OPENING LETTERS > FROM THE EDITORS

This spring, I'm teaching a night class at a local university to current high school English teachers working on earning their master’s degrees. It is titled, "Methods in Teaching English Language Arts at the Secondary Level." In one of the books we're studying, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, the authors Kylene Beers and Robert Probst contend that there is a difference between interest and relevance. They suggest that interest is fleeting, such as a momentary interest in a song or a cute puppy video on YouTube, but that relevance has staying power because it is deeply personal. It has the power to change you.

I've been thinking about relevance ever since. 

The other day I had a conversation with my mom. She's been retired for years, and I'm proud to say that one of her favorite pastimes is reading this journal. (Thanks, Mom!) She mentioned how she was looking for an additional hobby and brought up a walking path we used to frequent when I was a kid. It looped and meandered under the canopy of Wisconsin's wooded Central Plain. While my brother and I used to rush to the end of the trail to skip rocks on the riverbed, my mom and her mother would stroll along, admiring the flowers that bloomed in the springtime. When they could get us to slow down long enough, they'd snap pictures of us hugging Grandma Pearl, which have become some of my most treasured photos from my childhood.

Along the trail, a local park agency had placed small signs to remind visitors to stay on the walking path but also to inform them of the different types of flowers they were encountering. There is something special about being able to call the wonders of nature by name. Somehow it feels like we gain a better understanding of our shared existence with the natural world. This spring, my mom is going to create her own cards and mark the flowers in her yard nestled along the Chippewa River. When the family visits, we'll be able to more fully appreciate the wildflowers that return each year and recreate memories from our past with future generations. That is not a hobby. That is true relevance.

In my first year of teaching, I purposefully selected and printed between 75-100 poems for my high school students. I stayed at school late into the evening, posting them along the walls of the auditorium, creating what I considered a Poetry Gallery. Little did I know, but I had tripped a silent security system, and right around midnight, I was "greeted" by a gruff security guard. He may have thought I was a bit odd, but upon seeing that nothing nefarious was taking place he left me to my business.

My goal, knowing that this was not an elective in Creative Writing, but a required unit in the English 11 course, was to hook and engage students in the human experience of poetry. Before asking them to analyze a poem's meter, figurative language, or any other literary elements, I asked them to simply explore the gallery like they might an art museum. I said, "If a poem doesn't do it for you, feel free to move on, but for the ones that connect, challenge, or hit home with you for whatever reason, stick around. Think. Feel. Reflect. Let the poem speak to you."

I didn't quite have the pedagogical terms for it back then, but what I was aiming for was relevance. In many ways, we all are.

Jason and I are so lucky to be on this path together, doing work fueled by passion and purpose. We've happily forfeited a lot of sleep while reading and discussing the craft and more importantly, the humanity that permeates the works of literature we have the honor of experiencing as editors.

Readers, welcome to the gallery that is Issue 28 of Sky Island Journal. We're open 24/7, and you will not find any silent security lines to trip while you're here. What you will find are 50 of the finest poems, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction pieces we've had the pleasure of reading this spring. Stay as long as you'd like, linger, and spend time with the ones that speak to you. Each time you return, we hope you find the ones that challenge you emotionally and intellectually; the ones that move you with staying power; the ones that have true relevance for you.

With Gratitude,

Jeff Sommerfeld

In the United States, where Sky Island Journal is based, peaceful protest is a constitutionally protected act; the right to assemble and speak freely is protected by our First Amendment.

Peaceful protest is dissent. Regardless of where it falls on the political spectrum, dissent is essential for the health of any democracy. Respect for dissent, and the vigorous defense of its right to exist (even and especially when it doesn’t align with one’s own values), are both hallmarks of free people.

But few people—even those fortunate enough to live in democracies like ours—are truly free, and when one considers the current state of our planet, simply writing the human experience—in any genre—anywhere in the world—can be seen as an act of dissent.  

This is why poets and journalists—writers of all stripes, really—are always the first to be marginalized, jailed, or murdered by governments that have a vested interest in keeping their populations busy, distracted, ignorant, emotionally callused, and divided. Reading slows our pace and encourages reflection. Reading creates singular focus, the antithesis of manic algorithms. Reading informs and educates. Reading creates empathy and sympathy. Reading unites, even when it divides.

