Distant Flickers

Rita Baker has lived in Canada since leaving England with her husband to follow their two sons. Reading has been her passion from an early age, Somerset Maugham, H. G. Wells, and, of course, Shakespeare that was drummed into her at school, whose works she also happened to love. Baker writes, “While being a wife and mother is most fulfilling, writing has been my vocation since the age of six when I used to sit before the fire and dream of princes and princesses as depicted in the fairy-tale books that were my passion, and as I grew, so my stories grew with me until, at last, I was able to fulfill my heart’s desire to write. Happily, my life has been full of all the things necessary for a writer to draw from, love, joy, heartrending moments of immeasurable pain and heartache, loss, and happily, fulfillment. Everything that living is about, the living that is so necessary to fulfill a writer’s heart and mind." Rita's latest release is Love: Poems.

Elizabeth Gauffreau writes fiction and poetry with a strong connection to family and place. She holds a B.A. in English from Old Dominion University and an M.A. in English/Fiction Writing from the University of New Hampshire.  Her fiction and poetry have been widely published in literary magazines and several themed anthologies. Her short story “Henrietta’s Saving Grace” was awarded the 2022 Ben Nyberg  prize for fiction by Choeofpleirn Press. 

Liz's debut novel, Telling Sonny: The Story of a Girl Who Once Loved the Vaudeville Show, was republished by Paul Stream Press in 2023, followed by two photopoetry collection: Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance and Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right. She is currently working on a second novel, The Weight of Snow & Regret, based on the closure of the last poor farm in Vermont in 1968. It is scheduled for release on October 1, 2025. Liz lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire with her husband. Find Liz online at LinkTree.

 John Casey is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and novelist from New Hampshire. A Veteran combat and test pilot, Casey also served as a Diplomat and International Affairs Strategist at U.S. embassies in Germany and Ethiopia, the Pentagon, and elsewhere. He is inspired by the incredible spectrum of people, places and cultures he has experienced in life. 

Carol LaHines is an award-winning author whose fiction has appeared in Fence, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Denver Quarterly, Cimarron Review, The Literary Review, The Laurel Review, Sycamore Review, Permafrost, redivider, Literal Latte and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Lamar York Prize for Fiction. Her short stories and novellas have also been finalists for the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction from Sarabande Books, the David Nathan Meyerson fiction prize, the New Letters short story award, and the Disquiet Literary Prize, among others. 

Keith Madsen is a retired minister who lives in East Wenatchee, Washington with his wife Cathy.  He works as a hospital chaplain at the Confluence Health Hospital in Wenatchee, Washington. He also teaches children and youth chess. He roots for the Seattle Mariners and enjoys the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. He has published short stories in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Talking River, Short Story America,and Adelaide. 

Jim Metzner is a sound recordist and radio producer, best known as the host of the Pulse of the Planet radio series and podcast. He’s currently working on a memoire, “Adventures of a Lifelong Listener,” which weaves together sounds and stories to explore the mystery of listening. 

Donna Koros-Stramella is a novelist whose short pieces have appeared in anthologies, literary magazines, and national online and print publications. She is a previous award-winning journalist and scriptwriter who spent decades as a communication strategist and senior writer in the corporate and government domains. A Maryland resident, she received her MFA from the University of Tampa. Her first novel, Coffee Killed My Mother, was published by Adelaide Books in 2020. Her second novel, Among the Bones, was published in 2023. 

Joyce Yarrow is the  author of novels of suspense that, according to Library Journal,  “appeal to readers who enjoy unusual mysteries with an international  setting.” A New York City transplant now living in Seattle, she  began her writing life scribbling poems on the subway and observing  human behavior from every walk of life. Joyce’s coming-of-age novel, Sandstorm, was awarded a CIPA/Evvy gold medal and Ellery  Queen Mystery Magazine describes Joyce’s historical thriller “Zahara  and the Lost Books of Light,” as “a bibliophile mystery that surprises  the reader by transforming into an international thriller.” The sequel,  Stolen Lives, is now available.

Yarrow  is a Pushcart Prize nominee with short stories and essays that have  appeared in Inkwell Journal, Whistling Shade, Descant, Arabesques, Weber: The Contemporary West, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

Amy E. Wallen  is the author of the best-selling novel, MoonPies & Movie Stars (Penguin 2007), and the memoir, When We Were Ghouls: A Memoir of Ghost Stories (University of Nebraska 2018). Her sardonic look at writing and its demands, and her mad love of pie come together in her third book, How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies: Sweet & Savory Secrets from the Writing Life (Andrews McMeel October 2022). As writer-in-residence at Ocean Discovery Institute, Amy teaches personal storytelling to young people traditionally excluded from science due to race, income status, and educational opportunity. She also provides book editing services for persevering writers.