Contributors

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Since our inception in February 2013, we’ve featured the work of over 70 writers from 20 provinces and states. Here are their bios:

Marie-Andree Auclair’s poems have appeared in In/Words Magazine, Steel Chisel and Bywords. In December 2013, In/Words Magazine and Press released her chapbook Contrails. Arc Poetry Magazine shortlisted one of her poems for Poem of the Year 2014. The Canadian Authors Association, Niagara Branch included one of her poems in their poetry anthology The Saving Bannister in October 2014. She lives in Ottawa and is working on a poetry collection.

Mary Barnes, a resident of Wasaga Beach, Ontario, received her BA in English from the University of Waterloo where she won the Tom York Memorial Award for short fiction. She has had poetry published in Prairie Journal and the Canadian Writer’s Journal. She is currently working on a novel.

Steve Bertolino lives in Middlebury, Vermont, where he works as an academic librarian and serves on the executive committee for the New England Young Writers Conference. His publications include poems in Right Hand Pointing, Melancholy Hyperbole, Written River, Third Wednesday, Bone Parade, The Lake, Uppagus, and The Rain, Party & Disaster Society.

Jeevan Bhagwat is a Toronto-based poet whose work has appeared in many literary magazines including Blue Skies, Tower, Quills, and Archaeology. In 2003 and 2005, he won the Monica Ladell Prize for Poetry by the Scarborough Arts Council. In 2012, his poetry collection, The Weight of Dreams was published by IN Publications.

Jeff Blackman works as a research analyst in Ottawa, ON. His poems appeared recently in Blacklock’s Reporter, dead (g)end(er) (with Peter Gibbon), and Ottawater. This summer marks the release of his first chapbook in three years, “So Long As The People Are People,” with Apt. 9 Press (June 2013). Visit http://jeffblackman2001.wordpress.com for performances.

Holly Bruns is a writer who lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. Her short stories have been been published in the 2013 edition of the Ascent Aspirations Anthology, Reader’s Digest, and Near to the Knuckle.  When she’s not writing fiction you can find her at her blog, Wine Out Loud, where she writes about wine and occasionally, food. She is currently working on her first novel.

Wanda Campbell teaches Creative Writing and Women’s Literature at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, in view of the highest tides in the world. Her debut novel Hat Girl is forthcoming from Signature Editions (2013) and she has published four collections of poetry, Daedalus Had a Daughter (2011) Grace (2009), Looking for Lucy (2008), and Sky Fishing (1997).  Her stories and poems have appeared in journals across Canada  including Antigonish Review, Dalhousie Review, Descant, existere, Fiddlehead, Gaspereau Review, Grain, Harpweaver,  New Quarterly,  Queen’s Quarterly, Room, Vallum, Wascana Review, and Windsor Review.

Kenn Chaplin is a Toronto, Ontario blogger, amateur photographer and long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS.  Windigo is the name of a cottage on Lake Simcoe, north of Toronto, which support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS were graciously loaned, in the late 1980s and early ’90s, as a place of quiet retreat. Kenn was grateful to have been a part of several of these retreats. In one group photo he is the lone survivor, apart from the facilitators who – in the case of that particular group – were not HIV-positive.

Corey Cook is the author of three chapbooks: Rhododendron in a Time of War (Scars Publications), What to Do with a Dying Parakeet (Pudding House Publications), and Flock (Origami Poems Project). His poems have recently appeared in The Aurorean, Boston Literary Magazine, Brevities, Muddy River Poetry Review, Smoky Quartz Quarterly, and Wild Goose Poetry Review. New work is forthcoming in Dewpoint Literary Journal and The Germ. Corey edits The Orange Room Review and lives in Thetford Center, Vermont.

Tony Cosier of Ottawa is the author of ten volumes of poetry, six plays, a novel, and a book of stories.  His poetry has been widely published in literary magazines such as Antigonish Review, Arc, Canadian Literature, Nashwaak Review, Prairie Journal,  New Quarterly, Tower, Windsor Review in Canada; Blueline, Cape Rock, Potomac Review, Time of Singing, West Branch in the United States;  Dreamcatcher, The Journal, Pennine Platform, Poetry Nottingham, The Reader, Smiths Knoll in England; as well as Poetry Australia, Poetry New Zealand, Prism International and International Poetry Review.  His most recent poetry book is Carillonneur by Penumbra Press.

Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh yet raised in the rural town of Conneautville. Her poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. Recently her two chapbooks A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press – June 2013) and Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon – January 2014) were published. Her fantasy novel Blood & Magic was published in March 2015.

