Amina Akinola, Frontiers VIII,is an emerging Nigerian poet. A graduate of community health from the Lagos State college of health technology. Her works are previously published on Brittle Papers, Icefloe Magazine, Sledgehammer, Fiery Scribe Review, Shamsrumi, Naija Readers Buffet, Spillword, Kalahari Review, Ninshar Art, Ngiga Review, Woven Poetry, The Shallow Tales Review and others. Her poem was shortlisted for the Arise Africa writers contest anthology 2020 and she writes from Lagos. She is a lover of all forms of art and enjoys sleeping herself in poetry.

Victoria Woolf Bailey‘s first full-length collection Cannibalism and the Copenhagen Interpretation: a Love Story is scheduled to be released by Finishing Line Press in March 2022. Her work has been published in Still, the Journal, Kudzu, the Single Hound and a number of others.

Sy Brand is a queer non-binary poet living in Edinburgh, Scotland. They write through the haze of cat-/child-induced sleep deprivation to try and make sense of gender, relationships, and ADHD. Their work has been published in Popshot Quarterly, Capsule Stories, and ZARF Poetry, among others. You can find them on Twitter @TartanLlama and their publications at sybrand.ink.

Les Brown grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. Professor Emeritus at Gardner-Webb University, he is a potter, artist and writer.

 A Pushcart nominee, his poetry book, A Place Where Trees Had Names (Redhawk Publications) focuses on his mountain childhood. His poetry has appeared in journals including: Kakalak, Pinesong, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Avalon and Front Porch Review. His poetry has been recognized by the North Carolina Poetry Society including first place awards and a finalist place for the “Poet Laureate Award.”

He is a wildlife photographer and painter, using his biological background in capturing the beauty of nature, especially of birds, in acrylic paintings. Les has also researched and published papers exploring the social history of his native Appalachian region. He lives with his wife, Joyce and cat, Gracie, in Troutman, North Carolina.

Darren C. Demaree‘s poems have appeared, or are scheduled to appear, in numerous magazines/journals, including Hotel Amerika, Diode, North American Review, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review. He is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently ‘a child walks in the dark’ (November 2021, Harbor Editions) and the Editor in Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living and writing in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Karen George is author of five chapbooks, and three collections from Dos Madres Press: Swim Your Way Back (2014), A Map and One Year (2018), and Where Wind Tastes Like Pears (2021). Her work appears in Adirondack Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Indianapolis Review, Salamander, Stirring, Poet Lore, and I-70 Review. Visit her website is: https://karenlgeorge.blogspot.com/.

Connie Jordan Green lives on a farm in East Tennessee where she writes and gardens.  She is the author of two award-winning novels for young people, The War at Home and Emmy, published originally by Margaret McElderry imprint of MacMillan and Simon Shuster, respectively, reissued in soft cover by Tellico Books imprint of Iris Press; two poetry chapbooks, Slow Children Playing and Regret Comes to Tea, both published by Finishing Line Press; and two poetry collections, Household Inventory, 2015, winner of the Brick Road Poetry Award, and most recently Darwin’s Breath (Iris Press). Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies. She frequently leads writing workshops. More information is available at conniejordangreen.com.

Heather Haigh is an emerging, disabled, working-class writer, from England. When she’s not writing she enjoys nature, yarn crafts and reading. Her words have been published by Blinkpot, The painted word, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Hysteria.

Irene Blair Honeycutt‘s fourth poetry book, Beneath the Bamboo Sky (Main Street Rag 2017), is subtitled Poems and Pieces on Loss and Consolation because, she explains, “It is my attempt to honor life by giving voice to sorrow and joy.  Much of the book is about the loss of siblings—a grief not often recognized in our culture.”   Irene founded Central Piedmont Community College’s annual Spring Literary Festival (now called Sensoria).  Her work has been published by journals, including Nimrod, Southern Poetry Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology: VII, and Virginia Quarterly Review.  Garrison Keillor in June 2017 included one of her poems on Writers Almanac.  She has studied in the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Iceland.  She lives in Indian Trail, NC, mentors poets, and is working on her fifth poetry manuscript.

Helga Kidder lives in the hills of Tennessee with her husband and woodland critters.  She has an MFA from Vermont College and leads a poetry group for the Chattanooga Writers Guild.  Her poems have been published in Conestoga Zen, Artemis, Amythyst Review and others.  She has five collections of poetry, Wild Plums, Luckier than the Stars, Blackberry Winter, Loving the Dead—which won the 2020 Blue Light Press Book Award—and Learning Curve. 

