Mariam Ahmed
Step Aside
Mariam is a Californian poet. Her latest book, Hidden Parts, was published by Broken Tribe Press in 2025. Her poems have appeared in The Elevation Review, Kitchen Table Quarterly, Flint Hills Review, Folly Journal, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Poetry from San Diego State University.
Marie Anderson
Epiphany
Marie is a Chicago area married mother of three millennials. Her stories have appeared in dozens of publications, most recently (2024) in Epic Echoes, MetaStellar, Third Wednesday, and Wit Craft. Since 2009, she has led and learned from a writing critique group at a public library in IL.
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What other types of art do you create?
Does knitting count? I knit mostly easy stuff like scrubbies and hats. Sweaters are a challenge! I’ve knitted four sweaters. Only one I still wear. I’ve started to knit another sweater and am getting near the challenging part, shaping the neckline and doing the sleeves.How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
I’ve learned that the creative process is a team effort. I rely on others to read what I’ve written and give me feedback. And then I rewrite. Rewriting after feedback is where the magic happens.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I took a couple of writing classes in college. Keeping myself immersed in the world of words is how I continue my creative education. I love to read: stories, novels, nonfiction, poetry. I read to be entertained, educated, and enlightened. I have a nice little collection of writing books, including Stephen King’s On Writing and How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times by Roy Peter Clark. I participate in three writing critique groups; I’ve been the leader of one of them since 2009!Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
My writing station is in the basement of the tidy little brick ranch where my husband and I downsized to after becoming empty nesters. It’s quiet and always cool (even on hot summer days). That space gives me the solitude and focus I like when I face the tyranny of the blank screen.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
I start with a horrible blank screen and just put anything down, forcing myself to slog through until the end. Then, I’m happy because now I have something to fix. I love to rewrite, get feedback, rewrite again, and repeat until my story has found a home.If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
playing the piano
Scott Beggs
Farewell, Dear Isaac
Scott still hasn’t made it to Beersheba. His short stories have appeared in PseudoPod, MetaStellar, and SANS Press’s “Stranger” anthology. He moves around a lot with his family, and he wants to be Buster Keaton’s best friend. Follow him on IG @notquiteprofessional and www.scottbeggs.com
Warren Benedetto
It’s What’s Inside That Counts
Warren has published in Dark Matter Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, and The Dread Machine; and in podcasts The NoSleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, and Chilling Tales For Dark Nights; and in anthologies from Apex Magazine, Tenebrous Press, Scare Street, and many more.
Jack Bordnick
Something So Beautiful
Jack is an Industrial design graduate of Pratt Institute, New York. His sculptures and photography incorporate surrealistic, mythological and magical imagery often with whimsical overtones — aimed at provoking our experiences and self reflections.
Lawrence Bridges
A Man Stops to Absorb the Colors
Lawrence photos have appeared in the Las Laguna Art Gallery, the HMVC Gallery in New York, and the ENSO Art Gallery in Malibu. He created a series of documentaries for the NEA’s “Big Read” initiative, including profiles of Ray Bradbury, Tobias Wolff, and Cynthia Ozick.
Rachael Brooks
Rituals
Rachael is a Ph.D. student in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. She spends far too much time looking at code and not enough time reading or writing. She has never been published before.
Victoria Brooks
black holes
Victoria is a queer nonbinary author living in London, UK. Their first queer sci-fi novel, Silicone God, was published by MOIST Books in the UK, December 2023, and was recently published in the US (House of Vlad Press). Their portfolio can be found here: https://www.victoriathewriter.com/
Salena Casha
Once Upon a Time, Husbands Kept Their Wives Diagnoses to Themselves
Salena has appeared in over 150 publications in the last decade. She survives New England winters on good beer and black coffee. Subscribe to her substack at salenacasha.substack.com
Sunny Chan
We Bioluminesce
Sunny has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lives in Toronto with two dogs named Mango and Peekaboo. Her creative writing has appeared in Ricepaper, The Ex-Puritan, Abyss & Apex, Barrelhouse Press, Palette Poetry, and more. Find her at @moonandmountainprint
Robin Dake
Lessons in Chaos
Robin has spent her career working as a journalist or non-profit manager while writing essays and poems. Her work has appeared in Amaranth Journal, Snapdragon Journal, Amethyst Review, This I Believe radio program and Trailway News. She lives in N.E. Georgia with two hoodlum cats.
