Table of Contents


Views and Mechanics
Publisher's Note
Editor's Note
Review of Paint It Black
Review of The i Tetralogy
Poetry
Zoology
By Patricia Murphy
Framed Gift
By Sheila McLaughlin Sikorski
Friends 'n' 'at or Ode to Pittsburghatory
By Betta Risa
In My Father's Shoes
By Richard Fein
Freedom
By Skip Shea
Fiction
Quitting Time
By Barbara Archer
Tumbleweed
By Thom Brennan
Maternal Instincts
By Diane Kimbrell
You Should Write People Dead
By T. M. Warfield
Spring Fling
By Patricia Murphy
About the Contributors

© 2007, River Walk Journal and respective authors and artists. All rights reserved. Do not use or reproduce without permission.

River Walk Journal, Inc.
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Vice Chairman - Joseph Koch
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Asst. Chairman - Dan Lachenman, PhD
Samuel Hazo
Christopher Leland
Edwin Yoder
Joseph Bathanti
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Publisher - Elizabeth Ross
Editor-In-Chief - Joseph Koch
Sen. Fiction Editor - Patti Kurtz
Sen. Poetry Editor - Neeldhara Misra
Sen. Creative Nonfiction Editor - Brenda Coxe
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Contributors' Bios

Patricia Murphy - Patricia Murphy teaches composition and creative writing at the SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica, NY. She both loves and hates language and poetry, a relationship she hopes will continue for a long time. Her work has been published in Ethos, CityArt and Arsenic Lobster, and Adagio Verse Quarterly.

Sheila McLaughlin Sikorski - Sheila McLaughlin Sikorski is a student in the Master's in Writing Program at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ. Her works have appeared in poetsagainstthewar.org and voicesinwartime.org as well as a self-published chapbook titled "How Dare I? Or Poetry That Would Get Me Thrown Out of Most Anywhere." Sheila also worked as a journalist for almost 20 years.

Betta Risa - Betta is a Pittsburgh-born global nomad with a penchant for rennfaires and comic books. When she's not reading the latest pulp rag, she's working in 'da 'Burgh' reigning as Queen of Yettaheim, her home with her husband and child.

Richard Fein - Richard Fein was Finalist in The 2004 Center for Book Arts Chapbook Competition. He has been published in many web and print journals, such as Oregon East, Southern Humanities Review, Touchstone, Windsor Review, Maverick, Parnassus Literary Review, Small Pond, Kansas Quarterly, Blue Unicorn, Exquisite Corpse, and many others.

Skip Shea - Skip Shea is the author of Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads) The Poems published by Katherine James Books. The poems are part of his one-man theatrical memoir, of the same name, about his life as a clergy sexual abuse survivor. The show has been performed at The Bowery Poetry Club and Jimmy Tingle's OFF BROADWAY Theater.

Barbara Archer - Barbara Archer lives and writes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her poetry has appeared in a number of publications, most recently in miller's pond, Ampersand, and Stylus.

Thom Brennan - Thom is a British writer living by the sea in Liverpool, UK. His work has appeared in The Richmond Review (UK), Eclectica, Whistling Shade, Small Spiral Notebook and other small presses.

Diane Kimbrell - Although she has lived in New York City for many years, Diane Kimbrell considers herself as another voice from the South. When she is not working her 9 - 5PM job that pays the rent or entertaining at children's parties as Smilee-The-Clown, she pursues an acting career and also writes and writes and writes.

T. M. Warfield - T. M. Warfield is a part-time writer and full-time English teacher in Littlerock, Ca. He holds a Bachelor's of English from California State University-Bakersfield, and spends his time writing short stories, fiction novels, and videogame lore.