Become an Emerge Author

Writers and artists work in the loneliest of all professions, inside our heads. Those writers who are daring enough to create and reveal a small part of their souls, are to be lauded. The staff of eMerge, and the thousands of eMerge readers, salute your courage and thank you for your submissions.

Submissions are currently OPEN. The form will be available until November 30th, 2024.

Submissions will be considered for inclusion in next year's issues of eMerge and submitters will be notified prior to publication.

Submission Form

Currently Featured Authors

Elaine Alarcon
I have graduate degrees in Creative Writing and 20th Century Literature. My work has appeared in Solo Nova, Salt, Spillway, Askew, Blue Light Press, Orbis, The Denver Quarterly, the TOPANGA Messenger, The Canyon Chronicle, Words Out Loud(UK)and eMerge! Five of my poems appeared in the recent issue of Solo Voyage. This is my third Pushcart Prize nomination, which I am thrilled to receive.

Posts in this issue: 1

​simóne j. banks
simóne is writing her debut collection of poetry, ‘continuum’ a poetry + photography project that seeks to restage, reimagine and restore the seen and unseen relationship between the Black body and nature.

Posts in this issue: 1

Lynn Packham Larson
Lynn lives with her husband in a house that he built, where the edge of town meets the edge of the woods. She was raised in a big city, and now finds peace and inspiration walking the dog and hiking the trails near her home. The birding is wonderful, trees abundant, water plentiful. Lynn practices Yoga, shares what she learns with others and can't imagine aging without it. Lynn and her husband share the endless love in their hearts with their son, their daughter, their son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and their granddaughter.

Posts in this issue: 2

Kathryn Lorenzen
Kathryn Lorenzen is a career coach, creativity coach, songwriter, and poet. Her songs and recordings have appeared in feature films and TV series including The Americans and Last Man On Earth. With an earlier career in copywriting and marketing communications, she is now a career coach to freelance writers and artists seeking livelihood in support of their art. In partnership with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, she is co-leader of Your Right Livelihood, and you can find more about Kathryn at kathrynlorenzen.com.

Posts in this issue: 2

Erin McGrane
ERIN MCGRANE is an actress, musician, author, and professional development mentor. Erin appears in the Oscar-nominated film UP IN THE AIR alongside George Clooney and is known for her unforgettable cabaret and musical performances. Currently, Erin is authoring a spoken-word poetry project set to original music exploring anxiety, isolation, and hope. Erin was honored in KC Magazine’s "The 100: People who Make Life Better in KC" and is proud to say she misspent her youth singing in a rock band.

Posts in this issue: 1

John Dorroh
John Dorroh has never caught a hummingbird or fallen into an active volcano. He has however, baked bread with Austrian monks and drunk a healthy portion of their beer. Five of his poems were nominated for Best of the Net. Others have appeared in over 125 journals, including Feral, El Portal, River Heron, and Kissing Dynamite.

Posts in this issue: 1

Julie Hoffman
Julie Wasmund Hoffman is an educator with Springfield Public Schools in Illinois. She is also an adjunct professor in the Teacher Education Program at University of Illinois Springfield. Her research interests include urban education, social and emotional learning, children’s literature, and empathy. Her passion is to help students who have experienced trauma find healing, resilience, and empowerment through their own writing and the writing of others.

Posts in this issue: 1

Dennis Etzel Jr.
Dennis Etzel Jr. lives with their spouse Carrie and their boys in Topeka, Kansas, where he teaches English at Washburn University. My Secret Wars of 1984 (BlazeVOX 2015) was selected by The Kansas City Star as a Best Poetry Book of 2015. Fast-Food Sonnets (Coal City Review Press 2016) is a 2017 Kansas Notables Book selected by the State of Kansas Library.

Posts in this issue: 1

Elaine McMilian
Elaine McMilian lives and writes in Kansas City, Missouri. A graduate of The University of Missouri-Kansas City, she is also a musician with a long performance career. Her writing is an ongoing journey of learning, sharing experiences, and connecting with others. You can find her original music albums, “Insomnia” and “The Messenger,” online, as well as her Substack, “And Something More,” and her recently published book of poetry, “Copper and Other Precious Metals,” in which “The Fox” appears.

Posts in this issue: 1

Anna Gall
Anna Gall with her husband, Dean live in historic St. Charles, Missouri. Anna travels, gardens, cooks, teaches culinary classes at the local community college, antiques, reads, and writes two blogs on topics she is most passionate about, organic gardening, kitchen creations, home life, and wholeness as a woman. During her summer 2021 residency at the Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow, Anna started her first book, a series of short stories with a culinary theme.

