listed alphabetically
Rachel Aguirre is a poet and Spanish teacher from San Antonio. Her work appears or is forthcoming in fws: journal of literature & art, Passages North, On the Seawall, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. In her free time, she likes to cook fare from Veracruz and locate the resident swan in Woodlawn Lake.
Della Andretti was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She and her husband now live in Boerne, Texas, where they enjoy their morning coffee time and take in the essence of the beautiful hill country. As a new student to writing poetry, Della enjoys taking writing classes at the local senior center. She served as reporter and editor of her high school newspaper so writing now feels like she is venturing into new territory. She earned her BA from Texas State University and retired as a manager from AT&T. Her blended family includes two sons, a daughter, and three adult grandchildren.
Cheryl Atim Alexander is an African Diasporic/European woman primarily of Nigerian, Greek, and British descent. Born into a family of readers and writers, she has never known a time that she wasn’t reading or writing lyrics, poems, and stories. Cheryl is currently an MFA student and has been published in Decolonial Passage, Wilderness House Literary Review, Written Tales Magazine, and Kalahari Review. She was recently nominated for Best of the Net 2024. Her writing material emanates from lived, professional and educational experiences surrounding holistic mental health and wellness, new thought spirituality, and human and animal rights.
M. C. Aster was born in Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists, and has lived on three continents. Aster’s nature-, folklore-, and humanity-inspired poems appear in many publications, e.g., The Gateway Review, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Silkworm, Kakalak Review and Three Hearts: A Cephalopod Anthology. Aster calls Southern California home and fosters two endangered Mojave Desert tortoises named Ladybug and Poppy.
Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, who is an algebraist and artist, works in mixed media. He is the author of the works, without deceit (Haiku), e ═ 5 (Tanka), Pantomine (Senryu), The Interpreter’s House (Sedoka), Storyscape (Ryuka), Metonym (Sijo), A Hopeful Worship (Gogyoshi). His individual Japanese, Chinese and Korean and related short form poetry are widely published in journals around the world. He lives in the southern part of Ghana, in Spain, and the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota.
Leah Baker resides in Portland, OR and teaches writing at a public high school. Her writing has been featured or is forthcoming in Pointed Circle, For Women Who Roar, and Voice Catcher. She is a feminist, gardener, yogi, sound healer, and world traveler. You can find her at www.OpalMoonAttunement.com.
Helena Barbagelata (b 1991) is a fashion model and multidisciplinary visual artist who develops work in painting, illustration and photography. Her artworks combine mixed media, acrylics, ink and watercolor techniques and have been displayed in the United States, South America and Europe. Helena is also a researcher, author and curator in several literary publications.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/barbagelatahelena, DISPLATE: https://displate.com/helenabarbagelata , Saatchi: https://www.saatchiart.com/helenabarbagelatasimoes
Artist’s Statement: In ancient Greek mythology, ‘Dryads’, were woodland nymphs whose skin and bodies were fused with trees. Ancient cultures held a fundamentally different view of their relationship to the natural world, perceiving their existence as being within nature rather than our modern industrialized separation between humanity and other sentient beings. My work is an examination of the personal forms this mythological view takes. I use expressionist portraiture to communicate the sensitive experience of femininity, captured in the spontaneous dance and movement of watercolors.
Heather Brown Barrett is an award-winning poet in southeastern Virginia. She mothers her young son and contemplates life, the universe, and everything with her writer husband. She is a member and regular student of The Muse Writers Center, a member of The Poetry Society of Virginia, and a former board member of Hampton Roads Writers. Her work has appeared in Literary Mama, The Ekphrastic Review, Yellow Arrow Journal, Black Bough Poetry, OyeDrum Magazine, and elsewhere. She’s the author of Water in Every Room (Kelsay Books, 2025). Website: https://heatherbrownbarrett.com/.
Rohn Bayes is the author of five collections of poetry, a couple of short stories, a play, several magazine articles, 2 unfinished film scripts, numerous open mic rave-ons, a spattering of flash fiction, and an uncountable number of Facebook posts. In 2023, he independently published his full-length book The Ancient Book of Magic Secrets. Originally from Michigan, he now resides in San Antonio where he presides over 3 cats, 10,000 fish, two turtles, and an occasional raccoon. Aside from these duties and the piquant adventure of sustaining himself, he finds time to ride his bicycle like a wild Comanche. You can visit his substack newsletter at https://rohn.substack.com/.
Jane Beal, PhD is a poet. She has created many collections of poetry, including Sanctuary (Finishing Line Press, 2008), Rising (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and Song of the Selkie (Aubade Publishing, forthcoming) as well as three audio recording projects: “Songs from the Secret Life,” “Love-Song,” and “The Jazz Bird.” She also writes magical realist fiction, creative non-fiction, literary criticism, and music. She teaches at the University of La Verne in southern California. See http://janebeal.wordpress.com.
Chris Billings served as open mic co-host for the former Sun Poets Society of San Antonio, Texas, and is currently a member of the Maverick Poetry Group in San Antonio. He has had poems included in several anthologies, as well as having independently published several chapbooks of his poetry: Sugar Cookies, Wildflowers, and Word Challenge Poems. Finding inspiration in his everyday life, he lives in Schertz, TX. Find him on FB here.
William Blackburn, currently based in OH (USA), still struggles to find his car keys. His work appears in SCRAWL, Emerald Press, Route 7 Review, Edify Fiction, and Abstract Contemporary Expressions. His work will soon appear in The Blue Mountain Review and Castabout Anthology. He is a contributor to Adirondack Center for Writing’s PoemVillage 2019/2020.
Sasha Blakeley is a poet from Vancouver, Canada. Her work focuses on the apocalyptic interplay between light and dark, and the urgent necessity of hope in times of crisis. She is currently teaching English in Taiwan, and in the future she hopes to be a part of sustainable agriculture movements. sashablakeley@gmail.com
Anne Bower teaches tai chi in rural Vermont, gardens, visits with family as much as possible, and finds writing both difficult and delightful. She has published three chapbooks: Poems for Tai Chi Players, The Space Between Us, and Getting it Down on Paper which was co-authored with Pamela Ahlen. Poems have appeared in The Raven’s Perch, Plainsong, Gemini Magazine, The Bluebird Word, and other literary journals and anthologies. Currently, Anne is attempting a novel about a mid-thirties woman who takes a controversial job in Appalachia and gradually finds herself transformed into a famous quilter.
