Dean Abbott is a writer, poet and pastoral counselor living in Kentucky. He can be contacted through http://www.deanabbott.com or on X @deanabbott.
J. S. Absher is a poet and independent scholar. His first full-length book of poetry, Mouth Work (St. Andrews University Press) won the 2015 Lena Shull Competition of the NC Poetry Society. His second full-length collection, Skating Rough Ground, was published by Kelsay Press in 2022. Chapbooks are Night Weather (Cynosura, 2010) and The Burial of Anyce Shepherd (Main Street Rag, 2006). He lives in Raleigh, with his wife, Patti. Website: www.jsabsherpoetry.com
Tracie Adams is a writer and teacher in rural Virginia. Pushcart nominee 2025. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in BULL, Does It Have Pockets, Cleaver Magazine, Bright Flash Literary Review, Cool Beans Lit, and others. Read her work at http://www.tracieadamswrites.com and follow her on Twitter @1funnyfarmAdams.
Donald Adamson is a poet and translator from Dumfries, writing in English and Scots. He currently lives in Finland. He was a lecturer in the universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä, Finland, and has translated Finnish poems by Eeva Kilpi, Lasssi Nummi, and others. He has won prizes in many poetry competitions; also translation competitions, including first prize in the Sangschaw Competitions in 2017 and 2022. His collections include Bield (Tapasalteerie, 2021) and a co-authored collection, A Beatin Hert: Poems and Photographs from Rheged (Hatterick’s House, 2023).
Claire Hellar Adderholt is a missionary kid who grew up in Papua New Guinea and, after living in California and Colorado, now lives with her husband in Birmingham, Alabama. She is a UCLA grad and loves Tolstoy, Taylor Swift, mountain hikes, and peonies. Her poems can be found in The Rabbit Room, Calla Press, Wilderness House Literary Review, and elsewhere. Find her on Instagram @claire_de_luned and on Substack at Lanterns in the Dark, where she publishes a new poem every week.
Carolyn Alessio lives and works on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Her writing has appeared in The Pushcart Prize anthology, Chicago Tribune and Sweet. Two of her essays were named Notable for Best American Essays.
Inventory
Edward Alport is a retired teacher and proud Essex Boy. He occupies his time as a poet, gardener and writer for children. He has had poetry, articles and stories published in various webzines and magazines and performed on BBC Radio and Edinburgh Fringe. He sometimes posts snarky micropoems on Twitter as @cross_mouse.
The Maxwell Chapel near Monreith
Eva Alter is a poet and information professional whose work explores memory and myth through hybrid and procedural forms. Her work is published or forthcoming in Maudlin House, Don’t Submit, scaffold literary journal, wildscape. literary journal, and elsewhere. She can be found @eva_alter_poet on Twitter, @eva.alter.poet on Instagram, and @evaalterpoet.bsky.social.
Cit Ananda’s poetry is inspired by direct experience, captured in moments between perception when the mind falls quiet and deep silence shares an offering that touches the mystery of life. She will tell you she catches poetry on the winds of the universe. She has had work published or forthcoming in The Mountain Path, Tiferet Journal, Amethyst Review, Offerings: A Spiritual Poetry Anthology from Tiferet Journal, El Portal, and Medicine and Meaning. She is also the author of When Silence Speaks: Messages from the Heart, a full-length poetry book. Explore more at https://www.beingcitananda.com/publications.
Lodgepole Pine and Moon Slivers
Chris Anderson is an emeritus professor of English at Oregon State University and a Catholic deacon. He is the author of a number of books, most recently a book of poems, LOVE CALLS US HERE, published by Wildhouse Publishing in Boston.
My Heart is Like a Bend in the River
Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality & Spirit, now in its second edition; the chapbook Map to Mercy, and three books on writing: Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir; Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice; and The Release: Creativity and Freedom After the Writing is Done. She is a founding member of The Eye of the Heart Center, where she teaches writing as a transformational practice and hosts an online writing community. You can connect with Elizabeth at www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com and www.spiritualmemoir.com.
Shanti Ariker is a writer by night and a lawyer by day. The start of her memoir appears in How We Change, the 2024 San Francisco Writer’s Foundation Writing Contest Anthology. Her work has been published in The Thieving Magpie, On Being Jewish Now substack, OfTheBook Press and Simpsonistas Vol. 3. She can be found at shantiariker.com.
Tani Arness lives in beautiful Albuquerque, NM. She’s been inspired by hours spent stargazing in Northern NM. Tani’s work can be found in Tzimtzum: 5 contemporary poets lend us their hearts, and numerous literary magazines including North American Review, Malpais Review, and Crab Orchard Review. See also: www.tani-arness.com.
Paul Attwell lives in Richmond, London with his cat Pudsey. Paul received a Masters degree with the Open University a year ago. Paul is currently wading through biographies on Marcus Aurilius, Virgil, and Cleopatra.
Sam Aureli is a design and construction professional, originally from Italy, now calling the Boston area home. A first-generation college graduate, he’s spent decades immersed in concrete and steel. Poetry is what truly feeds his soul these days. With retirement still a decade away, Sam balances the grind of his day job with the refuge he finds in writing. His work has appeared in The Atlanta Review, West Trade Review, Underscore Magazine, Chestnut Review, Stanchion Magazine, and other literary journals.
HM Ayres grew up in Northern New Jersey. She retired and moved to Cape Cod, MA in 2021 after a 43 year career in college student affairs administration. Since retiring Helen has been devoting her time to writing poetry, exploring the Cape conservation areas, bike paths, waterways and beaches and is engaged in several social justice and community volunteer efforts.
John Janelle Backman (she/her) writes about gender identity, ancient spirituality, the everyday strangeness of karma, cats, and whatever else comes to mind. Janelle’s work has appeared in The Citron Review, Catapult, the tiny journal, Typehouse, HerStry, and Amethyst Review, among other places. Her essays have made several contest shortlists and earned a few Pushcart nominations. Find her at http://www.backmanwriter.com.
Deborah Bailey has been writing poetry since she was a teenager. She recently retired after 40 years in social services and 30 years as a master’s level social worker. She has finally mustered courage to begin submitting recent work for publication, hoping others will enjoy her imagery.
Deb Baker lives in New Hampshire and works for a climate justice organization and in a hospital. Since childhood, she has felt connected to her kin in creation, who appear along with her human relatives in many of her poems. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including Bellevue Literary Review, Third Wednesday, Naugatuck River Review, Hawk & Whippoorwill, Radix, humana obscura, New Feathers Anthology and The Penwood Review.
Discernment – a poem by Deb Baker
Iljas Baker was born and raised in Scotland. He graduated from Strathclyde, Aberdeen and Edinburgh universities and now lives in Thailand. He is a Muslim and practices the spiritual exercise of Subud, which originated in Indonesia. He is married with a son and a daughter and two granddaughters. A volume of poems, Peace Be Upon Us, was published by Lote Tree Press, Cambridge, UK in 2023.
One of the winners in Ireland’s 2024 Fingal Poetry Festival Competition and in 2022’s Poetry on the Lake, Lizzie Ballagher focuses on landscapes, both psychological and natural. She was a Pushcart nominee in 2018. Having studied in England, Ireland, and the USA, she worked in education and publishing. Her poems have appeared in print and online in all corners of the English-speaking world. Find her blog at https://lizzieballagherpoetry.wordpress.com/
Elizabeth Barton’s debut poetry pamphlet, If Grief were a Bird, was published by Agenda Editions in 2022. She was a prizewinner in the Shelley Memorial Poetry Competition 2023 and was Highly Commended in the Ver Poets Open Competition 2024. Her poetry has been published in journals such as Agenda, Acumen, Mslexia, The High Window and the podcast Poetry Worth Hearing. She is Stanza rep for Mole Valley Poets and editor of their anthology.
Kimberly Beck is a poet from Washington State. She can often be found at a local therapy ranch, caring for a very special herd of Norwegian Fjord Horses. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Solid Food Press, Ekstasis Magazine, and Clayjar Review.
Emily Bender-Nelson is an emerging poet and visual artist from the American South, living in The Hague. Her work explores motherhood, neurodivergence, and belonging, and she is particularly interested in the Mennonite psyche. Her day job is in international migration and human rights. Find her daydreaming on instagram @emilynowhere
Jean Biegun is retired in California after a lifetime in the Midwest USA. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She has received two Pushcart nominations and written two poetry collections, Hitchhikers to Eden and Edge Effects (2022 and 2024, Kelsay Books). Recent work is in Third Wednesday, The Scarred Tree: Poetry on Moral Injury, Ekstasis, Unbroken, and Thin Places and Sacred Spaces: A Poetry Anthology (Amethyst Press).
Amrita Skye Blaine develops themes of aging, disability, and spiritual awakening. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in 2003. She has published a memoir and a three-novel trilogy. Blaine has been writing poetry steadily since she turned seventy. Her poems have been accepted by Braided Way Magazine, The Penwood Review, Delta Poetry Review, the New English Review, Soul Forte, and Chiron Review. Her first book of poetry, every riven thing, has been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press and will come out mid-2025.
Jane Blanchard of Augusta, Georgia, has recent work in Blue Unicorn, Loch Raven Review, and Scintilla. Her latest collection is Furthermore.
Ben Blyth writes from Treaty 7 Territory, where he works as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Calgary in 2024. His poetry explores the sublime/mundane, pastoral/urban, tenderness/ brutality, and present/past; with a keen sense of form and an eye for striking imagery. Blyth’s work plays with nationality. liminality, and uncertainty in a fresh and poignant way.
Wayne Bornholdt is a retired bookseller who specialized in academic works in religious studies and theology. He holds degrees in philosophy and theology. He lives in West Michigan where he works on improving his tennis game and writing.
Don L. Brandis is a retired healthcare worker living quietly near Seattle writing poems. He has a degree in philosophy and a long fascination with Zen. Some of his poems have appeared in Leaping Clear, Amethyst Review, Blue Unicorn and elsewhere. His latest book of poems is Paper Birds (Unsolicited Press 2021).
Jesse Breite’s recent poetry has appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Pinch, Terrain, and Rhino. His first full-length poetry collection is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. Jesse teaches high school in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives with his wife and two kids. More at jessebreite.com.
Susan Brice lives in Derbyshire. She has worked collaboratively with Viv Longley and Jane Keenan to publish two anthologies – Daughters of Thyme(available from dotipress.com) & Homethyme (available from Amazon). They are currently working on a third anthology, Makingthyme. Susan’s collection Brushstrokes of the Ultimate Artist (October 2024) is available from Amazon. Recently she volunteered to go on the church cleaning rota. Her first session with the mop reminded her of George Herbert’s poem ‘The Elixir’. Cleaning the church gathered the past, present and future into one place.
Fred Briggs is a graduate of Stony Brook University where he majored in English Literature with an emphasis on 17th Century poetry. An award-winning poet, his work has been published in several journals and online.See more of his poetry on Facebook: The Poet’s Cloak – The Poetry of Fred Briggs
Tabin Brooks is a writer, artist and multi-disciplinary academic in the Arts and Sciences. Much of their creative work addresses the nature of the divine and the many ways of meaning humanity exists in across both the modern world and historically. Tabin writes near-future speculative fiction, poetry, and creates modern spiritual art about the place of humanity in the world.
Connor Brown is a writer and mental health counselor in training based in West Chicago, IL. His poetry has previously appeared digitally in Ekstasis Magazine and in print in Solum Journal (Vol. V).
Magnolias
Sharon V. Brown is a retired English professor and poet living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She recently joined the Greenwood Poets Group in Seattle, Washington and has begun honing her craft with the enriched perspective of an older woman. Previous poetry publications include Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place; Lamar University Literary Press, Senior Class: Poems on Aging; Cirque Literary Journal; and Still Points Quarterly.
Pernille Bruhn, PhD, is a poet, dancer and heart whisperer calling the Earth her home. A former academic and psychologist, she was impelled to embrace a radically different way of living, being and writing when a brain injury changed her abilities and life trajectory. Today, you will often find her lying on the ground; resting, writing poems by hand, and dreaming of an Earth witnessing a global blossoming of the human heart. Her poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Dawntreader, London Writer’s Salon’s Anthology Vol. 4, and Tvergastein Journal.
Franny Bryant-Scott is a Canadian poet, artist, art therapist, and interfaith spiritual companion living on the ancient land of Crete, Greece. Her writing is an attempt to meet, grapple with, and embrace her experiences as a human being living in a more-than-human world. Ever since she created objects and rituals of remembrance for wild birds and family pets as a small child, the transformative power of the arts to hold both the beauty and suffering in our lives has been at the core of all of her work.
Nathaniel Cairney is an American poet who lives in Belgium. His chapbook Leaving the Oldest House was selected as a highly commended finalist for the 2025 International Book & Pamphlet Competition, one of the UK’s oldest poetry contests. His poems have been published in New Writing Scotland, Cardiff Review, Midwest Review, Moria and many other literary journals.
