Contributors
Algo
is 40 and from Ireland. In self-imposed self-isolation, Algo only wears black and enjoys studying the School of Austrian economics, reading comic books and meditating. Believes organized religion is a club but is not nihilistic.
Maria A. Arana
is a teacher, writer, and poet. Her poetry has been published in various journals including Spectrum, The Pangolin Review, Nature Writing, and Cholla Needles Magazine. You can find her at https://twitter.com/m_a_Arana
Jessica Ballantyne
moved to London in 2009 after graduating with a BA (honours) in Fine art from the University of Pretoria. Specialising in oil painting, Ballantyne creates art that revolves around the main subject matter and passion of her work: the body mind. Influenced by Surrealism and psychoanalysis, Ballantyne creates artworks which combine her love of automatism (a surrealist technique of free-association or creating without thought or plan) with spirituality and the subjective experience of being.
Pauline Barbieri
was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize by the poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion and twice for the Exeter Poetry Prize by Jo Shapcott and Lawrence Sail, respectively. She has had six collections of poetry published and was shortlisted for the Cinnamon Press Novel Awards for her book, 'Smoke and Gold'.
Annie Bell
lives in County Waterford, Ireland but is originally from Brightlingsea in Essex, England.
Michael H. Brownstein
His latest volume of poetry, How Do We Create Love?, was recently released (Cholla Needles Press, 2019).
Pádraig O' Connor
is a writer based in Cork City in Ireland. His first play 'Madam of Myrtleville' was staged last year. He is currently working on his second play 'This, That & The Other' which will be performed later this year. He also writes short stories.
Seth Crook
has taught philosophy at various universities, is transitioning into a seal, lives on Mull. His poems have appeared in such places as The Rialto, Magma, Envoi, The Interpreter's House, Butcher's Dog, Northwords Now, Causeway, Snakeskin. And in anthologies such as the Port (Dunlin Press), Green Fields (Maytree).
R. Gerry Fabian
is a retired English instructor. He has been publishing poetry since 1972 in various poetry magazines. He is the editor Of Raw Dog Press https://rawdogpress.wordpress.com.
He has published two books of his published poems, Parallels and Coming Out Of The Atlantic.
His novels, Memphis Masquerade, Getting Lucky (The Story) and Seventh Sense are available at all ebook publishers including Amazon, Apple Books and Barnes and Noble. He is currently working on His fourth novel, Ghost Girl. is scheduled for publication in 2020.
Martin Ferguson
Martin Ferguson is a poet and English language teacher working in France.
He has been published in several UK poetry magazines including The Journal and Ink Sweat and Tears, and shortlisted in Against The Grain Press.
His debut collection An A to Z Art of Urban Survival Following Diogenes of Sinope is available now through Original Plus
https://sites.google.com/site/samsmiththejournal/home/original-plus-chapbooks
Geoffrey Heptonstall
His publications include a novel, Heaven's Invention, and a first collection of poetry, The Rites of Paradise. He was a regular contributor to The London Magazine for several years and lives in Cambridge.
Laura Minning
Her first poem was published by her Alma-mater in 1989, and her second received an Editor’s Choice Award by the National Library of Poetry in 1993. Laura’s work has been featured both in hard copy and on-line, via publications like “Literature Today”, “Amulet” and “Stanzaic Stylings”.
Laura received her first International Merit of Poetry Award in 1995 and her second in 1998. Both were presented to her by the National Library of Poetry. Her outstanding achievements in poetry were internationally recognized again in 2005 by Poetry.com, who was kind enough to bestow the title of International Poet of the Year on to her.
Laura’s first collection of poetry, “dear diary” was published by Vantage Press in 2003. Her second book, “sunburst” was published by Xlibris a year and a half later.
She’s been creating and exhibiting abstract work since 2013. Her pieces have been displayed at venues like the Iowa Children’s Museum, the Trenton Free Public Library and Barcode.
As a person with legal blindness, Laura hopes to inspire other creative people with disabilities to never allow anything to hinder them from reaching for the stars and accomplishing their dreams If you were to ask her about her creative successes, she would tell you that the difficult is but the work of the moment, and the impossible takes a little longer.
More information at https://brcartandpoetry.wordpress.com.
