Current Issue Contributors
Non-Fiction
Kimberly Dark is a writer, mother, performer and professor. She is the author of five award-winning solo performance scripts and her poetry and prose appear in a number of publications. For more than ten years, Kimberly has inspired audiences in fancy theatres, esteemed universities and fabulous festivals. She tours widely in North America and Europe—anywhere an audience loves a well-told story. The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah says "Dark doesn't shy away from provocative, incendiary statements, but don't expect a rant. Her shows, leavened with humor, are more likely to explore how small everyday moments can inform the arc of our lives." The High Plains Reader in Fargo, North Dakota says "Dark's skill as a storyteller gets to your heart by exposing hers." You can find more from her here: www.kimberlydark.com
Thomas Larson is the author of The Saddest Music Ever Written: The Story of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and The Memoir and the Memoirist. His website is www.thomaslarson.com
Claude Clayton Smith is the Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University. He is the author of a historical novel, two children's books, four books of creative nonfiction, and serves as co-editor/translator of the world's first anthology of Native Siberian literature. He has published more than fifty poems and a variety of short fiction, essays, and reviews. Four of his plays have been selected for production in competition. His work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. He holds a BA from Wesleyan (CT), an MAT from Yale, an MFA in fiction from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, and a DA from Carnegie-Mellon. His latest book is Ohio Outback: Learning to Love the Great Black Swamp (Kent State University Press, 2010).
Karl Williams has published two books with leaders in the self-advocacy movement (the civil rights work of people with intellectual disabilities); a play based on one of these books premiered in San Diego last year. Williams' work has appeared in magazines and books, as well as in videos and on websites. Songs from his five CDs have aired on NBC, Fox, and on German TV, and on radio stations around the world.
Fiction
Ann T. Welch earned her MFA in Writing from Spaulding University and is a member of The Cincinnati Writers Project. She divides her time between Bellaire, Michigan and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Poetry
Rosalind Brenner holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems have been published in The Cortland Review, Poetry Bay, The Southampton Review, Long Island Sounds, Walt's Corner in The Long Islander, Taproot Journal, Performance Poets Association Literary Review, Cave Moon Press' anthology of poems about food for their hunger project, Broken Circles. She has three poems in the Arroyo Literary Review Spring 2011. She won Honorable Mention in Long Island Quarterly's Gertrude Stein “look-alike” contest, second prize in The North Sea Poetry Scene poetry contest and second prize in Farmingdale's Long Island poetry contest. She received two Honorable Mentions in The New Millennium national contest, one for essay, one for poetry.
Valentina Cano is a student of classical singing who spends whatever free time either writing or reading. Her works have appeared in Exercise Bowler, Blinking Cursor, Theory Train, Magnolia's Press, Cartier Street Press, Berg Gasse 19, Precious Metals, and will appear in the upcoming editions of A Handful of Dust, The Scarlet Sound, The Adroit Journal, Perceptions Literary Magazine, Welcome to Wherever, The Corner Club Press, Death Rattle, Danse Macabre, Subliminal Interiors, Generations Literary Journal, Super Poetry Highway, Stream Press, Stone Telling, Popshot and Perhaps I'm Wrong About the World. You can find her here: http://coldbloodedlives.blogspot.com.
A.M. O'Malley is a poet and zinester living in Portland, OR. She teaches Creative Writing through the University of Oregon and The Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is currently working on a book project called Tiny Bones.
Suchoon Mo is a Korean War veteran and a retired academic living in the semiarid part of Colorado. His poems and music compositions appeared in a number of literary and cultural publications.
Marian Kaplun Shapiro is the author of a professional book, Second Childhood (Norton, 1988), a poetry book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007) and two chapbooks: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line, 2007); and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House, 2007). As a Quaker and a psychologist, her poetry often addresses the embedded topics of peace and violence, often by addressing one within the context of the other. A resident of Lexington, she was named Senior Poet Laureate of Massachusetts in 2006, in 2008, in 2010, and 2011.
Art
Haris Merzihic Born in Bosanski Novi, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moved to Croatia in 1991 due to the outbreak of a war and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moved to Germany in 1993 and lived there for 6.5 years. Moved to the Erie, PA in 1999. Attended Collegiate Academy high school and Mercyhurst College. Graduated from Mercyhurst with a B.A. in the field of Graphic Design. Haris works at FMC Technologies as a graphic designer.
Luthien Thye After graduating in Accounting & Economics, Luthien returned home to Malaysia where she worked about six hours in a business firm before quitting, and was absolutely convinced that she should be doing something else. So she pursued her first love ... the Stage. After many years performing as well as directing shows, she did what her heart wanted to do next ... fall in love and start a family. Being a mom to two amazing girls left her no time for the grueling schedules of the stage or its rehearsals, so making art followed as she had to find another way to express her emotions, thoughts, muse, and self. If someone were to ask her, what the one tool she cannot do without was, it would have to be her imagination. She is chiefly inspired by fantasy. When she reads a book or watches a movie about a different world, or perhaps, a journey of exploration, her imagination continues to weave stories and characters even after the book or the movie ends, and from these stories, her pieces manifest. For more of Luthien’s art, see her website http://alteredalchemy.com or her Etsy Store http://alteredalchemy.etsy.com.
