Editorial Notes
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Donec odio. Quisque volutpat mattis eros. Nullam malesuada erat ut turpis. Suspendisse urna nibh, viverra non, semper suscipit, posuere a, pede.
Donec nec justo eget felis facilisis fermentum. Aliquam porttitor mauris sit amet orci. Aenean dignissim pellentesque felis.
Morbi in sem quis dui placerat ornare. Pellentesque odio nisi, euismod in, pharetra a, ultricies in, diam. Sed arcu. Cras consequat.
Praesent dapibus, neque id cursus faucibus, tortor neque egestas auguae, eu vulputate magna eros eu erat. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nam dui mi, tincidunt quis, accumsan porttitor, facilisis luctus, metus.
Phasellus ultrices nulla quis nibh. Quisque a lectus. Donec consectetuer ligula vulputate sem tristique cursus. Nam nulla quam, gravida non, commodo a, sodales sit amet, nisi.
Related Blog Posts
Featuring contributions from
Anne Walsh Donnelly lives in the west of Ireland. She was nominated for the Hennessy/New Irish Writing Literary Award and selected for Poetry Ireland Introductions in 2019. She is the author of the poetry chapbook, “The Woman With An Owl Tattoo,”(Fly On The Wall Press, 2019) and the short story collection, “Demise of the Undertaker’s Wife” (Blue Nib, 2019). You can find out more about her at her website annewalshdonnelly.com
Twitter: @AnneWDonnelly Facebook: AnneWalshDonnelly
David Hanlon is a confessional poet from Cardiff, Wales, now living in Bristol, England. He is a Best of the Net nominee. You can find his work online in over 40 magazines. His first chapbook Spectrum of Flight is available for purchase now at Animal Heart Press.
Twitter: @DavidHanlon13 Instagram: welshpoetd.
Born in Lancashire, UK, Andrew Jolly is a writer of short fiction, poetry and novels. He raises introspection to the forefront of conversation, traversing abstract situations in his writing while exploring the fundamental aspects of what it takes to be human. He is working on a new sci-fi novel, while also pitching his first literary work, and developing a comic series. Andrew is passionate about libraries, campaigning for their continued support and success, and he enjoys bouldering, hiking, yoga, cycling and the outdoors. He is also known for his design and animation work, and rounds off his creative endeavours by writing music from time to time.
Twitter: @andrew_jolly
Instagram: andrewkjolly
David Yerex Williamson is a Canadian poet, based in northern Manitoba. His work has appeared in a number of Canadian and international publications, including Aesthetica’s Creative Writing Annual (2016), Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, Contemporary Verse and Adelaide.
John Townsend grew up in Formby, before moving south in the 70s to join a band. He played gigs, made records and moved back up north in the 90s. Throughout, John wrote poems and short stories, some published in magazines, one even in a book. He has worked in IT in various universities and is now retired. A couple of years ago, Townsend restarted music, doing open mics, playing guitar and singing his own songs, writing some new ones, and even producing the occasional poem.
Aryanah Haydu is a 25-year-old creative nonfiction writer and poet living in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hayd haa previously been published in a number of literary magazines such as The Long River Review, Collective Unrest Underground Resistance, Unvaeled, and Sunstroke Magazine. Haydu considers themselves a multimedia artist who also explores media such as film photography, collage, paints, chalk pastels, ink, and the spoken word.
Kaci Skiles Laws is a wife, mother, writer, and musician living in Dallas—Fort Worth. Her work has been featured in The Letters Page, Bewildering Stories, The American Journal of Poetry, Pif Magazine, and The Blue Nib, among others. She won an award for her poem, This is How it Ends, by NCTC’s English Department and is currently working on a children’s book called The Boogerman. Her published work can be viewed at https://kaciskileslawswriter.wordpress.com/, and her visual artwork and music can be viewed on YouTube under Kaci and Bryant: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZOSLs955LYoHEJsmb9DWA
David Butler’s second poetry collection, All the Barbaric Glass, was published by Doire Press in 2017. Blackrock Sequence, a limited edition hand-printed poem cycle illustrated by his brother Jim, was winner of the World Illustrators Award 2018. Copies have been bought by Cambridge and Yale Universities, the British Library and the Tate Gallery, among others.
