And When There Was No Crawdad We Ate Sand

<p><strong>Jason Ryberg</strong> is the author of twenty-two collections </p><p>of poetry six screenplays a few short stories a box full </p><p>of folders notebooks and scraps of paper that could </p><p>one day be (loosely) construed as a novel and countless</p><p>love letters (never sent). He is currently an artist-in-</p><p>residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted</p><p>P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community and is an</p><p>editor and designer at Spartan Books. His work has</p><p>appeared in <em>As it Ought to Be Up the Staircase </em></p><p><em>Quarterly Thimble Literary Magazine I-70 Review </em></p><p><em>Main Street Rag The Arkansas Review</em> and various </p><p>other journals and anthologies. He lives somewhere in </p><p>the Ozarks near the Gasconade River with a rooster </p><p>named Little Red and a Billy-goat named Giuseppe.</p><p></p><p><strong>Abraham Smith </strong>was raised around Ladysmith</p><p> Wisconsin and lives along the Wasatch Front where he is associate professor of English and co-director of Creative Writing at Weber State University. His most recent poetry collection is <em>One Warm Morning </em>(Stubborn Mule Press 2025). Away from his desk Smith improvises poems inside songs with the Snarlin' Yarns: thesnarlinyarnsut.bandcamp.com. </p><p></p><p><strong>John Dorsey</strong> is the former Poet Laureate of Belle </p><p>MO. He is the author of several collections of poetry </p><p>including <em>Which Way to the River: Selected Poems: </em></p><p><em>2016-2020 </em>(OAC Books 2020) <em>Sundown at the </em></p><p><em>Redneck Carnival</em> (Spartan Press 2022) <em>Pocatello </em></p><p><em>Wildflower</em> (Crisis Chronicles Press 2023) and <em>Dead </em></p><p><em>Photographs</em> (Stubborn Mule Press 2024). He may be </p><p>reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.</p><p></p><p>Originally from the flatlands of central Illinois <strong>Justin </strong></p><p><strong>Hamm</strong> now lives near Twain territory in Missouri. He </p><p>is the author of five full-length collections of poetry <em>O </em></p><p><em>Death Drinking Guinness With the Dead: Poems 2007-2021 </em></p><p><em>The Inheritance American Ephemeral</em> and <em>Lessons in Ruin;</em> </p><p>six poetry chapbooks; and a book of photographs </p><p>entitled <em>Midwestern</em>. He is also the creator of Poet </p><p>Baseball Cards and the founding editor of the <em>museum </em></p><p><em>of americana.  </em></p>