James Benger is the author of several books of poetry and prose. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Writers Place and on the Riverfront Readings Committee and is the founder of the 365 Poems in 365 Day online workshop. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and children.

Ken Gosse usually writes humorous, rhyming verse using traditional meters. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, since then he has been published in various online sites and in print anthologies, including Home Planet News Online, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Writers Club, Spillwords, and others. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, over twenty-five years, usually with cats and dogs underfoot.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Midnight Mind, Novus,  and Abbey. Latest books, Bittersweet, Subject Matters and Between Two Fires are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in MacGuffin, Touchstone, and Willow Review.

Shannon Frost Greenstein (She/They) resides near Philadelphia with her family and cats. She is the author of Through the Lens of Time (2026), a fiction collection with Thirty West Publishing, and These Are a Few of My Least Favorite Things (2022), a book of poetry from Really Serious Lit. Shannon is a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy and a multi-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Pithead Chapel, Nimrod Journal, Bending Genres, and elsewhere. Shannon’s passions include Friedrich Nietzsche, anti-racism, the Seven Summits, the Hamilton Soundtrack, and acquiring more cats. Find her at shannonfrostgreenstein.com. X & Bluesky: @shannonfrostgre; Insta: @zarathustra_speaks

Carol Hamilton is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and has published 19 books and chapbooks. She has been nominated twelve times for the Pushcart Prize. She has won a Southwest Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, David Ray Poetry Prize, Byline Magazine literary awards in both short story and poetry, Warren Keith Poetry Award, Pegasus Award and a Chiron Review Chapbook Award, Editor’s Choice Book for Main Street Rag.

Jennifer Freya Helgeson’s creative writing explores themes of memory, loss, nature, and human resilience. She holds a PhD in Environmental and Developmental Economics and has authored several peer-reviewed publications, co-edited textbooks, and published in several media outlets. She began writing poetry for publication in autumn 2025; her poetry has appeared in several online and print anthologies. When she’s not writing, Jennifer enjoys gardening, dancing, experimenting in the kitchen, and spending meaningful time with her dog, close friends, and family.

Kevin Holdsworth’s books include Good Water and Big Wonderful.

Iwuagwu Ikechukwu is an African poet, essayist, screenwriter, and dramatist. A native of Umunkwo in Imo state, Nigeria, his reviews and short stories have appeared in several literary magazines across the world both online and in print. He was a recipient of an honourable mention in the IHRAF Creators of Justice award in New York – 2020 & 2022 editions respectively. He was shortlisted for the 2022 Alpine Fellowship Visual Arts Prize in London, UK, the ANTOA essay prize in Africa, the Wordweavers Poetry Prize, and the K.E.E.P Poetry Prize 2025. Recently, he was longlisted for the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize. When he is not writing, he can be found researching, teaching, or reading the works of Christopher Okigbo, Isidore Diala, Soyinka, Adichie, Buchi Emecheta & Ifesinachi Nwadike. 

Celia Lawren is the author of the poetry chapbook, Among Dead Things, a chronicle of tragedy, loss and resilience. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as Arts & Letters, the South Carolina Review, the Appalachian anthology Women Speak, Stirring, Crab Creek Review, and Grey Sparrow. She has received a Best New Poets 2025 nomination. Ms. Lawren resides in Knoxville, Tennessee after living many years in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Clyde Liffey lives near the water.

Donald Mangum is retired from teaching English and philosophy. He has published a novella, The Roar Beneath (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2016), and a number of short stories and poems in The New Yorker, Confrontation, The Mississippi Review, Home Planet News, and other periodicals. “Plato and Aristotle” is an excerpt from A History of Western Philosophy in a Nutshell (Half Inch Press, 2025).

Theo Morris received his MFA in poetry from West Virginia Wesleyan College. His work has appeared in ABZ, Bond Street Review, Cartridge Lit, Home Planet News, JAKE, Jet Fuel Review, Purple Stallion Review, Unbroken Journal, Variety Pack, and others.  

Kirby Olson studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso at Naropa Institute.  His first book of poetry is entitled Christmas at Rockefeller Center. His poems have appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Partisan Review, Poetry East, and many dozens of others. He lives in upstate New York where he teaches at SUNY Delhi. The three poems in this issue appear in Night Shift at the Utopian Turtletop Factory, recently released by Half Inch Press.

Hilary Sideris is the author of the poetry collections Calliope (Broadstone Books, 2024), Liberty Laundry (Dos Madres Press, 2022), Animals in English (Dos Madres Press, 2020), The Silent B (Dos Madres Press, 2019), Un Amore Veloce (Kelsay Books, 2019), The Inclination to Make Waves (Big Wonderful LLC, 2016) and Most Likely to Die (Poets Wear Prada, 2014). Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She is a co-founder and curriculum developer for CUNY Start, a college preparatory program at CUNY, and a co-host of the Carmine Street Metrics reading series in NYC.

Dudley Stone has received the A.R. Ammons Poetry Prize and his work has been Pushcart Prize-nominated. He has a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Kentucky, studied playwriting at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the Kentucky State Poetry Society. He is also a volunteer mechanic at Broke Spoke Community Bicycle Shop. Mr. Stone lives, writes, bikes, feeds stray cats, and plays the ponies in Lexington, KY. More of his writing can be found at dudleystone.com.

Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Lithuanian/Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet who has had over 700 poems published and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times.

Allison Whittenberg is an award-winning novelist and playwright. Her poetry has appeared in Berlin Lit, Columbia Review, Feminist Studies, J Journal, and New Orleans Review. Whittenberg is a ten-time Pushcart Prize nominee.  They Were Horrible Cooks is her collection of poetry.

Watt Worris is a pseudonym used by poet & editor M–.  For years & years & years, he has appeared in many magazines such as this one. “Night at the Improv, C. 1600” & “Hole” are part of his award-winning full-length, full-colored illustrated collection, Walking in Chicago with a Suitcase in My Hand, of which a text-only edition was recently reprinted  by Half Inch Press. The audio recording of “Hole” originally aired on the Books Unbound episode “Not Somewhere Else But Here” on WHFB in Indiana.