Poet Biographies

Meet the authors behind Issue 9 of Gleam:

Rose Mary Boehm | Jamey Boelhower | Becky Boling | Ginny Lowe Connors | Scott Ennis | Rob Hardy | Tara Knight | Dawn Leas | Andrew Leggett | Carolyn Martin | Dana McCormick | Ann E. Michael | K. Alma Peterson | Charlotte Porter | Marsha Segerberg | Merril D. Smith | Austin Thornton | John Van Pelt | Susan Vespoli | Sterling Warner | Kelley White | Jonathan Yungkans

Rose Mary Boehm

Rose Mary Boehm is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru, and author of two novels as well as eight poetry collections. Her poetry has been published widely in mostly US poetry reviews (online and print). She was several times nominated for a ‘Pushcart’ and ‘Best of Net’. Her eighth book, LIFE STUFF, has been published by Kelsay Books (November 2023). A new MS is in the works. https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/

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Jamey Boelhower

Jamey Boelhower is a husband and father of six children. He has spent the past 20 plus years in education as a high school English teacher, coach, professional developer, and college instructor. Jamey’s writing expresses his view of the world, both the joy and the pain. He explores the depths of life with a unique style that challenges the reader to see the world on a deeper level. He is the author of a number of books of poetry: And I Never Told You, From My Years, Farther and Son: Words Apart, April 2020: A Poetic Time Capsule of Writing and Living During a Pandemic, and his newest release These Words Believe in Ghosts.

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Ginny Lowe Connors

Ginny Lowe Connors is the author of six poetry collections, including White Sail at Midnight (The Poetry Box, 2024). As publisher of her own press, Grayson Books, Connors has edited several poetry anthologies. She earned an MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. A Board Member of the Connecticut Poetry Society, Connors is Managing Editor of Connecticut River Review.

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Scott Ennis

Scott Ennis is a sonneteer who has written more sonnets than Shakespeare. Sonnettics is an anagram of his name. Scott’s creative approach includes screenwriting and poetic cinema. Scott earned his BA in English Literature from Weber State University. Scott was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, and an endurance athlete who has completed the Boston Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon. Scott survived a near-fatal accident in 2010 and lives with the effects of a TBI.

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Rob Hardy

Rob Hardy is the author of the poetry collection Domestication (Shipwreckt Books) and the chapbooks The Collecting Jar (winner of the 2005 Grayson Books Poetry Chapbook Competition) and Shelter in Place (Finishing Line Press). His poetry has appeared in The Best of the Net, is displayed in the Northfield Public Library, and has been performed in Finland in choral settings by composer Alex Freeman. From 2016 to 2023 he served as the first Poet Laureate of Northfield, Minnesota.

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Dawn Leas

Dawn Leas (She/Her) is the author A Person Worth Knowing (Foothills Publishing), Take Something When You Go (Winter Goose Publishing), and I Know When to Keep Quiet, (Finishing Line Press). Her poetry has appeared in New York Quarterly, The Paterson Literary Review, Literary Mama, The Pedestal Magazine, SWWIM, and elsewhere. She’s the assistant director of the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University as well as a writing coach, teaching artist and editorial advisor for River & South Review. She’s also a proud back-of-the pack runner, hiker, salt-water lover, and mom of two grown sons. Visit www.thehammockwriter.com.

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Andrew Leggett

Andrew Leggett is an Australian author and editor of poetry, fiction, interdisciplinary academic papers and songs. His latest collection of poetry Losing Touch was published by Ginninderra Press in 2022. In addition to medical degrees and postgraduate qualifications in psychiatry and psychotherapy, he holds a research masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland and PhD in Creative Writing from Griffith University. He is an Associate Professor with the James Cook University College of Medicine and Dentistry.

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Carolyn Martin

From associate professor of English to management trainer to retiree, Carolyn Martin is a lover of gardening and snorkeling, feral cats and backyard birds, writing and photography. Her poems have appeared in more than 175 journals and anthologies throughout North America, Australia, and the UK. Currently, she is the book review editor of the Oregon Poetry Association.More at www.carolynmartinpoet.com. 

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Dana McCormick

Dana McCormick is a composer, pianist, and writer in Wisconsin.

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K. Alma Peterson

K. Alma Peterson is a graduate of Warren Wilson MFA for Writers. She has published two books of poetry with Blaze Vox Books, and her poems have been widely published in online and print journals. She is also a painter of abstract art. She lives in Florida.

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Charlotte Porter

Charlotte M. Porter lives and writes in an old citrus hamlet in north central Florida. As a child, she loved marine biology.

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Marsha Segerberg

Marsha Segerberg lives and writes in Phoenix, Arizona, except during the microwave oven season, during which she relocates to a cabin on a little northern Wisconsin lake with her dog, Peggy.  Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, Third Wednesday, New Verse News, Rogue Agent Journal, Rat’s Ass Review and other journals.  She belongs to COW (Community of Writers) in Phoenix, which meets biweekly, and we have t-shirts.

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Austin Thornton

Austin Thornton is a possible human studying at Oregon State University, and the winner of Oregon State University’s Writing in Culture Award (2023). Poetry, nonfiction, and fiction from this author is featured in PRISM Magazine, The Daily Barometer, and *82 Review. A novel is in progress, but more short stories and poems will be procrastinated with.

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John Van Pelt

John Van Pelt is an artist and poet from Maine, USA, whose poetry has appeared in Farmer-ish Journal and EAP: The Magazine. In the almost eleven years that John and his partner have been “on the land,” they have renovated an abandoned cottage, raised sheep for fiber, and published a line of fantasy romances.

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Susan Vespoli

Susan Vespoli believes in the power of writing poems and prose to stay sane. Her work has been published in Gleam, ONE ART, Anti-Heroin Chic, Rattle, Gyroscope Review, and other cool spots. She teaches Wild Writing and poetry at 27Powers.org and writers.com and is the author of four poetry collections. https://susanvespoli.com/

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Kelley White

Pediatrician Kelley White has worked in inner city Philadelphia and rural New Hampshire. Her poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Rattle and JAMA. Her most recent collection is NO. HOPE STREET (Kelsay Books). She received a 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant.

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Jonathan Yungkans

Jonathan Yungkans continues typing at odd hours of the night, even as he hears owls hoot and watches yet another skunk meander beneath his house’s foundation. He remains thankful his writing is less noxious than the creature under his bathroom’s floorboards. His work has appeared in Book of Matches, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Sonic Boom, Synkroniciti and other publications. His third chapbook, The Ravens Will Arrive Later, will be published by Gnashing Teeth Publishing in 2026.sy romances.

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