Contributor's Notes, Eclectica Magazine, v27n2, Apr/May 2023

Apr/May 2023

Tom Dooley co-founded Eclectica in 1996 and serves as its Managing and Fiction 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.

Evan Martin Richards is Eclectica's Poetry Editor. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and lives in Chicago. He received his MA in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University, where he worked as a writing tutor and facilitated creative writing and EdD candidate writing groups. His poetry has appeared in Poetry East and Eclectica. He has read fiction for Another Chicago Magazine and served as a poetry judge for the Golden Shovel Anthology Competition hosted by Roosevelt University. He works as an editor, both freelance and in the nonprofit management field.

Stuart Ross is Eclectica's Review Editor and a former Spotlight Author. A writer from Queens living in Chicago and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame's MFA program, he is the author of the novel Jenny in Corona (Tortoise Books, 2019). His work has appeared in Diagram, Expat Press, HTML Giant, Necessary Fiction, New World Writing, The Awl, The Rumpus, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and many others.

Marko Fong is Eclectica's Nonfiction Coeditor. A former Spotlight Author, he lives in North Carolina with his wife, dog, and two cats. He's written fiction and non-fiction for many years, and publications include Solstice, Prick of the Spindle, RKVRY, and Volleyball Magazine.

Greta Bolger has written and published poetry for decades, both online and in print publications, including Eclectica, Sea to Sky Review, Thema, Juice Box, Literary Bohemian, The Mom Egg, and others. As a long-time participant in The Waters Poetry Forum, she has been recognized by the Interboard Poetry Competition multiple times. Greta lives “up north” in Michigan, making art and avoiding housework and large groups of people.

Marisa Cadena is a former restaurateur whose beverage recipes appear in publications such as New York Magazine, Health Magazine, a book on Puerto Rican cuisine, and an anthology on the Bloody Mary. She wrote a narrative short film slated to shoot in 2024 and is collaborating on several screenplays. New World Writing recently featured an excerpt from her memoir-in-progress about living in Mexico in her late teens and early 20s, from which "Return to the Verde Antequera" is adapted. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and pup.

Jane-Rebecca Cannarella (she/her) is a writer and editor living in Philadelphia. She is the editor of HOOT Review and Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit, and a former genre editor at Lunch Ticket. Jane-Rebecca is the author of Better Bones (Thirty West Publishing House), Thirst and Frost (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), and others. She likes salt and Hasbro wrestling figures from the early '90s.

Chris Daly resides West Coast, USA. Publications include Rolling Stone, Wormwood Review, Tears in the Fence, and Chiron Review. He has completed an experimental oral history of an ancient period of Viet Nam.

Elizabeth Wadsworth Ellis is published in Antonym, Barzakh, Bluntly, Coffin Bell, Denver, Drunk Monkey, Enizigam, Haute Dish, Helen Lit, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, In Parenthese, Indie Blue, Meat for tea, Obra/Artifact, Denver Quarterly, Open Arts Forum, Oregon State's 45th Parallel, Poached Hare, Poets Choice, Underwood, and Wingless Dreamer.

Sara Flemington is this issue's runner-up Spotlight Author for fiction and the author of the novel Egg Island. Her work has appeared in subTerrain, The Feathertale Review, The Humber Literary Review, and Paper Darts, among others. She lives in Toronto.

J.V. Foerster is this issue's Spotlight Author. She lives in Ashland, Oregon, and is a three-time Pushcart nominated poet. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines including Cirque, Amethyst Review, Quartet, The Field Guide Magazine, The Bluebird Word, The Fiery Scribe, Eclectica, Furrow edition from Green Ink Press, Loch Raven Review, Agnieszka's Dowry, Midnight Mind, Premiere Generation Ink, Fickle Muse, Oak Bend Review, and Fox Chase Review, to name just a few. She has work in Orchard Lea Anthology and in a Rosemont College Anthology. She was a finalist in an Oprelle Poetry Contest and received a First Honorable mention in the Oregon Poetry Association Members Only contest. She has a book, Holy Mess of a Girl forthcoming from Kelsay Books. J.V. is also a published painter and photographer. On "White Swans": "This poem was written many years ago when I lived in Upper Michigan on Lake Michigan. It was written after my husband died. Every day I would walk to the shore and there were a pair of white swans that would swim up to me. It was a time of great sorrow, but somehow, I felt closer to my husband when I watched them. He loved to sail."