Writers are such a threat because they gift readers something no government can control or confiscate: a rich interior life that can outwardly manifest itself in the time and place of the reader’s choosing.

Writing is a form of peaceful protest. Reading is a form of peaceful protest. Publishing is a form of peaceful protest.

All three are forms of dissent, and all three require courage in today’s world.

Sky Island Journal ‘s Issue 28 contributors are brave beyond measure, and you—dear reader—are brave as well.

One of the few things that separates us from other animals is that we understand the concept of tomorrow. This is hardly a surprise when you consider that another thing which separates us is language. Language gives us the power to resurrect our past, define our present, and create our future. Language is the sword and compass of the human imagination.

Tragically, language and imagination are precisely the things that we tend to use less of, the more that hatred and violence back us into our respective corners. And those corners are filled with such tension, and such urgency, that we become blind to everything else that isn’t this moment. Tomorrow seems impossible when all we can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear is this moment. Moment after moment, it continues until we forget our past and forsake our future—adrift on a roiling sea of reaction—the regular rhythm of panic and anxiety lulling us into a kind of numbness that can make the art of writing and the joy of reading seem irrelevant.

Well, we refuse to give in to that numbness.

We dissent.

We believe in visualizing and creating a better tomorrow.

As an independent international literary journal, our positive energy, rugged independence, and relentless tenacity keep us strong and publishing in the darkest of hours. We keep a fire burning for readers and writers who may be discouraged by this life or doubting their path. We keep it burning for those who, through literature, want to break free from their matrix programing and feel things they’ve never felt before—see things from different perspectives and be completely transported by the hearts and minds of others.

By keeping the fire burning for others, we are also able to provide some warmth and light for ourselves, and it will always be enough to sustain and guide us to the next issue. Path and purpose. Relentless resilience. Endless evolution. Reading and responding to every submission—then being able to share the work of writers from around the world, with readers from around the world—are privileges beyond the telling.

We believe in the power of reading and writing, and we believe that art can make a difference in people’s lives. Our constellation of over 150,000 readers in 150 countries, and our family of over 900 published writers hailing from 50 countries, are fearless inward explorers and brave outward adventurers. They believe in the love that can be found in our shared humanity—even, and especially, during these dark hours. That’s what sustains us. That’s what propels us forward into the unknown with every issue.

We’ve elected to leave the "scroll-through” experience and the pop-up ads to other literary platforms. By design, the writing in Sky Island Journal opens as a protected Word document for an authentic, focused, and immersive experience that encourages a close, intimate, distraction-free reading of the work. We want your experience with the work of our contributors to be singular—just as it would be on the printed page, with crisp white paper between your collective fingertips. That said, several poems in this issue with unusually long line lengths will open as JPEGs so fidelity to the author’s original line and stanza breaks can be maintained on all mobile devices around the world.

Without advertising to distract from and cheapen the literary experience, you can fully engage with the worlds that our contributors have so carefully crafted for you. Without subscriptions and bullshit paywalls, you are welcome to read and enjoy whenever you like, wherever you like, regardless of your means. We believe in removing the barriers between readers and access to high quality literature, especially in regions of the world that have traditionally been underserved by English language journals or completely ignored by the literary establishment.

So, welcome to Sky Island Journal—where this moment becomes tomorrow: where the desert meets the mountains, the indigenous meets the exotic, and the old ways meet the digital frontier. Of the 1,671 individual pieces that we received from around the world for Issue 28, we found these 50 to be the finest. Enjoy!

Much Respect,

Jason Splichal

Abdullah Jimoh O. > Poetry > Nigeria

Abdullah Jimoh O. (He/him) is a linguist and a poet. He holds a Bachelor's degree in linguistics and is a natural language processing enthusiast. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in The Muse Journal, Tint Journal, Gyroscope Review, Efiko Magazine, The Shallow Tales Review, IHRAM's anthology: Thorns, Tears and Treachery,  Verum Literary Press, Thanatos Review, Mudroom, Afritondo, and elsewhere.

Alexander Etheridge > Poetry > Texas, USA

Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998.  His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Museum of Americana, Ink Sac, Welter Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others.  He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022.  He is the author of, God Said Fire, and the forthcoming, Snowfire and Home.

