A bigender person and quasi-hermit, John Backman writes about ancient spirituality and the unexpected ways it collides with postmodern life. This includes personal essays in Catapult, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Tiferet Journal, Amethyst Review, and Sufi Journal, among other places. For the past two years John has been named a top 10 creative nonfiction finalist in the Wild Atlantic Writing Awards.

Abby Caplin’s poems have appeared in AGNI, Catamaran, Love’s Executive Order, Manhattanville Review, Midwest Quarterly, Salt Hill, TSR: The Southampton Review, Tikkun, and elsewhere. Among her awards, she has been a finalist for the Rash Award in Poetry, semi-finalist for the Willow Run Poetry Book Award, nominee for Best New Poets Anthology, and a winner of the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition. She is a physician and practices mind-body medicine in San Francisco. http://abbycaplin.com

Julia Chiapella’s poetry has appeared in Edison Literary Review, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwest Quarterly, Pirene’s Fountain, Streetlight Magazine, and The Wax Paper, among others. She co-founded Santa Cruz Writes to enhance literary opportunities for Santa Cruz County, California, residents. The retired director of the Young Writers Program, which she established in 2012, Julia received the Gail Rich Award in 2017 for creative contributions to Santa Cruz County.

Photographer Natalie Christensen’s enchanting focus is on banal peripheral landscapes unnoticed by most. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico and influenced by her 25 years as a psychotherapist, her work features commonplace architecture and streetscapes and favors psychological metaphors. She deconstructs these scenes to color fields, geometry and shadow. “Sometimes I get a glimpse of the sublime in these ordinary places.”

Christensen has exhibited in the U.S. and internationally, including Santa Fe, New York, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, London, Berlin and Barcelona. She recently took a one-week cultural tour of the United Arab Emirates, invited by the UAE Embassy to join a delegation of architects, architectural photographers and curators.

She led photography workshops at The Royal Photographic Society in London and Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. Christensen has participated in site-specific projects at Iconic Standard Vision Billboard, Los Angeles; El Rey Court, Santa Fe; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; and Peckham Levels, London.

Named one of the Los Angeles Center of Digital Art’s “Ten Photographers to Watch,” Christensen is the recipient of several prestigious awards. After exhibitions at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana and the University of Texas, Tyler, her work was purchased for their permanent collections. Global media have taken notice, with features in, among others, Xi Draconis Books; LandEscape Art Review, United Kingdom; Better Photography Magazine, India; Art Reveal Magazine; Magazine 43, Philippines, Germany and Hong Kong; Site Unseen; Lens Culture; All About Photo and Women in Photography.

Joseph Clegg grew up in St Albans, England, and now lives and writes in Haarlem, the Netherlands. His fiction has been published in Bandit Fiction and Potato Soup Journal, and he regularly writes about jazz and hip hop for BRICK music magazine. He is seeking representation for his first novel.

Douglas Collura lives in Manhattan and is the author of a spoken-word CD, The Dare of the Quick World, and the book, Things I Can Fit My Whole Head Into, which was a finalist for the 2007 Paterson Poetry Prize. He was also the 2008 First Prize Winner of the Missouri Review Audio/Video Competition in Poetry. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016, 2018 and 2020. His work has been published in A Public Space, After the Pause, Alembic, Anomaly Literary Journal, Avatar Review, BLACK&WHITE, The Broome Review, Cacti Fur, Caveat Lector, Coe Review, Crack the Spine, The Cynic, The Delmarva Review, Dislocate, DMQ Review, The Dos Passos Review, Eclipse, The Evansville Review, Evening Street Press, Forge, FunnyinFiveHundred.com, Glint Literary Journal, Great Weather for Media, Paterson Literary Review, Juked, Lips Magazine, The Monarch Review, Salamander, Salt Hill Journal, Sanskrit Literary-Arts Magazine, Scoundrel Time, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Sierra Nevada College Review, Soundings East, Spillway, Steam Ticket, Stickman Review, The Tower Journal, Third Wednesday, 2Bridges Review, and other periodicals and webzines.

