Contributors

Winner of the 2016 James Still Fiction Prize, Heather Bell Adams has published short fiction in Pembroke Magazine, Bluestone Review, Gravel, Clapboard House, First Stop Fiction, Deep South Magazine, The Thomas Wolfe Review, and elsewhere. Her first novel, Marantha Road, will be published in fall 2017 by Vandalia Press, the creative imprint of West Virginia University Press.

Sarah Wood Anderson is an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison teaching courses in American Literature. She received her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of North Carolina. Anderson is the mother of three children.

Justin Alley has lived for most of his life in Northern California. He studied literature and philosophy at University of California, Berkeley and the University of Cambridge, pursuing an emphasis in the philosophy of science. He has worked as a welder, a tutor in Oakland and an editor for academics from around the world. His chapbook, Protogenesis, is forthcoming from Sequoia House.

Philip Arnold’s poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, Midwest Quarterly, Rattle, Sou’wester, Southern Poetry Review, and abroad in The Galway Review, The New Shetlander, Southlight, and Northwords. He is a recipient of a 2016 Excellence Award (Poetry), a grant offered by the Ohio Arts Council.

Michelle Askin’s work has been published in Oranges & Sardines, Qu, Fogged Clarity, PANK, Off The Coast, and elsewhere. She has also been recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Askin currently resides in Virginia.

Marie-Andree Auclair’s poems have appeared in a variety of print and online publications, such as In/Words Magazine, Bywords, The Steel Chisel, filling Station, Contemporary Verse 2, Structo UK, Apeiron, Canthius, The Tule Review and others. Her first chapbook, Contrails, was released by In/Words Magazine and Press (Ottawa, 2013). She lives in Ottawa Canada and is working on her next chapbook.

Milton J. Bates is the author of nonfiction books on the poet Wallace Stevens, the Vietnam War, and the Bark River valley in Wisconsin. His poems have appeared in the Broad River Review and other magazines and anthologies. Five Oaks Press published his poetry chapbook Always on Fire in 2016.

A native of south Louisiana, Margaret D. Bauer is the Rives Chair of Southern Literature and Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Since 1997, she has served as Editor of the North Carolina Literary Review. She is the author of The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist (1999), William Faulkner’s Legacy (2005), Understanding Tim Gautreaux (2010), and A Study of Scarletts: Scarlett O’Hara’s Literary Daughters (2014), as well as numerous articles on Southern writers in scholarly journals. In 2007, Dr. Bauer was named one of ECU’s 10 Women of Distinction and received the Parnassus Award for Significant Editorial Achievement from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. She is also a recipient of ECU’s Scholar/Teacher Award, 5-Year Research/Creative Activity Award, Centennial Award for Excellence in Leadership, and, most recently, Lifetime Achievement Award in Research and Creative Activity.This is her first poem to be published.

Robert Baylot has published poetry in Voices International, Contemporary, and Blackberry (now defunct). He has a M.A. in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. His work experience includes working for the Army Corps of Engineers as a technical editor, technology transfer specialist, and in senior management positions. Much of Baylot’s career unfolded at the Engineer Research and Development Center, the Corps’ premier research facility, where he was involved in technology transfer for many of the Corps’ leading technical research areas.

Peter Bergquist earned a B.A. in English from Princeton University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. His poems have been published in Rougarou, The Queen City Review, The New Verse News, A Handful of Dust, and Broad River Review, among others. His poems “Gristle on the Bone,” “The Easy Winter” and “Pulled Over Outside Santa Fe” were finalists for the latter journal’s Rash Awards. He has published three novels in his Manifest Trilogy: Where the West Ends, A Wild Surmise, and Destiny’s End.

Barbara Brannon studied poetry with James Dickey at the University of South Carolina, where she earned the M.A. and PhD. Her poems have appeared in the Asheville Poetry Review, Cenacle, Kakalak, Light, the South Carolina Review, and Yemassee, among other outlets, including the anthology Bearing the Mask: Southwest Persona Poems (Dos Gatos Press, 2016). She is a frequent contributor of travel essays and feature articles and is coauthor, with Kay Ellington, of The Paragraph Ranch series of Texas novels.

