One of the best things about creating Firewords is the chance to work with so many wonderful writers and artists; their talent and enthusiasm for the project never cease to amaze! Click an Issue on the sidebar to meet each contributor who has been a part of Firewords.
Issue 2 Contributors
The wonderful authors and artists below are the reason Issue 2 is so great. They are listed in the order their work appears in the magazine. If you enjoyed their contribution, please reach out and let them know - or tell us and we can pass on the message. If you would like the chance to see your face here, what are you waiting for? Get submitting! Want a closer look at Issue 2?
Name: Mia Funk
Contribution: Cover artwork for Issue 2
Location: Paris
Bio: Teaches at L'École de Dessin Technique et Artistique, Paris. She won a Prix de Peinture/Salon d'Automne de Paris, has shown at the Grand Palais (Salon des Artistes Français), was selected for the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, a Celeste Prize, & won a Thames & Hudson Pictureworks Prize. Various high-profile commissions. Her paintings are held in several public collections and have been highlighted on television and numerous publications.
Links: miafunk.com | @miafunk
Name: Charlie Galbraith
Contribution: Author of "The Girl with the Poppy Seed Skin" story in Issue 2
Location: London
Bio: Charlie Galbraith lives and works in London. He has been writing for a little while and means to continue, at least until the clamour for him to stop becomes too loud to ignore.
Links: @CharlieGalbore
Name: Stephen Thom
Contribution: Author of "It Is All Little Marbles In Our Ears" story in Issue 2
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Bio: Stephen Thom is a 30 year old Scottish fellow who enjoys writing stories. He likes reading and writing fiction with an interpetive element, and where the reader is involved in deciding whatever meaning is applicable. Stephen also plays mandolin in a folk-rock band called 'Dante' (@wearedante). Their debut album, 'Wake', was released in October 2013 to fantastic reviews and features in the Herald's 'Top 50 Scottish Albums of the Year'.
Links: stephenthom.wordpress.com | @StephenThom3
Name: Maggie Appleton
Contribution: Artist for "It Is All Little Marbles In Our Ears" in Issue 2
Location: Currently South East Asia.
Bio: Maggie Appleton is a freelance illustrator & visual storyteller living as a digital nomad around South East Asia.
Links: maggieappleton.com | @mappletons
Name: Anton Rose
Contribution: Author of "Monkey's Blood" story in Issue 2
Location: Durham
Bio: Anton lives in Durham. He writes stories while trying to finish a PhD in Theology. His work has appeared in a number of print and online journals, including Structo, The Alarmist, and Open Pen.
Links: @antonjrose | antonrose.com
Name: Malene Huse Eikrem
Contribution: Author of "Five Seasons" story in Issue 2
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Bio: Grew up on a tiny island on the mid-coast of Norway and took a ferryboat to school. Moved away from home at the age of 18 and have been studying, travelling and writing terribly privately ever since. As the proper Norwegian I am, I waterski in the summers and go snowboarding and cross-country skiing in the winters. "Five Seasons" is my first and only publication.
Links: instagram.com/Malenehue
Name: Valentina Cano
Contribution: Author of "The Bird Peddler" poem in Issue 2
Location: Miami, FL
Bio: Valentina Cano is a student of classical singing who spends whatever free time she has either reading or writing. Her works have appeared in numerous publications and her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Web. Her debut novel, The Rose Master, was published in 2014.
Links: carabosseslibrary.blogspot.com | valca85.wix.com/valentinacano
Name: Mike Alexander
Contribution: Author of "Cruelty" poem in Issue 2
Location: Houston, TX
Bio: Mike Alexander's first collection, RETROgrade, is available through P&J Poetics. His poems have also appeared recently in River Styx, Measure, Raintown Review, Abridged, The Nervous Breakdown, and other journals.
Link: www.pandjpoetics.com
Name: Ella Johnston
Contribution: Artist for "The Bird Peddler" and "Cruelty" in Issue 2
Location: Essex
Bio: Ella Johnston's drawings and paintings, installation works and occasional forays into video have been shown across London and in the South East. Her illustration is informed by her passions and pursuits - staring in wonder at the simple beauty of the natural world, being in awe of contemporary design, having her soul up-lifted by colour and marvelling at graphic design and lovely typography.
