Yes, Poetry

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Contributor’s Notes

L. Ward Abel, poet, composer and performer of music, teacher, lawyer, lives in rural Georgia, has been published hundreds of time in print and online, and is the author of Peach Box and Verge (Little Poem Press, 2003), Jonesing For Byzantium (UK Authors Press, 2006), The Heat of Blooming (Pudding House Press, 2008), Torn Sky Bleeding Blue (erbacce-Press, 2010), and the forthcoming American Bruise (Parallel Press, 2012). He has just completed his latest poetry collection, The Crater.

Ann Cummings has had work published previously in a few select religious magazines, and Yes, Poetry. For about a year, writing has come to her as poetry. Brevity appeals to her now, packing the most into a few words. Briefly, her life experience has included motorcycle riding, mountain climbing, and other sports. Married twice, now widowed,she has one daughter. Confined to her home, she writes what she sees.

Robert Laughlin lives in Chico, California. His poems have appeared in Bryant Literary Review,Camroc Press Review, elimae, The Orange Room Review and Pearl. His website is at: www.pw.org/content/robert_laughlin.

My name is Sophia Le Fraga, I am a New York based poet finishing my studies in Poetry and Linguistics this December at NYU. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Most recently, Kristi Nimmo has been painting with scrub brushes in watercolor. She writes poetry to feel the softness of a bending heart. She also teaches meditation and loves to travel. You can read more about her in DC Books and Authors Blog: http://dcbooksandauthors.com/2011/08/25/kristi-nimmo-elephant-rides-beautiful-bags-and-poetry/

Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review,

The New Yorker, and elsewhere. For more information, including his essay

“Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” and a complete bibliography, please

visit his website atwww.simonperchik.com.

Sophie Playle studied English Literature with Creative Writing at UEA, and has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London. She has previously worked in the publishing industry, and continues to freelance. Passionate about writing and publishing, she runs Inkspill Magazine (www.inkspillmagazine.com) and blogs regularly about creative living at: www.sophieplayle.com.

Emmalea Russo is a poet and visual artist who grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania. She holds a BA from Antioch University Los Angeles and is pursuing an MFA in Poetry at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared most recently in the Bicycle Review and Blood Lotus.

Carly Susser is a writer and mfa candidate at Sarah Lawrence College. She loves art, animals, and warm climates. Carly has been journaling since 1997 and is working on a memoir (or possibly several all at once) based loosely on the meaning of life. She is also the non-fiction editor of The Boiler Journal: http://theboilerjournal.wordpress.com/.

Christian Ward is a 31 year old UK-based poet who recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Editor Biographies

Joanna C. Valente is a MFA candidate in Poetry Writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also a part-time mermaid. More can be found at her website: http://joannavalente.com

Stephanie Valente lives and writes in New York. Her work has appeared in Italics Mine and other journals. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and as always, poetry. She enjoys candlelit smiles and diamond cut laughter. One day, she would like to become a silent film star. Her favorite desserts are crème brûlée and strawberry-rhubarb pie. She can be found at: kitschy.tumblr.com.

G. Taylor Davis, Jr is from the Milky Way.

Photographer Biography

Marcin Majkowski is 36 years old and from Poland. He is a performance/spoken word poet/writer. He lives in Krakow in Poland.

Yes, Poetry is happy to announce its first issue of 2012! We welcome you into the new year with these wonderful poems, which can be downloaded for free here. 

Contributor’s Notes

Christian Belz has been a practicing architect in the Metro Detroit area for 27 years. He has been published in Writers’ Journal and The Storyteller and is currently writing an Architectural Murder Mystery.

Tyler Bigney was born in 1984. He lives, and writes in Nova Scotia, Canada. His short stories, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in Pearl, Poetry New Zealand, Third Wednesday, The Meadow, and Neon, among others.

Ariana D. Den Bleyker is a Pittsburgh native currently residing in a small town in New York where she is a wife and mother of two. She is a graduate of William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ where she earned a B.A. in English. She is passionate about poetry and writing because it speaks to her, influences her daily life, and encourages her to write. She draws much of her energy from her own life experiences. Her poetry was most recently featured in The Homestead Review and Stone Highway Review and will soon be featured in Burnt Bridge, scissors and spackle, Grey Sparrow Press, and Heavy Hands Ink.

