CHIRPS FROM THE SPARROW
POETRY
OUR NATIONAL TREASURE, ROBERT BLY
The Old Farm
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Vow of Silence, Laura Treacy Bentley
Coming of the Day, Samuel I. Doctors
Semicolon, Richard Fein
Waltz, Sam Grieve
Song of Solomon, Dustin Junkert
The Night We Met, Stills, Sari Krosinsky
Super Moon, Emma Krosschell
As Many Attempts Prove Necessary, Mercedes Lawry
Carriage Return, Randy Parker
The Ring, Thomas Smith
Concrete Dream, Marie Sheppard Williams
FLASH FICTION
Day of the Dead, Cezarija Abartis
The Bait, Scott Dominic Carpenter
Manmade Hazards, Julie Mark Cohen
Mandala, Angele Ellis
The Crush, Nancy Scott Hanway
Perpendicular Trains, Kyle Hemmings
I Hate the Word, Tony Press
Mac Tire, the Son of the Countryside, Steve Wade
SHORT STORIES
Lives of Crime, Lois S. Bassen
Milk Run, Amy Yolanda Castillo
Green Bean, Jacqueline Doyle
Catch and Release, Anika Fajardo
Demi-Christmas, Gregory J. Wolos
CONTRIBUTORS
Our National Treasure
Robert Bly, guest poet, was born in western Minnesota in 1926 to parents of Norwegian stock. He enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and spent two years there. After one year at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, he transferred to Harvard and thereby joined the famous group of writers who were undergraduates at that time, which included Donald Hall, Adrienne Rich, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Harold Brodky, George Plimpton, and John Hawkes. He graduated in 1950 and spent the next few years in New York living, as they say, hand to mouth.
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Cezarija Abartis’Nice Girls and Other Stories was published by New Rivers Press. Her stories have appeared in Grey Sparrow, Per Contra, Waccamaw,and New York Tyrant, among others. One of her flashes was included in Wigleaf’s Top 50 list of flash fiction. Recently she completed a novel; a thriller. She teaches at St. Cloud State University. Her website is magicmasterminds.com/cezarija/
Lois S.Bassen was the 2011 finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award. She is Fiction Editor for Prick of the Spindle, poetry & fiction reviewer for Horse Less Press, Small Beer Press, The Rumpus, Press1, Big Wonderful Press, Melusine, New Pages, and Galatea Resurrects. Over two decades, she has published prize-winning poetry/fiction in The Kenyon Review, American Scholar, Minnetonka, and Persimmontree. She is a reader for Electric Literature and the 2009 winner of the Atlantic Pacific Press Drama Prize. She has worked with playwright Samuel French, (ATA in NYC, OH, NC), and was commissioned to co-author a WWII memoir by the Scottish bride of Baron Kawasaki. (Audio 2 poems:2river.org/2R View/15_3/poems/ bassen.html)
Laura Treacy Bentley is a poet, fiction writer, and book editor (“Conversations”) for WV Living Magazine. She lives in Huntington, West Virginia. Her work has appeared in the United States and Ireland, and her first book of poetry, Lake Effect, was published in 2006. Laura received a Fellowship Award for Literature from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, and her poetry has been featured on the websites of A Prairie Home Companion and Poetry Daily. In 2003 she read her poetry with Ray Bradbury. One of her poems, “Keepsake,” was chosen by Maria Shriver and the editors of O Magazine and is featured on Oprah’s website. For more information, please visit lauratreacybentley.com
Scott Dominic Carpenter teaches literature and critical theory at Carleton College (MN), where he has written extensively on the representation of madness in the novel, political allegory, and literary hoaxes. His fiction has appeared in such journals as Chamber Four, Ducts, Midwestern Gothic, The MacGuffin, Prime Numberand Spilling Ink. A Pushcart Prize nominee and a semi-finalist for the MVP competition at New Rivers Press, his collection of short stories, This Jealous Earth(MG Press) will appear in January 2013. His debut novel, Theory of Remainders is due out in May of 2013 (Winter Goose Publishing). His website is at sdcarpenter.com
Amy Yolanda Castillo is a graduate of Augustana College (South Dakota), where she majored in History and Government & International Affairs, and the University of Minnesota Law School, where she earned her J.D. Following law school, she spent ten years working as a law clerk for a state district court judge in a trial court of general jurisdiction. She currently lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she continues to work in the public sector. Her fiction has previously appeared in J Journal, Midwestern Gothic, Emrys Journal, the Tulane Review, and Third Coast, among others. Another piece is forthcoming in Swill Magazine.
