Liza Wolff-Francis is a poet and writer with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She was co-director for the 2014 Austin International Poetry Festival and a member of the 2008 Albuquerque Poetry Slam Team. She has an ekphrastic poem posted in Austin’s Blanton Art Museum by El Anatsui’s sculpture “Seepage” and her work has most recently appeared in Edge, Twenty, unseenfiction.com, Border Senses, and on various blogs. As a social worker, she has worked with Spanish speaking immigrant populations for twenty years. She wrote the play “Border Rising” from interviews with undocumented Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. She currently lives in Albuquerque, NM.

Beau Williams is a fairly optimistic poet based out of Portland Maine. He co-runs a weekly poetry class at Sweetser Academy and facilitates workshops at high schools and colleges around the New England area. His work has been published in numerous poetry websites and journals.

Beau has performed internationally and nationally both as a solo artist and with the performance poetry collectives Uncomfortable Laughter and GUYSLIKEYOU. He was the Grand Slam Champion at Port Veritas in 2014 and was the Artist in Residence at Burren College in Ballyvaughan, Ireland in January of 2017. Beau’s book, Rumham, is available for purchase on Amazon.com.

 

Bob Warren is without credentials of any kind. He never graduated from anything, never received a diploma or certificate of completion from any sort of institution of either higher or lower learning.

At the age of thirteen, he stole all of his school records and spent that school year teaching himself at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He quit school at fifteen. At seventeen, he took part in his first civil rights march. At twenty-one, he was elected Unit Steward for the Operating Engineers.

Two decades later in Houston, he went to work at a poverty church. His jobs were to lead morning prayers and to beg food for 125 to 150 families a week. He was for nine years the Associate Director for the Albuquerque Storehouse. Subsequent to that, he was Resource Director for Habitat for Humanity in Valencia County.

He is married to Barbara Warren who came to the marriage with five kids who have somehow become 19 grandkids and 18 great-grandkids.

Pick up Litanies Not Adopted, Warren’s first collection of poetry, from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Danielle Smith is the young author of a chapbook of poetry entitled Gnarly. She is in desperate need of an updated biography.

Maria D. Sanchez has a Doctorate of Education, Ed,D. from Argosy University in Sarasota, Florida and a Masters in Counseling, M.A. from Webster University in Albuquerque, N.M. Sanchez also holds a Double Major in Business and Human Services, B.S.O.E. from Wayland Baptist University in Lubbock, Texas.

Dr. Sanchez has been in the Mental Health Counseling field for the past twenty years. She is also currently working as Director/Administrator of the

Toledo Y Carrasco Academia Hebreica. She has given presentations in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and El Paso on, “The Residual Trauma of the Inquisition.” Ms. Sanchez is working with the Jewish Federation helping individuals with Crypto or Converso Jewish background to obtain their dual citizenship to Spain.

At Family Tree DNA Project, she has assisted Adam Brown in obtaining DNA swabs from the Crypto and Converso Jewish population.

Dr. Sanchez is currently teaching classes on Crypto, Converso and Jewish culture, language (Ladino), Sephardi Jewish history, Torah studies, and Hebrew language. Her current works in Publication: El Sudario de Carrasco, Toledo y Maes;

Intersex,    Truth,    and    Spirituality;    El    Espejo, Memorias y Fotos de mi Mama Loggie Carrasco; Mi Nombre, La Historia de mi familia des de el ano 1350.

Currently, Dr. Sanchez lives in New Mexico with her family and four legged family members. She is in the process of developing seminars and conferences on Intersex topics.

Aja Oishi lives in northern New Mexico. Her writing draws from ecology, anthropology, and the years she spent in Spain, Japan, and New Zealand. She revels in the uncaged world and makes a living (and a life) by fighting for prisoners as an appellate public defender. Rock Paper Scissors is her first collection of poetry.

