Contributor announcement: FRAMEWORK OF THE HUMAN BODY
Framework of the Human Body is an anthology of writing about the human body and what it carries, edited by Catherine Mwitta. We’re excited to now announce the 23 writers who have contributed works of poetry, fiction, scripts, nonfiction, and more. Follow them on social media, visit their author websites, or check out their publishing credits to support them in their other writing endeavors
Susan Alexander is a poet and writer living in British Columbia on Nexwlélexm/Bowen Island, the traditional and unceded territory of the Squamish people. Susan’s work has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines throughout Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. She is the author of two collections of poems, Nothing You Can Carry, 2020 and The Dance Floor Tilts, 2017, from Thistledown Press. Her suite of poems called Vigil won the 2019 Mitchell Prize for Faith and Poetry while some of her other work has received the Vancouver Writers Fest and Short Grain awards.
H. Azhar is a Pakistani-Canadian science student fascinated by the human body and how it manages to feel everything to the extent that it does. When she’s not writing, you can find her singing, daydreaming, or impatiently waiting for it to rain.
Roxanne Barbour is a writer from Burnaby, BC, Canada. She started writing after she took early retirement in 2010. Roxanne has written and published numerous novels: An Alien Collective; Revolutions; Sacred Trust; Kaiku; Alien Innkeeper; An Alien Confluence; Alien Innkeeper on Particle. She also writes speculative poetry, and has had poems published in Scifaikuest, Star*Line, Polar Borealis, Polar Starlight, Dwarf Stars, and many other magazines.
Jessica Berry grew up beside the seaside of Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. She is an English teacher at the Belfast Model School for Girls. In 2021, Jessica was placed in Bangor’s annual poetry contest hosted by the Aspects Literary Festival. Her work has also been included in publications such as Drawn to the Light and A New Ulster. She is working on her first poetry collection; inspired by Irish myths and fables. Social media links: @jessicaruth.poetry on Instagram
Alton Melvar M Dapanas (they/them), a native of southern Philippines, is the author of Towards a Theory on City Boys (UK: Newcomer Press, 2021) and díli ingon nátô / not like us (US: forthcoming). Published in Sweden, Lebanon, Germany, Taiwan, Ireland, Nigeria, Austria, Japan, South Africa, and the Netherlands, their latest works are in Modern Poetry in Translation (UK), The Best Asian Poetry (Singapore), Mekong Review (Australia), Baest: A Journal of Queer Forms and Affects (US), Canthius Magazine (Canada), and Poetry Lab Shanghai (China) where they were translated into the Chinese. They are editor-at-large at Asymptote Journal, assistant nonfiction editor at Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel and Atlas & Alice Literary Magazine, and reader at Creative Nonfiction magazine. Find more at linktr.ee/samdapanas.
Allison Fradkin (she/her/hers) delights in applying her Women’s & Gender Studies education to the creation of prose, poems, and plays that enlist their characters in a caricature of the idiocies and intricacies of insidious isms. Her work has been published in Voyage, Chaotic Merge, Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, Flash 405, Fterota Logia, ImageOutWrite, Pastel Serenity, and Sapphic Writers Collective. An enthusiast of inclusivity and accessibility, Fradkin freelances for her hometown of Chicago as Literary Manager of Violet Surprise Theatre, curating new works by queer playwrights; and as Dramatist for Special Gifts Theatre, adapting scripts for actors of all abilities.
Alejo Rovira Goldner left Spain in the 1990s to settle in Southern California. He has published in The Antioch Review, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Otoliths and The Los Angeles Review of Los Angeles, among other journals, usually under the name “Alex M. Frankel.” His most recent book is a story collection, Flame at Door and Raisin, which Kirkus has described as “powerfully haunting tales of love, betrayal, and heartbreak in the Europe of decades past.”
Bethanie Humphreys is a late-blooming lesbian from Sacramento, California. She is a writer, editor, mixed-media visual artist, and educator. Former Editor-in-Chief of the American River Review and Associate Editor and Art Director for Tule Review, her work has appeared in the U.S. and U.K., including: Poetry Foundation, Artemis, Nonbinary Review, and Found Poetry Review. Her chapbook, Dendrochronology, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019. She is a California Certified Naturalist, and Amherst Writers and Artists method instructor. She leads various workshops including: poetry editing, science-inspired poetry, and a guided National Poetry Writing Month experience. Learn more at: bethaniehumphreys.wordpress.com.
Yeva Johnson, a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and musician whose work appears in Bellingham Review, Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color Anthology, Sinister Wisdom, Yemassee, and elsewhere, explores interlocking caste systems and possibilities for human co-existence in our biosphere. Yeva is a past Show Us Your Spines Artist-in-Residence (RADAR Productions/San Francisco Public Library), winner of the 2020 Mostly Water Art & Poetry Splash Contest and 3rd place winner of the 2022 Effie Lee Morris Literary Contest of the Women’s National Book Association, and poet in QTPOC4SHO, a San Francisco Bay Area artists’ collective. She was a Marion Weber Healing Arts Fellow at Mesa Refuge in 2022. Her debut chapbook, Analog Poet Blues, will be published by Nomadic Press in 2023.
Désirée Jung is an artist and illustrator from Vancouver, Canada. Most of her literary work and art have been published worldwide, as well as her series of video poems, screened in several film festivals, and available on you tube. Her most recent book Meu Jeito de Viver, has been published by Editora Selo in Brazil, 2022. For more information, check her website: desireejung.com.