Alexandra Burack > Poetry > Arizona, USA

Alexandra Burack is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, editor, and author of On the Verge (Plinth Books). Her recent work appeared in The Sewanee Review, The Blue Mountain Review, Roi Fainéant, Orlando, Broad River Review, Ink & Marrow, FreezeRay Poetry, $--Poetry is Currency, and Poetica Magazine, and is forthcoming in Spillway Magazine. She is a 2024 Artist Opportunity Grant recipient (AZ Commission on the Arts), and a former Artist Fellow in Poetry (CT Commission on the Arts). She currently serves as AZ Master Teacher/Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at Chandler-Gilbert Community College (AZ), and as a Poetry Reader for The Los Angeles Review.

Arya Ramesh > Poetry > India

A self-proclaimed writer, Arya Ramesh is an undergraduate from India. Despite being a student of the life sciences, she continues her love affair with prose and poetry. She enjoys free verse poems, dystopian fiction, and most genres of anime. When not analyzing fictional characters, you can find Arya grooving to old Bollywood or Lana Del Rey. Still an amateur, she does not have a long list of publications (as of yet) but hopes to one day.

Ashley McCurry > Flash Fiction > Alabama, USA

Ashley McCurry (she/her) is a short fiction writer residing in the Southeastern U.S. with her husband and four rescue dogs. She reads for Okay Donkey Literary Magazine and serves as a contributing editor for Cream Scene Carnival. Her stories have placed in the Bath Flash Fiction, Scribes Prize, National Flash Fiction Day, and Welkin Writing Prize competitions.

Beth Sherman > Flash Fiction > New York, USA

Beth Sherman has an MFA in creative writing from Queens College, where she teaches in the English department. Her stories have been published in Portland Review, Blue Mountain Review, Tangled Locks Journal, 100 Word Story, Fictive Dream, Flash Boulevard, Sou’wester and elsewhere. Her work will be featured in The Best Microfictions 2024. She’s also a Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, and multiple Best of the Net nominee.

Ciaran Pierce > Poetry > California, USA

Ciaran Pierce is an undergraduate at California State University, Long Beach, studying Comparative World Literature, with plans to pursue graduate studies. An emerging writer, his poetry debuted in the tenth volume of Runestone. He’s privileged to call Sky Island Journal his work’s newest home.

Claire Scott > Poetry > California, USA

Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, Enizagam, The Healing Muse, and Sky Island Journal among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t.

Devin Canary > Poetry > Ohio, USA

Devin Canary is a homeschooling mama of two and cofounder of Canary Acres Animal Sanctuary in Ohio. She was awarded the ACLU's Courageous Advocate Award for creating and distributing an underground paper when she was in high school despite the administration's threats to expel her. Devin is a wannabe witch who believes that words, spoken or written, can be magic spells that alter someone's existence, for just a minute or for much longer. She believes poetry is powerful...poetry is witchcraft. Her poems have been published in Bone and Ink, For Women Who Roar, Peculiar, and From the Ashes: An International Anthology of Womxn's Poetry.

Diane Raven > Creative Nonfiction > Michigan, USA

Diane Raven is a naturalist, therapist, illustrator, and writer. She co-founded Headwaters Environmental Station in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she taught environmental education for twenty-five years. Later, she worked as a childhood trauma therapist and directed the art therapy program for an adolescent, residential behavioral health agency. She authored the chapter, “Hidden Voices: Creative Art Therapy Interventions for Adolescents with Dissociation,” in The Fractured Child: Diagnosis and Treatment of Youth with Dissociation. Her creative nonfiction and poetry have been published in Sky Island Journal.

E. F. S. Byrne > Flash Fiction > Spain

E. F. S. Byrne works in education and writes when his teenage kids allow it. He blogs a regular micro flash story. Links to this and over fifty published pieces can be found on his website.

Ellouisa Night > Poetry > Singapore

Ellouisa Night hails from Singapore, a small city-country in Southeast Asia. It is a colorful, vibrant city that blends different cultures and nationalities together beautifully, allowing her exposure to learning different ways of living from her various friends. Ellouisa has enjoyed writing since she was young; it’s a natural way for her to express her thoughts, emotions, and observations via ink and paper. Her first publications were in school magazines and local town council newsletters where she would submit to writing competitions and emerge as one of the winners. Academically, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications (majoring in Journalism), from Murdoch University. She wrote articles and research assignments for her Mass Communications studies, as well as her Psychological studies under James Cook University. While not pursuing a career in Journalism (due to the limited scope in her country), Ellouisa owns several blogs; over the years, they have featured her poems, reviews, and thoughts on current affairs.  The blog sites used to garner a good fanfare and even media invites for her to review travels, beauty, and food scenes. Finally, she has a publishing contract for her novel, The Black Widow’s Hospitality, from AmericaStar Publishing.