DC Diamondopolous
1952: The Biltmore Hotel
DC is an award-winning short story, and flash fiction writer with hundreds of stories published internationally. DC’s book Captured Up Close: 20th Century Short-Short Stories is her second book. She lives on the California coast with her wife. dcdiamondopolous.com
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines what other types of art of you create?
When I can take time away from my writing I sketch and draw caricatures of people both famous and friends. I also enjoy recording my stories for different literary journals when they ask. Several can be found on my website “https://www.dcdiamondopolous.com/works.htm" I was an actress for years and also did voiceover work, so it comes in handy when a publisher requests a reading. Interior decorating is a favorite of mine; we have a large showcase in our studio where I display many of our items and pull from when I want to change and jazz up the house. Along with my wife, I have a passion for nature, and we plant in our fields around our home to beautify for everyone who passes by.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I’m a self-taught writer. I never knew I’d end up writing stories. But when I joined a writing group in town, I realized how much fun it was to create characters. I took workshops and classes at UCLA, Writers Conferences, online Literary Classes, and continue to seek out places that inspire me. I also belong to the oldest and most prestigious writers’ workshop in California.What is you r biggest creative doubt?
I love the quote by Silvia Plath: “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” I have that on my bulletin board, so I can read it when doubt sneaks in and zaps my energy. Another favorite saying of mine is: “Doubt is the killer of dreams.” I save my inner critic for my writing.Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence that way you work?
My preferred place to work is my office. Recently, I had a desk, bookcase, file chest with a large staples drawer built to my design. It turned out perfectly, and I love and appreciate the workmanship my contractor did to make my workspace comfortable and a place for inspiration.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Both. I start each new story with enthusiasm, and since I write a lot of historical fiction, I love doing the research. It opens my creativity to new ideas. I think one theme that often appears in my work is “humanity.”When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Often, I’ll fast-write the story on a yellow legal pad without editing or critiquing, and just let the pen flow. I start each story with a “character profile” sheet that helps me in the creation of of an individual. By the time I have fast-written the story, I know where it ends; sometimes not, and it’s fun to be surprised.If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I would love to do interior design. One of my favorite magazines is Architectural Digest. When my wife and I had our antique stores, we had fun designing the layouts for it. But I’m not too disappointed—writing takes us most of my time and I love it!
Joe Farina
pentecost blues
Joe is a retired lawyer and an award winning poet .He draws inspiration from his Sicilian and Canadian ties. He has two books of poetry; The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street and an e-book Sunsets in Black and White.and his latest book, The beach,the street and everything in between.
Ken Farrell
Stranger
Ken lives and writes in Texas, his work appearing in various anthologies and journals such as Pilgrimage, Sport Literate, and Watershed Review. Ken holds an MFA from Texas State University and an MA from Salisbury University, and he has earned a living as an adjunct, cage fighter, pizzaiolo, and warehouseman.
Cléa Fernandes
I Like Nabokov Too
Cléa is a French poet, writer and lyricist who studied research in Bordeaux, focusing on “Female Youth and Madness” in contemporary literature. She explores female experience, madness, friendship, and queer erotica through her work.
George Freek
I Look At Sky
George’s poem “Enigmatic Variations” was recently nominated for Best of the Net. His poem “Night Thoughts” was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Vidya Hariharan
Limpid
Vidya is an enthusiastic traveller, coffee guzzler and manic reader. She lives and works as a lecturer in Mumbai, India. Her works are in Café Dissensus, Poems India, Contemporary Haiku Online, Pan Haiku Review and elsewhere. She won the Editor’s Choice Award for her haiku in Under the Basho in 2024.
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
I teach undergrad students full time, so that doesn’t really leave me much time for artistic endeavours. Other than writing haiku, haibun, short stories and poems, I have recently taken up photography. I do get asked how I make the time. I am a master procrastinator. So that helps. Like, if there’s work waiting for me, I’d much rather be writing a poem or a horror story.How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
It’s not the creative process that I find troublesome. It’s getting the work into print part that’s less fun. I get more rejections that acceptances. So, in one morning I could receive three rejections, all very polite, and then an acceptance and that makes my day.What author or artist’s popularity do you find confusing/inexplicable?
None. I am sure all the writers out there have their niche reading public. How can one even define what someone else will like. That’s why it’s the toughest task to buy a book for another person.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
As I previously mentioned, I teach undergrad classes. Its English Literature and I do have a doctorate. And I’ve been teaching it for twenty-six years. So that’s a terrific training ground. Also, I am a manic reader.What is your biggest creative doubt?
