OPENING LETTERS > FROM THE EDITORS

Art can’t be irresponsible. It speaks to all aspects of the human experience.

There are sides of ourselves that aren’t welcome in polite society, thoughts and feelings too dark to share. When we recognize them in art, we feel less alone. More real, more human.

This is the therapeutic power of making and consuming art.

Art is above and beyond judgement. It either speaks to you or it doesn’t. The artist’s only responsibility is to the work itself. There are no other requirements. You’re free to create what you will.

You don’t have to stand for your work, nor does your work have to stand for anything but itself. You are not a symbol of it. Nor is it necessarily a symbol of you. It will be interpreted and reinterpreted in the eyes and ears of those who know almost nothing about you.

If there were anything you might stand for, it would be to defend this creative autonomy. Not just from outside censors, but from the voices in your head that have internalized what’s considered acceptable.

The world is only as free as it allows its artists to be.

 –Rick Ruben, The Creative Act

Based in the United States—with a responsibility to over 150,000 readers in 150 countries—we believe in a free and open exchange of ideas in literature. Where we live, freedom of speech is a right, guaranteed by the 1st Amendment of our constitution. It is a radical document, the likes of which are found nowhere else in the world, and it allows us to exist.

Freedom of speech is often nothing more than a fragile privilege for many of our readers and contributors living in other countries. It goes without saying that our contributors are courageous; over the years, many of them have risked a great deal appearing in our pages.

Wherever basic human curiosity—the desire to explore, experience, discover, and openly question—is nurtured and rewarded, growth occurs. Wherever it is met with censorship or cancelation, growth is stunted. We want our readers and writers to grow.

By exposing ourselves to ideas that challenge our perception of the world, we grow. We grow in empathy, tolerance, perspective, and respect. We grow in confidence, compassion, complexity, and sophistication. We begin to see things for what they truly are, instead of what we want them to be, or, worse yet, what we are told by others they should be.

Conversely, the more we huddle in the echo chambers of our own ideological preferences—fearful of the slightest emotional discomfort—the more we isolate from the real world and become prisoners of our own homogeneous thought worlds.

Who are the wardens of these prisons that we create for ourselves? Typically, they are the same folks benefiting from dividing people who would otherwise grow from experiencing more of each other’s differences. Typically, they are the same folks benefiting from censoring others in the name of safety.

The result? Instead of taking creative risks, asking difficult questions, and engaging the world around us with kindness, we mindlessly seek the comfort of the familiar. And the familiar is spoon-fed to us with algorithms that only know how to keep us hungry for more division. But “Us vs. Them” is a hunger that can never be satiated; it is a hollow pit in the center of a bloated belly that has no room for things like art… or the thoughts and feelings of others.

One of our primary functions in this life is to know others. In so doing, we come to know ourselves. When we cannot accomplish this through direct communication or shared physical experience, we depend on art. In our case, that art is literature.

When editors virtue-signal the preferences and pathologies of their ideologically captured publications—instead of promoting a diverse corpus of writing that challenges readers’ assumptions about the world—they end up creating writers who narrow the scope of their art in an effort to pander to those narrow preferences. Sometimes consciously. Sometimes unconsciously. Mostly out of fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of cancelation. Fear of feeling alone.

Beware of anyone who wants you to experience less of this world—no matter who they are.

The less we experience, the more we tend to perceive the world around us in binary terms: black or white, good or bad, left or right, 0 or 1.

The more binary our lives become, the less our hearts and minds are open to things which live just at the boundary of our understanding, just beyond the periphery of what is already known, just outside of our control. Things like mystery. Things like wonder. Things like love. Things that make life worth living.

Whenever people—or machines for that matter—create with a binary view of the world, the result feels more like a product and less like art.

Binary vision ignores the million shades of grey between black and white. It forgets that what is good in one context might be bad in another. It cannot see that my left becomes your right if we are brave enough to face each other. It cannot comprehend that—as our contributor Courtney Hitson illuminates—there is an infinity between 0 and 1.

The stuff of revelation lives in the in-between places, on the raw edges of our lives, in the ephemeral, and wherever the impossible is sometimes made possible. We must take creative risks and experience more—not less—to grow in life… and in literature.

Every time you create art, you create something that has simultaneously never existed before and always existed in the lived experiences of others who came before you. Do not shy away from this paradox. Nothing is truly original. There are only things that feel original to those experiencing them for the first time. This is why we create art: to experience, so others may experience as well. Those experiences are rarely the same, and that is the point.

