2012 Contributors

JEFFREY ALFIER is a 2010 nominee for the UK’s Forward Prize for Poetry.  His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Emerson Review, South Poetry Magazine (UK), and New York Quarterly. His latest chapbook is The Gathering Light at San Cataldo (2012), and his first full-length book of poems, The WolfYearling, will be published in 2012 by Pecan Grove Press (US). He is founder and co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.sprreview.com).

KATHERINE BAILEY is a senior from Vero Beach, Florida. She has a major in graphic arts and a minor in photography.

PETER BERGQUIST earned a B.A. in English from Princeton University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. He is currently teaching English in the Los Angeles Unified School District. His poems have been published in The New Verse News, The Sylvan Echo, The Two Hawks Quarterly,The Queen City Review, A Handful of Dust, and the Broad River Review, among others. His poem “Gristle on the Bone” was a previous finalist for The Rash Award in Poetry.

JAN BOTTIGLIERI is a freelance writer living in suburban Chicago. She is an associate editor for the literary annual RHINO and received her M.F.A. in Poetry from Pacific University. Jan’s poems have appeared in journals including Harpur Palate, Court Green, Bellevue Literary Review, Rattle, and Margie, and anthologies including Solace in So Many Words and Brute Neighbors. She was a finalist in the Chicago Poetry Center’s 7th Juried Reading and has received two Pushcart Prize nominations.

BILL BROWN just retired as a part-time lecturer at Vanderbilt University. He has authored five poetry collections, three chapbooks and a textbook. His three current collections are The News Inside (Iris Press 2010), Late Winter (Iris Press 2008) and Tatters (March Street Press 2007). Recent work appears in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Tar River Poetry, English Journal, Southern Poetry Review, Connecticut Review, Atlanta Review, Asheville Poetry Review, and Southern Humanities Review. Brown wrote and co-produced the ITV series Student Centered Learning for Nashville Public Television. The recipient of many fellowships, he recently received the Writer of the Year 2011 award from the Tennessee Writers Alliance.

MARJORIE BRUHMULLER was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s New Writer’s Short Story Contest (2002), her poems have appeared in Grain, Event, Room, The Antigonish Review, The Poetry Project (Tupelo Press), THEMA, California Quarterly, Willow Review, Taproot IV, The Light in Ordinary Things, The New Writer (UK), Sleet, The Frogmore Papers (UK), Other Voices and Nashwaak Review, The Ottawa Arts Review, Poetry Quebec, and Criterion, and again in The Centrifugal Eye. She won Third Prize in FreeFall’s Poetry Contest 2010, and was a finalist in the AWA Pat Schneider First Annual Poetry Contest in 2011. She lives in Quebec, Canada.

MATTHEW BURNS is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Heritage University in Washington State. He holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Binghamton University where he was co-editor of Harpur Palate. He was the winner of the 2010 James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review, and his poems and essays have appeared in/on Folk Art, Ragazine, Cold Mountain Review, Upstreet, Spoon River Poetry Review, Jelly Bucket, Memoir (and), Paterson Literary Review, Anderbo, and others.

BEN E. CAMPBELL is a native of southeast West Virginia and the author of the short story collection A Welcome Walk into the Dark (Outskirts Press). His stories and essays have appeared in more than two dozen venues, among them the Roanoke Review, Now & Then, and Yemassee. He teaches full time at New River Community College in Dublin, Virginia.

LAURA CARTER lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she works and plays. She has recently been published on the Best American Poetry blog’s National Poetry Month website. She has a dog and cat that keep her company. She also curates the Poetry Series at the Music Room in Edgewood.

KEVIN MARSHALL CHOPSON received his M.F.A. from Murray State University and is a recent Pushcart Prize nominee. His work is published or forthcoming in Poetry Salzburg Review, REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters, Rio Grande Review, Poem, New Madrid, the Aurorean, San Pedro River Review, The South Carolina Review, English Journal, Concho River Review, and Nashville Arts Magazine, among others. His work will also appear in the Tennessee edition of The Southern Poetry Anthology to be published by Texas Review Press in 2013. Chopson teaches writing at Davidson Academy and Volunteer State Community College, both just north of Nashville, Tennessee.

TOBI COGSWELL is a two-time Pushcart nominee. Credits include Illya’s Honey, REAL, Iodine Poetry Journal, Slipstream, StepAway (UK), Turbulence (UK), Front Porch Review, Rufous Salon (Sweden), and Ballard Street Poetry Journal, and are forthcoming in Bacopa, Compass Rose, Alligator Stew (UK), The Broken Plate, Border Crossing, I-70 Review, Incandescent (UK), and Pale House – Letters to Los Angeles. Her latest chapbook is Surface Effects in Winter Wind (Kindred Spirit Press). She is the co-editor of San Pedro River Review (www.sprreview.com).

