OUR EDITORIAL BOARD 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 The Smell of the Light Blue House in Summertime (2021), Menthol (2022), Fear Home (Oyez Review, Vol. 49, 2022), Short Sweet Simple: Love Poems (Bottlecap Press, 2022), Ignis Fatuus (Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Issue 35, 2023) and The Fly & 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 The Jupiter Review. 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, Ten Ways the Animals Will Save Us, from Retreat West Books. Noah is currently an MFA candidate at Rutgers University-Newark. His latest record, The View from the 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.
WRITERS Patrick ten Brink is a writer and freelance art critic who grew up in Germany, Australia, Japan and England and lives in Belgium. His fiction includes My Secret (Beyond Words), Amelia Borgiotti (in Coffin Bell), The Carp and the Magpie (Night Picnic Press), and Ersatz (101 Words). Poems include Zen Garden, Kyoto (Dreamers Creative Writing 2018 Haiku competition) and Koyasan Cemetery (Maya’s Micros, The Closed Eye Open) and his art reviews appear regularly in Travel Tomorrow. Geoffrey Reilly is a skilled, passionate, and collaborative information designer with over 30 years of experience in the software industry. He is the father of two grown sons, Jacob and Liam, and lives in Warren, Rhode Island, with his wife Meg and their dog, Pepsi. He writes essays, poetry, and (occasionally) short stories in his spare time. Stuart Terman is a Physician, previously Assistant Clinical Professor/Case Western Reserve/Ophthalmology in his home city of Cleveland, has had articles in the 'Annals of Plastic Surgery', 'The Ohio Family Physician', the 'Consultant for Pediatricians' among a number of other Journals and is now retired. Noel Taylor began writing short stories in 2020. To date he has been published in print three times. He lives close to the Atlantic ocean, near Lisbon, Portugal, and many of his stories germinate during long walks along the beach. In addition to writing, he plays improvised music. Katie Barlow is a 23 year old novelist and poet based in Columbus, Ohio. She has been or will be published in The Mill Literary Magazine and Drunk Monkeys Literature. You can find her work @epiloguepoetry on Instagram. Hope Nisly is a retired librarian and writer living in Reedley, California. Her writing has appeared in Mojave River Review, Fredericksburg Literary and Arts Review, Persimmon Tree, and Dead Housekeeping, among others. Her website is hopenisly.com. Ophelia Monet (she/her) is an educator, mother, and storm chaser, living in Kentucky with her husband and their son. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Free Verse Revolution, Maudlin House, Loud Coffee Press, Heimat Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Inflectionist Review, and more. You can find her on Instagram at @mysoullaidbare.
Eleanor Swanson is widely published. Honors include an NEA Fellowship. Her poetry collection A Thousand Bonds: Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium was a finalist for a Colorado Book Award. 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. 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. Richard Levi is an independent Songwriter from Michigan with a love of spoonerisms and nonplussing in equal portions, writing only of the comfortably mundane made visible. Victoria Mullen is a dual US-Greek citizen who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She enjoys writing, photography, mixed-media arts, and acting. Victoria balances her creative spirit with the discipline and insights into human nature acquired as an attorney. See her photograph, 'Wolf, Sated' in issue 49 of 'Beyond Words’. More of her images may be seen in 'The Word's Faire' (THE FEAST print publication); ‘Cool Beans Lit’; and on her website at catboycafe.com. Rosemary Herbert’s wide-ranging writings encompass poetry, journalism, and mystery and mainstream fiction. She has contributed author interviews to The Paris Review and reviewed books for The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, and more. Her poetry is slated for inclusion in The Last Milkweed Anthology, forthcoming from Tupelo Press, and her haiku has been published in Tiny Seed Literary Journal and in the Poetry of the Wild Flowers anthology.