Julie Mark Cohen, PhD, PE, SECB, is a consulting structural and forensic engineer who practices in New York State. Sometimes the things she observes in her field become fodder for her fiction, which often employs aliens. She has nearly completed her SciFi novella: Asymmetrically, Seyfert, which is presented in a unique format consisting of chronological drabbles, flash fiction, and short stories. Her primary protagonist is a SeyTTT-ian, Dr. Seyfert, who is an accomplished and well-liked researcher at the Saturnalia Laboratory on symmetric MoxAT-TAxoM, but whose attempts at finding a mate results in humorous situations that only intergalactic dating can offer. A secondary protagonist is Lucinda-Lucretia-Louise, a MoxAT-TAxoM native, who holds dual doctorates, but struggles to be taken seriously and accepted by males. Julie plans to find a literary agent. She can be reached at jmcohen1028@gmail.com
Professor Samuel I. Doctors has held teaching positions for thirty-five years at the Harvard Business School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, the Univ. of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate Business School, the Haas School of Business at the Univ. of California, Berkeley and most recently at California State Univ., Hayward. He is the author and co-author of nine books, more than a hundred government sponsored research reports, and more than fifty published articles, many in refereed journals. Professor Doctors received his Doctorate in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School (1969) and he also holds a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from the Harvard Law School (1967) and became a member of the Massachusetts Bar in 1967. He holds a B.S. degree with majors in Mathematics, Classics, Philosophy and Physics from the University of Miami and has done additional graduate work in mathematics, history, and philosophy. He is presently working on a book-length set of memoir essays and has written more than 350 poems since his retirement in 2004. A few of his poems have received publication. Finishing Line Press recently published his first chapbook (2011), Moods and Moments of a Restless Mind.
Jacqueline Doyle’s work has appeared in South Dakota Review, Front Porch Journal, Rosebud, and California Northern, among others. She recently won an online essay contest at Ninth Letter. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she teaches at California State University, East Bay. You can visit her here: facebook.com/authorjacquelinedoyle.
Angele Ellis has watched Buddhist monks dance under a theatre marquee featuring her haiku, after winning Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest in 2009. She is coauthor of the diversity workbook Dealing With Differences (Corwin), and author of two books of poetry, Arab on Radar (Six Gallery) and Spared (a Main Street Rag Editors’ Choice Chapbook). Angele received a 2008 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, an honorable mention in the 2011 Shine Journal Poetry Contest, and third prize in the 2007 RAWI Competition for Creative Prose. Her work recently appeared or is forthcoming in Mizna, Rufous City Review, Stone Highway Review, Eunoia Review, Lilliput Review, Italian Americana, The American Book Review, The Holiday Café, and the anthologies Women Write Resistance and Voices from the Attic XVIII. She lives in Pittsburgh.
Anika Fajardo was born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota. She is fascinated by the blending and clashing of cultures. Her work has appeared in various literary publications, most recently McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and Metro Magazine. Her memoir manuscript, Magical Realism for Non-Believers, was a finalist for the 2012 Bakeless Literary Prize in Creative Nonfiction. She lives in Minneapolis where she’s a librarian by day.
Richard Fein was a finalist in The 2004 New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Competition. A Chapbook of his poems was published by Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has been published in many web and print journals such as Cordite, Reed, Southern Review, Roanoke Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Mississippi Review, Paris/atlantic, Canadian Dimension, Black Swan Review, Exquisite Corpse, Foliate Oak, Morpo Review, Ken*Again Oregon East, Southern Humanities Review, Morpo, Skyline, Touchstone, Windsor Review, Maverick, Parnassus Literary Review, Small Pond, Kansas Quarterly, Blue Unicorn, Exquisite Corpse, Terrain Aroostook Review, Compass Rose, Whiskey Island Review, Oregon East, Bad Penny Review and many, many others.