Lynne Burnett lives on Vancouver Island. Her poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies in the US and Canada. A Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, she won the 2016 Lauren K. Alleyne Difficult Fruit PP, the 2019 Jack Grapes PP, Kelsay Books’ 2023 Women’s Poetry Contest, and was a finalist for Arc’s 2018 Poem of the Year, the 2022 Montreal International PP and CV2’s 2024 Foster Prize. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook “Irresistible” in 2018. Visit her at https://lynneburnett.ca/
Raymond Byrnes taught college English in the Midwest before leaving a tenured position to join the U.S. Geological Survey/NASA Landsat satellite program, where he managed communications for 30 years. His poems appear in scores of print and on-line journals such as Main Street Rag and Cathexis Northwest Press, and his work has been featured as Editor’s Choice in at least six, including Typishly, Third Wednesday, and The Writer’s Almanac. He lives in Virginia.
Hannah Cajandig-Taylor resides in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she is an MFA Candidate at Northern Michigan University and an Associate Editor for Passages North. Her prose and poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Snapdragon, Tulane Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, Drunk Monkeys, Sidereal Magazine, and Rising Phoenix Press, among others. Additionally, she will be reading at River Styx’s Hungry Young Poets Series in mid-July.
Austin Carroll is an American artist, poet, and musician currently living in La Pine, Oregon. To see more from Austin you can find him on instagram at instagram.com/floretpuce and his current music project can be found on soundcloud at soundcloud.com/floretpuce.
Nwefuru Godstime Chiadikobi is a Nigerian writer and final-year medical student at Ebonyi State University. His work explores the intersections of medicine, memory, and the human condition, often drawing from African landscapes and spiritual introspection. His poems and essays have appeared in the Nigerian Medical Students Association Health Week Magazine (2018), NIMSA-SCOME Magazine (2020), and PenroseStack poetry (2025). He loves blending scientific precision with lyrical depth, crafting verse that solidifies healing, home and hope. When not writing, he mentors peers and younger colleagues in creative and academic expression.
Jesse Morales Christianson lives in the state of Wisconsin, works a full-time job, and creates art in his free time. He also enjoys walks in nature and spending time with friends and family.
Artist’s statement: My work reflects similarities of art or symbols seen and inspired in Nordic, mesoamerican, and Romani cultures. It is by using these styles I introduce an image through a shape or a line at the center point… spreading them out naturally without much thought on its meaning or reason for looking the way it does. An intriguing fact about this image is it can also be rotated upside down to reveal a different image while still containing its original form.
Brigid Cooley-Beck (she/her) wrote her first poem when she was 7 years old and hasn’t been able to stop since. Her debut collection of poems, “family recipes,” was published by Kelsay Books in 2023. While her work has been published internationally, she takes special pride in having grown up a “San Antonio poet.” Brigid currently lives in Saratoga Springs, NY, with her Navy officer husband, Zach, and loves to participate in theatre, read books and teach poetry workshops in her free time.
Sean M. Corrado is a candidate for admission to the New York Bar who has supplemented his legal studies with a passion for poetry and prose. In 2019, Sean received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he was the Senior Writing & Research Editor of the Fordham Intellectual Property Media & Entertainment Law Journal. Sean received his B.A. in English Writing & Communications Rhetoric from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014, where he received a Heinz Fellowship Grant to further the practice of creative writing in professional settings. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-corrado-011807138
Michele Cuomo lives in Winter Springs, Florida with her husband Paul. Her work has appeared in SpillWords, Raven’s Perch, and Silver Birch Press.
Charles Darnell is the Author of Toward Human, (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022) and Water, Tongues, Earth, and Blood (Finishing Line Press,2018). His work can be found in many literary journals, anthologies, and other media in print and online most recently in The Ocotillo Review, The Texas Poetry Calendar, and the Waco Wordfest Anthology.
David Davies has recently had poems published in Toho Journal, Rise Up Review, and The Showbear Family Circus and his short stories appear in Ripples In Space and The Underwood Press. He is a two-time winner of the King Edward Youth Prize for poetry, and an active member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. Find him @5linestogo on Twitter where he writes a political/topical poem daily.
Terry Dawson, Terry Dawson is author of “the after: poems only a planet could love” (Poets’ Choice, 2022) and the forthcoming “Pursuing the Ruin” (Lamar University Literary Press, 2026).
James R. Dennis is a poet, a novelist, and a Dominican friar. Along with two friends, he is co-author of the Miles Arceneaux mystery series; he also writes and teaches on spiritual matters. He has written three collections of poetry, Correspondence in D Minor, Listening Devices, and Songs of Seven Days. In 2023, his collection Listening Devices won the International Book Award. In 2024, Songs of Seven Days won the Best Book Award for contemporary poetry. James was born in West Texas and now lives in San Antonio with two ill-behaved dogs, Wallace and Yeats.
RC deWinter’s poetry is anthologized in Uno: A Poetry Anthology (Verian Thomas, 2002), New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2017), Cowboys & Cocktails: Poetry from the True Grit Saloon (Brick Street Poetry, April 2019), Havik (Las Positas College, May 2019), Castabout Literature (Dantoin/Hilgart, June 2019) The Flickering Light (Scars Publications, June 2019), Nature In The Now (Tiny Seed Press, August 2019),in print in 2River View, Down in the Dirt, Genre Urban Arts, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, Pilcrow & Dagger, Pink Panther Magazine,, Scarlet Leaf Review, The New York Times and in numerous online literary journals.
Susan Donnelly, a retired teacher, writes poems, walks her dog, paddles her red canoe, grows tomatoes, and breathes deeply; all practical skills in the autumn of one’s life. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and labradoodle, Cocoluna. Her credits include: Kosmos, Verse Virtual, The Timberline Review, Willawaw, the Poeming Pigeon, Easing the Edges, and the Peterborough Poetry Project.
Leslie Ferguson has just finished her first book-length work, When I Was Her Daughter, a memoir about how grit, hope, and luck lead one lost girl to the place she was always meant to be. Leslie’s work has been published in San Diego Writers’ Ink’s A Year in Ink, Volume 9 and Coffin Bell, and is forthcoming in anthologies from Vault Publishing and Acorn Publishing. She earned her MA in English Literature and MFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University. Current projects include a novel and more poetry, always more poetry. After two decades of teaching, she has settled in San Diego, California, where she lives happily with one husband and two cats.
Nancy Fierstien graduated from Central Michigan University (Journalism degree) in 1975. Since 2002, when she first entered the Austin International Poetry Festival, she’s kept other festivals in Central Texas busy including her input too. Those anthologies bearing her work are in the Dripping Springs Community Library. Nancy helped build that facility from the ground up and served as Founding President of its Friends group from 1998-2000. They saw fit to honor her as the town’s “Poet of the Year” in 2019. Her “Thirsty Thursday” venue was in its twelfth year when COVID dealt its blow.
