POETRY
Our National Treasure
Mistakes, Robert Bly
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Stillness vs. Motion, Sunil Sharma
Desert Poem, Allen Gray
Lucid Dreaming, Corey Mesler
Morning With Time, Linda Eve Diamond
Fifteen, Tony Press
After the Night Rain, M.J. Iuppa
Precious, Marilyn Peretti
Interim Nostalgia, Momila Joshi
Dark Room, Jane Frank
Fenwick Boulevard, Lana Bella
Owl Dreams, Janet Ruth
It’s a Matter of Time, L.B. Chhetri
Handling Grief, Sheila Bender
Song of Your Eyes, Kosrof Chantikian
Fledgling, Cameron Morse
The Argument, Stanley Paul Anderson
If, Mary Ellen Volk DeCuffa
Crossing the T, Eric Chandler
A Story Getting Old, Ian Randall Wilson
Sundial, Kathleen Hellen
Way, Sulochana Manandhar Dhital
The Event, Peter Feng
Silly Questions, Nabin Pyassi
Spider, Kurt Luchs
Football, Haris Adhikari
The King of Comfort, Perry S. Nicholas
Dandelions, Hanoch Guy
I Love…, Claudia Serea
Twelfth Night, Thomas R. Smith
Shadow, Bhisma Upreti
Just Another Man, Les Wicks
Speechless, Fiona Sinclair
Log Jam, Adam Phillips
Concertina, Daniel Thompson
After a Line by Blas de Otero, John Roche
Sunday Paper, Jules Nyquist
All this Rain, Doug Holder
Butterfly, Upendra Subba
Transgender IV, Ojo Taiye
Winter Moment at a Vermont Inn, Sally Nacker
Volvamos al fútbol, Tomas Sanchez Hidalgo
Rivers Are Not Like Humans, Bhupeen Khadka
in fort living room I plant seeds…, Billy Cancel
Lurid Silence, Gopal, Lahiri
Sharing a Cookie at the Art Museum, Ron Singer
The Oldies’ Home In the Village, Prollas Sindhuliya
In a Dusting of Snow the Morning after an Argument with My Brother, Rodney Torreson
New Beginnings New Year’s Day, Bruce Levine
A Memory, Mishra Baijayanti
Creative Motion, Shiva Adhikari
Late Night Wrestling, Elizabeth E. Landrum
Our Guest Translator from Nepal
Haris Adhikari
Our Guest Artist
Marijo Waldera McBride
CONTRIBUTORS
Robert Bly was born in Madison, Minnesota in 1926. He attended Harvard University and received his M.S. from the University of Iowa in 1956. As a poet, editor, and translator, Bly has had a profound impact on the shape of American poetry. His many books of poems include, most recently, Like the New Moon I Will Live My Life (White Pine Press), Stealing Sugar from the Castle: Selected Poems (W. W. Norton) and Talking into the Ear of a Donkey (W. W. Norton). His book, The Light Around the Body, won the National Book Award in 1967. As the editor of The Fifties and The Sixties, he introduced many European and South American poets to readers in the United States. He is also the author of a number of nonfiction books, including The Sibling Society and the bestselling Iron John: A Book About Men. His honors include Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships as well as the Robert Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Ruth. Bly’s Collected Poems are currently in preparation.
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Our Guest Artist
Marijo Waldera McBride, Q.M.R.P., L.S.W., M.Ed., Doctorate of Scouting, lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. McBride retired from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration with over 30 years of experience in the field of disabilities. She’s been involved in disability issues on a personal and professional level. McBride has numerous clinical publications on topics such as case management, inclusion, Person-Centered Planning, families that have members with disabilities, and self-determination. Since retirement, McBride has continued to apply her knowledge and passions through her community involvement on a variety of committees and organizations. She has pursued her love of water color painting, national and international travel, genealogy research, lifelong learning, and most importantly connection with family and friends. The artwork that graces the front page of Grey Sparrow incorporates the ancient folk art of Polish paper cutting, part of McBride’s Polish heritage, fused with her whimsical water colors. McBride uses a variety of mediums for her artistry including the American folk art tradition of cross-stitch.