John Brantingham’s work has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, The Best Small Fictions 2016, and has had hundreds of poems and stories published in magazines in the United States and the United Kingdom. His newest poetry collection is The Green of Sunset (Moon Tide Press). He is the co-editor of the L.A. Fiction Anthology from Red Hen Press. Brantingham is the writer-in-residence at the dA Center for the Arts, and he teach poetry and fiction at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park and Mt. San Antonio College.

Michael K. Brantley is a writer and Visiting Assistant Professor of English at North Carolina Wesleyan College. He is the author of the recently published memoir, Memory Cards, out from Black Rose Writing. His creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry has most recently been published in The First Day, The Dunes Review, Word River, Bartleby Snopes, Revolution House, Stymie, Crack the Spine, and The Cobalt Review.

Nancy Brock is the 2014 South Carolina Academy of Authors Fiction Fellowship winner. She placed third in the 2017 Clay Reynolds Novella Competition (Texas Review Press). Her short stories have appeared in the literary anthologies Fall Lines 1 and Fall Lines 2. She is a contributor to State of the Heart, Vol. 2 (USC Press). She was a short-listed finalist eight times for the Faulkner-Wisdom Literary Competition. Since 2005, she has served as an active Disaster Volunteer with the American Red Cross, beginning with service in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and most recently in New York after Hurricane Sandy.

Dorothy Howe Brooks’ work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous literary magazines, including Tampa Review, Atlanta Review, Poet Lore, Louisiana Literature, Calamaro, and Mangrove Review. Her second chapbook, Interstices, was published in 2009 by Finishing Line Press, and her full length poetry collection, A Fine Dusting of Brightness, was published in 2013 by Aldrich Press.

Bill Brown is the author of nine poetry collections and a textbook. His new collection, Elemental (2014), is now available from 3: A Taos Press in Denver. Brown was awarded the Writer of the Year 2011 by the Tennessee Writers Alliance. He is a Scholar at Bread loaf, a Fellow at VCCA, and twice awarded Poetry Fellowships from the Tennessee Arts Commission. Brown’s work appears in Potomac Review, Big Muddy, Southern Humanities Review, Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Southern Poetry Review, Tar River Poetry, Broad River Review, Rattle, Borderlands, The Literary Review, Smartish Pace, Connecticut Review, and River Styx, among others.

Judith Waller Carroll is the author of The Consolation of Roses, winner of the 2015 Astounding Beauty Ruffian Press Poetry Prize, and Walking in Early September (Finishing Line Press, 2012). Her work appears or is forthcoming in Persimmon Tree, damselfly press, Apple Valley Review, and Heron Tree, among other journals, the anthologies Home (Outrider Press, 2016), River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the Twenty-first Century (Blue Light Press, 2015), Joys of the Table (Richer Resources Publications, 2015), Music in the Air (Outrider Press, 2013) and The Heart of All That Is: Reflections on Home (Holy Cow! Press, 2013); and has been nominated for Best of the Net.

Stephanie Kaplan Cohen’s poetry has appeared repeatedly in The New York Times, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Aura/Literary Arts Review, Confluence, CQ (California Quarterly), Diverse Voices Quarterly, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Iconoclast, Pearl, Poet’s Page, Sierra Nevada College Review, Slant, Spillway, and Talking River Review. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Lessons in Love: Gifts From Our Grandmothers (Crown, 2000) and Split Verse: Poems To Heal The Heart (Midmarch, 2000). Cohen is the author of the memoir In My Mother’s House, published by Woodley Books, and a poetry book Additions and Subtractions, published by Plain View Press.

Ken Craft is a middle school teacher and a writer living west of Boston. His poems have appeared in The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Off the Coast, Spillway, Slant, Angle Journal of Poetry, The High Window, and numerous other journals and e-zines. The Indifferent World, his first poetry collection, was released in 2016 by Future Cycle Press.

Julie Cyr has been published by Smoky Quartz, Five 2 One Magazine, and Blood and Thunder Journal. She was awarded 2014 Best of Poetry by Blood and Thunder Journal. Julie earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Lesley University. She lives in southern New Hampshire with her husband and two sons.

