Contributors
Maggie Blake Bailey has poems published or forthcoming in The Southern Poetry
Anthology, Volume V: Georgia, Tar River, Slipstream, and elsewhere. In 2014, Switchback
nominated her poem “Topography” for a Pushcart Prize. Currently, she is a poetry reader
for Winter Tangerine Review and teaches full time in Atlanta.
Charlie Bondhus’s second poetry book, All the Heat We Could Carry, won the 2013 Main
Street Rag Award and the Publishing Triangle’s 2014 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. His
work appears in numerous journals, including Poetry, The Gay & Lesbian Review,
CounterPunch, The Alabama Literary Review,and Midwest Quarterly. He is the poetry editor
Michelle Castleberry is a writer and social worker who lives in northeast Georgia. Her work
has appeared in publications such as The Chattahoochee Review, The Naugatuck River
Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology-Vol.V: Georgia and an upcoming anthology on
ecopoetry. Her first book is Dissecting the Angel and Other Poems. Her newest project is
co-writing a film for Flying Mule Films.
Cara Chamberlain is the author of two books of poetry, Hidden Things (2009) and The
Divine Botany (forthcoming in 2015). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Boston
Review, Chariton Review, Slipstream, Crab Orchard Review, Tar River Poetry, Virginia
Quarterly Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, and other journals. She
has received three Pushcart Prize nominations and has recently been featured in Poetry
Daily.
Nadia Chaney is primarily a performance poet who has appeared on hundreds of stages. She
has been commissioned by Sinha Danse and the Simon Wosk Centre for Dialogue, among
others. Her poetry has recently appeared or will appear with Cherry Castle Press, Naugatuck
River Review, and Terrain.org.
Pamela Chatterton-Purdy graduated from New Canaan (Connecticut) High School in 1959,
received an A.A. from Green Mountain College in 1961, and her B.A. from the University of
New Hampshire in 1963. She married her husband David Purdy, a Methodist minister, on
June 7, 1963, and received her M.F.A from the University of Massachusetts in 1966. She has
taught art at Bay Path College, Springfield College, and the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, plus the public schools of Middleboro and Brookline, Massachussetts. She has
taught art for over thirty years. In 1987, her book Beyond the Babylift: A Story of an
Adoption was published by Abingdon Press.
Theresa Davis is the mother of three and was a classroom teacher for over twenty years.
She reclaimed her love for poetry eleven years ago after the loss of her father. Since his
death she has emerged as a nationally recognized slam poet, youth advocate, and teacher of
poetry. Theresa co-founded the ArtAmok Slam Team, and has competed in multiple
national and regional competitions culminating in 2011 when she took first place in
the Women of the World Poetry Slam Competition. In recognition of her years of activism
on behalf of Atlanta’s youth, she was honored by the City of Atlanta with a proclamation,
declaring May 22, “Theresa Davis Day in Atlanta”. In July 2012, in partnership with the City
of Atlanta’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Theresa released her chapbook Simon Says—poems
about teaching with anti-bullying themes. The same year, Theresa was named
the 2012 McEver Chair in Poetry at Georgia TechUniversity. According to the GA Tech
website: “In addition to teaching Tech students, each visiting chair will reach into the
community with a program of poetry events and workshops designed to recognize poetry for
its possibilities in all our lives and to recognize those involved in the craft of writing
poetry--whether accomplished, rising, or beginning—for the artists they are.” In May 2013,
her first full collection of poems, entitled After This We Go Dark, was published by Sibling
Rivalry Press. After This We Go Dark became an American Library Association Honoree, and
the book can now be checked out in local and college libraries around the world. Theresa
spent most of 2014 with Shyla Hardwick on The Huemyn Tour. She was featured as
the opening performance poet for the band Rising Appalachia for their 2014 national tour.
Holly Haworth is a recipient of the Middlebury Fellowship in Environmental Journalism.
Her work has appeared in Oxford American, Earth Island Journal, and Parabola. She
currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia, where she is a Jackson Fellow at Hollins University.
Andrea Jurjević is a native of Croatia. She is a poet, a literary translator, an artist and a
teacher. Her poems have appeared in The Journal, Harpur Palate, Raleigh Review, Best New
Poets, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere; her translations of Croatian poetry can be found
in Lunch Ticket, RHINO, Berkeley Poetry Review and The Adirondack Review. She is the
winner of the 2013 Robinson Jeffers Tor Prize, the 2014 Der-Hovanessian Translation Award
and the 2015 RHINO Translation Prize.
J. Drew Lanham is a writer, birder, hunter, and naturalist wandering on the edge of the
Blue Ridge in the Upper Piedmont of South Carolina. Lanham considers “conserving birds
and their habitat a moral mission that needs the broadest and most diverse audience
possible to be successful.” He is a Clemson University Master Teacher and Alumni
Distinguished Professor in wildlife ecology, with research interests in songbird ecology and
conservation; integration of game and nongame wildlife management; the African
American land ethic and its role in natural resources conservation. His work has been
featured in Orion and, recently, on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Al Maginnes has published ten collections of poems, most recently Music From Small
Towns (Jacar Press, 2014), winner of the annual Jacar Press contest, and Inventing
Constellations (Cherry Grove Collections, 2012). Recent or forthcoming poems will appear in
Lake Effect, Salamander, Asheville Poetry Review, and Birmingham Poetry Review, among
others. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and teaches at Wake Technical Community
College.
