Welcome to the Showbear Family Circus.

Due to an overwhelming response in submissions, we will only be open for general free categories five days of every month. Submittable, however, requires us to charge a minimum of $2 per submission after our free 100, so until we have ~250 subscribers, we won’t be able to afford their higher tier.

The Showbear Family Circus
is a big tent

An academic journal, a literary journal, a digital library of art that sometimes streams film and music, and — once in a blue moon — a newspaper.

Two values govern our selections: publishing liberal arts focused on moral law and virtue ethics.

The liberal arts govern what we like to publish. We want pieces grounded in logic, grammar, and rhetoric per se — that is we want pieces that are well-reasoned (the creator is thinking clearly and coherently), well-articulated (the creator is helping us to think precisely what she thinks), and beautiful (the creator is composing so as to make us feel what she feels and persuade us that her view is correct, good, and gorgeous). We seldom cave to academese, monotonous purple prose in the absence of moving narrative, art that adds to the noise and nihilism of our present state, or reporting that simply tears down all the contributions its subjects have made to thought and public service. If you do not understand the classical definition of the liberal arts and think we mean merely painting and fiction, we encourage you to read Dr. Cirilla’s Liberal Arts Definition.

Short of that, we assume the highest end of art and science moves towards meta-thought about ultimate reality, The Good, The True, The Beautiful. Metaphysical assumptions undergird every other art and science. Creative writing (fiction, poetry, essay) forms the crossroads of the arts and sciences, for in them logic, grammar, and rhetoric form a sort of parallel world wherein we play with the real hypotheses behind every other art and science. From there we publish fine art that makes us think and feel (visual, music, film, etc.), academic pieces on the arts of application (medicine, law, sciences, etc.), and reporting or practical ideas and innovative designs in the arts of production (farming, 3D printing, book binding, etc.).

Therefore we accept very broadly in terms of genres, but we have two long term goals: why we publish and how we publish.
Moral law and virtue ethics govern our ends: why we publish. We assume all cultures adhere to moral — that is natural — law (some proof below) and we seek pieces that build up civil society towards that end, rather than tear her down. As for virtue ethics, we simply mean that the habits of what is good and sincere quest for wisdom matters more to us than mere hypotheticals and sophistry: the most brilliant ethicist in the world can be a scoundrel if he’s out of practice, the most brilliant scientist in the world can become a tyrant if in his quest to triumph over nature he merely triumphs over his fellow man with nature as the instrument. We want to make it easier to be good and to better ourselves in the process.

Our model is simple:

Once we have the subscribers, we promise to give 90% of our income away to our contributors. We define “income” as revenue minus website and other digital maintenance fees (Submittable, Mailchimp, etc.).
- We will generate revenue one $5/month subscriber at a time. Our first goal is 191 subscribers who will pay contributors $100 / piece throughout the calendar year.
- These subscribers will not be paying a large staff or increasing shareholders profits, rather they will be contributing to a commons so that we can commission more and better art and thought.
- Once funded with those first 191 subscribers, we will do an annual push to double the subscriber count and therefore double the pay of those we commission. At 6 doublings, we will be paying $3,200 per acceptance, a handsome reward for most poets, thinkers, and even many journalists.

That’s the circus. We don’t take ourselves seriously, as the big tent metaphor implies, but we’re dead serious about our goals for the sake of the artists and thinkers in our lives.

Keep reading, making, submitting, and subscribing.

But most of all, keep juggling fire.

Lancelot

Submit here.

Free Resources.

A few have asked in recent days what we mean when we say “moral law” or “virtue” or “moral philosophy” in the liberal arts. A broad reading of the keystone works from every culture — or a deep reading of the keystone texts of one’s own culture — will present something like the Tao or moral law. We present this appendix from Dr. Lewis’s Abolition of Man as a sampling from around the world of the core tenets of Natural Law.

