About the Staff
 Oonah V’yonne Joslin (Managing Editor)Website: Parallel Oonahverse Blog: OonahverseOonah taught teenagers with special needs and nearly every subject on the curriculum for 28 years. She was good at it. But then she developed a few needs of her own and left.Oonah was a judge in The Shine Journal’s first Poetry Competition and Honoree in the 2009 Binnacle Competition for her poem, “First Love”. Poets Oonah likes include Gerard Manley Hopkins, Wilfred Owen, Seamus Heaney and Simon Armitage but there are many others. She loves Leonard Cohen’s Book of Mercy. “On My First Son” by Ben Jonson makes her cry. “The City in the Sea” by Edgar Allan Poe is her favourite poem to read aloud and it appeals to the Goth within. If Oonah was asked to pick an all time favourite poem, it would be “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning. What a piece of work–and so was the Duke! Oonah tends to like poetry that is gutsy rather than mushy, she hates forced rhyming and she likes humour–you have to laugh at life. Oonah has a serialised Novella, A Genie in a Jam, in Bewildering Stories. You can find her poetry in Twisted Tongue Issues 8 and 9, The Ranfurly Review, The Shine Journal, Static Movement and Bewildering Stories. She is looking forward to reading yours. |
 Kathleen Cassen Mickelson (Assistant Managing Editor)Website: Kathleen Cassen Mickelson Blog: One Minnesota WriterKathleen completed an MFA in creative writing at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, after failing to make up her mind about what she wanted to be when she grew up. She discovered she liked deconstructing other people’s texts and telling them which of their words got stuck in her head. More than that, she found out she actually liked to write poetry in spite of years spent convincing herself that she really wasn’t all that good at it. There is evidence that she may, instead, be more in the realm of “not bad”.Kathleen writes creative nonfiction as well as poetry. Her work has appeared in The Minnesota Women’s Press, The Hamline Journal, Every Day Poets, and Boston Literary Magazine. She has taught creative writing workshops for the Hennepin County Library System in her home state of Minnesota, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics bereaved parents group, and the Upward Bound Program at Black Hills State University. She prefers poems that are grounded in everyday reality, yet elevate it to breathtaking levels, preferably in succinct non-rhyming form. Kathleen is inspired by all kinds of writers, but especially Jim Moore, Billy Collins, Raymond Carver, and, for those less serious days, Carl Hiaasen. |
 Constance Brewer (Editor & Slush Ninja) Website: The Periphery Blog: Life On The PeripheryConstance Brewer is a mix of poet, writer, and artist. After college she joined the Army, saw bits and pieces of the world while alternately building or blowing things up for her country, and finally settled in Wyoming amid the alien-enticing wide open spaces. She works for the government and is here to help. Honest. Constance can usually be found sounding off on her blog about the nature of poetry, and the surrealness of living in America’s least populous state.Constance is a member of several writer’s organizations including the Wyoming state poetry society, WyoPoets. She edited the 2007 WyoPoets chapbook, Wyoming Paintbrush, and the 2009 chapbook, Distant Horizons. She also has work in Wyoming Fence Lines, An Anthology of Prose and Poetry put out by the Wyoming Arts and Humanities Councils. Poetic influences and favorites include: Louise Gluck, Billy Collins, Robert Creeley, Marge Piercy, Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, Allen Ginsberg, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ronald Koertge, Emily Dickinson, William Stafford, and William Shakespeare. A fan of both rhymed poetry and free verse, Constance insists on attention to detail and poetic craft. Poems that resonate, offer a new look on a common theme, and show an awareness of language will get her attention. |
 Nicholas Ozment (Editor & Slushimator)Website: http://ozment.livejournal.comNicholas Ozment has an M.A. in English and teaches at Winona State University.His poetry has appeared in Weird Tales, Mythic Delirium, The Smoking Poet, Mythic Circle, True Romance, and dozens of other print and online publications. His poetic interests range from Chaucer to Dickinson to Bob Dylan. His three favorite poets at present are Robert Browning, W.B. Yeats, and T.S. Eliot. Most recently Billy Collins has influenced his own poetry. He begins his classes by reading a poem aloud, and rarely does a semester go by that he does not try to frighten his students with “Childe Roland to The Dark Tower Came”. |
 Glen Westall (Slush Reader) Glen’s passion for writing stems not so much from a love for words or plots but a neurotic obsession with the very structure of communication. It’s a real love/hate relationship in that he hates to love it.
When not fretting over the most effective way to use a semi-colon, he enjoys reading poetry from unknowns across various e-zines (because print magazines are just too expensive) as they usually offer the most surprising and engaging work. He graduated from university with a literature and creative writing degree but, in all honesty, feels thoroughly undeserving of it and hopes one day to write something worthy of the qualification. Check out his performance poetry here. |
 Paula Berman (Slush Reader) Paula has no degrees whatsoever in English or writing; she is that unusual thing, an engineer who writes poetry. (However, she did have an excellent high school English teacher, and wonderful college professors in her Poetry and Folksong classes, and she would like to thank them for a lot of what she knows.) As an engineer and SF fan, of course she has a special interest in speculative poetry; she also likes formal poetry, though forms can very widely. Some favorite poets include John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, e.e. cummings, Mary Oliver, Jo Walton, and Seanan Maguire. Her own work has been published in Amaze CInquain, Every Day Poets, and Twist Collective; she is a 2010 Rhysling Award nominee |
