in parentheses

We would like to welcome you to the fall issue of In Parentheses. Available now through MagCloud. The works of the following artists are anthologized in this issue:

Ann Schlotzhauer / is a Kansas City native and graduate of the University of Tulsa. Her poetry, fiction, and photography can be found in Foliate Oak, Alluvian, Junto, The Wire’s Dream, Cardinal Sins, and more.

Alex Zondervan / recently graduated from Bard College with a degree in literature where he wrote his thesis on John Ashbery titled “Chutes and Ladders: John Ashbery’s Poetics as Experience.” He is currently living in the Bronx where he spends most of his time writing and making collages.

Sanbud Tehrani / is a strange Persian American poet living in Southern California. Sanbud is, probably, the only Sanbud in the world. He enjoys making himself laugh and occasionally that also makes other people laugh.

Autumn Battista / @oatiemarie / is a Senior at Fitchburg State University studying English with a minor in Disability Studies. She enjoys peer tutoring and sharing poetry with those around her in hopes to make anyone feel validated in their feelings. Writing has always been her favorite way to share thoughts and feelings and she hopes to grow as a poet and a reader.

Peter J. Grieco / is a writer, musician, and independent scholar living in Buffalo, NY. His poetry has been published widely in print and online.

Elliot Claire / is a nonbinary South Florida native who works as a Crisis and Domestic Violence Counselor in Chicago. She studied poetry at the University of Miami under Maureen Seaton and John Murillo. Their work can be seen in Mad Hat Literary Magazine, Verity La, Black Heart Magazine, The Cape Rock, and others.

RC deWinter / has poetry anthologized in Uno: A Poetry Anthology (Verian Thomas, 2002), New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2017), Cowboys & Cocktails: Poetry from the True Grit Saloon (Brick Street Poetry, April 2019), Havik (Las Positas College, May 2019), Castabout Literature (Dantoin/Hilgart, June 2019), The Flickering Light (Scars Publications, June 2019), Pointed Circle (Portland Cascades Community College, June 2019) Nature In The Now (Tiny Seed Press, August 2019), Southword 37 (The Munster Literature Centre, Cork, Ireland, September 2019) in print in 2River View, Down in the Dirt, Genre Urban Arts, In Parentheses, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, Pilcrow & Dagger, Pink Panther Magazine, Scarlet Leaf Review and in numerous online literary journals.

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah / @byiypublisher / who is an algebraist and artist, works in mixed media. His poems have appeared in numerous journals. He lives in the southern part of Ghana, in Spain, and the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota. His artwork is featured on the cover of the Fall Issue of In Parentheses.

Nolan Meditz / received his MFA from Hofstra University in 2014 and his Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2018. His poems have appeared in Roanoke Review, Marathon Literary Review, and other publications. He currently lives in Weatherford, OK, where he teaches writing at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

Gary Glauber / is a well published poet, fiction writer, teacher, and former music journalist. He has two collections, Small Consolations (Aldrich Press) and Worth the Candle (Five Oaks Press), and a chapbook, Memory Marries Desire (Finishing Line Press).

Phillipe Martin Chatelain / @uptownvoice / Phillipe is the Managing Editor of In Parentheses. He is a poet from New York City with a Masters Degree in Poetry from The New School. He writes as someone in the tradition of the urban troubadour or the flaneur–wandering, taking notes. He believes that poetry of our generation has taken on a much more digital definition. Furthermore, it is important for New Modernist writers like those exhibited in In Parentheses Literary Magazine to assume the forms of media available in order to carry on the history of Sublime Art. His series taking shots alone was self-published in 2012-2015. The self-published collection FACETS (2019) is now available.

Terry Brinkman / has been painting for over forty five years. He started creating Poems, he has had five poems in the Salt Lake City Weekly paper. Four Kindle E- Books. Variant and Tide Anthologies. Poems in 2 Rue Scribe, Tiny Seed, 2 juet Milieu Lit and Utah Life Magazine. Three at Poem Village, Snapdragon Journal, Poets Choice, In Parentheses.

