Jul/Aug 2018

Tom Dooley co-founded Eclectica in 1996 and serves as its Managing Editor. In the 12 years between earning a BA in English literature from the University of Chicago and a MPA in municipal management from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he taught middle and high school English in Alaska, Arizona, and Wisconsin, amassing fond memories, dubious experiences, and debt. Two careers post-teaching later, he now creates spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides for the man by day, edits Eclectica by night, and feels very grateful for the blessings he has received—chief among them being married to the sweetest gal and the best poet he knows. He and said gal reside in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with enough rescued lapdogs to field a diminutive Iditarod racing team and the empty-nest echoes of two amazing Haitian-American children who have flown the coop.

Jennifer Finstrom has been the Poetry Editor of Eclectica since the fall issue of 2005. This is her final issue in that capacity. A former Spotlight Author, she teaches in the First-Year Writing Program, tutors in writing, and facilitates writing groups at DePaul University. Recent publications include Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Escape Into Life, Gingerbread House Literary Magazine, and NEAT. For Silver Birch Press, she has work appearing in The Great Gatsby Anthology, the Alice in Wonderland Anthology, and in Ides: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks.

Gilbert Wesley Purdy has been Eclectica's Review Editor since October of 2013. He first appeared in the magazine as a contributor a decade before that. He has published poetry, prose, and translation in many journals, paper, and electronic, including Jacket Magazine, Poetry International, The Georgia Review, Grand Street, SLANT, The Evansville Review, Rattle (online), Consciousness Literature and the Arts, Orbis, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. He has published numerous books, including Mind Dance (poetry); Kafka in Richmond (Novel); Edward de Vere was Shakespeare: at long last the proof; and Henry David Thoreau and Two Other Autistic Lives: before the diagnosis existed. He has just released Edward de Vere's Retainer Thomas Churchyard: the Man Who Was Falstaff. Links to his work online and to a selected bibliography of his work in paper venues appear at his Hyperlinked Online Bibliography.

David Ewald is Eclectica's Nonfiction Editor. A previous contributor, his work has also appeared in Metazen, BULL: Men's Fiction, Denver Syntax, The Chimaera, Spork Press, and Halfway Down the Stairs, among other publications. He is the author of the novel He Who Shall Remain Shameless, and his chapbook Markson's Pier (written with Stuart Ross) was published in Volume XI of Essays & Fictions.

Melissa Lewis-Ackerman is a bi-coastal English Professor, dividing time between Los Angeles and New York. She holds an MFA in fiction from Queens University of Charlotte and has appeared in Awakened Voices, Compose, Crab Fat Magazine, Claudius Speaks, Flights, DUENDE, and BOOMTOWN, Explosive Writing From Ten Years Of The Queens University of Charlotte MFA Program. She received a Pushcart nomination for her story "The Ducks and the Vagrant." Her essay, "Missy's Got a Gun," was just published in The Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Review.

Nolan Allen is a Spotted Owl Field Technician in northern California. He is an obsessive runner, bad listener, and can be found spilling cheap beers at your local dive bar. "This is What We Do in The Dark" is his first published work.

Ankush Banerjee is a mental health professional and Ethics and Organizational Behavior instructor. He published his first collection of poetry, An Essence of Eternity (Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 2016). He is the recipient of the 2014 USI Gold Medal and 2017 Silver Medal for his essay on Military Ethics. His poetry has appeared in Indian Literature, Muse India, Eclectica, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and Linden Avenue Literary Journal.

Steve Bogdaniec is a writer and teacher at Wright College in Chicago. Steve has had poetry and short fiction published in numerous journals, most recently Eclectica Magazine, Silver Birch Press, and Jellyfish Review. His work can also be found in the Nancy Drew Anthology: Writing & Art Inspired by Everyone's Favorite Female Sleuth.

Bob Bradshaw is a big fan of the Rolling Stones and easy times. Mick may not be gathering moss, but Bob is. Bob hopes to retire to a hammock soon. His work can be found at Cha, Eclectica, Pedestal, Stirring, Rose and Thorn, and many other publications.

Chris S. Burns is a fiction and science fiction writer and librarian living in San Francisco, working on an MFA in Creative Writing at Mills College. His work has been published in Transfer, Lady in the Lake, and The Laurel Review; he received 2nd place in the 2018 Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award. Chris loves museums and galleries, live music, fairs, and the circus. He supports furthering education, helping the homeless, and donating blood as often as possible. About "Principessa di Fiamme," he says, "This story, like so many stories, was inspired by a wide variety of people and places, but especially noteworthy is the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, a place I visited often when I lived in New York. Like this story, it has a very special place in my heart."