Emma Wynn > Poetry > Connecticut, USA

Emma Wynn teaches Philosophy, Religious Studies, LGBTQI+ U.S. History, and Psychology in a boarding high school in Connecticut. They have been published in multiple magazines and journals and nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice. Their first full-length book, The World is Our Anchor, was published in 2023 by FutureCycle Press.

Farideh Hassanzadeh > Poetry > Iran

Farideh Hassanzadeh is an Iranian poet, translator, and freelance journalist. She is the author of The Last Night with Sylvia Plath: Essays on Poetry and Eternal Voices: Interviews with Poets East and West (Adrienne Rich, Billy Collins, Sam Hamill, Edward Hirsch, Marylin Krysl, Annie Finch, and others). Her poems have appeared in some international anthologies such as: Letters to the World, After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events, Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, Heartbeat: Poems of Family and Hometown, Count Every Breath: A Climate Anthology, The Song of the Ground Jay, The Poetry of Iranian Women, One Hundred Years of Iranian Women's Poetry, Seventy Years of Love Songs, and More Fruitful than Spring: An Introduction to Iranian Women’s Poetry.

In addition, she has translated poems by great international poets which are published in the following: Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot, Federico Garcia Lorca: A Life by Ian Gibson, Contemporary African Poetry, Selected Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, Women Poets of the World, Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry, Selected Poems of Iaroslav Seifertand, Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life, Blood of Adonis by Samuel Hazo, The Beauty of Friendship: Selected Poems by Khalil Gibran, Selected Poems by Blaga Dimitrova, The Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry: Poems for Liberty, Love, and Peace, and Nima Yushij: Poetry and Letters in English, among others.

Fran Mason > Creative Nonfiction > Washington, USA

Fran Mason has a B.A. in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and has kept a journal since age eight. She is writing a book-length memoir, Girl Next Door: A Coming-of-Age Memoir of Early Loss, the story of an independent-minded motherless daughter/only child growing into her grief and adolescence in a culture without therapists. Her author blog is "73 Notebooks" on Substack, and her essays have been published on TueNight.com.

Fredric Hildebrand > Poetry > Wisconsin, USA

Fredric Hildebrand is a retired physician living in Northern Wisconsin. He is the author of three poetry chapbooks, Northern Portrait (Kelsay Books, 2020), A Glint of Light (Finishing Line Press, 2020), and Under the Dust of Stars (Kelsay Books, 2023). When not writing or reading, he plays acoustic folk guitar and explores the Northwoods with his wife and Labrador retriever.

Gary Kuchar > Poetry > Canada

Gary Kuchar is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Victoria. He is the author of three academic monographs, including George Herbert and the Mystery of the Word: Poetry and Scripture in Seventeenth-Century England (2017). He has a new, fourth, academic book forthcoming called Shakespeare and the World of Slings & Arrows: Poetic Faith in a Postmodern Age (McGill-Queens). While he has written poetry and music for many years, this is his first published poem. 

Jasmina Kuenzli > Creative Nonfiction > Texas, USA

Jasmina Kuenzli is an author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and has been published both online and in print, most recently in Motheaten Mag and The Account Magazine. When she isn't writing, she can be found running, weightlifting, and attempting to perfect her dance moves. She would like to thank Brenna and Sarah, who hear all these stories first, and Harry Styles, who is sunshine distilled in a human being.

Jennifer Avignon > Poetry > Washington, USA

Jennifer Avignon (she/her) is a queer poet who lives in Seattle. She likes to test her husband’s patience by agreeing that they have too many houseplants and then buying more. When not watering houseplants and writing poems, she can be found on a nature walk or in the kitchen. Jennifer serves on the editorial board of The WEIGHT Journal. Her work also appears in Amethyst Review, Lingua, and Miniskirt Magazine.