Anya Maltsberhger recently left the world of Medieval History and now works in marketing in southwest England. Her poem ‘Kilvicheon Church, Mull’ was runner up for the Gloucestershire Prize in the 2019 Buzzwords Poetry Competition.
Ryan Norman is a writer from New York living in the Hudson Valley. Inspired by the landscape, he writes what he feels. He enjoys climbing tall things and swimming in mountain lakes. His work has appeared in From Whispers to Roars, Elephants Never, Vamp Cat Magazine, 3 Moon Magazine, Twist in Time Magazine, Black Bough Poetry, Storgy Magazine and elsewhere. You can find him on Twitter @RyanMGNorman.
Daniel Gustafsson is a bi-lingual poet with an interest in northern landscapes and alliterative verse. He made his double debut in 2016 with Alyosha (Augur Press) in English and Karve (Axplock) in Swedish. Daniel’s new pamphlet, Fordings, is out now from Marble Poetry. He lives in York.
Elizabeth Kemball is a writer and illustrator whose work has featured in journals including: Black Bough, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Kanstellation and Iceberg Tales. Her micro-chapbook ‘A letter from your sheets // if your sheets could speak.’ was published by Nightingale & Sparrow Press in March 2020. She is an Editor & Designer for the literary arts zine Re-Side and is being mentored by Mari Ellis Dunning. You can find her on Twitter @LizzieKemball.
Julie Weiss found her way back to poetry in 2018 after slipping into a nearly two-decade creative void, and to her shock and delight, she began publishing her work almost immediately. In 2020, she was a finalist in Alexandria Quarterly´s first line poetry contest series. Her work appears in ArLiJo, Random Sample Review (Best of the Net Nomination, 2019), Sheila-Na-Gig, Sky Island Journal, and Kissing Dynamite Poetry, among others, and she has poems in a handful of anthologies, as well. Originally from California, she works as a telephone English teacher in Spain, where she lives with her wife, 5-year-old daughter, and 2-year-old son. You can find her on Twitter @colourofpoetry or on her website at https://julieweiss2001.wordpress.com/.
Rachael Pennington is a translator, originally from the north of England, who lives and works in Barcelona. She is also an Assistant Managing Editor for the literary translation journal Asymptote. Her work has been seen in Loud Coffee Press and Tast.
Joe Williams is a writer and performing poet from Leeds. In 2017 his debut pamphlet, ‘Killing the Piano’, was published by Half Moon Books, and he won the Open Mic Competition at Ilkley Literature Festival. His second book, the verse novella ‘An Otley Run’, was published in November 2018, and was shortlisted in the Best Novella category at the 2019 Saboteur Awards.
Twitter: @JoeWilliamsPoet
Madi O’Carroll is an emerging Irish artist and performer based in Dublin. She has performed her work with Avoca Reaction’s Big Durty Queer Cabaret and GLITTERHOLE, both queer collectives. Her work for theatre has been presented as part of Scene & Heard Festival in Smock Alley Theatre, and in The New Theatre, Templebar.
Robert Edge is a poet, photographer and creative writer currently working on a novel entitled, The Fairly Good Samaritan. He is also embarking on a voyage of self-discovery as he writes his memoirs. His poetry is generally sardonic as it pokes fun at, amongst other things: the poetry fraternity. He has two as yet unpublished collections of his work: Tour Guide, an ekphrastic, intentionally ignorant view of art galleries and museums, and Breakfast at Wetherspoons, which plays with his dyslexia, using it to excuse whatever he can pass off as literature.
Gerry Stewart is a poet, creative writing tutor and editor based in Finland. Her poetry collection Post-Holiday Blues was published by Flambard Press, UK. In 2019 she won the ‘Selected or Neglected Collection Competition’ with Hedgehog Poetry Press for her collection Totems, to be published in 2020. Her writing blog can be found at http://thistlewren.blogspot.fi/ and @grimalkingerry on Twitter.