We encourage you to bolster the selection below by commenting with citations from an ancient text of your choosing whether legal, poetic, mythic, or religious that arose from your own culture. I think you’ll find these basic tenets represented in every culture around the world.

from “The Abolition of Man” —

Illustrations of the Tao:

The following illustrations of the Natural Law are collected from such sources as come readily to the hand of one who is not a professional historian. The list makes no pretense of completeness. It will be noticed that writers such as Locke and Hooker, who wrote within the Christian tradition, are quoted side by side with the New Testament. This would, of course, be absurd if I were trying to collect independent testimonies to the Tao. But (1) I am not trying to prove its validity by the argument from common consent. Its validity cannot be deduced. For those who do not perceive its rationality, even universal consent could not prove it. (2) The idea of collecting independent testimonies presupposes that ‘civilizations’ have arisen in the world independently of one another; or even that humanity has had several independent emergences on this planet. The biology and anthropology involved in such an assumption are extremely doubtful. It is by no means certain that there has ever (in the sense required) been more than one civilization in all history. It is at least arguable that every civilization we find has been derived from another civilization and, in the last resort, from a single centre — ‘carried’ like an infectious disease or like the Apostolical succession.

I. The Law of General Beneficence

(a) Negative

‘I have not slain men.’ (Ancient Egyptian. From the Confession of the Righteous Soul, ‘Book of the Dead’, v. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics [= ERE], vol. v, p. 478)
‘Do not murder.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:13)
‘Terrify not men or God will terrify thee.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Precepts of Ptahhetep. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. i3}n)
‘In Nastrond (= Hell) I saw… murderers.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 38, 39)
‘I have not brought misery upon my fellows. I have not made the beginning of every day laborious in the sight of him who worked for me.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
‘I have not been grasping.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Ibid.)
‘Who meditates oppression, his dwelling is overturned.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
‘He who is cruel and calumnious has the character of a cat.’ (Hindu. Laws of Manu. Janet, Histoire de la Science Politique, vol. i, p. 6)
‘Slander not.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:16)
‘Utter not a word by which anyone could be wounded.’ (Hindu. Janet, p. 7)
‘Has he … driven an honest man from his family? broken up a well cemented clan?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins from incantation tablets. ERE v. 446)
‘I have not caused hunger. I have not caused weeping.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 478)
‘Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects of Confucius, trans. A. Waley, xv. 23; cf. xii. 2)
‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:17)
‘He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness will dislike no one.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, iv. 4)

(b) Positive

‘Nature urges that a man should wish human society to exist and should wish to enter it.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Officiis, i. iv)
‘By the fundamental Law of Nature Man [is] to be preserved as much as possible.’ (Locke, Treatises of Civil Govt. ii. 3)
‘When the people have multiplied, what next should be done for them? The Master said, Enrich them. Jan Ch’iu said, When one has enriched them, what next should be done for them? The Master said, Instruct them.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, xiii. 9)
‘Speak kindness … show good will.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
‘Men were brought into existence for the sake of men that they might do one another good.’ (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. vii) ‘Man is man’s delight.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál 47)
‘He who is asked for alms should always give.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 7)
‘What good man regards any misfortune as no concern of his?’ (Roman. Juvenal xv. 140)
‘I am a man: nothing human is alien to me.’ (Roman. Terence, Heaut. Tim.)
‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:18)
‘Love the stranger as thyself.’ (Ancient Jewish. Ibid. 33, 34)
‘Do to men what you wish men to do to you.’ (Christian. Matthew 7:12)

2. The Law of Special Beneficence

‘It is upon the trunk that a gentleman works. When that is firmly set up, the Way grows. And surely proper behaviour to parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 2)
‘Brothers shall fight and be each others’ bane.’ (Old Norse. Account of the Evil Age before the World’s end, Volospá 45)
‘Has he insulted his elder sister?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)
‘You will see them take care of their kindred [and] the children of their friends … never reproaching them in the least.’ (Native American. Le Jeune, quoted ERE v. 437)
‘Love thy wife studiously. Gladden her heart all thy life long.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 481)
‘Nothing can ever change the claims of kinship for a right thinking man.’ (AngloSaxon. Beowulf, 2600)
‘Did not Socrates love his own children, though he did so as a free man and as one not forgetting that the gods have the first claim on our friendship?’ (Greek, Epictetus, iii. 24)
‘Natural affection is a thing right and according to Nature.’ (Greek. Ibid. i. xi)
‘I ought not to be unfeeling like a statue but should fulfil both my natural and artificial relations, as a worshipper, a son, a brother, a father, and a citizen.’ (Greek. Ibid. 111. ii)
‘This first I rede thee: be blameless to thy kindred. Take no vengeance even though they do thee wrong.’ (Old Norse. Sigdrifumál, 22)
‘Is it only the sons of Atreus who love their wives? For every good man, who is right-minded, loves and cherishes his own.’ (Greek. Homer, Iliad, ix. 340)
‘The union and fellowship of men will be best preserved if each receives from us the more kindness in proportion as he is more closely connected with us.’ (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. xvi)
‘Part of us is claimed by our country, part by our parents, part by our friends.’ (Roman. Ibid. i. vii)
‘If a ruler … compassed the salvation of the whole state, surely you would call him Good? The Master said, It would no longer be a matter of “Good”. He would without doubt be a Divine Sage.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, vi. 28)
‘Has it escaped you that, in the eyes of gods and good men, your native land deserves from you more honour, worship, and reverence than your mother and father and all your ancestors? That you should give a softer answer to its anger than to a father’s anger? That if you cannot persuade it to alter its mind you must obey it in all quietness, whether it binds you or beats you or sends you to a war where you may get wounds or death?’ (Greek. Plato, Crito, 51, a, b)
‘If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith.’ (Christian. I Timothy 5:8)
‘Put them in mind to obey magistrates.’… ‘I exhort that prayers be made for kings and all that are in authority.’ (Christian. Titus 3:1 and I Timothy 2:1, 2)

