A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2021-22 Edition

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Biographies of the artist and poets contributing to this collection are listed in the order their work appears

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Molly Larson Cook is an Oregon artist with roots in the Pacific Northwest and Maine.  Her career as an artist began officially at Maine College of Art in the early 1990s, but her unofficial beginning came years earlier as a child with crayons, paints and watercolors, a beginning that led to her future as an abstract expressionist who celebrates color in everything she does.  Molly is especially drawn to abstract expressionism which, like poetry and jazz of the mid-20^th century, grew out of the move toward improvisation, and allows her to experiment and create within the boundaries she sets for herself.

“I listen to jazz any chance I get,” she says.  “I don’t try to paint a specific tune. I let the finished painting tell me its story. The jazz title is added after a painting is complete and offers a narrative for me. You might see something different.”

Molly studied art and design with a variety of instructors both in Maine and in the art colonies on and near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in private workshops and in continuing education classes at Montserrat and Endicott Colleges.  In the Seattle area, she studied art with children’s book illustrator, Dana Sullivan and jazz vocal with Jay Clayton. At the same time she listened to live jazz in clubs on both coasts and became acquainted with many professional jazz musicians including Portland’s John Stowell and Rebecca Kilgore, among others.

Molly’s work has been shown and collected in California, Washington, and Oregon and by patrons outside the United States.

Molly writes about art and posts her latest work on her website, “Art and Tulips,” at http://artulips.wordpress.com and on her gallery website at http://mollylarsoncookpaintings.wordpress.com.

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Charlie Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Magazine Poetry Contest. His chapbook, All the Songs Sung (Angel Flight Press), and his fourth poetry collection, The Broad Grin of Eternity (WordTech Editions) arrived in 2021. His poetry has been nominated for the Best of Net Anthology and three times for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The Atlanta Review, Chiron Review, The Paterson Literary Review, The Sunlight Press, Sparks of Calliope, and elsewhere.

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Christopher D. Sims is a writer of poetry, a spoken word artist, and a human rights activist who uses words to inform. Born and raised on the west side of Rockford, Illinois, he has been writing since he was nine years old. A published poet, Christopher wrote a poetry and memoir collection entitled I was Born and Raised in The Rock in 2020. He is a fellow of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

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photo by Jenn Merritt

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Douglas Cole has published six collections of poetry and The White Field, winner of the American Fiction Award. His work has appeared in several anthologies as well as journals such as The Chicago Quarterly Review, Poetry International, The Galway Review, Bitter Oleander, Chiron, Louisiana Literature, Slipstream, as well Spanish translations of work (translated by Maria Del Castillo Sucerquia) in La Cabra Montes. He is a regular contributor to Mythaixs, an online journal, where in addition to his fiction and essays, his interviews with notable writers, artists and musicians such as Daniel Wallace (Big Fish), Darcy Steinke (Suicide Blond, Flash Count Diary) and Tim Reynolds (T3 and The Dave Matthews Band) have been popular contributions. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart and Best of the Net and received the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry. His series “Trading Fours with Douglas Cole” is an ongoing feature on Jerry Jazz Musician.  He lives and teaches in Seattle, Washington. Click here to visit his website. 

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Dr. Roger Singer was in private practice for 38 years in upstate New York. He has four children, Abigail, Caleb, Andrew and Philip and seven grandchildren. Dr. Singer has served on multiple committees for the American Chiropractic Association, lecturing at colleges in the United States, Canada and Australia, and has authored over fifty articles for his profession and served as a medical technician during the Vietnam era. Dr. Singer is the Poet Laureate of Old Lyme, Connecticut. He has had over 1,070 poems published on the Internet, magazines and in books and is a 2017 Pushcart Prize Award Nominee. He is also the President of the Shoreline Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society.

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Erren Kelly is a two-time Pushcart nominated poet from Boston whose work has appeared in 300 publications (print and online), including Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine, Ceremony, Cacti Fur, Bitterzoet, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, .and .Poetry Salzburg.

