Colleen Golafshan is a carer and writer who first worked as a physiotherapist for 13 years. From 1996 she home-educated children for over 15 years. After studying massage therapy to update her skills, Colleen began writing a parenting memoir during COVID, while seeking best management of a low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since chemo in 2021 and improved health in 2022, Colleen has cared for her mother with vascular dementia.
Atmosphere Press is proud to bring readers the Atmosphere Press Presents author interview series. We’re happy to have this archive of excellent interviews and author success stories for you to enjoy. Learn about writers and their books, from book title origin stories to music playlists that relate to their writing to what it was like seeing the cover for the first time.
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H. C. Kilgour has always had an active imagination; now she's sharing it with you. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, H. C. Kilgour currently lives in Miami, Florida, enjoying the permanent sunshine. She claims you're most likely to find her in the ocean (perks of being a marine biologist) or with her nose buried in a book. Her first love is fantasy fiction and it certainly shows in her first, but certainly not last, book to be released, Nanagin.
M.A. Maggiano grew up in Hoboken, NJ. He received his B.S. in Criminology from St. Leo College and received an M.S. in Strategic Intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College. A twenty-year Air Force veteran, he continued in government service and served forty-three years. His career had many different phases in both military and civilian positions beginning in 1972 at the end of the Vietnam War, an assignment to the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon during 9/11 and the Iraq War and culminating as an instructor and unit chief for Intelligence training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA. He has written three other standalone books besides his work on the two completed Valkyrie series works he has co-authored with his son. He and his wife now live in St. Augustine, Florida.
J.J. Hartly is more than an author; he's a seasoned storyteller entwining epic fantasy, where ancient magic dances with the grit of the modern mundane, and science fiction, where advanced technology develops limitless human potential, and weaving it together into a tapestry of science fantasy to inspire his readers with hope and imagination.
Dana Bradford-Majors is a prolific author known for her contributions to the acclaimed Black Boy Joy series, including titles such as "Humans Can't Fly," "Because Big Boys Aren't Afraid of Outer Space," and "Hey New Kid!" Collaborating with her sons and co-authors, Pheldon J. Majors III and Atreyu Majors, Dana brings a unique blend of creativity and family bonding to her storytelling.
Elizabeth Motes is a fiction writer from Dallas currently living in Flagstaff, Arizona. She’s previously been published in the Querencia Press Winter 2023 anthology for her stories “Perfect Memory” and “When a Door Closes.” “When a Door Closes” has also appeared in the Venus Rising anthology. Her stories have otherwise appeared in the Windward Review, the Trinity Review, and the Outrageous Fortune magazine. She currently works as the fiction editor for Thin Air magazine.
Gina Tempesta has been a broadcast journalist for more than twenty-five years and has an extensive background in on-air announcing, production, and writing. She has worked as an anchor and reporter for some of the most well-known stations Boston. While working as a traffic reporter, Gina began to dabble in creative writing and decided it was time to write a children’s book about Boston’s famous (infamous?) Big Dig. What’s a Zakim Anyway? is the second in her series A Story About the Big Dig about the massive road construction projects that changed the landscape of the city. Gina is currently the afternoon drive traffic reporter for WBZ-AM. She lives with her husband in a suburb north of Boston.
Jaclyn graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing from Coe College. She has several poems published in various publications. She currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with her wife and cats and dogs. She spends her free time with her wife and family. Jaclyn is currently working on earning a master’s degree in social work at Grand View University.
Kay “Kro” Kroger is an on-demand typewriter poet. They teach creative (type)writing classes and are poet-in-residence at the WNDR Museum. They have a linguistics MA (2016) and are an MFA student (2025). They are the DePaul Publishing Institute’s Editorial Assistant. Their interactive poetry/essay/activity collection, Prayer Wheel, was self-published in 2022 with grant support from the Illinois Arts Council. Their work has appeared in Outpatient Press, The Prairie Light Review, and QWERTY Quarterly, among others.
Thomas Kneeland is the author of We Be Walkin’ Blackly in the Deep (Marian University Department of Media, Communication, and Design) and a 2022 Frontier Poetry Global Poetry Prize finalist for the continent of Africa. He is a 2024 Speculative Play & Just Futurities Scholar-in-Residence, which is funded by Indiana University, the Mellon Foundation, IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute, IUPUI Center for Africana Studies & Culture, and the Ray Bradbury Center.