Ree Davis has worked as a cook, dishwasher, seamstress, farmworker, typist, and baker. She’s traveled across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Graduating from Cornell University, she headed R&D for a Fortune 500 Company and gained masters degrees in architecture and creative writing. Ree lived on both U.S. coasts, in Japan, and China. Her work has won two Pushcart Nominations and appeared in Narrative Magazine, Daedalus: The Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Limestone, and Penmen Review, among others. Her story “A Limitless Sky” was adapted to a radioplay by Delmarva Public Radio. She lives in southwest Virginia.

Michael Dooley’s poems have appeared in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, Crannóg, and elsewhere. Recent honours include second place in the Charles Macklin Poetry Prize, shortlisting for the Dermot Healy International Poetry Competition, and being highly commended in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. He lives in Limerick, Ireland. He can be found at michaeldooleypoetry.com

Jonathan Louis Duckworth is an M.F.A. student at Florida International University and a reader for the Gulf Stream Magazine. His fiction, poetry, and non-fiction appears in or is forthcoming in New Ohio Review, Fourteen Hills, PANK Magazine, Thrice Fiction, Cha, Superstition Review, and elsewhere.

Elizabeth Erhartic is a recent Gardner-Webb University graduate (Class of 2017) whose passions include travel, animals, and writing. A lover of words, she enjoys expression through writing and has previously been published in After the Pause Literary Magazine and FishFood Magazine.

BD Feil has credits in New Plains Review, Slice Magazine, Mississippi Review, and many other places. He writes from Michigan.

Rupert Fike was named the Finalist as Georgia Author of the Year after the publication of his collection Lotus Buffet (Brick Road Poetry Press) in 2011. His poems and short fiction have been published in The Southern Review of Poetry, Alligator Juniper, The Georgetown Review, A&U America’s AIDS Magazine, Natural Bridge, The Buddhist Poetry Review. and others. He has a poem inscribed in a downtown Atlanta plaza, and his nonfiction account of life on a spiritual community, Voices From The Farm, is now in its second printing.

Laura Foley is the author of five poetry collections, including Joy Street, Syringa, and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy.

Shelly R. Fredman’s writing has appeared in the Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Best Jewish Writing, Natural Bridge, Ragazine, Tikkun, Forward, and Lilith. She is a guest contributor for NPR’s On Being, and she has won the Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. She teaches essay writing and literature at Barnard College.

D.G. Geis lives in Houston, Texas. He has an undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Houston and a graduate degree in philosophy from California State University. His first full length book, Fire Sale, is forthcoming from Tupelo Press (Leapfolio) in January 2017. His chapbook Mockumentary will be published in Spring of 2017 by Main Street Rag. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in dozens of publications in the United States and abroad. Geis will be featured in a forthcoming Tupelo Press chapbook anthologizing Nine New Poets and is winner of Blue Bonnet Review’s Fall 2015 Poetry Contest. He is editor-at-large of Tamsen and a finalist for The New Alchemy (University of Alaska) and Fish Prizes (Ireland). Geis is also a finalist for the 2016 Main Street Rag Chapbook Competition.

Evan Gurney is an assistant professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He was formerly the editor-in-chief of The Carolina Quarterly. Gurney’s poems have appeared in Angle, Dappled Things, Relief, and elsewhere.

Mary Louise Kiernan Hagerdon’s poems have been published in Pudding Magazine, Hudson Valley Echoes, ArtSpace, Tempe Writers Forum, and ‘Metropolitan Diary’ in The New York Times. Her poems are forthcoming in both The Delmarva Review and Common Ground Review. Hagerdon won the 2015 Adult Poetry Prize awarded by Tempe Public Library and Arizona State University. Her essays have been published in Catskill Country Magazine, The New York Times, and The Times Herald-Record. A former copywriter, proofreader, and reporter, Hageron holds a B.A. in Communications in Written Media from The State University of New York.

Benjamin Harnett is a senior digital infrastructure engineer at The New York Times, and he is also the author of the semi-regular online newsletter called “Don’t Read Me.” In 2005, he co-founded the fashion brand Hayden-Harnett with his wife, Toni Hacker. His poems, stories, and translations have appeared in The Columbia Review, Wag’s Revue, Brooklyn Quarterly, Tahoma Literary Review, and Queen Mob’s Tea House; been anthologized by Bright Hill Press; and won an International Merit Award from Atlanta Review. He is also the author of the chapbook Last Cut (2000). Benjamin was born in Cooperstown, New York. He studied at Hamilton College and the University of Pennsylvania, and finished his M.A. at Columbia University. He is currently working on some problems in ancient history associated with the origin of the codex book. An occasional artist, Harnett has begun painting the social media avatars of his friends and acquaintances. He is dedicated to the Oxford comma.