Dede Fox’s writing credits include The Woodlands Art Benches, a collection of photos and poetry; On Wings of Silence: Mexico ’68, a novel in verse; and The Treasure in the Tiny Blue Tin, a YA historical fiction. Other works include her poetry books Postcards Home and Confessions of a Jewish Texan, as well as individual poems in anthologies. Her nonfiction articles and photos have appeared in Highlights magazine. Literary journals and blogs have published her book reviews. She taught creative writing at Bryan Federal Prison Camp from 2016-2019 and was Poet Laureate of Montgomery County from 2017-2022.
Renoir Gaither writes from Saint Paul, MN. He listens to jazz, speaks psycho-politics, and favors anarcho-syndicalism. His work has appeared in Crab Fat Magazine, Soliloquies Anthology, Berkeley Poetry Review, and Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora.
Ken Gierke is a Pushcart Prize nominee who is retired and lives in Missouri. His poetry appears in numerous print anthologies and online journals. He has three poetry collections published by Spartan Press – Glass Awash (2022), Heron Spirt (2024), and Random Riffs (2025). Visit his website: https://rivrvlogr.com
Edward K Gonzales was born in East Los Angeles. He currently lives in Boerne, Texas. He has been writing his whole life in the form of journaling and prose. He was recently a member of the Sun Poet’s Society and is currently a member of The Maverick Poetry Group.
Benjamin Green is the author of eleven books including The Sound of Fish Dreaming (Bellowing Ark Press, 1996). At the age of sixty-seven, he hopes his new work articulates a mature vision of the world and does so with some integrity. He resides in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
Jean Hackett is a poet, educator, and naturalist who splits her time between San Antonio, Texas and property in the Texas Hill Country. Hackett’s poetry has appeared in Voices de la Luna, Arts Alive San Antonio, the San Antonio Express News/ Houston Chronicle, Langdon Review, No Season for Silence, Words for Birds, Tejascovido, Cocktail Journal, The River’s Edge, Ocotillo Review, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, The Windward Review and Silver Birch Press. Her first chapbook, Masked/ Unmuted, was published in 2021.
Charlotte Hamrick’s writing is included or upcoming in a number of literary magazines including Louisiana Literature, Emerge Literary Journal, Still:The Journal, and Atticus Review and is anthologized in Best Small Fictions 2022 and 2023. She is Managing Editor for Reckon Review and Co-EiC for SugarSugarSalt Magazine. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets.
Stephanie L. Harper is an autistic poet, mother, and former Oregonian now living with the world’s most adorable husband, son, cat, and puppy in Indianapolis, IN, where she completed her MFA at Butler University. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks, including We Have Seen the Corn (Kelsay Books, 2025). Her poems appear in The Iowa Review, The Night Heron Barks, Pleiades, Salamander Magazine, Taos Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere.
N.Y. HAYNES holds a Masters in Physiology, with a concentration in cardiovascular disease. She is an emerging writer, a poet, and playwright, as well as an avid athlete currently residing in New York. Please direct all questions and comments to: 1greatfulgoddess@gmail.com
Ann Howells edited Illya’s Honey for eighteen years. Recent books include: So Long As We Speak Their Names (Kelsay Books, 2019) and Painting the Pinwheel Sky (Assure Press, 2020). Chapbooks include: Black Crow in Flight, Editor’s Choice –Main Street Rag, 2007 and Softly Beating Wings, 2017 William D. Barney winner (Blackbead Books). Ann’s work appears in many small press and university journals here and abroad.
Cindy Huyser is the author of the full-length collection, Cartography (3: A Taos Press, 2025), the contest-winning chapbook, Burning Number Five: Power Plant Poems (Blue Horse Press, 2014), and co-editor of Bearing the Mask: Southwestern Persona Poems (Dos Gatos Press, 2016). She is the long-time host of Austin’s BookWoman 2nd Thursday Poetry Series and holds an MFA from Pacific University.
Greg Illich is a tai chi instructor and massage therapist living in Houston. A member of the Texas State Guard, he is also an aviator. His writing has appeared in both English and Spanish.
Maria Illich is an author and educator living in Houston. A board member of Catholic Literary Arts, she promotes writing among the young. She has won recognition from the Press Women of Texas, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Texas Institute of Letters. She also received a full scholarship from the Kenyon Review to study poetry. Her literacy hero is LeVar Burton, whom she had the honor of meeting. Visit her at mariaillich.com.
Yana Istoshina Yana Istoshina was born in St. Petersburg (Russia). She studied visual arts at the university for 6 years and graduated in 2010 with a degree in graphic design. Her early creative years were devoted to the art of digital photography, photo manipulation, and digital collages. In 2012, Yana first got acquainted with visionary art, which impressed her with its visual language, the depth of encrypted meanings, and creation techniques. Find prints of Yana”s work here, visit her website here, and communicate with the artist on Instagram here.
Istoshina’s Artist Statement
My art is my vision, my lifestyle, my passion, my healer. For me, my art is a way of communicating with people, thanks to which I can share the knowledge and experience I have gained with others. I am happy to know that ideas, vision, and the way they are expressed through visual art that heal me also heal other people.
I create my paintings so that they later decorate different interiors, bringing to the space vibrations in the rhythm of the universe, free-flowing energy, pure intentions, as a token of gratitude to the world, love, relaxation.”
In this digital artwork, I tried to show different layers of reality with the help of a human figure.
From a dense material body that connects us with roots to the Earth, to energy structures that connect us with the invisible, all-encompassing. Our body is like a conductor between the Earth and the Cosmos. The energy of the Earth moves through our body, transmitting information upwards.
And the energy of the sun, the divine energy, moves from top to bottom, nourishing the Earth, giving rise to matter.
Joanne W. James: Jewish lesbian mystic poet living with chronic disabling illness in the Pacific Northwest. Advocate with Buffalo Field Campaign.
Erin Jamieson holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Miami University of Ohio. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in After the Pause, Into the Void, Flash Frontier, and Foliate Oak Literary, among others, and her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently teaches English Composition at the University of Cincinnati-Blue Ash College and works as a freelance writer.
Rachel Jennings teaches in the English Department at San Antonio College. She also serves on the board, or Conjunto de Nepantleras, of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. She is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. She has published three volumes of poetry: Hedge Ghosts (2001), Elijah’s Farm (2008), and Knoxville Girl: The Walk to the River (2011). Her poems have appeared in a number of periodicals and anthologies.
