Contributors

Contributers

Artisan baker by trade, Alfredo Salvatore Arcilesi has been published in over 60 literary journals worldwide. Winner of the Scribes Valley Short Story Writing Contest, he was also a finalist in the Blood Orange Review Literary Contest, and was awarded the Popular Vote in the Best of Rejected Manuscripts Competition. In addition to several short pieces, he is currently working on his debut novel.

Daisy Bassen is a poet and practicing physician who graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University’s Creative Writing Program and completed her medical training at The University of Rochester and Brown. Her work has been published in Oberon, McSweeney’s, and [PANK] as well as multiple other journals. She was a semi-finalist in the 2016 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry and the winner of the So to Speak 2019 Poetry Contest, the 2019 ILDS White Mice Contest, and the 2020 Beullah Rose Poetry Prize. She was nominated for the 2019 Best of the Net Anthology and for a 2019 and 2020 Pushcart Prize. She lives in Rhode Island with her family.

Emi Bergquist is a Brooklyn based poet originally from Idaho whose work often explores identity, family, grief, and spirituality. Emi is an active associate of the Poetry Society of New York, a regular cast member of The Poetry Brothel, an editor of Milk Press Books, and is a current collaborator with the Pandemic Poems Project. Emi has work in What Rough Beast, Oxford Public Philosophy, Oroboro, Passengers Journal, For Women Who Roar, and The Nervous Breakdown. Emi regularly writes commissioned poetry and donates a portion of all proceeds to charities and social justice organizations.

Jackie Chicalese is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Arkansas. Her work has appeared in Salt Hill, Italian Americana, and elsewhere. 73

Nick Conrad’s poems continue to appear in national and international journals, most recently in current issues of Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, Cider Press Review, Concho River Review, The MacGuffin, North Dakota Quarterly, Visions-International and The Wayne Literary Review and have been accepted for a future issues of Blue Lake Review and Common Ground Review. His first book, Lake Erie Blues, appeared in late August, 2020 from Urban Farmhouse Press as part of their Crossroads Poetry Series. Darren C. Demaree is the author of fifteen poetry collections, most recently “Burning It Down”, (December 2020, 8th House Publishing). He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, and Ted Kooser. Recent work appears or is forthcoming from Antithesis Journal, Santa Clara Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.

Lisa DiFruscio is a freelance writer and journalist, whose work has been published in various poetry anthologies, newspapers, and online media and websites. She has also worked for media agencies as a public relations specialist, editor, and copywriter. She is currently working on her first novel, and when not writing, enjoys spending time on her 5 acre estate with 29 maltipoos, and one standard poodle.

Hollie Dugas lives in New Mexico. Her work has been selected to be included in Barrow Street, Reed Magazine, Crab Creek Review, Redivider, Pembroke, Salamander, Poet Lore, Watershed Review, Mud Season Review, Little Patuxent Review, Chiron Review, Louisiana Literature, and CALYX. Hollie has been a finalist twice for the Peseroff Prize at Breakwater Review, Greg Grummer Poetry Prize at Phoebe, Fugue’s Annual Contest, and has received Honorable Mention in Broad River Review. Additionally, “A Woman’s Confession #5,162” was selected as the winner of Western Humanities Review Mountain West Writers’ Contest (2017). Recently, Hollie has been nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize and for inclusion in Best New Poets 2021. She is currently a member on the editorial board for Off the Coast.

Issy Flower is a writer and actor, in her third year at Durham University. Her journalism and prose writing have been published by Palatinate, the Bubble, and From the Lighthouse. Other prose has been seen in Stonecrop Magazine, Lucent Dreaming and the Common Breath ‘The Middle of a Sentence’ anthology. Upcoming projects include a short drama for the BBC. She keeps up a healthy twitter feed at @IssyFlower.

E. García-López was born in Spanish Harlem. His short stories and nonfiction have appeared or upcoming in The Bitter Oleander, Desert Voice, and the anthology Operation Homecoming, among others. He has an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Noah Goldzer is an English teacher, cat lover, pun slinger, and MFA graduate of Emerson College. His short story “Fatbergs in the Pipe” won first place at Emerson’s Graduate Student Awards in 2019 and was published by the Raw Art Review in 2020. His debut novel “Seek” was published by Martin Sisters Publishing in 2014. He is currently working on a historical fiction memoir entitled: “The King of Man.”

