Touch: The Journal of Healing
Contributors’ Page
Paul David Adkins graduated from Washington University with an MFAW in Poetry in 1991. He has received two Pushcart Prize nominations, and has been published in Crab Creek Review, Healing Muse, and Summerset Review, among others. He lives in New York.
Vinita Agrawal has been a freelance writer and researcher for the past 15 years. Her articles, stories, poems and features have been published in academic journals, casebooks, newspapers, magazines and websites. Some of the prominent publications featuring her work are, Femina, The Free Press Journal, Savvy, Marwar, Hobson’s Review, IRMA and ICPI journals, Sulekha, Babel, Kritya, Muse India, and indianwildlife, indianwriters and more. Born in Bikaner, India she was educated in Kolkata and did her Masters in political science from Vadodara where she was awarded the UGC scholarship. She is a life member of the Indore Intach Chapter. She believes that writing is the best form of creative expression. She resides in Indore, India with her husband and son.
Murray Alfredson has worked as a librarian, lecturer and in Buddhist chaplaincy. He is a prize-winning poet, has published essays and poems in Australia, England, and America, and a collection, ‘Nectar and light’, in Friendly Street new poets, 12, Adelaide: Friendly Street Poets and Wakefield Press, 2007.
Judith Bader Jones worked as an R.N. in both adult and child psychiatry before she devoted herself to free lance writing. Her poetry and prose has appeared in Art Times, Buffalo Spree, Explorations, University of Alaska Southeast, Imagine, The Kansas City Star, Potpourri, The River Road Journal, The Same, Thorny Locust and numerous anthologies. She was a poetry editor for Kansas City Voices, 2001-2008. Her collection of short fiction, Delta Pearls received The William Rockhill Nelson 2007 Fiction Award. Finishing Line Press of Kentucky will publish her first chapbook of poems, Moon Flowers on the Fence, May 2010.
Danny P. Barbare works as a janitor at a local Y. He has been writing poetry for 31 years. His poetry has appeared locally, nationally, and abroad. Recently his poetry has appeared in Decade Review, The Blue Granite Review, The Weary Blues, and Magic Cat Press.
Maria Basile is a surgeon practicing in New York. She teaches courses in Medical Humanities at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. Her poetry has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Touch: the Journal of Healing, and anthologized with the creative writing of other physicians and health care professionals. A collection of her poetry, entitled Private Practice, is forthcoming from The Lives You Touch Publications.
Jennifer L. Bauman is a curatorial assistant at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. She holds a graduate degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois. Her poetry reviews have been published by Britain’s poetry journal, PN Review, and most recently has contributed to the forthcoming publication, Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.
DeMisty D. Bellinger, a Wisconsin native, has an MFA in creative writing from Southampton and is completing a PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her fiction can be found at Diverse Voices Quarterly, LITSNACK, and Wilderness House Literary Review. She lives in Lincoln with her husband and twin daughters.
Ed Bennett was a poet and reviewer who lived in Las Vegas, NV. His passing away, on November 5, 2017, was a great loss to the poetry community. His works appeared in The Externalist, Touch: The Journal of Healing, The Lavender Review, Quill and Parchment, and Lilipo. He was a staff editor for Quill and Parchment, the recipient of two Pushcart Nominations and the author of A Transit of Venus.
Nina Bennett, author of Forgotten Tears A Grandmother’s Journey Through Grief, has worked in the HIV field since the beginning of the epidemic. Her poetry appears in journals and anthologies including Pulse, Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Oranges & Sardines, Philadelphia Stories, The Broadkill Review, and Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on HIV/AIDS and Mourning Sickness. Nina is a contributing author to the Open to Hope Foundation.
Chrystal Berche writes. Hard times, troubled times, the lives of her characters are never easy, but then what life is? The story is in the struggled, the journey, the triumphs and the falls. She writes about artists, musicians, loners, drifters, dreamers, hippies, bikers, truckers, hunters and all the other things she knows and loves. Sometimes she writes urban romance and sometimes its aliens crash landing near a roadside bar. When she isn’t writing she’s taking pictures, or curled up with a good book and a kitty on her lap.
Shaun Bevins is a writer, photographer, and mother of four, among other things. Her creative fiction, photography, and fitness articles have appeared in print and online in Danse Macabre, Adventum, LiveStrong, Suite 101, Dr. Bill of Health, and Health Hive Media.
Annie Bien has published Plateau Migration, by Alabaster Leaves Press, received a seed commission from the Soho Theatre Company in London, and is a translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts for 84000.
Sarah Bigham reads, teaches, and writes in Maryland where she lives with her kind chemist wife, three independent cats, an unwieldy herb garden, and several chronic pain conditions including interstitial cystitis.
Eric Blanchard grew up in Houston, Texas. His poetry has been published in numerous literary journals and reviews, both on line and in hard copy, including Autumn Sky Poetry, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Pudding Magazine, Amarillo Bay, and Poetry Quarterly. Eric currently resides and writes in Kettering, Ohio.
Laura Blatt has worked as a laboratory technician, an editor and manager at Wolters Kluwer publishing company (formerly CCH), and as a website writer. She is a member of the California bar and also has a Masters degree in Biology. Her writing has appeared in Tiny Lights, California Explorer, and the 2010 edition of Vintage Voices.
Phoebe Brown is a graduate student in the University of Tampa’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Deep South Magazine and The Healing Muse. She lives with an active form of rheumatoid arthritis and hopes that others will find comfort in her words.
Stephen Bunch’s work has appeared recently in Umbrella and The Literary Bohemian. From 1978 to 1988, he published Tellus, a magazine featuring work by Jack Anderson, Jane Hirshfield, Denise Low, Paul Metcalf, Edward Sanders, and others. He received the 2008 Langston Hughes Award for Poetry from the Lawrence Arts Center. His chapbook, Preparing to Leave, was published by The Lives You Touch Publications in the spring of 2011.
