Author Bios

Jesse Breite’s recent poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in New Orleans Review, Terrain, and RHINO. His chapbook is The Knife Collector, and he is an associate editor for Good Works Review. He is also librettist for three of Atlanta composer Michael Kurth’s scores. Jesse teaches high school in Atlanta where he lives with his wife and son.

Patrice Boyer Claeys graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Manchester, U.K., and completed a Certificate in Poetry from the Writer's Studio of the University of Chicago. Her first collection, Lovely Daughter of the Shattering, was published by Kelsay Books in 2019. Forthcoming work: Glassworks, Literary Mama, Pirene’s Fountain, Zone 3, and The Passed Note. Her second collection, The Machinery of Grace, is due from Kelsay Books in 2020. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2019) and Best of the Net (2014, 2019). Find her online here.

Marie Curran's prose has been noted in Best American Essays 2019 and can be found in Image, Mud Season Review, Rupture (formerly Collagist), and MUTHA. In 2019 she was the writer in residence at Emmaus Way Church in Durham, North Carolina. She holds an MFA from Northern Michigan University. Originally from California’s Central Valley, she now lives in Durham with her family.

Kevin Duffy is a writer of short fiction and a frequent contributor of non-fiction articles on topics ranging from sports to religion to international relations.

Jen Stewart Fueston is the author of the recently released collection, Madonna, Complex (Cascade Books) as well as two chapbooks, Visitations (Finishing Line Press) and Latch (River Glass Books). Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and has appeared recently in Glass, Cherry Tree, and EcoTheo. She has taught writing at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as internationally in Hungary, Turkey, and Lithuania. She lives in Longmont, Colorado with her husband and two young sons.     

Kevin Griffin is an English and Creative Writing teacher at Detroit Catholic Central High School. He lives in Plymouth, Michigan, with his wife and two sons. His first chapbook, Line and Hook, was published by the Michigan Writers Cooperative Press in 2017. His poetry has been published in The Broad River Review, Common Ground Review, The Garfield Lake Review, The MacGuffin, Sheepshead Review, Third Wednesday, and Up North Literary Journal, among other publications.

Rebekah Denison Hewitt holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was the Martha Meier Renk Graduate Fellow. She is an assistant editor for Orison Books, and her work has recently appeared in The Rumpus, Narrative, and Painted Bride Quarterly. She lives outside of Madison, Wisconsin with her family.

Kevin Honold is the author of Men as Trees Walking, a book of poems. He is currently a New Mexico History and Special Education teacher at Santa Fe Public Schools.

A violinist by training, Karen Bjork Kubin has been exploring the tensions and connections between music and language for as long as she can remember. Her poems and essays have appeared in Spillway, Whale Road Review, Rock & Sling, Off the Coast, How to Pack for Church Camp, and American Suzuki Journal, among other publications, as well as in the 2017 Main Street Rag Anthology, Of Burgers and Barrooms.

Robert Lewis is an Emeritus Prof. of English from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He draws poetic inspiration for his poems from family and friendships formed there, from the landscape of the Hudson Valley, from contemplative practice, and from the complementary stimulus of theology and philosophy. In his poems he seeks out the sacramental in suffering as well as joy. He has published poems in The Lyric, Dappled Things, Passager, Chronogram, and Blue Collar Review.

D.S. Martin is the author of four poetry collections, including Ampersand (2018), and Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis (2013) — both from Cascade Books. He is Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College, the Series Editor for the Poiema Poetry Series, and has recently edited three anthologies — The Turning Aside: The Kingdom Poets Book of Contemporary Christian Poetry (2016), Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse (2017), and In A Strange Land (2019). D.S. Martin is known for his blog, Kingdom Poets, where he has posted weekly about Christian Poetry since February of 2010. He and his wife live in Brampton, Ontario; they have two adult sons.

Megan McDermott is a poet and priest based in Western Massachusetts. In 2018, she graduated from Yale Divinity School, where she also earned a certificate from the Institute of Sacred Music, an interdisciplinary program dedicated to religion and the arts. Her poetry has been published in a number of journals, including The Christian Century, Rust + Moth, Psaltery & Lyre, Rogue Agent, and Amethyst Review. You can find her on Twitter.

Devon Miller-Duggan has published poems in Rattle, Margie, The Antioch Review, Gargoyle, Massachusetts Review, and Spillway. She teaches Poetry Writing at the University of Delaware. Her books include Pinning the Bird to the Wall (Tres Chicas Books, 2008), Alphabet Year (Wipf & Stock, 2017), and The Slow Salute (Lithic Press Chapbook Competition Winner, 2018). She also directs the Poets’ Corner Reading Series, a joint project of the English Dept. of UD and St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church in which poets read (mostly) their favorite poems by other poets—a cross between Poetry Outreach and Story Hour for grown-ups.