George Moore
is the author of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls (FurureCycle 2016) and Children's Drawings of the Universe (Salmon Poetry 2015). Poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, Orion, Arc, Colorado Review, and Stand. He has done recent residencies in Latvia and Greece, and work has been shortlisted for the Bailieborough Poetry Prize and long-listed for the Gregory O'Donoghue Poetry Prize. After a career at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he presently lives with the wife, also a poet, on the south shore of Nova Scotia.
Paul Murgatroyd
After a long career as a professor of Classics (specialising in Latin literature) Paul Murgatroyd retired four years ago and started writing novels and short stories. Seventeen of the latter have been published or accepted for publication, along with three poems in English and over fifty of his Latin poems.
L.B. Sedlacek
is an award winning poet and author with poetry and fiction appearing in many different journals and zines. Her latest poetry books are “The Adventures of Stick People on Cars” (Alien Buddha Press), “The Architect of French Fries” (Presa Press) and “Words and Bones” (Finishing Line Press.) She is a former Poetry Editor for “ESC! Magazine” and also co-hosted the podcast for the small press, “Coffee House to Go,” for several years. She teaches poetry at local elementary and middle schools and publishes a free resource for poets, “The Poetry Market Ezine.” In her free time, LB enjoys swimming, reading, and taking guitar lessons.
Sanjeev Sethi
Sanjeev Sethi has published over 1200 poems in more than 25 countries. He is the author of three books of poetry. Wrappings in Bespoke is Winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux organised by the Hedgehog Poetry Press U.K. This is his fourth volume. It will be released in 2020. He lives in Mumbai, India.
Sam Smith
Sam Smith is editor of The Journal (once 'of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry'), and publisher of Original Plus books. He has been a psychiatric nurse, residential social worker, milkman, plumber, laboratory analyst, groundsman, sailor, computer operator, scaffolder, gardener, painter & decorator........ working at anything, in fact, which paid the rent, enabled him to raise his three daughters and which hasn’t got too much in the way of his writing. He has several poetry collections and novels to his name, has won prizes and awards, organised festivals and readings. Now in his 70s he has ended up living in South Wales. https://sites.google.com/site/samsmiththejournal/
Lesley Synge
lives in Brisbane, Australia. She has three poetry collections, Organic Sister (Post Pressed, 2005) Mountains Belong to the People Who Love Them (Post Pressed, 2011); Signora Bella’s Grand Tour (self-published Zing Stories, 2019) and is collected in The Sky Falls Down (Ginninderra, 2019). She has an MA in Creative Writing from University of Queensland and is an award-winning writer in many genres.
Charlie Thomson
is a Zimbabwean born and raised author currently living in London. His last few years have been spent building collections of stories all based around human existence. His first novel "Cassie: A London Legacy" is set to publish in early April.
Declan Toohey
is an Irish writer based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His fiction and criticism has appeared in Visual Verse, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and Idle Ink. He is currently at work on a collection of short stories.
Lorcan Walshe
Lorcan Walshe is a professional artist and lives and works in Dublin Ireland. His website is www.lorcanwalshe.com. After a long career as a painter he is currently dividing his time between painting and writing. He has finished my first novel (not yet publised) and is currently working on an illustrated book on the Major Arcana images in Tarot cards. He has had articles on art published and also a few poems.
James Walton
James Walton is published in many anthologies, journals, and newspapers. His collections of poetry include 'The Leviathan's Apprentice' 2015, Walking Through Fences' 2018, 'Unstill Mosaics' 2019, and 'Abandoned Soliloquies', forthcoming.
https://booko.com.au/9781925949100/Unstill-Mosaics-The-Book-of-Love-Loss-and-Longing
Phil Wood
Phil Wood studied English Literature at Aberystwyth University. He has worked in statistics, shipping, and a biscuit factory. His writing can be found in various publications, including: Fevers of the Mind, London Grip, Autumn Sky Daily, The Ink Pantry, Streetcake Magazine, Sein und Werden, DM du Jour, and Fly On The Wall Magazine (issue 6), and The Kleksograph.
