Josh Ackerman is a poet based in San Francisco. He has published poems in several small presses and is working on his first manuscript to be published in 2020. Twitter: @JoshuaAckerman.
Justin Alcala is a novelist and nerdologist. He’s the author of the novels Consumed, (BLK Dog Publishing) The Devil in the Wide City (Solstice Publishing) and Dim Fairytales (AllThingsThatMatterPress). His short stories have been featured in magazines and anthologies, including “It Dances Now” (Crimson Street Magazine), “The Offering” (Rogue Planet Press), and “The Lantern Quietly Screams” (Castabout Literature). Justin currently resides with his dark queen, Mallory, their malevolent daughter, Lily, their hound of Valhalla, Fenrir, and their hellcat, Misery. Where his mind might be though is anyone’s guess.
A. S. Arcilesi After spending a decade penning an eclectic bibliography of award-winning short and feature-length screenplays, Alfredo decided to revisit a childhood dream: to share stories by way of short-form and novel-length prose. His work explores the lives of everyday people, oftentimes living with mental illness, coping with physical and mental isolation, or simply consumed by self-reflection and self-doubt, all of whom must confront themselves and the world around them in real and surreal settings. Currently, Alfredo’s work is enjoying stays in Raconteur Literary Magazine and Scrittura Magazine.
Cindy Bousquet Harris is a poet, photographer, licensed marriage and family therapist, and editor. Her photographs were displayed, and she lead a poetry workshop, at Riverside Community Arts Association. Cindy’s poems are in Nostos, Pomona Valley Review, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, and several anthologies. Her book manuscript, Ice in Heaven, was a finalist for the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk Prize. She lives in Southern California’s Inland Empire with her husband and their children.
David Breeden earned an MFA degree from The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, a PhD from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, and a Master of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School. He has published several books of poetry, translations, and essays.
David J. Carlson is Professor and Chair of the English Department at CSUSB, where he researches and publishes mostly in the area of Native American/Indigenous Studies. His teaching encompasses American Literature (broadly), poetry, science fiction, and critical theory. He is also founding co-editor of Transmotion (an online, open access journal of indigenous studies hosted by the University of Kent), as well as a (very amateur) painter, working primarily in watercolor. He lives in Highland, CA with his wife and daughter.
Logan Chace received an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Hollins University, and he currently teaches English and Creative Writing to high school students in Northeastern Pennsylvania. His poems and reviews have previously been published in such magazines as Versal Magazine, The Meadow, Plain Spoke, THAT Literary Review, The Bookends Review, Buddy, Cargoes, and The Hollins Critic.
J.P. Check lives in New York for graduate school, but North Alabama is home. His paintings are mixed media works combining acrylic paint and handmade paper that his dad makes back in Alabama. Most of his art, Check would say, depicts the people and places he loves.
Daniel Ciochina was born in Portland, Oregon, a member of the first generation of his family to be born in the United States. He enjoys exploring South America, Europe, and the States as well as surveying the characteristics of society, people, objects, and their relations between each other. With this in mind, he creates objects and pieces that embody these ideas, making one question or reflect their own stance within a given space or realm of thought.
Caroline Cottom, PhD, is the former director of the U.S. Test Ban Coalition that helped bring an end to nuclear testing in the Nevada desert. Her poetry has appeared in Silk Road, Mandela Journal, Pennsylvania English, Glassworks, Broad River Review, and Serving House Journal, among others. Her personal essays have won national and international awards. She has lived in Southern California, as well as Thailand, Fiji, Ecuador, and Mexico, and now makes her home in West Tennessee near Reelfoot Lake, among great blue herons and snowy egrets.
Daniel Deisinger lives in Minnesota, and writes for work and fun. His work has appeared in a dozen publications, including Castabout Literature, Defenestration Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Ripples in Space, Coffin Bell Journal, and The Book Smuggler’s Den. His twitter is @Danny_Deisinger, and his website is saturdaystory-time.weebly.com.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s essays and fiction have seen print in USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series, Cutbank, Belle Ombre, Los Angeles Review of Books, Author’s Guild Bulletin, and Poets & Writers. She’s editor of the upcoming Palm Springs Noir (Akashic, TBP late 2020/early 2021). She hosts Writers on Writing on KUCI-FM Wednesday mornings at 9:00 (also podcast on iTunes). Her book, Pen on Fire (Harcourt), was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. More at penonfire.com.
Tyler Dunning grew up in southwestern Montana, having developed a feral curiosity and reflective personality at a young age. This mindset has led him around the world, to nearly all of the U.S. national parks, and to the darker recesses of his own creativity. He’s dabbled in such occupations as professional wrestling, archaeology, social justice advocacy, and academia. At his core he is a writer. Find his work at tylerdunning.com.
