Our Authors: A – D

Steven Luria Ablon

poetry

 My Giant Bladderstone 

Steven Luria Ablon, poet and adult and child psychoanalyst, teaches child psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and publishes widely in academic journals.  His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines such as The Brooklyn ReviewPloughshares, and The Princeton Arts Review. He has published five full collections of poetry including Tornado Weather  (Mellen Poetry Press, 1993), Flying Over Tasmania (The Fithian Press, 1997), Blue Damsels (Peter E Randall Publisher, 2005), Night Call (Plain View Press, 2011), and, most recently, Dinner in the Garden (Columbia, South Carolina, 2018).

Shanta Acharya

poetry

 Possession 

Song of Praise

Taste of Childhood

Shanta Acharya was born and educated in Cuttack, India. She won a scholarship to Oxford, where she was among the first batch of women admitted to Worcester College in 1979. A recipient of the Violet Vaughan Morgan Fellowship, she was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy for her work on Ralph Waldo Emerson. She was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of English and American Literature and Languages at Harvard University. The author of eleven books, her publications range from poetry, literary criticism and fiction to finance. Her latest is Imagine: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins, 2017). ‘Possession’ is from her forthcoming collection, What Survives Is The Singing.

 www.shantaacharya.com

 

 

L. Ward abel

poetry

 A Sky-Wide Russet Flock Ascending   

L. Ward Abel, poet, composer and performer, teacher, retired lawyer, lives in rural Georgia, has been published hundreds of times in print and online, and is the author of one full collection and eleven chapbooks of poetry, including Jonesing For Byzantium (UK Authors Press, 2006), The Heat of Blooming (Pudding House Press, 2008), American Bruise (Parallel Press, 2012), Little Town gods (Folded Word Press, 2016), A Jerusalem of Ponds (Erbacce-Press, 2016), Digby Roundabout (Kelsay Books, 2017) and The Rainflock Sings Again (Unsolicited Press, 2019).

 

Gail aldwin

poetry

Glimpses 

Gail Aldwin is a prize-winning writer of short fiction and poetry. As Chair of the Dorset Writers’ Network, she works with the steering group to support writers by connecting creative communities across the county. She is a visiting tutor at Arts University Bournemouth and author of Paisley Shirt a collection of flash fiction.

Twitter: @gailaldwin

http://gailaldwin.wordpress.com

 

 

kimmy alan

poetry

 A Plea for the Salton Sea 

Kimmy Alan is a wannabe poet from the land of Lake Woebegone. A retired steelworker who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, Kimmy Alan pursued his love of poetry as a distraction while undergoing chemo and radiation. For him, poetry has proven to be a powerful catharsis as he is currently in remission. When he isn’t writing he spends time with his four wonderful nieces, whom he says “are driving him to pieces.”

 

Andy allan

poetry

 Dark Winter Skies  

Andy Allan lives in Highland Scotland. Landscape and wildlife feature in a significant number of his poems. He is widely published in magazines, anthologies and online, and is a multiple competition prize-winner. His pamphlet collection, Breath of Dragons, was published in 2015. A new collection, Within the Slide of Wind, is due to be published before the end of 2018. Both publications by award-winning specialist poetry publishers Indigo Dreams of Devon.

 

 

jake cosmos aller

poetry

Wild Things Arrest Me 

John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and former Foreign Service officer having served 27 years with the U.S. State Department in Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Korea, India, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Spain, and Thailand. Prior to joining the U.S. State Department, Jake taught overseas for eight years and served in the Peace Corps in Korea. Jake has been writing poetry and fiction all his life and has been published in over 25 literary journals; he has completed five novels, (‘Giant Nazi Spiders’, ‘the Great Divorce’ and ‘Jurassic Cruise’, and ‘Ft. Ashland’ and is pursuing publication. Jake grew up in Berkeley, California but has lived in Seattle, Washington DC and Stockton, California. He has travelled to over 45 countries and 49 States and speaks Korean, Spanish and Thai.

https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com

 

 

rosemary appleton

poetry

Lost River

Rosemary Appleton lives in Suffolk and writes in snatched moments, fuelled by coffee. She has twice been a winner of the Oxford Radcliffe Library Science & Poetry Prize and her work has appeared in Mslexia, The Fenland Reed, Black Bough Poems, The Wellington Street Journal and elsewhere. Her poems are anthologised by Dunlin Press, PaperSwans, and Fairacre Press.

