2010 Contributors

RYAN ASMUSSEN, a graduate of Boston University, teaches English, humanities, and drama at a public high school in suburban Chicago. A former journalist and film critic, Asmussen has written a first novel, The Englishman and the Butterfly, and is currently at work on his second. His poetry has been published in The Isle Review and Blind Man’s Rainbow.

BEEBE BARKSDALE-BRUNER has a B.F.A in painting and an M.F.A. in poetry. She has published one book, It Comes To Me Loosely Woven (2007) by Press 53 of North Carolina. She likes to explore media including clay, figure drawing, photography, and her driving force is to under- stand how diverse media and genres come together—and to appreciate those parallels and overlaps. Barksdale-Bruner is currently working on a poetry chapbook.

SALLY BELLEROSE is a Memere, gardener, writer, and registered nurse. She belongs to a shocking number of groups dedicated to writing, but still does not know if an apostrophe should appear after the s in writers group. Her novel, The Girls Club, is forthcoming form Bywater Books. Her awards include an NEA, The Barbara Deming Prize, and The Rick DeMartinis Award. Bellerose’s work appears in a call to nursing, Crab Orchard Review, Naugatuck River Review, Cutthroat, Per Contra, and many other publications.

PETER BERGQUIST earned a bachelor’s in English from Princeton University and an M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry) from Antioch University Los Angeles. He is married with two daughters and is currently teaching English, Film and Academic Decathlon in the Los Angeles Unified School District. His poems have been published in The New Verse News, The Chickasaw Plum, The Sylvan Echo, The Two Hawks Quarterly, The Sea Stories Project of the Blue Ocean Institute, and The Queen City Review. His poem “From Here to There” received Honorable Mention in the Inglis House Poetry Contest and was published in their chapbook On the Outskirts. His poem “Red Tide” won second prize and a cash award in the Bay Days Poetry Contest.

JULIE BOUDREAU is a junior English major with an emphasis in creative writing at Gardner-Webb University. She grew up in Waterville, Maine, and often reads her poetry at the Broad River Coffee Company’s Open Mic Night. Boudreau enjoys singing, art, and spending time with friends. This is her first publication.

JOYCE COMPTON BROWN is Professor Emerita at Gardner-Webb University. Upon retirement, her colleagues honored her by naming an academic lecture series in her honor. She has recently published several reviews and poems in academic journals and is co-author of a semi-humorous column in the local newspaper.

LES BROWN has published short stories in Now & Then Magazine and Appalachian Heritage, and had scholarly works published in Appalachian Journal and The Journal of Appalachian Studies. In 2008 he won first place in the Appalachian Writers Association’s Harriett Arnow short story contest. Les is currently Professor Emeritus at Gardner-Webb University and lives with his wife, Joyce, in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

SARA BURGE received her M.F.A. in poetry from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and her first book, Apocalypse Ranch, will be published by C&R Press in the fall of 2010. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from The Virginia Quarterly Review, River Styx, MARGIE, Court Green, The Los Angeles Review, Dogwood, and other journals.

JEREMY BYARS’S first poetry collection, Eyes Open to the Flash, was published in 2008, and he’s currently working on his next collection.  His poems and reviews have appeared in many journals and are forthcoming in Verse Wisconsin, Writer’s Bloc, and Welter.

KEVIN MARSHALL CHOPSON received his M.F.A. from Murray State University. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Number One, Nashville Arts Magazine, Tipton Poetry Journal, Concho River Review, Black Magnolias, English Journal, The Chaffin Journal, New Madrid, Poem, The Hurricane Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, The South Carolina Review, National Gallery of Writing, and the Aurorean, among others. Chopson teaches writing at Davidson Academy and Volunteer State Community College, both just north of Nashville, Tennessee.

