amy locklin, author and editor-in-chief
Amy Locklin pictured above in Bloomington, Indiana, circa 2001 ; her grandmother pictured pre-World War Two, below.
Amy Locklin was born in California near the Golden Gate Bridge. She grew up in central Pennsylvania, where she attended Penn State University in theatre arts and English. Locklin earned her MA in theatre arts at SUNY Albany, and her MA in life writing and literature, and MFA in poetry writing at Indiana University Bloomington, where she directed the IU Writers’ Conference. Her poetry has won honors from the Academy of American Poetry, the Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest, and the San Diego Book Awards. Locklin researched speculative fiction for her PhD at Bath Spa University, and her sci fi detective novel is entitled The Case of the Organic Gone. She currently lives in Athens, GA.
Amy’s furry family, some now gone:
Dexter
Dexter was Amy’s oldest nonhuman family member. He had terrible heart disease but looked great. The condition may have been from the stress of living with one dog in particular (Stella) and moving across the entire US twice in a compact Honda Fit, in addition to genetics.
(RIP 9/27/2021)
Nelly was the second nonhuman animal to join Amy’s family
Shockingly, Nelly also has heart disease, possibly for the same reasons as Dexter, but not as advanced. She is very vocal with Amy but invisibly silent with nearly everyone else. Amy often jokes that she’s attached to her hip when she’s alone, as Nelly was at this writing.
Stella (for starship enterprise, as Amy called her)
Stella was the third nonhuman animal to enter Amy’s family. Her ex found her, a starved wild dog living along the Ohio River.
She had survived a cancerous cyst and a liver reaction to a medication that made her seem days away from death. Somehow her resilience brought her back after each health crisis, as it must have helped to keep her alive when she was abandoned before being fully grown, probably due to her problems with aggression. The corset effect of her slim stomach suggested starving before reaching physical maturity.
(RIP 8/14/2021)
Stanley, the cuddler, the charmer, the one Amy couldn’t help adopting even though she knew better (the one who may think he’s a cat, despite being larger than Stella)
Stanley joined a neighbor on her jog and followed her all the way home. Amy found him with her after he’d gotten away when she and her husband were trying to take him to animal control. Amy knew she shouldn’t add one more mouth to feed, plus vet bills and grooming, but he won everyone’s hearts too fast, except Stella’s.
It took a full year for the two to bond and begin to pee in the same spot, as if to say, “We are part of the same pack.”
