Masthead

Associate Editor: Rider Barnes

Publisher: Rusty Barnes

Contributing Editor: Nikki Dolson

Fiction Editor Emeritus: Tim Hennessy

Fiction Editor: Ted Flanagan

Rider Barnes (he/him) is a writer and editor, who from time to time, writes and edits. His first publication was in Tough. 

Rusty Barnes (he/him) was born in rural Appalachia and has lived near Boston for the last 25 years. He is the founder of Tough, and was the cofounder of Night Train, a prominent literary journal that ran from 2002 through 2015. Among his nine book and three chapbooks are four published novels, which he is most proud of, since it took him till he was forty to complete one. His latest book is a collection of linked stories called Kraj the Enforcer.

Nikki Dolson (she/her/Ms.) is the author of the novel All Things Violent and the story collection Love and Other Criminal Behavior. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Vautrin, TriQuarterly, ThugLit and other publications. Her fiction has been nominated for a Derringer and noted as Distinguished in The Best American Mystery Stories 2016.

Tim Hennessy(he/him) is a bookseller who lives in Milwaukee, WI. His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Tough, Mystery Tribune, Midwestern Gothic, Crimespree Magazine, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, among other places. He is the editor of the Milwaukee Noir anthology from Akashic Books.

Ted Flanagan (he/him) lives and writes in central Massachusetts. A former crime reporter for several daily newspapers, his novel THE BURIED RIVER is forthcoming in Fall of 2021 from Crooked Lane Books. His short fiction has appeared, or is scheduled to appear, in Shotgun Honey and Akashic Books's Mondays Are Murder, among others, and his essays can be found on Cognoscenti, the thought and opinion blog of Boston NPR affiliate WBUR. In addition, he has worked as a ghostwriter on projects for a wide range of clients, including professional athletes and entrepreneurs, and as a developmental editor. In addition to his writing, Ted has worked as a Paramedic and Firefighter for over twenty years, and served as a Recon Marine. He lives with his wife and three kids just outside Worcester, Mass