Contributors: Winter/Spring 2016
SARAH AZZARA is a writer, songwriter, and visual artist whose work has been published in journals including TSR: The Southampton Review, Din Magazine, The GW Review, American Literary Review, and Wooden Teeth. Her latest musical, Tongues Will Wag, was read at The John Drew Theater at Guild Hall of East Hampton. In 2011, she was selected for the Dramatist Guild of America’s Songwriter Salon showcase in Times Square. Her other awards and honors include The Academy of American Poets College Prize and the David Lloyd Kreeger prize in sculpture. Sarah holds an MFA from Stony Brook University and an MA from The George Washington University. She currently teaches for the Program of Writing and Rhetoric and the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University.
JODY BROOKS lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work has appeared in DIAGRAM, Hobart, The Florida Review, The South Dakota Review, KneeJerk, Monkeybicycle, and Hot Metal Bridge.
After growing up in Ohio, MATT COLLINS went on to university in St. Louis, Missouri, where he earned his BFA. He started out in advertising, first in St. Louis, and then in Manhattan. He finally moved to Connecticut, and started illustrating. He still lives there with his wife and son, producing award-winning images for newspapers, magazines, and children’s books. www.mattcollins.com
E. L. DOCTOROW’s works of fiction include Homer & Langley, The March, Billy Bathgate, Ragtime, The Book of Daniel, City of God, Welcome to Hard Times, Loon Lake, World’s Fair, The Waterworks, All the Time in the World, and Andrew’s Brain. Among his honors are the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle Awards, two PEN Faulkner Awards, The Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, and the presidentially-conferred National Humanities Medal. In 2009, he was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize honoring a writer’s lifetime achievement in fiction, and in 2012 he won the PEN Saul Bellow Award given to an author whose “scale of achievement over a sustained career places him in the highest rank of American Literature.” In 2013, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him the Gold Medal for Fiction.
ELAINE EQUI’s latest book is Sentences and Rain. Widely published and anthologized, her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, Tin House, Poetry, and in many editions of the Best American Poetry. She teaches at New York University and in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at The New School.
ROBERT EMMETT GINNA taught writing and film courses at Harvard from 1987 to 2003. A former Editor-in-Chief of Little, Brown and Company, assistant managing editor of LIFE, and an editor of three other national magazines, he has also been a writer/producer of theatrical feature films and network TV programs. His byline has appeared in more than a score of journals, and he is the author of The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland's Past and Present.
THEO GRAY is a freshman at Maryland Institute College of Arts, where he studies photography and film. He has studied photography at the Maine Media Center and on a National Geographic expedition to Prague. He graduated with honors from high school in June 2015 and was the recipient of the Priceable Award. His work has been exhibited at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York; The Parrish in Watermill, New York; and The Sag Harbor Library in Sag Harbor, New York.
EMMETT HAQ is a teaching assistant at Stony Brook University. He’s studied under Ted Pelton and Susan Scarf Merrell and is a former editor for Starcherone Books. His work has also appeared in Portland Review, Mandala Journal, Gandy Dancer, Crab Fat Magazine, SLAB, and Many Mountains Moving. He also works as a freelance editor.
BROOKE KOLCOW is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton. Between classes, she works with Long Island’s Bluebox Theatre Company, contributing dramaturgy and administrative support. She is a native of Upstate New York. brookingit.wordpress.com
THEA LIM’s writing has been published by The Guardian, Salon.com, Utne Reader, Bitch Magazine, and others, and her first novel, The Same Woman, was released by Invisible Publishing in 2007. She has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Houston, where she also served as nonfiction editor at Gulf Coast. She grew up in Singapore and currently lives in Toronto, where she teaches at the University of Toronto. Twitter: @thea_lim
MICHAEL MASLIN has been contributing to The New Yorker Magazine since 1977. Four collections of his work were published by Simon & Schuster. With his wife and fellow New Yorker cartoonist, Liza Donnelly, he co-edited one collection of drawings and co-authored three collections, including Cartoon Marriage. In 2009 he began
Ink Spill, a website devoted to New Yorker cartoonists’ news and history. His biography of The New Yorker artist Peter Arno was published in April 2016 by Regan Arts.