Dan Campion is the author of The Mirror Test (2024), A Playbill for Sunset (2022), and Peter De Vries and Surrealism (1995) and is a co-editor of Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song (1981, 2nd ed. 1998, 3rd ed. 2019). Dan’s poetry has appeared previously in Amethyst Review and in Able Muse, Light, Poetry, Rolling Stone, THINK, and many other magazines.
Simona Carini was born and grew up in Italy. She writes poetry and nonfiction and has been published in various venues, online and in print, including Amethyst Press anthology Thin Places & Sacred Spaces (2024). Her first poetry collection Survival Time was published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions (2022). She lives in Northern California with her husband, loves to spend time outdoors, and works as an academic researcher. Her website is https://simonacarini.com
Linda Carney-Goodrich is a writer and teacher from Boston whose work appears in Lily Poetry Review, The MacGuffin, Anti-Heroin Chic, Muddy River Poetry Review, and Literary Mama, among others. Her first book of poetry, Dot Girl was published Feb 2024 with Nixes Mate Books and was a finalist for the Sheila Margaret Motton Poetry Prize. You can find more about her at lindacarneygoodrich@yahoo.com.
When I Was a Child I Knew I Was Water
Joseph A. Carosella firmly believes that if you look, Every Day Is a Beautiful Day. He hikes avidly in the Adirondacks, Spain and the UK. He loves nature, reading, ice cream, travel, language(s), and spends a lot of time writing poetry and dialogues with God. His first book, Making Friends with God: A Year of Dialogues, is available at Amazon KDP. His poems have appeared in Adirondac, Adirondack Almanack and Ridgeline. [Instagram: josephaicarosella; Substack: josephacarosella]
Carolyn Chilton Casas is a practicing Reiki master and teacher who often explores ways of healing in the articles she writes for energy and wellness magazines in several countries. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal and Thin Spaces & Sacred Spaces. She lives on the central coast of California where she enjoys nature, hiking, and beach volleyball. More of Carolyn’s work can be found on Facebook or Instagram and in her newest collection of poetry Under the Same Sky.
Peter Cashorali is a neurodiverse pansy living at the intersection of rivers, farmland and civil war. He practices a contemplative life.
Molly (Siyu) Chen is a student at Wellesley College and an alumna of Interlochen Arts Academy and the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop. Her work has previously been published in The Wellesley Review and by TABLOID Press. She has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and Write the World.
Isabel Chenot has loved, memorised, and practised poetry all her remembered life. Some of her poems are collected in The Joseph Tree, available from Wiseblood Books.
David Chorlton lived in Manchester and Vienna before moving to Arizona and beginning to learn from the desert and its creatures. He occasionally returns to his other long term pursuit of painting. The Bitter Oleander Press published his book Dreams the Stones Have in 2024.
Richard Collins is abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple and lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he leads Stone Nest Zen Dojo. His recent poetry has been nominated for Best Spiritual Literature and appears in Amethyst Review, Clockhouse, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, MockingHeart Review, Pensive, Sho Poetry Journal, Think, and Willows Wept Review. His books include No Fear Zen (Hohm Press), In Search of the Hermaphrodite: A Memoir (Tough Poets Press, 2024), and Stone Nest: Poems (Shanti Arts, 2025).
Nighttime Thoughts on the Mountain
Linda Conroy, a retired social worker, enjoys writing about the complexities of human nature and our connection to the natural world. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. She is the author of poetry collections Ordinary Signs and Familiar Sky.
Baskin Cooper is a poet, visual artist, and multidisciplinary creator based in Chatham County, North Carolina. His work spans poetry, songwriting, sculpture, screenwriting, and voice acting, weaving together visual, narrative, and musical elements. He holds a PhD in psychology and previously lived in Cork, Ireland, experiences that shape his explorations of folklore, lyricism, and personal history. His poems have appeared in Rattle, The Avocet, Ink & Oak, Smols Poetry Journal, Verse-Virtual, and ONE ART, with new work forthcoming in The Khaotic Good, The Woodside Review, and others. His debut collection, The Space Between Branches, is seeking publication.
Rachel Landrum Crumble is a life-long poet, fledgling fiction writer, and retired teacher, having taught kindergarten through college. She has published in The Porter House Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Common Ground Review, Poetry Breakfast, Humans of the World, among others. Sister Sorrow (Finishing Line Press) is her first book. She lives with her husband of 43 years, a jazz drummer, and near two of her adult children and three grandchildren. Find her staring out the window, singing or on Substack or at poetteachermom.com.
Stephen C. Curro hails from Windsor, Colorado, where he works as a high school paraprofessional. He has previously published fiction and poetry with The Fifth Di…, Scifaikuest and Daily Science Fiction, among other venues. When he isn’t writing or working, he enjoys scuba diving, collecting fossils and watching bad monster movies. You can keep up with his shenanigans at http://www.stephenccurro.com.
Rachel Dacus is the author of seven novels and four poetry collections. Her poetry, stories, and essays have appeared in Boulevard, Gargoyle, Prairie Schooner, Eclectica and Image: Art, Faith, and Mystery. Her work is in Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Radiant DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English. She enjoys living in the San Francisco Bay Area, with its nature trails where she can walk to refresh her spirit and dictate ideas into her phone.
Dennis Daly has published eleven books of poetry and poetic translations. A number of his translations have recently been published by Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin Random House) in Uyghur Poems, part of Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets. Please visit his blog site here: dennisfdaly.blogspot.com.
Transubstantiation
Marcy Darin is an award-winning Detroit-based writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Ms.,Chicago Tribune, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Braided Way, Persimmon Tree, and in the anthology, Finding Light in Unexpected Places, published by Palamedes Press, among other publications. She has three adult children and a seven-month-old granddaughter, who is her light! She is working on a collection of essays on being a lifelong sojourner. You can read more of her work at marcydarin.com.
Heart Speaks
Carol V. Davis is the author of Below Zero, Because I Cannot Leave This Bodyand Between Storms. She won the 2007 T.S. Eliot Prize (USA) for Into the Arms of Pushkin: Poems of St. Petersburg. Her poetry has been read on National Public Radio, the Library of Congress and Radio Russia. Twice a Fulbright scholar in Russia, she taught in Siberia, winter 2018 and teaches in Los Angeles. A 3rd Fulbright for Russia was awarded, postponed because of Covid and now cancelled. Donna Sternberg and Dancers is using Davis’ poetry in the recent piece, “Ancestors’ Voices.”
John Davis Jr. is the author of The Places That Hold (Eastover Press, 2021), Middle Class American Proverb (Negative Capability Press, 2014), and three other poetry collections. His poems have appeared in The Common, Nashville Review, The American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere over the last 25 years. He holds an MFA and teaches English and Creative Writing in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida, his native state.
Life-size St. Francis in Bronze
Diane Elayne Dees is the author of the chapbooks, Coronary Truth (Kelsay Books), The Last Time I Saw You (Finishing Line Press), The Wild Parrots of Marigny (Querencia Press), and I Can’t Recall Exactly When I Died (Kelsay Books). She is also the author of four Origami Poems Project microchaps, and her poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction have been published in many journals and anthologies. Diane publishes Women Who Serve, a blog that delivers news and commentary on women’s professional tennis throughout the world. Her author blog is Diane Elayne Dees: Poet and Writer-at-Large.
Laura Denny has lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains for many years. She is retired from thirty years of teaching kindergarten. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Sunlight Press, Remington Review and Academy of the Heart And Mind.
April Lynn DeOliveira is a Michigan-based writer, educator, and editor-in-chief of Cereal City Review. She has been published in Fiction on the Web, Walloon Writers Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Eunoia Review, Front Porch Republic, Great Lakes Review, Defenestrationism.net, and others. When she is not feverishly pecking away on her tablet, she can be found reading, gardening, traversing Michigan and beyond with her wonderful husband, and wishing she weren’t allergic to cats.
Frank Desiderio, a poet, pastor, and TV producer has served as a campus minister, retreat director and author (Can You Let Go of a Grudge, Paulist Press, 2014). He produced the film Judas for ABC TV (2004) and several documentaries for cable television. His poems have appeared in the Spring Hill Review, Windhover, Ars Medica, Moving Image: Poetry Inspired by Film among other journals. He and his sister, Mimi Moriarty, authored the chapbook Sibling Revery (Finishing Line Press, 2012). Currently he lives in Manhattan.
The poetry of Laurie Didesch appears or is forthcoming in Ibbetson Street, The Comstock Review, The MacGuffin, California Quarterly, Rambunctious Review, Third Wednesday, Young Ravens Literary Review, The Ravens Perch, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Adanna Journal, The Rockford Review, Westward Quarterly, Bronze Bird Review, The Awakenings Review, and more. Her work also appears in anthologies on Memory and Writing, among others. Her awards include being chosen to attend a juried workshop given by Marge Piercy. Laurie lives with her husband Alan and their three cats in Illinois. She is currently working on her first book.
Morrow Dowdle is the author of the chapbook Hardly (Bottlecap Press, 2024). Their poems have been featured in Rattle, ONE ART, Pedestal Magazine, The Baltimore Review, and other literary journals. They have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and were a finalist for the 2024 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize. They run a performance series which features historically marginalized voices. A creative writing MFA candidate at Spalding University, they live with their family in Durham, NC.
Danita Dodson is an educator, literary scholar, and the author of three poetry collections, Trailing the Azimuth (2021), The Medicine Woods (2022), and Between Gone and Everlasting (2024) all published by Wipf and Stock. She is also the coeditor of Teachers Teaching Nonviolence (2020). Dodson’s poems have appeared in Salvation South, Critique, Tennessee Voices, Amethyst Review, Women Speak Anthology, Thin Places and Sacred Spaces, and elsewhere. She is a native of the Cumberland Gap region of East Tennessee, where she hikes and explores local history connected to the wilderness. For more, visit www.danitadodson.com.
A native of Pennsylvania, Lara Dolphin is an attorney, nurse, wife, and mother of four. Her chapbooks include In Search Of The Wondrous Whole (Alien Buddha Press), Chronicle Of Lost Moments (Dancing Girl Press), and At Last a Valley (Blue Jade Press).
Robert Donohue‘s poetry has appeared in Better Than Starbucks, Freezeay Poetry, Grand Little Things and Oddball Magazine, among others. He lives on Long Island, NY.
The Parables of Perspective, Enlightenment, and Longevity
Clive Donovan has three poetry collections, The Taste of Glass [Cinnamon Press 2021], Wound Up With Love [Lapwing 2022] and Movement of People [Dempsey&Windle 2024] and is published in a wide variety of magazines including Acumen, Agenda, Amethyst Review, Crannog, Popshot, Prole and Stand. He lives in Totnes, Devon, UK. He was a Pushcart and Forward Prize nominee for 2022’s best individual poems.
Roxanne Doty lives in Tempe, Arizona. Her debut novel, Out Stealing Water, was published by Regal House Publishing, August 30. 2022. Her first poetry collection was published by Kelsay Books in the spring of 2024. She has published stories and poems in Third Wednesday, Quibble Lit, Superstition Review, Espacio Fronterizo, Ocotillo Review, Forge, I70 Review, Soundings Review, The Blue Guitar, Four Chambers Literary Magazine, Lascaux Review, Lunaris Review, Journal of Microliterature, NewVerseNews, International Times, Saranac Review, Gateway Review and Reunion-The Dallas Review. Her short story, Turbulence (Ocotillo Review) was nominated for the 2019 Pushcart prize for short fiction.
Matt Escott lives in Toronto with his wife and 6 year old twins. For the past 10 years he has worked with youth experiencing homelessness, and is currently developing a mentorship program for youth in foster care. He has been published in Ekstasis, OneArt, Stone Poetry Quarterly, and Heart of Flesh.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, Amethyst Review, the St. Austin Review, Pensive Journal, America Magazine, The Society of Classical Poets, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of The Catholic Poetry Room.
Amelia Díaz Ettinger is a Latinx BIPOC poet and writer. Amelia’s poetry and short stories have been published in anthologies, literary magazines, and periodicals. She has an MS in Biology and MFA in creative writing. Her literary work is a marriage of science and her experience as an immigrant. Presently, she resides in Eastern Oregon.
Louis Faber is a poet and blogger. His work has appeared in Cantos, Amethyst Review, Alchemy Spoon, New Feathers Anthology, Dreich (Scotland), Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Erothanatos (Greece), Defenestration, Atlanta Review, Glimpse, Rattle, Cold Mountain Review, Eureka Literary Magazine, Borderlands: the Texas Poetry Review, Midnight Mind, Pearl, Midstream, European Judaism, The South Carolina Review and Worcester Review, among many others, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. A book of poetry, The Right to Depart, was published by Plain View Press.
Chris Fafard is a poet and photographer and perennial student. He is learning to see beauty at the intersection of the created and the creating. He has published poems in local Mid-Atlantic publications (The Mid Atlantic Review, Maryland Bards, Saint Andrews Episcopal annual journals), and is now working to expand his reach. He and his wife Maria live in Annandale, Virginia.
