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Orange Blossom Review is an international, peer-reviewed literary journal seeking quality fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and artwork. We invite both experienced and emerging writers to submit material. Our goal is to curate innovative writing styles, novel points of view, and original and engaging content. We nominate for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize; while we are not yet a paying market, we hope to pay our contributors in the future. The entire OBR staff is comprised of unpaid volunteers. Orange Blossom Review is generously underwritten by the Florida College English Association, which currently seeks scholarly and creative writing-themed proposals for its annual conference.
Shanti Bruce, Ph.D. (Prose Editor) is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts at Nova Southeastern University. Two of her books have been honored with the International Writing Centers Association’s Outstanding Scholarship Award for Best Book. She has given numerous peer-reviewed and invited conference presentations and has co-chaired multiple conferences.
Hiya Chowdhury (Reader) is an aspiring writer from New Delhi, India. She was named the Senior Runner-Up at the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2017, was shortlisted in the International H.G Wells Short Story Competition 2019, and long-listed in the Palette Poetry Prize 2020. She also published her first children’s fiction novel in 2017, at the age of sixteen. Her work has appeared and is forthcoming in Rust+Moth, The Hellebore Press, BBC 500 Words, BLink, Sky Island Journal, and elsewhere.
Deirdre Fagan (Poetry Editor) is a widow, wife, mother of two, and associate professor and coordinator of creative writing in the English, Literature, and World Languages Department at Ferris State University. Fagan is the author of the forthcoming memoir Find a Place for Me, Regal House Publishing, 2022; a collection of short stories, The Grief Eater, Adelaide Books, 2020; a chapbook of poetry, Have Love, Finishing Line Press, 2019; and a reference book, Critical Companion to Robert Frost, Facts on File, 2007. Her poem “Outside In” was a Best of the Net finalist, 2018. Fagan writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and academic essays on poetry, memoir, and pedagogy. Meet her at http://www.deirdrefagan.com.
Marissa Glover (Co-Editor) teaches writing, humanities, and public speaking courses at Saint Leo University. Before academia, Marissa worked as a writer and editor for more than fifteen years. She is currently co-editor of Orange Blossom Review and a senior editor at The Lascaux Review, and her own work has been widely published in various journals and anthologies. Let Go of the Hands You Hold, her full-length poetry collection, is forthcoming from Mercer University Press in early 2021. You can read Marissa’s recent interview in Hoctok Magazine, learn more at her website MarissaGlover.com, and follow her on Twitter.
John David Harding (Co-Editor) is an associate professor of writing/research in the Cannon Memorial Library at Saint Leo University. He serves as assistant director of the Sandhill Writers Retreat and co-edits the literary journal Orange Blossom Review. Recent scholarly work includes a chapter published in Understanding the Short Fiction of Carson McCullers (Mercer University Press, 2020). His creative work includes publications in fiction, poetry, and visual art.
Jessica Lyn Harper (Reader) is a writer and editor living in Washington, D.C. She grew up in the Midwest and settled in Seattle before moving to the other coast. She has an MA in Writing and some other experience writing and editing for scientific and industry publications. You can learn more about her at JessicaLynHarper.com.
Liz Marlow’s (Reader) debut chapbook, They Become Stars, was the winner of the 2019 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition. Additionally, her work has appeared in The Bitter Oleander, the minnesota review, Orange Blossom Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
Ren (Katherine) Powell (Reader) is a poet and teaching artist. She is a native Californian–now a Norwegian citizen settled on the west coast of Norway. Ren has published six full-length collections of poetry and more than two dozen books of translations. Her sixth poetry collection, The Elephants Have Been Singing All Along, was published in 2017 by Wigestrand Publishers in a bilingual edition. Ren’s poetry collections have been purchased by the Norwegian Arts Council for national library distribution, and her poems have been translated and published in eight languages. She is currently focusing on handbound poetry collections and mixed media experimentation.
Jenna Skrelunas (Social Media Intern) is a recent Saint Leo University graduate who earned a B.A. in English with a specialization in Professional Writing. Jenna plans on becoming a broadcaster in the future; however, she will soon earn her M.Ed. with an Instructional Leadership and ESE concentration. While working on her master’s degree, she is currently working full time as the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Saint Leo University. As an undergraduate, she was involved in the Lions’ Pride Media Group on campus where she wrote for the Arts and Culture section. Jenna was also published in Grown and Flown, an online magazine that discusses growing up and leaving the nest.
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General Inquiries
All general inquiries may be sent to orangeblossomreview@outlook.com. Contributors: Please do not send submission queries until the next submission period has begun.