Volume 2 Contributors

Learn about the authors and artists whose works appear in Stories of Music, Volume 2.

Ata Mohammad Adnan is a doctor by profession, and a photographer out of passion. He is a street photographer who loves to photograph people around his hometown in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and in all the places he travels with his beloved camera. He has won national and international awards including 1st Place, Bangladesh in the National Awards as part of the 2015 Sony World Photography Awards. Follow Adnan’s work at www.facebook.com/aadnansphotography.

Anna Alferova is a Moscow-based photographer whose work is often inspired by music and has been featured in several local exhibits. She graduated from Moscow State University where she studied the history of photography. Learn more about her work at www.alferovaphotography.com.

Robert Avery is a teacher and musician from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he lives with his wife and two sons. His poems have appeared in such journals as The Southern Review, Mid-American Review, Brilliant Corners, and Verse Daily.

Prerna Bakshi is a writer, poet, and activist of Indian origin, currently based in Macao, China. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of the recently released, full-length poetry collection, Burnt Rotis, With Love, which was long-listed for the 2015 Erbacce-Press Poetry Award in the United Kingdom. Her work has been published widely, most recently in Red Wedge Magazine, Off the Coast, Kabul Press, TRIVIA: Voices of Feminism, and Peril Magazine: Asian-Australian Arts & Culture, as well as anthologized in several collections. Learn more about Bakshi and her work at www.prernabakshi.strikingly.com.

Tommy Ballew is an elementary school counselor with Spokane Public Schools. This vocation came about late in life, and was preceded by a patchwork of pursuits which included laborer on the Alaskan pipeline (Prudhoe Bay), a carney, a UPS delivery driver, a bartender/waiter, a long-haul/short-haul dispatcher for a trucking company, horse track racing cameraman, and program director with a fundraising company to support school music programs.

Ballew was the drummer in the musical group 4 Out Of 5 Doctors, hailing out of Northern Virginia. The group released two albums in the early 80s on Nemporer Records: an eponymous debut album and the follow up, Second Opinion. The “Doctors” toured extensively across the United States in support of these recorded works and opened for several noteworthy bands of that era, including the Clash, Hall & Oates, the Cars, Cyndi Lauper, Rainbow, Pat Travers, and Jim Carroll (who was also the author of the popular novel The Basketball Diaries). The Doctors were reviewed quite favorably by critics and fans alike for both their recorded works, and for their live performances. They achieved modest success, and disbanded in 1984.

Ballew is a husband, a father, and a grandfather. He creates music when it calls to him, and has been seen in the last couple of years performing songs he has written on the mandolin and ukulele for his kindergarten and first-grade students at the two schools he serves.

Richard Bauman enjoys writing about little known nuggets of history, lesser-known historical sites, and places worth visiting. When he visits places of interest he also photographs them. He’s a history sleuth and always on the lookout for photo opportunities. One of his goals is to weave obscure and commonly known information together into captivating stories. He reads a lot, travels a lot, and takes more pictures than he’ll ever use. His latest book is Pranks in Print—A Collection of Fake Stories, Phony Ads, and other Media Mischief. Learn more about his work at www.richardjbauman.com.

Patricia Belote is the author of the poetry chapbook, Traveling Light (Finishing Line Press). Her recent work appears in The Healing Muse, U.S. 1 Worksheets, Cumberland River Review, Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and Collected Poems of the Panhandle Poets. Belote lives along Florida’s Gulf Coast and plays Celtic fiddle tunes when she’s not writing.

Pierre-Marie Bernard found out quite early in his life that music loved him. He came to that conclusion from the continuous gifts of joy and happiness that she was offering him—every single day and through all kinds of different music styles. He thought he should really do something about it and give some of this love back. Music playing seems like an obvious thing to do but after he failed miserably at every single instrument of the orchestra, he gave up and decided to let play those who are qualified for this activity. To the great relief of his family and neighbors, he decided to switch to a keyboard with letters on it and went on to write stories. At the age of forty-six, this procrastinator by profession, optimist by nature, and French man by chance is putting the final touches on a series of music-inspired short stories that he hopes will find its niche in a currently non-existent market for short-stories books in France.

