARDSON is living, writing and going blind in Hollywood. Much of her work focuses on her experiences as a partially sighted woman in a sprawling urban environment. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Free Lunch, The Old Red Kimono, Stepping Stones, Wildflower Muse and The Furious Gazelle. In addition to poetry and creative non fiction, she also writes a blog called Stories from the Edge of Blindness.
// PAPER BAG DANCE, PAGE 42