Jack Foster is the Editorial Manager of A Few Lines Magazine. He currently attends school at Cal Poly Pomona as an English Literature and Language major. When he is not editing or in class, he can be found at the bars in Claremont, CA.

Margaret Graber grew up in Valparaiso, Indiana, a city 45 minutes southeast of Chicago. She is a lifelong friend of Lake Michigan, the avocado, and pop-up books. She is currently pursuing her M.F.A. at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Nick Hranilovich is a writer, musician, visual artist, and several other things that leave one poor, lazy, and beautiful. He currently resides in Williamston, Michigan, where he is working on pieces for the Michigan Nature Association, as well as maintaining day-jobs for the sake of humility and seeking transcendence of the physical realm. More of his poetry can be found at: http://clutchingatstraws.wordpress.com/category/nick-hranilovich/

Justin Hyde lives in Iowa.

Mark Jackley is the author of several chapbooks, including Every Green Word, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, and a full-length collection, There Will Be Silence While You Wait (Plain View Press). He lives in Sterling, VA.

Robert Laughlin lives in Chico, California. His poems have appeared in Bryant Literary Review,Camroc Press Review, elimae, The Orange Room Review and Pearl. His website is at: www.pw.org/content/robert_laughlin.

Austin McCarron is from New Zealand but has lived in London for many years.  His work has appeared in various poetry magazines in the United Kingdom, France and America in recent years.

Vincent McGillivray lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. His poetry has appeared in Grain, CV2,Misunderstandings Magazine, Ascent Aspirations, Skidrow Penthouse, Juked and All Rights Reserved. Vincent has recently decided to undertake a (self-imposed) project to rediscover his province, via its backroads.

Michael Tugendhat has a memoir due out by Turquoise Morning Press in 2012. He’s been published in Poetry SZ and has poems forthcoming in Blue and Yellow Dog. He’s dedicated to writing about mental illness to educate and inspire.

Matt Prater is a poet from Saltville, VA. His writing has appeared in Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, NANO Fiction Magazine, and Alcalines, among other publications. He is currently studying towards an MA in English at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

Christine Reilly lives in New York City. She is getting her MFA at Sarah Lawrence College and won full scholarships to the Sarah Lawrence Poetry Seminar and Bucknell University Seminar for Younger Poets. Her poems will be featured in “The Clearing: Forty Years with Toni Morrison”. Her chapbook of poetry, “The Blue Of”, was a finalist in the Pulled Pork Susquehanna University Contest. She has been published in 31 journals. She was named Breadcrumb Scabs’ Editor’s Pick. She has just finished her first novel. She teaches poetry to teenagers on the Lower East Side. Her website is: www.christinejessicamargaretreilly.com

Shriram Sivaramakrishnan likes to call himself as a budding poet who is trying to learn the art called Poetry. A fan of John Keats, he is a true slave to poetry and boast himself for that. His works have appeared in journals such as Short Fast and Deadly, Right Hand Pointing, Dirt Cakes, Wingposse, and so on. He writes a blog called “Thought Pebbles” and publishes poems on other poetry communities. His blog link is: http://thoughtpebble.blogspot.com/

Parker Tettleton’s work is featured in &/or forthcoming from Gargoyle, elimae, > kill author, Mud Luscious, & PANK, among others. His chapbook SAME OPPOSITE is available from Thunderclap! Press. More or less is here.

Robert Vaughan’s plays have been produced in N.Y.C., L.A., S.F., and Milwaukee where he resides. He leads two writing roundtables for Redbird- Redoak Studio. His prose and poetry is published in over 150 literary journals such as Elimae, Metazen and BlazeVOX. He has short stories anthologized in Nouns of Assemblage from Housefire, and Stripped from P.S. Books. He is a fiction editor at JMWW magazine, and Thunderclap! Press. He co-hosts Flash Fiction Fridays for WUWM’s Lake Effect. His blog: http://rgv7735.wordpress.com.

Michael Uhall, Jr., lives in Champaign, Illinois.