Janet Buttenwieser is an MFA Candidate at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, a low-residency MFA program in Washington State. She lives with her husband and two young children in Seattle, Washington.
Nancy Calhoun has come to poetry late in life. She lives in Arizona with her husband, an Alzheimer's patient, and finds healing for them both in the beautiful mountain environment. Her book, Sip Wine, Drink Stars, was published in 2009.
Frank Cavano is a retired psychiatrist who has written poetry, published and unpublished, whenever moved in a powerful way by his experiences or the experiences of others. His goal is to listen to Heart and Soul without judgement and with compassion. He believes this is the entrance to all healing.
C.E. Chaffin, M.D., FAAFP, is a contributing editor for Umbrella and the former editor and publisher of The Melic Review. Credits include The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Pedestal, The Philadelphia Inquirer Book Review and Rattle, among many others. He was formerly a featured poet in Tryst. His new volume, Unexpected Light was recently released by Diminuendo Press. He also teaches an online poetry tutorial.
Sharon Charde has won many poetry awards, is published over 30 journals and anthologies, and has two first-prize-winning chapbooks as well as a full length collection, Branch In His Hand, published by Backwaters Press. She worked with delinquent teenagers for ten years and has led writing retreats for women for the last 17 years.
Catharine Clark-Sayles lives in Northern California and practices geriatric medicine. She has had two books of poetry published by Tebot Bach: One Breath (2008) and Lifeboat (2012), and she has had numerous poems published in medical anthologies and journals. Recent publications include Spillway, Pirene’s Fountain, Locuspoint, The Healing Muse, The Midwestern Quarterly, and The Healing Art of Writing vol 1 and 2 (Tell Me).
Mary Susan Clemons lives in Florida with her husband and two sons. She is a member of NFSPS (National Federation of State Poetry Societies), FSPA (Florida State Poetry Association), and a local poetry group, The Poet's Corner Workshop. She is a part-time moderator at Wild Poetry Forum, an on-line poetry workshop site.
Diana Cole’s poems have been selected for publication by numerous journals including Blueline, the Tipton Poetry Journal, the Aurorean, The Christian Century, Chaffin Journal, Slipstream, and Poetry East. She was nominated by Touch:The Journal of Healing for a Pushcart Prize in 2011.
Cally Conan-Davies is a writer and bibliotherapist from Tasmania. She has always lived by the sea.
Bebe Cook is a native Texan and comes from a southern U.S. oral tradition of story-telling. She believes poetry is an opportunity to create a bridge; a chance to invite the reader to share a few minutes, to get acquainted and loves that every time a poem is read it is transformed by the intent of the writer and the experiences of the reader into something new. She has placed in local and national poetry contests and continues to write poetry to record her own rooms and moments in order to bring that tradition to the page. Her work has appeared in Flutter Poetry Journal, Autumn Sky Poetry, Six Little Things and The Cartier Street Review. She enriches her writing with the diversity of gardening, photography, and working as an environmental scientist.
K.R. Copeland is a widely published Chicagoland poet with a penchant for the environment and all its inhabitants. In addition to writing poetry, K.R. has acted as Co-Editor and Art Director for many fine literary magazines and journals, worldwide. Her poetry book, Love and Other Lethal Things can be found on Amazon.
Published poet/novelist, commissioned screenwriter, produced lyricist/singer and advertising writer/creative director last employed at Saatchi & Saatchi, Kelly Coveny lives in Connecticut with her husband, two boys, and dogs. Her work can be viewed at her company, PancakeFaktory.com.
Maril Crabtree lives in the Heartland. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she is poetry co-editor of Kansas City Voices. Her poetry has recently appeared in the Flint Hills Review, Coal City Review and Steam Ticket. She is also an energy healing practitioner and believes in the healing power of both allopathic and nontraditional medicine.
Tammy Daniel lives in Blue Springs, MO with her husband, two children, and an old English sheepdog. She was a finalist in the Davis Grove Haiku and Nature Poetry Contest sponsored by The Writers Place and the Kansas City Port Authority. Her work has been published on the Johnson County Library website and will soon appear in I-70 Review.
John Davis Jr. is the author of Growing Moon, Growing Soil: Poems of my Native Land. He serves as English Department Chair for the Vanguard School of Lake Wales, an international boarding and day school for students with mild to moderate learning differences, including Asperger’s Syndrome, ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Dysgraphia. His poetry has been published in literary magazines internationally, including recent appearances in Saw Palm, Real South magazine, and other fine publications. His work has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Kate Van Pelt DeLoach is from Virginia Beach, Va., and currently lives in Andersonville, Ga., with her husband, several horses, dogs and a barn cat. She is a freelance writer, editor and graphic designer; she also publishes a local newsletter, Kudzu Weekly.
Risa Denenberg is an aging hippy currently living in Tacoma, WA. She earns her keep as a nurse practitioner and has worked in end-of-life care for many years. She is drawn to exploring themes of suffering and death and their intersections with religion, medicine, and art. Recent poems have appeared online at Sein und Werden, The Yale Journal of the Humanities in Medicine, YB, Lily, and Escape into Life.
Jan Duncan-O'Neal of Overland Park, Kansas has had her work published in numerous journals including Touch: The Journal of Healing and Kansas City Voices. Her chapbook Voices: Lost and Found was published in 2011 by The Lives You Touch Publications. Jan has also written a full-length collection of poetry recently. She is an editor for I-70 Review, and active in poetry groups in the greater Kansas City area. This past year Jan was a featured reader at The Writer’s Place in Kansas City and the monthly Johnson County Kansas Library Poetry Series.
