About the artists featured in issue 44
ON THE COVER: Alyssa Blankenship
Alyssa Blankenship is a working artist who uses surrealism to engage with themes of transformation, escapism, and resurrection through the lenses of both naturalistic and manmade decay. Her literary work has been published in Burningword Literary Journal, Camas Magazine, Bardics Anonymous, Ponder Review, Fish Girl Collective, Folklore Review, Slipstream, The Gorko Gazette, and The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts.
Isabelle Carasso
Isabelle Carasso is a writer based in Los Angeles. She’s worked as writers’ support staff in Emmy-winning writers’ rooms, had short stories and essays published in The Catalyst and Cusper, and a knock-knock joke published in the LA Times when she was 4. In her free time, she shoots 35mm photos to capture moments that feel like movie stills. Her film photography has been published in Red Wheelbarrow Anthology and Door Is A Jar Magazine.
Loralee Clark
Loralee Clark’s artwork is featured on the covers of all of her poetry books: Solemnity Rites, (Prolific Pulse Press, 2025), Delighting in “To Be”: Poems for Writers (Bottlecap Press, 2025), A Harmony in the Key of Trees: A Healing Myth (Dancing Girl Press, 2025) and Neolithic Imaginings: Mythic Explorations of the Unknown (Kelsay Books, 2026). Clark is also featured in Pictura Journal, Barely Southern Review, Fine Lines and Neon & Smoke. Clark resides in Virginia; her website is sites.google.com/view/loraleeclark. Her Substack, which focuses on the process of creativity, is nosuchthingasfailure.substack.com.
Gretchen Gales
Gretchen Gales is a writer, an educator, and an artist who loves exploring themes of nostalgia, history, memory, and neurodivergence through her art. Her work has been published in Cream City Review, The New Southern Fugitives, Manhattanville Review, and others. See more of her work at www.writinggales.com.
Andrew Graber
Nawmi Manaam
Nawmi Manaam is an artist from Bangladesh. She loves to experiment with different mediums and styles of art. Her artwork “Is
it too good?” was featured in The New York Times as one of the winners of the “Growing up with AI” contest. Her art pieces were also published in New Ohio Review, Grub Street Literary Journal, 3Elements Review, Belladonna’s Garden and others.
Michael Moreth
Michael Moreth is a recovering Chicagoan living in the rural, micropolitan City of Sterling, the Paris of Northwest Illinois.
Susan Pollet
Susan L. Pollet is a visual artist and author whose works have appeared in many art shows and literary publications. Seven of her paintings were covers of seven different literary magazines, and in 2026, one was nominated for Best Of The Net. She was chosen as an Illustrator for a Literary Magazine issue. She studied at the New York Art Students League, has been a member since 2018, and resides in NYC. She is also a published author in multiple genres, including three children’s books, which she both wrote and illustrated. She can be found at susanpollet.com and susanpollet.substack.com
Tamiz Ponni VP
Tamizh Ponni VP is a stoic art buff who loves literature, visual arts and music. Tamizh’s articles, poems, stories and paintings have been published in many anthologies, digital journals and educational blogs. Tamizh spends most of her time painting, reading, writing articles, stories and poems, playing piano and watching documentaries/movies.
