AQ43 Authors and Artists
Armont Diab has lived in the USA, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and China. When not teaching or writing, he dabbles in juggling, solving the Rubik’s Cube, and learning other languages. He has been published by British Science Fiction Association, Mobius Blvd, and in the 41st anthology of Writers of the Future.
Clive Donovan has three poetry collections, The Taste of Glass (Cinnamon Press 2021), Wound Up With Love (Lapwing, 2022), and Movement of People (Dempsey&Windle, 2024) and is published in a wide variety of magazines including Acumen, Agenda, Crannog, Popshot, Prole, and Stand. He lives in Totnes, Devon, UK. He was a Pushcart and Forward Prize nominee for 2022’s best individual poems.
Anne Eyries has poetry and short fiction published or forthcoming in Amsterdam Quarterly, Consilience, Cranked Anvil, Dream Catcher, Dust, Feral, Green Ink, Hyacinth Review, London Grip New Poetry, Moss Puppy, Piker Press, Reflex Press, and others. She lives in Arles and is a member of the French Online Poetry Stanza group.
Jennifer L Freed’s recent poetry appears in Atlanta Review, OneArt, Rust and Moth, Sheila-Na-Gig, Vox Populi, and What The House Knows. Her collection When Light Shifts, exploring themes of identity, body, and care-giving, was a finalist for the 2022 Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize and the 2025 Medal Provocateur, was short-listed for the 2025 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize, and was first runner up for the 2025 Eric Hoffer Legacy Prize. Please visit Jfreed.weebly.com
Bari Lynn Hein is an American writer whose stories are published in dozens of journals across twelve countries, among them The Saturday Evening Post, CALYX, Mslexia, Prime Number, Jewish Fiction, The Baltimore Review, and Samjoko. Her work has placed in the finals of several international awards. An adapted excerpt of her novel THEY DID(N’T) DANCE—now on submission—won first place in a 2024 regional contest. You can read this story and more at barilynnhein.com.
Terry E. Hill is a physician and aspiring historian in Oakland, California. His poems have appeared in Vita Poetica, Intima, Hobo Camp Review, The Healing Muse, and the anthologies All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich and #Genocidal. He grew up in the southern US and earned his BA in literature from Reed College.
Hollis Kurman’s début poetry collection, Unlikely Skylight (Barrow Street Books) publishes in June 2025. Her poems, one nominated for a Pushcart Prize, have appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly, Atlanta Review (International Poetry Prize finalist), Barrow Street, Carmina Magazine,Intima, Lilith, Ocean State Review, Phoebe, Rattle, and elsewhere. Her children’s books, Counting Kindness and Counting in Green, are published in 11 countries. Hollis serves on not-for-profit boards, is writing a concussion memoir, and lives in Amsterdam. https://holliskurman.com.
Nancy Ludmerer has published over 100 stories, including many prizewinners. Her debut collection, Collateral Damage: 48 Stories (Snake Nation Press, 2022), includes stories from Litro, Parabola, Amsterdam Quarterly, among others. ‘The Loneliness Cure,’ set in 1800’s Ukraine, won Orison Books’ 2021 short fiction prize. Nancy’s novella, Sarra Copia: A Locked-in Life (WTAW Press, 2023), tells of a 17th-century poet who convened a literary salon in the Venice ghetto, only to be accused of heresy. Visit nancyludmerer.com
Charlotte Murray is a Creative Future Writers’ Award winner, and won the Prole Laureate Poetry Competition 2024. She has been published in various magazines and anthologies, including Propel, The Broken Spine, and Green Ink. Her pamphlet was longlisted for the Frosted Fire First Pamphlet Award 2023. She is a member of Hive Poetry Collective. Twitter/X: @charlouwriter.
Having never willingly read a book until the age of 22, if you would have asked the then dyslexic, ten-year-old Marcus Slingsby in 1983 if, in the not so distant and unsure future he’d travel the world, work in a bookstore, and write poetry, he would have guffawed in his native Yorkshire twang and replied, ‘Yer ’aving a laff’.
Jane Thomas has been highly commended in competitions including The Bridport, Fish, Hippocrates, and Rialto. Her work has been published recently in Stand, Mslexia, and The Oxford Review of Books. She is currently completing a poetry collection on the theme of Alzheimer’s, supported by Arts Council England and The Society of Authors.
Ben Verinder holds an MA in Writing Poetry from The Poetry School and Newcastle University. His debut pamphlet, Botanicals, was published by Frosted Fire in 2021 and his second, We Lost The Birds, by Nine Pens in 2023. He is the 2024/5 Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year.
