Editor

“Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,” is the thought that comes to Martha Highers when she reflects on her life with literature. She is grateful to the many writers who have contributed to Under the Sun for giving her new, uncharted territories to explore. She is equally grateful to her sister/fellow readers for helping guide the craft on these adventures. She has worked as a teacher, reporter, newspaper editor, waitress, campaign coordinator, administrative assistant, grant writer, chairperson of nonprofits, translator, farm worker, and nurse, sometimes simultaneously, but not necessarily in that order. She has published numerous stories, poems, and essays. She has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and an MA in English, a BA in French, a BSN in nursing, and a BA in political science from other institutions. She looks forward to the day when she will finish paying her student loans.

 

Associate Editors

Nomi Isenberg taught English language arts and creative writing in the United States and Israel for four decades. She was on staff at Michlalah College of Jerusalem where she taught methodology of TEFL and creative writing. Nomi holds a BA in Spanish literature and history from the University of Pennsylvania, an MS in educational linguistics and language acquisition from the State University of New York at Albany, and an MA in English literature and creative writing from Bar-Ilan University. Nomi is also certified by David Yellin Academic College in Jerusalem in editing and editorial analysis. She is a freelance editor and writer who recently edited a novel, a memoir, and a book of poetry. Her fiction and creative non-fiction have been published online.

 

Cindy Bradley is an essayist/memoirist who received an MFA in creative writing, nonfiction, from Fresno State University. Her writing has appeared in 45th Parallel, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, Empty Mirror, Essay Daily, Front Porch Journal, among others, and she is a three-time contributor to Under the Sun, where her essay “Death, Driveways, and Dreams” was a Best American Essays Notable 2017, and “July, Exhaling” was a 2020 Pushcart nominee. Cindy is a former assistant nonfiction editor for Pithead Chapel, a reader for Split/Lip Press chapbook and essay/memoir/nonfiction-hybrid contests. Cindy is currently at work on an essay collection exploring desire and discontent, family, nostalgia in California during the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and beyond. Her website is CindyBradleyWriter.com/, and she can be found on Twitter @cindysea429.

 

        

Editorial Board

Jere Mitchum is Associate Professor Emeritus of English at Tennessee Technological University having taught courses in American Literature and Technical/Professional Writing during his tenure at Tennessee Tech. He has been with Under the Sun since 2014. His interests include computer graphics, vocal music, and travel. He has sung in choirs, Barbershop quartets and community choruses for more than thirty years. His travel destinations include Europe, Australia and the Far East.

 

Miriam Mandel Levi is a writer and editor living in Israel. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Brain, Child, Literary Mama, Under the Sun, Poetica, bioStories, Sleet, Tablet, Blue Lyra, Chautauqua, 21st Century Text and Random Sample Review.

 

Phyllis Brotherton, a memoirist and essayist, holds an MA and MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Fresno State University. Her work has appeared in Under the Gum Tree, Entropy, Anomaly, Pithead Chapel, Essay Daily, Brevity Blog and elsewhere. Her essays have received two Best of the Net nominations, the most recent from Under the Sun for her essay, “The Year of Assassination.” Her essay, “Water,” a collaborative work co-authored with Armen D. Bacon, recently won third place in Streetlight Magazine’s 2021 Essay/Memoir Contest. She is currently marketing her memoir-in-essays collection, “Creating Artifacts,” for publication. She lives with her wife of twenty-five years in Reno, Nevada.

 

        

Readers

 

Lucas Laten Hunter completed his MFA at Purdue University and majored in journalism at the University of Tennessee—he has a compulsion to say “Go Vols” and it cannot be helped. If you contact him to talk music (including but not limited to: Prince, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Metallica, and OutKast) or basketball, he will respond immediately. Other inquiries may require processing.

 

 

 

 

Born and raised in Georgia, Monic Ductan now lives in Tennessee, where she teaches creative writing and literature at Tennessee Tech University. Monic’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Southeast Review, Shenandoah, Oxford American, South Carolina Review, Water~Stone Review, The Fourth River, and Arkansas Review. She received the 2019 Denny C. Plattner Award in nonfiction from Appalachian Review for her essay “Fantasy Worlds,” which was also listed as notable in Best American Essays 2019. She’s at work on a short story collection and a novel.

 

 

Ann Jared Lewald taught Learning Support for English Composition 1 at Tennessee Technological University. She is also a poet and has published numerous poems. She recently participated in an Oxford Round Table in ESL. She has been with Under the Sun since 2005.

