<%@ Language=VBScript %> Contributors - Mused - the BellaOnline Literary Review Magazine
MUSED
BellaOnline Literary Review
Red Shouldered Hawk by Al Rollins

Table of Contents

Contributors
Mark Berkery Mark Berkery

Mark was born to itinerant Irish parents which set the scene for a restless life. Like the Gypsy, he couldn´t accept the moribund values of a soulless society, what passed for important or posed as spiritual. The resulting roller-coaster of experience and inner conflict eventually gave way to a love of the simple sense of nature that he now lives - the best he can - as a form of meditation. He expresses his ongoing exploration of nature´s spiritual value through his writing and pictures at www.beingmark.com

Francine L. Billingslea Francine L. Billingslea

Francine L. Billingslea has been published in over 22 anthologies, including Chicken soup for the soul, Thin Threads, Whispering Angel and Silver Boomer books, The Rambler magazine and 8 times in Mused BellaOnline Literary Review, just to name a few. She has authored her memoir titled "Through it all and Out on the other side," which can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Xlibris.com She loves traveling, writing and spending quality time with her husband Wilson and loved ones.

Joshua Bocher Joshua Bocher

Joshua Bocher´s poetry has appeared in such journals as Illuminations, The Germ, The Brown Literary Review, Subliminal Interiors, and A Handful of Stones. He works in public health non-profits in the Boston area and lives with his wife in Somerville, MA.

Carole Bouchard Carole Bouchard

Carole Bouchard is a self-taught photographer with a deep passion for this art form. Though she had an interest in this medium for many years, it was digital photography that fired her creativity. Fortuitous meetings with on-line friends and mentors pointed the way to more creative experiments. She particularly enjoys macro photography of nature subjects and the magic of water reflections. You can see more of her work at www.carolebouchard.smugmug.com. Carole lives in Groton, MA.

Mary J. Breen Mary J. Breen

Mary is the author of two books about women´s health, and her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in national newspapers, essay collections, travel magazines, health journals, and literary magazines. She lives in Peterborough Ontario Canada where, among other things, she teaches memoir writing with seniors.

Christine Catalano Christine Catalano

An English Lit major in college, Christine slipped into publishing by becoming the artist that had been lurking inside all along. She worked happily in graphics for many years. Now liberated from daily deadlines, she tries to tempt her muse with camera, Photoshop, and the occasional poem. Some of her artwork has been published in the San Pedro River Review, Crack the Spine, and Mused, among others.

Ashton Christie Ashton Christie

Ashton, 52 lives just south of Austin, in a town where one get into serious trouble when they snitch their Dad´s cameras. Passions include the Blues, BBQ ~ cooking it and eating it ~ and photography. The photobug took hold of Ashton early in life from the time she was given that Kodak Instamatic and her love for photography has grown from that moment. Ashton loves to travel, whether it´s the US or just exploring the back roads of Texas....looking for BBQ joints and photo opportunites.

Bob Evans Bob Evans

A late-comer to art photography, Bob spent his early career working in engineering. He finds that creating something from nothing gives a tremendous rush. Bob strongly believes in taking the subject ‘as-is’ - no posing, no moving of the subject matter. It is capturing the essential essence of the subject matter that is vital to him. As well as photography, Bob is also a keen sculptor and abstract painter. Visit ArckArts.com or follow on FaceBook.

Elaine Frankonis Elaine Frankonis

Over the past 50 years, Elaine Frankonis has published poems in a variety of small presses and magazines. Her weblog, Kalilily Time (www.kalilily.net) has been active online since 2001. You can read more about her in the "About" section there. Having retired from the New York State Education Department in 2000 to be the caregiver for her mother, who had dementia, she now lives with her daughter, son-in-law, and home-schooled grandson in Western Massachusetts.

