The Northern California Perspective has arrived

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After nearly 8 months of prep work, collecting submissions, designing, and editing, the first issue of The Northern California Perspective is available. You can purchase it on Amazon as either a digital copy (4.99) or in print (12.99), which includes black-and-white photography that is not featured in the digital edition. It includes short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction from northern Californian authors and folks who love the North State. 

Rob Davidson was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and was educated at Beloit College and Purdue University. He is the author of The Farther Shore: Stories (Bear Star Press, 2012), The Master and the Dean: The Literary Criticism of Henry James and William Dean Howells (Missouri, 2005), and Field Observations: Stories (Missouri, 2001). His fiction, essays, and interviews have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, The Normal School, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. Davidson teaches creative writing and American literature at California State University, Chico.

Tim Kahl [http://www.timkahl.com] is the author of Possessing Yourself (CW Books, 2009) and The Century of Travel (CW Books, 2012). His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Notre Dame Review, The Journal, Parthenon West Review, Caliban, Clockwise Cat, Thrush Poetry Journal, Uppagus, Cease, Cows, and many other journals in the US. He appears as Victor Schnickelfritz at the blog The Great American Pinup (http://greatamericanpinup.wordpress.com/) and the video blog Linebreak Studios [http://linebreakstudios.blogspot.com/]. He is also co-editor of Clade Song [http://www.cladesong.com]. His poem “In Spate” is part of the “It Calls From the Creek” installation along Deer Creek Tribute Trail in Nevada City. He is the vice president and events coordinator of The Sacramento Poetry Center.

Leslie Roberts is a resident of northeastern California. A father, writer, musician, disabled athlete and outdoorsman, student of the School of Absurdity and Applied Pataphysics, his work is concerned with the observation and understanding of people in conflict, with themselves and their realities. His present work, City of Gold: Stories from Oroville, California, is a collection of experimental and traditional short stories. 

Dennis McHale is an American poet and author of “The Winter Bites My Bones,” and recipient of the True Boardman Oratorical Award, has been a poet for decades. His current work focuses on the joys and sufferings of humankind and of personal angst. Dennis is originally from the town of Brevard in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. He is currently on a three-year journey across America with his wife, renowned graphic designer, Kerri Overacker McHale, and their Springer spaniel, Lord Byron.

Marc Janssen toils for the state of Oregon and on his breaks flies, firmly seated, near a creek that flows through downtown Salem. He cut his teeth in the vibrant Ventura poetry scene, where he learned that his poem really isn’t done until it is read aloud. You can find his work scattered around the internet and in a print journal here and there including: The Gold Man Review, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, Bellowing Ark, Dead Flowers: a Poetry Rag, Four Ties Lit Review, and The Ottawa Arts Review as well as the anthology Green is the Color of Winter. Poetry, work, education, soccer, kids, wife, church, drums, pretty boring really.

Lara Gularte is a native Californian. She was the 2nd prize poetry contest winner for Empirical’s 2012 contest and was nominated by Bitter Oleander Press to Best New Poets 2010. Her work has appeared in such journals Bitter Oleander, The Evansville Review, The Fourth River, Hiram Poetry Review, Permafrost, Sanskrit, Watershed, and The Water-Stone Review. Her poetry manuscript, “Kissing The Bee,” is scheduled to be published by Tagus Press. She is an assistant poetry editor for Narrative Magazine.

Lisa Anina Berman was born in Willows and grew up on a rice and walnut farm in Glenn County. She has an older brother who works at UC Davis and two younger sisters who are still involved with the farming business. She has fond memories of growing up in farm country and has started writing some poems.

Nels Hanson’s fiction received the San Francisco Foundation’s James D. Phelan Award and two Pushcart Prize nominations. Stories have appeared in Antioch Review, Texas Review, Black Warrior Review, Southeast Review, Montreal Review, and other journals. Poems are in press at Stone Highway Review, Word Riot, Paper Scissors Literary Magazine, Heavy Feather Review, Scintilla, Emerge Literary Journal, Apeiron Review, Drunk Monkeys, and Hoot & Hare Review.

Cheryl Wright has lived at Shasta Lake for thirty years. When not working in her garden, she enjoys writing and music. She has written and produced her own album and enjoys singing semi-professionally. Recently retired from a non-profit animal welfare facility, her love for animals of all kinds has enlarged her personal pet population to include six felines, two dogs, a Goffin Cockatoo––and when necessary, she rehabs orphaned baby raccoons.