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Haris Adhikari, a Nepali poet and editor, teaches English literature and technical communication at Kathmandu University, Nepal. He has authored one poetry collection, Flowing with a River (2012), and is currently working on two more books of poetry and one of translation. His poems and works of translation have appeared in journals like London Grip New Poetry, Red Fez Journal, Buddhist Poetry Review, Circumference, Cyclamens and Swords Publishing, The Rusty Nail, Red Box Kite, Of Nepalese Clay, The Kathmandu Post, The Enchanting Verses Literary Review, Lyrical Passion, Essence Poetry & Yes, Poetry.
Shiva Adhikari is a Nepali poet from Kathmandu. His poem, “Creative Motion,” reminds us that happiness is a circle and a way of life.
Stanley Paul Anderson taught lower division English at the University of Maryland and received a Ph.D. in English there. He’s written a good deal of formal poetry, including a sonnet sequence, and has been published by Kansas Quarterly, Quincunx, Descant, The Asses of Parnassus, and other journals. Originally, a northern Minnesotan, he writes frequently about life north of the Iron Range, near Lake Vermilion. His family worked in the iron mines, as lumberjacks, teachers, professors of English, sports writers, and pilots. Anderson also edited for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA). He frequently visits family in Minnesota and Sweden.
Mishra Baijayanti, an acclaimed Nepali poet and critic, hails from the south eastern plains in Nepal. She has obtained two bachelor’s degrees and is involved in teaching at a school where she serves as one of the founders and president. She has also served as president of the Progressive Writers’ Association—Morang, Nepal. Mishra has authored Sambedanaakaa Naagabeliharu, a haiku collection, Parshwa Aawaaj, a poetry collection, Morangkaa Samakaalin Kabitaa, a collection of critical essays (co-authored), and many more other poems. She has received numerous recognitions and awards for her work.
Lana Bella is an author of two chapbooks, Under My Dark (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2016) and Adagio (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming). She has had poetry and fiction featured with over 300 journals including 2River, California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Columbia Journal, Poetry Salzburg Review, San Pedro River Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, The Homestead Review, The Ilanot Review, The Writing Disorder, Third Wednesday, Tipton Poetry Journal, and Yes Poetry. She is also a Pushcart Nominee. Bella resides in the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a mom of two far-too-clever frolicsome imps.
Sheila Bender founded WritingItReal.com in 2002 and has been helping writers make their writing dreams come true through instructional articles, online workshops and telephone consults for the last 14 years. Before she was proficient with the Internet, Sheila published with Writer’s Digest Books, Warner Books, McGraw Hill, and Imago Press, among several other presses. Now, she is venturing into self-publishing new instructional books and re-issuing some of her earlier books. She finds writing inspiration in examining her relationships with others and watching the waters of Discovery Bay, where she lives in Western Washington. After losing her 25-year-old son in a snowboarding accident, she survived the pain by writing poetry. Her memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief is a narrative about how poetry was the spiritual practice that helped her learn to live fully again.
Billy Cancel (performer/poet) has recently appeared in Blazevox and Gobbet & West Wind Review. His latest body of work Psycho’clock is out on Hidden House Press. Billy Cancel is 1/2 of the noise/pop duo called Tidal Channel. Sound poems, visual shorts, and other aberrations can be found at billycancelpoetry.com
Eric “Shmo” Chandler is a husband, father, and pilot who cross-country skis as fast as he can in Duluth, Minnesota. He is the author of two books: a collection of outdoor essays called Outside Duluth and a novella titled Down In It. His writing has appeared in Northern Wilds, Silent Sports, Grey Sparrow Journal, The Talking Stick, Sleet Magazine, The Thunderbird Review, O-Dark-Thirty, Line of Advance, PRØOF Magazine, and Aqueous Magazine. He is a 20-year Veteran of both the US Air Force and the Minnesota Air National Guard. He’s a member of Lake Superior Writers, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and an Associate Member of the Military Writers Guild. Visit ericchandler.wordpress.com for links to his published fiction, nonfiction, books, and poetry.
