Abdom en of nut and sawdust, where no cavity ? no cavity ?
prevails
A Five Guys floor twisted to guts, butt ress ed by p ress ure and purl
Won't you com e here afterwards? Unfurl in the bathroom your hum ors, so I m ight be a part of everything
A hearing impaired writer and artist adopted in Luxembourg, Kelly Sargent is an award-winning author of two memoirs in verse, a haiku and senryu poetry collection, and a children’s storybook. Recent honors include: Firebird Book Award winner, The Rash Award in Poetry finalist, Eric Hoffer Award nominee, Touchstone Award for Individual Poems nominee, and Best of the Net nominee. Her other works have appeared in more than eighty literary journals. She also serves as the creative nonfiction editor of The Bookends Review. Visit www.kellysargent.com to learn more about her.
Callum Foulds is a poet, recording artist and an Arts and humanities graduate based in Nottingham, UK. Their work has been featured in Beyond Words Magazine and their debut pamphlet, Morning, grey sky is out February 2023 on Electric Frog Ltd. In their free time they enjoy writing poetry, consuming copious amounts of gorgeous coffee, releasing music as ghost orange and scaring themselves silly watching horror movies. They are most passionate about innovative forms of poetry and prose.
Diliana Stoyanova is a Bulgarian-Finnish spoken-word and sound poet, and PhD candidate based in Helsinki. A 2019 Finnish national slam finalist and an avid performer, she writes to take ownership of her own narrative. Her poetry moto is 'Sometimes I do the words, and sometimes the words do me.' She has been published in magazines and anthologies, most recently in the "Poetry and Settled Status for All" published by Civic Leicester to support refugees and migrants.
K.D. Zwierz is a lecturer, musician and poet. His poetry was recently featured in the anthology Ukraine in the work of international poets (Literary Waves). His writing explores themes of displacement, cultural identity and historical relativism, explored through the analysis of his own experiences growing up in a migrant farming community. Of Polish-Italian descent, he lives and writes between Croatia, Kuwait and the UK.
Colby Flade (he/him) is a queer writer, artist, avid drinker of coffee, and student based in Chicago. He is the author of TheSmelloftheLightBlueHousein Summertime(2021), Menthol(2022), FearHome(Oyez Review, Vol. 49, 2022), ShortSweetSimple:LovePoems(Bottlecap Press, 2022), IgnisFatuus(Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Issue 35, 2023) and TheFly&Odor(Beyond Words Press, 2023). Colby’s work can be found online, at bookshops like This Old Book in Grayslake, Illinois & The Book Teller in Whitewater, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Flade attended DePaul University, studying Writing, Rhetoric & Discourse, and is currently pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education. Find him on Instagram @theflade and on www.theflade.com
Erin Challenor (she/her) is an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, studying creative writing, political science, and American studies. Originally from Portland, Oregon, she likes pennies, sticky notes, slam poetry, and cats. She likes writing about the Generation Z experience and is Managing Editor for the literary magazine TheJupiterReview.
Noah Evan Wilson is a writer and musician based in New York City. His stories have been published in Beyond Words, Dreamers Creative Writing Magazine, and Prime Number Magazine, among others, as well as the anthology, TenWaysthe Animals Will Save Us , from Retreat West Books. Noah is currently an MFA candidate at Rutgers University-Newark. His latest record, TheViewfromthe Ground– EP , is now available on all major streaming platforms.
Candi Martin is a Creative Writing tutor and published writer/ editor who writes on social equality and our roots in this world. She holds MA Creative Writing and Wellbeing from Teesside University and has always written for her own wellbeing. She can usually found listening to BBC6 music with a huge cup of tea. Insta @candi_says_ @writingforwellnessrossendale
Brian "Brie" Sheridan is a writer and editor existing on the East Coast. They are currently trying to publish their first chapbook. In their free time, the enjoy playing nostalgic video games, planning out tattoos, and drag.
