Richard C. McPherson
Author of Man Wanted in Cheyenne.
Dick McPherson's short stories have been called "beautifully honest," appearing in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Unleash Press, and The Write Launch.
Man Wanted in Cheyenne received an award in Living Springs Publishing's international short fiction contest, and appeared in their 2017 anthology, Stories Through the Ages. The rich backstory of Its iconic protagonist, Jake, is now the subject of a novel, Man Wanted in Cheyenne, which was just completed and is available for representation for publishing and film rights.
Prior to his writing career, Dick advised leading nonprofits on messaging and digital strategy, including NPR and PBS stations, the New York Public Library, and women's rights organizations in the US, Europe, and Hong Kong. His 2007 book Digital Giving: How Technology is Changing Charity, was called a "must-read" in the US and UK, considered a seminal work on the rapidly approaching impact of the internet. He advised Stand for Rights, a pioneering live stream fundraiser for the ACLU, produced by Tina Fey and hosed by Tom Hanks, and which earned Facebook its first Emmy nomination.
He taught digital communications at NYU, Columbia, and UCLA, and led workshops across the US and in London, Amsterdam, Geneva, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dick lives on the California Central Coast with his wife, Heidi. He loves to hear from readers and writers, and may be reached at
Cindy Hochman
Author of the poetry chapbook, Telling You Everything.
Cindy Hochman is the president of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services and the editor-in-chief of the online poetry journal First Literary Review-East. She has been on the book review staff of Pedestal Magazine, and has written reviews for American Book Review, Clockwise Cat, Home Planet News, great weather for MEDIA, and others. Her previous chapbooks are Wednesday’s Child (Bear House Press), The Carcinogenic Bride (Thin Air Media), Habeas Corpus (Glass Lyre Press), and The Number 5 Is Always Suspect (Presa Press), a collaborative chapbook with poet/collagist Bob Heman. Cindy lives, loves, reads, writes, edits, meditates, learns tai chi, studies Russian, and agonizes over politics in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and despite what she says in the poem “Poet Bio,” she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Her latest chapbook, Telling You Everything, will be released late 2022 by Unleash Press.
Bronwen Carson
Author of Magpie.
Winner, 2022
Unleash Press Award
Bronwen’s writing and visual art can be found in Meetinghouse Literary Journal, Medium, GRASP, and Beyond Words Literary Magazine. She’s a New York International Fringe Festival Excellence in Directing award recipient, a 2022 and 2023 finalist for the Drama League's Beatrice Terry Residency, a member of the 2022-23 playwriting cohort at The Dramatist’s Guild, and the recipient of a 2023 Goddard Engaged Artist Grant and a Rona Jaffe Breadloaf Scholar Award. She’s a Riggio Honors: Writing and Democracy scholar at The New School and is pursuing her MFA-IA at Goddard Collage in Vermont. Bronwen’s work has been recognized and supported by The Actors Studio, Sarasvati Creative Space, Irondale, The Ross Foundation, The Ailey Center, The Watt Family Foundation, Meetinghouse Literary Journal, Unleash Press, TÉA Artistry, Duke Films, GRASP, The Private Theatre, The Dramatist’s Guild, and The Sundance Institute. Magpie (2022 Unleash Press Book award) is Bronwen’s debut novel. www.bronwencarson.com
J. Eric Smith
Author of Ubulembu
and Other Stories
Winner, Unleash Press Award
2023
(forthcoming, fall 2023)
J. Eric Smith is a native of South Carolina’s Low Country who lived and worked in 13
different states before settling happily with his wife, Marcia, in Northern Arizona’s Red RocksRegion, where he now hikes and climbs more things than he probably should. Smith is a
graduate of the United States Naval Academy, the Naval Supply Corps School, and the University at Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. After serving for eleven
years with the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, he transitioned to the civilian sector, working as a fundraising professional, communications director, operations manager, and four-time nonprofit executive director, while also managing numerous contract, consulting, and board
roles. Throughout his charitable and government careers, Smith continued to work as writer, earning more bylines that he could possibly remember for a variety of alternative newsweeklies, trade journals, nonprofit periodicals, magazines, and newspapers. He was also a digital space pioneer, launching the first version of his long-running website in 1995. A large archive of his articles remains available at jericsmith.com, along with new writing on a wide variety of topics.