Chinmoy Biswas is a school teacher by profession, but is also passionate about photography through which he captures nature and people. Based in India, Biswas regularly participates in photography salons and competitions. He has won numerous awards both nationally and internationally, including the Salon International Photo-phylles (France) 2014 UPI Silver medal and the Sille Sanat Sarayi International Salon (Turkey) FIAP Gold medal in 2015.

Maroula Blades is a poet/writer living in Berlin. The winner of the Erbacce Prize 2012, her first poetry collection “Blood Orange” was published by erbacce-press in the United Kingdom. Her works have been published in Volume Magazine, Abridged O-40, Trespass Magazine, Thrice Fiction Magazine, Kaleidoscope, and by the Latin Heritage Foundation and other anthologies and magazines. Her poetry/music programme has been presented on several stages in Germany. Her debut EP album, Word Pulse (Havavision Records) can be found on iTunes and Amazon.

Gary Bloom grew up in Minneapolis and attended Mankato (Minnesota) State University. His articles, short stories, photography, and poetry have been published in newspapers, magazines, and websites. He currently has poems on www.strongverse.org and www.punchnels.com. After retiring from work as a database administrator, he now spends his time writing and traveling. He lives in Pass Christian, Mississippi.

Alma Bond became a full-time writer when she was sixty-six years old, leaving behind thirty-seven years as a psychoanalyst in New York City. She has published professional articles in prestigious psychoanalytic journals over the years, as well as more than twenty books, including her On the Couch series, which explores psychoanalytical insights into the lives of some of the world’s most fascinating women such as Hillary Clinton, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O, and Lady Macbeth. Bond has also published biographies on Michelle Obama and Margaret Mahler, the latter of which received multiple awards, as well as many other books. She wrote the play, Maria, about the life and loves of Maria Callas, which was produced off-off Broadway and toured through the South. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Dramatists Guild, the International Psychoanalytic Association, the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, and the American Psychological Association.

Bond’s late husband, Rudy Bond, was a well-known actor, appearing in many films such as A Streetcar Named Desire, top Broadway shows, and in 100 TV plays. He also wrote the book I Rode A Streetcar Named Desire about how he came to “land” his powerful role alongside Marlon Brando.

Bond has three children, all of whom have published books of their own, and eight grandchildren, none of whom have published books as of yet. Learn more about Bond and her work at www.almabondauthor.com.

Michael Booty is a lifelong music lover who currently resides in Arkansas. When he’s not chasing the euphoric intensity of the underground live music scene, he can be found sharing his passion for literature and lyricism with his students at the University of Arkansas Community College in Morrilton.

Francisco Parado Buenafe is a photographer based in the Philippines who has explored an array of industries over the course of his career. In addition to working as a photojournalist, he studied preparatory law at Adamson University (Manila) as well as piano and violin at the University of Santo Tomas. He earned a master’s degree in electronics from the National Technical School in California as a correspondent student. He designed and erected a lattice communications tower in the Philippines, and while he is now retired, he continues to provide maintenance for this project.

Matt Clarke is an award-winning wildlife photographer, filmmaker, and music composer from the United Kingdom. Currently assisting Will Burrard-Lucas, one of the world’s top wildlife photographers, he also spends much of his time based in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park working with The Bushcamp Company as their photographer and filmmaker. You can learn more about Clarke at www.mattclarkewildlife.com.

Bill Cushing, a Los Angeles-based poet, is pleased to return to the pages of Stories of Music. In addition to being published in Volume 1, his poems have appeared in Avocet, Brownstone Review, Penumbra, genius & madness, the Onion River Review, the Synergist, Spectrum, and the Sabal Palm Review. Cushing earned an MFA in writing from Goddard College in Vermont, and now teaches English classes at both Mount San Antonio and East Los Angeles colleges. Because of his involvement in Stories of Music, Volume 1, he was able to reconnect with a childhood neighbor, who also now lives in Los Angeles, and the two have begun collaborative performances of poetry and music under the name of “Notes and Letters.” Cushing invites anyone interested in the idea (and especially those in the So-Cal area) to join their Facebook page of the same name for updates, posts, and clips.

