Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2013) Contributors

Guest Editor:

Marc Schuster is the author of The Grievers (The Permanent Press, 2012) and The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl (The Permanent Press, 2011).  He is the editor of Small Press Reviews and a contributing editor for Shelf Unbound.  He also teaches writing and literature courses at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

Poets & Writers:

Jonathan Alston was born and raised in Northern California.  He did beginning writing, or reading for that matter, until the of age twenty, when his new wife exposed him to written language.  Now, writing is his life.

Brian Baumgart teaches in and directs the Creative Writing program at North Hennepin Community College, bordering Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He holds an MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and his writing has been published in various journals, including Sweet, Ruminate, Blue Earth Review, and Diverse Voices Quarterly.

J. D. Blair developed a thirty-year career in journalism and television production as a Writer and Producer.  He was nominated twice for Emmy Awards for writing and producing documentaries and in 1998 was a awarded a Chris Award at the Columbus Film and Video Festival and was recipient of a Telly Award in 1999 for writing and producing the statewide program California Heartland.  During this same period he was awarded a Knight Journalism Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley for media coverage of urban development.  Since 2000 he’s been writing one-act plays, short fiction, essays and poetry.

Copper Canyon Press published David Budbill’s next to latest book of poems, Happy Life, in August 2011.  It was on the poetry.org best seller list for 29 weeks.  Exterminating Angel Press published his latest book of poems, Park Songs: a Poem/Play, in September 2012.  His latest play, A Song for My Father, received two separate productions in 2010 and will be produced at The Western Stage in Salinas, CA, in 2013.  Garrison Keillor reads frequently from David’s poems on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac.  David lives in the southwest corner of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. His website is at:  http://www.davidbudbill.com/

Donald Budge is a writer who won the 2010 Blue Mesa Fiction Contest and has been published in Prime Mincer, You’re Going to Die, and other places that are good.  In 24 years, he has lost only one game of battleship, and came in second and third in arm wrestling tournaments before breaking his own arm at his arch enemy’s birthday party.

Justin Campbell is a Biola University graduate and is currently a Graduate Teaching Fellow studying Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, CA.  His work deals mainly with issues of identity.  He’s currently working on a collection of short stories (and possibly a novel).  He’s been married to his beautiful wife, (and creative muse) Kaitlyn for just over a year and a half now.

William Cass has had thirty-eight short stories accepted for publication in mostly smaller literary magazines and anthologies.  He lives and works as an educator in San Diego, California.

Valerie Cumming is a freelance writer, teacher, and editor based in Columbus, Ohio, where she lives with her husband and four daughters.

Robert Dart grew up in Vienna, Virginia, and has practiced law in Chicago and Los Angeles.  He enjoys camping, the cinema, and going to bars.  His novella, Professional Responsibility, is available for sale on Amazon and through other preferred dealers.

Tara Deal is a writer and editor in New York City and the author of two books from small presses: Wander Luster is a poetry chapbook from Finishing Line Press, and Palms Are Not Trees After All is the winner of the 2007 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from Texas Review Press.  Her writings have appeared in magazines such as Blip, failbetter, Fogged Clarity, Opium, Sugar House Review, and West Branch, among others.  And her shortest story can be found in Hint Fiction (Norton).  Visit her online at www.taradeal.com.

April Rosemary Ehrlich used to hate her middle name, but has learned to appreciate it because it reminds her of her grandma.  She studied journalism and literature and is currently working on a community project that repairs the homes of senior citizens.

Patrick Falconi is a short story writer from Washington DC.  He earned an undergraduate degree from VCU and an MFA from the American Film Institute Conservatory.  His most recent writing credits include: “Freight,” published by OneTitle Reviews, “Apropos of R. Brinkley Peabody,” published by A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, “Genderflection,” published by Literary Orphans, and “Yavenka and the Marigolds,” published by The Missing Slate.

Thomas Alan Holmes, a member of the East Tennessee State University English faculty, lives and writes in Johnson City, Tennessee.  Some of his work has appeared in Louisiana Literature, The Appalachian Journal, Seminary Ridge Review, The Florida Review, Blue Mesa Review, The Black Warrior Review, and The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume III: Contemporary Appalachia, with work forthcoming in Cape Rock Journal, Stoneboat, The Connecticut Review, Iodine, Emerge, and The Noctua Review.