We created this space almost 8 years ago, as an independent publication, so writers could be free to write and readers could be free to read. We are not beholden to the politics or agendas of institutions that provide funding conditional on content. We are not beholden to advertisers who coerce editorial decisions by threatening to withhold ad revenue. We are not beholden to the group-think of crowd funding or the fickle patronage of subscribers. We are 100% free from advertising, and everything we publish is 100% free to read. We try to keep ourselves free as well, mainly from our own biases. We read blind throughout our editorial process; no cover letters or bios are allowed to accompany submissions. We select what we believe is the most powerful work from around the world, for every issue, and the identities of each contributor are only revealed upon acceptance or decline.

Speaking of acceptances, of the 2,505 individual pieces that we received from around the world for Issue 29, we found the following 53 pieces to be the most powerful. We hope you enjoy them too. This issue of Sky Island Journal is special because it bears witness to our 1,000th writer published. Our contributors are a growing family that hails from every corner of the globe, and we are in awe of their collective talent and bravery. In a space where we can be anything, we choose to be kind. We choose to champion all art. We choose to fight censorship in all its forms. We choose freedom, even when it is uncomfortable, because it allows us to grow together in a world where we can no longer afford to grow apart.

Respectfully,

Jason Splichal

In our neck of the woods, this is the time of the year when the sun sets a little sooner, the wind bites a little cooler, and I watch the time like a hawk. Fall is my favorite season, so there is always a sense of anticipation as summer gives way to the promises of autumn. I also feel a sense of urgency to take advantage of each day, each ray of sunshine, knowing that my time in this season is finite. It energizes me to jump off the couch, lace up my shoes, and pump up my tires to hit the walking trails and bike paths before ice and snow seize the landscape. I simply budget time differently in the fall.

So much of our experience in this life is a matter of timing. I received a reminder of this fact on a recent trip to the city of Philadelphia. I was vacationing with my wife and two of our closest friends, and we had a few hours before our flight on our last day in town. I made a request to visit Shakespeare Memorial Park, just outside of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Then, we stepped into the library, which has been in its current location for nearly 100 years. We arrived at 10:52am, and it just so happened that the Rare Book collection (the main attraction I wanted to see) ran a free tour at 11am. Our timing was just right!

On the tour, we were treated to the part of the collection titled, History of the Book, which according to their website, "explore[s] how ideas have been recorded through the ages... trac[ing] the development of print and illustration technologies, while celebrating books as material expressions of cultural heritage." 

Indeed, we saw the development of the written word, from cuneiform tablets to parchment scrolls to Gutenberg's mechanical moveable type printing press, and the many innovations that have connected readers and thinkers on this planet for centuries. Time may be fleeting, but the legacy of words that inspire, challenge, and move us as human beings binds us long after our days on this spinning orb have expired.

That is why I feel so honored to share the works of poets and writers from all over the globe. To think that we live in an age where readers can click on a button via our website and be transported to the worlds created by the words of our contributors is astounding, especially in the context of how far written communication has come over the years of human history.

In our existence so far at Sky Island Journal, our family of contributors has grown to over 1,000, a milestone we reached with Issue 29. Their offerings hold the power to challenge you intellectually and move you emotionally. 

I’m so thankful that you are here to experience their poems, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction pieces. You are welcome to stay as long as you like, and with open and free access, you can return whenever you are able. Think, feel, and enjoy!

Respectfully,

Jeff Sommerfeld

Ada Genavia > Creative Nonfiction > California, USA

Ada Genavia is a Filipina-American writer and was raised in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Growing up, literature classes were her favorite, and she often found solace in writing letters and stories. Ada enjoys writing prose, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. Most of her work focuses on the interwoven complexities of love, loss, and grief. Ada has previously been a featured writer with Red Light Lit and published with sPARKLE + bLINK. She holds a BA in English from the University of California, Riverside and an MBA from Hult International Business School in San Francisco. Ada currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her adoring husband and fluffy cat.

Alan Swope > Poetry > California, USA

Alan Swope’s poetry has been published in Cider Press Review, Front Range Review, Steam Ticket, Roanoke Rambler, Perceptions, Mixed Mag, Evening Street Press, Medicine and Meaning, Cantos, Poetic Sun, and Sky Island Journal. He is a retired psychoanalytic psychotherapist and an emeritus professor with the California School of Professional Psychology. Alan enjoys family get-togethers, singing, acting, travel, cinema, cooking, and gardening.