Roberta Laurie is the author of Weaving a Malawi Sunrise. She holds an MA in Environmental Education and Communication and teaches in the Bachelor of
Communication Studies program at MacEwan University. Roberta writes about writing, nature, sustainability, and sustainability communication. She is currently writing a memoir inspired by a box of letters left behind by her father.
Sam Burt is a tutor and proofreader living in London. Since finishing a master’s in creative writing, he has edited for Exposition Review, Bandit Fiction, F(r)iction, and Beyond Words. Off-page, he volunteers with an LGBTQ+ charity and runs the East London Indie Book Club. He is always thinking about working on a novel.
Francis Flavin draws upon his experience as an educator, public interest lawyer and observer on four continents. He was the Winner of the 2021 Poetry Quarterly Rebecca Lard Award. In the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition, Flavin placed first in the Memoir/Vignette category (2022), and in prior years received recognition for humor and flash fiction (2), short story (2), novel excerpt (3), creative nonfiction and personal essay categories.
Cathy Bridges is now a retired Australian academic labour historian. She turned her hand to creative non-fiction when academic writing strangled a story she wanted to tell. That story of recovering a working woman's voice became a (as yet unpublished) memoir that also explores the nature of grief following her husband's death.
Originally from Northern Ireland, Ewen Glass is an emerging voice in poetry in both English and Ulster-Scots registers.
Homa Mojadidi is an Afghan American poet and translator who is fluent in English, Farsi, and Urdu. She has an M.A. in English Literature from the University of North Florida and is pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry from George Mason University where she currently teaches English Composition.
Cristina Leavitt is a poet currently residing in the Sacramento region. Her poetry has been published in 34th Parallel Magazine and Sacramento's State University's Calaveras Journal. After an extended break from writing, she is diving back into her craft.
Lina Buividavičiūtė was born on May 14, 1986. She is a poet and literary critic. Lina is an author of two poetry books in the Lithuanian language. Her poetry is published in "Matter", "Masters" and “Proverse Poetry Prize" contest
anthologies, "Drunk Monkeys", "Beyond Words", "The Dewdrop", "The Limit Experience", "Beyond Queer Words", "Maudlin House", "Cathexis Northwest Press", "Poetry Online", "Red Noise Collective", "Sad Girls Diaries" magazines as well as "Versopolis" poetry platform. Upcoming publications include “New Millennium Writings”, "Cathexis Northwest Press", "Red Noise Collective", "The Stardust Review" and “Beyond Words” magazines.
Pamela Butler is a neuroscientist who lives in New York City. Her research examines the fragmented ways in which people with severe mental illness sometimes perceive the world and how this plays out in social situations. She contributes poetry and essays to the World Women in Neuroscience Newsletter.
Joshua Skinnell is a versatile writer whose narratives delve into the complexities of the human condition, employing vivid imagery and profound themes to craft deeply reflective and engaging stories. His work, characterized by a unique blend of existential inquiry and emotional resonance, demonstrates a keen ability to explore and transcend the conventional boundaries of storytelling. Skinnell's commitment to exploring diverse literary forms showcases his dynamic range and creative depth.
Emmy White is a writer and postgraduate student from Sydney, Australia. Her work has been featured in a number of publications including Griffel Magazine, Fauxmoir Magazine, and Train River Publishing's Spring 2020, Summer 2020, Winter 2020, and Spring 2021 anthologies. You can follow Emmy on Instagram at @emmywhitewrites.
Andreea Sepi is a writer, translator and communication professional living in southern Germany. She has a BA in English from the University of London, a Certificate of Advanced Creative Writing from Oxford, and her work has been published in The Write Launch, Writer Advice, Spiegel International, Dilema Veche, PhotoTravel Romania and Liternet.ro. Her short story Yore and her novella Ink were long listed for the Yeovil Literary Prize in 2022 and 2023, respectively. You can read her latest musings at https://ink4thought.com.
