Contributor Bios Issue 1.3, Winter 2016

 

Rebecca Alexander is a horticulture librarian in Seattle. Her poetry has appeared in Standpoint Magazine (UK), the Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin, Canary: A Literary Journal of the Environmental Crisis, and Naugatuck River Review. Her artwork has been published in Bridges: A Journal for Jewish Feminists and Our Friends, and Judaism.

 

Justin Barisich is a rising son of New Orleans, the half-Croatian middle child of a commercial fisherman, a graduate of Vanderbilt University, a freelancer, a satirist, a poet, and a performer. His poetry has been influenced by a various spoken word artists and, more recently, by W.H. Auden, Philip Larkin, Philip Levine, and Tyehimba Jess. Justin is forever learning from his writing – both about himself and about others. He hopes that you do too.

 

D. Dina Friedman has received two Pushcart Prize nominations and published in numerous literary journals including Calyx, Common Ground Review, Kentucky Review, Bloodroot, Inkwell, Tsunami, The Sun, Anderbo, Rhino, and San Pedro River Review. Dina is also the author of two young adult novels, Escaping Into the Night and Playing Dad’s Song.  She has an MFA from Lesley University and teaches at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.

 

Anita Gallers lives and writes in Northampton, MA. She is a member of the Florence Poets Society and has had poems published in Silkworm, Naugatuck River Review, and the poetry anthology Villanelles. She has worked with at-risk youth in Holyoke and Springfield for ten years.

 

Carolyn Gregory’s poems and music essays have been published in American Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Off the Coast, Cutthroat, Bellowing Ark, Seattle Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, and Stylus. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is a past recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Award. Her first book, Open Letters, was published in 2009 and a second book, Facing the Music, was published in 2014.

 

Christopher J. Jarmick is a writer/poet who has curated/hosted regularly scheduled poetry nights, and special events in the Northwest since 2001. His newest collection of poetry, Not Aloud, is due out September 2015 from MoonPath Press. His last collection: IGNITION: Poem Starters, Septolets, Statements and Double Dog Dares was published in 2010. His frequently updated blog is PoetryIsEverything (google it as one word). PoetryIsEverything publicizes dozens of readings occurring primarily in the Western Washington State region.

 

Sheila Maldonado is the author of one-bedroom solo (Fly by Night Press, 2011), her first book of poems. Along with Nelly Rosario and Macarena Hernández, she is part of collective of writers engaged in visual conversation, desveladas. She was born and raised in New York City. Her family hails from Honduras.

 

Nicole Newman is a poet, organizer and lover of black people. She lives in Washington DC and enjoys sunflowers and books.

 

Neil Silberblatt’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in various journals, including Poetica Magazine, The Otter, The Aurorean, Two Bridges Review, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck River Review, Chantarelle’s Notebook, and The Good Men Project. His work has been included in the anthology, Confluencia in the Valley: The First Five Years of Converging with Words (Naugatuck Valley Community College, 2013); and in University of Connecticut’s Teacher-Writer magazine. He has published two poetry collections: So Far, So Good (2012), and Present Tense (2013). He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and one of his poems received Honorable Mention in the 2nd Annual OuterMost Poetry Contest (2014), judged by Marge Piercy. Neil is the founder of Voices of Poetry – which has presented poetry events, featuring distinguished poets & writers, at various venues throughout CT, NYC and Cape Cod – and host of the Poets Corner program on WOMR/WFMR, for which he has interviewed acclaimed poets both on and off the Cape.

 

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is the author of Dear Continuum: Letters to a Poet Crafting Liberation (Grand Concourse Press) and Karma’s Footsteps (Flipped Eye). She is the Poetry Editor of the literary magazine African Voices. Her work has been published in North American Review, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, Black Renaissance Noire, VIDA, Crab Orchard Review, and BOMB.  Tallie’s work has been the subject of a short film “I Leave My Colors Everywhere.” Her work “Strut,” a collaboration with photographer Dominique Sindayiganza, deals with body-image, self-acceptance, and investigates the role of capitalism in women’s perceptions about their appearances. Excerpts from the series appear in the most recent issue of Hysteria magazine.