sandra arnold

fiction

 Just an old grey Volkswagen 

Sandra Arnold is an award-winning writer, originally from the UK, who lives in New Zealand. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Central Queensland University, Australia and has published two novels and a book on parental bereavement. Her work appears in numerous international journals and anthologies including Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, Blue Five Notebook, New Flash Fiction Review, Spelk, Bending Genres, Fictive Dream and Bonsai: Best Small Stories from Aotearoa New Zealand (Canterbury University Press, NZ, 2018). She was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize and the 2017 and 2018 Best Small Fictions.  In 2019 her third novel Ash will be published by Mākaro Press (NZ) and her first flash fiction collection Soul Etchings by Retreat West Books (UK). She is on the advisory board and is a guest editor for Meniscus: The Australasian Association of Writing Programmes.

  www.sandraarnold.co.nz

David Ashbee

poetry

 No Show 

David Ashbee was raised and lives in Gloucestershire  and was one of Enitharmon’s first new poets with “Perpetual Waterfalls” in 1989. “Loss Adjuster” followed from Bluechrome in 2008, and a big new collection is due from Dempsey and Windle this autumn. A founder member since 1990 of The Cherington Poets, and of Cheltenham PS Writing Group, he has regularly read his work at “Holub,” the Severnside poetry group he has run for 40 years. He regularly reviews new poetry publications for “South” magazine and has judged several poetry competitions. He walks many miles as a Cotswold Voluntary Warden.

 

allen ashley

poetry

Unwanted

Strawberry Girl

Greetings from the British Countryside

Wildflo Wers

The Teatime Tarzan

Allen Ashley is President Elect of the British Fantasy Society. His most recent book is the poetry collection Echoes from an Expired Earth (Demain Publishing, 2020). He has previously appeared four times on the Words for the Wild website.

www.allenashley.com

 

isabel ashdown

poetry

 Villanelle 

Isabel Ashdown was born in London and grew up on the Sussex coast. Her award-winning debut Glasshopper (Myriad, 2009) was written while studying Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, entering several ‘Best Books’ charts that same year. Her most recent novel Beautiful Liars (Orion, 2018) is a psychological thriller located along the London waterways and Derbyshire’s Peak District. Isabel is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and a Read2Dogs volunteer for the charity Pets as Therapy. She lives in West Sussex with her family, where she walks daily in the hills and woods of the South Downs.

https://isabelashdown.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isabelashdown_writer/

 

Daphne Astor

poetry

Flitting Days

Daphne Astor is an American-born British conservationist and farmer working with literary and visual arts organisations in the UK since 1977. In 2016 she founded and curated Poetry in Aldeburgh, she is currently chairperson of C4RD and was a long-term trustee of the Poetry School. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies and magazines including Magma, Finished Creatures and Coast to Coast to Coast. She recently became publisher and editor of Hazel Press.

 

jean atkin

poetry

19 Paths Through Rectory Wood

Jean Atkin’s new collection is ‘How Time is in Fields’ (IDP, May 2019).  Her poetry has featured on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Ramblings’ with Claire Balding, and recent work appears in The Rialto, Magma, The Moth, Lighthouse and Agenda.  In 2019 she was Troubadour of the Hills for Ledbury Poetry Festival, and BBC National Poetry Day Poet for Shropshire. 

www.jeanatkin.com 

diane averill

poetry

  The overripe apple drops

Winding through Elk Rock Garden 

Diane Averill’s first book, Branches Doubled Over With Fruit,  (University of Florida Press) was a finalist for the 1991 Oregon Book Award as was her second book, Beautiful  Obstacles,(Blue Light Press 1998). Another book, Among Pearls Hatching, was published by Dancing Moon Press. Diane is a graduate of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at the University of Oregon. She taught in the English Department of Clackamas Community College from 1991 until retiring in 2010. Her work appears in many literary magazines and anthologies around the United States. Her chapbook, For All That Remains, was chosen as one of the best 150 books in Oregon. She has won a Literary Arts Fellowship.

Diane finds her inspiration from roaming the woods, fields and gorges around Oregon. She’s been writing since the age of eleven and feels she was born with a pen in her hand.

elizabeth baines

FICTION

The Meadow   

Elizabeth Baines is the author of two collections of short stories, Used to Be and Balancing on the Edge of the World, and two novels, Too Many Magpies and The Birth Machine, all published by Salt.

 

 

Elaine baker

poetry

The Help

Roadside Deer

Elaine Baker mentors young writers in her role as Patron of Writing in local schools. She runs a poetry evening class and has taught at The Poetry School, London. Elaine is currently Poet in Residence at the Vale & Downland Museum, Wantage, Oxfordshire. She enjoys performing her poetry and has collaborated with musicians the Oxford Improvisers. Her poetry has been widely published including in Proletarian Poetry, Envoi, Mslexia, Brittle Star and The North. She has an MA in Writing Poetry.

