Contributors

Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo is the U.S. Poet Laureate. She is the author of What Moon Drove Me to This?, In Mad Love and War, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, She Had Some Horses, and Crazy Brave: A Memoir.

Author photo by Matika Wilbur

Ashley Hand

Ashley is a service academy graduate and spent her career as a military officer deploying around the world. She is currently an MFA candidate at Cornell University, where she is at work on her first novel. Her most recent work is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Harpur Palate, and Carve, and has appeared in other magazines.

Shoshana Tehila Surek

Shoshana Tehila Surek is a first-generation American and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. She received her MA in Creative Writing and her MFA in Fiction and Poetry from Regis University in Denver. Her fiction, poetry, and essays can be read or are forthcoming in Chicago Quarterly Review, Burningword Literary Journal, Carve Magazine, SmokeLong Quarterly, Malahat Review, Vestal Review, Cease, Cows, 3Elements Review, and f(r)iction Magazine. In 2017, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and she was a 2019 Curt Johnson Prose Award finalist. More of her work can be found at www.ShoshanaSurek.com.

ire’ne lara silva

ire’ne lara silva is the author of three poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, and CUICACALLI/House of Song, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. She and poet Dan Vera are also the co-editors of Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, a collection of poetry and essays. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. ire’ne is currently working on her first novel, Naci, and a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body. Visit her website at irenelarasilva.wordpress.com. 

Ashley Kunsa

Ashley Kunsa’s fiction, poetry, and nonfiction appear in The Writer magazine, Sycamore Review, the Los Angeles Review, and Quarter After Eight, among many other publications. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. You can find her online at www.ashleykunsa.com. 

Molly McCloy

Molly McCloy holds a Nonfiction M.F.A. from The New School, has published work in Slate and Nerve, and is the winner of four Moth StorySLAMs. Currently she lives in Tucson where she teaches writing for Pima Community College and enjoys hiking in the desert with her wife, Rebecca, and their dog, Princess Pinwheels of the Purple Mountains. “Fragile Donkey,” is a narrative from the Grudge #1 section of her manuscript, Nine Grudges, a memoir that explores forgiveness, apologies, and, of course, grudges.

Rachel Mindell

Rachel Mindell is a writer and teacher living in Tucson. Her third chapbook was just released by Tammy. Individual poems have appeared (or will) in Black Warrior Review, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Foglifter, Sycamore Review, and elsewhere. She works for Submittable and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. 

Julianna Bolanos

Julianna Bolanos is a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, on her way to obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art with a focus in glass blowing and sculpture. Originally from Austin, Texas, she hopes to travel to and experience art in every form from all cultures, building connections and creating collaborative masterpieces until the very moment she dies.

Tessa Anderson

Tessa Anderson is a student from the University of Minnesota studying human physiology, neuroscience, and public health on an exchange program at the University of Hawaii. While in Hawai’i, she’s tapped into her creative flow, drawing inspiration from the healing powers, beauty, and sacredness of Mother Earth on the island of Oahu. She hopes to use her mind, body, and soul together to create a space of healing one day.

Franklin De La Cruz

Erika Glass

Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson is an artist who lives in Chicago and primarily makes decorative kites for a living while also pursuing his interests in mono-printmaking, making kinetic sculpture using old erector set parts and creating faux postage stamps that he designs, prints, perforates, applies to envelopes and mails throughout the world. 

Ryan Seo

Ryan Seo is a high school student attending Seoul Foreign School in South Korea. He is currently preparing his portfolio. His current interests are in algorithmic art. 

Tara Barr

Tara Barr is a lifelong art lover and a working mom in Washington, DC. She recently decided to make painting a high priority in her life after setting it aside for over a decade to focus on her family and her career in technology. Tara is inspired by great design, interesting details, and nostalgic memories. You can show your support following @tarabarr.art on Instagram.  

Issue 40 Masthead