JAMES CIHLAR is the author of Undoing (Little Pear Press), and his poems have appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Quercus, Bloom, Minnesota Monthly, Northeast, The James White Review, Briar Cliff Review, Verse Daily, and in the anthologies Aunties (Ballantine), Regrets Only (Little Pear Press), and Nebraska Presence (Backwaters Press). The Books Review Editor for American Poetry Journal, he has also published reviews in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and on the poetry site Coldfront. The recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship for Poetry and a Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner, Cihlar lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

THOMAS RAIN CROWE is an internationally recognized poet, publisher, and translator whose work has been published in several languages. He is the author of twenty books of original works, translations, anthologies and recordings, including 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 BEATtitude, Katuah Journal, and the Asheville Poetry Review. His poetry-and-music band, Thomas Rain Crowe & The Boatrockers, has been heralded by such icons of the music industry as Pete Townshend of The Who and Joy Harjo of Poetic Justice. As a translator, he has translated the work of such prominent writers as Hafiz, Guillevic and Yvan Goll. His latest book, The End of Eden, a collection of environmental activist essays, was published in the fall of 2008. He lives in the Tuckasegee community in the Smoky Mountains of rural western North Carolina.

NIKKI CRUDUP is a 2009 graduate of Gardner-Webb University who recently completed her first memoir, The Writing of My Body, which will soon be published. She is a Public Bid Specialist for CDC Publishing in Cary, North Carolina. Crudup currently resides in Raleigh, where she plans to further her studies in African-American literature and women’s studies.

KATIE DARBY is an M.F.A. candidate at Southern Illinois University. She has had poetry published in the Evansville Review and Big Lucks, and fiction published in The Meadowland Review. She also writes for the Evansville Courier & Press as a freelance music writer.

HANNAH EDWARDS is an English education major at Gardner-Webb University, slated to graduate in spring of 2011. Originally from Saluda, North Carolina, Edwards plans to teach ninth grade English/Language Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as write fiction.

THOMAS J. ERICKSON is an attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After not writing poetry since his undergraduate days, he began writing a poem while sitting in court several years ago. Since then, he has had numerous poems published and recently had his first chapbook, The Lawyer Who Died in the Courthouse Bathroom, accepted for publication by Parallel Press.

JAYNE JAUDON FERRER got her first byline at the age of nine and never looked back. Her work has appeared in publications ranging from Boca Raton Magazine to Christian Parenting Today, and she is the author of four books, one of which has remained consistently in print for twenty years. During the course of her career, Jayne has interviewed movie stars, judged contests, and scripted everything from power plant videos to beauty pageants. Most recently, she launched www.YourDailyPoem, a website targeted at people who think they don’t like poetry. Jayne lives in Greenville, South Carolina. Learn more about her at www.JayneJaudonFerrer.com.

J. LAUREN FLETCHER is a junior English major with a creative writing emphasis at Gardner-Webb University. Originally from Chester- field, Virginia, her poetry, nonfiction, and photography has appeared previously Mindscapes Art and Literary Magazine and the Broad River Review.

ROBIN GREENE is a professor of English and Writing and director of the Writing Center at Methodist University. Greene has published three books—two poetry (Memories of Light and Lateral Drift), one nonfiction (Real Birth: Women Share Their Stories)—and her novel, Augustus: Narrative of a Slave Woman, is forthcoming in November 2010. Greene is co-founder and editor of Longleaf Press, a literary press that publishes poetry chapbooks.

SONIA HALBACH is a reformed poet, reluctant reader, and redheaded writer. She is currently finishing her bachelor’s degree in English and communications at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After graduation, Halbach plans to move to New York City to see what kind of trouble she can stir up there. She has been published previously in The New Writer, Taj Mahal Review, Savannah Art and Literature, Emprise Review, Chronogram, SP Quill, Concise Delight, Conceit, Dark Lady Poetry, Amulet, Breadcrumb Scabs, Main Channel Voices, and The Taylor Trust.

JENNIFER HART is a studio art major at Gardner-Webb University. From Gastonia, North Carolina, she also enjoys working with the art of language. Hart’s childhood played a vital role in her formation as a person, and she drew upon those experiences to write the poem “In August.”

EMILY HAYES received her master’s degree in English literature from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where she continued post- graduate work in creative writing. She teaches American literature at Carbondale Community High School and is one of the poetry editors for The Village Pariah, a new literary journal sponsored by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. Her works have appeared previously or are forthcoming in The Mom Egg, Paterson Literary Review, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Big Lucks, Bayonet, Inkspotter, SpiritsArt, New Scrip- tor, and Abandoned Towers.