Michelle D Farrell is a visual artist, writer and poet. Her art is held in collections internationally and she has also begun sharing her writing. Recently her short form poetry and haiga have been published, or are forthcoming, in the Wales Haiku Journal, the Cherita, and Contemporary Haibun online.
Arvilla Fee lives in Dayton, Ohio with her family. Her passions are writing, photography, and traveling. Arvilla’s works have been widely published in both national and international presses, including Tipton Poetry Journal, October Hill Magazine, Rye Whiskey Review, Snakeskin, Rat’s Ass Review and others. Her two published poetry books: The Human Side and This is Lifecan be found on Amazon. Her third poetry book is Mosaic: A Million Little Pieces. To learn more, visit her website: https://www.soulpoetry7.com
Daniel Fitzpatrick is the author of two novels, two poetry collections, and a translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. He is the editor of Joie de Vivre: a Journal of Art, Culture, and Letters for South Louisiana, a member of the Creative Assembly at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and a teacher at Jesuit High School in New Orleans, where he lives with his wife and four children.
Casey Flynn is a writer, artist, and father. He’s drawn toward the speculative, spiritual and experimental, and has had visual poetry/artwork published in Vallum: Contemporary Poetry. He is working on a PhD in religion and likes to play with his kids, play outside, and play banjo.
Alfred Fournier is the author of A Summons on the Wind (2023, Kelsay Books) and King of Beers (March 2025, Rinky Dink Press). His poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Indianapolis Review, The Sunlight Press, Hole in the Head Review and elsewhere. He lives in the foothills of South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, with his remarkable wife and daughter and two birdwatching cats.
The Handle is on the Inside of the Door
Silas Foxton is a tattoo artist and community worker meandering around the great lakes basin. Their work picks at a simultaneously strained and reverent relationship to land, ancestry, and identity which draws on experiences of dream life and things only seen out of the corner of one’s eye.
Meg Freer grew up in the 1970s in Missoula, Montana and now lives in Kingston, Ontario where she teaches piano, writes, and enjoys being active outdoors. She writes mostly lyrical poems, which have won awards and have been published across North America. She has published three poetry chapbooks and co-hosts a monthly series featuring poetry performed simultaneously with live improvised music.
Jacob Friesenhahn teaches Religious Studies and Philosophy at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio. He serves as Program Head for Theology and Spiritual Action. His first book of poems is forthcoming from Kelsay Books.
we stand in still waters facing the far shore
Susan Mary Freiss writes poetry because she hears many things in listening to everyday and pervasive silence. When she records what she hears and listens for more, she learns. She is a mother, grandmother, gardener, teacher, and activist in Madison, Wisconsin. Her poem “Below and Beyond War” is posted on the Madison Vets for Peace website.
Linda Meg Frith is a retired Social Worker and long time member of Green River Writers. She credits them with most of her growth and development as a poet. She has published poetry in eMerge, River and South Review, Rainy Weather Days, Women Who Write, and the Dallas Rainbow NOW newsletter. Linda Meg lives with her Chihuahua in Louisville, KY.
Mother, Don’t Start Weeping Now
Joshua S. Fullman is Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at California Baptist University where he teaches composition and creative writing. His recent book, Voices of Iona (Wipf and Stock, 2022), is a poetry collection of an American expatriate living in the British Isles.
Author Laura E. Garrard is also an artist and CranioSacral Therapist on the U.S. Northwest Peninsula, where she enjoys time with nature. Her poem, “Filled to the Brim,” appeared in Amethyst Review’s Thin Places & Sacred Spaces anthology. She is a member of Olympic Peninsula Authors and has received four scholarships from Centrum Writers Conference. Her poetry and prose have been published in journals like Bellevue Literary Review, The Madrona Project, Silver Birch, and TulipTree Review, which recently awarded her a Merit Prize. She writes a cancer poetry series, Poetry That Fits, on Penn Medicine’s OncoLink.org.
What Can I Say About Eating Raisins During the Storm?
Elisa A. Garza is a poet, editor, and writing teacher. Her full-length collection, Regalos (Lamar University Literary Press), was a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Her chapbook, Between the Light / entre la claridad(Mouthfeel Press), is now in its second edition. Elisa’s sacred poems were recently published in The Ekphrastic Review. Her writing about cancer has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, American Journal of Nursing, and Huizache, who nominated her for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches writing workshops for cancer survivors.
Anton Getzlaf is a poet living in Portland, Oregon. He works as a school custodian for a living.
Ken Gierke is retired and writes primarily in free verse and haiku. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in print and online in such places as Poetry Breakfast, Ekphrastic Review, Amethyst Review, Silver Birch Press, Trailer Park Quarterly, Rusty Truck, The Gasconade Review, and River Dog Zine. His poetry collections, Glass Awash in 2022 and Heron Spirit in 2024, were published by Spartan Press. His poem, ‘Driving Off, Minor’, has been nominated for the 2025 Pushcart Prize. His website: https://rivrvlogr.com
D.B. Goman aspires to be a professional arm wrestler. On occasion, a bon mot appears on a page, real or on-line.
Catherine Gonick has published poetry in a wide range of journals, including Notre Dame Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and Pedestal. Her work has also appeared in anthologies including in plein air, Grabbed, Support Ukraine, and Rumors, Secrets & Lies: Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice. She has a collection from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions (spring 2025), and lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, with whom she works in a company attempting to slow the rate of global warming.
Shelina Gorain is a former software professional, a balcony gardener and a knitter. She writes from Toronto.
autumn breeze through the heart chakra
Diane Gottlieb is the editor of Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness, the forthcoming Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture & Heritage and the Prose/Creative Nonfiction Editor of Emerge Literary Journal. Her writing appears in Brevity, Witness, Florida Review, River Teeth, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, among many other lovely places.
C. John Graham’s poetry has appeared in The Laurel Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Kestrel, Taos Journal of Poetry and Art, and the anthology Off Channel, among other publications. Graham lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and before retirement, worked for a rocket engine manufacturing company and a particle accelerator facility. He is now owns an aerobatic aircraft and serves as a volunteer search and rescue pilot while continuing a lifelong spiritual inquiry. A selection of published work may be found at https://sites.google.com/site/cjohngraham/home/poetry.
Apple
Ann Grogan is a late-life pianophile, newbie poet, and retired attorney. Her work promotes the unequivocal permission to pursue one’s passions at any age, including her beloved music. With humor and thoughtfulness she often reflects on her struggles to relearn to play the piano, and support for the suppressed voices and experiences of women. When not practicing her piano or writing poetry and her blog, she volunteers at Planned Parenthood or engages in community activism. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, Poetical Musings on Pianos, Music & Life, and resides in San Francisco, California.
Sarah Das Gupta is an 83 year old, retired English teacher from Cambridge who has taught in UK, India and Tanzania. She lived in Kolkata for some years. Her interests include , the countryside, Medieval History, parish churches and early music. She has had work published in journals and magazines online and in print, in 20 countries, from New Zealand to Kazakhstan. She has recently been nominated for Best of the Net and a Dwarf Star Award.
Ken Hada lives and writes in rural Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. His latest book is Come Before Winter (Turning Plow Press, 2023). His Contour Feathers (Turning Plow Press, 2021) received the Oklahoma Book Award. Other awards include The Western Writers of America, “The Wrangler Award” from the National Western Heritage Museum, South Central Modern Language Association and The Oklahoma Center for the Book. Four of his poems have been featured on “The Writer’s Almanac.” Ken is a professor at East Central University where he directs the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, now in its 20th year.
Mark B. Hamilton works in ecopoetry, often focused on the riparian zone of the Missouri River, where he has traveled extensively by kayak. His special interests include: First Nations cosmologies, pre-industrial America, and the poetics of change. Recent poetry volumes are: LAKE, RIVER, MOUNTAIN (2024), the chapbook UPSTREAM (2024), and OYO: The Beautiful River (2020). A forthcoming volume of traditional verse, 1803: The Wintering, a history-based book founded upon research and field studies on Lewis and Clark, will be published in 2026. View additional author info at: MarkBHamilton.WordPress.com
Cordelia Hanemann, writer and botanical artist, currently co-hosts Summer Poets, a poetry critique group in Raleigh, NC. Retired English professor emerita, she conducts occasional poetry workshops and is active with youth poetry in the NCPS. She has published in numerous journals including Atlanta Review, Connecticut River Review, California Quarterly and others; in several anthologies including best-selling Poems for the Ukraine and her chapbook. Her poems have been performed by the Strand Project, featured in select journals, won awards and been nominated for Pushcarts. She is now working on a novel about her Cajun roots.
Maryanne Hannan has published poetry in both All Shall Be Well: A poetry anthology for Julian of Norwich and Thin Places & Sacred Spaces. A resident of upstate New York, USA, she is the author of Rocking Like it’s all Intermezzo: 21st Century Responsorials.
A native of Central New York, Laura Hannett is a graduate of Hamilton College and the College of William and Mary. She works as a licensed massage therapist and writes every morning before her family wakes up, under the strict supervision of her cats. Other work can be found or is slated to appear in The Bluebird Word, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Mania Magazine, Verse-Virtual and Black Bough Poetry.
James Hannon is a psychotherapist in Massachusetts where he accompanies adolescents and adults recovering from addictions and mood disorders and seeking meaningful and joyful lives. His work has appeared in Blue Lake Review, Cold Mountain Review, Pensive, Psaltery and Lyre, and other journals and in Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets. His second poetry collection, To My Children at Christmas, was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books.
The Arc of the Moral Universe and the Arc of History
Barry Harris is editor of the Tipton Poetry Journal and several anthologies published by Brick Street Poetry. He has published one poetry collection, Something At The Center. Married and father of two grown sons, Barry lives in Brownsburg, Indiana and is retired from Eli Lilly and Company. His poetry has appeared in Kentucky Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Grey Sparrow, Silk Road Review, Saint Ann‘s Review, San Antonio Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, Night Train, Flying Island, Awaken Consciousness, Writers’ Bloc and Red-Headed Stepchild. He graduated a long time ago with a major in English from Ball State University.
Anna Harris-Parker is the author of the chapbook Dress (Main Street Rag, 2019). Her work also appears in Still: The Journal, AMP, West Texas Literary Review, and elsewhere. An editor for the Southern Review of Books, she lives in Georgia with her family.
Mary Baca Haque is a Chicago poet that loves beautiful words in verse. You can find her past featured poetry in the Wild Roof Journal, Cosmic Daffodils Journal, Amethyst Review, Seraphic Review, Closed Eye Open Journal, The Bluebird Word, WayWords Literary & Macrame Literary. A publication, Painting the Sky with Love (acquired for a picture book), released 11/2024 (MacMillan). She loves to experiment in verse poetry, spend time with family and resides with her partner in Chicago, IL along with her mini goldendoodle Georgina.
Gloria Heffernan’s forthcoming book Fused will be published by Shanti Arts Books in Spring, 2025. Her craft book, Exploring Poetry of Presence(Back Porch Productions) won the 2021 CNY Book Award for Nonfiction. She received the 2022 Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Prize. Gloria is the author of the collections Peregrinatio: Poems for Antarctica (Kelsay Books), and What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books). Her work has appeared in over 100 publications including Poetry of Presence (vol. 2).
Amy Lee Heinlen, poet and publisher based in Western Pennsylvania, is the author of All Else Falls to Shadow (Dancing Girl Press). Her poems appear in Literary Mama, Stirring, Rogue Agent, and elsewhere. Heinlen is co-editor of Lefty Blondie Press, an independent publisher promoting poetry by women and non-binary poets.
Ryan Helvoigt is a poet based near Denver, Colorado where she lives with her husband and three children. Her poetry has been published in Ekstasis, Clayjar Review, Fathom magazine, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and Amethyst Review.
Kale Hensley is a West Virginian by birth and a poet by faith. You can keep up with them at kalehens.com.
Lory Widmer Hess grew up near Seattle and now lives in Switzerland, where she works with adults with developmental challenges. Trained as a spiritual director, she companions individuals in their spiritual journey and leads online groups in the practice of Sacred Reading. Her writing has been published in Amethyst Review and other magazines and journals, including Parabola, Vita Poetica, Anglican Theological Review, Pensive, and Motherwell. She is the author of When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible (Floris Books, 2024). Find her online at enterenchanted.com.
A Map to Mercy by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew – a review
Sister Lou Ella Hickman, OVISS is a former teacher and librarian whose writings have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Press 53 published her first book of poetry in 2015 entitled she: robed and wordless and her second, Writing the Stars, 2024. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2017 and in 2020. James Lee III composed “Chavah’s Daughters Speak” for a concert held on May 11, 2021, at 92Y in New York City for five poems from her book. Another concert was held in Cleveland, Ohio on March 28, 2023, sponsored by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
Barbara Hickson’s poems have appeared in anthologies and journals including Poetry Salzburg Review, London Grip, Channel, Echtrai and Finished Creatures amongst many others. They have also won prizes in major competitions. She has two poetry pamphlets, A Kind of Silence(Maytree Press, 2021) and Only the Shining Hours (Maytree Press, 2024). Barbara lives in Lancaster, UK, with her husband and is a keen fell-walker, organic gardener and nature conservation volunteer.
