Contributor announcement: RITUALS
Rituals is our forthcoming anthology of poetry and nonfiction, edited by Brina Patel, that explores the presence and significance of rituals. We’re thrilled to now announce the 27 writers who have contributed their writing. Follow them on social media, visit their author websites, or check out their publishing credits to support them in their other writing endeavors.
Iqra Abid (she/her) is a queer Muslim writer and editor based in Canada. She is currently an undergraduate student studying Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. She is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Kiwi Collective Magazine. Her work can be found in various publications such as TRAD Magazine, Hamilton Review of Books, Changing Womxn Collective, Crossed Paths Magazine, and others.
Angela Acosta (she/her) is a bilingual Latina poet and scholar from Florida. She won the 2015 Rhina P. Espaillat Award from West Chester University and her poems have appeared in Panochazine, Olit, Heartland Women Writers, and Latinx Audio Lit Mag. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Iberian Studies at The Ohio State University where she studies the lives and works of early twentieth century Spanish women writers.
As an emerging writer, Valerie Anne is excited to have “Flying Nighties” from Caution: Mermaid Crossin, Voyages of a Motherless Daughter included in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tough Times Won’t Last but Tough People Will, released November 2nd, 2021. She’s had two essays published in HerStry Literary Magazine: “Venice Vision” in September 2020 and “Your Bed” May 2021. Libretto Magazine published “He’s on Top of the World and I’m Not” June 2021. In September 2021, she received a Finalist Award from Page Turner Awards in the category of manuscript submission. Valerie Anne was awarded scholarships to the 2019 Santa Barbara Writers Conference and the 2016 Prague Summer Writing Program. In addition, she was sponsored on a trip to Italy and The Dominican Republic for a breast cancer survivor retreat, where an essay from her book became a launching point for the workshop presented, “Living and Healing Through Color.” She will be traveling to Rome in September 2022 for the same nonprofit where she will be blogging about her experience. She previously worked in Hollywood as a story editor and in production, as well as, having her own business as a makeover specialist for home décor and wardrobe. valerieanneburns.com
Sarah E. Azizi (aka Sera Miles) is a queer Iranian-American writer, educator, & activist. Previous & forthcoming publications include $pread Magazine, Phoebe: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 34th Parallel, Blue Mesa Review, Fahmidan Journal, Clean Sheets, red, The Tide Rises, HELD, Wrongdoing Magazine, the winnow, Superpresent, Nine Mile, The Coop, and Free State Review. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico w/ her daughter & amongst friends, frenemies, & family of choice.
Kim Bannerman writes novels, screenplays, articles and short stories from her home on Vancouver Island, Canada. Her work has appeared in anthologies like She’s Shameless from St. Martins Press, In the Company of Animals from Nimbus Press, and When Birds Are Near from Cornell University Press. She is the author of twelve novels, including the modern fairytale The Tattooed Wolf, the historical mystery Bucket of Blood, and the Circus Salmagundi Mysteries series. For more information, visit kbannerman.com.
Tricia Gates Brown works as a writer and editor in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where she lives on a farm. Her essays and poetry have appeared regularly in periodicals, including Oregon Humanities, Portland Magazine, and Rathalla Review; and her novel Wren won a 2022 Independent Publishers Award Bronze Medal.
Alex Carrigan (he/him) is an editor, poet, and critic from Virginia. He is the author of “May All Our Pain Be Champagne: A Collection of Real Housewives Twitter Poetry” (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). He has had fiction, poetry, and literary reviews published in Quail Bell Magazine, Lambda Literary Review, Empty Mirror, Gertrude Press, Quarterly West, Sage Cigarettes (Best of the Net Nominee, 2023), ‘Stories About Penises’ (Guts Publishing, 2019), ‘Closet Cases: Queers on What We Wear’ (Et Alia Press, 2020), and more. He is also the co-editor of ‘Please Welcome to the Stage…: A Drag Literary Anthology’ with House of Lobsters Literary. For more information, visit carriganak.wordpress.com.
Summer A.H. Christiansen is a writer, mother, and lifelong Alaskan residing on the unceded land of the T’aaḵu Kwáan and A’akw Kwáan. Her work has been published in Silver Rose Magazine, Tidal Echoes, Alaska Women Speak, and Drizzle Review.
Brianna Cunliffe is an environmental justice activist and storyteller. As a queer woman who grew up on a rising shoreline, her work is animated by fierce love of the fragile places we call home. Her poems and short stories have been published in Reckoning, Lucent Dreaming, Storm Cellar, Claw and Blossom, Blind Corner, the Poetica Review, and more.
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 https://linktr.ee/samdapanas.
Eileen Dolan is a poet writing from Austin, Tx. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Minerva, Vol 8; oddball magazine’s St Patrick’s Day Parade of Poets edition, and Rumors Secrets & Lies by Anhinga Press. She also contributed a two dimensional Word Sculpture for the 2020 online Global Art Project, Telephone. Eileen organized and produced two, two woman shows, Surface Tension and It Takes Two, and is currently organizing another upcoming two woman show. She received an MFA from Texas State University and has also been a practicing Medical Massage Therapist specializing in Chronic Pain for 22 years.
Linda McCauley Freeman is the author of the full-length poetry collection The Family Plot (Backroom Window Press, 2022) and has been widely published in international journals, including in a Chinese translation. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2022. Recently she was the featured poet in The Poet Magazine, and appeared in Delta Poetry Review, Amsterdam Quarterly, and won Grand Prize in StoriArts’Maya Angelou poetry contest. She received a grant from Arts MidHudson and was selected for Poets Respond to Art 2020, 2021 and 2022 shows. She was a three-time winner in the Talespinners Short Story contest judged by Michael Korda. She has an MFA from Bennington College and is the former poet-in-residence of the Putnam Arts Council. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY. Follow her at facebook.com/LindaMcCauleyFreeman and Twitter @LindaMccFreeman
Gabby Gilliam lives in the DC metro area with her husband and son. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Tofu Ink, The Ekphrastic Review, Pure Slush, Deep Overstock, Vermillion, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and Equinox. You can find her online at gabbygilliam.squarespace.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/GabbyGilliamAuthor.