3. Duties to Parents, Elders, Ancestors

‘Your father is an image of the Lord of Creation, your mother an image of the Earth. For him who fails to honour them, every work of piety is in vain. This is the first duty.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 9)
‘Has he despised Father and Mother?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)
‘I was a staff by my Father’s side … I went in and out at his command.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 481)
‘Honour thy Father and thy Mother.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:12)
‘To care for parents.’ (Greek. List of duties in Epictetus, in. vii)
‘Children, old men, the poor, and the sick, should be considered as the lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
‘Rise up before the hoary head and honour the old man.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:32)
‘I tended the old man, I gave him my staff.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 481)
‘You will see them take care … of old men.’ (Native American. Le Jeune, quoted ERE v. 437)
‘I have not taken away the oblations of the blessed dead.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
‘When proper respect towards the dead is shown at the end and continued after they are far away, the moral force (tê) of a people has reached its highest point.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 9)

4. Duties to Children and Posterity

‘Children, the old, the poor, etc. should be considered as lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
‘To marry and to beget children.’ (Greek. List of duties. Epictetus, in. vii)
‘Can you conceive an Epicurean commonwealth? . . . What will happen? Whence is the population to be kept up? Who will educate them? Who will be Director of Adolescents? Who will be Director of Physical Training? What will be taught?’ (Greek. Ibid.)
‘Nature produces a special love of offspring’ and ‘To live according to Nature is the supreme good.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i. iv, and De Legibus, i. xxi)
‘The second of these achievements is no less glorious than the first; for while the first did good on one occasion, the second will continue to benefit the state for ever.’ (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. xxii)
‘Great reverence is owed to a child.’ (Roman. Juvenal, xiv. 47)
‘The Master said, Respect the young.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, ix. 22)
‘The killing of the women and more especially of the young boys and girls who are to go to make up the future strength of the people, is the saddest part… and we feel it very sorely.’ (Native American. Account of the Battle of Wounded Knee. ERE v. 432)

5. The Law of Justice

(a) Sexual Justice

‘Has he approached his neighbour’s wife?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)
‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:14)
‘I saw in Nastrond (= Hell)… beguilers of others’ wives.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 38, 39)

(b) Honesty

‘Has he drawn false boundaries?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)
‘To wrong, to rob, to cause to be robbed.’ (Babylonian. Ibid.)
‘I have not stolen.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
‘Thou shalt not steal.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:15)
‘Choose loss rather than shameful gains.’ (Greek. Chilon Fr. 10. Diels)
‘Justice is the settled and permanent intention of rendering to each man his rights.’ (Roman. Justinian, Institutions, I. i)
‘If the native made a “find” of any kind (e.g., a honey tree) and marked it, it was thereafter safe for him, as far as his own tribesmen were concerned, no matter how long he left it.’ (Australian Aborigines. ERE v. 441)
‘The first point of justice is that none should do any mischief to another unless he has first been attacked by the other’s wrongdoing. The second is that a man should treat common property as common property, and private property as his own. There is no such thing as private property by nature, but things have become private either through prior occupation (as when men of old came into empty territory) or by conquest, or law, or agreement, or stipulation, or casting lots.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)

(c) Justice in Court, &c.

