About the Authors

The 22 Gauge Hydration Machine Blues (Cover Photo): Brett Stout is a 38-year-old artist and writer. He is a high school dropout and former construction worker turned college graduate and Paramedic. He creates controversial art while breathing toxic paint fumes from a small cramped apartment referred to as “the nerd lab” in Myrtle Beach, SC. His artwork has appeared in a wide range of media from small webzines like The Paradise Review to The University of Oklahoma Medical School Journal.

Young Blood Cassius Carlisle: Sean Trolinder received his MFA in fiction from Texas State University, San Marcos, where he was a W. Morgan and Lou Claire Rose Fellow. His fiction has appeared in Louisiana Literature, Midwestern Gothic, The MacGuffin, MARY, The Sand Hill Review, Oracle, and many other journals. Currently, he teaches 11th grade English at Ocoee High School.

Thief's Downfall: Cassidy Street is a teacher and librarian's assistant from Falkner, MS. His poetry and fiction have appeared in regional publications such as Tyger Symmetry and The Mountain Breeze.

His Lover, My Brother, and Me: Alexander Evans is a fiction writer from the American Midwest. He is currently a graduate student in the University of Cincinnati's Creative Writing program. His fiction has previously appeared in The Jet Fuel Review, Peacock Journal, and Persimmons Magazine.

The First Time Without: Eric Rasmussen teaches high school English in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He is pursuing an MFA from Augsburg College, and his work is featured in Fugue, Sundog Lit, Gulf Stream (Summer Fiction Contest Finalist), Black Fox Literary (Pushcart Prize nominee), and Volume One Magazine, among others. He serves as editor of the regional literary journal Barstow & Grand, and fiction reader for Split Lip Magazine.

Jonah and the Frog: James Wade lives and writes in Austin, Texas. He is winner of the 2016 Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest, and a finalist of the 2016 Tethered by Letters Flash Fiction Contest. His work is featured in The Bitter Oleander, Skylark Review, and many other publications.