An award-winning teacher and author, Terry Culleton has published three collections of formally crafted narrative and lyric poems, including A Communion of Saints and Eternal Life, both out through Anaphora Literary Press. His most recent collection, A Tree and Gone, published this spring by Future Cycle Press, consists of fifty-four English sonnets exploring our relationship to the natural and spiritual worlds, and to ourselves as we navigate our busy and increasingly commodified lives. Sonnets from A Tree and Gone have been featured in numerous anthologies and journals, and several have been short-listed in international sonnet contests. You can find out more about Mr. Culleton’s work and read his blogs about poetry at terenceculletonpoetry.com.

Kathryn de Leon is from Los Angeles, California but has been living in England for eleven years. She is a teacher and lived in Japan for six years teaching English to Japanese university students. Her poems have appeared in several magazines in the US including Calliope, Aaduna, Black Fox, Trouvaille Review, and Neologism Poetry, and in several in the UK including London Grip, The Blue Nib, Dawntreader, and The High Window, where she was the Featured American Poet.

Donna Emerson spends her time between Petaluma, California, and her family homestead in western New York.

Recently retired from Santa Rosa Jr. College, Donna’s recent publications include the Denver Quarterly, the New Ohio Review, CALYX, the L.A. Review, the Paterson Literary Review, the MacGuffin, and Stone Canoe.

She has four chapbooks, the last three published by Finishing Line Press. Her most recent awards include two nominations for a Pushcart, Best of the Net, and two Allen Ginsberg (2015, 2017) awards. Her first full- length book “The Place of Our Meeting” was recently judged to be a finalist for the Trio Prize, Trio House Press, as well as the California Book Award. Her second full -length book “ Beside the Well,” was published in 2019 by Cherry Grove Collections.

Doris Ferleger, MFA, Ph.D., former poet laureate of Montgomery County, PA, and winner of the New Millennium Poetry Prize, New Letters Poetry, Songs of Eretz Prize, Montgomery County Poet Laureate Prize, Robert Fraser Poetry Prize, and the AROHO Creative Non-Fiction Prize, among others, is the author of three full volumes of poetry, Big Silences in a Year of Rain, (finalist for the Alice James Books Beatrice Hawley Award), As the Moon Has Breath, and Leavened, and a chapbook entitled When You Become Snow. Her work has been published in numerous journals including Cimarron Review, L.A. Review, and South Carolina Review.  Aliki Barnestone writes: Ferleger’s memorable poems keep singing with their insistent beauty.

Carol Graser’s work has been published or is forthcoming in many journals, including Apricity Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Evening Street Review, Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwifery Today, So to Speak, Southern Poetry Review, and Home Planet News. Her collection, The Wild Twist of Their Stems, was published by FootHills Publishing in 2007. Since 2003, she’s run the monthly poetry series at the legendary Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Alle C. Hall’s novel, As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back will publish from Unsolicited Press in 2023. This year, her work placed as a finalist for The Lascaux Prize and as a semi-finalist for The New Guard/Machigonne Fiction Contest. Other work appears in Dale Peck’s Evergreen Review, Litro, Tupelo Quarterly, and Creative Nonfiction Magazine. She is a Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net nominee.

William Heath has published two books of poems, The Walking Man and Steel Valley Elegy; two chapbooks, Night Moves in Ohio and Leaving Seville; three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led (winner of the Hackney Award), Devil Dancer, and Blacksnake’s Path; a work of history, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest (winner of two Spur Awards); and a collection of interviews, Conversations with Robert Stone.  www.williamheathbooks.com  

Colin Honnor has been widely published in numerous magazines in print and online. He is a former editor of Poetry and Audience, a literary scholar and translator of modern European poetry. He runs a fine-arts press in the Cotswolds.

