Contributors
February 2014

J. Kent Allred has been published numerous times in local publications out of Chicago. He achieved his MA in creative writing under Stewart O'Nan and Betty Shipley. He currently teaches writing at North-West Arkansas and Crowder Colleges in Arkansas and Missouri.

 W. Scott R. Brownlee is the author of Chess. He has been published in Foliate Oak, Down in The Dirt, Mobius A Journal of Social Change, The MacGuffin and Children, Churches and Daddies. 

Sally Deskins is an Artist and writer, focusing on women and feminist writers and artist, including herself. Her art has been exhibited nationally; and published in publications such as Certain Circuits, Weave Magazine, Her Kind, Vagina, CLAP and Whitefish Review.

Sarah Kayss is an author and photographer whose work has appeared in literary magazines, journals and anthologies in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Sarah is a recipient of the Austrian-VKSÖ Prize (2012) and winner of the manuscript-award of the German Writers Association (2013).

George Freek is a poet/playwright living in Belvidere, IL. His poetry has recently appeared in The Missing Slate; Bone Parade; Hamilton Stone Review; The Oklahoma Review; The Poydras Review; and The Empirical Review. His plays are published by Playscripts, Inc.; Havescripts; and Lazy Bee Scripts (UK).

Louise House is a poet whose work has appeared magazines including Pirene's Fountain and Chantarelle's Notebook. She has lived in Chicago, New York City and Albuquerque, NM. She is a former dancer turned lawyer.


D.S. Jones is a writer published in Black Heart Magazine, Shotgun Honey, and the Told You So Anthology from Pill Hill Press.


Philip Kuan is an author from Cupertino, California. He has been published in CC&D Magazine, Nerve Cowboy, and The Anguilar Expression. 

Steve Mason hails from the mysterious land of Nashua, NH. His ambition is to explore the far reaches of the imagination and chronicle the wonders born there. He currently attends Full Sail University as a student in the Creative Writing in Entertainment Bachelor’s program. 

Keith Moul is the author of The Grammar of Mind from Blue & Yellow Dog; Beautiful Agitation from Red Ochre Press; and Reconsidered Light, a collection of my poems written to accompany his photography, from Broken Publications.

Christopher Mulrooney has written poems in Red Branch Journal, The Germ, Auchumpkee Creek Review, Epigraph Magazine, Exercise Bowler, Futures Trading, Pomona Valley Review, Or, The Ofi Press Magazine, SAND Journal, The Hour of Lead, Black & BLUE, The Cannon's Mouth, The Seventh Quarry, and The Criterion.

Richard Ong is a writer and photographer whose has appeared in several issues of bewilderingstories.com, yesterdaysmagazette.com and The Blotter Magazine. One of these stories has been republished in print as part of an anthology titled, Toys Remembered. He is also an executive producer of a promotional movie short nominated for Best Guerilla Film Short at the 2013 Action on Film Festival at Monrovia, California.

Edward Palumbo is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island. His fiction, poems, shorts, and journalism have appeared in numerous periodicals, journals, e-journals and anthologies including Rough Places Plain, Flush Fiction, Tertulia Magazine, Epiphany, The Poet’s Page, Reader’s Digest, Baseball Bard,  Dark Matter, and poemkingdom.com.

William Paul Plumlee Is an Artist and writer from California currently producing work and raising funds for his new bliss (an organic dairy farm and cattle breeding operation in Oregon) in North Texas. His work has appeared in RFD Magazine, Gravel Magazine, and Wilde Magazine summer 2014.

Douglas Penick was a research associate at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, studied and practiced under Tibetan Buddhist teachers for 30 years, and wrote and taught on Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese and Indian religion, history and culture. He wrote the National Film Board of Canada’s prize winning two part series on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Leonard Cohen, narrator) and the libretti for two operas: King Gesar and Ashoka’s Dream with composer, Peter Lieberson.

Lauren Schmidt is the author of three collections of poetry.  Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Rattle, Nimrod, Fifth Wednesday Journal, New York Quarterly, Bellevue Literary Review and The Progressive.

Reem Rashash-Shaaban has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and is presently an instructor in the English Department at the American University of Beirut. She is Saudi Arabian and lives in Beirut. She writes poetry and fiction.

Daniel Shea is a 28-year-old writer living in Denver. He is a journalist by trade, but has found himself drawn more and more into writing fiction over the past year.

Cynthia Staples is a writer and photographer living in Somerville, MA. Most people consider her a nature photographer but, of late, food has been a great inspiration.

Jay Hansford Vest is a writer from North Carolina whose work was drawn from his experience among the Blackfeet Indians.

Kiley Walsh is a senior at Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, IL. She has always had a passion for writing and writes for her school's newspaper, The Prospector. Kiley's first kiss experience was not the greatest, to say the least.

Laura Wiseman is the author of ten collections of poetry. She is the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013). Her Collaborations with artists and designers include broadsides, postcards, exhibits, and shows.