What if one day my imagination turns banal, mediocre, worse than average. What if I stop seeing the special in the everyday. What if I cannot find the words to express exactly what I feel and think. Henry James and Sylvia Plath are writers I hold in the highest esteem.What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
Join a creative writing workshop. It’s good for networking with other writers. But the creativity has to be owned by you yourself.Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
Anywhere with a window is fine with me. I do not like to write outside as I get easily distracted by any thing happening around me.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Life itself is my theme. Every person, every object has a story to tell. I am curious perpetually.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
I sit down. With my laptop. Sometimes a title flashes into my head, so I write that down and then think of a story to match it. At other times, its past experiences, good and bad; people I have met, things people said to me. And then a poem or story slowly builds up around it. One time it was a wooden staircase in a blue painted old foyer in very old building that triggered a poem about change. The Staircase got published in Glomag.If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I’d sleep.
J. D. Harlock
Something So Beautiful
J. D. is an Eisner-nominated American writer, researcher, editor, pursuing a doctoral degree. His writing are featured in Business Insider, The Cincinnati Review, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, Queen’s Quarterly, and New York University’s Library of Arabic Literature.
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
I'm an amateur game developer and recently obtained a photography certification that taught me how to use my DSLR. I hope to return to drawing, especially pixel art, at some point, so I can refocus my creative output on comic books and video games.How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
It reaffirmed my belief that you need to write for the market, and I treat it like a day job. Some creators luck out, and what they're passionate about coincides with the zeitgeist, but that's never been the case for me.What author or artist’s popularity do you find confusing/inexplicable?
Probably, the entire crop of Hollywood actors at the top of the industry who are from my generation. We're supposed to treat them like they're A-listers, especially those who are obviously nepo babies or put together poorly on the Disney Channel assembly line. Social media somehow kept them relevant long after their expiration date, and it's become a significant factor in the way these mid-carders are brought into top projects. In the early 2000s, teen sensations rarely lasted this long, and a lot of the major movie stars who took over after they fizzled out spent years putting in their dues and honing their craft.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
Unfortunately, I do not, but since I studied in Beirut and would've had to pursue it there, I don't feel like I missed out in terms of the experience, because I would've loathed it. Still, I feel out of the loop on modern literature and what editors are into, because I wasn't part of the MFA in Creative Writing Industrial Complex, have rarely read anything modern, and have no clue what's selling and what's not in the mainstream industry, at the moment.What is your biggest creative doubt?
I'm always worried when a pitch is accepted about whether or not I'd be too burnt out to fulfill my obligation. I'm willing to write on so many subjects in a lot of different styles, even I'm not personally into them, and this becomes a problem when I have to force myself to stay up in front of the computer for hours to finish an assignment I have no personal passion for.What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
I was told on numerous occasions to write in a personal style using my real voice, and the reason behind that was that what I wrote sounded too archaic and academic. Problem is, my overly archaic and academic writing is my real voice, and it has nothing to do with university. Up till the second year of middle school, I was struggling with English because the curriculum was subpar, so I honed in on it on my own using H. G. Wells novels and other early 20th-century texts that I would pick out from the library. My real voice sounds a lot like The Architect from The Matrix 2. Anytime I write a personal essay that sounds personable, it's me pretending I'm writing in a real voice so that the editors can have the personal essay they're looking for, and I don't have to receive that feedback anymore.Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
I reorganized a room that was being used as a glorified closet by my mother so that I could set up an office. It's not perfect, but it's the best option I have with how expensive cafes are in Lebanon, even with the bad coffee, subpar internet, and lack of AC.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I always imagined a career in the arts that would have me be a journeyman or a gun-for-hire working on makor projects. Still, I think there are numerous themes I tend to revisit, because it's easier for me to come up with ideas for them, and editors tend to be into these themes, because they're what's hot right now.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Usually, I'm out living my life, and an idea comes to me, so I email it to myself, make a file for it, and list it in this document that I use to keep track of my bibliography. If I know how to write it out, then I'll try to get as much in as I can before I put it aside until I have a desire to finish it at some point.If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
So many to pick from, but I'd say cooking. Food is expensive in Lebanon since nearly everything is imported with prices marked up due to corruption at our ports, so it's hard to find and afford ingredients to prepare the foreign dishes I tend to enjoy more than the local delicacies.
R. Haven
The First Second
R. is a fantasy and horror author hailing from Toronto, Canada. His debut horror novel, The Other Face of Sympathy, comes out September 9, 2025. His website is theirritablequeer.com, where you can find information on his other published works.