EMILY CORNISH first discovered her love of writing as a child and has been writing ever since. She completed her secondary education at School of the Arts, where she was first exposed to writing poetry in its many forms. She was a two-time winner of the Sokol High School writing contest in poetry, receiving first and third place awards. In her own work she explores a variety of forms and subjects weaving mythology and reality, the past and the present. Today she is working towards publishing her poetry while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in art history at Nazareth College. Emily also enjoys camping and cooking for her friends and family, both of which are reflected in various pieces of poetry. She currently resides in Rochester with her significant other Brian and their two cats.

THOMAS RAIN CROWE is an internationally recognized author whose work has been published in several languages. As a poet, translator, editor, publisher and freelance writer, he is the author of thirty books of original works including Rare Birds: Conversations With Music Legends and the multi-award winning book of nonfiction Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods, published in 2005 by the University of Georgia Press. As an editor, he has been an instrumental force behind such magazines as Beatitude, Katuah Journal, and the Asheville Poetry Review. He has translated the work of such prominent writers as Hafiz, Guillevic and Yvan Goll. He is founder and publisher of New Native Press. His literary archives have been purchased and are collected by the Duke University Special Collections Library. He lives in the Tuckasegee community in rural western North Carolina.

SARA DAVIS is a retired English teacher and a fellow of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project at the University of Pittsburgh. She continues to work with Young Writers Institutes. Her poetry has appeared in The Pittsburgh Press and has been anthologized in the annual Writing Project chapbooks Threads and Riverspeak, as well as PoeArt: Where Poetry, Spoken Word and Visual Art Intersect, a series of readings in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Her work is also included in Lavanderia, A Mixed Load of Women, Wash, and Words, published by City Works Press.

DENNIS DONOGHUE’S work has appeared in various magazines and journals, most recently in Literary Juice. He has taught public elementary school for the past 33 years and lives in Rowley, Massachusetts, with his wife and three daughters.

MICHAEL DOWDY is a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where he teaches American poetry and Latina/o literature. He has published a chapbook (The Coriolis Effect), a book of poetry criticism, and poems and scholarly articles on poetry in numerous journals and anthologies.

CYNTHIA SCHWARTZBERG EDLOW’S poetry collection, The Day Judge Spencer Learned the Power of Metaphor, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in 2012. Her poetry has appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies, and she has new poems appearing or forthcoming in Folio, James Dickey Review, Georgetown Review and the international anthology Dogs Singing (A Tribute Anthology). In 2011, her poem “The Persimmon Can See You” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

CLIFFORD PAUL FETTERS has poems published or forthcoming in Main Street Rag, Poetry East, Appalachia, The Willow Review, William & Mary Review, Ibbetson Street Press, The New York Review of Books, The Oxford American, and many others. He lives in Miami with his writes-like-a-dream wife, Debra Dean.

NATASHA HAYS is a developmental pediatrician who lives in Forest City, North Carolina and practices in Morganton, North Carolina. She is the author of A Toss of the Dice: Stories from a Pediatrician’s Practice, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in London, England. Natasha has also won several first prizes and several honorable mentions in contests for literary magazines. She also reads her poetry regularly in the Isothermal Community College Poetry Slam and has won two first prizes and a second prize. Other hobbies include acting, singing, swimming, and mosaic. She is a member of Rutherford Community Theater and the Rutherford County Visual Arts Guild. Natasha has two children, Ariel and Alexander, ages 25 and 29.

JODY HERRING will graduate from Gardner-Webb University in May 2012 with bachelor degrees in English and psychology. He enjoys creative writing, listing John Cheever, Tobias Wolff, and Richard Yates as major inspirations. This is his first publication.

SUMMER HESS is a 2006 graduate of Gardner-Webb University where she studied English and Spanish. She was a 2011 Fulbright Scholar in Chile and is currently finishing her MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Eastern Washington University.

TABATHA HIBBS received her M.F.A. in poetry from McNeese State University in 2005. Her poetry has appeared in Words, Words, Words: MSU Department of Languages Alumni Magazine, in The Arena: A Collection of Literary and Artistic Expression, and in the Broad River Review. Hibbs is currently a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Tulsa, where she is a Bellwether Fellow and is completing revisions to her dissertation. She will graduate in July 2012.

