About Our Contributors

Julian Bernick’s first poem in Whistling Shade appeared in 2013. In 2020, he published the gothic long poem Castle Bash with Whistling Shade Press. He writes poetry, fiction and roleplaying game content in Minneapolis.

Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry on unceded Mingo land (Akron, OH). Recent/upcoming appearances in Ez.P.Zine, Agapanthus Collective, and Throats to the Sky, among others.

Jo-Anne Cappeluti earned her Ph.D. in English at the University of California at Riverside and taught creative writing at California State University, Fullerton for 30 years before retiring. She con­tinues to publish stories and poems-also essays that explore the aesthetic stance of poets who act for the imagination in exploring truth that by its nature can neither be proven nor disproven.

Sharon Chmielarz is the 2021 South Dakota Poet of Merit. She’s lived and worked in MN since 1964. Kirkus Reviews has described her poetry as “Thoughtful, bold, humorous, earthy, and humane.” Her latest book is Duet in the Little Blue Church, 2023.

A former Bucks County (PA) Poet Laureate, Terence Culleton reads widely throughout the Phila­delphia area, as well as in northeastern Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. Several of his poems have been featured on NPR. His third volume of poetry, a collection of sonnets entitled A Tree and Gone, is now out through Future Cycle Press and has been featured on the New York Review of Books Independent Press "New Releases" list.

Steve Denehan lives in Ireland with his family. He is an award-winning poet and the author of two chapbooks and five collections.

Born in Gdańsk in 1953, Tadeusz Dziewanowski was involved in Polish street theater as both a writer and performer during the 1970s, and was a co-founder of the Gdańsk-area creative group, Tawerna Psychonautów (The Tavern of the Psychonauts) in the 1980s. More recently, he has been a poet and translator from English. His first book of poetry, Siedemnaście tysięcy małpich ogonów (Seventeen Thousand Monkey Tales), appeared in 2009, and his poetry, reviews and translations from English appear regularly in the Polish literary journal Topos. Daniel Bourne's translations of his poetry have appeared in Plume, International Poetry Review, Able Muse, Mobius, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, and elsewhere.

Donna L. Emerson’s first full-length poetry collection, The Place of Our Meeting, was published by Finishing Line Press in January 2018 and nominated for the California Book Award. Her second full- length poetry collection, Beside the Well, was published by Cherry Grove Collections in December 2019. Her third full-length book, Daphne Lifts Up, will be published in 2025 by Finishing Line Press.

Recently Billy Collins picked three of Bill Garten's poems to be both short-listed and long-listed as finalists in the Fish Anthology 2022. Bill's book Asphalt Heart was published by The Main Street Rag Publishing in 2018, and We Have to Stop Here, Bill's most recent book, is a recent semi-finalist in the 2020 Willow Run Poetry Book Award.

Richard Horvath retired from his career as computer programmer in 2005. He moved to Asheville, NC where he began to write poetry, inspired by courses and fellow poets at OLLI (Osher Life-Long Learning Institute). In addition to poetry, he loves music (from Beethoven to BB King), chess, base­ball and his cats Pepper and Phoebe.

Matthew King used to teach philosophy at York University in Toronto, Canada; he now lives in what Al Purdy called "the country north of Belleville," where he tries to grow things, counts birds, takes pictures of flowers with bugs on them, and walks a rope bridge between the neighboring mountain­tops of philosophy and poetry. His photos and links to his published poems can be found at bird­sandbeesandblooms.com.

Janna Knittel is the author of Real Work (Nodin, 2022), a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Award in poetry, and the chapbook Fish & Wild Life (Finishing Line, 2018). Janna still calls the Pacific Northwest "home" despite living in Minnesota since 2004.

Julian Koslow’s poems have appeared in Sugar House Review, The Columbia Review, New Ohio Review, SRPR, Cumberland River Review, Atlanta Review, and Paterson Literary Review among others. He lives with his wife and two sons in Fair Lawn, NJ.

Wendy Lyon's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, The Greensboro Review, Poetry Northwest, SurVision Magazine, and many other publications. Lyon attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Wesleyan Writers Conference and holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Windsor. She enjoys volunteering her time teaching adults and chil­dren to read. Her pen name is W. B. Lyon.

DS Maolalai has been nominated eleven times for Best of the Net, eight for the Pushcart Prize and once for the Forward Prize. His poetry has been released in three collections, most recently Sad Havoc Among the Birds (Turas Press, 2019) and Noble Rot (Turas Press, 2022).

William Miller's eighth collection of poetry, Lee Circle, was published by Shanti Arts Press in 2019. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner and West Branch. He lives and writes in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Louhi Pohjola was born in Montreal, Canada, to Finnish immigrant parents. She was a cell and molecular biologist before teaching sciences and humanities in a small high school in southern Ore­gon. She tends to write poems focused on the intersections of human behavior and the natural world, in particular, with black holes, the cosmos, and octopi. She is an avid fly-fisherwoman and river rock connoisseur. Louhi lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and her temperamental terrier. The latter thinks that he is a cat.

Mark Rhoads recently retired from Bethel University where he taught in the music department for 35 years. His poems have been published in The Christian Science Monitor, The Deronda Review, Contemporary Rhyme, Snakeskin, Plainsongs, Ballard Street Poetry Journal, and Whistling Shade. In 2015 he published a collection of poems titled No Gathering In of This Incense.

Gloria Rose-Potts is a writer originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts with an MFA in creative writing from American University. She was previously a stand-up comedian and uses her skills to cultivate tension in her pieces. Her work has appeared online for Superstition Review and Grace & Gravity Literary Magazine. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and exploring creative nonfiction through essays.

Mary Salome (she/her) is a queer Arab- and Irish-American writer and media activist who lives in San Francisco. Her prose and poetry have been published in Food for our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists, Solstice: A Winter Anthology Vol 2, Archive of the Odd, and SPROUT: An Eco-Urban Poetry Journal, among other fine publications. Her short story "Okami in the Bayview" was nominated for a WSFA Small Press Award.

Rochelle Jewel Shapiro's novel, Miriam The Medium (Simon & Schuster, 2005), was nominated for the Harold U. Ribelow Award. She's published essays in NYT (Lives) and Newsweek. Her poetry collection, Death Please Wait, was published by Box Turtle Press. Currently, she teaches writing at UCLA Extension.

Barry Wade Simms is the little hermit on the hill—those closest to him affectionately know him as "Baby Sasquatch." You can find his short stories in Bat City Review, Whistling Shade, Monday Night, and Maisonneuve Magazine. His comic book work has most recently appeared in the Wildcat Anthology (New Empire Comics).

Justin Teerlinck is an occupational therapist in the Tacoma, Washington 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. His first full-length poetry collection, The Boat­ing on the Styx, was published recently by Kelsay Books, and he is also the author of the science fiction novel The Grand Dissolute. He lives with his wife, twin sons, and Naughty Cat in St. Paul, and is still perfecting his time machine.

Harry Whomersley is a grant writer who lives in New York. When he isn't working he mostly paints miniature soldiers and shows them to his bewildered dog.