Janet Sleeper Frostad Janet Sleeper Frostad

Janet Sleeper Frostad is a Puget Sound poet who is not ashamed to admit that she still loves the song Mandy. Janet first began to write as a way to navigate adolescence. Now, in the uncertain waters of middle age, she has picked up the pen again. Being an active poet requires her to slow down and take a longer, more loving look at life, which she considers a gift. Janet lives with her husband and two active young daughters who inspire her each day to live artfully and with gratitude.

Debi Gardiner Debi Gardiner

Even as a young child, Debi gravitated towards artistic pursuits. Photographing with her Kodak brownie camera at about 5 years of age and oil painting from age 10, her interests eventually lead her to college where she received a BFA in design, and a career in graphic design. Her company Gardiner Design is approaching 25 years in business. Specializing in logo design, illustration and web-design. Visit her website at: http://www.gardinerdesign.com

Mike Gordeev Mike Gordeev

Mike Gordeev is a mechanical engineer who lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina. When he´s not designing and testing aerospace components, he restores motorcycles and peers through the lens of a Nikon D90. He wishes it was a D610.

Tara Lynne Groth Tara Lynne Groth

Tara Lynne Groth is a full-time freelance writer residing in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Her poetry has surfaced in MUSED, Iodine Poetry Journal, and has won several contests. When she is not writing she is learning to ride a 1976 KZ400 motorcycle her boyfriend restored for her. writenaked.wordpress.com

Dixon Hearne Dixon Hearne

Dixon Hearne is the author of several books, including: Native Voices, Native Lands and Plantatia: High-toned and Lowdown Stories of the South, which was nominated for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN award and won the Creative Spirit Award-Platinum for best general fiction book. His work has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and appears in Louisiana Literature, New Plains Review, Cream City Review, Hawai´i Pacific Review, Wisconsin Review and widely elsewhere. Visit www.dixonhearne.com

Art Heifetz Art Heifetz

Art Heifetz teaches ESL to refugees in Richmond, Va. He has had over 100 poems published in 11 countries. In 2013 he was nominated for a Pushcart and won second place in the Reuben Rose International Competition in Israel. A sampling may be found at polishedbrasspoems.com

Thomas Hollyday Thomas Hollyday

Tom Hollyday currently edits the popular YOU GOT THAT RIGHT daily video broadcast on YouTube (YOU GOT THAT RIGHT BY THOMAS HOLLYDAY) with comments on science, books, cartoons, pets, education, automobiles, and people. He studied fiction at the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and with Michael Curtis of the Atlantic Monthly. He has published drawings, non fiction, and fiction in various media. He lives in Boston with his wife, two children and his cat. See books and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Wynne Huddleston Wynne Huddleston

Wynne Huddleston is a poet, musician and teacher. Her poetry has appeared in various publications including Birmingham Arts Journal, The Mom Egg, and Calliope Nerve. Workshop Leader for the 54th Mid-South Poetry Festival(2011) in Memphis, TN, Ms. Huddleston was selected 2014 Mississippi Poetry Society Poet of the Year. Her first book, Where Muscadines Grow, published by the Mississippi Poetry Society, is forthcoming this year. For more information please see http://wynnehuddleston.wordpress.com/

A.J. Huffman A.J. Huffman

A.J. Huffman has published five solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. Her sixth solo chapbook will be published in October by Writing Knights Press. Her work has appeared in hundreds of national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, Kritya, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.

JackiGail JackiGail

JackiGail began taking pictures to have unlicensed art for her website business. In 2005, she started to show her art work at art shows and fairs. A member of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, she participates in their Art At the Source program each year. She enjoys the whole process of photography from making the picture to printing to framing. Her work is unaltered and what she sees is what you get. www.jackigail.com

Terri Johansen Terri Johansen

Terri Johansen is a health and fitness writer, however she enjoys writing creative non-fiction and poetry as well. She is the Exercise Editor at Bellaonline.com and has written an E-book titled "Exercise Basics" drawing from content on her site. Another of Terri´s artistic outlets is photography. She feels she has a keen eye for the "unusual", and especially loves taking photographs of wildlife and nature. She has had several published photographs.