Stacey Dye writes to touch people. Her favorite subject is the human condition. Her love affair with words is life long and she collects them on rocks, jewelry and through music and memorable quotes. Credits include Touch: The Journal of Healing, Mused and BluePrintReview.
Julie Ebin has recently published poems in Off the Coast, Coin Flip Shuffle, and Getting Bi. She is intrigued by the psychological effects of illness and disability, and has written about coming of age through chronic illness. Julie enjoys writing with children, among other pursuits.
Theresa Senato Edwards' poetry has been featured online at Atticus Books, published in Blue Earth Review's spring 2010 print issue and online at Pirene’s Fountain. Other poems appear in Boxcar Poetry Review's second print anthology (2010); CircleShow (Vol. 1, 2008) print anthology; and online at Stirring, Press 1, decomP, Clean Sheets, Chronogram, and elsewhere. She is founder/editor/publisher of Holly Rose Review. This journal is now closed but the archives are still available at Holly Rose Review Archives.
Sharon Erby teaches at Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, a liberal arts college dedicated to the education of women. A contributor to Touch: The Journal of Healing, her creative work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Feminist Studies, Slice, The View from Here, Chaffey Review, and Glossolalia, among others.
Luke Evans writes sometimes about life or science or love or mountains or whatever else his experience or imagination allows. He lives in Colorado and works too many hours but enjoys the views anyway. His poetry has been most recently found in The View From Here, Poetry Quarterly, and Joyful.
Tim Falkenberg is an emerging writer from Southlake, TX. He has written several short stories, dabbled in writing for both film and video games, and is currently at work on his first novel. He has served as the Fiction Editor for the journal Kodon.
Sandra Fees is a poet and ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, living in Reading, Pennsylvania. She received an MA in creative writing from Syracuse University and MDiv from Lancaster Theological Seminary. Her poems have been published in Wilderness House Literary Review, the Harrisburg Review, Paterson Literary Review, and Mudfish.
Krisztina Fehervari, a native of Hungary, has lived in the United States for more than a decade. A writer and photographer, she lives in Texas with her husband and three children. Some of her writings have appeared in publications.
Jeanne Ferran lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She is a teacher and a single mother of two boys and a black Lab mix.
Patrick Fogarty is an author and poet. He writes creative non-fiction, historical non-fiction, memoir and poetry. Born and raised in the south Bronx, his works are infused with personal experiences from his childhood. He is a graduate of Yavapai College’s Creative Writing Program. His recent writings can be found in Inscape Magazine: The Literary Journal of Washburn University, The Tincture Journal , and The Linden Avenue Literary Journal.
Jackie Fox is a breast cancer survivor and writer who lives in Nebraska with her husband Bruce. She has been published in several literary journals and two of her poems are included in the forthcoming book, The Untidy Season: An Anthology of Nebraska Women Poets, by the Backwaters Press. She blogs at Dispatch From Second Base.
O.P.W. Fredericks is the editor and publisher of Touch: The Journal of Healing and The Lives You Touch Publications. His writing style has been described as that of a narrative lyricist. He has been published in The Externalist: A Journal of Perspectives, Autumn Sky Poetry, and Philadelphia Poets 2009.
Jacob L. Freedman is a psychiatrist practicing in Boston, Massachusetts. His writing has been published in a variety of different places including The British Journal of Psychiatry, Relix Magazine, and The Bellevue Literary Review. In his free time he enjoys schmoozing with Gramma, reading Hassidic parables, and eating Middle-Eastern food.
Stuart Freyer has written fiction for a decade after a career as an otolaryngologist. His stories have appeared in The Berkshire Review, Colere, Timber Creek Review, and Zahir among others. Lately he has been writing poetry. This is his first published poem. He may be contacted at the above link via email.
Nicholas Andrew Froumis is a full-time optometrist practicing in Sunnyvale, CA. He has been published previously in scientific literature and now finds his first publication in a literary journal. He lives in San Jose, CA with his wife and daughter.
Robert T. Gasperson lives a simple life in South Carolina with his wife and two girls. He uses haiku to express his need to be creative in a life filled with responsibility as well as to open his mind to the multitude of opportunities this world holds for him.
Stephen Gilchrist is an emerging writer from Long Island, New York. As someone who teetered on the brink of physicianhood and writership himself, though eventually casting in his lot with the latter, he has a special affinity for stories involving healing, both physical and spiritual. He's currently writing like mad, everything from short stories to poetry.
Born in Britain, raised in Zimbabwe, Dennis Greene has lived in Western Australia for the last 28 years. Diagnosed with Parkinson's at the age of 37 he took the opportunity to 'follow his bliss' and began writing. In 2000 he was invited to the United States to edit "Voices from the Parking Lot -Parkinson's perspectives." For reasons he can't quite figure his poetry never mentions PD and his prose is about nothing else.
Jeanie Greensfelder has had non-fiction published in Shape Magazine, fiction published in the Central Coast Magazine, and poems published in Askew, Orbis, Echoes, Grand, Kaleidoscope, Porter Gulch Review, Poetic Medicine Journal, The Rag, Riptide, Falling Star, and Vine Leaves. She has a poetry page in the SLO Coast Journal.
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a six-time Pushcart nominee and Best of the Net nominee. She has authored eight chapbooks along with her latest full-length collection of poems: Epistemology of an Odd Girl, newly released from March Street Press. She is a recent winner of the Red Ochre Press Chapbook competition for her manuscript “Before I Go to Sleep.” According to family lore, she is a direct descendent of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Jordan Grumet is an internal medicine physician and assistant professor at the University of Chicago. His poetry has appeared in The Annals of Internal Medicine, The Journal of General Internal Medicine, and The Pharos.
