Piker Press — Weekly Journal of Arts and Literature
June 15, 2026

Contributors with Profiles — Page 5

Jeff Burt lives in Santa Cruz County, California. He has contributed to Rabid Oak, Willows Wept Review, Williwaw Journal, and Gold Man's Review, among others.

Jeffrey Carl Jefferis is a thirty-year-old freedom fighter. He has been pushing the envelope of word power for so long that his fingers are permanently stuck to the sealing glue

Kushal Poddar, author of 'Postmarked Quarantine' and 'How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch' has nine books to his credit. He is a journalist, father of a four-year-old, illustrator, and an editor. His works have been translated into twelve languages and published across the globe.

Sunil Sharma, PhD (English), is an academic, critic, literary editor and author with 29 published books: Eight collections of poetry; five of short fiction; two novels; a critical study of the novel, and, 10 joint anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism, and, two joint poetry collection and one joint fiction collection.

Amy Probst hails from Michigan. She's a published newspaper columnist and tech writer, and a talented photographer. For more Amy, go to www.amyprobst.com.

Hillary Peak is a recovering idealist. She became a lawyer to change the world and is still somewhat shocked that didn't occur. Now, her goal is to retire from practicing law and write novels that people love. She is currently a practicing attorney in the District of Columbia. She lives with her family in Alexandria, VA.

Joan McNerney's poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines such as Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, Blueline, and Halcyon Days.

Rajnish Mishra is a poet, writer, translator and blogger born and brought up in Varanasi, India and now in exile from his city. His work originates at the point of intersection between his psyche and his city.

Barry Kirwan works in air traffic and nuclear power safety, and found non-fiction a lot easier to get published than fiction, but finally has his science fiction novel (The Eden Paradox) coming out as an ebook in Feb 2011 with publisher Ampichellis. The short story "Writerholics Anonymous" summarises what he wishes he'd known when starting out in fiction...

(1943 - 2025) "I practised as a Solicitor/Lawyer/Attorney in a small English market town until 1989 when the family and I moved to Provence, France. I became wholesale distributor of English, German and Dutch books to French retail outlets. I have since retired."

Judith Alexander Brice is a retired Pittsburgh psychiatrist whose love of nature and acquaintance with illness inform much of her work.

Michael H. Brownstein's latest volumes of poetry, "A Slipknot to Somewhere Else" (2018) and "How Do We Create Love" (2019) were both published by Cholla Needles Press.

Gypsy writes how-to and nonfiction articles for magazines. Her other projects include travelogue, history pieces, and a stint as a regular columnist for the Press in 2004.

Donna Dallas studied Creative Writing and Philosophy at NYU's Gallatin School and was lucky enough to study under William Packard, founder and editor of the New York Quarterly. She has just published her novel, "Death Sisters," with Alien Buddha Press, and currently serves on the editorial team for Red Fez.

Jason Ryberg is currently an artist-in- residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books. He lives part-time in Kansas City, MO with a rooster named Little Red and a Billy-goat named Giuseppe, and part-time somewhere in the Ozarks.

John Dorroh taught writing based science for several decades. He required his students to use their imagination...a lot. Many of them thanked him later (with beers) for helping them think out of the box.

Kevin writes ultra-short science fiction pieces. His style is influenced by his work in television news, where brevity and impact are emphasized.

Mitchell Waldman's fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in numerous publications. He is also the author of the novel, A FACE IN THE MOON, was co-editor with Diana May-Waldman of WOUNDS OF WAR: POETS FOR PEACE, and is Fiction Editor for Blue Lake Review.

Amrita Valan is a writer from India with a published book of 50 poems on love and loss titled "Arrivederci" and a collection of 17 short stories titled "In Between Pauses."

Carl Nord writes short fiction and humor, and lives and works in the Seattle area.

Ian Mullins ships out from Liverpool, England, where he is a full-time Carer to his elderly parents. He dreams of one day leaving the house.

James Croal Jackson is a Filipino-American poet who works in film production.

Jerome Berglund graduated from the University of Southern California’s Cinema-Television Production program and spent a picaresque decade in the entertainment industry before returning to the midwest where he was born and raised.

Mark is the father of twins and a jack-of-all trades, master of some, but has yet to figure out what he has mastered! He lives in SE Michigan and writes whenever he can for whatever he can as often as he can.

Sailor Jim writes as he has lived: weird, wild, funny, with unexpected twists and not infrequent incidences of explosions and sex.