Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression - Announcing Issue 2.2 Authors!

Announcing Issue 2.2 Authors!

Written by Coach Culbertson

Wednesday, 14 May 2008

We are very proud to announce our Authors for Issue 2.2! Once again, we bring you not only fresh new voices on the literary scene but also veteran authors with strong writing resumes. Read on to get to know who you'll be reading!

	Amanda Auchter Genesis Pyx The Ecstasy of St. Theresa Poetry Amanda Auchter is the editor of Pebble Lake Review and the recipient of the 2007 Theodore Morrison Poetry Scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the 2006 BOMB Magazine Poetry Prize, and the 2005 James Wright Poetry Award from Mid-American Review. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2006, Court Green, Crab Orchard Review, The Iowa Review, Poetry Daily, and others. She lives in Houston, Texas and is completing her MFA in Poetry from Bennington College.
	Elinor Benedict Mr. Malloy’s Miracle Fiction Elinor Benedict writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and she served as founding editor of Passages North literary magazine and Passages North Anthology. She won the Mademoiselle Fiction Prize years ago when she was an undergraduate, and she more recently won the Andre Dubus Short Fiction Award from Words and Images. Her poetry collection, All That Divides Us (Utah State Univ. Press, 2000), won the May Swenson Poetry Award. Her new collection, Late News from the Wilderness, is going the rounds. She is a grandmother who lives in Michigan and Florida and likes to dig in the garden.
	Mary M. Brown Memorial Service Paper Scissors Rock Feeling Fattheotokos Poetry I teach literature and creative writing at Indiana Wesleyan University and have published poetry and essays in a many journals including Artful Dodge, The Cresset, and Tar River Poetry. I have poems forthcoming in Alimentum, Fourth River, and Christian Century.
	Rubén Degollado Maggie Magic Fingers Fiction Rubén Degollado’s work has appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Bilingual Review, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Image and Fantasmas, an anthology of Chicano horror stories. He is a youth leader and board chair at Trinity Project, and has been part of that church family during his time in Oregon. He has been an educator for over eleven years and is now a middle school principal in the Hillsboro School District. Aside from writing, he enjoys spending time with his wife Julie, son Elijah and all of their friends.
	Elrena Evans Fitting In Editor’s Choice for Creative Nonfiction Elrena Evans holds an MFA from The Pennsylvania State University and is co-editor of Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life (Rutgers University Press 2008). Her writing also appears in the anthologies Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers (Random House 2006) and How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel (Seal Press 2008), and in Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, Episcopal Life, DreamSeeker, and Literary Mama, where she writes the monthly column Me and My House. She had no complications with her second pregnancy, and lives in Pennsylvania with her family. Her website is http://www.elrenaevans.com .
	Margaret Hammitt-Mcdonald This is My Body Apologia Medici Creative Nonfiction Margaret Hammitt-McDonald lives and practices naturopathic medicine in Gresham, Oregon. She enjoys writing science fiction, essays, and poetry, as well as reveling in the glories of the creation via hiking, dragonboating, bicycling, and tending to her organic garden, where generativity and entropy always exist together in dynamic tension. She enjoys life with her husband, Seth Goldstein, and nine rescued cats.
	Matthew E. Henry Theotokos Poetry MEH is an English/Philosophy teacher from Boston and Denver, who is currently working towards his MFA at Seattle Pacific University. MEH has works appearing in various journals and anthologies including Becoming Fire (ANTS), Coloring Book (RattleCat), Credenda Agenda, Poetry East, and Relief.
	Cathy James Speaking for Kingsley Editor’s Choice for Fiction Cathy’s short stories and essays have been published in Utne, Maelstrom, The Philosophical Mother, Ghoti Magazine, Victoria Press, Heliotrope, and WNCWoman, among others. Some of her writing awards include the Mona Schreiber Award for Fiction, a National League of Pen Womenâ€™s Soul-Making Literary Prize, and the best novel award in the Virginia-Highlands Creative Writing Festival. Her work has also been aired on Georgia Peachstate Public Radio and on the Isothermal public radio network across the south. One of those stories, “A Virgin Mary of Our Very Own,”won a National Public Radio News Director’s award. Most recently she recorded a series of short stories to be aired on public radio’s “River and Sound Review,” based in Seattle, Washington, in 2008. She teaches English at Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina.
	Mike Jurkovic 3000 and Counting Look No Less Upon These Eyes Poetry Co-director of the Calling All Poets Reading Series, Beacon, NY & founder/host of the annual Hudson Valley Poets Fest. Poems have appeared/are forthcoming in over fifty literary magazines, including South Carolina Review, Comstock Review, Xavier Review, Confluence, Baltimore Review, MSR, & Wisconsin Review. Anthologies: Riverine (Codhill Press, 2007), Will Work For Peace (Zeropanik,1999), Dyed-In-The-Wool: A Hudson River Poetry Anthology (Vivisphere,2001). CD reviews appear in Elmore Magazine, Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange. My column, The Rock ‘n Roll Curmudgeon, appeared in Rhythm and News Magazine 1997-2004. I loves Emily most of all
