Staff

April Gloaming Publishing is the dream-child of Lance Ümmenhofer. Currently a Southern Gothic Horror writer, he is working on several large projects and some small too. You can find his horror research blog at thehorrid.substack.com and some of his writing online and in print.

Drew Holden is a graphic designer and artist. After leaving his hometown of Bay City, TX at the age of eighteen, he made his way to Nashville to study Music Business at Belmont University. Drew wanted to work with creatives for a living. However, upon graduation, he felt he wanted more than to work with other creatives, he wanted to be a part of the creation process.

He was always drawn to the visual, whether it was drawing or building things. Drew began to study graphic design at Austin Peay State University two years later, and this changed his entire life. He knew what direction the future was going to take him. Upon graduation, he started working with Robyn Leigh Lear’s Authors and Artists: The Regenerates, and has now become April Gloaming Publishing’s Lead Designer, combining his artistic visions and talents into the creative ideals of this independent press.

Ericka’s approach to editing creative nonfiction is best described in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, as the painter, Mikhailov, considers what is happening on the canvas as he creates: “[h]e knew that much attention and care were needed not to injure one’s work when removing the wrappings that obscure the idea, and that all the wrappings must be removed.” The truth of a moment can suffocate under prose that only loves the sound of its own voice, or the heart of a story can be too aggressively edited out of a piece. As a nonfiction editor for April Gloaming Publishing, Ericka wants to observe this struggle in action and help authors find the balance between art and truth that nonfiction readers yearn for.

Geordan Goldtrap was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and has always been fascinated by the impossible, which led to an early and lifelong love of comic books. He always felt like an outsider growing up in the pervasive religious culture of the South, but he never allowed isolation to diminish his curiosity and excitement about the world and the people. Inspired by the presentation and examination of the human spirit in the most unusual of circumstances, Geordan challenged himself to become more like them by working hard within traditional societal structures and always looking what lay beyond them to find their existential cores and their alternatives. Martial artist, educator, and aspiring writer, Geordan is our graphic novel editor.

Jenai Rogers wants to live in a world where backyards are full of hiking trails and waterfalls, spontaneous solo dance parties are an accepted form of responsible self-care, and lemon sorbet and strong coffee magically materialize in response to mild irritation and disappointment.

As a case manager and server with a Masters of Education and a background in English Literature and Creative Writing, Jenai has an inordinate amount of creative people in her life. She often finds herself giving last minute advice on color selections, scene edits, screenplays and poetry. In 2009, Jenai helped write a grant proposal to the North Carolina and Asheville Arts Council and won the Regional Artist Project Grant for a small letterpress poetry and fiction journal. These days, she is working to support local artists as an editor for April Gloaming.

When she’s not reading your submission, you can find her arm knitting and watching foreign films with a tribe of cats peppering her living room.

Matthew Johnstone is the author of the poetry collection, Let’s be close Rope to mast you, Old light (Blue & Yellow Dog, 2010), and the chapbooks o n e (Inpatient Press, 2015), and Note on Tundra (DoubleCross Press, 2016). In addition to his work with April Gloaming, he co-edits ‘Pider (pidermag.com) and hosts the E t A l. poetry readings, both of Nashville, Tennessee.

“Down from the mountains comes the wise man from beyond where the sun sets and pulls grand truth from the abyss of night.” – Nietzsche O.K., maybe Michael Brandon Stoddard is not an ubermensch, but he is a recent Colorado immigrant spreading the seeds of his Southern upbringing in this new mountainous terrain, hoping something takes root in the thistle and brush. Upon moving to that land, he’s learned a few things: there is a visceral satisfaction in climbing on top of things, found bones make for both excellent decoration and a good way to screen potential friends, snow is a multi-faceted phenomenon but native Coloradoans will make fun of any perceived fascination, and he’s found the land where the faux-country cowboy hat wearing Nashvegas mofos appropriate their look, sans callouses and trucks converted into snowplows. While the grand forms on the horizon lend humility and the vast views grant an ownership of the land the congested South couldn’t afford, he looks forward to returning to his Southern tribe and breathing in that sweet miasma of natural abundance and economic upheaval, the kindness that only regional outcasts can muster. Because even when he lives up high, his heart will always be down low romping through glens Elysian.

Robyn Leigh Lear was born to the world, but she claims no country. Her soul dances through the North Carolina hills, her heart beats for the history of Savannah, GA, but her eyes look longingly toward deep, unexplored corners of the Southern landscape. Her writing is a combination of chaos and searching, and perhaps her history reflects this lack of direction. She is the creative dreamer behind Authors and Artists: The Regenerates, a writing and art collective that attempts to better understand the two mediums. Robyn is the Creative Director and “resident dreamer” for April Gloaming Publishing, working closely with authors and artists to help them bring their dreams from the background into reality.

Chuck Beard is the father of Avett Beard and lesser half for the amazing Emily Harper Beard (or the artist known as efharper). Chuck earned his BS in Psychology from Centre College and his MFA in Creative Fiction from Sewanee’s School of Letters. He is known around Nashville for starting up and running East Side Story for 5 solid years at the heart of 5 Points in East Nashville. Currently, he is also the creator and host of the 7 years and counting series with local authors and musicians called East Side Storytellin’. He is a contributor and publisher of the Based On Anthology, author of Adventures Inside a Bright-Eyed Sky, and he is busy going through his random notes daily while working on his next writing project as you read this bio.