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Issue 6 Contributors
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SARA BARNETT is a multi published poet, fiction writer, and actor in NYC. An award-winning artist, she can be found in recording booths, on stage, and on TV & film at IMDb.COM. Next performing in The Glass Menagerie, she is currently published in four other cool literary magazines: Harbinger Asylum, Gingerbread House, The Ginger Collect, and internationally in Anima Poetry (United Kingdom). // RUDOLPH AUGUSTUS, PAGE 21
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TONI LA REE BENNETT’s verbal and visual work has appeared in Cimarron Review, Gold Man Review, Gravel, Hawaii Pacific Review, december, and Memoir among other publications. Solar Subjugation, a poetry chapbook, is forthcoming by Finishing Line Press. She lives in Seattle with a flock of feisty finches. Website: tonibennett.com // TO MY WOUNDED LEG, PAGE 12
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KAY MERKEL BORUFF has published in New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, and Texas Short Stories 2. In addition, she has work in several journals, including Suddenly, Grasslands Review, Behind the Lines, Fifth Wednesday, Adanna, Stone Voices, and Paper Nautilus. Letters of her husband's and her are included in Love and War, 250 Years of Wartime Love Letters. In 2016 NPR interviewed Boruff and Willie H. Minor, Jr., regarding Vets Helping Vets founded on their Drama Therapy Program. She studied with Robert Olen Butler in France in 2011, attended Burning Man 2012, and climbed Wayna Picchu in 2016. Her memoir Z.O.S. was published by Black Rose Press in 2018. // THE HOME PLACE, PAGE 33 For more information contact Kay Merkel Boruff at https://www.kaymerkelboruff.com/ https://www.facebook.com/KayMerkelBoruffZOSAirAmerica/ https://twitter.com/kaymerkelboruff https://www.instagram.com/aunt_kay_merkel/
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MARY CARROLL-HACKETT is the author of six poetry collections: The Real Politics of Lipstick, Animal Soul, If We Could Know Our Bones, The Night I Heard Everything, Trailer Park Oracle, and A Little Blood, A Little Rain. Her newest collection, Death for Beginners, will be out from Kelsey Books in November 2017. Mary teaches at Longwood University in Virginia. // THE LONGEST LONELY, PAGE 6
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YUAN CHANGMING published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver; credits include ten Pushcart nominations, the 2018 Naji Naaman's Literary (Honour) Prize, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, Threepenny Review and 1,459 others across 42 countries. // YUAN: THE ORIGIN OF A FAMILY NAME, PAGE 26
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LIAM CRESTWOOD is a writer from the Wasatch area. His work as been previously featured in Slamchop and Rosette Maleficarum; as well as an upcoming piece in IO Literary Journal. You can find him on instagram at liamcrestwood. // FOCUSED ON WHAT THE HEADLIGHTS SHOW, PAGE 25
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LAUREN DIEDWARDO is a fiction writer from the butt of Pennsylvania. She writes quirky, dismal poetry about bird crap and origami. Lauren spends her free time either writing, making jewelry for local craft shows, or reading any book within reach. She has been published in The Mystic Blue Review. // TERRA BOX, PAGE 19, PAPER PRISON, PAGE 20
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WESLEY MATHIS teaches English and Debate at Roy High School in Utah. He writes short fiction, poetry, and plays. Some of his poetry has been published in theThe Canticle, a literary magazine. His play, La Maldición de San Simón was featured in a staged reading at the University of Utah. You can find him at cliffhung.blogspot.com // MR. WILDE WAS THAT WAY, PAGE 29
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BOB MESZAROS taught English at Hamden High School in Hamden, Connecticut, for thirty-two years. He retired from high school teaching in June of 1999. During the 70s and 80s his poems appeared in a number of literary journals, such as En Passant and Voices International. In the year 2000 he began teaching part time at Quinnipiac University, and he began once again to submit his work for publication. His poems have subsequently appeared in The Connecticut Review, Main Street Rag, Red Wheelbarrow, Tar River Poetry, Concho River Review, and many other literary journals. // THE COAL SALESMAN'S TELEPHONE, PAGE 14