Click here to read “Under Quarantine” — COVID-era poetry of Erren Kelly, published by Jerry Jazz Musician

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photo Sarah Pierce Photography

Short stories by Edward Sheehy have appeared online in: The Boston Literary Magazine, The Write Launch, The Book Smuggler’s Den, Frontier Tales, and Lake Street Stories, published by Flexible Press. Dog Ear Publishing released his novel, Cade’s Rebellion. He lives in Minneapolis, on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

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Paul Brown writes poetry and fiction in Belleville, Ontario. His novel Wolf Pack of the Winisk River, written in free verse, was published by Lobster Press, Montreal, in 2009.

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Russell duPont is an artist and an author whose artwork is included in a number of public and private collections. He has published two novels, King & Train and Waiting for the Turk; two books of poetry; and two non-fiction chapbooks. His essay, “The Corner,” is included in the anthology Streets of Echoes. His work has been published in various newspapers and literary magazines. He was the founder & publisher of the literary magazine,.the albatross.

Visit his website by clicking here

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Anthony Ward chooses to write because he has no choice. He writes to get rid of himself and lay his thoughts to rest. He derives most of his inspiration from listening to classical music and jazz since it is often the mood which inspires him. He has recently been published in Jerry Jazz Musician, Synchronized Chaos, Literary Yard, Mad Swirl, Shot Glass Journal and Ariel Chart.

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photo by Jack Underwood

Terrance Underwood is a retired Rolls-Royce Service Engineer, veteran, College Grad (B.A. History) who has been listening to recorded jazz music since he was 5-6 yrs old. One of his first memories is listening to a 78 version of “Cherokee” by Charlie Barnett.

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D. H. Jenkins’ plays have been staged in California, Arizona, Australia, and Japan.  His poems appear in the art films “Call From a Distant Shore” and “Our Autumn,” and in  The Tiger Moth Review and  Jerry Jazz Musician.

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Susandale’s poems and fiction are on WestWard Quarterly, Mad Swirl, Penman Review, The Voices Project, and Jerry Jazz Musician. In 2007, she won the grand prize for poetry from Oneswan. The Spaces Among Spaces from languageandculture.org has been on the Internet. Bending the Spaces of Time from Barometric Pressure is on the Internet now.  She was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize by Jerry Jazz Musician for her poem “To Paul“

You can reach her by email at [email protected]

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Josie Rozell writes to the long-notes of Nina & Billie and laces the stanzas with a little Miles Davis. She lives in Hawaii where she plays jazz mandolin and has just published her first collection of poetry, Articulated Soul.  More of her work can be found at www.thehydrogenjukebox.com, and she can be reached at [email protected].

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Meisha Synnott grew up in the Australian bush, where she cared for injured wildlife. Currently she lives in the Australian countryside with her husband and their kelpie, an Australian breed of herding dog. She is involved with WIRES, a wildlife rescue and care organisation, and with Land for Wildlife, a conservation initiative. She has studied classical piano and played saxophone in a small jazz group. Meisha plans to have a go at the harmonica next.

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Alan Yount has published poetry for over 50 years. His poems have appeared in WestWard Quarterly (featured poet for summer, 2018). Big Scream, Spring: the Journal of the E.E. Cummings Society, and Waterways. He has been in three anthologies: Passionate Hearts, Sunflowers.and Locomotives: Songs for Allen Ginsburg, in which Alan was one of 31 poets, along with Gary Snyder and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Also Chrysalis Reader. Alan plays trumpet and has led his own dance band.

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A lifelong jazz fan, Robert Miner is a former political consultant who now works in government affairs for the energy industry. His poems have appeared or soon will appear in The Ekphrastic Review, The Dewdrop, Tanka Journal and The Earth Journal.

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Rodney Wood is retired and lives at Farnborough in the UK. He’s published two books of poetry: Dante Called You Beatrice and When Listening Isn’t Enough. Rodney is also co-host of a monthly open mic and has been widely published. More at: https://rodneywoodpoet.wordpress.com/

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Brooklyn-born Arlene Corwin is age 85, and is a harpist, pianist and singer –  a jazz musician forever.   She earned her BA at Hofstra Univ.  She has published 19 poetry books.  In the 1950s her mother owned a jazz club in Hempstead, Long Island with Slim Gaillard.  She currently lives in Sweden. 

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Sean Murphy has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” as well as in USA Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and AdAge. A long-time columnist for PopMatters, his work has also appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, The Good Men Project, Memoir Magazine, and others. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his chapbook, The Blackened Blues, is now available from Finishing Line Press. To learn more, visit seanmurphy.net

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Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Inspired by nature and human nature, as well as by music of all sorts, her poetry has appeared previously in Jerry Jazz Musician as well as in many other journals and anthologies, both online and in print. She can be reached at: [email protected].