JENNY HUBBARD, now of Asheville, North Carolina, has had poems published in Crab Orchard Review, Broken Bridge Review, The Rambler, and Tar River Poetry. Her first novel will be published by Random House in 2011. Anne Marie and Jack, her next-door neighbors when she lived in Charlotte and the inspiration for this poem, met and married in their golden years. They celebrated their first wedding anniversary May 9, 2010.

BECKY HUMPHRIES is a senior English major at Gardner Webb University. She lives in Lattimore, North Carolina. In her spare time, Becky enjoys reading, writing, and watching any and all things science fiction.

KATE HUTCHINSON teaches English and is Fine and Performing Arts Coordinator at a large high school in suburban Chicago. Her poetry ha appeared in Shenandoah, The Sow’s Ear, Cloudbank, and Stone’s Throw, among others. Many of her personal essays have also been published in anthologies and literary magazines.

DONALD ILLICH has published poetry in The Iowa Review, LIT, Fourteen Hills, Cold Mountain Review, and many other journals. He won Honorable Mention in the Washington Prize book contest and was a ”Discovery”/Boston Review 2008 Poetry Contest semifinalist. Additionally, he received a scholarship to the 2006 Nebraska Summer Writers’ Conference and was a semifinalist in the Elixir Press Poetry Book Award Contest. He is a writer-editor who lives and works in Rockville, Maryland.

MARK JACKLEY is the author of four chapbooks, most recently Lank, Beak & Bumpy (Iota Press), and a full-length collection, There Will Be Silence While You Wait (Plain View Press). His work has been nominated for the Best of the Web Anthology. He lives in Sterling, Virginia.

KAREN KARLITZ’S work has been in The Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Foliate Oak, Loch Raven Review, Ranfurly Review (Scotland), Iguana Review, Babel Fruit, American Diversity Report, Scribblers on the Roof, Miranda Literary Journal, Long Story Short, and the anthology, Freckles to Wrinkles, among others. One of her stories won the 22nd Jerry Jazz Musician New Short Fiction Award, one was a Glass Woman Prize finalist, and another chosen for inclusion in the 2007-2008 print edition of The Best of the Foliate Oak. Currently, she is submitting her first novel for representation and working on a short fiction collection.

COURTNEY N. KING is an English major and sociology minor at Gardner-Webb University, where she plans to graduate in May 2011. She is from Lawndale, North Carolina, where she attends Emmanuel Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, and has the opportunity to write for the church’s district newsletter. She also writes monthly pieces for Gardner-Webb’s English Department newsletter, The English Channel. She has placed in the last two years in the local Erma Drum Poetry Contest and hopes to keep competing, while her ultimate goal is to simply make her writing available to willing readers.

BRUCE LADER is the author of five published or forthcoming books, most recently, Embrace (Big Table Publishing, 2010), Landscapes of Longing (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2009), and Discovering Mortality (March Street Press, 2005), a finalist for the Brockman-Campbell Book Award. His poems have appeared in Poetry, MARGIE, Poet Lore, New Millennium Writings, Asheville Poetry Review, Iodine Poetry Re- view, Roanoke Review, and other journals. He is the founding director of Bridges Tutoring, an organization in Raleigh, North Carolina, which educates multicultural students. Learn more at www.BruceLader.com.

NICHOLAS LAUGHRIDGE is a 2009 graduate of Gardner-Webb University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. He lives in Gastonia, North Carolina, and enjoys reading, writing, and playing video games. Laughridge’s work has appeared previously in The Broad River Review.

BRENDA KAY LEDFORD is a member of North Carolina Writers’ Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, and listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Her work has appeared in many journals, including Asheville Poetry Review, Charlotte Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Pembroke Magazine, Our State, and other publications. Finishing Line Press published two of her poetry chapbooks. She received the Paul Green Multimedia Award from North Carolina Society of Historians for her poetry collections Patchwork Memories, Shew Bird Mountain, and the 2009 Paul Green Award for her third book, Sacred Fire.

ROBERT McCALL is the manager of the Saluda Community Library in Saluda, North Carolina. “Ash Wednesday” was a finalist for the 2009 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

PATRICK McDONALD is a 2010 graduate of Gardner-Webb University who lives in Statesville, North Carolina, and owns two cats. He majored in English with an emphasis in creative writing. McDonald plans to write novels and possibly screenplays for television and movies.

