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Lhouceine Aamar
art gallery
Lhouceine is a photographer currently based in Rabat. He hold’s a Bachelor’s degree from Moulay Slimane University and is the 2014-2015 recipient of a prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Award to the University of Minnesota Law School and its Human Rights Centre.
Kim Addonizio
fiction
Kim has been called “one of our nation’s most provocative and edgy poets.” Her latest books are Lucifer at the Starlite, a finalist for the Poets Prize and the Northern CA Book Award; and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton. Her novel-in-verse, Jimmy & Rita, was recently reissued by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Kalima Press published her Selected Poems in Arabic. Addonizio’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships, and Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and the essay. Her collection Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist. Other books include two novels from Simon & Schuster,Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street. Her new story collection, The Palace of Illusions, is due from Counterpoint/Soft Skull in September 2014. Addonizio offers private poetry workshops in Oakland, NYC, and online, and often incorporates her love of blues harmonica into her readings. www.kimaddonizio.com.
Fred Arroyo
fiction
Fred is the author of Western Avenue and Other Fictions (U of Arizona P, 2012) and the novel The Region of Lost Names (U of Arizona P, 2008), a finalist for the 2008 Premio Aztlán Literary Prize. Fred is a recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission, and in 2009 he was named one of the Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch (and Read) by LatinoStories.com. As a young man he worked a range of jobs that shaped his memory and imagination, and his sense of place and migration. Eventually he attended a local community college in Michigan, and subsequently received an MA in creative writing from Purdue University and an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, as well a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Currently, he is working on a book of essays, Close as Pages in a Book, in which he lyrically meditates on work, reading and writing, migration and place. He is also writing a novel set primarily in the Caribbean. His short stories have appeared in literary journals such as The Platte Valley Review, Grasslands Review, Quercus Review, Pinyon, and Crab Orchard Review: A Journal of Creative Works; and essays, poems, reviews, and interviews published in a variety of journals. His essay “Working in a Region of Lost Names” appeared in The Colors of Nature: Essays on Culture, Identity and the Natural World (2nd ed., Milkweed Editions, 2011). Fred lives in Vermillion, SD, and is an Assistant Professor of English with a specialization in fiction writing at the University of South Dakota.
Susan Berger
essays
Susan is a writer in New York City whose work has appeared in The Huffington Post. Prior to taking “time off” to raise her two children, she wrote about personal finance for magazines including ELLE and Money. She’s excited to no longer write stories with bullet points.
Devyani Borade
essays
Devyani writes on the humor and pathos of everyday life. Her fiction, nonfiction, and art have been published in magazines all across the world. When not being a wordsmith, she is devouring comic books and chocolates alike. Visit her website Verbolatry at http//devyaniborade.blogspot.com to read more of her work.
Michele Carlo
memoir
Michele Carlo is the author of the memoir Fish Out Of Agua: My life on neither side of the (subway) tracks (Citadel 2010). As a storyteller she’s appeared across the U.S., including the MOTH’s GrandSlams and Mainstage in NYC, and on NPR with Latino USA. Her essays can be found in Mr. Beller’s Lost & Found: Stories From New York, SMITH magazine’s Next Door Neighbor and F***ed In Park Slope, among others. She was also featured in the recent PBS documentary “Latino Americans of NY & NJ.” The stage adaptation of her memoir makes its NYC debut in 2014.
Wyn Cooper
poetry
Wyn’s fourth book of poems, Chaos is the New Calm, was published by BOA Editions in 2010. His poems have appeared in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry, as well as in Poetry, Slate, Orion, AGNI, Ploughshares, and more than a hundred other journals. He has taught at Bennington and Marlboro Colleges, the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, The Frost Place, and at the University of Utah. He has written songs with Sheryl Crow, David Broza, Jody Redhage, and David Baerwald. Songs from his two CDs with Madison Smartt Bell can be heard on six television shows. From 2009 to 2011, he worked for the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, a think tank run by the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. He is a former editor of Quarterly West, and the recipient of a fellowship from the Ucross Foundation. He currently works as a freelance editor of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. www.wyncooper.com
Charles Coté
poetry
Charlie is a clinical social worker in private practice and the author of Flying for the Window (Finishing Line Press, 2008), a book of poems about the loss of his firstborn son to cancer in 2005. His poems have appeared in a number of literary journals and magazines. He teaches poetry at Writers and Books, leads creative wellness workshops, and has collaborated with several theater groups over the past decade, adapting the libretto for the Robert Wesleyan College production of The Magic Flute, as well as writing original poetry in collaboration with fellow poets for Push Physical Theatre’s debut of Journey and InFusion Action Theater’s presentation of A Brief History of Women. He serves as the board chair for Melissa’s Living Legacy: Teen Cancer Foundation (aka Teens Living with Cancer) whose mission is to help teens and young adults impacted by cancer live their very best lives.
Shakira Croce
poetry
Shakira is a freelance writer in New York. A Georgia native, after studying writing with Vijay Seshadri at Sarah Lawrence College and completing a Masters at Pace University, she currently works as the Media Assistant Manager for PETA. She has previously worked for “Vista” Magazine in Italy and served twice as a juror for the Zerilli-Marimo City of Rome Prize for Italian Fiction. Croce’s poetry translations have appeared in Babel magazine, and most recently, her poetry has been featured in Poets and Artists, MiPOesias, Transactions, and the Red River Review, and she was a finalist in the 2013 Linda Flowers Literary Award competition for her poems.