Kosrof Chantikian is the author of Prophecies & Transformations, Imaginations & Self-Discoveries, and editor of Octavio Paz: Homage to the Poet, and The Other Shore: 100 Poems by Rafael Alberti. He was editor of Kosmos: A Journal Of Poetry, from 1975 to 1983, and series editor of the Kosmos Modern Poets In Translation Series From 1975 To 1987. His essay on Octavio Paz entitled “The Poetry and Thought of Octavio Paz: An Introduction” appeared in Octavio Paz: Homage to the Poet, and was reprinted in Octavio Paz edited by Harold Bloom. His poems have appeared in Amerus, Ararat, Blue Unicorn, Green House, Grey Sparrow Journal, KOSMOS, Leveler Poetry, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Snow Jewel, Verse Wisconsin, and other journals. Chantikian has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Foundation, and was poet-in-residence at the San Francisco Public Library.
L.B. Chhetri is the author of the poetry collection, Bheed Ma Harayeko Manchhe, and two short story collections Trishanku Ko Deshma and Indramaya Ko Deshmaa. A retired professor of Tribhuvan University, Chhetri is the president of Kavidada Literary Society Chitwan, and Chief Editor of Charaiveti Literary Fortnightly.
Mary Ellen Volk DeCuffa is a wife, mother, sister, friend, and lover of words. Her appreciation of poetry started in high school, she explained, thanks to a fabulous teacher who taught her how to pour thoughts of her soul on to a piece of paper. DeCuffa is also a registered nurse and a water aerobics instructor.
Sulochana Manandhar Dhital lost her father at a mere nine months of age. She was raised by her widow mother. Right from her teenage years, she started her social works like teaching children in a settlement of “untouchables.” She later got involved in the movements against the monarchy. It was not until very late that she finished her college education and finally got a Master’s degree in Nepal Bhasa literature, the vernacular language of the Newars, the native people of the Kathmandu Valley. She also holds a diploma in Chinese Language and Literature and is now working on her PhD thesis. She has worked as an academician in Nepal Academy where she was in charge of Native Language Literature. At present, besides being a freelance writer, she is heading the Native Language Literature Academy, a non-government institution, as its chairperson.
Linda Eve Diamond has had poetry, stories and photographs published by several literary journals and websites, including Grey Sparrow Journal, Sleet Magazine, Gravel, Thema, Spank the Carp and Your Daily Poem. She has been honored with awards for both her poetry and photography. Linda is an author with 12 book publications, including two poetry collections: The Beauty of Listening (Aventine Press, 2013) and The Human Experience (ASJA Press, 2007). Other book publications include E-Z Spelling (for Barron’s Educational series), and several books for McGraw-Hill’s Perfect Phrases series. Visit her blog, The Pig’s Wings: On Poetry & Other Fanciful Means of Flight, at ThePigsWings.com and her Website at LindaEveDiamond.com
Peter Feng is a poet and translator from Qingdao, China. He received a Ph.D. in English Literature from Nanjing University in 2011, and since then he has been exploring the interconnections between poetry, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. He has translated a number of American poets, including Elsewhere by Scott Alexander Jones (Showwe Information) and The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath (Shanghai Translation Publishing House). He is the author of Parallel Tongues (Showwe Information), The Desert Swimmer (Pulsasir Publishing), and Cruel Raven (co-authored with Sun Dong, Nanjing University Press). His poems appear in American Poetry Review, Big Scream, Poetry Sky, Napalm Health Spa, and others.
Jane Frank’s chapbook Milky Way of Words was published by Ginninderra Press in 2016. Her manuscript, Dancing with Charcoal Feet, was highly recommended in the 2016 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Jane’s poems have recently appeared in Takahe, Australian Poetry Journal, Antipodes, Tincture and Cordite Poetry Review. She teaches Humanities at Griffith University in south east Queensland, Australia.