Twitter: @kitespotter

www.elaine-baker.com.

 

Lizzie ballagher

poetry

Goldfinch

True Builders

Blackcurrants

 Fieldfares

A published novelist between 1984 and 1996 in North America, the UK, Australasia, Netherlands and Sweden (pen-name Elizabeth Gibson), Lizzie Ballagher now writes poetry rather than fiction. Her work has been featured in a variety of magazines and webzines: Nine Muses, Nitrogen House, the Ekphrastic Review, South-East Walker Magazine, Far East, and Poetry Space.  

 She lives in southern England, writing a blog at

https://lizzieballagherpoetry.wordpress.com/

 

Colin Bancroft

poetry

Developments

 

Colin Bancroft is currently in exile in the North Pennines where he is finishing a PhD on the Ecopoetics of Robert Frost. His pamphlet ‘Impermanence’ is out with Maytree Press in October.

 

 

 

 

 

matt barnard

poetry

 The Gift

Matt Barnard is a poet and writer. His first full collection, Anatomy of a Whale, was published by The Onslaught Press and he edited the anthology Poems for the NHS, to mark the NHS’s 70 year anniversary. He has won and been placed in competitions including The Poetry Society’s Hamish Canham Prize, the Bridport Prize, the Ink Tears short story competition and the Bristol Short Story Prize, and his work has appeared a number of anthologies and magazines. Anatomy of a Whale can be bought direct from the publisher The Onslaught Press, and is also available at www.hive.co.uk (which supports local bookshops), Amazon and Foyles.

 

 

 

 

 

phil barnett

poetry

  birds knit my ribs together    

between the start of the pipit’s peep

Phil Barnett has had a lifelong passion for the natural world. In particular for the area of countryside outside his front door in South Lancashire  – “The Patch”, where he walks on most days. Phil finds beauty in the ordinary – wonder in the everyday. He expresses this through music, painting, photography and more recently writing prose and poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

kevin barrett

 poetry 

 The Trees    

Kevin Barrett was born in Winchester and is very active on the local poetry scene. He studied with the Open University, obtaining B.A. (honours) in humanities and literature. He was the winner of the Orbis International Journal’s Readers Award spring 2014; and his poem “Winter Solstice” was Hampshire County Council’s poem of the day, summer 2012.  He has been published in several journals and anthologies. His pamphlet is: I Died in Hell. (They Call it Passchendale) and his first collection was published in 2017.

David Batteiger

 Fiction 

  Greatfather Oak     

David Batteiger lives with his wife, daughters, turtles and a precocious Australian Shepherd named Echo in central Ohio and works in the IT field, but has always had a passion for literature and fiction. Some of his flash fiction and short stories can be found at Flash Fiction Magazine, Altered Reality Magazine, Every Day Fiction and 101 Words.  Additional works can be found at: 

davidbatteiger.com 

sarah beauclerk

 poetry 

  Defaunation of Character      

Sarah Beauclerk has created an array of story-telling pieces. Some of her favourites include a rocking piano called Chichi; an opinion piece for The Guardian in which she described the challenges of her job at that time in care-work; and the ‘Hello Stranger’ novella which was first presented as a small handwritten table for an exhibition at the Nhow Milano, currently being made into an audio play. Other key works have been shown in the Museum of Modern Art Milano, the Museum of Science and Technology Milano, and she has worked in a design capacity as far afield as Reykjavik and Shanghai. Sarah now works as a Mobility Specialist helping people lead healthy and active lives in the Wild West of Wales where she lives with her husband (writer and tutor) Charles, collie-dog Gwir, and four hives of buzzing bees.

Gary Beck

 poetry 

  Lacerations    

Gary Beck spent his life as a theatre director. He has published 24 poetry collections, 7 novels, 3 short story collections, a collection of essays and a book of one-act plays. He lives in NYC.

Jo Bell

 poetry 

  A nightingale for Gilbert White    

Jo Bell is a noted poet whose work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, TV adverts, carved into lock beams and widely published. She has been poet in residence at Glastonbury Festival and on the UK Canals. Her two books on poetry writing, 52: Write a Poem a Week and How to Be a Poet (with Jane Commane) are bestsellers. 

Rachel Beresford-Davies

 Fiction 

  Satsuma 

Wild Life

Rachel Beresford-Davies grew up in Hong Kong and has since lived in London and the south of England. She has two science degrees and is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Winchester. She has been writing for many years but mostly kept it to herself. In the last year though she has had short stories published through Fairlight Books and Literally Stories. Her writing is mostly inspired by the everyday and commonplace events she observes in her mostly everyday and commonplace life.