 

 

 

Richard Doran is a consulting engineer in the British construction industry, an admittedly somewhat unconventional career path after earning his BA in English. He has worked with some of the world’s premier architects and been involved in the design of many notable buildings in London, the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the US. Despite all that, he has managed to fit in stints of Formula Ford racing and playing guitar in rock bands on the London circuit. Aside from literature and music, his interests are travel, history, art, motor racing (regular at the Le Mans 24 Hours), photography and flamenco. He also possesses an as yet unfulfilled aspiration to lower his golf handicap. He writes occasional poems and reviews for his own (and very close friends’) amusement. He lives in southwest London.

 

Leigh Wieland joined Under the Sun as a reader in 2020 after thirty plus years in public sector and non-profit economic development, strongly focused on Tennessee-East Asian relations. For a brief interval, she also developed manuscripts and secured book publishing deals with a New York-based non-fiction trade publisher on behalf of select clients. Leigh currently provides strategic communications support to non-profit and corporate entities in Nashville, Tennessee, where she and her husband of thirty-three years enjoy ballroom dancing and catering to the whims of three very commanding cats.

 

Renee Atlas is a U.S and Israeli lawyer and former civil rights judge. She is also a writer of fiction and earned a Masters of English Literature from Bar Ilan University in Israel. She has taught English Editing for several semesters at David Yellin College, and is a reader for literary prizes such as the Sami Rohr Prize.

 

 

 

 

Jake Gentry is a writer from Red Boiling Springs, TN. He is a college senior at Tennessee Technological University majoring in creative writing and literature. When not devouring fantasy and science fiction novels, he can be found hiking and playing with his cat, Poe.

 

 

 

 

Summer Writing Contest Judge

Theo Pauline Nestor is the author of How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed (Crown 2008) and Writing Is My Drink (Simon & Schuster 2013). Her essays have also been published in the New York Times, New Mexico Magazine, The Rumpus, Alligator Juniper, and numerous other places. Learn more about her work at TheoNestor.com.

 

 

 

Summer Contest Readers

 

 

Shalva Ben-David has been working in the fields of writing and editing for over twenty-five years. In 1993, she co-founded Connections, an English-language newspaper for her hometown of Beit Shemesh, Israel. While serving as co-editor of Connections, she worked as a freelance writer. She studied editing and editorial analysis at David Yellin Academic College in Jerusalem. Shalva currently works in resource development for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and is a freelance editor. She reads widely and sensitively, with attention to detail.

 

 

Miriam Burstein is an enthusiastic reader, writer, blogger, teacher, translator, and lover of words. An American expat living in Israel, Miriam studied ESL at Michlalah Jerusalem College and has been teaching English for fourteen years. She holds a Master’s degree from Bar-Ilan University’s Shaindy Rudoff Creative Writing Program and has taught creative writing in Michlalah Jerusalem College. She has published articles in Jewish Action, Mishpacha magazine, OU Shabbat Shalom newsletter, and The Times of Israel Blogs, as well as a memoir Walking with Papa’s Wheelchair: Growing Up in the Shadow of MS. Miriam’s biggest accomplishments are her own young readers.

 

 

Reba Condiotti has worked as a research scientist for thirty years, initially in the field of bone marrow transplantation and then in the field of gene therapy. She currently manages a breast cancer research laboratory at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School. To date, she has co-authored twenty-nine peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and reviews.
Reba received a BA in biology from the University of California, San Diego, and continued her studies in Jerusalem where, in 2011, she was granted a PhD in human genetics from the Hebrew University. She also has certification in editing and editorial analysis for the David Yellin Academic College in Jerusalem. She is a freelance scientific editor who helps other scientists prepare their manuscripts for publication and edits their grant applications. In addition, she assists graduate students in preparing their theses for submission.
Reba is a voracious and diligent reader who has participated in a book club for the past fifteen years (helped choose the books for the past five) in her hometown of Beit Shemesh, Israel. The group is still going strong. She was also a member of a local writers’ workshop and has edited works of CNF.
Originally from California, she has lived in Israel since 1984.

 

 

Eddie P. Gomez’s writing centers on food and travel. His work is featured in 34th Parallel, Post Road Magazine, Your Impossible Voice Magazine, Small Print Magazine and Michigan Quarterly Review (forthcoming). He is proud to have spent most of his life on the flatlands of California’s Central Valley except for residences in Mexico, Italy, and Spain. He holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Fresno State University and works as an English instructor at a local junior college. He enjoys meeting people as he chases life through traveling.

 

 

Diane Horowitz has a degree in liberal arts, manages a gap-year program for students studying abroad, and is a fitness trainer. In her spare time, when not enjoying the company of her family and friends, she can be found with a book in her hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to the summer contest readers listed above, Under the Sun also thanks Jere Mitchum, Miriam Mandel Levi, and Phyllis Brotherton, who all read for the summer contest as well as for the regular fall reading period. A special thanks also to Associate Editors Cindy Bradley and Nomi Isenberg, who organized and ran the contest.