Jane Rosenberg LaForge writes poetry, fiction, and occasional essays in New York. “Free Winston Burdette from the Vatican” is from her forthcoming poetry collection, Medusa’s Daughter, from Animal Heart Press in 2021. Her novel, Sisterhood of the Infamous, is forthcoming from New Meridian Arts this year. Her novel, The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War (Amberjack Publishing), was a finalist in the 2019 Eric Hoffer Awards.
George Neame is a poet and publisher of medical journals based in London, but in recent years has lived in Tennessee, Dublin and Yorkshire. In his spare time, George enjoys pub quizzes, strong coffee and long walks. His poems have appeared in Acumen, Antiphon, the moth and Ink, Sweat and Tears and he is active on twitter at @GeorgeNeame and on Instagram at @georgeneame95.
Frank McHugh teaches and writes poetry in both Scots and English, as well as songs, short fiction and plays. His poetry has appeared in several publications, including Acumen Poetry, New Writing Scotland, The Glasgow Review of Books, Gutter magazine and SurVision. He is currently one of four poets on the ‘Clydebuilt’ mentoring programme.
He is a teacher out of necessity, a poet out of compulsion and plays drums for fun. He lives on the beautiful west coast of Scotland.
Born in Dublin in 1988, Peter Donnelly’s first collection, Photons, was published by Appello Press in 2014. Following its publication, playwright Frank McGuinness commented that “Peter Donnelly already shows he has a strong imagination; indeed, a savage one presents itself on occasion when the beautiful and brutal confront and confound each other.” His second collection, Money Is a Kind of Poetry, was published by Smokestack Books in 2019.
Nathan Fidler is 32 years old, living in Nottingham as a copywriter, reviewing films and music. His previous work has been published in numerous publications including Rialto, Poetry Ireland Review and The North and he is working toward a first collection.
Lynn Valentine lives on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands with husband and Labradors. Her work has been published in in places such as Atrium, Northwords Now, The Blue Nib and Ink, Sweat & Tears. She is organising her first poetry collection under the mentorship of Cinnamon Press after winning a place on their Pencil mentoring competition for 2020.
Iain Twiddy studied literature at university and lived for several years in northern Japan. His poetry has appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Stand, The Stinging Fly, The London Magazine, and elsewhere. He has written two studies of contemporary poetry, Pastoral Elegy in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (2012) and Cancer Poetry (2015).
Rob McKinnon lives in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. His poetry has previously been published in ‘From the Ashes – A poetry anthology in support of the 2019-2020 Australian Bushfire relief effort’ Maximum Felix Media, Poetry Pea Journal of Haiku and Senryu, Re-Side Magazine, Headline Poetry & Press, Knights Library Magazine, Vaughan Street Doubles, The Wellington Street Review, Dust Poetry Magazine, Sūdō Journal, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, Nightingale & Sparrow Magazine, Black Bough Poetry and InDaily.
Bob Cooper lives on the Wirral. His latest collection, Everyone Turns, was published by Pindrop Press in 2017.
Paul Waring is a retired clinical psychologist from Wirral, UK. He was awarded second place in the 2019 Yaffle Prize and commended and shortlisted in the 2019 Welshpool Poetry Competition. His poems have been widely published in print journals such as Prole, Strix, Marble Poetry and The Lampeter Review, and on webzines including Ink, Sweat & Tears, Atrium, The High Window and London Grip. His debut pamphlet ‘Quotidian’ is published by Yaffle Press.
Twitter: @drpaulwaring www.waringwords.blog
Iwan Parry is a schoolboy and previously unpublished poet from North-West England. He is an exciting, lead guitarist who holds fervent political beliefs. Iwan enjoys watching Tiger King, listening to Foo Fighters, eating homemade pizzas and sticking it to the man.