Sammie Lee Wilhoit / @exhaletheatre / moved across the country from California to go to college in Vermont. Sammie writes poetry to pinpoint feelings that she does not have words for and writes out memories and fantasies that keep her up at night.

Alexis Pearson / has been published in Upper Mississippi Harvest, Fourth and Sycamore, Sonder Midwest, and Snapdragon: A Journal of Arts and Healing, among others. She lives in Minnesota where it’s cold most of the year – perfect writing weather. She is an avid Bukowski fan and loves a good cup of coffee.

Brenna Lakeson / @meowitsbrenna / is a queer feminist pastor and social activist living in Atlanta, GA. Born and raised in North Carolina, she has a BA in Music from Elon University, with minors in Spanish and Latin American studies. She has an MDiv from Candler School of Theology at Emory University with particular interests in feminist theology, Hebrew Bible, and apocalyptic literature.

Marc Meierkort / @MarcMeierkort / is a writer and educator who has taught high school English for 19 years. A graduate of Southern Illinois and National-Louis Universities, he currently lives in Chicago’s suburbs. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he recently had poems published by Columbia College Literary Review, The Nassau Review, Inscape, and Spectrum.

M.T. Bennett / is a Medical Student training to become a psychiatrist. Bennett finds his own sanity by writing. He is the author of “Dark and Bright” and has published work in other journals. He lives on St. Vincent with his wonderful wife and son, in an apartment with no address.

Penny Jackson / @pennyplaywright / is a playwright and novelist who lives in New York City. Her novel BECOMING THE BUTLERS is published by Bantam Books and her collection of short stories L.A. CHILD is published by Untreed Reads. Her awards include a Pushcart Prize, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship and The Elizabeth Janeway Prize for writing from Barnard College.

Leslie Dianne / is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer. Her work has been acclaimed internationally at the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy and at La Mama in NYC. Her poems appear in Ink and Voices, S/tick, Rue Scribe & Furtive Dalliance.

El Habib Louai / is a Moroccan Amazigh poet, translator, teacher and musician from Taroudant, Morocco. Louai has published articles and Arabic translations of poems by Beat Poets. In 2014, he received a Fulbright grant to research the Beats at Chapel Hill University in North Carolina. His poems, translations and articles have appeared in international literary magazine, journals and reviews. He has published three anthologies poetry & his first collection of poems is called Mrs. Jones Will Now Know: Poems of a Desperate Rebel.

Andy Betz / has tutored and taught in excess of 30 years. His novel, short stories, and poems are works still defining his style. He lives in 1974, has been married for 27 years, and collects occupations (the current tally is 100). His works are found everywhere a search engine operates.

James Dobbyn / is completing an MSt in Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. His poetry won the 2017 Arthur Sale Prize and was shortlisted for the 2014 Brewer Hall Prize. He currently edits the Poetry section of the Oxford Review of Books. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut.

Glen Armstrong / holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and teaches writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters and has two new chapbooks: Simpler Times and Staring Down Miracles. His work has appeared in BlazeVOX, Conduit, and Otoliths.

Danny P. Barbare / has recently been published in North Dakota Quarterly, Columbia College Literary Review, Red Earth Review, and Aurorean. He attended Greenville Technical College where his poetry won The Jim Gitting’s Award. His poetry has been nominated for best of net by Assisi Online Journal.

Elliot Claire / is a nonbinary South Florida native who works as a Crisis and Domestic Violence Counselor in Chicago. They studied poetry at the University of Miami under Maureen Seaton and John Murillo. Their work can be seen in Mad Hat Literary Magazine, Verity La, Black Heart Magazine, The Cape Rock, and others.

Steve Gerson / an emeritus English professor from a Midwestern community college, writes poetry and flash about life’s dissonance and dynamism. He’s proud to have published in Panoplyzine, The Hungry Chimera, The Write Launch, Coffin Bell, Poets Reading the News, Crack the Spine, and White Wall Review. 