Rich Ives has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, Seattle Arts Commission and the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines for his work in poetry, fiction, editing, publishing, translation and photography. He is the 2009 winner of the Francis Locke Poetry Award from Bitter Oleander and the 2012 winner of the Thin Air Creative Nonfiction Award. His books include Light from a Small Brown Bird (Bitter Oleander Press–poetry), Sharpen (The Newer York—fiction chapbook), The Balloon Containing the Water Containing the Narrative Begins Leaking (What Books—stories), Old Man Walking Home After Dark (Cyberwit–poetry), Dubious Inquiries into Magnificent Inadequacies (Cyberwit–poetry), A Servant’s Map of the Body (Cyberwit—stories), Incomprehensibly Well-adjusted Missing Persons of Interest (Cyberwit—stories), Square Blue Bucket Full of Trouble (Cyberwit—poetry), Misplaced Vegetables (Cyberwit—poems), and Tunneling to the Moon (Silenced Press–stories).

James Croal Jackson (he/him) is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production. He has two chapbooks, Our Past Leaves (Kelsay Books, 2021) and The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017). He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (jamescroaljackson.com)

Christine Junge is currently shopping two novels to agents: One about a woman trying to find out why her sister committed suicide, and another about a college student who finds healing in the connection she makes with a dog and the owner of an animal shelter. She lives in San Jose, CA, with her husband and baby. In addition to creative writing, Christine also does writing and editing in the non-profit space. She’s also hard at work on her next book, which features a character dealing with debilitating anxiety.

Tara King writes poems, fiction, zines, games, essays, and pieces for performance. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Her writing has appeared in DASH Literary Journal, the Walker Art Center blog, Jersey Devil Press, Drupal Diversity, Poetry SuperHighway, Mad King Thomas’ blog, as well as on stages around Minneapolis and the world. Her zines have found a home at Santa Fe Zine Fest & ABQ Zine Fest. She is working on her first novel. www.tara-king.com

Judy Kronenfeld’s fifth full-length collection of poetry, Groaning and Singing, will be published by FutureCycle Press in early 2022. Previous collections include Bird Flying through the Banquet (FutureCycle, 2017), Shimmer (WordTech, 2012), and Light Lowering in Diminished Sevenths, (2nd ed. Antrim House, 2012), winner of the Litchfield Review poetry book prize for 2007. Her poems have appeared in Cider Press Review, Cimarron Review, New Ohio Review, Offcourse, One (Jacar Press), Rattle, Slant, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verdad, Your Daily Poem, and other journals, and in more than two dozen anthologies.

Terence Lane’s fiction has appeared in multiple online periodicals. He writes about wine for Edible Finger Lakes and has published a personal essay on harvesting grapes in Wine Enthusiast. He lives in New York’s Finger Lakes region.

Laura Celise Lippman is a retired family physician who lives in Seattle, Wa.  She explores tide pools, forests, and mountain meadows looking for interesting creatures and she writes poems.  Her work has appeared in Pontoon, Mobius, a Journal of Social Change and many other journals.  She recently assembled her poetry and published an anthology called Writing While Masked; Observations on 2020, with her writing group.  It will be republished by the WSU press under its new Basalt imprimatur in 2021.

DS Maolalai has been nominated nine times for Best of the Net and five times for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has been released in two collections, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden (Encircle Press, 2016) and Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019).

Tim Mayo’s poems and reviews have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Avatar Review, Barrow Street, Narrative Magazine, ONE; Poetry International, Poet Lore, River Styx, Salamander, San Pedro River Review, Tar River Poetry, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verse Daily, Verse-Virtual, Web Del Sol Review of Books, andThe Writer’s Almanac among other places. His poems have received seven Pushcart Prize nominations.

His first full length collection, The Kingdom of Possibilities, (Mayapple Press, 2009) was a finalist for the 2009 May Swenson Award. His second volume of poems, Thesaurus of Separation (Phoenicia Publishing 2016) was a finalist for the 2017 Montaigne Medal and a finalist for the 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Award. His chapbook, Notes to the Mental Hospital Timekeeper, was published by Kelsay Books in late 2019 and won an Honorable Mention in the 2020  chapbook category of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. He lives in Brattleboro, VT.