An American by birth, Cathleen Miller has travelled around the globe to write her books telling the stories of people and places. She has interviewed diplomats and heads of state on five continents, patients in an Addis Ababa hospital, rape camp survivors in Kosovo, and midwives in the mountains of East Timor. Cathy is the author of a memoir about her life in rural Pennsylvania, The Birdhouse Chronicles, the biography of United Nations leader Nasif Sadik, Champion Of Choice, and the co-authored Desert Flower with Waris Dirie, Somali supermodel turned activist. Cathleen Miller has just retired as professor of creative writing at San José State University.
Nada Henchir is a 16 year old girl from Tunis, Tunisia. She started writing poems and short stories when she was 12 years old. She is a sensitive extrovert who feels the most inspired when she’s confused and/or in a slightly chaotic situation.
Carolyne M. Acen (Afroetry) is a Ugandan Spoken word artist and poet. She is also the founder of Echo Minds Poets. A group of 7 female poets dedicated to bringing women’s stories to the stage. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Haiku Africa Competition and competed in the East Africa Poetic Hour competition in 2018.
David Walshe from Southport, is currently working on a collection of poems inspired by his passion for local history. His poem ‘Fairclough’s Lake’ is the fourth to be published of a historical theme and is based upon the nefarious activity of smuggling that used to take place in centuries past on the shores of North Meols (modern day Southport).
Twitter @DJWalshe
Cooza is a 21-year-old poet and masked alternative-folk singer/songwriter from the North-West, drawing inspiration from nature and the microcosmic workings of the world. His debut poetry collection, Orange Juice, focusses on growing up, learning the ropes of relationships, an indigo child’s obsession with the earth, and provides important mental health mantras. Although written through the eyes of a naive existentialist, one thing drives Cooza’s art above all: love.
Christopher Marsh (M.A) is an award winning Video and Brut Fine Artist. Working largely in a
non-linear context, with styles inline with abstraction, experimental or art brut, he uses various
mediums within the work, from 35mm film to oils, acrylics, biro and charcoal. His work is an ode to
the ideal of simplicity amidst confusion.
Instagram: byeckk
Kez Glennon is a photographer based in north west England.
Flickr: Kez.G.
Stephen Baird is a self-taught photographer/artist. He started taking photographs for The Craigmillar Festival Society newspaper in the early 80s, then worked in a photography lab in Edinburgh for a while, before changing tack and starting work in education. Baird has been making photographs whilst working but never had a focus until he took an Art History degree with the Open University which has allowed him to refocus on his work.
Dominic Weston produces wildlife television programmes, runs over the Mendip hills, writes poetry and creates mesmeric visuals, including poetry film. His work often relates to family, the natural world and industrial abstracts and has appeared in Under The Radar, The North, Magma Poetry, Agenda, Riggwelter & Black Bough Poetry
Brian Sayle is a photographer from Merseyside, England. Possibly most well known for covering live music through the lense in Liverpool for a long time but also spends a lot of time photographing the mountains of Snowdonia. In the past he has thrown himself into a lot of photographic disciplines, with a deep interest in Urban Exploration many years ago to Liverpool’s historical architecture. He cites Dave Sinclair and Tom Wood for inspiration to pick up the lense but also directors such as Kubrick and their use of ambient light and long lenses.
Adam Craddock is from Liverpool. Adam tries to make his art as visually striking as possible by using whatever medium. He takes inspiration from surrealism and German Expressionism. Adam tries to use as many real-world references as possible to ground what he does.
Matt Facey is a Cornishman who shoots everything from weddings to cheeseburgers to lunar eclipses, but is happiest hanging off a rock in a storm. Rarely more than a few miles from the sea, you’ll find him on Cornwall’s rugged South coast, watching the weather forecast then heading for dark, rocky cliff paths, walked by his forbears
Stuart Bulman, photographer and digital artist from Southport whose images have been described as, ‘Dreamy, sometimes alienating pictures in which he captures strong emotions.’ in NL News. His images have appeared globally in newspapers, magazines, websites and on music CD covers. Over the past several years he has exhibited locally and internationally.
