Issue Thirty-Seven: Contributors

Geoffrey Aitken writes in Adelaide, on unceded Kaurna land as an awarded poet whose industrial minimalism communicates his ‘lived experience’ for publishers both locally [AUS] and internationally [UK, US, CAN, Fr & CN]. Recently, Sparks of Calliope [UK], The Closed Eye Open, [US]; Oxygen and unusual work, Friendly Street POM August [AUS]. He also appeared in StepAway Magazine [UK], December of 2022 the same year he was nominated for the annual Best of the Net anthology.

JC Alfier’s most recent book, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include The Emerson Review, Faultline, New York Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Vassar Review.

388 of Jan Ball’s poems appear in journals such as:  Chiron, Nimrod, and Slipstream in the U.S. and internationally.  Jan’s three chapbooks were published with Finishing Line Press as well as her first full-length poetry collection, I Wanted to Dance with My Father. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart and twice for Best of the Net.

Sam Bootle teaches French literature at Durham University, UK, specialising in late nineteenth-century French poetry. His translations of Jules Laforgue feature in the anthology All Keyboards are Legitimate (2023), and he has also published his own poetry in Alchemy Spoon, Dreich, Dust, Francosphères and Mono.

Nicky Carter is a new Liverpool-based poet whose work is mostly driven by her experiences during her forty year career as a Health Care Professional in London and Liverpool and what it’s been like living and working in those cities. She has been published in Acumen, London Grip and in two prize winners Anthologies; she won third prize in the Hippocrates Initiative 2022 and was commended the Yaffle Prize in the same year.

After 31 years in banking, John Ganshaw retired to follow his dream of owning a hotel in Southeast Asia.  This led to many new experiences enabling John to see the world through a different lens, leading him to write his story through essays, poetry, and a yet unpublished memoir. John’s work has appeared in Native Skin, Runamok Books/Growerly, Post Roe Alternatives, Fleas on the Dog, OMQ, Open Door Magazine, SCARS poems and short stories, and others.

Laura Glenn’s book of poems, I Can’t Say I’m Lost, was published by FootHills, her chapbook When the Ice Melts, by Finishing Line. In addition to StepAway (where she was a Pushcart nominee), her poems have appeared in many journals, including Barrelhouse, Boulevard, Cortland Review, Epoch, Green Mountains Review, Hotel Amerika, Massachusetts Review, Poet Lore, Poetry, and Smartish Pace; and in various anthologies. She has completed another book of poems. Also a visual artist, she lives in Ithaca, NY, where she works as a freelance editor.

Dominic James, Glos UK, lives near Seven Springs and the source of the Thames, he joins poetry meetings along the M4 corridor. Widely published at home and abroad, this year James appeared as a featured poet in Big Trouble on the Medway and has recently had work accepted by Ofi Press, Strand and Dreich Magazines. His second collection, Smudge, was published by Littoral Press, 2022.

Tom Kelly is a Jarrow-born writer who has had a varied career, from his first job in a Jarrow shipyard Time-Office, a host of jobs along the Tyne followed by a late degree and lecturing for twenty-plus years in FE. His ninth poetry collection This Small Patch was published in 2020 and re-printed by Red Squirrel Press. His second short story collection No Love Rations was published by Postbox Press in April 2022 and re-printed in 2023. His new collection of poetry and prose, Walking My Streets from Red Squirrel Press will be launched at the Lit & Phil, Newcastle on April 8, 2024. www.tomkelly.org.uk

John Short lives in Liverpool again after many years in southern Europe. Active on the local poetry scene he’s appeared in places like Poetry Salzburg, Black Nore Review, London Grip and The High Window. His third collection In Search of a Subject is imminent from Cerasus Poetry, London.

Theo Stone is a graduate student in Politics at Birkbeck, University of London and an emerging fiction writer.

Jean-Sebastien Surena is a Haitian-American poet and spoken word artist hailing from Queens, NY. In June 2021, Jean published his debut chapbook Quarantined Thoughts. He co-directed a short film based on one of its pieces, “Unbroken,” and was selected to six film festivals, winning “Best Poetry” and “Best Performance.” You can find some of his work published in the Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, 5x Poetry, and Orchards Poetry Journal.