Summer Reading Anthology
Contributors

[9.4] Linda K. Allison is a recovering banker who lives among the trees with the love of her life in The Woodlands, Texas. Her writing and photography have appeared in various journals, most recently The Milk House, Moon Park Review, and Beyond Words Literary Magazine. You can usually find her on a hiking trail, with a camera in hand, or foraging for rocks and mushrooms. Should you come across her on a golf course, duck.   

[3.3] Amy Sayre Baptista’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Butter, Alaska Quarterly Review, Sou’wester, and LUNA LUNA. She is a SAFTA fellow (2015), a CantoMundo fellow (2013), and a scholarship recipient to the Disquiet Literary Festival in Lisbon, Portugal (2011). She performs with Kale Soup for the Soul, a Portuguese-American artists collective, and is the co-founder of Plates&Poetry, a community table program focused on food and writing.

[12.1] Katie Baughman is from Kansas City, Missouri. She goes to school at Fordham University in New York City, where she studies English. Her works are coming soon in The Hooghly Review and Alternative Milk Magazine.

[11.4] Hugh Behm-Steinberg’s writing can be found in X-Ray, The Pinch, Roi Fainéant, Heavy Feather Review and The Offing. His short story "Taylor Swift" won the Barthelme Prize from Gulf Coast, and his story "Goodwill" was picked as one of the Wigleaf Top Fifty Very Short Fictions. A collection of prose poems and microfiction, Animal Children, was published by Nomadic/Black Lawrence Press. He lives in Barcelona.

[9.1] Alex Benke is a writer and mental health worker living in Los Angeles. Her creative work has appeared in Lit Angels, Chestnut Review, Sybil, and beyond. Her mother died recent to the publication of this anthology, and she wonders if she’ll ever write again. She probably will. You can find her online (when she wants to be found, that is).

[6.2] Jennifer L. Blanck’s writing has appeared in diverse publications, ranging from Bethesda Magazine to Haikuniverse to Snapdragon. While she’s based in Northern Virginia, her spirit travels the world. You can follow her adventures on Bluesky, Twitter, and Instagram @JLBlanck and her blog at  https://jenniferlblanck.com/".

[5.2] CL Bledsoe is the author of more than 30 books. His latest poetry collection  is Self-Portrait as Mostly Light. His latest novel is If You Love Me You'll Kill Eric Pelky. Bledsoe is not a cat but plays one on TV. He lives in northern Virginia with his son.

[9.4] Linda Briskin is a writer and fine art photographer (Toronto/California) inspired by the fluid crossover between the imagined and the real, the natural and the constructed, and the authentic and the fabricated. In 2024 The Hopper, an environmental literary journal, published Intimate Conversations (nine images.) She is drawn to writing about whimsy, fleeting moments, and the small secrets of interior lives. Her writing has appeared recently in Prairie Fire, Bluebird Word, and Wildroof Journal. www.lindabriskinphotography.com/ @linda.briskin

[1.1] Lauren Guza Brown grew up in California and has been writing about it ever since. Her work explores issues of place and the intersection of education and social justice, an interest triggered by her experiences teaching in Los Angeles and Oakland with Teach for America and the Knowledge is Power Program. A graduate of San Francisco State's MFA creative writing program, Lauren lives and teaches in Pleasanton, California.

[11.2] Peter Cherches has published five full-length fiction collections as well as a number of chapbooks and several nonfiction books. Since 1977, his work has appeared in scores of magazines, anthologies and websites, including Harper’s, Fence, Bomb, Semiotext(e), and Billy Collins’ Poetry 180 project. His latest book, Everything Happens to Me, is an episodic novel about the trials and tribulations of a Brooklyn writer named Peter Cherches.

[10.3] Yejun Chun is a 20-year-old university student studying comparative literature and culture at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. His poetry and prose have been published by yonseimunhak.

