CHIRPS FROM THE SPARROW
Editor Diane Smith
POETRY
Our National Treasure, Presidential Poet Ted Kooser
In the Corners of Fields
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St. George’s Day, Cleveland W. Gibson
Cirrus (from Nuages,) David M. deLeon
Grand Canyon, Feast of the Epiphany, Greetings from West Virginia, Angele Ellis
Pathogen, Rote, Cecilia Galarraga
The Shade of the Niger, Both Sides of the Niger, Against Dying, On the Hut Walls in Togo, Andrew Kaufman
planetary buzz 29., Guy R. Beining
Invocation, Collectibles, my moon, John Schellhase
Jazz Fugue, Pigeons, Cutter Streeby
FLASH FICTION
Arjuna, Sonal Aggarwal
Stars, Instead, Surprise, “Adventure Paradise,” Roberta Allen
Caveat Emptor, James Rawbone
Shades of Flamingo, Nancy Stebbins
Firecracker, Ajay Vishwanathan
Aprilois, D. E. Steward
A Tremblor of a Different Magnitude, Julie Mark Cohen
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer Sheila Ryan, Luminescent Cup
Photographer James S. Oppenheim, Milk Can, Shells
Short Stories
Desolation Row, Alex Morton
Brothers Killing Brothers, Julie Wakeman-Linn
Katie Grubb’s artwork accompanies Julie’s story.
Upside Down Sky, Michael Weems
The Birth Star, Tirumal Mundargi
CONTRIBUTORS
Our National Treasure, Presidential Poet Ted Kooser
Ted Kooser served two terms the Poet Laureate Consultantin Poetry to the Library of Congress from October 2004 to May 2006 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book, Delights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press 2004.) Poet Kooser’s writing weaves deep textures in the fabric of thought. His poem, “In the Corners of Fields,” affirms a sense of hope and life.
“In the Corners of Fields” is reprinted by the kind permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press and Presidential Poet Ted Kooser as noted from “Flying at Night: Poems 1965-1985,” Ted Kooser , ©2005.
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Sonal Aggarwal is an Indian writer, based in New Delhi. She is at present working on a collection of short stories. Her work has appeared in Open Wide Magazine in the UK. She is a Reiki practitioner; enjoys a keen interest in history; and spends most her Sunday mornings exploring the city’s many ruins and monuments. She has studied Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi, and holds an MBA degree.
Roberta Allen is the author of eight books, including two story collections, The Traveling Woman and Certain People, both praised by The New York Times Book Review; Amazon Dream, a travel memoir; The Daughter, a novella-in-shorts; and The Dreaming Girl, a novel. A visual artist as well, she has work in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. She is working on a memoir about her family and completing a story collection. She teaches at The New School and in private workshops. Her web site is robertaallen.com
Guy R. Beining hails from Massachusetts. His most recent chapbooks include in rue from Phrygian Press, 2008, Snug from Epicenter Press, 2008, and The Centipede that Dances with Scrub Brushes, Unarmed Press, 2009. Forthcoming in February 2010 is World PigFebruary 2010 is World Pig 1-34 via Alternating Current Press. In the Art World was part of “Art without Walls,” New York City, July 2009, 9/11 Project, and was included in the Color Matters Art Show at the South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, Massachusetts, autumn of 2009.
Julie Mark Cohen, PhD, PE, SECB, is a Consulting Structural and Forensic Engineer who practices in New York State. She has published over forty flash fiction and short stories, recently winning Sam’s Dot Publishing’s Drabble 16 contest on “Alien Architecture” with her SciFi character, Seyfert. She plans to increase her Seyfert collection from two to four dozen stories and return to her novel, Shear Folly, which started her on the journey of expressing herself with something more universally understood than equations of equilibrium. Julie can be reached at jmcohen1028@yahoo.com
David M. deLeon has had work in publications like Rattle, Fence Mag, The Cortland Review, Adirondack Review, a forthcoming Bat City and 2River View. He’s worked as a music journalist and editor in New York, and currently is based out of Philadelphia. He keeps a website at http://www.davidmdeleon.com
Angele Ellis is the author of Arab on Radar (Six Gallery Press, 2007). A 2008 recipient of a poetry fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, she won Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest in 2009, and was a prizewinner in the 2007 RAWI Competition for Creative Prose. Her work has appeared in a number of publications. A longtime community activist as well as a writer and editor, she lives in the Friendship neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Cecilia Galarragais a recent graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio. She lacks credentials but not enthusiasm. Cecilia works as a health educator in New York City.
Cleveland W. Gibson is a poet and writer from England with multiple publications of books to his name.
Katie Grubb is a Zambabwean artist. “Much of my work in recent years has been concerned with the country I was born in; Zimbabwe, and the suffering of my people.” Katie’s art can be found at url: http://www.katiegrubb.co.uk/
Chantal Lilly our cover artist said,“I am just a girl; a hopeless romantic and abit of a dreamer. I can never find the right words, but always the right song or piece of art to speak for me. As a creative Gemini, I love a range of artistic genres. I am hopeful and endlessly searching and this is reflected in my work.I’m just not sure what for,” Chantal said. Visit myoriginalsin at http://www.myoriginalsin.net, and stay up-to-date with her work at Redbubble. You can view the stock photo credits of her work there too. Don’t Tell Me I’m a Dreamer and Maybe Next Year grace the Sparrow’s front and back cover.
