

She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. Recently retired, she taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California for thirty-two years and continues to teach novel writing online for UCLA Extension and in the online MFA program for Southern New Hampshire University. Jessica Barksdale’s second poetry collection Grim Honey and her fifteenth novel The Play’s the Thing were both published in 2021. Born and raised in Mississippi, he lives in the French Quarter. He received an MFA from New York University and a PhD from Florida State University. His poems have appeared in Epiphany, Meridian, Sand Hills, Subtropics, The Journal, The Southeast Review, and Verse Daily, among others. Contributors Scott Bailey is the author of Thus Spake Gigolo (NYQ Books).