Kathryn Bevis

 poetry 

My body tell me she’s filing for divorce

A Wedding

A Vision

  Devil Day     

Kathryn Bevis is founder of The Writing School Online and was Hampshire Poet 2020-21. She is the Selected Poet for Magma’s Solitude issue and her poems have appeared in: Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Poetry Ireland Review, Mslexia, and The London Magazine. In 2022, she won the Mairtín Crawford Award for Poetry, the Poetry Society Member’s Competition, and the Second Light Poetry Competition (first and second prize); coming second in the York Poetry Prize and the Edward Cawston Thomas Prize. Kathryn teaches Poetry for Wellbeing courses in mental health and substance-misuse recovery settings, and prisons. She’s working towards her first collection.

SUSMITA BHATTACHARYA

 poetry

 By Churchgate Station, 22 August 1997, Mumbai    

 Fiction 

 In the Lap of the Gods    

Susmita Bhattacharya was born in Mumbai and sailed the world on oil tankers before settling down in the UK. She is an associate lecturer at Winchester University and leads the SO:Write Young Writers workshops in Southampton. Her debut novel, The Normal State of Mind (Parthian), was published in 2015.  Her short stories, essays and poems have been widely published and also broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She won the Winchester Writers Festival Memoir prize in 2016. She lives in Winchester with her family.

Twitter: @Susmitatweets

http://susmita-bhattacharya.blogspot.co.uk

jackie biggs

 poetry 

Breaking the surface

  Aurelia aurita     

 

Jackie’s second poetry collection, Breakfast in Bed, was published in Autumn 2019 by Indigo Dreams Publishing.  Her first, The Spaces in Between was published in 2015 by Pinewood Press.  She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She was Highly Commended in the Welsh International Poetry Competition and in the R S Thomas Festival Competition, both in 2019. She reads her work regularly at spoken word events all over west Wales, where she lives, and is a member of the Rockhoppers – Coast to Coast Poets performance group. Some of her poetry appears on her blog: 

http://jackie-news.blogspot.co.uk  Twitter: @JackieNews

 

 

    

victoria bird

fiction

A new Purana

Victoria is interested in exploring the hazards of seeking and forming relationships, and the vulnerability our trust engenders. She is currently working on her debut novel on the subject of infidelity. Victoria studied literature at the University of Cambridge in the UK and now lives in Cambridge with her family.

http://www.victoriabird.net

 

Lisa creech bledsoe

 poetry 

  Not Yet     

 

Watched by crows and friend to salamanders, Lisa Creech Bledsoe is a hiker, beekeeper, and writer living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She is the author of two full-length books of poetry, Appalachian Ground (2019), and Wolf Laundry (2020). She has new poems out or forthcoming in American Writers ReviewThe Main Street Rag, The Public Poetry 2020 Anthology, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and River Heron Review, among others.

robyn bolam

 poetry

Messages

A Breath of Fresh Air

A Letter to Gilbert White

Unsettled

Starving after long rain, the barn owl hunts again

Robyn Bolam has published four collections with Bloodaxe. New Wings was a PBS Recommendation and Hyem, which includes eco-poems with settings from the New Forest to New Zealand, appeared in 2017. Widely anthologised, her other publications include Eliza’s Babes: four centuries of women’s poetry in English. Robyn was Hampshire Poet 2018-19. In 2022 she ran poetry & story sessions for asylum seekers in Southampton with the Royal Literary Fund and SWVG. She is now completing a new poetry collection.

www.robynbolam.com

 

roger bloor

 poetry 

  Cavity     

 

Roger Bloor is a retired psychiatrist and is currently a student on the MA in Poetry Writing from Newcastle University studying at the Poetry School in London. He has published poems in the Hippocrates Prize Anthology (2017) and Still Born (Affect Formations 2018) as well as occasional online Instagram poems. 

 

https://www.instagram.com/rogernb/

 

stephen bone

 poetry

Medlars

Sundews

Ode to a Giant Water Lily

Stephen Bone’s work has appeared in various journals in the U.K. and the U.S., and in numerous anthologies.

His first collection In the Cinema (Playdead Press) was published in 2014 and a pamphlet Plainsong (Indigo Dreams) was published in 2018.

