Benton Hot Springs Boneyard
Contributor Notes, Issue #32
Grey Brown is currently working on a fourth collection of poetry and submitting to journals. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from New York University and has poems published in Greensboro Review, The Asheville Review, Blue Pitcher, Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina, Peregrine, Journal of American Medicine and others. She has taught poetry and creative writing at Duke University, and has been a member of the Black Socks critique group since 1986.
Brian Builta lives in Arlington, Texas, and works at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth. His work has been published in North of Oxford, Hole in the Head Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, New Ohio Review, TriQuarterly and 2River View.
Marte Carlock has had poems published by Avalon Literary Review, DASH Literary Journal, Door Is a Jar, Edison Literary Review, Green Prints, Hobart, inscape, Moon City Review, Moria Literary Magazine, and Penumbra. My fiction has been published in American Literary Review, Angles, Apricity Magazine, Crack the Spine, Diverse Arts Project, Edison Literary Review, El Portal, Evening Street Review, Fiction Fix, Flights, Flock, The Griffin, Halfway Down the Stairs, Glint Literary Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Ink Pantry, Inscape, The Loch Raven Review, The MacGuffin, The Madison Review, MARY: A Journal Of New Writing, Menda City Press, Minetta Review, Old Red Kimono, OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters, The Penmen Review, Pennsylvania English, The Phoenix, riverSedge, Rosebud Magazine, Slab, Phantasmagoria, Sanskrit, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Steam Ticket, The Storyteller, Tupelo Quarterly, Visitant, and Waxing & Waning. For almost 20 years, has been a regular contributor to The Boston Globe and other publications; more than 30 newspapers and magazines have published some 1,600 articles under her byline. She is the author of two editions of A Guide to Public Art in Greater Boston. She currently writes for sculpture and landscape architecture magazines, and reviews fiction and nonfiction for the Internet Review of Books. She also is the author of How It Will Be from Now on Out, a collection of poems.
Gladys Justin Carr is a former Nicholson Trustee Fellow at Smith College, University Fellow at Cornell, publishing executive with McGraw-Hill and HarperCollins book publishers, and Contributing Poet to Manhattan and Beach(Fictionist) magazines. Her work has appeared in literary magazines and journals throughout the United States and Canada including The New York Times, Manhattan Magazine, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, North Atlantic Review, Denver Quarterly, International Poetry Review, Potomac Review, Bayou, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, California Quarterly (CQ), Connecticut Review, Fourteen Hills Review, George Washington Review, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Fictionist (Beach Magazine), Antioch (Seattle), Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Mudlark, Nimrod International, Pebble Lake Review, Pennsylvania English, Queen’s Quarterly, Westview, Qwerty, Red Rock Review, Rhino, Rosebud, The Saint Ann’s Review, Salamander, Sanskrit, The South Carolina Review, Southern Humanities Review, Spillway, Tampa Review, Voices de la Luna, Word Riot, Wrath-Bearing Tree, Bartlett’s Unfamiliar Quotations, Chariton Review, and Quiddity International Journal and Public Radio, among many others. Her chapbook, Augustine’s Brain–The Remix won the Toadlily Press Quartet Chapbook Prize. A recovering publishing executive, she dropped out of corporate America to write full time. Her debut poetry collection, American brunch, is forthcoming, as is her first flash fiction collection, Hopper’s Women. The Internship Program at the Poetry Center of Smith College is named after her. She lives in New York City and East Hampton, NY, with her partner and a formidable Havanese dog.
Laurie Doctor is an American painter, writer and calligrapher whose creativity depends on spending time in nature, reading, and reciting poetry. For twenty-five years she has cultivated an active lecture and workshop schedule across three continents, and an international audience for her monthly blog, “A Silver Fraction”. Her work hovers between visual and verbal. Her paintings are in permanent collections in the US and Europe, including the Akademie der Künst in Berlin, Germany; the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach, Germany; Special Collections at the University of Colorado, The Harrison Collection in San Francisco and The New Editions Gallery in Lexington, KY. www.lauriedoctor.com
John Dorroh may have taught high school science for several decades. Whether he did is still being discussed. He’s never caught a hummingbird or fallen into a volcano. Three of his poems were nominated for Best of the Net, and hundreds more have appeared in journals such as Feral, River Heron, North Dakota Quarterly, and Selcouth Station. He is a Southerner living in the Midwest and had two chapbooks published in 2022 – Swim at Your Risk and Personal Ad Poetry.
