Ignatius Valentine Aloysius earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University, where he teaches. He hosts and curates the popular reading series sundaysalon-chicago.com. He is the author of the literary novel Fishhead. Republic of Want (Tortoise Books), and the collaborative poetry collection, Salt Pruning (Hummingbird Poetry Press), co-authored with David Allen Sullivan. Bone Dust Mother is forthcoming on Glass Lyre Press. Ignatius has written for several zines and serves as Chair of the Curatorial Council at Ragdale Foundation, where he is also a Board of Trustees member. He lives in Evanston, Illinois. https://linktr.ee/ignatius.
Jason Anderson enjoys A24 films, ufology, EDM, Peloton (#TeamLovewell), Victor Wembanyama, female pop stars on the verge, and the collected works of Jessie Buckley. Make it make sense. He resides in Parts Unknown, Michigan—which is totally a place, and you should actively try and locate it. In his spare time, the author is a consumer defense attorney.
All appropriate inquiries are being made.
Apocalypsing by Jason Anderson is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/apocalypsing/177
Milenko (Miles) Budimir is from Cleveland, Ohio. He’s the author of two poetry chapbooks; Departures (Burning River) and Rustbelt Romance (deep cleveland). His poems have appeared in a variety of publications including most recently in the Edith Chase Symposium anthology Songs for Wild Ohio, Show us Your Papers: An Anthology (Main Street Rag), Gasconade Review, Poetrybay, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Great Lakes Review, and The Toledo Free Press, among others. His freelance writing has appeared in Balkanist and BELT. He works as a philosophy lecturer and a technical writer and editor in the Cleveland area where in his free time he likes to read, play percussion in the band Malphonia, and tend to his vegetable garden.
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Alan Catlin worked for the better part of 34 years in his unchosen profession as a barman in and around the greater Albany, NY area. He has published dozens of chapbooks and full-length books focusing on his work and the people he met while laboring in the trenches of bar warfare.
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Todd Cirillo was born of bastard lineage. He has many books and misdemeanors. His books include; Sucker’s Paradise, Burning the Evidence, ROXY, Three For the Road, Kisses From A Straight Razor. He is co-founder and editor of Six Ft. Swells Press, and his poems have appeared in numerous national and international literary journals, magazines and on cocktail napkins everywhere. Articles with his particular take on existence have been featured in various national magazines. Todd lives in New Orleans, Louisiana where he seeks out shiny moments and strange wisdom.
He can be found at www.toddcirillo.com
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Nicholas Claro holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in journals such as JMWW, Pithead Chapel, Cleaver Magazine, XRAY Lit Mag, Necessary Fiction, Hoxie Gorge Review, Write or Die Magazine, and others. He lives in Wichita, Kansas.
Nancy Patrice Davenport is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. She lives in San Mateo with three cats.
Nancy’s poems are widely published in various journals and anthologies, and have been translated into many different languages. Nancy’s “JUNE 2 RETROGRADE MINDFULNESS” poem was nominated for the 2016 Best of Net.
Nancy’s first chapbook, LA BRIZNA, was published in 2014 by Bookgirl Press. A full-length book of poems, SMOKING IN MOM’S GARAGE, was published in 2018 by Red Alice Press.
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Dan Denton is a former UAW chief steward, veteran of four dozen different factory jobs and current full time writer. His work has often been featured in magazines, union journals, and newspapers, and has been widely published amongst today’s best underground and independent writers. He is the author of the novel $100-A-Week Motel (Punk Hostage Press, 2021) and the poetry/novella hybrid Finding Jesus & Prayers To My Saints (Gutter Snob Books, 2022.) He has lived and written in Toledo, OH for the last 20 years.