Sam Grieve earned a BA in English and French literature and graduated with honors in creative writing from Brown University. At Brown, she had the great fortune to study under Robert Coover and Paul West, among others. After gaining her MA in English from King’s College, London, she worked initially as a bookseller, and then moved into the antiquarian book business. Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, she lived in London, Paris, and Providence, Rhode Island, before settling down in Connecticut with her husband and two sons. Her work has recently appeared in A cappella Zoo.
Nancy Scott Hanway is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Originally from New York, she now lives in Minnesota where she is Director of Latin American, Latino & Caribbean Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Florida Review, North Dakota Quarterly, poemmemoirstory, Pearl, Willow Review, Apalachee Review, and many other journals. She lives with her husband and son in Saint Paul, and she blogs about books and wine (mostly Malbecs) at Word Vine (wordvine.org)
Kyle Hemmings is the author of several chapbooks of poems & prose: Avenue C, Cat People, and Anime Junkie (Scars Publications). His latest ebooks are You Never Die in Wholes from Good Story Press and The Truth about Onions from Good Samaritan Press. His latest book, Void & Sky, is now out as both paperback and ebook. Kyle lives and writes in New Jersey.
Dustin Junkert started writing in order to impress girls. Most girls aren’t all that impressed by writing, he has found. But here’s hoping. Dustin lives in Portland, OR. He recently had an essay published in the New York Times, and poems in The Journal, South Carolina Review, the Minnesota review, Weber, Georgetown Review, GW Review and New Delta Review.
Sari Krosinsky’s first full-length book, god-chaser, is forthcoming from CW Books. She co-authored a chapbook, Yossele: a tale in poems, with Robert Arthur Reeves. She publishes Fickle Muses; an online journal of mythic poetry and fiction. Her poems appear regularly in literary and genre magazines. She received a B.A. in religious studies and M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico and lives in Albuquerque, N.M., with her partner and cat.
Emma Krosschell is originally from the Northeast and now lives in California. After graduating from college, she dabbled in academic publishing then happily returned to academic and creative writing as a graduate student in English literature at the University of California, Davis.
Mercedes Lawry has published poetry in such journals as Poetry, Rhino, Nimrod, Poetry East, Seattle Review, and others. She’s also published fiction and humor as well as stories and poems for children. Among the honors she’s received are awards from the Seattle Arts Commission, Hugo House, and Artist Trust. She’s been a Jack Straw Writer, a Pushcart Prize nominee twice, and held a residency atHedgebrook. Her chapbook, There are Crows in My Blood, was published by Pudding House Press in 2007 and another chapbook, Happy Darkness, was released by Finishing Line Press in 2011. She lives in Seattle.
Randy Parker, a husband, father, sailor, paddler, kayakfisherman, and poet, makes his living as a writer in Memphis. He holds an M.A. in English from the University of Memphis, with concentrations in creative writing and American literature. You can find his recent work in Tidal Basin Review, The Avatar Review, Sierra, and Barely South. He also has a poem forthcoming in the Tennessee volume of The Southern Poetry Anthology; a projected sixteen volume project celebrating established and emerging poets of the American South, published by Texas Review Press.
Diana Y. Paul’s art has been exhibited in California, Hawaii, and Japan and featured in the art journals Orion, Imitation Fruit, Blood Lotus, Ascent Aspirations and 5 x 5.
The focus of her mixed media artwork is on a Japanese aesthetic combined with techniques including relief, intaglio, monotype, and chine colle. Additional prints may be found at: unhealedwound.com, dedicated to “heroic art that lights the shadows of life’s unfinished business.” Also on her website are posts about movies, restaurants, and short stories she has written, as well as lifestyle issues.
