Lauren Schmidt is the author of three collections of poetry: Two Black Eyes and a Patch of Hair Missing; The Voodoo Doll Parade; and Psalms of The Dining Room. Schmidt teaches Developmental English at Passaic County Community College, serves as a Poet-in-the-Schools for Paterson Public Schools, and volunteer teaches a creative writing workshop at a…

Richard LeBlond is a retired biologist living in North Carolina. He has been writing about life experiences, travel to Europe and North Africa in the 1970s, and more recent adventures in eastern Canada and the U.S. West. His essays and photographs have appeared in several U.S. and international journals.

Nafissa Thompson-Spires earned a PhD from Vanderbilt University and an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in East Bay Review, Blinders Literary Magazine, FLOW, The Feminist Wire, and other publications. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of African-American Studies and Creative…

P Kearney Byrne’s work has won the Francis MacManus Award (2012) and the Bryan MacMahon Award (2014). In 2013 she was long-listed in the UK Sunday Times EFG Short Story Competition and this year she was a finalist in the inaugural Hamlin Garland Award for Fiction (Beloit Fiction Journal, USA). She has work forthcoming in…

A former newspaper journalist, Chris Duggan is public relations coordinator at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo., where he lives with his two kids. He is a 2012 graduate of Lindenwood’s MFA in Writing program, and his essays and short stories have appeared in Stymie Magazine, Foliate Oak, and the anthology Flash 101: Surviving the…

Elizabeth Tannen is a Brooklyn-born, Minneapolis-based writer and teacher. She has essays, poems and stories published or forthcoming in places like Front Porch Journal, The Rumpus, Southern Humanities Review, B O D Y Literature, Salon and The Morning News. Sometimes she posts on her blog, Dating in the Odyssey Years.

Emma Zurer is a Brooklyn-bred artist, performer and educator. She helps to promote the acceptance of clowns and the legacy of Klaus Nomi. Her collages have been exhibited in New York at the SculptureCenter and CULTUREfix Gallery. Emma has performed with the artistcollective Cheryl in nightclubs around New York, including the Museum of Modern Art.…

Lane Falcon’s poems have been published in The Cortland Review, Rhino, december, Verse (online) and more. She lives with her daughter and newborn son in Northern Virginia.

Katya Cummins earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her book reviews and other short pieces have appeared at Inside Higher Ed, Prick of the Spindle, Sleet, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and Under The Gum Tree. She earned an MA in English Literature and…