Dick Altman writes in the high, thin, magical air of Santa Fe, NM, where, at 7,000 feet, reality and imagination often blur. He is published in Santa Fe Literary Review, American Journal of Poetry, Fredericksburg Literary Review, Foliate Oak, Landing Zone, Cathexis Northwest Press, Humana Obscura, Haunted Waters Press, Split Rock Review, The Ravens Perch, Beyond Words, New Verse News, Wingless Dreamer, Blueline, Sky Island Journal and others here and abroad. Pushcart Prize nominee and poetry winner of Santa Fe New Mexican’s annual literary competition, he has in progress two collections of some 150 published poems.
Roshan Taneja is a high school student based out of Menlo Park, California. Roshan spends most of his time in robotics but writes things occasionally if time permits. Roshan love to write stories about his life and experiences. Outside of school, he loves to hang out with his friends, bike around town and read.
Audrey Towns, a literature and composition instructor in the heart of Fort Worth, Texas, dismantles the nature/culture binary in her prose and verse. New materialism is her muse, landscapes her canvas, and the connection between the human and nonhuman her essence. She has published in several places, including The Stone Poetry Quarterly, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, The Ulu Review, and You Might Need to Hear This.
Elle Cantwell is a graduate of the MFA in Writing program at the University of San Francisco. Her poems have appeared in Ponder Review, December, Welter, HAD, and Barrelhouse, among other publications. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and is a winner of the Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize.
Rebecca Evans writes the difficult, the heart-full, the guidebooks for survivors. Her poems and essays have appeared in Narratively, The Rumpus, Hypertext Magazine, War, Literature & the Arts, The Limberlost Review, and more. She’s the author of Tangled by Blood and a forthcoming collection, Safe Handling (Moon Tide Press, 2024). She shares space with four Newfoundlands and her
sons in a tiny town in Idaho and does her best writing beneath her stairway in a hidden cove. https://rebeccaevanswriter.com/
Nicola Caroli trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She created interdisciplinary, participatory poetry performances and events for over twenty years. Her work has appeared in Berlin Flash Fiction and Book of Matches, and she is shortlisted for the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Contest 2023.
Cover art: APerfectBlend by Brett Masterson Brett Masterson is an abstract artist who expresses his work in a surrealistic style, creating imagery and dream-like artwork. His work is improvisational and unites conscious and subconscious realms of experience and imagination. His works include spray paint, acrylics and marker on canvas, instruments, walls and furniture.
Joanna Giddens, RiverintheDesert . Joanna is an oil painter who focuses on surrealist expression of inner truth and beauty. She grew up in Tanzania and has loved in Washington DC for 8 years. This selection comes from her Emotional Openness exhibition, encouraging solidarity around shared experiences.
Albert Rock, School Colors . Bert Rock is a writer and sometime-artist from Arizona who writes fantasy fiction, children's stories and a blog at www.bertrock.com. Bert graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in English Literature in 2005.
Mari Honma, HowdoIexplainit Mari is a Japanese mixed media artist based in the UK who began experimenting as a self-taught painter in her teens and put on VJ shows in Tokyo whilst studying as a University student. Overcoming challenges in life, she started releasing her works again in October 2020; they have since been featured in international magazines and exhibitions.
Karah Tull, Untitled Karah Tull has a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Tennessee. She illustrated the children’s book, Thump by Lisa Soland. She was also the winner of the 2018 writing Fellowship to the Wilma Dykeman Literary Festival in Hot Springs, hosted by Amy Greene. One of her art pieces was featured in the January 2021 issue of the literary magazine, Beyond Words. Change Seven Magazine has also featured several of Karah Tull's photography pieces in 2021 and 2022.
Ron Theel, Molten . Ron is a freelance writer and visual artist living in Syracuse, New York. His work has been published in "Beyond Words," "Midway Journal," "Pithead Chapel," "Open: Journal of Arts and Letters," and elsewhere.
