Alan Bern is a retired children’s librarian and cofounder with artist/printer Robert Woods of the fine press/publisher Lines & Faces. Alan has a hybrid (poetry, prose, and photos) fictionalized memoir forthcoming from UNCOLLECTED PRESS and is the author of three books of poetry. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and recent awards include: Honorable Mention for Free Verse in SouthWest Writers Annual Writing Contest, A Diversity of Expression (2022); Honorable Mention for Littoral Press Poetry Prize (2021); Flash Fiction Finalist for Ekphrastic Sex (2021); First Runner-up for Raw Art Review’s Mirabai Prize for Poetry (2020); a Medal from SouthWest Writers for a WWII story set in Assisi (2019).
Recent and upcoming writing and photo work: HAUNTED WATERS PRESS, Aletheia Literary Quarterly, CERASUS, Feral, The Hyacinth Review, REUNION: The Dallas Review, and Mercurius. Alan performs with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES: dance and poetry fit to the space and with musicians from Composing Together. Alan’ latest collection is the 2025 collection, Dreams of the Return, a love letter to Italy told in poetry, prose, and photos.
Anthony Doyle was born in Dublin and raised in Wicklow Town. He holds a joint honours degree in English and Philosophy and a master’s degree in Philosophy from University College Dublin, Ireland. In 2000 he moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where he works as a translator from Portuguese to English. Anthony writes poetry and fiction for adults, teens and children.
His first novel, HIBERNACULUM, was a finalist in the Science-Fiction categories of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards, and is available in hardback, paperback, Kindle and Audible. Anthony’s 2025 poetry collection, Jonah’s Map of the Whale and Other Poems, combines epic-style poetry with the author’s original black and white illustrations.
Dianne Pearce is the founder of Current Words Publishing, LLC. An award-winning author, editor, and publisher, Dianne has been an invited panelist or presenter at The Atlanta Writers Conference, California Creative Writing Conference, and the Indie Lit Festival among others. Dianne is a graduate of both the West Chester University and Vermont College writing programs, where she majored in poetry.
Dianne has had many of her poems and short stories published. Her debut novel, Simona’s Son, was in serialization during 2024 on Kindle Vella before the platform was abruptly discontinued by Amazon. Dianne plans to release the novel in 2026 along with a new collection of poetry. Dianne writes on Medium and is a columnist at Authors Electric. Her favorite poet is Diane Wakoski.
Ellis Elliott is the creator of Bewilderness Writing, and she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University. She has also been a high-school English teacher, was a ballet teacher for over 30 years, and a yoga teacher. She lives in Juno Beach with her husband and they have six sons in their blended family. Ellis was on the editorial staff of QU literary magazine at Queens University, and is currently a contributing writer for The Southern Review of Books and on the editorial staff of The Dewdrop online digest. Her latest literary adventure is writing her first cozy mystery novel. Ellis’ collection BREAK IN THE FIELD is the first collection to be published by the Old Scratch Press collective.
Gabby Gilliam lives in the DC metro area with her husband and son. Her poetry has most recently appeared in One Art, Plant-Human Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, Pure Slush, Deep Overstock, Vermillion, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and Anti-Heroin Chic. Gabby’s book, CHASING A CURE in her DRUMMING FOR THE DEAD series is available now.
Morgan Golladay has been intrigued with words all her life. Her poetry reflects this, and she uses illusion and allusion in her writing. Much of her work focuses on her native Shenandoah Valley, as well as coastal Delaware. Morgan says that poetry originated as an oral form, and she thinks it works best when it is heard. To that end it must be concise, simple, and tight. The poet bears the responsibility to speak old truths in new ways, to encourage the reader/listener to consider ideas from a different point of view. To do this the poet must be vulnerable, must allow their inner thoughts and fears and secrets to surface. This is particularly difficult in a society that doesn’t share its hurts, its fears, its pain. And that poetry, of love, loss, sadness, fear, and joy binds us together in our humanity and give us opportunities to grow.
Morgan has worked with non-profits as a volunteer and staff member, been a librarian, a blood donor recruiter, and a customer service and purchasing agent for a residential water-well wholesaler. Her watercolor and acrylic-collage paintings have won awards, and she is a member of the Mispillion Art League in Milford, DE, where she currently lives. An emerging poet, her work has been published in the Broadkill Review, Halloween Party ’21, and Instant Noodles. She has published short stories in HP-21 and Instant Noodles, and is currently editing her first novel.
Nadja Maril’s short stories and essays have been published in dozens of small online and print literary journals and anthologies
including: Lunch Ticket, Change Seven, Invisible City Literary Review, Instant Noodles and The Journal of Compressed
Creative Arts. She has an MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast at USM. Nadja is also an authority on antique American lighting and is the author of two books on antiques: American Lighting 1840-1940 and Antique Lighting Buyer’s Guide
and two children’s books, Me, Molly Midnight; the Artist’s Cat and Runaway Molly Midnight; the Artist’s Cat, illustrated
with paintings by her father, the artist Herman Maril. Former Editor-in-Chief of What’s Up? Publishing, former
Editor of Chesapeake Taste Magazine a regional lifestyle magazine based in Annapolis, and former Lighting Editor of Victorian Homes Magazine, Maril has written hundreds of articles for newspapers and magazines that include: Old House Journal, Romantic Homes, The Washington Post, Annapolis Capital, and the Cape Cod Times.