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Heather Dorn was born with a plastic spork in her mouth. As a child her mother would take her to Taco Bell and let her choose 2 tacos from the 59 cent menu. Since then, she has been Taco Bell obsessed. She grew up mostly in California and Texas, so she knows Taco Bell is not really Mexican food, but she loves it the way people love their high school garage bands. Nostalgia is yummy. Heather’s poetry, fiction, essays, and art can be found in a variety of journals including The American Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Ragazine, The Kentucky Review, and more. She earned her Ph.D. in English Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton where she is a lecturer. She is also the Editor-in-Chief for Binghamton Writes, a first year writing textbook. After work she goes home to watch true crime. Her dog, Apple, barks at something invisible. Her cat, Frank, stands in front of the screen posing and blocking her view because he is a model. On the weekends, she wishes she had a washing machine.
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Aleathia Drehmer is the creator and editor of Durable Goods: The Missouri Collective which featured poetry from high school students affected by trauma. She was once the editor of In Between Altered States, co-editor of Full of Crow and Zygote in My Coffee, and art editor of Regardless of Authority. Aleathia is the author of seven chapbooks and currently has three collections of poetry available: We Don’t Get to Write the Ending (Roadside Press), Looking for Wild Things (Impspired), and Layers of Half-Sung Hymns (Cajun Mutt Press). She hosts open mic poetry readings at Card Carrying Books and Gifts in Corning, NY and had a Poetry in Play feature in May 2023 with the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes. You can follow Aleathia’s journey at www.aleathiadrehmer.com
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James H Duncan is the editor of Hobo Camp Review, a former editor at Writer’s Digest, and the author of Proper Etiquette in the Slaughterhouse Line, Both Ways Home, We Are All Terminal But This Exit Is Mine, Vacancy, Nights Without Rain, and Tributaries, among other books of poetry and fiction. He resides in upstate New York but travels widely to review indie bookstores for his blog, The Bookshop Hunter. For more of his poetry and essays, visit www.jameshduncan.com.
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Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author who lives in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage. His work has been published both in print and online in such places as: The New York Quarterly, Rusty Truck, Evergreen Review, Red Fez, Horror Sleaze Trash and The Blue Collar Review. He enjoys listening to the blues and cruising down the TransCanada in his big blacked out truck.
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Nathan Graziano lives with his wife in Manchester, New Hampshire. He is the author of ten books of poetry and fiction, and a columnist for Manchester Ink Link. For more information, visit his website: www.nathangraziano.com.
Born on Good Friday by Nathan Graziano is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/friday/146
Steven Grey is a musician, writer, and artist hailing primarily from Chicago, where he lives with his very good dog, Koda. He graduated as a film major and has worked with noteworthy writers and directors throughout the industry. Steven is the lead singer, primary creative force, and sole lyricist behind the band Shards of Grey, which led to his becoming a producer for several other musical acts. Blending these two art forms, his first album with Shards of Grey and his first book are tandem concepts that tell the same story through the lens of different mediums.
Raised in the river valleys and open fields of central Illinois, James Griffin has roamed and rambled from coast to coast and beyond. A punk rock poseur, and armchair anarchist, reaching for the roof he has landed here.
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Over the years Michael D. Grover has become a legendary underground Poet. Back in the early 2000s he ran Covert Press and worked with many of the giants of underground Poetry. Over the years Michael has been published in countless publications all over the World, and published over fifteen books of Poetry. Michael spent over ten years as head Poetry editor of the literary zine Red Fez. Michael has published two novels. Michael currently lives in Florida, dealing with cancer, with his dog where he meditates every day.
Walking Away by Michael D. Grover is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/walking/151
Photo by Paddy Fineran
Westley Heine is the author of Busking Blues: Recollections of a Chicago Street Musician and Squatter through Roadside Press (2022), a short story collection 12 Chicago Cabbies (2021), and volume of poetry The Trail of Quetzalcoatl (2016). He has featured twice at the Green Mill Poetry Slam in Uptown Chicago, and is the new host of the poetry open mic at The Gallery Cabaret in Bucktown every 4th Saturday. Most recently Roadside Press has released his new poetry collection entitled Street Corner Spirits, audio excerpts of which are now available on most streaming services under the same title.