Claire Booker

poetry

At the bear sanctuary

New Arrival 

 

Claire Booker lives in Brighton between the south downs and the sea. Her poems have been set to music, filmed, displayed on buses and published widely, including in Ambit, Magma, The Moth, Poetry News, Rialto, Stand and The Spectator. She was presented with a Kathak Literary Award in Bangladesh. Her pamphlets are The Bone That Sang (Indigo Dreams) and Later There Will Be Postcards (Green Bottle Press) and her most recent publication is A Pocketful of Chalk published by Arachne Press. Claire’s website can be found at www.bookerplays.co.uk 

 

stefano bortolussi

poetry

 Callipepla california 

Stefano Bortolussi is a poet, novelist and literary translator. In his native Italy, he has published three poetry collections (Ipotesi di caldo, 2001; Califia, 2014; I labili confini, 2016) and four novels (Fuor d’acqua, 2004; Fuoritempo, 2007; Verso dove si va per questa strada, 2013; Billy & Coyote, 2017). His poetry has been also published in magazines and webzines, both Italian and international, such as Interno Poesia, Atelier, and Ink, Sweat and Tears. 

 

rachel bower

poetry

June Gap

Rachel Bower is an award-winning writer from Bradford. She is the author of two poetry collections (These Mothers of Gods and Moon Milk) and a book on literary letters. She is currently writing a collection of poems about endangered insects. Rachel’s poems and stories have been widely published in literary magazines, including The White Review, Magma and Stand. She won The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2019/20 and the W&A Short Story Competition 2020. Rachel facilitates workshops for a wide range of people and organisations and her work is represented by Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown. 

Twitter: @rachelebower

Website: rachelbower.net

stephen boyce

poetry

A Prospect of Beech Trees

Caged 

Stephen Boyce is a prize-winning poet and co-founder of Winchester Poetry Festival. He is the author of three poetry collections, The Blue Tree (Indigo Dreams 2019), The Sisyphus Dog (Worple 2014), and Desire Lines (Arrowhead 2010). He has also published three pamphlet collections. Stephen lives in north Dorset. 

www.stephenboycepoetry.com

Alison brackenbury

poetry

 ’75

Flash

Along the road

Wellington Square

 

Alison Brackenbury’s Selected Poems, Gallop, was published in 2019 by Carcanet. New poems can be read on her website:

http://alisonbrackenbury.co.uk/

 

jo brandon

poetry

 The Fall

A Fruit Basket  

Jo Brandon is based in West Yorkshire. Her pamphlet Phobia and full-length collection, The Learned Goose, are both published by Valley Press. Her next collection, Cures, is due out in 2020. Her work has been published in a number of magazines and anthologies, including The North, Magma, Popshot, Strix, Butchers Dog and The Fenland Reed. You can find her at www.jobrandon.com  

 

The Learned Goose is available to buy from Valley Press: https://www.valleypressuk.com/book/10/the_learned_goose

HANNAH BROCKBANK

poetry

 Tower Shell  

Hannah Brockbank is published in a variety of journals, magazines and anthologies including When Women Waken journal; The London Magazine; Envoi; Sarasvati; and Raving Beauties (ed.); Hallelujah for 50ft Women anthology (Bloodaxe); Chalk Poets anthology (Winchester Poetry Festival 2016). Her debut pamphlet, Bloodlines, is published by Indigo Dreams Publishing. She is studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. 

Instagram: @hannahbrockbank

 

ZOE Brooks

poetry

Cleeve Hill

Zoe Brooks is a Gloucestershire poet. Indigo Dreams Publishing will be publishing Zoe’s first full collection “Owl Unbound” in 2020.  She has had poems published in a wide variety of magazines, most recently in Obsessed With Pipework, The Curlew, Dreamcatcher and The Dawntreader. Her long poem for voices “Fool’s Paradise” received the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition’s award for best poetry ebook 2013.  

michael H. brownstein

poetry

The Gift Girl

 The Day I Left Chicago

When the Dark Rain Blew Away Our Home

Michael H. Brownstein’s work has appeared in American  Letters and Commentary, Skidrow Penthouse, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Pacific Review, After Hours, poetrysuperhighway.com and others. He has nine poetry chapbooks including A Period of Trees (Snark Press, 2004) and The Possibility of Sky and Hell (White Knuckle Press, 2013). His book, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else: A Poet’s Journey To The Borderlands Of Dementia, was recently published by Cholla Needles Press (2018).

maeve bruce

prose

Apples

 

Maeve Bruce is a professional storyteller – a writer, editor, journalist and poet. She writes about place and the stories buried in landscape, nature, history and folklore. She draws a thread between the past and the present, reconnecting people with places and a sense of belonging. When she is not wandering around the Cotswold countryside where she lives, she can be found exploring the wilder landscapes of the British Isles or travelling to more distant places, notebook in hand. Read more about her work on her website: storiesofplace.co.uk 

 

sue burge

poetry

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Stone

 Zone 

 

Sue Burge is a freelance creative writing and film studies tutor based in North Norfolk.  Her poems have appeared in wide range of magazines and anthologies.  Sue’s first collection In the Kingdom of Shadows (Live Canon) was published in November 2018 alongside her debut pamphlet Lumiere (Hedgehog Poetry Press).  More information at

 

Dorothy burrows

poetry

 Skirt 

 

Decades ago, Dorothy Burrows taught Drama and wrote short plays and the occasional short story. She won a few awards.  After years of working in a museum, retirement is enabling her to enjoy creative writing again. Walking in the countryside often gives her ideas for poems, especially haiku. She attends poetry classes tutored by Elaine Baker. 

