Literary Orphans

Literary Orphans Issue 25 Masthead

We have an amazing staff at Literary Orphans. These are some of our dedicated “orphans” who made Issue 25, as well as every other issue, possible.


 

Brittany Warren, Managing Editor
Brittany is currently the managing editor of Literary Orphans Journal and The Tavern Lantern. She is an English major at the University of Massachusetts Lowell who plans to achieve complicated goals slowly, since self-enrichment takes 365 days multiplied by 10,000 cups of coffee (from a Dr. Seuss mug). She reads everything, always, and adores exploring children’s literature when not reviewing cutting-edge writing for LO. Brittany partakes in her other nerdy interests when time permits, which include exclaiming that she wishes she were a wizard and learning how to write in Hylian. As someone who desires to surpass her previous ambitions, Brittany knows never to feed her tenacity after midnight.

 

James Claffey, Fiction Editor

James Claffey hails from County Westmeath, Ireland, and lives on an avocado ranch in Carpinteria, CA. His work appears in the W.W. Norton Anthology, Flash Fiction International, and in Queen’s Ferry Press’s anthology, Best Small Fictions of 2015.

 

Len Kuntz, Fiction Editor
Len Kuntz lives on a lake in a rural part of Washington State, forty miles north of Seattle.  Each morning finds him in his office, writing poetry or flash fiction, and sometimes the newest novel he’s working on.  His latest story collection, I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE AND NEITHER ARE YOU, from Unknown Press, is out now.  You can also find him at lenkuntz.blogspot.com.

 

Katie Perttunnen, Poetry Editor
Katie Perttunen is a writer hailing from Hurley, Wisconsin. Her first book, an experimental illness journal detailing her struggles coming to terms with bipolar as a mother, “Bits,” was published this spring by Black Rose Writing.www.blackrosewriting.com.  The book has also been highly rated on Amazon, and is available there and at Barnes and Noble electronically and by special order. Perttunen looks for work that is raw and edgy, bringing skill and newness to the world of poetry to open minds and hearts to the too-often dismissed form. She studied writing at both the University of Wisconsin at Madison and through Naropa University’s low-residency M.F.A. program. In previous lives she battled the war against women and also worked as a journalist. Currently, Perttunen is writing a novel based in Hurley about the sex industry historically and in current times.  A legendary figure in Hurley history, Lotta Morgan, was brutally murdered many years ago with an axe, and the mystery of her death remains unsolved.  Morgan was involved in the sex industry during her time, escaping the stockades and reportedly living with a limp afterwards.  Her tale sparked Perttunen’s curiousity and birthed the concept for the novel.

 

Peter Marra, Poetry Editor
The aim of my poetry is to excite the reader, make them think about their world and surroundings, rip them away from reality – give them a hotshot of beauty, violence and black humor. I hope to give them an overdose of dada and the surreal; a taste of a life they will never experience in reality; perhaps make them paranoid. The poem’s words should slap a reader in the face and wake them up, make them rebel and question their own purpose in life, give them an epiphany. Make them leave home.

Poetry should draw on the paranoia and insecurity that people feel deep down: poke it and twist it and set it on fire. It should be confrontational like the works of the painter Francis Bacon or filmmakers such as Luis Bunuel. The image and the message are the most important qualities of a poem. I detest easy and “pretty” poetry. Even my love poems have a certain queasiness that sets the reader off-kilter.

I am influenced by “giallo” films and grindhouse / exploitation films, the output of Roger Corman, Russ Meyer for example, as well as the underground and arthouse. I incorporate images that are shocking to the reader to make them get in touch with emotions that they may not explore otherwise. I’ve stored up a lot of images and themes in my memories. My poetry is a synthesis of my film experiences and my real life experiences.  The aim is to morph and scream.

 

Jayme Joyce, Art Editor
As a filmmaker I’ve been a key figure on several large documentaries including the film, Finding Vivian Maier, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2015’s documentary category as well as Dead On, The Life and Work of George A. Romero. I proudly serve on the advisory board of the Chicago chapter of Women in Film and, for 7 years, I worked on staff for the Sundance Film Festival. I’m currently finishing my first young adult novel and tinkering with several screenplays.

