ISSUE 19: Relationships & Desire

Suzannah Dalzell lives on Whidbey Island north of Seattle Washington, where she divides her time more or less equally between writing and land conservation. Her Poems have also appeared in a number of publications including Pilgrimage Magazine, Adanna, Flyway and About Place. She is currently working on a collection of poems that explores the places where her family history bumps up against race, class and environmental damage.

Kathie Giorgio is the critically acclaimed author of five novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and two poetry chapbooks. Giorgio’s work has appeared in countless literary magazines and anthologies. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in both fiction and poetry, among other awards. Her short story, Snapdragon, was performed on stage for the Stories On Stage series at Su Teatro theatre in Boulder, Colorado. Giorgio is the director/founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop. Giorgio’s 11th book, a full-length collection of poetry titled “No Matter Which Way You Look, There Is More To See”, was just released in September 2020.

Sarah Holsberg is a senior Early Childhood Education and Creative Writing double major at SUNY Geneseo. As a writer, she is interested in the intersection of the personal and the political. She plans to travel across the world, teach in a New York City school, and write professionally.

Catherine Jagoe is the author or translator of seven books of poetry, fiction and literary criticism. Her nonfiction has received a 2016 Pushcart Prize and notable mention in the 2019 Best American Essays, and has appeared in journals such as Ninth Letter, TriQuarterly, Flyway, Under the Sun, and The Gettysburg Review. Her poetry book Bloodroot won the 2016 Settlement House American Poetry Prize and the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Edna Meudt award.

Jennifer Judge is a poet, professor at King’s College, and coordinator of the Luzerne County Poetry in Transit program. Her poem “81 North” was selected for permanent inclusion in the Jenny Holzer installation For Philadelphia 2018. Her work has also appeared in Rhino, Literary Mama, Blueline, Under the Gum Tree, and The Fictional Cafe, among others. She earned her MFA from Goddard College. She lives in Dallas, PA with her husband and two daughters.

Hilary King is a Pushcart-nominated poet whose poems have appeared in Fourth River, Belletrist, Gyroscope Review, The Cortland Review, PANK, Blue Fifth Review, Ki’n, SWIMM, Mom Egg Review, Sky Island Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, and other publications. She is the author of the book of poems, The Maid’s Car. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and when not writing, hiking, sleeping, or dreaming, she works at a historic house and garden.

Kat Myers is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University. She is a graduate teaching assistant for the First-Year Writing Program and hopes to continue teaching in the future. She was a finalist for the 2020 NC State Poetry Contest and her work has been published in SWWIM, Kingdoms of the Wild, and The Write Launch.

Erin Murphy’s work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Normal School, Field, North American Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her eighth book of poetry is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry. She is a professor of English at Penn State Altoona and serves as Poetry Editor of The Summerset Review. website: erin-murphy.com

Mary Lane Potter is the author of the novel A Woman of Salt, the story collection Strangers and Sojourners, and the memoir Seeking God and Losing the Way. Her stories and essays have appeared in Feminist Studies in Religion, SIGNS, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Beloit Fiction Journal, North American Review, Tiferet, SUFI Journal, Leaping Clear, and others. She’s been awarded a Washington State Arts Commission/Artist Trust Fellowship, and she’s enjoyed writing residencies at MacDowell, Hedgebrook, and Caldera.

Melanie Raskin interested in how “who we are” in our relationships stage-directs our lives. She is a wife, a cat person, a witness to a ghost, a big sister, an exhausted chicken in a radio commercial selling egg and bagel sandwiches, a baker, a disco dancer, an entrepreneur, and a fan of the inspiring fitness guru Richard Simmons. She is co-founder of the Triangle Writers Group and has been its leader since 1986.

Hannah Schmitt was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. Fanfiction protected her writing when she didn’t know how. She currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut. This is her first publication.

Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has been accepted by the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review, Enizagam and Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.

Nina Gilden Seavey is an Emmy Award-winning documentarian whose work appears in movie theaters, on television, in print and podcasts, and in museum exhibitions across the globe. She is the Founding Director of The Documentary Center  at The George Washington University. She holds the academic rank of Research Professor of History and Media and Public Affairs. In 2012, she was named one of the top 50 professors of journalism in the U.S.

Melanie H.D. Sirof is influenced equally by the big city (New York) and big nature (mountains, any mountains), and interested in upending the suburban narrative. She earned her BA in Creative Writing from CU Boulder and (three kids, a teaching career and 18 years of marriage later) her MFA from Hofstra University where she received the Academy of American Poets University Prize. Her work appears on Poets.org, and in Iron Horse Literary Review, and The Crumb

Rachel Stein is a recently retired professor of literature and women, gender, sexuality studies. She has published several academic books on environmental justice literature and activism. She is only now commencing to write linked stories and a novel that explore social awakenings and movements of the 1960s and 70s. She’s published stories in The Great Smokies Review and Word Peace and has read memoir pieces on “51%: The Women’s Perspective,” a National Public Radio program.

Alison Townsend’s books include The Persistence of Rivers: An Essay on Moving Water, Persephone in America, and The Blue Dress: Poems and Prose Poems. Her poetry and nonfiction appear widely, in journals such as Chautauqua, The Kenyon Review, and The Southern Review. She has received a Pushcart prize, five Best American Essays “Notable” mentions, a Wisconsin Literary Arts Grant, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor’s Regional Literary Award. Emerita Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, she lives in the farm country outside Madison. Her essay collection, American Lonely: A Natural History of My Search for Home, is forthcoming from the University of Wisconsin Press in 2021.

Alexandra Yates is a graduate of Drew University’s MFA in Poetry program. She grew up performing with her family’s touring children’s theatre company and her writing explores the performing arts, mythology, and fairy tales. She is particularly interested in the performance of love–the rituals and cycles we perform through the stories we tell.