WEEKLY VERSES
Weekly Verses is our digital publication that features the works of different artists and writers.
Fulgurite and Belemnite
Alicja Walendziak is a Polish immigrant to the UK who writes about grand things through domestic images. She self-published the poetry pamphlet Herbata (2018) while studying for a BA (Hons) and an MA in Creative Writing in Leicester, where it was warmly received. Now working in community engagement, she is most interested in bringing people together through the arts and celebration of culture.
The place we never want to know
Amarachi Ejimadu is a writer from southeastern Nigeria whose creative work explores themes of pain, longing, memory, and remembrance. Her poem “A Mother’s Advice to Her Gentle Daughter” appeared in Penolopy, a school literary magazine, and received the school’s poetry award that year, an experience that encouraged her to continue developing her creative writing.
Alongside her literary work, Amarachi is a life scientist with an interest in scientific writing that explores the natural world at the molecular level. She is currently completing the final year of her undergraduate studies. Her experiences in science and creative writing reflect a shared curiosity about life, both the inner emotional experiences that shape people and the biological processes that shape the living world.
Pull
Flora Cahill is from Massachusetts and currently attends Vassar College, where she studies Political Science and French. Aside from her recent contribution to Vassar's student literary magazine, Conspiritu, this is her first publication.
My Mother & Nikolyà
Erika Severyns is a poet, musician, and educator living in Ghent, Belgium. Her work explores intimacy, belonging, and the politics of everyday life. Her writing has appeared in Folk Radio UK and Abolitionist Futures, and she independently released her debut album, Places We Stay.
The Abbey
Rebecca Watkins holds an MFA in poetry and an MSed from the City University of New York. Her creative nonfiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Writers Resist, The Palisades Review, The Amethyst Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, Hole in the Head Review, and The Roanoke Review among other literary journals. Her creative nonfiction has been shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s Open Season Awards. She is the author of Field Guide to Forgiveness (Finishing Line Press 2023) and Sometimes, in These Places (Unsolicited Press 2017). She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and two dogs. More of her work can be found at rebeccawatkinswriter.com and @rwatkinswriter.
Self-Portrait, after Artemisia Gentileschi
Alexandra Terlesky is a fine artist from the Los Angeles area. She is currently a student at the Kline Academy in Culver City, where she is learning the classical drawing and painting techniques. Classical painting is done in a multitude of layers: first, a carefully composed drawing or sketch of the painting, then either a monochromatic or very muted second layer of oil paint that is then covered with what are called “glazes,” and, finally, finishing the painting with a varnish to make the colors truly sing. Her copy of Artemisia Gentileschi’s, “Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting” is her rendition, and homage, to one of the only female Caravaggisti (followers of Caravaggio).
Altitude
Lena J. (LJ) is a poet and spoken word artist originally from New York, now based in Richmond, Virginia. Her work centers on honesty, vulnerability, and growth, with a focus on mental health, healing, self reflection, and the moments we do not always have the words for.
She is currently working on her debut haiku collection, Anatomy of a Burn, which explores love and its transformation through infatuation, toxicity, awareness, and learning to choose yourself.
This would be her first publication and marks an early step in her creative journey as she works toward her goal: to reach at least one person and remind them they are not alone.
Alternative Medicine
Tomris Small is an upcoming writer from Turkey. She took up writing in addition to her genetics studies in university. Her writing explores themes of identity, control, and the human body, often blending visceral imagery with emotional introspection. One of her main goals in writing is to create unsettling yet intimate narratives. The story "Alternative Medicine" is among her first publications.
CALLING CARD
African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on creative writing & Spoken Word since the early 1990s. Author of 10 books--Boneyard, Unwritten Law, Stormwater, Skeletal Black, Elohi Unitsi, Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate, Plans, Crimson Stain, Discovery and The Mansion--and 83 anthology appearances under his figurative belt so far.
哀歌 (Elegy)
Xia Zhang is a poet from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economic Management from Zhongnan University of Economics and a MBA from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Over the years, he has worked in telecommunications, the automotive industry, and held roles as varied as feng shui consultant, baker, cleaner, and security guard. Since 2021, he has been resting at home for health reasons. Zhang began writing poetry in 2008 and has composed over a thousand poems, some of which have appeared on the Chinese Poetry Network.
Jobs & Junkies
Daniel Jacques is a writer from West Yorkshire in the UK. After dropping out of school at eighteen years old, he has had approximately twenty jobs, including factories, warehouses, chemical plants, landscaping, gardening, construction, and postal services.
Survivor2
KJ Hannah Greenberg uses her trusty point-and-shoot camera to capture the order of G-d's universe, and Paint 3D to capture her personal chaos. Sometimes, it’s insufficient for her to sate herself by applying verbal whimsy to pastures where gelatinous wildebeests roam, or fey hedgehogs play. Hannah’s self-illustrated poetry collections are: No One Sighs over Wastrels' Graves (Seashell Books, 2026, Forthcoming), Miscellaneous Parlor Tricks (Seashell Books, 2024), Word Magpie (Audience Askew, 2024), Subrogation (Seashell Books, 2023), and One-Handed Pianist (Hekate Publishing, 2021). Her coffee table books Real and Otherwise (Seashell Books, 2025), Gratitudes: Faith Based Responses to October 7th (Seashell Books, 2025), and are Life’s Colors (Seashell Books, 2025).
As I Age
Sandra Beth Levy is a retired psychologist from Cranston, RI who passionately practiced the healing art of psychotherapy for over forty years and is now pursuing her dream of immersion in creative writing and spoken word performance. She raised two biracial poet sons while honoring her Jewish-feminist identities. Her social and personal histories weave their way through her writing as she explores the intricacies of love, loss, aging, and awe of nature. She has won local poetry slams and published poems with Anomaly Poetry, Small Gems Press, Arcana Poetry, and A Curious Moon. She has poems forthcoming in the digital SHINE poetry series and SHINE Quarterly Issue 7, June 2026. You can find her on Instagram @slevy43.
Hunger
Tamizh Ponni VP, is an ambivert who loves to express her skills through literature, visual arts, and music. She has worked as an IB educator for 9 years in Bengaluru (India) and sees learning as a never-ending process. Her stories were featured in 2 anthology books, "Mia" and "Varna". Tamizh's articles, poems, and paintings have also been published in many digital journals and educational blogs. She spends most of her free time painting, reading, writing articles, stories, and poems, playing piano, and watching documentaries/movies.
AMUSIA
Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb is the author of Shapes That Stay (Kelsay Books). Her poetry has appeared in Slipstream Magazine, New York Quarterly, Camas: The Nature of the West, About Place Journal, AJN: The American Journal of Nursing, Grey Matter: An Anthology of Medical Poetry, and many other publications. She is co-founder of the late 501(c)(3) natural-history nonprofit Native West Press (2005-2025) and lives in the Central Highlands of Arizona with her husband, numerous peccaries, two bobcats, and an assortment of jays, ravens, and hawks.
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