Issue 100 Contributors – Crack the Spine

We are so proud to reach our 100th digital issue this week! Meet the wonderful contributors who will be helping us celebrate! READ ISSUE 100

Caroline Bruckner

Caroline attended the National School of Film and Television in London and got an MA in screenwriting. Her film, “The Confession,” won a student Oscar in 2010 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2011. Also, an animated film Caroline wrote, “Cooked,” was selected for the Cinéfondation in Cannes Film Festival in 2010. Her short fiction has been featured in Diverse Voices Quarterly and Willow Review.

Mike Finley

Mike Finley is a Pushcart winner, an author of over 200 books of various kinds, and 100 provocative videos. Today he writes web copy for law firms for a living. His latest work came out “Today: A Pox Upon Your Blessings,” with Danny Klecko. Mike was awarded the 2010 KPV Kerouac Award, a lifetime achievement honor. Mike and Danny edit LIEF Magazine.

Chiara DeLuna

With a doctorate in Human Development and Family Studies, Chiara DeLuna carefully observes and interprets human behavior, a practice that contributes to her creative writing, as well as her academic writing for scholarly journals. Chiara loves to explore different voices and genres, and her stories are as often compelled by a particular voice as they are by a specific idea, situation, or plot. Second to writing, Chiara also loves to cook, experimenting with new ingredients and flavors, as she does with new characters and voices, to find unexpected outcomes. Her two lifetime goals are to be posthumously famous as the author with the most diverse set of published work ever discovered and to popularize the peanut butter and pickle sandwich.

Erik Bendix

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Erik attended a progressive school high in the Swiss Alps and then went on to earn an M.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University and in philosophy from Princeton University. He worked as an editor and in alternative education before settling in North Carolina with his family. Erik is in private practice as an experienced teacher of the Alexander Technique and as a Body-Mind Centering practitioner. Both disciplines require a daily practice of being alive to the life of the body, and that aliveness seeks expression in his poetry. Erik has studied with Richard Tillinghast and Robert Bly and has often attended both the old Asheville Poetry Festival and the current Asheville Wordfest. Erik’s work is published or forthcoming in The Alembic, Asheville Poetry Review, Euphony, Forge, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Poetry East, Saint Ann’s Review, Monarch Review, Forge, and Word Riot.

Rosa del Duca

Rosa del Duca lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. When she’s not cranking out the news at KNTV, she’s writing fiction and narrative nonfiction, or singing with her folkpop band we.are.hunters. Her work has appeared in Cutbank, Grain, River Teeth and CALYX.

Michael Emery

Michael grew up in the Lost River Valley of east/central Idaho—cow country, the last of the Old West; he left knowing all he needed to about cows, coyotes, fences, rattlesnakes, fly fishing, hunting, and drinking beer, but not much about the background basics for a modicum of learning. As an undergrad at Occidental College, Michael worked a variety of odd jobs to finance my degree in psychology and philosophy. From there, he attended the Teachers College at Columbia University for his Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Eric went on to spend some time in the Peace Corps before returning to Idaho, quitting psychology, and buying a ranch. His decision to return to professional practice led him to work for the court system as a forensic psychologist, handling competency, child custody, personal injury, and criminal sentencing issues. Now semi-retired, Eric came to New Mexico via the Creativity and Madness continuing education series and now live at an artist’s colony in El Morro. His writing has been published in Grey Sparrow Journal, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and The Zuni Mountain Poets: An Anthology, edited by John Carter-North, Margaret Gross, and Thomas Davis.

Kimberly Lojewski

Kimberly Lojewski writes and teaches at UMass Amherst. She has been published in PANK, Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, Jersey Devil Press, and elsewhere. She is currently finishing a book of short stories and a new nonfiction project.

Sri Wele Cebuda

Sri Wele Cebuda is a lover of India, fascinated by its colour, its beauty, its energy, and its capacity for change, which are at the center of his vision of the World. He has been influenced by figures such as Rabindranath Tagore and Srinivasa Ramanujan, and has long been a lover of its culture and its power, as can be seen in a quote of his, “In India, diamonds are everywhere.”

Fiona Marshall

Fiona emigrated to Northern Alberta, Canada, six years ago with her husband and two sons after living her entire life in the North West of England.There, she joined the Slave Lake Writers Group and the Writers Guild of Alberta, began to write and never stopped! She makes her living as an ultrasound technician but, for fun, enjoys quadding in the bush, making a fire, and toasting hot dogs and marshmallows on it.

Cathy Allman

Cathy Allman has a master’s degree in creative writing and teaches creativity workshops.

Adam Zobel

Adam Zobel is a recent graduate of Southern NH University’s MFA program, and is currently pursuing his passion for teaching by working as an adjunct English professor at two NH community colleges. In addition, he works at a screen-printing company and is a freelance marketing writer. He lives with his wife, Stephanie, and is excitedly awaiting the birth of their first child.

Diane Simkin

Diane’s play, “Frankie and Annie,” was produced at the Manhattan Theater Company in New York City, and her three one-act plays, “Potter’s Field, The Vacuum,” and “Ms. Gomb,” were produced at the Wooden O in Los Angeles. Under a commission from the American Musical Theater, Diane wrote the libretto for a children’s opera, “Moonchildren,” which was performed at the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina.

Diane studied with Uta Hagen at the HB Studio in New York City, and attended the Breadloaf, San Diego, and San Francisco Writers’ Conferences. She was also educated at Columbia University and the University of Rochester, where she graduated with a degree in English.

Don Bagley

Don Bagley lives with his wife and son on north California. He is a graduate of American River College and has studied at Sacramento State. His work has bean featured at Micro Horror, Salamander Society and 365 Tomorrows.