Issue 5 Contributors

  • Kathryn Atwood’s poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous print and online journals and she’s currently awaiting the publication of her first non-fiction book, Women Heroes of World War II.
  • Kate Bergen is 29 years old and lives in Westchester County, New York, where she works for an International Non-Profit Organization. Her works have recently been published in literary magazines such as 2RiverView, The Battered Suitcase, and Terracotta Typewriter. She is an active member of the deviantART community and an annual participant in NaNoWrimo and Script Frenzy. When not glued to her keyboard writing, she enjoys being a closet hippy, attending music festivals, frolicking in nature, and painting. She is also working on publishing her first novel, The Free World, a satirical look at Western culture’s obsession with fame, violence, and wealth.
  • Born in Flint, Michigan, raised in the Detroit area, and ripening in California since the fall of 1992, John F. Buckley lives and works in Orange County with his wife, teaching at local colleges and chasing the poetic dragon. His work has been published in a few places, one of which nominated him for a Pushcart Prize.
  • Andrew Carralak is 20 years old and is currently studying Psychology at university. He has been doing amateur writing as a hobby for the past 3 years and has submitted most of his writing to the Deviantart.com under the username ‘carralak’. His writing tends to be dark, sci fi themes and includes Warhammer 40,000 Fanfic.
  • Stephanie Conn lives in Northern Ireland. Her poetry has been published in Ulla’s Nib, Speech Therapy, Ranfurly Review and on several websites including Get Writing NI. She is a primary school teacher and teaches poetry workshops in schools. Stephanie is completing an MA in Creative Writing at Queens University, Belfast.
  • Nadia Faydh is born September 12, 1978, Babel, Iraq. She belongs to middle class family, living in Baghdad, where she has finished most of her education. In 1996, she joined College of Education for Women, Baghdad University to study English Language. Growing more interested in English Literature, especially poetry, she went on in her studies till she completed her M.A in Modern American Poetry in 2003, then her Ph.D. in the same field in 2009. Currently she is teaching English poetry in the University of Mustanserya, Baghdad, Iraq.
  • Anton Frost is a poet living in Grand Haven, Michigan.  His poems have appeared in and out of thin air. He works nights in a hotel and resides in the third-floor apartment of a century-old house.  He spends the bulk of his time living, and the rest of the time writing about it.
  • Howie Good is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Lovesick, and 22 print and digital poetry chapbooks. With Dale Wisely, he is the co-founder of White Knuckle Press, http://www.whiteknucklepress.com
  • Mark Halliday
  • Kenneth W. Harmon lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife and four daughters. In 2009, he was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Zola Award. In 2010, his short fiction appeared in Amarillo Bay, Dark Fire Fiction, Bewildering Stories, Deadman’s Tome, Twisted Tongue Magazine, Weirdyear, 69 Flavors of Paranoia, Necrology Shorts, and FlashShot. He is currently working on a novel, The Devil’s Lament.
  • Laura B. Henry is a 20 year old college student who has been writing poetry since the age of eleven. She is currently Majoring in English at Oregon State University and may go on to pursue a career in teaching.
  • Chris Holdaway is an Honours student in Linguistics at Auckland University in New Zealand, immersed in the world of generative grammar. This is the second time he has been privileged enough to appear in Sparkbright. You can follow his work at http://panda-vision.deviantart.com for more frequent updates.
  • Sarah-Jean Holmes has been a tv trailer maker, ninja, voice over artist, nude model, corporate bitch and at one point was entrusted with half a million pounds. These days she wrangles IT consultants from 9 to 5 and dreams of having her little pictures sold in card shops. Her most challenging creation to date is due on Christmas Eve. Wish her luck!
  • Strider Marcus Jones
  • Peycho Kanev’s poems have appeared in more than 400 literary magazines, such as: Poetry Quarterly, Ann Arbor Review, The Catalonian Review, Midwest Literary Review, Chiron Review, Istanbul Literary Review, In Posse Review, Mascara Literary Review, and many others. He is nominated for the Pushcart Award and lives in Chicago . His new poetry collection Bone Silence was released in September 2010 by Desperanto , NY.
  • David Kerr, born in UK, has lived most of his life in Africa (working at Universities in Malawi, Zambia, and, at present, Botswana).  He is a practitioner of theatre and media for transformation and human rights, about which he has written widely, including the prize-winning, African Popular Theatre in 1995 (James Currey & Heinemann).  His collection of verse, Tangled Tongues, was published by Flambard in 2003, and a novel Passages, (under the pseudonym, Derrick Zgambo) in 2008 by Brown Turtle Press.  He has also published plays, articles, short stories and poems in many different parts of the world.
  • Steve Komarnyckyj is a  British Ukrainian writer and linguist whose literary translations and poems have appeared in Poetry Salzburg Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Vsesvit magazine (Ukraine’s most influential literary journal), The North and the Echo Room. He has been interviewed on Ukrainian television and by the Den (Day) Newspaper one of Ukraine’s most important daily papers based in the capital, Kyiv and participated in a round table discussion on the theme of Stalin’s genocide in Ukraine, with Ukrainian academics and writers at the Ukrainian Embassy in London on 10th June 2008. His Ukrainian language articles have appeared in 2000 a Kyiv (Kiev) based newspaper. He edits the holodomor.org.uk website and campaigns for Stalin’s mass genocide of Ukrainians to be officially recognised by the British government
  • Martin Lochner stays in Cape Town, South Africa He works as a Risk manager at an Insurance firm in the city. He has a love affair with his city and enjoys the cosmopolitan atmosphere and diversity it offers. His child is his biggest supporter listening and giving criticism to improve his poetry effort. Martin Lochner’s predominant theme is about the fragile human being and the life conditions that form his mind, spirit and body with the hope that all people will embrace everybody’s victories and hurt with unconditional compassion.
