John Tustin’s poetry has appeared in many literary journals, online and in print, in the last dozen years. fritzware.com/johntustinpoetry contains links to his published poetry online. AGILE ENOUGH You pretend to be clumsy With those ungainly hands and feet That knock over water glasses And trip over stones   But you were agile enough To duck my forward pass To block my affection And avoid my tender words   Leaving me dejected enough To hang my head To drop my cards To cry into my empty hands   You’re an emotional running back You’re a pitcher that gets out Of a bases … Continue reading John Tustin

Henry is a writer, poet and mental health essayist based in Somerset in the UK. He has a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Birmingham. His poetic novella, ‘Notes from the State of OMNESIA’ was published by Impspired Press. A Long Time Being stuck in an existential prism seems like an awful long time but I am told it is the mediator that splits the light of being   and creates a simulacrum of sanity so my scar-ridden soul is no longer exposed like a badly peeled potato. Cento (from the work of Luke Kennard) I … Continue reading Henry Bladon

Linnet Phoenix is a poet who lives in North Somerset, England. She has been writing poetry for years. Her work has previously been published in Impspired, Punk Noir Magazine, Raven Cage Zine and Open Skies Quarterly. She also enjoys horse-riding. Soliloquy What creature have I become? Curled tight I lie, hugging myself. Precious time is mine to waste. I curse my underbelly exposed.   That I can scratch out clear skies, tear the sun’s eye from its socket to dissipate these radiating aches should come as no sharp surprise.   Feel heartfelt and twice folded. A letter written in black … Continue reading Linnet Phoenix

Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada.  Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in Itasca, DuPage County, Illinois. Mr. Johnson published in more than 1098 new publications, and his poems have appeared in 40 countries, he edits, publishes ten poetry sites. Michael Lee Johnson has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards poetry 2015/1 Best of the Net 2016/2 Best of the Net 2017, 2 Best of the Net 2018.  Two hundred seventeen poetry videos are now … Continue reading Michael Lee Johnson

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary … Continue reading Strider Marcus Jones

James Mulhern’s writing is forthcoming or has been published in literary journals and anthologies over one hundred times. In 2013, he was a Finalist for the Tuscany Prize in Catholic Fiction. In 2015, Mr. Mulhern was awarded a fully paid writing fellowship to Oxford University in the United Kingdom. That same year, a story was longlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize. In 2017, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His writing (novels and short story collection) earned favorable critiques from Kirkus Reviews, including a Kirkus Star. His most recent novel, Give Them Unquiet Dreams, is a Readers’ Favorite Book Award winner, a Notable Best Indie Book of 2019, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2019, and a RED … Continue reading James Mulhern

Sampson is a writer-producer based in Cyprus and the UK. His work has appeared in Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, The Scofield, and The Writers’ Magazine, among others. His short story Flames and Shadows was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize. Film projects include Behind the Mirror(writer/producer – winner of Best Thriller in the Manhattan Film Festival 2015), Vita and Virginia and Show Me The Picture: The Story of Jim Marshall(executive producer). He loves Alfred Hitchcock films. And traveling. And the Cloud. And is currently working on a psychological horror script. A LITTLE FIRE BURNING My name is Angelos Socrates and this is my apology … Come the festive season, I ponder on the scripture. I may be a free thinker invested in the … Continue reading Nicolas Sampson

John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of two books of poetry: “March” and “The Seasons of Us” (both published in 2019). His work has appeared widely in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children. Walls Toward vast Expanses of space Fragments of knowledge Over time The faint whispers Of an ancient race Sky guides Monoliths And … Continue reading John Drudge

Kim has worked for NGO’s in Greece, Kosovo, Iraq, Palestine and Macedonia. He likes painting, art, bullfighting, photography and architecture, which might explain why this Australian lives in Madrid. 178 of his stories have been accepted by 104 different magazines.  So What’s Changed? The statue’s garden’s low, black, iron fence, bordering a half-metre-high, rectangular hedge, gave the statue solemn intimacy. The statue commemorated Spain’s first female university student, its bowed head of tied up hair, and its body-length robe of flowing folds, suggesting hard-fought erudition. Three women and two men on a guided walk faced the statue. One of the … Continue reading Kim Farleigh

Books lead to other books. Read one and you’re reminded of another. New publications refer to past ones, famous and obscure. Genres cross over, involving similar concepts, tropes, devices. Writers lift, pay tribute, re-imagine, claim as their own and take it a step further in their effort to tell gripping, original stories. Pick up the trail and we end up making extraordinary connections. Welcome to Connection Degree Three … Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Christopher Marlowe. Three icons of English literature who pondered on the spectral nature of life, its phantasmagorical ebbs and flows, its wholly phantasmic fluctuations, the bright suns … Continue reading ON OUR STREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THEIR DARK TRIBUTARIES