Contributors
Poetry
An immigrant from Chile, Eneida Alcalde’s poetry draws from her migratory experiences and her ancestral roots in Araucanía, Borinquen, Iberia, and Scandinavia. Her poems have appeared in literary outlets such as Birdcoat Quarterly, Magma Poetry, K’in Literary Journal, and Art by the People’s Moving Words. She is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop and the Fiction Editor for Oyster River Pages’ Emerging Voices. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @EneidaEscribe. Learn more at www.eneidapatricia.com.
Mischelle Anthony’s poems lately appear in Cimarron Review, Little Patuxent Review, Typehouse, Midwest Quarterly, Cream City Review, Ocean State Review, and in her collection, [Line] (Foothills Press). She has also edited an 1807 memoir of sexual assault, Lucinda; Or, The Mountain Mourner (Syracuse University Press). She lives and works in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, with occasional visits to her home state of Oklahoma.
Jo Reyes Boitel is a poet, essayist, and playwright. jo is also a queer, mixed-Latinx parent working in community. Publications include Michael + Josephine (FlowerSong Press) and the chapbook mouth (Neon Hemlock), as well as the operetta she wears bells. Publications include The Ice Colony, OyeDrum, Huizache, Scalawag Journal, and Chachalaca Review. As of 2021 jo is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop.
Jonathan Fletcher, an alumnus of the Our Lady of the Lake University and an incoming MFA student at Columbia University's School of the Arts, has been published in Arts Alive San Antonio, FlowerSong Press, Lone Stars, TEJAS COVIDO, The Thing Itself, and Voices de la Luna. He currently resides in San Antonio, Texas
Sarah Gilbert is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in fiction writing and 19th century literature at Oklahoma State University. She earned a BA and an MA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and an MFA from American College Dublin in Ireland. Her work has been featured in Wraparound South Magazine, New Plains Review, Santa Clara Review, among others.
Christopher “Rooster” Martinez is a spoken word poet and educator from San Antonio, TX. He is the author of two poetry books: A Saint for Lost Things (Alabrava Press, 2020) and As It Is in Heaven (Kissing Dynamite Poetry Press, 2020). He co-edited Contra: Texas Poets Speak Out (Flowersong Press), a poetry anthology, and worked as a writer on the 2016 play, American Pride. He received his MA/MFA in Literature, Creative Writing and Social Justice from Our Lady of the Lake University in 2018. You can follow him on IG @roostmtz or his website clmtz.com
Juan J. Morales is the son of an Ecuadorian mother and Puerto Rican father. He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Handyman's Guide to End Times, winner of the 2019 International Latino Book Award. He is a CantoMundo fellow, a Macondo fellow, the editor/publisher of Pilgrimage Press, and professor and department chair of English & World Languages at Colorado State University-Pueblo.
Robert Okaji lives in Indiana. He holds a BA in history, served without distinction in the U.S. Navy, and once won a goat-catching contest. He is the author of multiple chapbooks, including the 2021 Etchings Press Poetry Prize-winning My Mother's Ghost Scrubs the Floor at 2 a.m., and his poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Book of Matches, Juke Joint, One Art, North Dakota Quarterly, Vox Populi, Indianapolis Review, and elsewhere.
Lea Page’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, Pinch, Stonecoast Journal, Pithead Chapel, High Desert Journal and Slipstream. She is also the author of Parenting in the Here and Now (Floris Books, 2015). She lives in rural Montana with her husband and a small circus of semi-domesticated animals.
Arrie Barnes Porter is an MFA who writes poetry and fiction. She created Nubian Notes, a magazine now maintained as a “Special Collection” at the John Peace Library, Institute of Texan Cultures. She recently completed a manuscript of poems entitled Every Other Someone. She has conducted interviews and written articles for San Antonio newspapers and developed two commentaries for Texas Public Radio: “The George Floyd Protests in the Pandemic and “Juneteenth, it’s Complicated.”
Alison Terjek is a writer and mental health advocate living in Northwestern CT. She spends her weekends outdoors where she searches for peace and inspiration in the mountains. Her poetry has appeared in Soundings East, The Healing Muse, Watershed Review, Peregrine, Appalachian Review and other journals.