Tony Acarasiddhi Press is extremely happy to see his words in Grey Sparrow Journal. He has been a teacher; both high school and adult school, and earlier he was a lawyer. He lives minutes from San Francisco, but gets to Oaxaca when he can. His daily goal is to act with awareness and compassion. Fiction: BorderSenses; Boston Literary; Foundling Review; Halfway Down the Stairs; JMWW; MacGuffin; Menda City Review; Qarrtsiluni; Rio Grande Review; SFWP Journal; Switchback; Toasted Cheese; Workers Write. Poetry: 34th Parallel; Contemporary Verse 2; Inkwell; Naugatuck River Review; Postcard Press; Right Hand Pointing; Spitball; Verse Wisconsin. Non-fiction: Journal of Microliterature; Toasted Cheese.
Robert Bly has written, “Thomas R. Smith is a high-spirited poetry horse, riding over the hills of emotion.” Smith was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and grew up in the paper mill town of Cornell on the Chippewa River. A poet, essayist, and editor, his work has appeared in hundreds of journals in the US, Canada, and the UK. His poems have reached mass audiences on Garrison Keillor’s public radio show Writer’s Almanac and former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s syndicated newspaper column, American Life in Poetry. He is author of four full-length collections of poetry, Keeping the Star (New Rivers Press, 1988), Horse of Earth (Holy Cow! Press, 1994), The Dark Indigo Current (Holy Cow! Press, 2000), and Waking Before Dawn (Red Dragonfly Press, 2007). A chapbook of nature poems, Kinnickinnic, appeared in 2008 from Parallel Press. His selection of the Canadian poet, Alden Nowlan, What Happened When He Went to the Store for Bread (Nineties Press, 1993), introduced this important voice to a generation of readers in the US. He has lectured on poetry at the Temenos Academy in London and the University of Minnesota. He lives in River Falls, Wisconsin, and currently works as a Master Track instructor in poetry at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. He has been active in peace and justice issues and a frequent participant in Minnesota Poets Against the War events. He invites you to check out poems and essays on his web site: thomasrsmithpoet.com.
Steve Wade is an Irish Writer and English language teacher. A prize nominee for the PEN/O’Henry Award, 2011, and a prize nominee for the Pushcart Prize, 2013, his fiction has been published widely in print and online. His work has won awards and been placed in prestigious writing competitions, including being shortlisted among five in the Wasafiri Short Story Prize 2011, a nomination for the Hennessy New Irish Writer Prize, and Second Place in the International Biscuit Publishing contest, 2009. His novel On Hikers’ Hill was awarded First Prize in the UK, a book read Literary Competition, December 2010–among the final judging panel was the British lyricist sir Tim Rice. His fiction has been published in over twenty-five print publications, including New Fables, Gem Street, Grey Sparrow, Fjords Arts and Literary Review, and Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His site is: stephenwade.ie
Marie Sheppard Williams has lived in Minnesota all 81 years of her life, most of them in Minneapolis. For twelve years she lived with her husband (ex-) and daughter as a caretaker in Flandrau State Park Group Camp in 847 acres of woods near New Ulm, Minnesota. She worked for two years as the country correspondence editor at the New Ulm Daily Journal.
Marie Sheppard Williams has been published in many literary magazines, including The Yale Review, The Alaska Quarterly Review, Poetry East, Rosebud, The Sun and Tiferet.
Gregory J. Wolos’s short fiction has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Baltimore Review, A cappella Zoo, The Los Angeles Review, PANK Magazine, Superstition Review, LITnIMAGE, Prime Number Magazine, Jersey Devil, Waccamaw Journal, Storyglossia, FRiGG, elimae, Apple Valley Review, New South, Underground Voices, Prick of the Spindle, Gulf Stream Magazine, The Fiddleback, The Coachella Review, the Press 53 anthology Surreal South ‘11, and many other journals, both online and in print. In the last year his stories have earned a 2012 Pushcart Prize nomination and have won both the 2011 New South Writing Contest and the 2011 Gulf Stream Award for fiction. He lives and writes on the northern bank of the Mohawk River in upstate New York; url: gregorywolos.com
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