Kim Kenney Kim Kenney

Kim Kenney is a professional writer and curator. Her hobbies include cooking, gardening, practicing yoga, cross stitching, going to car shows and dabbling in photography. Kim´s fiction, non-fiction and photography have appeared in past issues of Mused. She is the Museums Editor at BellaOnline.

Sheila McKeane Sheila McKeane

Sheila McKeane lives in the vibrant community of Montclair, twelve miles west of New York City. Her work appeared in the Midwest Literary Magazine, the Bicycle Review, Minus the Box and the Iconoclast. She studied at the Center for Fiction, the Unterberg Poetry Center and the Gotham Writers Workshop. She also studied fiction with Myla Goldberg and Gordon Lish. Sheila and her partner in crime, Tom, are busy raising their two children, three cats and two dogs…or is it the other way around?

Amitava Nag Amitava Nag

Amitava Nag writes poems & fictions in English and Bengali. Amitava’s topics mostly veer on the sub-alterns. A radical himself, his stories mostly deal with an individual’s denial of the system. Amitava also edits cinema magazine “Silhouette” and writes extensively on cinema.

Cornelia L. Oancea Cornelia L. Oancea

Cornelia is a Romanian-born, New Jersey-raised and North-Carolina-settled writer of fiction — both short and long — and nonfiction. She was bitten by the writing bug over two decades ago and hasn’t stopped scratching the itch since. She’s also an unabashed tea guzzler, casual yogi and dog lover. Her website is http://cornelialoancea.com

Carl "Papa" Palmer Carl "Papa" Palmer

Carl "Papa" Palmer, retired Army, retired FAA, now just plain retired, lives in University Place, WA. He has seven chapbooks and the contest winning poem riding a bus somewhere in Seattle. MOTTO: Long Weekends Forever www.authorsden.com/carlpalmer

Catherine Rain Catherine Rain

Catherine Rain, 61, lives on Florida´s east coast. Wife, mother, and grandmother Rain is also a certified life coach and social researcher. She incorporates into her writing, themes of interest to midlife women. She’s currently working on two women’s novels and a how-to guide for wives married to ADD men. She’s previously published in Simple Joy e-zine and has authored technical manuals for federal agencies.

Mary Rodriguez Mary Rodriguez

Mary Rodriguez resides in Wisconsin with her husband. Her short stories have appeared in WISCONSIN PEOPLE & IDEAS, COUNTRY WOMAN, and the WISCONSIN REVIEW. Her poems have been featured in WISCONSIN POETS calendars.

Al Rollins Al Rollins

Al Rollins is a retired Local Government Budget Manager. Al loves to travel the USA with his wife, Janet, and photograph all the wonders of this great country.

Sue Russell Sue Russell

Raised in Montana and transposed to the mid-west, Sue Russell finds her inspiration in the mountainous wilderness of her childhood. As a practicing psychologist/psychoanalyst, she brings the richness of human emotional experience and dream symbolism to her writing.

Lynx Sainte-Marie Lynx Sainte-Marie

Lynx Sainte-Marie is an afrogoth, feminist, poet and survivor who resides in the Greater Toronto Area. She is the creator & curator of Queer of Gender, a site that looks to showcase marginalized and multi-issue folks with “nontraditional” gender identities and/or expressions. Her interests include but are not limited to poetry, intersectionality, privilege and oppression, black feminism, gender, mental health and various forms of spirituality. Her blog: http://lynxsaintemarie.wordpress.com

April Salzano April Salzano

Recent Pushcart nominee, April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two sons. She recently finished her first collection of poetry and is working on a memoir on raising a child with autism. Her work has appeared in journals such as Convergence, The Camel Saloon, Deadsnakes, Montucky Review, Visceral Uterus, Salome, Poetry Quarterly, Writing Tomorrow and Rattle. The author also serves as co-editor at Kind of a Hurricane Press.

