Jennifer Bannan
memoir
Jennifer is the author of short story collection Inventing Victor, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2003. Her novel-in-progress was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award quarter-finalist. Her publications include work in Kenyon Review online, ACM, womenwriters.net, Passages North and the Autumn House 2011 fiction anthology, “Keeping the Wolves at Bay.”
Damyanti Biswas
fiction
Damyanti is a freelance writer for non-fiction magazines and journals. Her short fiction has been published in Birkbeck Writer’s Hub, UK, Cigale Literary Magazine,USA, the Quarterly Literary Review, Singapore; Bangalore Review, Muse India and in print anthologies by Twelve Winters Press, USA; Marshall Cavendish, Singapore; Monsoon Books, Singapore, and MPH publications, Malaysia.
Andrew Bond
fiction
Andrew is a travel writer working out of Thailand. He starts his days meditating on nothingness and is currently reading literature part-time at the University of London. Over the past four decades he has also lived in Zimbabwe, South Africa, the UK, US and Antigua. He does most his philosophising on a bicycle.
Kim Celona
art gallery
Kim has been a prolific artist and writer for over 20 years. Born in Providence, Rhode Island and educated in NYC, NY and Venice, Italy (Parsons School of Design, BFA 1991/ New York University, MA 2004) her life and art experiences are varied and extensive. She has dove into the fields of illustration, fine art, photography, writing and art education. Presently, Kim is working on a photography and mixed media series entitled, “Purveying Beauty.” This current body of work consists of exploring the theme of beauty in nature primarily, while also carrying over the concept of internal/external space from other series, such as “Meditations” and “Divine Providence.” Her work has been published in such editorial magazines and newspapers as Boston Magazine, Providence Journal, Providence Phoenix, Stuff Magazine, Rhode Island Monthly. Kim Celona’s paintings have been exhibited in Italy, NYC and Providence, RI. Her art also resides in private collections in the United States and Italy.
Claire Fredrick
art gallery
Claire hails from the Midwestern fields of Illinois where she studied painting as an undergraduate student at Illinois State University. It was here that she began working for a community engaged youth project at the Illinois State University (ISU) galleries. After being exposed to community arts, Claire pursued her passion of teaching, community arts and fine art at Maryland Institute College of Art. She is now halfway through her Masters in Community Arts degree. Her first year graduate thesis gave her the opportunity to work with community members in Middle East Baltimore to create a series of workshops called the Communal Cooking Project. This unique project used storytelling, textile arts and hands on cooking as a way to create ongoing dialogue with community members and address issues of food justice and nutrition. Those who participated created a large-scale quilt, table runner and sound installation that were viewed publicly at MICA’s Fox Gallery to continue and document the discussions that occurred in the workshops. Now, with her first long-term community arts project under her belt, Claire is the co-creator of The Quilt Story Exchange, another fiber-intensive project that works with groups of women to celebrate personal narratives of survival, hope and joy.
Emma Goldman-Sherman
memoir
Emma’s plays (Perfect Women, Wombshot) have been seen in New York, Los Angeles, London and Zagreb produced by All Out Arts, Inc., Circle Rep Lab, The Women’s Project & Productions, Ensemble Studio Theatre, manhattantheatresource, and others. Her poems and essays have been published in American Athenaeum, American Theatre, Broad, The Chronicle for Higher Education, The Daily Camera, The Manhattan Times, and Adrienne Rich: A Tribute Anthology. She earned her MFA from the University of Iowa where her play, Antigone’s Sister, won the Richard Maibaum Award for plays addressing social justice. She has developed work at WordBridge, Ragdale and The Millay Colony for the Arts. In 2015 Counting in Shaab will be produced by Golden Thread Productions at The ReOrient Festival in San Francisco. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women, and New York Writers Workshop.
Alice Graves
memoir
Alice holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and I am currently a Library Director in a small town in Dutchess County, NY. She lived on the west coast of Florida for 24 years.
Allison Joseph
poetry
Allison’s most recent collection is My Father’s Kites (Steel Toe Books). She lives in Carbondale, Illinois, where she is on the faculty at Southern Illinois University.