John Dorroh
Whether John Dorroh taught any secondary science is still being discussed. However, he managed to show up every morning at 6:45 for a couple of decades with at least two lesson plans and a thermos of robust Colombian. His poetry has appeared in about 75 journals, including Dime Show Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Os Pressan, Feral, and Selcouth Station. He also writes short fiction and the occasional rant.
Rikki Santer
Rikki Santer’s work has appeared in various publications including Ms. Magazine, Poetry East, Slab, Slipstream, PANK, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, Grimm, Hotel Amerika, and The Main Street Rag. Her work has received many honors, including five Pushcart and three Ohioana book award nominations, as well as a fellowshipt from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her eighth collection, Drop Jaw, inspired by the art of ventriloquism, was published this spring by Nightballet Press. Her website is www.rikkisanter.com.
Alan Cohen
Alan Cohen was a poet before beginning his career as a Primary Care MD, teacher, and manager, and has been living a full and varied life. He has been writing poems for 60 years and is beginning now to share some of his discoveries. He’s been married to Anita for 41 years, and they’ve been in Eugene, OR these past 11.
Mo Blake
Mo Blake and four other friends formed a writers group some years ago called Read Raw Ltd. They ran a website were we interviewed published authors and poets online and ran a poetry section, whereby anyone could see there poems up there. It closed last year. She writes short stories as well and is working on a historical thriller.
Robin Leiper
Robin Leiper is a psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist and poet. He lives between Scotland and South Africa and his work has been published in various magazines and anthologies in both places.
Ian C Smith
Ian C Smith’s work has been published in Antipodes, BBC Radio 4 Sounds, cordite, The Dalhousie Review, Griffith Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, San Pedro River Review, Southword, & The Stony Thursday Book & Two Thirds North. His seventh book is wonder sadness madness joy, Ginninderra (Port Adelaide). He writes in the Gippsland Lakes area of Victoria, and on Flinders Island.
David McVey
David McVey lectures at New College Lanarkshire in Scotland. He has published over 120 short stories and a great deal of non-fiction that focuses on history and the outdoors. He enjoys hillwalking (ie hiking), visiting historic sites, reading, watching telly (ie TV), and supporting his home-town football (ie soccer) team, Kirkintilloch Rob Roy FC.
H-J Hoyles
H-J Hoyles is a poet, musician, author and teacher from North Yorkshire, who is based in Edinburgh. His poetry is concerned with the impact of nature on the human psyche, the effects of the landscape on mental health and cultural memory, and modern day myth-making. He is the founder of the Alcove poetry organisation in Edinburgh and his debut pamphlet, Songs of the Hen Ogledd, is available from Wild Pressed Books.
Robin Fuller
Robin Fuller is from Dublin, Ireland. His short story ‘Chinese Whispers’ appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of The Stinging Fly. He has a PhD in semiotics and typography and has previously published non-fiction on these topics.
Rebecca Pyle
Rebecca Pyle is published in Gargoyle, Guesthouse, and Posit as a fiction writer; The Honest Ulsterman and The Penn Review as a poet; Muse/A and Common Ground Review as an essayist; and in dozens of art/literary journals as an oil painter and photographer. She is American, but named after the phenomenal British character Rebecca in the novel and film of the same name. See rebeccapyleartist.com.
Alison Black
Alison Blake is a writer from Belfast, and has been writing for over 11 years.
Alun Robert
Alun Robert is a prolific creator of lyrical free verse. He has achieved success in poetry competitions across the British Isles and in North America. His work has been published by UK, Irish, Italian, South African, Kenyan, US and Canadian literary magazines, anthologies and webzines.
B. E. Nugent
has been writing creatively since 2018.
Oisín Breen
is a 36 year-old poet, part-time academic in narratological complexity, and financial journalist. Dublin born Breen's debut collection, ‘Flowers, all sorts in blossom, figs, berries, and fruits, forgotten’ was released Mar. 2020 by Edinburgh’s Hybrid Press.
Primarily a proponent of long-form style-orientated poetry infused with the philosophical, Breen has been published in a number of journals, including the Blue Nib, Books Ireland, the Seattle Star, Modern Literature, the New English Review, La Piccioletta Barca, the Bosphorus Review of Books, Disquiet, Universe, Mono, and Dreich magazine.