	Helga Kidder Hungry Mother State Park Zeitgeist Poetry Helga Kidder has lived in the Tennessee hills for 30 years, raised two daughters, a half a dozen cats, and a few dogs. She received a BA in English from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and an MFA from Vermont College, Montpelier. She is co-founder of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and leads their poetry group. Her poetry and translations have appeared in The Louisville Review, The Southern Indiana Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Eleventh Muse, Comstock Review, Snake Nation Review and others as well as in several anthologies.
	Carl Leggo The Agnostic’s Prayer Twelve Rifts for a Guitar With No Strings Poetry Carl Leggo is a poet and professor at the University of British Columbia where he teaches courses in English Education, writing, and narrative research. His poetry and fiction and scholarly essays have been published in many journals in North America and around the world. He is the author of three collections of poems: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill, View from My Mother’s House, and Come-By-Chance, as well as a book about reading and teaching poetry: Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom. Also, he is a co-editor of Being with A/r/tography.
	Marsha L. Mentzer Choosing the Casket Flowers Poetry Marsha Mentzer is a relatively new poet in a relatively old body. She has taught English at Carlisle High School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for 30 years and still lives to tell about it. She began writing seriously three years ago after a poetry workshop in Massachusetts, and her Carlisle writing group offers continued encouragement. Her inspiration comes from her husband’s thoughtful reflections, her son’s sardonic wit, and her daughter’s poetic sermons. She has had poems published in Main Channel Voices, Out of Line, and Ruminate.
	Karen Miedrich-Luo The World I Breathe Creative Nonfiction Karen is a writer and language coach who lives in Plano, Texas. She has a BA in Religion and Philosophy from the University of Georgia and a post-graduate English Lit degree from the University of Houston. She was a staff writer for Vision Magazine 2002-2005. She also spent three years teaching English, Writing, and History at Wuhan University in China where she met and married her husband, Brad. They have two daughters.
	Brad Molder Fondling Will Not Be Permitted During The Worship Service Fiction Brad has worked as a park ranger, a seventh grade math teacher, and instructor of composition and literature. He grew up in a town where mental patients wandered the streets. Also, this is his first publication, and he wishes to thank his family and friends for their support.
	Julie L. Moore Sighting Of Apples And Amnesia On The Ground In Ohio Poetry Julie L. Moore’s book, Slipping Out of Bloom, was selected as a finalist for Carnegie Mellon University Press’s Poetry Series in 2007, and her chapbook, Election Day, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2006. Her poetry has also appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Apple Valley Review, Blueline, The Christian Science Monitor, Flint Hills Review, The Fourth River, The MacGuffin, Sou’Wester, The Sowâ€™s Ear Poetry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Willow Review, and many others. An assistant fiction editor for The Antioch Review, Moore lives in Cedarville, Ohio where she directs the Writing Center at Cedarville University.
	Rick Mullin Aquinas Flinched Poetry Rick Mullin is a journalist and painter whose poetry has been published in several print an online journals including The New Formalist, Relief, Shit Creek Review, Contemporary Sonnet, and The Umbrella. His poem “Shrine to Satan” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Shit Creek Review. He lives in Northern New Jersey.
	Heidi Gabrielle Nobles Visible Invisible Creative Nonfiction Heidi Gabrielle Nobles earned her Master’s degree in English Literature from Baylor University, where she wrote her thesis on the American Book of Common Prayer’s Rite II as a literary art form. She is currently at the University of South Carolina, where she studies and teaches writing, and she is working on a book about the way writing shapes world religions and individual spirituality.
	Christopher Nye Hitched Together Poetry Christopher Nye lives in western Massachusetts and works for Orion Magazine. Previously he was a professor and college administrator. His poetry has appeared in Snowy Egret, Orbis, Kentucky Poetry Review, Pegasus, Berkshire Review, the online journal Lunarosity, and elsewhere, including anthologies. His recent children's picture book, The Old Shepherd's Tale, uses the Christmas story to bring a fresh perspective to the treatment of farm animals.
	Steven Ostrowski Mercy Poetry Steven Ostrowski lives with his wife and three children in Niantic, CT. He teaches at Central Connecticut State University. In 2006, Bright Hill Press published his chapbook, called In Late Fields. He is currently finishing a novel called The Highway of Spirit and Bone and a book of poems called Birds, Boys, God.