 

Mary Oishi was named Poet Laureate of Albuquerque on July 1, 2020. Oishi has two poetic voices: one stark and simple like that of her Japanese ancestors, and one that echoes the rhythms of preachers from her upbringing by her American father’s fundamentalist relatives. Both voices sing her songs of truth and social justice. She is the author of Spirit Birds They Told Me (2011) and is one of twelve U.S. poets in 12 Poetas: Antologia De Nuevos Poetas Estadounidenses (La Herrata Feliz and MarEsCierto, 2017), a project of the Mexican Ministry of Culture. Her poems have appeared in Mas Tequila Review, Malpais Review, Harwood Anthology, Sinister Wisdom, and other print and digital publications. Oishi is a public radio personality since 1996, currently hosting Wang Dang Doodle on KSFR-FM Santa Fe.

Bill Nevins grew up Irish Catholic near and in New York City in the 1950’s and 60’s. He moved to northern New England and raised his three children, one of whom, Special Forces SFC Liam Nevins, died in combat in Afghanistan in 2013. Bill has lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1996.

His poetry has been published in Malpaís Review, Green Left Weekly, The Rag, Central Avenue, Sage Trail, Adobe Walls, Más Tequila Review, Special Forces Charitable Trust online, Maple Leaf Rag II, The Cornelian, KUMISS, and other publications. His journalism is found in The Guardian, Forward Motion, Z Magazine, RootsWorld, Hyper Active, Trend of Santa Fe, EcoSource, LOGOS, Thirsty Ear, ABQ ARTS, Local iQ, TM Transmission, The Celtic Connection, Irish American News, An Scathan/Celtic Mirror and other journals.

Bill continues to perform at Voices of the Barrio, Fixed and Free, Jules Poetry Playhouse, Sunday Chatter and other Albuquerque poetry gatherings. He has recently performed at SOMOS in Taos, NM and The Maple Leaf Readings in New Orleans.

Bill has retired from teaching and divides his time between homes in the towns of Albuquerque and Black Lake, New Mexico, and traveling.

Also, he continues to write articles for www.nodepression.com, www.elbowroomnm.com, www.rootsworld.com, http://www.logosjournal.com and other publications. He can be contacted at bill_nevins@yahoo.com and at Bill Nevins on Facebook.

Niccolea Miouo Nance is a poet, artist, amateur fire-spinner, and soon to be world traveler via sailboat. Niccolea’s published work, which she explains is drawn from personal life experiences and the stories of those closest to her, can be found in Borderline, a cutting-edge personapoetryjournal and Canyon Voices, an Arizona State University journal for emerging writers.

She also has two books published on Amazon – her self-published The Words I Hold, and the charity project For Those Who Outlast Their Painreleased by Swimming With Elephants Publications (the proceeds above printing and shipping will go to organizations that help women and sexual assault survivors).

You can read more about Niccolea on her web site: niccoleamnance.com

Manuel (MJR) Montoya, was born and raised in Mora, New Mexico.  He is a professor at the University of New Mexico.  He blends studies of philosophy and literature with studies of international relations, economics and management to understand the evolution of the global political economy.  He received his undergraduate degree at UNM, with graduate schooling from New York University, Oxford University, and Emory University.  He is engaged in community work to support the creative economy, he is dedicated to work that eliminates child exploitation worldwide, and he is passionate about handmade craft – he has been an amateur watchmaker for 12 years.  He has published poetry and short stories in various national publications.

San Francisco poet Sarah Menefee, originally from Reno, Nevada, is a homeless and poor people’s rights activist, a founding member of the San Francisco Union of the Homeless, Homes Not Jails, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, the Revolutionary Poet’s Brigade, and “First they came for the homeless.” Her poetry collections include I’m Not Thousandfurs, The Blood About the Heart, Human Star, In Your Fish Helmet, and Stella Umana (Italian & English), and various chapbooks. She has worked in hospitals, casinos, bars, day care centers, offices, and bookstores, and has taught poetry in homeless shelters, half-way houses and at Occupy (Occupy Your Visions). She is retired and works part-time as an artist’s model.

Gina Marselle, M.A.Ed, resides in New Mexico with her husband and children. She is a high school English teacher, and finds enjoyment in being creative through poetry, painting, and photography. She has been awarded three grants for various philanthropy poetic projects.

In addition, she has published poetic work with The Sunday Poem Online Series, in theAlibi, the Rag, SIC3, Adobe Walls: An anthology of New Mexico poetry, Catching Calliope, Fix and Free Poetry Anthology I and II, and La Palabra Anthology I and II.