Gary Bolick
is a native of North Caroline, where he now lives with his wife Jill. He lived and studied in Paris and Dijon for a year and a half before graduating from Wake Forest.
At Wake he studied under and was mentored by Germaine Bree, who was very supportive of his writing and interests in surrealism and Carl Jung's work on the collective subconscious.
He's published three novels. The latest being: A Walking Shadow (Unsolicited Press) published 2018.
David Radavich
among David Radvich's poetry collections are a pair of epics, America Bound (2007) and America Abroad (2019), as wel as Middle-East Mezze (2011) and The Countries We Live In (2014). His forthcoming book is Unter der Sonne/Under the Sun: German Poems from Deutscher Lyrik Verlag.
Mary Henessy
has been a nurse for most of her adult life. She returned to school late and fell in with a community of generous, word-crazed people. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Poetry is the only thing that makes sense to her anymore.
Sam Barbee
has a new collection, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag). His previous poetry collection, That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. His poems have appeared recently Poetry South, Literary Yard, Asheville Poetry Review, and Adelaide Literary Magazine, among others; plus on-line journals American Diversity Report, Exquisite Pandemic, Verse Virtual, The Voices Project, and Medusa’s Kitchen.
He was awarded an "Emerging Artist's Grant" from the Winston-Salem Arts Council to publish his first collection Changes of Venue (Mount Olive Press); has been a featured poet on the North Carolina Public Radio Station WFDD; received the 59th Poet Laureate Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society for his poem "The Blood Watch"; and is a two-time Pushcart nominee.
Bruach Mhor
lives by a loch, loves sea gooseberries. His poems have most recently appeared in anthologies from Dreich Press and in Black Box Manifold, The Journal, Dream Catcher, The Interpreter's House, Cerasus.
Lydia Unsworth
Lydia Unsworth’s latest collections are Some Murmur (Beir Bua Press) and Mortar (Osmosis). Her most recent pamphlets are YIELD (KFS) and cement, terraces (Red Ceilings). Work can be found in places like Ambit, Banshee, Bath Magg, Blackbox Manifold, Shearsman, Tentacular, and The Interpreter’s House. A new pamphlet, Residue, is coming in Feb 2022 from above/ground press.
Ray Miller
Ray Miller is a Socialist, Aston Villa supporter and faithful husband. Life’s been a disappointment.
Eleanor Cantor
Eleanor Cantor is a writer, translator, musician and performer currently dividing her time between Berlin and the UK. Her work has been published by Poetry Quarterly, Poets’ Choice, Wingless Dreamer, In Parentheses and various German publications.
Martin Elster
The winner of the 2022 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest, Martin Elster comes from Hartford, CT, where he studied percussion and composition at the Hartt School of Music and performed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Martin, whose poetry has been strongly influenced by his musical sensibilities, has written two books, the latest of which is Celestial Euphony (Plum White Press, 2019).
Gabriella Garofalo
Born in Italy some decades ago, Gabriella Garofalo fell in love with the English language at six, started writing poems (in Italian) at six and is the author of these books “Lo sguardo di Orfeo”; “L’inverno di vetro”; “Di altre stelle polari”; “Casa di erba”; “Blue Branches”; “A Blue Soul”.
Sandra Kolankiewicz
Sandra Kolankiewicz’s work has been accepted at Fortnightly Review, Consequence, Hoxie Gorge, and Free State Review.
Heikki Huotari
attended a one-room school and spent summers on a forest-fire lookout tower. Since retiring from academia/mathematics he has published poems in numerous journals and in five poetry collections. His manuscript, To Justify The Butterfly, won second prize, and publication, in the 2022 James Tate Chapbook Competition.
Jeanne Julian
is author of Like the O in Hope and two chapbooks. Her poems are in Kakalak, Panoply, RavensPerch, Ocotillo Review and elsewhere, and have won awards from Reed Magazine, Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, and Maine Poets’ Society. She reviews books for The Main Street Rag. www.jeannejulian.com
Abigayle Cosenze
a 34 year old artist and writer residing in Maine, USA where she is surrounded by nature's grace, alongside her husband, two dogs, and a lively menagerie of chickens, ducks, and goats, she finds inspiration in the world around her where nature's secrets intertwine with the tapestry of human expression.