Find out more about the fabulous writers in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly!
Historical:
Kate Chopin
Cover and title page Artist:
Kennan Hutchins
Jeanine DeHoney’s writing has been published in Mused-The Bella Online Literary Review, Timbooktu, Mutha Magazine, Literary Mama, Please See Me, Jerry Jazz Musician, Rigorous Magazine, Soul In Space Magazine, Gemini Literary Magazine, Wow: Women on Writing, The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour and Journal, MER, No More Margins, and many other literary magazines. She is an essayist in anthologies by: Black Lawrence Press (Mamas, Martyrs, and Jezebels); Black Freighter Press (When We Exhale); BLF Press(Black Joy Unbound); and in Zora’s Den (The Fire Inside III). She was the 2014 winner and a 2022 semifinalist of the Brooklyn Arts and Film Festival Nonfiction Contest. She won first prize for prose in The Blossom Contest hosted by table//FEAST, Editor’s pick for Five Minutes Literary Journal, and has been second place or shortlisted in several other contests. Jeanine was named a 2022 Honor Award winner by Sleeping Bear Press’s Own Voices Own Stories Collection for her children’s picture book, published by Sleeping Bear Press in August 2025. Jeanine’s story, ‘The Photo Session‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly and her ‘Sunday Supper’ can be found in the magazine’s Spring 2025 issue.
Cynthia Dorfman lives in Berkeley California. She is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana, and a graduate of Harvard and UC Berkeley School of Law. Her writing, fiction and nonfiction, has been recognized by and/or appeared in publications including Glimmer Train, Gravel, Waterbridge Review, and California Lawyer. Cynthia’s story, ‘Fiction‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Steven Fromm is a Detroit native currently living in New Jersey. His work has appeared in several publications, including Terrain.org, Salamander, Permafrost, The Saturday Evening Post, and The Columbia Journal. His short play, “Sister Bea’s Full Branzino,” recently received a stage presentation in London; his short story, “Six Carp,” was recently adapted into a film. Steven’s story, ‘Kilometer‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Shaun Anthony McMichael is the Pushcart-nominated author of the novel WHISTLE PUNK FALLS (Alternative Book Press, 2025); THE WILD FAMILIAR short stories (Cowboy Jamboree Press, 2024); and the poetry collection JACK OF ALL…(New Meridian Arts, 2024). Over 120 works of his writing have been published in literary journals such as The Chicago Tribune, Bellingham Review, and Adroit Journal. Since 2007, he has taught writing to students from around the world, in classrooms, juvenile detention halls, mental health treatment centers, and homeless youth drop-ins. He lives in Seattle with his wife and son where he attends church most Sundays. In addition to teaching English to immigrants and refugees at a public high school, he hosts an annual literary arts reading series, Shadow Work Writers. You can read more of Shaun McMichael on Blue Sky, @shaunmcmichael.bsky.social, Instagram: samcmichael, and Shaun Anthony McMichael: Writer. Educator. Editor. His story, ‘END STAGE‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Haley Souders holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and an MFA in Creative Writing Fiction from Bowling Green State University, where she served as an assistant editor at Mid-American Review and Winter Wheat Coordinator. Her work has been published in Wilderness House Literary Review and is forthcoming in Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment. Haley is currently an adjunct instructor in English at Ohio Northern University. Her story, ‘The Scarecrow, the Snake, and the Case of Internet Fame‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Hillary Adrienne Stern is a fiction writer living in Bethesda, Maryland. She holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her debut novel, The Garment Maker’s Daughter, was selected as an editor’s choice by the Historical Novel Society. Her story, ‘The Poughkeepsie Exit‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Lisa Trumble currently resides in Upstate New York, although her heart belongs to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. She earns her rent money by managing technology projects but devotes much of the rest of her time to writing fiction. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Ashland University. You can find more of Lisa’s writing on Bluesky: @lctwrites.bsky.social. Lisa’s story, ‘Aunts‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Virginia Watts is the author of poetry and stories found in The MacGuffin, Epiphany, CRAFT, The Florida Review, Reed Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Eclectica Magazine, and Rhino among others. Her debut short story collection Echoes from the Hocker House was short listed for 2024 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize, selected as one of the Best Indie Books of 2023 by Kirkus Book Reviews, and won third place in the 2024 Feathered Quill Book Awards. Please visit her at https://virginiawatts.com/. Virginia’s story, ‘The Pine‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Shi Quan Yap is a Singaporean writer whose stories are forthcoming or have appeared in The Hopkins Review and Singapore Unbound. He was recently awarded Honourable Mention for the Golden Point Award, Singapore’s premier creative writing competition for short story and poetry, and he has received support from the Disquiet International Literary Program and the Kenyon Writers Workshop. His story, ‘Sour Days‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
Featured Writer from the Annals of History:
Kate Chopin (1850 – 1904) began writing professionally in her forties as a widowed mother of six, shortly after her own mother died. She wrote short stories for city newspapers and magazines in St. Louis, Missouri, and was known for her stories’ regional Creole settings and their focus on women’s lives. Kate Chopin wrote only two novels in her life. Her most famous novel, The Awakening (1899), was widely panned as immoral, and languished without readership for decades. The book was rediscovered in the 1960’s, and Kate Chopin was re-evaluated as an early feminist writer. Her stories often delve into issues of race, class, privilege and morality. Kate Chopin was born into a wealthy family of slave owners and married a New Orleans plantation owner/cotton broker. When her husband died in 1882 and Kate Chopin discovered she was left with over $40,000 in debt (over a million dollars in today’s terms), she headed the remaining business for two years, until it became solvent and she was able to sell. Although her father had died when she was a child, her mother, Eliza Faris O’Flaherty, came from a monied French family with substantial resources; Eliza O’Flaherty financed the return of Kate Chopin and her children to St. Louis, where they were able to live in material comfort. When her mother died the following year, her doctor recommended that Kate Chopin once again take up her longstanding passion for writing, as a path out of depression and a channel for her energy. Kate Chopin’s story, ‘Miss McEnders‘ appears in the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly.
The Lemonwood Quarterly’s Winter 2026 featured artist:
Kennan Hutchins is an artist and a musician, living and working in Potsdam, Germany, twenty miles southwest of Berlin and all its cultural institutions. As an artist, Kennan works primarily with acrylic and ink on canvas or paper, creating abstract works on a large scale. He has participated in numerous exhibitions, most recently in Potsdam’s Cafe Matschke. As a musician, Kennan has a deeply heartfelt connection to chamber music and new music. Originally from Ohio, Kennan Hutchins’ parents were both musicians, and Kennan studied the violin with Donald Weilerstein and the viola with Abraham Skernik. He has been a part of hundreds of chamber music performances, including with The Nuremberg State Philharmonic Orchestra. Kennan’s painting, The Plan, is featured on the cover of the Winter 2026 issue of The Lemonwood Quarterly. Eleven additional pieces by Kennan Hutchins appear as the title page artwork for the stories in this same issue. You can see more of Kennan’s artwork at Atelier Ken Hutchins and on his Instagram page @Hutchinzzz.