[7.2] K.M. Crane was born and raised in California and has no plans to leave. She only recently started writing short stories and poetry. @k.m.crane

[4.1] Gen Del Raye was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, and currently lives in Minneapolis, MN. His debut short story collection, Boundless Deep, and Other Stories was published by the University of Nebraska Press. You can find his stories and poems in The Gettysburg Review, Poetry Northwest, and at www.gendelraye.com

[3.1] J. J. Deur works and thinks in a creative way from Brooklyn, New York. He is interested in every/anything that makes a human being think about his/her past, present and future. He worked as a columnist for the New York newspapers, Newsday and Bay News, where he published 60 personal essays (different topics). Additional literary work published – up to this point – 73 short stories, 176 poems. He drinks coffee without sugar – just to prove the point: Not everything should be  s  w  e  e  t!!!!!!

[8.1] Ricardo Elisiário is a freelance photographer and writer for hire, a Lisbon-born wifey-lover.

[12.4] Zary Fekete grew up in Hungary. He enjoys books, podcasts, and many many many films. You can read his most recent work in Everscribe Mag, Fiction on the Web, and Symphonies of Imagination. Twitter and Instagram: @ZaryFekete BlueSky: @zaryfekete.bsky.social

[9.2] Susan Hatters Friedman is a psychiatrist specializing in forensic psychiatry and maternal mental health. She recently moved back to the US from New Zealand. She studied satire writing with The Second City, and crime fiction writing at the University of Cambridge. Her creative writing can be read in Hobart, Mystery Tribune, and Drunk Monkeys.

[7.1] Olivia Germann is a 23-year-old writer from Chicago, currently residing in Newport News, Virginia. She is a queer artist, choosing to spread her work across genres and platforms. At present, she is an MFA student at National University and has been previously published by Helen Literary Journal and Turnpike Magazine, among others. It is her goal is to make her art accessible and expressible both on and off of the page for all audiences.

[6.2] An academic physician and writer, Ricardo José González-Rothi has had his fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry featured in the U.S. and in the U.K., in Acentos Review, The Bellingham Review, Litro and others. He has authored a memoir and an illustrated children's book of bilingual nursery rhymes. Born and raised in Cuba, he came to the United States as a refugee in his teens and lives in the Southeast US.   gonzalezrothiauthor.com

[6.4] Mazduda Hassan is a published writer from Dhaka whose publication includes Monsoonletter anthology of the Write Foundation, the Bangladesh chapter of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature. mazduda.com

[9.1] Vali Hawkins-Mitchell works from her office across the street from the Honolulu Zoo. Mornings mean Kona coffee and animal vocalists. She owns Employee Assistance of the Pacific as a Trauma & Disaster expert serving 300+ companies in Hawaii. Her writing appears in many literary journals such as Sky Island Journal, Spank the Carp, Of Rust and Glass. Sample her award winning art, books, fiction, and poetry at www.valihawkinsmitchell.com and www.eapacific.com

[8.1 and 8.1 | 8.4 and 8.4 and 8.4] Richard Herring is a California-based artist with a distinctive style based on a synthesis of comic art and Bay Area Figurative, creating unique and colorful images and supported by a regular cast of characters who are usually happy to appear in these pictures. Usually. Painting is a constant pleasure bordering on obsession and so the pictures pile up.

[7.4] Shaun Holloway has an MFA from George Mason University where he taught Literature and Composition. His poems have been published in Pithead Chapel, and has upcoming publications in Kestrel, Slipstream, and Inverted Syntax.

[11.4] Doug Jacquier writes from the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia. His work has been published in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and India. He blogs at Six Crooked Highways.

[10.4] Phebe Jewell's work appears in numerous journals, including Gooseberry Pie,  JMWW, Ghost Parachute, and other wonderful publications. A teacher at Seattle Central College, she also volunteers for the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound, a nonprofit providing college courses for incarcerated women, trans-identified and gender non-conforming people in Washington State. https://phebejewellwrites.com

[8.1] Angie Kang makes art in LA. She is the author/illustrator of the picture book OUR LAKE (Kokila 2025), and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Narrative, The Believer, and elsewhere. She enjoys painting places she remembers and places she would like to go. Learn more at www.angiekang.net 

[11.3] Desiree Kannel is a writer and teacher from San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Lucky John (2020) and The Delany Bennets, 2023. Her short stories have appeared online and in print. When not writing, Desiree leads creative writing workshops and tutors youth. Her senior cat, Malcolm, lives with her.