Eddie Vega is a poet, spoken word artist, storyteller, and educator. His first full-length collection of poetry, Chicharra Chorus, was published in 2019 (FlowerSong Press). He is the 2021 recipient of the Literary Arts Grant from the Luminaria Artist Foundation. Vega writes about food, Tejano culture, social justice, and the intersections thereof. AKA, The Taco-Poet of Texas, he can be found at an open-mic, slam, or taqueria on any given evening anywhere throughout South Texas.
Daniel White is a previously unpublished writer. This is his first submission for publication.
Fiction
Michelle Brooks has published a three collections of poetry, Make Yourself Small (Backwaters Press), Pretty in A Hard Way (Finishing Line Press), and The Pretend Life (Atmosphere Press), and a novella, Dead Girl, Live Boy (Storylandia Press). A native Texan, she has spent much of her adult life in Detroit.
Harriet Garfinkle. She dances. She writes. She paints. She choreographed the original production of the play Purple Breasts, which had full-page coverage in the NY Times, and won numerous awards. She has published short stories in Open: The Journal of Arts and Letters and The Conglomerate and has received an Effie Lee Morris award from the WNBA-SF Chapter. She’s been juried into and participated in the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley (2 x's), Napa Valley Writer’s Conference (2 x's), and Lit Camp.
Michael McGuire was born and raised and has lived much of his life in or near. He divides his time; his horse is nondescript, his dog is dead. Naturally, McGuire regrets not having passed his life in academia, for the alternative has proven somewhat varied, even unpredictable.
Louise Turan’s fiction and creative nonfiction has appeared in Superstition Review, Forge, Diverse Voices Quarterly, the dap project, and Existere, among others. Her short story, “Foreign Lands,” was listed in the top five percent of submissions to the Whitefish Review’s 2018 Montana Award for Fiction, judged by Rick Bass. Born in Ankara, Turkey, she is a former singer/song writer, prep cook, and nonprofit executive. Louise lives and writes in Philadelphia and Owls Head, Maine. Read more of her published works at: www.louiseturan.com, or on Instagram: @louiseturan.
Daniel Webre received an MFA in fiction from McNeese State University and a PhD in English with creative writing concentration from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Pembroke Magazine, Concho River Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Big Muddy, and elsewhere. He lives in Louisiana where he teaches first-year writing and literature.
Creative Nonfiction
Leslie Armstrong is an architect and the author of The Little House and Space for Dance: An Architectural Design Guide. She began her architecture practice in the mid-'70s, focusing on the performing arts and on residential and commercial architecture and interiors. In 2008, she began Girl Intrepid – a New York Story of Privilege and Perseverance which was published in October of 2020. She has been compared to a mid-century Edith Wharton. Leslie lives in New York City and continues to work as both an architect and writer.
Douglas Cole has published six collections of poetry and the highly praised, well-reviewed novel The White Field. His work has appeared in anthologies as well as distinguished journals such as The Chicago Quarterly Review, Bitter Oleander, Chiron, and Louisiana Literature. He has been nominated three times for the Pushcart, won the Best of the Net for his prose and the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize for Poetry. He lives in Seattle, Washington. His website is https://douglastcole.com/.
Dramatic Scripts
Zac Thompson is a playwright and travel writer living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He grew up in Springdale, Arkansas. Follow him online @zeekaytee.
Art and Graphic Lit.
A former writer and editor for several sports publications, Patrick McEvoy has had stories included in comic book anthologies such as Emanata, Uncanny Adventures, Indie Comics Quarterly, and GuruKitty’s Once Upon a Time and Gateway to Beyond. Two illustrated stories have also appeared on Slippery Elm's website, and a short story on Akashic Books’ website. In addition McEvoy's short plays were chosen for performance at the Players Theatre in New York (the Sex, NYC and BOO festivals) in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019. Another short play was accepted for the Emerging Artists Theatre New Works series in 2020. His photography has been exhibited with the Greenpoint Gallery, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, riverSedge and Good Works Review.
Matthew Burns is the author of Imagine the Glacier (Finishing Line Press, 2021). His poems have won a James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review, received multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations, and have appeared or are forthcoming in RHINO, Posit, ellipsis…, Raleigh Review, Camas, Spoon River, Quiddity, and others. He teaches writing and literature in upstate New York.