Kali Higgins writes essays, short stories, and poems about how her everyday experiences as a mother, transracial adoptee, and spiritual seeker intersect with healing. Her work features topics that cover loss, mental health, sexuality, and trauma and how that impacts her relationship to herself and to others. When Kali isn’t writing or being a mom, she is busy with her wellness practice offering astrology readings, yoga classes, and sound healing.
Fredric Lee Hildebrand is a retired physician living in Neenah, WI. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Northern Portrait (Kelsay Books, 2020), and A Glint of Light (Finishing Line Press, 2020). His recent poetry has appeared in The San Antonio Review and Sky Island Journal.
When not writing or reading, he plays acoustic folk guitar and explores the Northwoods with his wife and two Labrador retrievers.
Caleb Hill is a cybersecurity technician by day, poet around the clock. He contributed to the monthly newsletter until they decided he was having too much fun and revoked his duties. He lives in central PA with the trees and his family.
Kate Hill-Charalambides is an English teacher of dual nationality who lives in Alsace. She has worked for an association against human trafficking which is recognized as being of public utility. Her poetry focuses on human rights, spirituality and feminism. Her poetry has appeared in Dreich 3 Season 9 (No.99), Snakeskin and will appear in the next edition of Cerasus Poetry.
Michelle Holland, Poet-in-Residence for Santa Fe Girls School and treasurer of NM Literary Arts, has lived in Chimayo, NM for over 25 years. Her poems can be found in literary journals, in print, online, and anthologized, most recently in the 2023 New Mexico Anthology of Poetry, UNM Press, and The Common Language Project: Ascent. She has two book-length collections of poetry, Chaos Theory, Sin Fronteras Press, and The Sound a Raven Makes, Tres Chicas Press, which won the New Mexico Book Award.
Beth Houston has taught writing at ten universities and colleges in California and Florida. She has published a couple hundred poems in dozens of literary journals. She edits the Extreme formal poetry anthologies (Rhizome Press). http://www.bethhouston.com
Jeff Howard lives in the Columbia River valley by way of the Allegheny River valley, the Connecticut River valley, and valleys beyond. His work, which reflects a Buddhist perspective on the continuum of consciousness in an era of ecological-tailspin-amid-ecological-belonging, is forthcoming in The Fourth River and has appeared in The Ecological Citizen, Consilience, The Thinking Republic, and Green Ink.
Yudel Huberman is from Vancouver, BC. He grew up within Hasidic Judaism and has since pursued studies in forest conservation and ecology. He is currently a graduate student in forest conservation at the University of Northern British Columbia. His writing combines a love for the natural world, forest ecology, and Jewish spirituality.
Charles Hughes is the author, most recently, of Ifs, a Few Buts, and Other Stuff, a book of poems for children, published by Kelsay Books, and of two previous poetry collections, The Evening Sky and Cave Art, both from Wiseblood Books. He worked for over 30 years as a lawyer and lives in the Chicago area with his wife.
The Overwhelming Beauty of the Sky
Louis Hunt taught political theory at James Madison College, Michigan State University. He has published original poems as well as translations from Sanskrit in a variety of print and online journals including The Rotary Dial, Snakeskin, Lighten up Online, Metamorphoses, The Brazen Head, Interpret and The High Window. He is currently working on a volume of translations from the Sanskrit of Kalidasa, Bhartrihari and Nilakantha Dikshita.
Scott Hurd has authored five books, including Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach. His books have been translated into Korean, Polish, and German, and won awards from the Association of Catholic Publishers and the Catholic Press Association. His essays, reviews, and poems have been published in numerous journals, newspapers, and magazines, and he has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is married to fellow writer Diane Kraynak.
Alison Hurwitz is a former cellist and dancer who now finds music in language. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2024, and for Best of the Net in 2023 and 2024, Alison is the host of the monthly online reading, Well-Versed Words. Her work is published or forthcoming in South Dakota Review, SWIMM, Sky Island Journal, ONE ART and The Westchester Review. When not writing, Alison officiates weddings and memorial services, walks in the woods, and dances in her kitchen with her family. Find her at alisonhurwitz.com
Jill Husser-Munro grew up in the north of Scotland and has lived and worked in Strasbourg, France, for over thirty years. Her work has been published in Poetry Scotland, Amethyst Review, The Alchemy Spoon and Dreich Magazine.
Gene Hyde‘s poetry, essays, and photography have appeared in such publications as Appalachian Journal, San Antonio Review, The Banyan Review, Raven’s Perch, Valley Voices, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, and Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with his partner and a scruffy little dog. You can find his website at https://www.banteringbibliocrat.com/
John Claiborne Isbell is a writer and now-retired professor currently living in Paris with his wife Margarita. Their son Aibek lives in California with his wife Stephanie. John’s first book of poetry was Allegro (2018); he also publishes literary criticism, for instance An Outline of Romanticism in the West (2022) and Destins de femmes: Thirty French Writers, 1750-1850 (2023), both available free online. John spent thirty-five years playing Ultimate Frisbee and finds it difficult not to dive for catches any more.
At the Tibetan Cultural Center
Sharon Israel, a Sephardic-American poet, was an early recipient of Brooklyn College’s Leonard B. Hecht Poetry Explication Award, was nominated for “Best of the Net” and won Four Lines’ 2020 winter poetry challenge. Her chapbook Voice Lesson was published by Post Traumatic Press. Sharon’s work has most recently appeared in Loud Coffee Press. Sharon hosts the radio show and podcast, Planet Poet-Words in Space, on WIOX 91.3 FM in the Catskills (available on YouTube Music, Spotify and Apple). Sharon is a member of the sound/poetry duo OrphicMix with composer Robert Cucinotta. Visit Sharon’s website Sharonisraelpoet.com or https://linktr.ee/sharonisraelpoet.
Susan Jackson‘s two poetry collections, Through a Gate of Trees and In the River of Songs, were published by CavanKerry Press. All the Light in Between is a Finishing Line Press chapbook. She is currently completing a new book, Geography of the Possible. Jackson believes in the power of literature and the arts to build community as well as forge greater understanding across world borders. In addition to her writing, Jackson has a healing practice using a number of hands-on healing modalities.
Bethany Jarmul is an Appalachian writer and poet. She’s the author of two chapbooks. Her debut poetry collection Lightning Is a Mother is forthcoming with ELJ Editions in February, 2025. Her work has been published in many magazines including Rattle, Brevity, HAD, and Salamander. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature 2023 and Best Small Fictions 2024, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50. Connect with her at bethanyjarmul.com or on social media: @BethanyJarmul.
Since beginning to write in 2008, Nancy Jentsch‘s work has appeared in journals such as Still: The Journal and Braided Way. In 2020, she received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the resulting collection, Between the Rows, debuted in 2022. Her current writing project involves reinvestigating genealogical information she unearthed in the pre-computer 1980s. She has retired after 37 years of teaching and finds a bounty of inspiration in her family and her rural home.
Stephen Joffe is an award winning actor, musician, writer, and sound designer based in Toronto. He has previously been published as a playwright, songwriter (Birds of Bellwoods, etc.), and poet.
Jody Reis Johnson is an emerging poet from St. Paul, Minnesota, whose writing comes out of a contemplative practice of silence. Her essays and poetry have appeared in a variety of periodicals including Bearings, Amethyst Review, and Middlebury Magazine. Jody is a retired mental health professional who teaches contemplative practices, facilitates retreats, and provides spiritual guidance to individuals. She enjoys travel, cooking, and surfing with her family during winters in Hawaii.
Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan is an author who lives in Alaska. She has published six books of non-fiction, completed a historical novel, and writes poetry when the soul calls for such. Two of her poems were recently accepted for the anthology Alaska Literary Field Guide. Her essay “Crossing the Wild River” appears in Deep Wild Journal: Writing from the Backcountry2024.
Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman’s Broken String, winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press, and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 publications. Visit her online at http://www.jacquelinejules.com.
Shabbos After Shiva
Dawid Juraszek is the author of, among others, Medea and Other Poems of the Anthropocene (2020) and Carbon Capture and Stories (2024). A bilingual writer and educator based in China, he is working on a research project in cognitive ecocriticism and environmental education. His fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have have been published in numerous outlets in Poland, the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Jack Kane is a poet and teacher. In his spare time he can be found doing research on obscure historical figures and composing worship tunes inspired by Rich Mullins. His work has been featured in Voice & Virtue, Words of the Lamb, and Agape Review.
Gabrielle Ariella Kaplan-Mayer is a writer and spiritual director based in Philadelphia, working on a memoir about intuition, ancestors and grief. She works as Ritualwell’s Director of Virtual Content and Programs and writes a weekly Substack called Journey With The Seasons. Learn more at gabriellekaplanmayer.com.
The Tu B’Shvat Branches That Held My Son’s Birth
Janina Aza Karpinska achieved an M.A. in Creative Writing & Personal Development, with Merit, at Sussex University, and won 1st prize in The Cannon’s Mouth Poetry Competition shortly after. Her work has featured in Magma #85: Poems for Schools; Poetry in the Waiting Room; Drawn to the Light; Ekphrastic Review; Cold Signal; Raising the Fifth; Sein und Werd, and Epistemic Lit among others. She lives in a house full of books on the south coast of England, and makes writing a daily practice, drawing on a wide variety of styles.
God in the Garden
Ryan Keating is a pastor and writer on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His work can be found in publications such as Ekstasis Magazine, Fare Forward, Roi Fainéant, and Funicular. He is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge. His chapbook, A Dance In Medias Res is now available from Wipf and Stock.
Christ as a Lighthouse on Fire at Night
Laura Keeling is a poet and a trainee therapist. Before that, she worked in the books world for many years, including as events director at Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. She lives now in an ancient hamlet in Wiltshire, with her partner, two small children, and whippet.
Watching the Pigeons Flock over Burlington Road
Lynne Kemen’s full-length book of poetry, Shoes for Lucy, was published by SCE Press in 2023. Woodland Arts Editions published her chapbook, More Than a Handful, in 2020. Her work is anthologized in The Memory Palace: an ekphrastic anthology (Ekphrastic Editions, 2024), Seeing Things and Seeing Things 2 (Woodland Arts, 2020 and 2024). Lynne is President of the Board of Bright Hill Press and has served on many other not-for-profit boards. She is an Editor and Interviewer for Blue Mountain Review. She is a nominee for a Pushcart Prize (2024).
The Catholic-born Buddhist Recounts Visiting Angkor Wat
Liz Kendall works as a Shiatsu and massage practitioner and Tai Chi Qigong teacher. Her poetry has been published by Candlestick Press, The Hedgehog Poetry Press, and Mslexia. Liz’s book ‘Meet Us and Eat Us: Food plants from around the world’ is co-authored with an artist and ethnobotanist. It explores biodiversity through poetry, prose, and fine art photography. Her website is https://theedgeofthewoods.uk and she is on Twitter/X and Facebook @rowansarered, and on Instagram @meetusandeatus.
Catherine Kennedy studied creative writing and poetry as an undergraduate at Denison University and is a former children’s publishing editor. She splits her residence between Columbus, Ohio, and St. Simons Island, Georgia, and not-so-creatively named her two cats Simon and Georgia. Catherine draws inspiration from place and nature, which reflect her midwestern and southeastern roots as well as her travels, as much as her life will allow. Learn more at http://www.catherinestewartkennedy.com.
Lee Kiblinger is a late blooming poet from Tyler, Texas who graduated with a B.A. and M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University. She has taught literature and writing courses for several years. She spends time traveling with her husband, laughing with her three adulting children, grading essays, playing mahjong, and delighting in words with Rabbit Room poets. Her work can be found in The Windhover, Solum Journal, Heart of Flesh, Ekstasis, Clayjar Review, The Way Back to Ourselves, and others. She writes at http://www.ripplesoflaughter.com.
Siân Killingsworth is the author of the chapbook HIRAETH (Longship Press 2024) and her poetry has appeared in Blue Earth Review, Typehouse Literary Journal, Stonecoast Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry (Poets Resist), Mom Egg Review, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in poetry from The New School, where she served on the staff of Lit. She is the social media manager for Rise Up Review.
What I Thought About at Church
Angie Kinman is a writer, reading interventionist, and retired teacher living in Nashville, Tennessee. She has always been passionate about teaching poetry, but it was not until her daughter, who had special needs, passed away on March 2, 2023 that she began to write poetry. She has found healing and a divine connection through writing.
Daniel Klawitter is a member of The Colorado Poets Center, the lead singer/lyricist for the indie rock band Mining for Rain, and an Admissions Counselor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. His last full-length book, Where Sunday Used to Be: New and Selected Poems (Wipf and Stock, 2022), won the 2023 Colorado Author’s League Book Award for Poetry.
