Bio

Carmel Mawle is a writer and photographer based in Northern Colorado. She co-chairs the Greenbelt Management Committee in her mountain community, coordinating stewardship of 563 acres of wildlands. Her diverse background includes piano instruction, self-defense and child safety awareness, as well as traditional Karate and Kobudo (weapons) training. She’s served as executive director of a youth orchestra and as president of a chamber music organization. In 2011, Carmel founded the nonprofit literary organization, Writing for Peace, and served as Editor-in-Chief of DoveTales, An International Journal of the Arts from 2013-2022. She writes from the Rocky Mountains where she lives with her husband and Max, a ten-pound border terrier mix who firmly believes he’s a mountain dog.

Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her short stories, essays and poetry have been published in literary journals and anthologies, including Smokelong Quarterly, KNOTS Literary Magazine, Shake The Tree Anthology, Mom Egg Review, Lucid Moose Lit and Hive Avenue Literary Journal. Carmel’s short story, “Heading South,” earned Honorable Mention in the 2022 Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize, and is forthcoming in Cutthroat, A Journal of the Arts. Her poem, “Enough,” is forthcoming in “HerWords,” a publication of Black Mountain Press.

Carmel currently leads a writing group for seniors in the Fort Collins Independent Living Facility where her mom lives. Together, she and her husband are working to build a Bed & Breakfast and literary home for readings and workshops in the Rocky Mountains, a place where writers can draw inspiration from the natural world.