John McCaffrey

John McCaffrey holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.  His short stories, book reviews, and essays, have appeared in Fiction, KGBBAR.LIT, Smokelong Quarterly, Word Riot , and other literary periodicals.  A Pushcart Prize nominee, he was part of Flash Fiction Forward, an anthology published (Summer 2006) by W.W. Norton & Company, which contained stories by noted writers such as Paul Theroux, Ann Hood, Rick Moody, and Dave Eggers.   More of John's work can be accessed at www.jamccaffrey.com.

Don McMillan’s short story “Pergonal” is adapted from his novel-in-progress, Ice Out, an early version of which was chosen as a finalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. His award-winning short fiction has appeared most recently in Confrontation, Worcester Magazine and Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and an MA in French from Middlebury College. Don chairs the English Department at The Bancroft School in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he also directs The Bancroft Young Writers’ Conference each fall. He has written reviews of contemporary literature for Book and Worcester Magazine, and is currently completing a collection of short stories about prep schoolers.

William Matthew McCarter holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master's in Liberal Arts. He is currently enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Texas at Arlington. Some of his most recent creative works have appeared in Wilmington Blues, The Indite Circle, and Ascent. In addition to his creative publications, McCarter has recently been invited to present an academic paper, “Homo Redneckus: Redefining White Trash in American Society,” at the National Center for Teachers of English Conference in San Antonio.

Michelle McGrane
Poetry Winter 2006
Summer 2006

Michelle McGrane, a South African poet, has had her poems published in numerous national and international electronic poetry journals, print journals, and anthologies. Her debut collection of poetry, Fireflies & Blazing Stars, was published in December 2002. The collection was runner up for the South African Writers' Circle Quill Award, best book of any category award.

Scott Malby
Summer 2003
Spring 2005

Scott Malby lives along the Central Oregon coast in a village in his mind called Lost Bay. He's a columnist for four ezines and a reviewer, he was interviewed by Tin Lustre (http://blogstudio.com/tinlustrearchives). Malby's publication credits include plays, interviews, literary reviews, columns, short stories and poetry both in print and on the Internet. An ebook of his detailing the postmodern world of Paolo Honorificas is available free at Blaze Vox. His poetry has appeared in Ariga, XConnect, Wiredheart, Tryst, Flashquake, Poetry Superhighway, Babel, and Entropic Desires.

Kelly Ann Malone

Writing since she was twelve, Kelly Ann Malone was influenced by Ogden Nash, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Teasdale, Dickinson, Billy Collins and Dorothy Parker. Some of my published credits include North Carolina University Press's Free-Verse Magazine, Albany University's Offcourse Literary Journal, Temple University's Schuylkill Creative and Critical Review, Duke University's Voices Journal, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Muse Apprentice Guild Literary Magazine, York University's School of Women's Studies Journal, The Permanente, Journal of the Arts and Medicine, Ars Medica--A Journal of Medicine, The Arts, and Humanities-Mount Sinai Hospital,and The Pittsburgh Quarterly.

Jerry Mathes

The work of Jerry Mathes has appeared in such journals as Camas, The Dos Passos Review, and Tar River Poetry. In May 2006 one of his works was selected first place in The Baltimore Review Nonfiction Competition, another nonfiction piece was an editor’s choice for the 2005 Mid-American Review’s nonfiction competition, and his work also was given first place in nonfiction by the Rebel 47. In April 2004, I won the Talking River Writer’s Award for poetry, and my chapbook, Twelve Lovers, Lost and Found, was published at Lewis-Clark State College, in Lewiston, Idaho. He received a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship to study creative writing and received Special Mention for Fiction in The Pushcart Prize XXXI.

Amber May

By day, Amber May is a biology major and aspiring pre-med at University of Chicago, holding leadership positions on the Pre-Medical Students Association, Treasurer of the Classical Entertainment Society, Athletic Trainer at the gym, and Surgical Assistant. By night, she revels in the power and release of creating poems and poetic prose. As a child she composed fantasy stories, later turning to free-flow, stream of conscious prose as she matured. Amber has been published in various periodicals and has read her work at numerous poetry fests.