Sakura Jima is a professional music/performance photographer based in Liverpool. Sakura’s work has been published in myriad national and international music publications, websites and newspapers. Jima proudly shot for Jeff Beck’s album Emotion and Commotion and in 2008 was a major image contributor to National Museums and Galleries feature exhibition, The Beat Goes On, a celebration of Liverpool’s achievement in popular music.
Mark Warren is a Southport based photographer originally from Bolton. He has worked in the great outdoors all his life, and loves the contrasting light, dark, tranquility and turbulence. He ventures into the places he can capture all of it.
Submission Guidelines
longing to be published? here’s what we’re looking for
Anne Walsh Donnelly lives in the west of Ireland. She was nominated for the Hennessy/New Irish Writing Literary Award and selected for Poetry Ireland Introductions in 2019. She is the author of the poetry chapbook, “The Woman With An Owl Tattoo,”(Fly On The Wall Press, 2019) and the short story collection, “Demise of the Undertaker’s Wife” (Blue Nib, 2019). You can find out more about her at her website annewalshdonnelly.com
Twitter: @AnneWDonnelly Facebook: AnneWalshDonnelly
David Hanlon is a confessional poet from Cardiff, Wales, now living in Bristol, England. He is a Best of the Net nominee. You can find his work online in over 40 magazines. His first chapbook Spectrum of Flight is available for purchase now at Animal Heart Press.
Twitter: @DavidHanlon13 Instagram: welshpoetd.
Born in Lancashire, UK, Andrew Jolly is a writer of short fiction, poetry and novels. He raises introspection to the forefront of conversation, traversing abstract situations in his writing while exploring the fundamental aspects of what it takes to be human. He is working on a new sci-fi novel, while also pitching his first literary work, and developing a comic series. Andrew is passionate about libraries, campaigning for their continued support and success, and he enjoys bouldering, hiking, yoga, cycling and the outdoors. He is also known for his design and animation work, and rounds off his creative endeavours by writing music from time to time.
Twitter: @andrew_jolly
Instagram: andrewkjolly
David Yerex Williamson is a Canadian poet, based in northern Manitoba. His work has appeared in a number of Canadian and international publications, including Aesthetica’s Creative Writing Annual (2016), Prairie Fire, The New Quarterly, Contemporary Verse and Adelaide.
John Townsend grew up in Formby, before moving south in the 70s to join a band. He played gigs, made records and moved back up north in the 90s. Throughout, John wrote poems and short stories, some published in magazines, one even in a book. He has worked in IT in various universities and is now retired. A couple of years ago, Townsend restarted music, doing open mics, playing guitar and singing his own songs, writing some new ones, and even producing the occasional poem.
Aryanah Haydu is a 25-year-old creative nonfiction writer and poet living in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hayd haa previously been published in a number of literary magazines such as The Long River Review, Collective Unrest Underground Resistance, Unvaeled, and Sunstroke Magazine. Haydu considers themselves a multimedia artist who also explores media such as film photography, collage, paints, chalk pastels, ink, and the spoken word.
Kaci Skiles Laws is a wife, mother, writer, and musician living in Dallas—Fort Worth. Her work has been featured in The Letters Page, Bewildering Stories, The American Journal of Poetry, Pif Magazine, and The Blue Nib, among others. She won an award for her poem, This is How it Ends, by NCTC’s English Department and is currently working on a children’s book called The Boogerman. Her published work can be viewed at https://kaciskileslawswriter.wordpress.com/, and her visual artwork and music can be viewed on YouTube under Kaci and Bryant: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZOSLs955LYoHEJsmb9DWA
David Butler’s second poetry collection, All the Barbaric Glass, was published by Doire Press in 2017. Blackrock Sequence, a limited edition hand-printed poem cycle illustrated by his brother Jim, was winner of the World Illustrators Award 2018. Copies have been bought by Cambridge and Yale Universities, the British Library and the Tate Gallery, among others.
Anya Maltsberhger recently left the world of Medieval History and now works in marketing in southwest England. Her poem ‘Kilvicheon Church, Mull’ was runner up for the Gloucestershire Prize in the 2019 Buzzwords Poetry Competition.