 

peter burrows

poetry

Map

One for the Road

Three poems

The Wood

   Sweeping the Sands

Spring

 

Peter Burrows is a librarian in the North West of England. Originally from the Midlands, he grew up in Scotland and Lincolnshire. He finds himself mainly writing about nature and place. 

 

After recently starting to write again his poems have appeared in The North; The Interpreter’s House; Ink, Sweat and Tears and other journals, and most recently inCoast to Coast to Coast, Marble Poetry,  The Curlew, Dodging the Rain, Dawntreader and Bonnie’s Crew. 

Kevin Cahill

poetry

 Two Poems

 

Kevin Cahill lives in Cork. He is inspired 
by the stamina and adaptability of urban
wildlife, and flora, and has written extensively
on this subject. His work has appeared
in Southword, Abridged, Wild Court,
The Stinging Fly, Edinburgh Review
and Berkeley Poetry Review
among other magazines.

maggie butt

poetry

  Oak

Degrees of Twilight

Norwegian Wood

Sognefjord

Maggie Butt is an ex-journalist and BBC television producer turned poet and novelist.

Her poetry collection Degrees of Twilight (2015) follows Sancti Clandestini – Undercover Saints, an illustrated hagiography of imaginary saints, and  Ally Pally Prison Camp, which tells a little-known first world war story. Earlier collections were petite and Lipstick. Her novel House of Dreams was published as Maggie Brookes.

Maggie is an Associate Professor at Middlesex University and an Advisory Fellow for the Royal Literary Fund. She has judged the Frogmore, Ver Poets and Barnet poetry competitions, and this year is judging the Ware and Segora.

 www.maggiebutt.co.uk

steve carr

flash

 A Jungle Out There

 

 Steve Carr, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, has had over 320 short stories published internationally in print and online magazines, literary journals and anthologies since June, 2016. Four collections of his short stories, Sand, Rain, Heat, and The Tales of Talker Knock, have been published. His plays have been produced in several states in the U.S. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twice. His Twitter is @carrsteven960. His website is

stewart carswell

poetry

The Clearing 

Stewart Carswell is from the Forest of Dean. He currently lives and works and writes in Cambridge. His poems have recently been published in Envoi, Lighthouse, and Ink Sweat & Tears, and included in Best New British and Irish Poets 2016. His debut pamphlet, Knots and branches, is published by Eyewear.

http://stewartcarswell.wordpress.com  

 

selma  carvalho

 poetry

Quilt me a blanket 

 

Selma Carvalho’s fiction and poetry have been published in Litro, Lighthouse and Mechanics’ Institute Review (Birkbeck). Her work has appeared in several anthologies including the London Short Story Prize 2017 Anthology (Kingston University Press; 2018) for which she was a shortlist finalist. She has been placed in numerous short story competitions, most recently as runner-up for the Dinesh Allirajah Prize 2017 (Comma Press & UCLan). She is the winner of the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize 2018 (Dahlia Publishing).

kevin casey

poetry

 Convict Weather

Wild Strawberries 

Kevin Casey is the author of Ways to Make a Halo (Aldrich Press, 2018) and American Lotus, winner of the 2017 Kithara Prize (Glass Lyre Press, 2018). And Waking…was published by Bottom Dog Press in 2016. His poems have appeared in Rust+Moth, Valparaiso Poetry ReviewConnotation Press, Pretty Owl Poetry, and Ted Kooser’s syndicated column ‘American Life in Poetry.’ For more, visit:

 andwaking.com.

pratibha castle

poetry

South Downs

  Pumpkin Blues   

Inspired by her mother’s death, and a life-long dream of writing, Pratibha Castle completed a BA in English and Creative Writing in 2011 at the University of Chichester. Graduating with a first class honours degree, she continued exploring on their MA in Creative Writing. Winner of the NADFAS short story competition 2009, age range 13 – 17, long listed for the Pighog Poetry Competition 2010, her work has been published in Eunoia Revue, Poetry and All That Jazz, Wales Arts Review, and Thresholds Short Story Forum. Further to her love of words, Pratibha, a former singer and holistic therapist, loves to garden, walk in nature, swim in the ocean, and experiment with food. She is currently working on a poetry collection, and a novel set in 1960s Notting Hill and India.

