Originally from Los Angeles, Drew Attana spent over a decade getting into trouble from Tijuana to Portland, before heading South. His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry has appeared in Cargo Literary Magazine, Pathos Literary Journal, Eunoia Review, Yellow Chair Review, Drunk Monkeys Magazine, HIV Here and Now Project and is forthcoming in Phoebe Literary Journal, Common Ground Review, Merrimack Review, HelloHorror Magazine and Apeiron Review. He is currently living and writing in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Anna Laird Barto worked as an English teacher in Mexico before returning to the U.S. to complete her MFA at Emerson College. Her writing has appeared in Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments, Newfound Journal, and EDGE.
Vivian Calderon Bogoslavsky is a painter and native of Colombia, South America. She studied anthropology with a minor in History and has a graduate degree in Journalism from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. She has studied art for over 12 years with Argentine master artist Carlos Orrea, and has also studied in Florence, Italy and at Fine Arts & Design in the USA. Today, Vivian is in Madrid looking for new inspirations. Learn more at www.ArteCalderon.com
Jessica Borsi normally lives in the Panhandle with a donkey named Buttons, but is lately in Miami pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Florida International University. She writes science fiction and is a rabid fan of space, giant robots with feelings, and cake.
Lucia Cherciu is a Professor of English at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and she writes both in English and Romanian. Her newest book of poetry, Edible Flowers (Main Street Rag, 2015), is available here. Her other books of poetry are Lepădarea de Limbă (The Abandonment of Language), Editura Vinea 2009, and Altoiul Râsului (Grafted Laughter), Editura Brumar, 2010. Her poetry has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her webpage is http://luciacherciu.webs.com/.
Letisia Cruz is a Cuban-American writer and illustrator. She is enthralled by nature and the acute connection to form associated with ink illustration. Her visual vocabulary emerges through this focus and subsequently explores the connection between man and nature. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s MFA program and currently lives in Miami, FL. She is the Resident Artist at Petite Hound Press.
Originally from Baltimore, Justin Eisenstadt lives and writes in Spokane, WA. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Swarm, South 85, Jet Fuel Review, The Ilanot Review, and Connotation Press, among others. He also co-writes a blog, We Write Together, with his partner, fellow fiction writer Katherine Bell. They have three cats, and Justin is always tripping over them.
Ariel Francisco is a Dominican-Guatemalan-American poet living in Miami. His poems have appeared in The Boiler Journal, Duende, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. His previous interview with Tony Hoagland can be found here.
Ann Leshy-Wood Fuller is a Lebanese-American poet, artist and vocalist. She was born in Deland,Florida while her parents were attending Stetson Law School. She studied Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Florida. She has lived most of her life in the woods of North Central Florida writing about the mesic landscape which is known as old Florida. Her poems have been published in many literary magazines and journals in the United States, and in Wales. In addition to writing and photographing the beauty of the woods,or the sea, she performs with the prestigious Gainesville Master Chorale in Gainesville, Florida. Her most recent poetry can be found in a literary magazine out of Saint Augustine, Florida, Ancient City, where she is the featured poet, and, The Iodine Review out of North Carolina. Ann lives in a house she built in the woods of Micanopy, Florida.
Crystal A. Gee is in the Master of Social Work Program at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. In addition, Crystal also works as a writer and photographer. Her poetry has appeared in Analecta and The Central Review.
The son of migrant farm workers, Juan Felipe Herrera was educated at UCLA and Stanford University, and he earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His numerous poetry collections include 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007, Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream (1999), and most recently, Notes on the Assemblage (2015) . In addition to publishing more than a dozen collections of poetry, Herrera has written short stories, young adult novels, and children’s literature. In 2015 he was named U.S. poet laureate.
Patrice Hutton is the director of Writers in Baltimore Schools, a creative writing program for Baltimore City students. She holds a M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her fiction has appeared in Tin House Flash Fridays, Prime Number Magazine, and Mount Hope. Patrice’s other publications can be found at patricehutton.com.
Elisa Karbin’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Journal, West Branch and Blackbird, among others. She earned her MA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she is now a PhD candidate in poetry. She currently serves as fiction editor for cream city review and as a contributing poetry editor for Great Lakes Review. You can visit her online at www.elisakarbin.com.
Thomas Kearnes holds an MA in Screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. He recently won the 2014 Cardinal Sins Fiction Contest. His recent fiction has appeared or will appear in BULL: Men’s Fiction, Vending Machine Press, Punchnel’s, Existere, 5×5, Big Lucks, Split Lip Magazine, Necessary Fiction, Spry, Litro, The Adroit Journal, The Ampersand Review, Word Riot, Johnny America, Five Quarterly, Sundog Lit and elsewhere. His work has also appeared in several LGBT venues. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He is studying to become a drug dependency counselor. He lives in Houston.
