Joris Soeding – Illinois, USA
Joris Soeding’s most recent collections of poetry are Forty (Rinky Dink Press, 2019) and Home in Nine Moons (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, 2018). His writing has appeared in publications such as Another Chicago Magazine, Columbia Poetry Review, Red River Review, and Spillway. He is a fifth-grade Language Arts teacher in Chicago, where he resides with his wife, son, daughter, and kittens.
Melissa St. Pierre – Michigan, USA
Melissa St.Pierre is an English professor at Rochester University. Her work has appeared in The Blue Nib, Ponder Savant, Panoply, Valiant Scribe, and Arzono Anthology. St..Pierre has also performed her work in Listen to Your Mother, a literary nonfiction storytelling showcase. When she is not writing, she is misplacing things, making construction paper art, playing with her daughter, or both.
Gerard Sarnat – California, USA
Gerard Sarnat MD has won the San Francisco Poetry’s Contest, Poetry in Arts First Place Award/Dorfman Prizes. Nominated for Pushcarts/Best of Net Awards, Gerry’s published in Hong Kong Review, Tokyo Journal, Buddhist Review, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Arkansas Review, Hamilton-Stone Review, New Haven Institute, Texas Review, Vonnegut Journal, Brooklyn Review, SF Magazine, LA Review, NY Times plus by Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Chicago, Columbia presses. He’s authored collections: Homeless Chronicles, Disputes, 17s, and Melting Ice King. Stanford professor/healthcare CEO, Gerry’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized and devoted energy/resources toward climate justice on Climate-Action-Now’s board. Married since 1969, Gerry has nine grand/kids.
You may read more about Gerad’s works on his website.
Aidan Sydik – Nebraska, USA
Aidan Sydik is a student, artist, and writer of stories and poetry. He has been doing creative writing since 2018, and began creating Shatters in May of 2021. He enjoys games, fencing, and music, and is currently located in Nebraska. You can find more of Aidan’s works on Red Bubble.
Stephanie Stone – Cheongju, South Korea
Stephanie Stone currently resides in South Korea and is working as an ESL teacher. She is from the USA and was born and raised in North Carolina. Stephanie attended Appalachian State University where she received her bachelor’s degree. She enjoys reading, playing with her golden retriever, listening to music, traveling, and writing poetry. Stephanie is dedicated and has a strong enthusiasm for adventure.
Follow Stephanie on Instagram.
Gray Stanback – North Carolina, USA
Gray Stanback was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, and ever since has been fascinated by storytelling. Some favorite authors include Stephen King, H. G. Wells, and Japanese manga writer Mohiro Kitoh. Gray graduated Guilford College in 2016 with a major in biology and a minor in environmental studies. He has been writing original works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror since middle school.
Follow Gray on his website.
Gregg Shapiro – South Florida, USA
Gregg Shapiro is the author of eight books including the poetry chapbook Fear of Muses (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2022). Recent/forthcoming lit-mag publications include The Penn Review, Book of Matches, Sangam Literary Magazine, Exquisite Pandemic, RFD, Gargoyle, Limp Wrist, Mollyhouse, Poetic Medicine, Impossible Archetype, Red Fern Review, The Pine Cone Review, and POETiCA REViEW. An entertainment journalist, whose interviews and reviews run in a variety of regional LGBTQ+ and mainstream publications and websites, Shapiro lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with his husband Rick and their dog Coco.
Sunil Sharma – Ontario, Canada
Sunil Sharma is Toronto-based senior academic, critic, literary editor and author with 23 published books. He loves to listen to the stars, birds, winds and watch the sky. Tries to understand the eye-language and enthusiasm of the pet dogs—feel the pain and weight of the leash, trapped in a home- cage, bound with the chains, watched by Covid-19.
Sunil has published 23 creative and critical books, joint and solo. He edits the monthly Setu Journal.
For other details, please visit his website.