Posts in this issue: 3

Brian Mosher
Brian Mosher was born in Foxboro, MA, and currently resides in nearby Mansfield. He has self-published 3 books: “One Bad Day Deserves Another”, “Moon Shine and Lemon Twists” and “The Broken Mosaic”. His poetry chapbook, “Dreams and Other Magic” (2023) is published by Alien Buddha Press. His work has appeared in Books and Pieces, Confetti, Rituals (from Anomaly Poetry), Coneflower Cafe, Written Tales, Oddball Magazine, Alien Buddha Zine, Esoterica Magazine, Half and One Magazine and Verse Wrights.

Posts in this issue: 1

Wendy Taylor Carlisle
Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives in the Arkansas Ozarks. She is the author of four books, including, The Mercy of Traffic, winner of the Phillip H. McMath 2020 Post-Publication Award and five chapbooks. Her work appears in Atlanta Review, Mom Egg Review, pacificREVIEW and this spring Doubleback Books reprinted her 2008 book, Discount Fireworks as a free download.

Posts in this issue: 1

Darlene Graf
I am a northwest Arkansas writer of mostly poems and essays. I have lived in the Ozarks for over 19 years and have a Pekingese named Tricki Woo after The dog in All All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot.

Posts in this issue: 1

Shalini Singh
Shalini Singh is a third-year multi-genre candidate at Iowa State University, where she is living in the dying prairies, executing craft choices that range from underground narratives to facilitating workshops. She is working on her hybrid thesis and a collection. Recently, her image-texts were exhibited at the Bloom Exhibition at Mainframe Studios in Des Moines, Iowa on the theme of light photography and mental health-wellbeing. Shalini was a lawyer in her previous life, having reviewed books and movies for over a decade.

Posts in this issue: 1

Bill McCloud
Bill McCloud is a poetry editor for the Right Hand Pointing literary journal and is the poetry reviewer for Vietnam Veterans of America. His poetry book, The Smell of the Light, reached #1 on The Oklahoman’s “Oklahoma Bestsellers List." His poems have appeared in Oklahoma Today and the Oklahoma English Journal. He is a faculty member of William Bernhardt’s annual WriterCon, presenting sessions on writing and publishing poetry.

Posts in this issue: 1

Abbi B.
Abbi B. is a college student who loves writing novels, short stories, and poetry. Her work has been featured in the Bluegrass Accolade. She was also a finalist in the high school short story division of the 2022 KET Young Writers Contest. As a Christian, Abbi loves to create art that speaks of hope and new beginnings. She hopes you feel refreshed as you read her work.

Posts in this issue: 1

T. Daniel Wright
T. Daniel Wright grew up in Northeast Arkansas. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas. His first original play, Colored Eggs was made into a feature film, starring Ian Somerhalder, Faye Dunaway, Tom Skerritt and Lauren Holly. His first novel, Lost Cain, was released in 2015. The Waning of Miss Lyla Bluetree is the first chapter of a novel in progress. He currently teaches in Kansas City, Missouri and will be on sabbatical this coming year to write and produce a stage adaptation of Jane Austen's, Lady Susan

Posts in this issue: 1

D. L. Lang
D.L. Lang served as Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California. She is published in over 60 anthologies worldwide. She is a co-founder of Vallejo Poetry Society and a member of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade. She received proclamations from the California State Senate, California Arts Council, and Vallejo City Council for her service as poet laureate. When she isn’t performing or writing poetry, she enjoys bird watching, listening to 60s/70s music, and attending live music events.

Posts in this issue: 1

George Freek
George Freek's poetry has recently appeared in "Acumen"; "Miller's Pond"; "The Gentian Journal"; "Ink, Sweat and Tears"; and "The Whimsical Poet."

Posts in this issue: 1

Kathy Attwood
Kathy Attwood is a retired teacher who has lived in Eureka Springs since 1998. She divides her time between writing and making art. In 2003 the Eureka Theater Company produced her play Case 3001. Her short story "The Attending Physician" was chosen to be included in the anthology of the Hot Springs Fine Arts Center. She has received awards from The Arkansas Arts Council for art pieces included in the traveling "Small Works on Paper." She was also included in the Somerset Studio Magazine for entries pertaining to "The Sea."

Posts in this issue: 1

Ron Wallace
Ron Wallace is an Oklahoma native and currently an adjunct instructor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, in Durant, Oklahoma. He is the author of ten books of poetry, five of which have been finalists in the Oklahoma Book Awards. He has just finished editing Bull Buffalo and Indian Paintbrush, a collection of Oklahoma Poetry, and his first novel, A Secret Lies in New Orleans was a finalist in the 2021 Oklahoma Book Awards for fiction.

