Shari Lane’s novel, Two Over Easy All Day Long (Golden Antelope Press), came out in May, 2024. Her stories have been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Evening Street Review, Antithesis (forthcoming), Cape Magazine, and others literary journals. Jaysus, MooMoo, and the Immortal Woos, another novel, was longlisted in the 2024 international Stockholm Writers Festival First Five Pages contest. Shari has been, at various times: a middle school Latin teacher; a toddler wrangler; a lawyer; and an advocate for the houseless, immigrants, and the earth. Also tangentially relevant: her muses are dogs, chocolate, and the Salish Sea. In March 2022, Shari launched a serialized novel The Dogs of Looser Island (alaughingdog.com). She also has an occasionally-active blog, Brillig (dragonpepper38.com), with musings on life, love, despair, and hope. More information can be found at sharilane.com, on Shari’s Facebook pages, and Shari’s Instagram page (@ReadWriteBreath38).

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Stephanie Barbé Hammeris a 7-time Pushcart Prize nominee in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Originally from Manhattan, Stephanie moved to Southern California in 1986 to teach at the University of California Riverside, where she taught for 30 years. After a stint on Whidbey Island WA, she and her husband, the writer Larry Behrendt, moved to Santa Barbara in August of 2023 and are delightedly exploring the city and its gorgeous environs. Stephanie brought out two books this past year: the poetry chapbook City Slicker, and the mystery novella Journey to Merveilleux City, which is a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award (mystery category). Last but not least, Stephanie had the honor of serving as Managing Editor of SHARK REEF for five years, and will always be grateful for this rich, learning experience.

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Iris Graville lives on Lopez Island, WA, where she writes and serves as publisher of SHARK REEF Literary Magazine, staff writer for The Wayfarer Magazine, and an Advisory Board member for Homebound Publications. She’s a retired nurse and the author of four nonfiction books, including a memoir, Hiking Naked, and the essay collection Writer in a Life Vest: Essays from the Salish Sea (both published by Homebound Publications and recipients of Nautilus Awards). She served as the writer and worked with photographers and a chef for BOUNTY: Lopez Island Farms, Food, and Community (Lopez Community Land Trust). Iris’s first book, Hands at Work: Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands (Heron Moon Press), received numerous awards, including a Nautilus Gold award. Her profiles and personal essays have been published in national and regional journals, magazines, and anthologies. irisgraville.com

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Richard Widerkehr’s fourth book of poems, Night Journey, was published by Shanti Art Press, which will also bring out his next one, Missing The Owl, in the fall of 2024. Main Street Rag brought out his previous book, At The Grace Cafe; Moonpath Press published In The Presence of Absence, and Plain View Press brought out The Way Home. He has three chapbooks and one novel, Sedimental Journey, published by Tarragon Books. His work has appeared in Atlanta Review, Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, and many others. He won two Hopwood first prizes for poetry at the University of Michigan, three prizes in The Bridge’s annual contests, and first prize for a short story at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference. He has been a poetry reader at SHARK REEF Literary Magazine for 12 years.

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Linda Conroy, SHARK Reef Poetry Co-editor, retired from a long career as a Child Protective Services worker, manager, meeting facilitator and advocate for people with unique needs; she knew she needed to write about the complicated and gratifying human behaviors she had been privileged to witness, as well as the impact of the natural world and the changing times. Initially, she wrote fiction and creative non-fiction, but poetry quickly became her favorite genre.

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Aaisha Umt Ur Rashid is a poet, prose writer, editor and translator who is also Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the Lahore College for Women University, in Lahore Pakistan. She is also the initiator of The Bridge – a unique venture that aims to connect writers around the globe. Her third anthology as editor has been published by Fiction House Publishers in Lahore, Pakistan. Titled The Bridge Volume III, the anthology features writers from Pakistan and Nigeria, showcasing powerful stories and poems on the theme of RACE. Recently she hosted a creative writing workshop focused on short fiction, specially designed for teachers and students of creative writing at our university and its affiliated colleges. In November, she will be working as a focal person for an International Conference that we are organizing in our University on Narratives of Resilience: Exploring Resurgence in Global Literature with online sessions to engage scholars from various countries.

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Lorna Reese is a founder and was managing editor of SHARK REEF for most of its first eighteen years and is now editor emerita. In the past, she worked with different co-editors for each issue of the magazine, loving the collaboration with other writers. Lorna lives on Lopez Island, WA and continues at SHARK REEF, working mostly behind the scenes. Her memoir essays and fiction have been published in SHARK REEF, The Sun Magazine and The Islands Weekly. She delights in acting as a sort of midwife for other writers and has made the acknowledgements page of at least 16 books.