Issue Twenty-Six: Contributors

O-Jeremiah Agbaakin is a Nigerian poet and editor. He interrogates identity, sexuality, divinity and poetry. He was a finalist at the 2017 Korea- Nigeria Poetry fiesta and was recently nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. He has works (or forthcoming) on South Florida Poetry Journal, Riddled With Arrows (Delaware), Sentinel Quarterly, Silver Pen (Indiana), The New Black Magazine, Kalahari Review, Praxis Magazine, African Writer, Poetry Pacific, and elsewhere.

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.

Quinn Byrne was born in Dublin and is a dual citizen of Ireland and the United States. “Snow in Seoul” was written in Seoul, at the time of the million-person marches against President Park Geun-hye.

Richard W. Halperin has three poetry collections out via Salmon/Cliffs of Moher, and six chapbooks out via Lapwing/Belfast. Richard’s most recent collection for Salmon Poetry is Quiet in a Quiet House. His most recent chapbook for Lapwing Poetry is Prisms. He lives in Paris and reads frequently in Ireland.

Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon has worked as a Probation Officer, a Mental Health Social Worker and Practice Educator. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and writes short stories and poetry. She has been published on web magazines and in print anthologies. These include Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, Alliterati, StepAway Magazine, Poets Speak (whilst they still can), Three Drops from the Cauldron, Obsessed with Pipework, Picaroon, Amaryllis, Algebra of Owls, Write to be Counted, The Lake and Riggwelter. She completed her MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle University in August 2017, and graduated in December 2017.

Ann Howells, of Dallas, Texas, has edited Illya’s Honey eighteen years, recently digitally, at www.IllyasHoney.com. Publications: Black Crow in Flight (Main Street Rag Publishing), Under a Lone Star (Village Books Press), Letters for My Daughter (Flutter Press), an anthology of D/FW poets: Cattlemen & Cadillacs (Dallas Poets Community Press), and Softly Beating Wings (Blackbead Books) winner of the William D. Barney Chapbook Contest 2017. Her work appears widely in small press and university publications.

Ilona Martonfi lives in Montreal, Canada. Author of three poetry books, Blue Poppy (Coracle Press, 2009), Black Grass (Broken Rules Press, 2012) and The Snow Kimono (Inanna, 2015). Forthcoming, Salt Bride (Inanna, 2019). Founder / Artistic director of The Yellow Door and Visual Arts Centre Readings. QWF 2010 Community Award.

Jimmy O’Connell was born in Dublin. He has been writing for many years, and has work in The Baltimore Review. He is now working in County Meath, Ireland.  He has had a collection of his poetry published and has performed his work in many venues across Ireland.

Freya Marshall Payne is a poet, journalist and editor studying at the University of Sussex. Freya grew up in Spain and continues to travel and write in Spanish. After years editing student newspapers and working in local news, Freya recently co-founded new webzine The Corrugated Wave. She has published poetry in The Ofi Press Mexico and Five:2:One Magazine.

Ilse Pedler has had poems published previously in Poetry News, Prole, Artemis and Stand. She was shortlisted in The Rialto Nature Poetry competition in 2014 and 2015 and in the Bridport prize 2016 and commended in the Hippocrates 2017. She is the winner of the 2015 Mslexia Pamphlet Competition. Her pamphlet, The Dogs That Chase Bicycle Wheels was published by Seren in March 2016. She lives and works as a Veterinary Surgeon in Saffron Walden.

Spencer Smith is a University of Utah graduate and works in the corporate world to pay the bills. A Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems have appeared in over fifty literary journals, including RATTLE, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Main Street Rag, RHINO, Roanoke Review, and poeticdiversity.