Robin Gow is a trans poet and young adult author. They are the author of OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL DEGENERACY (Tolsun Books 2020) and the chapbook HONEYSUCKLE (Finishing Line Press 2019). Their first young adult novel, A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS is slated for publication winter 2022 with FSG. Gow’s poetry has recently been published in POETRY, New Delta Review, and Washington Square Review. Gow received their MFA from Adelphi University where they were also an adjunct instructor. Gow is a managing editor at The Nasiona.

Tamara Gray lives and works in upstate New York, where she is from. She enjoys unstructured time, art, writing, and, lately, running. Her blog may be an exercise in histrionics or an outrage. She has previously published poems in Cutbank, Indefinite Space and Skidrow Penthouse. unfamousairenueva.com.

David Harrison Horton is a Beijing-based writer, artist, editor and curator. His poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Albany Poets, Otoliths, Ethel, Punk Noir, and Pennsylvania English, among others.

B. P. Herrington is a native of the Big Thicket region of Texas. His studies took him to the Royal Academy of Music where he earned a Ph.D. in music composition. He is an emerging writer whose work has recently appeared in Post Road Magazine, Euphony Journal, Pamplemousse, and Adelaide Magazine.”

Brooke Dwojak Lehmann is a poet whose work focuses on recovery, disability and conscious femininity. Her poetry has been published by Tipton Journal, Parentheses Journal, Black Fox Literary Magazine, 805 Lit, Streetlight Magazine and others. She resides in Charlotte, NC after a few years of adventure in the Pacific Northwest. Find more of her work at brookelehmann.com

John T. Leonard is an award-winning writer, English teacher, and poetry editor for Twyckenham Notes. He holds an M.A. in English from Indiana University. His previous works have appeared in Poetry Quarterly, december, Chiron Review, North Dakota Review, Roanoke Review, Punt Volat, High Shelf Press, Rappahannock Review, Levee Magazine, Mud Season Review, The Blue Mountain Review, Genre: Urban Arts, Stonecoast Review, and Trailer Park Quarterly. His work is forthcoming in The Showbear Family Circus, Passengers Journal, and The Oakland Review. He lives in Elkhart, Indiana with his wife, three cats, and two dogs. You can follow him on Twitter at @jotyleon and @TwyckenhamNotes.

Al Maginnes’s eight collection Sleeping Through the Graveyard Shift was published in 2020 by Redhawk Press. A new collection The Beasts That Vanish is forthcoming from Blue Horse Press. Recent poems have appeared in Louisiana Literature, Lake Effect, Jabberwock, and many other places. He teaches at Louisburg College and lives in Raleigh NC.

Hartford native Melissa McEwen is a poet and multiple Pushcart nominee, whose poems have been published in various anthologies and literary publications online and in print such as The Connecticut Literary Anthology, Connecticut River Review, Rattle, and Blue Fifth Review.

Bruce Meyer is author of more than sixty books of poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and non-fiction. His stories have won or been shortlisted for numerous international prizes. He lives in Barrie, Ontario.

Cameron Morsee is Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review, a poetry editor at Harbor Editions, and the author of six collections of poetry. His first, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Far Other (Woodley Press, 2020). He holds and MFA from the University of Kansas City—Missouri and lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife Lili and two children. For more information, check out cameronmorsepoems.wordpress.com

Vincent Antonio Rendoni is a writer based out of Seattle, Washington. He has a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in Fiction Southwest, Burrow Press, Atticus Review, and Litro.

Juheon (Julie) Rhee is a 15-year-old student and is currently attending International School Manila. During her free time, she enjoys reading Agatha Christie’s mysteries and hanging out with her friends. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in K’in Literary Journal, Indolent Books, 580 Split, Lunch Ticket, Cleaver Magazine among others, and has been recognized by Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs.

Max Sheridan is the author of DILLO (Shotgun Honey, 2018) and a few other stories. He lives and writes in Nicosia, Cyprus. Find him at maxsheridan.com.