  • Matt Markle is a 20 year old undergraduate student living and learning in upstate N.Y. Although writing is not his major, nor his career, it is his passion, and as such it steals his moments and his mind and hijacks his hands and his computer. This passion is why his lab books are filled with poems and his chemistry notes have limericks in the margins. he has been published once before, in the previous release of this magazine, and will always love to share his work with those who want to read it.
  • Denny E. Marshall lives in Midwest and has NOT been published in hundreds of magazines. Since the end of the world is in 2012 and that seems to be the talk on many online sites, he would like to say hello to all the readers and contributors now.
  • Richie McCaffery, born 1986 in Newcastle now lives in Stirling and works in Callander. His poems have been accepted by Stand, Magma, Envoi, The Interpreter’s House, Northwords Now, Poetry Scotland and so on.
  • Author David R Morgan teaches 11-19 year olds at Cardinal Newman School in Luton, and lives in Bedfordshire with his wife and two children. His eldest daughter lives in The Isle Of Man. David has been an arts worker and literature officer, organizer of book festivals and writer-in-residence for education authorities, Littlehay Prison and Fairfield Psychiatric Hospital (which was the subject of a Channel 4 film, Out of Our Minds).He has had two plays screened on ITV.
  • Julien Edmund Moss has really been writing since age three but didn’t start to publish until age twenty-three. He has graduated high school and community college with an A.A. degree and is currently attending Seattle University to pursue a B.A. in English/Creative Writing. He lives at home with his Mom.
  • Steve Nash is a writer from York.  He is the poetry editor of Open Wide Magazine and has been anthologised by both Carillon, and Forward Press.  He will also be featured in the Grist Anthology of New Writing later this year.  Further examples of his work can be found at http://starlighttocasualmoths.blogspot.com/.
  • Nikul Patel is a British-Indian author and an editorial director at The Lion Lounge Press.
  • Jessica Payne is a third year Mathematics student at the University of Birmingham in central England. She is an avid writer, photographer and artist, and is an active member of the deviantArt community.
  • Anna G. Raman’s work has appeared in The Guindy Times, Poetidings, Sangam Literary Magazine, The DuPage Valley Review, and most recently in the anthology titled River Poems published by Lilly Press. She lives in Iselin, New Jersey with her husband and daughter.
  • Jamie Robertson has spent the last six years studying psychology and education, writing in his spare time. He is now working full-time, and hopes to continue refining his writing.
  • Nicola Scholes was born in Hyde, England, in 1975, and emigrated to Australia in 1986.  She is the author of Dear Rose, a chapbook of poetry published by Small Change Press in 2009 (www.smallchangepress.com.au).  Nicola is currently researching a PhD on representations of the maternal in Allen Ginsberg’s poetry at the University of Queensland, Australia.
  • Renée Sigel was born and raised in South Africa. Her work has been noted, lauded as well as banned. She was forced into political exile in the mid 190′s when she relocated to Switzerland. Since settling in northern Italy, Renée Sigel´s literary voice has flourished. She launched the original Literati Magazine in 2004. She was nominated for the 2009 Ted Fellowship, and her most recent chapbook, Falling Slowly (erbacce press) was published in August 2010.
  • Bobbi Sinha-Morey is a reviewer for the online magazine Specusphere and a poet. Her poetry can be seen in places such asOrbis, Gloom Cupboard, The Houston Literary Review, Bellowing Ark, The Taylor Trust, and Clark Street Review, among others. Plus her latest book of poetry, White Tea, is available at www.writewordsinc.com.
  • Chris Skoyles is a writer and journalist living in Lancashire. His previous poems have been published in The Ugly Tree, Awen and Carrillon amongst others. He also organises a few live music shows and occasionally remembers to update his website at www.chrisskoyles.co.uk
  • Emily Smith is a final year student at the University of East Anglia. She set up Sparkbright magazine back in 2008, just before starting at university. She has been published in a variety of online and print magazines and anthologies, and has work forthcoming in The Reiver’s Stone, an anthology from Ettrick Forest Press.
  • Aaron Talbot is a Senior Pastor for a small, congregational church in southern Saskatchewan. He is married & has 2 boys. His education includes one Bible College and two universities, but only one bachelor of arts . . . which means yes, he is lettered but not fully accredited.
  • Dianne Tchir (Elsenheimer) resides near Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada.  A retired High School English/Drama teacher , has had many poems published in Literary Magazines and Anthologies. She has written poetry for forty years, exploring themes of nature, social issues dealing with injustice, alienation, our dying earth for a quasi-god (Profit), aging, death and the many masks of reality. She also has a children’s book, found on website www.myongoingstory.com
  • Robyn J. Williams is a Canadian poet, non-fiction writer and fledgling painter. Coming from a long line of artists, Robyn was exposed to many mediums at an early age. She began writing poetry and short stories in grade school, but it wasn’t until her introduction to the poetry and essays of the beat generation that she considered taking her passion seriously. Awestruck by the power and timelessness of beat literature, she realized that she could perhaps make a statement about her own generation. Robyn currently resides in Langley, British Columbia.
  • Lisa Zaran is an American poet and the author of six collections.  Selections from Lisa’s books have been translated into eight different languages.  Many of her poems can be found in various online journals, print magazines and anthologies world wide.  She is founder and editor of Contemporary American Voices, and an avid speaker in local and national coffee shops, book stores and colleges.  She lives in Arizona.