Raymond Byrnes recently retired from the U.S. Geological Survey / NASA Landsat program. He lives in Virginia, where he competes with deer and squirrels for ripe tomatoes. His recent poems have appeared in Typishly and Better Than Starbucks and are forthcoming in Chest (an international medical journal), Sky Island Journal, and Waters Deep: A Great Lakes Poetry Anthology.

Tina V. Cabrera earned her MFA in Fiction from San Diego State University in 2009. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in or are forthcoming in journals such as Erotoplasty, Pleiades, Hobart, Quickly, Crack the Spine, Big Bridge Magazine, Vagabondage Press, San Diego Poetry Annual, Fiction International, and Outrider Press. She has presented critical work at the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) in New York and Pennsylvania, which has been published in print and online. Regarding the piece in this issue, she says, "I call this piece a 'mini-play,' but it is also a hybrid blend of fiction and creative nonfiction as it delves deeply into the obsessions of my own psyche. It is my first publication of a play, and for that reason I feel extra proud. Some influences I like to mention: Beckett and Pirandello, particularly the latter's short play Six Characters in Search of an Author. I hope to turn 'Death: A Play' into a performance piece someday."

Patrick Cahill co-founded and edits Ambush Review. He received his Ph.D. in History of Consciousness at UCSC. His poetry twice received the Central Coast Writers Award. Recent work has appeared in Otoliths, Forgotten, Volt, Aji, Into The Void, riverbabble, The Other Side of Violet, Permafrost Magazine, Subprimal Poetry Art, and Angry Old Man.

Antonia Clark is a writer and editor and co-administers an online poetry forum, The Waters. She has published a chapbook, Smoke and Mirrors, and a full-length poetry collection, Chameleon Moon. Her poems and stories have appeared in many journals, including 2River View, The Cortland Review, The Pedestal Magazine, and Rattle.

Rachel Dacus is this issue's Spotlight Runner-Up for poetry. She is the author of The Renaissance Club, a novel hailed as "a poetic journey through the folds of time." Her poetry collections are Gods of Water and Air, Earth Lessons, and Femme au Chapeau. Her writing has appeared in Atlanta Review, Boulevard, Eclectica, and Prairie Schooner. Her new collection, Arabesque, is forthcoming in August 2018 from FutureCycle Press.

Julia DaSilva is a writer, climate justice organizer, and undergraduate student of philosophy and literature at the University of Toronto. Her poetry has appeared in the Toronto-based Young Voices magazine, as well as the University of Toronto journals The Spectatorial and The Strand. She is also an editor with Noesis, U of T's philosophy department journal. She is working on a collection of poems and a fantasy novel, The Gate to Barbaria.

Barbara De Franceschi is an Australian poet who lives in Broken Hill, a small mining town in outback New South Wales. Besides two collections of poetry, her work has appeared in anthologies and journals Australia wide, on-line, and in other countries, as well as being featured on national radio. For the past four years, Barbara has been part of the Enrich-Art in Health programme, an initiative of the NSW University Department of Rural Health to increase communication skills through creative writing and expand attitudes to compliment undergraduate studies for health professionals. She is also a member of The University of the Third Age and shares her skills with the community at large and people in aged care facilities.

Jamie Derkenne is a writer and photographer whose work has been featured in a diverse range of magazines and journals. He is based in Sydney, Australia, and is primarily interested in the non-Indigenous response to Australian landscape.

Steven Deutsch lives with his wife Karen—a visual artist, in State College, Pennsylvania. He writes poetry and blogs. His recent publications have been in Gravel, Literary Heist, Nixes Mate Review, Third Wednesday, Misfit Magazine, Word Fountain, Eclectica Magazine, The Drabble, and The Ekphrastic Review. In 2017, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His Chapbook, Perhaps You Can, will be published next year by Kelsay Press.