Kate Chandler

FICTION

 The Screaming Tree  

Kate Chandler is a heritage and cultural professional from Somerset. She has worked for the National Trust, English Heritage, and currently for the cultural sector in Ireland, where she lives at the edge of the Dublin Mountains. Her writing is rooted in the tangled, folkloric, and sometimes eerie natural world. You can find her on Twitter at @heritage_kate  

Yuan Changming

poetry

 Copsing  

Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, the 2018 Naji Naaman’s Literary Prize, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry and BestNewPoemsOnline among others.   

 

Andrew cochrane

poetry

A Stream in the Woods

Andrew Cochrane was born in Germany and grew up in various places throughout England, Germany and Cyprus. He lives in Southampton where he is a PhD research student at the university, writing a fragmented novel about the grieving process across cultures. His work has appeared in Litro, Postcard Shorts, Every Day Fiction and Kerouac’s Dog, among others.

leanne coombes

poetry

Petworth

Leanne is a passionate advocate for nature, self-expression and the transformational abilities of both. She is currently training to teach yoga and enjoys writing in her spare time. Leanne studied Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and lives and works in Tring.

Instagram: @leannejennayoga 

ion Corcos

poetry

 Mallard

Ion Corcos has been published in The High Window, Australian Poetry Journal, AllegroPanoply, and other journals. Ion is a nature lover and a supporter of animal rights. He is currently travelling indefinitely with his partner, Lisa. His first pamphlet, A Spoon of Honey (Flutter Press, 2018), is out now.

 

lesley cooke

poetry

Forest Culture

Brockenhurst – Out Into Space

The Flight of Time

Lesley Cooke was born and bred on the Isle of Wight but has lived nearly all of her adult life in Dorset. She has written poetry since her early teens but found that a career based on writing factual pieces tended to dim her poetic energy.  Since retiring she has been able to devote more time to writing poetry.

ilse cornwall-ross

poetry

Magie im Lieblingswald? Wieso?

Ilse Cornwall-Ross is a Winchester-based poet and writer whose first language is German. Her poetry collection From Behind The Frosted Glass was published in December 2017. Her previous publications include A Season of Mellow Fruitfulness about John Keats in Winchester and A Magic Presence – Poems by Ruth Pennyman of Ormesby Hall which she collected and edited. Her ekphrastic poems have been exhibited in galleries, and for the last three years, her work has been read at London Tube stations as part of National Poetry Day. 

 

Barbara Cumbers

poetry

Walking with Gilbert White

Barbara Cumbers is a retired information officer and part-time lecturer in geology. She has had poems published widely in magazines and anthologies. Her first collection, A gap in the rain, was published by Indigo Dreams in 2016. She is currently working on a collection of poems about the Shetland Isles where she had a month’s residency in 2018.

ide crawford

poetry

  The Song of the Naiad   

Thirteen-year-old Ide Crawford has won the Betjeman Poetry Prize 2018 and the Alan Garner Writing Competition 2016 and has been shortlisted for the Young Walter Scott Prize. She is Poet Laureate of St. Pancras Station. She is currently working with the  Blacken Trust to set up an open project exploring the way creative writing can be rooted in locale. She writes prose as well as poetry and has recently completed a children’s time-slip novel exploring the secret history of two mysterious places. Ide’s favourite things are sunsets, twisted tree trunks, thunderstorms, snowdrifts, and dusty books. She tweets about nature and folklore at:

  @mytangledgarden.

 

caroline davies

poetry

 From Whitsbury Cope to Mametz Wood   

 

Caroline Davies is the author of Convoy and Voices from Stone and Bronze, published by Cinnamon Press. Her third collection, Absence, will be forthcoming in 2019. She runs writing workshops and teaches creative writing.  She loves giving readings and sharing poems. Her favourite occupation is walking in woods, especially when the bluebells are in flower.

http://www.carolinemdavies.co.uk/

 

John davies

poetry

The overgrown path

 

John Davies’ New & Selected Poems was recently published by Kingston University Press in the UK and by Red Hen Press in the USA. His work is included in Poemish and Other Languages, an anthology of eco-poetry published by Elephant Press in 2019. Born in Birmingham, John now lives in Brighton.

sue davies

poetry

 Flight of the Enchanter   

 

Sue Davies, a prize winning poet, lives in Catisfield, Fareham. Her first collection of poetry Blue Water Cafepublished by Oversteps Books is available by contacting  smhdavies@hotmail.co.uk.  She has now completed her second collection of poems to be published in 2021.