Angelo R. Lacuesta
fiction
Angelo has won numerous awards for his fiction, among them two Philippine National Book Awards, the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award and several Palanca and Philippines Graphic Awards. He was literary editor of the Philippines Free Press and is currently editor-at-large at Esquire Philippines. He is also co-founder of Et Al Books, a publisher of Philippine contemporary literature.
Corey Mesler
poetry
Corey has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He is the author of eight novels, three books of short stories, three full-length collections of poetry, as well as numerous chapbooks of poetry and prose. John Grisham once blurbed one of his novels, as did Lee Smith and Marshall Chapman. He and his wife own Burke’s Book Store in Memphis TN. He can be found at www.coreymesler/wordpress.com.
Ashton J. Page
art gallery
Ashton is a painter from the cornfields of Omaha, Nebraska. He graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with a Master of Fine Arts in Community Art. Ashton witnessed first hand the innate healing properties of the creative process in a mural commission he received from his Alma Mater, Creighton University. Since then, he has been continuously interested in giving other people the opportunity to find their own healing through creation. Ashton has witnessed the restorative potential of creativity by running groups in Churches, neighborhoods, recovery centers, and juvenile detention centers. During his time at MICA he received various grants to research and practice embroidery and quilting as aids in the healing process from pain. Most recently, he has run a successful crowd funding campaign to use fiber techniques and the power of stories in the healing process with a groups of people all over Baltimore overcoming trauma.
Hilary Sideris
poetry
Hilary’s poems have appeared recently in Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, Connecticut Review, Confrontation, The Evansville Review, Fourteen Hills, Poetry Daily, Southern Poetry Review, The Southampton Review and West Branch. She is the author of Most Likely to Die, poems based on Keith Richards’s Life, forthcoming this fall from Poets Wear Prada Press. She lives in Brooklyn and works for The City University of New York.
David J. Rothman
poetry
David directs the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western State Colorado University, where he also leads the Poetry Concentration. He is Poet-in-Residence for Colorado Public Radio (http://www.cpr.org/sitesearch/%22David%20Rothman%22), and serves on the board of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and the West Chester University Poetry Center. His most recent books, all published in 2013, include two volumes of poetry, Part of the Darkness (Entasis Press) and The Book of Catapults (White Violet Press) and a work of creative nonfiction, Living the Life: Tales from Amercia’s Mountains & Ski Towns (Conundrum Press). He lives in Crested Butte, Colorado.
Verena Tay
fiction
Verena is a Singapore-based writer, editor, storyteller and theatre practitioner. She has published a short story collection, Spectre (Math Paper Press, 2012), and three play collections. She has also edited seven fiction anthologies, including the popular Balik Kampung series published by Math Paper Press. For more information, please visitwww.verenatay.com.
Adam Vines
poetry
Adam is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he is editor of Birmingham Poetry Review and director of the English Honors Program. His recent poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Poetry, Southwest Review, Gulf Coast, The Journal, and Measure. He is the author of The Coal Life (University of Arkansas Press) and the forthcoming According to Discretion–a collection of collaborative poems written with Allen Jih–(Unicorn Press).
Andre-Naquian Wheeler
memoir
Andre is a 19-year-old Texas native currently studying Journalism at New York University. His work has been featured by Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Linguistic Erosion, and The Drunken Odyssey.
Tishon Woolcock
poetry
Tishon is a writer and designer who believes that language, written or visual, is humankind’s most vital asset. As a poet, Tishon is devoted to cataloging language. His first poetry collection is The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You: Poems by Caits Meissner and Tishon (2012). He has read his work at La Mama Theater; Nuyorican; the LouderArts Reading Series; the Governor’s Island Poetry Festival; and many other events. In 2014, Tishon was awarded a Poets House Emerging Poets Fellowship.