 

 

Fall 2021 Intern

 

 

Sabrina Guo is a young writer from New York. She is the youngest global winner of the Poems to Solve the Climate Crisis Challenge and spoke out against climate injustice and performed her poetry in the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). She has received the Civic Expression Award and nine national medals from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, is a commended winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award and a Pushcart Prize nominee, and has been recognized by the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Awards, the Poetry Society of Virginia, the Adroit Prizes, and the Bennington College Young Writers Awards. Her work has been published in the Best Teen Writing, Raleigh Review, West Trestle Review, Counterclock, and FERAL: A Journal of Poetry and Art, among others. She is the founder of Girl Pride International and Long Island Laboring Against COVID-19. Her writing, social activism, and humanitarian work has been profiled by Disney, commended by the White House, the US Senate and US Congress, and recognized by President George H.W. Bush’s Daily Point of Light Award and the Princeton Prize in Race Relations. Sabrina can be found on Instagram (@sabrinag.u.o) and www.sabrinaguo.com.

 

 

Fall Emerging Writers Contest Judge

 

 

Alison Townsend is the author of a collection of short essays, The Persistence of Rivers, and two books of poetry, The Blue Dress and Persephone in America. Her poetry and nonfiction appear widely and have been reprinted in Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, and Best American Essays 2020. She won the 2020 Rattle Poetry Prize. Emerita Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, she lives on four acres of prairie and oak savanna in the farm country outside Madison, the inspiration for her essay collection The Green Hour: A Natural History of Home, just published by the University of Wisconsin Press,.

 

 

Fall Emerging Writers Contest Readers

 

 

Originally from Colorado, Krista Beucler received a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. She was the Editor-in-Chief for Issue 7.2 of the Rappahannock Review, the literary journal published by the University of Mary Washington. She is currently a contributing editor for the Community Cats Podcast blog. Krista is a winner of the Julia Peterkin award, and her creative work has been published in From Whispers To Roars and South 85 Journal. You can find her online at her website (KristaBeucler.com) or on Instagram (@AuthorKrista).

 

 

Michael Hettich has published a dozen books of poetry and an equal number of chapbooks. His most recent book, To Start An Orchard, was published in 2019 by Press 53. A new book, The Mica Mine, won the Lena Shull Book Award from the North CarolinaPoetry Society and is forthcoming from St Andrews University Press. His work has appeared in Orion, Ploughshares, The Sun, Prairie Schooner, Witness, TriQuarterly and Poetry East. He lives with his family in Black Mountain, NC.

 

 

Elaine Fowler Palencia, Champaign IL, is the author of six books of fiction and four poetry chapbooks. Her nonfiction book based on her great-great grandfather’s letters, “On Rising Ground”: The Life and Civil War Letters of John M. Douthit, 52nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment,” has just been published by Mercer University Press. This is her second appearance in Under the Sun.

 

 

Dorothy Rice is the author of two memoirs, GRAY IS THE NEW BLACK (Otis Books, June 2019) and THE RELUCTANT ARTIST (Shanti Arts, 2015). Her essays have been published in Memoir Magazine, Hippocampus, Under the Gum Tree and The Rumpus, among others. After raising five children and retiring from a career managing statewide environmental protection programs, Rice earned an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside, Palm Desert, at age 60. You can find Dorothy at DorothyRiceAuthor.com, and on Twitter at @DorothyRowena.

 

 

Mary Zelinka lives in Albany, Oregon, and has worked at the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence for over thirty years. Every day she has the privilege of witnessing the remarkable strength and resilience of domestic and sexual violence survivors. Her writing has appeared in The Sun Magazine, Brevity, Memoir Magazine, and Eclectica.

 

 

 

Spring 2022 Interns

 

 

Katie Bloomer is a recent graduate of UNCA with degrees in mass communication and creative writing. She enjoys writing and reading literary works with elements of fantasy/folklore, and is currently exploring mythological stories to retell in modern ways. She enjoys participating in writing workshops and providing fellow writers with detailed feedback and suggestions, a passion she hopes to transfer into a career as an editor or literary agent. When not reading or writing, you can find Katie practicing yoga or archery, hiking along the Blue Ridge Parkway or snowboarding on Sugar Mountain, taking a spontaneous road trip or just curling up with her two cats, Oso and Freya, to watch a movie.

 

 

Heather Richmond is currently studying creative writing and theatre at Tennessee Tech University. She is a writer who hopes to inspire her children as often as she makes them laugh. She has published poems, and her current works include short stories, screenplays, and a novel. In her free time, she likes to read, binge-watch series, or host an online radio show. She enjoys anime, fantasy, and baking cookies.

 

 

 

Web Site Design

 

 

 

 

Carl Shires converted Under the Sun to its current online format. Updating and maintaining the website gives him “the opportunity to read attention-grabbing stories by established and new writers before they’re published!”