Belynda Jones holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Long Island University – Brooklyn, as well as a BFA from Brooklyn College. Her focus is mainly poetry, but also loves to write short fiction and plays. A native of New York City, she currently lives in Queens, New York with her son. Some of her work can viewed online, in issues of Downtown Brooklyn, Belladonna Series and Boog Reader. Find her on Tumblr here and on BoogCity here. Read her Belladonna Series here.
Caroline Knickmeier is an artist and writer dedicated to making art and love. carolineknickmeier.com
Joyce Kung is a queer Chinese-Canadian currently studying in her final year of computer science at the University of Waterloo. ‘restless’ is the first piece she has published with a literary journal, and she is so glad to have shared it with *fws: journal of literature and art. You can find her online at https://thejoycekung.github.io where she talks about software development and literature, and see her older works on Medium @thejoycekung.
Jennifer Lagier has published twenty-three books, and her work appears in a variety of anthologies and literary magazines. She taught with California Poets in the Schools, edited the Homestead Review, currently edits the Monterey Poetry Review, helps publicize Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Saturday readings. Website: jlagier.net, Facebook: www.facebook.com/JenniferLagier/
SaraSwoti Lamichhane comes from Alberta, Canada, and is a nature photographer, poet, and mom to two beautiful daughters. Her poems have been published in a few journals in the U.S., Nepal, and Canada and her recent poem Fort McMurray has appeared in Tint Journal. During the day, she works as a clinic manager with Alberta Head & Neck Surgery Clinic. She is actively working as a board member with Parkland Poets.
Diamante Lavendar lives in the Midwest US. She enjoys using art as a medium to explore the issues of life with a strong emphasis on spirituality. Most of her work is mixed media digital art which includes some or all of the following: photography, fractals, drawing, painting, and digital art. Her work can be viewed at www.diamantelavendar.com.
Artist’s Statement: I wanted to illustrate the length of time and commitment it takes to find and develop the faith to be our authentic selves. It is a process and an accomplishment that happens over many years and seasons of the heart, mind, and soul. We all have a purpose, but if we fail to commit to developing ourselves and seeking that sacred heart space in which we can explore the many reasons why we are alive in this particular place and time, we may never find it. It is crucial to not only value yourself but also the seasons of life that teach you who you are. Only then can you become who you were truly meant to be.
Dotty LeMieux’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such the anthology, purifying wind (Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2020), Rise Up Review, Beautiful Cadaver Social Anthologies Series, Poets Reading the News, Gyroscope, MacQueen’s Quinterly and others. I have had three chapbooks published, and have one forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, entitled Henceforth I Ask Not Good Fortune. In the 1980’s, I also edited the eclectic literary magazine Turkey Buzzard Review, in Bolinas California. I have studied at the New College of California Poetics program and with poets Joanne Kyger, Edith Jenkins and Thomas Centolella. My day jobs are running political campaigns, mainly for progressive women, and practicing environmental law in Marin County California, where I live with my husband and two dogs.
Kendra Preston Leonard, PhD Kendra Preston Leonard is a librettist, lyricist, poet, and playwright. She is the author of two chapbooks, Making Mythology (Louisiana Literature Press, 2020) and Grab (Red Ogre Review, 2023), and the novella in verse Protectress (Unsolicited Press, 2022). Her poetry has appeared in About Place, Ofi Press Magazine, Sage Cigarettes, The Waggle, and Women Scream, among others. Follow her at https://kendraprestonleonard.hcommons.org/.
Darlene Logan: Spending most of her professional life in the humanities, Darlene taught a broad assortment of English classes, thirty years in the Land of Enchantment at New Mexico Military Institute where she also sponsored an annual Shakespeare Festival and hosted many, many poets to read and workshop with cadet-students. Retired a dozen years and now living on a pretty half acre in Lakehills with her partner Lad, she reads much, writes a little, engages in hearty discussions, and often entertains four grandsons and a multitude of friends and family.
Mario Loprete is an internationally acclaimed artist with myriad shows to his credit. He has been interviewed by and written about in art and literary journals and magazines worldwide. www.marioloprete.com, https://it-it.facebook.com/mario.loprete.5, www.linkedin.com/in/mario-loprete-7aa22529, www.instagram.com/marioloprete/,
Artist’s Statement: “I live in a world that i shape at my liking, throughout a virtual pictorial and sculptural movement, transferring my experiences, photographing reality throughout my filters, refined from years research and experimentation.
Painting for my is the first love. An important, pure love. Creating a painting, starting from the spasmodic research of a concept with which I want to send a message to transmit my message, it’s the base of my painting. The sculpture is my lover, my artistic betrayal to the painting. That voluptuous and sensual lover that gives me different emotions, that touches prohibited cords…
The new series of works on concrete it’s the one that is giving me more personal and professional satisfactions. How was it born? It was the result of an important investigation of my work, the research of that “quid” that i felt was missing. Looking at my work in the past ten years I understood that there was the semantics and semiotics in my visual speech, but the right support to valorize the message was not there.
The reinforced cement, the concrete, was created by two thousand years ago by the Romans. It has a story that pervades millennia, made of amphitheaters, bridges and roads that have conquered the ancient and modern world. Now it’s a synonym of modernity. Everywhere you go and you find a concrete wall, there’s the modern man in there. From Sidney to Vancouver, from Oslo to Pretoria, the reinforced cement it’s present and consequently the support where the “writers” can express themselves it’s present.
The successive passage was obvious for me. If man brought art on the streets in order to make it accessible to everyone, why not bring the urban in galleries and museums? It was the winning step to the continuous evolutionary process of my work in that “quid” that i was talking about before and that is what is making me expose in prestigious places and is making me be requested from important collectors. When the painting has completely dried off, I brush it with a particular that not only manages to unite every color and shade, but it also gives to the art work the shininess and lucidity that the poster ,that each and every one of us had hanging on the wall, has.
For my Concrete Sculptures I use my personal clothing. Throughout some artistic process, in which I use plaster, resin and cement, I transform them in artworks to hang. My memory, my DNA, my memories remain concreted inside, transforming the person that looks at the artworks a type of post-modern archeologist that studies my work as they were urban artifacts.
Cara Lorello is a writer and poet who began her career as a journalist in Spokane, Washington. Her work appears in past issues of Noble-Gas Quarterly, Vending Machine Press, SlushPile, The Sun, SnapDragon Journal, and the Spokane-based poetry anthology Railtown Almanac (Sage Hill Press). She currently resides in Spokane, Washington.