Alison Hurwitz > Poetry > North Carolina, USA

Alison Hurwitz is a two-time 2023 Best of the Net Nominee, and founder/host of the monthly online reading, Well-Versed Words. Widely published, Alison lives with her family and beloved rescue dog in North Carolina. She loves creating on her screened porch in the morning, surrounded by birdsong. When not writing, Alison officiates weddings and memorial services, takes singing lessons, and dances in her kitchen.

Amy Han > Creative Nonfiction > Australia

Amy Han is a Melbourne-based writer and the founder of Words of a Feather, a studio for young* writers of all ages. Her writing has appeared in several online and print publications and has been recognized in local and national Australian writing awards. Her latest novel, The Yard Sale at Story House, was published in January 2024.

Andrea Marcusa > Creative Nonfiction > New York, USA

Andrea Marcusa's writings have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, River Styx, River Teeth, New Flash Fiction Review, Citron Review, and others. She’s received recognition in a range of competitions, including Smokelong, Best Microfiction, Cleaver, Raleigh Review, and Southampton Review. She's a member of the faculty at The Writer's Studio in New York City.

Catherine Chiarella Domonkos > Flash Fiction > New York, USA

Catherine Chiarella Domonkos’ short fiction appears in JMWW, Your Impossible Voice, Flash Frontier, and X-R-A-Y, among other literary places.  It has been selected for Best Small Fictions, nominated for Best Microfiction and longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50. 

Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith > Poetry > Arizona, USA

Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith was born in Merida, Yucatan, grew up in Tucson, Arizona and taught English at Tucson High School for 27 years. Much of his work explores growing up near the border, being raised biracial/bilingual and teaching in a large urban school where 70% of the students are American/Mexican. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, his writings will appear in Sport Literate, and The Yearling and have been published in The Twin Bill, The San Pedro Review, Clockhouse, Sky Island Journal, and other places too. His wife, Kelly, sometimes edits his work, and the two cats seem happy.

Connie Soper > Poetry > Oregon, USA

Connie Soper is a hard-core Oregonian who finds inspiration while hiking or beachcombing along the Oregon Coast. Her poems have received recognition from the Oregon Poetry Association, Calyx, and the Neahkahnie Poetry Prize. Publications include Catamaran, Canary, Cider Press Review, One Art, Willawaw Journal, and elsewhere. Her first full-length of poetry, A Story Interrupted, published by Airlie Press in 2022, celebrates walking and witnessing her native terrain.

Courtney Hitson > Poetry > Florida, USA

Courtney Hitson teaches English at the College of the Florida Keys. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including Wisconsin Review, DMQ Review, Emerge Literary Journal, McNeese Review and others. She currently has work forthcoming in Canary, Neologism, and Allium. Outside of writing, she enjoys drawing, freestyle unicycling, and learning history. Courtney and her husband, Tom (also a poet), reside in Key West, Florida with their two cats.

Doug Jacquier > Flash Fiction > Australia

Doug Jacquier writes from the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. His work has been published in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, India and Turkey. He blogs at Six Crooked Highways and is the editor of the humour site, Witcraft.

E.N. Loizis > Poetry > Germany

E.N. Loizis was born and raised in Athens, Greece. After she finished her translation studies in Corfu, she moved to Germany where she's lived since 2005. She writes poetry, flash fiction and creative non-fiction. Her work has previously appeared in Maudlin House, pidgeonholes, Sky Island Journal, Querencia Press' winter 2024 anthology, and others. She recently earned a Best of the Net nomination and is currently working on a chapbook.

Elizabeth Rae Bullmer > Poetry > Michigan, USA

Elizabeth Rae Bullmer has been writing since the age of seven. She received her B.A. in Theatre and English, with Emphasis in Creative Writing and Performance, from Alma College. For over twenty years, Elizabeth has taught writing workshops for all ages of students and adults, she participated in Western Michigan University’s Peace Jam and competed nationally as a performance poet on two Kalamazoo Slam teams, as well as placing ninth at the 2004 individual World Poetry Slam. Her many hobbies include knitting, painting, cooking, all manner of kitchen science and she suspects herself to be an undiagnosed bibliophile. She shares her home with four extremely demanding felines and her two phenomenal, adult children who are her top role models. Elizabeth works as a self-employed, licensed massage and sound therapist in Kalamazoo, MI, where she actively serves on multiple community arts boards. Skipping Stones on the River Styx, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, is her fifth chapbook.