Paula Eglevsky lives and writes on the East End of Long Island, New York. She believes that learning is a lifelong process, involving a lot of reading, walking, and chocolate.
Amin Esmaielpour was born in Tehran, Iran. He holds an MFA in poetry and an MA in American and New England studies from the University of Southern Maine. He has been writing poetry and comics in exile for the past eight years. The poem “Deportee” is from his larger collection titled Aga Ayatollah Lives on Pasteur Street.
Marco Etheridge lives and writes in Vienna, Austria. Marco’s short fiction has been featured at Literally Stories, Dime Show Review, Five on the Fifth, Storgy Magazine, Castabout Art & Literature, Manzano Mountain Review, and Every Day Fiction. Marco’s third novel, Breaking the Bundles, is now available at fine online booksellers world-wide. His website is at Marco Etheridge Fiction. Facebook Author Page.
Federico Federici‘s work has appeared in several print and online magazines and journals, including 3:AM Magazine, Jahrbuch Der Lyrik 2019, Raum, Sand, Trafika Europe, Magma, and others.
Shasta Fox is a mixed media artist, writer, and photographer. She lives with her husband on the Big Island of Hawaii. Shasta spent most of the year 2014 traveling around the world and collecting photographs of her experiences. She enjoys expressing herself with still life black and white photography. Shasta Fox has had her work exhibited at galleries in the California Bay Area and Tucson, Arizona.
Matthew James Friday has had many poems published in numerous international magazines and journals, including, recently: All the Sins (UK), The Ear (USA), Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal (USA) , and the Waterford Teachers’ Centre (Ireland). The mini-chapbooks All the Ways to Love, Waters of Oregon and The Words Unsaid were published by the Origami Poems Project (USA). Website: http://matthewfriday.weebly.com/
Lucia Galloway’s collection, Some Words for Meanwhile (FutureCycle, 2019) joins her earlier books, Venus and Other Losses (2010), The Garlic Peelers (2014 winner of the Quill’s Edge Press chapbook competition), and her chapbook Playing Outside (2005). Recent work appears in Mid-American Review, Nimrod, Sow’s Ear, Tar River, Nourish, and Moria. Galloway lives in Claremont, California and co-hosts “Fourth Sundays,” a popular poetry reading series sponsored by Friends of the Claremont Library.
Nick Gardner is currently enrolled in the MFA fiction writing program at Bowling Green State University. His poetry and fiction have appeared in various publications. His book of poetry, So Marvelously Far, is forthcoming through Crisis Chronicles Press. He lives in Mansfield and Bowling Green, Ohio.
Rich Glinnen is a market researcher by day and a writer by night. He enjoys bowling and eating gruyere with his cats at his home in Bayside, New York. He was nominated for the 2017 Best of the Net Anthology. His work can be read in Kenneth Warren’s Lakewood House Organ, at foliateoak.com, petrichormag.com, underwoodpress.com/ruescribe and richglinnen.tumblr.com. His wife calls him Taco.
Rebecca Ruth Gould is the author of the poetry collection Cityscapes (Alien Buddha Press, 2019) and the award-winning monograph Writers & Rebels (Yale University Press). She has translated many books from Persian and Georgian, including After Tomorrow the Days Disappear: Ghazals and Other Poems of Hasan Sijzi of Delhi (Northwestern University Press, 2016) and The Death of Bagrat Zakharych and other Stories by Vazha-Pshavela (Paper & Ink, 2019). A Pushcart Prize nominee, she was a finalist for the Luminaire Award for Best Poetry (2017) and for Lunch Ticket’s Gabo Prize (2017).
Joseph Hardy is one of a handful of writers that lives in Nashville, Tennessee but does not play a musical instrument; although a friend once asked that he bring his harmonica on a camping trip, so they could throw it in the fire. His wife says he cannot leave a room without finding out something about everyone in it, and telling her their stories later. He has a BS degree in psychology from Stanford University. His work has been published in Waving Hands Review and is forthcoming in Gyroscope, and Crack the Spine Literary Magazine.
Stephen Linsteadt is an artist, writer, and poet. His creative work is an ongoing exploration into the study of Cosmology, Alchemy, and the archetypal symbolism of mythology. He is a published poet and has published articles on health, consciousness, and emotional well-being in various magazines. Stephen is the author of the nonfiction books Scalar Heart Connection, The Heart of the Hero, and the poetry collection The Beauty of Curved Space (Glass Lyre Press).