Julie Mello

Julie Mello is working in a doctorate program for physical therapy. After graduation she plans to go into the physical therapy, with the hope of specializing in athletic injuries. She wrote this essay modeled on an excerpt from Susan Griffin's book Our Secret.

Corey Mesler
Summer 2003
Spring 2005
Autumn 2005

One of Corey Mesler's short stories was chosen for the 2002 edition of New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, edited by Shannon Ravenel. His novel-in-dialogue, Talk, is just out from Livingston Press, with advance raves from Lee Smith, Robert Olen Butler, Steve Stern, Debra Spark, Frederick Barthelme, and John Grisham. He has a new novel, We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon, due out in 2005 from Livingston.  His latest three poetry chapbooks are Chin-Chin in Eden (2003) and Dark on Purpose (2004) and The Heart is Open (2005). He also claims to have written “I’m Not You’re Stepping Stone.”  Most importantly, he is Toby and Chloe’s dad and Cheryl’s husband.

Erick Mertz

Over the years, Erick Mertz's work has appeared in numerous publications, from Stringtown to Fireweed: Poetry of Western Oregon to Ink Pot Press to The Vermillion Literary Project.  He has placed work in La Palabra Café’s The Cereal Vox project and in a recent issue of Pedestal magazine.  His work has also garnered a 2004 Kay Snow Award for poetry from the Willamette Writer’s organization. Forthcoming is a chap book, entitled Semi-Urban Cartography, from Semi-Urban Press and an untitled novel about social work.  Short film projects, Old Tom and Closing Time, are ready to embark on their round through the festival circuit.

Ann E. Michael

Ann E. Michael is the author of More than Shelter, a chapbook of poetry available from Spire Press (www.spirepress.org). She is also a librettist, essayist and educator, currently teaching at DeSales University in PA and working as a resident artist-in-the-school through the PA Council on the Arts, from whom she received a fellowship in Poetry (1998). Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Natural Bridge, the Bitter Oleander, The Comstock Review and others. Her website is www.annemichael.com.

Seth Michelson

Seth Michelson lives in New York, where he currently teaches in Adelphi University's Honors College and Sarah Lawrence College's Young Writers Program. A new chapbook of his, Maestro of Brutal Splendor, is forthcoming in December 2005 from Jeanne Duvall Editions.

Leslie F. Miller

Leslie F. Miller likes to break things and put them back together in a random, yet tasteful, order.  A writer, designer, and mosaicist, Leslie’s poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Weight Watchers Magazine, Kit Cat Review, Yowl, Main Street Rag, Gargoyle, Sojourn, and Maryland Poetry Review.  She won first place in City Paper’s 2003 fiction contest.  She has been an adjunct English instructor at University of Baltimore and Towson University for sixteen years.  Leslie holds an MA in Publications Design and is currently working on her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College.  She is writing a book about cake.

Letitia Lehua Moffitt

Letitia Lehua Moffitt was born and raised in Hawaii.  Her stories have been published in Black Warrior Review, The Aux Arc Review, Jabberwock Review, The Fairfield Review, The MacGuffin, and Yawp; she has also published poetry in Dos Passos Review and literary criticism in Critique.  She recently received a doctoral degree in English and creative writing from Binghamton University in New York and will teach creative writing this fall as Assistant Professor at Eastern Illinois University.

Pam Mosher

Pam Mosher's fiction has appeared in Ink Pot, Summerset Review, Pindeldyboz, Wilmington Blues, and other publications. One of her stories placed second in the 2003 Paul Gillette Memorial Writing Contest, and a second story received honorable mention in the 2003 Literary Potpourri writing contest.

J.B. Mulligan
Summer 2006

J.B. Mulligan is married, with three grown children, and has had poems and stories in dozens of magazines, recently including The King's English, The Ghazal Page, Riversedge, Voices in the Roses, Kaleidowhirl, and Pebble Lake Review. Samisdat Press has published two of his chapbooks: The Stations of the Cross and THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS.

