The Maynard
Spring 2018

Author Biographies

Nick Alti

Nick Alti is a recent graduate of Western Michigan University and continues his existence as a bartender in his hometown of Stevensville, Michigan. Recent publications include Birds Piled Loosely, Pretty Owl Poetry, Newfound, and Mount Hope Magazine.

Sable Awesome

Sable Awesome is a Canadian watercolour illustrator. Creating art that says something about mortality, the universe, and what it means to be human is totally Sable’s jam! Often, there is a streak of humour in what they do, because “Laughing is my favourite”!

Carlie Blume

Carlie Blume is an emerging writer of fiction and poetry. Her writing centers on sexual politics within relationships and marriage, women’s issues, motherhood and mental health. Her work has been featured in Pulp Magazine and Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio Emerge Anthology.

Taylor Bond

Taylor Bond is a writer and photographer from Tokyo. Currently she is working on a collection of poems created from the narrative of global folklores and mythology.

Louise Carson

Louise Carson has been published here and there, including in The Best Canadian Poetry 2013. She is the author of the poetry collection A Clearing (2015) and the mystery The Cat Among Us (2017), both published by Signature Editions. She lives with her daughter and pets in rural Quebec.

Aidan Chafe

Aidan Chafe is the author of the chapbooks Right Hand Hymns (Frog Hollow Press, 2017) and Sharpest Tooth (Anstruther Press, 2016). His first full-length poetry collection, Short Histories of Light, is expected in March 2018 with McGill-Queen’s University Press. Aidan lives with is partner and puppy in Burnaby, BC.

Nathan Curnow

Nathan Curnow is an Australian poet and past editor of the Australian literary journal Going Down Swinging. He’s the author of five poetry collections, including The Ghost Poetry Project, RADAR, and The Apocalypse Awards (all with Australian Scholarly Publishing). He appears regularly at festivals, although he’s often thrown by his notes.

Holly Day

Holly Day has taught writing classes at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2000. Her published books include Walking Twin Cities with Sherman Wick (Wilderness Press, 2018), Music Theory for Dummies with Michael Pilhofer (For Dummies, 2011), and Ugly Girl (Shoe Music Press, 2015). I’m In A Place Where Reason Went Missing is forthcoming from Main Street Rag, July 2018.

Darren C. Demaree

Darren C. Demaree is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently Two Towns Over, selected for the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press. He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. Darren lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Derek Thomas Dew

Derek Thomas Dew’s work has appeared in several anthologies, including Dead and Undead Poems (Everyman Press), Elementary My Dear Watson (Beautiful Dragons Press), Not A Drop (Beautiful Dragons Press), and in journals, such as Two Hawks Quarterly, The Curator, and Hawai’i Pacific Review.

David R. Dixon

Major David Dixon is a Marine, poet, and Presidential Leadership Scholar. He deployed twice to Iraq as an attack helicopter pilot. He now lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife and daughter.

Adrienne Gruber

Adrienne Gruber is the author of two full-length poetry collections, This is the Nightmare (Thistledown Press, 2018) and Buoyancy Control (BookThug, 2016), and four chapbooks, The Rope (Jack Pine Press, 2017), Intertidal Zones (Jack Pine Press, 2014), Mimic (Leaf Press, 2011), and Everything Water (Cactus Press, 2011).

Carol Hamilton

Carol Hamilton has recently published in Cold Mountain Review, Common Ground Review, The Louisiana Review, The Sandy River Review, Turtle Island Quarterly, Tipton Poetry Journal and others. She has published 17 books, is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, and has been nominated seven times for a Pushcart Prize.

Danielle Hanson

Danielle Hanson is the author of Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press Poetry Prize Winner, 2018) and Ambushing Water (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in over 50 journals. She is the Poetry Editor for Doubleback Books, and has edited Loose Change Magazine and Hayden’s Ferry Review. Daniellejhanson.com.

Brandon Marlon

Brandon Marlon is a Canadian-Israeli writer from Ottawa, Canada. His poetry was awarded the Harry Hoyt Lacey Prize in Poetry (Fall 2015), and his writing has been published in 225+ publications in 28 countries. www.brandonmarlon.com.

Spencer Smith

Spencer Smith is a University of Utah graduate and works in the corporate world to pay the bills. A Pushcart Prize nominee, his poems have appeared in over 50 literary journals, including Rattle, Hawai’i Pacific Review, The Main Street Rag, RHINO, Roanoke Review, and poeticdiversity.

Joseph Spece

Joseph Spece is an editor at Fathom/SHARKPACK. A first book, Roads (Cherry Grove) appeared in 2013; BAD ZOO (Fathom, 2018) will follow this July. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.

Jill Talbot

Jill Talbot attended Simon Fraser University for psychology before pursing her passion for writing. Jill has appeared in Geist, Rattle, Poetry Is Dead, The Puritan, Matrix, subTerrain, and The Tishman Review. Jill won PRISM international’s Grouse Grind Lit Prize.

Lauren Turner

Lauren Turner wrote the chapbook We’re Not Going to Do Better Next Time (Knife Fork Book, 2018). Her writing appears in Arc Poetry Magazine, Minola Review, The Puritan, Cosmonauts Avenue, Lemon Hound, carte blanche, BAD NUDES, Peach Mag, and elsewhere. She lives in Montréal, Québec.

Melissa Weiss

Melissa Weiss studies creative writing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Fire, Into the Void Magazine, Sky Island Journal, and elsewhere, and was short-listed for CV2’s 2017 2-Day Poem Contest. Melissa co-edits One Button Press in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Bernard Wills

Bernard Wills hails from Cape Breton Island, though he has spent over a decade in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where he teaches Humanities at Grenfell Campus Memorial University. He has a doctorate in Religious Studies from McMaster University and a Master’s in Classics from Dalhousie University.

Stephanie Yorke

Stephanie Yorke has published one poetry collection, Both Boys Climb Trees They Can’t Climb Down (Signature Editions, 2012), and poems and stories in journals including The Fiddlehead, Grain, PRISM international, and The Malahat Review. She is Canadian, and just moved back to Canada from overseas.

Natasha Zarin

Natasha Zarin studied English and history at Simon Fraser University, where she was co-editor for iamb, a student journal of creative writing. Natasha’s publication in The Maynard marks her return to writing poetry. Natasha works as a school counsellor and lives in Cloverdale, BC with her husband and two sons.