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
I’m a crafter – I used to be heavily into cosplay (I did a lot of characters from video games) and my favourite part was the prop work. Swords, warhammers, chakram, spears… It was all weaponry for a while!I’ve made other things, such as a tiny model of The Sandman (https://www.instagram.com/p/DKkggHnPfZL/?igsh=enk5NWFtNDF6YXds), who’s one of the monsters in my debut novel, The Other Face of Sympathy. It’s coming out September 9th of this year and features a bunch of different supernatural entities, all of whom had written diaries before they turned into monsters.
I’d love to make more of my little beasts.
How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
My creative process used to be ‘create my characters and wing it’. That’s not too different than what I do now, but nowadays I create loose plot outlines before I start writing any long-form fiction. I don’t want to lose track of where the story’s going or what’s already happened, and my memory is not the steel trap it once was!What author or artist’s popularity do you find confusing/inexplicable?
Why does anyone still like J.K. Rowling? If she hasn’t alienated you yet, what more will it take?Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
The one time I tried to go to school for writing was when I was transitioning from eighth grade to high school. There was this arts-specific school I desperately wanted to go to, with a focus on writing. You had to submit a short story with your application – a one-page story with a moral.I was not a short story person. I’d only written long form stories before and I wasn’t an Aesop kind of guy. The story was bad, and I tragically did not get in.
So now I learn by doing! I was gifted a Masterclass by a writer friend once – and it was fantastic, don’t get me wrong – but the way I’ve learned to craft stories now comes from reading and writing all the time.
Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Funnily enough, I’ve come to realise very recently that almost all my work is about trauma and recovery. It’s always in different forms, and sometimes the trauma is actively happening to my characters as the story unfolds, but I keep going back to that theme. Trauma is formative. Recovery isn’t always smooth or done in a healthy way. People are messy and we take a lot of damage throughout our lives. What’s left isn’t always pretty, but it's the same material you started with, just a different shape. It’s important to think about.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
With every story, I start with the character(s). Doesn’t matter which format; even poems are told from a character’s point of view, even if that character is me. I need to know how these characters think, what they live for and why, the flaws they think they have and the ones they actually do.I frequently start plot outlines (or just launch into stories) without even knowing the plot. I just know that I can drop my characters into a setting and the story will come from them!
Greg Hill
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Greg is a poet and short fiction writer in West Hartford, Connecticut. His work has appeared in Six Sentences, Verse-Virtual, Young Ravens Poetry Journal, Barzakh, and other literary journals and anthologies. He and his wife enjoy the struggle of raising three determined feminists.
Hope Joseph
The alchemist of souls
Joseph is an essayist, and poet from Nigeria. His works are in Notre Dame, Christian Science Monitor, Augur, SolarPunk, Reckoning, The Sunlight Press, MukoliMag, and more. He is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, and a joint winner of the SEVHAGE/Agema Founder’s Prize.
Yan Jiang
The Old Men
Yan is a Toronto-based illustrator, artist, and educator. A Chinese immigrant, her work draws on nature and emotion to create immersive, surreal worlds. Combining traditional and digital media, she explores texture and depth, aiming to evoke stillness, empathy, and the quiet beauty of everyday life.
Anastasia Jill
Here I Am
Anastasia is a queer writer living in Central Florida. They have been nominated for Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and other honors. Their work has been featured or is upcoming in Poets.org, Sundog Lit, Flash Fiction Online, Contemporary Verse 2, Channel Magazine, and more.
Alan Keith
Yesterday Morning
Alan is a special education teacher working out of Toronto, Canada. His debut poetry collection, How I(t) Was, can be purchased on Amazon, with all proceeds going towards helping blind dogs and injured Toronto wildlife.
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How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
I was once the naïve youngster who thought that only writing when you felt inspired was the best way to do things. I assumed that great literature came from some magical place that would erupt within me when the time was right. Now, I just write as much as I can as well as I can. And I edit like no tomorrow.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I majored in English and Philosophy, so my training was doing tons of reading and writing during school, and thinking about the big ideas in the things that I read. My education gave me a solid baseline to work with – I knew most of the terms, had read some of the classics, and had some binoculars to look ahead at where the world of literature was going. Today, I try to read diverse things (poetry, manga, fiction & nonfiction, etc) that interest me and I continue to think with the tools I’d picked up when I was young, always improving them and adding more when I can.Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
I work everywhere – home, transit, cafes, libraries, parks. Overall, I prefer a quiet subway, the Toronto Reference Library, or a small café. I don’t think it influences me too much as no matter where I am I have a warm tea and, if necessary, noise blockers.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
Generally speaking, each piece is a new exploration; I’ve written some very random, disconnected pieces in my life. Yet with that being said, I tend to write about myself in some way; everything, at the end of the day, is filtered through me. I am a hard topic to avoid.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
Usually, stories and poems live inside my mind for a few days before I put things to paper. If it is a poem I tend to write the whole thing out and edit it a bunch on my word processor. Then I print it, edit it, print it, edit it, etc, until I am happy with it.
