<%@ Language=VBScript %> Contributors - Mused - the BellaOnline Literary Review Magazine
MUSED
BellaOnline Literary Review
Drone Fly by Mark Berkery

Contributors
Manijeh Badiozamani Manijeh Badiozamani

Manijeh Badiozamani is a memoirist and writes about her experiences growing up in Teheran, Iran, where she was born. Her short stories and articles have been published in magazines, anthologies and on the Web. She is an adjunct professor of English at Arapahoe Community College in Colorado. She is currently working on her collection of short stories, "Family Tales from Teheran: A Different Sort of Life".

Amy Baird Amy Baird

Amy Baird is an amateur photographer just getting her start by capturing whatever falls in front of her lens that inspires her. Mostly she enjoys local shots in the Hill Country of Central Texas. She has also had opportunity to visit Alaska and Colorado where she was surrounded by beautiful landscapes and an abundance of wildlife. These trips ignited her passion for her camera and whatever is wild and beautiful she can find beyond her local neighborhood.

Chaitali Banerjee Chaitali Banerjee

Chaitali Banerjee is a scientific consultant by day. At night, she metamorphoses into a writer of fiction, essays and short poems. Her work has appeared in research journals and online literary magazines. She lives in upstate New York.

Jeff Bell Jeff Bell

Jeff Bell is a poet and musician originally from South Shields, North East England. He is now currently living in London, UK. His music can be heard at http://myspace.com/quangomusic.

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

Lori S. Blake Lori S. Blake

Lori Blake is a writer and hobby photographer from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Joy Carter Joy Carter

Joy Carter is a student at Alma College and will be graduating in the spring of 2013. This is her debut as a published writer.

Christine Catalano Christine Catalano

Christine is an English major who slipped into publishing by tapping into her artistic muse. She worked happily as a graphic artist and art director for many years. Now liberated from daily deadlines, she keeps her muse satisfied with camera and Photoshop. Some of her artwork has been published in the East Hampton Star, Fiction at Work, the San Pedro River Review, Crack the Spine, and Mused.

Brittney Cleark Brittney Cleark

Brittney Cleark, Magnolia lover, moonshine sipping, Mississippi Native is currently searching for adventure in Chicago’s plentiful alleys. She is a second year graduate student at Chicago State University. Her days are spent attempting to craft the next epic-epic and her nights are for convincing family members that Creative Writing is an actual degree.

David Cooper David Cooper

David L. Cooper has taught at Jefferson Community and Technical College in Louisville, Ky. for twenty-eight years. He teaches English and African American History. In 2011, he won the state´s highest college level teaching award, The Acorn Award. In 1995, he received a University of Kentucky Great Teacher Award and in 1996 he received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study the Great Black Migration at the University of Kansas. He has an a son, Sean, and a daughter, Rachel.

Rachelle Crockett Rachelle Crockett

Chelle is a 23-year-old, happily-married woman born and raised in small-town America, now living in Southern California. Encouraged by her fiance, after he spotted her creative eye and love of photographic art, Chelle grabbed her camera and jumped in with both feet, creating Inspired By Chelle photography, which now strives to re-connect people with God, nature, and the beauty that lies within us all. To view all of Chelle´s artwork, please visit inspiredbychellephotography.zenfolio.com

T.A. Cullen T.A. Cullen

T. A. Cullen lives and works in Madison Wisconsin and is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. He has a BS from Cardinal Stritch University and an MBA from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Tom’s work has appeared in Mused before and has also been published in the Wisconsin Poets´ Calendar 2010, 2011 and 2012. His work will also appear in Gutter Eloquence in July and in the Wisconsin Poets ‘Calendar 2013.

Amanda Daly Amanda Daly

Amanda Daly is a recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University (FAU), located in Boca Raton, Florida. She holds a Bachelor´s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing. Amanda currently works at a dance studio, where she also attends classes in ballroom, modern, and hip-hop dance. In her limited free time, Amanda attends various writers´ workshops around her community. She is preparing for the spring of 2012, when she will begin her studies in FAU´s MBA program.

Elizabeth Devine Elizabeth Devine

Elizabeth Devine is currently attending a Georgia Community College in the pursuit of a degree in Communications. She was first published at the age of sixteen in "O Georgia, too!" an anthology of poetry and fiction by young authors. She plans to write both poetry and fiction for many years to come.