‘Whoso takes no bribe … well pleasing is this to Samas.’ (Babylonian. ERE v. 445)
‘I have not traduced the slave to him who is set over him.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:16)
‘Regard him whom thou knowest like him whom thou knowest not.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 482)
‘Do no unrighteousness in judgement. You must not consider the fact that one party is poor nor the fact that the other is a great man.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:15)

6. The Law of Good Faith and Veracity

‘A sacrifice is obliterated by a lie and the merit of alms by an act of fraud.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 6)
‘Whose mouth, full of lying, avails not before thee: thou burnest their utterance.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
‘With his mouth was he full of Yea, in his heart full of Nay? (Babylonian. ERE v. 446)
‘I have not spoken falsehood.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
‘I sought no trickery, nor swore false oaths.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2738)
‘The Master said, Be of unwavering good faith.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, viii. 13)
‘In Nastrond (= Hell) I saw the perjurers.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 39)
‘Hateful to me as are the gates of Hades is that man who says one thing, and hides another in his heart.’ (Greek. Homer. Iliad, ix. 312)
‘The foundation of justice is good faith.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i.vii)
‘[The gentleman] must learn to be faithful to his superiors and to keep promises.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 8)
‘Anything is better than treachery.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál 124)

7. The Law of Mercy

‘The poor and the sick should be regarded as lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
‘Whoso makes intercession for the weak, well pleasing is this to Samas.’ (Babylonian. ERE v. 445)
‘Has he failed to set a prisoner free?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)
‘I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, a ferry boat to the boatless.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 446)
‘One should never strike a woman; not even with a flower.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
‘There, Thor, you got disgrace, when you beat women.’ (Old Norse. Hárbarthsljóth 38)
‘In the Dalebura tribe a woman, a cripple from birth, was carried about by the tribes-people in turn until her death at the age of sixty-six.’… ‘They never desert the sick.’ (Australian Aborigines. ERE v. 443)
‘You will see them take care of… widows, orphans, and old men, never reproaching them.’ (Native American. ERE v. 439)
‘Nature confesses that she has given to the human race the tenderest hearts, by giving us the power to weep. This is the best part of us.’ (Roman. Juvenal, xv. 131)
‘They said that he had been the mildest and gentlest of the kings of the world.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Praise of the hero in Beowulf, 3180)
‘When thou cuttest down thine harvest… and hast forgot a sheaf… thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.’ (Ancient Jewish. Deuteronomy 24:19)

8. The Law of Magnanimity

(A)

‘There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)
‘Men always knew that when force and injury was offered they might be defenders of themselves; they knew that howsoever men may seek their own commodity, yet if this were done with injury unto others it was not to be suffered, but by all men and by all good means to be withstood.’ (English. Hooker, Laws of Eccl. Polity, I. ix. 4)
‘To take no notice of a violent attack is to strengthen the heart of the enemy. Vigour is valiant, but cowardice is vile.’ (Ancient Egyptian. The Pharaoh Senusert III, cit. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 161)
‘They came to the fields of joy, the fresh turf of the Fortunate Woods and the dwellings of the Blessed . . . here was the company of those who had suffered wounds fighting for their fatherland.’ (Roman. Virgil, Aeneid, vi. 638-9, 660)
‘Courage has got to be harder, heart the stouter, spirit the sterner, as our strength weakens. Here lies our lord, cut to pieces, out best man in the dust. If anyone thinks of leaving this battle, he can howl forever.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Maldon, 312)
‘Praise and imitate that man to whom, while life is pleasing, death is not grievous.’ (Stoic. Seneca, Ep. liv)
‘The Master said, Love learning and if attacked be ready to die for the Good Way.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, viii. 13)

(B)

‘Death is to be chosen before slavery and base deeds.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i, xxiii)
‘Death is better for every man than life with shame.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2890)
‘Nature and Reason command that nothing uncomely, nothing effeminate, nothing lascivious be done or thought.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i. iv)
‘We must not listen to those who advise us “being men to think human thoughts, and being mortal to think mortal thoughts,” but must put on immortality as much as is possible and strain every nerve to live according to that best part of us, which, being small in bulk, yet much more in its power and honour surpasses all else.’ (Ancient Greek. Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1177 B)
‘The soul then ought to conduct the body, and the spirit of our minds the soul. This is therefore the first Law, whereby the highest power of the mind requireth obedience at the hands of all the rest.’ (Hooker, op. cit. i. viii. 6)
‘Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live, let him wait for his time … let him patiently bear hard words, entirely abstaining from bodily pleasures.’ (Ancient Indian. Laws of Manu. ERE ii. 98)
‘He who is unmoved, who has restrained his senses … is said to be devoted. As a flame in a windless place that flickers not, so is the devoted.’ (Ancient Indian. Bhagavad gita. ERE ii 90)