Donna Sciandra Donna Sciandra

Donna has always been adventurous and loved to travel. She spent two years in Jamaica (as a teacher trainer in Kingston) and five years in the Solomon Islands on Guadalcanal (as a Community Developer in a rain forest living in a leaf house) with the Peace Corps. Donna is now a retired elementary school teacher who is enjoying her “free” time traveling and photographing North America.

Lisa Shea Lisa Shea

Born in Maryland, Lisa Shea has been contentedly nestled in the rolling hills and mossy forests of central Massachusetts since 1995. She is drawn to the ocean and cherishes quiet evenings as the orange glow of sunset glistens across wooden docks. Lisa relishes the challenge of conveying meaning and memorable characters in a measured bounding of time and space. Her stories, poems, and images celebrate natural beauty and serenity. Enjoy thousands of her photos at http://www.lisashea.com

Craig W. Steele Craig W. Steele

Craig W. Steele resides in the countryside of northwestern Pennsylvania, not far from Lake Erie. When not writing poetry, he’s a professor of biology at Edinboro University. Besides Mused: the BellaOnline Literary Review, his poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies, literary journals and magazines, most recently in The Lyric, Ottawa Arts Review, The Autumn Sound Review, Halcyon and Stone Path Review, amongst others.

Katie Stephens Katie Stephens

Katie Stephens holds a BA in Music Education and English, a masters in Music, and was a teacher and contributing author for music curriculum in the state of Maryland. Her first fiction publication, “Final Letters,” appeared in the Summer 2012 volume of Mused. Katie’s story in this volume, “Home,” won second place (prose) in the fourth international contest hosted by Spark, A Creative Anthology.

Emily Strauss Emily Strauss

Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry. Over 150 of her poems appear in dozens of online venues and in anthologies. The natural world is generally her framework; she often focuses on the tension between nature and humanity, using concrete images to illuminate the loss of meaning between them. She is a semi-retired teacher living in California.

Jody Zolli Jody Zolli

Jody Zolli has enjoyed writing poetry since she was seven. Poetry runs in the family, though, as both her mother and grandmother wrote poetry, and had a knack for doggerel verse. Jody has enjoyed being a technical writer for thirty years, and feels it is the perfect marriage between creative writing and engineering.

Ellen Erlanger
Ellen Erlanger submitted the artwork entitled Butterfly Passion, Grace, Purple Gallinule and Two Baby Anhingas.


Lisa Hodges
Lisa Hodges submitted the work entitled Hiding Places.


Vanessa Horn
Vanessa Horn started writing in 2012, during a sabbatical year from her job as a Junior School Teacher. She has had several successes in short story competitions and at the moment is working on two full-length novels: one for adults and one for younger children. Now spending equal amounts of time on teaching and writing, she feels she has achieved the ideal working week!


Lisa Dworkin Kerr
Lisa Dworkin Kerr has been writing poetry for the past 35 years having started as an editor for a literary magazine in her teens. She is a former choreographer and was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant for choreography. Now she divides her time between writing poetry, making jewelry in her studio in Cannon Beach Oregon, salsa dancing, and working as a public defender in Seattle, Washington.


Stacy Link
Stacy lives with her cats Bill and Ted in the high desert of Southern California. She got her start writing poetry shortly after she moved here. She could see the stars at night, follow the earth´s movement during the seasons by where the sun was rising and setting, and hear the birds. In the open spaces and calm, she could remember people saying pretty much all her life how well she wrote. She decided to start listening.


Eleanor Moore
Eleanor Moore has written a number of short stories which challenge presumptions of identity, many of which have a ‘twist in the tale’. Her submission for the Spring 2014 edition is an example of this. Eleanor is based in the UK. Alongside writing and editing educational material, she is currently studying Creative Writing and working on her first novel.


Sarah Corbett Morgan
Sarah Corbett Morgan grew up in Oregon where she learned not everything is black and white. Now she lives in Costa Rica where shades of gray cover an entire spectrum. She lives in the jungle with her husband, three dogs, and lots and lots of howler monkeys. Morning walks along the Caribbean are a favorite pasttime. You can find more of her writing on her website: www.scmorgan.com