Amanda Beth Dill Amanda Beth Dill

AJ McGilbra is just a girl who writes and occasionally gets paid for it. She´s recently finished with her BA in English Education--and has no earthly idea what to do with it. In addition to academia, she has several projects going in the poetry and creative non-fiction arenas as well as witty retorts in bathroom stalls. AJ grew up in Southern Oklahoma. www.ajmcgilbrapoetry.com

Stacey Dye Stacey Dye

Stacey writes to touch people. Her favorite subject is the human condition. Her love affair with words is life long and she collects them on rocks, jewelry and through music and memorable quotes. She lives in Georgia with her husband Dennis and her critters Izzy and Elly. Credits include Touch: The Journal of Healing, BluePrintReview and previous issues of Mused. www.stace-onawhim.blogspot.com

Sue Ellis Sue Ellis

Sue Ellis lives and writes near Mt. Spokane in Washington State. Some writing credits include Christian Science Monitor, Prick of the Spindle, BluePrint Review, Flash Me Magazine and Front Porch Review.

Dawn Engler Dawn Engler

Dawn Engler lives on the outskirts of Austin Texas. In her spare time, around her full-time job and family responsibilities, she enjoys exploring the great outdoors and writing. Once thinking she could write fiction, she realized she has no knack for making stuff up! Non-fiction allows her to speak her truth, and focus on the here and now of the moment.

Lee Evans Lee Evans

Lee Evans was born in Maryland, spent most of his life in that state, and is currently living in Bath, Maine. His poems have appeared in such journals as Four and Twenty, Poetry Porch, The Christendom Review and Anon. He has produced four poetry collections, which are available on Lulu.com.

Lauren Bailey Fawcett Lauren Bailey Fawcett

Lauren Bailey Fawcett earned a Master of Science degree in Education and works with at-risk youth. A rather indecisive person with varied interests, she enjoys writing in multiple genres, including Fantasy, Western, and Historical, as well as children’s stories. Her most recent work was published in The Lorelei Signal. She resides in rural Pennsylvania with her husband, Patrick, and a cat, Yumo- who happens to play fetch.

Michele Fleming Michele Fleming

Michele Fleming has been an avid reader her whole life. She took up pen and paper five years ago and has been diligently honing her craft ever since. She currently has two novels under her belt, one of which is slated to be published soon. You can enjoy more of her writings at Faithwriters.com where she has received “Highly Commended” honors on several of her short stories. Also, look her up on facebook or stop by for a visit at, www.micheleflemingauthor.weebly.com.

Jes Friday Jes Friday

Jessica Friday Dormady is a Charlotte native that recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a B.A. in English. Her passion for reading and writing has inspired her to become an adult literacy tutor. She is currently working towards her M.Ed in Adult Education at NC State.

Lois Elaine Heckman Lois Elaine Heckman

Lois Elaine Heckman grew up in Los Angeles, receiving a degree in Italian from UCLA. She now lives in Milan, Italy, where she has been a Red Cross nurse and first aid instructor. Among her writing credits are Boston Literary Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, Tilt-a-Whirl, Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, LightenUp Online, and Prole. She won the 2010 New England Shakespeare Festival Rubber Ducky Sonnet Contest. She has recently discovered the poetry which is also to be found in photography.

Rachael Z. Ikins Rachael Z. Ikins

Rachael was born and raised in NY’s Fingerlakes region. She began writing poetry in 8th grade when an inspired English teacher taught poetry. The teacher made it possible for Rachael to publish her first poem. In recent years Rachael received several fellowships to Colgate’s writer’s conferences in Hamilton NY and to the Downtown Writers Center Retreat through the YMCA writing program in Syracuse. Rachael has won numerous prizes. Her chapbook Slide-show In The Woods was published by Foothills.

Gary F. Iorio Gary F. Iorio

Gary F. Iorio has an M.F.A. in fiction from the Iowa Writers´ Workshop He lives in Islip, New York and has been a real estate attorney since 1985.

Margaret Karmazin Margaret Karmazin

Margaret Karmazin’s credits include 132 stories published in literary and national magazines, including Rosebud, Chrysalis Reader, North Atlantic Review, Pennsylvania Review and Another Realm. Her stories in The MacGuffin, Eureka Literary Magazine and Licking River Review were nominated for Pushcart awards. Her stories have been included in Still Going Strong, Ten Twisted Tales, Pieces of Eight (Autism Acceptance), Zero Gravity, Cover of Darkness, and Residential Aliens anthologies.

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.

Barbara D. Krasner Barbara D. Krasner

Barbara Krasner lives and works in New Jersey. She holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is an adjunct professor in the English department of William Paterson University where she teaches children´s literature and creative writing. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Jewishfiction.net, the Jewish Women´s Literary Annual and Poetica. Visit her website at www.barbarakrasner.com.