Benjamin Henry DeVries is a previous contributor to Eclectica, The Baffler, Word Riot, and elsewhere online. His latest novel is about a young lady who starts a plague on a cruise ship. Though he's currently pursuing a nomadic lifestyle, he has roots in Brooklyn. He would love to hear from you about this story or anything else on your mind. Regarding The Beneficiaries, he says, "It is a novel about two brothers who scam their way through the interwar years in Budapest and Vienna. This excerpt comes from the middle of the novel. I couldn't responsibly lift it whole and leave it unadulterated. In the process of redrafting the piece to stand alone, I felt compelled to include certain incidents from the early chapters, without which Laszlo's journey wouldn't make much sense. Anyone interested in reading or publishing the full novel should please contact my literary agent, William Callahan, or just hit me up."

Deborah H. Doolittle was born in Connecticut and has lived in lots of different places, now calling North Carolina home. When not teaching at Coastal Carolina Community College, she travels, visiting local art museums and collecting postcard reproduction of the art on display. This poem is based on one of those postcards. She is the author of No Crazy Notions, That Echo, and Floribunda, and some of her work has recently appeared or will soon appear in Bear Creek Haiku, Blue Stem Online, California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Collateral, Poets' Espresso Review, and Steam Ticket.

Aaron Dorman is a freelance environmental writer/reporter currently based out of Chicago, originally from upstate New York. He likes narwhals. "Onya's Korean Adventure" is a segment from an unpublished memoir he is shopping. It recounts events that took place outside of Jeju City in the summer of 2012.

Alex Eaker has his MFA degree in Creative Writing from the College of Charleston. He has had previous works published in Cleaver Magazine and SmokeLong Quarterly. He will spend the next year teaching English at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin for a Fellowship during which he will also be working on a collection of short fiction.

Virginia Bach Folger lives in an 1885 Victorian house in Schenectady, New York. She is a member of Wednesday Writers at Schenectady County Public Library and Hudson Valley Writers Guild. Jobs she has held: gas station attendant, paralegal, claims adjuster, and corporate learning and development manager. Her poems have been published in Constellations, Adanna, The Fourth River, and other publications.

Keith Mark Gaboury earned a MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. His poems have appeared in such publications as Poetry Quarterly, New Millennium Writings, and on the podcast Who Do You Think You Are? Keith is a poet and preschool teacher in San Francisco, California. Regarding the poem in this issue, he says, "I've been working on this poem here and there for the past three years. A couple months ago, I put the poem in a workshop at The Writing Salon in San Francisco. At the time, the current first two stanzas were the last two stanzas. I like it better now."

Jeannette Garrett has participated in numerous writing workshops at Inprint and Writespace in Houston, Texas, where she resides. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English, her fiction has recently been published online in Convergence and Foliate Oak Literary Magazine.

Michael Hardin was originally from Los Angeles but now lives in rural Pennsylvania with his wife, two children, and two Pekingeses. He has had poetry published in Seneca Review, Connecticut Review, North American Review, Quarterly West, Gargoyle, Texas Review, Tampa Review, and others. He is working on a memoir, titled Touched.

Ryan Habermeyer is Assistant Professor at Salisbury University. He holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts and PhD from the University of Missouri. His stories and essays, twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, have been published most recently in Hotel Amerika, Cream City Review, Los Angeles Review, Carolina Quarterly, and Bat City Review. His prize-winning collection, The Science of Lost Futures, won the BoA Short Fiction Prize. He lives in Maryland with his wife and children where he is finishing a novel.

Thomas J. Hubschman is a regular contributor to Eclectica's Salon and is the author of five novels (Look at Me Now, Billy Boy, Fr. Walther's Temptation, My Bess, and Song of the Mockingbird), a short story collection (The Jew's Wife & Other Stories) and two anthologies of writing from the Third World (The Best of Gowanus: New Writing from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and The Best of Gowanus II: More New Writing from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean). His short stories and non-fiction have been widely published, including on the BBC.

Vicente Huidobro was a Chilean writer (1893-1948) and a major figure of 20th century avant-garde poetry. Founder of the literary movement known as Creacionismo, he was a multilingual poet, playwright, novelist, war correspondent, screenwriter, and candidate for the presidency of Chile.

Sara Pirkle Hughes is the author of The Disappearing Act, which won the 2016 Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. Her poems have been published in Rattle, Reed, Entropy, The Raintown Review, Emrys, and Atticus Review, among others. Sara has received writing fellowships from The Anderson Center, I-Park Foundation, and The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. She is the Assistant Director of Creative Writing at The University of Alabama, where she also hosts the Pure Products Reading & Lecture Series.