[10.2] Jennifer Lai was born and raised in Hawaii, but now resides in Washington state with her ukulele, which she has played since 1987. Her stories can be found in The Sunlight Press, Roi Faineant Press, and Brilliant Flash Fiction.

[13.2 and 13.2] Daniel Lehan has lived in New York, Florence, Finland, and Quebec, and now lives in Dungeness, on the south coast of England, facing France. Recently he has been joined by Luna, a cocker spaniel, with whom he explores the local landscape. His work, “Book Pages Destroyed By Typewriter,” is included in The New Concrete, Visual Poetry in the 21st Century, published by Hayward Publishing, 2015. His artist books are viewable at www.daniel-lehan-books.co.uk

[12.2] Elaje López is an Iranian-Puerto Rican writer from California. Her work has also appeared in Short Story, Long and The Health Humanities Journal of UNC-Chapel Hill.

[9.2 and 9.2] Lia Mageira is a travel photographer and writer based in Greece. Her work has been published in several travel and literary magazines and websites, most recently in Zoetic Press, The Sunlight Press and Typehouse Magazine. Samples of her work can be viewed at www.instagram.com/lia_mageira

[11.1] Deepti Nalavade Mahule is a writer of color who lives in California, works in the software industry, and is pursuing an MFA degree at Dominican University of California. Her website, with links to her selected published work, is: https://deeptiwriting.wordpress.com

[3.4] Noemi Martinez is a writer and poet, sometimes mixed media artist, full time bruja and sirena, living in South Texas. She occasionally presents dreams at hermanaresist.com

[7.4] Rebecca Minnich grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and has an MFA from the creative writing program at City College of New York, where she received the Meyer Cohen Award for Excellence in Literature. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Coffin Factory, Promethean, POZ, MAMM and Z magazines, among others. She lives in Brooklyn and teaches Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature at City College of New York. She is author of the blog, No Life Without Books.

[12.2] Maria Mocerino is a writer who lives between Istanbul and Naples. Her work has been published in The Irish Examiner, The Rogue Mag, and Business Insider. She is finishing her first book, Christmas in Naples Is a Sport.

[4.2] Marilyn Morgan is a retired English teacher. She lives and writes in Central New York State. Marilyn’s prose has been published in Edge, Motif, Five Quarterly, Dear Nana and is forthcoming in Minerva Rising. Her poetry has appeared in Atlas, Poetica, Bright Stars, Ribbons, and other journals.

[10.2] Shira Musicant writes short fiction and creative nonfiction. Her current stories can be found in Fourth Genre, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Bending Genres, in addition to other literary journals. Recently retired from her practice as a somatic psychotherapist, Shira lives in Southern California with her husband, several adult children, a black cat, and five chickens. She writes early in the morning, chickens still roosting, cat on lap. shiramusicant.com

[12.4] Larena Nellies-Ortiz (she/her), is a German and Mexican-American poet and photographer from Oakland, California. Her photos and poetry have been featured in Burningword Literary Journal, Local Wolves Magazine, Stonecoast Review, 3Elements Review, and Sun Magazine, among others. You can find her on Instagram @lalifish. 

[9.3] Lynn Newcomb is a printmaker and sculptor and lives in Northfield, Vermont. Her prints are in several permanent collections. She is the recipient of a Gottlieb Foundation Grant and two Pollock Krasner grants as well as numerous other awards. She has completed public art commissions for the state of Florida and for the state of Vermont. Newcomb prints mainly in black and white using traditional techniques; the subjects are both figurative and abstract. Whatever the print matrix her interest has been and remains the power, resonance, and nuances of black ink.  