Iraj Shariq – Karachi, Pakistan
Iraj Shariq was raised in Pakistan. Her profession is dentistry while poetry writing is her passion. She has been writing poetry for both national and International magazines since a tender age. Her work has been featured in many renowned magazines worldwide. Some of them are the International Literature and Arts Magazine, Arkore Writes, Fit With Words, Dovelyisi, Rasa Literary Review, V.shine., Young Nation, Mahanam e Sehar, and many more. She is also a Quran teacher, content writer, calligrapher and is associated with many animal rescue and literary organizations. She aims to be an inspiration for her generation. Follow Iraj on Instagram.
Alec Solomita – Massachusetts, USA
Alec Solomita wrote his first story when he was 12. It was about senility, which should give you a character note. He’s worked at many jobs in Boston and Chicago, mostly as a theatrical director, actor, and teacher. His fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review, The Mississippi Review, and Southword Journal, among other publications. His poetry has appeared in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Driftwood Press, The Galway Review, and elsewhere, including several anthologies. His poetry chapbook “Do Not Forsake Me,” was published in 2017. His full-length poetry book, “Hard To Be a Hero,” was just released by Kelsay Books.
For more find Alec on Facebook.
CLS Sandoval – California, USA
CLS Sandoval, PhD (she/her) is a pushcart nominated writer and communication professor with accolades in film, academia, and creative writing who speaks, signs, acts, publishes, sings, performs, writes, paints, teaches and rarely relaxes. She’s a flash fiction and poetry editor for Dark Onus Lit. She has presented over 50 times at communication conferences, published 15 academic articles, two academic books, three full-length literary collections, three chapbooks, as well as flash and poetry pieces in several literary journals, recently including Opiate Magazine, The Journal of Magical Wonder, and A Moon of One’s Own. She is raising her daughter and dog with her husband in Alhambra, CA.
Eduard Schmidt-Zorner – Ireland
Eduard Schmidt-Zorner is a translator and writer of poetry, haibun, haiku, and short stories. He writes in four languages: English, French, Spanish, and German and holds workshops on Japanese and Chinese style poetry and prose and experimental poetry, and is a member of four writer groups in Ireland. Living in County Kerry, Ireland, for more than 30 years, he is a proud Irish citizen, born in Germany. Published in over 180 anthologies, literary journals, and broadsheets in USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Austria, France, Bangladesh, India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, and Nigeria. He also writes under his penname Eadbhard McGowan.
Find more on Eduard’s website.
Jeremy Szuder – California, USA
Jeremy Szuder; 15 years as a musician, graphic design work, 25 years of self published Zines, fine art, 10 years deejaying, and continues to have illustrations and poems published by fine art and literary publications across the U.S.A. and Canada. Jeremy Szuder lives in Glendale California.
Find Jeremy’s art and works at his website. And listen here YouTube and Spotify.
Joshua St. Claire – Pennsylvania, USA
Joshua St. Claire is an accountant who works as a financial controller in Pennsylvania. He enjoys writing poetry on coffee breaks and after helping his wife get their three sons to bed. His haiku have been published or are forthcoming in several North American, European, and Asian journals including: Mayfly, The Heron’s Nest, Sonic Boom, hedgerow, and Presence.
A.L. Sarino – Taguig, Philippines
A. L. Sarino is a young writer hailing from the Philippines. They are currently studying Creative Writing at the Philippine High School for the Arts where their first book titled “Sa Ngalan ng Gula-gulanit na Gunita” is published. “The Boy at the Back of the Room” (their first piece published at the MockingOwl Roost) was written when they were 15.
Find more on A.L.’s Instagram.
K.G. Song – California, USA
K.G. Song began writing short stories, flash fiction, and poems during the pandemic lockdown and continued writing even after the pandemic lockdown was over. Now retired, K.G. Song carries on with writing for his own satisfaction and fun. Wrestling with words, phrases, and images gives him the joy of exercising his creative muscles.