Name: C.M. Beckett
Contribution: Author of "I Gotta Get Outta Here" story in Issue 2
Location: The heart of Maine
Bio: Beckett has taught in a K-8 one-room schoolhouse, worked in retail, and is now employed at UMaine's Fogler Library. He's had short stories published by Black Tome Books, Dark Recesses Press, and Top Shelf Comics, and recently completed a year-long examination of Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons's Watchmen. He does most of his writing in the dark, once his wife and three sons are asleep.
Links: warrior27.net | @cmbeckett1972
Name: Vaidehi Patil
Contribution: Author of "Behind the Frame" story in Issue 2
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
Bio: Vaidehi is a graphic designer from India whose mind machinery runs on her daily two cups of ginger chai. She grew up in an artistic environment thanks to her painter parents, and was fed a rich diet of tales from Indian mythology and folklore. Some of the stories she designed can be found in Bartleby Snopes, Vine Leaves Journal and Every Day Fiction.
Links: vaidehipatil.wordpress.com
Name: Chad Geran
Contribution: Artist for "Behind the Frame" in Issue 2
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Bio: Chad Geran is a full-time freelance illustrator who provides a wide range of clients with fun, thoughtful, creative solutions. Chad has created illustrations for children's books, greeting cards, musicians, visual identities, web and app design, animation, various printed materials, and a variety of advertising in a diverse range of media. The success of these projects has lead to incredible opportunities to teach, travel, work overseas, and conduct assessments, workshops and presentations for various organizations.
Links: geran.ca | @chad_geran
Name: Peter Davison
Contribution: Author of "The Man of Harima Province" story in Issue 2
Location: Hampshire, UK
Bio: Under the pseudonom of Alex Davison, Peter worked as an actor before attending the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. Formerly a bookseller with Ottakars and Waterstones, and an advisor with CIBAS, Peter is currently the Recreate Programme Manager for Eastleigh, mentoring designer-makers and digital creatives, establishing links for collaborations across the UK and France. Previous work includes You, Me and Everyone in Portsmouth, the UK's largest community crowd sourced literary artwork.
Links: @PeterJADavison
Name: Ian Shine
Contribution: Author of "Topping It" story in Issue 2
Location: South-East London
Bio: Ian Shine lives in southeast London and works as a sub-editor. His short stories have appeared in publications including The Stinging Fly, the National Flash Fiction Day anthologies for 2013 (Scraps) and 2014 (Eating My Words), The Fiction Desk anthology Because of What Happened, Belleville Park Pages 20 and Stories for Homes, a collection of stories put together to raise money for homelessness charity Shelter.
Name: Ethan Chapman
Contribution: Author of "After Last Night and This Morning" poem in Issue 2
Location: Glastonbury, Somerset
Bio: Ethan Chapman is a writer and actor who lives in Glastonbury. His fiction has been published in Structo magazine, long listed for the Bookimbo flash fiction prize and short listed for the Frome Short Story Competition. Upcoming poetry to be featured in Agenda magazine. He enjoys weight lifting, motivational speeches and tennis.
Links: @ethychaps | ethan-chapman.tumblr.com
Name: C.C. Russell
Contribution: Author of "Footnote" poem in Issue 2
Location: Casper, Wyoming
Bio: C.C. Russell lives in Casper Wyoming with his wife, daughter, and two cats. His writing has appeared in the New York Quarterly, Hazmat Review, Microfictionmonday.com, and Kysoflash.com among others. He has also lived in Ohio and New York and has held jobs in a wide range of vocations - everything from graveyard shift convenience store clerk to retail management with stops along the way as dive bar dj and swimming pool maintenance.
Links: c-c-russell.blogspot.com | facebook.com/craig.russell.1829
Name: Roger Farnworth (1937 - 2013) - poem submitted by his daughter Cathy
Contribution: Author of "You Can't Have It All" poem in Issue 2
Location: Cornwall
Bio: Roger was born in Cornwall to parents raised in Manchester. In his early twenties he met Latvian émigrés from WWII. They transformed his world from one of mild interests to a world of wild dance, poetry, literature and laughter. Laura showed him the seethe of bird and plant life, the colour, in Selsey Marsh. They taught in newly-independent Zambia and later settled in Cornwall. Roger became a poet, painter, philosopher, archaeologist, and fighter for human rights.