Editor Biographies

Joanna C. Valente is a MFA candidate in Poetry Writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also a part-time mermaid. More can be found at her website: http://joannavalente.com

Stephanie Valente lives and writes in New York. Her work has appeared in Italics Mine and other journals. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and as always, poetry. She enjoys candlelit smiles and diamond cut laughter. One day, she would like to become a silent film star. Her favorite desserts are crème brûlée and strawberry-rhubarb pie. She can be found at: kitschy.tumblr.com.

G. Taylor Davis, Jr is from the Milky Way.

Photographer Biography

Brett Stout is a 32 year old punk rock artist and writer living in Myrtle Beach, SC. He is a high school dropout and former construction worker turned college graduate and paramedic. He creates art while mainly hung-over from a small cramped apartment in Myrtle Beach, SC. He is the owner and operator of the Anti Condo Art group and puts on controversial art projects throughout the Southern U.S.

The October issue can be downloaded for free here!

Contributor’s Notes

Matthew James Babcock teaches at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. He has a PhD in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His book, Private Fire: The Ecopoetry and Prose of Robert Francis, is available from the University of Delaware Press.

Martin Burke is an Irish poet/playwright living in Belgium (with 12 books of verse published in the USA, UK, Ireland & Belgium.)

George Coombs is sixty four years of age and is from Hove on the south coast of England. Nowadays he is a semi retired university lecturer whose main subject areas are social sciences and philosophy. George has been writing and painting for much of his life and has had a few stories, articles and poetry published. George also does a lot in England and America to help people in prison and he is presently writing a book about this George is a long standing admirer of the work of Sylvia Plath and is pleased that this piece written in her memory is going to be published.

Brian Fanelli is the author of the chapbook Front Man, published in late 2010 by Big Table Publishing. His work has also appeared in a number of journals and websites, including Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Chiron Review, Blood Lotus, Word Riot, Indigo Rising Magazine, San Pedro River Review, and other publications. He has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Wilkes University and currently resides in Pennsylvania. Visit him at www.brianfanelli.com.

Born in Windsor, Ontario in 1960, Gregory Gunn grew up in small towns before settling in London in 1970. A graduate of Fanshawe College in 1982 as an electronics technician, he has worked in that field ever since. Mr. Gunn began writing during his tenure at Fanshawe and has done so for over thirty years. He is most passionate about poetry. Some of his credits include: Cyclamens & Swords, The Toronto Quarterly, Glimpse Magazine, Ascent Aspirations, Butterflies Are Free To Fly, Carcinogenic, Psychopoetica, Afterthoughts, Ditch Magazine, One Earth, and myriad of others. His other interests comprise music, astronomy, foreign languages, psychology, gardening, photography, and philosophy.

R. W. Haynes leads an academic life in South Texas. His book The Major Plays of Horton Foote appeared in 2010 from the Mellen Press. Texas had its hottest June in history in 2011, but it was not his fault. A fair amount of his poetry can be be googled.

David Levine grew up in the poorly named town of New City, NY. After bouncing between Salt Lake City and Seattle for a year, he settled into the role of a graduate student in Boulder, Colorado. He hopes to do more in the future.

Corey Mesler has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published four novels, Talk: A Novel in Dialogue (2002), We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon (2006), The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores (2010) and Following Richard Brautigan (2010), 2 full length poetry collections, Some Identity Problems (2008) and Before the Great Troubling (2011), and 2 books of short stories, Listen: 29 Short Conversations (2009) and Notes toward the Story and Other Stories (2011) . He has also published a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems have been chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. He also claims to have written, “Countin’ Flowers on the Wall.” With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store in Memphis TN, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He can be found at www.coreymesler.com.

Rich Murphy was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. He raised four children and taught writing and literature for 22 years at Bradford College and Emmanuel College before coming to Richmond. He lives in Marblehead Massachusetts and (for the last four years) Richmond where he teaches at VCU. His credits include two books of poems Voyeur (2008 Gival Press Poetry Prize winner) and The Apple in the Monkey Tree; chapbooks Great Grandfather, Family Secret, Rescue Lines, and Hunting and Pecking; poems in hundreds of journals, including Rolling Stone, Poetry, Grand Street, Trespass, New Letters, Negative Capability, Segue, Big Bridge, Trespass, foam:e, and Confrontation; and essays on poetics in Folly Magazine, Fulcrum, The International Journal of the Humanities, Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, Reconfigurations: A Journal for Poetics Poetry / Literature and Culture, Fringe, Big Toe Review, and Journal of Ecocriticism. Currently, his chapbook manuscript “Crib Sheets” is a 2011 finalist Teacher’s Voice Poetry Chapbook Prize and his chapbook manuscript “Body of Evidence” is a 2011finalist Eudaimonia Poetry Review Chapbook Prize.