Gina reads her poetry at local coffee shops, art galleries, and has been a featured poet at the Church of Beethoven (now known as Sunday Chatter). She has one chapbook (self published) titled ‘Round Midnight (2012). Furthermore, she has coordinated the poetry event for the Summer Open Space Series sponsored by The City of Albuquerque since 2009. Currently, she is honored to be part of the collective La Palabra: The Word is a Woman, which is a writer’s collective founded by poet Jessica Helen Lopez.

Beyond poetry, she is an accomplished photographer. Her photos of New Mexico poets have been featured in the Santa Fe magazine Trend (March of 2011).She also photographed the cover of Jessica Helen Lopez’ poetry book, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press, 2011), and has her photography featured in September: traces of letting go a poetry book by Katrina K Guarascio (Swimming With Elephants Publications, 2014).

Her first collection of work, A Fire of Prayer: A Collection of Poetry and Photography has been published by Swimming With Elephants Publications (2015).

Originally from Albuquerque, NM where she attended the University of New Mexico, Kristian received her MFA from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts and thus melded her love for the colorful Southwest with the stunning New England coast.

Kristian’s first poetry chapbook, Storm (amazon), was released in July 2015 from Swimming With Elephants Publications in Albuquerque, NM. Her other publications of fiction and poetry are published in The Winter Tangerine Review, Philadelphia Stories, Duke City Fix: The Sunday Poem, Lightning Cake Journal, The Bellows American Review (The [BAR]), Ginosko Literary Journal, Elbow Room New Mexico, Watermelon Isotope, and Medusa’s Laugh Press.

She has taught scriptwriting at the Emerson College Pre-College Creative Writers’ Workshop and currently teaches English at the University of New Mexico-Valencia Branch. View Kristian’s work at Kristianmacaron.com

Recently named one of 30 Poets in their 30’s to watch by MUZZLE magazine, Jessica Helen Lopez is a nationally recognized award-winning slam poet, and holds the title of 2012 and 2014 Women of the World (WOW) City of ABQ Champion.

She’s also a member of the Macondo Foundation. Founded by Sandra Cisneros, it is an association of socially engaged writers united to advance creativity, foster generosity, and honor community.

Her first collection of poetry, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press, 2011) made the Southwest Book of the Year reading list and was also awarded the Zia Book Award presented by NM Women Press.

She is the founder of La Palabra – The Word is a Woman collective created for and by women and gender-identified women. Lopez is a Ted Talk speaker alum.

You may find some of Lopez’s work at these sites –LaPalabra.abqnorthwest.com, thebakerypoetry.com, and asusjournal.org.

Her work has been anthologized in A Bigger Boat: The Unlikely Success of the Albuquerque Slam Scene (UNM Press), Earth Ships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection (NM Book Award Finalist), Tandem Lit Slam (San Francisco), Adobe Walls, Malpais Review, SLAB Literary Magazine and the upcoming Courage Anthology: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls (Write Bloody Press).

Paulie Lipman is a former bartender/bouncer/record store employee/Renaissance Fair worker/two time National Poetry Slam finalist and a current loud Jewish/Queer/ poet/writer/performer. His work has appeared in the anthology ‘We Will Be Shelter’ (Write Bloody Publishing) as well as The Emerson Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Voicemail Poems, pressure gauge, and Prisma (Zeitblatt Fur Text & Sprache).

A performance poet since 2006, Zachary Kluckman has been writing poetry for 25 years. He is a member of two consecutive Albuquerque National Poetry Slam Teams and has represented the city at the Individual World Poetry Slam.

A Pushcart Prize nominee, and recipient of the Red Mountain Press Poetry Prize, his work appears in print globally in such publications as the New York Quarterly and Cutthroat, as well as numerous anthologies. Featured on over 500 radio stations, with appearances on many of the nation’s most notorious stages, he is an accomplished spoken word artist. He serves as the Spoken Word Editor of the Pedestal. Twice recognized for making world history, he is the creator of the Slam Poet Laureate Program and an organizer for the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, the largest poetry reading in history.

His first collection of poems, Animals In Our Flesh, was published in 2012 by Red Mountain Press. He has a  collection titled, The Curious Circus, from Uncola Press. An activist and youth advocate, he lives in New Mexico with his four children.

