“Stephen Vincent Benét, (July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist. He wrote a book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown’s Body, published in 1928, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.” Wikipedia
CONTRIBUTORS, January 31, 2025, Issue 45
Charles Joseph Albert is a Californian metallurgist and the author of three novels, seven poetry collections, and three collections of short stories. His poetry and prose have appeared in various places around the web, most recently in Short Edition, Kelp Journal, and Macrame.
Duane Anderson currently lives in La Vista, NE. He has had poems published in Fine Lines, Cholla Needles, Tipton Poetry Journal, and several other publications. He is the author of On the Corner of Walk and Don’t Walk, The Blood Drives: One Pint Down, and Conquer the Mountains, and Family Portraits.
Joydip Bhattacharyya is a young and aspiring soul, living in a suburban village in the state of West Bengal in India. He has completed his Masters in English Literature and Culture Studies from University of Burdwan in 2020, cleared NTA UGC NET exam in June 2023. He’s written his heart out since 2018 and recently got his first break through in Dreich 5 (Season 7). He is looking forward to getting more opportunities and exposure in his poetic career. Bhattacharyya specifically tries to look deep into the human psyche and unfurl the inner dilemmas: to explore the entangled.
Joe Bisicchia writes of our shared dynamic. An Honorable Mention recipient for the Fernando Rielo XXXII World Prize for Mystical Poetry, he has written four published collections of poetry. He also has composed three hundred individual works that have been published in over one hundred publications such as California Quarterly, pacificReview, The Concrete Desert Review, Balloons Literary Journal, Triggerfish Critical Review, Sheepshead Review, Gone Lawn, The Tiger Moth Review, Agape Review, and more. The former broadcaster is director of public affairs for a health system in New Jersey and is a Practicing Excellence certified clinician coach. He earned his BA at La Salle University and is currently on the MFA track at Lindenwood University. To see more of his work, visit JoeBisicchia.com. On X follow him @TheB_Line and on Instagram @joebisicchia
Guillermo Bowie is a Portland, Oregon-based writer. As a sociologist he has published in The Insurgent Sociologist and in Monthly Review. As a poet he has published in Portland’s The Free Agent (copies are in the Oregon Historical Society Library), Pacific University of Forest Grove, Oregon’s Mr. Cogito (copies are in the Portland State University Library), The Village Idiot (Idaho), and Big Scream (Michigan). His work is forthcoming in Blue Collar Review. Bowie holds a BA from Portland’s Lewis and Clark College, an MA from Columbia University, a second MA from New York University, was a Davis-Putter scholar at Harvard University, and did complete half of a PhD at the University of Oregon.
Roger Camp muses over his orchids, walks the Seal Beach pier, reads under an Angel’s Trumpet surrounded by a charm of hummingbirds and spends afternoons with his pal, Harry, lunching at Saint & 2nd. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals including North American Review, Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod and is forthcoming in Scientific Americanand Grey’s Sporting Journal.
Catherine A. Coundjeris’s poetry is published in literary magazines, including Paper Dragons, Kaleidoscope, Jalmurra, Bewildering Stories, The Raven Review, Blue Bird Word, and Evening Street Review. She also has stories published in Proem, Quail Bell, KeepThings, and Opendoor. She has published two essays in the following anthologies from Luna Press, Not the Fellowship Dragon’s and Welcome and Follow Me. Coundjeris is passionate about ESL Literacy.
Sarah Crowley Chestnut lives and works at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts, with her husband and two children. Her poetry and creative non-fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Every Moment Holy Vol. III, The Anglican Theological Review, CRUX: A Quarterly of Christian Thought and Opinion, The Christian Century, Ekstasis, Red Rock Literary Journal, LETTERS, and elsewhere. Chestnut is an alumna of the Tupelo Press Manuscript Conference, and the April 2024 30/30 Project (also with Tupelo Press), and has led poetry workshops at the Vermont Conference for Christianity and the Arts in 2022 and 2023.
Trevor Cunnington is a queer and neuro-divergent writer/artist/educator who lives in Toronto. He has published poems in Last Leaves, The Rivanna Review, Radon, Carousel, Open Arts Review, and others. Work is forthcoming in The Orchards Poetry Journal. Cunnington has also published photographs and a drawing in magazines such as Inlandia, Maisonneuve,and Cerasus. You can find him on instagram @trevorcunnington and on twitter @trevorcunning. He enjoys gardening, foraging, and cooking.
Kate Deimling is a poet, writer, and French translator. Her poems have appeared in Slant, Tar River Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Naugatuck River Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, Plainsongs, and other magazines. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and is poetry co-editor for Bracken magazine. Find her online at www.katedeimling.com.
Stuart Docherty is a British writer and poet based in Tokyo, where he writes, eats too much, and pretends to speak Japanese. You can find his work at ergot.press, Maudlin House, and Black Hare Press.