Allen Gray is the author of one previous collection of poems, Overwatch, Grey Sparrow Press, 2011. His poetry has appeared in The Sewanee Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Appalachian Heritage, Kentucky Review, The Good Men Project, Still: The Journal, War, Literature and the Arts among many other journals. Gray recently completed his graduate work at The Sewanee School of Letters and at Texas A&M-Central Texas. A retired soldier and veteran, the author writes and lives in Copperas Cove, Texas with his wife, Gwendolyn.
Hanoch Guy Ph.D., Ed.D., spent his childhood and youth in Israel. He is a bilingual poet in Hebrew and English, Hanoch is teaching Jewish and Hebrew literature in Temple University. He has taught poetry and mentored at the Musehouse center. Guy has published poetry in Genre,Poetry Newsletter, Voices Israel, the International Journal of Genocide studies Poetry Motel, and Visions International. The U.S, England, Wales, and Israel have published his work and he won an award in Poetica and the Mad Poets Society on 2007. Hanoch is the author of The Road toTimbuktu-Travel Poems, Terra Treblinka-Poems of the Holocaust, We Pass Each Other on the Stairs; 120 Imaginary and Real Encounters, and Sirocco: Poems of Israel and Palestine.
Kathleen Hellen, poet, educator and former journalist, is the author of the award-winning collection Umberto’s Night published by Washington Writers’ Publishing House and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento.
Her poems are widely published and have appeared or are forthcoming in The Massachusetts Review, The Nation, North American Review, Poetry East, Poetry Daily, the Sewanee Review, Southern Poetry Review, Witness, and elsewhere. She has served as senior poetry editor for the Baltimore Review and now sits on the editorial board of Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Twice nominated for the Pushcart, she teaches in Baltimore.
Tomas Sanchez Hidalgo (43) holds a B.B.A. (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), a M.B.A. (IEBusiness School), a MA in Creative Writing (Hotel Kafka) and a Certificate in Management and the Arts (New York University). His works have been published in magazines in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Spain, South Africa, India and Australia, and he has been the winner of prizes like the Criaturas feroces (Editorial Destino) in the short story category and a finalist at Festival Eñe in the novel category. He has developed his career in finance and the stock-market.
Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. He is the recipient of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award from the Newton Writing and Publishing Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has also received a citation from the State of Massachusetts for his work as a poet, publisher, and professor. Holder directs the Newton Free Library Poetry Series in Newton, Massachusetts, is the arts editor for The Somerville Times as well as the book review editor for the Wilderness House Literary Review. Holder teaches writing at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston and Endicott College in Beverly, MA. His own work has been published in a variety of journals, magazines, and newspapers, including: The Boston Globe, Caesura, Boston Literary Review, Constellations, Cafe Review, Quercus Review, Turtle Island Quarterly, Spoke Magazine, The New Renaissance and many more. Holder’s work has appeared internationally, and he has run workshops and lectured across Israel.
M.J. Iuppa lives on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. She is Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor at St. John Fisher College. Her lyric essays have appeared in In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal, edited by Mary Paumier Jones and Judith Kitchen (Norton, 1999), Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction, edited by Judith Kitchen (Norton, 2005) and Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Nonfiction, edited by Judith Kitchen and Dinah Lenney (Norton, 2015), and her recently released third full length poetry collection Small Worlds Floating, Cherry Grove Collections, August 2016.
Emory D. Jones, Ph.D. has taught English at the high school and college level for over forty years. He joined the Mississippi Poetry Society, Inc. in 1981 serving as President. Jones has over two hundred and thirty-five publishing credits including publications in Voices International, The White Rock Review, Free Xpressions Magazine, The Storyteller, Pasques Petals, The Pink Chameleon, and Encore: Journal of the NFSPS. He is retired and lives in Luka, Mississippi, with his wife, Glenda. Jones has two daughters and four grandchildren.
