L. Shapley Bassen is an ex-pat New Yorker, now grateful in Rhode Island, who spent many summers near Wolfeboro on Lake Winnipesaukee. “Portrait of a Giant Squid” was the First Place winner in the 2015 Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. Published in The Kenyon Review; Fiction Editor at CRAFT; finalist for the 2011 Flannery O’Connor Award; a first reader for Electric Literature; 2009 APP Drama Prize; a Mary Roberts Rinehart Fellowship; and poetry/fiction reviewer for The Rumpus, etc. 2019. Bassen’s first poetry collection What Suits a Nudist? is from Clare Songbirds Publishing House. Learn more at lsbassen.com.
Alice Christian grew up in Derry, New Hampshire, in a poetry-loving family, and has been writing poetry since first grade. She majored in classics at Smith College. She has workshopped her poems at the Frost Place Conference on Poetry in Franconia for several years. Her poems have been placed in Montpelier storefronts during their annual “PoemCity” event for the past six years. She now lives with her husband and cat in Colchester, Vermont.
Corey D. Cook’s fifth chapbook, The Weight of Shadows, was released by Finishing Line Press in January of 2019. His work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Akitsu Quarterly, Ariel Chart, the Aurorean, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Chiron Review, Freshwater, The Henniker Review, The Mountain Troubadour, and Northern New England Review. Corey was also lucky enough to have a poem appear in the fall 2012 issue of Smoky Quartz Quarterly. He works at a hospital in New Hampshire and lives in Thetford, Vermont (a few miles from the Connecticut River).
Ann B. Day moved into a cottage at the RiverMead Retirement Community in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 2013. She and her family owned a working guest farm in Mad River Valley of Vermont, where they raised Highland cattle, taught skiing, and held writing retreats for 50 years. She belongs to the Monadnock Writers’ Group and the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Ann writes a nature column for the weekly Valley Reporter and publishes nature books and annual engagement calendars with her poetry and photos. Her poems have been printed in many publications, including Time Magazine, The Lyric, Green Mountain Trading Post, New England Memories, and The Poets’ Touchstone.
Elizabeth Gauffreau has lived in Nottingham, New Hampshire since 2001. She holds an MA in English/Fiction Writing from the University of New Hampshire. Liz has published fiction and poetry in Foliate Oak, Serving House Journal, Soundings East, Hospital Drive, and Blueline, among others, as well as several themed anthologies. Her novel Telling Sonny was recently published by Adelaide Books. Learn more about her work at lizgauffreau.com.
A retired college chemistry professor, Frank Gorga now directs the bulk of his creative energies towards making photographs. Although he will photograph just about any subject that captures his imagination, Frank specializes in landscape and wildlife subjects. A long time “summah” resident of the Monadnock region, Frank and his long suffering wife, Joan, now live year round in Antrim, New Hampshire. More of his work can be found at gorga.org/blog.
Caleb Kneuer is a New Hampshire native. A student, he is currently studying for his bachelor’s degree while working as a part time librarian. In his free time, he jots down little snippets that may or may not become poems.
After her Mt. Washington hike in 1999, Linda Kulig Magoon returned to hiking in August 2015 with the goal of summiting New Hampshire’s White Mountains 4,000 feet and higher. Mt. Osceola and Mt. East Osceola were peaks #4 and #5. She completed the list in June 2019 at age 58, hiking the majority of them solo. She is writing a memoir of her hiking exploits titled, Live Free and Hike: Gracing 48 Summits. Linda is a 35-year resident of New Hampshire, which means she’s practically a native. You can reach her at LindaMagoon@tds.net.
Maggie Martin is the author of the poetry chapbook Old Stories (Niobe Press) and co-author of Rebel in White, a memoir on the life and nursing career of Bertha McComish. An essay about her time in radio has recently appeared in the anthology Air, published by Hippocampus Magazine and Books. A poet, writer, and workshop facilitator specializing in healing through the practice of poetry, her work can also be found on-line at Folded Word and DeLuge Journal. Recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including two nominations for the Pushcart Prize, she lives by the Contoocook River in Henniker, New Hamphsire.
Mary Ann Mayer has three poetry collections, most recently Kissing the Shuttle – A Lyric History, set during the rise of New England textile mills and the tuberculosis epidemic. A retired occupational therapist, her poems and translations appear widely, including Smoky Quartz. She has received numerous awards, including the Grub Street Poetry Prize and honorable mention for the May Sarton New Hampshire Book Award. Mary Ann is an editor for Crosswinds Poetry Journal. She lives in Franconia, New Hampshire, and Sharon, Massachusetts, with her husband Carl Mayer, a silk screen print artist.
Sylvia Missal grew up in Rindge, New Hampshire, and graduated from the University of New Hampshire. She lives in the Boston area where she has had a career as a social worker working with families and children in inner city communities. Her characters and stories are informed by her rural upbringing, her urban experience, and her intimate knowledge of families who struggle. She has a creative nonfiction piece accepted for publication in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing. She maintains strong connections to and fondness for New Hampshire.
Eric Poor is a retired, award-winning reporter and author of Working at the Word Factory, a book about small town journalism. An avid outdoor sportsman, he has been writing outdoor columns for 30 years. He lives in Rindge, New Hampshire with his wife Marsha and their cat Dottie.
bg Thurston lives in a sheep farm that borders on the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border. She is currently researching the history of her farmhouse, built in 1770 by Richard Weeks. One of the more colorful aspects of its history was its stint as a Speakeasy/Cathouse during Prohibition. Thus, its current name has become “Cathouse Farm.” You can reach her at bgThurston@cathousefarm.com.
Lisa Townsend began writing poetry after retiring from psychiatric social work. Her poems have been accepted for publication by The Poet’s Touchstone, The Henniker Review, and The Mud Chronicles: A New England Anthology. A participant in Down Cellar Poets, based in Chichester, New Hampshire, she is a twenty-year full-time New Hampshire resident with family ties going back to her great-grandfather, Irving U. Townsend, who wrote poetry inspired by the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.
Smoky Quartz 