Marlowe Daly has lived on or near many borders. She grew up in Michigan, where she still spends time every summer. She also lived in southern Arizona, 50 minutes north of the Mexican border. She currently lives on the Idaho side of the Snake River, but she often walks or bikes over to Washington. She teaches American literature and writing at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.

Katherine Ann Davis is a resident of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Katherine Ann Davis is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tennessee, where she is fiction editor of Grist: The Journal for Writers and is completing a novel about a failed collector.

Holly Day was born in Hereford, Texas, also known as “The Town Without a Toothache.” She and her family currently live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches at the Loft Literary Center. Her published books include Music Theory for Dummies, Music Composition for Dummies, and Guitar All-in-One for Dummies.

David Desjardins is a fifty-eight year old writer residing in Gatineau, Quebec. He has a degree in English from the University of Ottawa, and has worked as a reporter for two local community newspapers, as a clerk for The Bank of Canada and as a stay-at-home dad. His interests encompass karate, photography and pretty much anything to do with the outdoors including cycling, camping, canoeing, hiking and snowshoeing.

Brandon J. Douglass has had his work published in DeCanto Magazine and The Artistic Muse. He currently resides in a small countryside town, twenty miles outside Cleveland, Ohio.

Ziggy Edwards grew up/lives in Pittsburgh, PA. Hobbies besides writing include crossing bridges, pigeon-watching, and discussing jQuery with her son. Her poems and short stories have appeared in Ship of Fools, Confluence, Main Street Rag, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and other publications.

Heather Finton is a Yukon writer whose first book Generous Living was published in 1996; she writes for local newspapers and compilations.Heather’s mid-life poetry has been supported by a capacity for crafting words throughout a lifetime of articulating possibilities in order to enliven community. Her poems use natural and household images to reflect the pathos of our shared journeys; some are found at http://www.heatherfinton.com. She has enjoyed a full life including as a mother, radio journalist, Cabinet media advisor, consultant to Yukon First Nation governments and NGOs, co-founder of the Northern Cultural Expressions Society, and co-owner of Sundog Retreat, an inn near Whitehorse.

Allison Grayhurst‘s poems have been published in over 120 journals throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and in the United Kingdom over the last twenty years, including Parabola (summer 2012), The Antigonish Review, Dalhousie Review, The New Quarterly, Wascana Review, Poetry Nottingham International, The Cape Rock, Journal of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry, poetrymagazine.com; Fogged Clarity, Out of Our, Quantum Poetry Magazine, Decanto, and White Wall Review.  Her book Somewhere Falling was published by Beach Holme Publishers, a Porcepic Book, in Vancouver in 1995. Since then she has published nine other books of poetry and two collections with Edge Unlimited Publishing. Her poetry chapbook The River is Blind was recently published by above/ground press December 2012. She lives in Toronto with her husband, two children, two cats, and a dog. She also sculpts, working with clay.

William Greenfield has had work published in The Storyteller Magazine, The Barbaric Yawp, The Artistic Muse and The Bookends Review.  He has spent virtually his entire career in the public service sector. He currently resides in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

Bel Harris is a poet and author from Guelph, Ontario. Though she is busily working on her first novel, she is frequently interrupted by the need to pen a poem or two. You can find more on her blog at: https://literaryleftovers.wordpress.com/

Martha Henrickson has always been in the arts, drawing, painting, photography and has written on small pieces of paper since a teen. She lives near Penetanguishene Ontario on the shores of Georgian Bay.  Has been in several writing groups over the last 20 or so years, but mostly writes alone, often before the sun rises. http://www.marthahenrickson.com

Victoria Peterson-Hilleque’s poems appeared or are forthcoming in Paper Nautilus, The Montucky Review, Poppy Road Review, and other journals. She’s the Poet-In-Residence at Solomon’s Porch Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she also teaches a poetry workshop.

Debbie Okun Hill is the current President of The Ontario Poetry Society and an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets. She writes from rural southwestern Ontario, on the outskirts of Sarnia. To date, over 230 of her poems have been/will be published in over 100 publications/e-zines including Descant, Existere, Vallum, The Windsor Review, Whisky Sour City, Quills, and The Binnacle. She is a recent recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Writers Reserve grant and Black Moss Press will publish her first trade publication in the Fall 2013. For more information: http://www.theontariopoetrysociety.ca/Memberprofile009.htm

Jnana Hodson is a native of Ohio who’s lived and in Upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington state before settling at last in Dover, New Hampshire. He blogs at Jnana’s Red Barn (jnanahodson.net). Harbor of Grace, a chapbook of his prose poems, was published in August 2012 by Fowlpox Press.