Brad Kavo lives in Pittsburgh where they leave chairs in the streets to reserve parking spots or sit and watch the days go by. His debut chapbook, Butterflied, was winner of the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Chapbook Series by Lines + Stars Press. His poetry has also appeared and is forthcoming in journals such as Ninth Letter, Gordon Square Review, The Notre Dame Review, and Lines + Stars, among others. Instagram: @bradkavo Holland Usrey is a longtime neurodivergent writer who is just beginning to submit her work for publication. Holland lives in the Bay Area with her husband, daughter and far too many adorable, aging shelter pets, and works as a Teacher of the Visually Impaired, specializing in neurological visual impairment at a school for students with movement disorders. D. R. James, retired from 40 years of teaching college writing, literature, and peace studies, lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan. His latest of ten collections is Mobius Trip (Dos Madres Press, 2021). https://www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage Karma Darling is a communist transsexual attempting to communicate beauty and pain. When s/he settles down, it will be on the warm shores of the lotuseaters. Laura Devey (she/her) is a CSUN alumna from the Los Angeles area. She is a mother and creative nonfiction writer whose work has appeared on Scary Mommy. Temple Cone is Professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy and the author of five books of poetry and seven poetry chapbooks. His work has received the Cathexis Northwest Book Prize, the Old Seventy Creek Press Poetry Prize, and the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize. From 2018-2020, he served as the inaugural Poet Laureate for the city of Annapolis.
VISUAL ARTISTS Cover art: Jacket in Tape by Tamara Gray. Tamara is an artist, writer and creative thinker with a day job living in the northeastern United States. She would like people to take an interest in and credit her for her own work, occurrences which are rare enough to mention. She likes to take care of her health, read and recover. Patricia Cannon, Bus Stop Reflections (Inspired by Saul Leiter). Patricia has been a Registered Nurse at UCSF since 2001. She has worked in cardiac critical care, neurointensive care, heme oncology, school nursing, and currently, in research. Her passions are her faith, photography, and the written word in all its forms. Kevan Joseph O'Connor is a husband, father, and artist in Nashville, Tennessee. Using the physical, tangible, visual gateway of painting to connect with the sensory world, it serves as a means to navigate through vulnerable and sacred spaces. Kevan's work as an artist is one of refining communication, more than simply necessary expression, pursuing empathy through the place his art lives and speaks. Michelle Spiziri, Dream Carnival. As a painter, Michelle is interested in what happens when color, form, movement, and shape interact with each other forming their own dialogue. She wants all emotions and all parts to be present. She paints to make a place for all the parts of herself that seek expression, even if she doesn’t want to see or love all the parts that make herself. Michael Teters, Understand (2017). Michael is a mixed media artist living in Asbury Park, NJ. Rob Ramos, Momentum. Rib is a freelance artist in Galveston, Texas. His artwork is a platform for him to bring awareness to mental illness. Eunice Oladeji, Ladies – PR. 24. Eunice is a medical doctor, public health professional and a self-taught artist with a leaning towards photography and mixed media abstract art. Ernst Perdriel, Bear in the City. Ernst is a multi-field artist (visual art, photography, writing - French) born in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). His life mission is to transmit the passion of the cultural and environmental heritage through arts, lifestyle and sharing of knowledge. Perdriel has contributed in numerous publications since 1992 as a writer, illustrator, artist, photographer and in self-publishing.
