
Authors, poets, and artists featured in this issue…
Poem:
The Soft Side of Velcro
Aimee Hardy is a writer and editor in Birmingham, Alabama. Aimee is the author of Pocket Full of Teeth (2024) and has various short stories published with Running Wild Press, Stonecoast Review, and other literary collections. She also is an editor with Running Wild Press and Killer Nashville Magazine. She received a Pushcart nomination in 2019 for her short story “Paper” and is dedicated to telling stories in unique ways. Aimee is married with two kids and loves to get lost in nature or disappear into a good book with a warm cup of tea.
- Website: aimeehardy.com
- Instagram: @aimeenhardy
- Facebook: @aimee.trutthardy
Poem:
I Know
Alan Keith is a substitute teacher working out of Toronto, Canada. He tries to keep his writing honest by only writing about what he sees, but if he’s being (really) honest, he actually makes a lot of it up. When Alan isn’t writing, he’s either walking his blind Miniature Pinscher, riding his bike, or drinking tea with his girlfriend. To comment on Alan’s work, whether good or bad, use writeralankeith@gmail.com. Alan’s debut poetry collection is titled How I(t) Was and can be purchased on Amazon.
Story:
Sunny Days
Ally Campanozzi started writing in middle school and has been expanding her passion since. Her background includes a BA in Psychology and an MA in Creative Writing from SNHU. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. Her poetry has been featured in a few literary magazines and anthologies, including publications by Kelp Journal, The Closed Eye Open, Dream Noire Magazine, and Please See Me. Her writing explores psychology, mental health, magical realism, and dream worlds. She lives in Colorado.
- Instagram: @allycampanozziwriting
Story:
Drugs at a Houseparty
Amita Basu is a Pushcart-nominated writer whose fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in over seventy venues, including The Penn Review, Bamboo Ridge, Jelly Bucket, Phoebe, and Funicular. She’s a reader at The Metaworker, sustainability columnist and interviews editor at Mean Pepper Vine, and contributing editor at Fairfield Scribes Micro. Her short story collection, tentatively titled At Play and Other Stories, about the challenges and conflicts women and girls face in contemporary India, is due out with Bridge House Press in 2025. She lives in Bangalore, has a PhD in cognitive science, and works on sustainable behavior.
- Blog: amitabasu.com
Art:
False Face Visions
Dave Sims makes art and music in the old mountains of central Pennsylvania. His paintings, comix, stories, and poems appear in dozens of tactile and virtual galleries, exhibits, and publications.
Art:
Boxed In
Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, The Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet who has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times.
Poem:
Dark Carousel
Emma Galloway Stephens is a neurodivergent poet and professor from the Appalachian foothills in South Carolina. Her work has appeared in The Windhover, Persephone Magazine, Ekstasis Magazine, Thimble Literary Magazine, and two anthologies.
- Website: egstephenspoetry.com
- Instagram: @egstephenspoetry
- Bluesky: @emmagstephens.bsky.social
Poem:
View of the Alley
Frederick Pollack is the author of two book-length narrative poems, The Adventure and Happiness, both through Story Line Press; the former reissued in 2022 by Red Hen Press. Three collections of shorter poems, A Poverty of Words (Prolific Press, 2015), Landscape With Mutant (Smokestack Books, UK, 2018), and The Beautiful Losses (Better Than Starbucks Books, September 2023). Pollack has appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review, The Fish Anthology (Ireland), Magma (UK), Bateau, Fulcrum, Chiron Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, etc. Online, poems have appeared in Big Bridge, Hamilton Stone Review, BlazeVox, The New Hampshire Review, Mudlark, Rat’s Ass Review, Faircloth Review, Triggerfish, etc.
- Website: frederickpollack.com
Cover Art:
Stretching Myself Out
Jaina Cipriano is a photographer, designer, and filmmaker exploring religious and romantic entrapment. Her second short film, Trauma Bond, is a dreamy, coming-of-age thriller that explores healing deep wounds with quick fixes, it took home the grand prize at the Lonely Seal International Film Festival. Jaina is the executive director of the Arlington International Film Festival and the founder of Finding Bright Studios—an experiential design company in Lowell, MA. She has collaborated with GRRL HAUS, Boston Art Review, and was a Boston Fellow for the Mass Art Creative Business Incubator and a finalist in EforAll Merrimack Valley.