David Houston is currently living in and exploring Saskatchewan.  Previous work has been included in an anthology, The House at Black Moss; Clitheroe Books Press, Friction Magazine & Journal, and the Earthlines Review. He was winner of the Wasafiri New Writers Prize 2012.

M. J. Iuppa lives on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario.  Her most recent poems have appeared in Poetry East, The Chariton Review, Tar River Poetry, Blueline, The Prose Poem Project, and The Centrifugal Eye, among other publications.  Her most recent poetry chapbook is As the Crow Flies (Foothills Publishing, 2008), and her second full-length collection is Within Reach (Cherry Grove Collections, 2010).  Between Worlds, a prose chapbook, was published by Foothills Publishing in May 2013.  She is Writer-in-Residence and Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor program at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York.

Jennifer Ruth Jackson can’t draw or act so she writes poems and short stories.  Her work has been published in Diverse Voices Quarterly, Kaleidoscope Magazine, and more.  When she’s not writing, you can catch her playing video games or making jewelry.  She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their houseplant, Hubey.

Steven Jacobson is a poet. His poetry has appeared in access press, calvary cross, linnet’swings, burningword, the glasscoin, nazar-look (romanian publication), praisewriters, enoiar review, penwoodreview, littleredtree and message in a bottle.

David Jibson lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is an associate editor of poetry for the independent print lit. journal, Third Wednesday and a member of The Crazy Wisdom Poetry Circle. His work has appeared in Third Wednesday, Brasilia Review, Waccamaw Journal, Peninsula Poets, A-Literation and Highland Park Poetry.

Cambria Jones was born, raised, and continues to reside smack in the middle of those beautiful sister cities, St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN.  She enjoys people watching in coffee shops, winter walks, speaking in random accents, and dancing in very high heels.  She spends most of her free time, however, curled up with a good book, pen, and piece of paper.

Michael Keshigian’s ninth poetry book, Dark Edges was recently released this September, 2014 by Flutter Press. Other published books and chapbooks: Eagle’s Perch, Wildflowers, Jazz Face, Warm Summer Memories, Silent Poems, Seeking Solace, Dwindling Knight, Translucent View. Published in numerous national and international journals, he is a 5- time Pushcart Prize and 2-time Best Of The Net nominee. His poetry cycle, Lunar Images, set for Clarinet, Piano, Narrator, was premiered at Del Mar College in Texas. Subsequent performances occurred in Boston (Berklee College) and Moleto, Italy. He lives in Londonderry, NH. His website is http://www.michaelkeshigian.com. See his featured poems.

Carole Glasser Langille‘s fourth book of poems, Church of the Exquisite Panic: The Ophelia Poems, was published in the fall of 2012. She lives in Nova Scotia. See her featured poems.

Ron Lavalette is from Barton. VT. He has been widely published both in print and online. A reasonable sample of his published work can be found at http://eggsovertokyo.blogspot.com/

F.H. Lee (Francine) writes from Oxford County, Ontario, Canada. A career in tourism and 20+ years in Toronto/Calgary nourished a deep appreciation of Canada’s natural landscape. She returned to small-town Ontario to raise her four children (now teens) and has had success with publication of poetry/fic/non-fic, including two poetry contest anthologies, one local and one international.

Renee Lehnen is a hospital nurse.  She lives with her husband and two teenagers in Oakville, Ontario.  She loves every season.

Julie Hungiville LeMay was born in Buffalo, New York and moved to Alaska’s Matanuska Valley where she has lived, mainly in the town of Palmer, since 1978. Her poems have been published online and in literary journals including Passager, Bluestem, Pilgrimage, Lummox, and Cirque.. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles and serves as a poetry editor for their journal, Lunch Ticket.

Margot Lettner is a poet based in Toronto, Ontario, where she is a poetry reader for Project Bookmark Canada (www.projectbookmarkcanada.ca); and founding editor and contributor to InfluencySalon.ca, the online magazine of contemporary Canadian poetry. In 2013, she was resident writer at both the Vermont Studio Centre, Johnson, VT and Piper’s Frith, Swift Current, Newfoundland; and in 2012, at Sage Hill, St. Michael’s Retreat, Saskatchewan.  She has studied in the Creative Writing Program and Summer Writing Studio at the University of Toronto.  Her first collection is forthcoming.

