Editors
“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 writes mostly in genres of poetry, creative nonfiction, and the response letter. She has worked at a variety of occupations in her life, but these days works as a hospital nurse and tends to her small farm in Tennessee. 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 celebrates 2023 as the year she finished paying her student loans.
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 and an MS in educational linguistics and language acquisition from the State University of New York at Albany. She also holds an MA from Bar Ilan University in English literature and creative writing. Nomi is certified by David Yellin Academic College in Jerusalem in editing and editorial analysis. Nomi is a freelance editor who has recently edited a book of short stories, a novel, and a memoir and is a currently editing a book of poetry. She is also a writer whose fiction, creative nonfiction, and prose poetry have been published online.
Cindy Bradley 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, 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. She currently runs the Summer Writing Contest held in July. Cindy is seeking publication on her 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.
Miriam Mandel Levi is a writer and editor living in Israel. Her work has appeared in CreativeNonfiction’s anthology, Same Time Next Week, Brain,Child, Literary Mama, Under the Sun, Poetica, bioStories, Sleet, Tablet, Blue Lyra, Chautauqua, Random Sample, Sky Island, JMWW, MoonPark, the Sunlight Press, and Persimmon Tree.
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.
Readers
Having received her MFA in poetry from Vermont College, Jillian Barnet was first a poet and now also writes creative nonfiction. She has taught writing and literature at Pennsylvania State University and Chatham College. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Bellingham Review and has appeared in a variety of anthologies and literary journals, such as New Letters, North American Review, Nimrod, and Image. One of her essays will be included in the 2023 Best American Essays. Her chapbook, Falling Bodies, is available from Finishing Line Press and through Amazon. Currently at work on a memoir, she lives on a tiny farm in the Finger Lakes with her husband and a growing array of opinionated animals.
In addition to reading, Jillian Barnet assisted in the editing of the essay “Kaley” in this year’s issue.
A retired Professor of Anthropology, Elizabeth Bird has published seven books (most recently Surviving Biafra: A Nigerwife’s Story), and now focuses on creative non-fiction. Her workappears in Under the Sun (winner, Readers’ Choice Award 2022),Tangled Locks, Biostories, Streetlight, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, Ariel’s Dream, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She placed third in the 2022 International Human Rights Art Festival’s Creators of Justice Literary Awards.
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.
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. Her short story collection Daughters of Muscadine came out last fall, and she is at work on a novel.
Born and raised in Tennessee, Hailey Del Toro is a recent graduate from Tennessee Technological University obtaining her Master of Arts in English. In her free time, she enjoys reading, making things, baking, being with friends and family, and traveling to new places with her husband. While she has a passion for reading, she also enjoys editing and is hoping to begin her career in the editing field soon.
Daniel Kleifgen is a writer who has taught in inner city San Antonio and the United Arab Emirates. For the past few years, he has been traveling with his fiancée in Latin America, Europe, and Southeast Asia while working on a novel and collection of short stories. He has recently moved to Shanghai, where he teaches in a private school.
Mark Liebenow writes about nature, grief, and the wisdom of fools. The author of four books, his essays, poems, and critical reviews have been published in numerous literary journals. His work has been named a notable by Best American Essays and nominated for three Pushcart Prizes. Mark has won the River Teeth Nonfiction Book Award, and the Chautuqua and Literal Latte’s essay prizes. He studied English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and creative nonfiction at Bradley University. markliebenow.com
Anthony J. Mohr served twenty-seven years as a judge on the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, and now sits there part-time. In January 2021, he became a fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. His memoir, Every Other Weekend—Coming of Age With Two Different Dads (Koehler) was published in 2023. A five-time Pushcart nominee, Mohr’s work has appeared in, among other places, The Christian Science Monitor, Cleaver, Commonweal, DIAGRAM, Hippocampus Magazine, Main Street Rag, North Dakota Quarterly, Superstition Review, War, Literature & the Arts, and ZYZZYVA. Once upon a time he performed with the L.A. Connection, an improv comedy theater.
Elaine Fowler Palencia is the moderator of the Red Herring Prose Workshop, the oldest writing workshop in Champaign-Urbana, IL. She has often written about life with her son Andrew, including two chapbooks of poetry and essays in River Styx, Literary Mama, and Bluestem. She is also the author of two collections of Appalachian short stories and On Rising Ground: The Life and Civil War Letters of John M. Douthit, 52nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
In addition to reading, Elaine assisted in the editing of “Libera Me” in this year’s issue.
Mari Ramler is an associate professor in English at Tennessee Technological University. She teaches professional and technical communication courses and researches at the intersection of science, technology, and religion. She also writes creative nonfiction and poetry.
Terri Sutton holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College and has taught writing courses and workshops in the Milwaukee area and written critical reviews for Next Act Theatre and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her essays have appeared in Solstice Magazine, The Best of Milwaukee Writer’s Circle Anthology, and Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife. Currently she is working on a collection of essays about family and politics.
Alida Winternheimer is an award-winning writer, developmental editor, and teacher living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her works have appeared in Confluence, Water~Stone Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. Two of her short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches fiction classes to incarcerated writers through the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and hosts the Story Works Round Table & Reading Series podcasts. When she is not writing, reading, or teaching writing, you can find Alida kayaking, cycling, or being walked by her golden retriever. Connect
with her at www.alidawinternheimer.com.
2023 Summer Writing Contest Judge
Ren Cedar Fuller facilitates parent support groups with Trans Families, an online hub for families with gender diverse children. She taught public school in California, Oregon, and Washington before opening a non-profit preschool in the Seattle area. She now works as a parent educator and is passionate about helping families support their children’s unique paths. Ren was a finalist in the 2022 Terry Tempest Williams Prize for Creative Nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in Hippocampus and North American Review.
2023 Summer 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. Krista is a winner of the Julia Peterkin award, and her creative work has been published in Kelp Journal, Bangalore Review and South 85 Journal. You can find her online at her website (KristaBeucler.com) or on Instagram (@authorkristabeucler).
Phyllis Brotherton, a retired CPA and financial executive, received her MA and MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno, the latter at the age of sixty-six. Her lyrical essays and experimental/hybrid work is published in numerous literary journals, including Under the Gum Tree, Entropy, Essay Daily, ANMLY, After the Art, Pithead Chapel, Your Impossible Voice, Spry, Under the Sun, Persimmon Tree, Brevity Blog and elsewhere, as well as Op Ed articles for the Fresno Bee. Her essays have received two Best of the Net nominations and won Honorable Mention in Streetlight Magazine’s 2023 Essay/Memoir Contest. Most recently, her essay,“My Brother’s Heart,” was published in the anthology, Daring to Breathe. In addition to reading for Under the Sun, she has read for literary journal, The Normal School. She lives in Madera, California.
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.
Andrew Bertaina’s short story collection One Person Away From You (2021) won the Moon City Press Fiction Award (2020). His work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Witness Magazine, The Normal School, The Forge, and The Best American Poetry. He has an MFA from American University in Washington, DC.
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.
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.
Terri Sutton holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College and has taught writing courses and workshops in the Milwaukee area and written critical reviews for Next Act Theatre and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her essays have appeared in Solstice Magazine, The Best of Milwaukee Writer’s Circle Anthology, and Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife. Currently she is working on a collection of essays about family and politics.
Lauren Woods lives in Washington, D. C., with her husband and children. Her fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in The Antioch Review, The Normal School, Fiction Southeast, Moon City Review, Literary Hub, and elsewhere.
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