Patricia Wellingham-Jones is a former psychology researcher and writer/editor with an interest in healing writing and the benefits of writing and reading work together. Widely published in poetry and nonfiction, she writes for the review department of Recovering the Self, a journal of hope and healing and has ten chapbooks of poetry.

Dave Frederick was born in Covina and is the youngest of six children, sharing the stage with his (slightly older) twin sister. He holds a Bachelor’s in Earth Science and a Master’s in Education. In addition to teaching upper elementary and middle school for eighteen years, Dave also spent twenty-five summers and one winter as a National Park Ranger, providing emergency response as an EMT, law enforcement officer, and wild-land firefighter. He currently lives in Trinity County, where he has returned to teaching at a small rural school.

Ken Letko holds a BS from the University of Wisconsin and both an MA and an MFA from Bowling Green State University, where he also taught as a lecturer and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Mid-American Review. He has given presentations at many conferences and public events nationwide, including the Get Lit! Festival sponsored by Eastern Washington University, Spokane, WA; the AWP conference, Austin, TX; Butte College, Oroville, CA; the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA; the Frances Anderson Center, Edmonds, WA. His most recent collection is Forgotten Inventors, seventeen poems from Long House Press of Vermont. His poems have also been published in three earlier chapbooks as well as a number of anthologies and magazines, including: Bloodroot, Dos Passos Review, Cadence of Hooves, Earth’s Daughters, Natural Bridge, North American Review, Poem, Rattle, Snail Mail Review, and Toyon. He teaches at College of the Redwoods in Crescent City, where he edits the Kerf and helps organize the North Coast Redwoods Writers’ Conference. 

Bruce Yerman calls Northern California his home. He has hiked to the top of Mount Shasta, explored the Marble Mountain Wilderness, crossed the Trinity Alps, jumped off the bridge at Lake Oroville, dived for abalone in Fort Bragg, flown a kite at Fisherman’s Wharf, and saved seats to watch the Paradise Gold Nugget Parade. He is a graduate of Paradise High School, Brigham Young University, Stanford, and the University of Minnesota. He holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and has worked in public schools in Oroville and private schools internationally. Bruce currently lives in New Zealand, works with schools in the Pacific islands, and runs fast, jumps high, and shoots the basketball with incredible accuracy––in his dreams. He is married to Sarah and has five great daughters.

Alec Binyon is a husband, father, writer, and business owner in Chico. His writing has appeared in the Chico News & Review, Adbusters Magazine, and The Village Pariah (Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum Literary Magazine).

Timothy O’Neill recently returned to Chico, California (after a forty-year hiatus practicing law in Oregon), to be flooded by memories which were included in his memoir Dangle Him Purposely. “Disrobing Chico” is the opening chapter of part III of that personal history. His novel, Rod Slugger, chronicling the strains and struggles of a criminal lawyer, will be released shortly.  

Joe Abbott was born in Eureka, California. He received a BA degree at the University of Wisconsin and MA degrees at UC Davis and California State University, Chico. Experience includes Humboldt-Del Norte County Public Health and Public Guardian Offices, crew member Humboldt State marine biology and Glacier Seas Alaska vessels, and grant writer Northcoast Environmental Center. Publications include essays, short stories, and poetry in professional journals, literary magazines, newspapers. Readings at community colleges, UC and State colleges. Two years fiction editor at Cal Quarterly, UC Regent funded literary magazine. Honorable Mention Best Horror short story, Albedo One, Ireland, 2012, Best Of issue, Chico News and Review. Fiction judge, Empirical, 2012. Novel Dickeyville, 2012, Starhaven pub., London, UK. Instructor, Butte College.

Joan Goodreau lives in Chico, California.  Her poems, articles and stories have appeared in such periodicals as Floodplane Review, Watershed Review, Chico News and Review, Bloodroot, and Dalhousie Review.  Her newly published memoir, Strangers Together:  How My Son’s Autism Changed My Life, is available online and through CreateSpace. www.autismwritehere.wordpress.com.

Carrie Kreth was born and raised in the mountains and evergreen forests of the Sierra Nevada. When she was young, she spent much of her time outdoors where her mind and imagination were constantly inspired by the beauty around her. As she ran through fields, trudged through snow, and climbed to the tops of looming cedar trees, her mind would fill with stories. When she was six years old, she decided she wanted to become a writer. Carrie is in pursuit of that childhood dream as a student studying Creative Writing at Brigham Young University-Idaho. After graduation she hopes to start a family and complete an MFA. Aside from writing, Carrie enjoys painting, drawing, reading, cooking, laughing, and learning. However, her favorite hobby is making people happy, and that is what she hopes to do through her writing.