[11.2 | 11.4] Irina Tall Novikova is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor's degree in design. The first personal exhibition "My soul is like a wild hawk" (2002) was held in the museum of Maxim Bagdanovich. In 2020, she took part in Poznań Art Week.

[11.2 and 11.2] Jonathan Odell is the author of three novels, The View from Delphi (Macadam Cage 2004) The Healing, (Random House 2012) Miss Hazel (Maiden Lane Press 2015). His essays, short stories, and poetry have appeared in The New York Times, Commonweal, Publishers Weekly, etc. He lives in Minneapolis with his husband. JonathanOdell.net

[6.1] Tammy Peacy lives and writes in Kenosha, WI. A few of her stories can be read in past issues of Smokelong Quarterly, BULL, and Dogzplot.

[12.3] Simon Ravenscroft lives in Cambridge, England where he is a Fellow of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge. He teaches and writes mainly in philosophy and religion and is interested in form, humour, and play. He has published work recently in The Penn Review, Osmosis Press, and Eratio Postmodern Poetry, among other places.

[8.4] Ricky Ray is a disabled poet, critic and editor who lives in the old green hills with his old brown dog, Addie. He is the author of Fealty (Diode Editions, 2019), Quiet, Grit, Glory (Broken Sleep Books, 2020) and The Sound of the Earth Singing to Herself (Fly on the Wall Press, 2020). He was educated at Columbia University and the Bennington Writing Seminars, and is the founding editor of Rascal: A Journal of Ecology, Literature and Art.

[7.2] Sofia Rybkina lives in Saint Petersburg. Graduate of the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory. Author of two books. Her drawings and writing have appeared in different literary magazines such as Oracle Fine Arts Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Unzensiert, Lichen, Revue Cabaret, Vestal Review, and others.

[11.2] CLS Sandoval, PhD (she/her) is a writer and communication professor with accolades in film, academia, and creative writing who speaks, signs, acts, publishes, sings, performs, writes, paints, teaches and rarely relaxes. She has presented over 50 times at communication conferences, published 15 academic articles, two academic books, and five poetry/flash collections. She is raising her daughter and dog with her husband in Alhambra, CA. 

[11.3] Kasey Butcher Santana is a writer and caretaker of a small alpaca farm where she and her husband also raise chickens, bees, and their daughter. Kasey has worked as an English teacher and a jail librarian. Recently, her work appeared in Longreads, Split Lip Magazine, and Pithead Chapel. You can find her on Substack at Life Among the Alpacas. 

[10.1] Serena Scott, a Richmond native, began working at NIAD Art Center (Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development) in the summer of 2018. During her brief time in the NIAD studios, Scott developed a distinctive text-based oeuvre. This calligraphic exercise became a prolific art practice. Considering Scott's body of work as a whole imbues her lexicon of chance with a meditative, mantra-like significance. https://niadart.org/

[6.2] Daryl Scroggins lives in Marfa, Texas. He is the author of This Is Not the Way We Came In, a collection of flash fiction and a flash novel (Ravenna Press), and The Light I Want to Keep, a mixed genre collection (MacQ). His poems and fictions have appeared in Blink-Ink, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and Quarterly West, among others. One of his fictions was included in Best Microfiction 2020.

[12.1] Beate Sigriddaughter, www.sigriddaughter.net,  grew up in Nürnberg, Germany and lives in Silver City, New Mexico (Land of Enchantment), where she has served as poet laureate. Recent book publications include a poetry collection, Wild Flowers, and a short story collection, Dona Nobis Pacem. 

[9.4] Val Simonetti charts the ebb and flow of the mighty I-80 from her garden in Richmond, California.