Emily Kledzik is an undergraduate student studying Creative Writing. She is a queer woman in Appalachia devoted to understanding humanity. Her writing pays tribute to the people around her, the divinity and slight humanity she sees within her surrounding nature, and the great writers that come before her.
Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English (Emeritus) and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published over 40 books, including twelve collections of poetry and chapbooks. Among his most recent titles are Emmett Till in Different States (Third World Press, 2015), Reaching Forever (Poiema Series, Cascade Books, 2019), Delta Tears (Main Street Rag, 2020), Wholly God’s: Poems (Wind and Water Press, 2021), and Americorona: Poems about the Pandemic (Wipf and Stock, 2021).
Janet Krauss, after retirement from teaching 39 years of English at Fairfield University, continues to mentor students, lead a poetry discussion at the Wilton Library, participate in a CT. Poetry Society Workshop, and one other plus two poetry groups. She co–leads the Poetry Program of the Black Rock Art Guild. She has two books of poetry : Borrowed Scenery (Yuganta Press) and Through the Trees of Autumn (Spartina Press). Many of her poems have been published in Amethyst Review, and her haiku in Cold Moon Journal.
Sharon Kunde is an Assistant Professor at the Maine College of Art and Design. Her research focuses on the racialization of representations of nature and naturalness in the context of the emergence of national literary studies. She has published work in publications including Twentieth Century Literature, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Harvard Review, ISLE, and Cincinnati Review, and her chapbook Year of the Sasquatch was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2022.
Pramod Lad was born in India, educated at King’s College UK , and completed his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry at Cornell University. He was a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. His poems have been accepted in The Examined Life Journal, Right finger pointing, Omentum, Eclectica magazine, The Innisfree poetry journal, The Umbrella Factory, The Pulsebeat Poetry Journal , Pennine Platform, and Litbreak Magazine.
Michael J. LaFrancis is a trusted advisor, advocate, author and connector supporting individuals, groups and organizations aligning purpose and capabilities in service of their highest ideals. Writing poetry is a contemplative practice providing him with insight and inspiration for living a creative life. His poems are also appearing in Amethyst Review, Avalon Review, City Key, Mocking Owl, One Art and Last Leaves, Seraphic Review now or in the coming months.
J. A. Lagana’s poetry has appeared in Atlanta Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Cider Press Review, Heron Tree, Rattle, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry collection Make Space (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and a forthcoming chapbook Edge of Highway. She was a finalist for the 2023 Julia Peterkin Literary Award in Poetry. An avid bird-watcher and knitter, she is a founder and former co-editor of River Heron Review and lives in a Bucks County, PA river town where she raised her family. Learn more at jlagana.com.
Eastbound – a poem by J.A. Lagana
Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 31 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred journals and anthologies globally His poems are translated in 18 languages and published in 16 countries. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021 and received a Setu Excellence Award, Pittsburg, in 2020. Recent Credits: One Art Journal, Poetry Breakfast Journal, Verse-Virtual Journal, Setu Journal, Kitaab Journal, Himalayan Diary, Dissident Voice, The Piker Press, Confluence, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Wise Owl Journal and elsewhere.
Mary Lanham is a queer writer, editor, and collage artist based in Minnesota, USA. She is originally from the South; her accent is still around if you know where to look. Mary also hosts The Inspirited Word, a podcast exploring writing as a way out of the doom spiral and back onto the labyrinth path of creative and spiritual connection. Her online home is inspiritedword.com.
Deborah Leipziger is an author, poet, and advisor on sustainability. Born in Brazil, Ms. Leipziger is the author of Story & Bone, published by Lily Poetry Review Books. Her poems have been published in ten countries in such magazines and journals as The Bombay Literary Review, Pangyrus, Salamander, Lily Poetry Review, and Revista Cardenal. Her work appears in numerous anthologies, including Tree Lines: 21st Century American Poems. She is the Founder of the Lexicon of Change, a web-based platform devoted to the words we need for ecological and social transformation.
Zav Levinson studied English literature at McGill University and Université de Montréal. A trained cabinetmaker, he ran the studio arts workshop for the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University for 33 years. He is poetry co-editor of JONAHmagazine (https://jonahmagazine.com/). His second chapbook, reverb, from Sky of Ink Press, was published in the fall of 2022. His poems have appeared most recently in Montreal Writes, Amethyst Review, Canadian Literature, as well as in the QWF fundraising chapbook My Island, My City.
James Lilliefors is a poet and novelist, whose writing has appeared in Door Is A Jar, Ploughshares, The Washington Post, The Belfast Review, The Miami Herald, and elsewhere. His first poetry collection, SUDDEN SHADOWS, will be published in October.
Aberdeen Livingstone is pursuing a master’s in theology from Regent College in Vancouver. She has poetry in Ekstasis, Solum Literary Press, and Fare Forward, among others, and recently published her debut poetry collection, Velocity: Zero. She writes regularly for her substack, Awaken Oh Sleeper.
Gregory Lobas is the author of Left of Center (Broadkill River Press, 2022) which won the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, Tar River Poetry, Cimarron Review, Vox Populi, Susurrus, and many others. He is a retired firefighter/paramedic living with his wife Meg and dog Sophie in the Hurricane Helene-ravaged area of western North Carolina.
Joseph Long lives and works on the Medway as a father and Engineer, writing poetry between shifts. He has a passion for works which reflect working class life & culture and his main influences are John Cooper Clarke, Ted Hughes, Robert Lowell, Douglas Dunn, Ian Hamilton & Seamus Heaney.
Joseph has been published by Stand, Blackbox Manifold, The Rumen, The Brussels Review and ingénu/e and he was also highly commended in the Erbacce Prize for Poetry in 2024.
Meeting Minutes (Friends Meeting House, Rochester)
Viv Longley has been writing for her own pleasure since she was a child. Later in life she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at The Open University, specialising in poetry. As well as having one collection (Tally Sheet, Currock Press, 2021) she is undertaking a number of collaborative publications, notably, Daughters of Thyme. She is also preparing a second collection of her own and a number of essays – the latter to be called I am in a Hurry. ‘Now nearing my 80’s, you just never know how much time you have left!’
Fay L. Loomis leads a quiet life in the woods in Kerhonkson, New York. Member of the Stone Ridge Library Writers and the Rat’s Ass Review Workshop, her poetry and prose appear in numerous publications, including five poetry anthologies. Sunlit Wildness (Origami Poems Project, 2024) is her first chapbook. Fay is a nominee for the 2024 Pushcart Prize.
Rupert M Loydell is a writer, editor and abstract artist. His many books of poetry include Dear Mary (Shearsman, 2017) and The Return of the Man Who Has Everything (Shearsman 2015); and he has edited anthologies such as Yesterday’s Music Today (co-edited with Mike Ferguson, Knives Forks and Spoons Press 2014), and Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh: manifestos and unmanifestos (Salt, 2010)
Tony Lucas is retired from parish ministry but continues with work of editing and spiritual direction. His poetry has appeared widely on both sides of the Atlantic. Past collections, including Rufus at Ocean Beach(Stride/Carmelyon) and Unsettled Accounts (Stairwell Books) remain available. He is a long-term resident of South London.
Anthony Lusardi lives in Rockaway Borough, New Jersey, where he writes haiku and other poetry. He has been published in journals, such as Frogpond, Modern Haiku, hedgerow, dadakuku, NOON and Verse Virtual. He has four chapbooks, published by buddha baby press. To purchase copies, contact him through email at lusardi133@gmail.com.
Greg McClelland is a retired federal government attorney. He has written poetry throughout the years but has only made a concerted effort to publish it since retiring in 2013. He has published poetry in Ancient Paths, The Road Not Taken, and New Verse News. He has one Pushcart Prize nomination.
Rob McClure‘s poetry has appeared most recently in Poetry Scotland, New Writing Scotland, Lallans, Anthropocene, Neologism Poetry Journal and Light. He is the author of The Violence (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2018) and The Scotsman (Black Springs Press,2024). Originally from Scotland, he teaches at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Simon MacCulloch lives in London. His poems live in Reach Poetry, The Dawntreader, Spectral Realms, Aphelion, Black Petals, Grim and Gilded, Ekstasis, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, Ephemeral Elegies, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Emberr, View from Atlantis, Altered Reality, The Sirens Call, The Chamber Magazine, I Become the Beast, Lovecraftiana, Awen and elsewhere.
Shadow Theatre
Dan MacIsaac is a poet from Vancouver Island. Brick Books published his collection, Cries from the Ark. His poetry received the Foley Prize from America, and has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including, Stand, Magma, Agenda, Presence, and Homage to Soren Kierkegaard.
Marso writes poetry shaped by years of living in different cultures and by a practice of paying attention to ordinary life.
Carolyn Martin is a recovering work addict who’s adopted the Spanish proverb, “It is beautiful to do nothing and rest afterwards” as her daily mantra. She is blissfully retired––and resting––in Clackamas, Oregon where she delights in gardening, feral cats, and backyard birds. Her poems have appeared in more than 200 publications throughout the U.S., the UK, and Australia. For more: http://www.carolynmartinpoet.com.
What the Buddha Taught Me While I Was Painting-By-Numbers
Philip Matcovsky is a lightworker and a cosmic traveler, though New York is his home. He has published or forthcoming in Braided Way Magazine, Aethlon, Pangolin Papers, Odyssey Magazine, DarkWinter Literary Magazine and Brilliant Flash Fiction.
Ralph F. Matthews is a high school English teacher and poet living in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife and three children. He has published poems in Visual Verse and Time of Singing.
Joanne Maybury has lived in Uganda and Sudan, has worked a variety of roles including as a field linguist and graphic designer, and latterly has journeyed with the chronically and terminally ill. She now lives in the borderlands of Scotland where she is learning, amongst other things, to be a hopeful gardener. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Scotland, Snakeskin Poetry, Theology, Penumbra Online and others.
Stephen Mead is a retired Civil Servant, having worked two decades for three state agencies. Before that his more personally fulfilling career was fifteen years in healthcare. Throughout all these jobs he was able to find time for writing poetry/essays and creating art. Occasionally he even got paid for this work. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures, organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall. This is an online site.
Ed Meek is the author of four books of poetry and a collection of short stories. His most recent book is High tide. He has had poems in The Paris Review, The Sun, Plume, etc.
Keith Melton holds a Master’s in City Planning from Georgia Tech and a BA in Economics and International Studies from the American University. His work has appeared in Amethyst Review, Compass Rose, The Galway Review, Big City Lit, Confrontation, Kansas Quarterly, Mississippi Review, The Miscellany, Pure Slush, Monterrey Poetry Review and others.
Matthew Merson is a travelling salesman who lives with his family and dogs in Charleston, South Carolina. His other work can be found in Hidden Peaks Review, JAKE and The Spotlong Review among others.
JK Miller is a former third grade dual language teacher. He lives on the edge of cornfields. He is the first prize winner of the 2025 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest.
Mark J. Mitchell has been a working poet for 50 years. He’s the author of five full-length collections, and six chapbooks. His latest collection is Something To Be from Pski’s Porch Publishing. A Novel, A Book of Lost Songswill be published in March by Hstria Books. He’s fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Dante, and his wife, activist Joan Juster. He lives in San Francisco where he points out pretty things.
Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires, and adopted by New York. His poems appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Worcester Review, Louisville Review, and Hanging Loose Press, among others, and also publications in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. He received multiple Pushcart nominations, and his chapbook, Contraband, was published in 2022. In January of 2025, he became Poet Laureate of Rockland County, New York.
Katrinka Moore is the author of five poetry books, most recently Diminuendo (Pelekinesis, 2022). Her poems and artwork appear in Terrain.org, Otoliths, Utriculi, Cold Mountain Review, Wild Roof Journal, Woven Tale, and SWWIM, among other journals. She lives in the northern Catskills in New York state and is a longtime Tai Chi practitioner.
Marjorie Moorhead is author of poetry books Into the Thrum (2025), What I Ask (2024) and Every Small Breeze (2023), chapbooks In My Locket (2024), Survival:Trees, Tides, Song (2019) and Survival Part 2 Trees, Birds, Ocean, Bees (2020). Her poems have appeared in Amethyst Review, Tiny Seed Literary, Moist Poetry Journal, Bloodroot Literary, Sheila-Na-Gig, Porter House Review, Poeming Pigeon, Verse-Virtual, What Rough Beast, Touchstone, others, and 20 anthologies to date, including The Wonder of Small Things (James Crews, ed.). Marjorie lives with her family and writes from a river valley at the NH/ VT border.
Wilda Morris who retired from a career in Christian education, is Workshop Chair of Poets and Patrons of Chicago and a past President of the Illinois State Poetry Society. She has published numerous poems in anthologies, webzines, and print publications, including Brass Bell, Haiku Canada, and Modern Haiku. She has won awards for formal and free verse and haiku. Wilda has published three books of poetry, Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant, Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick, and At Goat Hollow and Other Poems.
