About Our Contributors

Jacob M. Appel is the author of the forthcoming short story collection, Scouting for the Reaper (Black Lawrence Press). He practices medicine in New York City. More at: www.jacobmappel.com.

Jane Beauchamp lives in St. Paul. “Iver’s Winter” is her first published story.

Jamie Buehner grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota with brief stints in Turkey and Viet­nam.  Her first book, Dessert Poems, a collaborative effort with painter Susan Solomon, was published by Binge Press in 2011.

Sharon Chmielarz’s latest two books are Calling (Loonfeather Press) which was a finalist for the INDIE Book Awards,  2011, and The Sky Is Great, the Sky Is Blue (Whistling Shade Press).  You can hear her read on www.sharonchmielarz.com.  She’s the happy recipient of the 2012 Jane Kenyon Prize.

Abigail Droge hails from Charleston, SC.  Her work has appeared in a variety of journals and periodicals, including The Aurorean, The Wisconsin Review, and literary magazines at both Yale and Cambridge.  She is currently a PhD student in English at Stanford.

Alice Duggan cares for gardens, public and private, and writes poems.  Her work has been published in Water~Stone Review, Sleetmagazine.com, Plainsongs and Blue Earth Review.  A Brittle Thing, her first chapbook, was published in 2012 by Greenfuse Press of Colorado.

Steve De France’s  poetry has been published in most of the English speaking countries of the world. He has won writing awards in England and in the United States.

Matthew P. Gallant is a high school English teacher in Washington, D.C. newly trans­planted from NH. His poems deal indirectly with a little bit of everything, sort of like lyrics for life.

Chuck Holmes used to live in the Twin Cities. He floated down the Mississippi in an old wooden rowboat, all the way from Minneapolis to New Orleans. Within the last year, he has had a story published in the Vermillion Literary Project; poems published by Surfpea Press in Sioux Falls, as part of an anthology; an essay about a man who ran the roller coaster in Arnolds Park on Lake Okoboji in Iowa History Illustrated; poems in South Dakota Magazine; and a long poem about Amy Winehouse read by Lit Undressed, an Omaha group which does readings in the nude.

Franco Pagnucci is  an Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin and has published storytelling books for teachers and students and three volumes of his own poetry: Out Harmsen's Way; I Never Had a Pet; and Ancient Moves; as well as two poetry anthologies: Face the Poem; and New Roads Old Towns.

Blue Light Press has published Mary Kay Rummel’s sixth poetry book, What’s Left Is The Singing. Her first book, This Body She’s Entered, was published by New Rivers Press as a Minnesota Voices Award. She performs poetry with the California saxophonist, Bob Bishop, and Minnesota pianist, Gwen Perun and publishes work in many journals. She divides her time between California and Minnesota and teaches  at California State Uni­versity at Channel Islands. More at marykayrummel.com.

Ken Seide is the pen name of a poet whose poems have appeared in Midstream, Poetica, New Vilna Review, Voices Israel, Ibbetson Street, Muddy River Poetry Review, SN Review, and Kerem, and will appear in The Deronda Review.

D. Sykes is a musician, writer, and co-founder of Aephy.org, a Twin Cities arts and culture blog.  He once received a fortune cookie that told him he would become an accomplished novelist; this prophecy remains unfulfilled, but prospects are looking alright.

Justin Teerlinck is an occupational therapy graduate student in the Portland, Oregon area, where he is learning how to place his writing skills and sense of the absurd in service to people with disabilities.  His response to most standardized test questions is, "Meow don't know this theoretical construct. Meow try again please?"

Joel Van Valin is the publisher of Whistling Shade and the author of the fantasy novel The Flower of Clear Burning. For complaints about the literary journal or its writers, please call 1-800-NOTGUILTY.

Timothy Ziegenhagen has worked as a bartender and a farmhand. His fiction has previ­ously appeared  in Night Train, Bellevue Literary Review, Natural Bridge, The Long Story, Evansville Review, and elsewhere. He currently teaches at Northland College.