[6.3] Ona Siporin’s writing arises from her experience of life and work in Africa, Central Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. She has published poetry, fiction, and essays in print and has aired various commentaries on public radio. onasiporin-writer.com

[11.3 and 11.3 | 12.3] Alex Stolis lives in Minneapolis; he has had poems published in numerous journals. Two full length collections Pop. 1280, and John Berryman Died Here were released by Cyberwit and available on Amazon. His work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Piker’s Press, Jasper's Folly Poetry Journal, Beatnik Cowboy, One Art Poetry, among others. His chapbook, Postcards from the Knife-Thrower's Wife, was released by Louisiana Literature Press in 2024. RIP Winston Smith is forthcoming from Alien Buddha Press.

[11.3] David/Cheryl Summerfield create photographic art from within the great state of West Virginia where their work has left home to appear in numerous magazines/journals/ and reviews. Retired, they now have time to think and wander the one opportunity they’ll never squander. View their unique style of photographic art at davidsummerfieldcreates.com 

[11.1] Michael L. Sussman, raised in New York, now lives, writes, and fosters cats in Oregon. His work includes a bundle of songs, a handful of scripts, a boxful of jokes, and a collection of film reviews, essays, and poems. His short stories appear in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, The Piker Press, and other journals. Learn about his debut novel, Electric Fantasy Land, at www.mlsussman.com.

[12.2] Kimberly Sweeney has over a decade of experience as a Marriage and Family Therapist and is currently working on a memoir about living with PTSD. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband and their two daughters. When she isn't writing Kimberly can be found power lifting at the gym, enjoying beginners drum lessons or miscalculating a recipe from her large stash of cookbooks. This is her first published piece of writing.

[12.2] Robyn Thomas is a Canadian writer living in Scotland where she’s slogging through her PhD in anthropology and learning swing dance on the side. Her writing has been published in Orca Literary Journal, Hunger Mountain Review, and Pinhole Poetry. You can find out more about her films, research, and writing at robynthomas.co.uk. 

[2.3] Sloan Thomas lives on an Indian reservation in Northern California. She grew up with great oral storytellers all around her. She’s trying to figure out how to write a story as good as the ones she hears everyday. She has work published in Jersey Devil Press and Word Riot and SmokeLong Quarterly under the name R.S. Thomas. In 2012 she made Wigleaf’s Top Fifty.When she’s not writing she works a full time job, takes care of her four children and takes classes at the local community college. Occasionally she remembers to breathe.

[10.1] Ruth Ticktin resides in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland.  Writing poetry and prose, dreams and discoveries, Ruth encourages sharing stories. She is a teacher and author: Around & Around Poetry Chapbook (BottlecapPress 2024), Was, Am, Going, Recollections in Poetry & Flash (New Bay Books, 2022), What's Ahead? (Pro Lingua Learning 2013, coauthor), a contributor to: Press Pause Press #6, Bright Flash, Dulcet Lit  and more: https://rticktindc.wixsite.com/ruth

[1.3] Eric Tran lives in Portland, OR, where he is a psychiatrist and organizer. Recent publications include The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, and Underblong. For more, visit veryerictran.com.

[9.1 | 11.2] Nam Hoang Tran is a multidisciplinary artist living in New Orleans. W/ Henry Goldkamp, he co-edits TILT – a journal of intermedia poetics.

[3.2] Julie Turley is a fiction writer and librarian in New York City. Her study on motherhood and rock music, Heavy Music Mothers: Extreme Identities, Narrative Disruptions, co-authored with Joan Jocson-Singh, was published by Lexington Books in 2023. Her short fiction has appeared North American Review, Western Humanities Review, and Phantom Drift, to name a few. While she lives and writes in cramped spaces in Brooklyn, her main inspiration will always be the American West.

[12.4] Emily Zhang's work has received recognition in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards, and her favorite artists are Monet, Edgar Degas, and Dennis Creffield.

[12.1] Huina Zheng, a Distinction MA in English Studies holder, works as a college essay coach. She’s also an editor at Bewildering Stories. Her stories have been published in Baltimore Review, Variant Literature, Midway Journal, and others. She resides in Guangzhou, China with her husband and daughter.



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