Joel Moskowitz, an artist and retired picture framer in Massachusetts, is writing a book of poems about moving into a new house at the edge of a forest. His poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, Ibbetson Street Press, J Journal, Midstream, Naugatuck River Review, The Healing Muse, Muddy River Poetry Review, Boston Poetry Magazine, Amethyst Review and Soul-Lit.
Sheila Murray-Nellis is a poet and children’s author living in British Columbia, Canada. She and her husband, an Orthodox priest, are building a stone chapel on a property surrounded by the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy which they call St. John in the Wilderness Orthodox Sanctuary. Sheila has had poems published in St. Katherine Review, Windhover, Catholic Integrated Life, Mslexia, and elsewhere. For the past four years she has been Poetry Editor of St. Katherine Review, a position that gives her great joy. Her published work includes her book You Are Meant to Be Like Fire and several children’s chapter books.
Liz Nakazawa is the editor of Deer Drink the Moon:Poems of Oregon. This is an anthology of 33 Oregon poets writing nature poems. Her own poetry has appeared in Willawa, Timberline Review, Amethyst Review, ahundredgourdsand other publications.
Heidi Naylor is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and made her way to Idaho in 1990. Her story collection, Revolver, was published by BCC Press in 2018. She’s a two-time Pushcart Prize and Best New American Voices nominee and received a fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. She loves Idaho trails and her family, including two little granddaughters. Find her at heidinaylor.net.
Chinese Painter at the Portland Waterfront
Mike Neighbors is a legal news editor from Los Angeles, California. He lives in Marina Del Rey with his wife and three cats.
Amy Nemecek is the author of The Language of the Birds (Paraclete Press, 2022), which was awarded the Paraclete Poetry Prize. Her work has also appeared in Presence, Whale Road Review, Windhover, and Last Leaves. She enjoys taking long walks in nature, preferably near a creek or river.
Marty Newman was born in Czechoslovakia, raised in Montreal, Canada, educated at McGill University & lives in Jerusalem where he studies ancient languages & texts. The modern poets who influence him most are Dan Pagis, Richard Wilbur, Zbigniew Herbert & Vasko Popa.
Britni Newton’s words can be found in Anti-Heroin Chic, Funicular Magazine, Ghost Girls Zine, and others. Currently in graduate school and working on a thesis in poetry, her creative writing routine leaves something to be desired, but her work is typically forthcoming elsewhere. She takes inspiration from both the pain and pleasure of everyday life, familial folklore, and occasionally the antics of her three spoiled cats. She’s based in the Midwest.
James B. Nicola is the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest three being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Actor’s Guide to Live Performance won a Choice magazine award. He has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller’s People’s Choice award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels stunned and grateful. A graduate of Yale, James hosts the Writers’ Roundtable at his library branch in Manhattan: walk-ins are always welcome.
Born and raised on a farm in Powell, Wyoming, Shelly Norris earned a BA in English from University of Wyoming and an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Alaska Fairbanks. She currently resides in Montana where she teaches liberal arts, communication, and writing at Aaniiih Nakoda College. Her poems have appeared in Gyroscope Review, Poetica, Piker Press Review, Impspired, Rye Whiskey Review, Verse-Virtual, Uppagus, Spillwords, vox poetica, The Cabinet of Heed, and several themed anthologies by Sweety Cat Press. Her first full-length collection titled Hyperbola debuted February 2024. She will release collections titled Dry Lake and Migrations in 2025.
Anderson O’Brien lives in Winston-Salem, NC with her devoted husband and two terribly spoiled cats. She has published in Iodine Poetry Journal, The Kentucky Review, Blue Fifth Review, Red River Review and Heavy Bear.
Jimmy O’Hara is a gay writer and editor who crafts science news for a non-profit medical organization. Based on the U.S. east coast, he often focuses his poetry on memory, spirituality, animal rights, social conscience, and a sense of belonging. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Eunoia Review, Pictura Journal, and Literary Veganism. You can reach him at jpohara4@gmail.com.
Colm O’Shea is a Clinical Associate Professor of essay writing at New York University.
Erin Olson is a counselor and poet from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her poems have appeared in a variety of publications, including Third Wednesday, ONE ART, and Sky Island Journal.
Deepa Onkar is a poet from Chennai, India. She was a teacher at Krishnamurti schools, and a feature writer and literary editor with The Hindu, an Indian national newspaper. Her recent poems have been published at The Lothlorien, Mollusk Literary Magazine, and Sparks of Calliope. She currently divides her time between Chennai and Bangkok, Thailand.
Ajanta Caves: Leaves from a Photo Album
Katherine Orfinger is a writer, artist, and MFA candidate at Rosemont College. She draws her inspiration from her Floridian hometown, love of nature, and Jewish faith. Katherine’s work has appeared in The Write Launch, Beyond Queer Words, Touchstone, Aeolus, and many others. She currently resides in Pennsylvania with her partner.
Olivia Oster is a writer living on Lookout Mountain, GA, whose writing is about common everyday life as well as chronic pain, parenting, gardening, cooking, and homemaking. Olivia’s poetry has been accepted in The Reformed Journal, Spirit Fire Review, and others. She has a grammar book and a poetry chapbook called Poetic Faith. Olivia is a teacher, wife, and mother of five.
James Owens‘s newest book is Family Portrait with Scythe (Bottom Dog Press, 2020). His poems and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in Channel, Arc, Dalhousie Review, Queen’s Quarterly, and Atlanta Review. Originally from Virginia, he earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in a small town in northern Ontario, Canada.
This World When Starlings Shimmer On the Grass
Brian Palmer is a retired English teacher and now pursues full-time his interests in studying and writing poetry, inspired by the natural environments of the West and Pacific NW. His recent poetry collection, Prairiehead, was released in the fall of 2023 with Kelsay Books. He is the editor and publisher of THINK: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays. He currently lives in Juneau, Alaska.
Imperative to Feel in Place on Earth
American Christina E. Petrides started writing poetry on Jeju Island, South Korea, where she lived for 6.5 years. Her verse collection is On Unfirm Terrain (Kelsay Books, 2022). Her children’s books are Blueberry Man (2020), The Refrigerator Ghost (2022), Tea Cakes, Quilts, and Sonshine (2022), and Mr. Fisher’s Whiskers (2024). She is the primary translator of Maria Shelyakhovskaya’s memoir, Being Grounded in Love (2023). Her website is: http://www.christinaepetrides.com. Substack: christinaepetrides.substack.com
A much-published bi-national immigrant, gardener, Bonsai-grower, painter, Jennifer M Phillips has lived in five states, two countries, and now, with gratitude, in Wampanoag ancestral land on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Phillips’ chapbooks: Sitting Safe In the Theatre of Electricity (iblurb.com, 2020) and A Song of Ascents (Orchard Street Press, 2022). Phillips has two poems nominated for this year’s Pushcart Prize. and is a finalist in the current Eyelands Book Competition, and Cutthroat’s Joy Harjo Poetry contest.
Anita Pinatti is a native New Englander, amateur photographer, and a late-bloomer who began writing poetry in her late-fifties along with a meditation practice. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals including Earth’s Daughters, Evening Street Review, Glimpse, SALT, and Vallum.
Cynthia Pitman from Orlando, Florida is the author of three poetry collections: The White Room, Blood Orange, and Breathe (Aldrich Press, Kelsay Books). Her work has been published in Vita Brevis anthologies Pain and Renewal, Brought to Sight & Swept Away, Nothing Divine Dies, What is All This Sweet Work?, in journals Amethyst Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Third Wednesday (One Sentence Poem finalist), Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art (Pushcart Prize fiction nominee), Red Fez (Story of the Week) and others.
David E. Poston is the author of two poetry chapbooks, including Postmodern Bourgeois Poetaster Blues (which won the NC Writers’ Network’s Randall Jarrell Chapbook Award), and the full-length collection Slow of Study. His poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in Atlanta Review, Pedestal, Cider Press Review, Pembroke Magazine, The Southern Poetry Anthology, VII: North Carolina, Typehouse, and other journals and anthologies. A new poetry collection, Letting Go, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press in fall 2025.
Andrea Potos is the author of several poetry collections, most recently Her Joy Becomes (Fernwood Press), and Two Emilys (Kelsay Books). A new collections The Presence of One Word is forthcoming from Fernwood in fall of 2025. andreapotos.com
Chris Powici lives in Perthshire where he writes poems and essays, often about how the human and natural worlds overlap. He is co-editor of New Writing Scotland and one of the writers behind Paperboats (paperboats.org). His latest poetry collection is Look, Breathe (Red Squirrel Press).
Matthew Pullar is a Melbourne-based poet. In 2013 he was winner of SparkLit’s Young Australian Christian Writer of the Year for his unpublished manuscript, “Imperceptible Arms: A Memoir in Poems”. He has had poems published in Ekstasis, Poems for Ephesians and Reformed Journal.
Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is a memoirist, poet, workshop leader, thought-leader and award-winning author of fourteen books. Her work has been widely published and anthologized. She frequently speaks and writes on writing for healing and transformation. Her latest book is Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors, A memoir with reflection and writing prompts(Modern History Press, 2024). Raab writes for Psychology Today, The Wisdom Daily, The Good Men Project, Thrive Global, and is a guest writer for many others. Visit her at: https:/www.dianaraab.com. Raab lives in Southern California.
How Writing Can Be a Spiritual Practice
David Ram enjoys living in the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts. His recent poems appear in JAMA, Sport Literate, Star 82 Review, The Naugatuck River Review, and elsewhere.
Window Dressing at Broadside Bookshop
Patrick T. Reardon, who was a Chicago Tribune reporter for 32 years, has published six poetry collections, including Darkness on the Face of the Deep, Salt of the Earth and Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby, A Memoir in Prose Poems. His poetry has appeared in Commonweal, America, Spiritus, Heart of Flesh, Amethyst Review, Rhino, Burningword Literary Journal, Poetry East and other journals. His new poetry collection Every Marred Thing: A Time in America, the winner of the 2024 Faulkner-Wisdom Prize from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society of New Orleans, is forthcoming from Lavender Ink. Reardon has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize for poetry.
Gail Reed is a writer whose work explores the intersection of faith, everyday life, and tradition. She lives in New Jersey where she does editing and proofreading for a local magazine.
Philip E. Repko is a sixty-three year old Pop-Pop, dad, husband and purveyor of poetry and prose. Professionally, he has held down the educational fort better than of the past 40 years. In the way of an ‘exciting update,’ Phil recently learned that his first book of poetry has been accepted for publication by Anxiety Press, and is in production.
Bethany Riddle is a writer and educator living in Washington State where the Evergreens are hard to find, but the wineries are plenty. She lives with her husband, two kids, and two dogs. You can find her on Instagram @bethanyjriddle.
Sarah Rietti is a writer who draws inspiration from Jewish traditions and spirituality. Her work explores the intersection of ancient wisdom and contemporary life. When not writing, she teaches high school English and takes nature walks. She lives in Jerusalem.
https://amethystmagazine.org/2025/09/12/the-light-she-kindles-a-short-story-by-sarah-rietti/
Jeannie E. Roberts is an artist and the author of several books, including her most recent title The Ethereal Effect – A Collection of Villanelles (Kelsay Books, 2022). On a Clear Night, I Can Hear My Body Sing is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in 2025. She serves as a poetry editor for the online literary magazine Halfway Down the Stairs, is an Eric Hoffer and a multiple Best of the Net award nominee. She finds joy spending time outdoors and with loved ones.
Margaret T Rochford is a poet and playwright originally from Ireland living in London. She regularly performs her poetry at open mike sessions. Her poetry has been published in magazines and on line, she is working on her first pamphlet. Two of her short plays have been performed at the Irish Cultural Centre in London and she is currently working on a play about Irish dancing.
Matthew Tallied Who’d Eaten the Most
Patrick G. Roland is a writer and educator living with cystic fibrosis. He explores life’s experiences through poetry and storytelling, seeking to inspire others in the classroom and through writing. His work appears or is forthcoming in Not One of Us Magazine, Maudlin House, Willawaw, Trampoline, Neologism Poetry Journal and others. He lives near Pittsburgh with his wife, who is his thoughtful critic, and their two children, who are his muse.
Elle Rosamilia grew up in upstate New York, moved to Mississippi for college, and spent the next three years teaching English in North Africa and studying theology in the UK. She currently lives in Pennsylvania, where she can be found reading poetry on her lunch breaks and writing in the pockets of free time she has amidst her retail job. Her latest poetry collection, The Mourner’s Almanac, explores seasons of grief and hope, and she has poems published in Prosetrics and Vessels of Light.
When not writing poetry, Emalisa Rose enjoys crafting with macrame. She volunteers in animal rescue tending to cat colonies in the neighborhood. She walks with a birding group on weekends. Living by a beach town, is inspiration for her art and poetry. Some of her poems have appeared in Writing in a Woman’s Voice, Amethyst Review, The Rye Whiskey Review. Her latest collection is Ten random wrens, published by Maverick Duck Press.