	Jendi Reiter Bride of Christ Fiction Jendi Reiter’s first book, A Talent for Sadness, was published in 2003 by Turning Point Books. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The New Criterion, Mudfish, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Alligator Juniper, MARGIE: The American Journal of Poetry, Best American Poetry 1990 and many other publications. She is the editor of Poetry Contest Insider, an online guide to over 750 literary contests, published by www.winningwriters.com . “Bride of Christ” is an excerpt from her novel-in-progress.
	Luke C. Schlueter Wanting Certain Things Poetry I don’t stare at ceilings as much as I used to since beginning teaching a few English classes each semester at Kent State University on top of my full-time job as Creative Director for the Institute of Reading Development. I fall like a stone into depths when I put my weary head down. Which isn’t to say I don’t surface for air when one of the three kids calls out at 3 a.m. (although usually my wife attends). Sometimes I think this patchwork existence is too much. At other times it truly feels like “Life’s Rich Pageant.” I’ve had other poems published in various small journals. I’m happy to have this one one published by Relief.
	Michael Schmeltzer Milk Poetry Michael Schmeltzer grew up in Yokosuka, Japan before moving to the Mid-West. After finishing his undergraduate degree in St. Paul, Minnesota, he moved to Seattle in order to pursue a graduate degree. He now holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. He has been published or has work forthcoming in Water~Stone Review, Sylvan Echo, and Hawaii Pacific Review.
	Marian Kaplun Shapiro After Holy War Eight Shaker Trees, Six Shaker Graves Poetry Marian Kaplun Shapiro practices as a psychologist and poet in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is the author of a professional book, Second Childhood (Norton, 1988), a poetry book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007) and two chapbooks: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line, 2007); and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House, 2007). A Quaker, she counts her husband, two children, and five grandchildren her greatest blessings.
	Michael Shay Baggage Fiction Michael Shay’s fiction and essays have been published in Northern Lights, High Plains Literary Review, Colorado Review, Owen Wister Review, Visions, High Plains Register, and In Short, a Norton anthology of brief creative nonfiction. His book of short fiction, “The Weight of a Body,” was published by Ghost Road Press in 2006. He was co-editor of the 2003 anthology, “Deep West: A Literary Tour of Wyoming.” A Colorado native, Michael has an MFA. in Creative Writing from Colorado State University and a BA in English from the University of Florida. He and his family live in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
	Jessica P. Shelenberger Apple Bread Blue Journeys Creative Nonfiction Jessica P. Shelenberger started her writing career as a city reporter for small dailies in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and during that time she earned Associated Press and Golden Quill awards. She is now seeking an MFA at Chatham University. A native of Bucyrus, Ohio, Jessica lives in New Wilimington, Pennsylvania, with her husband and son.
	Joanna Sit Song of December The Beauty of Men What’s Left in the Beginning Good Friday Poetry Joanna Sit has taught literature and creative writing at Brooklyn College, NYU and now teaches Composition at Medgar Evers College. Her work has appeared recently in Pegasus, Fickle Muses, Poem, and other literary journals. Her long poem, "Bitten by an Unusual fly," was included in the anthology Monologues From The Road, published by Heinemann Press in New Hampshire.
	Kate Strong Icon Editor’s Choice for Poetry Kate is an unabashed sentimentalist prone to flights of fancy borne on the back of a rampant imagination. She has been featured in such publications as Dog Horn Publishing, Polluto, and Languageandculture.net. She can be found at her burrow in Wenham, Massachusetts, contemplating the life of her favorite saint, Francis of Assisi, and somehow managing to find time to study for an English Language and Literature major at Gordon College.
	Cayce D. Utley Hagar The Earnest Life Poetry Cayce D. Utley has a Master’s Degree in Government from Regent University and a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.She lives and works in Falls Church, Virginia.Cayce is a true believer, a wife, a mother, an activist, and a writer. When she can take a breath, she blogs at http://inkedwell.wordpress.com
	Amy Wevodau At The Graveside Learning to Pray Poetry Amy Wevodau received her MA in Creative Writing in 2002 in the UK at Lancaster University. She has been a classroom teacher, but resigned last year to give more time to her writing. This shift has brought unexpected adventures and she is currently working as an education consultant, freelance writer and tutor. She moved for a short time to Kansas City but found being so far away from an ocean more difficult than she expected. She now resides in Denver and is currently contemplating a move back toward her native West Coast. She has recently published poetry in Crux and Radix and she is still learning how to pray.