John J. Mundt

John J. Mundt is a poet and writer living in New York City. Previously published work has appeared in The New York Quarterly, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Change, Ink, The Portable Muse, Euphony, Art & Understanding, and Christopher Street. He has degree in journalism from St. Bonaventure University and a masters in media from New York University.

Mark Murphy

Mark Murphy, born in England, studied philosophy as an under graduate and poetry as a post graduate. His poems have appeared in magazines in Austria, Germany, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Eire, America, Canada and the UK. I published a small collection of poems, Tin Cat Alley (Spout Publications). He's looking for a publisher for his manuscript, NIghtwatchman And Muse.

Amy Nawrocki
Summer 2007

Amy Nawrocki received an M.F.A from the University of Arkansas and currently teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Bridgeport, Housatonic Community College, and Sacred Heart University. Her poems have appeared in Loch Raven Review, poetrymagazine.com, Ribbons, The Pegasus Review, The Lucid Stone, The Midday Moon, Exposure, and Simply Haiku.

Laura Navratil

Laura Navratil is from Naperville, Illinois. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Alabama, where she is an assistant poetry editor of Black Warrior Review.

Linda Rhinehart Neas

Linda Rhinehart Neas is a writer and poet who lives in the Berkshires. While living in Maine, she had a weekly column in both the York County Coast Star and the York Weekly. Her poetry has been used in various performance pieces including A Celebration of Women at Salve Regina University and, in a choral performance for NELCWIT, an organization for the support of women in transition. She created a persona, The Poetry Lady, to share her love of poetry with students from kindergarten through high school. She is presently finishing her M.Ed. at the University of Massachusetts.  Her first book of poetry, Kitchen Window Pains, is in its final draft.

Lynnet Ngulube

Lynnet Ngulube, raised in Zimbabwe, is a second year student in the MFA in Fiction program at George Mason University . The stories that I write are a direct influence of Shona culture diluted by mostly British colonialist culture and most recently, the American environment. She has been influenced by Charles Dickens, mostly by Bleak House, and by Thomas Hardy, Jamaica Kincaid, and Charles Mungoshi from Zimbabwe.

Birgit Nielsen

Birgit Nielsen grew up in Berlin, spent time in London, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. She now lives in Portland, Oregon. Holding an MFA in Writing from Goddard, she works as a writer/translator/editor. Her recent publications include Oregon Poets Against the War (The Habit of Rainy Nights, 2003) and Steeped In the World of Tea (Interlink, 2004). She contributes works to Our Truths, Nuestras Verdades (forthcoming). She is also working on a collection of stories about travel, family and (any sort of) post-war reconstruction.

Brendan O'Meara

Brendan O'Meara is a second year master's student in Goucher College's creative non-fiction MFA program. His undergraduate work was done at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he earned a degree in Journalism and Biology in 2004. He was a sports reporter for two years in Henderson, North Carolina.

Amy E. Ochterski

Amy E. Ochterski grew up in down river Detroit. She moved to Upstate New York, attended and graduated from nursing school, and wasn't more than a week into her student career as an RN when she realized that the pen was mightier than the bedpan. However, mother was ultra persuasive, so she completed her degree and still works in the field. While working full-time as a nurse, she obtained her BA and MA in literature from SUNY Brockport. She now teaches writing full-time at Corning Community College, Corning, New York. She has been crafting stories for years, but never had the courage to send her work out for public review until she saw Joyce Carol Oates lecture at Ithaca College last fall, who inspired Ochterski to get off her duff and send her works out for review.

Jennifer Ombres

Jennifer Ombres was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received an M.A. in English from Kansas State University in 2003.  She was an AWP nominee for the New Writing Award in poetry. She plans to begin the M.F.A. program in poetry at the University of Arkansas this fall.