STAFF
Jonathan Kravetz
editor-in-chief
Jonathan is best known for his ability to scratch his forehead and squint his eyes simultaneously. He is a playwright, editor and some time trumpet player who spends too much time reading long feature stories on the world wide web. He is a co-founder of ducts and founder of the New York based reading series, Trumpet Fiction, held each month at KGB Bar in the east village. His plays have been produced in New York, Dallas and Brighton, England. He teaches creative writing in New York and literature at FIT SUNY. He has an MFA from Queens College CUNY.
Jacqueline Bishop
art gallery editor
Jacqueline is an award-winning photographer-painter-writer born and raised in Jamaica, who now lives and works in New York City (“Jamaica’s 15th Parish”). She has twice been awarded Fulbright Fellowships, including a year-long grant to Morocco; her work exhibits widely in North America, Europe and North Africa. She also teaches Liberal Studies at New York University; is the author of The River’s Song, a novel about growing up in Jamaica. She writes a monthly visual arts article for the Huffington Post. Visit Jacqueline Bishop at her website at: http://www.jacqueline-bishop.com
Lisa Kirchner
memoir editor
Lisa is the producer and host of New York’s only reading and improv series, The Next Chapter. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Salon.com, BUST Magazine, The New York Post, Budget Travel, Kirkus Reviews and TheHuffingtonPost.com, among numerous others. Before moving to the Persian Gulf, she was the religion editor for Pittsburgh’s gay and lesbian newspaper, the bridal editor for its society rag, and an alt newsweekly dating columnist. Her flash essay, “My Husband: My Moto,” appeared in the compilation Learning to Love You More (Prestel Publishing, 2007). Her solo show, CRANKY WHITE GIRL IN QATAR, is the basis for her memoir. She currently lives in New York City.
Amy Lemmon
poetry editor
Amy is the author of two poetry collections: Fine Motor (Sow’s Ear Poetry Review Press, 2008) and Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press, 2009) and co-author, with Denise Duhamel ofABBA: The Poems (Coconut Books, 2010) and Enjoy Hot or Iced: Poems in Conversation and a Conversation (Slapering Hol Press, 2011). Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, New Letters,Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The Journal, Barrow Street, and many other magazines and anthologies. Amy is associate professor of English at the Fashion Institute of Technology and lives with her two children in Astoria, Queens.
Kat Rodies
humor editor
Kat Rodies is a nurse practitioner, medical writer, and short fiction enthusiast who has been called the ideal person to have with you in a POW camp.
Tim Tomlinson
fiction editor
Tim’s fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, North American Review, Libido, and elsewhere. He’s published haiku in Modern Haiku, Time Haiku, and Black Bough. He’s an occasional journalist, and a full time teacher, working at both NYU and the New York Writers Workshop.
Illustrators
Daniella Batsheva
Daniella is an illustrator and designer born and raised in Philadelphia, working in Los Angeles. Brought up in a clash of cultures from various different countries, her work subtly reflects the frenzy of her home and family. She graduated from The University of the Arts with a BFA in Illustration in May, 2011. Inspired by bad horror films, eastern culture, and candy, Daniella concocts edgy pieces with color palettes brighter than your mom’s 80’s jumpsuit.
Albert Collado
Albert is an aspiring artist studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Born in the Dominican Republic he moved to the United States when he was three years old. He currently works for the author of “Little Book, Big Dreams” a twelve book series that is being sold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Author House.
Chris Frost (humor section)
When not reminiscing about life in the old New York, Chris Frost designs and crafts handbags. His illustrations have appeared in Ducts and Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium Of Imaginary Fights. He currently resides in Bushwick, but dreams of a move to Puerto Varas.
Yuliya Kashapova
Yuliya has been working in the design field for past 6 years as a graphic artist and illustrator. In 2005 she received BA in Design and Studio Art from UVA, and went on working on various projects in TV, film, and music industries in NYC, San Francisco, LA, and New Jersey. Her illustration works have been published in The New Yorker, and various literary magazines. www.kashapova.com
Natalie Lerario
Natalie has been working as a graphic artist since 2005 and has recently completed a web design certificate program in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Along with graphic design, Natalie also enjoys creating digital illustrations. www.NatalieLerario.com.