Jennifer Gauthier is a professor of media and culture at Randolph College in Southwestern Virginia. Her poems are published in Tiny Seed Literary Journal, South 85, Gyroscope Review, Nightingale & Sparrow, The Bookends Review, little somethings press, HerWords Magazine, and Tofu Ink Arts Press. Her media commentary appears on Pop Matters, in Mayday Magazine and The Critical Flame: A Journal of Literature and Culture. Her poetry collection, naked: poems inspired by remarkable women (November 2021) is part of Finishing Line Press's New Women's Voices series. She is included in the short fiction anthology, Draw Down the Moon (Propertius Press, 2022).

Azka Hameed is from Australia and enjoys exploring philosophical concepts in her fiction. She has been published in Meraki Magazine and recently completed a mentorship program with Writing NSW. She says, "'Keep on Walking' is about the conflict between reconciling with material reality while honoring our intuition to perceive things more accurately."

Brooks Harris is a writer based in Chicago, focused on poetry and fiction. Originally from Los Angeles, Brooks came to Chicago to attend DePaul University, where he received a degree in creative writing. He has had his work appear in DePaul's magazine, Crook & Folly, and won Best Poem Award in 2021 for his poem "4 pm at the Cemetery." He has also had work published in 14East Magazine and The Orange Couch. He has self-published two books of poems, titled Multiple Stories Happening At Once and Cowboys On LSD. Brooks loves riding his bike along Chicago's lakefront trail, reading with a window open, and identifying fonts in books.

Kat Hausler is a translator and author of the novels Retrograde and What I Know About July, as well as many shorter pieces. She lives in Berlin.

Thomas J. Hubschman is a regular contributor to Eclectica's Salon and is the author of Look at Me Now, My Bess, Billy Boy, Father Walther's Temptation, Song of the Mockingbird, and The Jew's Wife & Other Stories, as well as three science fiction novels. His work has appeared in New York Press, The Antigonish Review, The Blue Moon Review and many other publications. Two of his short stories were broadcast on the BBC World Service. He has also edited two anthologies of new writing from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, and he was the founding editor of the pioneering online publication Gowanus. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, which remains his chief inspiration.

Jayant Kashyap is a poet, essayist, translator and artist. He has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Sundress Publications' Best of the Net, and is the author of two pamphlets and a zine, Water (Skear Zines, 2021). His work appears in POETRY, Magma, The Fourth River, and elsewhere.

Noelle McManus (they/them) is a writer-poet-linguist from New York. Their work has been featured in venues such as Vagabond City Lit, Cathexis Northwest Press, The Women's Review of Books, LIBER: A Feminist Review, and more. They are at work on a novel.

Marlene Olin is this issue's runner-up Spotlight Author for nonfiction. She was born in Brooklyn, raised in Miami and educated at the University of Michigan. Her short stories and essays have been published in journals such as The Massachusetts Review, Catapult, PANK, and World Literature Today. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of The Net, Best Small Fictions, and for inclusion in Best American Short Stories.

Noah Pohl is originally from coastal Massachusetts and earned a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University. A finalist for the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors' Prize in Fiction, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Litro Magazine, The Jabberwock Review, The South Dakota Review, Passages North, and Post Road. He lives and works in Southern California.

S. A. Renschler is a longtime resident of the Pacific Northwest whose stories have appeared in The Beloit Fiction Journal, Hawai'i Review, and elsewhere.

Bruce Robinson appears or is forthcoming in Tar River Poetry, Spoon River, Rattle, Mantis, Two Hawks Quarterly, Berkeley Poetry Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, North Dakota Quarterly, Last Stanza, and Aji. He has raced whippets in the midwest, and is part of that stubborn undercurrent in Brooklyn that continues to root for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Chris Sako is a woman of a certain age living and loving life in the Pacific with her local boy husband. She is an artistic cook by day and wanderlust by night. She loves being with her family and friends when life allows her travel to the mainland. Chris has been published in Quillkeepers Press, Wingless Dreamer, and Poetschoice.

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.

Mark Williams has published his short stories in Eclectica, The Baffler, Cleaver, and the anthologies American Fiction, The Boom Project, and Running Wild Anthology of Stories. His poems have appeared in The Southern Review, New Ohio Review, and Rattle. Kelsay Books published his collection of poems, Carrying On, in 2022. He lives in Evansville, Indiana, 127 miles from The World's Largest Mailbox.

Jane M. Wiseman is a writer who splits her time between very urban Minneapolis and the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. She holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University, an MA from the University of Illinois, and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Her poetry has appeared most recently in SWWIM Everyday, Nonbinary Review, The Broken City, The Westchester Review, and The Ekphrastic Review. She also paints—badly but enthusiastically.