Contributor Bios
Jefferson Fortner is a community college English Professor living in North Carolina. He has recently had work published by Neologism Poetry Journal and by The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. He has lived in North Carolina all his life, but is thinking about running away from home.
Barry Foy is the author of Field Guide to the Irish Music Session and The Devil’s Food Dictionary: A Pioneering Culinary Reference Work Consisting Entirely of Lies. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Justin Gradin is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, sound, animation, video, performance and writing. He has released a volume of poetry, Brainwashing the Dirty Mind, and has two graphic novels, Mystic Debris and Pageant, published with Fantagraphics books. Instagram: @justingradin
Samina Hadi-Tabassum was born in Hyderabad, India, and immigrated to Chicago with her family in the early 1970s. Her first book of poems, Muslim Melancholia (2017), was published by Red Mountain Press. She has also won awards for her short stories and essays. Website: saminahaditabassum.com
Erin Heney, a North Carolina multimedia artist, blends her passions for cultural arts and community service. A recent high school graduate, she’s pursuing architecture at Appalachian State University. Instagram: @TaiyozDreamz
Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s work has appeared in Rock and a Hard Place, Dead Housekeeping, Low Life, Going Down Swinging, Punk (Kissing Dynamite), Under Her Skin (Black Spot), and other nefarious and not so nefarious venues. X: @poetforest / Bluesky: @juleigh.bsky.social
Colin James has a couple of chapbooks of poetry published—Dreams Of The Really Annoying from Writing Knights Press and A Thoroughness Not Deprived of Absurdity from Piski’s Porch Press—and a book of poems, Resisting Probability, from Sagging Meniscus Press. He lives in Massachusetts.
Robert Kinerk writes poetry at his home in Cambridge, MA, sited midway between Longfellow’s house and Longfellow’s grave. Kinerk grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska, where he worked as a logger, disc jockey, and in his father’s grocery store. Website: robertkinerk.com
Aaron Lelito is a writer and editor from Buffalo, NY. His micro-chapbook, Secret Meetings, was published by Ghost City Press in 2025, and his poetry collection, The Half Turn, was published in 2023. His work has appeared in Sage Magazine, Door Is A Jar, Stonecoast Review, Barzakh, SPECTRA Poets, and Santa Fe Review. He is EIC of Wild Roof Journal. Instagram: @aaronlelito / Bluesky: @aaronlelito.bsky.social
LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a native New Yorker, is a member of BFS, HWA, SFPA, and The Dramatists Guild. Released three titles in 2024: Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems, Apprenticed to the Night, and Felones de Se: Poems About Suicide. Forthcoming: Cancer Courts My Mother and Vampire Verses. Accolades: Elgin Award, Chrysalis BREW Project Awards, The World’s Best Magazine’s Book of Excellence Award, and Spotlyts Story Award. Bluesky: @ghostlyverse.bsky.social / X: @Mae_Westside
Vanessa Matic is a multi-talented artist, and curator and host of Agape Lodge Poetry Society. You will find her work in Romance & Revolution, issued by Tough Poets Press, and again in American Dreams in Havoc Heaven, from Hat & Beard Press. Instagram: @miamatixx
Maisie May is a passionate pencil artist inspired by various themes such as portraiture, social issues, anime and street photography. From childhood wall doodles to sketching stick figures and watching Art Attack, her love for art bloomed early. Featured in Threads of Home, she celebrates African heritage and identity, while cherishing meaningful connections with art enthusiasts and creative souls. Instagram: @maisie_m.arts