Kerry Darbishire

poetry

Bringing in the Shrimps

 In Praise of Hedges   

 Cloudburst   

Beck Moss

Letters from Home

Kerry Darbishire, songwriter and poet, grew up in the Lake District where she continues to live, find inspiration and write in a wild area of Cumbria. Her poems have appeared widely in anthologies and magazines and have won or been listed in several competitions, including the Bridport shortlist 2017, and the 2018 PBS Mslexia Poetry Competition. Her first poetry collection, A Lift of Wings, was published in 2014 by Indigo Dreams. A biography, Kay’s Ark, the story of her mother, was published in 2016 by Handstand Press.

www.handstandpress.net.

Her second poetry collection, Sweet on my Tongue, was published by Indigo Dreams in 2018 and is a finalist in the Cumbria Culture Awards 2019. She co-edited the new Handstand Press Cumbrian Poetry Anthology, This Place I know. Kerry is currently working on a pamphlet and a new full collection.

holly day

poetry

 Two Minutes Thirteen Seconds 

 

Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Grain, and The Tampa Review. Her newest poetry collections are In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), Folios of Dried Flowers and Pressed Birds (Cyberwit.net), Where We Went Wrong (Clare Songbirds Publishing), Into the Cracks (Golden Antelope Press), and Cross Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing), while her newest nonfiction books are Music Theory for Dummies and Tattoo FAQ.

 

jane desmond

poetry

 A Tree is Breathing    

Jane Desmond is a former modern dancer and choreographer, who now works as a scholar in the fields of cultural studies, transnational studies, and anthropology.  The author/editor of five non-fiction books, much of her current teaching and publication focuses on the study of sustainability and on human-animal relations. She began writing poems after attending a workshop on image and text directed by the poet Stuart Kestenbaum and artist Susan Webster. This is her second published poem and reflects the landscape of the midwestern United States where she lives. 

Z D Dicks

poetry

Ladybird 

Z D Dicks has just released his first poetry collection Malcontent and his second Intimate Nature will be out in September. Dicks spends his time mentoring/showcasing poets as director of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society and The Gloucester Poetry Festival, as well as reading his work across the UK. He has had work featured in many respected publications such as Ink Sweat and Tears and Three Drops from a Cauldron and countless anthologies.

wendy dishman

poetry

Inter city fox   

Wendy Dishman has worked as a teacher for most of her adult life and has been a writer since childhood. Reading and writing are fundamental to who she is.
She recently moved to Winchester and is fascinated by the range of landscape and natural life on her new doorstep. Hampshire has its own voice, it speaks to Wendy and makes her happy.

cherry doyle

poetry

 Buildwas  

 

Cherry Doyle lives near Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. Her work has appeared in Ink, Sweat, and Tears, Presence, Southlight, and various anthologies. She has been shortlisted for the WoLF poetry competition and the Plough Prize. She is currently studying for an MFA in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and her pamphlet, ‘September’, was published by Offa’s Press in 2019.

Sarah Doyle

poetry

Under Silver How

Via Vulpes

Corn Dolly  

Wintering

 City Gull

Sarah Doyle is the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s Poet-in-Residence. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway College, University of London, and has been published widely in magazines, journals and anthologies. She won first prize in the WoLF Poetry Competition and Holland Park Press’s Brexit in Poetry 2019; was a runner-up in the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize 2019, and was highly commended in the Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry and in the Best Single Poem category of the Forward Prizes 2018. She is (with Allen Ashley) co-editor of Humanagerie, an anthology of animal-inspired poetry and fiction, published by Eibonvale Press in 2018. Sarah is currently researching a PhD in the poetics of meteorology at Birmingham City University.

www.sarahdoyle.co.uk

 

max dunbar

 fiction

Valhalla

 

 

Max Dunbar lives in West Yorkshire. He blogs at http://maxdunbar.wordpress.com/ and tweets at http://twitter.com/MaxDunbar1.

hugh dunkerley

 Poetry

Vixen

Hugh Dunkerley grew up in Edinburgh and Bath and now lives in Brighton with his wife and young son. His first full-length poetry collection, Hare (Cinnamon Press), came out in 2010. A new collection entitled Kin will be published in 2018. He also writes on literature and environment and his award-winning lecture, ‘Some Thoughts on Poetry and Fracking’, was delivered at the 2016 Hay International Festival. He currently runs the MA in Creative Writing at The University of Chichester.

https://www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/thoughts-poetry-fracking-hugh-dunkerley/