Kenneth P. Gurney lives in Albuquerque, NM, USA. He edits the NM poetry anthology Adobe Walls. His latest book of poems is An Accident Practiced. Visit Kenneth’s website to learn more about his work.
A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Tina Hacker, was a finalist in New Letters and George F. Wedge competitions and Editor’s Choice in two literary journals. Her work has appeared in numerous publications—print and online—including two new anthologies, The Whirlybird Anthology of Kansas City Writers and The Poet’s Word. Her chapbook, Cutting It, is published by The Lives You Touch Publications.
Kathrin Harris lives in Grayslake, Illinois. She often describes the loss of her father to Alzheimers as the “worst/best time” of her life. Although the disease took its inevitable course, it fostered a relationship that was profoundly rewarding and granted an opportunity to give back to someone who, like many men of his generation, never felt comfortable on the receiving end of affection.
Timothy Hatch has been making things up for as long as he can remember. He is currently enrolled in the creative writing program at Cal State San Bernardino. His poems have been published in MungBeing and Creepy Gnome Magazine. He lives in Ontario, California with his wife, Annette, and his impossibly destructive Queensland Heeler, Sydney.
Monique Hayes is an MFA graduate of the University of Maryland College Park, where she taught fiction and rhetoric courses. Her work has appeared in Prick of the Spindle, The Smoking Poet, Prima Storia, Birmingham Arts Journal, and Children, Churches, and Daddies.
Kevin Heaton writes in South Carolina. His fourth chapbook, Chronicles, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2012. His work has published in more than 100 journals and anthologies. He is listed as a notable poet at KansasPoets.com. More of his work can be viewed at his website.
Lois Elaine Heckman lives in Milan, Italy. Her poems appear in numerous online and print journals, and have also placed in several poetry competitions. Her chapbook, Out of Nowhere, was recently published by Kelsay Books (White Violet Press).
Art Heifetz has published over 100 poems in 10 countries. In 2013 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won second prize in the Reuben Rose competition in Israel.
Elise Hempel's poems have appeared in many journals over the years, including Poetry, the Spoon River Poetry Review, Measure, Able Muse, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and The Midwest Quarterly. Her chapbook Only Child was published by Finishing Line Press in 2014, and her first full-length book of poems will be published by Able Muse Press in 2016. She is the 2015 winner of the Able Muse Write Prize for Poetry.
Joyce E. Hicks works with student writers at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Personal interests include fiber arts as well as writing fiction, particularly about later life. She has published fiction in Literary Mama and received honorable mention in a contest for NPR's Stories on Stage. She is a member of Blank Slate Writers.
A practicing Emergency Medicine physician for over twenty years, Maureen Hirthler also holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her work has been published in Hippocampus, The Intima, The Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine, and elsewhere.
M.E. Hope currently lives, and writes, in Belgium. A recipient of a Fishtrap Fellowship, Playa Residency and Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission she spends her days watching the amazing Belgian Blue (Blanc Bleu Belge) cattle and searching for the perfect cheese.
Jodi L. Hottel is a writer and retired English teacher, living in Santa Rosa, CA. Her work has been published in Touch: The Journal of Healing, as well as the English Journal, The Dickens, Frogpond and anthologies from the University of Iowa Press, Tebot Bach, and the Healdsburg Arts Council. She is currently working on her first chapbook, a gathering of poems about the Japanese American internment.
Sally Houtman is an American-born writer who relocated to new Zealand in 2005. She is the author of a non-fiction book entitled, "To Grandma's House, We...Stay" which is in its third printing. She has written many non-fiction articles over the years. Recently she has had poetry published in Rustblind and fiction in Midnight Screaming and Flashquake. She lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her husband and two children.
Romi Jain is a published poet, novelist, independent researcher, and Vice President of the Indian Journal of Asian Affairs. Her books include: The Storm Within (2008; 2011), Poetry! You Resurrect Me (2011) and Voices of Rocks in the Dusk (2012). Her poems have appeared in anthologies titled The Poetic Bond I (UK), The Poetic Bond II (UK) and A Posy of Poesy (India), and in journals such as Journal of Poetry Society, The Criterion, The Tower Journal(forthcoming), and International Zeitschrift.
A former art professor remarked that Clarissa Jakobsons’ sketchbooks look more like poetry than paintings. Who would have guessed this observation accurately predicted her current direction? She has twice been a featured poet at Shakespeare and Co., Associate Editor of the Arsenic Lobster Poetry Journal for the past five years, and first place winner of the Akron Art Museum 2005 New Words Competition.
Patricia Wallace Jones is a life-long artist who began writing poetry after retiring as Co-Director of Missouri’s federally funded Parent Training Center (for parents of children with disabilities) and a move from the Midwest to the northern California coast. Her art can be found in local shows and private collections and her poems and/or art have appeared in The Avatar Review, Lily, Centrifugal Eye , Lucid Rhythms, The Guardian, 14 by 14, The Chimaera, The Flea, Wordgathering, The Shit Creek Review,Autumn Sky, "Touch: The Journal of Healing," and other online journals.
Susan Kelley is a retired information systems manager who lives in Santa Cruz, California. She has studied poetry in Stanford University's Continuing Studies Program and at Foothill College. Her poems have appeared in the journals Caesura, Fresh Hot Bread, 5 2 Poetry, and The Lowestoft Chronicle.
Karen Kelsay is the editor of Aldrich Press. In 2012 she was awarded the Fluvanna Prize by The Lyric, and has been nominated five times for the Pushcart Prize. Some of her poems can be found at The Hypertexts, The Raintown Review, Mezzo Cammin, The Pennsylvania Review, Grey Sparrow, and Pirene's Fountain.