Momila Joshi is an Assistant Professor of Nepali literature at Golden Gate International College, Tribhuvan University and Chair of the Nepali Art and Literature Dot Com Foundation. She is also the winner of several literary awards: the Padmakanya Award, Nepal Academy Award for poem, Shatabdee Yuwa Honor 2000, Mohan Regmi Smrit Honor, Gunjan Talent Award, Yuwa Moti Award and several others. Mrs. Joshi has also published the following books: Painyu Phunla Thalepachhi (Poem Collection), Neelo Neelo Aakash ra Dui Thopa Aansu (Poem-Essay Collection; Co-writing), Junkiriharu Orlirahechhan (Poem Collection- 2055), Durgam Unchaima Phoolko Aandhi (Poem Collection): Ishwor Ko Adalatma Outsiderko Bayan (Essay Collection) An Outsider in the Court of God (Collection of lyrical essays), Several Poems of Hem Chandra Pokharel (editor), ‘Nobel’ Annual Literary (editor), Kalchakra Poetic Issue (editor), and the Sagarmathako Nrityamagna Aatma (editor).
Bhupeen Khadka is a representative voice of Nepali poetry and essay. Kshatigrasta Prithvi ra Mool Sadak, Hajar Varshako Nidra, and Suplako Hawaijahaj are his three anthologies of poetry and Chaubis Reel is his collection of essays which has been awarded ‘Uttam Shanti Puraskar.’ ‘International Nepali Literature Society Award’ (USA) and many more. He has also taken part in the international literary assemblies and festivals on behalf of Nepal. Bhupeen is a University lecturer and a founder and activist of the “Conservation Poetry Movement.” He is one of the widely read writers in Nepal because of his writing style in the Nepali language.
Gopal Lahiri was born and grew up in Kolkata. He currently lives in Mumbai, India. He is a bilingual poet, writer, editor, critic and translator and widely published in Bengali and the English language. His poetry collections include Silent Steps, Living Inside and Tidal Interlude. Anthology appearances (among others) includes National Treasures, Indus Valley, A Posy Of Poesy, Concerto, Poet’s Paradise, My Dazzling Bards, The Silence Within, East Lit, Indo-Australian Anthology, The Dance Of The Peacock, Illuminations. His Works Have Featured In Journals Indian Literature, Taj Mahal Review, CLRI, Haiku Journal and electronic publications Arts and Letters, Eastlit, Grey Sparrow Journal, Dead Snake, Underground Window, Muse India, Poetry Stop, and, Debug. He has jointly edited the anthology Scaling Heights. He was awarded Poet of the Year, 2015 by Destiny Poets’ International Community of Poets, Wakefield, U.K.
Elizabeth E. Landrum said poetry climbed into her heart during and after a 30 year career as a psychologist in a private therapy practice. She finds hope in the transformative power of words, both spoken and written, and keeps stretching to find a few that make a difference to others and to the endless quest of understanding herself. As a curious traveler, she is most fascinated by the worlds we can visit in poetry and in dreams when we release the fetters of logical analysis and free-dive into the rabbit hole. Landrum sais she is ever grateful to her poet friend for simply saying “If you want to write, write!”, to the poems that then insisted she write them, and to her wife for her constant faith and steady encouragement to share her work. She is living on a small island in Washington’s Salish Sea, enjoying time to pursue this craft, share with others in person, and occasionally through publications.
Bruce Levine is a native Manhattanite who now lives in Florida with his wife and their dog Daisy. He’s spent his life as a writer and a music and theatre professional. His shows have been produced in New York and around the country and his works have been published in a variety of media, including Brimfield Publications, Heuer Publishing, Rodale Press, Every Writer, Friday Flash Fiction, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine and upcoming releases in Flash Fiction Magazine, The Bookends Review, Eskimo Pie, Leaves of Ink and Visitant.