Linda Heuring is a short story writer known for her character-driven narratives and her penchant for the overheard phrase. Her short fiction has appeared in Crannog (Ireland), Crack the Spine, Rosebud, Kestrel, Alabama Literary Review, Broad River Review, and Dos Passos Review, among other publications. She has been awarded the Fish International Short Story Prize (Ireland), was twice a finalist for the Rash Award in Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Bristol Story Prize (UK). Her debut short story collection, A Woman Walked into the Bar, was published in April 2017 by All Nations Press. A Southern writer dragged across the Mason-Dixon line, she now lives outside Chicago.

Poetry by veteran John Horvath, Jr. has appeared online and in print since the 1960s in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. The editor and publisher at poetryrepairs.com, Horvath, Jr. is now retired and living in Mississippi. He spends his days editing and writing poetry.

Hadley Hury’s poetry and short fiction has appeared in Image, Forge Journal, Off the Coast, Appalachian Heritage, The James Dickey Review, Colorado Review, Broad River Review, Avatar, Green Mountains Review, and many other journals, reviews, and magazines. He was for eleven years film critic for The Memphis Flyer, has written about film for Insider Louisville, and is currently a contributor on film to The Lost Coast Review in California and The Flaneur in London. Hury is also the author of a novel and a collection of stories. He lives with his wife Marilyn in Louisville, Kentucky.

Robert Lee Kendrick lives in Clemson, South Carolina. He has previously published, or has work forthcoming, in Tar River Poetry, Xavier Review, Louisiana Literature, South Carolina Review, and Main Street Rag. Kendrick’s chapbook, Winter Skin, appeared in 2016 (Main Street Rag Publishing). He can be found online at robertleekendrick.net.

Kara Knickerbocker is a poet and writer. She received her B.A. in English from Westminster College in 2012. Her poetry and essays have been published or are forthcoming in print and online publications, including The Blue Route, Scrawl, The Original Magazine, Construction, Longridge Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Pittsburgh City Paper, Thought Catalog, and the anthology Voices from the Attic Vol XXII, among others. She lives in Pittsburgh where she works at Carnegie Mellon University and writes with Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic workshops.

Ashley Koch is a small-town, North Carolina photographer, farmer, and equestrian. Koch discovered her passion for creativity and working with people while in college, which inspired her launch Broad River Photography in 2007. She runs her business from her Shelby home, where she lives with her husband and two basset hounds. After completing a B.A. and M.B.A. at Gardner-Webb University, with a concentration in communications and marketing, she expanded her business to include more customized photography services. While wedding photography is her specialty, over the last ten years (with lots of practice, patience, and continuing education), Koch has grown to love lifestyle photography just as much. For each of her clients, Koch strives to make every session and event unique, unforgettable, powerful, and fun. She can be found at www.broadriverphotography.com.

Leonard Kress has published poetry and fiction in Massachusetts Review, Iowa Review, Crab Orchard Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. His recent collections are The Orpheus Complex, Thirteens, Braids & Other Sestinas, and Walk Like Bo Diddley. He teaches philosophy and religion at Owens College in Ohio and edits creative nonfiction for Artful Dodge.

After earning graduate degrees from the University of North Carolina, Richard Lebovitz taught college and high school English before entering the fields of journalism and professional conference planning. His poetry springs from his desire to seize on those fleeting moments of beauty the natural world delivers to our doorsteps and to share those experiences on an emotional level with his fellow human beings.

Martin H. Levinson is a member of the Authors Guild, National Book Critics Circle, and the book review editor for ETC: A Review of General Semantics. He has published nine books and numerous articles and poems in various publications. He holds a Ph.D. from NYU and lives in Forest Hills, New York.

Kathleen Brewin Lewis is the author of two chapbooks of poetry, Fluent in Rivers and July’s Thick Kingdom (FutureCycle Press 2014 & 2015). Her work has also appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Broad River Review, and Still: the Journal. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of Net nominee and lives in Atlanta with her family.