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Namaya is an internationally reknowned Jazz poet, storyteller, humorist and sublime improvisational artist. He has performed throughout the US and has toured in Europe, New Zealand, Japan, Asia, the Americas and Palmyra Syria.

Both as a solo artist, with his band the Jazz Beat Blues Poetry Ensemble, and with jazz musicians around the world, Namaya performs an astonishing blend of jazz word, story and improvisation.

Visit his website by clicking here

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Isabel White has performed across the UK, at Shakespeare & Co in Paris and in Rotterdam. She was twice runner up in the BBC Radio 3 Proms Competitions; a finalist in nine others and poet-in-residence for organizations working with marginalized communities. With three full collections and a pamphlet under her belt, Isabel’s poetry has been widely published – in 18 books and journals to date. Isabel founded performance collective Alarms and Excursions in 2009, www.alarmsandexcursions.com

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Patricia Carragon’s poem “Paris the Beautiful” won Poem of the Week from great weather for MEDIA. Her fiction piece “What Has to Happen Next” is nominated for Sundress Publications Annual Best of the Net Anthology. Her latest book from Poets Wear Prada is Meowku. Her debut novel, Angel Fire, was just released by Alien Buddha Press. Patricia hosts Brownstone Poets and is the editor-in-chief of its annual anthology. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. She can be reached via email at [email protected]

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Aurora M. Lewis is a retiree, having worked in finance for 40 years. In her fifties she received a Certificate in Creative Writing-General Studies with Honors from UCLA. Aurora’s recent poems, short stories, and nonfiction were accepted by The Literary Hatchet, Jerry Jazz Musician, The Copperfield Review, and Gemini Magazine, to name a few. She self-published her first book, Jazz Poems, Reflections on a Broken Heart in 2021 and it is available on Amazon.

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Born in Norman, Oklahoma, Carrie Magness Radna is an audiovisual cataloger at NYPL, an Associate Editor of Brownstone Poets, a singer and a poet who loves traveling. Her poems have previously appeared in The Oracular Tree, Muddy River Poetry Review, Poetry Super Highway, Walt’s Corner, Alien Buddha Press, Cajun Mutt Press, The Rye Whiskey Review and First Literary Review-East. Her latest poetry collection, In the blue hour (Nirala Publications) was published in February 2021.

https://carriemagnessradna.com

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Michael L. Newell has had six books published in the past three years: Meditation of an Old Man Standing on a Bridge; Each Step a Discovery; Wandering; Diddley-Bop-She-Bop; Making My Peace; and The Harry Poems (newly published). He currently lives in Florida.

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Ed Coletti is a poet, painter, fiction writer and middling chess player. Previously, he served briefly as an Army Officer, then as a Counselor and later as a Small Business Consultant. Recent poems  have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, North American Review, Volt, Spillway, Modern Poetry Quarterly Review, Inflectionist Review, and So It Goes The Literary Journal of The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Museum.  A fairly new poetry collection is titled The Problem With Breathing (Edwin Smith Publishing -Little Rock- 2015). His book Apollo Blue’s Harp And The Gods Of Song was more recently published by McCaa Books February 2019. Ed also curates the popular twelve-year-old blog “(ed coletti’s)No Money In Poetry” http://edwardcolettispoetryblog.blogspot.com/  He lives with his wife Joyce in Santa Rosa, California where they lost their home during the October 2017 firestorm. The Coletti’s happily have relocated successfully elsewhere in Santa Rosa.

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Jessica Lee McMillan is a poet with an MA in English. She likes crooked, shiny things and explores existential frameworks and perceptions in nature and music. Read her in Blank Spaces, Pocket Lint (A New Journal), Goat’s Milk Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, Tiny Spoon and Dream Pop Journal, among others. She writes from the charming, gritty, river city New Westminster in British Columbia. She can be reached at https://twitter.com/JessicaLeeMcM

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David Cooke’s latest collection of poetry, Sicilian Elephants, will be published by Two Rivers Press in November 2021. He is the founder of the UK-based online literary journal The High Window, which he began in 2015, and which can be viewed by clicking here

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Amy Barone’s poetry collection, Defying Extinction, will be published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books published her book, We Became Summer. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing.) Barone belongs to the Poetry Society of America. She lives in New York City.