 

Teri Lee Kline, Interviewer & Reader
Teri Lee Kline is a writer of prose poetry and short fiction. She also interviews authors for magazine publications. Although living in Berkeley, California, her heart will always remain in Wisconsin and Minnesota. She misses the inclement weather.

 

T.L. Sherwood, Interviewer & Reader
I live by 18 Mile Creek in Western New York, and to say I’m a writer with a book problem is an understatement. While we were dating, I told my future husband I didn’t want to move my paperbacks. He converted a room of his house into a library for me, so my books and I migrated to our new home. Once those shelves were filled, he built more. He has encouraged me, let me quit writing and understood when I couldn’t stop. It’s his love that keeps me going, grounded, and grateful. (You might think I’m sucking up to him, but he never reads anything I write.)

My first “real” published piece was in the The Rambler–which is now defunct–back in 2008. Since then, I’ve won some prizes and started working for two fabulous publications–Literary Orphansand r.kv.r.y. Quarterly Literary Journal. On Saturdays, I volunteer at the West Falls-Colden Community Library where I read submissions because they provide free Wi-Fi and I’m cheap.

Every summer, a screened-in tent is erected. Inside the 10X10 bug-free zone, I write while listening to the birds and swaying leaves. In the garden shed, where I can look out at the doings in the frog pond, I sit at the counter in spring and fall to capture thoughts on the laptop. Our bedroom has a tiny red table where a refurbished turquoise Corsair Deluxe typewriter sits at the ready for spontaneous letters and poems, but it’s the library where I love to write most of all. I’m a rabid NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) participant and fan. I’ve reached the 50,000 words in 30 days’ goal several times. I’m expanding and polishing two of those now and hope to send them out for publication before Literary Orphan’s 50th issue.

I blog: https://tlsherwood.wordpress.com/

I tweet: https://twitter.com/TLSherwood1

And for some reason, Amazon gave me an author page: http://www.amazon.com/T.L.-Sherwood/e/B00KPVKNCE

 

Ray Nessly, Featured Writer/Reviewer
Ray Nessly hails from Seattle and lives near San Diego with his wife and their two cats. He is forever at work on a novel: If A Machine Lands In The Forest. His work has been published in Literary Orphans, Thrice Fiction, Boston Literary Magazine, Apocrypha & Abstractions, MadHat Lit, Yellow Mama, Do Some Damage, and other places.

 

Judy Hall, Reader
Judy Hall is a writer and itinerant teacher of writing who has lived in such far flung places as Iceland, Sudan, Germany and New Jersey. Her MFA is from William Paterson University. She has been published in Brevity, Split Lip Magazine, The Huffington Post and many other places. Judy is also a fiction reader for Literary Orphans. Her as yet unpublished novel, Max Runs, was long-listed in the Mslexia Competition. You can read most of her recently published work atwww.voluptuousmermaid.com.

 

Anne Leigh Parrish, Reader
Anne Leigh Parrish is the author of three books of fiction: All The Roads That Lead From Home, stories, (Press 53, 2011); Our Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and What Is Found, What Is Lost, a novel (She Writes Press, 2014). She has recently completed a second novel, Women Without, and a new story collection, By The Wayside. Both are looking for a home. Follow her on TwitterFacebook, and drop by her website. Many of her previously published short stories and articles on the art and craft of writing can be found under the Publications tab. She lives in Seattle.

 

Ashley Tsosie-Mahieu, Reader

Ashley Tsosie-Mahieu (Navajo) is a scholar, writer and Ph.D. student in the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Arizona.

 

Eileen Rush, Reader

Eileen Rush has worked in horse barns and shopping malls, with longer stints as a journalist and a soap seller. These experiences have influenced and informed her writing, but same made her smell better than others. Her writing is influenced by her roots in the South, which spread through South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. She’s been published by Stoneboat, Literary Orphans, the Poetry Society of South Carolina, Haggard & Halloo, and The New Southerner Literary Journal.best shoes | Air Jordan Sneakers