Erika Seshadri > Poetry > New Mexico, USA

Erika Seshadri lives in Lamy, New Mexico. Her poetry has recently appeared in San Pedro River Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Hare's Paw Literary Journal, and others. She placed second in the 2022 Dreamers Magazine Flash Fiction Contest with the story, "Your Every Breath." Her first book, Himalayan Tsunami (Austin Macauley Publishers; Erika & Niranjan Seshadri), is out now.

Flavia Brunetti > Creative Nonfiction > Italy

Flavia Brunetti lives in Rome, Italy, where she writes stories and works for a humanitarian organization. She grew up bouncing back and forth between Rome and San Francisco and has lived between Tunisia, Libya, Palestine, and Niger, so her writing often revolves around place and identity and is usually written on a plane where she inevitably apologizes to the person sitting next to her for bumping their elbow. She is the author of the novel, All the Way to Italy. She has been featured or has pieces forthcoming in 2 Rules of Writing, Roi Fainéant, The New Humanitarian, HuffPost, Reverie, Beyond Words, Paper Cranes Literary, and others. Her second novel, The Web of Time, will be published by Blue House Press in early 2025. 

Ghazala Datoo O'Keefe > Creative Nonfiction > Georgia, USA

Ghazala Datoo O'Keefe is an immigrant, physician, and mother. Born in India, she grew up in London, Mumbai, and currently lives Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and twin girls. Her work has been previously published in Short Reads, Isele Magazine, and The Bangalore Review, and is forthcoming in Under the Gum Tree and Beautiful Things by River Teeth. She is currently working on an essay collection on the themes of identity, immigration, and belonging.

Guinotte Wise > Creative Nonfiction > Kansas, USA

Guinotte Wise writes and welds steel sculpture on a farm in southeast Kansas. His short story collection, Night Train, Cold Beer, won publication by a university press and enough money to fix the soffits. Seven more books since. A Best of the Net and 5-time Pushcart nominee, his fiction, essays and poetry have been published in numerous literary journals including Atticus, The MacGuffin, Southern Humanities Review, Rattle, and The American Journal of Poetry. His wife has an honest job in the city and drives 100 miles a day to keep it.

Harvey Bly > Flash Fiction > Minnesota, USA

Harvey Bly is a transgender human man. He is not a creature from the ether. Bly writes science fiction because his earthling companions (cats) like to watch the cursor blink on his computer screen. His work has previously appeared in Radon Journal and his special ed teacher’s professional portfolio.

Jaden McGinty > Creative Nonfiction > Washington, USA

Jaden McGinty is a third-generation hippie and second generation Irish-American. He was born in the canyons of Bisbee, Arizona, but grew up on the Boise River in Idaho. His writing career began when he moved to Ireland to pursue a Creative Writing B.A. at the University of Galway. Though he would later drop out of college and return to Idaho, he would continue to write, most often about his relationships with family, ancestry, and the many lands he has called home. He continued his education at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and now works on a habitat restoration crew that attends to the prairies, rivers, and shores of the south Puget Sound.

Janice Northerns > Creative Nonfiction > Kansas, USA

Janice Northerns is the author of Some Electric Hum, winner of the Byron Caldwell Smith Book Award from the University of Kansas, the Nelson Poetry Book Award, and a WILLA Literary Award Finalist in Poetry. The author grew up on a farm in Texas and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas Tech University, where she received the Robert S. Newton Creative Writing Award. Other honors include a Brush Creek Foundation writing residency, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. She lives in Kansas and is currently working on a hybrid collection of poetry and essays inspired by the life of Cynthia Ann Parker.

Jean Ryan > Poetry > Alabama, USA

Jean Ryan, a native Vermonter, lives in coastal Alabama. Her debut collection of short stories, Survival Skills, was published by Ashland Creek Press and short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award. Lovers and Loners is her second story collection. She has also published a novel, Lost Sister, a book of nature essays, Strange Company, and a poetry collection, A Day Like This.

