The Avalon Literary Review
Contributors Fall 2021

Robert Ackerman is a former New Yorker living in Florida. His poetry was published in the Dillydoun Review. He also writes greeting cards and worships all things nerdy.

Cathy Allman entered the writing field as a reporter after attending the school of Cinema and Television at the University of Southern California. While her career shifted gears from writing to advertising and marketing she never stopped writing or attending workshops, eventually earning an MFA from Manhattanville College. Her poem, Not in the Wonder Box has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

After spending almost 20 years chasing facts for The Boston Globe, Marte Carlock decided it was more fun to make things up. Her poems and short fiction have appeared in more than thirty publications.

Steve Cushman has published three novels, including Portisville, winner of the 2004 Novello Literary Award.  His first full length poetry collection, How Birds Fly, is the winner of the 2018 Lena Shull Book Award. Cushman lives with his family in Greensboro, NC, where he works in IT at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital.

Denise David is a writer, poet, and teacher, as well as the daughter of a British War Bride. Her poetry collection, Against Forgetting: War, Love, and After War published in 2020 by Shanti Arts Press, provides an intimate witnessing of the lives of extraordinary ordinary women, the war brides, part of the largest migration of women in history. 

Penny L. Ferguson has two published poetry collections, Clarity That Is Darkness (Borealis Press, 2003) and Runaway Suite: Two Voices (Hidden Brook Press, 1997). Her work is published, performed and recorded in Canada, the US and England. She is/has been Writer-in-Residence at the Nova Scotia Teachers College, a co-founder/editor of The Amethyst Review, a member of the Writer's Council of the Writers Federation of NS and vice-president of the Canadian Poetry Association.

After a thirty-year career in the museum profession, Alan Gartenhaus now lives on the Island of Hawaii, where he farms and writes fiction. His work has been published in Broad River Review, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Entropy Magazine, Euphony Journal, The Evening Street Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Ignatian Literary Magazine (recipient of the Editor’s Choice Award), moonShine Review, New English Review, Paragon Journal, Penmen Review, Running Press, Santa Fe Literary Review, Smithsonian Press, and Writer’s Workshop Review  among others.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Poetry Salzburg Review and Hollins Critic. Latest books, Leaves On Pages and Memory Outside The Head are available through Amazon. He has work upcoming in Lana Turner and International Poetry Review.

Lee Grossman is a retired psychoanalyst and photographer who began writing for publication in 2020, at age 73. Since then, his short stories, plays and essays have appeared in at least eleven different literary venues. His photographs can be seen at www.leegrossman.net.

Dinamarie Isola uses poetry, and prose to explore the isolation that comes from silently bearing internal struggles. In addition to working on her first novel, she writes a blog, RealSmartica, employing her storytelling style to help others better understand personal finance. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Apricity Magazine, borrowed solace, Courtship of Winds, Evening Street Review, Five on the Fifth, Nixes Mate Review, No Distance Between Us, Penumbra Literary and Art Journal, and Potato Soup Journal.

James Croal Jackson (he/him) is a Filipino-American poet working in film production. He has two chapbooks, Our Past Leaves (Kelsay Books, 2021) and The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017). He edits The Mantle Poetry from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (jamescroaljackson.com)

Diane Kendig’s fifth poetry collection is Woman with a Fan: On Maria Blanchard. A recipient of awards from the Ohio Arts and National Humanities Councils, she has published in journals such as The Ekphrastic Review, Under the Sun, and Wordgathering. For 20 years, Kendig directed creative writing at the University of Findlay, including a prison writing program and she currently curates, Read + Write: 30 Days of Poetry, with 7,000 subscribers. Find her at dianekendig.com

Anita Kestin, M.D., M.P.H., is a physician who has worked in academics, nursing homes, hospices, public health, and the locked ward of a psychiatric facility.  She is also the daughter (of immigrants fleeing the Holocaust), a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a progressive activist.  Although she has been writing for many years, she has only started to submit work (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) during the pandemic.  Her first non-scientific piece was accepted for publication when she was 64 years old.

David P. Langlinais’ second short story collection (UL Press) launched last year. His work has also appeared in South Dakota Review, Concho River Review, Los Angeles Review, Big Muddy, The MacGuffin, Raleigh Review and others. He currently lives in Dallas with his wife and daughter where he works as a freelance copywriter.

Eleanore Lee has been writing fiction and poetry for many years in addition to her regular job as a legislative analyst for the University of California system. Her work has appeared in a range of journals, including Alabama Literary Review, Atlanta Review, Carbon Culture Review, Existere Journal, Flumes Literary Journal, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Portland Review, and Tampa Review. She was selected as an International Merit Award Winner in Atlanta Review’s 2008 International Poetry Competition and she won first place in the November 2009 California State Poetry Society contest.

Vicki Mandell-King has been writing poetry for most of her life, even during a thirty-year law career, practicing criminal defense. Her poems have been published in a variety of literary journals, and she has published four collections, titled: Tenacity of Lace, Shrinking into Infinite Sky, Hurry, Open the Gates and Singing My Pockets Empty. 
Matt McGuirk teaches and laughs at his puns by day and scribbles somewhat coherent words nightly. He lives with his family in New Hampshire. BOTN 2021 nominee with words in Bear Creek Gazette, Daily Drunk Magazine, Maudlin House, Purple Wall Stories, Sledgehammer Lit, Versification and others. Twitter: @McguirkMatthew Instagram: @mcguirk_matthew. 

Zoe Messinger’s work has been featured in Onthebus, Hobart, Litbreak, (mac)ro(mic), Good Works Review, Penumbra, and Peter Greenberg Worldwide. As a cook, she ran a food truck in Milan and Amsterdam, worked in LA-restaurants, and ran a popup. She's performed comedy in venues from LA to New York City to Paris. 

Grace Phillips is a writer from Danville, IN. They are currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Butler University. More of their work can be found on gracewritesbooks.com


Alita Pirkopf graduated from Middlebury College and much later received a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Denver. Thankfully a poetry seminar and continuing help from Bin Ramke freed her to write.
Chris Ritter is a Philadelphia native living and working in South Jersey. His work has appeared in several journals, most recently in the summer 2021 edition of Philadelphia Stories.

Harvey Silverman is a retired physician who writes nonfiction primarily for his own enjoyment. His nonfiction stories have appeared in Queen's Quarterly, Ocotillo Review, Evening Street Review, and elsewhere.

Elisa Stancil Levine’s essays recently appeared in Entropy Magazine; Stirring: A Literary Review; and Writer’s Workshop Review.  Elisa is the founder of Stancil Studios, a nationally recognized, award winning decorative art company. This or Something Better, A Memoir of Resilience will be published June 2022. www.elisastancil.com

Heidi Turner is a writer and musician from Maui, Hawai'i. She earned her MA in English from Azusa Pacific University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Fiction at the University of New Hampshire. Heidi is currently writing her second full-length collection of fiction. You can follow her work on Twitter @hi_dturner and at her website, www.hidturner.com.

Lauren Voeltz enjoys drinking coffee, reading lit mags, and solving a variety of puzzles. She lives in farm country, in northern Minnesota. You can find her work at Youth Imagination, trampset, TL;DR and on twitter @mattnwife 

Robert Wilson is banker in New York City and a student at The Writers Studio.  He has a passion for his wife, two daughters, God and fiction.   He hopes to hone his craft and, one day, write a  science fiction novel.  

Terri Yannetti is a Connecticut-based newspaper writer. Her poetry has been published in Texas Review, and will appear in the winter edition of Canary Literary Journal.