Darrin DuFord is a writer, mapgazer, and jungle rodent connoisseur. He is the author of Breakfast for Alligators: Quests, Showdowns, and Revelations in the Americas and Is There a Hole in the Boat? Tales of Travel in Panama without a Car, silver medalist in the 2007 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Travel, Gastronomica, Roads & Kingdoms, Transitions Abroad, and Perceptive Travel, among others. His work has been anthologized in The Best Travel Writing, Volume 11 and Stories of Music, Volume 1. Follow him on Twitter at @darrinduford.

Elizabeth Erenberg is a flutist, teacher, and musical entrepreneur. Her classical training has expanded into collaborations with other genres, performance techniques, and art forms. In addition to performing and teaching, she has also applied her behind-the-scenes work at Tufts University, NPR’s From the Top, and www.musicovation.com—a website she founded for positive music news. In 2014, she released ASCEND, an album of new music for flute and other instruments. Currently she resides in York, Pennsylvania where she is an active freelancer, recording artist, and teacher. She holds degrees from the University of Oregon and New England Conservatory of Music. Learn more at www.elizabetherenberg.com.

Patricia J. Esposito is the author of Beside the Darker Shore, and she has published numerous works in anthologies, such as Timbre Press’s Stories of Music, Volume 1, Main Street Rag’s Crossing Lines, Cohesion Press’s Blurring the Line, Annapurna’s Clarify, and Undertow’s Apparitions, and in magazines, including Scarlet Literary Magazine, Rose and Thorn, Karamu, Clean Sheets, Wicked Hollow, and Midnight Street. She has received honorable mentions in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror collections and she is a Pushcart Prize nominee.

Gary Fearon is a writer, songwriter, and artist based in the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee. He is also creative director at Southern Writers Magazine where he interviews authors, writes instructional articles, and oversees publication production, websites, and TV and radio advertisements.

Lucy Gabriel is an English poet, with a secret identity as a speculative fiction writer. She lives with two cats, and a long-suffering husband who doesn’t understand why she can’t stick to one thing at a time. Her works have appeared, or are due to appear, in Pantheon Magazine and the Tranquility anthology by Kind of a Hurricane Press. She can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lucygabrielpoet and on Twitter as @lucygabrielpoet.

Sharon Glassman writes and performs stories and songs that explore big ideas in warmhearted ways. Her essays, features, and music appear on public radio, digital radio, and podcasts. She’s presented her stage stories about women in science, true love, and the art of giving nationwide.

Glassman lives in northern Colorado, where she creates The Lazy Person’s Book Club live shows, podcasts, and audio books. Blackstone Audio recently released her Lazy Person’s Book Club audio novel with songs, Blame It On Hoboken, featuring the song, “Mulligan Waltz.” Say hello and hear more at http://sharonglassmanlive.com.

Marc Goldin, born and raised in Chicago, still lives there, working in a nonprofit health clinic near the historic Bronzeville neighborhood. He writes short fiction that has been published in Deep South Magazine and Crab Fat Magazine, as well as non-fiction—his piece on the Beats in Tangier was published in an India-based literary journal, Café Dissensus. Although he has traveled widely looking for music, his hometown of Chicago has ultimately provided the widest cultural range of anything one would want. He lives with a demanding, one-eyed Persian cat.

Stephen Griggs is a composer, performer, and writer with two awards from Chamber Music America/ASCAP for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. His musical practice focuses on connecting history, music, and place related to social justice in Seattle. His writing can be found at http://stevegriggsmusic.blogspot.com and his music is at http://stevegriggsmusic.com. His writing has been reprinted in Rhythm in the Rain (Ooligan Press) and Creative Colloquy Second Anthology. Griggs is currently working on a biography of Detroit saxophonist Joe Brazil.