R. Stempel is a genderqueer Ukrainian-Jewish poet and PhD candidate in English at Binghamton University. They are the author of the chapbooks Interiors (Foundlings Press, 2021) and BEFORE THE DESIRE TO EAT (Finishing Line Press, 2022), and their work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Porter House Review, New Delta Review, SPORAZINE, Penn Review, and elsewhere. They currently live in New York with their rabbit, Diego.

J.B. Stone is a neurodivergent/autistic slam poet, writer and reviewer residing in Buffalo, NY. He is the author of A Place Between Expired Dreams And Renewed Nightmares (Ghost City Press 2018) and INHUMAN ELEGIES (Ghost City Press 2020). He is the Editor-In-Chief/Reviews Editor at Variety Pack. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Peach Mag, [PANK], Frontier Poetry, The Buffalo News, and elsewhere.

Anna Trujillo lives in Anchorage, Alaska. Her fiction has appeared in Ruminate, Relief, and Two Hawks Quarterly and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University.

Cathy Ulrich loved reading Nancy Drew when she was young, but she never really liked the Hardy Boys. Her work has been published in various journals, including Chestnut Review, Whale Road Review and Wigleaf.

David Xiang is a poet currently studying at Harvard Medical School. At Harvard College, he studied under Jorie Graham and Josh Bell. His work has been published in Cream City Review, the Harvard Advocate, Magma Poetry, Cordite Poetry Review, Roadrunner Review, among others. David was awarded the 2019 Lloyd McKim Garrison Prize in Poetry, awarded to a Harvard undergraduate for the best poem. In 2015, David served as a 2015 National Student Poet, the nation’s highest honor for youth poets.

Noctua Review

Southern Connecticut State University

The Noctua Review is the annual art and literary magazine produced by the Southern Connecticut State University MFA program. It was the brain child of graduate student (now professor) Lois Lake Church and launched its inaugural issue in 2008.

We’re always looking for narratives with strong characters, memorable imagery, and maybe a touch of lyricism; for poetry that embraces the economy of language and expresses that which is unexpressable.

The staff is solely comprised of MFA students and the lineup changes each fall semester.

We will be open again for submissions for Issue XV in the fall of 2021. Past contributors must wait one year before submitting again.

Visit us at www.noctuareview.com.

MFA in Creative Writing

Southern Connecticut State University

The MFA in Creative Writing at Southern Connecticut State University is a flexible full-residency, terminal-degree program that prepares students for careers as publishing writers, teachers, editors, and professionals in the publishing world. We work with students who attend full-time and students who attend part-time, and we are committed to working with the student’s needs in mind.

Our curriculum focuses on the development of the writer through experiences in the writing workshops and the creative thesis, but writers also need to be readers and study literature, so our students study literature from ancient world lit to contemporary lit with experts in each field. Other courses focus on literary theory, composition and rhetoric, and teaching collegiate-level writing. In some cases, MFA students may also teach their own courses.

Our MFA Program in Creative Writing is designed for graduate fiction writers and poets who -have the skills and experience to become publishing writers; -have the experience and depth of knowledge to become university instructors of creative and expository writing; -have a comprehensive foundation in intensive literary study, literary analysis, literary theory, and critical writing; -become versatile critical thinkers and perceptive, able communicators, prepared for the post-graduate job market, in positions such as freelance writers, editors, grant writers, teachers, technical writers, proofreaders, copyeditors, publicists, media and marketing associates, freelance reporters, and administrators in arts organizations.

In addition to publishing poems and stories in national literary journals, our students have published novels, collections of stories, memoirs, and collections of poems. We celebrate these writers by bringing them back to campus for a public reading of their work.

The M.F.A. Program’s visiting writers’ and editors’ series brings nationally-renowned writers to campus to read from their work.

Recent and upcoming writers include Xhenet Aliu, Steve Almond, Elise Blackwell, Andrew Hudgins, Randall Horton, Brock Clarke, Marilyn Nelson, Stewart Onan, Tom Perrotta, Alan Michael Parker, Michelle Richmond, Allison Joseph, and January O’Neill.

For more information on Southern’s MFA program, please visit: www.southernct.edu/program/english-mfa-creative-writing.