JANE HICKS, a native of upper East Tennessee, is an award-winning poet and quilter. Her poetry appears in both journals and numerous anthologies. Her “literary quilts” illustrate the works of playwright Jo Carson and novelists Sharyn McCrumb and Silas House. The art quilts have toured with these respective authors and were the subject of a feature in Blue Ridge Country Magazine in an issue devoted to arts in the region.

LOWELL JAEGER, as founding editor of Many Voices Press, compiled Poems Across the Big Sky, an anthology of Montana poets, and New Poets of the American West, an anthology of poets from 11 Western states. His third collection of poems, Suddenly Out of a Long Sleep (Arctos Press, 2009) was a finalist for the Paterson Award. His fourth collection is WE, (Main Street Rag Press 2010). He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council and winner of the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize. Most recently Jaeger was awarded the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award for his work in promoting thoughtful civic discourse.

STEPHANIE N. JOHNSON’S first book of poetry, Kinesthesia, was published fall 2010 by New Rivers Press as a winner of the 2008 Many Voices Project. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Borderlands, BPJ, Massachusetts Review, Water Stone Review, and elsewhere. She holds a bachelor’s in English from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota with a graduate minor in Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CAM). She currently lives in northern New Mexico with her husband and two daughters.

W.F. LANTRY, native of San Diego, received his Maîtrise from L’Université de Nice, and Ph.D. in Literature and Writing from University of Houston. Recent honors include the National Hackney Literary Award in Poetry, CutBank Patricia Goedicke Prize, Crucible Poetry Prize, Lindberg International Poetry for Peace Prize and 2012 Potomac Review Poetry Prize. His publication credits encompass print and online journals in more than twenty countries on four continents. The Language of Birds (Finishing Line Press 2011), is his lyric retelling of Attar’s Conference of the Birds. He currently works in Washington, DC, and is a contributing editor of Umbrella Journal.

D.E. LEE’S work appears or is forthcoming in The Emerald Coast Review, Alligator Juniper, and Conclave: A Journal of Character. He was a recent finalist or honorable mention in contests held by Redivider, Palooka, Nimrod, and the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition.

MARYLEE MACDONALD’S fiction has appeared in The Yalobusha Review, StoryQuarterly, The Bellevue Literary Review, Briar Cliff Review, North Atlantic Review, New Delta Review, American Literary Review, Blue Moon Art & Literary Review, Raven Chronicles, River Oak Review, and others. She has been awarded and Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and her stories have won the Matt Clark Prize, the Barry Hannah Prize, and the ALR Fiction Prize. A retired carpenter with a master’s in creative writing, she leads a fiction workshop in Tempe, Arizona.

MARSHA MATHEWS is a poet and novelist living in northwestern Georgia. “More than a Mess of Greens” is an excerpt from her novel-seeking-an-agent, Blood Feather. The story is her first published fiction. Marsha’s second poetry book, Sunglow & a Tuft of Nottingham Lace, won the 2011 Red Berry Editions Chapbook Competition and has been nominated for a Georgia Author of the Year Award. Her first book is Northbound Single-Lane (Finishing Line Press, 2010).

KARLA LINN MERRIFIELD, a seven-time Pushcart-Prize nominee and National Park Artist-in-Residence, has had nearly 300 poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has seven books to her credit, the newest of which are The Ice Decides: Poems of Antarctica (Finishing Line Press) and Liberty’s Vigil, The Occupy Anthology: 99 Poets among the 99%, which she co-edited. Forthcoming from Salmon Poetry is Athabaskan Fractal and Other Poems of the Far North. Her Godwit: Poems of Canada (FootHills) received the 2009 Eiseman Award for Poetry. She is assistant editor and poetry book reviewer for The Centrifugal Eye (www.centrifugaleye.com). Visit her blog, Vagabond Poet, at http://karlalinn.blogspot.com.

SARAH MERROW is known as a flute player and flute repair specialist, but she is also a poet. She has published non-fiction articles in The Flutist Quarterly and poetry in The Wilderness House Literary Review and An Caomhnoir, an Irish publication. Sarah lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and for poetic inspiration enjoys taking long walks and bicycle rides.

KAORI MIYASHITA-THEADO is a native of Osaka, Japan, where she studied English and Japanese Literature. Her interests in literary works are the wandering motif – from Wordsworth’s wanderers and Kerouac’s hoboes to traveling haiku poets – human nature, and naturalism. She composed her poem “Gasshō (Prayer)” after reading articles in Japanese newspapers following the Higashi Nihon Daishinsai (Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami). She is currently teaching Japanese at Clemson University.

