Charles Carr lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is retired after 45 years working in Community based Social Services. He has published three books of poems: paradise, pennsylvania ( Cradle Press, St Louis, 2008), Haitian Mudpies and Other Poems (Moonstone Press, Philadelphia, 2012), and forthcoming in December, Eat This Poem (Noonstone Prees, 2023). He is the host of a live monthly
broadcast “Philly Loves Poetry” that features poets from the region.
Beth Suter studied Environmental Science at U.C. Davis and has worked as a naturalist and teacher. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, New American Writing, Barrow Street, DMQ Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and others. Her 2022 debut chapbook Snake and Eggs was a finalist in Finishing Line Press’s New Women’s Voices Contest. This poem first appeared in Driftwood Press. You can find her at facebook.com/bethfsuter
1st Place “Mama, When Did This Rain Begin” by Darcy Smith
2nd Place “A Mother’s Litany–How to Prepare a Child for a Hospital Stay” by Victoria Meleklan
3rd Place “Spectacle” – by Claire Unis
Victoria Melekian lives in Carlsbad, California. Her stories and poems have been published in print and online anthologies and she’s twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Paulette Guerin is the author of Wading Through Lethe. Her work also appears in the anthology Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry. Her website is pauletteguerin.com
Subhaga Crystal Bacon (she/they) is a Queer poet living in rural Washington on unceded Methow land. She is the author of four collections of poetry including Surrender of Water in Hidden Places, Red Flag Poetry, 2022, and the Isabella Gardner Award winning Transitory, forthcoming in the fall from BOA Editions. This poem first appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review.
Melissa McKinstry holds an MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net, a Pushcart Prize, and Orison’s Best Spiritual Literature, and appear in Rattle, Alaska Quarterly Review, Rust & Moth, December, Tahoma Literary Review, SWWIM, Nimrod International, and Beloit Poetry Journal. Find her at her website: https://www.melissamckinstry.com/
Jane Newkirk is the poetry editor at Medmic. Her poems have appeared in Empty House Press, The Shore, Naugatuck River Review, The Night Heron Barks, Intima, and others. In 2019, her creative nonfiction was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is an occupational therapist in Jackson, Mississippi.
Darcy Smith’s debut collection, River Skin, came out in June 2022. Smith was awarded the Please See Me Fourth Annual Mental Health Awareness Poetry Prize. She is a Certified Sign Language Interpreter, Buddhist, kickboxer, wife & mother. Smith lives with her husband & their cat, Miley in New York’s Hudson Valley. For more information visit: www.darcysmith.org
Alecia Beymer is an Assistant Professor – Educator in the English Department at the University of Cincinnati. Her poems have been published in Bellevue Literary Review, The Inflectionist Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, and Sugar House Review. Her research is focused on literacies formed by space and place, considerations of the interconnected resonances of teachers and students, and the poetics of education. This poem originally appeared in Radar Poetry.
Dave Malone (he/him) holds degrees from Ottawa University and Indiana State. He is a poet and filmmaker who lives in the Missouri Ozarks. His newest poetry book is Bypass (Aldrich Press, 2023).