Posts in this issue: 1

Beth Hannah
Beth Hannah is a young writer living in Kansas City. She received a minor in Creative Writing from the University of Kansas and enjoys writing in her free time.

Posts in this issue: 1

Zeek Taylor
Zeek Taylor is a recipient of the Arkansas Governor's Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. Best known for his stylized watercolors, he is also a storyteller, and author of two books. He has appeared twice on the NPR Tales from the South. A StoryCorps interview with Taylor aired on NPR’s Morning Edition show. He is the author of two memoirs, Out of the Delta and Out of the Delta II. The memoirs were combined into one volume and published under the title “Out of the Delta, the Anthology” by Sandy Springs Press. Taylor lives and works in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Posts in this issue: 1

Claire Collins
Claire Collins is a queer poet, teaching artist, and co-founder of Poetic Justice, a program that teaches literacy and poetry to incarcerated people. They are of Mohawk, French, and Dutch descent. As a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, they are working to reconnect with Kanien'kéha (Mohawk) Language and literacies. They are currently working on a forthcoming collection of poetry that will be released in April 2024.

Posts in this issue: 1

Aaron Kavanagh
Aaron Kavanagh is a freelance writer based in Dublin, Ireland. He has been published in outlets both domestically and internationally. He is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the culture website PostBurnout.com.

Posts in this issue: 1

Holly Ellison
Born and raised in New York City. I have been lucky enough to live in various countries, including France, where I wrote lyrics for French up-and-coming singers and jingles for radio stations. I now enjoy retired life on a ranch in Northwest Montana.

Posts in this issue: 2

Daniel P. Stokes
Daniel P. Stokes has published poetry widely in literary magazines in Ireland, Britain, the U.S.A. and Canada, and has won several poetry prizes. He has written three stage plays which have been professionally produced in Dublin, London and at the Edinburgh Festival.

Posts in this issue: 1

Sallie Crotty
Sallie Crotty has published many places, including The Dairy Hollow Echo; The Drabble; eMerge; and Resources to Recover. The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow awarded her a residency in 2018. Sallie holds a B.A. in English from Sewanee: The University of the South, an Ed.M. from Harvard, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. She is working on a poetry collection, and her memoir Out of the Ashes: A Story of Recovery and Hope was published in 2022.

Posts in this issue: 1

Charles Templeton
Charles Templeton is the author of the best-selling, surreal historical novel, Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam. When he is not singing at the Metropolitan Opera, you can find him in Eureka Springs, where he is currently an editor/publisher at eMerge, an online literary magazine. Charles wakes up daily and is thankful for the opportunity to offer creative literature to a diverse audience from emerging and established authors. He knows that whatever vicissitudes life throws at him, it will always be better than shovelin’ shit in the South China Sea.

Posts in this issue: 2

Hilka West-Irvin
Hilka is a Minnesota native, who made Eureka Springs her home in 2014. She is a self- taught artist that works in various mediums- oils, acrylics, watercolor – all reflective of her mindset. She also writes poetry and short stories to fulfill her creative soul. Her work has been described as eclectic because she tends to paint & write from instinct instead of expectation. She enjoys working outside of her comfort zone and expressing herself through art & writing , which is always evolving.

Posts in this issue: 1

Elizabeth G. Howard
Elizabeth G. Howard (she/her) explores gender, identity, and the natural world in her writing and art. She’s published in Tupelo Press, eMerge, American Craft Council, Boston Literary Review, Connecticut Poetry Society, and more. She writes Demand Poetry on her typewriter at live and virtual events. She calls Kansas City, London, and Iowa home.

Posts in this issue: 1

Nancy Paddock
I am a self taught poet. I been writing poetry since I was a child. I love capturing moments in time and mind and applying them to paper. I helped to produce and publish two volumes of poetry in Eureka Springs called Ledges, which were published in 1991 and 1992. I attended the Ozark Poets and Writers group in Fayetteville Arkansas for many years. The comradery and friendships I found there help me grow as a poet. I am now working at The Writers' Colony at Dairy Hollow.