Margot Douaihy
poetry
Margot is a writer, editor, and instructor living in Western Massachusetts. She has taught writing and literature at Marywood University and received her Master’s from the University of London, Goldsmiths. She has been featured in the Madison Review, The Guardian, Philadelphia Stories, and PolicyMic. In 2013, Margot was the Joy Harjo Poetry Contest finalist and Ora Lerman Trust writer-in-residence. Her chapbook, “I Would Ruby If I Could” (Factory Hollow Press), was featured in the Poets House 21st Annual Showcase. www.margotdouaihy.com
Sarah Enelow
memoir
Sarah is a Brooklyn-based travel writer who helps run a luthier’s shop by day. She’s won two Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing, written an NYC guidebook for Go! Girl Guides, and co-authored two NYC guidebooks for Not For Tourists. Raised in rural Texas, she’s been thrilled to study in Spanish Basque Country, intern in Moscow, complete a Fulbright Grant in Argentina, and spend a month writing for Not For Tourists in Beijing.
Jeffery Flannery
humor
Jeff lives in Minneapolis, MN. He was indeed a student of medicine and neuroscience and in fact took a brain in a jar through not only airport security, but through international customs. His work has been published in Deepwater Literary Journal, Electric Windmill Press, and other small literary journals. He is currently working on a novel that takes place in the early 1900s in London. And yes, he had a microcephalic Uncle Larry and has a pitbull rescue named Hippie who he hopes has to put him to sleep one day and not the other way around.
John Foy
poetry
John’s first book is Techne’s Clearinghouse (Zoo Press). His poems are featured in the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets. He has appeared widely in journals, including Poetry, The New Yorker, The New Criterion, Parnassus, The Raintown Review, American Arts Quarterly, and many others, and online at Poetry Daily, Kin, The Nervous Breakdown, Umbrella and other sites. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the Four Way Books Levis Prize. He has been a guest blogger for the Best American Poetry blog. He lives in New York where he curates a reading series for the Red Harlem Readers in Manhattan. www.johnffoy.net
Barry Gold
essays
Barry has a B.S. degree from the University of Cincinnati and a PhD from Boston University, followed by a three year postdoctoral fellowship at Yale. He has spent his career as a medical researcher and an executive in the pharmaceutical industry. He is married to Mindy Haas-Gold. They have one son and two adult children from previous marriage.
Don Katnik
essays
Don is a wildlife biologist who lives in Maine with his wifeMisty and their two dogs, Jedzia and Copper. When not working or doting on his family, he does home improvement projects on their 200-year-old home.
Jim Krosschell
essays
Jim divides his life into three parts: growing up for 29 years, working in science publishing for 29 years, and now writing in Massachusetts and Maine. His essays are widely published. See Saving Maine and One Man’s Maine for other work.
Susan S. Lara
fiction
Susan traces her roots to Urbiztondo, Pangasinan and Silay City. She majored in English and Comparative Literature at UP and attended the International Writing Program of Iowa. Her stories have won several Palanca and Focus literary awards. An adopted daughter of Dumaguete City, she has spent most of her summers sitting at the panel of its famous Workshop, then headed by Edith Tiempo and joined by many prominent writers. Susan is director of the Silliman National Writers Workshop, and author of the award-winning story collection, Letting Go, now available electronically (Kindle), and in which “A Gentlemen’s Agreement” appears.
Dan Morey
humor
Dan lives in Erie, PA where he relentlessly pursues the longnose gar, great northern pike, and mighty bowfin in the weedy waters of Presque Isle Bay. He’s worked as a book critic, nightlife columnist and outdoor journalist, and his writing has appeared or is forthcoming in many publications, including Giant Robot, Sein und Werden, The Eunoia Review, Eyeshot, The Big Jewel, Vagabond City and Smokebox.
Denise Rue
poetry
Denise’s poems have been published in Poet Lore, Paterson Literary Review, Inkwell, Alimentum and Miller’s Pond, among other literary journals. She received her MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in 2003 and has taught poetry in schools, nursing homes and a women’s prison. She works as a psychiatric social worker and resides in New Jersey.
Ron Slaughter
fiction
Ron is a Southern painter and writer. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in New York, across the United States, and in Europe. He holds degrees in Fine Arts from Florida State University (M.F.A.) and East Tennessee State University (B.A.). At Florida State, he studied on fellowship with Karl Zerbe. He taught at Hollins College (now University) for three years, before leaving for New York to continue studying, teaching and painting. He has resided in North Carolina for the past twenty-eight years. Slaughter has worked on this book, off and on, since 1990. The fiction draws on sources from his childhood and early adulthood in East Tennessee, and time spent in New York, Boston, Florida, and the low country of South Carolina. His writing is heavily influenced by his interests in psychology, physics, human genome research, modernist literature, and his own experiences as a painter.
Robbie Tucker
memoir
Robbie can’t believe she’s lived in the same NYC apartment for more than half her life. In it she writes film reviews and memoir stories for a collection with an unmentionable title, cooks, sews, copy edits and scoops cat litter. She occasionally sighs with regret over no longer owning a car.
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.
Derek Alger
essays editor
Derek Alger is a graduate of the Columbia University MFA writing program, and serves as Editor-at-Large to PIF Magazine. His fiction has appeared in Confrontation, Del Sol Review, The Literary Journal, and Night Train, to name a few. He has worked as an editor and reporter for newspapers in the Bronx for over 20 years.
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.
Anne Mironchik
assistant
Anne is much more renowned for her songwriting, which reaches back to capture the classic brilliance of favorite hits by Carole King and Laura Nyro. She blurs the lines between jazz, country, rock and R&B, weaving melody and rhythm together in masterful ways. Her rich alto voice leads listeners from one genre to another as she explores the struggles, loves, fears and joys of everyday heroes. When she’s not writing great music, Anne is busy crunching numbers for ducts! Anne’s new CD “Find Me” is now available and can be found at www.annemironchik.com. 4newsongs@earthlink.net.
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.
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.