Julie Esther Fisher > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA

Julie Esther Fisher’s stories and poetry appear or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Chicago Quarterly Review New World Writing, Prime Number Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, Bridge Eight, William and Mary Review, Other Voices, and On the Seawall. Winner of several awards, including Grand Prize Recipient of the 2022 Stories That Need to be Told Anthology, and Sunspot Lit’s Rigel Award, she has twice been nominated for the Pushcart. Her novella in stories, Love is a Crooked Stick, is about to go out on submission. Currently, she is immersing herself in writing poetry. She grew up in London and today lives amidst several hundred acres of wild conserved land in Massachusetts, where she indulges her passion for nature and gardening. 

Julie Weiss > Poetry > Spain

Julie Weiss (she/her) is the author of The Places We Empty, her debut collection published by Kelsay books, and two chapbooks, The Jolt: Twenty-One Love Poems in Homage to Adrienne Rich, and Breath Ablaze: Twenty-One Love Poems in Homage to Adrienne Rich, Volume II, both published by Bottlecap Press. Her "Poem Written in the Eight Seconds I Lost Sight of My Children" was selected as a finalist for Sundress´s 2023 Best of the Net anthology. She won Sheila-Na-Gig´s editor´s choice award for her poem "Cumbre Vieja," was named a finalist for the 2022 Saguaro Prize, and was shortlisted for Kissing Dynamite´s 2021 Microchap Series. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work appears in Sky Island Journal, ONE ART, and Chestnut Review, among others. Originally from California, she lives in Spain with her wife and two young children.

Kaecey McCormick > Poetry > California, USA

Originally from New England, Kaecey McCormick now writes poetry and prose in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the winner of the 2023 Connecticut Poetry Prize, past poet laureate for the city of Cupertino, and an instructor at The Writers Studio. Her work has appeared in various journals, including Pedestal Magazine, Pine Hills Review, and On the Seawall, as well as in her chapbooks Sleeping with Demons and Pixelated Tears. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer, Kaecey taught college English in Northern California. When not writing, you can find her hiking up a mountain, painting, or reading a book.

Kirsty Dale > Flash Fiction > Canada

Kirsty Dale, who was born in London, Ontario, spent her early years immersed in creative endeavours: acting, writing, and later working as a film editor in Vancouver, British Columbia. She left it all behind for the glamourous world of child rearing and running the family business. Later, Kirsty managed to scrape the ice off her neural creative pathways and can now be found hanging out with her laptop in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.

Lew Forester > Poetry > Colorado, USA

Lew Forester is a social worker, poet and painter who lives in Arvada, Colorado. The author of Dialogues with Light (Orchard Street Press, 2019), Lew’s poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Sky Island Journal, Pinyon, Main Street Rag, Blue Mountain Review, Slipstream, The MacGuffin and other journals, magazines, and anthologies. His new collection, The Rooms Between, is forthcoming in 2024 from Kelsay Books.

Liz Weber > Poetry > Idaho, USA

Liz Weber is a writer born and raised in Kentucky, who now finds herself living in Idaho. She holds an MA in journalism from American University, and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, High Country News, and various publications around the western U.S. She is fascinated by poetry's ability to communicate those achy truths where other forms of writing often fall short.

M. Benjamin Thorne > Poetry > North Carolina, USA

M. Benjamin Thorne is an Associate Professor of Modern European History at Wingate University. Possessed of a lifelong love of history and poetry, he is interested in exploring the synergy between the two. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Topical Poetry, The New Verse News, Drunk Monkeys, Rising Phoenix Review, and The Main Street Rag. He lives and sometimes sleeps in Charlotte, North Carolina

Madison Christian > Creative Nonfiction > California, USA

Madison Christian is a lawyer by trade. He is a nature activist, beer elitist, native plant nerd, and dharma-bum wannabe by birth. As an emerging writer, Madison focuses on creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essay, and travel (or what he likes to call “vagabond”). He dabbles in poetry. Some of his writing is collected on the two blogs he maintains: Wildsouthland and The Black Sage Journal. He lives in Southern California with his wife Kellie where he is perpetually at war with Black Mustard and Russian Thistle.

Norma Bradley > Poetry > North Carolina, USA

Norma Bradley, poet/multimedia visual artist, worked in schools and rehab. centers for 30 years, as a NC State Visiting Artist. She started to write poems at age twelve and has never stopped. Her poems have been published in many journals and is a nominee for the Touchstone Award and the Pushcart Prize.