Posts in this issue: 1

Sherri Buerky
Sherri Buerky is an artist, writer, and creative currently residing in Kansas city Missouri. She exhibits artwork in local Galleries on a regular basis and was a poetry blog editor for the blog, My Tree Called Life, from 2014 till 2021 publishing poetry of her classmates attending Turning Point writing class. Sherri has poems published online and in Flapper Press Magazine. Sherri was a winner in the Flapper Press Valentine Contest in February 2023.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah lives in the UK with his family. His poems have been featured in several literary magazines and anthologies. He is a winner of the Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest 2022 and a finalist of the African Diaspora Award 2023.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jack Albert
Long time Eureka Springs resident, restaurateur, poet, justice junky, Jack Albert has appeared in many formats thoughout the decades. But most importantly, his culinary hotspots have been the scenes for artistic, holistic and political comradery from New York City to Northwest Arkansas.

Posts in this issue: 1

Anonymous
Tom Gorsuch is a Eureka Springs playwright, essayist, and children’s story author. In the Spring of 2017, his full length play, Dance of Deceit, was performed in Eureka Springs as part of the May Festival of the Arts. Two of his ten-minute plays, Fluffy and Flags of Honor, were performed as part of the Five & Dime Drama Collective Fall Performance Series in 2016. He is a former board member and script reader for Red Eye Collaboration, a Minneapolis avant-garde theater, and he is a founding member of the Five and Dime Drama Collective. Dime Drama Collective.

Posts in this issue: 1

Joy Nevin Axelson
Joy Nevin Axelson earned a B.A. and an M.A. in French. She also attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. She’s the translation coordinator for GlobalFingerprints, the EFCA’s child sponsorship branch. Her translations of training materials are used at 14 international sites. She enjoys traveling with her husband and two older children.

Posts in this issue: 1

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a non-fiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and Coming Home to the Body. Founder of Transformative Language Arts, she leads writing workshops widely, coaches people on writing and right livelihood, and consults on creativity.

Posts in this issue: 1

A. Johnston
Allan Johnston earned his M.A. in Creative Writing and his Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis. His poems have appeared in over sixty journals, including Poetry, Poetry East, Rattle, and Rhino. He has published three full-length poetry collections (Tasks of Survival, 1996; In a Window, 2018; Sable and Selected Poems, 2022) and three chapbooks (Northport, 2010; Departures, 2013; Contingencies, 2015).

Posts in this issue: 1

Lea Ann Crisp
Lea Ann Crisp is an award-winning writer who has always loved writing poetry and short stories. She first began writing children’s books when she was a young mother. She has published two children’s books, We Need the Dark and Ryan’s Pirates. Crisp received national recognition for her work in graphic design and advertising before transitioning to a second career in Human Resources and ultimately starting her own business. She resides in the Ozarks where she spends as much time as possible in nature and is an avid birder. Besides writing, she enjoys painting and cooking.

Posts in this issue: 1

Joanie Roberts
I am a beginning author, writer, and poet exploring the worlds of poetry, nature, and photography. I love capturing ordinary moments and reflecting upon our natural world and its intersections with daily life. Performing at Bella Vista’s Farmers Market, Bentonville’s First Friday, Eureka Springs’ White Street Art Walk, and the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow’s PoetLuck. I am a member of Ozark Mountain Poets, Ozark Writers League, and Poets Northwest Roundtable of Arkansas.

Posts in this issue: 1

Faune Vita
Faune Vita is a writer and artist from the Ozark Mountains who teaches writing at a small college in Western Massachusetts.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jessica Cloud
Jessica Neno Cloud was born and raised in Mobile, AL and now resides in Hartsville, SC with her husband Daniel and her two children. She earned her M.A. in English literature at The University of Southern Mississippi. Her poetry can be found online in eMerge magazine, the TEJASCOVIDO project and the online journal Former People. In print, her poem “After the Bath” appeared in Constellations magazine in 2019 and the poem “Stockpile the Sun” was published in the Langdon Review: TEJASCOVIDO in 2020.

Posts in this issue: 1

Chloe Evans-Cross
Chloe Evans-Cross is a NYC based educator. She lives with her partner and their dog.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jojo O’Such
Jojo O’Such (they/them) is a 24 year old poet and painter who currently resides in New Jersey and has works published in Trillium. They graduated from Ramapo University in 2022 with a Bachelor Degree in Creative Writing and currently work as a high school English teacher. O’Such’s work explores the crevices of humanity with sweeping gestures and striking language.

Posts in this issue: 1

Shahryar Eskandari Zanjani
Shahryar Eskandari Zanjani is a writer, teacher, and editor. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in Booka, Markosia, Willow Review, Sky Island Journal, Rill and Grove, among others. Shahryar's poetry has won second place in Nine Muses Review’s inaugural poetry contest.

Posts in this issue: 1

Former Contributors