ALBERT MOBILIO’s books of poetry include Bendable Siege, The Geographics, Me with Animal Towering, and Touch Wood. Games and Stunts, a book of short fiction, is forthcoming. He teaches at The New School and is an editor at Hyperallergic Weekend and Bookforum.
CODY MULLINS is an Assistant Professor of English at Ivy Tech Community College in Kokomo, Indiana. He is also a PhD in Literature student at Ball State University and holds a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio University and an MA in Rhetoric and Composition from Marshall University. He lives in Noblesville, Indiana. Facebook & Twitter
GEOFFREY O’BRIEN has published seven collections of poetry including Floating City, A View of Buildings and Water, Red Sky Cafe, Early Autumn, and most recently In a Mist. Among his other books are Dream Time: Chapters from the Sixties, The Phantom Empire, The Times Square Story, The Browser’s Ecstasy, Sonata for Jukebox, The Fall of the House of Walworth, and Stolen Glimpses, Captive Shadows: Writing on Film. He lives in Brooklyn and is Editor-in-Chief of The Library of America.
TYLER ALLEN PENNY is the winner of the Joseph Kelly Award in Creative Writing. His work has appeared in Deep South Magazine, The Salt Journal, Columbia Journal’s Catch & Release, and elsewhere. Twitter
MARIO ANDRES ROBINSON is an Exhibiting Artist Member (EAM) of The National Arts Club, an Artist Member of The Salmagundi Club, and a Signature Member of The Pastel Society of America. His work has been featured several times in The Artist’s Magazine, The Pastel Journal, Watercolor Magic Magazine, American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, and on the cover of American Artist Magazine. In the February 2006 issue of The Artist’s Magazine, he was selected as one of the top 20 realist artists under the age of 40. In 2014 Robinson was named a Brand Ambassador for Winsor & Newton. In April 2016, Robinson’s first book, Lessons in Realistic Watercolor, will be published by Penguin Random House. www.marioarobinson.com · Facebook · Twitter
JEROME SALA’s most recent book is The Cheapskates. His work has appeared in The Nation, Pleiades, Journal of Poetics Research, The Brooklyn Rail, Best American Poetry, and many others. He blogs at espresso bongo.
SEBASTIÃO SALGADO has been an active photographer with Gamma Photographic Agency, Magnum Photos, and Amazonas Images, an agency founded by himself and his wife to represent his photography. He has published numerous books including the series Migrations and Portraits of Children of the Migration. He was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from a number of universities, and is currently an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
GEORGE SAUNDERS’ collection of short stories, Tenth of December, was a 2013 National Book Award Finalist and named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. He is also the author of Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, both New York Times Notable Books, and The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, a New York Times children's bestseller. In 2000, The New Yorker named him one of the "Best Writers Under 40." He writes regularly for The New Yorker and Harper's, as well as Esquire, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine. He won a National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2004 and his work is included in Best American Short Stories 2005. He teaches at Syracuse University.
HAL SIROWITZ is a frequent contributor to Bellevue Literary Review, Hanging Loose, and The Manhattan Review. He was the winner of the Nebraska Book Award 2013 Poetry Book Collection for his latest book, Stray Cat Blues, and was recently interviewed by the poet Mike Cohen in the Schuylkill Valley Journal Online. His previous books are Mother Said, The Therapist Said, and Father Said.
TINA TOCCO’s flash fiction has appeared in many journals, including Roanoke Review, New Ohio Review, River Styx, Crab Creek Review, Harpur Palate, Passages North, Potomac Review, Portland Review, The McNeese Review, Italian Americana, Clockhouse Review, Border Crossing, Per Contra, The Citron Review, Rathalla Review, and Fiction Fix. In 2015, her flash fiction was published in the anthology Turn : Turn : Turn: A Season of Short-Short Stories (ELJ Publications). Tina was a finalist in CALYX’s 2013 Flash Fiction Contest, a semifinalist in The Conium Review’s 2014 Flash Fiction Contest, and an honorable mention in the River Styx 2015 Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Contest. Her interview on flash and the craft of writing, “No Wasted Words,” can be found in Roanoke Review. Tina earned her MFA from Manhattanville College, where she was Editor-in-Chief of Inkwell.