Zachary Kluckman’s collection of poetry entitled, Some of it is Muscle, is the first publication offered from Swimming with Elephants Publications.

Jennifer E. Hudgens was born and raised in Oklahoma City. She has always danced to the beat of her own drummer, just ask her mom. Using poetry as a means of expression and survival, Jennifer lives poetry. She watches the sky the way most people watch television. Jennifer is terrified of clowns, horses, and animatronic toys. That damned Snuggle bear is secretly trying to steal souls.

This is Jennifer’s first full collection of poems. She has plans to release a couple poetry chapbooks and her first novel in 2016. Jennifer promises the novel is quite murdery. She is also working to bring more diversity and light to the amazingly talented poets in the Oklahoma Poetry Community.

Jennifer is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing at the University of Central Oklahoma with plans to teach high school students after graduation. She teaches creative writing classes for the Oklahoma City Arts Council and is a pretty rad substitute teacher.

Jen genuinely hopes you like her poems. If you don’t, that’s okay too.

For more information on the author:

jenniferelhudgens.wordpress.com

Soundcloud.com/thehudgepoetry

http://thehudgepoetry.weebly.com

https://www.facebook.com/Jennifer.El.Hudgens/

https://www.facebook.com/OklahomaPoetryEvents/

Mercedez Holtry is a slam poet, writer, student, mentor, and Chicana feminist who focuses on bringing out her roots, experiences and lessons learned through her poetry in hopes that they embrace her people and other artists around her. She has represented ABQ on multiple final and semifinal stages for national poetry events. Mercedez is passionate about spoken word and aspires to continually learn all she can about her art through working and slamming for her community.

Jack Hirschman has been working with Swimming with Elephants Publications since 2015 publishing several short collections and translation.

He is the emeritus 4th Poet Laureate of the City of San Francisco (2006-2009) and has published or edited more than 100 books of poetry and essays, including translations from ten languages: Mayakovski (Russian), Neruda (Spanish), Artaud (French), Lombardo (Italian), Celan (German), Laraque (Haitian), Gjakova (Albanian), Gogou (Greek), Glik (Yiddish) and Nwadike (Swedish), among many others.

His own major work is The Arcanes, (2006) published by Multimedia Edizioni of Salerno, Italy in the American language in which the two Arcanes in this book appear. It is a 1,000 page book of his longer poems, which he calls Arcanes, and a 2nd massive volume of more than 150 new Arcanes are scheduled to be published by the same publisher in 2015.

He is a founding member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade of San Francisco, and the World Poetry Movement in Medellin, Colombia.

Passion, Provocation and Prophecy (Swimming with Elephants Publications 2015)  serves as an ode to Pier Paulo Pasolini. Beginning with an interview between Jack Hirschman and Justin Desmangles, and followed by two arcanes written by Hirschman, which reflect on the man Pasolini was.

Bekimi I Nënës/ A Mother’s Blessing, (Swimming with Elephants Publications 2018)is a full length collection of poetry by Jusef Gërvalla, translated by Jack Hirschman and Idlir Azizaj. This is the first time this collection, originally published by the Naim Frashëri Publishing House, in Tirana, Albania in 1983, is translated in the English Language.

Pina Bausch (Swimming with Elephants Publications 2018) was written in french by Werner Lambersy. This short book serves as an homage to Pina Bausch, an extraordinary modern dancer. The English translation by Jack Hirschman, serves as a continued remembrance to not only an amazing dancer but the poet whom she inspired.

Brian Hendrickson’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a range of publications, including Indiana Review,North Carolina Literary Review, and New York Quarterly.

For his poetry Brian has been nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net award, recognized as a 2013 finalist forSmartish Pace’s Erskine J. Poetry Prize, and awarded a 2013 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for appearing in Beatlick Press’ La Llarona anthology.

Since earning an MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage, Brian has taught and tutored writing at colleges and correctional facilities in Alaska, Florida, North Carolina, and now New Mexico, where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing. Brian’s scholarship focuses on the role of writing in social movements and student activism.

Brian Henrickson’s collection of poetry, entitled Of Children / And Other Poor Swimmers, will be available from Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC in September 2014 and will be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other on line distributors, as well as local bookstores.