Foyinsayemi Kilaso
Revelations 12
Foyinsayemi is a visual and graphical artist that enjoys creative arts as much as he loves engaging in them. He studies Portuguese and English at the University. He can be found on instagram @foyinkilaso
Claire Lawrence
Eruption
Claire’s stories and artwork have appeared in numerous publications worldwide. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2023; and her artwork, Best of the Net 2022. Her goal is to push the boundaries of writing, and not inhale too many paint fumes.
Jill Leininger
Submersion: A Letter
Jill is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Sky Never Sleeps and Roof Picnic Skies, New York. Her poems are in Harvard Review; Circumference; Poet Lore; and Poetry International, and she’s received fellowships from the Banff Centre, Vermont Studio Center, and Lambda Literary.
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
“I made sculpture as a painter,” said Matisse, “to order my sensations…” Similarly, I think I make visual art as a writer. I’ve also performed occasionally– singing, acting, even a bit of dancing. But I find that no matter what a particular artistic practice opens up in me– whether it be a memory, a new sense of rhythm, or a particular attention to color or framing– it eventually gets called into service on the page.I do sometimes borrow from other artistic vocabularies in my writing, but the symbiosis is often more mysterious than direct. For instance, I love how open to failure I am in other art forms! I can laugh at a collapsed bowl on the pottery wheel, and shrug off any awkwardness in dance class. I find that so freeing. And I want to invite that sense of freedom and light-heartedness to enter into my writing life as well.
How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
I had a pretty difficult relationship with my poems in the beginning. In fact, in the early ‘90s, I had the opportunity to drive the poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly to her teaching post in Irvine from San Diego, where I was living and she was visiting. During the drive, she pressed me a bit about why I wasn’t eager to get my MFA, and I remember saying, “Because then I would have to be a poet.” The public part of being a poet was just too scary, and, to be honest, it often still is.I’ve thankfully expanded my younger, more stereotypical view of what it looks like to “be” a poet in the world–and that of course extends to my process, too. I don’t need to be despondent to write, and I don’t get (as) angsty when the words aren’t flowing now either. Experience has taught me that the tap will usually turn back on if I keep showing up with a bucket.
What author or artist’s popularity do you find confusing/inexplicable?
Oh, I don’t want to name any one artist, but I used to find the appeal of K-Pop to be perplexing… To me, the performances seemed completely devoid of any spontaneity or surprise. However, last year I had a fourth grade student who knew all the moves, and I respected the seriousness with which many of the other students in our class tried to learn them. The girls would actually practice poses of heartbreak! Sure, it was all very predictable, and the gender roles were pretty hard for me to swallow, but I began to see the emotional mechanics of it all in a new light. I don’t know, maybe the tightness of the choreography was a kind of ballast to the general chaos of (pre)adolescence.What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
One of Donald Hall’s books on craft proposed that you should put every poem in a drawer for five years before publishing it. (I’m not even sure now if that’s what the book actually said, but that’s how I absorbed it.) The problem with that advice is that I sometimes have a hard time feeling the fire of a poem after that long– and I rarely find the courage to send a poem out without knowing at least some of that initial spark.However, turning fifty has changed the way I relate to that part of the process. I think I am just more willing to accept that my work may never feel finished, and I’m more able to revise my earlier poems with a compassion for the woman who wrote them. “Submersion” is a good example of that, actually. After a poet friend of mine worried that their life as a writer might get subsumed by a new love, I wrote and sent this poem as response, then sat mulling on it for the requisite 5 years. By the time I went to look at it again, I no longer believed in the claims of the poem, and frankly I was a bit embarrassed by its presumptuousness, especially the tone of certainty at the end. I’d been projecting my own feelings into the poem (and onto my friend) instead of hearing their real concern in our conversation. So, I put it away again. With even more distance, I’m now able to sit with the multiple resonances and failings of the poem– as one that is written both to my friend and to myself, deluded and true.