Brenda Kay Ledford Brenda Kay Ledford

Brenda Kay Ledford is a member of the North Carolina Writers´ Network and the North Carolina Poetry Society. She´s listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Her work has appeared in "Asheville Poetry Review," "Pembroke Magazine," "Appalachian Heritage," and other journals. She received the Paul Green Award for her poetry chapbooks, Patchwork Memories, Shew Bird Mountain, and Sacred Fire.

Marie Livick Marie Livick

Marie Livick is a native of Los Angeles and a blooming Baby Boomer. For the past year, she has taken classes offered through the UCLA Extension Writers´ Program. Her inspiration comes from her 88-year-old mother, who lives close by, and Marie’s circle of friends, many of whom have aging parents.

Iain Gordon Maciver Iain Gordon Maciver

Iain currently lives in Washington D.C., but usually resides in Edinburgh. He is a history doctoral candidate and his poetic inspirations are Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath and Ezra Pound.

Sheila Moore Sheila Moore

Sheila resides in the Midwest region of the United States with her husband and daughters. She captures as much as possible through pen, camera lens, and paint brush. Her work appears on-line and in print. She has written for Writer´s Digest, dVerse Poets Pub, and currently writes for The River Journal where she also serves as photography editor and graphic artist. Sheila´s Photography & Art website: Aberrant Art at http://aberrantart.wordpress.com

Cynthia Parker Cynthia Parker

Cynthia Parker is a writer of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. She is currently working on a collection of short stories, poems, and essays that reflect Southern life. She secretly has a passion for science fiction and fantasy. She is also the editor of the Single Parents site at BellaOnline.com and a member of the Mused team, both in the Poetry and Fiction departments.

Hazel Quigley Hazel Quigley

Hazel Quigley is a 23 year old Irish poet and writer. Her poetry has been published both online and in print by publishers such as Forty Ounce Bachelors, Empirical Magazine and Contemporary Literary Horizon. She is currently working on her first collection of poetry, which she hopes will be the first of many. In 2011 she moved to Austin TX where she currently acts as an editorial contributor for Black Heart Magazine. Check out her blog www.betweencloudsandmeadows.blogspot.com

Rinzu Rajan Rinzu Rajan

Rinzu Rajan writes in an attempt to shear away from the boudaries of cliche. Research in the field of biology and social blogging occupy the rest of her time and devotion. Despite the lack of formal training, Rinzu has written poetry in over 30 forms. Her work has featured in Bicycle Review, Houston Literary Review, Barnwood review, Red River Review, Muse India, Copperfield Review, Corvus, Adanna Journal, Asia Writes amongst others. She blogs at www.rinzurajan.blogspot.in.

Armond Richards Armond Richards

Armond Richards once read that "truth is truth, to end of reckoning." And he reckons poetry to be the only truth to encourage wonder rather than knowledge.

Kristin Roedell Kristin Roedell

Kristin Roedell is a retired attorney. Select poems appear in Switched on Gutenberg, Tacoma’s City Arts, Sierra Nevada Review, Ginosko, and Amoskeag. She was nominated for DZANC’s best of the Web, 2010, and the Pushcart Prize, 2010. She is the author of two collections of poetry: Seeing in the Dark (Tomato Can Press 2009) and Girls With Gardenias, (Flutter Press 2011). Her third chapbook is forthcoming from Legal Studies Forum. Her online site can be found at http://cicadas-sing.ucoz.com/

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.

Iftekhar Sayeed Iftekhar Sayeed

Iftekhar Sayeed teaches English and economics. He was born and lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has contributed to The Danforth Review, Axis of Logic, Enter Text, Postcolonial Text, Southern Cross Review, Opednews.com, Left Curve, Mobius, Erbacce, Down In The Dirt and other publications. He is also a freelance journalist. He and his wife love to tour Bangladesh. http://iftekharsayeed.weebly.com/

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.

Bob See Bob See

Bob See has been actively interested in photography for many years. He enjoys taking images of air shows, wildlife, and landscapes. The camera used for all photos in this issue of Mused was a Canon 40D. Bob can be reached at his golfing site at http://enjoyma.com/golf/.

Lisa Shea Lisa Shea

Born in Maryland, Lisa Shea has been contentedly nestled in the rolling hills and mossy forests of 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

Mahalia L. Shoup Mahalia L. Shoup

Mahalia is a non-traditional English major with a writing minor student at Kent State University, Stark Campus, Canton, Ohio. She writes, picks cereals on the floor from her three kid´s mess, drinks coffee while vacuuming, listens to online short stories, and works on her English papers most midnights. Her husband looks forward to a scrumptious ginger soup meal during the weekends. She is also a columnist for the Ang Dyaryo Natin based in the Philippines.