Kurt Luchs has poems published or forthcoming in Former People Journal, Into the Void, Minetta Review, Poydras Review, Triggerfish Critical Review, Otis Nebula, Sheila-Na-Gig, Right Hand Pointing, Roanoke Review, and Wilderness House Literary Review, among others. He founded the literary humor site TheBigJewel.com, and has written humor for the New Yorker, the Onion and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, as well as writing comedy for television (Politically Incorrect and the Late Late Show) and radio (American Comedy Network). In 2017 Sagging Meniscus Press will publish his humor collection, It’s Funny Until Someone Loses an Eye (Then It’s Really Funny).
Corey Mesler has been published in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Gargoyle, Five Points, Good Poems American Places, and Esquire/Narrative. He has published 9 novels, 4 short story collections, and 5 full-length poetry collections. He’s been nominated for the Pushcart many times, and 2 of his poems were chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. With his wife he runs a 141 year-old bookstore in Memphis. He can be found at coreymesler.wordpress.com
Cameron Morse taught and studied in China. Diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2014, he is currently an M.F.A. candidate at UMKC and lives with his wife, Lili, in Blue Springs, Missouri. His poems have been or will be published in 31 different magazines, including The New Territory, I-70 Review, and Typo.
Sally Nacker received an M.F.A. in poetry from Fairfield University in 2013, and her first collection of poems, Vireo, was published in 2015. New poems have appeared in Mezzo Cammin: An Online Journal of Formalist Poetry by Women. Other magazines include The Wayfarer, and The Orchards. In May, 2015, Nacker was invited as featured poet with Vireo to the inaugural Poetry by the Sea: A Global Conference. She attends the conference each year now to host a New Books Panel, introducing other poets’ new books. Nacker’s work is at sallynacker.com
Perry S. Nicholas is an Associate English professor at Erie Community College North in Buffalo, N.Y. where he was awarded the 2008 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities and the 2011President’s Award for Classroom Instruction. He received the SGA’s Outstanding Teacher Award on two occasions. He has produced one textbook of creative writing prompts, five full-length and three chapbooks of original poetry, and one CD of poetry. To read more about him, go to perrynicholas.com
Jules Nyquist is the founder of Jules’ Poetry Playhouse, LLC, a place for poetry and play in Albuquerque, NM. Jules teaches creative writing and poetry classes and hosts poetry readings with visiting writers. She took her M.F.A. in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, Vermont. Her two books of poems, Behind the Volcanoes and Appetites (both from Beatlick Press), were finalists for the NM/AZ Book Awards. Jules’ poems have appeared in 5 AM, Salamander, Café Review, Malpais Review, Adobe Walls, A View from the Loft, St. Paul Almanac, Long Islander News, Grey Sparrow, House Organ, Duke City Fix and others. Her website is julesnyquist.com
Marilyn Peretti belongs to Chicago suburban poetry groups, and has attended many workshops including the Galway Poetry Festival in Ireland, and the Summer Writers’ Festival at the University of Iowa. Publications have appeared in Kyoto Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Fox Cry Review, Talking River, Deronda Review, Journal of Modern Poetry, Prairie Light Review, California Quarterly, New Verse News, and others. Prizes have followed as well as a Pushcart Poetry Prize nomination. Peretti is a special fan of Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Jane Kenyon, Ellen Bass and others.
Adam Phillips makes his living teaching at-risk junior high kids how to read, write, and dominate on the hardwood (these are three separate things; the kids rarely read or write while playing basketball). When not thusly occupied, he’s on the coastline of Rockaway Beach, Oregon, with his inimitable wife and two small sons. If you’re interested, recent/impending publications include Upstreet, Blotterature, Shark Pack Poetry Review, Raven Chronicles, and Blue Monday Review. His first novel is forthcoming from Propertius Press.
Tony Press tries to pay attention. Sometimes he does. His book, Crossing the Lines, Stories by Tony Press, appeared in 2016 (Big Table Publishing). He has received two Pushcart Prize nominations, one Best of the Net nomination, and one Million Writers Award nomination. He lives near San Francisco yet has no website.