Award-winning educator, writer, and poet, M.B. McLatchey is author of five books, including the award-winning titles Beginner’s Mind (Regal House Publishing, May 2021) and The Lame God (May Swenson Award, Utah State University Press). M.B. received her graduate degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, her Master of Arts in Teaching from Brown University, and her B.A. from Williams College. M.B is currently Florida’s Poet Laureate for Volusia County, U.S. Ambassador to the HundrED global education foundation, Arts Ambassador for the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Professor of Humanities at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Visit her at www.mbmclatchey.com

Peter Mladinic’s poems have recently appeared in Neologism, From Sac Monthly, Yolk, Poetry Village, the City Key, and other online journals.  His book of poems, Knives on a Table, is forthcoming from Better Than Starbucks Publications. His website is petermladinic.com.  An animal rights activist, he lives with six dogs in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure and Happiness, both Story Line Press; the former to be reissued by Red Hen Press. He has also published two collections of shorter poems, A Poverty of Words, (Prolific Press, 2015) and Landscape with Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018). Pollack has appeared in Salmagundi, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Magma (UK), Bateau, Fulcrum, Chiron Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, etc. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Hamilton Stone Review, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Mudlark, Rat’s Ass Review, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, Avatar (Spring 2008), etc.

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.

Gerard Sarnat won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest, the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of 2021 and previous Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. Gerry is widely published including in Hong Kong Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Buddhist Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Arkansas Review, Hamilton-Stone Review, Northampton Review, New Haven Poetry Institute, Texas Review, Vonnegut Journal, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, Monterey Poetry Review, The Los Angeles Review, and The New York Times as well as by Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Chicago and Columbia presses. He’s authored the collections Homeless Chronicles, Disputes, 17s, Melting the Ice King. Gerry is a physician who’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized as well as a Stanford professor and healthcare CEO. Currently he is devoting energy/ resources to deal with climate justice, and serves on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids plus six grandsons, and is looking forward to future granddaughters. gerardsarnat.com

Swedish artist Gordon Skalleberg, on painting faces and people, muses, “…I am trying to see beyond the surface…are we really aware of what we are seeing?” Painting in oil on untreated wood, unique grain patterns are visible beneath the paint, intensifying movement and texture.

A native of Arild, Sweden and now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Skalleberg transitioned to full-time artist after years in the family’s business. His relocation to New Mexico inspired new imagery, a distinctive twist on Southwestern features – desert landscapes, mountains, open skies – in a semi-abstract landscape-style.

Skalleberg has shown in gallery and exhibitions in Sweden since 2007; more recently in New York and Santa Fe. Since 2015, he has participated in the prestigious annual Studio Tour in southwest Sweden. Occasionally he accepts commissions – a recent example being Netflix engaging him to paint portraits of Uma Thurman and Tony Goldwyn for a production. His work is in museum, corporate and private collections in Sweden and the United States.

About the piece, Transparent Personality:

It is the first of my laser cut steel pieces. It is a Corten steel piece (it rusts and then the rusting stops and the steel remains rusty only on the surface). It is only 10 mm thick, above ground it is 2.5 x 1 meter. I believe I sent you some photos from when I mounted it. It is placed outside our house in Sweden, you can see it in the aerial photo.

I made two of these. My brother bought one and had it placed in Cave Creek, north of Phoenix AZ. The one I have was mounted temporarily at our house and there was interest from our county to buy it as a public piece, but they were slow to act and then said they did not have the money and I said I was glad, because I did not want to sell it. Apparently I did a good job when I mounted it because it has not moved at all after many huge winter storms. When it is really windy it gently sways back and forth. The placement of this piece is ideal, because it has the open landscape behind. My brother placed it well too, where it creates a shadow against his house wall.

A lot of people, who have come to the studio tour and at other times, have been fascinated by this piece. It is probably some of my best work. They ask who the woman is. I normally don’t tell.

Michael Van Dyke lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has published poems in The Cortland Review, Punt Volat, Better Than Starbucks, and THAT Literary Review, among others. He is currently working on a book about the poet and cultural critic Kenneth Rexroth.

Marchi Wierson is a something or other somewhere, is maybe hopeful or hopeless or haphazard or hibernating. used to have a unibrow (almost) but grew out of it. has a Frieda Kahlo ring. is a poet and artist.

https://invisibilityproject.tumblr.com/