Ellis Elliott taught ballet for over 30 years, and currently teach ballet, yoga, and lead online and in-person writing groups. Her chapbook, Break in the Field, was published by Old Scratch Press and was a finalist in the Two Sylvia’s Press Wilder Poetry Book Prize in 2023. She has been published in Apricity Magazine, Belle Ombre, Big Muddy, The Broken Plate, Brushfire Literature & Arts Journal, Cerasus Magazine, Cider Press Review, Copperfield Review Quarterly, Courtship of Winds, Dash, The Ear, Euphony Journal, The Ignatian Literary Magazine, Isele Magazine, Journal of Undiscovered Poets, Kaleidoscope, Literary Mama, The MacGuffin, Meadow, MORIA Literary Magazine, Pennsylvania English, OPEN: Journal of Arts and Letters, Overheard Magazine, Riggwelter, McNeese Review, Neologism Poetry Journal, Nude Bruce Review, Perceptions Magazine, Pink Panther Magazine, Plainsongs, Platform Review, The Rail, The Round, Signal Mountain Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Sierra Nevada Review, Spotlong Review, Streetlight Magazine, Thin Air, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Voices De La Luna, Wrath-Bearing Tree, and Your Impossible Voice. Her poems “Hyde Lake, Memphis,” “Easy Fix,” “After Words,” and “Our Truest Hungers” have been nominated for the Best of the Net awards. She participated in the Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2015 Workshop with poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Ettore Fobo (Milano, 1976) persegue l’attività poetica da oltre trent’anni, ha pubblicato qualche libro di poesia, in Italia e all’estero, vinto diversi premi, collaborato con riviste e blog. Nel febbraio 2020, poco prima della pandemia, scrive il Manifesto di un Movimento: il Mitorealismo del Sottosuolo, di cui è espressione l’antologia collettiva “Fiori del Caos”, da lui curata, uscita per Kipple Officina Libraria nel febbraio 2023.
Ettore Fobo (Milan, 1976) has been pursuing poetic activity for over thirty years, having published a few poetry books in Italy and abroad, won numerous awards, and collaborated with magazines and blogs. In February 2020, just before the pandemic, he wrote the Manifesto of a Movement: the Mitorealism of the Underground, of which the collective anthology “Flowers of Chaos,” curated by him, was released by Kipple Officina Libraria in February 2023.
Frank Freeman’s poetry has been most recently published in Grey Sparrow Journal, Rat’s Ass Review, San Pedro River Review, Sequoia Speaks, Shot Glass Journal, The Decadent Review, The Opiate, The Raven Review, Verdad, and is forthcoming in Main Street Rag, MORIA, and LitBop. His book reviews, essays, and stories have appeared in many venues. He grew up in Texas, Connecticut, and California, moved to Boston for grad school, married a Maine woman who wanted Maine back. House, kids, dog, chickens, bees, small family business. Writes in the mornings to stay sane, keeps family business books in afternoons to stay alive.
James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production. His latest chapbooks are A God You Believed In (Pinhole Poetry, 2023) and Count Seeds With Me (Ethel Zine & Micro-Press, 2022). Recent poems are in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Lakeshore Review, and The Round. He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (jamescroaljackson.com).
Phil Kirsch received his MFA in Poetry from Goddard College in 1980 and is past president of South Mountain Poets workshop in New Jersey. He has previously been published in Journal of New Jersey Poets, New Jersey Poetry Monthly, Green House, Phantasm and more recently, The Stillwater Review, Voices From Here 2, Triggerfish Critical Review and WayWords Literary Journal.
Brian Jerrold Koester is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best of the Net Anthology nominee. His poetry collection is titled What Keeps Me Awake (Silver Bow Publishing) and his chapbook is called Bossa Nova (River Glass Books). His work has appeared most recently in Poetry Pacific, Poetic Sun, SurVision, Versification Zine, The Marbled Sigh, and Revolver. Koester is an aficionado of single malt whiskey and a proud Cub Scout dropout.
Gary Lark’s most recent collections are Easter Creek, Main Street Rag, Daybreak on the Water, Flowstone Press and Ordinary Gravity, Airlie Press . His work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Rattle, Sky Island, Triggerfish and others. https://garylark.work/
John Minczeski, author of A Letter to Serafin, Circle Routes, and other collections, has published poems in Tampa Review, Chattahoochie, Harvard Review, Rhino and other publications. He is the recipients of grants and fellowships from the NEA, the Bush Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board, and The Jerome Foundation. Circle Routes won the Akron Poetry Prize. He has taught through Poets in the Schools and in colleges around the Twin Cities.