Mike Luster is a folklorist, writer, teacher, and radio host living in the Missouri Ozarks. Originally from Texas, his folklore work took him to Nevada, North Carolina, and Louisiana where he directed the Louisiana Folklife Festival and taught at the University of New Orleans. He was later director of the Arkansas Folklore Program at Arkansas State University. Since retiring, he has taught writing online and shares his days with two teenage boys and a frisky black dog.
Simone Maffescioni has a passion for poetry, particularly as a means to connect with people and ease their sense of isolation. Much of Simone’s poetry relates to expressing emotional sentiments and vulnerabilities of the human condition that are often avoided within society but commonly experienced; fostering human connections.
Julie Martin, apoet and public school teacher, lives near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. Her work has recently appeared in the following journals: The Talking Stick, Plants and Poetry, Agates, and The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative. She co-hosts Up Close,an online literary program, with River Urke. Read more of her work at JulieMartinpoet.com.
Nupur Maskara is a freelance content writer in India. Her work received the Orange Flower Poetry Award in 2020. Nupur’s work has been published in Wry Times, Last Leaves, The Gateway Review, Rigorous, The Loch Raven Review, Zoetic Press, and Mantis (forthcoming). One of her poems was selected to be part of a spoken word concert by Rose Theatre Co., Washington. She has authored two poetry books– Insta Gita and Insta Women. Visit her online here. & find her on Twitter @nuttynupur.
Don Mathis’ life revolves around the many poetry circles in San Antonio. His poems have been published in a hundred anthologies and periodicals and broadcasted on local TV and national radio. In addition to poetry, he has also written policy and procedures for industry, case histories for psychological firms, and news and reviews for various media. A sampling of his work can be found at the Rivard Report and the Good Men Project. He can be reached at dondon213@hotmail.com, https://therivardreport.com/author/don-mathis/, https://goodmenproject.com/author/don-mathis/
Ruth McArthur is a poet and birder who has recently moved from the Texas Hill Country to Boston. Her poems have appeared in Ocotillo Review, Voices de la Luna, Underwood Press, Blue Heron Review, Plants and Poetry, Through Layered Limestone: A Texas Hill Country Anthology of Place, From Whispers to Roars, Easing the Edges and the 2021 Texas Poetry Calendar. Currently she is working on a series of poems about place. Her first book of poems, Persistence, is available from Finishing Line Press or Amazon.
Michele Mekel lives in Happy Valley and wears many hats of her choosing: writer and editor; educator and bioethicist; poetess and creatrix; cat herder and chief can opener; witch and woman; and, above all, human. Her work has appeared invarious academic and creative publications, including having her poetry selected and read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. She is also a co-principal investigator for the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project (viralimaginations.psu.edu). Michele can be found on Instagram @ShaktiEnergy.
Carole Mertz resides with her husband in Parma, Oh. She is a retired musician with recent poems, essays, and articles in Mom Egg Review, Women on Writing, The Ekphrastic Review, and World Literature Today. Her poetry collection COLOR AND LINE was published with Kelsay Books in 2021.
Nicole M. Metts is a poet currently living in the Wichita and Caddo lands in the central plains of Texas. She acquired her MFA in poetry from Chatham University in the spring of 2023 and received an honorable mention for the Laurie Mansell Reich award from the Academy of American Poets. She won the Winklebleck Choice Award for Poetry in 2021 from the Poetry Society of Texas and has been published in many journals including Agape Review and Gingerbread House Lit. She is the founder of Central Texas Writer’s Society, the managing editor of their annual anthology, and loves encouraging creative spirits.
David Meyer has published 100+ poems, some essays, a play, and the chapbook Chronicle of an Obsession: Love, Death, and the Prostate. While seeking publishers for a full-length book and two chapbooks, he continues to work on The Man In Love With Silence (book) and The Pleasure Bargain (play). He spent most of his career in progressive theological book publishing. Meyer holds a B.A. in theatre, and two graduate degrees in theology and two in literature/writing, including an M.F.A. in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Art.
Jennie Meyer, M.Div., is a poet, dreamworker, and training candidate in Jungian psychotherapy who walks the beach, recording her voice into her phone. She is a 2024 finalist for Cathexis Northwest Press: Unpublished Author Chapbook contest, a 2023 winner of Beyond Words: The End of the World Creative Writing Challenge and a 2022 grant recipient from Discover Gloucester. Her poetry has appeared in Human Right’s Day 2024: Moonstone Arts Center Anthology, Tidelines: An Anthology of Cape Ann Poets, Albatross, Anchor Magazine, Artis Natura, Canary, Mutha Magazine, Sheila-Na-Gig, The Fourth River, The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, among others.
Brittany Micka-Foos is a writer and editor residing in La Conner, Washington. A former victim’s rights lawyer in Washington, DC, Brittany turned to writing after the birth of her first child. She has published a smattering of poems and short stories in various publications, including CC&D and Blanket Stories (Ragged Sky Press). She earned her BA in English at the Evergreen State College. Her blog is https://boringanddangerous.wordpress.com.
Donna Faulkner nee Miller drinks tea without sugar , mochas with marshmallows and vodka and orange juice in a tall glass with no ice . Other than writing , she loves the feeling of riding on the back of her husband’s Harley. Experiencing the sensation of moving between the space that connects everything. Donna is English born and lives in New Zealand with her husband Victor. She has three kids – teenagers all , two dogs and a one eyed cat called Bella. Donna has had work published in fws: journal of literature & art, Skin Issue, Vol.1 No. 2, 2019 and poetry included in Havik : The Las Positas College Journal of Arts and literature. Visit Donna on Instagram @lady_lilith_poet
Francesca Moroney is a writer, anti-bias activist, and health advocate living and working in Edwardsville, Illinois, with five teenagers and three large dogs.
Leah Mueller is an indie writer and spoken word performer from Tacoma, Washington. She has published books with numerous small presses. Her most recent volumes, Misguided Behavior, Tales of Poor Life Choices (Czykmate Press) and Death and Heartbreak (Weasel Press) were released in October 2019. Leah’s work also appears in Blunderbuss, The Spectacle, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She won honorable mention in the 2012 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry contest. Her new chapbook, Cocktails at Denny’s (TV Party Press) will debut in November 2019. www.facebook.com/leahmuellerwriter, www.twitter.com/leahsnapdragon
Laurence Musgrove is author of A Stranger’s Heart and editor of The Senior Class: 100 Poets on Aging and The Texas Poetry Assignment. He blogs at texosophy.substack.com.
m.f. nagel was born in Anchorage, Alaska. Her Athabaskan and Eyak heritage has given her a love of poetry. m.f. now lives and writes near the banks of the Matanuska river in the Palmer Butte, Alaska, where the moose, wild dog~ roses and salmonberries provide unending joy and inspiration.