K.B. Kincer was awarded an M.F.A. in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from Georgia State University and is currently in the doctoral program there. Her poems have appeared in The Healing Muse, Poet Lore, Dappled Things, Red River Review, The GSU Review, and elsewhere.
Christine Klocek-Lim received the 2009 Ellen La Forge Memorial Prize in poetry. Her poetry was featured as the Editor’s Choice in the September 2011 issue of Touch: The Journal of Healing. She has four chapbooks: How to photograph the heart (The Lives You Touch Publications), The book of small treasures (Seven Kitchens Press), Cloud Studies - a sonnet sequence (Whale Sound Audio Chapbooks), and Ballroom — a love story (Flutter Press). She is editor of Autumn Sky Poetry and her new website is christinekloceklim.com. Christine was the Poet in Residence for Touch: The Journal of Healing during the 2012 - 2013 publishing year. Her Essay Series includes “Evolution Into Insight~Experience,” “Intent,” and “Craft.”
Deborah Kroman has studied writing at the University of Houston, Rice University, and the University of Missouri--Kansas City. A Pushcart Nominee, her poems have appeared in several journals, including New Letters, Coal City Review and Snowy Egret. Three of her poems won Boulevard's 2007 Emerging Poets Contest.
Lavinia Kumar’s book is The Skin and Under (Word Tech, 2015). Her chapbook is Rivers of Saris (Main Street Rag, 2013). Her poetry has appeared in several US and UK publications, e.g. Atlanta Review, Colere, Edison Literary Review, Flaneur, Kelsey Review, Orbis, Pedestal, Pemmican, Symmetry Pebbles, Touch, & US1 Worksheets. Her website is laviniakumar.org
Elizabeth Landrum, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist from Lousiville, KY, who recently retired to the San Juan Islands where she shares a new home with her wife and two dogs. She is at last finding time to write and to reflect on the work she did for 30 years, counseling people living with losses, cancer, and other life-changing illnesses. Her own life has been touched and altered by the cancers and deaths she has experienced in her immediate family and by the incredible resilience she has witnessed in clients she supported through their journeys of grief and illness.
Emily Lasinsky is an emerging writer and artist. She has a deep passion for art and writing, and she hopes to use these expressive forms when counseling others in the future. She currently combines her love of writing and helping others by working as a writing tutor for college students.
Laura Levesque grew up in Baltimore, MD. She earned her Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. She has been published in The Externalist, Autumn Sky Poetry, Mirage, Montage, and others. She lives in Northern Virginia with her family.
Nancy Smiler Levinson is an author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction for young readers. She is currently completing a book for adults following her journey as caregiver to her husband who has Alzheimer’s disease and as a breast cancer patient herself. This is her first prose/poem published in a literary journal.
Annmarie Lockhart is the founding editor of vox poetica, an online salon dedicated to bringing poetry into the every day. She has been reading and writing poetry since she could read and write. A lifelong Bergen County New Jersey resident, she lives and works two miles east of the hospital where she was born.
Fred Longworth restores vintage audio components for a living. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including California Quarterly, Comstock Review, Pearl, Rattapallax, Spillway, and Stirring.
Marianne Lyon has been a music teacher for 39 years. After teaching In Hong Kong she returned to the Napa Valley and has been published in various literary magazines and reviews such as Colere, Crone, Trajectory, Earth Daughters, Feile-Festa, and Whirlwind. She spends time each year teaching in Nicaragua. She is a member of the California Writers Club, Healdsburg Literary Guild.
Jeanie McLeod retired from social work and from professional clowning at about the same time. Today, she lives on the very edge of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia where she spends as much time as possible outside. In bad weather she writes. Her prose and poetry have been published in approximately fifteen journals. She has won awards for each. She was also nominated for a Pushcart award.
Donal Mahoney a native of Chicago, lives in St. Louis, MO. He has worked as an editor for The Chicago Sun-Times, Loyola University Press and Washington University in St. Louis. He has had poems published in or accepted by The Wisconsin Review, The Kansas Quarterly, The South Carolina Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Commonweal, Public Republic (Bulgaria), Gloom Cupboard (U.K.), Revival (Ireland), The Istanbul Literary Review (Turkey), Pirene's Fountain (Australia), and other publications.
Gina Marie Mammano is a poet, artist, and spiritual director living on Whidbey Island in the state of Washington. Her life's passion is creating doorways to healing through the salve of the written word, the balm of intentional presence, the comfort of communities of belonging, and the medicine of live performance or "embodied poetry."
Arlene L. Mandell, a retired English professor, was formerly on the staff of Good Housekeeping magazine where she wrote health and medical articles. She has published more than 500 poems, essays and short stories in newspapers and literary journals, including The New York Times, Tiny Lights and Wild Violet. A recent venture is an echapbook, Scenes from My Life on Hemlock Street: A Brooklyn Memoir, set in the 1940s and 50’s.
Michael Mark writes to break things so he can look in and be further mystified. He is the author of two books of fiction, Toba and At the Hands of a Thief (Atheneum). His poetry has appeared and is scheduled to appear in The New York Times, UPAYA, Awakening Consciousness Magazine, Sleet, Empty Mirror, OutsideIn Magazine, Elephant Journal, Everyday Poets, Forge Journal, Angle Journal, The 2014 San Diego Poetry Annual, The Wayfarer, as well as other nice places. Please follow him on Twitter @michaelgrow
Linda K. Marshall is a retired high-school English teacher, happily married for 43 years, mother of two, grandmother of three, preacher's kid, nearly life-long writer of little verses.
Certified in psychoanalysis by the American Psychoanalytic Association, Stephen Maurer has practiced and written about psychoanalysis for over 20 years, recently from a Lacanian perspective. A desire to be more fully engaged with poetry prompted his partial retirement from Seattle to a small college town. His poems have appeared in Boston Lit. Magazine, Yale Journal of Humanities in Medicine, Tiger's Eye, Darkling, Blueprint Review, Desert Voices, Switchback, and Deronda Review. His first chapbook, Side-Effects; Poems of Remedy and Doubt, from Big Table Press, appeared in October 2010.