BRAY MCDONALD, a graduate of the University of South Alabama, is an Environmental Educator and Information Specialist in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. McDonald has been published in many journals recently, including ‘Black Scat Review’, ‘Big Muddy’, ‘Blue Collar Review’,‘The Cape Rock’, ‘Rockhurst Review’, ‘Third Wednesday’, ‘Storyteller Magazine’, ‘Chiron Review’, and “Alternate History Fiction”, “Gold Dust Magazine” and “Between These Shores Anthology” in the UK. He also has poetry forthcoming in ‘Cholla Needles’, ‘I-70 Review’, ‘Ink in Thirds’, ‘Plainsongs’ and ‘Avalon Literary Review’. Bray can be reached at braymcdonald@hotmail.com // COLLOCATING, MY BLUE GIRL, PAGE 7, DAILY MUSE, PAGE 8
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ARTHUR PLOTNIK, better known for his prose works, including two Book-of-the-Month Club selections, is a late-emerging poet who has appeared in Brilliant Corners, Rosebud, Harpur Palate, The Cape Rock, Glass, Off the Coast, Flock, and many more literary publications. Formerly editorial director at the American Library Association, he has been runner up for a number of poetry awards, including William Stafford, Dana Literary, Blue Lyra Review, Great Lakes Review Poetry Prize, and Atlanta Review. He lives in Chicago. // A PARABLE FOR THE CRUELEST SEASON, PAGE 36 // THIS FALL, THIS FALLING, PAGE 11, (you and) A NIGHT WITH TWO SHADOWS, PAGE 12
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EDWARD ROBSON, PhD is a retired clinical psychologist and charter member of Winston-Salem (NC) Writers. Ed just moved to Conway, Arkansas to pursue his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Central Arkansas. In addition to poetry, he writes short fiction, novels, plays, and creative nonfiction. // CRACKERS AND CHEESE, PAGE 15, DOING IT FOR LOVE, PAGE 16
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DORIAN J. SINNOTT is a graduate of Emerson College's Writing, Literature, and Publishing program, currently living in Kingston, New York with his sassy munchkin-mix cat, Scarlette. When he's not busy at his full-time job, he works as a cat adoption assistant at a local humane society—which he claims is more therapy than work. He enjoys horseback riding, playing violin, and cosplaying his favorite childhood characters at comic cons. Dorian's work has appeared in Crab Fat Literary Magazine, The Bleeding Lion, Alter Ego, and The Pangolin Review. // DEATH'S CHESS GAME, PAGE 9
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ANN CHRISTINE TABAKA has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry, has been internationally published, and won poetry awards from publications. She lives in Delaware, USA. She loves gardening and cooking. Chris lives with her husband and two cats. Her most recent credits are: Ariel Chart, Page & Spine, West Texas Literary Review, Oddball Magazine, The Paragon Journal, The Literary Hatchet, The Stray Branch, Trigger Fish Critical Review, Foliate Oak Review, Better Than Starbucks!, Anapest Journal, Mused, Apricity Magazine, The Write Launch, The Stray Branch, Scryptic Magazine, Ann Arbor Review, The McKinley Review. You can find her on Instagram at #christinetabaka #annchristinetabaka and Twitter at @TabakaChris. // LAUNDRY DAY, PAGE 13
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MATTHEW TWIGG lives in Oxford (UK) where he works as an editor for an academic publisher. In his spare time he enjoys reading, football, countryside, food, and reading again. He works mostly on short fiction, but is also in the process of writing his first novel. His writing appears in magazines including, Gold Dust, The Fiction Pool, decomP, The Los Angeles Review of Los Angeles, and The Phoenix. // THE HAPPINESS BOX, PAGE 17
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REED VENRICK (Ph.D.) usually sets his poems in an international context or nature setting in Florida, where he lives. He has translated both Portuguese and Japanese, having taught at universities in Japan(Fulbright scholar) and Brazil(Peace Corps); published in dozens of online and print journals--recently in Aji Magazine, Eastlit, Sky Island Journal, and DASH(Cal State Fullterton); has read at poetry slams and festivals in USA and Japan. // CROSSING THE RED SEA, PAGE 5
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NICOLE WATZ graduated from Spalding University with an MFA in Creative Writing and emphasis in poetry. She has been published in The Louisville Review. She teaches at a BASIS school in Arizona where she lives with her husband and children. You can find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nicole.monseu, Instagram at @nwian, and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/nicole-monseu-b7714183. // I WILL GO TO MY GRAVE WITH THIS, PAGE 27-28
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