Gargi Sidana – India
Gargi Sidana is a voracious reader and a skilled writer from India. Her poems were chosen for the OPA Anthology, Rosethorn publication, Iceblink Literary Journal and Spillword Press. She experiences the poem’s emotions, trauma, and intricacies of it. An artist never sleeps unless she visualizes sincerity in her verses.
You can find more on Gargi on Instagram.
Jess Simms – Pennsylvania, USA
Jess Simms is a freelance writer from Pittsburgh, PA, where they’re a co-founder of Scribble House and the managing editor of After Happy Hour Review. Their work can be found in Rinky Dink Press’ series 10 of micro-chaps (Shapeshifter Diaries, 2023), as well as the 2022 Nivalis Anthology and Bardic Tales and Sage Advice Vol. X, among other publications.
You can read their musings on worldbuilding, freelancing, and other word-adjacent things at Nerd for Hire.
Nelly Shullman – Israel
Nelly Shulman is a writer currently based in Israel. Her work has appeared in Jewish Fiction, Vine Leaves Press Anthology of the Best 2021 Flash Fiction, and in various literary magazines. She is a winner of three writing awards.
You can find Nelly on her website.
Jack Smiles – Pennsylvania, USA
Jack Smiles is a former community newspaper feature writer collecting freelance rejections as a hobby in retirement.
Jennifer E. Shields – Red Bank, New Jersey, USA
Jennifer Shields is a licensed professional counselor and writer living in Red Bank, New Jersey. In her private practice, she co-creates stories of trauma and grief into stories of triumph and perseverance. When she is not working, she can be found hiking in the woods with her dogs, watching re-runs of Dark Shadows, and pestering her teens for their well-curated playlists. She is a writing instructor at Project Write Now and currently working on a full-length memoir.
Richard Stimac – Missouri, USA
Richard Stimac has published a poetry book Bricolage (Spartan Press), over forty poems in Michigan Quarterly Review, Faultline, December, and others. He has nearly two-dozen flash fiction pieces in Blue Mountain, Good Life, Typescript, and also several scripts. He is a poetry reader for Ariel Publishing and a fiction reader for The Maine Review.
Find more on Richard’s Facebook.
Ellis Shuman – Israel
Ellis Shuman is an American-born Israeli author, travel writer, and book reviewer. His writing has appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, and The Huffington Post. He is the author of The Virtual Kibbutz, Valley of Thracians, and The Burgas Affair. His short fiction has appeared in Isele Magazine, Vagabond, The Write Launch, Esoterica, Ariel Chart, Jewish Literary Journal, and other literary publications.
Jennifer Susan Smith – North Georgia, USA
After a 39-year career as an elementary speech-language pathologist, Jennifer Smith is now pursuing her childhood dream of writing. Her themes for fiction and nonfiction are rooted in the South, often connected to her home state of Georgia. Jennifer recently received a Creative Writing Certificate from Kennesaw State University, supplementing her Educational Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She won a 2023 Regional Mini Scholarship from Alpha Delta Kappa International to pursue her writing projects and is building her writing portfolio with aspirations of publication. Jennifer loves writing on the front porch of her home in Rock Spring, Georgia.
Tim Schell – Oregon, USA
Tim Schell’s most recent novel is Road to the Sea, published by Serving House Books in 2016. He is the winner of the 2004 Mammoth Book Award for his novel The Drums of Africa which was published in the fall of 2007. In 2010, Tim’s novel The Memoir of Jake Weedsong was The Finalist in the AWP novel competition, and in 2011 it was published by Serving House Books. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, and he co-founded and edited the Clackamas Literary Review at Clackamas Community College.
Meredith Stephens – Adelaide, Australia
Meredith Stephens is a mother, sea wife, and writer from South Australia. Her work has appeared in Transnational Literature, The Blue Mountain Review, The Font – A Literary Journal for Language Teachers, Fresh Words Magazine, and The Muse.
