MAD SWIRL PRESS

The Best of Mad Swirl : v2024 features 52 poets, 12 short fiction writers, and four artists whose works were presented on MadSwirl.com throughout 2024. Our editors reviewed the entire year’s published poems, stories and art to ensure this collection is truly “the best of” Mad Swirl.

2024 was quite a year! Thru it all, Mad Swirl was there, every one of the 365 days of it. We never missed a beat. Those beats are what you’ll get when you dig into 2024’s Best of Mad Swirl collection. You’re gonna hear a year’s worth of conversations from the poets, writers and artists who absorbed the world around them, sharing with us their unique voices & views thru their creations. As our opening quote to this collection so eloquently stated, “The function of the artist in a disturbed society is to give awareness of the universe, to ask the right questions, and to elevate the mind.”

This collection does just that.

Huge gratitudes & shout-outs to our 2024 featured Contributors (in alphabetical order):

Featured Poets:
Ahmad Al-khatat
David Allard
Jeff Bagato
Jason Baldinger
Jim Bates
Gayle Bell
Tony Brewer
Heather M. Browne
Bhargab Chatterjee
Dale Cottingham
Andrea Damic
John Dorsey
Alan Gann
Neile Graham
Jeff Grimshaw
John Grochalski
Barbara Hughes
Linda Imbler
Roberta Beach Jacobson
Casey Renee Kiser
Heller Levinson
Kimberly Madura
Roy N. Mason
Brendan McBreen
Harry McNabb
Steven Minchin
Rita Moe
Jessica Morris
Bruce Mundhenke
Tom Pescatore
Frank Phelan
Kushal Poddar
Dan Raphael
Royal Rhodes
Roderick Richardson
Polly Richardson(M)
Ron Riekki
Opalina Salas
Beate Sigriddaughter
Roger G. Singer
Willie Smith
Phyllis Souza
Dan Spencer
John L. Stanizzi
Patrick Sweeney
Chuck Taylor
John Tustin
Ndue Ukaj
Mel Waldman
Trier Ward
Harley White
Chris Zimmerly

Featured Short Story Authors:
Sreelekha Chatterjee
Susie Gharib
Jeff Grimshaw
Marie Higgins
Mehi Loveski
Edward N McConnell
Rituparna Mukherjee
Michael Pluto
Randall Rogers
Gianni Sacco
Marianne Szlyk
ChangMing Yuan

Featured Artists:
Jeff “Rip” Bender
Louella Lester
Mitchell Pluto
Edward Michael Supranowicz

Mad Swirl Editors:
Chief Editor Johnny Olson
Poetry Editor MH Clay
Short Story Editor Tyler Malone
Visual Editor Madelyn Olson

This year’s contributors hail from 4 continents and 10 countries (Australia, Canada, China, India, Ireland, Russia, Serbia, Syria, UK, USA [25 States: CA, CT, FL, IA, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TX, VA, VT, WA]).

Hopefully this teaser has enticed you enough to wanna get you your very own copy of “The Best of Mad Swirl : v2024!”

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Starting in 2017 we began publishing “The Best of Mad Swirl” anthologies, as well as a few other poetic gems for some mighty talented folks we know. If you haven’t snagged you a copy yet, here’s your one-stop-shop…

Check out these selections from Mad Swirl Press: 2018-2025
(click on cover to go to Amazon to purchase)

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Mad Swirl started with ink on paper. Our very first issue, a self-titled zine was published in 1999 and consisted of 32 glorious Xeroxed pages filled with poetry, prose, art and a whole lotta miscellaneous madnesses. Thru the years we published six issues of our Mad Swirl zine along with a handful of poetry chapbooks for a few local loco DFW poets. Sadly, those projects are now out of circulation… HOWEVER, we’ve digitized these back issues for your trip down memory lane.

Check out these OG back issues: 1999-2008
(click on cover to view PDF)