There aren’t fifty words to describe / Tina Bubonovich / While, there are so many skeletons in Tina’s closet, she doesn’t have room for any clothes, they are to boring to put in print. So to make the mandatory fifty word mark, “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” —Stephen King

Paulna Valbrun / is a writer, graduate student and instructor for first year english at the University of New Hampshire. Work has been published by the Roundtable of Karen House Catholic Worker and All the Art St. Louis.

Misti Vaughn / @ ugly.moons / is the Assistant Director of the nonprofit organization The American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. Poems have recently been published in the Santa Fe Writer’s Project and Bravura Literary Journal. Two-time recipient of the Angelo Carli Poetry Prize.

Evelína Kolárová / @EvelynnEvenstar / is a young, emerging writer from the Czech Republic. Her poems have been previously published in literary magazines such as Really System, The Gambler Mag, Red Weather, Genre: Urban Arts or Sink Hollow. Her work has made the finalist list of the Poetry Matters Project’s Literary Prize 2019.

Tiwaladeoluwa Adekunle / @Tiwalade_A / is a writer and health communication doctoral student from southwestern Nigeria. Her creative writing is published in Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, Breakwater Review, and Oakland Review. You can find her on Instagram @tiwalade.a.

Lauren T. Davila / @laurengilmore03 / is a Latinx writer currently pursuing her MFA at George Mason University. She holds BAs in English & Creative Writing from Pepperdine University. Her stories and poems have appeared in Mid-Heaven Magazine and Poets Reading the News. She splits her time between Los Angeles and Washington D.C.

Australian by birth and Montenegrin origin, / Pavle Radonic’s / seven years living and writing in S-E Asia has provided unexpected stimulus. Previous work has appeared in a range of literary journals and magazines, most recently Entropy, Map Literary, Anti-Languorous Project, Citron Review & Orca Journal.

Zuri McWhorter / is a multidisciplinary writer, photographer, and filmmaker from Detroit, MI. Her work has been published in various academic and creative publications around the country. She has self-published two poetry chapbooks and founded Juste Milieu Internation Literature and Art Zine.

Amirah Al Wassif / has 2 published English books, ( for those who don’t know chocolate ) and ( the cocoa boy and other stories). English literary creative works have been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Hendi and Kordish.

Michael Reginald Pitter / @pitterphoto / Michael is a writer, photographer and a PhD student in immunology at the University of Michigan. He co-founded In Parentheses with Phillipe as an undergraduate. His contributions to the magazine range from analog photography to philosophical essays to articles regarding current advancements in biomedical research. Michael is also interested in the experimental synthesis of art and science through his writings and visuals.

Gregory Stephens / is Associate Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. His book “Three Birds Sing a New Song: A Puerto Rican trilogy about Dystopia, Precarity, and Resistance” was published by Intermezzo in 2019. Short fiction includes “Caiseas Blues,” The Esthetic Apostle (June 2019); “Raw Meat (Sexy Mama),” Smaeralit 3 (2017); “The Wipe-Away Kiss,” co-author Safiya Stephens, Cleaning up Glitter Literary Journal (July 2019). Literary nonfiction includes “Voice, Conscience, Community,” Prometheus Dreaming (June 9, 2019).

Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah / @byiypublisher / who is an algebraist and artist, works in mixed media. His poems have appeared in numerous journals. He lives in the southern part of Ghana, in Spain, and the Turtle Mountains, North Dakota.

Strixx Slade / has been photographing people from all walks of life for 12 years. Her skill in portraiture comes from her ability to Bring out the particular part that makes every one of her subjects special in their own right. She currently resides in Brooklyn and you can find her on mode social media.

Kiwana S / @jedikiwana / photographer who tries to capture shots by slowing down and catching the little things that are easy to overlook (every moment can be just that). Been into photography for a little over 10 years and I’m still constantly learning.