Kevin J. McDaniel lives in Pulaski, Virginia, with his wife, two daughters, and two chocolate Labs. In recent years, he has taught University Core at Radford University and English composition at New River Community College. To date, his poems have appeared in The Sacred Cow, Lavender Wolves, Axe Factory Press, The Bluestone Review, The Clinch Mountain Review, JuxtaProse, and The Cape Rock. He was a semi-finalist in Heartwood Literary Magazine’s annual Broadside Contest, which was judged by poet Diane Gilliam. In addition, his first poetry chapbook, Family Talks (Finishing Line Press), appeared in 2017.

Carla McGill earned a B.A. in English from California State University, San Bernardino, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside. Her work has been published in A Clean Well-Lighted Place, Atlantic Review, Shark Reef, Crack the Spine, Westview, Common Ground Review, Caveat Lector, Inland Empire Magazine, Vending Machine Press, Cloudbank, and Burningword, with work forthcoming in Atlanta Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal of the Arts, and The Penmen Review. McGill’s story, “Thirteen Memories,” received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s MAR/APR 2016 Very Short Fiction Contest. As a member of the Poetry Society of the Huntington Library from 1991–2012, her poems have appeared in three of the group’s chapbooks: Garden Lyrics, Huntington Lyrics, and California Lyrics. McGill writes poetry, fiction, and is working on a novel and stage play.

Lisa Meckel’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, Reed Magazine, Schuylkill Valley Journal Of The Arts, Nimrod, Carmel Valley News, Mirboo North Times, Victoria, Australia, and Monterey County Weekly. She is also a three-time winner of the poetry award at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Carolyn Moore’s four chapbooks won their respective competitions. Her book, What Euclid’s Third Axiom Neglects to Mention about Circles, appeared in 2013 as winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Contest. Moore taught at Humboldt State University (Arcata, California) until able to make her way as a freelance writer and researcher. She now works from the last vestige of the family farm in Tigard, Oregon.

Ray Morrison’s debut collection of short stories, In a World of Small Truths, was published in November of 2012 by Press 53. His stories have appeared in Ecotone, Fiction Southeast, StorySouth, Aethlon, Night Train, Carve Magazine, Word Riot, and others.

Cyndy Muscatel’s short stories, poetry and essays have been published in many literary journals. A former journalist, she now writes two blogs. She teaches fiction writing and memoir, and is also a speaker and workshop presenter. She is writing a memoir of her years teaching in the inner city of Seattle.

Jed Myers lives in Seattle. His poetry collections include Watching the Perseids (Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award), the chapbook The Nameless (Finishing Line Press), and the limited-edition handmade chapbook Between Dream and Flesh (Egress Studio Press). Among honors received are Southern Indiana Review’s Editors’ Award, the Literal Latte Poetry Award, New Southerner’s James Baker Hall Memorial Prize, and, in the UK, the McLellan Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, The Greensboro Review, Crab Creek Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Crab Orchard Review, and elsewhere. He is Poetry Editor for the journal Bracken.

Jack Naish is a Gardner Webb graduate living in rural western North Carolina with his wife, daughters, chickens, and potbellied cat. Naish is a fervid grower of juicy tomatoes and spicy peppers.

Stephany L. Newberry-Davis is a writer from eastern North Carolina and now lives outside of Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband and their six children. A graduate of Western Carolina University, she works full-time as an online English professor. Stephany is a member of the Great Smokies Writing Program and the North Carolina Writers’ Network. “The Seahorse,” a 2016 Doris Betts Fiction Prize Finalist and Honorable Mention Winner for The Writers’ Workshop of Asheville 2017 Literary Fiction Contest, is her first publication.

Shilo Niziolek is currently a student at Marylhurst University in Oregon, where she is pursuing a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.

Danny Nowell is a writer and musician from Raleigh. He lives with his wife and destructive pets in Carrboro, North Carolina, where he’s finishing the novel he began as an M.F.A. student at Warren Wilson College.

Sandra Ramos O’Briant’s first novel, The Sandoval Sisters’ Secret of Old Blood, won first place in two categories at the 15th annual ILBA, 2013: Best Historical Fiction and Best First Novel. Over 20 of her short stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in print and online journals. There are links to her work online on the ‘About Sandra’ page at www.sramosobriant.com. She grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico and now lives in Los Angeles.

