Poets
(click name for bio)
Eileen Pettycrew
Thrift was first published in the journal Slipstream (issue #41, 2021).
Eileen Pettycrew's poems have been published or are forthcoming in New Ohio Review, CALYX
Journal, Cave Wall, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, SWWIM, and elsewhere. In 2022 she was one of
two runners-up for the Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry and a finalist for the New
Letters Award for Poetry. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Eileen lives in Portland, Oregon.
Melissa Favara
Melissa Favara teaches English, writes nonfiction, collects typewriters and old
hotel stationery, and is a good correspondent.
Reach Melissa at
mel.favara@gmail.com.
Allisa Cherry
"13th Article of Faith" was published by
Poetry South and is
forthcoming in the collection
An Exodus of Sparks
Allisa Cherry’s poetry has appeared recently in
TriQuarterly, The Penn Review, The Journal,
The Baltimore Review, and
Rust + Moth. She is the recent recipient of the
Wheelbarrow Books
poetry prize awarded by the RCAH Center for Poetry and her book
An Exodus of
Sparks is forthcoming from MSU Press.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest where she completed her MFA at Pacific University, teaches
workshops for immigrants and refugees transitioning to a life in the United States, and is an
associate poetry editor for
West Trade Review.
Matt Schumacher
Matt Schumacher's work is forthcoming in
Coffin Bell and
Birdcoat
Quarterly. His chapbook,
Mooncalf Almanac, will be published this year on
Bottlecap Press.
He edits the journal
Phantom Drift and lives in
Portland, Oregon.
Armin Tolentino
Armin Tolentino is the author of the collection
We
Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press) and served as poet
laureate for Clark County, WA from 2021-2023. He is a phenomenal clapper, a passable ukulele
player, and a bumbling, but enthusiastic, fisherman. More info at
www.armintolentino.com.
Kim Stafford
Kim Stafford is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at
Lewis & Clark College, and is the author of a dozen books, including The Muses Among Us:
Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer’s Craft (U. Georgia Press, 2003),
and As the Sky Begins to Change (Red Hen Press, 2024). He has taught writing in
Scotland, Mexico, Italy, and Bhutan. He served as Oregon Poet Laureate 2018-2020. He teaches
and travels to raise the human spirit.
Poems reprinted from As the Sky Begins to Change, by Kim Stafford (Red Hen Press,
2024), by permission of the author.
Scott Poole
Scott Poole has been writing and performing poetry in the Pacific Northwest for
over 30 years. He has been drawing and painting for 18 years, but began exhibiting in just the
last four years. He is best known for his 11 year stint as the "House Poet" on the weekly Live
Wire! public radio variety show, taped in Portland, OR and broadcast nationally by Public Radio
International. He is the author of eight books of poetry: most recently,
Switching Rooms at
the Infinity Hotel (Lunch Hour Press, 2023) In 2019, he finally combined his two art
forms by marrying 20 original paintings with 20 of his poems. Since then he has produced a book
of 20 poems and 20 paintings every year. He lives in Vancouver, WA with his wife and family
where he works as a software developer. You can find out more about his work at
scottpoole.com.
Jennifer (JP) Perrine
Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the author of five books of poetry:
Beautiful
Outlaw (forthcoming in early 2025),
Again,
The Body Is No Machine,
In the Human Zoo, and
No Confession, No Mass. Their latest poems and essays
appear in
Five Minutes, The Maine Review, Cincinnati Review, Pleiades, Nimrod, New Letters,
Poetry Northwest, Orion Magazine, Harpur Palate, Oregon Humanities, Essential Queer Voices
of U.S. Poetry, and Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry. Perrine lives in
Portland, Oregon, where they cohost the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, teach writing, and
work as the equity and racial justice program manager with the regional parks and nature
department. Read more at
www.jenniferperrine.org
Levin Schersvanaskitty
Levin Schersvanaskitty is a bicycle star and philosopher. You should probably
see him do
bike tricks.
Emily Kendal Frey
Emily Kendal Frey is a therapist. Her poetry can be found on Instagram
@emilykendalfreypoetry Poems
here are from a chapbook called
The New Planet.
Dan Hannon
Dan Hannon is a third generation Oregonian. He holds a Masters Degree in
Creative Writing from the University of Oregon, and taught writing and International Studies at
Mt. Hood Community College for thirty-one years. He enjoys hiking, cross country skiing, sea
kayaking, gardening, and of course, writing. He and his wife, Cathie, live in Portland, Oregon.
Dan Hannon's poem The Wind Ledger was a winner in the 2023 Raymond Carver Writing Festival.
Sarah Summerhill
Sarah Summerhill receives poetry inspiration from daily walks around the
beautiful growing downtown of Vancouver, where she lives with her brown tabby, Orphea. Find her
on Instagram at
@spiiirtd.
Sarah Summerhill's poem was a winner in the 2023 Raymond Carver Writing Festival poetry
contest.
Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver (born May 25, 1938, Clatskanie, Oregon, U.S.—died August 2,
1988, Port Angeles, Washington) was an American short-story writer and poet whose realistic
writings about the working poor mirrored his own life. Born: May 25, 1938, Clatskanie, Oregon,
U.S. Carver was the son of a sawmill worker.
He was famous for short story collections such as: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,
and Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
These poems included as part of the Raymond Carver Writing Festival in Clatskanie, Oregon.
Experiments
Message in a bottle
Several capsules prompt you to send a personalized message to another Gumball Poetry patron. After that patron creates a message, we will then print and insert a special code into a capsule so that a recipient may engage with the sender. Similar to a true 'message in a bottle', as if floating from one side of the ocean to the other.
Riley I. Gelway
Riley I. Gelway is a superb poet. But unfortunately, they have taken offense at the stringent requirements of our journal; we have printed their protest letter in its entirety.
Featured poem:
The 13th Article of Faith
by Allisa Cherry
(originally published in Poetry South)
The bishop said think on these things
but we didn’t know if he meant
chastity or virtue, benevolence
or faith — all nouns that might be
used by a cosmetic company
for different shades of lip gloss.
We thought imagine
only ever kissing one mouth
for the rest of your life. He said
Follow the admonition of Paul
and we heard Bono
singing “40”— the Edge’s voice
entering high in the octave.
We wanted each subsequent year
to be a new mouth
opening toward us
filled with longing and praise.
The unfashionable tie
knotted at the bishop’s throat
made us think of a tether.
How he’d lashed himself to his woman
like a raft on a swollen river.
His eyes did not brighten
before the shine on our mouths.
He was steadfast. He belonged
in the company of ranchers.
He had one desire.
He meant to drive us
like cattle toward God.