JOE MILLS has published four collections of poetry with Press 53: Sending Christmas Cards to Huck and Hamlet, Love and Other Collisions, Angels, Thieves, and Winemakers, and Somewhere During the Spin Cycle. He also has co-written two editions of A Guide to North Carolina’s Wineries with his wife, Danielle Tarmey, and edited a collection of film criticism entitled A Century of the Marx Brothers. He holds an endowed chair, the Susan Burress Wall Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities, at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

JOSHUA D. MINER is a doctoral candidate in American literary studies and Native American studies at the University of Iowa. He came to Iowa City from Red River prairie country, where he spent most of his childhood and received B.A. and M.A. degrees in creative writing and linguistics from the University of North Texas. At Iowa, he has focused his critical and literary work on the relationship between contemporary indigenous, immigrant, and expatriate experiences. His most recent publication can be found in Beyond the Border: Tensions Across the 49th Parallel, an interdisciplinary examination of Canada-U.S. border dynamics produced through the University of North Dakota’s Institute for Borderland Studies.

NANCY CAROL MOODY’S work has appeared in The MacGuffin, The New York Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, The Carolina Quarterly, and Salamander.  She is the author of Photograph With Girls (Traprock, 2009) and has just completed a new manuscript titled Negative Space. Nancy lives in Eugene, Oregon, and can be found online at www.nancycarolmoody.com.

ALICE OSBORN is the author of three books of poetry: After the Steaming Stops (Main Street Rag, 2012), Unfinished Projects (Main Street Rag, 2010), and Right Lane Ends (Catawba, 2006). She is a manuscript editor, successful blogger, and powerful speaker. Alice teaches creative writing all over the country, where she uses sensory images and road-tested prompts to stimulate her students’ best work. Her work has appeared in the Raleigh News and Observer, The Pedestal Magazine, Soundings Review, and in numerous journals and anthologies. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband and two children. Visit her website at www.aliceosborn.com.

MARY ELIZABETH PARKER’S poetry collections include The Sex Girl (Urthona Press) and two chapbooks, Breathing In A Foreign Country (Paradise Press) and That Stumbling Ritual (Coraddi Publications, University of North Carolina, Greensboro). Her poems have appeared in Iowa Review, Notre Dame Review, Gettysburg Review, New Letters, Arts & Letters, Confrontation Madison Review, Phoebe, Passages North, Margie, New Millennium Writings, and Greensboro Review (nominated for a Pushcart Prize). She is creator and chair of the Dana Awards in the Novel, Short Fiction, Poetry, and the Essay, offered since 1996.

MOLLY PHIPPS is a senior English major at Gardner-Webb University with a pre-professional emphasis and a minor in German. From Cherryville, North Carolina, Phipps will graduate in May 2012 and plans to attend graduate school next year. Phipps spends time with lots of books and her wonderful family. She also enjoys writing and cream soda of any color.

WILLIAM REICHARD is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Sin Eater (Mid-List Press, 2010). He is the editor of the anthology American Tensions: Literature of Identity and the Search for Social Justice (New Village Press, 2011). He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

CHARLES REYNARD serves as Circuit Judge in Central Illinois. His poems have appeared on WGLT’s “Poetry Radio” and in various anthologies and literary journals, including AfterHours, Crab Orchard Review, I-70 Review, and LSF. He is co-editor (with Judith Valente) of Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul (Loyola Press, 2006). He is also the author of the chapbook The Utility of Heart Break (The Pikestaff Press, 2010).

JANE SAVAGE is from Marietta, Georgia, and will graduate from Gardner-Webb University in May 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in English. Passionate about community building and the outdoors, Savage wants to one day start a sustainable community and retreat center with her soon-to-be husband. In the nearer future, she hopes to pursue a graduate degree in Conflict & Peace Studies.

SUSAN SHAFARZEK lives in Charlottesville Virginia and is one of the editors of Streetlight Magazine, an online magazine of art and literature. She is also an amateur photographer and volunteers at  WriterHouse in Charlottesville.

AMY SNYDER, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a junior at Gardner-Webb University with a double major in English and history. She intends to be both an elementary school librarian and a fiction writer. In her spare time she enjoys reading the Brother Cadfael Chronicles and horseback riding. Previous publications include her short story “Fire” in the Broad River Review and her poem “In the Company” in the Penwood Review.

JOSEPH SOMOZA retired from college teaching some years back to have more time for living and writing. He has published four books and three chapbooks of poetry over the years. He has a book forthcoming of mostly short love poems, titled Miraculous and illustrated by Louis Ocepek.

CELISA STEELE’S poetry has appeared in Tar River Poetry, Anglican Theological Review, The South Carolina Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and others. Her first poetry chapbook, How Language Is Lost, was published in 2011 by Emrys, an arts foundation based in Greenville, South Carolina. Learn more about Steele and her poetry at www.celisasteele.com.