TARA BALLARD and her husband have spent the last six years living in the Middle East and West Africa where they teach in local area schools. Her poems have been published in Wasafiri, Spoon River Poetry Review, War, Literature & the Arts, and other literary magazines. tarajballard.com
CLAUDIA CARLSON was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and lives in Manhattan. Her first poetry book, The Elephant House, was published by Marsh Hawk Press in 2007. In 2013, her photo/poetry book, Pocket Park, was released. A chapbook, My Chocolate Sarcophagus, is forthcoming from Myrmaid Press.
BILLY COLLINS’s latest collection is Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (Random House, 2013). He is a Distinguished Professor of English at CUNY Lehman College.
MITCHELL DEAN is an MFA candidate at Stony Brook Southampton. He was the recipient of the 2014 Jody Donahue Poetry Prize and his poetry has previously appeared in The Red Cedar Review. He is originally from Texas.
LIZA DONNELLY is a cartoonist and writer for The New Yorker, Medium, Forbes, and a variety of other publications. She is also a sought-after public speaker and author of 16 books. She lives in New York with her husband, New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin.
KAY ELDREDGE is the author of Yr Obedient Servant, a one-man play about Samuel Johnson that was produced in London. A finalist in Narrative’s Fall 2007 Fiction Contest, she has written more than two dozen scripts for documentary films, and she coauthored Life is Meals with her husband, the novelist James Salter.
ALISON FAIRBROTHER lives in Brooklyn and teaches creative writing at Stony Brook University. In a former life, she was an investigative journalist covering science and the environment.
SUSAN GOSLEE’s poems have appeared in such journals as Drunken Boat, West Branch, Prairie Schooner, Diagram, and Cimarron Review. She teaches at Idaho State University.
JANE HAMILTON’s novels have won literary prizes, been made into films, have been international best sellers, and two of them, The Book of Ruth, and A Map of The World, were selections of Oprah’s Book Club. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Allure, Oprah Magazine, Elle, and various anthologies. Her seventh novel, The Excellent Lombards, will be published in April 2016. She’s married to an apple farmer and lives in Wisconsin. www.JaneHamiltonBooks.com
AMY HEMPEL’s Collected Stories won the Ambassador Award for best fiction of the year, and was a New York Times “Ten Best Books of the Year.” She is working on a collection of short-short stories and prose poems and lives in Florida.
ANDREA KOWCH attended the College for Creative Studies through a Walter B. Ford II Scholarship and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in 2009, double-majoring in Illustration and Art Education. She is the recipient of many regional and national Gold Key awards from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In 2012, she was named one of the top 100 emerging artists in the world by SCOPE NYC. She resides and works in Michigan where she paints full-time, and serves as an adjunct professor at the College for Creative Studies.
DAVID LYNN has been the editor of The Kenyon Review since 1994. His latest collection of short stories, Year of Fire, was published by Harcourt. A Professor of English at Kenyon College, David Lynn lives in Gambier, Ohio, with his wife, Wendy Singer, and their two children, Aaron and Elizabeth.
ANTOINETTE MARTIN, a speech/language therapist, is also the author of Famous Seaweed Soup. “Standing Firm” is an excerpt from her memoir-in-progress, It’s Not All About Me.