Biljana D. Obradovic

Biljana D. Obradovic, originally from Yugoslavia, who has lived in Greece, and India, is Associate Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana, where she teaches Creative Writing. She has published two collections of poems: Le Riche Monde and Frozen Embraces. Her work is also in Threee Poets in New Orleans. Her poems recently appeared in such anthologies as Like Thunger: Poets Respond to Violence in America and Key West: A collection. She also has two books of translation, and two more on their way.

Janice Pai

Janice Pai was born in Los Angeles, CA. She has been attending California State University, Long Beach and will be graduating in December 2007 with a Bachelor's in English with emphasis in Creative Writing. This is her first publication, butlooks forward to further accomplishments. Janice is exploring different categories and genres eagerly seeking her niche and passion.

Gary Pandolfi 

A graduate of Wesleyan University's MALS program, Gary Pandolfi has taught English for more than three decades. This is his first poem in “a legitimate online journal.” Recently he contributed a chapter in Sharon Kleinman’s new book, Displacing Place: Mobile Communications in the Twenty-First Century.

Charles Pederson

Charles Pederson is a freelance writer and editor. In college, he studied German, international politics, and linguistics. Pederson pursued German literary studies in graduate school but gave it up after a year, not wanting to end up being qualified only to produce blockbusters with titles such as The Symbolic Role of Water in Postneorealistic Fiction of the Latter Romantic Period by Authors Whose Names Begin with T. Naturally, he became a book editor, working in nonfiction children’s literature. Pederson’s own nonfiction for children has appeared through Abdo books, Pearson AGS Globe (a textbook publisher), and Kent Publishing. Several of his German-to-English fiction translations have appeared in AGS World Literature. Pederson spent a considerable amount of time in Austria and consequently admires the Austrian writer and poet H. C. Artmann, even though Artmann, before he died, never did answer any of Pederson’s fan letters.

Vic Perry

Vic Perry's work has appeared in Tarpaulin Sky, Monkeybicycle and nthposition. He is the prose editor at House Taken Over (www.house-taken-over.com

Roger Pincus

Roger Pincus is enrolled in the MFA program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He was born in New York City and lives in a pleasant, ;friendly neighborhood in northern Virginia just outside Washington, DC. He enjoys spending time with his wife and their three children, and avoids doing yard work.

Kenneth Pobo

Kenneth Pobo's new book of poetry, Introductions, just appeared from Pearl's Book'Em Press in Atlanta. His work has appeared in 2River View, Three Candles, Forpoetry.com, Southern Ocean Review, Drexel Online Journal, and elsewhere. His new online chapbook, Postcards from America, can be read at Tamafyhr Mountain Press (www.tmpoetry.com). Kenneth teaches English and Creative Writing at Widener University.

Larry Pontius

Raised in Jackson, Michigan, Larry Pontius attended Michigan State University, graduating with a master's degree in Advertising. Aside from working many years in the advertising field, he also positions as associate professor of advertising at Michigan State University and vice president of marketing for Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He received an Effie Award from the American Marketing Association, an Andy from the Advertising Club of New York, a Clio for international advertising, and Bronze Lions from the Venice and Cannes Film Festivals. In 1978 he was chosen as the Outstanding Alumni of the College of Communication Arts at Michigan State University. He is the author of the award-winning speculative thriller Waking Walt and two privately published books of poetry, Warm Harbor and Other Place to Hide and Buttermilk Sundays. A third book of poetry, Lyrics of Life in Four Part Harmony, will be published by Aventine Press this summer. Larry lives in Central Florida with his wife and is currently working on his second novel, Future King.

Cati Porter

Cati Porter is a poet, artist, and freelance writer. Her poetry has most recently appeared in the fall issue of Poetry Midwest and the winter issue of Banyan Review.

Jennifer Prado

Jennifer Prado has a degree in Fiction Writing from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in EWG Presents, Fiction Funhouse, Nuvein Magazine, Pindeldyboz, Small Spiral Notebook, The Scream On Line, and Tower of Babel. She is a featured artist of the Spring 2003 issue of The Muse Apprentice Guild. She has recently completed her first novel, Reinventing Julia.