Ryan Norman is a writer from New York living in the Hudson Valley. Inspired by the landscape, he writes what he feels. He enjoys climbing tall things and swimming in mountain lakes. His work has appeared in From Whispers to Roars, Elephants Never, Vamp Cat Magazine, 3 Moon Magazine, Twist in Time Magazine, Black Bough Poetry, Storgy Magazine and elsewhere. You can find him on Twitter @RyanMGNorman.
Daniel Gustafsson is a bi-lingual poet with an interest in northern landscapes and alliterative verse. He made his double debut in 2016 with Alyosha (Augur Press) in English and Karve (Axplock) in Swedish. Daniel’s new pamphlet, Fordings, is out now from Marble Poetry. He lives in York.
Elizabeth Kemball is a writer and illustrator whose work has featured in journals including: Black Bough, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Kanstellation and Iceberg Tales. Her micro-chapbook ‘A letter from your sheets // if your sheets could speak.’ was published by Nightingale & Sparrow Press in March 2020. She is an Editor & Designer for the literary arts zine Re-Side and is being mentored by Mari Ellis Dunning. You can find her on Twitter @LizzieKemball.
Julie Weiss found her way back to poetry in 2018 after slipping into a nearly two-decade creative void, and to her shock and delight, she began publishing her work almost immediately. In 2020, she was a finalist in Alexandria Quarterly´s first line poetry contest series. Her work appears in ArLiJo, Random Sample Review (Best of the Net Nomination, 2019), Sheila-Na-Gig, Sky Island Journal, and Kissing Dynamite Poetry, among others, and she has poems in a handful of anthologies, as well. Originally from California, she works as a telephone English teacher in Spain, where she lives with her wife, 5-year-old daughter, and 2-year-old son. You can find her on Twitter @colourofpoetry or on her website at https://julieweiss2001.wordpress.com/.
Rachael Pennington is a translator, originally from the north of England, who lives and works in Barcelona. She is also an Assistant Managing Editor for the literary translation journal Asymptote. Her work has been seen in Loud Coffee Press and Tast.
Joe Williams is a writer and performing poet from Leeds. In 2017 his debut pamphlet, ‘Killing the Piano’, was published by Half Moon Books, and he won the Open Mic Competition at Ilkley Literature Festival. His second book, the verse novella ‘An Otley Run’, was published in November 2018, and was shortlisted in the Best Novella category at the 2019 Saboteur Awards.
Twitter: @JoeWilliamsPoet
Madi O’Carroll is an emerging Irish artist and performer based in Dublin. She has performed her work with Avoca Reaction’s Big Durty Queer Cabaret and GLITTERHOLE, both queer collectives. Her work for theatre has been presented as part of Scene & Heard Festival in Smock Alley Theatre, and in The New Theatre, Templebar.
Robert Edge is a poet, photographer and creative writer currently working on a novel entitled, The Fairly Good Samaritan. He is also embarking on a voyage of self-discovery as he writes his memoirs. His poetry is generally sardonic as it pokes fun at, amongst other things: the poetry fraternity. He has two as yet unpublished collections of his work: Tour Guide, an ekphrastic, intentionally ignorant view of art galleries and museums, and Breakfast at Wetherspoons, which plays with his dyslexia, using it to excuse whatever he can pass off as literature.
Gerry Stewart is a poet, creative writing tutor and editor based in Finland. Her poetry collection Post-Holiday Blues was published by Flambard Press, UK. In 2019 she won the ‘Selected or Neglected Collection Competition’ with Hedgehog Poetry Press for her collection Totems, to be published in 2020. Her writing blog can be found at http://thistlewren.blogspot.fi/ and @grimalkingerry on Twitter.
Jane Rosenberg LaForge writes poetry, fiction, and occasional essays in New York. “Free Winston Burdette from the Vatican” is from her forthcoming poetry collection, Medusa’s Daughter, from Animal Heart Press in 2021. Her novel, Sisterhood of the Infamous, is forthcoming from New Meridian Arts this year. Her novel, The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War (Amberjack Publishing), was a finalist in the 2019 Eric Hoffer Awards.
