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I was not originally scheduled to edit the RIZE Short Story Anthology, Volume 1, but sometimes fortune smiles. The opportunity to select and edit this collection, written by authors from underrepresented groups, was one of those professional milestones that ultimately has a way of getting into the psyche and marking my personal map with moments of growth, insights, and cherished value. With an eclectic gathering of voices, these stories add dimensions to leave the readers’ perspectives more worldly, experiences widened, and thoughts stretched out of their conditioned molds. This inaugural edition of the RIZE Short Story Anthology represents stories and authors from around the corner and from around the world and, by design, offers a diverse adventure into storytelling that leads to a great adventure of story reading. - Benjamin B. White, Editor of RIZE Short Story Anthology, Volume 1, and author of The Recon Trilogy +1

Feng Gooi was born and raised in the sunny tropical island of Penang, Malaysia but is currently in snowy Buffalo, New York. Be careful, he is easily startled. You can find his work in Shoreline of Infinity, Hexagon, and Vincent Brothers Review. Connect with him on Twitter: @FengGooi Tony Martello is a family therapist who grew up surfing the wild waves of Hawaii and California. He is the author of Flat Spell Tales, Under the Curtain, Climbing Currents, and Of Song & Stitches. His poems and short stories can also be found in The Atherton Review, October Hill Magazine, New English Review, Forbidden Peak Press, Rigorous Mag, Short Edition, and route7 review. He currently lives in San Luis Obispo, CA with his wife and two daughters. Porsha Stennis is a twenty-something year old writer, born and raised in Chicago. She graduated with an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago where she completed two published works: Wading, featured in literary magazine midnight &indigo and The Black American Identity Quiz, featured in The Syndrome Magazine. She hopes to publish her first novel in the near future and to continue to share compelling stories examining the human experience. Derek Weinstock was born in the eye of a sharp needle and they’ve been watching him ever since. He grew up quick and he grew up mean, his fists got hard and his wits got keen. Weinstock currently attends the University of Life, and is seeking his bachelor’s degree in The Real Stuff. He enjoys short stories, short walks on the beach, short people (depending on how high-pitched their voices are), and the works of Ernest Hemingway, E.O. Wilson, and Killer Karl Krupp. Weinstock is twenty-four years old, and intends to write until he’s twenty two again. Brianna Ferguson is a writer and educator from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. She holds a Master of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Education from UBC. Her poems and stories have appeared in various publications across North America and the U.K. Her first book, A Nihilist Walks into a Bar, was published by Mansfield Press in 2021. Inbal Gilboa is an Arizona-based, Jewish-immigrant writer. In 2019, Gilboa’s short story ＂ The Yearlong Lighthouse＂ was honored with the 1st Place in Fiction by the Glendon and Kathryn Swarthout Awards in Writing. In 2022, she completed her MFA in Creative Writing through Northern Arizona University, and her work has been published in Punt Volat, JAKE, and Passengers Journal. I have been writing creative fiction for over 10 years now. I do freelance beta-reading and editing when I’m not working on my own writing and my blog. In May 2020 I received my BA in Creative Writing and English from the University of Arizona. I run a personal blog writinguntilragnarok.com and can be found on Twitter and Instagram @SeleneLaufey and @UntilWriting. Makani Speier-Brito is a bilingual and biracial poet. Her book The Woods Hold Us is a collection of poems about the intricacies of a chosen family. She is a second-year MFA candidate in the Creative Writing program at the University of Texas - El Paso. She received her BA in Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of California - Santa Cruz. Her work has appeared in several publications including Plural Personal, All the Distance, Z Publishing ’ Best Emerging Poets of California, ’ CIRQUE Journal, Matchbox Magazine, Red Wheelbarrow, Chinquapin and Forever Spoken. Tom Marrotta is the author of ＂ A Cowboy Lost,＂ and other biomythographical pieces of life’s painful experiences - intolerance, and injustices, and the resulting tragedies. He has an MA from Union College in upstate NY where he now spends his time renovating properties with the love of his life, and his Great Dane, Jack. His work has been published in the Flumes Literary Journal, Weasel Press, Limit Experience Journal, Coffee People Zine, Miracle Monocle, Plentitudes Journal, Prometheus Dreaming, and Two Sis