Contributor Notes

Sara Adams    is a Montessori teacher in Portland, Oregon. She has work in publications such as tNY Press’s Electronic Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature, DIAGRAM (forthcoming) and/or, and Shampoo Poetry. She also co-wrote Fredward Bound, a full-length New Translation of Twilight with Greg Petrovic.


Jessamyn Birrer is an autism advocate, technical writing instructor, and poet. Her poems can be found or are forthcoming in Illuminations, Ninth Letter, and The Best American Poetry 2015. She lives and writes in Klamath Falls, Oregon.


Ace Boggess is the author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). He is an ex-con, ex-husband, ex-reporter, and completely exhausted by all the things he isn’t anymore. His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, Atlanta Review, RATTLE, River Styx, Southern Humanities Review and many other journals. He currently resides in Charleston, West Virginia.


Kristene Brown is a psychiatric social worker for the State of Kansas. Her poetry and fiction has previously been published or is forthcoming in The Cortland Review, Midwest Quarterly, Linebreak, Storyscape, upstreet, and others. Kristene lives and works in Kansas City.


A graduate of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, John F. Buckley has been writing poetry since March 2009, when his attempt at composing a self-help book went somewhat awry. After a twenty-year stint on and near the West Coast, he now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife. His publications include various poems, two chapbooks, the collection Sky Sandwiches, and with Martin Ott, Poets’ Guide to America and Yankee Broadcast Network. His website is https://johnfbuckley.net/.


Lauren Eyler grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in The Rumpus, Decomp, Bayou Magazine and other journals.  She is currently the fiction editor of Paper Nautilus.


Kathleen Furin’s work has been published in Salon, Philadelphia Stories, Literary Mama, Apiary, The Mother’s Movement Online, the Operation Homecoming anthology, and elsewhere. She has an MFA from New York University and an MSW from Temple University. She is a childbirth educator and the co-founder of the Maternal Wellness Group. She lives in Philly with her husband and two daughters.


M. Brett Gaffney, born in Houston, Texas, holds an MFA in poetry from Southern Illinois University and is the Art Editor for Gingerbread House literary magazine. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Exit 7, REAL, Still: The Journal, Scapegoat Review, BlazeVOX, Sugared Water, Stirring, Fruita Pulp, Rogue Agent, museum of americana, and Zone 3 among others.


Kia Groom is founding editor of Quaint Magazine. Her work has been published in Overland, Westerly, Cordite, and Going Down Swinging, and has been shortlisted for several awards including the Judith Wright Poetry Prize. She can be found online at kiagroom.com, and tweets @whodreamedit.


Kenan Ince is a mathematics PhD student from Dallas currently living in Houston. His work has been published in Word Riot, HEArt Online, and The Hartskill Review, among others. He has been a featured poet in Houston’s Public Poetry and First Friday reading series.


LaTanya McQueen has been published in The North American Review, Fourteen Hills, New Orleans Review, Potomac Review, Nimrod, Booth, and other journals. She received her MFA from Emerson College and is currently in the PhD program at the University of Missouri.


Nathanael Myers lives and writes in Utah. He teaches literacy and writing skills to immigrants and war refugees at a local college.


Alleliah Nuguid is from Fremont, California. Her poems can be found in Chantarelle’s Notebook, The New York Times Learning Blog, and the anthology Poets 11, curated by Jack Hirschman. Starting in Fall 2015, she will be an MFA candidate at Boston University.


Brian Oliu is originally from New Jersey and currently teaches at the University of Alabama. He is the author of three full-length collections, So You Know It’s Me (Tiny Hardcore Press, 2011), a series of Craigslist Missed Connections, Leave Luck to Heaven (Uncanny Valley Press, 2014), an ode to 8-bit video games, & Enter Your Initials For Record Keeping (Cobalt Press, 2015), essays on NBA Jam. i/o (Civil Coping Mechanisms), a memoir in the form of a computer virus, is forthcoming in 2015. His works in progress deal with professional wrestling and long distance running (not at once).


Peg Alford Pursell’s stories have been published in or are forthcoming from the Journal of Compressed Arts, Eleven Eleven, Tupelo Quarterly, the Los Angeles Review, Joyland, and others. She is the founder of Why There Are Words, a monthly reading series in Sausalito, and North Bay Writers Workshops. Her  book of flash fiction SHOW HER A FLOWER, A BIRD, A SHADOW is forthcoming from ELJ Publications. Much more info at her website, https://www.pegalfordpursell.com.


Mary B. Sellers will be attending Louisiana State University this coming fall to pursue an MFA in Fiction. Sellers’ first collection of short stories, Shoulder Bones, was published this past December, and is available on Amazon in print and Kindle format. She’s had essays and fiction published in a variety of online and print publications. This past April, she also founded the feminist online literary magazine, Siren Magazine (https://sirenlitmag.com) In her free time, she likes drinking cheap wine, snuggling with her puppy, Daisy Buchanan, and binging on Etsy shopping sprees.


Cathryn Shea’s poetry is forthcoming in Absinthe, and has appeared in MARGIE, Gargoyle, Blue Fifth Review, Quiddity, Quercus, Sierra Nevada Review, Soundings East, Poet Lore, POEM, and elsewhere. Cathryn’s chapbook, Snap Bean, was released in 2014 by CC.Marimbo of Berkeley. She was a merit finalist for the Atlanta Review 2013 International Poetry Competition. Cathryn is included in the 2012 anthology Open to Interpretation: Intimate Landscape. In 2004, she received the Marjorie J. Wilson Award judged by Charles Simic.  Cathryn served as editor for Marin Poetry Center Anthology, and worked as a principal technical writer at Oracle. She lives in Fairfax, CA with her husband George. She is a fourth-generation Californian, having grown up and lived in northern California and the northwest most of her life.


Born and raised in a small town in Alabama, Jason Tech had a meager and starved introduction to the arts. Although his exposure was limited, he still craved an outlet for expression. When he finished high school, he thought he might try to be a psychologist, seeing as it seemed practical, and he had no driving force pushing him towards the creative field at the time. After a couple of years and an Associates degree in Psychology, he decided to make the big move to Tuscaloosa and attend The University of Alabama. In his first year there, he met his wife who encouraged his interest and talents in both photography and graphic design. He then decided to change his major to graphic design, with a minor in advertising, and thus began his immersion into the art world. Almost ten years later, he is now 30 years old, married, and has an amazing one year old daughter. He now does freelance wedding, event, and lifestyle photography, but also focuses on more artistic subject matter in his spare time.


Nicholas A. White lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. His stories have appeared in Night Train, Pithead Chapel, Thrice Fiction, and elsewhere. Find him at: www.nicholasAwhite.com.