volume 2, issue 3
December 2022
SARIA ABEDIN is a high school senior from Arizona. Among her many pursuits, she mainly enjoys creative writing and has had a deep passion for literature and poetry from a young age.
[Read: The Art of Henna]
KEN ANDERSON was a finalist in the 2021 Saints and Sinners poetry contest. New Poetry from the Festival (an anthology of the 2021/2022 winners and finalists) includes four of his poems. Ken is the author of The Intense Lover and Permanent Gardens, and his work can be found in Gay and Lesbian Review, London Grip, and Hole in the Head. He's a hermit whose dead writing resurrected in total isolation during the first months of the pandemic.
[Read: Down]
THEO ARMSTRONG is a trans-nonbinary freelance writer and movement artist based in Brooklyn, New York. His current obsessions include glitter, decomposition, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the mushrooms growing on his kitchen counter. His work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Sinking City, and Isele Magazine. He is the co-creator and editor of Refuze Review/MasterBondsman. He can be found on Instagram @prince_alarming_000.
[Read: 110111000]
GAGE BALDWIN (he/they) is a gay, agender poet with roots in Oklahoma. His work centers his existence in Queer Leather culture, using poetry to capture the present moment. Knowing how often Leather is erased from Queer history, Gage aims to document the trust, defiance, and intimacy within underground sexual rebellion, so that future generations of Leatherqueers may feel connected to their past.
[Read: My Tanker Boots at Two in the Morning]
ROBERT BEVERIDGE (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry in Akron, Ohio. His work appears or is forthcoming in Datura, The Minison Project, and FEED's October Series, among others.
[Read: Spew]
RACHEL CARNEY is a creative writing tutor and PhD student based in Cardiff, Wales, in the UK. Her poems, reviews, and articles have been published in several magazines, including Poetry Wales, Anthropocene, and Acumen. She won the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition in 2022 and was voted runner-up in the Bangor Poetry Competition in 2021. Two of her poems have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. Her debut collection Octopus Mind will be published by Seren Books in July 2023. She can be found on both Twitter and Instagram @CreatedToRead.
[Read: Him]
LAVONNE FRANCE is a Philadelphia poet working on emerging. Her poetry appeared in the National Library of Poetry Anthologies. An African American female, her poetry focuses on love, loss, family, and racism. LaVonne is a former Forensic Toxicologist and Pharmaceutical Project Manager who’s shifted her love of discovery to art. She enjoys hanging out with her husband and artist friends, painting, writing, or sampling the varied cuisine of Philly’s food mecca.
[Read: The Seer]
RAY FREMONT JR. is a forty-three-year-old traveling salesman who has been burdened with the guilt of not writing since college. Father to three young men, dater of the loveliest woman, and mediocre writer of third-person bios.
[Read: Daily Devastation Blues]
PEGGY HEITMANN has published poems in Words & Whispers, The Curator, and Last Leaves, among others. She considers herself both a word and visual artist, and a medium. Peggy has worked in the human services field with mental health clients, homeless men, and adults with autism. Peggy lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her son and their two cats.
[Read: How I Fit Into the Picture]
THOMAS HOBOHM (they/them) is a writer from San Francisco, California, by way of Texas. They never learned how to drive. They like to play volleyball and explore independent cinemas. They can be found on Twitter @thomashobohm or Instagram @skyferreiraofficial.
JASMINE KNOWLES is a poet and interdisciplinary artist. Her work focuses mostly on odes to and about Black women and femmes. She is a Voices of Our Nations Arts alum, and has also received support from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Her most recent publications include two poems published in Honey Literary Magazine and V is for Voices! campaign and audio play. Most importantly, she writes to free her voice. You can find Jasmine on Instagram @the.other.jasmine sharing funny TikTok videos and wiener dog videos.
