Bio & Links

Carmel’s diverse background includes music and martial arts. For years, she taught self-defense and child safety awareness, as well as traditional Karate and Kobudo (weapons) training. On the opposite end of the spectrum, she 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.

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, Hive Avenue Literary Journal, and others. 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.

Locally, Carmel leads a weekly writers group, encouraging writers to share their work through readings and community events. She built an online journal for the group to share their work with friends and family. You can view their website here.

Together, she and her husband founded Panhandle Creek Publishing. They are building 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.

Explore My Work

Here are a few of my pieces that are available to read online. My work reflects my own life, values, and the principles of Writing for Peace. While some of these stories were a personal stretch, my goal is to find the humanity in even the darkest places. I believe it’s through these universal truths that we can gain empathy and compassion.

Nobody Knows

Published in Hive Avenue Literary Journal

I wonder, sometimes, whether our spiritual beliefs come more from religious training,
or from trying to make sense of the experiences we have in life. My family wasn’t very
religious. We prayed at bedtime but didn’t attend church on a regular basis. We
celebrated Christmas and the Easter bunny, and I remember a couple of Midnight
Masses when we visited our grandparents – the candles, the carols, the incense and
stained glass. Growing up in Alaska, the natural rhythm of the wilderness was woven
into a sense that there were forces beyond our understanding that influenced our lives.
And it was through lived experiences that my perceptions of our spiritual nature, and
the limitations of manmade doctrines, began taking shape.

Autumn in the Rockies

Published in KNOT Literary Review

I’m crouching in worn leather boots and jeans on a lichen covered boulder in an aspen grove. A lodgepole spreads its dark green branches above me, but this little spot at the base of the ravine is dominated by aspens…

Jamila

Published in Smokelong Quarterly (Read author interview)

The first time I went to kill my sister I couldn’t do it…

This Woman´s Skin

Published in KNOT Literary Magazine

I thought I should write something

about this woman’s skin,

the way it slides beneath

his hand, just slightly cooler, smoother…

An Interview with Sam Hamill

Published in KNOT Literary Magazine

Sam Hamill, revolutionary poet and scholar, is the author of more than forty books, including fifteen volumes of original poetry, four collections of literary essays, and notable translations of ancient Chinese, Japanese, Greek and Latin classics..

The Calisia