J.D. Harlock is a Syrian Palestinian Lebanese writer/editor based in Beirut. In addition to his work as poetry editor at Solarpunk Magazine and Orion’s Belt, he is the outreach manager at Utopia Science Fiction Magazine and social media manager at The Dread Machine. When he’s not obsessively pouring over his own writing, you can find him on Twitter @JD_Harlock.
Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. His collection, A Forest for the Trees, is forthcoming from Backroom Window Press. He is editing an anthology of poems from the first year of Texas Poetry Assignment for Kallisto Gaia Press.
Jane Rosenberg LaForge is the author of a memoir, two novels, three full-length collections of poetry, and four chapbooks. Her most recent book of poems is Medusa’s Daughter (Animal Heart Press 2021) and her most recent book of prose, a novel, is Sisterhood of the Infamous (New Meridian Arts Press 2021). More work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pirene’s Fountain, Evening Street Review, Panoplyzine, and Schuylkill Valley Journal.
Livia Meneghin (she/her) is the author of Honey in My Hair and GASHER reviews. She is the winner of Breakwater Review‘s 2022 Peseroff Prize, a Writers’ Room of Boston Fellowship, and The Academy of American Poets’ 2020 University Prize. Her writing has found homes in Solstice Lit, Thrush, and elsewhere. She is a cancer survivor.
Karuna Mistry is a British writer of Indian ethnicity. His work can be found in various poetry anthologies including McKinley Publishing Hub, Open Door and Sweetycat Press. As well as poetry, drawing and blogging, his creativity includes magazine editorship, photography and design – his occupation by day is higher education marketing. Karuna is currently working on his debut poetry book. karunacreations.wordpress.com
Toti O’Brien is the Italian Accordionist with the Irish Last Name. Born in Rome, living in Los Angeles, she is an artist, musician and dancer. She is the author of Other Maidens (BlazeVOX, 2020), An Alphabet of Birds (Moonrise Press, 2020), In Her Terms (Cholla Needles Press, 2021), Pages of a Broken Diary (Pski’s Porch, 2022) and Alter Alter (Elyssar Press, 2022).
Sawyer Patrick holds bachelors degrees in computer science and English because he wants to try a little of everything and extra of that, but storytelling is his greatest passion. When not writing nonfiction, he’s writing scifi and the answer to Star Trek or Star Wars is ‘yes.’ He lives in the Great Lakes region, on the unceded land of the Potawatomi, Miami, and many other peoples.
Paula Rudnick is a former TV producer whose credits range from late night rock and roll to Emmy nominated movies. She is a political activist and has served on numerous non-profit boards. Her poems have been published in Halfway Down the Stairs, LA Jewish Journal, Kosmos Quarterly as well as in anthologies by Darkhouse Books, Truth Serum Press and Constellations. Her first solo collection was published this spring. Paula has two grown daughters and lives in Los Angeles.
Stephanie Sesic teaches writing at Cuyahoga Community College and is happiest when hiking in the Cuyahoga Valley. Her work has appeared recently in Sunlight Press, Coastal Shelf, Claw & Blossom, and Parks & Points & Poetry. Her chapbook, The Intimate Verge, was published by Pudding House Publications in 2008.
Poet, fiction writer, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island, where he is patiently waiting for Godot’s arrival and a phone call from Kafka. While waiting, he has published 23 books, including An Unauthorized Biography of Being (Stories, Ekstasis Editions, 2016), Absurdity, Woe Is Me, Glory Be (Poetry, Guernica Editions, 2017), A Visit to the Kafka Café (Poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2018), Gregor Samsa Was Never in The Beatles (Stories, Ekstasis Editions, 2019), Morning Bafflement and Timeless Puzzlement (Poetry, Ekstasis Editions, 2020), Somewhat Absurd, Somehow Existential (Poetry, Guernica Editions, 2021), and Acting on the Island (Stories, Pottersfield Press, 2022).
Mark Thomas is a retired English and Philosophy teacher, and ex-member of Canada’s national rowing team.
Em Walling’s visual and written work focuses on the physical, emotional, and psychological connections people have with the environment. Her writing can be found in numerous journals, plus poetry anthologies from Shabda Press, University of Hell Press, and Splintered Disorder Press. She lives in Australia and volunteers at a seabird rescue organization.
Lauren Wester grew up in the southern United States surrounded by family, good food, and a house full of books. Her love for literature began at a young age and has held her captive ever since. She believes in the power of putting pen to paper and using her words to positively impact her readers. Lauren holds a Bachelor degree in English and has worked as a journalist, social media director, and now marketing specialist. When she isn’t at work, she can be found haunting bookstores, revelling in coffee shops, and enjoying the company of her husband and two cuddly dogs.
Julie Fleming Wickham moved from her native Atlanta to Cheyenne, Wyoming, after caring for her father (her last living family member) through seven years of dementia. She now writes about thriving after significant loss, Wyoming history and adventures, and dementia. Julie founded The Purple Sherpa, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that educates and encourages dementia family caregivers and consults with attorneys on building their practices. Julie is the author of The Reluctant Rainmaker: A Guide for Lawyers Who Hate Selling and Legal Rainmaking Myths: What You Think You Know About Business Development Can Kill Your Practice, as well as numerous articles. Learn more at JulieFlemingWickham.com.
