Issue #20, January 2025

Kim Silva is an artist and writer who lives in Providence, Rhode Island. She graduated with an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, and with a BFA in Writing and Painting from Vermont College. She paints and writes primarily prose poems which are highly imagistic. She is vegan for the animals. Her writings and artwork have been highlighted or upcoming in publications such as Gone Lawn, unbroken, MONO Literary Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Litbreak, Poor Yorick, BarBar, and others. Nominated for Best of the Net, 2023. Nominated for The Science Fiction and Fantasy Rhysling Poetry Award, 2024.
 

Linda Laderman is a Michigan poet and writer. Her poetry has appeared in, or is forthcoming from, numerous literary journals, including Quartet, Action-Spectacle, Gyroscope, SWWIM, ONE ART, Thimble Literary Magazine, The Scapegoat Review, Rust &Moth, Minyan Magazine, 3rd Wednesday, Midway Journal, Vita Poetica, and Mom Egg Review. She is a past recipient of Harbor Review’s Jewish Women’s Prize and was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize. Her micro-chapbook, "What I Didn’t Know I Didn’t Know," can be found online at https://www.harbor-review.com/what-i-didnt-know-i-didnt-know. In past lives, she was a journalist and taught English at Owens Community College, and Lourdes University, in Ohio. For nearly a decade she was a docent at the Zekleman Holocaust Center near Detroit. More work and information at lindaladerman.com.
 

Elizabeth Sylvia is a poet and teacher from Massachusetts whose first book, "None But Witches: Poems on Shakespeare’s Women" (2022), won the 2021 3 Mile Harbor Press Book Award. She has been a semi- or finalist in competitions sponsored by the Burnside Review, C&R Press, DIAGRAM, Thirty West, Rare Swan, and Wolfson Press, and is a reader for SWWIM Every Day. Sylvia has been a presenter for the Mass Poetry Festival and received fellowships from the West Chester University Poetry Center and the Longleaf Writers Conference. She is the winner of the 2023 riverSedge Poetry Prize. elizabethsylviapoet.net
 

Mackenzie Rose is a survivor. On August 26, 2017, only two days after her 28th birthday, the man with whom she shared a home plunged a chef’s knife into her throat, past her tongue, and through the roof of her mouth. After eight days of recovery in the hospital, Mackenzie re-entered the world with a limited ability to speak, a PEG feeding tube, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). After relentless therapies, she began to reclaim some semblance of normality and retrained her voice to carry her new narrative. Mackenzie is a professor of Communications and English at Shenandoah University and a PhD student of trauma studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She can be found speaking at public functions about destigmatizing trauma. Her autobiographical poetry chapbook, "Post-Traumatic Poetry," was published July 2024. With her dog, Bertie, Mackenzie Rose frequently escapes to the beautiful wilderness of the Shenandoah National Park to recharge and find peace in Nature’s healing qualities. For more information, please visit rosestorytelling.com.
 

Kaitlyn Owens is a poet and product manager from Richmond, Virginia. With roots in Indiana and Tennessee, Kaitlyn’s work frequently focuses on family, the occult, and the complexities of modern relationships. She holds degrees in creative writing and information science from Indiana University and when she’s not working or writing, she enjoys crafting, travel, and baked goods.
 

Mitch Rayes is a second generation lebanese-irish american from Detroit, based in Albuquerque. www.mitchrayes.com
 

John D. Kelly lives in Co. Fermanagh. His poetry has been published widely in literary magazines and anthologies in Ireland, UK., USA, Austria and Canada. His work has been placed, shortlisted and commended in many competitions. Among several awards, he won The Plaza Poetry Prize (60 lines); 2024, the Listowel Poetry Short Collection Award, the Desmond O’Grady Poetry Competition; 2020, and Poets Meet Painters in 2015. His first collection, "The Loss of Yellowhammers" was published by Summer Palace Press in 2020. His second collection, "About Blood" will be published in 2025 by Revival Press
 

Rebecca Surmont has a love of corn fields, rivers, trains, and funk. Her poems have been in Nature of Our Times, MacQueen's Quinterly, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Eunoia Review, Crowstep Poetry Journal, Common Ground Review, The St. Paul Almanac, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Ekphrastic Review, Topical Poetry, and other journals. She lives in MN where she works as a leadership consultant. She’s been a professional actor, movement artist, and educator.
 

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Unleash Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets and elsewhere. He won the third Prize in the Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest in 2024 and the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. His second collection, "I Blame My Ancestors," published by Kingsman Quarterly in July 2024 was a Second runner-up at the Black Diaspora Poetry Slam in 2024. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize 2024 and was the Second Poetry Prize Winner at the Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024.
 

Lawrence Bridges' poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, and Tampa Review. He has published three volumes of poetry: "Horses on Drums" (Red Hen Press, 2006), "Flip Days" (Red Hen Press, 2009), and "Brownwood" (Tupelo Press, 2016). You can find him on IG: @larrybridges
 

Jennifer Handy explores environmental issues through poetry. She is the author of "California Burning," an environmental chapbook, and "Dirt" (forthcoming). Her poetry has been published in Chalkdust, The Closed Eye Open, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Tangled Locks Journal, and Wild Roof Journal.