Charles Ries

Charles P. Ries of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has completed a novel based on memory titled, The Fathers We Find: The Making of a Humble, Pleasant Boy. He has published two books of poetry, Bad Monk: Neither Here Nor There and Monje Malo Speaks English both published by Four Sep Publications. His third book of poetry titled, Odd, will be published by Pudding House Publications in 2004. His work was nominated for a 2003 Pushcart Prize. His poems, poetry reviews, and short stories have appeared in over seventy print and electronic publications, including Clark Street Review, Free Verse, Staplegun Press, Latino Stuff Review, Wordriot, Circle Magazine, Pearl, Philadelphia Poets, Pidjin, Thunder Sandwich, Wisconsin Review, Halfdrunk Muse, Remark, Pitchfork, Pudding Magazine, TMPoetry, Dan River Anthology, and Ink Pot. He can be reached at charlesr@execpc.com.

Ravie Shankar Rajan

The poetry of Ravie Shankar Rajan, a software engineer in Mumbai, India, has appeared in Voicesnet,Poetrylifeandtimes, The Ultimate Hallucination, Subjective Substance, Scrivener's Pen and Lily Ezines. Recently his poem "Mumbai" won the Lizabeth poetry award for 2004.

Charles Ramie

Charles Ramie, MFA Bowling Green State University, has had his work published in small press and literary magazines like Salthouse, Sweat Bombs, and Writers-In-Residence. The poems appearing here are from his, as yet, unpublished collections, "Going To Be Political" and "A Real Embrace." Ramie is employed as a social worker in upstate New York where he lives with his wife, children and no pets.

Alexandria Michelle Red

Alexandria Michelle Red, a Seattle-based poet, graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana with a degree in Chemistry and from Seattle University with a Masters in teaching. One of seven founding members of the Oratrix Spoken Word group, she was featured on the 2003 "Oratrix" CD., and traveled as a featured artist on the 2004 All Girl. All Word. Oratrix tour. She performed nationally in theaters, festivals, cafes, bookstores and on university campuses. She has one self-published collection of poetry, "She's The Truth." For seven years she taught high school Chemistry. Currently she is completing a full-length poetry collection, Yellow Shotgun: An American Story, and her M.F.A. in creative writing at Goddard College. Her work is forthcoming in Quay.

Jennifer Robinson

Jennifer Robinson's short stories and articles have appeared in Living Well Magazine, The Readerville Journal, Writers Monthly, Poetry Midwest, Full Circle, A Journal of Poetry and Prose, The Acorn Newspaper, Riot Brain Magazine, the anthology Looking Back: Stories of Our Mothers and Fathers in Retrospect (New Brighton Books, 2003), and upcoming in the book Two Faced (John Wiley, Inc., 2004) and Long Story Short. She also received the Los Angeles Daily News Award for Excellence in Writing.

Forrest Roth

Forrest Roth received his BA in English from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and is a graduate of the Goddard College MFA program. His short stories appear or are forthcoming in elimae, NOON, Paragraph, and Snow Monkey. He currently lives and teaches in Buffalo, NY.

David Schwartz

David Schwartz is the former president of Seedhouse, the online interfaith committee. Schwartz is the author of A Jewish Appraisal of Dialogue and coauthor with Jacqueline Winston of Parables In Black and White.

Laurence C. Schwartz

Laurence C. Schwartz has published short fiction in Cochran's Corner, EWG Presents, The Paumanok Review, The Pink Chameleon, American Feed Magazine, and Children, Churches, & Daddies Literary Magazine. He has had several one-act plays produced and the full-length Artaud for Awhile, which is based on the French aesthetician's life and work. He lectures at Hofstra University and resides on Manhattan.

Alan Semerdjian

Alan Semerdjian is a writer/teacher/musician/artist who has been published in numerous print and online journals including Chain, Lyric Review, Ararat, Rattapallax/Fusebox, Traverse, Diagram, and canwehaveourballback. Forthcoming work is on its way through ARSON and 3rdBed. His URL is www.alanarts.com.

