Candice Louisa Daquin is a Psychotherapist and writer living in America's Southwest. Originally from Europe, she made a career in the publishing sector before re-training in Psychotherapy and now divides her time between both. Daquin is author of her own poetry and prose and editor of many anthologies and multiple single author books. Daquin is currently Senior Editor at Indie Blu(e) Publishing. Editorial Partner for Blackbird Press. Poetry Editor with The Pine Cone Review and Parcham Literary Magazine and Writer-in-Residence for Borderless Journal. She regularly edits poetry and prose collections. Daquin edited the successful anthology; SMITTEN This Is What Love Looks Like, Poetry By Women For Women, which won Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards and was an Amazon #1 best seller. Likewise, Daquin co-edited We Will Not Be Silenced, which also became an Amazon #1 best seller. More recently Daquin co-edited The Kali Project, Invoking The Goddess Within, Indian Women Speak, which has become a worldwide success and won Finalist with NIEA. Her latest poetry collection, Tainted by the Same Counterfeit, was published in 2022 by Finishing Line Press.

Andrew McDowell became interested in writing at age 11, inspired by childhood passions for stories and make-believe. By the time he was 13, he knew he wanted to be a writer.

Andrew studied History and English at St. Mary’s College, and Library & Information Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a member of the Maryland Writers’ Association.

As a novelist, he plans to try his hand in multiple genres, for he is inspired by a variety of interests. He has also written poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction, and is interested in drama writing and lyrics.

He was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, when he was 14.

Visit his website/blog at andrewmcdowellauthor.com to learn more about him and his work.

John W. Leys was first moved to write song lyrics after being introduced to the Beatles and Bob Dylan when he was a teenager. A chance encounter with a radioactive fountain pen turned him into a ukulele playing poet, a curse he’s had to live with for decades.

The greatest influences on his poetry have been Lord Byron, Leonard Cohen, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Catullus, Erica Jong, and a chemical imbalance in his brain.

John’s first poetry collection, The Darkness of his Dreams, was published in 2019. His second book, Whispers of a One-Eyed Raven: Mythological Poetry, followed the next year. He’s also been published in anthologies from Indie Blu(e) Publishing, one of which he helped edit. He often wonders, in the third person, if anyone reads the Author Bios, or if he’s just wasting his time trying to be clever.

When not writing poetry, John can usually be found playing one of his many ukuleles or feeding the crows & ravens in the park.

Jaya Avendel is a word witch from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, writing family into fantasy through poetry and prose. With writing published at a diverse range of online poetry magazines and journals, she is also a contributing poetess to many poetry anthologies, all of which appear here. She writes and dreams at www.ninchronicles.com

Susi Bocks, writer/author/poet, has self-published two books - Feeling Human and Every Day I Pause. She is the Editor of The Short of It which has produced two volumes to date - The Sound of Brilliance and Reflections & Revelations. Bocks' has works published in the anthologies Through The Looking Glass - Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within, As The World Burns, SMITTEN: This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women and in VitaBrevis, Spillwords, Literary Yard, and other literary magazines. She was a Pushcart Prize Nominee in 2021 for her piece "Sweet Embrace" featured in Heart Beats - Publisher - Prolific Pulse. You can find her work at IWriteHer.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.

Megha Sood is a Pushcart Nominated Award-Winning Poet, Editor, Author, and Literary Activist based in New Jersey, USA. She is an Associate Editor at MookyChick(UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner in the project “Life in Quarantine'' with Stanford University, USA. Works featured in journals, including Poetry Society of New York, New York Public Library zine, NPR, WNYC Studio, PBS American Portrait, American Writers Review, Stanford Daily, Kissing Dynamite, Rising Phoenix Review, and many more.Blogs at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/.Tweets at @meghasood16

Co-Editor of anthologies ( “The Medusa Project”, Mookychick) and (“The Kali Project, Indie Blu(e) Press).“The Medusa Project” has been selected as a digital payload to be sent to the moon in 2023 as part of the historical LunarCodex Project in collaboration with NASA/SpaceX.

She is a recipient of Poet Fellowship 2021 MVICW (Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing), 2020 National Level Winner Spring Mahogany Lit Prize, and Three-Time State-level winner of NJ Poetry Contest. Recipient of “Certificate of Excellence” from Mayor, Stephen Fulop, Jersey City. New Jersey.

She is a member of the United Nations Association- US Chapter (UNA-USA), National League of American Pen Women ( NLAPW), and Women’s National Book Associations (WNBA).

Performing venues includes New York Poetry Festival, Paterson Poetry Festival, Nuyorican Cafe, Hudson County Community College, Historic Apple Tree House, Newark Arts Festival, Panorama International Literary Festival, FEMINEN Turkey Arts Festival, and many more.

Sarah Bigham reads, teaches, writes, and paints in Maryland where she lives with her kind chemist wife, three independent cats, and an unwieldy herb garden. Find her at www.sgbigham.com.

Christine E. Ray is an indie author and freelance editor who lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An avid writer of fiction and poetry in her teens and 20’s, Christine returned to creative writing after a long hiatus in 2016 when she launched her blog Brave and Reckless on WordPress. Christine's greatest literary influences include Sylvia Plath, John Steinbeck, Jane Austen, and J.K. Rowling. While other little girls dreamed of being a princess, Christine dreamed of being Sarah Jane Smith. She is still waiting for the Doctor to arrive.

She’s a member of the Sudden Denouement Literary Collective, Blood Into Ink, Go Dog Cafe, and Whisper and the Roar. In 2018, Christine founded Indie Blu(e) Publishing with writer Kindra M. Austin.