Stephanie Ross is a Ren Xue Yuan Qigong teacher and Vancouver Island poet. She found her writing inspiration during a 3.5-year South Pacific sail with two young children. She’s passionate about her inner world as a lifetime adventure. Her publications include Passionfruit Review, RXA Qiblog, Valiant Scribe, Roses & Wildflowers, and The 2023 Poetry Marathon Anthology. Connect with her: https://www.stephanierossauthor.com
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William Ross is a Canadian writer and visual artist living in Toronto. His poems have appeared in Rattle, The New Quarterly, Humana Obscura, Bicoastal Review, The Hooghly Review, Underscore Magazine, Amethyst Review, Bindweed Magazine Anthology, Topical Poetry, Heavy Feather Review, Passionfruit Review, and others.
Caedmon, a shepherd at the abbey, writes a poem
Stan Sanvel Rubin’s poems have appeared in many US journals including Agni, Poetry Northwest, Georgia Review, One, and in Canada, China, Ireland, and Belgium as well as several anthologies. He has published four full length collections including There. Here. (Lost Horse Press) and Hidden Sequel (Barrow Street Book Prize). Born in Philadelphia, he lives on the north Olympic Peninsula of Washington state.
Kelli Logan Rush lives in her native city of Winston-Salem, N.C., where she worked in the corporate world as a writer and web manager for the tobacco industry. Her poems have appeared in the Southern Poetry Review, Plainsongs, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Delta Review and Third Street Writers, among others. Her interests include local music, home and garden, atomic-era style and U.S. East Coast travel. She has an MA in European history.
A Window Shalt Thou Make to the Ark
Deborah Sage lives in Louisville, Kentucky. She has been published in Eternal Haunted Summer, Fairy Tale Magazine, Literary LEO, the 2022 Dwarf Stars Anthology, All Shall Be Well: new poetry for Julian of Norwich, Eye to the Telescope, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and Ephemeral Elegies among others. She was the poetry judge for the 2025 Fairy Tale Magazine Prose and Poetry Contest.
Julie Sampson‘s poetry is widely published and she’s been placed in a variety of competitions. Sampson edited Mary Lady Chudleigh; Selected Poems (Shearsman, 2009). Her collections are: Tessitura (Shearsman, 2014); It Was When It Was When It Was (Dempsey and Windle, 2018) and Fivestones (Lapwing Publications, 2022). See www.juliesampson.com
Gerard Sarnat MD’s won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest, Poetry in Arts First Place Award/Dorfman Prizes; nominated for handfuls of 2021/previous Pushcarts/Best of Net Awards; authored HOMELESS CHRONICLES, Disputes, 17s, Melting Ice King. He’s widely published including by academic-related journals Stanford, Oberlin, Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Pomona, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, Columbia, University Chicago; Ulster, Gargoyle, MainStreetRag, Northampton Review, New Haven Poetry Institute, American Journal Poetry, Vonnegut Journal, 2020 International-Human-Rights-Art-Festival, Poetry Quarterly, New Delta Review, Buddhist Review, Brooklyn Review, LA Review, Monterey Poetry Review, San Francisco Magazine, New York Times. Mount Analogue selected KADDISH for distribution nationwide Inauguration Day.
VIBRANT LOVINGKINDNESS DECALOGUE+
Nathaniel A. Schmidt is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America and serves as a hospice chaplain. He holds degrees from Calvin Theological Seminary, Calvin University, and the University of Illinois Springfield. His newest collection of poems, Transfiguring, is available from Wipf & Stock, as is his first collection, An Evensong. He lives with his librarian wife, Lydia, and their daughter in southwest Michigan, meaning life is a perpetual story time.
Carla Schwartz’s poems have appeared in The Practicing Poet and her collections Signs of Marriage, Mother, One More Thing, and Intimacy with the Wind. Learn more at https://carlapoet.com, or on all social media @cb99videos. Recent/upcoming curations: Contemporary Haibun Online, Inquisitive Eater, Modern Haiku, Paterson Literary Review, New-Verse News, Spank the Carp, Drifting Sands, and The MacGuffin. Carla Schwartz received the New England Poetry Club E.E. Cummings Prize.
Michael Scottoline lives in Bucharest, Romania.
Andrew Senior is a writer of poetry and short literary and speculative fiction, based in Sheffield, UK. His work has appeared in various publications including Ekstasis, Fathom, Crow & Cross Keys and Postbox Magazine. Visit https://andrewseniorwriting.weebly.com/
Sanjeev Sethi has authored eight books of poetry. Legato Without a Lisp is his latest (CLASSIX, Delhi, September 2024). His poetry has been published in over thirty-five countries and has appeared in more than 500 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He edited Dreich Planet # 1 India, an anthology for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in 2022. He is the joint winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the National Defence Academy, Pune. He lives in Mumbai, India.
Karlo Sevilla is the author of seven poetry collections, including the full-length Metro Manila Mammal (Soma Publishing, 2018) and the self-published Figuratively: A Chapbook of Shape Poems (2024). Shortlisted for the 2021 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition and thrice nominated for the Best of the Net, his poems appear in Philippines Graphic, Philippines Free Press, PILGRIM: A Journal of Catholic Experience, The Catholic Poetry Room, Academy of the Heart and Mind, and others. He is a 2024 International Fellow of the International Human Rights Arts Movement (IHRAM) for poetry.
Terry Sherwood lives in Northamptonshire, England. A former painter, his creative outlet is now poetry. His poems have been published in Allegro, Acumen, Orbis, Pennine Platform, The Cannon’s Mouth, The Ekphrastic Review and The Seventh Quarry amongst others.
Nirma de Silva grew up in Sri Lanka and currently lives in London. Her dual cultural identity influences her writing. She has been a research analyst and school teacher and now indulges in her love of poetry. Her poems reflect on nature, history, travel and loss. Her work has appeared in UK poetry magazines Acropolis Journal, Green Ink Poetry, Roots (a publication of the Wee Sparrow Poetry Press) among others.
George HS Singer has published in several national journals including Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, and Tar River Poetry. A book of his poetry, Ergon, was published by WordTech Press and is available through Amazon. He worked as a professor at UC Santa Barbara where he lives with his life-mate and two dogs who safeguard them from squirrels at their home where he writes and meditates. He was a Zen Buddhist monk for several years in his 20s.
Ronnie Sirmans is an Atlanta modern media company’s digital platforms editor whose poetry has appeared in Sojourners, Fathom, Ekstasis, The Windhover, The Clayjar Review, Heart of Flesh, and America: The Jesuit Review, in addition to non-faith-based magazines.
Shivani Sivagurunathan is a Malaysian author. Her first novel, Yalpanam, was published by Penguin Southeast Asia in September 2021.
Her poetry collection, Being Born (Maya Press) and her book What Has Happened to Harry Pillai?: Two Novellas (Clarity Publishing) came out in 2022.
Daniel Skach-Mills’s poems have appeared in Sojourners, Soul Forte, The Christian Science Monitor, Sufi (Featured Poet), Braided Way, Open Spaces, and Kosmos Journal. His book, The Hut Beneath the Pine: Tea Poems was a 2012 Oregon Book Award finalist. In 2018, The Beyond Within: The Downtown Dao of Lan Su Chinese Garden was a finalist in The Body, Mind, Spirit Book Awards, and The National Indie Excellence Awards. A former Trappist monk, Daniel lives with his husband in Portland, Oregon, where he served fifteen years as a docent for Lan Su Chinese Garden.
At Ch’ing Ch’ung Daoist Temple
Jeff Skinner’s poems have been published in anthologies and in many journals, most recently or forthcoming in Allegro, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Paperboats . He was commended in the last Sonnet or Not competition. He volunteers at his local food bank and in an Oxfam bookshop, listens to music, watches football, reads, writes.
Duncan Smith grew up on a farm in southeastern North Carolina in the 1960s in one of the nation’s historically poorest counties. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A public librarian who started a database company, he published his first poem at the age of twenty. Decades later he published his second poem, reclaiming writing and poetry as a long-lost and recovered passion. Duncan’s work has appeared in or is forthcoming in BRILLIG, Broad River Review, The Crucible, Kakalak and online in North Carolina Literary Review, Red Eft Review, Table Rock Journal.
Thomas R. Smith is a poetry, essayist, teacher, and editor living in western Wisconsin. His most recent books are Medicine Year (Paris Morning Publications), poetry, and a prose book Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival (Red Dragonfly Press).
Claudia M. Stanek’s work has been turned into a libretto, been part of an art exhibition, and been translated into Polish. She is the author of the chapbooks Language You Refuse to Learn (BHP, 2014) and Beneath Occluded Shine (FLP, 2025). Her poems appear in Susurrus, The Windhover, Cutleaf, Ekstasis, Solum, and Book of Matches. Claudia spent a Writer’s Residency in Bialystok, Poland. She holds an MFA from Bennington College. After a lifetime in the frozen tundra of Western New York, Claudia now lives in East Tennessee with her elderly dogs, where she also rescues the occasional overheated hummingbird.
When a Child Asks His Grandmother a Simple Question
Clare Starling started writing poetry when her son was diagnosed with autism during lockdown. Her poems have since been published in many journals including Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Poetrygram, Porridge, Obsessed With Pipework, and The Interpreter’s House. Her pamphlet Magpie’s Nest won the Frosted Fire First Pamphlet Award 2023. She particularly loves writing about our connection with nature, and about how neurodiversity can give different perspectives on the world.
John Whitney Steele is a psychologist, yoga teacher, assistant editor of Think: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction and Essays, and graduate of the MFA Poetry Program at Western Colorado University. A Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems have been published widely. His chapbook, The Stones Keep Watch, and his full length collection of poetry, Shiva’s Dance, were published by Kelsay Books in 2021 and 2022.
Charisse Stephens is a poet and teacher with an MA in English from the University of California – Berkeley. She has a deep fascination for science, religion, history, and the places they intersect. Her work has been published in literary journals including SLANT, Neologism, and Irreantum. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her partner, two kids, and dog Polly.
Michelle Stephens is an alumna of Fresno State University, where she majored in English Literature with a minor in Classical Studies. Her poems have been published in HAIS: a literary journal and are forthcoming in Ekstasis and Orchards Poetry Journal. She makes her home in the San Joaquin Valley of California with her husband and their son.
Surely, the Lord is in this place
Rose Strode is a poet, essayist, rehabilitator of overgrown gardens, and naturalist. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Wild Roof, Hare’s Paw, New Ohio Review, Terrain.org, and The Ecopoetry Anthology: Volume II from Trinity University Press. When not writing or helping others with their writing she wanders around in the woods with her dog. Read more of her work at rosestrode.com
J.M. Summers was born and still lives in South Wales. Previous publication credits include Another Country from Gomer Press and various magazines / anthologies. The former editor of a number of small press magazines, he is currently working on his first collection.
Rebecca Surmont lives in Minnesota which invites exploration of the seasons and cycles of life that is often expressed in her work. She has a love of trains, corn fields, and tiny things. Her written work has been featured in publications such as Nature of Our Times (Poets for Science), MacQueen’s Quinterly, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Eunoia Review, Common Ground Review, Crowstep Poetry Journal, Ekphrastic Review, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, and Trouvaille Review. She is working on her first chapbook.
Herman Sutter is the author of the chapbooks Stations (Wiseblood Books), and The World Before Grace (Wings Press). His work appears in: Saint Anthony Messenger, The Ekphrastic Review, tejascovido, The Langdon Review, The Porch, Benedict XVI Institute, The English Review, The Merton Journal as well as the anthologies: Texas Poetry Calendar (2021) & By the Light of a Neon Moon (Madville Press, 2019). His narrative poem Constance, received the Innisfree prize for Poetry. His latest manuscript, A Theology of Need was long listed for the Sexton prize in poetry.
Wally Swist’s recent essays, poems, and translations have appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Commonweal, Helaling Muse, Illuminations, Pensive, and Your Impossible Voice. Forthcoming titles include If You’re the Dreamer, I’m the Dream: Selected Translations from The Book of Hours, from the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, from Finishing Line Press. Kelsay Books will publish his book, Aperture, poems regarding his wife’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, in the summer of 2025. His book Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012) won the 2011 Crab Orchard Poetry Prize.
Brendon Sylvester is a poet near Philadelphia, PA. He teaches English at Cairn University, and he has published his work in Touchstone, Ekstasis, and Autumn Sky Poetry. His influences include Edmund Spenser, T.S. Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the landscapes of the American National Parks.
