Meet the Complex Fairy Tale Tellers…
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016
We ask our authors for a photo in her, his, or other’s favorite chair– resulting in some quite intimate portraits, both non-glossy and noncommercial. More photos to come!
D. Glover graduated with a degree in graphic design from Brooklyn School of Design. He is an artist and writer, and takes no guff.
Paul-Newell Reaves is a poet and educator from Washington, D.C. His critical works have been published in SZ Magazine [formerly Schizophrenic Digest], RefWorks, and and chamberfour.com .
His poems have appeared in Dirty Chai Magazine, and extensively online, including thegimletmagazine.com , misfitsmiscellany.wordpress.com , and at defenestrationism.net , where he reads for twice annual contests.
R. El, Moorish American, living in the land of the occupied, seeks freedom through literature, especially etemology. As kin with the animal world, R. El seeks to communicate with all. False love, incomprehensible responsibility, these fuel his noble spirit.
When little, Kaley would curl up next to her father and listen to him read aloud. Together, they would read Little House on the Prairie, Nancy Drew, and Harry Potter. This bedtime ritual cemented Kaley’s love of reading and eventually her passion for writing. As a native Floridian, Kaley’s other hobbies include boating, scuba diving, and traveling. Recently, she has begun writing short stories for children in hopes of inspiring the same early love of reading that she experienced. “To Catch a Prince” is her first story published.
Freya Jackson is a young writer who suffers from depression, and is trying to write through it. She has previously been published in Empty Oaks and Writing Maps.
Heavy metal lover and cricket tragic, D.A. Cairns lives on the south coast of New South Wales where he works as an English language teacher and writes stories in his very limited spare time. He has had over 50 short stories published (but who’s counting right?) He blogs at Square pegs http://dacairns.blogspot.com.au and has authored four novels, Devolution, Loathe Your Neighbor, Ashmore Grief, and A Muddy Red River which is available now from Rogue Phoenix Press.
Katharyn Howd Machan, Professor of Writing at Ithaca College, holds degrees from the College of Saint Rose, the University of Iowa, and Northwestern University. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines (Nimrod, Yankee, The MacGuffin, Snake Nation Review, Hanging Loose, Dogwood, Runes, Slipstream, Beloit Poetry Journal, South Coast Poetry Journal, Hollins Critic, The Salmon, West Branch, Seneca Review, Louisiana Literature, etc.) and anthologies/ textbooks (The Bedford Introduction to Literature, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013, Poetry: An Introduction, Early Ripening: American Women’s Poetry Now, Sound and Sense, Writing Poems, Literature: Reading and Writing the Human Experience, etc.), and in 32 collections, most recently Wild Grapes: Poems of Fox (Finishing Line Press, 2014), H (Gribble Press, 2014), Belly Words: Poems of Dance (Split Oak Press, 2009), When She’s Asked to Think of Colors (Palettes & Quills Press, 2009), and The Professor Poems (The Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2008). In 2002 she was named the first poet laureate of Tompkins County, New York. Her poem “Tess Clarion: Redwing, 1888” received the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize from the University of Southern California (judge Dana Gioia) and Kent State University awarded her poem “Gingerbread” the Luna Negra Prize. In 2012 she edited Adrienne Rich: A Tribute Anthology for Split Oak Press. In 2014 Wild Grapes: Poems of Fox appeared from Finishing Line Press, as first runner-up in their 2013 chapbook competition.
1961. Birth. A good year for Bobs . . .
The first thing that you need to know is that this guy is a Geek. Not the chicken-head–consuming type, nor one of those that sports a pocket protector, thick glasses, and a book bag greater than his own body weight. He is the Universal Geek. Einstein and Lincoln were Geeks—and how about that Bill Gates? Such exalted company is not Bob’s: We recognize the famous Geeks because they are famous. Saying that Ritchie is a Geek like Steve Johnson is a Geek is meaningless. Fame imparts no Geekhood; Geekhood brings no fame. The world is full of Geeks, misfits, misanthropes. Often misunderstood or ignored, many are beautiful, creative, brilliant (maybe not on the level of Einstein). Some are just geeks.
Hailing from California, Bob Ritchie now lives in Puerto Rico. He has a fantastic wife and as many as five kids. Editing, yeah, teaching, sure, some translating. Ritchie (as his wife calls him) is a musician who is fortunate enough to have collaborated with Jon Anderson, a particular favorite. Bob (as he calls himself) is also a writer of stories and has written several things that might even be good. His work has appeared in Unlikely 2.0,Small Print Magazine,Prick of the Spindle, and other forums; two of his stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Neither won. Oh well. You’d think that, being a geek and all, he would have had an in.
Sohail Dahdal is a digital storyteller and an award winning multimedia artist. Sohail’s multimedia work, documentaries and short stories challenge the traditional form of storytelling and reframe it as a digital protest and a message for social change. Sohail is also a professor of media at the American University of Sharjah.
Edward Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. Have had over seventy stories and poems published thus far, as well as two books, a collection of my fairy and folk tales and a mystery/horror novella.
L.S. Sharrow spends a lot of time pondering the complexity of the universe and the nature of sons and grandsons, and hopes these men and boys in her life won’t wonder too much about why many of her stories are so weird. Her fiction for grownups has appeared in About Place Journal, Mused BellaOnline Literary Review, The Chicago Renaissance Court 2012 Anthology, and 50-Word Stories.
Kate Dlugosz is a 2015 graduate of Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in History. During her childhood, Kati felt an immense passion and connection with fairy tales, nature, history, and literature, and her love continued into her studies through the genres of Nonfiction and Fiction. In her own writing, she weaves tales of girlhood, femininity, magic, nature, and history together into one.
Emily Swaim is a freelance writer living in the sunny state of California. She has worn many hats, including rock climbing instructor, video game writer, and matchmaking assistant. Her zombie novella, “Living Ever After”, was published by Martinus Publishing in 2014 in the anthology “Life of the Dead”.
Alex Bernstein is a freelance writer in New Jersey and the author of Miserable Holiday Stories. His work has appeared at Corvus, BluePrintReview, Hobo Pancakes, Gi60, The Rumpus, The Legendary, The Big Jewel, MonkeyBicycle, McSweeney’s, Yankee Pot Roast, Swink, Litro, Back Hair Advocate, and PopImage, among others. Please visit him at www.promonmars.com.
Tara Campbell [www.taracampbell.com] is a Washington, D.C.-based writer of crossover sci-fi. With a BA in English and an MA in German Language and Literature, she has a demonstrated aversion to money and power. Previous publication credits include stories in Lorelei Signal, Punchnel’s, the WiFiles, Silverthought Online, Toasted Cake Podcast, Litro Magazine, Luna Station Quarterly, Master’s Review and Magical: An Anthology.
Maggie Kast is the author of A Free, Unsullied Land, a novel, and The Crack between the Worlds: a dancer’s memoir of loss, faith and family. A story excerpted from the novel won third place in the Hackney Literary Contests. She received an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has published fiction in The Sun, Nimrod, Carve, Paper Street and others. A chapter of her memoir, published in ACM/Another Chicago Magazine, won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and a Pushcart nomination. Her essays have appeared in America, Image, Writer’s Chronicle and elsewhere.
more Complex Fairy Tales
by 
by 
Our sphere