Penny Harter is published widely in journals and anthologies, and her literary autobiography appears as an extended essay in Contemporary Authors. Her twenty-two books and chapbooks include The Resonance Around Us (2013), One Bowl (2012), a prizewinning e-chapbook of haibun, Recycling Starlight (2010), The Beastie Book (2009), an illustrated alphabestiary, and The Night Marsh (2008).

Harter was a featured reader at the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, and she has won three poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts; the Mary Carolyn Davies Award from the Poetry Society of America; the first William O. Douglas Nature Writing Award for her work in the anthology American Nature Writing: 2002; and two residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (January 2011 and March 2015). Learn more about Harter and her work at www.penhart.wordpress.com and www.2hweb.net/penhart.

Kevin Haworth is a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and director of the low-residency MFA program at Carlow University in Pittsburgh. His books include the novel The Discontinuity of Small Things, the essay collection Famous Drownings in Literary History, and the limited edition essay chapbook Far Out All My Life. His collection of essays about writing, Lit from Within: Contemporary Masters on the Art and Craft of Writing, co-edited with Dinty W. Moore, was recognized as an American Library Association Outstanding Title, as one of Writer magazine’s Top 10 Writing Books, and featured in Poets & Writers’ Best Books for Writers List. He has held residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Ledig International Writers House. He recently participated in “Public Writing, Public Libraries,” a public art project, in which his essays were printed on the windows of libraries throughout the state of Iowa.

William Huhn’s narratives have appeared in The South Carolina Review, Tulane Review, Fugue, Strings, and other publications. His work has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been cited five times as a “Notable Essay” in The Best American Essays series (most recently in 2016). A chapbook of Huhn’s poetry was published by Red Dancefloor Press as part of their Prime Poets Series, and his credits include a letter in The New Yorker about James Thurber. Huhn and his wife are currently based in New York City, where she dances for the American Liberty Ballet.

Carolyn T. Johnson, a former banker and now freelance writer from Houston, Texas, writes from the heart, the hurt, the heavenly, and sometimes the hilarious. Her work can be found in Halcyon Days magazine, the Houston Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman newspapers, as well as in Chicken Soup for the Soul: O Canada, Whispering Angel Books’ anthologies, Publishing Syndicate books, Seek It: Writers and Artists Do Sleep, and numerous other anthologies and e-zines.

Aleksandr Kuznetcov is a professional musician from Russia who graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In addition to his passion for music he also enjoys photography, particularly photographing other musicians because he understands them very well. Through his photography, Kuznetcov tries to reflect the internal state of his subjects.

Michael Lee is a healer, writer, and actor from New South Wales, Australia. He writes lyrics and poetry, and is a budding screenwriter. His first feature film script, Our Girl is currently out to a top producer. Trained in the Body Mirror System of Healing, Lee’s latest project is developing content for his new website and business called That Healing Guy (http://thathealingguy.com), with the main focus being to open the hearts of men all over the world. He aims to reach one million people by 2021. In his down time, he’s often at home in Sydney with his sweetheart Tania, where they bring their dream of their very own “Truth Cottage” in the country into their everyday reality.Zachary J. Lee is an English major at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, focusing on creative writing and gender studies. He is a member of the Pierre Laclede Honors College and the University Singers at UMSL. Lee believes deeply in the healing power of music and writing, and is especially interested in the intersection of those two ideas.

Darrell Lindsey is the author of Edge of the Pond (Popcorn Press 2012), and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2007) and a Rhysling Award (2014). He won the 2012 Science Fiction Poetry Association Contest (Long Form category), as well as the 2014 Balticon Poetry Contest. His work has appeared in more than sixty journals and anthologies.

Harry Longstreet is retired after twenty-five years as a writer, producer, and director of filmed entertainment, primarily for television. When he’s not busy with his wife, children, and grandchildren, he keeps the creative juices flowing with his still photography.