Shahrzad Taavoni is a poet, artist, and licensed acupuncturist pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Baltimore. Her work explores healing, mythic consciousness, and spirituality, and has appeared in Soul Forte Journal, The Closed Eye Open, Persian Heritage Magazine, and is forthcoming in California Quarterly. She creates immersive poetry light shows, blending her poems, voice, and sculptures, shown at Maryland Art Place, School 33, Subtle Rebellion, and the Baltimore Public Works Museum. Follow Shahrzad: Instagram: @shahrzadtaavoni; Facebook: facebook.com/shahrzadtaavoni
Erika Takacs is an Episcopal priest, teacher, and poet originally from Wilmington, Delaware. Her writing has been published in Earth & Altar, The Christian Century, Braided Way, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and as a part of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poetry in Plain Sight. Outside of her work and her family, her three great loves are the music of J.S. Bach, books, and baseball. She currently resides in North Carolina, where she and her husband serve at the pleasure of their very spoiled beagle.
Marlene M. Tartaglione is an artist whose creativity manifests poetry, children’s literature, visual arts. Her work has appeared in presses nationally & abroad. Ms. Tartaglione has won 4 poetry prizes, her work presented at venues such as the Brooklyn Museum, M.O.M.A, New York Book Fair. Her poem, S C A R E B, has recently been nominated for a 2025 Pushcart Prize. Ms. Tartaglione’s M.B.A. studies were conducted at NYU; Ms. Tartaglione also holds a B.F. A. from the Cooper Union, where she studied with poet/ educator/ scholar, Dr. Brian Swann.
Ellen M. Taylor teaches writing and literature at the University of Maine at Augusta, an open access university, and in the Maine Prison Education Program. She has published in regional and national journals and has three poetry collections published by Moon Pie Press. She lives in the hills of Appleton, Maine.
Jeffrey L. Taylor is a retired Software Engineer. Around 1990, poems started holding his sleep hostage. He has been published in The Perch, California Quarterly, Loud Coffee, Texas Poetry Calendar, and Texas Poetry Assignment.
Margaret Taylor-Ulizio is a canon lawyer, part-time Religious Studies instructor, and novice writer.
Felicity Teague lives in Pittville, a suburb of Cheltenham, UK. She has had inflammatory arthritis since she was 12 yet is able to work from home as a copywriter and copyeditor, with her foremost interests including health and social care. Her poetry features regularly in the Spotlight of The HyperTexts and elsewhere. Her second poetry collection is due out this or next year; other interests include art, film, and photography.
Daniel Thomas’s second poetry book, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn was published by Cherry Groves Collections in 2022. His first collection, Deep Pockets was published by St. Julian Press in 2018. He has published poems in many journals, including Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Poetry Ireland Review, Belmont Story Review, Amethyst Review, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Atlanta Review, and others. More info at danielthomaspoetry.com.
Larry D. Thomas, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate, has published twenty-three print collections of poetry and several poetry chapbooks, both in print and online. His poems have been published in Amethyst Review, St. Austin Review, Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith, and elsewhere. Buttonhook Press recently brought out his online chapbook, Letting the Light Work: Poems of Mexico, and two online poetry pamphlets, Gems and Bestiary: Far West Texas.
Lily Tobias is a poet from Fenton, Michigan. Her poem “Strawberry Interlude” was shown at the 2023 Paseo Arts Association Small Art Show in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and she has work published or forthcoming in Rockvale Review, River Heron Review, The Big Windows Review, Cathexis Northwest Press, and elsewhere. Learn more at lilytobias.com
Ahrend Torrey is the author of This Moment (Pinyon Publishing, 2024). His work has appeared in Denver Quarterly; Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature; storySouth; The Greensboro Review; The Westchester Review; Welter; and West Trade Review, among others. He’s currently working on a new collection of poems titled Running Among the Trees—New & Selected Poems. He lives in Chicago with his husband, Jonathan, and enjoys exploring the nearby forests and dunes. Read more of his poetry at https://ahrendtorreypoetry.wixsite.com/website
Author of the debut novel Twelfth House, and Shaded Pergola, a collection of haiku and short poetry featuring her original illustrations, E.C. Traganas has published in over a hundred literary magazines including The Brussels Review, The Society of Classical Poets, Amethyst Review, Story Sanctum, Penwood Review, and others. She enjoys a professional career as a Juilliard-trained concert pianist & composer, has held over 40 national exhibitions of her artwork, and is the founder/director of Woodside Writers, a New York-based literary forum. www.elenitraganas.com
A resident of Portland, Oregon, Laura Trimble taught literature for six years and now homeschools her three sons. Her poetry and prose has been published by Ekstasis, Plough, the Rabbit Room, Calla Press, and Storyboard, as well as in several anthologies, and appears on Instagram at @trimblepoetry.
After retiring recently, Mark James Trisko heard his muses yelling loudly in the night, begging him to let their voices be heard. His work has appeared / will appear in Valiant Scribe Literary Journal, Spirit Fire Review, Amethyst Review, As Surely As the Sun, The Penwood Review, St. Katherine Review, and Austur Magazine. He currently lives in Minnesota, with his beautiful spouse of 47 years, four wonderful children and eight above-normal grandchildren.
Lindsay Younce Tsohantaridis was born and raised between the mountains and ocean in the Pacific Northwest but now writes from the Ohio River Valley. Her work has been published in Dappled Things and Salamander.
Inspired while teaching Religious Studies, Barbara Usher now cares for retired ewes who bring their lambs at foot, and ex-commercial hens on her 8 acre animal sanctuary, Noah’s Arcs. Her poetry has been published in Borderlands: an Anthology, Amethyst Review, the Catholic Poetry Room, Dreich, Green Ink Poetry, Last Leaves, Last Stanza, Liennekjournal, and in the Amethyst Press anthology Thin Places & Sacred Spaces. Her work is included in the Sonic Museum, Heids and Herts Scotland. She writes on Celtic saints, ex-farmed animals, and her local area, and is the representative for the Fife Poetry Stanza. Her website is: barbaraushernoahsarcs.com.
Laura Vines is from Birmingham, Alabama but spent 11 years in Alaska, which affected her music, her poetry, and her writings tremendously. She is a teacher, performer, singer-songwriter, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist.
Kathleen A Wakefield‘s first book of poetry, Notations on the Visible World(2000), won the 1999 Anhinga Prize for Poetry. Her second book Grip, Give and Sway was published by Silver Birch Press (2016). Her poems have appeared in such journals as the Alaska Quarterly Review, Blue Line, The Georgia Review, Hubbub, HumanaObscura, Image, One, Poetry, Rattle, River Styx, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, and Visions International. She has taught creative writing at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Rochester, as a poet-in-the-schools, and share poetry through public libraries.
Jessica Walters was a hobby farmer in the Fraser Valley, Canada where she raised chickens, foraged for turkey tail mushrooms, and pruned apple trees. Her work has been published in The British Columbia Review, The Brussels Review, Scintilla, Solum, and Foreshadow, and her short story “Glass Jars” was shortlisted for the Mitchell Prize for Faith and Writing. She is the review and fiction editor at Radix Magazine.
Brett Warren (she/her) is the author of The Map of Unseen Things (Pine Row Press, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in Canary, Cape Cod Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Hole in the Head Review, ONE ART, Rise Up Review, SWWIM, Westchester Review, and other literary publications. She is a 2024 Pushcart nominee and was a triple nominee for Best of the Net in 2023. She lives in a house surrounded by pitch pine and black oak trees—nighttime roosts of wild turkeys, who sometimes use the roof of her writing attic as a runway. http://www.brettwarrenpoetry.com
Needle Biopsy
Maggie Warren is a queer and disabled poet who writes about love and toads. They work as an adjunct English instructor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where they earned their Master’s Degree of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Media Arts in 2024. Their work has appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Half Mystic Journal, and Bear Review. You can find more of their work at www.maggiewarren.com.
Garden House Speaks again
Patricia Watts is a former Language Program Coordinator and ESL teacher now nurturing her love of creative writing. She is a member of the Transformative Language Arts Network and various craft-oriented writing groups. Two of her poems were published in The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative, and she has numerous professional articles in academic journals and edited books.
Sheila Wellehan’s poetry is featured in On the Seawall, Psaltery & Lyre, Rust & Moth, Thimble Literary Magazine, Whale Road Review, and many other publications. She’s served as an assistant poetry editor for The Night Heron Barks and as an associate editor for Ran Off With the Star Bassoon. Sheila lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Kory Wells nurtures connection and community through writing, storytelling, and arts initiatives in and beyond the American South. She is author of two poetry collections, most recently Sugar Fix from Terrapin Books. Her writing has been featured on The Slowdown podcast from American Public Media, won Blue Earth Review’s 2023 Flash Creative Nonfiction Contest, and appears in numerous publications. A former poet laureate of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, she directs a local reading and open mic series and works with the from-home creative writing program MTSU Write.
In the Fairweather Mountains, Three Ways to Say Farewell
“Richard West” was Regents’ Professor of Classics in a large public university and has published numerous books, as well as many articles and poems, under his own name or various pen names. He now lives with his wife Anna in the American Desert Southwest, where he enjoys cooking and attempting to add flavor to his poems.
Bruce E. Whitacre: Good Housekeeping, 2024 from Poets Wear Prada, is a BookLife Reviews Editors Pick. The Elk in the Glade: The World of Pioneer and Painter Jennie Hicks, Crown Rock Media, was also a BookLife Reviews Editors Pick. Both books received awards from The BookFest.Richard Thomas has narrated the audiobook, to be released in late 2024. His poems have appeared in many anthologies and over thirty five journals. He has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. He lives with his husband in Queens, NY. More info at http://www.brucewhitacre.com.
Anne Whitehouse is the author of poetry collections: The Surveyor’s Hand, Blessings and Curses, The Refrain, Meteor Shower, Outside from the Inside, and Steady, as well as the art chapbooks, Surrealist Muse (about Leonora Carrington), Escaping Lee Miller, Frida, Being Ruth Asawa, and Adrienne Fidelin Restored. She is the author of a novel, Fall Love. Her poem, “Lady Bird,” won the Nathan Perry DAR 2023 “Honoring American History” poetry contest. She has lectured about Longfellow and Poe at the Wadsworth Longfellow House in Portland, Maine, and Longfellow House Washington Headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Amy Wilde is a writer in Austin, Texas. Her poetry, reportage, and essays have appeared in Poets for Science, Lonely Planet, The Collective Quarterly, and elsewhere, and her creative nonfiction work was shortlisted in the Ploughshares 2024 Emerging Writer’s Contest. Her newsletter, Brown Paper Packages, offers shareable pleasures and connective ideas for These Here Times.
Megan Wildhood is a writer who helps her readers feel seen in her monthly newsletter, poetry chapbook Long Division (Finishing Line Press, 2017), her full-length poetry collection Bowed As If Laden With Snow (Cornerstone Press, May 2023) as well as Mad in America, The Sun and elsewhere. You can learn more about her at meganwildhood.com.
Why Is Everything Spinning?
Megan Willome is the author of Love and other Mysteries, a poetry collection inspired by Song of Solomon and the Mysteries of the Rosary. She has also written The Joy of Poetry, a memoir, and Rainbow Crow, a picture book. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, a song, and a walk in the dark.
Mike Wilson’s work has appeared in magazines including The Gravity of the Thing, Still: The Journal, Agape Review, Dappled Things, THINK: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays, Willawaw Journal, and Amethyst Review. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky
Mary Winslow has taught writing at colleges and universities throughout the US. Her poems have appeared in Sparks of Calliope, The Clayjar Review, The Road Not Taken, the Antigonish Review, The Avocet: Journal of Nature Poetry, and many other journals and magazines. She is the author of one chapbook, The Dungeness Crabs at Dusk, (Log Dog Press, 2017) and the editor of a full-length poetry collection, Dea Tacita, (Log Dog Press, 2017) written by poet Jeff Stier. She lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
Sonya Wohletz is a writer whose work brings together image, history, and landscapes. Her work has appeared in Latin American Literary Review, Revolute, Roanoke Review, and others. Her first collection of poetry, One Row After/Bir Sira Sonra, was published by First Matter Press in 2022. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee.
Connor Patrick Wood is a poet and Substacker (https://cultureuncurled.substack.com) in Arlington, Massachusetts. He holds a BA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in religion and science from Boston University. Before he left academia, Connor’s research on the cognitive science of ritual was funded by the John Templeton Foundation. He has published poetry at the Rabbit Room Substack, Ekstasis, and elsewhere.
Diana Woodcock has authored seven chapbooks and six poetry collections, most recently Heaven Underfoot (winner of the 2022 Codhill Press Pauline Uchmanowicz Poetry Award), Holy Sparks (2020 Paraclete Press Poetry Award finalist) and Facing Aridity (2020 Prism Prize for Climate Literature finalist). A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, she received the 2011 Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Poetry Prize for Women for her debut collection, Swaying on the Elephant’s Shoulders. Currently teaching at VCUarts Qatar, she holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, where she researched poetry’s role in the search for an environmental ethic.
Claudia Wysocky, a Polish writer and poet based in New York, is known for her diverse literary creations, including fiction and poetry. Her poems, such as “Stargazing Love” and “Heaven and Hell,” reflect her ability to capture the beauty of life through rich descriptions. Besides poetry, she authored All Up in Smoke, published by Anxiety Press.”
Amethyst Review 