Gekker Publishing
-Where literature matters
Meet Our Authors & Artists
Summer 2023
Phoebe Gonzales Rohrbacher
Artist
Phoebe Gonzales Rohrbacher provided us with this issue's cover art and colcha embroidery featured in the This & That section. She is a white and Northern Nuevo Mexicana Chicana, born and raised in Juneau, Alaska and now lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, Canada. Phoebe makes colcha embroidery, which she studied under master colcha artist Julia Gomez in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wool colcha embroidery was developed in Northern New Mexico in the 16th century. Through colcha embroidery, she connects with a place-based traditional art form, specifically from her Northern New Mexican heritage. She hopes that by practicing colcha embroidery, she can play a small role in its continuation.
Quentin Ragan
Artist
Quentin Ragan provided Gekker Quarterly's summer edition with sectional artwork, in the form of ink painting and sculpture. As a poet, stone carver, and painter, Quentin takes inspiration from many different faucets. In all his creative endeavors, he learns through trial and error, which has lead Quentin to the view that everything has potential to be assembled or modified to display unique aesthetic choice.
Stephen Schulz
Author- Fiction
Stephen Schulz has been selected to contribute a series of short stories with Gekker Quarterly, to be released between Spring 2023 and Spring 2024. His work, Restless Crows, examines the dismantling of the nuclear family in contemporary middle class America.
Anna Baldwin
Author- Fiction
Anna Baldwin is a pretty regular human being who was born and raised in Ellensburg, Washington. Much of her work is characterized by a childlike, whimsical style, and she is inspired by elements of nature, spirituality, and philosophy. She has explored many different forms of art, including poetry, painting, drawing, fiction and nonfiction prose, and music. She views art simply as a meaningful way to pass time in this life, and it sure does keep her busy.
Jampa Dorje
Essayist
Jampa Dorje, aka Richard Denner, was a Berkeley street poet in the 1960s. Living in a wilderness cabin in Alaska, he began printing chapbooks; there are now over 400 titles. Working cowboy on a cattle ranch, tree planter on the slopes of Mount Saint Helens, longtime proprietor of Four Winds Bookstore & Café in Ellensburg, Washington, Jampa completed a traditional solitary, three-year retreat in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This poet-printer-yogi now reads philosophy at CWU.
He is Ellensburg's 2022 Art Treasure.
Sarita Dasgupta
Author- Fiction
Sarita Dasgupta is a writer, editor, poet and playwright. Before coming to USA, Sarita lived in the state of Assam (India) amidst acres of green tea bushes, where she developed a deep and abiding love and respect for Nature and the many wild creatures she encountered. Her published works - Feathered Friends - a collection of fables for children - has birds as characters; and the Rainbow Reader series of English Literature and Language textbooks for Grades 1 to 4, contain original stories, poems and essays promoting gender equality; respect for animals and Nature; and responsibility towards preserving one’s heritage and the environment. Her original musicals for children focus on delivering relevant messages through entertainment.
Kama
Poet
Kama, full name Katherine Maria Camarata (she/they), was born and resides in Ellensburg, WA. She is a circus performer with a focus on hoops, poi and fire, a journalist, vocalist, CWU student in psychology/philosophy and former Lead Editor of the CWU weekly newspaper, The Observer. They helped create the Headlight Children performance project, volunteer for local nonprofit Northwest Expressive Arts Response (NEAR) and organize community events centered around poetry, song and motion.
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Cory Eberhart
Poet
Cory Eberhart was second born in a family of nine and grew up in Kittitas County, Washington. She earned both BA and BEd from Central Washington University, as well as her MFA from University of Oregon. She has been a teacher in public schools and community non-profit volunteer. She writes with an observing eye and the goal of creating an infusion of grace and beauty melded to the acts of seeing, feeling, saying, sharing and comprehending.
David Asia
Poet
David Asia is a retired mental health and substance abuse counselor. He lives on a small farm in North Central Washington State with his wife, nineteen chickens, and every so often a couple of pigs. Oh, and a dog he calls bob barker (for obvious reasons). His poetry and prose have appeared in the Northwest Mirror, Poetica Magazine, The New English Review, Methow Grist, and War Crimes Times, among others.
Clayton Bohnet
Artist, Poet
Clayton Bohnet has been seeking poetry through many life stages and has self-published some zines, collections of poetry, and some of his own works. He has participated in one somewhat sustained collaborative art group and has exhibited some of his own works, such as the collage presented here. He is some child of the battle of Seattle and the camps of Zuccotti. His philosophical montage on the nature of protest was published by in 2020 by Lexington Books. His favorite pastime is telling people why he wants to interview them. He has worked as a teacher and now studies law.
Louise Greer
Author- Fiction
Louise Greer is a creative writing student at Western Washington University. She enjoys spending time in
nature, reading, and dance. This piece was inspired by a short time spent living in Stuttgart, Germany.
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Larry Kerschner
Poet
Larry Kershner was born in Seattle, 1946, one of eleven children. He was educated in Catholic grade school and high school, was drafted into the Army Summer 1967, and Spent 14 months in the Infantry in Vietnam. Larry spent 35 years as a registered Nurse, including 25 years as a Family Nurse Practitioner in rural communities. He is the founder of a weekly peace vigil in Centralia for the past 20+ years.
Larry began writing poetry as a child and has been intermittently writing since. Politically active with Veterans For Peace, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and Pacific Life Community.
Blog: www.livejournal.com/~larrywrites
Books at: www.peacepoetpoetry.com