And so, here we are discussing it a full fifteen years later as “epiphany, ha! But then again, it’s the Nonbinary Review, right? Maybe epiphany was always going to be a bit more complicated...
Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
No. I am writing this while drinking kombucha down the street from my daughter’s school.The plus side of having to squeeze into small corners to write is that now I can adapt to a wide range of environments, but that’s not to say it’s ideal. I still dream of having my library out of storage and a door that closes.
This year, I’m lucky enough to have been given a space to write at the Seattle Public Library– I mean, talk about books at your fingertips! There’s a door and a good dictionary. So, I guess 2025 is my “Year of the Desk.” I’m not sure how the new space will influence me yet, but I know it will.
If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
If time, space and money weren’t an issue, I would take up oil painting. I think I’d choose huge canvases and channel some of my more abstract expressionist tendencies.
Hunter Liguore
The 10th Daughter of Mnemosyne
Hunter is an award-winning author and a regular columnist for Spirituality & Health Magazine, and has published in 34 Orchard, Non-Profit Quarterly, The Writer’s Digest, Orion Magazine, The Irish Pages, Northwestern Review, Bellevue Literary Review, and more.
Mack W. Mani
Champagne Remnants
Mack is a PNW based author and poet. His work has appeared in publications such as Story Unlikely, Strange Horizons, and Dark Horses Magazine. In 2018 he won Best Screenplay at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. He currently lives with his husband in Portland, OR.
Thomas C. Mavroudis
Do You Know How to Kill a Vampire?
Thomas’s debut collection, Rabbit Face and Other Awful Encounters, is forthcoming from JournalStone. His short stories have appeared on Creepy A Horror Podcast, The NoSleep Podcast, in Cosmic Horror Monthly, Carpe Noctem, Frontiers of Fright and the anthology Mooncalves.
Priyanuj Mazumdar
my head, your summer house
Priyanuj is a writer from northeast India whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Harbor Review, Allium, and elsewhere. He is a recipient of the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment and was shortlisted for the Leopold Bloom Prize for Innovative Narration.
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
Music is the other side of my artistic coin, and it helps channel what I want to say in ways writing cannot. I make music under the moniker “love you, please die” (https://instagram.com/loveyoupleasedie). I also love visual storytelling and have co-written and co-directed a psychological horror short (https://filmfreeway.com/osinaki).How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
Immensely. I didn’t have much of a creative process when I first started making art. It was purely instinctual, which was fun while it lasted. Over the years, I have incorporated a lot of craft knowhow by studying writing under some brilliant writers and teachers, and have had the pleasure of being exposed to books that have slowly pushed me towards becoming the kind of writer I want to be in this world. All the craft and techniques and processes aside, it’s important not to forget the story you wanted to tell the first time you started writing.What author or artist’s popularity do you find confusing/inexplicable?
Artists that are the most well-known in their fields right now are hardly the most inventive or exciting. I used to be quite sneery of popular writers and musicians and other artists, out of jealousy or insecurity or a rabid fear of never amounting to the success these people had achieved—which I am slowly unlearning. No popularity is inexplicable in my books—there’s always a reason, even if I don’t think the reason is a particularly good one.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
Yes, I have a long formal education in literature and creative writing. I have a BA in English from India, MA in Creative Writing from England, and an ongoing MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Sometimes, I feel like a vagabond masquerading as a writer.What is your biggest creative doubt?
That I will not do justice to the stories I want to tell. I am a writer from Assam in northeast India, a place historically underrepresented in not just the Western literary landscape but in South Asian writing too. One of the primary reasons I write is for visibility—of my stories, and the stories of where I come from. I feel a sense of responsibility in retaining the soul of these stories while reinventing them within the confines of my creative identity.What piece of creative advice have you received that sounded good, but was ultimately not useful to you?
Showing, not telling.Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
I have always gravitated towards writing in my study. When I am in my shared apartment in Minnesota, I am forced into writing in my bedroom-cum-study for the most part—which works for me. When I am back home for the summer in northeast India, I write in my study or patio. It’s important for me to have a set writing place. Recently, I have started venturing into writing in cafes, and while it’s fun, I don’t think I could rely on them in the long run. Kevin Parker aka Tame Impala once said something to the effect of this: if the view from the room is too beautiful, any music you make will sound beautiful, even if it isn’t.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
My writing explores themes of violence, sexuality, masculinity, mental illness and taboo with cultural nuances and influences specific to Assam and northeast India—rituals, superstitions, myths, legends, communal violence, food, etc. I use poetry to convey urgent, ongoing, contemporary issues, which means my poems end up confronting political and social issues quite frequently, which means they tend to be angry and direct. My prose on the other hand provides a window into the lives of people that exist on the fringes of not only global anglophone writing, but South-east Asian and Indian anglophone writing too.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
At the start. I am an obsessively chronological writer, and my brain cannot fathom constructing a narrative in random order.If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
Filmmaking. Cinematography and video editing in particular.