James B. Nicola’s poetry and prose have appeared in the Antioch, Southwest, Green Mountains, and Atlanta Reviews; Rattle; Barrow Street; Tar River; and Poetry East, garnering two Willow Review awards, a Dana Literary award, and six Pushcart nominations. His full-length collections are Manhattan Plaza (2014), Stage to Page (2016), Wind in the Cave (2017), Out of Nothing: Poems of Art and Artists (2018) and Quickening: Poems from Before and Beyond (2019). His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice award. A Yale grad, he is facilitator for the Hell’s Kitchen International Writers’ Roundtable at Manhattan’s Columbus Library: walk-ins welcome.
Mary O’Brien has volunteered for the Court Appointed Special Advocate program, founded local therapeutic hospital humor programs, and supported various other non-profits and do-goodery. Enjoying the artistry of music, the music of words, the words of healing, and the healing of art, she spent her pandemic hibernation immersing herself in art journaling, watercoloring, and creative writing. She lives in Idaho with her handsome husband, near her comedic grandchildren, and on the back porch of some of the most beautiful countryside in the world.
Jason O’Toole is an Andover, MA based poet and author of two collections published by The Red Salon, Spear of Stars (2018) and Soulless Heavens (2019) which contains the Rhysling Award nominated poem “Samsara.” Further, he contributed two poems to the anthology, Purifying Wind (Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press, 2020).
Wonyoung Park lives in New York. As an emerging artist, he has received awards in art competitions such as the Scholastic Art and Writing competition and Bow Tie Gallery competition. His work Ignorant Monsters has been selected for publication and will appear in the literary magazine Daphne in late 2019.
Artist Statement: Geometry of the Self is an exploration of the more analytical side of my personality. I have an interest in the math field, and the chaos of lines and shapes helps to represent the interaction between geometry and art. The brightly colored background represents a burning question that has yet to be resolved. In the end, this piece is an exploration of my identity, trying to find the connection between art and math.
Mary Paulson is a prolific poet whose work has been anthologized and published in multiple literary journals and magazines, most recently in Unleash Lit, The Opiate, The Café Review, The Rumen and the Passionfruit Review. Mary has been recognized for her work with placements in several competitions including Tulip Tree’s Wild Women contest, The Letter Review’s Poetry contest, and the annual contest sponsored by the Kent and Sussex Poetry Society. Her chapbook, “Paint the Window Open,” was published by Kelsay Publishing in 2021. She currently resides in Naples, FL.
Donna Peacock, a former educator, has published works including memoir, non-fiction, script, and poetry, some of which is included in Weaving the Terrain: 100-word Southwestern Poems; Voices de la Luna; Through Layered Limestone: A Texas Hill Country anthology of place; easing the edges:a collection of everyday miracles. Her script At a River was performed at the Patrick Heath Library in Boerne, TX, and music/lyrics performed at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland. Born and raised in San Antonio, she lives in Cortez, Colorado
Holly Pelesky is a lover of spreadsheets, giant sandwiches, and handwritten letters. Her essays have recently appeared in Jellyfish Review, Roanoke Review, and The Nasiona. Her poems are bound in Quiver: a Sexploration. She holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska. She cobbles together gigs to get by, refusing to give up this writing life. She lives in Omaha with her two sons. https://hollypelesky.com, https://twitter.com/hollypelesky
Joan Penn, originally from the Midwest, lives in NYC and has a professional background in theater, photography and public relations. Poetry became her lifeline during the pandemic lockdown, and her work has since been published online and in print journals and several anthologies. Most recently, three poems appeared in the December 2024 issue of “The Write Launch,” and another in the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of “Cathexis Northwest Press.” She is a member of the Barkan-Rosenbaum Writing Group and is grateful for their support and encouragement.
Carlos Ponce Meléndez poems and short stories have appeared in The Dreamcatcher, The Poet, Voices Along the River, Desahogate, Small Brushes, The Texas Observer, El Angel, Celebrate, several anthologies and numerous Spanish magazines. He also teaches creative writing at schools and community centers.
Melissa Rendlen is a semi-retired urgent care physician now living in a log cabin built by her grandfather ninety years ago. It is on a lake in northern Wisconsin where she enjoys kayaking, swimming, hiking and listening to the loons. She has had several poems published in journals such as The Missing Slate, Nixes Mate, Poets Reading the News, Underfoot Poetry, and her first chapbook will be out this summer by Clare Songbirds Publishing.
Sheila DC Robertson finds joy and inspiration in the natural world. Her writing grows out of the landscapes where she has lived in Idaho and Oregon. She has published articles, stories and poetry in Crab Creek Review, North Coast Squid, Writers in the Attic, Trouvaille Review, New Feathers Review, Milagros, Poems From The Rebel Outpost, Camas Literary Journal and little white dress. Her non-fiction has appeared in Travel & Leisure Magazine, Idaho Magazine, Boise Magazine and others.
Rod Carlos Rodriguez (formerly Stryker) has been writing for over 37 years. His first book, Exploits of a Sun Poet (Pecan Grove Press, February 2003), was awarded the San Antonio Barnes and Noble/Bookstop Author-of-the-Month (Feb. 2003) and the San Antonio Current Best Book (2005). His other two books include Lucid Affairs (Sun Arts Press – 2012) and Native Instincts (Human Error Publishing – 2016).Rod founded the Sun Poet’s Society in 1995, which is South Texas’ longest running weekly open-mic poetry reading. Rod was nominated for the San Antonio Poet Laureate in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English/Creative Writing from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Kerfe Roig, a resident of New York City, enjoys transforming words and images into something new. Follow her explorations on her blogs, https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/ (which she does with her friend Nina), and https://kblog.blog/, and see more of her work on her website http://kerferoig.com/
Deborah Rosch Eifert is a poet and clinical psychologist. Her poetry has been published in Whiskey Island Quarterly (under a different name), The Gateway Review, the ‘Poets of Maine 2018’ anthology, and the anthology “Exhuming Alexandria,” among others. She is a past recipient of the Cleveland State University English Department Undergraduate Creative Writing Award, a semifinalist in the 2018 Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition, and First Runner-up in the 2018 Esthetic Apostle Chapbook Contest. Dr. Rosch Eifert focuses on transformation and empowerment, trauma and recovery, feminist themes, and the intersection of nature and consciousness. She lives and writes in Maine.
