Susan Isla Tepper has two new books of fiction coming out in the spring and winter of this year. She presented her darkly comic play CLANDESTINE in an Equity Premiere Staged-reading, hosted by SHOPTALK, on June 10 at EAG Guild Hall Theatre, NYC. Her most current Novel “Hair of a Fallen Angel” was published by Spuyten Duyvil Books. A twenty-year writer, she’s written 12 published books of fiction and poetry and 7 stage plays. Honors include 24 Pushcart Prize Nominations. Her play ‘The Crooked Heart’ concerning artist Jackson Pollock premiered on October 25, 2022 at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC. Adapted from an earlier novel, it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Susan is a Brand Ambassador for The Galway Review. A Youtube music video for her latest novel at: https://youtu.be/W2HVIc4NrqY

SPRING MIGRATION

In once splendid finery
the nymph watches
through all seasons
over the little pond

It was a rough winter—

dress and hair bedraggled
nevertheless she stands
valiant, determined

anxious for the return
of the koi—
orange, satiny, like fingers
swishing amongst the lily pads

Soon the sun opening
the sky to gentle warming,
cleansing rains
softening the earth once again—

Her stiffness will find release,
freshened up in a new frock
with perhaps a charming chapeau,
worries lifting
like the Purple Martins

clacking during spring migration

W.F. Lantry, a native of San Diego, is a widely published prize winning poet and fiction writer who has been featured in poetry journals and readings nationally and internationally. He currently lives in Washington, DC. He taught for eight years at L’Université de Nice in France, earning his License and Maîtrise in English Literature, Linguistics and Translation. During this time, he won the Paris/Atlantic Young Writers Award. Boston University awarded him a Fellowship to study with Derek Walcott and George Starbuck, who together directed his thesis. There he received an M.A. in English and Creative Writing. He holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston where he worked with Donald Barthelme, Ed Hirsch, Mary Robison, James Robison and Adam Zagajewski. He has taught at 12 different Universities on two continents in a variety of fields, most often Literature and Rhetoric, but also in History, Library Science, World Civilizations, and Information Technology. He served as Director of Academic Technology at a national research university in Washington, DC for 15 years.