Morgan Melhuish
A Fragment of the Heart of Sappho
Morgan is a queer writer and educator from West Sussex. In 2025 his work is being published by the Slab Press, Graveworm Press, Speculative City, Sentinel Creative and Nine Pens Press. You can find him on X @mmorethanapage and on BlueSky under the same handle.
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Many artists and authors are creative in multiple disciplines. What other types of art do you create?
My mum and sister love craft projects. I like to have a dabble with them, usually with disastrous results.Last month we were dyeing with onion skins on the stove top. I was aiming for an ombre effect, slowly adding in more and more material, draping the excess over the rim of the saucepan. All of a sudden mine catches light and the fire alarm starts wailing, that's fairly typical for my craft projects!
How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
It's a subtle change but I generally only submit work to paying markets now. If a project seems fun then of course I might submit or pitch for it, but I think it's important for the creative effort that goes into writing to be acknowledged, just as you would with any other product. I think as a community we sell ourselves short sometimes, quite literally.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
Part of my degree is in Creative Writing. The course focused on the development of craft but less so the practicalities of publishing and opportunities. I wish there'd been more of that!The other aspect of the degree was English Literature and that scrutiny of texts is something valuable for writers. I try and read widely and well, a way to continue my creative education and I'll attend workshops that I feel might introduce new ideas and perspectives to my work.
Do you have a dedicated or preferred place to work? How does it influence the way you work?
I tend to work at my desk, which also doubles as my general day to day workspace as a teacher at an online school. This leaves it a little crowded when it comes to creative Morgan taking a shift, both in terms of physical and headspace.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I find my work often interrogates the past as a way to illuminate an aspect of our present, that seems to be something I return to again and again.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
If it's a longer form piece then I find planning is essential, to have a shape of where things are going. I've learnt this the hard way! However, there should always be room for characters to surprise you.
Tamer Said Mostafa
if you love me for the sake of Allah
Tamer’s work has appeared in Guernica, Confrontation, Prairie Schooner, and Freezeray among others. Tamer is a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, and a graduate of the Creative Writing program at University of California, Davis.
Brandon Natusch
Chemical Constellations
Brandon is a writer and videographer based in Texas. Having been vice president of his high-school’s writing club, he first started writing in elementary and has since fallen in love with telling original stories. He hopes to one day have his work on the shelves of Barnes and Noble.
Oladosu Michael Emerald
Oladosu Michael Emerald (The Sky Split Open) is a writer, artist, and educator. Author of Every Little Thing That Moves. His works are in Chestnut, Lolwe, FIYAH, and elsewhere. He is the Pioneer Fellow of the Muktar Aliyu Art Residency. He is on X and IG @garricologist
Sherry Shahan
Waiting For the Band to Start
Sherry is a teal-haired septuagenarian who studies pole-dancing in a laid-back California beach town. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize in Poetry. Happily, her art has appeared in Zoetic Press.
Samantha R. Sharp
A Different Ending
Samantha is a neurodivergent writer and Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at SUNY Binghamton. She serves as Poetry Editor for Midway Journal, and her creative work has been published or is forthcoming in Cleaver Magazine, Dipity Lit Mag, Wild Roof Journal, and others.
Sholanke Boluwatife Emmanuel
The Curious Face
Boluwatife is a talented realist artist renowned for his extraordinary attention to detail and captivating visual narratives. Born and raised in Ogun state Nigeria, Sholanke developed a passion for art from an early age, inspired by the rich cultural heritage of his community.
J. D. Simpson
Canopic
J. D.’s works have been featured in Triangulation’s Hospitium, Whisper House Press’ Costs of Living, and Black Widow Press’s Halloween Horrors anthologies. His campfire tales of terror–written as John Beardify–have appeared in audio form on the Nosleep Podcast, Creepypod, and many other channels.
Josh Stein
Urbane Epiphany IV
Josh’s artwork has been exhibited in the Pop and Contemporary Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia; the CICA Museum in Seoul, Korea; Adas Israel in Washington DC; Burning Man in Blackrock, Nevada; and Gallery 1064 in Seattle, amongst many others.