Nabin Pyassi is a poet from Nepal born in 1995. He is from Khotang, Nepal. Pyassi is pursuing his bachelor’s degree and writes poetry. His work featured in Grey Sparrow questions nature’s equitable impact as it moves through the world.
John Roche now lives in Albuquerque, where he helps run the Poetry Playhouse with Jules Nyquist. His first two full-length poetry collections were On Conesus (2005) and Topicalities (2008), both from FootHills Publishing, Kanona, NY. His 2011 poetic memoir, Road Ghosts, is available from theenk Books (through SPDBooks.org). Albuquerque’s Beatlick Press published an anthology of 120 poets called Mo’ Joe (2014), inspired by his Joe Poems: The Continuing Saga of Joe the Poet (FootHills, 2012). Mo’ Joe was a finalist in the 2014 Arizona/New Mexico Book Awards and was nominated for a Pushcart. He also edited the collection Uncensored Songs for Sam Abrams (Spuyten Duyvil, 2008), co-edited an anthology of poems by inmates at Auburn Prison, and edited Martha Rittenhouse Treichler’s Black Mountain to Crooked Lake: Poems 1948-2010, with a Memoir of Black Mountain College (FootHills, 2010). He is editing a series of issues-themed anthologies called Poets Speak, starting with Trumped.
Janet Ruth, Ph.D., Environmental Biology and Public Policy, is an emeritus research ornithologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. She grew up in Pennsylvania and has lived in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Colorado. She moved to Corrales, New Mexico 15 years ago. In addition to scientific publications on bird ecology, migration, and conservation, she has published natural history essays in Birding and Birdwatcher’s Digest. In June 2015, she participated in the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Conference. Her poetry focuses on connections to the natural world, and is frequently informed by her field research experiences and her observations of the landscapes and ecology of the arid Southwest where she lives. She has recently had poems accepted by Santa Fe Literary Review and Bird’s Thumb.
Claudia Serea is a Romanian-born poet who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. Her poems and translations have appeared in Field, New Letters, 5 a.m., Meridian, Word Riot, Apple Valley Review, among others. Serea is the author of Angels & Beasts (Phoenicia Publishing, Canada, 2012), A Dirt Road Hangs From the Sky (8th House Publishing, Canada, 2013), To Part Is to Die a Little (Cervena Barva Press, 2015), and Nothing Important Happened Today (Broadstone Books, 2016). Serea co-hosts The Williams Readings poetry series in Rutherford, NJ. She is a founding editor of National Translation Month. More at cserea.tumblr.com
Sunil Sharma is a widely-published bilingual Indian writer from Mumbai. He is the recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural poet of the year award—2012.
Fiona Sinclair is the editor of an online poetry magazine entitled, Message in a Bottle. Her new collection, A Talent for Hats, will be published in Spring 2017 by Dempsey and Windle Press.
Prollas Sindhulia, a contemporary Nepali poet and novelist, hails from the Sindhuli district in Nepal. He holds a master’s degree in Nepali literature. He has authored four poetry anthologies including Jhandaalaai DV Paryo Bhane ke Hunchha?, one novel, Shuunya Digri, one short story collection Taauko Nabhayeko Tasbir, five collections of children’s stories, one book of travel essays, one gazal collection and a collection of songs. He has worked as editor for several books and magazines. Sindhulia has received several recognitions and awards for his poetic works. He now lives in Kathmandu and runs a publication house.
Ron Singer (ronsinger.net) poems have appeared, e.g., in alba, Anemone Sidecar, Arlington Literary Journal, Avatar Review, Borderlands: The Texas Poetry Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Ducts, Evergreen Review, Grey Sparrow, The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, Windsor Review, and Word Riot. His collection of Maine poems, Look to Mountains, Look to Sea (River Otter Press, August 2013), won an award and was nominated for a Pushcart. His eighth book, Uhuru Revisited: Interviews with Pro-Democracy Leaders (Africa World Press/Red Sea Press, 2015), can be found in about 100 libraries across the U.S., and beyond. His ninth, and most recent, is a double memoir, Betty & Estelle/A Voice for My Grandmother (Akorin Books, July 2016).