Vidya Srinivas

Vidya Srinivas, a journalist with a business magazine based in Bombay, India, started her writing career in the print media. She spent three disastrous years as a news producer for ABC and NBC affiliates in the Midwest before returning to newspapers at The Des Moines Register in Iowa. She wrote the first two stories of "Under the Hood" nine years ago in a creative writing class, then shelved it. She has been adding and rewriting it for the past four years. She has two daughters and is married to a urologist-oncologist, whom she describes as her in-house critic.

Tom Sheehan

Tom Sheehan has published three novels, the third, Death for the Phantom Receiver, appearing last year. Litpot Press put out his fourth book of poetry, entitled This Rare Earth & Other Flights. He won a Silver Rose Award for short story excellence by American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART), three Pushcart nominations, and Bestoftheweb's 2002 nonfiction competition. He is co-editor of the sold-out 2500-copy edition of A Gathering of Memories, Saugus 1900-2000. He has been the Featured Writer/Poet on Tryst, Spotlight Poet on Eclectica, and his work has appeared in Literary Potpourri, Paumanock Review, Stirring, Samsara, Three Candles, Snowbound, Fiction Warehouse, 3amMagazine, Comrades, Splitshot, Small Spiral Notebook, Megaera, Poor Mojo, Kudzu Monthly, Aileron, Electric Acorn, and SNReview, among others.

Ron Singer

In addition to "Farewell Kiss," Ron Singer has published poetry in Windsor Review, HampdenSydney Poetry Review, Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, and elsewhere. He has written librettos for two performed operas and the Introduction to Vanity Fair (Bantam Books). His satire has appeared in several newspapers and in the ezines, Oregon Literary Review and Diagram (also in their 2006 print anthology). He has written essays and reviews about African subjects for many publications, including Poets & Writers (online), The Wall Street Journal, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Finally, his fiction has previously appeared in Willow Review, Puckerbrush Review, and Ellipsis. Singer grew up and lives in New York City. He studied English at Union College (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (M.A., Ph.D.) For 30 years, Singer has taught at Friends Seminary, a K-12 Quaker school. His wife is also a teacher, as well as a visual artist, and their daughter is a food writer.  

Matt Smith
Nonfiction Winter 2006

Matt Smith is studying at Harvard University while interning at Time Magazine on a part time basis. He has attended the annual New England Young Writers' Conference, received the Oberlin College Alumni Association's Book Award for for excellence in English, and won a Gold Key Award for his non-fiction portfolio in the The New York Times James B. Reston competition. This is his first published work. He is now studying creative writing with Jamaica Kincaid. He will study in Italy next semester while working part-time for Time magazine.

Steven R. Smith

Steven Ray Smith is the editor of Texas Poetry Journal. His work has appeared in Story South, Orbis (UK), Skidrow Penthouse, Wild Violet, Los Contemporary Poesy and Art, Creative Pulse of Austin, the Austin Chronicle, and other journals. He is a vice president at the largest culinary school in Texas.

Jessamyn Smyth

Jessamyn Smyth's short story "A More Perfect Union" in American Letters and Commentary Issue 17 (November 2005) has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. "Dancer" was recently released in For Here or To Go: Stories from the Service Industry (Garret County Press, 2004), and her prize-winning short story "Blue Plastic Menorah" appeared in Jewish Education News, Spring 2004. Her short one-act plays "Main Street Love Song," "Wolves," "Wake," and "Paper Moon" have been produced by Naked Theatre in Northampton and at The Paul Alexander Gallery in 2004-2005, and her poetry and essays appear in various print and electronic journals. Her play "The Importance of Being Wild" was the first commissioned work produced by The Shea Theater, and premiered in 2004; it was reprised with Boston's Playwright's Platform in 2005. Her play "Jenny Haniver" will hit The Shea Theatre stage in March of 2006, at the Second Annual Playwright's Festival of New Works. Smyth is a 2004 grant recipient of the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. She writes in several genres, is the Executive Producer of Basilisk Productions in Western Massachusetts, teaches writing and occasionally directs other people's plays. She earned her MFA at Goddard College.