Stanley Jenkins is a former Spotlight Author and longtime contributor to Eclectica. He has been published widely in electronic magazines, print journals, and anthologies, including The Best Creative Non-Fiction, Vol 2 (W.W. Norton, 2008). He is the author of A City on a Hill (Outpost19, 2013).

Babitha Marina Justin is a Reader in English at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram?, South India?. Her poems have appeared in? ?Ogazine, The Four Quarters Magazine, Taj Mahal Review, Kritya, and Journal of Post-Colonial Literature. Her first collection of poetry, Of Fireflies, Guns and the Hills, was published by the Writers Workshop in 2015. Her most recent publication is From Canons to Trauma: Essays in Literature (Bodhi Tree Books, 2018). She divides her time between teaching, research, painting, and poetry.?

Michael Kaplan is a writer and filmmaker from the Bay Area, working in Los Angeles. His stories and films have been published at The Florida Review Online, Hobart, Squawk Back, and Prime Number Magazine. He recently started a YouTube channel called OneHandClap, which will sadly be viewed hundreds of thousands of times more than all his stories combined.

Judy Kaber recently retired after 34 years teaching elementary school. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous journals, both print and online, including Atlanta Review, Off the Coast, The Comstock Review, Tar River, and Spillway. Her contest credits include the Maine Postmark Poetry Contest, the Larry Kramer Memorial Chapbook Contest, and second place in the 2016 Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry Contest.

Charles Kell is a PhD student at The University of Rhode Island and associate editor of The Ocean State Review. His poetry and fiction have appeared in The New Orleans Review, The Saint Ann's Review, Kestrel, The Pinch, and elsewhere. He teaches in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Seth King is a painter and poet living in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two sons. His work has most recently been published or is forthcoming in The Adirondack Review, The Furious Gazelles, Yellow Chair Review, The Writing Disorder, Sierra Nevada Review, 805 Lit + Art, The Cape Rock, and American Chordata.

Miriam N. Kotzin teaches creative writing and literature at Drexel University. Her collection of short fiction, Country Music (Spuyten Duyvil Press 2017), joins a novel, The Real Deal (Brick House Press 2012), and a collection of flash fiction, Just Desserts (Star Cloud Press 2010). She is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently, Debris Field (David Robert Books 2017). Her fiction and poetry have been published or are forthcoming in Shenandoah, Boulevard, Smoke Long Quarterly, Eclectica, Mezzo Cammin, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, among other periodicals, and in anthologies. She is a contributing editor of Boulevard.

Chuck Kramer is a Chicago writer of fiction, poetry, journalism.

Alonzo LaMont, Jr. has had original works produced in D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, and Amsterdam. He is a former writer for the NBC sitcom A Different World and has won numerous grants with plays performed on the big stage, little stage, and all points in-between. A proud survivor of a 14-year college teaching career, he has served on arts panels, poetry panels, and theatre workshops but is happiest creating and directing new projects. His plays That Serious He-Man Ball and Vivisections From The Blown Mind were published by the Dramatists Play Service and the Theatre Communications Group, respectively. He has had the privilege of working with "The Telling Project" and "Waxter Wisdom." "Telling" is a national veteran's organization that utilizes storytelling to detail before- and after-effects of military service. "Waxter Wisdom" is devoted to monthly dramatic performances performed in assisted-living facilities. This spring, Alonzo directed "Free To Go," a one-act play written by Holly Morse-Ellington at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, NYC. He loves riding his bike and finding donuts. Regarding B-Side Man, Alonzo managed a "triple lutz" star turn as writer/director/actor in his most recent play, which he performed at NYC's The Tank and for the Charm City Fringe Festival in Baltimore. He says, "B-Side Man is a solo performance piece that I believe fits well with other literary pieces in Eclectica because it's all about the storytelling. Having performed the play I was often struck by an audience actually 'listening' to the story. As an actor, I would get momentarily thrown off my game because the last element you expect from audiences today is for them to be verbally engaged. There's so much high-powered stuff being done, so much emphasis on 10 minute plays, 5 minute plays, everything's geared to keep an audience "moving," everything has to pop because you don't want to lose anybody to Candy Crush. With "B-Side," what I valued in writing the play seemed to match up well with what I was receiving. Once an audience accepts the fact that I enter without bells and whistles, and it's just me taking them on a journey, then I felt confident that I could just perform sans artifice and entertain them along the way. I perused other poems and stories in Eclectica and remember thinking 'Eureka! What a match!' I knew there would be a life for the play outside of the theatre because I've always placed a great emphasis on language, and I've been noticed a little for my language (it's how I got hired as a writer in Hollywood) from time to time. So I envisioned someone in the virtual universe actually reading my language, someone on the 'alternative performance' side of things who might see the literary potential of the play. And so here we are, B-Side Man meets online 'zine!"

