Art by Kendra C. Scott
Robbie Gamble is the author of A Can of Pinto Beans, from Lily Poetry Review Press. His poems and essays have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Carve, Tahoma Literary Review, Solstice, RHINO, and The Sun. He worked for many years as a nurse practitioner caring for people caught in homelessness, and he now divides his time between Boston and Brattleboro, Vermont. robbiegamble.com
As a lefty, Robbie is blessed with a direct neural pathway from the creative/connective right side of his brain to his ink-stained, pen-holding hand. It also means that his handwriting is terrible.
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Steve Gilmartin is the author of Comes Up to Face the Skies (Little Red Leaves Textile Series), a chapbook of mistranslations of Emily Dickinson from German editions of her work. His fiction and poetry have appeared in many print and online journals, including and/or, Big Bridge, Café Irreal, Drunken Boat, Eleven Eleven, Lunch Ticket, Otoliths, SurVision, Terror House Magazine, Sein und Werden, and The Collidescope.
Steve lives in a perpetual twilight state on the corner of Virginia and Virginia in Berkeley, California.
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Maija Haavisto has had two poetry collections published in Finland: Raskas vesi (Aviador 2018) and Hopeatee (Oppian 2020). In English her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in e.g. Moist, Capsule Stories, ShabdAaweg Review, The North, Streetcake, ANMLY, Eye to the Telescope, Shoreline of Infinity and Kaleidoscope. Follow her on Twitter at: DiamonDie
Maija also hosts hypnosis poetry workshops, a concepts she has developed herself, where people first experience an inspiring hypnosis journey and then write poetry. It’s a lot of fun and works surprisingly well!
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Long ago, Kenny Likis wrote his master’s thesis on Robert Creeley. He’s read contemporary poets obsessively since, but focused on reading, not writing. Early in the pandemic, he leaped before he looked and began writing poems. He is now working hard to make up for lost time. “Dear Joe,” his homage to Joe Brainard appeared in Caustic Frolic Fall 2021.
Kenny and his wife Lori live in Cambridge, MA, where they have stuffed their home with books, records, folk art, and baseball gloves.
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Susan L. Lin is a Taiwanese American writer and artist who hails from southeast Texas and holds an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts. Her novella GOODBYE TO THE OCEAN was the winner of the 2022 Etchings Press novella prize. She loves to sew and, in addition to working on the metafictional novel that “Title Subject to Change” is excerpted from, is also currently writing a sci-fi/horror novel set at a space academy. More of her work can be found online at susanllin.wordpress.com.
Susan’s favorite food is the potato. If you are ever holding a sack of potatoes (or any potato-heavy dish) and see her coming, run! Unless of course you would like to share your potatoes. She would very much appreciate it.
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Jessica Lee McMillan is an emerging poet who likes crooked, shiny things. She has been published or is forthcoming in journals across Canada and the US including Blank Spaces, Pocket Lint, Goat’s Milk Magazine, Pinhole Poetry, Tiny Spoon, The South Shore Review, Blue Heron Review and Dream Pop Journal. Her work explores architectures of perception and she is working on her first collection on this theme. Jessica lives in New Westminster, British Columbia on stolen lands of the Coast Salish and Halkomelem-speaking Peoples, in particular, the QayQayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations. jessicaleemcmillan.com
In an inscription of Songs of Innocence and Experience, Jessica’s high school literature teacher called her a mystic. Unfortunately, Jessica’s rebellious nature sent her from the room crying one day. Mrs. Lauber would never learn Jessica got a Masters in English and how vital poetry would become to her. Or maybe she knew all along.
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Sagar Megharaj is a product-manager-turned-writer from Bangalore, India. He quit his job towards the end of 2019, and he is currently working on two novels: a memoir based on his own experience with depression, and a supernatural thriller dealing with awakening of dead souls. He has also written four short stories in the last year.
Sagar has a weirdly adaptive personality. He often speaks childish gibberish at home with wife, but he swears with every alternate word when hanging out with school friends. He behaves like the ideal, well-mannered and obedient elder son when with his parents, but at work, you’ll often find him pranking his colleagues. And yet, not even Sagar knows what his true personality is like. He hasn’t spent enough time with himself to find that out.
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Stef Rozitis is a high school teacher and researcher in Australia. They are terrified of the coming climate armageddon. They live with two of their three kids and a cat who refuses to proofread or do anything else useful. They have recently been published in Dyst, Non-binary Review, Cerasus and Dissident Voice. They’ve also published academic stuff. When Stef is not messing around with words they are making vegan food or coming up with excuses not to do the housework and gardening.
Whoops – Stef Rozitis suddenly realises that their bio makes them look like a rank amateur. So be it! That climate thing is an actual worry though…
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Andre F. Peltier is a Pushcart Nominee and a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches literature and writing. He lives in Ypsilanti, MI, with his wife and children. His poetry has recently appeared in various publications like CP Quarterly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Provenance Journal, Lavender and Lime Review, About Place, Novus Review, Fiery Scribe, and Fahmidan Journal, and most recently in Magpie Literary Journal, The Brazos Review, and Idle Ink. andrefpeltier.com
In his free time, he obsesses over soccer and comic books. He is currently attempting to get back in shape for what will inevitably be another less than satisfying soccer season.
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Kevin L. Schwartz is a classical musician, poet, and comic famous mostly for living in his mother’s basement. Kevin L. Schwartz is a Princeton graduate who has diligently worked his way to the bottom. Kevin L. Schwartz has published poems and stories and such in various unimportant journals, and, more recently, appeared on tv. Kevin L. Schwartz has often been hailed as “the Mitch Hedberg of his generation,” which is odd because he’s the same generation as Mitch Hedberg. Kevin L. Schwartz has often been likened to Steven Wright in that they are both names. Kevin L. Schwartz is better at procrastinating in creative ways than at making real-life decisions. Kevin L. Schwartz lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he frequents Comedy on State. Kevin L. Schwartz is writing this biographical statement under duress. Twitter: KevinLSchwartz, / Instagram: kevinlschwartz
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Kendra C. Scott is a Pennsylvania-born, Tennessee-raised woman stay-at-home Mom turned artist living with my family in Chester County, PA. She does a lot of cooking, laundry, housekeeping and sports taxicab service. She dabbles in direct sales of children’s books to make a few bucks here and there, but mostly because kids NEED books and she like to keep them flowing to the littles in her life circle. Instagram: artbykendrascott / TikTok: artsyontheblock
Riddled with Arrows 5.2: “Spotlight 2022”
Foreword | Contributors
Meet the Features | Meet the Work