Joan Mazza has worked as a medical microbiologist, psychotherapist, and taught workshops on understanding dreams and nightmares. She is the author of six self-help psychology books, including Dreaming Your Real Self (PenguinPutnam). Her poetry has appeared in The MacGuffin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Adanna Literary Journal, Poet Lore, and The Nation. She lives in rural central Virginia.

www.joanmazza.com
TWITTER: joancmazza
FACEBOOK: joanmazza

Arik Mitra lives in Kolkata, India. An IT professional, he has been writing for three years now. He writes mainly short stories and poetry in english and bengali (mother tongue). His work has been published by Clarendon House Publications, Red Penguin Books, Rosey Ravelston Books-Dyst Journal, Writers and Reader’s Magazine and more.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/arik.mitra.927

iINSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/neuralnomad/

William Rieppe Moore is from Richland County, South Carolina and moved to Unicoi County, Tennessee in 2012 with his wife, Cherith, where they practice homesteading and animal husbandry. He also enjoys climbing, backpacking, and swimming in the Nolichucky River, experiences that provide the material context of his poems. In May of 2021, he received his MA in English from East Tennessee State University, and in 2019 he began teaching high schoolers. He writes with his field guides and ballad books open, and his primary goal, when he is writing a poem, is to finish the poem. His work has appeared in James Dickey Review, Ligeia, Still: The Journal, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, Vita Brevis, and Tiny Seed Literary Journal. His work is forthcoming in American Diversity Report as well as Voices.

Zach Murphy is a Hawaii-born writer with a background in cinema. His stories appear in Reed Magazine, The Coachella Review, Maudlin House, Still Point Arts Quarterly, B O D Y, Ruminate, Wilderness House Literary Review, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, and more. His debut chapbook Tiny Universes (Selcouth Station Press, 2021) is available in paperback and e-book. He lives with his wonderful wife Kelly in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Clement Obropta is a masters student at the University of St Andrews, where he studies film with a bachelor’s from Ithaca College. He writes film criticism for Film Inquiry and MAYDAY magazine, where he serves as culture editor. He also edits photography for Wanderlust Journal lit mag. His poetry also appears in Gastropoda Lit Mag. Prose and photography published elsewhere.

Gerard Sarnat won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest, the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of 2021 and previous Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. Gerry is widely published including in The North Meridian Review, Buddhist Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Blue Minaret, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Northampton Review, New Haven Poetry Institute, Newark Public Library, Texas Review, Vonnegut Journal, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, Monterey Poetry Review, The Los Angeles Review, New York Times, London Reader and Review Berlin as well as by Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Chicago and Columbia presses. He’s authored the collections Homeless Chronicles (2010), Disputes (2012), 17s (2014), Melting the Ice King (2016). Gerry is a physician who’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized as well as a Stanford professor and healthcare CEO. Currently he is devoting energy/ resources to protect democracy plus deal with climate justice, and serves on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with three kids plus six grandsons, and is looking forward to future granddaughters. 

gerardsarnat.com

Lacy Snapp possesses the dual spirit of both a poet and a carpenter. Her first chapbook, Shadows on Wood, was published in 2021 by Finishing Line Press. Born and raised in Johnson City, TN, she now teaches American Literature and Composition at ETSU. She started her own woodworking business in 2016, Luna’s Woodcraft, which makes custom creations using reclaimed barnwood and vends craft events. Locally, she is a board member for the Johnson City Poets Collective which facilitates spoken word events for the community. She is currently an MFA in Writing candidate at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poetry appears in the Mockingbird, Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing, Women of Appalachia Project’s Women Speak: Volume 6 and Volume 7, and is forthcoming from Ariel Publishing. 

After 30 years of life in Eastern Canada and the Northeast US, Fred Tudiver settled in East Tennessee at the Quillen College of Medicine at ETSU. After years of publishing medical research papers and books he started his first retirement 5 years ago and started an adventure of creative writing from the “other side of the brain”. He holds a BSc from McGill University, and an MD from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is a new poet and likes to explore the human condition and the natural world.

Kristen Wood is a writer, mother of five, and a librarian. Kristen’s work has been featured on Scary Mommy, Pop Sugar, Still Standing, Mothers Always Write, as well as many others. In her everyday life, she enjoys creating, napping, and pondering the cosmos.

Follow her author page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorkristenwood/, where she will attempt to make you laugh, cry, and think, sometimes all at once.