Michael Lee Johnson lived 10 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 1072 new publications, his poems have appeared in 38 countries, he edits, publishes 10 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 2018.199 poetry videos are now on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/poetrymanusa/videos.  Editor-in-chief poetry anthology, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow … Continue reading Michael Lee Johnson

Vivien Jones lives on the north Solway shore in Scotland. She has two poetry collections and two short story collections in print, numerous inclusions in national and international anthologies, and has had work broadcast on Radio Scotland and Radio 4. In the last two years her focus has been on writing short plays (for which she won a national award) working with actors and directors to bring them to performance. She is one of three editors of Southlight literary magazine which is created in the south-west of Scotland where she lives. She is a Literature Ambassador for the Wigtown Book Festival Company, helping … Continue reading Vivien Jones

Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Ascent, Chiron Review, McNeese Review, Adirondack Review, Weber, Florida Review, South Carolina Review, Carolina Quarterly, Arkansas Review, Poem, South Dakota Review, and many other journals. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel (BrickHouse Press, 2004), The Weight of the World (BrickHouse, 2006), and The Story of My Lives (BrickHouse, 2008). He has taught university English in the US, China, and the Palestinian West Bank. Alter Ego I make good grades in school so when we eat out on Friday nights and do some shopping, Father and Mother and I, I get my allowance–a quarter–after dessert. It will buy me two comic books at twelve cents each, and a penny … Continue reading Gale Acuff

Gerald Jatzek is a poet and musician from Vienna, Austria, who writes in German and English. He published books for children and adults, short stories, plays for radio and essays. 2001 he got the Austrian State Prize for Children’s Poetry. His books have been translated into Korean and Turkish, his poems have appeared in anthologies and literature  papers in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, the Netherlands and the UK. He runs a facebook page on poetry in several languages at https://www.facebook.com/jatzekpoesie/ Bars They came together east of singing,   drowning their instruments in murmurs and smoke. … Continue reading Gerald Jatzek

Is there really that much difference between sports and the plight of writers everywhere? The idea of the musclebound athlete and the bookish writer are often shown to be worlds apart. But are they? Really? Probably a lot less than we think. Both exist because of a love of what they do, a talent for their field and the willingness to dedicated themselves to improving and mastering their craft. The similarities, however, don’t stop there, both fields are often chronically underfunded at grassroots level, reliant on grants and talented people giving up their time for free. Be that professional authors … Continue reading Worlds Apart or kindred spirits?

Jack Coey is a seventy-two year old grandfather of two who has experienced most of life’s events, and survived them not only, but without hurting anyone else which he would say was a good life. Writing satisfies him like nothing else and he works as a cashier to eat and writes to love.   Neptune Swims Finley put down the bottle. He heard the static from the radio before the music started. He was a teenager; it was June 5, 1944, and he was in Portsmouth, England.  Bridget was at the sink of the small, second floor flat washing an … Continue reading Jack Coey

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality and writes hoping to find an audience for her musings. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Rhysling Award. Her poetry has appeared in many publications including: Apogee, Firewords, Capsule Stories, Light Journal and So It Goes. Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/ Dead Poets Outside the night was filled … Continue reading Lynn White

Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician currently residing on Salt Spring Island BC, is a multiple Pushcart nominee with over 1,500 poems published internationally in magazines such as Poetry, Rattle and the North American Review. His books are ‘The So-Called Sonnets (Silenced Press); ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy; (Cawing Crow Press) and ‘Like As If” (Pski’s Porch), Hearsay (The Poet’s Haven).         A Word About Words The past is a place in northern England where the left-handed are gibble-fisted or coochy-pawed or left-kaggy. In another time and place, where freckles were frentickles or branny-spackles. When daddy long-legs were once called harvest … Continue reading Bruce McRae

Niles Reddick is author of the novel Drifting too far from the Shore, two collections Reading the Coffee Grounds and Road Kill Art and Other Oddities, and a novella Lead Me Home. His work has been featured in eleven collections and in over two hundred literary magazines all over the world including The Saturday Evening Post, PIF, New Reader Magazine, Forth Magazine, Cheap Pop, With Painted Words, among many others. Website: http://nilesreddick.com/ Twitter: @niles_reddick Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/niles.reddick.9 A Job Interview The provost for the small, private college seemed nice enough during the interview, was polished, and had a small head and long neck, like Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck. When Dr. Margaret Hamilton … Continue reading Niles Reddick

John L. Stanizzi is author of the collections – Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell, Hallelujah Time!, High Tide – Ebb Tide, Four Bits, and Chants.  His newest collection, Sundowning, will be out this year with Main Street Rag.  John’s poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, American Life in Poetry, The New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, Blue Mountain Review, The Cortland Review, Rattle, Tar River Poetry, Rust & Moth, Connecticut River Review, Hawk & Handsaw, and many others.  His work has been translated into Italian and appeared in many journals in Italy.  His translator is Angela D’Ambra.  John has read and venues all over … Continue reading John L. Stanizzi