He’s been a taxi dispatcher, a roadie, a deliveryman, a squatter, a street musician, a grocery clerk, a chambermaid, a novelist, a painter, a metal head, a Boy Scout, an insurance investigator, a jailbird, a farmhand, sold tickets to the symphony, sold plasma, been unemployed, and been a filmmaker. Life is always creating new characters inside him, but always a writer. He’s rambled from Wisconsin, to Chicago, Europe, Texas, Mexico, California, and everywhere in between. Let in the light. Let out the fire. Instagram: @westleyheine
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Leon Horton is a countercultural essayist, interviewer and editor from the UK. His writing, often described as “not quite what we’re looking for,” has been published by Beatdom Books, International Times, Beat Scene and numerous websites. His greatest achievements include being described by a Manchester police officer as “the infamous Mr Horton” and being kissed and told to “fuck off” by Mark R. Smith, legendary lead singer of The Fall.
Gregory Corso: Ten Times a Poet, Edited by Leon Horton is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/corso/165
Lori Jakiela is the author of seven books, most recently a memoir, They Write Your Name on a Grain of Rice: On Cancer, Love, and Living Even So (Atticus Books). Another memoir, Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (Autumn House Press), received the Saroyan Prize for International Literature from Stanford University. Lori’s essay collection, Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker: On Work and the Writing Life (Bottom Dog Press), has been adopted as a common text at Westmoreland Community College for the past two years. Many of the essays in All Skate: True Stories from Middle Life have been published in places like Pittsburgh Magazine, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Washington Post, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Journal of the Plague Years, Pulse, and more. My other work has appeared in The New York Times/Modern Love column, The Chicago Tribune, Brevity/Creative Nonfiction, Full Grown People, The Rumpus, and more. Her author website is http://lorijakiela.net.
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Jennifer Juneau is the author of the novel ÜberChef USA (Spork Press, 2019) and the full-length poetry collection More Than Moon (Is a Rose Press, 2020) which was a finalist in the National Poetry Series. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous magazines such as the Cimarron Review, Cincinnati Review, Columbia Journal, Passages North, Rattle, Seattle Review and others. She lives and writes in New York City, and is the curator of a literary series, The Phoenix Poetry Open Mic, Monday evenings in Union Square.
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Karl Koweski is a displaced Region Rat now living in rural Alabama. He writes when his pen allows it. He’s a husband to a lovely wife and father to some fantastic kids. He collects pop culture ephemera. On most days he prefers Flash Gordon to Luke Skywalker and Neil Diamond to Elvis Presley.
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Jen McConnell has published prose and poetry in more than forty literary magazines and her work has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. Recent short stories and flash fiction can be found in The Good Life Review, Burningword, Does it Have Pockets?, Bridge Eight and more. Her first story collection, Welcome, Anybody, was published by Press 53. She holds an MFA from Goddard College. A California native, she’s lived in the Midwest long enough that she should be used to the winters by now.
Catfish McDaris has been in many magazines, books, and broadsides. He’s a 30-year small press and 3-year Army artillery veteran, from Albuquerque and Milwaukee. He works in a wig store in a dangerous neighborhood. Second day on the job, a lady dropped her purse and a loaded 357 rolled out on the floor, pointed at him. He was nominated for a 2021 Pulitzer Prize but didn’t make the final cut.
Prying by Jack Micheline, Charles Bukowski & Catfish McDaris is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/prying/71
Steven Meloan’s writing has been seen in Wired, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles, BUZZ, the San Francisco Chronicle, and SF Weekly. His fiction has appeared in SOMA Magazine, the Sonoma Valley Sun, Lummox Press, and Newington Blue Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, and other Bay Area literary events. He has regularly written for the Huffington Post, and is co-author of the novel The Shroud with his brother Michael. He is a recovered software programmer, and was a street busker in London, Paris, and Berlin.
