The Avalon Literary Review
Winter 2017

Terry Allen is an Emeritus Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he taught acting, directing and playwriting. He directed well over a hundred plays during his thirty-eight years of teaching.  A few favorites include: Candide, Macbeth, Death of a Salesman, and The Threepenny Opera. He now writes poetry and has been published in Fine Arts Discovery, Well Versed, I-70 Review, Freshwater Poetry Journal, Skylark Review, Chariton Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Garbanzo Literary Journal, Bop Dead City, Third Wednesday, Whirlwind Magazine, Star 82 Review, Interpretations IV, and Modern Poetry Quarterly Review.

LaRue Cook was a researcher, writer, and editor at ESPN The Magazine for seven years before returning home to Knoxville, Tennessee, where his new title is Existential Mess. During his limited free time, he drives for Uber and puts an MFA from Fairfield University to use writing short stories. You can follow his Uber Nights at My2ndFirstStep.com.

A former metropolitan New York college professor, John Darretta now lives in his "hermitage" on Cape Cod with cats, koi, and cranberries. He has written articles on American literature and Italian cinema and is the author of Vittorio De Sica (G.K. Hall) and Before the Sun Has Set: Retribution in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor (Peter Lang Publishing). His poetry has appeared in America Magazine, Penwood Review, Pilgrim Journal, Haiku Journal, First Literary Review-East, and other venues.

Daniel David is a writer, artist and professor living along the southern shore of Lake Erie in North America. His poems have appeared widely in a number of publications across the United States, in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Stacy Haller is from Groton, Connecticut. This is her first publication.

Rachael Hershon’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in A Quiet Courage, Poetry Quarterly, and Red Eft Review. She is originally from Framingham, Massachusetts and is currently an undergraduate studying English and Creative Writing at Brandeis University.

Ruth Holzer’s poems have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Connecticut River Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, The South Carolina Review, Slant and Blue Unicorn as well as in many anthologies. A six-time Pushcart nominee, she is the author of the chapbooks The First Hundred Years, The Solitude of Cities (Finishing Line Press, 2004, 2006) and A Woman Passing (Green Fuse Press, 2014). 

Sara Kersting is from Clearwater, New York.

Matthew Krajniak is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Houston. 

Brandon Douglass is from Chardon, Ohio.

David’s Langlinais’ work has appeared in South Dakota Review, Los Angeles Review, Big Muddy, The MacGuffin, and many others. His short story collection, Duck Thief and Other Stories (UL-Lafayette Press) was released last year. He currently lives in Dallas with his wife and daughter.

Kaye Lasky resides just outside Boulder, Colorado with her son, husband and beloved Lhasa Apso.

David Marquard is a writer and an assistant professor of English at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. He teaches writing, rhetoric, and linguistics. He has published in both academic and creative venues. 

Jason Reimund writes fiction and poetry in his hometown of Jefferson City, situated on the banks of the Missouri River. He is also an accomplished musician and songwriter, having performed with several area bands. Jason earned his MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University, and is a member of the Missouri Writers’ Guild.

Shana Ritter is a writer and educator. A long-time resident of Bloomington, Indiana, she is originally from New York. Shana is a three-time recipient of the Indiana Arts Commission Individual Writing Grant.  Her new book, Stairs of Separation, tells the story of her mother’s journey as an immigrant in the early 1920’s and can be found through Finishing Line Press.

Bradley Samore currently lives in North Carolina and is an English teacher.  In 2016, he was chosen as Beginning Teacher-of-the-Year in Palm Beach County, Florida.  He has been published in Words Apart.

James Santore is a teacher and writer living in Southeastern, Pennsylvania.

Kurt Schaefers is an aspiring writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working as an electrician.

Noel Wallace is a writer, translator, and poet. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, after graduating from university, she spent four years living abroad in Japan, teaching English at over twelve Japanese secondary schools. Achieving fluency in Japanese, she became an official lecturer and children's book translator for Tokyo Red Cross. She now resides in East Texas and devotes much of her time to writing novels and short fiction. Her English poetry and prose have been published in Quantum Fairy Tales and the Tyler Laurel. 

David Weiskircher grew up on a farm in the tree-studded hills of Ohio, but then moved to Florida where there are no trees. From there he made a short hop to Atlanta, a place that provided plenty of trees. He worked for Corporate America hoping he'd come to love it, but such was not the case. One day he looked beside him and found his love just standing there patiently waiting. More about him and his writing and art work can be found at www.flyinggeese.me.