Christopher Locke‘s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Southwest Review; Poetry East; Arc Poetry Magazine, (Canada); Adbusters; 32 Poems; Alimentum; RATTLE; Atlanta Review; The Sun; and Agenda, (London), among others. Chris has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, New Hampshire Council on the Arts, and Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain). His first full-length collection of poems, End of American Magic, is currently available from Salmon Poetry. Waiting for Grace and Other Poems (Turning Point Books) and the memoir Can I Say (Kattywompus Press) are both forthcoming in 2013. He currently lives in Maine with his family.

Kimberlee Feick Lowry married a salsa-dancing former dairyman and moved to a rural property outside of Kincardine, Ontario after twenty years in the city. When she is not chasing her two children around their two-hundred-acre property, she chronicles the quirks of country life in her blog, The Someday Diaries and writes a column for Grey-Bruce Kids magazine. Check out life at Someday: http://www.thesomedaydiaries.blogspot.ca

J.S. MacLean lives in Calgary, Canada. He has had poetry published in a variety of publications in Canada, the USA, the UK, and Australia. His first collection, “Molasses Smothered Lemon Slices” is available on amazon.com. In his spare time he works.

Marija Makeska is a visual artist and a filmmaker focusing on describing the beauty of Macedonian, Caucasian and Eurasian cultures. She also writes gothic poetry. Her art is not limited to a particular medium, instead, she likes to experiment with pictures, music and words. Her poetry is very visual and theatrical. Previous publications include a poetry book “The Sun and The Beauty” (2006), the poem “Homesickness” for the Macedonian Digest, a number of art exhibitions and films presented to the public through film festivals. A current resident of Canton, Michigan.

Tennae Maki is a weekend writer that works for an architecture firm by day. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History, where she studied architecture zines and urban planning. On a pro bono basis, she is also the audio archivist for an arts radio station. A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota; she is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been published in numerous print and digital literary journals, including; 491, Spillway, Eunoia Review, Futures Trading, The Bicycle Review,  Lone Star Poetry Magazine, and Belleville Park Pages.

Jeremy Nathan Marks is an American who has been living in Southern Ontario for the past seven years. He is a poet and amateur photographer whose “day job” is completing a PhD in history and tutoring students in the humanities. His work has previously appeared in several places including The Blue Hour, Sassafras Literary Magazine and Lake: a journal of arts and environment. His photography has appeared in Front Porch Review.

Ilona Martonfi lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is the author of two poetry books, Blue Poppy, (Coracle, 2009.) Black Grass, (Broken Rules, 2012). Her work appears in Canadian Woman Studies, Vallum, The Fiddlehead, and the Northern Cardinal Review.

Lori A. May writes across the genres, road-trips half the year, and drinks copious amounts of coffee. She is the author of four books, including The Low-Residency MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Creative Writing Students (Continuum, 2011). Her reviews and essays have appeared in publications such as The Iowa Review, Passages North, Phoebe, Brevity, and elsewhere. Canadian by birth and disposition, she now lives in Metro Detroit, Michigan. Visit her at http://www.loriamay.com

Steven Mayoff was born in Montreal, Quebec; lived in Toronto, Ontario for 17 years and now makes his home in rural Prince Edward Island on Canada’s east coast. His fiction and poetry have appeared in magazines across Canada and the US, as well as in Ireland, Algeria and France. His fiction collection, Fatted Calf Blues won a 2010 PEI Book Award. You can view his website at http://www.stevenmayoff.ca

Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Camel Saloon, Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Spectrum, as well as several Bright Hills, Kind of A Hurricane and Poppy Road Review anthologies. She has been nominated three times for Best of the Net.  Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses and she has four e-book titles.

Bruce McRae is a Pushcart-nominee and a Canadian musician with over 700 publications, including Poetry.com and The North American Review. His first book, ‘The So-Called Sonnets’ is available from the Silenced Press website or via Amazon books. To hear his music and view more poems visit his website: http://www.bpmcrae.com, or ‘TheBruceMcRaeChannel’ on Youtube. Bruce resides at Salt Spring Island, in British Columbia

John Middlebrook lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he manages a consulting firm focused on non-profit organizations. He has been writing since he was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, where he also served on the staff of Chicago Review. His poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Grasslimb, Tuck Magazine, and the Tipton Poetry Journal. John’s home on the web is http://middlebrook.wordpress.com

Gordon Miller is a visual artist, poet, and writer and teacher living in Oakville ON. He has published a book, Kokum’s Gift and numerous short stories and is presently writing a mystery novel. Website: http://www.gordonmillerart.com

Randy Minnich is a retired research chemist and chemistry professor.  He now focuses on writing, environmental issues, t’ai chi, and grandchildren. He is a member of the Pittsburgh (PA) Poetry Society and the Squirrel Hill Poetry Workshop and has published two books, Wildness in a Small Place and Pavlov’s Cats: Their Story.  His poetry has appeared in Main Street Rag, Pearl, Pudding, Snowy Egret, Blueline, and other publications.