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Freddington works as a shipper/receiver in Toronto, Canada, and has been a lifelong jazz fan ever since he was “corrupted” as a teenager by Charles Mingus’ “Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting.”

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photo by Jane Higgins

Jean Fineberg is an award-winning jazz saxophonist who has studied poetry with Kim Addonizio. Her poems have been published in Modern Poets Magazine, Soliloquies Anthology, Vita Brevis, Dove Tails, Uppagus, Literary Yard, FLARE: The Flagler Review, Riza Press, High Shelf Press, The Fibonacci Review, The Creativity Webzine,  Quillkeepers Press, Superpresent Magazine, Lucky Jefferson, Unlost Journal, Kerning: A Space for words and Shot Glass Journal.    Her first chapbook,   A Mobius Path,  will be available from Finishing Line Press in March, 2022.

  www.jeanfineberg.com

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Byron Beynon coordinated Wales’ contribution to the anthology Fifty Strong (Heinemann ). His poems and essays have been featured in several publications; Jerry Jazz Musician, The London Magazine, Wasafiri, North of Oxford, Agenda, Poetry Ireland Review and the human rights anthology In Protest (University of London and Keats House Poets). Collections include The Echoing Coastline (Agenda Editions) and A View from the Other Side (Moonstone Press).

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Michel Steven Krug is a Minneapolis poet, fiction writer, former print journalist from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. He’s Managing Editor for Poets Reading the News (PRTN) literary magazine and he litigates. His poems have appeared in Portside, New Verse News, JMWW, Cagibi, Silver Blade, Crack the Spine, Dash, Mikrokosmos, North Dakota Quarterly, Eclectica, Writers Resist, Sheepshead, Mizmor Anthology, 2019, PRTN, Ginosko, Door Is A Jar, Raven’s Perch, Main Street Rag and Brooklyn Review.

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Daniel Brown has loved jazz (and music in general) ever since he delved into his parents’ 78 collection as a child. He is a retired special education teacher who began writing as a senior. He’s content to write with the sunrise each day and always appreciates being published in a journal or anthology. His first poetry collection Family Portraits in Verse is forthcoming. He can be reached at [email protected]

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Paul Austin ’s collection Notes on Hard Times is published by Village Books Press. His work appears in This Land, Sugar Mule, Newport Review, Speak Your Mind, an anthology of Woody Guthrie Poets, Behind the Mask: Haiku in the Time of Covid-19 and elsewhere. A longtime jazz lover and actor, Austin writes for the theatre in essays, poetry, and plays; he’s acted and directed in New York and regional theatres and acted for film and television.  He can be reached at [email protected]

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photo by Imogen Christine

Jordan Trethewey is a writer and editor living in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. He is also a husband, father (to two kids, a black cat, and a Sheltie) and beer-league softball player. Some of his poetry, fiction and non-fiction inhabits on-line publications such as Visual Verse, Fishbowl Press, Red Fez, The Blue Nib, Terror House Magazine, Califragile, Jerry Jazz Musician and Spillwords. Jordan is an editor at redfez.net, and openartsforum.com. His latest book, Spirits for Sale, is available on Amazon. His poetry has also been translated in Vietnamese and Farsi. To see more of his work go to: https://jordantretheweywriter.wordpress.com.

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John Stupp’s third poetry collection Pawleys Island was published in 2017. His manuscript Summer Job won the 2017 Cathy Smith Bowers Poetry Prize and was published in August 2018. A chapbook entitled When Billy Conn Fought Fritzie Zivic was published by Red Flag Poetry in January, 2020. (From 1975-1985 he worked professionally as a mediocre jazz guitarist). He lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and can be reached via email at [email protected].

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Antoinette F. Winstead is a poet, playwright, director and actor living in San Antonio, Texas, where she’s a professor at Our Lady of the Lake University. Her poetry has appeared in several publications, including Voices de la Luna, Langdon Review, Texas Ballot Poetry, Tejas Covido, and The Poet Magazine. She is currently serving as the 2021-2022 Writer in Residence for the Carver Community Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas.  She was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize by Jerry Jazz Musician for her poem “Life Is…“

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John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Poetry Salzburg Review and Hollins Critic. Latest books, Leaves On Pages, Memory Outside The Head, and Guest Of Myself are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Ellipsis, Blueline and International Poetry Review.

