Sophia Ashley’s poetry have been previously published/forthcoming in Native Skin lit Magazine, Wondrous Real Magazine, The Capilano Review, Grimscribe Press, Australia Access Poetry Journal & elsewhere.
Rob Carney just won the XJ Kennedy Prize for Poetry, and Texas Review Press will publish The Book of Drought this fall. He is the author of the flash-essay collection Accidental Gardens (Stormbird Press 2021) and eight books of poems, most recently Call and Response (Black Lawrence Press 2021) and The Book of Sharks (Black Lawrence Press 2018), which was the winner of the 15 BYTES Book Award and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. He is a recipient of the Robinson Jeffers/Tor House Foundation Prize for Poetry, a featured contributor to Terrain.org, and his work has appeared in dozens of journals. He lives in Salt Lake City.
Lisa St. John is a writer living in the beautiful Hudson Valley of upstate New York where she calls the Catskill Mountains home. Her chapbook, Ponderings, is available on her website at lisachristinastjohn.com. Her first full-length book of poetry is forthcoming from Kelsay Books. Lisa has published her poetry in journals such as The Ekphrastic Review, Light, Entropy Magazine, The Poetry Distillery, Poets Reading the News, and Chronogram Magazine. Her poems have won awards such as The Poet’s Billow’s Bermuda Triangle Contest. Lisa’s poetry has also been shortlisted for prizes such as The Fish Poetry Prize and New Millennium Writing’s 44th Literary Awards. Her nonfiction appears in magazines like Sleet and GoNomad.com.
Anne Graue is the author of Full and Plum-Colored Velvet, (Woodley Press, 2020) and Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press, 2017) and has poetry in SWWIM Every Day, Verse Daily, Gargoyle, EcoTheo Review, Flint Hills Review, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, and in print anthologies, including The Book of Donuts (Terrapin Books, 2017) and Coffee Poems (World Enough Writers, 2019). Her book reviews appear in FF2 Media, Adroit, Green Mountains Review, Glass Poetry Journal, and The Kenyon Review. She is a poetry editor for The Westchester Review and on the editorial board at Nimrod International Journal. Twitter: @agraue; Instagram: @amgrauepoet; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anne.graue
Patricia Gray won a 2023 Artist Fellowship in Poetry from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and was a finalist for the 55th New Millennium Writing Award. She formerly headed the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center in Washington, DC. Her work has been widely published and anthologized, most recently four of her poems appeared in Mediterranean Review and in the anthologies, Still Me from Wolf Ridge Press and in Endlessly Rocking celebrating Walt Whitman. Her poem “A Harbor Town” appeared in the May 2023 issue of Beyond Words and “Antique Shop” is in the August 27, 2023 issue of the Washington Writers Publishing House journal. Also, in May 2024, her website, PatriciaGrayAuthor.com will go live.
Tresha Faye Haefner’s poetry appears, or is forthcoming in several journals and magazines, most notably Blood Lotus, Blue Mesa Review, The Cincinnati Review, Five South, Hunger Mountain, Mid-America Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Radar, Rattle, TinderBox and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Her work has garnered several accolades, including the 2011 Robert and Adele Schiff Poetry Prize, and a 2012, 2020, and 2021 nomination for a Pushcart. Her first manuscript, “Pleasures of the Bear” was a finalist for prizes from both Moon City Press and Glass Lyre Press. It is still looking for a publisher. Find her at www.thepoetrysalon.com.
E.B. Licata (she/her) lives in Seattle, Washington. She received an MA in English literature with an emphasis on creative writing. Ever since, she’s made a living as a writer and editor in one way or another, and she has a poem in the forthcoming issue of Hummingbird.
Katharyn Howd Machan’s most recent published collections are Dark Side of the Spoon (Moonstone Press, 2022) and A Slow Bottle of Wine (Comstock Writers, Inc., 2020). A professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca college, she lives in Central New York with her beloved spouse Eric Machan Howd. After many years of coordinating the Ithaca Community Poets and directing the national Feminist Women’s Writing Workshops, Inc., she was selected to be her county’s first poet laureate. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines, anthologies, textbooks, and stage productions, and she has edited three thematic anthologies, most recently a tribute collection celebrating the inspiration of Adrienne Rich.