J.B. Mulligan has had poems and stories in several hundred
magazines, including recently, Angle, Bluestem, Loch Raven Review,
Blue Unicorn, and Shot Glass Journal, has had two chapbooks published:
The Stations of the Cross and THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS, and has appeared
in multiple volumes of the anthology, Reflections on a Blue Planet.
He lives in New York State.

Mark Nenadov is a poet from Essex, Ontario, Canada. He lives with his lovely wife and their baby daughter. Mark’s poems have appeared in publications in the United States, Canada, Pakistan, Australia, England, and Ireland. He also has a poem in the Whisky Sour City anthology recently published by Black Moss Press. See http://www.marknenadov.com for more details.

Todor Oluic was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and has been writing ever since. His writing is centered around the everyday life and seeks to show the trials, the successes, the joys and the sorrows of the average citizen. His work has been accepted in publications such as Seven Archons and The Pluralist.

Emily-Jane Hills Orford is the award-winning author of The Whistling Bishop and F-Stop: A Life in Pictures. For more information on her writing, check out her website at: emilyjanebooks.ca

Darrell Petska, a Middleton, Wisconsin writer, retired after more than 30 years as an editor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Bolts of Silk, Muddy River Poetry Review, Verse Wisconsin, San Pedro River Review, Lummox Magazine and elsewhere.

Kenneth Pobo lives in Pennsylvania.  In 2012, Finishing Line Press published a chapbook of his poems called Save My Place.  Forthcoming from Eastern Point Press is Placemats, another poetry chapbook.  He spends much time in the garden and is currently thrilled that, after at least five years of waiting, his clivia is getting ready to bloom.

Steve Rafalsky, born in New York City in 1942, and living there again, has published a number of poetry books through his own small press, plus edited and published, The Lightning Herald:  Un Journal De Poètes Terribles.  He prefers living in the country – near the woods – but as his wife loves NYC and he loves her, NYC it is.   His most recent book (2012, but out of print) is, THE WRITING ON THE WALL:  Among the Poets on Apocalypse Field, Global Arena of Consciousness.  He’s working on a book – of both prose and poetry – A Great And Terrible Love.

Sarah Rehfeldt lives with her family in western Washington where she is a writer, artist, and photographer.  Her poems have appeared in Appalachia; Weber – The Contemporary West; Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction; and Kaleidoscope.  Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart prize in poetry.  Sarah is the author of Somewhere South of Pegasus, a collection of image poems.  It can be purchased through her photography web pages at http://www.pbase.com/candanceski

Ron Riekki‘s books include U.P. and The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (Wayne State University Press, http://wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/way-north).  Moonshot Magazine nominated his fiction for the Pushcart; Verse Wisconsin nominated his poetry for Best of the Net.  He’s lived in Montréal, Chicoutimi, and all over Michigan; right now he lives in Alma, Michigan.

Denis Robillard was born in Northern Ontario and now  teaches high school in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. For the past 15 years hundreds  of his poems have appeared in the small presses and on line magazines across Canada, The USA, England and Scotland. Some of those include: Rattle, Rampike, Word Riot, Nashwaak  Review, Algoma Ink, Cliff Soundings (Michigan). In 2011 Robillard was published in Windsor Review, Bolts of Silk and Ottawa Arts Review. He is an avid photographer and traveler.

Allan Safarik lDon Thackrey lives in Dexter, Michigan, where he is retired from the University of Michigan with adequate time to pursue several hobbies, including table tennis, chess, bird watching, and the study of formal verse.ves in Dundurn, Saskatchewan. He is the author of fifteen books of poetry and a number of titles in other genres. In 2005 he won the Saskatchewan Book Award for poetry for When Light Falls From The Sun, Hagios Press.

