“Girl”
Jun21

“Girl”

Whatever it is she is wanting, it is not too much to ask. We would give it to her if we could, now we are grown women in a car outside the small yellow house where she is forever fifteen, forever leaning her elbows on the front windowsill, pretending not to watch for whatever it is she’s wanting. The living room curtains are closed behind her. Behind her, her mother and sister are fighting. Your sister waged a war in that house, is...

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Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam
Jun01

Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam

Diane Gilliam, AROHO’s 6th Gift of Freedom Award Winner, has been widely recognized for the voice of honesty, beauty, and resilience  that she has given to Appalachian culture and history–among the many other subjects of her writing. Her second book, Kettle Bottom, is a collection of poems written in the voices of people living in the coal camps at the time of the 1920-21 West Virginia Mine Wars. Kettle Bottom has won...

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Helen Jones Awarded Spring 2013 Orlando Flash Fiction Prize
Apr01

Helen Jones Awarded Spring 2013 Orlando Flash Fiction Prize

HELEN JONES has a BA in English from UC Davis, and has published poetry in Reed Magazine and Porter Gulch Review (under her maiden name of Smith). She has an essay forthcoming in EQUUS magazine and lives in Washington state with one Kiwi husband, two miniature donkeys, three cats, and five hens. She is currently working on a memoir.   Helen’s winning flash fiction story, “The Boardwalk, 1969,” was first...

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Abby Chew Awarded Spring 2013 Orlando Poetry Prize
Apr01

Abby Chew Awarded Spring 2013 Orlando Poetry Prize

ABBY CHEW recently moved away from southeastern Ohio, where she worked as a teacher and goatherd at Olney Friends School.  Currently, she teaches English at The Webb Schools in Claremont, California, where she lives with her dog Alice.  Her first book of poems, Discontinued Township Roads, is forthcoming in late 2013 from Word Press, an imprint of WordTech, Inc.   Abby’s winning poem, “Storm,” was published in...

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Katherine Van Dis Awarded Spring 2013 Orlando Short Fiction Prize
Apr01

Katherine Van Dis Awarded Spring 2013 Orlando Short Fiction Prize

KATHERINE VAN DIS lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband and three-year-old son. She is a high school creative writing teacher and has also worked with writers in community centers and prisons. Though Katherine has lived in North Carolina for more than ten years, her roots are in Michigan, where many of her stories take place. She attended the University of Michigan where she received a Hopwood Award for fiction. She is...

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