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 closed. Be on the lookout for next year's submission period at the end of the year.

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

Currently Featured Authors


Sharon Spurlin
Sharon Spurlin majored in sociology, education, and had 28 hours in French, then taught high school for four years in Independence, MIssouri. Later, she taught global issues, focusing on women and children for the workshops created by the National Council of Churches and United Methodist Women. Sharon shares a synergistic relationship with her friends and family through her love of books. She continues to write as a platform of self-discovery and to explore her love of humanity and for a deeper understanding of human nature.

Posts in this issue: 1

Bruce K. Berger
Bruce K. Berger served in Vietnam in 1970 with the Casualty Branch of the 101 st Airborne Division. In 2021, his poetry book, Fragments: The Long Coming Home from Vietnam, received the Gold Medal for Best Book of War Poetry by the Military Writers’ Society of America. In 2023 Book Authority ranked Fragments #6 on its list of the 100 Best Vietnam War Books. Today he’s professor emeritus, University of Alabama, where he taught communications for 17 years. Before teaching, he spent 20 years as a communicator for two global corporations and worked on diverse projects in more than 30 countries.

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

Elizabeth G. Howard
Elizabeth G. Howard is poet, journalist, and digital marketing specialist. She founded Demand Poetry in 2008, writing original poetry at virtual and live at events on her Olivetti 33 typewriter. Her writing has been published in Boston Literary Magazine, American Craft, Bentlily among many others. She is member of the Writing Workshop Kansas City and a resident of the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow. She calls Iowa, London, and Kansas City home.

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: 2

Melia Snyder
Poetry is medicine which I prescribe and share with my therapy clients. My ‘poetic voice’ emerged out of massive loss, a way of metabolizing experience, encountering self, meeting archetypal energy. In poetry and practice, a healing, integrating emergent third often manifests. Poetry is an invitation. We artists have a response-ability to speak into the spirit of the times, to open up possibility and perspective--a portal into the inner landscape in which all external change must seed.

Posts in this issue: 1

Anna Robertson
Anna dwells in the forests and hills of Northwest Arkansas, accompanied by her cat, Pippin. She received her BA in Professional-Technical Writing from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock – but her true passion is creative writing. Throughout her journey as a storyteller, Anna has published both memoirs and poetry. When she is not writing, she is often found reading, drawing, or playing video games. Anna is currently working on a dark-fantasy book series, which involves dragons, Druids, and a world woven by fate.

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: 3

Linda Neal Reising
Linda Neal Reising is a native of Oklahoma and citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Her books include: Re-Writing Family History (Finishing Line), The Keeping (Finishing Line), Stone Roses (Kelsay Books), and VIVIA-The Legend of Vivia Thomas: A Novelette in Poems (Kelsay Books), and Perpetual Astonishment (Beyond Words Press). Forthcoming are Navigation (Kelsay Books) and Cigar Box of Loss: Stories from Route 66 (Belle Point Press).

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

Donna Hanson
DM Hanson is a writer and artist having published her first work: "Heroes All" in April of 2023 to honor her father and his shipmates on the LST 374. She's currently adapting her novella for the stage in preparation for the 80th anniversary of the landings on Normandy Beach on June 6, 1945.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jessica Hannon
My parents were young, divorced, broken people who raised me to do better than them. They wanted me to go to college and make lots of money. Instead got married at 19, had 5 kids before 30 and never finished school because I'm a rebel for one, and people have always been more important than things to me. I feel deeply and write passionately and hope that someone can relate to my writing and know they aren't alone, therefore, I also have company in this madness we call life.

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

Ray Shermer
Ray spent 21 years in radio broadcasting followed by 27 years as a real estate appraiser. He taught real estate appraisal at the University of Missouri, Ozarks Technical Community College and St. Charles Community College. Ray loves writing and always has. After Ray retired he attained the Certificate in Higher Education in Creative Writing from Oxford University. Writing short stories for the Certificate was exciting especially since he was in his seventies. Since then the genre has become his obsession and he loves to write them often. His email is [email protected]

Posts in this issue: 1

Chad Gurley
Social media coordinator for eMerge, graphic artist and all around awesome human according to the eMerge web developer writing this.