Corey Ruzicano is a producer/writer/educator from the San Francisco bay area. While pursuing her BFA at Emerson College, she went through the creative producing program under P. Carl and David Dower, and continues to write for Howlwound. She has completed apprenticeships at The Lark, The Orchard Project and the 52nd street project. She has been the creative projects manager of Jeanine Tesori’s studio, Siena music and on Broadway, where she also teaches writing and leadership to young women. She has managed the intern program at Second Stage Theater and fellowships and awards for new dramatists and aids in making space for writers of all kinds and created community engagement programs for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. She is the executive producer of Words on White, an art and conversation initiative. With all her work, she seeks to empower voices and stories that encourage more empathic communities and a better understanding of one another.
Sunita Sahoo works as a Senior Software Engineer. She hails from Odisha, India and loves writing poems of all genres. Her works have been published in Indian Periodical, Eleventh Transmission, Poesis and Poets Choice Zine. Most of her poems are based on her real life experiences, profound reflections of human mind, dreams and burning social issues. She loves writing inspirational and motivational poems and tries to spread the optimism to the larger mass never to give up! https://www.facebook.com/sahusunita167
Mashaal Sajid is a female poet from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Her work has appeared and is forthcoming in Girls Right The World Journal, Siyaah Qalam Akhbar, The RIC Journal, The Desi Collective Magazine, Body Language Zine, Papeachu Review, and other poetry Anthologies.
E. Samples is one part West Virginia Mountain Blue ink, two parts Kentucky Bluegrass Black ink, and a medicinal dash of Tennessee Red-inked Whiskey. Currently living in Southern Indiana, her spectrum is shifting to include accents of cardinal, sunflower, and sweet corn. She is happily shacked up with her better-mate-soul-half and forever partner LP. They share space with three cats named Gypsy, Dot, & Black-and-White, and one very small dog called Yoshi. This is her first publication. She is on twitter @emilysamples and instagram @eesamples
Jeanie Sanders is a poet and artist. Her poems have been published in multiple anthologies,The Texas Observer, Voices de la Luna, and The San Antonio Express News. She is a member of the Sun Poets of San Antonio. Her new book, The Book of the Dead is available at the Twig Bookstore in San Antonio, Texas.
Gerard Sarnat, MD has been meditating for a quarter century, is a longtime retreatant and founding board member of the Insight Meditation Center. Gerry has won prizes and been nominated for Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards, authored four collections, is widely published including recently by Stanford, Oberlin, Brown, Columbia, Virginia Commonwealth, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and in Gargoyle, Margie, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Brooklyn Review, MiPOesias ,Voices Israel, Tishman Review, Suisun Valley Review, Burningwood Review, Fiction Southeast, Junto, and Tiferet. Harvard/Stanford educated, Gerry’s worked in jails, built/staffed clinics for the marginalized, been a CEO of healthcare organizations and Stanford Medical School professor. Married since 1969, he has three children, four grand-kids.
Kirsten Ismene Schilling was born in Eastern Pennsylvania. She moved to California in her early twenties and has never left. An artist and a writer for over twenty-five years, she has a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and a master’s certificate from Antioch University, Los Angeles in Publishing. Her first collection of short stories, My 23rd Birthday and Other Stories is forthcoming (Autumn, 2019). Visit more of Kirsten’s work www.kirstenismeneschilling.com
Zara Shams is a writer based in the South of England and in Scotland, where she is pursuing a History MA at the University of Edinburgh. Her work has appeared in publications including Noble/Gas Qtrly, Sonder Midwest, and Visual Arts Collective’s All Roads Will Lead You Home. Zara’s poem there is no such thing a woman was the first prize winner of Ankita Saxena’s protest poetry challenge held by The Poetry Society, and her chapbook of the same name was published by Zoetic Press in 2018.
Linda Simone’s publications include The River Will Save Us (Kelsay Books), Archeology (Flutter Press), and Moon: A Poem (Richard C. Owen Publishers). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, and anthologies, on buses and storefront windows, and on menus. Originally from New York, Simone lives in San Antonio, TX.
Merril D. Smith is a historian and poet. She is the author/editor of several books on history, sexuality, and gender. Her poetry and stories have appeared recently in Vita Brevis, Streetlight Press, Ghost City, Twist in Time, Mojave Heart Review, Wellington Street Review, Blackbough Poetry, and Nightingale and Sparrow. You can find her online at https://merrildsmith.wordpress.com/; on Twitter @merril_mds, and on Instagram mdsmithnj
Mark Smolen: After 30 years as an IBM engineer, Mark has established a new identity as a founder of a community garden in East Austin, and has received certifications as a Texas Master Naturalist and in horticulture. Mark’s newest passion is pottery, with 6 years experience in hand-building and mold making.
Rebecca A. Spears, author of Brook the Divide and The Bright Obvious, has poems, essays, and reviews included in TriQuarterly, Narrative, Barrow Street, Verse Daily, and other publications. Brook the Divide was shortlisted for Best First Book of Poetry (Texas Institute of Letters, 2020). Most recently, Spears has been awarded a Poetry Fellowship from Porches Writing Retreat (2024) and named Writer-in-Residence at Dairy Hollow House (2025). In March 2025, she received the Equinox Prose Award. She has also received Best of the Net and Pushcart nominations.
Sandi Stromberg’s poetry collection, Frogs Don’t Sing Red (Kelsay Books 2023), contains works nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is an editor at The Ekphrastic Review. She edited Untameable City: Poems on the Nature of Houston for Mutabilis Press and co-edited Echoes of the Cordillera, an anthology of ekphrastic poems. Her poems have appeared recently in Panoply: The Literary Zine, San Pedro River Review, Woodlands, Sappho’s Torque, and MockingHeart Review, and they have been translated into Dutch.
Jeffrey L. Taylor is a retired Software Engineer. Around 1990, poems started holding his sleep hostage. He has been published in The Perch, California Quarterly, Texas Poetry Calendar, and Texas Poetry Assignment.
Margo Stutts Toombs is a self-proclaimed internal humorist, creates and dwells in wacky worlds. She loves to perform her work at Fringe festivals, art galleries or anywhere food and beverages are served. Her poetry and flash pieces dance in journals, anthologies, and chapbooks. Margo also loves to produce videos. Sometimes, these videos screen at film festivals. One of her favorite pastimes is co-hosting the monthly poetry/flash readings at the Archway Gallery in Houston, Texas. Check out her shenanigans at https://www.margostuttstoombs.com/ or on social media – https://www.facebook.com/margo.toombs/
Spirit Thom AKA Thom Woodruff is an Austin-based poet and performance artist who has served as the Texas Beat Poet 2020-2022. When you’re with Thom he fills the room with winsome colors, spiritual wisdom, nimble expeditious language, and love.