R. David Fulcher is an author of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. Major literary influences include H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Edgar Allen Poe, Fritz Lieber, and Stephen King. Fulcher’s first novel, a historical drama set in World War II, Trains to Nowhere, and his second novel, a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories, Blood Spiders and Dark Moon, are both available from authorhouse.com and Amazon.
David’s work has appeared in numerous small press publications including Lovecraft’s Mystery Magazine, Black Satellite, The Martian Wave, Burning Sky, Shadowlands, Twilight Showcase, Heliocentric Net, Gateways, Weird Times, Freaky Frights and the anthologies Dimensions and Silken Ropes. David’s work can also be found in the DPP collection Halloween Party 2019, available at Amazon and at the DPP online store.
A passion for the written word has also inspired David to edit and publish the literary magazine, Samsara, which has showcased writers and poets for over a decade. David resides in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife Lisa, and their rambunctious cats. Fulcher’s recent work includes The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror (2023) and Asteroid 6: And Other Tales of Cosmic Horror (2025), both published by Gravelight Press.
Robert Fleming lives in Lewes, DE. Published in United States, Canada, England, Ireland, and Australia. Member of the Rehoboth Beach and Horror Writer’s Association. Wins: 2022 San Gabriel Valley CA-1 poem, 2021 Best of Mad Swirl poetry; Nominations: 2 Pushcart Prizes and Best of the Net.
Virgina (Ginny) Watts has been writing since fifth grade, when she began staying inside during recess to write stories. She still wishes she’d kept those notebooks, though she does member one entry was entitled “Peanut Butter and Peas.” Her prose and poetry is about daily human life, the small moments in the hometowns of contemporary America. Through her work, she hopes to celebrate the unique characteristics of close-knit communities, shared family histories, local war heroes, larger-than-life characters. She is interested in exploring the concept of home, whether that is a city, suburbia, rural life, the far future. Why does one person leave while another stays? Why do some people go back? What haunts those who never do? She has published nearly 100 pieces in literary magazines including CRAFT, The Florida Review, Reed Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Permafrost Magazine, Broadkill Review, Two Thirds North, Hawaii Pacific Review, Sky Island Journal, Eastern Iowa Review, Evening Star Review and Streetlight Magazine.
Nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and four times for Best of the Net, in 2019, she won The Florida Review Meek Award in nonfiction. Ginny’s poetry chapbooks The Werewolves of Elk Creek and Shot Full of Holes are available from Moonstone Press and her work appears in three anthologies available on Amazon.
Her 2023 collection, Echoes from the Hocker House, has garnered numerous industry acclaim. Watts’ most recent work is the 2025 poetry collection, Tracing Bodies, which received critical praise by KIRKUS: “Watts captures gritty characters in stunning detail throughout the book. Watts’ striking poems are at once intimate and universal. Her characters come to life in evocative details… A vulnerable, cleareyed portrait of humanity.”
New Members
Over the past ten years, Beatriz Fernandez’s work has been nominated for the Pushcart prize four times, and has been published in anthologies and journals as various as Label Me Latina/o, Prime Number Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Whale Road Review. She’s authored three poetry chapbooks: the most recent, Simultaneous States (2025), includes poetry set in Puerto Rico as well as speculative poems. Her eco-science fiction flash fiction piece, “Flow Time,” appeared in a 2025 Florida-themed anthology by Gaslamp Pulp. “The Coquí Captain,” a reimagining of the Frog Prince from a Puerto Rican perspective, is scheduled to appear in an upcoming children’s anthology of reimagined fairy tales.
Beatriz grew up in Philadelphia, Spain, and mostly Puerto Rico before relocating to Florida where she attended college. During her junior year she established her Florida residency, met her husband, and began working in libraries. “I fell in love with all three,” she says, “and subsequently found no reason to leave any of them!”
A self-described late bloomer in both her library and writing careers; Beatriz became a professional librarian in her mid 30s. She attained an M.A. in English literature but found herself to be too much of a generalist to focus on a dissertation topic. “During this time,” she says, “I seemed to be under the impression I was a budding novelist while the reality was that I was writing more poetry than anything else. My lightbulb moment came when I won a Writer’s Digest 0poetry contest that I’d entered on the very last day of the submission deadline. That stroke of luck seemed to finally put me on the right road and actively seeking to improve my poetry style. I embarked on a long-distance phone tutorial with poet Andrea Hollander, who is a brilliant teacher and mentor, for several years; she helped me find my true voice.”
“Many writing classes, confabs and workshops later,” she says, “I’ve published almost every poem I’ve ever written! Now I feel I have come full circle—after starting out my writing career with long-distance tutorials, I’ve joined an online community of fellow writers.
Beatriz also blogs regularly. Find her here.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 