Quintessential Poetry: Online Radio, YouTube and Zoom

Kiana Balacich is a writer, musician, and educator from New York City. Kiana hosts the Instagram Live poetry show "Words and Music" on @Poetconnection, and the poetry fundraiser "Heal and Help" with Kelly Myerson and Vania Verses. Kiana's published features include the Eve Poetry Magazine and the forthcoming "Poets Against Poverty Volume 2."

James Nguyen is a serial entrepreneur who has previously been featured across CNBC, Sky, ABC and been a contributing writer on Forbes. In jqn, James is able to distill his experience and lessons about life and business through the beauty of spoken word poetry. His topics range from truths about life, love, and spirituality; while he also expounds on first principles from business and entrepreneurship in a collection of poems as well.

Indran Amirthanayagam (www.indranmx.com) writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole. He has published twenty poetry books, including the forthcoming Blue Window (translated by Jennifer Rathbun),The Migrant States (www.hangingloosepress.com), Coconuts on Mars, The Elephants of Reckoning(winner 1994 Paterson Poetry Prize), Uncivil War and.The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems. In music, he recorded Rankont Dout. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly (www.beltwaypoetry.com); curates www.ablucionistas.com; writes https://indranamirthanayagam.blogspot.com; co-directs Poets & Writers Studio International, writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche and El Acento; has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture, the Macdowell Colony. He is a 2021 Emergent Seed grant winner. Hosts the Poetry Channel https://youtube.com/user/indranam.

Debbie Monteggia lives in Mesa, AZ with her husband and two dogs. She works in the design industry as an interior designer. She enjoys bicycling, walking and playing pickleball. Debbie is very dedicated to giving back and will allocate a percentage of her book sales to a basic needs charity. Debbie also sells individual poems from the book that can be overlaid over a favorite framed picture of a friend or family member. You can view and purchase these poems, and discover more about Debbie, at TearsofChangePoetry.com.

Martin Graff is an artist, author, musician, and extreme-chin-beard enthusiast living in Arlington, VA. He imagines and illustrates faces―human, animal, alien, abstract―and writes poetic prose to associate with each. His live spoken-word show adds original piano compositions to heighten the experience.

“It started in childhood. To amuse the five-year-old me, my father drew a face on the inside bottom of a large water thermos that he used for tennis. When you looked into the empty container, you could see a deep, swollen, horizontal slit at the end where the halves of the plastic mold came together. With a long pencil, Dad drew two black circles above the slit, now a ‘mouth,’ and my imagination was triggered: the resulting expression was weird, cute, and mildly foreboding all at once. That simple, neutral water bottle became a sentient oddity for which to compose a strange and entertaining backstory. I’ve been at it ever since, finding unexpected narratives and messages in the ordinary details around me.”Graff's original humor, affecting commentary, and whimsical artwork offer a uniquely engaging respite that cuts through the noise of our information-age lives with concise, essential truths certain to entertain as they set mind in motion. The Face Zone: Surreal Daydreams to Trip Your Imagination... https://www.thefacezone.com/, https://tripsforpiano.com/.

Born in Virginia, Bill Cushing grew up in New York, attended school in Pennsylvania, began college in Missouri but quickly found himself back in Virginia and New York as well as Florida, Maryland, Texas, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico before moving to California in 1996.

When he began his studies at the age of 37, he edited GO magazine, an alternative arts publication in Jacksonville, Florida. As an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida, he was often referred to as the "blue collar" poet based on his previous years working at various jobs. He earned an MFA in writing from Goddard College in Vermont. He is currently working on a memoir focused on his time serving as an electrician in the Navy and later working on both Navy ships and oil tankers.

His three collections of poetry are A Former Life (honorable mention from the 2020 Kops-Featherling International Book Award), Music Speaks (third place winner in the 2021 New York City Book Awards) and . . . This Just In . . . (2021). 

Bill has had reviews, articles, and poems published in Another Chicago Magazine, Birders World, Brownstone Review, genius & madness, Glomag, Metaphor, Sabal Palm Review, the San Juan Star, and West Trade Review. He is proud of having been part of both volumes of the award-winning Stories of Music along with the inaugural issue of Borfski Press, Getting Old, and Lullaby of Teeth, an anthology whose title was inspired by one of his poems.

In 2017, Bill was named one of the Top Ten Poets of L. A. Recently he was also named as one of "Ten Poets to Watch in 2018." Bill continues to write, read, and facilitate a writing workshop (9 Bridges chapter) after retiring in 2020 from 23 years of teaching English at East Los Angeles and Mt. San Antonio colleges. He resides in Glendale with his wife and their son.

Prachi Kothari is a 10-yr-old author and has published many books in her series, "The lightning bulbs of my heart". She was born on 10th December 2009 in Mumbai, India. Along with that, she is an excellent blogger at her site: exemplaryprachi.blogspot.com where she wrote 50 blogs in 10 days. She also works as a young writer freelancer at Fiverr. She is one of the youngest podcasters and runs her show, 'Extraordinary World On Earth' where she spreads excellent awareness of the environment. She is a YouTuber at 'Prachi Kothari' where she recites many of her beautiful poems.' She admires writing and aims to create a better world for all.

Maureen Mays is a published author of The Color of Life in the House of Mei, Love Still Smiles on Dark Days, Because She Had Something to Say and Married: It’s Complicated. Writing has been a therapeutic pastime that was discovered in her teenage years. Her love for writing was rekindled after many years of being a closet writer. She now Blogs, speaks, writes, and encourages others to not only embrace their talents, and dreams but more importantly embrace their God given purpose. Maureen served in the United States Army Reserves a military police officer and civil affairs specialist. She is a devoted mother of two children. They both share her love of philanthropy by giving back to their church and community. They also share her love of entrepreneurship as they watch and strategically create, study, and embark on business opportunities. She is a local resident of the DC metro area. She attended Howard University and later graduated from the University of Maryland. She enjoys painting, cooking, live music, gardening, and enjoying life to its fullest. Maureen is available for speaking engagements and public appearances.

Nicole Verrone wrote Nest of Stars over six months, after a twenty-year hiatus to raise four daughters. Born in North Carolina, she spent summers on her grandparents’ dairy farm where the poetry of an uncle lost in a tragic car accident was on display. This formative event instilled the beauty and brevity of life through verse. A writer since adolescence, her first poem was published in the local newspaper in 1986. She earned a BA in English from UNC-Greensboro, taught high school literature, and currently serves on an educational team as accreditation and continuing education consultant in the healthcare industry. 

Verrone lives vicariously through the accounts of adult daughters studying to become healthcare professionals and providers. Her youngest, a pre-teen, still hangs out in the nest. Verrone has been married for a long time to a fly fishing guru and her best pal. She attempts to embrace intangible gifts, fill time and space with art and music, reading and philosophy, and has an unquenchable thirst for stories and travel. Nest of Stars is her first published work.

Francis DiClemente Biography:

Francis DiClemente lives in Syracuse, New York, where he works as a video producer. He is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Outward Arrangements: Poems (2021) and Dreaming of Lemon Trees: Selected Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2019). He is the co-director of the documentary short film The Real Bedford Falls: It’s a Wonderful Life, which explores the connections between the town of Seneca Falls, New York, and Bedford Falls, the setting of the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life. His full-length stage play, Beyond the Glass, inspired by the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks, was produced by the Las Vegas Little Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017. He received a bachelor’s degree in communications/journalism from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, and earned a master of arts in film and video from American University in Washington, DC. His blog can be found at https://francisdiclemente.com/. Photo by Shane Johnson.