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Susan Ward Mickelberry, born in Miami during WWII, has lived around the continental US and in Africa, where she spent several childhood years in Asmara, Eritrea, an event that colored her life. She earned an MA in English Literature from the University of Florida and lives with her cats in Gainesville where she worked as an editor and writer at UF. A lifelong student of ballet and dance, she teaches yoga and participates in regional poetry readings and events, including PoJam, the longest running open mic in Florida. Her poem The Conversation was Finalist in the Florida Poetry Contest at University of Central Florida. Other poems appear in Blue Moon Review, Greensboro Review, Florida Quarterly, The Melrose Poetry Anthology, This is Poetry, Volume IV: Poets of the South, AC PAPA No. 3, and others.
And Blackberries Grew Wild by Susan Ward Mickelberry is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/blackberries/155
Shawn Misener lives and writes in Michigan. Since 2007 he has had over 250 stories and poems published, both in print and online. He is currently finishing work on his first novel.
Dave Newman is the author of nine books, including the story collection She Throws Herself Forward to Stop the Fall (Roadside Press, 2024) and How to Live Like Li Po in Pittsburgh: essays from a writing life (J.New Books, 2024). His collection The Slaughterhouse Poems (White Gorilla Press, 2013) was named one of the best books of the year by L Magazine. He was a finalist for the Rattle Poetry Prize and won the Readers’ Choice Award in 2024. His poems, essays, and stories have appeared in magazines and journals around the world, including Ambit (U.K.), Tears In The Fence (U.K.), Gulf Stream, Belt, and the legendary Nerve Cowboy. He appeared in the PBS documentary narrated by Rick Sebak about Pittsburgh writers. Winner of numerous awards, including the Andre Dubus Novella Prize, he lives in Trafford, PA, the last town in the Electric Valley, with his wife, the writer Lori Jakiela. After a decade of working in medical research, he currently teaches in the Creative and Professional Writing Program at The University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg, his alma mater.
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Josh Olsen is a librarian, a columnist for SlamWrestling,net, and the co-creator of Gimmick Press, an independent micro publisher of pop culture inspired literature and art.
Things You Never Knew Existed (essays) by Josh Olsen is available at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/existed/173
John Pietaro is a writer, poet, spoken word artist and musician from Brooklyn, NY. Pietaro’s upcoming Roadside Press collection, Innocent Postcards: Poetry, Ciphers, Verse, follows earlier poetry publications A Bleeding in Black Leather (Uncollected Press), The Mercer Stands Burning: Night Poems (Atmosphere Press), Smoke Rings, and neo-proletarian fiction set Night People & Other Tales of Working New York. Pietaro also contributed a chapter to Paul Buhle/Harvey Pekar’s SDS: A Graphic History (Hill & Wang), multiple entries for the forthcoming edition of The Encyclopedia of the American Left (Verso), and works in numerous international anthologies and journals. He’s currently deep into his first novel Of Seconds and Shadows. Pietaro’s arts journalism has been seen in The NYC Jazz Record, PleaseKillMe, The Wire (UK), Z, Sensitive Skin, AllAboutJazz, The Nation, The Village Sun, Counter Punch, People’s World, TruthOut and others. Pietaro co-hosts radio show ‘Beneath the Underground’ (WFMU.org), and fronts poetry/punk jazz ensemble the Red Microphone, recording artists of ESP-Disk. http://JohnPietaro
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Christy Prahl (she/her) is an Illinois Arts Council grant recipient and the author of the poetry collections We Are Reckless (Cornerstone Press, 2023) and Catalog of Labors (Unsolicited Press, forthcoming 2026). A Best of the Net and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has been featured in Poetry Daily as well as many national and international journals, including the Asheville Poetry Review, CALYX, Louisville Review, Sugar House Review, Salt Hill Journal, Penn Review, Tar River Poetry, and others. She splits her time between a small workers’ cottage in Chicago and refurbished Quonset hut in rural southwest Michigan. More at https://christyprahl.wixsite.