Thomas R. Smith is a poet, essayist, editor, and teacher, whose work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Ireland. He is author of seven books of poems, most recently The Glory (2015) and The Foot of the Rainbow (2010). He is chief editor of Robert Bly in This World (2011), papers from a symposium on Bly’s work in 2009, and recently edited Airmail: The Letters of Robert Bly and Tomas Tranströmer (published by Bloodaxe in the U.K.) His new and selected prose poems, Windy Day at Kabekona, are forthcoming from New Rivers Press in 2018. He teaches poetry at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. He and his wife, the artist Krista Spieler, live in River Falls, Wisconsin. His web site is thomasrsmithpoet.com.
Upendra Subba is a popular contemporary Nepali poet. He has authored three poetry anthologies, Daadaamaathiko Ghaamjun ra Gadatirkaa Raakebhootharu, Hongrayo Bhok ra Paangra, and Kholaako Geet and a collection of stories, Laato Pahaad. Subba is associated with the literary movement “Sirjanshil Araajakataa” (Creative Anarchy) along with his two other literary friends. He also writes scripts for Nepali movies. Born at Aangsaraang in Panthar district of Nepal, he now lives in Kathmandu.
Ojo Taiye is a young Nigerian who uses poetry as a handy tool to hide his frustration with the society.
Daniel Thompson’s poetics are influenced by symbolist and surrealist artists and poets as well as the more “objectist” and “objectivist” (to borrow a word) Black Mountain poets, particularly those of Charles Olson and Robert Duncan stressing the importance of place on the poet and the poet upon the place, through a close, phenomenological observation of his/her surroundings. He completed an M.F.A. from the University of Victoria and has been published in a range of literary magazines. He is a reader and contributor to the Tongues of Fire reading series and has written several books, all currently seeking publishers.
Rodney Torreson was the poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan from 2007-2010. He has authored four books; his latest titled, The Secrets of Fieldwork, a chapbook of poems published by Finishing Line Press in 2010. Two full-length books are A Breathable Light (New Issues Press) and The Ripening of Pinstripes: Called Shots on the New York Yankees (Story Line Press). Many of Torreson’s poems have been accepted for anthologies and journals, including two poems that have appeared in Ted Kooser’s national column, American Life in Poetry. New poems will appear in Cottonwood, Miramar, Poet Lore, Tar River Poetry, and Third Coast.
Bhisma Upreti is a poet and essayist. He has published six books of poems and eight books of essays. He won first prize from the National Poetry Competition organized by the Nepal Academy. His works have been translated into English, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Serbian, Slovenian, and German and have appeared in various international journals and anthologies such as Grey Sparrow (USA), Skeleton (USA), Bridge of Fate (USA), The Art of Being Human, volume 5, 9 and 10 (Canada), Bouquet (Japan), Our Voices (India), The Nepalese Verses (Bangladesh), Kathmandu Kathmandu (Germany), The Enthusiast (England) and others. He is a joint secretary of the Nepal Chapter of PEN International. He works at Central Bank of Nepal (Nepal Rastra Bank); and lives in Kathmandu with his family.
Les Wicks has performed at festivals, schools, and prisons for over forty years. He is published in over 350 different magazines, anthologies & newspapers across 24 countries in 12 languages. Wicks conducts workshops and runs Meuse Press which focuses on poetry outreach projects like poetry on buses & poetry published on the surface of a river. His 13th book of poetry is Getting By Not Fitting In (Island, 2016). leswicks.tripod.com
Ian Randall Wilson has published two chapbooks, Theme of the Parabola and The Wilson Poems, both from Hollyridge Press. His fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in many journals including The Gettysburg Review, The New Mexico Humanities Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Mid-American Review, and North American Review. He is an alumni of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. He has an M.F.A. in Fiction and in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. He is on the fiction faculty at the UCLA Extension. By day, he is an executive at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Grey Sparrow Journal 