JOSEPH MURPHY is a professional editor and writer who lives in Michigan. Murphy won the Eisner Prize for poetry in the early 1970s, University of California at Berkley’s highest award in the arts, and began writing poetry again a few years ago. His poetry has been published in a number of journals, including Living Poets, The Tower Journal, and Talon Magazine, and forthcoming in Vox Poetica and Your Daily Poem.

JACK NAISH lives in Belmont, North Carolina with his wife, dog, and his daughter, Finley. He is a former winner of J. Calvin Koonts Poetry Prize, and his work has appeared previously in The Broad River Review.

JANEY PEASE holds a master’s degree in agency counseling and post- graduate certification in expressive arts therapy. She is currently finishing another master’s degree in piano performance at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Her poetry has been published in five editions of The Broad River Review, as well as in Headwaters: Appalachian Journal of Expressive Arts Therapy. She has worked with Appalachian women on song-writing projects and works with residents on creative writing and song writing projects at a recovery-based “Healing Farm” in North Carolina.

GREGORY RAMIREZ was born in Fresno, California, where he was raised and currently resides with his wife Stephanie and daughter Gabriella. His poetry has appeared in Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets, hardpan: a journal of poetry, Heyday Books’ reprinting of Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley, and The Broad River Review. He has taught at California State University, Fresno (where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English), Fresno City College, College of the Sequoias in Visalia, and University of Phoenix in Fresno. He currently teaches full-time at the Madera Community College Center.

WILLIAM REICHARD is a writer, editor, and educator. He is the author of four collections of poetry: Sin Eater (2010), This Brightness (2007), How To (2004) all from Mid-List Press, and An Alchemy in the Bones (1999) from New Rivers Press. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

NIKKI RAYE RICE will graduate from Gardner-Webb University in May 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in English with a creative writing emphasis. Rice’s short story “Porch Spider,” which was published in The Broad River Review 2010, won second place in fiction from the North Carolina College Media Association. Rice is from Hickory, North Carolina.

STEVE ROBERTS is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Another Word for Home (Main Street Rag Press, 2010), another full- length collection of poems, A Space inside a Space (St. Andrews College Press, 1999), and a chapbook, Every September (Tragically Hip Press, 1998). Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and a master’s from Hollins College, where he received the Hollins College Graduate Fellowship and the Claytor Award for Poetry. His poetry has appeared in Fresh, Aries, Nantahala, The New St. Andrews Review, Pembroke Magazine, Asheville Poetry Review, among others. Roberts has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received an Academy of American Poets Prize. A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, living in Wilmington, he has also received numerous credits for art department and acting in film and television.

JUSTIN ROPER is a native of Cleveland County, North Carolina, and resides just outside of Boiling Springs. Photography has been a passion of his for the past ten years, and he has won multiple awards and ribbons for his photographs. Justin is currently the Editor & Producer for Cleveland Headline News out of Shelby, North Carolina.

KEITH RUSSELL is Chair of the English Department at Lindenwood University-Belleville. His scholarly work has appeared in JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory and Notes on Contemporary Literature; his poetry can be read in Untamed Ink, The Iguana Review, and I-70 Review, among others. Russell enjoys many strands of global and American literature, baseball, travel, and rock music.

MARY-CELESTE SCHREUDER lives in Nashville, Tennessee and teaches high school English and French. This summer, she and her husband Michael are moving to Oxford, England, where she hopes to continue teaching and writing poetry. Mary plans to gain writing inspiration by meandering in the Oxford University gardens and biking along the river Thames. This is Schreuder’s first publication.

L.B. SEDLACEK’S poems have appeared in such publications as Audience Magazine, Heritage Writer, Red River Review, Bear Creek Haiku, I-70 Review, Bent Pin Quarterly, ditch poetry, Adaigo Verse Quarterly, Illumen, and Gloom Cupboard. L.B.’s latest chapbook is Red Headed Eskimos. Sedlacek also hosts the small press podcast, “Coffee House to Go.”

M. E. SILVERMAN currently resides in Georgia, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Mizmor L’David Anthology: The Shoah, Crab Orchard Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Los Angeles Re- view, Naugatuck River Review, Cloudbank, Front Range Review, Pacific Review, Moulin Review, Sugar House Review, and other magazines. He was a finalist for the 2008 New Letters Poetry Award and the 2008 DeNovo Contest.

