Fall 2020 Issue

Loree Griffin Burns writes books and essays that celebrate our natural world and the people who study it. She has beachcombed on both American coasts, surveyed birds in Central Park, stung herself with a honey bee, wintered with monarch butterflies, and lived on an uninhabited volcanic island, all in the name of a great story. She and her husband Gerry make their home in central Massachusetts, along with a few bees, a couple chickens, three young adults, and one springer spaniel. (www.loreeburns.com)

Devin Donovan is a writer and teacher living in Charlottesville, Virginia. His work has appeared in Stonecoast Review, The Real Story, Mantis, Freshwater Review, The Windsor Review, and elsewhere. He is an assistant professor of English and associate director of the Writing & Rhetoric Program at the University of Virginia.

L’Tanya Durante is a creative nonfiction writer, community engagement worker, and mother living in Durham, North Carolina. She served as a prose reader on the editorial team at the former Linden Avenue Literary Journal, which featured exclusively the writing of women of color, and has also served as an editorial intern for the nonfiction magazine Hippocampus. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Bay Path University with her memoir manuscript, a collection of essays challenging the myth of what it means to be a strong Black woman. Several of her “Tiny Truths” have been published in Creative Nonfiction Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @writerordiegirl.

Janine Fondon is a writer, speaker, consultant, media producer, and chair of the communications department at Bay Path University. She is a frequent contributor to the news site MassLive, where she writes about social justice, women’s issues, education, and the business community. She recently curated and produced an exhibit and series of public events at the Springfield Museums: “Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move.” In 2018, Fondon was named one of the top African American female professors by the AAFPA (African American Female Professors Association).

Nina Gaby is a writer, visual artist, and advanced practice nurse who specializes in addiction and psychiatry. Her work has appeared in Psychiatric Times, The Intima, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s, and the Brevity Blog; and her artwork is held in collections at the Smithsonian, Arizona State University, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her anthology, Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women, was published in 2015. She holds a Master’s degree in Psych-Mental Health nursing and a degree in Fine Arts. She offers trainings and workshops, and has taught at several universities. Find out more at www.ninagaby.com.

Sue Hann is a London Writers Awards recipient 2019-20. She won the Diana Woods Memorial Award in 2020. Her work has been published in journals including Popshot Quarterly, Longleaf Review and Litro, as well as flash fiction anthologies. You can find her on Twitter @SYwrites.

Fredric Hildebrand is a retired physician living in Neenah, Wisconsin. His recent poetry has appeared in Right Hand Pointing and The Raven Review. His first chapbook, A Glint of Light, will be published later this year by Finishing Line Press. When not writing or reading, he plays acoustic folk guitar and explores the Northwoods with his wife and two Labrador retrievers.

Allen Koshewa, an educator by profession, is also a writer and photographer. His photographs were exhibited in London in 2019 as part of the London Photo Festival, and recently two of his photos were featured in Wild Roof Journal. Allen showcases selected photos on his blog at koshewa.com.

Kate Gonzales Long is an elderly abolitionist feminist living and writing in Los Angeles. She has spent two decades in emergency management, and is recognized nationally for her leadership in seismic and disaster hazard and communication. She started her career as a film producer in Hollywood, following a number of years as a political performance artist and actor. 

James MacDonald has been a working actor in television, film, and theatre for 25 years. He has written and performed his own work in the form of plays, short films, and performance pieces. He also teaches writing workshops to the incarcerated and the recently paroled in Los Angeles, where he currently resides.

D.S. Maolalai’s work has been nominated seven times for Best of the Net and three times for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry has appeared in two collections, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden and Sad Havoc Among the Birds; and in journals including The Eunoia Review,More Said Than Done, Star Tips, Myths Magazine, Ariadne’s Thread, The Belleville Park Pages, and Killing the Angel. He is a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin in English Literature.

Anandi Mishra is a Delhi-based writer and communications professional who has worked as a reporter for The Times of India and The Hindu. Her writing has also been published by or is forthcoming in Popula, Mint, Los Angeles Review of Books, 3AM Magazine, Transformations, RejectionLit, Berfrois, and others. Her essay, “A Satyajit Ray Lockdown,” appears in the anthology Garden Among Fires (Dodo Ink, July 2020). Follow her on Twitter @anandi010.

Abigail Mitchell is a young writer and student who worked for a time in a doughnut shop. Her story, “Read This If He’s Your High School Boyfriend,” was included in an anthology published by BusyB Writing in the fall of 2020. She lives in Griswold, Connecticut.

Carol Munro writes poetry and prose for adults and children. A former freelance writer for corporations, she has published hundreds of ghostwritten articles. In recent years, she has written picture books and published her work in Highlights magazine. She serves as a co-moderator of Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 Picture Book Challenge (an international online community of writers) and is the Member News editor for the New England chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She has also taught writing workshops and offers manuscript critiques to kidlit writers.

Elizabeth Peavey is the author of three books and countless print columns and features, including for Down East magazine, where she is a contributing editor. Her one-woman show, My Mother’s Clothes Are Not My Mother, played to sold-out houses for six years and received the Maine Literary Award for Best Drama. She was a lecturer of public speaking at the University of Southern Maine for over 20 years and has taught memoir writing since the days of quill and parchment. She is a frequent keynote and guest lecturer at conferences and schools.

Lisa Poulson was once a tech industry badass, a grieving widow, and a faithful Mormon all at the same time. Now a writer in San Francisco, she writes about the complex beauty of female power. Her work has appeared on ManifestStation, Jen Pastiloff’s popular blog; has received an honorable mention for Memoir Vignette in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition; and is forthcoming in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Jo Pitkin is the author of Cradle of the American Circus: Poems from Somers, New York; Commonplace Invasions; Rendering; and the forthcoming Village: Recession. Her poems have been published in The New York Review of Books, Little Star, Nimrod International Journal, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, A Slant of Light, and other journals and anthologies. After working as an editor at Houghton Mifflin Company, she became a freelance educational writer. She lives in the former Pear Tree Hill School in the Hudson Valley.

Judith Sanders’ work has appeared in journals such as The American Scholar, Light, The Poet, and Calyx, and on the websites Vox Populi and Full Grown People. Her poetry manuscript, In Deep, was recently named a semifinalist for the Red Mountain Press Discovery Award. A Yale graduate who went on to earn a Ph.D. in English from Tufts, she has taught English at universities and independent schools, and in France on a Fulbright Fellowship. She lives in Pittsburgh.

Ellie Spencer lives in an old farmhouse with her partner and an array of animal companions. She is a psychologist and an emerging creative nonfiction writer, with equal devotion to both crafts, and has a penchant for sprinkle doughnuts She holds a Ph.D. in psychology and is fascinated by the human condition, which she explores in her writing.  Conversation, coffee, and internet cats fuel her writing habits and she indulges whenever she can.

Shinichi Terada has a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Hong Kong and has written hundreds of economic and business articles in Japan, China, and India. He is currently writing a set of memoir pieces about family estrangement and his relationship with his mother, set in rural Japan. 

Krystina Wales works in donor communications and engagement in Baltimore. A mother with a coffee obsession, she writes personal essays about life, work, and family.

Rhianna Webb lives with her baby girl, Jax; a tiny dog, Ditto; and husband Patrick, whom she met on an island beach. She can often be found daydreaming of writing while doing mindless tasks, and writing when she should be sleeping. When those around her continually repeated, “You need to write your story,” she heard, “You need to tell the story. The one that, at times, feels vaguely familiar.” She earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Bay Path University in 2020.