Vern Fein, a recent octogenarian, has published over 300 poems and short prose pieces in over 100 different sites. A few are: Gyroscope Review, Young Raven’s Review, Bindweed, *82 Review, River And South, Grey Sparrow Journal, and Rat’s Ass Review . His second poetry book—Reflection on Dots—was released late last year.
George Freek’s poem “Enigmatic Variations” was recently nominated for Best of the Net. His poem “Night Thoughts” was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Erren Geraud Kelly has had his poems featured in numerous literary journals and magazines in print and online in the United States, Canada and Europe. He’s has been writing poetry for 35 years and has three pushcart nominations. Kelly received his B.A. in English-Creative Writing from Louisiana State University and lives In Lynn, Massachusetts.
Josef Krebs has a chapbook published by Etched Press and his poetry also appears in 82 issues of 37 different magazines, including Burningword Literary Journal, Tacenda, The Bohemian, Organs of Vision and Speech Magazine, Free State Review, and DASH Literary Journal. A short story has been published in blazeVOX. He’s written three novels and five screenplays. His film was successfully screened at Santa Cruz and Short Film Corner of Cannes film festivals.
Jim Krosschell’s poems and essays have appeared in some 75 journals, and he has published two essay collections: One Man’s Maine, which won a Maine Literary Award, and Owls Head Revisited. He lives in Northport, ME and Newton, MA, and is Board President of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.
Celia Lawren is the author of the poetry chapbook, Among Dead Things, a chronicle of tragedy and resilience, published by Finishing Line Press. She is the winner of the 2021 Poetry Prize awarded by the Knoxville Writers Guild. Her poems have been published in Catamaran, Caesura, Tule Review, She Speaks: An Anthology of Women of Appalachia, 2021-22, and Colossus: Freedom: An Anthology of Voices Across the Carceral Wasteland 2022. Lawren resides in Knoxville, Tennessee after living many years in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Christel Maass frequently writes about nature. Her poems appear in Bramble, The Nemadji Review, Portage Magazine, The Orchards Poetry Journal, the chapbook anthology The Lake Is Mother to Us All: Poems Celebrating Lake Michigan, and other publications. She lives in southeastern Wisconsin.
Bray McDonald is a poet and Environmental Educator. Mr. McDonald has been published in numerous journals in the U. S., Canada and Europe. He has poetry forthcoming in ‘Evening Street Review’, ‘Plainsongs’, ‘Steam Ticket’, ‘I-70 Review’ and ‘New Reader Magazine’.
Christine A. MacKenzie (she/her) is a neurodivergent poet and therapist living in Texas. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Sugar House Review, Spectrum, The Inflectionist Review, NonBinary Review, Red Noise Collective, and Susquehanna Review.
Lilia Mahfouz began her career in comedy, performing at festivals such as Liège, Just for Laughs in Montreal, and Avignon Off. She received widespread praise from the press. Known for her fearless humor, she appeared on numerous French talk shows, sketch comedy programs, and even in a comedy movie. A proud laureate of the Society of Authors and Composers’ Writing Prize, Lilia’s work has been featured in French literary reviews such as Zone Critique and Marginales, as well as in international journals like Ink In Thirds, Fiction On The Web, Quail Bell Magazine, In Parentheses, Literary Revelations, MoonLit Getaway and Hidden Peak Press, among others.
Zoé Mahfouz is a proud holder of a Master’s Degree in Screenwriting from the London Film School. She is also an Award-Winning Actress, Screenwriter, and Content Creator. Her own writing (fiction, nonfiction and poems) has been featured in 20+ literary magazines and best-of anthologies across the globe. Her short screenplays and TV pilots, which examine the influence of social media and the challenges of being a woman in today’s society, have been recognized at film festivals worldwide, including the Scriptation Showcase Script Competition, the Filmmatic Comedy Screenplay Awards, and the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival, a Canadian Screen Award-qualifying festival. She also wrote, directed, and produced an innovative proof-of-concept music video titled Chocolate Gate, which leveraged cutting-edge technologies to explore the pressing issue of cyber-bullying, earning her Best Music Video, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing awards at the AI International Film Festival in San Diego, CA.
Mark Massaro earned a master’s degree in English Language & Literature from Florida Gulf Coast University and he is currently a Professor of English at a state college in Florida. His writing has been published in The Georgia Review, The Hill, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Master’s Review, Newsweek, DASH, Litro, and others.
Libby Maxey is a senior editor and poetry editor at the online journal Literary Mama, where she has been a member of the staff since 2012. Her poems have appeared in Emrys, Mezzo Cammin, Crannóg, Stoneboat, The Maynard and elsewhere. She was a winner of the 2021 Princemere Poetry Prize and the Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest, as well as a Laureate’s Choice prize winner in the 2023 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest. She was also shortlisted for the 2023 Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Prize, and her poetry chapbook, Kairos (2019), won the Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Contest. Her full-length collection, Indwelling (Resource Publications 2024) was recently released. She lives with her family in Western Massachusetts.