Carl Palmer lives in University Place WA., without wristwatch, cell phone or alarm clock. Long Weekends Forever.

Anil CS Rao is a graduate of Pratt Institute. Currently, he is a distance student of Architecture through the San Francisco Institute of Architecture & Ayurveda (C.A.S.) student at the California College of Ayurveda, and has worked in the Untied States from 1988 to 2003 in New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC in the capacity of an engineer. He is presently residing in Bethesda, Maryland (United States) with his family.

Zachary Straub is a visual artist, writer, and human rights activist based out of Upstate New York, where he received his BA from Ithaca College. His work has been showcased at the Handwerker Gallery in Ithaca NY, the Partners in Art Gallery in Western New York, and published in StillWater Magazine, the Niagara Gazette, and in press releases issued by Niagara University.

Pia Taavila teaches in the English Department at Gallaudet University and live in Virginia. Recent work has appeared in Birmingham Poetry Review, Southern Women Review, The Potomac Review, storySouth, and The Bear River Review, The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, 32 Poems and Measure, among others.

Robert Wexelblatt is professor of humanities at Boston University’s College of General Studies. He has published essays, stories, and poems in a wide variety of journals, two story collections, Life in the Temperate Zone and The Decline of Our Neighborhood, a book of essays, Professors at Play; his recent novel, Zublinka Among Women, won the Indie Book Awards First Prize for Fiction.

Our September issue can be downloaded for free here!

Contributor’s Notes

Megan Coxe, an amateur poet in the truest sense, has just returned from a sabbatical year in Almería, Spain as an assistant English teacher, to be plunged back into American life. Now she splits her time preparing to pursue a MA in Hispanic Literature at the University of Texas, coping with the return to her birthplace, and plotting her next international escape.

Joseph Farley edited Axe Factory for 24 years. His books and chapbooks include Suckers, For the Birds, and Longing for the Mother Tongue (March Street Press). His novel, Labor Day, about a dismal future world without unions, is currently seeking a publisher.

Carol Lynn Grellas is a six-time Pushcart nominee and a 2010 Best of the Net nominee. She is the author of seven chapbooks with her latest collection of poems: Epistemology of an Odd Girl, forthcoming from March Street Press. She lives El Dorado Hills, California.

Robin Kalinich currently lives in Albuquerque, and has enjoyed a myriad of careers including clown, roofer, waitress, retail manager, and many others too numerous (or embarrassing) to mention. She fled a staid existence as a homemaker and religious zealot to begin an arduous process of self-actualization. Along the way, she found true love, and a penchant for expensive cheese. She currently works as a chemist and is pursuing a degree in Nanoscience, but her true passions lie in the creative realm. After completing her master’s degree, she plans on switching gears to pursue an MFA. Her blog can be found at: http://sparklysugardragon.blogspot.com/

Peycho Kanev is the Editor In Chief of Kanev Books. His poems have appeared in more than 400 literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, The Monongahela Review, Steam Ticket, Ann Arbor Review, Midwest Literary Review, Third Wednesday, Burnt Bridge, Istanbul Literary Review, Loch Raven Review, In Posse Review, The Penwood Review, Mascara Literary Review, The Mayo Review and many others. He is nominated for the Pushcart Award and lives in Chicago. In 2009 his short story collection “Walking Through Walls” (Ciela), and in April 2010 his poetry collection “American Notebooks” (Ciela) both were published in Bulgaria. His new poetry collection “Bone Silence” was released in September 2010 by Desperanto, NY. http://www.kanevbooks.com

Tracy Leddy is a poet and writer who has published Alison’s Shadow and The Song of Everything. She has lived on Nantucket Island for 30 years.