Michael Salgado grew up in Allentown, PA and the Lehigh Valley region. A graduate of Moravian College he is now employed as a Biologist with Merck & Co. Pharmaceuticals. Michael can remember one early instance when he was twelve years old and was attempting to navigate the muddy Congo River through Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the bliss at finally coming upon the Inner Station and Kurtz. How Kurtz’s final words “The horror! The horror!” had struck, excited and conveyed so much. Michael currently resides in Lansdale, PA.

Mark Sampson has published one novel, called Off Book (Norwood Publishing, Halifax NS, 2007) and has a second, called Sad Peninsula, forthcoming from Dundurn Press, Toronto, in 2014. He has also published a number of short stories and poems in literary journals across Canada. He currently lives and writes in Toronto.

Aaron Schneider is a writer living in Cape Breton. His poems have been published widely in magazines and anthologies in North America and Europe, and read on CBC Radio. He has received numerous fellowships and awards and a collection of his poems, Wild Honey, was published by Breton Books

Annabel Sheila grew up beside beautiful Bay St. George in Stephenville, Newfoundland, but now calls Moncton, New Brunswick home where she lives with her soul mate and three pets.  When she’s not spending time with her precious family, she can be found in a quiet corner with quill in hand. Eternally inspired to write about nature, the ocean, love, and life, she warmly embraces her muse’s gentle nudge.

Carol Smallwood began writing poetry and fiction after retirement when she took creative writing classes. She has founded and supports humane societies.

Kate Sorbara lives in Richmond Hill Ontario. She is a mother, a farmer, a gardener and a lover of rivers. She has been attending writing groups for twenty years, sometimes organizing them and sometimes being organized. Either way, she believes in their magic. Her chapbook, Burnt River, is in its second printing.

Bieke Stengos is a poet and writer, who lives in Guelph. Ontario. “Deception” is part of a cycle of poems, named “Abandoned by the Muse.” This cycle was written in an attempt to overcome writer’s bloc. The landscape around Guelph and confusing autumn and winter weather, all helped to inspire me and to find my voice again. You can find her at http://www.bieke.stengos.cammaert.eu

Don Thackrey lives in Dexter, Michigan, where he is retired from the University of Michigan with adequate time to pursue several hobbies, including table tennis, chess, bird watching, and the study of formal verse.

Grace Vermeer lives in Sarnia, Ontario, just across the river from Michigan.  Her poetry has received a number of awards including the Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing from the University of Western Ontario.

Gertrude Warkentin lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is retired from a career in nursing.  She often refers back to farm life in Saskatchewan.

Anne Whitehouse’s poetry collections include The Surveyor’s Hand, Blessings and Curses, Bear in Mind, One Sunday Morning, and The Refrain. She is also the author of the novel Fall Love, now available as a free ebook from Smashwords and Feedbooks. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and lives in New York City. http://www.annewhitehouse.com.

Rita Wilson lives and writes on the bank of the Caribou River in Nova Scotia. Past winner of the Atlantic Poetry prize, her work has appeared in Fathom and The Antigonish Review.

Carolyn Wishnousky doesn’t quite know what she is doing in life, but accepts that to be a good thing.  Believing life can be easier than we like to think, she claims things will tend to work out, and life’s biggest struggle is to find a balance between striving for what you want and accepting what you have.  Carolyn studies at the University of Michigan, where she just transferred from the School of Art & Design to Psychology.  Born in Oakville, Ontario, she possesses overwhelming Canadian pride, though currently is glad to call Ann Arbor, Michigan, home.

Gisela Woldenga was born in Germany, immigrated, married, and had three children and three granddaughters. She started writing poems and fairy tales as soon as she could read. After taking some courses in writing for children she published her first story. From there it went to short stories, also for adults, and on to two novels, two children’s books. She’s working on a third one, which is almost done. She is also acting in commercials, and short films.

Lisa Young is a work-at-home editor. Her poetry has appeared in Misunderstandings Magazine, Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine and Jones Av. Her first poetry collection, When the Earth, was published by Quattro Books (2011). She is part of the WordStage Reading Series Team in Toronto. See her featured poems.

Changming Yuan, 4-time Pushcart nominee and author of Allen Qing Yuan, holds a PhD in English, teaches independently, and edits Poetry Pacific in Vancouver (http://poetrypacific.blogspot.ca/). Yuan’s poetry appears in 689 literary publications across 25 countries, including Asia Literary Review, Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, LiNQ, London Magazine, Paris/Atlantic, Poetry Kanto, Salzburg Review, SAND, Taj Mahal Review, Threepenny Review and Two Thirds North.