Allen Forrest is a graphic artist and painter born in Canada and bred in the U.S. He has created cover art and illustrations for literary publications and books. He is the winner of the Leslie Jacoby Honor for Art at San Jose State University’s Reed Magazine and his Bel Red painting series is part of the Bellevue College Foundation’s permanent art collection. Forrest’s expressive drawing and painting style is a mix of avant-garde expressionism and post-Impressionist elements reminiscent of van Gogh, creating emotion on canvas. Portfolio. @artgrafiken

Ariel Dawn lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Twenty years ago she studied creative writing at Vancouver Island University. Recent work is in Black & Blue, minor literature(s), Ink Sweat & Tears, Litro, Flapperhouse, great weather for MEDIA. She reads and studies poetic prose and Tarot and writes a novella. @ariel__dawn

Barbara Harroun is an Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University. Her most recent work is forthcoming or appearing in Circus Book, Empty Sink, Per Contra Fiction, Fiction Southeast, Watershed Review, and Spelk. Her favorite creative endeavors are her awesome kids, Annaleigh and Jack. When she isn’t writing, reading, or teaching, she can be found walking her beloved dog, Banjo, or engaging in literacy activism and radical optimism.

Brian Michael Barbeito is a Canadian poet, writer, and landscape photographer. He has work currently at CV2 The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing and is forthcoming at Fiction International in July 2015. Brian is the author of the book Chalk Lines.

Ceò is a poet, naturalist, and explorer of wild places who writes from a small island cabin, and is inspired by marine life, coastal storms, and the tenacity of trees. Blog.

Couri Johnson is a recent graduate of the North Eastern Ohio Master of Fine Arts. She’s recently relocated to Marugame, Japan. She has a chapbook coming out with Dancing Girl Press in the Spring of 2016, and her fiction and poetry can be found in various places in print and on the internet. Follow her adventures in Japan on her blog: http://courijohnson.blogspot.com and her twitter at a_couri.

Elaine Hsiang regularly leaves unicorn drawings around her workplace. She writes to stay human, and has found a few homes for her work, including (parenthetical), On the Cusp, if&when, SP CE, and Deluge. She has two chapbooks out: “BECOMING AN ISLAND” (2014) and “one day i will be louder than all the bruises on your knees” (pizza pi press, 2015). She currently roams around Boston. Blog.

Emma Wortley is based in Sydney and has a PhD in English from The University of New South Wales. Her writing and reviews have appeared in Voiceworks, Southerly, Going Down Swinging and Paper Crown Magazine. She has published papers on children’s and young adult literature (also the subject of her PhD thesis) in various academic journals. She is also a volunteer tutor at Sydney Story Factory, a not-for-profit creative writing centre for young people.

Jackson Melenchuk is a poet, photographer, musician, radio host and a student at the University of Victoria. This is Jackson’s very first publication and he is over the moon about it! A self published poetry book of his is currently in the works so keep your ear to the ground for that! To listen to Jackson’s weekly radio show (Overgrowth), broadcasted through 101.9FM CFUV, go to Overgrowth.ca or Cfuv.uvic.ca!

Jennifer Sloan Walker is a writer living in Kitchener, Ontario. She writes short stories, creative non-fiction and flash. She is currently working on a collection of linked short stories. During daytime hours, she can be found counseling Canadians on a national helpline. Her husband and two children are her greatest fans – the feeling is mutual. @jensloanwalker

Megan Evans is a visual artist currently living in the Comox Valley. During her time at the University of Victoria she majored in Psychology and Sociology. A number of aspects impact the direction of Megan’s artwork. Foremost being the interactions between people and their environments. The majority of Evans’ work has been done with acrylic paints. Currently, she is learning to work with oils in order to broaden her technical skills. Themes often focus on surrealist landscapes, seascapes and portraits. On the whole, her work aims to connect the individual to their surroundings; both the tangible and intangible. Facebook.

Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era: now known as the Illinois poet, from Itasca, IL. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, photographer who experiments with poetography (blending poetry with photography), and small business owner in Itasca, Illinois, who has been published in more than 875 small press magazines in 27 countries, he edits 10 poetry sites. Michael is the author of The Lost American: “From Exile to Freedom”, several chapbooks of poetry, including “From Which Place the Morning Rises” and “Challenge of Night and Day”, and “Chicago Poems”. He also has over 76 poetry videos on YouTube. Facebook.

Michael Joseph Woodall was born in Hollywood, FL and resides in Miramar, FL at the age of 22. Michael started writing love letters at the age of 16, and after dropping out of high school in 10th grade, Michael started writing heavily. While writing a sociology paper Michael discovered “what he loved to do”, write and voice him-self. Michael currently is studying at Broward College in Davie Florida, and among everywhere else.

Nicola Winstanley has poetry previously published in text/lit/mag, the GritLit chapbook When the Door Opened, and The Quilliad. Nicola has also published two children’s books, Cinnamon Baby (Kids Can) and The Pirate’s Bed (Tundra). Her third book, A Bedtime Yarn, is forthcoming. She is a professor at Humber College, where she also serves as Book Review Editor for the Humber Literary Press. Nicola lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Rayn Gryphon is an aspiring author and inveterate indolent malcontent who has lived in B.C. for most of his 41 years. His fiction and non-fiction work tends to focus upon things that naturally or unnaturally bound or trap human beings in life or in the world though a sort of gravity whose effective alchemy of the measures of heaven and earth alternates between torpor and inspiration, lightness of being and impenetrable sorrow. Life were the right science for this irony, poetry its very soul.

Stuart Ross is a writer living in Chicago.