He’s always looking for images that speak to the human condition and the world around him. He favors ambient light and unposed, unaware subjects. In the last ten years, he’s had a number of one-man shows, and his work has appeared in more than 200 national and international juried exhibitions.

Longstreet is twice a Single Image Merit Award recipient from Black & White Magazine and twice a Single Image Merit Award winner from Color Magazine. In 2013, he was awarded the Gold Medal (monochrome) in the International Varna Salon, and in 2014, he took Best in Show in the annual CVG (Collective Visions Gallery) Washington State competition. His images have been included in Creative Quarterly’s 100 Best in 2014 and 2015.

John McDonald, recently described as “the New England master of the short piece” in a recording review, is a composer who tries to play the piano and a pianist who tries to compose. He is a professor of music at Tufts University, where he has served both as music department chair and director of graduate music studies. He teaches composition, theory, and performance at Tufts. His output concentrates on vocal, chamber, and solo instrumental works, and includes interdisciplinary experiments. On sabbatical from Tufts, he is currently completing a biography project on composer T(homas) J(efferson) Anderson. McDonald is also serving as the Joseph E. and Grace W. Valentine Visiting Professor of Music at Amherst College for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Jerin Micheal is a press and editorial photographer currently studying at Falmouth University in the South West Coast of England. At age eighteen, he has already won the prestigious NME’s Under 18 Music Photographer of the Year and he has also exhibited his work at the Louvre in Paris. His subjects vary from world renowned musicians to deep-sea fishermen. No matter what he turns his lens to, he is enthralled by the story. When he isn’t shooting, he enjoys good coffee and bad films. See more of Micheal’s work at www.jerinmichealphotography.com.

Tracie Renee Amirante Padal grew up playing the violin and is now a librarian, an award-winning poet, and a member of the TallGrass Writers Guild. Her poems have appeared in anthologies (including Embers and Flames, The Official Poets’ Guide to Peace, and Stories of Music, Volume 1), newspapers, magazines, and journals. Most recently, Padal was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives in suburban Chicago.

Mukta Patil is a freelance editor and writer based out of Goa, India. Writing is more than a passing interest for her, and she is deeply interested in issues related to the environment, gender, and culture. She can usually be found on the beach, nose buried in a book.

Elena Polyakova writes about art and entertainment as a professional journalist in Novosibirsk, Siberia. She spends her free time walking around the city as an amateur street photographer.

Robert B. Robeson is a retired US Army Lt. Col. with over twenty-seven years of service on three continents and in combat as a helicopter medical evacuation pilot. He’s been decorated for valor eight times. After his military career, he was a newspaper managing editor and columnist. Now as a freelance writer, he’s published nearly 900 articles, short stories, and poems in over 320 publications in 130 countries. This includes Reader’s Digest, Vietnam Combat, Official Karate, Writer’s Digest, Frontier Airline Magazine, and Newsday, among others. His work has also been published in fifty anthologies. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Maryland-College Park and has completed extensive undergraduate and graduate work in journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He’s a professional (life) member of the National Writers Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Dustoff Association, and the Distinguished Flying Cross Society.

Kenneth Salzmann is a writer and poet whose work has appeared in such anthologies as Child of My Child: Poems and Stories for Grandparents (Gelles-Cole Literary Enterprises), Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude (Holy Cow! Press), Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers (Codhill Press), Earth Blessings (Viva Editions), and Stories of Music, Volume 1 (Timbre Press). He lives in Woodstock, New York, and Ajijic, Mexico, with his wife, editor Sandi Gelles-Cole.

Jeff Santosuosso is a business consultant and poet living in Pensacola, Florida. A member of the Florida State Poets Association, he is co-editor of panoplyzine.com, an online journal dedicated to poetry and short prose. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in San Pedro River Review, Illya’s Honey, Red River Review, Texas Poetry Calendar (2012, 2014), Avocet, Red Fez, Alalit, Extract(s), First Literary Review-East, and other online and print publications. You can find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jeff.santosuosso.

