SPRING 2020
CONTEST WINNERS
POETRY, selected by Cyrus Cassells
Gabriella Fee, Trastevere
FICTION, selected by Amina Gautier
Temim Fruchter, Hungry
ESSAYS, selected by Reyna Grande
Kate McQuade, If I Don’t Answer
POETRY
Threa Almontaser, Muslim Girl With White Guys, Ending at the Edge of a Ridge; Operation Restoring
Lawrence Bridges, The Pessimistic Physician
Flower Conroy, The Weight of a Hummingbird
Robin Rosen Chang, Dead Horse Point
Romana Iorga, Nothing Left to Do
Whitney Kerutis, On Hunger and Birthing
Kathryn Merwin, Stephenson Lane
Matt W. Miller, Real Life
A. Molotkov, I close my eyes and silence
Bridget O’Bernstein, The Arrangement
Doug Ramspeck, the art of divination, dream of the ten rivers, renunciation
Nance Van Winckel, Past Life Reading: Record Keeping; Past Life Reading: Returning When the River’s Shallow; Past Life Reading: Wherewithal
John Sibley Williams, in the beginning the bodies were too soft
Connor Yeck, Sante Fe // Reliquary
ESSAYS
Steve Fellner, On Marxism, My Mother’s Body, and the State of Nonfiction
Charles Jensen, Spliced: Get Them to the Niche / Get Him to the Greek
Vincent Scarpa, The Sound of Silence
Rebecca Tan, Homesick
INTERVIEWS
I Have Always Been a Water Woman: An Interview with Kelly Grace Thomas
Ellen Marie Leathers-Wishart is a photographer who lives in Dallas, Texas. Drawn to the utilitarian qualities of the medium, Ellen studied photography at Maryland Institute College of Art where she received her bachelor’s degree. She has since worked as an aerial photographer in Oregon and Texas. She is also a trained carpenter.
Although she has always been enchanted by the striking quality and magic of tintypes, it wasn’t until 2015 that she decided to learn how to make them herself. She apprenticed with an established photographer who taught her the process of exposing images directly onto metal plates. She then bought a large format camera and taught herself the rest.
“The people in my life are my greatest inspiration. Portraiture allows me to share the stories I see in others and tintype photography translates the stories in a very tangible way.” -Ellen Marie Leathers-Wishart
In the spring of 2018, Ellen finished building her mobile tintype studio on a 16′ trailer that can be pulled to different locations with her truck. The entire process of creating a tintype portrait can be done within her studio. On the weekends, the studio lives in the parking lot of Death or Glory, a tattoo shop off of lower Greenville Ave in Dallas, and is available by appointment only. Ellen and her studio can also be hired for weddings and other private events. However, currently everything is on hold due to the coronavirus.