George Neame is a poet and publisher of medical journals based in London, but in recent years has lived in Tennessee, Dublin and Yorkshire. In his spare time, George enjoys pub quizzes, strong coffee and long walks. His poems have appeared in Acumen, Antiphon, the moth and Ink, Sweat and Tears and he is active on twitter at @GeorgeNeame and on Instagram at @georgeneame95.
Frank McHugh teaches and writes poetry in both Scots and English, as well as songs, short fiction and plays. His poetry has appeared in several publications, including Acumen Poetry, New Writing Scotland, The Glasgow Review of Books, Gutter magazine and SurVision. He is currently one of four poets on the ‘Clydebuilt’ mentoring programme.
He is a teacher out of necessity, a poet out of compulsion and plays drums for fun. He lives on the beautiful west coast of Scotland.
Born in Dublin in 1988, Peter Donnelly’s first collection, Photons, was published by Appello Press in 2014. Following its publication, playwright Frank McGuinness commented that “Peter Donnelly already shows he has a strong imagination; indeed, a savage one presents itself on occasion when the beautiful and brutal confront and confound each other.” His second collection, Money Is a Kind of Poetry, was published by Smokestack Books in 2019.
Nathan Fidler is 32 years old, living in Nottingham as a copywriter, reviewing films and music. His previous work has been published in numerous publications including Rialto, Poetry Ireland Review and The North and he is working toward a first collection.
Lynn Valentine lives on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands with husband and Labradors. Her work has been published in in places such as Atrium, Northwords Now, The Blue Nib and Ink, Sweat & Tears. She is organising her first poetry collection under the mentorship of Cinnamon Press after winning a place on their Pencil mentoring competition for 2020.
Iain Twiddy studied literature at university and lived for several years in northern Japan. His poetry has appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Stand, The Stinging Fly, The London Magazine, and elsewhere. He has written two studies of contemporary poetry, Pastoral Elegy in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (2012) and Cancer Poetry (2015).
Rob McKinnon lives in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. His poetry has previously been published in ‘From the Ashes – A poetry anthology in support of the 2019-2020 Australian Bushfire relief effort’ Maximum Felix Media, Poetry Pea Journal of Haiku and Senryu, Re-Side Magazine, Headline Poetry & Press, Knights Library Magazine, Vaughan Street Doubles, The Wellington Street Review, Dust Poetry Magazine, Sūdō Journal, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, Nightingale & Sparrow Magazine, Black Bough Poetry and InDaily.
Bob Cooper lives on the Wirral. His latest collection, Everyone Turns, was published by Pindrop Press in 2017.
Paul Waring is a retired clinical psychologist from Wirral, UK. He was awarded second place in the 2019 Yaffle Prize and commended and shortlisted in the 2019 Welshpool Poetry Competition. His poems have been widely published in print journals such as Prole, Strix, Marble Poetry and The Lampeter Review, and on webzines including Ink, Sweat & Tears, Atrium, The High Window and London Grip. His debut pamphlet ‘Quotidian’ is published by Yaffle Press.
Twitter: @drpaulwaring www.waringwords.blog
Iwan Parry is a schoolboy and previously unpublished poet from North-West England. He is an exciting, lead guitarist who holds fervent political beliefs. Iwan enjoys watching Tiger King, listening to Foo Fighters, eating homemade pizzas and sticking it to the man.
An American by birth, Cathleen Miller has travelled around the globe to write her books telling the stories of people and places. She has interviewed diplomats and heads of state on five continents, patients in an Addis Ababa hospital, rape camp survivors in Kosovo, and midwives in the mountains of East Timor. Cathy is the author of a memoir about her life in rural Pennsylvania, The Birdhouse Chronicles, the biography of United Nations leader Nasif Sadik, Champion Of Choice, and the co-authored Desert Flower with Waris Dirie, Somali supermodel turned activist. Cathleen Miller has just retired as professor of creative writing at San José State University.