F. S. Symons F. S. Symons

Frank Symons PhD lives on a large lake amidst ducks, geese, ospreys, hawks, eagles, three rare trumpeter swans, a dozen species of small birds, beavers, deer, coyotes, the occasional bear, and Jake the cat. When he´s not obsessing over the right words to convey sensuous images drawn from nature, he´s sailing or cross-country skiing or watching indie movies. Married, with six children, author of short fiction and non-fiction, he recently completed two feature-length screenplays.

Leslie Tribolet Leslie Tribolet

Leslie Tribolet lives on Kauai with her husband and animals. She studied at Santa Barbara Art Institute back in the 70’s concentrating on pencil portraits. She was introduced to the Genesis Heat Set Paints in 2007 and loved them because they are dried with heat, which speeds up the process of portrait painting. She has always been drawn to faces, so she decided to try her hand at painting them with Genesis with some good results. She hopes you enjoy what she does whether faces or fruit.

John Tzikas John Tzikas

John Tzikas is a Toronto based poet and lyricist. By day he is a mild mannered salesperson. He studied History at the University of Guelph Canada and Bachelor´s of Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay Canada. His work has appeared in Ditch Magazine, Quills, Long Story Short, MidWest Literary Magazine, P&W and Word Catalyst to name a few. John performs readings in coffee houses when they are available. In his spare time he cooks, works out daily and of course he writes poetry.

Ann Waller Ann Waller

Making her first ocean voyage at the age of five, Ann is an inveterate traveler. Her wanderlust has taken her to various parts of the U.S., Canada, both coasts of Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean, England, France, Portugal, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Monaco, Croatia, Montenegro, China, Hong Kong, and Ukraine. She has a particular fondness for Italy and has returned at least a dozen times to explore the country from the tip of the Alps to the southern shores of Sicily.

Charlotte Zang Charlotte Zang

Charlotte Zang is a public relations professional who makes her home near the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to business writing, she writes to inform and entertain on a variety of topics.

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 twenty five years, and feels it is the perfect marriage between creative writing and engineering.

Matthew Coleman
Matthew Coleman submitted the work The Logging Roads.


Michael Coughlin
Michael Coughlin submitted the work Don´t Take My Picture -- I´ll Look Fat.


Elizabeth Daigle
Elizabeth recently graduated from high school where she recently took photogaphy class and is now a budding photographer. Elizabeth plans to attend college in the fall.


Holly Day
Holly Day submitted the work Spelunker.


Julie Gesin
Julie Gesin was born in the former Soviet Union, where her love of reading and writing began. She immigrated to the United States in 1978. Currently Julie resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter. “I would like to dedicate this story to my friend Susan, who had lost her husband on May 11, 2012. Susan, also a writer, has been a source of encouragement and support to me for almost twenty years. “ Julie


Michael Harty
Michael Harty lives in Prairie Village, Kansas, where he writes poetry and practices psychoanalysis, not necessarily in that order. His poems have appeared in Texas Poetry Calendar, Third Wednesday, Pearl, and elsewhere, and have received awards in the Inter-Board Poetry Competition online.


Michael G. O´Connor
Michael G. O´Connor submitted the work A Winter Night’s Final Serenade.


Kim Rumford
Kim Rumford submitted the works Light from the Hidden Sun, Quiet Times and Swiss Village.


E. F. Schraeder
E. F. Schraeder submitted the work Training Bra.


Katie Stephens
Katie Stephens holds a BA in Music Education and English, a MM in Music, and is a contributing author for music curriculum in the state of Maryland. Katie has been writing fiction in secret for many years, and only after a disability forced early retirement from a career as a chorus and band director did she start pursuing writing in earnest. She now divides her creative urges between her home music studio and writing short stories and poetry. ‘Final Letters’ is her first fiction publication.


Vicki Vogt
Vicki Vogt has been a librarian at the Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library in Watertown, MA for 26 years. Although she has written poems most of her life, she has never submitted any poems till last year. Vicki is a member of a poetry group that started three years ago. Her poems have appeared in MOLT Journal, Haiku Journal and The Bashful Beaver. Her hobbies are writing poetry, reading, going to movies, calligraphy and loving her roommates’ seeing-eye dog.


Sonya Zalubowski
Before writing fiction, Sonya Zalubowski traveled the world as a journalist. Highlights included covering major events in Eastern Europe, ranging from the Polish Solidarity movement to the ultimate fall of the wall in Berlin in 1989. She returned to the states in the 1990s and moved to Portland, Or., a hotbed of creativity. That is where she hooked up with the "Dangerous Writers" and she thanks them for helping her in her efforts to make the leap from journalistic writing to the literary arts.


Summer Solstice 2012 Table of Contents