The Avalon Literary Review
Contributors Spring 2023
Jan M. Alexander has published short stories in Peregrine, Primavera, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, and Grasslimb Journal (under another name). She enjoys writing different types of stories, including literary, fairy tale, and paranormal. In her spare time she nurtures orchids, paints watercolors, and enjoys walking with her husband near her home in New Jersey.

Chuck Augello is the author of A Better Heart and The Revolving Heart, a Best Books of 2020 Selection by Kirkus Reviews.  His book Talking Vonnegut: Centennial Interviews and Essays features conversations with writers, scholars, and filmmakers about the life and work of Kurt Vonnegut. For more, visit www.cdawriting.com.  

Julie Boutwell-Peterson holds a PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of South Dakota. Her writing has appeared in a number of publications including Rathalla Review, Litro, and The Lutheran. She is currently working on a children's fantasy novel as well as a collection of creative nonfiction essays that blend cultural critique, literary criticism, memoir, and popular science. This fall, she will begin teaching in the Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky.

Paul Bowman's one-act plays have been staged in twelve states and in Australia.  Three short plays and twenty stories have been published in literary journals.  He is currently converting an unpublished (and probably bad) novel into a brilliant screenplay.

K.C. Brote is a New England native who now calls Las Vegas her home. Her work has been featured in publications such as Huffington Post and Psychology Today, and she has won awards for her short fiction. Her latest book, Love Lost on Cloud 9 - a domestic suspense thriller set in the summer of 1978 - (release date May 23rd) will be available at your favorite online retailer. To learn more about K.C. Brote and her writing, visit her website at www.kcbroteauthor.com.

Daniel Cozart has been an English professor, a Peace Corps volunteer, and, most recently, a stay-at-home dad. His poems and short stories have appeared in The Auburn Circle, Foliate Oak, Windrow, and the horror/sci-fi anthology Dreams in Shadow. You can learn more about him and his works at www.danielcozart.com.

Jeannette de Beauvoir is a bestselling novelist of mystery, historical, and literary fiction, as well as a poet whose work has appeared in the Emerson Review, Blue Collar Review, Wild Violet, ZINDaily, Grande Dame Literary, The Raven’s Perch, The Adirondack Review, Perception, and The New England Review, among others. More at www.jeannettedebeauvoir.com.

Johanna DeMay grew up in Mexico City, the bilingual child of American parents. Resettled in New Mexico, she made her living for forty years as a studio potter. Now retired, she writes and volunteers with the immigrant community. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals. Waypoints, a full collection of her work, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2022.

Steven Fromm is a native of Detroit currently residing in New Jersey. His work has appeared in several publications, including Thin Air, Salamander, The Columbia Journal and The Midwest Review. His short play, Sister Bea's Full Branzino, was recently produced in London.

Bill Garten's poem I Lost was a semi-finalist in the 2022 James Applewhite Poetry Prize competition from the North Carolina Literary Review. Bill’s book, Asphalt Heart was published by The Main Street Rag in 2018 and its chapbook version was a finalist in The Comstock Review’s 2017 Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Contest. 

Joanne Holdridge lives in Devens, MA and has recently published poems in Coal City Review, Illuminations, Talking River Review, and Poem. She has work forthcoming in Green Hills Literary Lantern and has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize. Pre-plague, she spent winters on skis in northern New Hampshire.

J.D. Isip’s poetry and prose collections include Kissing the Wound (Moon Tide Press, 2023) and Pocketing Feathers (Sadie Girl Press, 2015). His third collection, tentatively titled I Wasn’t Finished, which will be released by Moon Tide Press at the end of 2024 or early 2025. J.D. teaches at Collin College in Plano, Texas, where he lives with his dogs, Ivy and Bucky.
 
Jennifer B. Kahnweiler is a non-fiction author and a poet based in Atlanta, GA. A favorite aunt gifted her with a book of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poems and she was hooked. Jennifer received the Natasha Trethewey poetry prize from the Atlanta Writers Club in 2022.

Sharon Lopez Mooney, a retired Interfaith Chaplain from the End of Life field, lives in Mexico & part-time in California. She received a CAC Grant in ’78 for a rural poetry series and co-published an anthology. In ’22, she was a “Best of the Net” nominee, and chosen for “Editor’s Choice” and “Elite Writer Status”. Mooney’s poems have appeared in national and international literary publications. Mooney's work is indexed at: www.sharonlopezmooney.com

Erik Priedkalns is an attorney, non-practicing by choice, and does not want to go back. Currently he lives in a small farming town on Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan with his wife and dog. He hopes to one day become a farmer himself and writes about his experiences on www.gaijinerik.com.

 
Andy Roberts is the author of three chapbooks from Pudding House Publications and five from NightBallet Press. Recent publications include A Gathering Of The Tribes, American Life In Poetry, Mudfish, The Midwest Quarterly, and The Sow's Ear Poetry Review.

David Sapp, writer, artist, and professor, is a Pushcart nominee. His work appears widely in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. His publications include chapbooks Close to Home and Two Buddha, a novel Flying Over Erie, and a book of poems and drawings titled Drawing Nirvana.

Hibah Shabkhez is a writer of the half-yo literary tradition, an erratic language-learning enthusiast, and a happily eccentric blogger from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has previously appeared in Black Bough, Zin Daily, London Grip, The Madrigal, Acropolis Journal, Lucent Dreaming, and a number of other literary magazines. Studying life, languages, and literature from a comparative perspective across linguistic and cultural boundaries holds a particular fascination for her. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/HibahShabkhez

  
Chere Taylor enjoys wasting many hours of her life buried in a good book or binge watching bad cinema on Netflix. You can find her stories in Another Realm, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, The Chamber, Granfalloon, Potato Soup Journal and Books ‘n Pieces Magazine. She’s also been known to lurk around her Inkitt account at https://www.inkitt.com/chereevans.

Susan C. Waters started out as a journalist covering hard news and later was a science editor and writer. She has won 10 prizes in poetry and has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry. Her chapbook Heat Lightning was published in 2017 by Orchard Street Press. 

Sigrid Wilson writes fiction and poetry. She also teaches literature and writing, and is a freelance editor of academic essays and fiction pieces. She lives with her family in Northern Virginia.