Thirty-three talented poets, dramatists, writers, and artists came together and made Issue 19 a reality. Read their works in Stonecoast Review Issue 19, now available for purchase from local bookseller Kelly’s Books to Go.
Yael Valencia Aldana is a Caribbean Afro-Latinx writer and poet. Yael and her mother and her mother’s mother and so on are descendants of the indigenous people of modern-day Colombia. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Florida International University (FIU). Her work has appeared or is upcoming in Typehouse, The Florida Book Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, and Slag Glass City, among others. She lives in South Florida with her son. Valencia Aldana is on Instagram @Yaelwrites and Twitter @Yaelwrites71. She can also be found at YaelAldana.com.
Kellam Ayres’s poems have appeared in New England Review, Guernica, The Cortland Review, and are forthcoming in Ninth Letter and On the Seawall. Her first manuscript, In the Cathedral of My Undoing, was named a 2023 Alice James Award finalist. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program, she works as a librarian at Middlebury College. She can be found at www.kellamayres.com and on Twitter @KellamAyres.
Charles Byrne is a writer and teacher in San Francisco with poems recently published or forthcoming in Meridian, New American Writing, and Notre Dame Review. He has read submissions for RHINO Poetry and Autumn House Press.
Dinah Cox has published three short story collections; Remarkable (BOA Editions), The Canary Keeper (PANK Books), and the forthcoming The Paper Anniversary (Elixir). Her individual stories have appeared in Redivider, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere.
Terence Degnan is the author of three books of poetry. His most recent work, I Can Wonder Anything was published in March of this year. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. He can be found on Twitter @terencedegnan, GI @terencedegnan, and FB @TerenceLDegnan.
Jennie Evenson is an alum of Tin House Summer Workshop ’22, and has work in Ninth Letter, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, Flash Fiction Online, and Every Day Fiction.
Benjamin Faro is a green-thumbed writer currently pursuing his MFA at Queens University of Charlotte, where he served as poetry editor for Qu Literary Magazine. He is also the editor of Equatorial Literary Magazine. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appears or is forthcoming in EcoTheo Review, Nimrod International Journal, Portland Review, TIMBER Journal, West Trade Review, and others. He can be found at www.benjaminfaro.com or Instagram @may_your_problems_end.
Jessica Goodfellow’s poetry books are Whiteout (University of Alaska Press, 2017), Mendeleev’s Mandala, and The Insomniac’s Weather Report. A former writer-in-residence at Denali National Park and Preserve, she’s had poems in The Southern Review, Ploughshares, Scientific American, Verse Daily, Motionpoems, and Best American Poetry. Jessica lives and works in Japan. She can be found at.
Kelly Gray’s writing appears or is forthcoming in Witness Magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Permafrost, Trampset, and Rust & Moth, among other places. She writes about what she knows or is trying to know; parenting, eco-grief, mental health, dead things, monsters, prophetic animals, relationships to self and others, and rural life. She can be found at writekgray.com and @_west_of_west.
Mike Guerin is a writer of stories and a roarer of poetry from rural North Cork in the south of Ireland. He won Listowel’s Bryan McMahon short story award in 2022 and was placed in competitions at Kanturk Arts Festival and Ballydonoghue Bardic Festival. He has had work included in ‘New Irish Writing,’ ‘The Same Page Anthology,’ ‘Howl,’ ‘The Martello Journal,’ ‘The Galway Review’ and ‘The Hoogly Review.’
Rachael Hanel is the author of Not the Camilla We Knew: One Woman’s Path from Small-town America to the Symbionese Liberation Army, a work of narrative nonfiction released in 2022 by the University of Minnesota Press. Her memoir, We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger’s Daughter (2013, University of Minnesota Press), was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. Her essays have appeared in online and print literary journals such as Bellingham Review and New Delta Review. She teaches creative nonfiction at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Summer Hardinge returned to writing after stepping away from teaching high school English. Frequently digging in her garden or hiking on the C & O Canal, Summer feels at home in the natural world. Her poetry may be found in The Ekphrastic Review, The Rappahannock Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Peregrine. Summer is the 2019 recipient of First Place in the Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Bethesda Urban Partnership. Summer lives in Maryland and leads Amherst Writers and Artists workshops in the Washington D.C. area.
Russell Karrick is a poet/translator living between New York and Colombia. He has won translation awards from World Literature Today and Lunch Ticket. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming from Bat City Review, The Offing, Spoon River Poetry Review, Blue Earth Review, and Magma Poetry, among others.
Stefanie Kirby lives and writes along Colorado’s Front Range. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and appear or are forthcoming in Passages North, Portland Review, Qwerty Magazine, The Offing, DIALOGIST, and elsewhere. She is on Twitter @MsStefanieKirby.
Tamara Kreutz is a poet residing in Antigua, Guatemala, where she writes and teaches high school ELA at a small international school. She is currently pursuing an MFA through Pacific University’s Low Residency Program, and her work has been featured in publications such as Rattle’s Poets Respond, Cathexis Northwest, and Verse-Virtual. She can be found online at https://www.instagram.com/tamara_kreutz/.
Marisa Lainson (she/they) is a queer poet from Southern California. She recently earned her MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where she served as Poetry Editor of Faultline Journal. Their work appears in The Journal, Poet Lore, The Pinch, Frontier Poetry, Peatsmoke Journal, Foothill Poetry Journal and elsewhere. Lainson can be found at marisalainson.com and IG @risa_lainson.
