The Secrets We Keep

Contributors

Meet the authors of our sophomore anthology The Secrets We Keep.

Paige Baselice is a writer based in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated from West Chester University with a B.A. in English in May 2019, and has since been working professionally as a copywriter. She grew up around the arts and she greatly enjoys live theatre and music. When she’s not writing, she’s either reading, cooking, or trying to find the nearest concert to attend.

Samantha Benton is a writer focused primarily on the complex hidden stories of women.  She has been published in numerous Australian literary magazines, but these are her first words to travel over the ocean. She is a library professional living on unceded Wurundjeri land in the tree covered hills of Melbourne, Australia with two of her three grown sons.

Mark Bruce is a Vietnam-Era Disabled veteran who practices family and criminal law in San Bernardino, California. His first Minerva James story won the 2018 Black Orchid Novella Award. Five other Minerva stories have been published in such magazines as Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and a few anthologies. He lives in Hesperia with Mariah the Mermaid and his support dragon Ferdinand.

Ashini J. Desai is a co-founder of Dandelion Revolution Press and balances creative writing with family and a technology management career. Her poems, essays and short stories, have been published in various literary journals and anthologies, and has written columns for South Asian-centric websites Her short story has been published in “Not Quite As You Were Told anthology.” Her personal website with selected poems is ashinipoetry.blogspot.com.

Kalyani Deshpande was born in India and grew up in Zambia. Her essay, “Dear Mom Who Writes” was published in the anthology, I Wrote it Anyway. She was also a finalistin the NC State Fiction Contest. Kalyani works in technology and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. Visit her http://www.kalyanideshpande.com and follow her on Instagram @kalyani_writes.

Hayley E. Frerichs writes fantasy and historical romance in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State with degrees in English and education, she fled adulthood and taught in southern Spain for a year. She loves to travel but is also content to stay at home with her sewing machine, tea kettle, and books. She is a co-founder and editor of Dandelion Revolution Press; her short story was featured in their first anthology, “Not Quite as You Were Told.” You can visit her website hayleyefrerichs.com where she blogs about sustainable living and her many creative hobbies.

Paige Gardner is a lover of all things fiction. She enjoys writing novels, flash fiction, and short stories. Paige grew up in a small, unassuming town outside Pittsburgh, graduated from Penn State University, and moved to Bucks County PA to pursue a career in the nonprofit field. She is the co-founder of Dandelion Revolution Press, and a member of the Bucks County Writers Group. When Paige isn’t writing, she enjoys performing on stage, reading books of all genres, enjoying the company of close friends, and laughing. She doesn’t know how this collection found its way to your hands, but she’s glad it did. To keep up with Paige’s writing journey, you can follow her on Twitter at @JPaigeGardner.

Catie Jarvis is an author of fiction, as well as a yoga instructor, a competitive gymnastics coach, and an English and writing professor. She received her B.A. in writing from Ithaca College, and her M.F.A. in creative writing from the California College of the Arts. She grew up on a lake in northern New Jersey and now lives by the ocean in California with her husband, her baby daughter Skywalker and lots of surfboards. She finds the world to be a strange place and loves writing that examines the ambiguity of “reality.” Her debut novel, “The Peacock Room,” is available on Amazon. Find more about the author and her writing at catiejarvis.com and 30inLA.com. Follow her on IG @30inLA.

James P. W. Martin is a storyteller of many mediums and genres.  With a degree in Film Production from Emerson College, he works as a video editor, crafting stories for documentaries and TV series, as well as comedic YouTube videos, such as his Cat Broadcast Station series.  His self-produced short films have been showcased in film festivals across the country.  He writes screenplays, satire, politics, and reviews for The Boundary-Bending Blog, aptly named for his provoking, genre-defying style. James lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where you just might be lucky enough to catch him killing it at karaoke.  He is honored to be published among such talented writers and has big plans for his own collection of short stories and future novels.

Natalie Monaghan Munroe has been writing stories since the third grade. What began as overly dramatic diary entries and serialized tween dramas has become overly detailed baking blog posts and steamy women’s fiction. In between writing book-length emails and texts to friends, she earned a BA in English Literature from Rosemont College and a Master of Education from Arcadia University. Natalie is the mother of 2 daughters, 2 cats, and a puppy, and is happily married to her biggest fan. She loves coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, cookies anytime, and daily workouts to even it all out. Her cooking exploits can be found at www.nataliemunroe.com and her random musings on Twitter @NatalieMonamun.

Adam J. Newton is the curator and organizer of the Bucks County Writers Group. He made his authorial debut in the 2019 collection of short stories Creaky Stairs, A Book of Dark Truths, contributing seventeen pieces of original fiction to the collection, including: Lilies of the Field, Chong’s Garden, the Better Left Alone series, and The Spring House. The latter was adapted into a short film of the same name by filmmaker Bruce Logan and featured in the Best of Local Haunts Film Festival in October of 2020. Adam lives in Bucks County with his family and beloved Shih Tzu, Minima.

Sarena Tien is a queer Chinese American feminist who is currently a PhD student in French Literature at Cornell University. Once upon a time, she used to be so shy that two teachers once argued whether she was a “low talker” or a “no talker.” She’s since learned how to scream, and her poetry and prose have appeared in online publications such as The Feminist Wire, Bustle, On She Goes, Entropy, Argot, Decoded Pride, and Sylvia. When she’s not trying to become a polyglot, she can often be found crocheting cuddly creatures or folding far too many origami stars.

Ohio born and raised, Kerry Trautman is a founder of Toledopoet.com and the “Toledo Poetry Museum” page on Facebook. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in various journals, including Midwestern Gothic, Alimentum, Hawaii Pacific Review, The Fourth River, and Slippery Elm; as well as in anthologies such as, Delirious: A Poetic Celebration of Prince (NightBallet Press 2016), Mourning Sickness (Omniarts 2008), Nine Lives Later: A Dead Cat Anthology (Barely Salvageable Press 2017), and of course Not Quite as You Were Told (Dandelion Revolution Press, 2020). Her poetry books are Things That Come in Boxes (King Craft Press 2012), To Have Hoped (Finishing Line Press 2015), Artifacts (NightBallet Press 2017), and To be Nonchalantly Alive (Kelsay Books 2020).

Alisa Ungar-Sargon is a Chicago-based writer. She received her MFA from Northwestern University. Her work has appeared in TriQuarterly, Lilith Magazine and JMWW, the latter of which was selected for Best Small Fictions and nominated for The Pushcart Prize. For more information, please visit her personal website at www.alisaus.com.

Scarlet Wyvern is part poet, part girl, and part dragon. Since she was a young hatchling Scarlet has reveled in the written word. Wyvern is fascinated by mythology, especially that which concerns the fair folk and is utterly obsessed with the original Grimm fairy tales. When she is not busy writing or soaring through the sky lighting villages on fire, Wyvern delights in reading, photography, playing video games, singing karaoke and making snarky comments while sipping the blood of her enemies out of a crystal chalice. To learn more visit ScarletWyvern.com or follow @ScarletWyvern on Twitter.