Tamer Said Mostafa (he/him/his) is a therapist, poet, and storyteller from Stockton, California. His work has appeared in literary journals and magazines such as Prairie Schooner, Guernica, Confrontation, and Freezeray among others. Tamer is a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, and a graduate of the Creative Writing program at University of California, Davis. As an Arab-American Muslim, Tamer lives life through spirituality, community work, and the music of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
Kathy Nelson, recipient of the James Dickey Prize and MFA graduate of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, is author of The Ledger of Mistakes (Terrapin Books). Her work appears or is forthcoming in About Place, LEON Literary Review, New Ohio Review, The Comstock Review, Tar River Poetry, Stirring Literary Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
Karen O’Leary is a freelance writer from West Fargo, ND. She has published poetry, short stories, and articles in a variety of venues including, Hedgerow, Haikuniverse, Frogpond, Setu, Tipton Poetry Journal, Shot Glass Journal and Quill & Parchment. Karen edited an international online journal called Whispers (http://whispersinthewind333.blogspot.com/) for 5 ½ years. She enjoys sharing the gift of words.
Bruce Parker was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Albuquerque. He is the author of the chapbook Ramadan in Summer, (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He holds a BA in History from the University of Maryland, Far East Division, Okinawa, Japan; and an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico. He taught English as a Second Language, worked as a technical editor, and was a translator for the Department of Defense. His work appears in Triggerfish Critical Review, The Field Guide, The Inflectionist Review, Wild Roof, Crosswinds and New American Writing. Married to fellow poet Diane Corson, he lives in Portland, Oregon, and is an Associate Editor at Boulevard.
Dana Robbins: After a long career as a lawyer, she obtained an MFA from the Stonecoast Writer’s Program of the University of Southern Maine. Her books of poetry, The Left Side of My Life, After the Parade, and Frida’s Boots, were published by Moon Pie Press of Westbrook, Maine, in 2015, 2020, and 2022 respectively. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals or anthologies, including DASH Literary Journal, Door Is A Jar Magazine, Edison Literary Review, Euphony Journal, Evening Street Review, Existere Journal, Flights, Paterson Literary Review, California Quarterly, Calyx, The Cape Rock, Edison Literary Review, I-70 Review, Ignatian Literary Magazine, The Magnolia Review, Neologism Poetry Journal, Poydras Review, Saint Ann’s Review, SLAB, Steam Ticket, Visitant, and Zone 3. Her poem “To My Daughter Teaching Science” was featured by Garrison Keillor on the Writers Almanac in November 2015. Her work received first prize in the Musehouse Poem of Hope Contest, third prize in the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award for Jewish Poetry in 2018, as well as an honorable mention in 2017, and an honorable mention in the Fish Poetry Contest.
Mykyta Ryzhykh has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2023 and 2024. Published many times in the journals Dzvin, Dnipro, Bukovinian magazine, Polutona, Tipton Poetry Journal, Stone Poetry Journal, Divot journal, dyst journal, Superpresent Magazine, Allegro Poetry Magazine, Alternate Route, Better Than Starbucks, Littoral Press, Book of Matches, TheNewVerse News, Acorn haiku Journal, The Wise Owl, Verse-Virtual, Scud, Fevers of the Mind, LiteraryYard, PLUM TREE TAVERN, ITERANT, Fleas on the Dog, The Tiger Moth Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Angel Rust, Neologism Poetry Journal, Shot Glass Journal, QLRS, The Crank, Chronogram, The Antonym, Monterey Poetry Review, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, Ranger magazine, PPP Ezine, Bending Genres Journal, Rat’s Ass Review, Cajun Mutt Press, minor literatures, Audience Askew Literary Journal, Spirit Fire Review, The Gravity of the Thing, Ballast Journal, Star 82 Review, The BeZine, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Synchronized Chaos, boats against the current, The Decadent Review, Corvus Review, American Diversity Report, Unlikely Stories, Triggerfish Critical Review, The Moth, Ripple Lit, Rock & Sling, Meniscus, Rabid Oak, ZiN Daily, Stone of Madness, The Cortland Standard, Quarter Press, Schredder, Wilderness House Literary Review, Poetry Porch, Chewers & Masticadores, The Big Windows Review, Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Third Wednesday, Cosmic Double, Dialogist, Consequence, Cool Beans Lit, Poets Choice, BarBar.