Hayley King is a mom, wife, veterinarian, and poet from Whitby, Ontario which is situated on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation. She completed her certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto in 2021 and has work published in Green Ink Poetry and Hags on Fire.
Emma Května is a Canadian writer and poet with Czech roots, currently living in Nova Scotia on the traditional unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq Nation. Her work has appeared in Filling Station and Planisphere Quarterly. In 2019, her fiction was shortlisted in a UK writing contest. Emma is also a musician, artist, podcast host, and proud Sagittarius.
Rachel Lachmansingh is a Guyanese-Canadian writer from Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Minola Review, Grain Magazine, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, and The Puritan, among others. She was longlisted for the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and is currently pursuing her BA in creative writing.
Dawn Macdonald lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she was raised off the grid. She holds a degree in applied mathematics and used to know a lot about infinite series. Her poetry has appeared in over two-dozen journals and anthologies, and has been nominated for a Pushcart prize.
Jennifer Mariani was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. Her first collection of poems “All Forgotten Now”, a chapbook, was published by Off Topic Publishing. Her poetry has also been featured in Mosi oa Tunya Literary Review, Uproar (The Lawrence House Centre For The Arts), Off Topic Publishing, The League of Canadian Poets Poetry Pause and numerous other publications. She has been a guest judge for Off Topic Publishing’s monthly poetry contest . Jennifer writes about Africa; both the landscape and being white in post-independent Zimbabwe. She also writes about women’s issues including domestic violence, body image and eating disorders. Jennifer currently resides in Calgary, Alberta with her one partner, two daughters, three cats and numerous volumes of Pablo Neruda’s poetry. She teaches ballet and her favourite poems are written for her children.
Jessica Lee McMillan is a poet, educator and civil servant. She has an English MA and is enrolled in the SFU Writer’s Studio for 2022-2023. Her work has appeared in dozens of journals and literary magazines across Canada and the US, including Train Poetry Journal, Pinhole Poetry, GAP RIOT Press, Antilang, Blank Spaces, Red Alder Review, SORTES, Lover’s Eye Press, Tiny Spoon and others. See more about her work on jessicaleemcmillan.com.
Kali Meister’s writing is an extension of her rich experiences in theatre, performance art, and film. In the many theatrical productions to her credit, Meister has worked as a playwright, director, actor, costume coordinator, and make-up designer. She has performed as a poet, storyteller, and stand-up comic. Her literary achievements include winning the 2005 Margaret Atley Woodruff Award for fiction and the 2006 Margaret Atley Award for playwriting. She also received the 2005 and 2006 Eleanor Burke Award for non-fiction from the University of Tennessee’s English department. Meister’s poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and dramatic writing, has been featured in publications such as Circle Magazine, Pegasus Review, Outscapes, 34 Orchard, and Phoenix. Her play, After Autumn was a featured finalist in the 2010 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights in Abingdon, VA at Barter Theater. She produces, writes, directs, and acts in short films under her production company SheWonder Productions. Her films focus on the female experience, female narrative, and female talent.
Eve Morton lives in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with her partner and two sons. She spends the days running after those boys and the nights brainstorming her next creative project. At some point, she writes things down, usually while drinking copious amounts of coffee. Her most recently novel is The Serenity Nearby released in 2022 with Sapphire Books. Find updates at authormorton.wordpress.com.
Daniel Paton has had short fiction published in several anthologies and online literary journals, and also writes screenplays and stage plays. He currently lives in Belfast, having recently completed his Creative Writing MA, looking to work on his debut novel.
Teika Marija Smits is a UK-based writer and freelance editor whose poetry has appeared in a number of anthologies and magazines. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Russian Doll, was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in March 2021. A fan of all things fae, she is delighted by the fact that Teika means fairy tale in Latvian. teikamarijasmits.com @MarijaSmits
Della Sullivan is a retired social worker, and lives with her husband and two enormous Maine Coon cats, in Burlington, Ontario. She enjoys her precious four adult children and seven wonderful. grandchildren. She has written two novels, both still in the polishing stage, and has had three short horror stories published since 2022. She fancies herself a gourmet cook and is truly a voracious reader enjoying many genres. Her story, “A Cracked Nutcracker Christmas,” was published by Jazz House Publications in 2020, in Krampus Tales, A Killer Anthology.
M. Toews is a writer, sometimes painter, gardener, avid windsurfer, and rower. Approximately 100 literary journals and anthologies have published Toews’ fiction since 2016. The author is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a finalist in several prose competitions including a highly valued shortlist for the 2022 J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction. Publication of a collection of short stories is forthcoming with Winnipeg’s At Bay Press in 2023. Currently, Mitch is at work on a novel and is a past protege to Canadian novelist, playwright, poet, and educator Armin Wiebe through a “Mentorship Microgrant” sponsored by the Writers’ Union of Canada.
J.W. Wood is the author of five books of poems, a novel and the forthcoming novella, By Any Other Name (Terror House Press, 2022). The recipient of awards from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, his work has appeared widely in literary magazines worldwide, including The Fiddlehead (Canada), AGNI (US), The Times Literary Supplement (UK) and many others. A dual citizen of the UK and Canada, he presently divides his time between the two countries. jwwoodwriter.net