Stephen Mead "Occupation Madre" was originally published in slightly different form online digitally on Scars.tv in February 2002, as part of a scanned ebook "Heroines Unlikely." In June 2003 it was published in online digital format by the Gutenberg Litengraphic Society as a winner for their picture-story category. (This site is no longer online.) "Heroines Unlikely" was self-published by the artist as an ebook through Lulu.com in September 2005, and became part of Mr. Mead's print edition "Selected Works" self-published through Lulu.com in February 2007.
Daniel Milbo is a contemplative existentialist and poet. In his writing and photography, he hopes to capture that nucleus of the moment in which awareness blossoms to a greater experience of relationships both personal and universal.
Michael T. Milbocker founded Promethean Surgical Devices, and acts as Chief Science Officer, where he interacts directly with patients and doctors. Before starting Promethean, he was Principal Scientist at ABIOMED, and worked in their successful implantable artificial heart program. We're all familiar with the metaphor for the anatomical heart as center for emotion and the soul. However, patient's families and doctors alike frequently comment that people who receive artificial hearts are alive, but less human. Michael's poetry primarily addresses the importance of the family support network in patient outcomes associated with prosthetic correction of disease states.
Beth Mills has been a poet all her life. Her father read poetry to her from the time she could listen, and she carried her love for words into her elementary school classroom, helping children discover the poems inside them. Publications: Educational Leadership, Orbit 60, Mothers Always Write, Gemini Magazine.
Esther Greenleaf Mürer lives in Philadelphia. At 73, she considers herself an emerging poet. Her work has been recently published or is forthcoming in Mimesis,
The Externalist, Town Creek Poetry, and Unsplendid.
Barbara Murphy lives in Rochester, New York, and teaches full-time at Finger Lakes Community College. She writes poetry, prose, and fiction and wrote and produced puppet plays from 1982-1992.
Eira Needham lives in Birmingham, UK. She has been a teacher, carer, herpetologist, crafter and poet. Her poetry is eclectic and been published in print and online. Recent publications/acceptances include Joyful! Victorian Violet Press, Westard Quarterly, Yes Poetry, and Leaf Garden. She will have her first chapbook published in 2011.
Sherry O’Keefe, a descendent of Montana pioneers and graduate of MSU-B, is the author of Making Good Use of August (Finishing Line Press). Her most current work has appeared or is forthcoming in Camas, Switched-on Gutenberg, THEMA, Terrain. Org., PANK, Avatar Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Babel Fruit, The High Desert Journal and Main Street Rag. Currently working on a full-length collection, Loss of Ignition, she is the poetry editor for Soundzine,and an editorial assistant for The Centrifugal Eye.
David Olsen's third poetry chapbook, Sailing to Atlantis, is new from Finishing Line Press. Since early 2011, he has placed poems in Acumen, Envoi, SAW Poetry, Orbis, Assent, Interpreter’s House, Bloodroot, Deronda Review, Scintilla, Babel, Sounds of Surprise, and competition anthologies from Cinnamon Press and Templar Poetry.
Brigita Orel has had stories and poems published in online and print literary journals and anthologies. She studied writing at Swinburne University, Melbourne. She lives in Slovenia.
Sergio A. Ortiz is a retired educator, poet, and photographer. He has a B.A. in English literature, and a M.A. in philosophy. Flutter Press released his debut chapbook, At the Tail End of Dusk, in October of 2009. Ronin Press released his second chapbook, topography of a desire, in May of 2010. Avantacular Press released his first photographic chapbook: The Sugarcane Harvest, May 2010. He was recently published or is forthcoming in: Carcinogenic Poetry, Perceptions Magazine of the Arts 2010, BorderSenses, Offcourse Literary Journal, and The Monongahela Review.
Kaveri Patel is a poet, mother, and healer. She lives and works in northern California, and is currently exploring the phrase, fear is just compost for courage. Her first book of poetry, An Invitation, was published in 2011.
Marcia Pelletiere is a, writer, singer/composer, and multimedia artist. Her first poetry collection, Miracle with Roasted Hens, was released in 2012. Other poems have appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, Ploughshares, The Southern Poetry Review, The Alaska Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Barrow Street, and Painted Bride Quarterly.
Richard King Perkins II is a state-sponsored advocate for residents in long-term care facilities. He has a wife named Vickie and a daughter named Sage. His work has appeared in Abandoned Towers, Illumen, Sage Trail, Prime Mincer, and The American Dissident.
Lynn Pinkerton, a freelance writer, knew in the fifth grade that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Sidetracked by careers in social services and special events marketing, Lynn eventually reclaimed her childhood aspiration, joined a writing group and began publishing. She lives in Houston, Texas.
Deborah Polikoff was awarded the 1977 Radcliffe Poetry Prize, and she has published in The Madison Review and The Radcliffe Quarterly. She lives and writes in New England.
Marjorie Power’s poetry collection, Seven Parts Woman, was published recently by Wordtech Editions. Her poems appear in six chapbooks and one other full length collection, all from small presses. Much of her work is in journals and anthologies: Main Street Rag, The Kentucky Review, Adanna, and elsewhere.
Susan Quaglietti has been a registered nurse since 1978 and a nurse practitioner at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Health Care System for 28 years. During her tenure, she has coordinated care for veterans with advanced cardiac disease and since 2014 has been working with veterans who are recovering from mental health disorders.