James Owens's newest book is Family Portrait with Scythe (Bottom Dog Press, 2020). His poems and translations appear widely in literary journals, including recent or upcoming publications in Atlanta Review, The Shore, The Windhover, and Southword. He earned an MFA at the University of Alabama and lives in a small town in northern Ontario.

Nathan Spoon is an autistic poet with low academic fluency whose poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, South Carolina Review, and elsewhere. His debut collection, Doomsday Bunker, was published in 2017. He is co-editor of Queerly.

Emmanuel Terrell is a student at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. He is originally from Chicago’s West side in a neighborhood called Humboldt Park. He is studying film and media production, and this is his first publication. He is currently working on a collection of poems that he hopes to be published in the future.

Daniel Tobin is the author of nine books of poems, including From Nothing, winner of the Julia Ward Howe Prize, The Stone in the Air, his versions from the German of Paul Celan, and Blood Labors, named a Best Poetry Book of the year by the New York Times in 2018. His poetry has won the "The Discovery/The Nation Award," the Penn Warren Award, the Frost Fellowship, the Bakeless Prize, the Meringoff Award, the Massachusetts Book Award, and fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation, among other honors.

Dana VanderLugt is a midwestern farmer's daughter, splitting her time between writing essays and YA historical fiction project about German POWs who came to work on orchards like her grandfather's during WWII. She works as an instructional coach, is pursuing an MFA from Spalding University, and along with her husband, is raising three boys and a golden retriever. Her work has been published in Longridge Review, Ruminate, and The Reformed Journal. She blogs at Stumbling Toward Grace.

Brian Volck is a pediatrician who received his undergraduate degree in English Literature and his MD from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of a poetry collection, Flesh Becomes Word, and a memoir, Attending Others: A Doctor’s Education in Bodies and Words.

William Cass has had over 200 short stories accepted for publication in a variety of literary magazines such as Ruminate, december, Briar Cliff Review, and Zone 3.  He was a finalist in short fiction and novella competitions at Glimmer Train and Black Hill Press, has received three Pushcart nominations, and won writing contests at Terrain.org and The Examined Life Journal. He lives in San Diego, California.

Barbara Crooker's work has appeared in many journals, including The Christian Century, Christianity & Literature, The Christian Science Monitor, America, Sojourners, Saint Katherine Review, Windhover, Perspectives, The Cresset, Tiferet, Spiritus,Assisi, Dappled Things, Ruminate, Rock & Sling, and Radix. It’s been anthologized in places like The Bedford Introduction to Literature (Bedford/St. Martin’s), Imago Dei: Poems from Christianity and Literature (Abilene Christian University Press), Looking for God in All the Right Places (Loyola Press), and Summer: A Spiritual Biography of the Season and Spring: A Spiritual Biography of the Season (SkyLights Paths Publishers). Her most recent books are: Les Fauves (C&R Press, 2017); The Book of Kells (Cascade Press, Poeima Poetry Series, 2018); and Some Glad Morning (Pitt Poetry Series, University of Pittsburgh Poetry Press, 2019).

C.K. Dawson's work has appeared in Ruminate Magazine, Breakwater Review, Verily Magazine, Poetry International, and St. Katherine's Review. She has her MFA in Poetry from Seattle Pacific University. She lives in the hills outside Los Angeles with her family. 

Michial Farmer is the author of Imagination and Idealism in John Updike’s Fiction (Camden House, 2017). His poems have appeared in Curator, Saint Katherine Review, and Spiritus. He lives in Atlanta.

Daniel Elias Galicia earned an MFA in Poetry from Seattle Pacific University. Originally from El Paso, Texas, he now resides in Seoul, South Korea where he lives with his beautiful wife and works as a professional ESOL instructor. His poems have appeared in various places including Iron Horse Literary Review.

Carrie Heimer writes and teaches in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her work has appeared in Atlanta Review, Rock & Sling, The Windhover, and The Comstock Review. Please read more of her work at her website.

Laura Reece Hogan is the author of Litany of Flights (Paraclete Press, 2020), which won the 2020 Paraclete Press Poetry Prize, the chapbook O Garden-Dweller (Finishing Line Press, 2017), and the spiritual theology book I Live, No Longer I (Wipf & Stock, 2017). A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she has contributed to America, First Things, The Christian Century, The Cresset, Dappled Things, Whale Road Review, and other publications. She can be found online here.