Ilari Pass is a graduate student in the online English Studies program (literature concentration) at Gardner-Webb University. She has worked for the United States Postal Service for nearly 18 years. Pass received a B.A. in English Literature from Guilford College. She won Betty Place Prize in Poetry in April 2014-15, as well as the Guilford College Arts Merit Club Award in Poetry in April 2015. Pass was awarded the Broad River Review Editors’ Prize in Poetry for 2016 and 2017. Other works have been published in Penmen Review and Greenleaf Review.

David E. Poston is retired from full-time teaching and still lives in Gastonia, North Carolina, where he leads occasional writing workshops, edits a poetry column for the public library newsletter, and does church and community volunteer work. His most recent poetry collection, Slow of Study, was released by Main Street Rag Publishing (2015), and he has work forthcoming in The Well-Versed Reader and The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society.

Poems by J. Stephen Rhodes have appeared in over sixty literary journals, including Shenandoah, Tar River Poetry, The Texas Review, and several international reviews. Wind Publications has published his two poetry collections, The Time I Didn’t Know What to Do Next (2008) and What Might Not Be (2014). Before taking up writing full-time, he served as the co-director of the Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center in Berea, Kentucky, the Academic Dean at Memphis Theological Seminary, and as a Presbyterian pastor in Georgia and Kentucky.

Robert Rice’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals, including Dos Passos Review, Evening Street Press, Grey Sparrow, Hayden’s Ferry Review, New Letters, North American Review, Quiddity, The Saint Ann’s Review, and the anthology Many Lights in Many Windows: Twenty Years of Great Fiction and Poetry from the Writers Community. He has published several novels, including The Last Pendragon (Walker & Co. 1992), which Publisher’s Weekly calls “a winning tale of heroism, glory, and romance.” Since 2008, Rice has studied under Jane Hirshfield, Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, Sharon Olds, and Jan Zwicky.

Carol Roan has graduate degrees in vocal performance from Indiana University and in business from Columbia University. She has sung in the television premiere of a Ned Rorem opera and has testified about gold trading before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Her first nonfiction book was commissioned by the publisher, and two more nonfiction books followed, as did three co-edited anthologies. Roan’s first short story was published in the inaugural issue of Minerva Rising, and seven others followed or are forthcoming. Currently, Roan teaches voice and public speaking in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Luke Rolfes’ book Flyover Country won the Georgetown Review Press Contest, and his stories and essays have appeared in magazines such as North American Review, Bat City Review, and Connecticut Review, among others. Rolfes is the co-editor of The Laurel Review.

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro’s novel, Miriam the Medium (Simon & Schuster, 2004), was nominated for the Harold U. Ribelow Award. Her short story collection What I Wish You’d Told Me was published by Shebooks in 2014. Shapiro has published essays in the New York Times (Lives) and Newsweek. Additonal work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Iowa Review, Stone Path Review, Bayou Magazine, Poet Lore, Los Angeles Review, The Louisville Review, Pennsylvania English, Rio Grande Review, Peregrine, Gulf Coast, Midway Journal, and Willow Review. Shapiro’s poetry has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and was awarded the Branden Memorial Literary Award from Negative Capability.

Maureen Sherbondy’s most recent poetry book is Belongings. She has eight additional poetry books and one short story collection. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Kimberly Simms has poems forthcoming in AjiMagazine, Poems2Go, O Dark Thirty, and the Petigru Review, while current poems appear in The South Carolina Review, Phantom Drift, and Tulip Tree Publishing. Simms was also the 2016 Carl Sandburg Writer-in-Residence, and her work has been published in a number of print journals and magazines, including Eclipse, The Asheville Poetry Review, and Poem.

Matthew J. Spireng’s book What Focus Is was published by WordTech Communications. His book Out of Body won the 2004 Bluestem Poetry Award and was published by Bluestem Press. He was first place winner in the 2015 Common Ground Review poetry contest and is an eight-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

Bradley R. Strahan taught poetry at Georgetown University for 12 years. From 2002-4, he was Fulbright Professor of Poetry & American Culture in the Balkans. He has six books of poetry and over 600 published poems in journals such as America, Confrontation, Christian Century, The Hollins Critic, Poet Lore, as well as many anthologies. His recent book, This Art of Losing, has been translated into French. His latest poetry book, A Parting Glass, is about his year in Ireland and has also been translated into French.