Bradley Pattison, CapeCodStudio . Bradley is a seventy-seven-year-old artist who has been painting continuously since 1968. His work often addresses the dichotomy between being alone and lonely. Pattison's work takes the viewer to atmospheric places, familiar yet unknown, to create mysterious scenarios. He is a world traveller and his work as a painter is inspired by the countries he visits; most recently spending September 2022 at the Chateau Orquevaux Artists Residency in France.
Colleen Bugg sees the elements of art in everything, for example when she looks at the human figure she sees line, shape, colour, texture, light, shadow.... Making art, experimenting with materials, experimenting with creative space, with size, with layers, breaking the art rules... makes things interesting.
John Richardson Butler, AFather'sDream . John was born in 1930 and grew up in New York City, where he learned to drive and realized that the grid system was a pretty good way to get around. As an engineer, he followed up with a lifetime of vectors and equations, but when the world did not always surrender to his schematics, John embraced watercolors. He was a great hugger and a much-loved father.
Michelle Walsh, Boy with Flowers Michelle is a poet and photographer passionate about creating multimedia content. She is dedicated to capturing the everyday as well as the severe.
Hayley Roussel is a contemporary artist living and working in New Orleans. Dynamic and vibrant, her most current series focuses on the streetscapes, architecture, plant life, porches, gardens, and courtyards of New Orleans. Featuring everything from shotgun houses to cemeteries, this series enhances
and saturates colors, abstracts and melds together different NOLA locations, and captures the spirit and soul of our amazing city.
Marina McKay is an amateur artist living in Scotland.
Gilmore Tamny is an artist, writer, and musician who lives in Somerville, MA.
Shawn Marshall, Cosmic Circle; Cosmic Blue Shawn is a Kentucky-based painter & mixed-media artist with a background in architecture and design. She collects discarded and found materials such as paper, cardboard, wallpaper, magazines, lace, scraps of material, etc.. and merges the carefully selected media with paint to create intricate webs and imprints of our existence. Her work has received has received international recognition and has been published in Suboart Magazine, Art Seen Magazine, Contemporary Collage Magazine, Art Hive Magazine, and others.
Aleks Crossan, LoudMini . Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1976, Aleks Crossan is an emerging contemporary painter who now calls Hobart, Tasmania, her creative haven. Her artistic journey primarily revolves around acrylic and mixed media on board and canvas. Crossan is gaining recognition for her unique approach, characterised by vibrant colours and a process where the emotions evoked by music guide her brush, influencing the way she paints. IG: alekscrossan.art
Tiffany Dugan, Reflection Tiffany is an artist and writer based in New York City. She is inspired by collaging disparate elements together and revels in the synchronicities that emerge. She has had her artwork exhibited at Printed Matter, The Center for Book Arts, The Kitchen, Gallery 178, NoMAA Gallery, and has been published in *82 Review and The Penn Review. IG: @tiffany.dugan W: tiffanydugan.com
Kristine Narvida, LookHowIMove , 2021, oil on linen, 100x80 cm. Kristine is a Latvian academic visual artist and she graduated in 2006 as a Magister at the Art Academy of Riga. She lives and works in Germany in Berlin and Potsdam
and is an active member of the Brandenburg Association of Artists. Kristine prefers working with oil on linen, using models as her subjects and she presents and sells her fine artwork throughout Europe and globally with online galleries.
Tiffany Tuchek, Abstract Monrach Moment 2 . Tiffany is an emerging writer, photographer and watercolor artist. She lives in Michigan with her husband and rescue pets - three dogs and four parrots. She enjoys reflecting the powerful and fragile aspects of life through poetry and artwork.
Chrystal Phan, ToiletDream Chrystal Phan is a Vietnamese-Canadian oil painter based on the small island city of Victoria, BC, Canada. She began painting in 2019 when she realized she couldn’t really do anything else. Her ideas originate from her memories, dreams, and things she’s eaten.