Joshua McKinney > Prose Poetry > California, USA

Joshua McKinney’s most recent book of poetry is Small Sillion (Parlor Press, 2019). His work has appeared in such journals as Boulevard, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, New American Writing, and many others. He is the recipient of The Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, The Dickinson Prize, The Pavement Saw Chapbook Prize, and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writing. He is co-editor of the online ecopoetics zine, Clade Song.

Judy Guilliams-Tapia > Creative Nonfiction > Maryland, USA

Judy Guilliams-Tapia (she/her) lives in a Maryland suburb of Washington, DC. Her essays have appeared in The Metaworker and The Quiet Reader and one received a Solas Award for best travel writing. She holds degrees in French literature, international relations, and political science and had a career in a nonpartisan congressional agency, GAO, where she wrote and edited numerous reports and testimonies on the functioning of federal programs. Now retired, her favorite activity is wandering on foreign soil, especially in France, where she lived as a graduate student, and in Chile, her husband’s home country. She’s delighted to join the Sky Island Journal family of writers from around the world.

Katie Ellen Bowers > Poetry > South Carolina, USA

Katie Ellen Bowers is a writer and educator living in the rural Southeast with her husband and daughter. Other works of her poetry and fiction can be found in literary journals and magazines such as Kakalak, Qu Literary Magazine and Good Printed Things. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for poetry twice. This Earthly Body, her debut poetry collection with Main Street Rag, came out this year.

Lara Egger > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA

Lara Egger is the author of How to Love Everyone and Almost Get Away with It, which won the Juniper Prize for Poetry (University of Massachusetts Press, 2021) and received the John C. Zacharis First Book Award. Her poems have appeared, or will soon appear, in Ploughshares, Copper Nickel, The Southern Review, Conduit, Bennington Review, Ninth Letter, The Southeast Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Originally from Adelaide, Australia, Egger currently lives in Boston where she co-owns Estragon Tapas Bar. 

Lina Lau > Creative Nonfiction > Canada

Lina Lau is a green tea drinker, mother, and writer from Toronto, Canada. Her creative nonfiction can be found in Hippocampus Magazine, XRAY Literary, Prairie Fire, The Citron Review, Reckon Review, River Teeth's Beautiful Things, and elsewhere. She owns too many notebooks and writes during the in-between moments of work and parenthood.

Lorrie Ness > Poetry > Virginia, USA

Lorrie Ness is a poet in Virginia whose work can be found in numerous journals, including THRUSH, Palette Poetry, Trampset, and Sky Island Journal. She was nominated for multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart Prizes. Her collections, Heritage & Other Pseudonyms (2024) and Anatomy of a Wound (2021) were published by Flowstone press.

Meredith Kirkwood > Poetry > Oregon, USA

Meredith Kirkwood lives and writes in the Lents neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent, Variant Literature, ONE ART, and Doubleback Review, among others. In addition to poetry, she also writes children’s books about lemurs. She holds an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and teaches writing and literature at Clark College.

Molly Gilmour > Flash Fiction > Virginia, USA

Molly Gilmour is a hobby writer with a penchant for crafting both short fiction and poetry. She is currently pursuing a degree in creative writing from Liberty University, and her work has so far been published by Flash Fiction Magazine and 101 Words.

Nancy Burke > Poetry > Illinois, USA

Nancy Burke is a poet, fiction writer, psychoanalyst and psychotherapy activist from Evanston, IL.  Her work has appeared in Story International, After Hours, American Poetry Journal, Confrontation, Whitefish Review, Alaska Quarterly Review and other literary publications as well as in psychoanalytic journals.  Her novel, Undergrowth, was published by Gibson House Press in 2017.

Nathaniel Van Yperen > Creative Nonfiction > New Jersey, USA

Nathaniel Van Yperen is a teacher and writer. His writing has appeared in Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment, Wild Roof Journal, and The Common. He is the author of Gratitude for the Wild: Christian Ethics in the Wilderness. He lives in central New Jersey with his family and teaches courses in the humanities at The Pennington School. 

Nicholas Trandahl > Poetry > Wyoming, USA

Nicholas Trandahl is an award-winning poet, journalist, outdoorsman, and veteran residing in northern Wyoming, where he currently also serves as mayor of his community. He has had six poetry collections published and has also been featured in numerous literary journals and anthologies. Trandahl has been awarded the Wyoming Writers Milestone Award and has received several nominations for the Pushcart Prize. Additionally, he works as poetry editor for The Dewdrop literary journal and as a contributor for The Way Back to Ourselves literary journal.