Nick Locke is a Chicago boy, born and raised. For money and purpose, he returned to his high school to teach 8th and 9th grade English. He has multiple short stories published by the Garland Court Review and Haunted MTL. He writes to discover the beauty in the mundane, elaborate, and horrifying. Personally, Nick hoops twice a week, mixes crafty cocktails, and spends the rest of his time with his amazing, supportive friends.
Corbin Louis is a poet and performer from Seattle Washington. He is a
recording artist and MFA graduate at University of Washington Bothell.
Corbin’s work has previously been featured in Best American Experimental
Writing, Santa Ana Review, Atticus Review, The Visible Verse Film Festival,
and others. The author seeks to open up dialogues of addiction and mental
illness. Ink becomes war call and empathy. Salt water and whispers. The
poet lives.
Jenean McBrearty is a graduate of San Diego State University, who taught political science and sociology. Her fiction, poetry, and photographs have been published in over two-hundred print and online journals. Her how-to book, Writing Beyond the Self: How to Write Creative Non-fiction that Gets Published, was published by Vine Leaves Press in 2018. She won the Eastern Kentucky English Department Award for Graduate Creative Nonfiction in 2011, and a Silver Pen Award in 2015 for her noir short story: “Red’s Not Your Color.” She lives in Kentucky and writes full time–when she’s not watching classic movies and eating chocolate.
Leah Oates has a BFA from the RISD and a MFA from SAIC and is a Fulbright Fellow for graduate study at Edinburgh College of Art. Oates has had solo shows at the Brooklyn Public Library, Susan Eley Fine Art, and at the MTA Lightbox Project. Oates had a solo show at Black Cat Artspace and group shows at the Gladstone Hotel and Arta Gallery and has a solo show at Wychwood Barns Gallery, Toronto.
Alena Podobed is an author from Russia. Her most recent poems have appeared Curating Alexandria, The Paragon Press, Metafore Magazine, Spectrum Literary Journal, and MEOW MEOW POW POW.
Phill Provance is the author the forthcoming poetry collection A Plan in Case of Morning (Vine Leaves Press, 2020) as well as of the poetry chapbook The Day the Sun Rolled Out of the Sky (Cy Gist, 2010), the comic strip The Adventures of Ace Hoyle (MediaTier 2008-20010), and the histories A Brief History of Woodbridge, New Jersey (The History Press, 2019) and Post Cards of McHenry County, Illinois (Arcadia 2021). His poetry and prose have appeared in numerous publications, including The Baltimore Sun, the Crab Creek Review, Third Wednesday, and many others. A graduate of WV Wesleyan’s MFA program with a dual concentration in poetry and fiction, he previously studied literature at Bethany College and Oxford University.
Kristin Bryant Rajan, PhD in English, writes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary criticism in Atlanta, Georgia. She is widely published in literary/creative writing journals as well as anthologies and is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. She teaches English at Kennesaw State University, facilities happiness workshops, and teaches spin classes. Her writing, research, and teaching are extensions of her daily meditation practice, illuminating the gifts in each moment.
Grethel Ramos is a Cuban journalist, writer, poet, thinker, photographer, and accountant. Her work has appeared in several publications, which include South Florida Poetry Journal, Burningword Literary Journal, The Satirist, Singapore Unbound, and more. She earned a spot in the MFA program “The New Writers Project,” at the University of Texas in Austin, but was kicked out of the program when she refused to give misleading information to her students.
Linda Rhoades and her neurotic rescue mutt Chloe roam their neighborhood morning, noon and night. If the light is right and the colors pop, she tries to capture the image on her iPhone X. She tweets at @lifellkillya.
Cindy Rinne creates art and writes in San Bernardino, California. She was the Poet in Residence for the Neutra Institute Gallery and Museum. Cindy is the author of several books: Letters Under Rock (Elyssar Press), Moon of Many Petals (Cholla Needles Press), Listen to the Codex (Yak Press), and others. Her poetry appeared or is forthcoming in: Anti-Heroin Chic, Unpsychology Magazine, MORIA, Verse of Silence, several anthologies, and others. www.fiberverse.com.
Adam “Bucho” Rodenberger is a surrealist writer from Kansas City with degrees in English, Philosophy, Political Science, and an MFA in Writing. He has two books out: Scaring the Stars into Submission and The Machinery of the Heart: Love Stories. He has been published in Glint Literary Journal, L’allures des Mots, Marathon Literary Review, New Dead Families, Phoebe, Serving House Journal, The Seventh Wave, Sheepshead Review, Slice Magazine, and many others. He blogs at:
http://buchorodenberger.blogspot.com.