Steven Lang’s work has appeared in the anthology Fiction on a Stick, published by Milkweed Editions, in the book The Art of Wonder, published by the University of Minnesota Press, and in the literary journals CutBank, Chestnut Review, and Slush Pile Magazine.
Nadja Maril is a former magazine editor and journalist living in Annapolis, Maryland USA. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at University of Southern Maine (Winter 2020) and her work has been published in literary magazines that include: The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Lunch Ticket, and Invisible City Literary Review. She is currently working on a novel and additional credits include weekly blogposts at Nadjamaril.com.
Shannon Marzella is a poet and teacher from Connecticut. Her poetry has been published in several publications including Cauldron Anthology, Glacial Hills Review, San Pedro River Review, Last Leaves Magazine, and is forthcoming from Evening Street Review and #SPIRIT Anthology. She is pursuing an MFA in Creative and Professional Writing from Western Connecticut State University.
Will McDonald is originally from Minnesota but currently lives in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in the Village Voice and the Bushwick Daily.
Laura Leigh Morris is the author of The Stone Catchers (UP Kentucky, forthcoming) and Jaws of Life (West Virginia UP, 2018). She teaches creative writing and literature at Furman University in Greenville, SC.
Serena Norr is a writer, playwright, and founder of Let’s Make a Play, a playwriting program for kids and adults. Norr’s plays examine the inner workings of the human psyche, specifically through the lens of women who are oppressed, controlled, and emotionally struggling in a variety of ways. She writes plays that are psychologically layered and reflective that question society and its impact on women, mothers, and girls while placing a lens on stereotypes. She is also a member of the Dramatists Guild, Westchester Collaborative Theatre, Cut Edge Collective, and a participant in the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and National Women’s Theatre Festival (WTF) Directing Program (2022) and Producing/Directing Program (2023). For more information, visit http://www.serenanorr.com/.
Kerry Neville is the author of two collections of stories, Necessary Lies, which received the G. S. Sharat Chandra Prize in Fiction and was named a ForeWord Magazine Short Story Book of the Year, and Remember to Forget Me. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Gettysburg Review, Epoch, Triquarterly, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere. Her fiction and nonfiction have been named Notables in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays
Andrew Payton graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing and Environment from Iowa State University in 2014. His poetry has been published in The Journal, Third Coast, Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, Rattle, and elsewhere, and won the James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review. He lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia with his partner and children. Payton can be found at @adpayton.
Ayvaunn Penn (Columbia University Dean’s Fellow) is an African-American playwright passionate about theatre for social change. Best known for her play *For Bo* (Eugene O’Neill NPC Finalist), the work of this emerging playwright has been seen by audiences within the USA and internationally. Penn is also a TCU theatre professor.
Kimberly Ann Priest is the author of Slaughter the One Bird, finalist in the American Best Book Awards, and chapbooks The Optimist Shelters in Place, Parrot Flower, and Still Life. She is an associate poetry editor for Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry and assistant professor at Michigan State University. Priest can be found on IG kimberlyannpriest.poet, and Twitter kimberlyann.poet.
Michael Rogner is a restoration ecologist, self-taught poet, and husband battling stage IV cancer. His work appears or is forthcoming in Willow Springs, Bellingham Review, Crab Creek Review, Barrow Street, Moon City Review, and elsewhere. He can be found at @MCRogner.
Amy Scheiner’s writing has been featured in Slate, Blue Mesa Review, The Southampton Review, and Longreads. She is currently seeking representation for her memoir.
Justin Smulski is an emerging writer with no publication history. By trade, an editorial and outdoor/adventure photographer, his poetry is inspired by time exploring the quiet spaces of Maine. He can be found on Instagram @tidetopine or online at www.tidetopine.com.
Sarah Dickenson Snyder lives in Vermont, carves in stone, & rides her bike. Travel opens her eyes. She has four poetry collections, The Human Contract (2017), Notes from a Nomad (nominated for the Massachusetts Book Awards 2018), With a Polaroid Camera (2019), and Now These Three Remain (2023). Poems have been nominated for Best of Net and Pushcart Prizes. Recent work is in Rattle, Lily Poetry Review, and RHINO Poetry. Her website is sarahdickensonsnyder.com.
Helena Steel is an Anglo-Italian writer from London. She runs creative writing workshops for children and loves her “job”! When not working with words, she plays with them and dream about them. Her poetry is inspired by life, from the daily mundane to big life-changing events. Her website is www.storyroom.co.uk.
Liam Strong (they/them) is a queer neurodivergent cottagecore straight edge punk writer who has earned their B.A. in writing from University of Wisconsin-Superior. They are the author of the chapbook everyone’s left the hometown show (Bottlecap Press, 2023). You can find their poetry and essays in Impossible Archetype and Emerald City, among several others. They are most likely gardening somewhere in Northern Michigan. They are on Twitter/Instagram @beanbie666.
Sage Tyrtle’s work is available or upcoming in New Delta Review, The Offing, and Apex among others. She reads for Hippocampus and Fractured Lit. Her words have been featured on NPR, CBC, and PBS and she’s been nominated three times for Pushcart, once for Best American Short Stories. She runs a low cost online writing workshop collective.
Thank you to our contributors. Thank you to our readers. And thank you to our tireless editors and first-readers for another issue out of the imagination and onto the shelves.
Submissions for Stonecoast Review Issue 20 open on August 1st. Get your work ready!