Bar Scott is a singer-songwriter and writer who leads writing workshops in both Colorado and New York. She has published over sixty-five songs, a memoir, The Present Giver, a workbook for writers called The Lone Writer’s Writing Club, and two short pieces in The Sun magazine called “Tight Spot” and “Breasts.” Her story “Grace” was included in Stories of Music, Volume 1. Learn more about her work at www.barscott.com.

Philip See is a musician from Seattle, Washington who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002, and lost his ability to play music shortly thereafter. With persistence, he was able to regain his musical ability through neuroplasticity. Passionate about helping other musicians with neurological disorders regain their musical abilities as well, See now leads a free program called Get Back Your Music at Seattle’s Multiple Sclerosis Center at Swedish Medical Center. Through this program, he organizes one-on-one and group “jam sessions” that focus on reconditioning the participants’ affected areas. Learn more about Get Back Your Music at www.swedish.org/services/neuroscience-institute/our-services/multiple-sclerosis-center/comprehensive-wellness/physical-wellness/rehabilitation-and-fitness/wellness-and-exercise-classes.

Russell Steinberg is a composer who received a PhD in music from Harvard University, an MM from the New England Conservatory, and a BA from UCLA. Performances of his solo, chamber, and orchestral music recently included concerts in Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Jersey, Vienna, and Prague. “Aria for a Calmer World” (violin and orchestra) was featured in the San Bernardino Cares benefit concert for the families of the victims of the 2015 terrorist attack. For the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, “Cosmic Dust” (commissioned by a tri-consortium of orchestras—the New West Symphony, the Bay Atlantic Symphony, and the Hopkins Symphony) was featured in a special Science News Magazine article and was performed for the Hubble scientists. The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony recently premiered Canopy of Peace based on meditations by noted scholar and philosopher Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis. Available recordings of Steinberg’s music include Sacred Transitions: A Song Cycle Based On Meditations by Harold M. Schulweis, Stories from My Favorite Planet: A Musical Tribute to Journalist Daniel Pearl produced by the Daniel Pearl Foundation, Flute Sonata on Centaur Records recorded by Michelle Stanley, Desert Stars, Steinberg’s solo music for piano and classical guitar, and “Fantasy for Flute and Piano” on the album ASCEND featuring flutist Elizabeth Erenberg. For information about Steinberg’s current performances, recordings, and pre-concert lectures, please visit www.russellsteinberg.com.

Kelly J. Stigliano has been consistently writing for weekly newspapers since the 1990s. Her articles have been published in Guideposts, War Cry, Pentecostal Evangel, Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse Magazine, Just Between Us, Sasee, Cross & Quill, Christian Communicator magazines, and more. Her articles have appeared on websites such as CBN.com, Charismamag.com, and ThrivingFamily.com, and she is a blogger for Mentoring Moments for Christian Women. Her stories have been included in ten compilation books including Chicken Soup for the Soul, two Guideposts series, two Cecil Murphey books, and Love Is a Verb Devotional by Gary Chapman. She has enjoyed speaking to women’s groups, teenagers, and teachers since 1987, and currently speaks throughout the southeastern USA. She is also a member of Word Weavers International writers’ critique group. Learn more about her work at www.kellystigliano.com.

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Vrenios’ poetry has appeared in Clementine, Silver Birch Press anthologies, Kentucky Review, Bethlehem Writers Roundtable, Poeming Pigeon, Form Quarterly, The Edison Literary Review, and Unsplendid. She was a 30/30 poet for Tupelo Press, and her prize-winning chapbook, Special Delivery, was published by Yellow Chair Press. She also co-wrote the book Party Line under the name Elizabeth Kirkpatrick. Vrenios is a professor emerita from American University in Washington D.C., having chaired the vocal and music departments. Vrenios’ solo recitals throughout the United States, South America, Scandinavia, Japan, and Europe have been acclaimed, and as the artistic director of the Redwoods Opera Workshop in Mendocino, California and the Crittenden Opera Workshops in Washington D.C. and Boston, she has influenced and trained students across the country. She is a member of the International Who’s Who of Music and a past president of the National Opera Association.