JULIE STUCKEY grew up in Pennsylvania, graduated from the University of Delaware in business and currently lives in Pawling, New York. She is especially drawn to writing that is firmly rooted in the imagery of the natural world and has had numerous poems published online, in print journals and in anthologies. Several of her poems have received Finalist or Honorable Mention in various contests.

JASON TANDON is the author of three collections of poetry, Give over the Heckler and Everyone Gets Hurt (Black Lawrence/Dzanc Books, 2009), winner of the 2006 St. Lawrence Book Award, Wee Hour Martyrdom (sunnyoutside, 2008), and Quality of Life (Black Lawrence/Dzanc, forthcoming 2013). His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Bellingham Review, Prairie Schooner, Spoon River Poetry Review, and on The Writer’s Almanac. He teaches in the writing program at Boston University.

JO BARBARA TAYLOR lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her poems have appeared in Bay Leaves, Ibbetson Street, Bee Culture, on New Verse News, and in the Broad River Review and several anthologies. Her chapbooks include One Or Two Feathers (Plan B Press, 2010), Jake and Jill, the Story of a Marriage (Ridgeline Press, 2011), and Cameo Roles (Big Table Publishing, 2011).

CHELSEA USHER is a native of Hendersonville, North Carolina, and will be graduating from Gardner-Webb University in May 2012 with a degree in English with a concentration in Writing. She is highly involved in campus life, serving as the president of the Honors Student Association and treasurer of Joyful Hands, a sign language ministry team. She is also a member of the Alpha Chi National College Honor Society and proud first-time puppy raiser for Leader Dogs for the Blind.

NATHAN E. WHITE is a writer and musician living in the Los Angeles area. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in such publications as the Tulane Review, Bellingham Review, The Bitter Oleander, The Los Angeles Review, and South Dakota Review.

VICKI WILKE, from Clarkston, Michigan, marinated joyfully for thirty-three years in the antics of young children, both in teaching and in raising two ambitious daughters. Her background and life experience have given her ample inspiration, but little time to devote to writing. Recently retired, she is developing her craft and reveling in newfound opportunities and introspection through writing groups, conferences and workshops. Though much of her younger muse found voice in writings for and about children, recent work has placed in poetry contests and has motivated her to submit and expand her literary range. This is her first print publication.

HAROLD WHIT WILLIAMS, “a genuine power-pop guitar hero” according to Trouser Press, was born and raised in the musically renowned Muscle Shoals area of Alabama. He plays guitar for the critically acclaimed Texas band Cotton Mather, and his first solo record, The Daily Worker Songbook, was released in 2011. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Atlanta Review, Slipstream, Oklahoma Review, Weave, and Oxford American. His poetry chapbook, Waiting For The Fire To Go Out, is available from Finishing Line Press. He lives in Austin, Texas.

JEFF WILLIAMS is an English instructor at Wayne Community College in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and despite great reluctance to do so in the past (having felt he had not yet earned the title), is now tentatively allowing himself in quiet moments to be called a poet. In adition to the Broad River Review, past work has also appeared in WCC’s Renaissance magazine as well as in Aphelion: The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

CHRISTY WISE is author of A Mouthful of Rivets: Women at Work in World War II. Her essays are published in numerous literary magazines including Inscape, Concho River Review, Oasis Journal 2008, and Spot Literary Magazine. Her essay “Memory Book,” published in Bayou Magazine, was selected as a “Notable Essay of 2009” by Best American Essays. A native Californian, Wise lives in Washington, DC, where she is working on a collection of essays and completing a master’s of liberal studies at Georgetown University.

LAURA MADELINE WISEMAN has a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she teaches English. She is the author of five chapbooks, including Branding Girls (Finishing Line Press, 2011.) Her forthcoming chapbook is She who Loves Her Father (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her poetry has appeared in Margie, Feminist Studies, Poet Lore, Cream City Review, Pebble Lake Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Her prose has appeared in Arts & Letters, Spittoon, Blackbird, American Short Fiction, 13th Moon, and elsewhere. Her reviews have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Valparaiso Poetry Review, 42Opus, and elsewhere. www.lauramadelinewiseman.com

ELLEN WRIGHT’S chapbook, In Transit, was published in 2007 by Main Street Rag Publishing Company. Her poetry has recently appeared in new ohio review, RHINO, and The Vermont Literary Review. The recipient of a master’s degree in comparative literature from New York University, she makes her home in Brooklyn and her living as a musician.

%d bloggers like this: