Welcome to our April 2017 Poem-a-thon! We have poets participating from all over the globe. You can find their bios below. Each poet has committed to write one poem a day during the month of April. Support their creative efforts by clicking the “Sponsor A Poet” button below. Please complete the form and be sure to enter the name of the poet you are sponsoring and the dollar amount. Then enter your credit or debit card information and click the “Sponsor” button at the bottom of the form to complete your donation.
POET BIOS | |
| Please click on the poet’s name to read their submissions. | |
 | CAROL FLAKE CHAPMAN, who has written a number of nonfiction books, returned to writing poetry after the sudden death of her husband on a wild river in Guatemala. She lives in Austin, Texas with her dog Molly. In addition to publishing her poems in various online sites, she has performed her poems in ceremonies in a Methodist church, at Chartres Cathedral in France, in a tribal circle in the Texas Hill Country, and at a Day of the Dead ritual in the pyramids at Teotihuacan, Mexico. |
 | DOROTHY LONG PARMA is a public health researcher for a state university, doting wife and mother, and lifelong avid reader and writer of short stories and poems. A few of her pieces have been published in Skipping Stones and Voices de la Luna literary journals. She lives in San Antonio, Texas. |
 | ALEXSONDRA TOMASULO has been writing on her personal and intimate journeys for a few decades. Her scope includes grief, depression, forgiveness, transformation and redemption. She loves poetry, short stories and essays. She is also an accomplished ceramic artist. Alexsondra now, after the loss of her beloved husband, has found a new rhythm in the art of play as it relates to each artistic endeavor. She resides on the coast of Maine. |
 | LAURA J. WOLFE is an Illinois writer, artist, and counselor. Both her writing and art are sacred spaces where she encounters God, faith, hope and the courage to journey on. She believes in the power of “showing up.” Laura’s work has been published in Tiferet Journal, 30 Poems in 30 Days: Writing Prompts and Poems from Tiferet Journal, Year of the Poet II – October 2015, When Women Waken and Talking Writing. Her artwork and poetry may found at http://www.laurajwolfe.com. If you’re interested in working with Laura, you’ll find more information at http://www.laurajwolfecounseling.com |
 | LOUISE MORIARTY is a Traveller, Adventurer of the heart, Poet, Fool, storyteller of the new cosmology. An impossible dreamer! In her travels and experiences she has given herself the joyous job of writing a poem for every person in the world. She recognised that when your heart song is acknowledged, you feel seen for who you are, you have the courage to follow your truths and know you bring it just by being here. Master of Social Ecology, Social worker, Circus trainer and performer, community cultural development worker; Louise delights in weaving pathways for the child within to have full expression. Giving us permission to play into what truly brings our senses alive. Using her bardic form of storytelling to sing the song lines of your soul, this modern day minstrel, makes poetry live through the everyday life of the hero and legend in all of us. www.everydaymiraclesandwonder.com |
 | CATRIONA KNAPMAN is a Scottish writer and human rights worker currently based in Myanmar. Her poems and journalism has been published widely in the UK and around the world. She brought a solo poetry show ‘Out On The World’ to the Edinburgh 2016 Fringe, where she was runner up in the Stanza Best Poem of the Fringe Award. Read more about her and connect here: https://www.facebook.com/luckydiplife/ |
 | JHILMIL BRECKENRIDGE is a poet, writer and activist. She is passionate about issues of women, disability, and mental health. Jhilmil is currently working on a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. She is Fiction Editor for South Asian leading literary journal, Open Road Review (openroadreview.com) and is Editor for thewomaninc.com, an initiative highlighting women’s issues of abuse and domestic violence. She has recently founded a charity in India, Bhor Foundation (bhorfoundation.wordpress.com) and one of their initiatives is to take poetry as therapy into asylums and prisons. |
 | TRACY BROOKS believes in the power of poetry and stories. As an intuitive empath and Shamanic healer, she offers channeled writings and poems to support others, www.facebook.com/soulbeckons. Death has always been a teacher to her and she has communicated with those that have passed on for most of her life. This whispering between worlds is the foundation of her first book, which is being finished now. When not writing, she is busy homeschooling her children, receiving wisdom from her dog, teaching yoga to young people, and offering various spiritual practices to others. www.tracybrookswriter.com |
 | PALLINE PLUM is a visual artist and recovering social worker, who has published poems in Tiferet, in regional journals, anthologies, also…in Poetry in Buses in Kalamazoo. Her notable poetry credit was winning a Grand Prize at the Dancing Poetry Festival in San Francisco. (It was also a hoot!) Palline earned a BFA in Fine Art from University of Michigan, and an MFA in Sculpture from Queens College, CUNY. Currently, she obsessively photographs flowers in all their stages from bloom to decay, and exhibits and sells the results in a variety of settings. https://www.facebook.com/PallinePlumPhotography/Palline has also placed over 45 high school age foreign exchange students, who came from more than 20 countries to study in Indiana and Ohio. She considers this important work for the future of our world. |
 | ANU MAHADEV is a left-brained engineer turned right-brained poet based in the Greater New York region. She is a recent graduate of the MFA in Poetry program from Drew University, and she has different sobriquets depending on the day – a hopeless romantic, a brooding hermit, a social connector, but always and forever a poet first. Domestic abuse, women’s rights and education, and mental health disorders are topics particularly close to her heart. In addition to which, she has a soft corner for the underdog, the immigrant, the minority, and often writes about those who don’t fit in, their experiences and relationships. She is part time editor for the Woman inc. Online and Jaggery Lit online. |
 | EMILY REID GREEN’S poetry has appeared in publications including: Skipping Stones, Common Threads, The Font, The Linnet’s Wings, and Khroma Magazine. This spring, she will share her poetry in the Women of Appalachia Project’s “Women Speak!” performances. An unabashed bookworm and avid knitter, she lives with her family in Toledo, Ohio. |
 | Life spirals. As a 28-year-old photographer, KIMBERLY BURNHAM appreciated beauty. Then an ophthalmologist diagnosed her with a genetic eye condition saying, “Consider what your life will be like if you become blind.” Devastating words trickling down into her soul, she discovered a healing path with insight, magnificence, and vision. Today, a poet and neurosciences expert with a PhD in Integrative Medicine, Kimberly’s life mission is to change the face of global brain health. http://www.NerveWhisperer.Solutions/ |
 | JI STRANGEWAY is a poet who focuses her work on embracing beauty and transcendence. She has been writing since the age of 15. Her immediate family immigrated to Denver, Colorado during the late 1970s as refugees of the Vietnam War. Writing from the margins of gender, orientation, and circumstance, her work is an unconventional call to action. Her words are for the dreamers and the idealists. Strangeway is based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @jistrangeway or Facebook ji.strangeway |
 | My name is JAMAAL JAMES FERGUSON and I write poetry. As a young person who was raised in the Bronx, NY I was heavily influenced by hip-hop and rap music. The lyrics are what stuck out to me the most – how one can articulate content while making it rhyme. In the hip-hop culture of NYC, we pay close attention to the words and double meanings and it wasn’t long before I started to listen to other styles of music. So I’ve been writing since ’96 but never seriously after a friend who encouraged me to write passed and I quit. Then I realized I never really quit as I would do it in my head and was still intrigued and inspired by lyrics of all styles of music. Long story short, in 2012 I realized lyrics from music is poetry and I started writing again. Now I can’t stop. I’ve tried but I just love it! |
 | NAMARITA KATHAIT is a poet at heart who enjoys spoken word poetry on stage and healing through it. She has done masters in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster and English Literature from the University of Delhi. Being co-founder of a charity trust named Bhor, her poems deal with mental health, sense of loneliness, and relationships in the digital age. |
 | GAYLE BRANDEIS is the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write, Dictionary Poems, and the novels The Book of Dead Birds, which won Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement, Self Storage, Delta Girls, and My Life with the Lincolns, chosen as a state-wide read in Wisconsin. Two books are forthcoming in 2017, a memoir, The Art of Misdiagnosis and a collection of poetry, The Selfless Bliss of the Body. She was named a Writer Who Makes a Difference by The Writer Magazine and served as Inlandia Literary Laureate from 2012-2014. Gayle currently lives in North Lake Tahoe and teaches at Sierra Nevada College and the low residency MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. |
 | BEN PITTS is from Phoenix, Arizona. He is a High School English teacher by day and a renegade poet by night. He lives with his wife, Brianne and two daughters, Grace and Norah. His poetry has been featured on several websites and journals including Red Flag poetry service, Pure Slush’s journals, Tall…ish. (Volume 11), Summer (Volume 12), and most recently one of his poems was featured in the Telepoem Booth project in Flagstaff, Arizona. He looks forward to pursuing his MFA in creative writing and finishing his poetry collection. |
 | NIKI NYMARK is what she re-writes; a poet who has lived a long time and written a lot of poems, stories, articles and to-do lists. Niki has published a couple of books of poetry and enjoys reading aloud at taverns around St. Louis. |
 | MARGARET SARACO’S poetry has appeared in “Shalom: The Jewish Peace Newsletter,” Free Verse Literary Magazine, Poet’s Online, anthologies Just Bite Me, Passing and Italians and the Arts. Featured readings include, “Welcome the Sabbath Bride with Poetry and Song,” “Poetry U: An Evening of Spoken Word,” and the JCC MetroWest Poetry Series. Margaret is also a math teacher and union activist in Montclair, New Jersey. |
 | KAREN MANDELL has been published in various literary journals, including Mellen Anthology of Contemporary Poets, Fulcrum Annual, Lilith, Hogtown Creek Review, Small Spiral Notebook Print Anthology, Seldom Nocturne, Slow Trains, Taint, Off Course, Poetism, Poems Niederngasse, Spire, Comstock Review. She has received three awards: first place from the American Poetry Society/Oil of Olay contest in 2004, second place winner of the Muriel Craft Bailey award, and the Charlotte Newberger award from Lilith Magazine. Karen has taught literature at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis and at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA, and for several years, taught English at Framingham High School in Massachusetts. She has also taught literature at various senior centers in the Boston area. |
 | NESSA MCCASEY is a poetry therapist and mentor for those wishing to train as a poetry therapist through the International Academy for Poetry Therapy and she is the mom of a 30-something man on the autism spectrum who has taught her everything of substance. It has been a wonderful life wandering through days and she expects more wonder along the path ahead. |
 | DEBORAH LEIPZIGER is an author, poet, and professor. Her chapbook, Flower Map, was published by Finishing Line Press (2013). In 2014, her poem “Written on Skin” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the co-founder of Soul-Lit, an on-line poetry magazine. Born in Brazil, Ms. Leipziger is the author of several books on human rights and sustainability. Her poems have been published in Salamander, POESY, Wilderness House Review, Ibbetson Street, among others. http://flowermap.net/ |
 | Author of three books of poetry, VINITA AGRAWAL is a Mumbai based, award winning poet and writer. She is Editor Womaninc.com, an online platform that addresses gender issues. Recipient of the Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Award for Literary Excellence, USA, 2015, her poems have appeared in Asiancha, Constellations, The Fox Chase Review, Pea River Journal, Open Road Review, Stockholm Literary Review, Poetry Pacific, Mithila Review and other journals. Vinita was nominated for the Best of the Net Awards in 2011, and was awarded first prize in the Wordweavers contest 2014. |
 | RETA BRASHEARS GRAHAM is a poet, writer and physician with a particular interest in faith and the resiliency of the human spirit. As a traveler to such far-flung places as Papua Indonesia and the northwestern shores of Lake Victoria in Tanzania, she witnessed communities coming together to overcome great challenges, from maternal and infant mortality to gender based violence. In 2014 she cofounded Mama Maisha, a nonprofit that partners with resource limited communities in Tanzania to train local women as advocates for maternal and reproductive health. She is an OBGYN and mother of two who currently lives in the mountains of western North Carolina. She writes poetry to connect to the God of her understanding. |
 | RITA BHATTACHARJEE is a communications consultant with extensive experience in managing corporate and internal communications for multi million-dollar companies across diverse industries, as well as for several non-profit organizations. She has recently relocated from the US to India to channel her skills towards social entrepreneurship to increase awareness and reduce disparity in public health through development of information technology platform and deployment of mobile healthcare. In the midst of it all, she remains a poet at heart. Her poetry has been published in reputed international journals including The Copperfield Review, Contemporary Literary Review, Camel Saloon, Café Dissensus, About Place Journal, and Kitaab. |
 | CHRISTINE DONEGAN SEGALL is a New York native, now living in California. She has attended NYU, taken writing workshops at The New School, worked as a copy editor, and is a mother and grandmother. She is a writer, artist, student of spirit, and loves the musicality and imagery of words, the rhythms of emotion, and believes that the arts and spiritual life are wonderfully intertwined. Her work has been published in Tiferet Journal. |
 | ZACH HAUPTMAN is an Electronic Resources Librarian at Touro University by day, a CCSF student at night, and a gigantic genderqueer nerd at all times. With their group, Truth Sans Justice, they run panels on popular culture, misogyny and the queer community, and write LARPs that run in and around the SF Bay Area. In their copious free time, they write poetry, short fiction and snarky blogs about social issues. |
 | SUSAN POWERS BOURNE is a practicing poet, artist, editor, author, and herstorian who creates online poetic, artistic, and herstoric content shared and presented each day at her site at http://susanpowersbourne.net. |
 | My name is CAMELLIA STADTS. I have lived in Michigan my whole life. I have a BA in English from Marygrove College. I love writing poetry which seems to set me free somehow and I often get what I call nudging’s from my Spirit that gets the words flowing. When I’m not writing I also enjoy knitting and crocheting and spending time with my grandson. |
 | JACK CAMPBELL grew up in Oil Field country, Lea County, New Mexico. He writes about folk, relationships, loss. Pictures in words, stories come spilling out–some of it is even true. Jack has a few publishing credits, Africana.ng, flexwriters.net, and Reflection Mag. Mr. Campbell is active with the Lea County literary scene and attends local open mics giving readings as opportunity allows. He hopes to convey the essence of the Oil Patch culture and its people through his writing. |
 | JOHN (“JAKE”) COSMOS ALLER is a novelist, poet, and former Foreign Service officer having served 27 years with the U.S. State Department in ten countries – Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Korea, India, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Spain, and Thailand. and traveled to 45 countries during his career. Jake has been an aspiring novelist for several years and has completed two novels, (Giant Nazi Spiders, and the Great Divorce) and is pursuing publication. He has been writing poetry all his life and has published his poetry in electronic poetry forums, including All Poetry, Moon Café, and Duane’s Poetree. (under the name Jake Lee). He is looking forward to transitioning to his third career – full-time novelist and poet after completing his second career as a Foreign Service officer, and his first career as an educator overseas for six years upon completion of his Peace Corps service in South Korea. |