Links: warleggan.net(see News, then Roger Farnworth) | pandiawarleggan.com
Name: Terence Tang
Contribution: Hand lettering for poetry in Issue 2
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Bio: Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Terence discovered a love for art and illustration at a young age with the help of his mother and grandfather. Now, he's a graphic designer and illustrator and enjoys collaborating on creative art projects with his artistic wife, Jen. He loves a sip of good whiskey, the smell of brand new sneakers, and the sound of a nothing-but-net basketball shot.
Name: Jack Westlake
Contribution: Author of "Harry Simpson's Body" poem in Issue 2
Location: Wales
Bio: Jack Westlake lives in Wales. His work has appeared in Ambit, Structo, and elsewhere. For more information, visit his website. Harry Simpson's Body originally appeared in Ambit 214.
Name: Wouter ter Keurs
Contribution: Artist for "Harry Simpson's Body" and "Stepping Stones" in Issue 2
Location: Netherlands
Bio: Wouter is a hand-letterer and illustrator from the Netherlands. Although his passion lies in art, he studies journalism and loves film.
Name: Harley Staggars
Contribution: Author of "Parting Out" story in Issue 2
Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota
Bio: I was born by the light of a kerosene lamp in a small logging community just fifty miles up a dirt road from the nearest public library. I waged war with several secondhand typewriters, until I bought my first computer, at which time I began writing rather than mastering the typewriter. My stories have appeared in several magazines and e-mags, and my novel, World Enough and Time, has just been accepted for publication by Eldritch Press.
Links: earlcarlson.com | pinterest.com/qweeze
Name: John T. Biggs
Contribution: Author of "Footprints" story in Issue 2
Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
Bio: John was born in southern Illinois near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. His parents owned a junkyard where he met a number of characters who would reappear in fictional form after he resettled in Oklahoma. John was a late blooming writer whose first short stories were published after his 55th birthday. His first novel, Owl Dreams was published in 2013. His second, Magic Popsicle Sticks will be released later in 2014.
Name: J.T. Harrell
Contribution: Author of "The Fall" story in Issue 2
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Bio: J.T. Harrell is a writer by passion and teacher by mortgage. Hailing from Memphis, TN, USA, he has won awards for his screenplays and has been published in university presses, anthologies, and online magazines. He currently lives in Seoul, South Korea and is finishing up his first, full collection of short stories, which should be on virtual and physical shelves early next year. His only words of wisdom are: 'Keep the pen moving.'
Name: Richard B. Knight
Contribution: Author of "Seven Minutes in Heaven" story in Issue 2
Location: Clifton, NJ, USA
Bio: Richard B. Knight (The 'B' stands for 'Brandon') teaches Language Arts during the day and writes fiction at night. He has a love of movies, video games, and comic books, and all three influences come through in his writing. He currently lives in Clifton, New Jersey with his lovely wife, Rona.
Links: knighttakesrook.blogspot.com | facebook.com
Name: Vicky Walker
Contribution: Author of "The Right Words" story in Issue 2
Location: London, UK
Bio: Vicky Walker is a writer, among other things. Her book 'Do I have to be good all the time?' about the meaning of life and awkward moments is available now. A self-appointed social commentator she writes stories, articles and opinion pieces and is very, very slowly working on a book about glorious failure.
Links: vickywalker.info | @vicky_walker
Name: David Wiley
Contribution: Author of "Lost in a Familiar Place" story in Issue 2
Location: Winterset, IA
Bio: David is an emerging author of Middle Grade fantasy fiction, having finished his first novel which is currently being queried to agents. David is also an avid reader of the fantasy genre, ranging from Middle Grade through Adult, and is also a studious fan of Medieval Literature. David is in the final year of completing a Master's Degree in English and lives in central Iowa with his wife.
Name: Andrew Patch
Contribution: Author of "The Rink" story in Issue 2
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Bio: Andrew's flash fiction has featured in, amongst others, With Painted Words, The Were Traveler, and the drabble collection 100 Worlds. His short stories Thirst and Kat's Tale: A Black Cube Short will feature in forthcoming anthologies Happily Never After and Pets Are People Too. His latest project is a sci-fi novel set in 1990s England.