Sean McPherson was born in Anchorage, AK, and currently resides in Olympia, WA.  This spring he received his MA in Spanish and Portuguese from Tulane University.  His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Bacon Review, The Commonline Journal, and Thirteen Myna Birds.

Nils Michals is the author of Lure, which won the Lena-Miles Wever Todd award and was published by Pleiades and LSU Press in 2004.  Individual poems have recently been published or are forthcoming in diode, White Whale Review, and Bombay Gin.  An article, “The Metaphysical Object: Rilke and Image in Letters on Cezanne,” recently appeared in AboutaWord. He currently lives in Boulder and is guest lecturer at the University of Colorado.

Zachariah Middleton is a cook at a food cart in Newberg, Oregon.  He will graduate from George Fox University with his BA in Writing & Literature in the Spring of 2013.  His poetry has been featured in Pilgrimage Magazine, Chaffey Review, BROWN GOD, Cartographer Literary Review, and others.

William Miller had published five collections of poetry, twelve books for chilldren and a mystery novel.  He has recently published poems in The Southern Review, Shehandoah and Prairie Schooner.  He lives and writes in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Adam Padgett’s fiction has recently appeared in Appalachian Heritage and SmokeLong Quarterly and has earned finalist positions in Glimmer Train fiction competitions and other contests.  He currently resides in Charlotte, NC.

Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, and elsewhere.  For more information, including free e-books, his essay titled “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities,” and a complete bibliography, please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com.

After much time in Western New England, Don Pomerantz now lives in New York City where he is a teacher.  His poems have appeared in Washington Square Review, Failbetter, Potomac Review, Eclectica, New Plains Review, Euphony, and elsewhere.

April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania and is working on her first several collections of poetry and an autobiographical novel on raising a child with Autism.  Her work has appeared in Poetry Salzburg, Pyrokinection, Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, The Rainbow Rose, The Camel Saloon, The Applicant, The Mindful Word, Napalm and Novocain, Jellyfish Whispers, The South Townsville Micro Poetry Journal, The Weekender Magazine, Deadsnakes, Winemop, Daily Love, WIZ, and is forthcoming in Inclement, Poetry Quarterly, Decompression, Work to a Calm, and Windmills.

Nicolas Sansone holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is the author of the novels Shooting Angels and The Calamari Kleptocracy.  His short fiction has appeared in a number of venues, including PANK, Pear Noir!, Bartleby Snopes, NANO Fiction, Denver Syntax, Word Riot, and The Los Angeles Review.  For more information, visit his website at http://nicksansone.yolasite.com.

George Seli is a New York-based trade magazine editor and doctoral candidate in philosophy.  His poetry has appeared in several journals, including Crab Creek Review, Epicenter, and Steam Ticket.

Ashley Sgro has always been infatuated with words and writing.  As an avid reader and eternal writer, she dedicates her free time to composing poetry and flash fiction.  Ashley currently lives with her family in New Jersey and can be visited at ashleysgro.com.

Steven Ray Smith’s poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Raintown Review, Garbanzo, Prick of the Spindle, Bayou, The Broken Plate, Poetry South, Stepaway Magazine, Skidrow Penthouse, Dogs Singing—A Tribute Anthology from Salmon Poetry of Ireland, and others.   New work is forthcoming in GRAIN, American Anthenaeum, The Lindenwood Review, Common Ground Review, The Cape Rock, Big Muddy, Writer’s Bloc, Slant, and riverrun.  He is the president of a culinary school and lives in Austin with his wife and children.

D. Z. Watt used to live in the US but moved to Scotland more than a decade ago.  In the US he had many poems and texts published in the 1980s zine scene, and more recently has had fiction in Flash: The International Short-Short Fiction Magazine, The Ranfurly Review, and Kerouac’s Dog, with more to come in BareBack and other places.  His published fiction blog is at  http://dzdubya.blogspot.com/

Kirby Wright is the author of the companion novels  Punahou Blues and Moloka’i Nui Ahina, both set in the islands.

Shellie Zacharia lives in Florida.  Her work has appeared in The Pinch, Sou’wester, Opium, Weave, A cappella Zoo, and elsewhere.  She is the author of the story collection Now Playing (Keyhole Press, 2009).

Cover Artist:

Ivan de Monbrison was born in Paris in 1969.  His work has appeared in NY Arts Magazine, Anobium, and elsewhere.  His pieces have been shown internationally, at galleries including Espace42, the Siena Art Institute, and Galerie du Croissant.  You can find sample artworks online at: http://artmajeur.com/blackowl