Sharon and David Mathews are a mother and son duo from Chicago. David's recent work can be found in CHEAP POP, Midwestern Gothic, and Eclectica Magazine. Sharon enjoys reading multiple books at the same time, frequently visiting her grandchildren, and of course shinrin-yoku ("forest bathing"). Coming back to poetry with encouragement from her son, their recent work together can be found in Eclectica Magazine.

Cynthia McVay lives on a defunct farm in the Hudson Valley, where she is writing, foraging, and making art. She was a management consultant for 25 years, starting at McKinsey and culminating in heading up the inaugural Office of Innovation for the Peace Corps, under Obama. She holds a BA from Harvard in biology and studio arts, an MBA from Wharton, and an MA from University of Pennsylvania. Cynthia's work was/will be published in DASH, The Ravens Perch, and daCunha anthology; and was Editors' Choice winner, daCunha's 2017 Flash Nonfiction Competition; finalist, New Millennium Writings Muse Contest; finalist, Masters Review: shortlisted, freeze frame fiction; and non-fiction finalist, Bridging the Gap Awards, Slice Writer's Conference 2017.

Michael Milburn lives in Hamden, Connecticutt, and teaches high school English in New Haven. His poems have appeared recently in Poetry East, Slant, and Mudlark, and his essay "Teaching to Read, Reading to Teach" appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of Eclectica.

Carole Mertz is an essayist and poet with reviews at Eclectica Magazine, Arc Poetry (online), Comium Review, Mom Egg Review, South 85 Journal, and elsewhere. Her recent poetry appeared in Eclectica, at Quill & Parchment, and in Voices de la Luna. She served as early reader (in poetry) for WNBA's 2018 Contest. She resides with her husband in Parma, Ohio.

Marjorie Mir is a retired librarian, living in Bronxville, New York.

David Mizner is the author of the novels Political Animal and Hartsburg USA, and his stories have appeared in Glimmer Train, Beloit Fiction Review, and J Journal. He tweets @davidmizner.

Cameron Morse lives with his wife Lili and son Theodore in Blue Springs, Missouri. He was diagnosed with a glioblastoma in 2014. With a 14.6 month life expectancy, he entered the Creative Writing program at the University of Missouri—Kansas City and graduated in 2018 with an MFA. His poems have been published in over 100 different magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, South Dakota Review, I-70 Review, and TYPO. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press's 2018 Best Book Award. Visit his Website, or Facebook page, for more information.

Tobenna Nwosu lives in Lagos.

Robert Okaji lives in Texas. The author of five chapbooks, he's also penned three micro-chapbooks published by Origami Poems Project, as well as Interval's Night (Platypus Press, 2016 ), a mini-digital chapbook. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Crannóg, Blue Fifth Review, Vox Populi, Right Hand Pointing, and elsewhere. He maintains a blog, O at the Edges.

Scudder Parker grew up on a family farm in North Danville, Vermont. He has been a Protestant minister, a state senator, a utility regulator, a candidate for Governor, a consultant on energy efficiency and renewable energy, and is settling into his new and ongoing work as a poet. He is a passionate gardener and a proud grandfather of four. He and his wife live in Middlesex, Vermont. Scudder has had poems published in Sun Magazine, Vermont Life, Northern Woodlands Magazine, Wordrunner, and Passager.

James Penha is a native New Yorker who has lived for the past quarter-century in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his LGBTQ+ stories appear in the 2017 and 2018 anthologies of both the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival and the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival, while his dystopian poem "2020" is part of the 2017 Not My President anthology. His essay "It's Been a Long Time Coming" was featured in The New York Times "Modern Love" column in April 2016. He edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry.

Nektaria Petrou has published in The Huffington Post, Al-Monitor, Daily Sabah, Mashallah News, Panoply, Ruminate, Sixfold, East of the Web, and The Shanghai Literary Review. She received honorable mentions in Glimmertrain's New Writer Contest and Ruminate's William Van Dyke Short Fiction contest. She recently completed a novel about the Greeks of Istanbul, Turkey, where she lives and works.