Kathleen M. Quinlan’s poetry has been placed in UK and US journals, including Acumen, Saw, the Journal of Family Social Work, Gargoyle and Bloodroot. A social scientist, she uses poetry to explore social issues. She is a member of the Back Room Poets in Oxford, England.
Gregory W. Randall majored in English and Latin at St.Olaf College and spent innumerable hours in the music library. Classical music by composers such as Sibelius and Brahms continue to inform both the structure and pacing of his poetry. His chapbook, Double Happiness, won the Fifth Annual Camber Press Chapbook Contest as judged by Mark Doty and is forthcoming in late 2010. His chapbook, A Room in the Country, was published by Pudding House Press in April, 2010. His chapbook, Uncommon Refrains, is scheduled for publication by The Lives You Touch Publications in the spring of 2010. He is a recipient of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize for 2008 and a finalist for the 2008 White Pine Press book award. His recent work appears or is forthcoming in The Bitter Oleander, CQ, Cream City, GW Review, Louisiana Literature, Louisville Review, Pedestal, Rosebud, Southern California Review, South Carolina Review, Sow’s Ear, Stand, and other noted journals. Greg owns a financial planning practice in Santa Rosa, CA where he and his wife host the Londonberry Salon a quarterly celebration of poetry in their home.
Claudia Recinos is a wife, a writer, and an avid crocheter. Her fiction has appeared in Absinthe Revival, and she maintains a personal blog at tumblr.com. She is a stay-at-home mom to a 14-month-old baby boy and does most of her writing in the dark at 4 a.m.
Naveed Rehan recently completed her PhD in English and the Teaching of English at Idaho State University (2011). Her dissertation is entitled Passionate Struggle into Conscious Being: D. H. Lawrence and Creative Nonfiction. She is now working as Assistant Professor of English at Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
Marjorie Robertson received an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University in 2005 and has been teaching English at the University of California, Irvine since 2008.
Kristin Roedell graduated from Whitman College (B.A. English 1984) and the University of Washington Law School (J.D. 1987). Her poetry has appeared in Switched on Gutenberg, Ginosko, Flutter, Damselflypress, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Eclectica, Quill and Parchment (featured poet January 2010), Open Minds Quarterly, Ekphrasis, The Fertile Source, City Arts, Breath and Shadow, Pilgrimage, Cliterature, Metromania and Four and Twenty. Other poems will appear in Chest, and Voice Catcher Anthology and Soundings Review. Her chapbook, Seeing in the Dark, was published in 2009 by Tomato Can Press.
Catherine A. Rogers is a widely unpublished poet who lives and teaches English in Savannah, Georgia. Some of her work has appeared in Kalliope: A Journal of Women's Literature and Art and online in Autumn Sky Poetry. An earlier version of her poem "Dirt" was selected for First Place in the August 2006 IBPC contest and was then selected as the IBPC Poem of the Year May 2006 - April 2007 by Mark Doty.
Howard Rosenberg is both a writer and teacher. His poems have appeared in Spitball, Vanguard, and Poetica. He teaches writing in a two-year college in New Jersey.
Kenneth Salzmann is a writer and poet who lives in Woodstock, NY, and Ajijic, Mexico. His poetry has appeared in Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers, Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude, Rattle, The New Verse News, Section 8, and elsewhere.
David Anthony Sam has written poetry for over 40 years and has two collections, including Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves (2014). He lives in Virginia with his wife and life partner, Linda, and currently serves as president of Germanna Community College. In 2014-15, he had poems accepted by American Tanka, Artemis Journal, The Birds We Pile Loosely, Carbon Culture Review, The Crucible, FLARE: The Flager Review, From the Depths, Heron Tree, Hound, Literature Today. On the Rusk, Piedmont Virginian Magazine, The Scapegoat Review, The Summerset Review, and The Write Place at the Write Time.
Timothy A. Sanborn, MD is Head of the Cardiology Division at NorthShore University HealthSystems in Evanston, IL and currently teaches cardiology as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He has edited a book on Laser Angioplasty and published over 260 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. His short stories include “Occupational Sciatica” published in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions and “What is Calamity?” published in The American Bahai.
Mariejoy A. San Buenaventura teaches English and creative writing at Mahidol University in Thailand just outside Bangkok. Her writing consists mostly of poetry because she loves the way it allows her to contain an experience in a vial of words. She has been previously published in the Anthology of New England Writers 2007.
Gerard Sarnat is the author of two critically acclaimed poetry collections, HOMELESS CHRONICLES from Abraham to Burning Man and Disputes. A Stanford and Harvard-trained physician, CEO of healthcare organizations and Stanford professor, Gerard’s been published in over seventy journals and anthologies. For Huffington Post's review and more, visit GerardSarnat.com.
Ruth Schiffmann spent fourteen rewarding years homeschooling her two daughters. As they got older she found herself with more time to write. Caring for her parents throughout her mother’s struggle with depression and her father’s decline into dementia has inspired much of her work. More than two hundred of Ruth’s stories, articles, poems, and essays have appeared both online and in print. Her blog can be found at http://outonalimbshywritergoessocial.blogspot.com.
Katherine DiBella Seluja is a nurse poet who invites her experiences in healthcare to inform her writing. Katherine’s work has appeared in Adobe Walls, American Journal of Nursing, Barefoot Review, bosque, Connotation Press, Orange Room Review and Santa Fe Literary Review, among others. She is currently working on a collection dedicated to her schizophrenic brother.
Claudia Serea is the author of Angels & Beasts (Phoenicia Publishing, 2012), A Dirt Road Hangs From the Sky (8th House Publishing, 2013), and To Part Is to Die a Little (Cervena Barva Press, 2015). She is the founding editor of National Translation Month. You can find more of her work at cserea.tumblr.com.