Kat Heatherington is a queer ecofeminist poet, sometime artist, pagan, and organic gardener.    She has been living in Albuquerque since 1998, when she moved here to earn a Master’s in English at UNM.

In 2007 she collaborated with a group of three other unrelated adults to buy land in the Rio Grande Valley and form Sunflower River intentional community, sunflowerriver.org.  Ten years and many life lessons later, Sunflower River is still going strong, and still providing plenty of material to write poems about.

Kat’s work primarily addresses the interstices of human relationships and the natural world.  She has several self-published chapbooks, available from the author at yarrow@sunflowerriver.org.  Her work can be read at https://sometimesaparticle.org.

Katrina K Guarascio lives in New Mexico, where she teaches Language Arts, Literature, and Creative Writing. As an active member of the poetry community, her focus resides in bringing poetry into the classroom and making it accessible to students.

Christopher Grillo is the author of Heroes’ Tunnel (Anaphora Literary Press, 2015). His poems appear in Drunk Monkeys, Sport Literate, Biline, Spry, Aethlon, and more. Grillo is a graduate of the University of New Haven where he played strong safety for the Chargers, and of Southern Connecticut State University’s MFA program. He lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut as an 8th grade language arts teacher and moonlights as an assistant football coach at his high school alma mater.

Sarita Sol Gonzalez is a Performance Poet and fifth grader from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Writing her first poem when she was in second grade, Sarita is one of the youngest writers in the Albuquerque poetry community. Her poetry reflects her love of her community and passion for her culture. She has been published in various anthologies including Kids With Causes: A Poetry Anthology of Youth Voices and Las Palabras: Mothers and Daughters (Swimming With Elephants Publications). She has also self-published a chapbook titled Solita: Ancestors, Familia, and Mi Corazon. Sarita was a featured speaker at Albuquerque TEDxYouth 2015, speaking on the role poetry plays in her life and her community. In April of 2016, Sarita and Elena Medina,12, had the honor of being asked by the US Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Hererra, to perform with him at the ceremony for the ending/reinstating of his Laureateship at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Sarita has also shared the stage with many amazing poets including poetry duo Sister Outsider (Denice Frohman and Dominique Christina), Albuquerque Poet Laureate Jessica Helen Lopez, New Mexico State Centennial Poet Levi Romero, and many others from Albuquerque’s vibrant poetry community.

Manuel González is a performance poet who began his career in the poetry slam. He has represented Albuquerque many times on a national level as a member of the Albuquerque poetry slam team. Manuel has appeared on the PBS show, Colores, in “My Word is My Power.” He was one of the founding members of the poetry troupe The Angry Brown Poets.

Manuel teaches workshops on self-expression and poetry in high schools and youth detention centers. He also works with an art therapist to help incarcerated young men express them-selves. He was also one of the coaches and mentors for the Santa Fe High Poetry Slam team from 2006-2010. Manuel is from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

His mother’s family is from Barelas. His father’s family is from a small town in Northern New Mexico called Anton Chico, and his father was the lead singer of the band Manny and the Casanovas. He identifies himself as being Chicano. The history, culture, and spirituality of his people are among his inspirations.

His connection to his culture helps him connect to his students. Manuel teaches poetry as a means for self-expression. Looking within oneself and examining ones roots is the essence of the type of poetry he works with emotions, feelings, experiences, and prose in an historical and cultural context is the goal of his workshops. Self esteem, finding something to say, figuring out how to say it eloquently, and letting your voice be heard are just some of the benchmarks in Manuel’s workshop. Manuel resides in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and children.

For information on booking a workshop and/or performance, please send inquiries to: xicanopoet@yahoo.com.

Abigayle Goldstein is a graduate student at the University of New Mexico in the process of becoming a high school English teacher. She is passionate about New Mexico, about students, about teaching, and about the power of literature to make change in the world. When she isn’t teaching or studying, you can find her working at her local bookstore, Title Wave Books, or trying out another new hobby. This is her first book publication, but Abigayle has had multiple smaller works published in UNM’s Conceptions Southwest (2017, 2018) and Scribendi (2018) as well as Z Publishing’s “New Mexico’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology.”