Jennifer Zeynab Maccani is a Syrian-American writer living in the greater Hershey, Pennsylvania area. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Clackamas Literary Review, The Normal School, Mizna, Sukoon, and elsewhere. She won an Honorable Mention Award in the Maine Review’s 2015 Short Fiction Contest. She is currently at work on a novel and a collection of short stories.
Kaylen Mallard is originally from Tennessee, and has an MFA in creative non-fiction from The University of Montana. Currently, she’s participating in a series of writing residencies across the country. Thank you to ArtCroft, a creative residency in Carlisle, Kentucky, where this essay was written.
Nancy Matson’s essays, mostly about her sixty-plus jobs, have appeared or are forthcoming in Memoirville, Eclectica, Weber: The Contemporary West, and Narratively. She has also written for Bustle, is a regular contributor for Krrb, and maintains a blog, Stuff You Don’t Want, which helps people keep their unwanted stuff out of the landfill, item by item.
Tanya Muzumdar is an MFA candidate in poetry at Pacific University. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Nashville Review, THRUSH Poetry Journal, Gigantic Sequins, Cherry Tree, Salamander, Superstition Review, and elsewhere. She lives in northern Michigan, where she works as a writer, editor, and poetry instructor. Read more of Tanya’s work at http://www.tanyamuzumdar.com/.
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Laurel Nakanishi received her B.A. from Lewis & Clark College and M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Nicaragua, a Richard Hugo Memorial Scholarship and a Wrolstad Travel Award. She is the author of the prize-winning chapbook, Manoa Makai, and her poems have appeared in The Black Warrior Review, Bayou Magazine, and Third Coast Magazine, among other publications. She currently teaches poetry in Hawaii and studies non-fiction at Florida International University.
Pat Owen divides her time between Louisville, KY, and Sarasota, FL. She holds a JD and MA in English from the University of Louisville. She did graduate work in the MFA program of Spalding University and has published in Louisville Review and the anthology, This Wretched Vessel by Accents Publishing. Her chapbook, Crossing the Sky Bridge, has been accepted for publication by Larkspur Press.
Teresa Plana lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where she works with Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Her poems have appeared in PRISM International and Axolotl.
Cindy Rinne creates art and writes in San Bernardino, CA. She is the author of spider with wings (Jamii Publishing), Quiet Lantern is forthcoming (Turning Point), Breathe in Daisy, Breath out Stones is forthcoming (FutureCycle Press), and she co-authored Speaking Through Sediment with Michael Cooper (ELJ Publications). Her poetry appeared or is forthcoming in Driftwood Press, The Honest Ulsterman (Ireland), Naugatuck River Review, Zoomoozophone, Indiana Voice Journal, and others. www.fiberverse.com.
Gianna Russo is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Moonflower (KitsuneBooks, 2011), winner of a Florida Book Awards bronze medal, and two chapbooks, Blue Slumber (YellowJacket Press, 2006) and The Companion of Joy (Green Rabbit Press, 2014). She is founding editor of YellowJacket Press, currently Florida’s only publisher of poetry chapbook manuscripts. She has published poems in Tampa Review, Ekphrasis, Crab Orchard Review, Apalachee Review, Florida Review, Florida Humanities Council Forum, Karamu, The Bloomsbury Review, The Sun, Poet Lore, saw palm, Kestrel, Water-Stone, The MacGuffin, and Calyx, among others. She teaches at St. Leo University, where she is editor-in-chief of Sandhill Review and director of the Sandhill Writers Retreat.
Chad Schuster’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Glimmer Train, Hobart, Literary Orphans, Bartleby Snopes, Jersey Devil Press, Per Contra and elsewhere. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children. Find him at chadschuster.com or on Twitter at @Chad_Schuster
Shoshauna Shy‘s poetry has recently been published by IthacaLit, Hartskill Review, RHINO, and Sliver of Stone. Her fourth collection received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Shoshauna works for the Wisconsin Humanities Council in Madison, Wisconsin and has helped create, coordinate and facilitate poetry programs for the annual Wisconsin Book Festival in downtown Madison for a decade.
Ryan Trombley was born in Tampa, FL and has lived there ever since for 24 years. He currently has a degree from HCC in business and is planning to go to art school while maintaining his establishment as a new, up-and-coming artist. Ryan always enjoyed creating and using his hands, from music, drawing, to art; he found a way to create and be passionate about something. He incorporates Minimalism, Suprematism, and figurative/abstract (depending on the particular piece art), all into one style. With inspirations from Kazmir Malevich, Mark Rothko, and Brian Donnelly (KAWS), he strives to bring something new to the world of art. Ryan has private collections in the United States, France, and Spain and has been featured in magazines and online articles. He is also planning on going to art school in 2016.
Gulf Stream Magazine 