Blog

Sofiya Ivanova has known she wanted to be a “rhyme-writer” since she was three years old. Born in Moscow, Russia, she was eight years old when she moved to the U.S., where she learned English from scratch and had to adapt to an entirely new culture. Her poetry was published for the first time in the Sunday Mornings At The River Spring 2020 Anthology; she was fourteen years old. Sofiya’s work is heavily inspired by contemporary spoken word and 1950s Beat poetry, as well as feeling everything too deeply, teenage melodrama, and the gorgeous landscape of Colorado.

Sindhu Rajasekaran is a literary nomad and transgressor of genres. She has published a novel titled Kaleidoscopic Reflections, which was nominated for the Crossword Book Award in India. Her collection of short stories, titled So I Let It Be, was published by Pegasus Publishers, UK. Her latest book of non-fiction, Smashing the Patriarchy – A Guide for the 21st Century Indian Woman, is to be published by the reputed Aleph Book Company. In her work, both fiction and non-fiction, Sindhu explores gender and sexuality, language and landscape, contemporary politics, and existential dilemmas.

Michaela Dengg started writing poetry in 2015. In 2019, she started publishing poems on Instagram under the pseudonym ‘Mariam,’ a combination of her first and middle name. Her poetry frequently deals with the concept of ‘home’ and ‘home far away from home’. She usually writes short poems and aphorisms with powerful wordplays.

Anna K. Dalton is a mother, and teacher of all things atypical in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She spends her days helping others find their own inner voice on the yoga mat, or stretch their creative limbs at the pottery wheel, and in front of a sewing machine. Anna uses writing as a personal outlet; a small escape from the busyness of everyday life, and the inevitable chaos that comes from living with a six-year-old. This is her first published work.

Stephanie Johnson’s poetry has appeared in numerous publications including Witty Partition, Sink Hollow, Forum Literary Magazine, and others. She is an Associate Editor at Novel Slices, a new literary magazine based solely on novel excerpts, and has spent most of her adult life teaching English literature, ESL and Spanish in several countries around the world. Her writing often focuses on the slightly uncomfortable space of the expatriation/ repatriation experience. She is currently based in Sydney, Australia.

Ritwika Maity (she/her) is from a crowded metropolitan city where you can barely see the stars at night. She writes to paint constellations on her night sky. She became a poet at the age of 8 when a teacher asked Ritwika to read a poem she wrote for an assignment in front of the class. The teacher said she really enjoyed it and encouraged Ritwika to keep writing. Her grandfather gifted me a notebook later that month, and she has never stopped writing poetry since. A few years later, when her grandfather passed away, writing poetry made Ritwika feel closer to him and helped her to deal with the grief.

Elsie has always had a love of the written word, spending many hours reading the marvellous works of inspiring authors. She has been writing since elementary school and recently has been putting work out for others to see. She has had work published in two online magazines, now joining others in print with this COVID anthology.

Lydia Price is a Kentucky poet who is currently in love with the world at large. She is a sophomore at Taylor University where she is majoring in creative writing and minoring in professional writing. She has been published in Taylor University’s literary magazine, Parnassus, and she continues to seek out other publishing opportunities on her own. She is in the process of putting together her very first poetry collection and looks forward to sharing her work with the world.

Emmanuella Hristova was born in Oakland, California and grew up in the Bay Area. She is the third daughter to Bulgarian parents who immigrated to California shortly before she was born. She began drawing at the ripe age of four, and studied the fine arts for five years in high school. There, she received many art accolades including a Congressional award for her piece Boy in Red in 2009. In 2015, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She began writing poetry at age twenty-four when she was in graduate school.

Shaylee is pursuing a PhD in Biochemistry in Galway, Ireland. Poetry keeps her sane. She uses it throughout her day in the lab, reading and writing during incubation times. Science poetry makes up a large part of her personal writing and has also spurred an involvement in the online poetry journal Consilience, which publishes peer-reviewed science poetry.

Rachel Jeffcoat is a poet, writer and editor. She has had work published in Dear Damsels, Fourth Trimester Magazine and Huff Post. She lives in an old house in the South-East of England, with her family and approximately ten thousand books.

Kaci Skiles Laws is a closet cat-lady and creative writer who reads and writes voraciously in the quiet moments between motherhood and managing Crohn's Disease. She grew up on a small farm in a Texas town alongside many furry friends, two sisters, and a brother. She has known tragic loss too well, and her writing is a reflection of the shadows lurking in her psyche.