Contributor Bios Issue 1.2

Mandy Beattie is a Scottish Nationalist and Feminist. Her poetry frequently protests. It wants to shake the scales, to provoke thought about historical or contemporary injustice and inequality, often combining the two. To challenge is to change.

Janet Bowdan’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Smartish Pace and other journals, as well as in the anthologies Poetry Daily and Best American Poetry 2000. She teaches English at Western New England University, and is the editor of Common Ground Review. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with her husband, son, and sometimes a stepdaughter or two.

Patricia Crandall has five books in print, Melrose, Then And Now, a historical volume, I Passed This Way, a poetry collection, The Dog Men, a thriller, Tales of an Upstate New York Bottle Miner, non-fiction, and Pat’s Collectibles, a collection of short stories. She lives with her husband, Art, at Babcock Lake in the Grafton Mountains near Petersburgh, New York. Visit her at authorpcrandall.blogspot.com.

Jason Kaufman lives in a small Rustbelt town in central Ohio with his wife and son. In addition to writing, he’s a bookseller at an independent bookshop, the building manager for a performing arts theater, a sculptor, and co-editor of Semaphore Literary Magazine.

Anna Leahy’s book Constituents of Matter won the Wick Poetry Prize. Her poems and essays appear in The Southern Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Pinch, Gravel, and more. I teach in the MFA and BFA programs at Chapman University, where she edits the journal TAB and curates the Tabula Poetica reading series. She also co-writes Lofty Ambitions blog at http://loftyambitions.wordpress.com.

Christina Lovin’s writing has appeared in over one hundred different literary journals and anthologies, as well as five volumes of poetry: Echo, A Stirring in the Dark, Flesh, Little Fires, and What We Burned for Warmth. She is the recipient of numerous poetry awards, writing residencies, fellowships, and grants, most notably the Al Smith Fellowship from Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Foundation for Women, and Elizabeth George Foundation Grant.

Brandon Marlon is a poet, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist from Ottawa. His script The Bleeding Season won the 2007 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition. His poetry has been published in Canada, the U.S., England, Greece, Romania, Israel, and India, in various publications including The Canadian Jewish News, Streeteaters, Poetica, Yalla Journal, YallaJournal.com, Jewish Tribune, The Bulletin, The Victoriad, The Trinity Review, and many more. He has released two poetry volumes, Inspirations of Israel: Poetry for a Land and People (2008), followed by Judean Dreams (2009). www.brandonmarlon.com.

As a poet, photographer, and psychologist, Carrie Nassif’s work unearths connections between experience and emotion, between place and people. She has had poems place as national winner and finalist, selected for several anthologies (Off Channel, Austin International Poetry Festival, Cry of the Night Bird), for RiverLit’s 100 words, Pomona Valley Review, Creating Iris, Unraveling from the Inside, typoetic, and her work was awarded the Orlando Fellow to attend the AROHO retreat in 2013. Her work can also be found at her blog http://monstersofourowndestiny.wordpress.com/

Natasha Ramsey, an islander by birth has made Baltimore her home for more than twenty years. Urban life and her love of whiskey, red wine and women have inspired much of her poetry as well as her mischief. Her poems reflect life – from love and homosexuality, to politics, incest and abuse. She can be found on amazon.com titled, Hungover Poet. Her earlier poetry graced pages of Poets’ Ink, a Maryland publication. Determined to write her life away, she visits poetry stages regularly and has hosted poetry open mic nights with writers of all genres as well as jazz and blues musicians.

Joseph Ross is a poet and teacher in Washington, D.C. and the author of two poetry collections, GOSPEL OF DUST (2013) and MEETING BONE MAN (2012). His poems appear in many journals and anthologies including Poet Lore, Drumvoices Revue, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Tidal Basin Review.