After Nils Nelson left the University of Arizona with a Janitorial Certificate (and a B.A. in English), he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing at Cal State Fresno, ’74. His poems have appeared in Seneca Review, Ironwood, Crazyhorse, Partisan Review and other suspects, with a new poem due in the Irish magazine, Channel. An avid golfer and award-winning golf writer and editor, his articles have been in numerous national golf magazines. Nils Lives in Tucson, where he’s polishing a full-length manuscript.
Mary K O’Melveny began writing poetry after retiring from a career as a labor rights lawyer. Mary’s poetry is widely published in print and on-line literary journals, anthologies and on blog sites. She has received award recognition for many poems (including by The Poet’s Billow) and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Mary is the author of three poetry collections and a poetry chapbook. Her most recent book, Flight Patterns (2023), was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her collection, Merging Star Hypotheses (2020), was a semi-finalist for the Washington Prize, sponsored by The Word Works. Mary lives with her wife near Woodstock, NY. https://kelsaybooks.com/products/flight-patterns
Nnadi Samuel (he/him/his) holds a B.A in English & literature from the University of Benin. Author of ‘Nature knows a little about Slave Trade’ selected by Tate.N.Oquendo (Sundress Publication, 2023). His works have been previously published/forthcoming in Suburban Review, Seventh Wave Magazine, NativeSkin lit Magazine, North Dakota Quarterly, Quarterly West, Common Wealth Writers, The Capilano Review, Poetry Ireland, The Spectacle Magazine & elsewhere. A 3x Best of the Net, and 6x Pushcart Nominee. He won the Canadian Open Drawer contest 2020 & Miracle Monocle Award for Ambitious Student Writers 2021(University of Louisville).
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 and The Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry. clairescottpoet.com
Claude Clayton Smith, Professor Emeritus of English, Ohio Northern University, is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four. His own books have been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. Gauntlet in the Gulf, his first book as a solo editor, was published in the spring of 2023, followed by the third edition of his historical novel, The Stratford Devil, in October. His advanced degrees include an MFA in fiction from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. For details, visit: claudeclaytonsmith.wordpress.com.
Pat Valdata is a poet and novelist. Her book about women aviation pioneers, Where No Man Can Touch, won the 2015 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. A revised edition of the book was published in June by Wind Canyon Books. Pat’s work has appeared in Ecotone, Ekphrastic Review, Italian Americana, Little Patuxent Review, North American Review, Passager, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, as well as several anthologies. Pat lives in Crisfield, Maryland. www.patvaldata.com
Gabriela Valencia is a poet and non-fiction writer. She was a recipient of a 2022 Robert Pinsky Global Travel Fellowship; longlisted for the 2023 Peter Porter Poetry Prize; and named an Honorable Mention for the 2022 San Miguel Writers’ Conference Writing Contest. Her poetry and essays have been published in Watershed Review, Degenerate Art Literary Journal, Great Lakes Review, Runestone, The Showbear Family Circus, and elsewhere. She is also the co-author of neuroscience research in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; and Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience. She received her Bachelor’s in Chemistry and English from Loyola University Chicago in 2018; and received her MFA in Poetry from Boston University in 2022, where she served as Teaching Fellow. She lives here and there with her partner Josh and his two herding dogs, Rainer and Zola. https://gabrielavalencia.net/
Pamela Wax is the author of Walking the Labyrinth (Main Street Rag, 2022) and Starter Mothers (Finishing Line Press, 2023). Her poems have received a Best of the Net nomination and awards from Crosswinds, Paterson Literary Review, Oberon, and the Robinson Jeffers Tor House. She was previously an Atlantis Award finalist in 2021. She has been published in dozens of literary journals including Barrow Street, Tupelo Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Chautauqua, The MacGuffin, Nimrod, Solstice, Mudfish, Connecticut River Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and Slippery Elm, among others. An ordained rabbi, Pam offers spirituality and poetry workshops online and around the country. She lives in the Northern Berkshires of Massachusetts.
the poet's billow 