Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, Impspired, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. His poetry collections are Playing Poohsticks On Ha’Penny Bridge, The Madness Of Qwerty, A Foetal Heart and Bones Speaking With Hard Tongues. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com I FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSEPS OF GENERATIONS Using an obsolete map, drawn by a hand not my own, I search … Continue reading Edward Lee

Sheikha A. is from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Her works appear in a variety of literary venues, both print and online, including several anthologies by different presses. Recent publications have been Strange Horizons, Pedestal Magazine, The Ekphrastic Review, Silver Birch Press, Abyss and Apex, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been translated into Spanish, Greek, Albanian, Italian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Polish and Persian. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart and has appeared in an anthology nominated for Pulitzer. More about her can be found at sheikha82.wordpress.com Plankton after My Father’s December by Lana Bojanic Body flutters as light unfolds; … Continue reading Sheikha A.

Shelly Norris ripened in the wild west on a farm in Wyoming. She hails from a long line of post-Civil War migrants, pioneers, scofflaws, and illegitimates; wherever there is a “bastard” break in the lineage, that’s her line of people. She currently resides in the woods of central Missouri with her husband John, three dogs, and five cats. Please, don’t judge. Working in the shadows grading sub-par college essays, advocating any 12-point font other than Calibri or Ariel, and editing for other writers, she has been slow to send forth her own writings into the cold world of rejection and … Continue reading Shelly Norris

Rob Plath is a writer from New York. He was once tutored by Allen Ginsberg for two years from 1995-1997. He has published 24 books and a ton of poems in the small presses over the last 26 years. He lives with his cat and tries his best to stay out of trouble. the lovely hilt  even the plunge of the knife was sweet b/c it was an extension of yr hands another love poem  i remember that spring blue forget-me-nots seemed extinct beside yr eyes even the may sky cloudless as it often was couldn’t compare rewinding the wound … Continue reading Rob Plath

I am Joan Mach, a retired librarian from Teaneck, N.J.  My husband teaches Creative Writing at the Senior Center and I am the teacher’s  pet.    We have been married 50+ years, and he is officially eligible for sainthood for putting up with me. It Ain’t Over Tears wet my cheeks, and I was grateful for the dark theater.  I never expected a baseball documentary to move me so much.  How many people identified with Yogi Berra?  He was everyman.  Short, plain, and chunky Yogi  was dwarfed by DiMaggio and Mantle.  A shy guy from a hard-working immigrant family, he avoided … Continue reading Joan Mach

Clara Martinez predominately writes news stories and profiles as the Editor-in-Chief of her school newspaper, although her love for writing fiction is apparent to those walking past her dimly lit window between midnight and 3 a.m. One side of Clara’s family is from Bolivia, and she frequently writes about her connection to Latin American culture and the experience of moving to London. Her literary persona is Kurt Vonnegut; wry and slightly jarring until you’re about a hundred pages in. She is the second movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”, neither recognizable nor particularly virtuous, but pleasant nonetheless. You’re most likely to … Continue reading Clara Martinez

Geoffrey Aitken writes in Adelaide, on unceded Kaurna land as an awarded poet whose industrial minimalism communicates his ‘lived experience’ for publishers both locally (AUS) and internationally (UK, US, CAN, Fr & CN). Recently, ‘Wishbone Words’ (UK), ‘The Closed Eye Open’, ‘Maya’s Micros’, ‘Our Day’s Encounter’, (US), ‘Oxygen’ and ‘unusual work’(AUS); ‘The Canberra Times’ [Dec ‘22]. He was nominated for the annual Best of the Net anthology in 2022. any option is the biggest seller partnership needs no explanation to deny understanding or dispense with regret and remorse refuses to be concerned by carelessness ‘not responsible’ is/was/always a card carrying … Continue reading Geoffrey Aitken

Olivia Wignall studies English Literature and Creative Writing at the Open University; her work has been published a couple of times. She lives in Lincolnshire. Renaissance from the top of the garden all the way to the bottom I dragged my knees across broken concrete My skin was dappled with dirt and rubble stinging and sore where the flesh had torn I was a ruined canvas with paint scraped and worn You took your brush and painted my skin back on and oh, how it smarted! Oh how it burned until I emerged your fully restored work of art. Continue reading Olivia Wignall

Desiree Batiste was born in Mesa, Arizona in 1979. She currently lives in Buckeye, Arizona with her husband Michael, her daughter Kaylee and their four cats: Sketch, Pixel, Trace and Slim Shady. After surviving abuse at the hands of her mother in her teenage years, then surviving three separate relationships plagued with domestic violence, Desiree still persevered and graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Science in Technical Management with Criminal Justice specialization in 2020. Writing stories and poetry has been a lifelong passion for Desiree. She had her first poem published in a small circulation newspaper for children … Continue reading Desiree Batiste

Marc Darnell is an online tutor and lead custodian in Omaha, Nebraska, and has published in various journals on 4 continents, receiving his MFA from the University of Iowa.  His latest book is The Sower from CyberNet Press. My Mother With Two Illnesses I thought it’d be the cancer that would take her, or chemo– how it ravaged to the bone, but covid slipped inside, a heated reaper, and turned her lungs to crust and eyes to stone. The Stonehenge of machines around her rumbles as tubes come from her innards like a bloom to moisten her, although her body crumbles– … Continue reading Marc Darnell