ALLEN SMITH, originally from Durham, North Carolina, is a poet now living in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of a chapbook, Unfolding Maps (Puddinghouse Publications 2009), and contributed an essay to My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press 2009). His poems have appeared in Bay Leaves, The Broad River Review, and Crucible, among other publications.

HAILEY SPEARMAN is a North Carolinian by chance, born and raised in the All-American city of Gastonia, North Carolina, but has always not-so-secretly longed for Virginia—open fields, farms, and the Blue Ridge. When she’s not composing gloriously rebellious and opinionated poems about the current state of dilemma known as American society, Spearman enjoys many activities, including reading, studying, teaching, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, whitewater rafting, playing soccer, strumming her Fender acoustic, picking her banjo, singing, and doing everything in her power to save the planet. After graduating from Gardner-Webb University in August 2009, Spearman took a job as an eleventh grade English teacher at an area high school, and currently resides in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

SARAH STEADMAN is originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota. She is a junior English major with a professional writing emphasis at Gardner-Webb University. Steadman has been a member of Gardner-Webb’s NCAA Division I swim team for the past three years. She enjoys traveling, writing, camping, photography, and anything relating to the out- doors. Steadman’s goal and dream job one day would be to incorporate all of these activities.

JO BARBARA TAYLOR lives in North Carolina, but is an Indiana farm girl at heart. Her poems and academic writing have appeared in Mount Olive Review, Beacon, Bay Leaves, Ibbetson Street, Bee Culture, Exit 109 and You Gotta Love ‘Em anthologies, on New Verse News, and in The Broad River Review 2009. She edits the newsletter for the North Carolina Poetry Society.

AMY UNSWORTH earned her master’s degree in British and American literature from Kansas State University. Prior poetry publications include Tar River Poetry, The Pedestal Magazine, 60 Seconds to Shine: 221 Monologues for Women, and The Briar Cliff Review. She writes about poetry and the writing life online at her blog, Small Branches Poetry. She lives with her husband and three sons in Lansing, Kansas.

COLLYN WARNER is a junior English and Social Sciences major at Gardner-Webb University. From Shelby, North Carolina, Warner enjoys reading, writing, and going to art museums, poetry readings, musical performances, and coffee shops. Collyn works for the Cleveland County Democratic Party. On campus, she participates in Alpha Chi, Sigma Tau Delta, College Democrats, Marching Band, and Model Arab League. Living in world where she sees myriad social injustices, Warner wishes to continue working in public service to alleviate the maladies of the human race. One way she does this is through poetry.

SCOTT WIGGERMAN is the author of two books of poetry, Vegetables and Other Relationships and Presence, forthcoming from Pecan Grove Press. A frequent workshop instructor, he is also an editor for Dos Gatos Press, publisher of the annual Texas Poetry Calendar, now in its thirteenth year. His website is http://swig.tripod.com.

LAURA MADELINE WISEMAN is the recipient of the 2009 Academy of American Poets Award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she is a doctoral candidate and teaches English. Her chapbook My Imaginary (Dancing Girl Press, 2010) was a finalist in four national contests. She is also the author of Ghost Girl, a chapbook forthcoming from Pudding House. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Feminist Studies, MARGIE, Arts & Letters, and elsewhere. Other awards include the Mari Sandoz Award in fiction, the Will Jumper Award in poetry, and five Pushcart Prize nominations.

BLONNIE BUNN WYCHE was born in the Blue Ridge, grew up in the Piedmont, and married into the coastal plains of North Carolina. Her young adult historical novel, The Anchor: P. Moore, Proprietor (Banks Channel Books) won the American Association of University Women Juvenile Fiction Award, the Clark Cox Historical Fiction Award, and was a finalist for the Book of the Year Award by ForeWord Magazine. The sequel, Cecilia’s Harvest (Dram Tree Books), was reviewed by several magazines, including the Historical Novels Review. Several of her short stories are published and have won awards. Blonnie lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

JOHN THOMAS YORK grew up in Yadkin County in northwestern North Carolina and now lives in Greensboro, where he teaches in the public schools. His poetry has appeared in Appalachian Journal, Greensboro Review, International Poetry Review, and many other magazines. In 2008, he won the Poet Laureate Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. This fall his third chapbook, Naming the Constellations, will be published by Spring Street Editions of Sylva, North Carolina.


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