Art:
African Mask
Jeff Kovach is an artist, musician, and gadabout on the internet. He became an artist because he absolutely detests work. You can find him and his art online.
- Threads: @r.e.v_x
- Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/revx1212
Art:
Untitled
Joel M. Scinta is a photographer from Buffalo, NY.
- Website: joelmscinta.com
Art:
Looking for Identity
Kateryna Bortsova —at present time, she is a painter-graphic artist with BFA in graphic arts and MFA. Works of Kateryna took part in many international exhibitions (Taiwan, Berlin, Munich, Spain, Italy, USA etc.). She has won silver in the realism category in participation in “Factory of Visual Art,” New York, and in the 2015 Emirates Skywards Art of Travel competition, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Kateryna is always open for commission, and you can view her work online.
- Website: bortsova6.wixsite.com/bortsova
- Instagram: @katerynabortsova
Art:
Behind Car Light
Lucy Mason is earning her BA in English at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has been photographer for the Omaha Central Register (2018-2022), hired for events such as the Healthy for a Lifetime Conference (2019,2021), and has placed at the Nebraska State Journalism competition (2022), and won first place at Skills USA Regional (2020). Lucy is the Creative Nonfiction Section editor for UNO’s 13th Floor Literary Magazine (2024).
- Instagram: @_lucytakesphotos_
Art:
Mask
Rachel Turney is an educator and teacher trainer. Her poems and prose are published (or are in press) in The Font Journal, Nap Lit, Ranger, Through Lines Magazine, Bare Back, Lobster Salad and Champagne, and Teach Write Journal. Her photography appears in By the Beach, San Antonio Review, Rundelania, The Salt, San Antonio Review, Umbrella Factory Magazine, and Ink in Thirds Magazine.
- Blog: turneytalks.wordpress.com
- Instagram: @turneytalks
Art:
Distortos
Ricardo Jose Gonzalez-Rothi is an academic physician, internationally known amateur photographer and writer. Ricardo has had his work awarded, published, or forthcoming in Black and White Magazine, Light, Space and Time Gallery, Northwest Review, Fusion Art Gallery, London Photo Festival, Wanderlust Travel Journal, Grey Cube Gallery, Hispanic Culture Review, Tiny Seed, Stillwater Review, Small Harbor, Ilanot, and About Place journals among others.
Story:
The Sparrow
Robert Pope has published several books of short stories, including Killers & Others, with stories previously published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Fiction International, Sequestrum, and other journals and anthologies.
Poem:
Becca
Rosalie Hendon (she/her) is an arborist living in Columbus, Ohio. Her work is published in Ravens Perch, Quibble Lit, Sad Girls Diaries, Pollux, Blue Bottle, and Willawaw, among others. Rosalie is inspired by ecology, relationships, and stories passed down through generations.
Poem:
Rearview Cinderella
Vivianne Clark is from Omaha, Nebraska. Her creative work explores themes of feminism, poverty, and intimacy. Previous publishers of her work include Word of the Lamb magazine and The Word’s Faire magazine. She is currently studying English, sociology, and racial justice at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Clark loves playing the saxophone in the Cornhusker Marching Band and cozy nights inside with a good book.
Flash Fiction:
Bankers Hours
Whitney Ison Weisenberg is a writer, artist, teacher, Master Educator, mother of two daughters, and a member of SCBWI. She likes writing short stories and creating unflattering portraits. Her literary work has appeared in Paper Dragon, Dead Skunk Magazine, Nunum-Done in a Hundred Anthology, Nine Cloud Journal, Gabby and Min’s Literary Review, The Blue Mountain Review, Porter House Review, Little Old Lady, and Poet’s Choice.
- Instagram: @w_whitney