Christine Potter still lives in a very old house on a creek in the Hudson River Valley with her organist-choirmaster husband and two spoiled tomcats. Her third collection of poetry, Unforgetting, is either out or will be very soon from Kelsay Books. Christine's work has also appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry, Rattle, and The Anglican Theological Review. Her time-traveling novels for young adults, The Bean Books, are available from Evernight Teen.

V. K. Reiter has published nine novels, translated French novels for publication in the US, including Maryse Condé's Tree of Life and five of Daniel Odier's Delacorta series. She has ghosted three films and served as a free-lance editor on several bestselling books. While living in France, she wrote and translated narration for documentary films; wrote English subtitles for French films; worked as a reader, editor, and translator for Les Editions Robert Laffont; and spent five interesting years as editor and consultant to Maurice Girodias, publisher of The Olympia Press both in Paris and New York. She was consultant, scriptwriter, and editor for Michel Thomas, owner of the Michel Thomas Language Centers and publisher of the Michel Thomas Language System. She has had creative nonfiction pieces published in Smoke Signals Magazine and Eclectica. One of these, a Spotlighted piece, "Living/Tango," was included in Eclectica's 20th Anniversary Best Nonfiction Anthology. Another article, "Transport," won the X.J. Kennedy Award and was published in Rosebud Magazine. She lives in New York.

Joni Renee is a queer artist and writer from rural Oregon. Her art has been shared on such diverse stages as The Moth in Portland, the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts in Costa Mesa, California, and the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn in partnership with the Morpheus Youth Project. Her writing explores themes of nature, family, and the autistic body, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Superstition Review, xoJane, and regional journals.

David Rich is the author of two novels, Caravan of Thieves and Middle Man, published by Dutton. A short story, "The Sure Thing", appears in New Haven Noir. Most of his career has been misspent writing for movies and television. Regarding "Student Deferment," he says, "Parts of this story are true. The rest is based on fear, paranoia, and lies."

Ann Skea lives in Australia. She is the author of Ted Hughes: The Poetic Quest (UNE Press, Australia) and has been contributing reviews to Eclectica Magazine since our very first issue back in October of 1996.

Jonathan Simkins is the co-translator with Kimrey Anna Batts of El Creacionismo (The Lune, forthcoming) by Vicente Huidobro, the translator of The Treasure of the Llanganates (PUMAEDITORES, 2017), a play by Paúl Puma, and the author of the chapbooks This Is The Crucible (The Lune, 2017), and in collaboration with artist Justin Ankenbauer, Translucent Winds (Helikon Gallery & Studios, 2016). His translations have appeared in Deluge, Guernica, Hinchas de Poesía, Menacing Hedge, and The Ofi Press, among others, and are forthcoming in The Chattahoochee Review, Ghost Town, Gulf Coast, and Vinyl. He lives in Ybor City, Florida, and is the publisher of Cigar City Poetry Journal.

Larry Smith has published a novella, Patrick Fitzmike and Mike Fitzpatrick (Outpost 19). His stories have appeared in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Serving House Journal, Sequestrum, Low Rent (nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Exquisite Corpse, The Collagist, Curbside Splendor, and [PANK], among numerous others. Smith's poetry has appeared in Descant (Canada) and Elimae, among others; his articles and essays in Modern Fiction Studies, Social Text, The Boston Phoenix, and others.

Mark Stein has published work in Exposition Review, Nimrod, Michigan Quarterly Review, Madison Review, and Moment. His plays have been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville, South Coast Repertory, Manitoba Theatre Centre, LA's Fountain Theater and elsewhere. He wrote the Steve Martin/Goldie Hawn film Housesitter and the New York Times bestseller, How the States Got Their Shapes, which became the basis for a History Channel series, along with other nonfiction books.

Christine Taylor resides in her hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey. A multiracial English teacher and librarian, she serves as a reader and contributing editor at OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Modern Haiku, apt, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, The Rumpus, and The Paterson Literary Review, among others.

Lackshmi Arya Thathachar is an academician based in India. She teaches and researches in the areas of law, gender, history, and philosophy. She also writes creatively. Her current work includes short fiction and poetry, the latter having previously appeared in Pratilipi and Eclectica. Her poem in this issue made the shortlist for the Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition earlier this year.

David Vardeman is a fiction writer who lives in Maine. His work has appeared or will shortly appear in Chariton Review, Little Patuxent Review, Whiskey Island, Five:2:One, Cardinal Sins, as well as other print and online journals.

 

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