Thi Nguyen is a California native, born in San Jose from Vietnamese refugees, and currently lives in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in creative writing, focusing on poetry, from the University of New Orleans (UNO). Her work has appeared in Broken Lens Journal, diaCritics, Ghost City Review, The Indianapolis Review, and elsewhere. Her poems have been recognized with Honorable Mention for the Vassar Miller Poetry Prize and the Academy of American Poets Award in 2024. She also loves coffee and takes it with a splash of oat milk.
Donna Pucciani, a Chicago-based writer, has published poetry worldwide in Shi Chao Poetry, Poetry Salzburg, ParisLitUp, Acumen, Journal of Italian Translation, Li Poetry and other journals. Her seventh and most recent book of poetry is Edges.
Ramzi Albert Rihani is a Lebanese American writer. He received the 2024 Polk Street Review first-place poetry award. His poems have appeared in several publications in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Romania, India, and China, including Linnet’s Wings Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, ArLiJo, Discretionary Love, Poetic Sun, Last Leaves Magazine, Cacti Fur Journal, Ariel Chart International Literary Journal, Poetry Potion, The Piker Press, Active Muse, Ephemeral Elegies, and The Silent Journey Anthology. He is a published music critic. He published a travel book, The Other Color──a Trip Around the World in Six Months (FMA Press). He lives in the Washington, DC, area.
C.M. Rivers grew up reading to the sound of rain on the roof in Oregon’s Willamette valley. The author of two award-winning books of poetry, his work has appeared in literary magazines and journals across the U.S. Find more of his writing at cmrivers.com
Claire Scott is an award winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review and Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.
Beth Sherman’s writing has been published in more than 100 literary magazines, including Flash Frog, Gone Lawn, Tiny Molecules, 100 Word Story, Fictive Dream, and Bending Genres. Her work is featured in Best Microfiction 2024 and she’s the winner of the Smokelong Quarterly 2024 Workshop prize. A multiple Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net nominee, she can be reached on X, Bluesky or Instagram @bsherm36.
Dr. Roger G. Singer is a Poet Laureate Emeritus of Connecticut, and past president of the Connecticut Shoreline Poetry Chapter, in association with the Connecticut Poetry Society. He has had over 1,600 poems published on the internet, magazines and in books and is a 2017 Pushcart Prize Award Nominee.
Charles Springer has degrees in anthropology and is an award-winning painter. A Pushcart Prize, Sonder Press Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction and Best of the Net nominee, he is widely published in print and online. He has authored Juice (Regal House Publishing, 2019), a collection of prose poems, Nowhere Now Here (Radial Books, 2021) and a second collection of prose poems, Window Over the Sink (Fernwood Press) 2024.
James T. Stemmle is an old man, currently living retirement in Riderwood, a hundred acre senior village, with his wife of 58 years. He writes poetry during morning meditations on a bench by a pond with time off to greet passers-by with a cheerful good morning. He had a Federal Government career mostly with EPA, earned a doctorate from Catholic U in Chemistry, and was born in Louisville, KY. He is eager to share his poetry. Already he has published 54 poems in such literary magazines as: The Octillo Review, Evening Street Review, The Raven’s Perch, Deep South Magazine, Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities, Literary Veganism: An Online Journal, Cheofpleirn Press, Seattle Star, Poetry Superhighway, Open Arts Forum, Journal of Expressive Writing, The Light Ekphrastic, Midway Journal, Literary Heist, Open Door Poetry Magazine, The Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Poetry Pacific, The Indian Review, The Oakwood Literary Journal, Boshemia, ArLiJo, Réapparition Journal, The Front Range Review, Spank the Carp, Heart, Wordgathering, Verse Virtual, and, Narrative Northeast.G
Timothy Stobierski writes about relationships. His work explores themes of love, lust, longing, and loss — presented through the lens of his own experiences as a queer man. His poetry has been published in a number of journals, including Chiron Review, Gay & Lesbian Review, Midwest Quarterly, Anthropocene, Dust, and Connecticut River Review. His first book of poems, Dancehall, was published by Antrim House Books in July 2023. An earlier chapbook, Chronicles of a Bee Whisperer, was published by River Otter Press in 2012.
Daniel P. Stokes has published poetry widely in literary magazines in Ireland, Britain, the U.S.A, Canada, and Asia, and has won several poetry prizes. He has written three stage plays which have been professionally produced in Dublin, London, and at the Edinburgh Festival.
Pepper Trail’s poems have previously appeared in Grey Sparrow, Rattle, Atlanta Review, Catamaran, Ascent and other publications. His work has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net Awards, and his collection, Cascade-Siskiyou: Poems, was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry. Trail lives in Ashland, Oregon.
S.E. White teaches English and Honors classes at Purdue University Northwest. She holds a BFA from Bowling Green State University, MA from Iowa State University, and MFA from Purdue University. White has published with The Smoking Poet, Ginosko, Toasted Cheese, Prick of the Spindle, 100 Word Story, and others. Her novella A Murder of Crows is available in paperback and Kindle versions and in the collection Best Ohio Short Stories.
Grey Sparrow Journal 