Issue Twenty-Seven Contributors

Issue Twenty-Seven promises some fresh voices. Fancy a preview?

Chris Vanjonack

Chris Vanjonack is a writer from Littleton, Colorado. He is currently a student at Colorado State University studying English Education and Creative Writing. This is his first publication with Crack the Spine.

Jad Josey

Jad Josey lives on the beautiful central coast of California, where time is marked by tides and driftwood. Most of his writing is done in the wee hours of the night, after his toddler and infant twins are tucked safely into bed—it is a quiet time to tap away at the keyboard, listening to the droning ocean buoys in the distance and watching the beam of the lighthouse sweep by at regular intervals. Jad received his M.A. in English Literature from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and he currently works as a copy editor and sales manager. His non-fiction essays have appeared in All-Life.com, Common Ground, and, most recently, Overland Journal. His true literary love is the short story, and this is his first published work.

M.A. Istvan Jr.

M.A. Istvan Jr. is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy and an MA in English.

Rachel Adams

Rachel Adams is a Baltimore native and a longtime resident of Washington, DC; the editor of several publications at a nonprofit advocacy association; the founder and editor of Lines + Stars, a DC-based literary journal; and a freelance writer. Her poetic work has previously been published in Blueline, Arsenic Lobster, Town Creek Poetry, Four and Twenty, Blue Unicorn, Barrier Islands Review, Ophelia Street, Grasslimb, and Urbanite Baltimore and is forthcoming inMelusine and the Conium Review. She received her BA in English from the Catholic University of America and her MA in writing from the Johns Hopkins University.

Dave Morehouse

Dave Morehouse writes music, poetry, and short fiction while practicing for the A.D.D. Olympics. He can be found playing fiddle and concertina by Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The neighbors and fish are apathetically considerate. His poems have been published in EveryDayPoets and an inspirational book of poems, Psalter for the 21stCentury.”

Mitch Grabois

Mitch Grabois was born in the Bronx, New York, and currently lives in Denver, Colorado. His short fiction has appeared in close to seventy literary magazines in the U.S. and Canada, most recently in Memoir Journal and Marco Polo Arts Mag. His story “Shade Tree Mechanic” is adapted from his novel, TWO-HEADED DOG, which was published in April 2012 by Dirt e-books, an innovative publisher of contemporary novels founded by New York literary agent Gary Heidt, who has represented several award winning novelists. Mitch Grabois is a psychotherapist who has been employed in a variety of clinical settings, including working with chronic schizophrenics in the famous (and notorious) Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, Florida. TWO-HEADED DOG is based upon that experience. TWO-HEADED DOG mixes aspects of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with elements of Love Story. It is the tumultuous, heartfelt story of Hank Ribinthal and Tiffany, a psychologist and his patient, in constant conflict over treatments goals and means. When Tiffany escapes, Hank feels compelled to leave his job and search for her, and his world gets ever stranger and more dangerous. Sad and poignant, funny and outrageous, TWO-HEADED DOG is a page-turner.