Tania, Don’t Look Back (2021), Acrylic paint on 16” X 20” canvas. Tania is a Brooklyn, NY native. She uses writing, drawing, and painting as a means of healing and shares her work in an effort to remind others that they too can heal. If you would like to see more of Tania’s work, be sure to visit Tavi’s Bridge From Esoteric To Abstract by clicking on the link: https://www.tavisbridge.com Jessica LaPrade, Cry Me a River for the Salmon. After gaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Eastern Washington University/USA in 2008, Jess LaPrade further pursued mentorships to learn the Renaissance Master’s painting techniques. She has now cultivated her own hybrid of direct and indirect oil/ink painting methods with a keen focus on contemporary figurative painting. Her work has been shown in galleries nationally and internationally, and in publications such as Direct Art Magazine, Sol Purpose, and Unify. Aneas MacInnis, HoOponopono. Aneas is an artist based in Fredericton, NB. Using oil and sometimes acrylics, Aneas specializes in landscapes, cityscapes and portraits. follow her on facebook at: Art by Aneas Jeni Prescott, Liminal. Jeni is a Philadelphia artist who grapples with order, chaos, chance and reflection. Her works can be seen as a mathematical way of striving for perfection while acknowledging that her intervention is what creates the variances and flaws which reflect the beauty of our human experience. David Birozy, Gas Chamber and Ghost. David lives and works in Wyoming, where he enjoys the lack of traffic, people, lines, and state income tax, all while enjoying the great outdoors. Aleksandra Scepanovic, Luna is Gone. Aleksandra questions our innermost by engaging the boundary between form and expectation. Her builds are strong physical preambles to wonder and potentiality, arrested in change. Ms Scepanovic's sculptural work underscores her experience of migratory displacement, her enduring quest for a true likeness of identity suspended in between war, peace, and culture. Sergio Renato Ordonez is a photographer by passion – he sees in everything a relation between image and soul. He’s a Drag – he loves to live the duality. He’s a graphic designer – he loves to create and transform forms and lines. He’s a poet – he loves to uncover hidden thoughts. He’s a polyglot – he loves to know and understand his neighbours. He’s a man, a child, a woman, an adult – he loves the diverse faces of his interior. He’s an artist – he loves to love everyone, everything. He’s a human being – he lives in this world. Janice Phelps Williams, Memory 23,246. Janice Phelps Williams is a writer, illustrator, and painter who has been involved with the launch of 200+ titles. She
has a BFA in Studio Art. Connect at Website: janicephelpswilliams.com, FB: janicephelpswilliams.paintings, Instagram: janicephelpswilliams Wayne Pyle, A Walk on the Beach at Sunset, from the series “i heart marnie”, an ongoing photo series featuring a pair of tiny, fifty-plus-year-old, bendy toy people found in an upstate New York antique shop. Through dramatic settings, Pyle explores the peculiar charm of these figures, evoking contemplation about relationships, the environment, and the world. The visual dialogue between the timeworn toy couple and the chaotic world invites viewers to reflect on their own smallness, evoking feelings of nostalgia and a longing for something or someone lost to time. Instagram: @waynepyleart Jan Kluveld, To Be. Jan is a Maastricht based painter, photographer and digital artist. All his images are originally painted on stamp size, macro photographed and digitally altered. He is the only known artist in the world to work this way. He is bedridden for a decade due to the consequences of septic shock syndrome. Lior Locher, Pool #3. Lior is a nonbinary mixed-media artist, mainly working in acrylic, and collage and printmaking. After having lived in 6 countries on 4 continents and being homeless at some point, they are now based at the English seaside. Their training is in personal development, coaching and therapy, they are fascinated by people’s inner lives and how we make sense of our own inner journeys as humans, and the inner dynamics and stories we tell ourselves. Minyoung Jeong, Echoes of Light: Symphonic Tribute to Legacy. Minyoung is an internationally recognized art educator with a background in the cinema industry, including roles with Disney and Marvel. She serves as a cultural ambassador through language and art, embodying a lifelong passion for capturing light in various mediums. Inspired by her grandmother, the eminent film and script director Rose S. Wapner, Minyoung celebrates her legacy through her art and education, aiming to convey the fleeting magic of places and moments. She holds a Master of Arts in Art Education from Columbia University Teachers College, where she gained advanced teaching methodologies and research skills. Minyoung's journey reflects a deep commitment to preserving and sharing the transformative power of art and education across generations. Minyoung explains, “This piece is a tribute that reflects the essence of my grandmother's broad and compassionate legacy in Hollywood and her lifelong dedication to caring for vulnerable individuals all around the world.”