About Us

Whether it be celebrities like Terry McMillan, winner of The American Book Award, or Oscar winner Lou Gossett or newcomers like Brynn Saito or Alex Maynard, since 1990, Konch has been publishing American and international writers of the highest merit. Konch is sustained by Ishmael Reed, Tennessee Reed and our readers, granting us an independence that those zines with corporate sponsorship lack. Contributors to Konch have submitted work that is innovative and serene, but we reserve the right to be rowdy. The Jim Crow Media and literary Scene Have Failed Us.

Editorial

From The Publisher

Grace Wales Bonner, an international fashion genius and my collaborator, came in from London to curate a show for the Museum of Modern Art. Our art critic, Molly Guillermo, interviewed her…Our lineup of heavy hitters includes Jan Garden Castro, HooDoo leader Arthur Rickydoc Flowers, E. Ethelbert Miller, Tony Wallin-Sato, and regulars Dr.Michael LeNoir, Julia Wright, daughter of The Great One, our regular Yuri Kageyama is here, the diminutive poet who challenged the Japanese Government and The Nuclear Power industry and for her efforts won many international awards for her masterpiece, "News From Fukushima" directed by Carla Blank. We have Ron Jacobs, who writes about how Christopher Rufo, backed by billionaires and a congresswoman who is into "Replacement," forced the Black president of Harvard out of office. In the 19th Century, the old Teutonics who wanted to keep America racially pure saw Italians as poisoning Aryan blood. The new Teutonic has Italian heritage. The curriculum has brainwashed him to believe that white men founded classical civilization. Algebra as well?... Sidney Clifton sent us some photos of the dedication of a monument to the memory of her mother and my pal, Lucille Clifton.

Ishmael Reed

Contributors

Jan Garden Castro (www.jancastro.com/): books include The Last Frontier (poems, Eclectic Press), The Art & Life of Georgia O’Keeffe, Sonia Delaunay: La Moderne. Poems in New Letters, Exquisite Corps, Roof, Chronogram; reviews & essays in ABR & Sculpture.

Ron Jacobs is a writer for Counterpunch magazine. He is the author of several books and a longtime observer of this place we call Earth. His latest work, titled Nowhere Land: Journeys Througha Broken Nation is due out in Spring 2024.

Arthur Rickydoc Flowers, native of Memphis, is the author of novels, creative nonfictions, and graphic texts. He has been Exec. Dir. of The Harlem Writers Guild and various nonprofits and is a bluesbased performance artist and Delta Griot. He is professor emeritus, Syracuse University, and a practitioner of Literary hoodoo. The High Hoodoo of Memphis.

Richard Oyama’s work has appeared in Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry, The Nuyorasian Anthology, Breaking Silence, Dissident Song, A Gift of Tongues, Malpais Review, Mas Tequila Review and other literary journals. The Country They Know (Neuma Books 2005) is his first collection of poetry. He has a M.A. in English: Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Oyama taught at California College of Arts in Oakland, University of California at Berkeley and University of New Mexico. His first novel in a trilogy, A Riot Goin’ On, is forthcoming.

Molly Guillermo is a writer and blogger in NYC. She’s the co-writer of the podcast Calm It Down with Chad Lawson and an Assistant Editor at Barrelhouse Magazine.

Tennessee Reed is the author of seven poetry collections, a memoir and a novel. She has read her work around the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Israel and Japan. Her seventh poetry collection, Califia Burning, was published on November 3, 2020. Her most recent readings include the Whitney Biennial in New York City and Write America. She attended an artist residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida in October of 2021 and at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, California in November of 2022. She is the chairperson of PEN Oakland and the managing editor of Konch Magazine.

Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Miho Kinnas is a translator, writer, and poet. The poem, Three Shrimp Boats on The Horizon, was selected for Best American Poetry 2023. Also in 2023, a rengay written with Lenard D. Moore appeared in Tandem, Vol2, No2 and her translation of a poem by Tanaka Ikuko was published in Tokyo Poetry Journal Vol 12. She writes essays and book reviews for journals including Re-Markings, American Book Review and Literary Shanghai Alluvium. She runs a series of workshops based on short Japanese poetic forms at Writers.com and New York Writers’ Workshop. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the City University of Hong Kong. Her latest books are We Eclipse into The Other Side, collaborated with Miho Kinnas, published by Pinyon Publishing and Waiting for Sunset to Bury Red Camellias, published by Free Verse Press.

E. Ethelbert Miller is a writer and literary activist living in Washington D.C.

Yuri Kageyama is a poet, filmmaker and author of THE NEW AND SELECTED YURI (2011). "NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA" (2018) is a Yoshiaki Tago film documenting a San Francisco performance directed by Carla Blank of Kageyama's theater piece that combines poetry, music, video and dance, and "THE VERY SPECIAL DAY," (2019) is her collaboration with Japanese stop-motion artist Hayatto.

Tony Wallin-Sato is a Japanese American who works with formerly/currently incarcerated individuals in higher education as the Program Director for Project Rebound at Cal Poly Humboldt and is a lecturer in the critical race gender and sexuality studies department at Cal Poly Humboldt. He holds an MFA in Poetry and is the Co-Chair for the Boundless Freedom Project and an Advisory Board Member for the American Prison Newspaper Project. His first chapbook of poems, Hyouhakusha: Desolate Travels of a Junkie on the Road, was published in 2021 through Cold River Press. His first book of poems, Bamboo on the Tracks: Sakura Snow and Colt Peacemaker, was selected by John Yau for the 2022 Robert Creeley Memorial Award and is forthcoming through Finishing Line Press June 2024. His second book of poems, Okaerinasai, is forthcoming from Wet Cement Press October 2024. His work is featured in or forthcoming in the 2024 Asian American and Pacific Islander Anthology, We Gathered Heat, from Haymarket Books; Cultural Daily; The Asian American Writers Workshop: The Margins; Neon Door; Another Chicago Magazine; LIT magazine; and New Delta Review. Wallin-Sato's work comes out of the periphery and supports the uplifting of voices usually spoken in the shadows. All he wants is to see his community's thoughts, ideas and emotions freely shared and expressed.

Julia Wright is the elder daughter of Richard Wright and executrix of his estate. Having previously worked as a journalist and essayist on both sides of the Atlantic, she is now preparing a memoir on her father and writing Haiku from her lockdown in Southern Europe.

Dr. Michael LeNoir is a practicing Board Certified Pediatrician, Allergist and Immunologist. Associate Clinical Professor and Past President of the National Medical Association.

Emmy-nominated producer Sidney Clifton has over twenty years of experience as an executive producer, director and creative executive overseeing animated, mixed-media and live-action content. She has produced children’s and primetime content on Apple TV+, BET, NBC, Showtime, Paramount, and Hallmark Channel, and serves on the Board of Directors of The Academy of American Poets. In her role as mentor and recruiter, she has been a featured presenter, guest, and commencement speaker at colleges and universities across North America. Ms. Clifton’s passion for developing and supporting the underserved community of writers, artists, storytellers and creators was the catalyst for her launching The Clifton House (www.thecliftonhouse.co); a writer’s and artist’s workshop and retreat space centered at her childhood home in Baltimore Maryland—the home she shared with her five siblings and parents, artist/activist Fred J. Clifton and National Book Award winning poet and author Lucille Clifton.