Scot Siegel lives in Oregon with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of one full-length poetry collection, Some Weather (Plain View Press, 2008), and two chapbooks, Untitled Country (Pudding House Publications, 2009) and Skeleton Says (Finishing Line Press, 2010). A second full-length poetry collection is due out from Salmon Poetry in 2012. Siegel works as an urban planner and serves on the board of trustees of the Friends of William Stafford.
Dianne Silvestri is a poet, physician, and stem cell transplant recipient. She has authored the chapbook Necessary Sentiments. Her poems have appeared in The Healing Muse, The Pharos, Blood and Thunder, The Comstock Review, Earth’s Daughters, Evening Street Review, Steam Ticket, Apeiron Review, Blast Furnace, The Somerville Times and two anthologies.
Bobbi Sinha-Morey is a reviewer for the online magazine Specusphere and a poet. Her poetry can be seen in places such as Orbis, Gloom Cupboard, Pirene's Fountain, and Falling Star Magazine, among others. Her latest book of poetry is White Tea.
A former New York State politician, news broadcaster and award-winning copywriter, Kelly Grace Smith’s passion for the written and spoken word has directed her life for over three decades. A dedicated poet, her most recent poem, white lotus III, placed fourth in the 2009 Annual Writer's Digest Poetry Awards Collection.
Julia C. Spring is a lawyer and social worker who has focused on mental health and adult guardianship; she has taught many students in both fields. When her professional writing became more personal, she started composing memoir pieces which have been published in Blood and Thunder and Hospital Drive.
Pat St. Pierre is a freelance writer of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Her work has been displayed in ezines, journals and print magazines. She is also an amateur photographer who tries to capture vignettes of life in photos. Her photos have been on the covers and included in such places as: Mountain Tales Press Touch, Southern Women's Review, Our Day's Encounter, The Camel Saloon, Flutter, Ken *Again, Front Porch Review, Decades Review, and others.
Arti Subramanian is a newly minted doctor who likes to pretend she has a life outside of medicine. She has been writing poetry since she was seven years old. During med school, her love of poetry and the words themselves became a lifeline to sanity and hope, an escape from sunlit illness and barred windows. Medicine influences all her poetry - either as an escape or as core, and she writes everyday just so she can pretend she is sane at all other times.
Janet Sunderland grew up on a farm in Marshall County, Kansas and drifted like a cottonseed across the United States, Europe, Mexico, and the Caribbean before moving to Kansas City with her husband, Cliff Kroski. She is a memoirist, a poet, and an editor. Her poetry collection, At the Boundary, was released by Finishing Line Press. Poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She’s currently working on a book length memoir, Written on the Reverse and serves as Vice-President on the executive board of Whispering Press. She’s a professional actor, a member of SAG-AFTRA, and teaches writing and public speaking.
Sei Tapfer lives in California with her husband and their dog. Their son, for whom her prose piece was written, is their angel and their first love.
Dr. Ariela Sarah Taub studied biology as well as creative writing from Johns Hopkins University where she also served as editor of her university's literary magazine. She is a recent graduate of The University of Maryland Medical School. She is also co-founder of the nonprofit organization Music is Medicine.
Alarie Tennille serves on the Emeritus Board of The Writers Place in Kansas City, Missouri. Her chapbook, Spiraling into Control, is available from The Lives You Touch Publications. Alarie’s poems have appeared in numerous journals including Margie, Poetry East, English Journal, I-70 Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, and Southern Women’s Review.
Elaina Turpin lives in Oregon. She is the mother of three children. When she is not writing she spends most of her time in the garden. She is a self professed tree-hugger and has been known to randomly break into song.
Naomi Beth Wakan has published over 40 books. Her essays and poetry are in Late Bloomer-on writing later in life, Composition: notes on the written word, Bookends - a year between the covers, and A Roller-coaster ride - thoughts on aging (Wolsak and Wynn).
Christian Ward is the author of “Bone Transmissions” (Maverick Duck Press, 2009). His work currently appears in Sage Trail, Grasslimb and Sein Und Werden and is forthcoming in Envoi and The Emerson Review.
Colin Ward currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with his R.N. wife, Denise, and their corgi, Cora. His work has been anthologized in "Talus and Scree" and has appeared online in such venues as "Beside the white chickens," "Autumn Sky Poetry," and "Prairie Poetry."
Larina Warnok is a mother, wife, teacher, and writer who believes strongly in the power of forward motion, advocacy, and reaching out. Her work has appeared in The Oregonian, Poet's Market, Space & Time Magazine, and others, as well as in Touch: The Journal of Healing. Her chapbook, Guitar Without Strings, is available from The Lives You Touch Publications.
Yvette Wiley is a half Native American from the Muscogee Creek Tribe, and she lives in Tulsa, OK. She raised her daughter, earned a B.S. in biology, and works in the environmental and natural resources field. Poetry is a creative expression of the culture and the heartbeat of the lives which surround her. She has one previous publication in the Journal, The Externalist.
James S. Wilk is a physician in Denver specializing in medical disorders complicating pregnancy. In addition to previous issues of Touch: The Journal of Healing, his poems have appeared in The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, The Healing Muse, Ars Medica, and others. His chapbook of medical poems, The Seven Year Night: Poems of the Medical Training Experience, is available at Big Table Press.
Toni L. Wilkes’ chapbook, Stepping Through Moons published by Finishing Line Press, has been nominated for the California Book Award and the PEN USA Literary Award. Her poem "Once Again" first published in POEM received a Pushcart Prize nomination. Her recent work appears or is forthcoming in Confrontation, Cream City, Dos Passos Review, Poetry East, Soundings East, Southern Humanities Review and other noted journals. Toni lives in Santa Rosa, CA with her husband Gregory W. Randall where they host a poetry salon in their home.
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Touch: The Journal of Healing
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