Philip Andrew Lisi > Poetry > Pennsylvania, USA

An MFA candidate at Arcadia University, Philip Andrew Lisi resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he teaches English by day and writes poetry and flash fiction by night alongside his family and the ghost of his cantankerous Wichien Maat cat, Sela. His work has appeared in Sparks of Calliope, Last Leaves, Change Seven, October Hill, Flora Fiction, and the Serious Flash Fiction anthology, among others.

Piet Nieuwland > Poetry > Aotearoa / New Zealand

Piet Nieuwland lives in Whangarei, New Zealand. His poems and flash fiction appear in print and online journals and exhibitions including Bonsai, Geometry, Brief, Catalyst, 52250 Anthology Cluster of Lights, and PAV deconstructed in New Zealand; Pure Slush, Otoliths, and Cordite in Australia; Blue Fifth Review, Mojave River Review, Sky Island Journal, and Atlanta Review in the USA; Live Encounters in Indonesia, and Taj Mahal Review in India. His poem, “The Melting Sky,” appears in the inaugural Antarctic Poetry Exhibition. His two recent books, As light into water and We enter the, are published by Cyberwit. He edits Fast Fibres Poetry and reviews poetry for Landfall.

Pranathi Durgempudi > Poetry > New York, USA

Pranathi Durgempudi is a writer and poet based in New York City. She studied Creative Writing at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Ruadhán MacFadden > Creative Nonfiction > Ireland + Germany

Ruadhán MacFadden has travelled to over sixty countries and, as he often reminds his concerned wife, has managed to maintain a 100% success rate at returning from those trips alive. As a writer, he explores expressions of human culture across national, historical, and linguistic boundaries, and attempts to convey the fascination of experiencing these multifarious facets of our shared human heritage. Ruadhán holds a B.A. (Geography & English) from the University of Galway and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Dublin City University. His work has been used for UNESCO ICM, and he has published a book on the history and decline of the Irish folk wrestling tradition: Irish Collar and Elbow Wrestling (Fallen Rook Publishing).

Sonya Schneider > Poetry > Washington, USA

Sonya Schneider’s poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Potomac Review, 3Elements Review, B O D Y, Catamaran Literary Reader, SWWIM, ONE ART, Amethyst Review, MER, Eunoia Review and West Trestle Review, among others. She was a finalist for Naugatuck River Review’s Narrative Poetry Contest and for New Letters Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry. A graduate of Stanford and Pacific University’s MFA in Poetry, she lives in Seattle with her husband and daughters.

Steve Lambert > Poetry > Florida, USA

Steve Lambert was born in Louisiana and grew up in Florida. His writing has appeared in Adirondack Review, Chiron Review, The Cortland Review, Emrys Journal, The Pinch, Poverty House, Saw Palm, South Florida Poetry Journal, Tampa Review, Sky Island Journal, and many other places. In 2018 he won Emrys Journal’s Nancy Dew Taylor Poetry Prize, and he is the recipient of four Pushcart Prize nominations. Interviews with Lambert have appeared in print, on podcasts, and public radio. He is the author of the poetry collections Heat Seekers (2017) and The Shamble (2021), and the fiction collection The Patron Saint of Birds (2020). His novel, Philisteens, was released in 2021. The collaborative fiction text, Mortality Birds, written with Timothy Dodd, appeared in 2022. He lives in Florida.

Suzannah Watchorn > Poetry > Pennsylvania, USA

Suzannah Watchorn is an English-Irish writer who grew up outside of London, UK and now lives in the United States. Her poetry and prose are featured or forthcoming in Red Noise Collective, Passengers, Neologism Poetry and Half Mystic.

Svetlana Litvinchuk > Poetry > Arkansas, USA

Svetlana Litvinchuk is a permaculture consultant and farmer who holds BAs from the University of New Mexico. Her debut chapbook, Only a Season (Bottlecap Features, 2024) is now available and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Coffee Review, Eunoia Review, Big Windows Review, and Longhouse Press. Her passions and inspirations include all things related to the Earth and humanity. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, she now lives with her husband and daughter on their permaculture farm in the Arkansas Ozarks.