(C)

‘Is not the love of Wisdom a practice of death?’ (Ancient Greek. Plato, Phadeo, 81 A)
‘I know that I hung on the gallows for nine nights, wounded with the spear as a sacrifice to Odin, myself offered to Myself.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál, I. 10 in Corpus Poeticum Boreale; stanza 139 in Hildebrand’s Lieder der Älteren Edda. 1922)
‘Verily, verily I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it.’ (Christian. John 12:24,25)

The team.

Lancelot and Tara Showbear, Founding Editors

Lancelot and Tara Schaubert run this circus.

Lance is also the author of the novel Bell Hammers, dozens of stories, hundreds of poems and essays. He edits The Showbear Family Circus and Of Gods and Globes, perform songs from All Who Wander, deliver keynote speeches and narrations, produce photonovels like Cold Brewed as well as various short films and theatrical productions.

On this site, he shares his words and lends his voice to try to help people think cleverer, feel deeper, and act truer. But more importantly, he and the team actively and often daily publish the poems, essays, stories, art, and academic abstracts of others who do the same.

I believe that art should not merely entertain or sell product. I believe art should cause us to change our minds, soften our hearts, and motivate our activism to be true and good. And therefore artists manual and fine alike should not seek first to be richer, smarter, sexier, cooler, more relevant, more tech savvy, or more powerful. They must seek to be better and to make things that will make others better: this — virtue — is the soul of true renown and is my one and only goal with all of my work. Starting in 2013, over 240+ patrons have made it possible for Tara and I to shepherd folks in this from Brooklyn to Alaska to London to Italy and we’ve been full time in the effort since 2016. You can join them by giving here.

Tara’s bio incoming and forthcoming and so forth.

Merrill Lee Girardeau lives and writes in Birmingham, Alabama. Merrill Lee has a double name but will answer to “Meryl Streep.” More at merrillleegirardeau.wordpress.com. (Photo: Mark Neuenschwander)

Kendall Bates is a writer, thinker, casting director, and lover of the liberal arts. He has an M.A. in Philosophy from Arizona State University. Kendall currently resides in Brooklyn, where he spends his time hanging out in cemeteries, reading books, and shepherding harried actors through their first day on film sets.

Vijay R. Nathan is a supervising librarian and poet. He is author of “Escape from Samsara” and the collection “Celebrity Sadhana: Or, How to Meditate with a Hammer”, Book 1 of the Paparazzo Poet Meditations. He hosts The Truth to Power Show which places a weekly guest on the proverbial meditation cushion to engage in a thoughtful conversation at the intersection of the personal and the political. Tune in for talks with: poets and writers, leaders and teachers, allies and practitioners. The greatest risk we take is to tell our personal truth.

Jeremiah Jones is a podcaster, family man, music fanatic, lover of words, and gaming hobbyist residing in Joplin, Missouri. He does a wicked Elmo impression and sometimes makes money giving private music lessons. You can consistently find him at one of Joplin’s many coffee establishments or throwing frisbees at those chained baskets in parks around town.

Emma Scott is a fiction writer and a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri. She is currently working on her first full-length fantasy epic and is passionate about many genres of art and storytelling, including music, gaming, painting, and much more. She spends her time studying, writing, laughing, singing, and wishing more folks in Joplin knew how to fence.

Daniel Crasnow is a multi-genre writer and scholar who graduated from Stetson University in 2020. While there, he held a Sullivan Scholarship in creative writing. He is gay and Jewish. His work is published in, or forthcoming from New Voices Magazine, The Gateway Review, Litro Magazine, and more. His work can be found on Facebook using the hashtag: @Daniel.Crasnow.Writes

Aurora Rayos, better known as Rory, is a grant writer and long-time arts enthusiast who has been writing moody poetry and quirky stories since she can remember. She graduated in 2020 with a B.A. in Professional & Technical Writing from Missouri Southern State University and a B.A. in Biblical & Interdisciplinary Studies from Ozark Christian College. She channels her passions for writing and social justice into developing nonprofit programs – and making short films on the side.

Meet the Showbear Family Circus