Links: @imageronin | imageronin.wordpress.com
Name: Alison Wassell
Contribution: Author of "My Evil Twin" story in Issue 2
Location: North West England
Bio: Alison Wassell is a former primary school teacher who now sells bottled gas part-time to pay her bills whilst attempting to become a writer. She has been placed, shortlisted and longlisted in lots of competitions and published in several anthologies, most notably My Baby Shot Me Down, published by Blinding Books. She is a cat mother, worrier and insomniac, and really wishes people would stop asking her when she's going to write a novel.
Name: Elizabeth Stott
Contribution: Author of "Longing for Strawberries" story in Issue 2
Location: Cockermouth, Cumbria
Bio: Elizabeth Stott has a lifelong fascination with science, but nearly got side-tracked into art. She took a degree in physics and worked in industry, and started writing when her children were small as an antidote to Postman Pat. Her stories and poems have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Most recently (to her surprise) her Nightjar Press story was included in the Salt Publications' Best British Horror, 2014. There will be a novel, sometime soonish.
Name: Mansour Chow
Contribution: Author of "Approval" story in Issue 2
Location: London
Bio: Mansour Chow is a failing/failed writer, editor, publisher, actor, stand-up comedian and human-being. He co-edits literary and art magazine, The Alarmist. He often tweets, but those tweets are usually dogshit.
Links: alarmistmagazine.co.uk | @megapad
Name: Richard Smyth
Contribution: Author of "Remnant Street" story in Issue 2
Location: Saltaire, West Yorkshire
Bio: Richard Smyth's first novel, Wild Ink, was published in 2014 by Dead Ink Books. His short fiction has appeared in magazines including The Fiction Desk, The Stinging Fly, Riptide Journal and Litro, and he is the author of three books of popular history. In 2013, his story 'Deep' won the LS13 Prize for West Yorkshire writers under 40.
Name: Mick Lynch
Contribution: Author of "Stepping Stones" story in Issue 2
Location: York, UK
Bio: Mick Lynch is an award-winning artist whose work embraces various genres including film, photography, design, music and writing. Trained as a graphic designer at the York School of Art, he worked for several London design studios before becoming the Editorial Artist for a daily newspaper. He is currently studying for a joint honours degree in Creative Writing/English Literature and has just completed his first book, '24 Exposures', a collection of 'snapshots in words'.
Link: www.indie-arts.co.uk
Name: Jason Graff
Contribution: Author of "Backyard Diplomacy" poem in Issue 2
Location: Little Falls, NJ
Bio: Jason Graff's verse can be found in South85, Shuf Poetry, In Parentheses, Subterranean Quarterly, Third Wednesday, The Monarch Review, Meat for Tea, Canyon Voices, Ol'Chanty, BrickRhetoric, and the Split Rock Review. His fiction has been featured in Bosque Magazine, Per Contra, The Rampallian, The Vehicle, Sterling Magazine, Independent Ink, The Examined Life Journal, Amsterdam Quarterly and the Romantic Ruckus Anthology. He lives in Little Falls, NJ with his muse, wife and editor Laura.
Link: @jasongraff1
Name: Daniel Duke
Contribution: Artist for "Backyard Diplomacy" in Issue 2
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Bio: Daniel is a designer and illustrator with a degree in journalism, so print couldn't be closer to his heart. He spent some time in London, designing newspapers but now lives up in sunny Edinburgh, drawing pictures and setting type for a living. He makes music as Daniel & The Lion and sometimes writes articles for glossy mags. He's a fan of good food, good Bourbon and good grammar.
Links: www.danielduke.me | @iamdanduke
Name: Vicki Jarrett
Contribution: Author of "How to Not Get Eaten by Tigers" story in Issue 2
Location: Edinburgh
Bio: Vicki Jarrett is a novelist and short story writer from Edinburgh. Her novel, Nothing is Heavy, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society First Book of the Year 2013. Her short fiction has been widely published, shortlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize and Bridport Prize and also appears in SALT's Best of British Short Stories 2014.
Links: vickijarrett.com | @vicki_jarrett