Tirumal Mundargi lives in Bangalore and works near there. His stories can be found or forthcoming in Long Story Short, Gowanus, Niteblade, Thieves Jargon, Diddledog, Shine, Pequin, Microhorror, 50 to 1, Flashshot, Wigleaf, Elimae, Best of Boston Literary Magazine, Monkeybicycle, Writers’ Bloc and Word Riot. Link at URL: http://tirumalmundargi.blogspot.com
James S. Oppenheim was born in Washington, D.C., raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, schooled in Oxford, Ohio and resident in half a dozen Maryland towns (and, for a summer, Jacksonville, Florida). Jim has published in Equus, The North American Review, The Washington Post and Firehouse Magazine and worked as managing editor of the University of Maryland’s graduate literary magazine, Ethos. He has also had a life in music, producing one album and playing venues from cabin porches in West Virginia to bars in Florida. Today he lives in Hagerstown, Maryland and works as a photographer, singer/songwriter, and the editor of a blog, Oppenheim Arts & Letters at http://commart.typepad.com/.
Ajay Prasannan was born and raised in the UK, where he currently works as a web designer and all-round IT troubleshooter. Regular trips to Kerala allow him to re-connect with his Indian roots and better understand the country he hopes to retire in. He has served as Grey Sparrow’s art editor for one year and we hope he continues.
James Rawbone has, (in no particular order), spent significant parts of his life; being mugged in Johannesburg and Maputo, sleeping on the temples at Tikal, building a ranger’s post in Belize, losing cheques for Barclays International, working with drug addicts in Manchester, tomb-stoning in Jersey, learning Spanish in Guatemala, being beaten up by Hell’s Angels in Sheffield. accidentally joining a brainwashing cult (as defined by the CIC), and spending subsequent months ‘kulking´ around Denmark, working in a Street Children’s Orphanage in Mozambique, being a special needs teacher, owning two very spoilt ginger cats. He is 31, still not dead and lives with his wife in the rolling countryside of the North Downs.
Sheila Ryan is an artist and consulting archivist living in the driftless regionof the upper Midwestern United States.
John Schellhase is originally from Arkansas. He is currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. John’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Four and Twenty, Foundling Review, Strong Verse, and Barnwood Poetry Magazine. In 2007, he received the Walton Fellowship in Translation for his work with ancient Greek poetry.
Ralph Smith is a still life photographer living and working in New York City. More of his work can be seen at: www.ralphsmithphoto.com
Nancy Stebbins majored in foreign languages as an undergraduate student. She is entering her final semester in the Pacific University MFA program. Nancy lives in Texas, where she practices psychiatry and raises teenagers. Her short stories have been published in The Summerset Review, Menda City Review, The Drabblecast, and Johnny America.
- E. Steward writes serial month-to-month months in the style of “Diembir” in a project that’s grown to 280 month. More than half of which are published in literary magazines, and a few more electronically.
Cutter Streeby is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside. He now attends King’s College, London where he is reading for an MA in literature; his field of study;1850-Present. He has published poetry in various online and print journals including Chaffey College Review, Upthestaircase and Splash of Ink.
Ajay Vishwanathan is mesmerized by the power of words, more now when he sees his two-year old twins form them. Two-time Best of The Net Anthology nominee, Ajay has writing published or forthcoming in over fifty literary journals, including elimae, The Potomac, DecomP, Drunken Boat, Denver Syntax, and LITnIMAGE.
Julie Wakeman-Linn edits The Potomac Review , blogs at URL: www.potomacreview.blogspot.comand manages the creative writing program at Montgomery College. Her writing draws on her years spent in central Africa. Her first novel, Chasing the Leopard,” was a finalist for the 2008 Bellwether Prize. A second novel, The Thief, the Housekeeperand the Diplomat’s Wife, is in progress. Her masters in writing is from the John Hopkins University/DC program. Julie’s personal website is at url: www.juliewakemanlinn.com. Note: Photograph of panga, courtesy of Cold Steel, Inc.
Michael Weems is a NYC based writer, playwright, and actor. Recent playwriting credits include: Bludgeon the Lime and Necessary Adjustments (Phare Play Productions) Fragments, Waiting Life, and Onward, Forward (Little Hibiscus Productions), Subtlety (Algonquin Productions), Burden Me (Strawberry Riant Festival & Awakening Drama); Waiting Life, Ready to Shine, and Subtlety (Brief Acts). Recent fiction/poetry credits: Love Me, As Well (Record Magazine – Winter 08-09) When We Reached the Forest (Indite Circle Literary) and being named the poet of the month for ‘O Sweet Flowery Roses Literary Journal (October 2008), as well as recent works being published by 63 Channels Literary, Jump In Magazine, and Oregon Literary Review, amongst others. Thanks to my loves, Christine, Thomas, & Jack. www.michaeltweems.com
Christopher Woods is a writer, photographer and teacher. He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas. His work has appeared recently in GLASGOW REVIEW, LITCHFIELD REVIEW and NARRATIVE MAGAZINE. His books include a prose collection, UNDER A RIVERBED SKY, and a book of stage monologues for actors, HEART SPEAK. He shares an online gallery with his wife Linda at MOONBIRD HILL ARTS –www.moonbirdhill.exposuremanager.com/
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