Angela Sundstrom lives in Brooklyn, New York with her dachshund, Winston. Her work has appeared in Time Out New York, the Best American Poetry blog and SCOUT poetry review. She received her M.F.A. from The New School.

Jo Barbara Taylor lives near Raleigh, North Carolina. Her poems have appeared in journals, anthologies and online. She leads poetry writing workshops through Duke Continuing Education, chairs the workshop committee for the North Carolina Poetry Society, and coordinates the poetry reading series for Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. Of five poetry books, the most recent is How to Come and Go (Chatter House Press, 2016).

Tony Tracy is the author of two poetry collections: The Chistening (Center Press Books) and Without Notice (March Street Press). He is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Tar River Poetry, North American Review, Hotel Amerika, Rattle, Southern Indiana Review, Poetry East, Coe Review, Potomac Review, and many other journals and magazines. He lives in Urbandale, Iowa, with his wife, two boys, and two dogs.

Gene Twaronite is a Tucson poet and the author six books, including two juvenile fantasy novels and two short story collections. His first book of poetry, Trash Picker on Mars, has recently been published by Aldrich Press. More of his writing can be found at his blog, TheTwaroniteZone.com.

John Urban was born at Fort Jefferson, Missouri. He attended schools in Alaska, Wyoming, and California, graduating from San Jose State College, California with a degree in Physics, minors in Philosophy and Creative Writing. He presently lives in San Jose, California. His poems have been published in the Common Ground Review, New Vision (UK), The Story Teller, Reed Magazine, Jet Fuel Review, and The Rolling Stone. His interests and influences include Classical Metaphysics and Modern Spirituality—he considers his work to be in the Romantic Tradition of Emily Dickinson, Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, but distinguishes it as Transcendental Romanticism.

Priscilla Webster-Williams enjoys being a part of North Carolina’s vibrant poetry community. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies published by Soundings East, Ad Hoc Monadnock, Yankee, Pinesong, Bay Leaves, Jacar Press, Main Street Rag, Iodine, and others. Her poem “Barn” was set to music by composer Fred Malouf, and her poetry has been featured in art exhibits, at festivals for cancer survivors, and at the recent Disappearing Frogs Project at Weymouth Woods in Southern Pines. Her manuscript, The Narrative Possibilities of Coral, was runner-up in the inaugural 2016 Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest, and is scheduled for publication by Main Street Rag in 2017.

John Sibley Williams is the editor of two Northwest poetry anthologies and the author of nine collections, including Disinheritance and Controlled Hallucinations. A five-time Pushcart nominee and winner of the Philip Booth Award, American Literary Review Poetry Contest, Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize, Confrontation Poetry Prize, and Vallum Award for Poetry, John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and works as a literary agent. Previous publishing credits include: The Midwest Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Poet Lore, Columbia Poetry Review, Mid-American Review, Third Coast, Baltimore Review, Nimrod, RHINO, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Leslie Williams has published poetry in Poetry, Slate, Salmagundi, The Southern Review, Gulf Coast, Shenandoah, and many other magazines. Her first collection, Success of the Seed Plants, won the Bellday Prize, chosen by Lucia Perillo, and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Williams has received individual artist fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Robert Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Howard Winn’s work has been published in Dalhousie Review, The Long Story, Galway Review, Antigonish Review, Chaffin Review, Evansville Review, 3288 Review, Straylight Literary Magazine, and Blueline. He has a novel published by Propertius Press. His B.A. is from Vassar College, his M.A. from the Stanford University Creative Writing Program, while his doctoral work was done at N.Y.U. Winn is Professor of English at SUNY.

Lisa Zerkle’s poems have appeared in The Collagist, Comstock Review, Southern Poetry Anthology, Broad River Review, Tar River Poetry, Nimrod, Sixfold, poemmemoirstory, Crucible, and Main Street Rag, among others. She is the author of Heart of the Light and a former editor of Kakalak. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she is the curator of 4X4CLT, a public art and poetry poster series, for the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts.

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