Nada Henchir is a 16 year old girl from Tunis, Tunisia. She started writing poems and short stories when she was 12 years old. She is a sensitive extrovert who feels the most inspired when she’s confused and/or in a slightly chaotic situation.
Carolyne M. Acen (Afroetry) is a Ugandan Spoken word artist and poet. She is also the founder of Echo Minds Poets. A group of 7 female poets dedicated to bringing women’s stories to the stage. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Haiku Africa Competition and competed in the East Africa Poetic Hour competition in 2018.
David Walshe from Southport, is currently working on a collection of poems inspired by his passion for local history. His poem ‘Fairclough’s Lake’ is the fourth to be published of a historical theme and is based upon the nefarious activity of smuggling that used to take place in centuries past on the shores of North Meols (modern day Southport).
Twitter @DJWalshe
Cooza is a 21-year-old poet and masked alternative-folk singer/songwriter from the North-West, drawing inspiration from nature and the microcosmic workings of the world. His debut poetry collection, Orange Juice, focusses on growing up, learning the ropes of relationships, an indigo child’s obsession with the earth, and provides important mental health mantras. Although written through the eyes of a naive existentialist, one thing drives Cooza’s art above all: love.
Christopher Marsh (M.A) is an award winning Video and Brut Fine Artist. Working largely in a
non-linear context, with styles inline with abstraction, experimental or art brut, he uses various
mediums within the work, from 35mm film to oils, acrylics, biro and charcoal. His work is an ode to
the ideal of simplicity amidst confusion.
Instagram: byeckk
Kez Glennon is a photographer based in north west England.
Flickr: Kez.G.
Stephen Baird is a self-taught photographer/artist. He started taking photographs for The Craigmillar Festival Society newspaper in the early 80s, then worked in a photography lab in Edinburgh for a while, before changing tack and starting work in education. Baird has been making photographs whilst working but never had a focus until he took an Art History degree with the Open University which has allowed him to refocus on his work.
Dominic Weston produces wildlife television programmes, runs over the Mendip hills, writes poetry and creates mesmeric visuals, including poetry film. His work often relates to family, the natural world and industrial abstracts and has appeared in Under The Radar, The North, Magma Poetry, Agenda, Riggwelter & Black Bough Poetry
Brian Sayle is a photographer from Merseyside, England. Possibly most well known for covering live music through the lense in Liverpool for a long time but also spends a lot of time photographing the mountains of Snowdonia. In the past he has thrown himself into a lot of photographic disciplines, with a deep interest in Urban Exploration many years ago to Liverpool’s historical architecture. He cites Dave Sinclair and Tom Wood for inspiration to pick up the lense but also directors such as Kubrick and their use of ambient light and long lenses.
Adam Craddock is from Liverpool. Adam tries to make his art as visually striking as possible by using whatever medium. He takes inspiration from surrealism and German Expressionism. Adam tries to use as many real-world references as possible to ground what he does.
Matt Facey is a Cornishman who shoots everything from weddings to cheeseburgers to lunar eclipses, but is happiest hanging off a rock in a storm. Rarely more than a few miles from the sea, you’ll find him on Cornwall’s rugged South coast, watching the weather forecast then heading for dark, rocky cliff paths, walked by his forbears
Stuart Bulman, photographer and digital artist from Southport whose images have been described as, ‘Dreamy, sometimes alienating pictures in which he captures strong emotions.’ in NL News. His images have appeared globally in newspapers, magazines, websites and on music CD covers. Over the past several years he has exhibited locally and internationally.
Sakura Jima is a professional music/performance photographer based in Liverpool. Sakura’s work has been published in myriad national and international music publications, websites and newspapers. Jima proudly shot for Jeff Beck’s album Emotion and Commotion and in 2008 was a major image contributor to National Museums and Galleries feature exhibition, The Beat Goes On, a celebration of Liverpool’s achievement in popular music.
Mark Warren is a Southport based photographer originally from Bolton. He has worked in the great outdoors all his life, and loves the contrasting light, dark, tranquility and turbulence. He ventures into the places he can capture all of it.