Christian Ward is a UK-based poet, with recent work in Streetcake Magazine, The Madrigal, Mugwort Magazine, and The Alchemy Spoon. Longlisted for the 2023 National Poetry Competition (UK), he won a number of competitions in 2024, including the Maria Edgeworth, Pen to Print, London Independent Story Prize and the Shahidah Janjua Poetry Competition.
Some Upcoming AQ44 Authors & Artists
Jane Blanchard lives and writes in Augusta, Georgia. Her work has recently appeared in Alabama Literary Review and North Dakota Quarterly. Her latest collection is Furthermore (Kelsay Books, 2025).
Simon Brod
Caleb Coy is a freelance writer with a Masters in English from Virginia Tech. He lives with his family in the USA. His work has appeared in Potomac Review, Coachella Review, Hippocampus, North Dakota Quarterly, The Common, Plough, and elsewhere. He is the author of the 2015 novel, An Authentic Derivative. ‘Last Day In April’ received an Honourable Mention in Glimmer Train’s 2013 Fiction Open.
Andy Craven-Griffiths has had his poetry broadcast on UK national radio and on BBC 2 television. He has been published in various poetry journals and has written commissions for the BBC, the NHS, and Rethink Mental Health charity. Andy grew up working class in a multi-racial family, with adopted siblings, in a feminist, socialist household. He teaches Creative Writing part-time at Leeds Arts University, and at English-speaking schools both regionally and internationally.
(Photo: Sara Teresa).
Allyson Dowling is a writer, poet and translator. She recently graduated with a First in Creative Writing from Oxford University where she rediscovered her love for poetry. Her poems and literary criticism have been published in Ink, Sweat and Tears and Thresholds. She lives in County Wicklow in Ireland with her family and is often to be found in the sea.
Madhumati Dutta has lived and worked mostly in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. While professionally an environmental economist, she has always wanted to write. She has published essays and travelogues—and more recently, she has been writing short and flash stories.
Jennifer L. Freed’s recent poetry appears in Atlanta Review, OneArt, Rust and Moth, Sheila-Na-Gig, Vox Populi, and What The House Knows. Her collection When Light Shifts, exploring themes of identity, body, and care-giving, was a finalist for the 2022 Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize. In the 2025 Eric Hoffer awards, it was short-listed for the Grand Prize, was a finalist for the Medal Provocateur, and second place for the Legacy Prize. She writes, teaches, and facilitates workshops in Massachusetts, USA. Please visit Jfreed.weebly.com.
Claudia Gary
Mary Granfield’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Post Road, the Boston Globe and other publications. She lives in Massachusetts.
Hollis Kurman (use bio on file)
Monique van Maare (use bio on file)
Ross McQueen is a Scottish writer based in Brussels. His work has appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly and The Brussels Review (forthcoming). His non-fiction has appeared in the Guardian, Time Out and The Brussels Times.
Bryan R. Monte is a writer, lecturer, anthropologist, editor, and publisher. He was a finalist for the 2021 Hippocrates Open Poetry Competition, and the 2021 and 2025 Gival Press Oscar Wilde Poetry Award. His poetry has been published in Gathered: Contemporary Quaker Poets (Sundress Press, 2013), Voices from the Fierce Intangible World (SoFoPoJo Press, 2019), The 2021 and 2022 Hippocrates Prize (Hippocrates Press, 2021-2) anthologies, and in his book, On the Level (Circling Rivers, 2022).
Guy Russell was born in Chatham, UK, but has lived in Milton Keynes since about 1996. Work in Somewhere This Way (Fiction Desk), Brace (Comma Press), No Spider Harmed (Arachne Press), Madame Morte (Black Shuck), Troubles Swapped For Something Fresh (Salt) and elsewhere. One pamphlet: Like Basically (Dreich Press). He reviews for Tears in the Fence and its blog https://tearsinthefence.com/blog/. (Photo: Marion Russell)
Marcus Slingsby (use bio on file)
Kris Spencer is a teacher and writer based in London. His two poetry collections, Life Drawing (2022) and Contact Sheets (2024), are published by Kelsay Books. His debut novel, Every Storm is a Message (2025), is published by Holland Press. His third collection, Slack Land (2025), will be published by Kelsay Books, later in the year.
Dick Westheimer lives in rural southwest Ohio with his wife and writing companion, Debbie. He is winner of the 2023 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize and a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist and nominated for numerous awards. His poems have appeared in Only Poems, Whale Road Review, Rattle, Abandon Journal, One Art and About Place. His chapbook, A Sword in Both Hands, Poems Responding to Russia’s War on Ukraine, is published by SheilaNaGig. More at www.dickwestheimer.com
Mantz Yorke is a former science teacher and researcher living in Manchester, England. His poems have been published internationally. His collections, Voyager and Dark Matters are published by Dempsey & Windle, and No Quarter by erbacce Press.