Issue Nineteen: Contributors

Angel Ackerman enjoyed a 15-year career as an award-winning local print journalist before she turned her attention to family, pets, school, volunteerism and travel. With a BA in English/French and a second BA in International Affairs, she has quasi-enrolled in an MA program in history to study post-colonial Francophone Africa, Muslim relations, and how these topics interact with contemporary Western politics. Meanwhile, she works part-time in retail.

Raef Boylan is a Coventry-born writer currently studying on the MA Writing programme at Warwick University. His work has achieved recognition in the Big Issue in the North Short Fiction Award, and in 2014 won first prize in both the Frederick Holland Poetry Award and Coventry University Short Story contest. In recent months, Raef has had work published in several magazines and journals, including Paper and Ink, Here Comes Everyone and CovWords. He has a strong interest in cynical, well-crafted poems and stories that burrow into the mundane and unearth poignancy.

Jonathan Bradley studied at the University of Newcastle and has been interested in photography all of his life. Taught by family, he has professionally ran his own photography outfit for fifteen years, with more than eight of those years devoted to a project entitled People : Space, the exposition of humans and their surrounding environments. He operates both film and digital cameras from 35mm to 4×5″. He has worked closely with and been commissioned by a number of organisations including: Newcastle City Council, Royal Mail, TfL, Nexus, Tyne and Wear Museums and Durham WHS/UNESCO. His website can be found here.

D. Othniel Forte is a Liberian, educator, folklorist and public speaker. He is one of the leading modern day Liberian folklorists. His works have been published widely in the academic setting and numerous social media. He is also an active social commentator. He edits the Liberian Literary Magazine and runs the indie press, Forte Publications.

Joachim Frank is a scientist and writer who lives in New York City. He has published short stories, flash fiction and poems in a number of magazines, including Offcourse, elimae, Cezanne’s Carrot, Eclectica, The Noneuclidean Cafe, Hamilton Stone Review, Bartleby Snopes, Red Ochre Lit, StepAway Magazine, Fiction Fix, Short Fast and Deadly, The New Poet, Rivet Journal, *82 Review, Conium Review, theeel, and Black&White. A more complete list along with a blog on the state of the world is found  on his website: franxfiction.com

James Gabriel is a writer and performer living in southern California. He is the author of ten novels and short story compilations many of which are available for download at Amazon. He is the creator and co-writer of the one person show Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame, winner of New York’s One Festival and has been performed all over the U.S., London, Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival and is still being performed today. He is currently working on a musical and a feature film script. His Amazon author page is here.

Grant Tarbard is internationally published. His chapbook Yellow Wolf, published by WK Press, is available now.

Steph Thompson is a teacher and freelance writer from the North East of England.  She loves live music, reading and animals. She is also an ‘out of the closet’ science nerd.   She has never been known to walk away from a real ale.