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T.W. Parrish was formally educated in music performance. He writes original songs and performs equally well on trumpet, tenor sax, flute, and vocals. He’s performed in 47 states and abroad with some of the biggest names in entertainment.  Originally from Fla., lived 16 years in Seattle, now retired in Lake of Ozarks, Missouri, playing occasionally in Kansas City.  He has also written four books with painted illustrations. His favorite bands are Tower of Power and Poncho Sanchez, and his favorite music is Latin Jazz and Be Bop.

[email protected]

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.Judith Vaughn lives in Sonoma, California. She attended New York City College, John F. Kennedy University, and Dominican University with a focus in Psychology. Publications: First Literary East, an online literary publication; Oak Leaf News, a student publication at SRJC, Santa Rosa, CA; Jerry Jazz Musician: A Miles Davis Poetry Collection; and Train River Publishing, Poetry Anthology, Summer 2021. She is also a photographer.

Photo images: 500px.com/judithjudith1

https://judithjudith.tumblr.com

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After having taught middle and high school English for 32 years, Marianne Peel is now nurturing her own creative spirit. She has spent three summers in Guizhou Province, teaching best practices to teachers in China. She received Fulbright-Hays Awards to Nepal (2003) and Turkey (2009). Marianne participated in Marge Piercy’s Juried Intensive Poetry Workshop (2016). Marianne’s poetry appears in Muddy River Poetry Review, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Jelly Bucket Journal, among others. Marianne is also a veteran musician, playing flute/sax and singing in various orchestras, bands, choirs, and jazz bands her whole life. She has a collection of poetry forthcoming from Shadelandhouse Modern Press.  She was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize by Jerry Jazz Musician for her poem “Rehearsal.”

[email protected]

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Retired from professing English and American literature, Ralph La Rosa has published work on American writers, written for film, and now devotes himself to poetry, having published widely on the Internet, in print journals, in the chapbook Sonnet Stanzas, and in a full-length collection, Ghost Trees. My Miscellaneous Muse: Poem Pastiches & Whimsical Words was published in 2020.

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Catherine Perkins, resident of Lexington, KY, has 12 poems printed in numerous anthologies published by locally owned and operated presses, Accents Publishing Company, Workhorse and Red Lick Valley Press. She has one poem, “The Blues,” published by Jerry Jazz Musician in November 2021 edition.  Catherine’s most recently published poems (four) appear in the September 2021, Red Lick Valley Press Collection titled  Coming of Age Writing & Art by Kentucky Women Over 60. “The Joint is Jumpin'” is one of four original, never before published poems included in this anthology.

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CJ Muchhala has absolutely no musical ability but a great deal of appreciation for and love of jazz and blues. She does, however, try to make music with words which have found their way into a number of journals, anthologies, and art/poetry exhibits.

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George Held’s work has appeared in, among other periodicals, Blue Unicorn, Spring, Transference, and Two Cities Review and has received eleven Pushcart Prize nominations. Among his 22 books is the poetry chapbook Second Sight (2019); his forthcoming book, The Lucky Boy, collects nine of his short stories.

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Ermira Mitre Kokomani defines Poetry as the Harp that delivers the Music of the Soul. Her first book of poetry, Soul’s Gravity (Graviteti I Shpirtit) in Albanian, published in Albania, delivers her soul’s music. As a bilingual poet, Ermira feels as if both languages have merged uniquely into her identity. She has published poetry, short stories and scientific papers in both languages. Her English poetry has appeared in various international and national poetry anthologies and journals.

E-mail: [email protected]

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A native of Maryland’s eastern shore, Joel was educated at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (B.S.) and Rowan University (M.M.). He is the organist and choir director at First Presbyterian Church in Ocean City, MD. He can be reached at [email protected]

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Click here to read the summer 2021 collection of jazz poetry

Click here read a 2021 poetry collection – inspired by Miles Davis

Click here to read the winter 2021 collection of jazz poetry

Click here to read the autumn 2020 collection of jazz poetry

Click here to read “Under Quarantine” — COVID-era poetry of Erren Kelly

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Click here for information about how to submit your poetry

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