Fred Johnson is an English professor at Whitworth University in Spokane, where he teaches courses in American literature and film studies. He writes about comics and immigrant stories and rock bands. He writes poems. He always thinks there's going to be something amazing in abandoned places and among discarded things, and sometimes there is. He’s been known to unscrew broken machines, and sometimes he can fix them.

Dallas Lee is a journalist and author of The Cotton Patch Evidence, the Story of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm Experiment (Harper & Row), a book that chronicles events leading to creation of Habitat for Humanity. His poetry has been published by South Florida Poetry Journal, The Cortland Review, Connotations Press, The Boiler Journal, Starry Night Review, Prometheus Review, and Poetry Leaves. He is a native of Graham, Texas, a graduate of Baylor University, and lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife Mary.

Margaret Mackinnon work has appeared in a range of journals, including Poetry, New England Review, Crab Orchard Review, and Los Angeles Review. New work will appear in 2020 in Image, The American Journal of Poetry, Blackbird, and Alaska Quarterly Review. Her first book, The Invented Child, was awarded the Gerald Cable Book Award and the 2014 Literary Award in Poetry given by the Library of Virginia. A chapbook, Naming the Natural World, won the Sow’s Ear Poetry Review chapbook competition and was published in 2018.

Chloe Martinez is the author of the chapbook Corner Shrine (forthcoming from Backbone Press). Her poems have appeared in Waxwing, Prairie Schooner, The Common and elsewhere. A Best New Poets nominee and a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she is the Program Coordinator for the Center for Writing and Public Discourse at Claremont McKenna College, as well as Lecturer in Religious Studies. See more online here.
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Jonathan McGregor's creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including Gulf Coast, Image Journal, Ruminate Magazine, Dappled Things, Leaping Clear, and Proem. He teaches writing and literature at Newberry College in South Carolina and is a poetry editor for War, Literature & the Arts.

Angie Crea O’Neal’s poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Sycamore Review, The Windhover, Perspectives Journal, Cumberland River Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, The Way Things Fall, was published by Anchor & Plume Press in 2017. She holds the Joan Alden Speidel Chair in English at Shorter University in Rome, Georgia, where she lives with her daughters.

Kimberly Ann Priest is the author of Slaughter the One Bird (Sundress Publications 2021) as well as chapbooks Still Life (PANK 2020), Parrot Flower (Glass 2020), and White Goat Black Sheep (FLP 2018). Winner of the 2019 Heartland Poetry Prize in the New Poetry from the Midwest anthology by New American Press, she is currently an Assistant Professor of First-Year Writing at Michigan State University, an associate editor for the Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry and a reader for Embody at The Maine Review. Find more of her work here.

Helena “Nellie” Sullivan is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Carson City, Michigan.

Sally Thomas is the author of a poetry collection, Motherland (Able Muse Press 2020), a finalist for the 2018 Able Muse Book Award. Her short story "A Fire in the Hills" received the J.F. Powers Prize for short fiction and appears in the summer issue of Dappled Things. Her poems have also appeared recently or are forthcoming in First Things, Forma, Local Culture, North American Anglican, and Plough Quarterly. She lives with her family in North Carolina. 

Anna Trujillo lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where she coaches running and Nordic skiing and spends as much time as she can on the trails. Her fiction has appeared in Ruminate and the Anchorage Daily News. She will graduate from Seattle Pacific University with an MFA in Creative Writing in August.

Natalie Vestin is the author of the chapbooks Gomorrah, Baby (Anchor & Plume, 2017) and Shine a light, the light won’t pass (MIEL, 2015). Her essays and art have appeared in Territory, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, The Normal School, and elsewhere. In June 2020, she was part of the Pandemic Artist Lab, hosted by Kasini House and Tulane University Special Collections. Natalie works as an infectious disease researcher in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Lawrence Wray’s poem, "Near the Moment of Passing, Clocks," can be found in the anthology Verse Envisioned. His collection, The Night People Imagine, has twice been a finalist for the Antivenom Prize at Elixir Press, and his poem “Behind Closed Eyes” was recorded by poet Gray Jacobik for a project called In This Together at The Arts Cafe Mystic. Lawrence’s poems have appeared in journals such as Crab Orchard Review, Presence, Poetry Salzburg Review, Indiana Review, Innisfree Poetry Journal, The Dark Horse, and Pittsburgh Poetry Review. A poem is forthcoming at Coal Hill Review.