Mary Thompson: From the first letter I ever wrote at the age of 4, I knew I had to write. From the well-spring of words that continue to rise from some inner source, I fill journals with connections between people who have raised me, loved me, troubled me, and hurt me. My observations of the natural and supernatural worlds stun me with their poignant lessons about life. My professional training in education, child development, psychology, and writing has honed my writing skills. Life experiences, training, and reflection provide the need to write. My desire to connect with others pushes me to publish.
Sarah Joy Thompson is a Filipina-American poet and the author of a chapbook The Everyday, the Mundane, and the Brave (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and a full-length poetry collection Driving into Black Mountains (FlowerSong Press, 2020). Sarah Joy earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. In her recent work, she explores movement to navigate the gray area of uncertainty, loss, illness, and embodying change. The confessional aspects of her poetry serve as an essential form of therapy – turning her attention inward to reclaim the body’s narrative and find true self-compassion.
Greg Turlock is a published poet, author and photographer. His credits include “Rivers of Life”, award-winning poem from the 2019 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards, “Heartstrings” published in the Parkland Poets II anthology, cover photo for the anthology, “A Work of Heart – Woven in the Willows”, self-published anthology of his poems, short stories and photos and “From the Deep End”, a column that ran in the Edmonton Journal’s Country Asides from 2002 until 2010. A graduate of NAIT, Greg resides near Stony Plain, Alberta www.gregturlockcreative.com, https://www.facebook.com/gregturlockwriterphotographer/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Yael Veitz is a New York-based poet and professional empath. Her works, which have appeared in Tilde, The Ogilvie, The Showbear Family Circus, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Castabout, reflect her geographically-diverse background, her work in mental health, and, occasionally, her love for her cats. Her work can be found on her nascent website,yaelveitz.com and at www.facebook.com/yaelveitz
Nellie Vinograd is a poet currently based in Denver, CO. Her writing often explores routine and tradition in order to see what we desire from our repetitions. Her work has been published by the Stirling Spoon and is forthcoming in THAT Literary Review. She was a featured poet in the Woman Made Gallery’s reading series, “Consumerism and the Stuff of Consumption.” She is proudly serving as an AmeriCorps member with City Year Denver for the 2019-2020 school year. You can follow her on Instagram @nellievinograd to keep up with her latest projects and interests.
Rowan Waller graduated from Regis University in Denver after studying psychology and English. She grew up in Oklahoma, but was drawn to the mountains of Colorado from an early age. She now spends her time writing, guiding backpacking trips, and climbing through all seasons in Durango, CO.
Jennifer Pratt-Walter (she/her) is a Crone who finds awe in the simple daily miracles of life. She is a professional harpist, poet and hobbyist photographer and runs a small farm. She has had poetry and photography published in a number of print and on-line journals, including VoiceCatcher, Calyx, SageWoman and Palette. Jennifer has three grown children and husband and lives in Vancouver, WA. No AI is ever used in her work.
For Akeith Walters, words are the art of his heart. Some of them can be found in numerous anthologies and literary journals (both in print and online) such as Linnets Wings, Gyroscope Lit Journal, and most recently, Central Texas Writer’s Society and Beyond 2023. At day’s end, he likes to sit with a mug of ice melting in sweet tea while he contemplates the difference between poetry and prose. The latter is more difficult to pen down, but sometimes when the room is still, the stories will hang around like cigarette smoke exhaled in frustration.
Irmgard (Irmi) Willcockson is a nature poet and kayaker living in Houston, Texas. Nature journaling nourishes her soul and is the basis for her poetry. Powered by ADD, she reads and writes shorter poems. Her favorite poets include Mary Oliver, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Wendell Berry. Irmi is currently working on her first chapbook: Fraught Nature (working title) .
Melissa Wold is retired from a career in higher education. She has been writing poetry for a short time. She writes with a group affiliated with Mobile Botanical Gardens and finds happiness, solace, and peace with her hands in the soil and her feet in the sand.
Gray Wolf: I am a survivor. I keep the faith because there is no reason I should still be alive. Yet, here I am. I am thankful.
Jenny Wrenn lives in the Arizona borderlands. She writes poetry, speculative fiction, and paranormal romance. Jenny draws on degrees in zoology and medicine, as well as an outdoor lifestyle full of adventure to inform her writing. Everything she writes is flavored by a fascination for the infinitely miraculous natural world and the infinitely mysterious and ever-changing human condition.
Yvonne was the first poetry editor of two pioneer feminist magazines, Aphra and Ms. She has received awards for poetry (NEA 1974, 1984) and fiction (Leeway 2003). Recent print publications include: Home: An Anthology (Flexible), Bryant Literary Review, Pinyon, Nassau Review 2019, Bosque Press #8, Foreign Literary Journal #1, Quiet Diamonds 2019 & 2018 (Orchard Street), 161 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus). Verse memoir excerpts are online at American Journal of Poetry, Stonecrop Review, Not Very Quiet, AMP, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Poets Reading the News, Headway Quarterly, Rigorous, Collateral, WAIF Project, Brain Mill Press’s Voices, Cahoodaloodaling, Edify Fiction.
Bänoo Zan is a poet, librettist, translator, teacher, editor and poetry curator, with 180+ published poems and three books: Song of Phoenix: Life and Works of Sylvia Plath (2008); Songs of Exile (2016), shortlisted for Gerald Lampert Memorial Award by League of Canadian Poets; and Letters to My Father (2017). She is the founder of Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Toronto’s most diverse monthly poetry reading and open mic series (inception: 2012). It is a brave space that bridges the gap between communities of poets from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions, ages, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and styles. https://www.linkedin.com/in/banoozan/, https://www.facebook.com/banoo.zan , https://twitter.com/BanooZan, https://www.instagram.com/banoo.zan/
Vanessa Zimmer-Powell holds a BA in English literature and an MA in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her poetry has aired on the radio, has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, and she has received awards and honors for her work. Her cinepoems have been featured at ReelPoetry, Gulf Coast Film Festival, and Nature and Culture Film Festival, Copenhagen. She won an honorable mention for her cinema-poem, “Dislocation” at the 2023 REELpoetry festival. Her chapbook, Woman Looks into an Eye is published by Dancing Girl Press. Vanessa was a finalist in the 2024 Mutabilis Press chapbook contest.