A former collegiate offensive lineman and football coach for 26 years, Dan Provost’s poetry has been published both online and in print since 1993. He is the author of 14 books/chapbooks. His latest, Foundations of Cheap Penance, was released by DeadMansPressInk in November 2021. He has been twice nominated for The Best of the Web and has read his poetry throughout the United States. He lives in Berlin, New Hampshire with his wife Laura, and dog Bella.
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Misti Rainwater-Lites shuffles cards wearing fake fingernails and Party City wigs for a living. She writes books and creates art and sings karaoke to get through this thing called life in San Antonio, Texas.
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Shaun Rouser is a writer based in Chicago. His chapbook collection of short stories, Family Affair, was published by Red Bird Chapbooks, and more of his fiction has appeared in Colloquium, RIC Journal, The Rupture, and deLuge Journal. His one-act play, American Meat, was published in Fleas on the Dog. He previously co-founded and served as co-editor-in-chief of online arts and humanities journal The Blackstone Review, where he also contributed fiction and non-fiction.
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Lauren Scharhag (she/her) is a queer, disabled author of Latine descent, and a senior editor at Gleam. To date, her work includes poetry, horror, science-fiction, fantasy, children’s books, and literary fiction. She hopes to add to the list. She is extensively published in literary venues around the world. Recent honors include: 2023 Rhysling Award Finalist, 2022 SFFP Speculative Poetry Contest (Honorable Mention), 2021 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest (Finalist), and the 2019 Seamus Burns Creative Writing Prize (Winner). Her work has also received multiple Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and Rhysling Award nominations. Her latest poetry collection, Moonlight and Monsters, is now available from Gnashing Teeth Publishing. A short story collection, Screaming Intensifies, is forthcoming from Whiskey City Press. She lives in Kansas City, MO. https://linktr.ee/
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Danny Shot’s WORKS was published in 2018 and his new collection The Jersey Slide will make its debut in 2025 also from CavanKerry Press. Recent endeavors include being an Associate Editor of A Gathering of the Tribes (2020-2023) and Poetry Editor of Red Fez (2018-2021). He was featured on the television show State of the Arts, NJ on the occasion of his book party for WORKS. Danny is a New Generation Beat Poet Laureate (2024 – Lifetime). Danny Shot was longtime publisher and editor of Long Shot arts and literary magazine, which he founded along with Eliot Katz in 1982 in New Brunswick, NJ. Check out his website: dannyshot.com
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Belinda Subraman did not go to kindergarten and did not know her ABCs when she started school. Compounded with dyslexia and punishment for being left-handed she had a hard time learning to read and write. Eventually though, writing became her best friend and still is today. Her first publication was in college and that gave her the encouragement to keep writing and submitting to various publications listed in the Writer’s Digest. One of her more notable early publications was a two page spread in Youth Times of India, edited by Kamala Das. Since then she’s been published in hundreds of zines both in print and online. In 2020 Belinda began an online show called GAS: Poetry, Art and Music which features interviews, readings, performances and art show in a video format available free on Belinda Subraman’s YouTube channel. She also runs a GAS Facebook group and GAS literary journal.
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David Allen Sullivan is the former poet laureate of Santa Cruz County, CA. He has published seven books, including the recent Salt Pruning, a co-authored collection of poems with Ignatius Valentine Aloysius (Hummingbird Poetry Press). Seed Shell Ash is forthcoming from Salmon Press, as well as Light Thief, from Glass Lyre Press. He teaches at Cabrillo College, where he edits the Porter Gulch Review with his students, lives in Santa Cruz with his family, and his website is: https://dasulliv1.wixsite.com/
William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in San Francisco. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, and a volume of fiction. His work has been published widely in journals across the globe, including Rattle, The New York Quarterly, and The Chiron Review. He was a recipient of the 2013 Kathy Acker Award, and edited Cocky Moon: Selected Poems of Jack Micheline (Zeitgeist Press, 2014). Pretty Things to Say, (Six Ft. Swells Press, 2020) is his latest collection of poetry.