[Read: 39th and Wentworth]
JENNIFER MACBAIN-STEPHENS (she/her) went to NYU Tisch School of the Arts and now lives in Iowa where she is landlocked. Her fifth, full-length poetry collection, Pool Parties, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2023. She is also the author of fifteen chapbooks. Recent work appears in The Pinch, Cleaver, Dream Pop, Slant, and Grist. She is the director of the monthly reading series Today You Are Perfect, sponsored by the non-profit Iowa City Poetry. Find more of her work at www.jennifermacbainstephens.com.
[Read: Poem notes on the painting The Age of Noise, by Robert Cocke, Or, Monsters on the Sidelines]
CORA MCCANN LIDERBACH is from Lakewood, Ohio. After a long career in marketing communications, she began studying and writing poetry. She was a finalist in Gordon Square Review’s 2022 Ohio Writers Contest, and her work has been featured in Ariel’s Dream Journal, The Broadkill Review, and other publications.
[Read: Wreckage]
JOE MILAZZO is the author of the novel Crepuscule W/ Nellie, two volumes of poetry—The Habiliments and Of All Places In This Place Of All Places—and several chapbooks (most recently, homeopathy for the singularity). His work has appeared or will soon appear in Black Clock, Black Warrior Review, BOMB, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Prelude, Tammy, Texas Review, and elsewhere. He is an Associate Editor for Southwest Review and the Founder/Editor-In-Chief of Surveyor Books. Joe lives and works in Dallas, Texas, and his virtual location is www.joe-milazzo.com.
[Read: House Party Starting]
ROBBI NESTER, who has published four books of poetry thus far, writes many ekphrastic poems. Her first book, Balance (White Violet, 2012), was a chapbook of poems with accompanying drawings of a series of yoga poses. Since then, she has edited three ekphrastic anthologies, the most recent being The Plague Papers, available to read online at www.poemeleon.me/peruse-the-mall. Read more about Robbi and her work at www.robbinester.net.
[Read: Man Smoking]
IVY ONDRA is a cryptid living in Western Pennsylvania with their cats, Syrup and Apple Cider.
[Look: Cover art]
W. E. PASQUINI is a poet and writer who lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. She received her MFA in creative writing from the University of South Florida (go Bulls!), and her passions include binge-watching Top Chef, Italian culture, and trying to brew the perfect cup of coffee. Pasquini’s poetry has appeared in Cider Press Review, The Meadows, and Fourth River, among others.
[Read: In the Graphics Studio, I Study the Prints]
JESSICA PURDY lives in New Hampshire and teaches Creative Writing. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Jessica's poems have appeared in many journals including Radar, The Night Heron Barks, and One Art. Murder in the House, a pamphlet of her poems on The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death was released by Buttonhook Press in 2022. Her books STARLAND and Sleep in a Strange House were released by Nixes Mate in 2017 and 2018. Sleep in a Strange House was a finalist for the NH Literary Award for poetry. She is poetry editor for the anthology Ten Piscataqua Writers available at www.tenpiscataqua.com/writers. Follow her on Twitter @JessicaPurdy123, Instagram @jessica.purdy.735, and her website www.jessicapurdy.com.
[Read: Nocturne]
LILA ROBINETT is a native East Texan surviving the monsoons of Southern Mississippi. She draws inspiration from her family, hometown, and pine trees.
[Read: Triumphant Domesticity]
AILEEN SHEEDY is a storyteller and filmmaker who has written and directed a number of short films, most recently an experimental narrative about nostalgia, loss, and memory, as well as a modern web series adaptation of the classic book The Secret Garden. Though she has been writing poetry for many years, she has only recently felt confident enough (thanks to prompting from her monthly writing group) to start sending it out for submission. She copyedits as a side gig and lives in Portland, Oregon, with the world's least graceful cat. You can find her at www.aileensheedy.com, Instagram @aileen.sheedy, and Twitter @alphiriel.
[Read: in the mood for love]
TYREN THOMPSON (he/him) is a Los Angeles, California-based poet who studies cultures and the people who make them exciting—then writes about it. His work has been published in the Rise Up Review and the George Floyd Poetry Anthology. When he is not writing, he is a resourceful human behind a computer screen. Tyren shares some of his work on Instagram @_TyWriter.
[Read: Waves]