Nimisha Susan George > Poetry > India

Nimisha Susan George is a research engineer by profession and a feminist by choice, living in the Silicon Valley of India—Bangalore—and having roots in a hilly village in Kerala. She finds her glimmers in travel, books, colors and writing. Currently, she is in a venture to convert her thoughts on self-love, mental health, and feminism to words and eventually to let them out deep into the world. She enjoys writing poems, journaling, and sharing her thoughts into articles in her blog on Medium. Deep conversations and walks through nature are her kinds of milestones for a day.

Paris Rosemont > Poetry > Australia

Paris Rosemont is an Asian-Australian poet and author of the poetry collection Banana Girl (WestWords, 2023), shortlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature’s 2024 Mary Gilmore Award for a first volume of poetry. Paris’s poetry has won a swathe of awards both locally and internationally, including first place in the Hammond House Publishing Origins Poetry Prize 2023 (UK) and shortlisted for the International Proverse Poetry Prize 2023 (Hong Kong). She takes delight in bringing her poetry to life through multi-disciplinary modes of expression, including theatrical performance.

Patrick Malka > Flash Fiction > Canada

Patrick Malka (he/him) is a high school science teacher from Montreal, Quebec, where he lives with his partner and two kids. His recent fiction can be found in Midsummer Dream House, Broken Antler, Maudlin House, 34 Orchard, Brave New Weird Volume 2, and Sky Island Journal, among others.

Pete Warzel > Creative Nonfiction > New Mexico, USA

Pete Warzel retired this past year from a business life in media and entertainment, and ten years as the Executive Director of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation. He has published poetry, short fiction, essays, interviews, non-fiction articles, and book reviews in newspapers, national and international literary journals, regional and national magazines. Pete lives in Santa Fe and Denver and explores the meanings of place everywhere in between.

Puneet Dutt > Poetry > Canada

Puneet Dutt’s The Better Monsters was a Finalist for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and was Shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. Her most recent chapbook was Longlisted for the 2020 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest, selected by Carl Phillips. Dutt lives in Markham, Canada with her partner and two kids.

Rebecca Dimyan > Creative Nonfiction > Connecticut, USA

Rebecca Dimyan is an award-winning writer, editor, and teacher. Her work has been published in national and international publications including Vox, the CT Post, YahooHealth, 34th Parallel, Glassworks Magazine, The Mighty and many others. Her memoir Chronic was published in 2023 and delves into her experience with chronic illness and alternative medicine. Waiting for Beirut was her debut novel and a finalist for the 2021 Fairfield Book Prize. Both books won 2023 Firebird Book Awards. Rebecca is also an experienced editor and conference director. She teaches college writing at several universities in Connecticut.

Sophie-Anne Lim-Chieo > Poetry > Singapore

Sophie-Anne Lim-Chieo recently graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a BA in English Literature and a second major in Communication Studies with Honours. She currently serves as an editorial intern at Gaudy Boy, a New York City-based literary press and publisher. Her works explore the dynamic interplay between language, emotion and vivid imagery, contributing to the evolving discourse of contemporary poetic expression. Alongside her poetry, she has a profound interest in film and literature, with her undergraduate academic research projects centered on nuanced film analysis. Her poetry and film reviews have been published or are forthcoming in Scapegoat Review, The Insurgence, and Flickside. She will be furthering her studies with a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Publishing next fall.

Svetlana Litvinchuk > Poetry > Missouri, USA

Svetlana Litvinchuk holds degrees from University of New Mexico. She is the author of a debut poetry chapbook, Only a Season (Bottlecap Features, 2024). Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and has appeared in Apple Valley Review, Sky Island Journal, Plant-Human Quarterly, ONE ART, and elsewhere. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, she now lives with her husband and daughter in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She is a reviews editor with ONLY POEMS. 

Swetha Amit > Flash Fiction > California, USA

Swetha Amit is an Indian author based in California and an MFA graduate from the University of San Francisco. Her works across genres appear in Atticus Review, Had, Flash Fiction Magazine, Maudlin House, and Oyez Review. She has received three Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. Her novel in progress revolves around first-generation Indian Immigrants in the United States, tracing back to their cultural roots and navigating through their trials and tribulations in a foreign land. Her most recent book is Cotton Candy from the Sky & Other Stories by (Bottlecap Press, 2024).