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Ohio born and raised, Kerry Trautman is a founder of ToledoPoet.com and the “Toledo Poetry Museum” page on Facebook, which promote Northwest Ohio poetry. Her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies and journals, including Slippery Elm, Free State Review, Mock Turtle Zine, Paper & Ink, Disappointed Housewife, Limp Wrist, Midwestern Gothic, and Gasconade Review. Kerry’s books are Things That Come in Boxes (King Craft Press 2012,) To Have Hoped (Finishing Line Press 2015,) Artifacts (NightBallet Press 2017,) To be Nonchalantly Alive (Kelsay Books 2020,) and Marilyn: Self-Portrait, Oil on Canvas (Gutter Snob Books 2022.)
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Fredericton Poet Laureate Jordan Trethewey lives in Fredericton with his wife, son, and daughter. Jordan writes poetry, drama, children’s literature, historical and short fiction. His writing appears in national and international journals…and in a lunar capsule on the Moon. He is an editor at the on-line literary journal Open Arts Forum. Some of his work is also translated in Vietnamese, Farsi, and French. Jordan’s recent books, “Spirits for Sale” (2019), and “Unexpected Mergers” (2021) are collaborations with Dutch artist Marcel Herms, and are available at AMAZON.com.
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Richard Vargas earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin, and Richard Lee. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Vargas received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010, where he workshopped his poems with Joy Harjo. He was recipient of the 2011 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference Hispanic Writer Award. He was on the faculties of the 2012 10th National Latino Writers Conference and the 2015 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. Published collections: McLife, 2005; American Jesus, 2007; Guernica, revisited, 2014; How A Civilization Begins, 2022, and a fifth book, leaving a tip at the Blue Moon Motel, published by Casa Urraca Press in 2023. He currently is host of a monthly poetry open mic in Madison (Poetry on Tap, Minocqua Brewing Company: “drink beer and don’t be racist.”) He resides in Wisconsin, near the lake where Otis Redding’s plane crashed.
a Matthew Hupert photo
George Wallace is Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, first poet laureate of Suffolk County, LI NY and author of 40 books and chapbooks of poetry, published in the US, UK, Italy, Macedonia and India. A prominent figure on the NYC poetry performance scene, he travels internationally to perform, lead writing workshops, and lecture on literary topics. A former student of W.D. Snodgrass (BA, Syracuse U) and Marvin Bell (MFA, Pacific U), he teaches writing at Pace University (NYC), and has done research residencies at Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC. He has worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer, health care administrator, community organizer, community journalist, active duty medical military officer and local historian. His work is collected at the Special Sections Collection, LI Studies Institute, Hofstra University. George is editor of Poetrybay.com, co-editor of Great Weather for Media, and editor of Long Island Quarterly and “Walt’s Corner,” a weekly poetry column in The Long Islander, a community newspaper founded by Walt Whitman in 1838. He is editor of the 2022 Blue Light Press Anthology FROM THE INSIDE: NYC through the eyes of the poets who live here.
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Author photo by Mark Strodl
Francine Witte‘s poetry and flash fiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, Her latest flash fiction collection is Just Outside the Tunnel of Love (Blue Light Press) and her poetry collection Some Distant Pin of Light (Cervena Barva Press) is forthcoming in late 2024. She is the flash fiction editor for South Florida Poetry Journal and for Flash Boulevard. She lives in NYC. Francinewitte.com
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Author of one full-length poetry collection and four poetry chapbooks, Hiromi Yoshida is a finalist for the New Women’s Voices Poetry Prize, and a semifinalist for the Gerald Cable Book Award. While serving as a poetry reader for Flying Island Journal, and as secretary of the Writers Guild at Bloomington, she coordinates the Guild’s Last Sunday Poetry reading series.
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Scot Young herds goats with the Sweetheart of the Rodeo on a Missouri ridge top farm. He is a retired construction worker and a retired school superintendent. He has taught from 9th grade to graduate school. His first full length book All Around Cowboy (2021) was followed by American Haiku (2023).
Author may be contacted at scotdyoung@gmail.com.
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