John McKernan – who grew up in Omaha Nebraska – is now a retired comma herder after teaching a long time at Marshall University. He lives – mostly – in West Virginia where he edits ABZ Press. His most recent book is Resurrection of the Dust. He has published poems in Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review and elsewhere.

Joseph Pentangelo majors in Linguistics at the Macaulay Honors College at the College of Staten Island, Class of 2012. He is a cofounder of Wigwam Press, a very tiny publishing house. His writing has previously been published in Weird N.J. and Operation: Three-Legged Dolphin (for which he, under an alias, wrote an ornithological linguistics joke). Other works of his are slated to appear in the Fall, 2011 issue of Caesura. In addition to writing poetry and short fiction, he spends his time traveling, studying, and playing music. You can find him here: truthofmasks.tumblr.com, wigwampress.webs.com

Carson Pierpont is a writer writing in the Pacific Northwest. He enjoys coffee, re-reading his favorite authors, going to the theatre alone, and, especially, as he is a Pisces, the ocean. When he’s not writing he’s worrying about not writing.

Phillip R. Polefrone is a young poet and essayist living in Brooklyn, near the river, trying to figure out how to get out of school immediately and stay in it indefinitely. This has so far landed him on the verge of a B.A. His poems have been published in The Broome Street Review, his essays in Mercer Street. He also edits West 10th, and undergraduate literary magazine, and is on the editorial team of Mercer Street, an annual collection of student essays. He hopes that his status as an undergraduate will not be leveled against him; as Marianne Moore put it (taken gleefully out of context), “I, too, dislike it.”

Melissa Sewell lives in Topeka, Kansas, where she makes a living slinging coffee and spends her free time constructing cardboard cities with her four year-old. Her work has appeared in seveneightfive magazine, Inscape, Susquehanna Review and others.

Craig Shay has had poems published or forthcoming in The Camel Saloon,

Clockwise Cat, PigeonBike, Catapult to Mars, Calliope Nerve, and Skidrow Penthouse. Samples of his work can be found on his webpage: www.craigshay.wordpress.com

Stacy Skolnik’s poems are never slight. Playful and deceptively simple, they nonetheless take on the big questions of human existence—life, love, time, God. Even when their subject is the self, her poems fulfill what Rilke names as the task of the poet: they “maintain contact with the farthest distance,” and thereby “link us with it.”

Sasha Van Hoven originally hales from Syracuse, New York, and is now located in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from SUNY Purchase with a BA in Lit, and would probably even leave her lovely, bearded boyfriend for Mr. William Faulkner if he was still alive today. She pays her bills by writing copy for a furniture company based out of Denver. In her non-triangle hours, she is a published poet and cereal connoisseur. She is also the co-founder of The Golden Triangle, which can be found here: http://www.thegoldentriangle.org/

Clinton Van Inman is a high school teacher in Hillsborough County, Florida, am 65 and a graduate of San Diego StateUniversity. I was born in Walton on Thames, England. My recent publications include: Warwick Unbound, Down in the Dirt, May, June, July, The Inquisition, The Journal, the New Writing, The Hudson Review, Essence, Forge, Houston Literary Review, Greensilk Journal Northwest Spirits Magazine, to name a few.

Timothy Volpert is a poet and musician from Topeka, KS, where he also co-manages a fledgling vegan-friendly cafe. His poems have appeared in Coal City Review, Inscape, Blue Island Review, andseveneightfive magazine. He loves you and wants the best for you.

Editor’s Biography

Joanna C. Valente is a native New Yorker. She has been featured in various publications, such as You Say. Say. (Uphook Press), The Westchester Review, The Houston Literary Review, Side B Magazine, among others. She is currently attending Sarah Lawrence College as an MFA candidate in poetry. In the future, she would like to live by the ocean.

Download the interview for free here!

Peter Marra lives in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Among his influences are Tristan Tzara, Paul Eluard, Edgar Allan Poe, Russ Meyer, and Roger Corman. He has been published in amphibi.us, Yes Poetry, Maintenant 4, Beatnik, Crash, Danse Macabre,Caper Literary Journal, Clutching At Straws, and O Sweet Flowery Roses. He is currently constructing his first collection of poems.