Issue 1.2 Contributors

Tad Bartlett’s essays and photography have been published on the website of The Oxford American, and in the Selma Times-Journal, and Mobile Press-Register; his poetry has appeared in the Double Dealer. He received his undergraduate degrees in creative writing and theater from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., and a law degree from Tulane University. He is currently an MFA student in the fiction program of the Creative Writing Workshop at the University of New Orleans. Tad is a founding member of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance.

Allie Marini Batts is an MFA candidate at Antioch University of Los Angeles, meaning she can explain deconstructionism, but cannot perform simple math. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She contributes to the publication of AULA’s Lunch Ticket literary magazine, Spry Literary Journal, The Weekenders Magazine, Mojave River Review and The Bookshelf Bombshells. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, You Might Curse Before You Bless (ELJ Publications) and Unmade & Other Poems(Beautysleep Press). Find her on Facebook!

Brad Efford was a finalist for Shenandoah’s Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets in 2012. His work can be found in jmww, Shadowbox, Oxford Magazine, The Fiddleback, Monkeybicycle, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from Hollins University and teaches middle-school boys in Richmond, VA. Find him online at http://bradefford.tumblr.com.

Joyce Hayden lives in Western MA. She is currently exhibiting a series of ex-voto paintings and collage work in her show, Resiliency. At work on her third revision of her current novel, Joyce also teaches writing at Westfield State University. Her work has been published in the Cimarron Review, Syracuse University’s Corresponding Voices, We’Moon’s Daily Calendars, and other journals.

B.J. Hollars is the author of two books of nonfiction—Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence and the Last Lynching in America and Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa—as well as a collection of stories, Sightings. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Alex Luft’s fiction has appeared in The Adirondack Review, Midwestern Gothic, The Coachella Review and elsewhere. His journalistic work has taken him from rural county jails to the sex toy section of Wal-Mart, and he is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Jason McCall is the author of Dear Hero, (winner of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize) Silver (Main Street Rag), I Can Explain (Finishing Line Press), and forthcoming Mother, Less Child (winner of the 2013 Paper Nautilus Vella Chapbook Prize). He is from the great state of Alabama, where he currently teaches at the University of Alabama. He holds an MFA from the University of Miami, and his work has been featured in Cimarron Review, The Los Angeles Review, New Letters, The Rumpus, and other journals.

Rachel Mack is a writer living in Louisville, Kentucky, where she teaches yoga and works in the public schools. She is working on her novel and writes biographies for Americans Who Tell the Truth. You can read her tweets at @StoryGirl.

Matthew Mahaney is the author of Your Attraction to Sharp Machines (BatCat Press, 2013). His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Colorado Review, Skydeer Helpking, ILK, NANO Fiction, & Untoward. He currently lives in Tuscaloosa, and teaches at the University of Alabama.

Clint Margrave is the author of The Early Death of Men, a collection of poems published by NYQ Books. His work has also appeared in The New York Quarterly, Rattle, Cimarron Review, Verse Daily, and Ambit (UK), among others. He lives in Long Beach, CA.

Laura McCullough’s most recent book of poems is Rigger Death & Hoist Another. Her other books are Panic, Speech Acts, and What Men Want. She is the editor of two anthologies: The Room & the World: Essays on the Poetry of Stephen Dunn, forthcoming from Syracuse University Press, and A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race, forthcoming from University of Georgia Press. She is the editor of Mead: the Magazine of Literature and Libations.

Sara Moore teaches English at Northern Kentucky University. Her work has appeared or is scheduled to appear most recently in The 2013 Best of Vine Leaves, Arsenic Lobster, Illuminations, and The San Pedro River Review. She lives in Cincinnati with her son Cohen. Find her here: http://saralizmoore.wordpress.com/

Ryan Napier was born in Plant City, Florida, and lives and works in Moscow, Russia. He holds degrees in literature from Stetson University and Yale Divinity School, and he studied writing at the Prague Summer Program at Charles University. His most recent story, “Gnashing of Teeth,” appears in The South Florida Arts Journal.

David Olimpio grew up in Texas, but currently lives and writes in Northern New Jersey. He believes that we create ourselves through the stories we tell, and that is what he aims to do every day. Usually, you can find him driving his pick-up around the Garden State with his two dogs. He has been published in The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review, CRATE, Filthy Gorgeous Things, MiPOesias, The Good Men Project, and other places. You can find more about him here http://www.davidolimpio.com including links to his writing and photography. He tweets as @notsolinear.

Pete Pazmino lives at the headwaters of the Rappahannock River, in Chester Gap, Virginia. He is a graduate of the MA in Writing (Fiction) program at Johns Hopkins University whose work has been published in Gargoyle Magazine, Memorious, Monkeybicycle, JMWW, and elsewhere. In addition to attending the Sirenland and Sewanee writers’ conferences, he’s received two fellowships at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (April 2012 and September 2013). He blogs, occasionally and sometimes with enthusiasm, at www.petepazmino.com.

Justin Runge lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where he serves as poetry editor of Parcel. He is the author of two chapbooks, Plainsight (New Michigan Press, 2012) and Hum Decode (Greying Ghost Press, 2013). In 2013, his work was selected by Brenda Shaughnessy for inclusion in that year’s Best New Poets anthology. Poems of his have appeared in Linebreak, DIAGRAM, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. He can be found at www.justinrunge.me.

Melanie Tague is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri- Columbia where she received her BA in History and Sociology. She has previously published work in Barely South Review, OVS Magazine, as well as forthcoming work in Weave Magazine. She currently serves as a contributing editor for River Styx and as a literature magazine reviewer for Newpages.com. She resides in Columbia, MO with plans of pursuing an MFA this coming fall.

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Janet Lee Warman has taught high school English and is now a Professor of English and Education at Elon University in North Carolina. She has an M.Ed. in special education/emotional disturbance, an M.A. in English with a concentration in writing, and a Ph.D. in English, with a focus on literature. She has had numerous poems published in small journals nationally.