Joshua St. Claire is an accountant from a small town in Pennsylvania who works as a financial director for a large non-profit. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Lana Turner, Sugar House Review, Two Thirds North, Allium, and Ligeia Magazine, among others. His work has appeared in the Dwarf Stars Anthology and he is the winner of the Gerald Brady Memorial Senryu Award and the Trailblazer Award.
Zeke Sanchez is a writer/poet living in Tennessee. He won in-house competitions in The Critical Poet and has been published here in Triggerfish. His poetry may at times reflect his background: migrant worker, forest firefighter, Vietnam veteran, technical writer. The Shadows of Our Mind, a book of photography, done with professional photographer Doug Stoffer, contains a number of Zeke’s poems. He’s also published The Fire With Two Dragon Smokes, a book about his experiences with a “Hotshot” Forest Crew in the Northwest and beyond.
Rikki Santer’s poetry has been published widely and has received many honors including several Pushcart and Ohioana book award nominations, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2023 she was named Ohio Poet of the Year. Her twelfth poetry collection, Resurrection Letter: Leonora, Her Tarot, and Me, is a sequence in tribute to the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Please contact her through her website, https://rikkisanter.com.
Carla Schwartz: Filmmaker and photographer Carla Schwartz’s poems have been widely published, including in The Practicing Poet (Diane Lockward, Ed) and in her collections Signs of Marriage, Mother, One More Thing, and Intimacy with the Wind. Her CB99videos youtube channel has 2,400,000+ views. Learn more at carlapoet.com, or wakewiththesun.blogspot.com or find her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/cb99videos), YouTube (https://youtube.com/cb99videos), or Instagram (https://instagram.com/cb99videos). Recent publications and acceptances include Banyan Review, The Ear, Channel, California Quarterly, Cutthroat, The Poet’s Touchstone, Ibbetson Street, Inquisitive Eater, Paterson Literary Review, New-Verse News, Remington Review, Triggerfish Critical Review, The MacGuffin, Verse-Virtual Online, and Leon. Carla Schwartz is a 2023 recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant. Her poem, “Pat Schroeder Was Our Mother,” won the 2023 New England Poetry Club E.E. Cummings Prize.
Susan Shea is a retired school psychologist who was raised in New York City, and now lives in a forest in Pennsylvania. Since she has returned to writing poetry this year, her poems have been accepted by a few dozen publications, including Across the Margin, Vita Poetica, Ekstasis, Persimmon Tree Literary Magazine, Press Pause, and The Avalon Literary Review, as well as three anthologies. Every morning, Susan is really glad to be able to see the world as a poem in the making.
Leah Stenson is the author of two chapbooks Heavenly Body (2011) and The Turquoise Bee and Other Love Poems (2014), a full-length book of poetry Everywhere I find Myself (2017), and a hybrid memoir Life Revised (2020). She served as a regional editor of Alive at the Center: Contemporary Poems from the Pacific Northwest (2013), co-editor of Reverberations from Fukushima: 50 Japanese Poets Speak Out (2014) and editor of the second edition of Reverberations… (2021). She hosts the Studio Series Poetry Reading & Open Mic in Portland, OR.
John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many disparate literary journals since 2009. His first poetry collection from Cajun Mutt Press is now available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6W2YZDP . fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online.
Rod Williams has, over the past thirty-five years, published poetry, short stories, essays, and music reviews for various publications. He is the author of two novels, An Americana Singer for the Twenty-First Century and The Light Don’t Shine No More, and a collection of short stories, Celestial Springs. A second short story collection is in the works for 2024. He does not consider himself terribly prolific, but feels if you live long enough it’s amazing how you can amass a body of work without half trying. He has taught creative writing workshops here and there, has won a couple of awards for short stories, and has had two stories performed/staged by a professional acting group in North Hollywood. He has facilitated and participated in numerous open mics and writer’s groups based in California, Arizona, and currently Eugene, Oregon.
Michael T. Young’s third full-length collection, The Infinite Doctrine of Water, was long-listed for the Julie Suk Award. He received a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His chapbook, Living in the Counterpoint, received the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. He has received honorable mention for the 2022 New Jersey Poets Prize and his poetry has been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer’s Almanac. He has also appeared in numerous journals, including Pinyon, Rattle, and Valparaiso Poetry Review.