Jordan Rodriguez teaches English at San Leandro High School and is completing an MA in English at California State University, East Bay. He is interested in exploring eco-poetics, our complicity in environmental degradation in the Anthropocene, and reconciling his proclivity to project “the soul” onto nature. Jordan hails from Riverside, California.
M. Russek is currently a grad student at UWF and has been featured in Meat for Tea Review, Typishly, The William and Mary Review, Sonder Midwest, HCE Review, Montana Mouthful, and Third Street Writers, among others. There is always opportunity for expressing art and M. is an avid artist for many mediums (drawings, writings, photography). Founder of This: A Review and former Senior Poetry Editor at The Missing Slate, M. can be found reading poetry for Helen Magazine.
Richard C Rutherford raised cattle at the edge of the desert for thirty-seven years. He was a cattle brand Inspector for the State of California. He has daughters, so he’s a feminist. He supports local bookstores and community gardens. He has been previously published in Catamaran, Hypertext, The Writing Disorder, Fiction Southeast, Stone Coast Review, El Portal, and several other fine literary magazines.
Madeline Schaeffer is a sophomore at Union College who is currently studying English and Psychology. She is working on her first novel.
Artist Marysia Schultz paints a world that is familiar yet dreamlike, one we are so close to touching but can’t quite reach. The paintings play with color, scale, and reflections to draw you into a tranquil space where dice are big enough to prop up ships, and clothes are strung on power lines. Schultz recently completed murals in both Italy and Croatia, and the Vilarcangel artist residency in Spain. Her art has been shown at Four Eleven Gallery and DNA Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts; Hotel Chelsea, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Public Library all in New York; and Macaya Gallery in Miami. The artist maintains a studio in Brooklyn, New York.
Adam Schwartz is a student at the University of California Riverside, majoring in Creative Writing. He has been published twice for poetry and short stories in the Riverside City College MUSE journal. He was born in Los Angeles but has resided in the Inland Empire for the majority of his life. He plans on pursuing his Master’s in Creative Writing following his bachelor’s.
Marsha Solomon, whose paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally, has been the subject of seven solo exhibitions. Her work has been frequently reviewed in newspapers and magazines. Solomon’s training in abstraction has given her a unique approach in composing her still-life paintings, which find inspiration in sources as diverse as Japanese prints and Matisse and Cezanne, but display her unique sensitivity to the relationships of movement and color.
Becca Spence Dobias lives in Southern California where she writes frantically as her children sleep. She is the Project Manager for WritingBloc.com and her first novel is currently in production with Inkshares.
kris tammer is an escape artist from melbourne australia currently working on their latest trick – how to escape the dark triad of mind/body/country without leaving.
Maciej Toporowicz is a multimedia artist based in Brooklyn and Grahamsville, New York. He was born in Poland and came to the United States as a political refugee in 1985. His work has been presented in many shows including Lombard Freid Fine Arts, Galeria Camargo Vilaca, Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College, The Jewish Museum, Museo D’Arte Moderne, The Bronx Museum of Arts, P.S.1 Museum, 57th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and others.
Georgette Unis is the author of Tremors, a chapbook of poems (Finishing Line Press, 2018.) Her poetry has also been published in several literary journals including San Pedro River Review, Muddy River Poetry Review and Southwestern American Literature. Her paintings and ceramic sculptures have appeared in multiple solo and group exhibitions, some of which included broadsides of her poems. Her love of the Eastern Sierras, deserts and urban gardens influence her visual and literary work.
Charles Venable is a storyteller from the Southeastern United States with a love of nature and a passion for writing. He believes stories and poems are about getting there, not being there, and he enjoys those tales that take their time getting to the point.
Sherre Vernon is an educator, a poet, and a seeker of a mystical grammar. She has written two award-winning chapbooks: Green Ink Wings, her postmodern novella, and The Name is Perilous, a collection of spiritual poetry. Sherre is a 2019 recipient of the Parent-Writer Fellowship to Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and served as the fiction editor for Fickle Muses during its final season. Readers have described Sherre’s work as heartbreaking, richly layered, lyrical, and intelligent.
Maria Fernanda Vidaurrazaga is a Southern California native, currently living in the Los Angeles area. She is an emerging writer and MFA candidate at the University of California, Riverside.
Sally Zakariya’s poetry has appeared in some 75 print and online journals and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her most recent publication is The Unknowable Mystery of Other People (Poetry Box, 2019). She is also the author of Personal Astronomy, When You Escape, Insectomania, and Arithmetic and other verses, as well as the editor of a poetry anthology, Joys of the Table. Zakariya blogs at www.butdoesitrhyme.com.
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 