At 27, verging towards a doctorate at Harvard, Elly Katz went for a mundane procedure to stabilize her neck. Somehow, she survived what doctors surmised was unsurvivable: a brainstem stroke secondary to a physician’s needle misplacement.
In the wake of tragedy, she discovered the power of dictation and the bounty of metaphor.
Kennedy Sparling is a 3rd year medical student at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine – Phoenix. She appreciates the intersection between art and medicine and is also pursuing a degree distinction in Health Humanities.
Writer, artist, and educator, Kelly Cass Falzone, earned her MFA in Poetry from Spalding University in Louisville, KY, and MSEd. in Counselor Education from SUNY Brockport. Her work appears in numerous journals and she has been awarded recognition from the Berry College Emerging Southern Women Writers Competition, Chattanooga Writer’s Guild, Tennessee Writer’s Alliance, and others. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dan O’Brien is a playwright, poet, memoirist, essayist, and librettist. In 2023 he published three books: a memoir entltled From Scarsdale: A Childhood (Dalkey Archive Press); a collection of plays entitled True Story: A Trilogy (Dalkey Archive Press); and a collection of prose poems and photographs entitled Survivor’s Notebook (Acre Books). In 2024 his play Newtown premiered at Geva Theatre. Also in 2024, his pamphlet Flying on Easter and Other Poems was published by Poetry London.
Thanks to all the poets who submitted to this season’s contest!
Veronica Ashenhurst has published both poetry and articles on legal education. Her poems appear in Health Affairs, MORIA Literary Magazine, Star 82 Review, and Wordgathering, among other journals. Her poetry has been nominated for the Best of the Net anthology.
Scott LaMascus is a writer, producer, and public-humanities advocate who lives in Oklahoma with his wife, an executive physician. His recent work may be read in Bracken, Epiphany, The Writer’s Chronicle, and World Literature Today.
Writer, artist, and educator, Kelly Cass Falzone, earned her MFA in Poetry from Spalding University in Louisville, KY, and MSEd. in Counselor Education from SUNY Brockport. Her work appears in numerous journals and she has been awarded recognition from the Berry College Emerging Southern Women Writers Competition, Chattanooga Writer’s Guild, Tennessee Writer’s Alliance, and others. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Carl Lowe lives in West Babylon, NY and works as a freelance writer focusing on health. He is also a musician and has had his poetry featured in a variety of publications.
James Higgins is retired from the title insurance world in Eugene, Oregon. He received a BA in English Literature from the University of Oregon, where he studied poetry with Ralph Salisbury. Poetry is what he does these days.