Featured Readers:
Ambriel Bostic
Mary Lou Buschi
Kevin Carey
MP Carver
Jessica Femiani
Laura Goldin
Melissa Joplin Higley
Debbie Koenig,
Tessa Rossi
Karen Elizabeth Sharpe
Cristi Wells Ackerman
Ambriel Floyd Bostic lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. She is a mother of two children and a dog. Her work in design is an exploration of visual story-telling. Ambriel founded and runs The In Kind Project, and nonprofit that helps children and artists collaborate to produce community theater projects. She has focused on board and volunteer work for social justice organizations for much of the last decade, including The Power of Two and Brooklyn Community Housing and Services. She believes everyone has a story to tell.
Mary Lou Buschi (She/Her) holds an MFA in poetry from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and a Master of Science in Urban Education from Mercy College. Her poems have appeared in literary journals such as Radar, The Laurel Review, The Shore, Bluestem and are forthcoming in Ploughshares, West Trestle, and Sweet. Her second full length collection, Paddock, was published by Lily Poetry Review Books in 2021.
Kevin Carey’s books include: The Beach People (2014), The One Fifteen to Penn Station (2012), Jesus Was a Homeboy (2016) which was an Honor book for the Paterson Literary Prize, and Set in Stone (2020). His crime novel, Murder in the Marsh, from Darkstroke Books, was released in 2020. A new novel, Junior Miles and the Junkman, will be published in September of 2023 from Fitzroy Books, an imprint of Regal House Publishing. Kevincareywriter.com
M.P. Carver is a poet and visual artist from Salem, MA. M.P. serves as Director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and teaches at Salem State University. She is miCrO-founder of Molecule; a tiny lit mag, former Poetry Editor of Soundings East, and an Editor at YesNo Press. Her work has appeared most recently in 9×5, an anthology of 5 new voices by Only Human Press. Her chapbook, Selachimorpha, was published by Incessant Pipe in 2015.
Jessica Femiani received her PhD in English and creative writing at Binghamton University (SUNY). Her poems and essays have been published in the Paterson Literary Review, #MeToo Anch’Io, and Labor. She is a member of the Working Class Studies Association and lives in Binghamton, New York.
Laura Goldin is a publishing lawyer in New York. Five of her recent poems appear in the Spring 2023 issue of The Brooklyn Review, and one is forthcoming in Driftwood Press 2024 Anthology. Other poems have been published or are forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review, Apple Valley Review, The Comstock Review, Gargoyle Magazine, One Art, and The Spoon River Poetry Review, among others.
Melissa Joplin Higley toured internationally as a sound engineer with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble and Disney’s The Lion King North American Tour. Her poems appear in FERAL, The Night Heron Barks, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and co- facilitates the Poetry Craft Collective. She lives in Mamaroneck, NY with her husband and son. Visit her at: melissajoplinhigley.com.
Debbie Koenig is the author of the cookbook Parents Need to Eat Too (William Morrow). Her bylines have appeared in Eating Well, Cooking Light, Parenting, The New York Times, the annual Best Food Writing anthology, and elsewhere. She lives in Queens, NY, with her husband, their rainbow-haired teenage son, and two very large cats.
Tessa Ellison Rossi is a writer, teacher, recovering attorney, and associate managing editor at Variant Lit who holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a third dan in taekwondo. Words in Red Ogre Review and its anthology, Grey Sparrow Press, and Roi Faineant. She’s @TRossiWriter.
Karen Elizabeth Sharpe is from Westminster, Massachusetts. Karen is a poetry editor at the Worcester Review, and her poems have recently appeared in Main Street Rag, West Trade Review, Catalyst, the Mizmor Anthology, Mason Street Review, among others. Karen has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and her chapbook, Prayer Can Be Anything, has recently been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press.
Cristi Ackerman Wells has a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Her work has appeared in various publications on Medium. She is an Arkansas native, but lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with her husband, their three children, and one golden retriever. You can find her on Twitter @AckermanWells or Instagram @cristopher_wells.