KEVIN McLELLAN is the author of Tributary and the chapbook Round Trip, a collaborative series with numerous women poets. The chapbook, Shoes On a Wire, and the book arts project, [box] (Small Po[r]tions), are both forthcoming. Kevin won the 2015 Third Coast Poetry Prize, and his poems have appeared in journals including: American Letters & Commentary, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, The Kenyon Review, Salt Hill, West Branch, Western Humanities Review, Witness, and several others. kevinmc66.wordpress.com
JUDSON MERRILL grew up on the water in Maine and studied literature and writing at Brown University and Brooklyn College. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Unstuck, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Used Furniture Review, Stolen Island, Brazenhead Review, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a novel about the ways we are shaped by grief. judsonmerrill.com
CHRISTINA MURPHY’s fiction is an exploration of consciousness as subjective experience, and her stories have appeared in a range of journals and anthologies including A cappella Zoo, PANK, Word Riot, Foliate Oak, and The Last Word: A Collection of Fiction. A mini-collection of seven of her stories appeared in the anthology from ELJ Publications, Turn : Turn : Turn: A Season of Short-Short Stories. Her fiction has been nominated for the Best of the Net anthology and has won the Andre Dubus Award for short fiction. Twitter: @ChristinaMurph1
NEEL N. PATEL’s short fiction has appeared on Nerve.com and in The American Literary Review. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is completing a collection of short stories called The Taj Mahal. www.neelnpatel.com · Twitter · Instagram
PHOTOREALISTS—In addition to his Candy Paintings series, ROBERTO BERNARDI’s other exhibitions have included Dirty Plates, Spazi Infiniti, and Seeing More than the Camera Sees. ANTHONY BRUNELLI’s early works depicted his home town, Binghamton, New York, as well as the rural communities of Upstate New York. Currently, Brunelli has turned his eye to painting urban landscapes, cities such as Paris, Prague, and Hanoi, among others. RICHARD ESTES was born in 1932 and enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago from 1952 to 1956. Estes has become as one of the most recognizable painters of scenes from America’s cities. RALPH GOINGS’ photorealistic paintings depict mundane, everyday life in America, highlighting the beauty of the ordinary. PETER MAIER graduated from Pratt Institute and found work as an automobile designer for GM. In 1980, he left the car industry to pursue painting. Maier’s depictions of cars “reflect his lifelong fascination with what he considers to be the strongest cultural icon of his time.” RICHARD McLEAN was born in 1934 and spent his childhood on a farm, where began his lifelong fascination with the pastoral. In the 1970s he translated this fascination into photorealistic paintings of horses and other scenes of rural life. ROBERT NEFFSON was born in 1949 and is primarily known for his detailed, photorealistic paintings of New York City. The works of Israeli artist YIGAL OZERI feature finely-wrought portraits of young women. His series include Lizzie Smoking, Lizzie in the Snow, and Desire for Anima, among others. JOHN SALT is a UK-born photorealist artist whose paintings depict rundown cars amidst desolate landscapes.
JAMES SALTER is the author of numerous books, including All That Is, Solo Faces, Light Years, A Sport and A Pastime, The Arm of Flesh (revised as Cassada), and The Hunters; the memoirs, God of Tin and Burning the Days; the collections, Dusk and Other Stories, which won the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award, and Last Night, which won the Rea Award for the Short Story and the PEN/Malamud Award; and Life is Meals: A Food Lover’s Book of Days, written with Kay Salter.
ANNE SIEMS moved from Berlin, Germany, to Seattle after finishing her MFA at the Hochschule der Kunste Berlin in 1991. She was awarded the OCAC Artist-In-Residency in Portland, Oregon, in 1997. In 2014, her most recent work was showcased by Grover Thurston Gallery in Seattle, Washington; Gail Severn Gallery in Ketchum, Idaho; and David Lusk Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee.
GRANT SNIDER is the creator of the online strip, Incidental Comics. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Best American Comics 2013, and the Kansas City Star. He lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his family.
ROSS TRUDEAU is a writer and digital video artist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
MICHELLE WHITTAKER is a poet and pianist. Her work has recently appeared in Vinyl Poetry, Drunken Boat, TSR:The Southampton Review, great weather for MEDIA, Long Island Quarterly, and The New Yorker. She has received a Jody Donahue Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Special Mention, and Cave Canem Fellowship.