Farzana Marie is a poet and PhD candidate at the University of Arizona, where she focuses
on Persian Literature and Creative Writing. Farzana’s poetry and translations have appeared
in print and on-line journals including The Rusty Nail, Adanna, Fourteen Hills, When
Women Waken, Zócalo, Antiphon, Guernica, The Atticus Review, and The Fourth River.
She is author of a nonfiction book, Hearts for Sale! A Buyers Guide to Winning
in Afghanistan (Worldwide Writings, 2013), a poetry chapbook Letters to War and Lethe
(Finishing Line Press, 2014) and a book of poetry in translation from Persian Dari, Load
Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan (Holy Cow! Press, 2015). After
serving in the U.S. Air Force for six years, she now serves as president of the nonprofit Civil
Vision International and can be found on Twitter @farzanamarie.
Imani Marshall-Stephen is a New York City native, born and raised. She graduated from
Spelman College in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and from Kennesaw
State University in 2012 with a Master of Arts in Professional Writing. She believes in
writing authentic stories, and is especially partial to writing about women in her work.
Although she is a multi-genre writer, poetry is her first love. Her poetry has been featured
in the Red Clay Review, Flycatcher, and more. Her first published collection of poetry,
Unspoken: a poetic novella, was published in November 2013, and she is currently working
on her second collection, which will follow three friends from New York City during their
last summer before college in a series of poetic vignettes. Besides writing poetry, Imani
enjoys yoga, good food, great conversation, tear-inducing laughter, and spending time with
her best friend and husband, Ostus.
Victor Masoliah is an Atlanta-based poet who was born and raised in Kenya. He started
performing spoken word over two years ago after going to an open mic. His work has been
influenced by the Atlanta poetry community and African poets that he studied growing up.
He currently has a chapbook, Poems from My Mother's Kitchen. He is constantly evolving to
be a better poet. He hopes his poems provide entertainment, healing, and vision.
Jennifer McGuiggan’s writing has appeared in New World Writing, Numéro Cinq Magazine,
Connotation Press, Extract(s), and elsewhere. She received her MFA from Vermont College of
Fine Arts. This essay is part of her current work-in-process, a book of essays about
spirituality, landscape, and the longing for home in all its forms. Find her online in The
Marissa McNamara teaches English at Georgia Perimeter College and attempts to make
time to write when not grading papers. When she was working on her bachelor’s degree, a
professor told her that she was not a good writer, and she stopped writing. Years later, she
decided that he was wrong and began writing again. Marissa enjoys traveling, reading, her
two crazy dogs, and her yard art, including one concrete chicken and a flock of pink plastic
flamingos. Her work has appeared in several publications including RATTLE, StorySouth,
Assisi, and Future Cycle.
Scott Neely works in a range of media, including painting, drawing, and writing. His
method balances expression and simplicity. He explains, "I make visual poems: succinct,
present, for the heart." In addition to individual work, Scott has led literary and visual
community projects on issues of diversity, race, and religious pluralism. He serves as
Pastoral Executive at First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina. His recent
TEDxGreenville talk on race may be found here.
Uche Ogbuji was born in Calabar, Nigeria. He lived, among other places, in Egypt and
England before settling near Boulder, Colorado. A computer engineer and entrepreneur by
trade, his poetry chapbook, Ndewo, Colorado (Aldrich Press, 2013) is a Colorado Book Award
Winner, and a Westword 2015 Award Winner ("Best Environmental Poetry"). His poems,
published worldwide, fuse Igbo culture, European classicism, American Mountain West
setting, and Hip-Hop influences. He is editor at Kin Poetry Journal and runs
the @ColoradoPoetry Twitter project.
Sapient Soul, also known as Marlanda Dekine, is a Poet, Licensed Master Social Worker, and
Artistic Activist, currently residing in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She is the Founder and
Past Member of Furman University’s Poetry Club, Poetic Noise. Sapient Soul is the
Co-Founder and Director of Spoken Word Spartanburg, a nonprofit organization that
nurtures the art of spoken word through performance, workshop, community dialogue, and
activism. This programming includes Speaking Down Barriers, where individuals of all ages,
cultures, and walks of life are encouraged to gather and discuss race-related issues. She is a
member of Spartanburg’s first ever competitive poetry slam team, Old Soul. Sapient Soul is
the 2012 Queen of the South champion and the 2013 Soul Sista Atlanta champion. She is
also the Co-Founder of the annual poetry slam tournament, Slam Madness. Sapient Soul is
true to the meaning behind her stage name. Every word has been dipped in the wisdom and
truth that she has been given. Her soul’s purpose is to connect with you through
them. Facebook / Twitter: @sapientsoul / Instagram: @sapientsoul
Trevor Tingle left high school prematurely. After several years sailing tall ships he now
lives in New Orleans and drives crew boats on the Mississippi River. He has been nominated
for a Pushcart Prize and published by Jersey Devil Press, Driftwood Press, Prime Number
Magazine, and A Narrow Fellow, among others.
Jennifer Wheelock's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in many journals and
anthologies, including River Styx, The Diagram, The Inflectionist Review, and Atlanta
Review. Also a painter, Jennifer lives in Los Angeles and works at UCLA.