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Heidi Payne recently graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.A. in English-Creative Writing. She enjoys writing poetry, short stories, novels, and the occasional picture book about a pet tarantula. Her work appears in MoonPark Review.
Jim Hanson is a retired Senior Researcher at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He is a sociologist and lay-ordinate Zen Buddhist. He is a member of the St. Louis Poetry Center and lives in the St. Louis area. His chapbook was published by Flutter Press in October 2019 and titled Anthropic Musings: Poems on Human Survival in the Coming Extinction. Recent single poems have appeared in Dissident Voice, I am not a silent poet, International Journal of Fear Studies, Nebo, Nightingale and Sparrow, New Verse News, Otolith, Poetry24, River Poets Journal, Sacred Journey, Writers Resist.
Co-winner of Reed Magazine‘s Edwin Markham Prize (2019), Jeanne Julian is the author of Like the O in Hope and two chapbooks. Her poems appear in Poetry Quarterly, Lascaux Prize 2016 Anthology, Minerva Rising and other journals and have won awards from The Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, and the North Carolina Poetry Society. www.jeannejulian.com
Despy Boutris‘s work is published or forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Southern Indiana Review, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, The Adroit Journal, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Currently, she teaches at the University of Houston, works as Assistant Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The West Review.
Cooper Kalamat writes about the underside of contemporary millennial life. Imagine a house party in a Sally Rooney novel that gets gatecrashed by some kids from Bread Gang. He currently lives in his hometown of Bournemouth in the UK.
Kim Welliver lives in Utah. Her work has won awards, including first place for her collection of poems Thriving. She has been published in print and online publications, including Rock & Sling, Mid-American Review, Night Picnic, Sidereal, Healing Muse, Corvid Queen, Progenitor, Palette, Duende, Fairy Tale Review Ochre Anthology, and others.
J.S. Absher’s first full-length book, Mouth Work, won the 2015 Lena Shull Book Competition sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society and was published by St. Andrews University Press. Previous chapbooks are Night Weather (Cynosura Press, 2010) and The Burial of Anyce Shepherd (Main Street Rag, 2006). His work has been published in approximately 50 journals and anthologies, including Third Wednesday, Visions International, North Carolina Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, and Dialogue. Absher recently won the Clint Larson Poetry Prize from BYU Studies Quarterly. He lives with his wife, Patti, in Raleigh, NC.
Matthew Leger is an aspiring poet and graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the winner of the 2020 Andrew Julius Gutow Academy of American Poets Prize. He’s edited and published in student literary journals including Hothouse and Unbound. When he’s not writing poetry, he’s likely to be found holed away in his bedroom recording music; his debut album, The Way We Were, is set to be released on Z Tapes April 16th.
Poet Shahé Mankerian is the principal of St. Gregory Hovsepian School and the poetry co-editor at Rockvale Review. His debut poetry collection, History of Forgetfulness, will be published by Fly on the Wall Press in October of 2021.
Samantha Steiner (she/her/hers) is a Fulbright Scholar and visual artist. Her writing has been awarded Best Microfiction 2021 and nominated for Best of the Net and Best Small Fictions. She was selected as the Featured Fiction Writer for Lammergeier Magazine’s Winter 2020 issue for “Pinky Monster,” a story she wrote and illustrated. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @Steiner_Reads.
Domnica Radulescu is a Romanian American writer and playwright that lives, functions and creates in the hyphenated spaces between several cultures and languages. She has published three critically acclaimed novels, Train to Trieste, Black Sea Twilight, Country of Red Azaleas. Train to Trieste was published in thirteen languages and received the 2009 Library of Virginia Best Fiction Award. Two of her plays, Exile Is My Home and The Town with Very Nice People received second prizes from the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. She is twice a Fulbright scholar and holds a PhD in French and Italian literature from the University of Chicago.
Christopher Woods lives in Chappell Hill, Texas. He has published a novel, THE DREAM PATCH, a prose collection, UNDER A RIVERBED SKY, and a book of stage monologues for actors, HEART SPEAK. His work has appeared in many journals including THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, NEW ORLEANS REVIEW and GLIMMER TRAIN. His book of photography prompts for writers, FROM VISION TO TEXT, is forthcoming from PROPERTIUS PRESS. His novella, HEARTS IN THE DARK, was just published by RUNNING WILD PRESS.
G. Michael Smith has a BA in Psychology, English and Creative Writing and a professional teaching degree from the University of British Columbia. He has a Masters of Arts degree from San Diego State University. He has written four science fiction novels in The Forevers series all featuring a young female protagonist; mid-grade novel titled Hijacked – A Beechwood Adventure; written and illustrated three children’s books titled The Accidental Adventures of Bernie the Banana Slug, Lily Liar and the Eleventy Headed Monster and Tiny Tina and the Terrible Trouble. His website is https://gmsmithbooks.ca.
M.S. Gardner has perfected her impersonation of a normal human being enough to fool the locals and hold a job as a reference librarian at the community college. While her physical body resides on the Gulf Coast, she mostly lives in her head. Her work has appeared in the Strangelet Journal, and in the online magazines Altarworks, Hypnopomp, and Page & Spine.
Paul Lewellan lives and gardens in Davenport, Iowa, on the banks of the Mississippi River. He’s sheltering in place with his wife Pamela, his Shi Tzu Mannie, and their ginger tabby Sunny. He keeps a safe social distance from everyone else. He’s recently had work published in Passengers Journal, The Athena Review, October Hill, Kalopsia Literary Journal, and White Wall Review.