James T. Stemmle
A Gathering of Spirits
James has published in The Octillo Review, Evening Street Review, The Raven’s Perch, Deep South Magazine, Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities, Literary Veganism: An Online Journal, Cheofpleirn Press, Seattle Star, Poetry Superhighway, and Open Arts Forum.
Iphigenia Strangeworth
burn your bloodied birth-sheets
Iphigenia was created by committee, although, unlike most lowest-common-denominator group projects, this one turned out to be the kind that was far beyond both the sum of its parts and past the dreams of any of its individual creators. We should all be so lucky.
Natalya Sukhonos
Ars Poetica with Spider and Peaches
Natalya’s poems are published by the American Journal of Poetry, Naugatuck River Review, etc. Nominated for the Pushcart in 2015 and 2020, Natalya published Parachute, Aldrich Press, 2016, and A Stranger Home, Moon Pie Press, 2020.
Yucheng Tao
Blue Horse
Yucheng is from Nanjing and an international student studying songwriting at MI College of Contemporary Music in Los Angeles. His works have been published in Wingless Dreamer (2024 contest), Synchronized Chaos, Moonstone Art Center, and Spillword.
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What other types of art do you create?
I used to write long-form stories and song lyrics in my native language, but now I prefer poetry. Since the 20th century, poets like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound have explored the boundaries of Western poetics. Now, I want to continue expanding the depth and breadth of poetry by integrating the imagery of Eastern poetry with the narrative traditions of the West.How has your view of the creative process changed since you first started?
From the beginning, I used to write blindly, simply putting down whatever came to mind—but that wasn’t always within the realm of poetry. Now, through studying professional poetry courses online, I have gained a new understanding: the balance between inspiration and technique.Did you have formal training in literature/art? What ways do you continue your creative education?
I have received formal training in songwriting and lyric writing. I also read poetry, novels, and philosophy to expand my perspective. I like to analyze different writers' techniques and find my own voice through imitation and experimentation. I also follow contemporary poetry magazines like Frontier Poetry and Black Warrior Review, etc to keep up with new trends and innovations.What is your biggest creative doubt?
My biggest question is how to express myself while building a deep connection with readers. I also wonder how to make magazine editors better understand my work. Improving my professional skills and deepening my understanding of English language and culture might help with this.Is there an overarching theme to your body of work, or is each piece a new exploration?
I am organizing some of my poems under a central theme, while others remain independent explorations of different styles.When you begin a new piece of work, where do you start?
I get inspiration from events, travel, or reading, then start organizing my thoughts carefully before writing. After that, I revise—again and again.If you had unlimited time, what new hobby would you take up?
I would travel the world, exploring natural wonders and great works of art.
Veronica Tucker
After the Beep, the Universe
Veronica’s poetry has appeared in redrosethorns and Medmic, and she writes as a physician about medicine, memory, and the surreal. She enjoys running, time with family, and sipping matcha lattes beside her dogs.
Fendy S. Tulodo
The Thirteenth Step in Tunjungan
Fendy is based in Malang, Indonesia. His work explores memory, everyday surrealism, and emotional fractures. His fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in House of Long Shadows, Across the Margin, Horrific Scribblings, Farmer-ish, CafeLit Magazine, and others.
Dana Wall
The Echo Chamber
Dana writes speculative fiction that explores the thin places between psychological realities and metaphysical possibilities. Her work examines how perception shapes existence, often through characters navigating uncanny circumstances that reveal deeper truths about consciousness and connection.
Timothy Wilkie
Midnight in Paradise
Timothy is a legend in the Hudson Valley because of his art and story telling. He has published four novels and countless short stories. His pictures have been featured in many magazines and in galleries around the world. He has two grown sons Justin and Blake and currently lives in Eddyville NY.
Beth Winegarner
Red Deer
Beth has contributed to the New York Times, the New Yorker, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Wired, Mother Jones, and many others. She is the author of several books, most recently San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History.
Christine Wolfram
Bloom for Me
Christine is a queer writer who makes her home in the Pacific Northwest. When she’s not dreaming up new stories, you can catch her at her local Renaissance faire, playing Bloodborne, or geeking out on her Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/whimsydearest.
Ellen June Wright
Abstract #1440
Ellen an artist, photographer and poet, was born in England but raised in New Jersey. Her watercolors have been published online by Gulf Stream Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Burningword Literary Journal, Hole In The Head Review, Oyster River Pages, Kitchen Table Quarterly and others.