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

Mia Marion
Mia Marion is a poet, writer, and citizen of a metropolis considered modern. She has been published in Thimble Literary Magazine, eMerge Magazine, Discretionary Love, DUMBO press, and the Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times.

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

Julie Peterson Freeman
Julie Peterson Freeman, née Wren Dubois, has been spotted in dark piano bars and tiny cafes in the oldest sections of cities around the world. At the beginning of her career, one was most likely to find her strolling the cobbled streets in the 18th Arrondissement of bohemian Paris. I spotted her arm in arm with the notorious Amantine Dupin (better known as George Sand), exiting Le Tagada, a quaint and popular bar among artists and eccentrics in the famed village of Montmartre. It was here where the flâneur was created. Bien sûr, none of this is true, except in Julie’s imagination.

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: 1

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

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

Ruth Weinstein
Since 1976, my husband and I have lived on a hardscrabble, 40-acre piece of Ozark land as back-to-the-landers, a group of very determined people. We still garden organically and largely rely on ourselves and our community for entertainment and inspiration. I am also a textile artist working in a wide variety of disciplines. My memoir, BACK TO THE LAND: ALLIANCE COLONY TO THE OZARKS was published by Stockton University Press in February 2020, and my poetry appears in print and online.

Posts in this issue: 1

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

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

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

Susan Hendel
Susan Hendel is a technical writer and designer of software training programs by day and has been studying creative writing on the side for most of her life. Currently she is a student in the New York-based Writers Studio program with a focus on creative non-fiction. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and has a Master's degree in American Studies from Brown University.

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

Patricia Trentacoste
After having taught both English literature and philosophy in the greater Metro Detroit area, Patricia Trentacoste now lives near the Sleeping Bear National Forest and writes about the defining moments of offbeat characters facing dicey situations. Previous contributions include: small press literary journals; academic philosophy forums, Women’s Day Magazine, a feature column, and a spate of ghost writing for a philanthropist.

Posts in this issue: 1

Madison Hu
Madison Hu is a senior at Columbia University studying creative writing. She is an actor and writer.

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

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: 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

John Ganshaw
After 31 years in banking, John (he/him) retired to follow his dream of owning a hotel in Southeast Asia. This led to many new experiences enabling John to see the world through a different lens, leading him to write his story through essays, poetry, and a yet unpublished memoir. John’s work has appeared in Native Skin, Runamok Books/Growerly, Post Roe Alternatives, Fleas on the Dog, OMQ, Disabled Tales, Unlikely Stories, and many others.

Posts in this issue: 1

Jeanean Doherty
Jeanean Doherty is a wannabe author who penned short stories and journals for fun but wasn’t sure what to do with them. She dreamed of creating an epic novel “someday”—or, at least, a book a few people would enjoy reading. She recently discovered writers’ groups, conferences, and contests and was encouraged to be a winner in every competition she entered. Finally, she is hard at work writing an extensively researched historical narrative while writing shorter pieces to improve her writing craft.

Posts in this issue: 1

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: 1

Joyce Hanewinkel
I am a fledgling writer with four contest wins and three published pieces. After working forty-six years in various fields—sales, advertising, medical, military, manufacturing, and procurement, I retired a year early to address My parent's increasing needs. Writing was an escape. I revisited poignant memories of my childhood, exploits from my military service, and tales of my soccer travels. I entered one of these stories in a writing contest and won first place in the humor category. That win unlocked a portal to the writing community and new adventures. I am now drafting my first novel.

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

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

Joan Roberts
I am a beginning author, writer and poet exploring the worlds of poetry, nature and photography. I love to capture ordinary moments and reflect upon our natural world and its intersection with our daily life. In 2006, I co-founded the Shadowleaves Company and started my blog, Shadowleaves. In 2015, I started a local writer’s group in Bella Vista, AR, Village Lake Writers & Poets, sponsored by The Artist Retreat Center and Bella Vista Public Library. Our mission is to share the joy of writing and the importance of writing and telling stories for all ages by connecting with each other.

Posts in this issue: 1

Former Contributors