Laura Stamps

Laura Stamps is an award-winning poet and novelist. Over six hundred of her poems, short stories, and poetry book reviews have appeared in literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and broadsides, including the Louisiana Review, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Rose & Thorn, Big City Lit, Poesy Magazine, American Writing, and the Chiron Review. She is the author of more than twenty-five books and chapbooks, including Cat Daze (Kittyfeather Press, 2004) and In the Garden (The Moon Publishing, 2004). Her latest collection of poetry, The Year of the Cat (Artemesia Publishing, 2005), has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Several of her poems are included in the celebrity anthology Open My Eyes, Open My Soul (McGraw-Hill Books, 2003) and Women of the Web Anthology of Poems (Little Poems Press, 2005). More information about books by Laura Stamps can be found at www.kittyfeatherpress.blogspot.com.

James Stark

James Stark has lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of his life. He currently resides in Seattle with his family. He has a doctorate in Germanic Studies from the University of Washington. After pursuing an academic career for severael years, he recently completed a ficition wirting program at the University of Washington. His short story fiction has appeared in Pulse Magazine as well as in spoiledink.com.

Don Stockard

Don Stockard grew up on a homestead and worked as a commercial clam digger, a miner, and a geophysicist. He spent ten years studying math and science at Carnegie Tech, Dartmouth, and Caltech. During the past twelve years he has accumulated more than 200 publishing credits. Softspin Press published a collection of his short stories.

Kevin Stoy

Before receiving my honors BA in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Kevin Stoy studied abroad in Tibet where he ate three hard boiled eggs for breakfast each morning. After returning from work abroad, he bought a one way Greyhound bus ticket (on Sept 7, 2001) bound for New York. He currently lives in Fairfax, Virginia, where he is studying poetry in the MFA program at George Mason University.

Donna D. Vitucci

Donna D. Vitucci's fiction has appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Mid-American Review, Southern Indiana Review, Faultline, Natural Bridge, Hawaii Review, The Mochila Review, Zone 3, The Kennesaw Review online, Main Street Rag, Meridian, and others.

Stephen Vollmer

Stephen Vollmer has worked in the Financial Services industry for twenty years. He lives on a mountain in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. He has been published in Short Stories Bi-Monthly and Aphelion.

Marie Wadsworth

Marie Wadsworth, a journalist, writer and poet, lives in southeastern New Mexico. Readers can visit the Web site of her novel Bryce at www.geocities.com/mariemuses/bryce/html. Marie recently won second- and third-place in the features category in the Associated Press Newspaper Editors contest. Marie is a member of SouthWest Writers and the Lea County Commission for the Arts. Her poetry has been published in SNReview, www.museit.com, www.betterkarma.com and www.poetry.com. Excerpts of her works also are available at www.authorsden.com/marie .

Kelli Wadeyka

Kelli Wadeyka is studying at Quinnipiac Univeristy. She took the subject of 9/11 using an essay format used by Susan Griffin.

Frank X. Walker

Multidisciplinary teaching artist and poet, Frank X. Walker is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and Spalding University’s MFA program. The founder of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the author of three collections of poetry: Affrilachia, Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York (recipient of the 2004 Lillian Smith Book Award), and Black Box. His work has been converted to the stage by the University of Kentucky’s Theatre department and has appeared in Rivendell, The Appalachian Studies Journal, My Brothers Keeper, Roundtable, Kudzu, Limestone, Kentucky Christmas; Spirit and Flame: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry; Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art and many other publications. He has presented lectures, workshops and readings at over 300 schools, universities, conferences and cities including Santiago, Cuba and Derry, Northern Ireland. The former director of Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts, he currently teaches in the English and Theatre department at Eastern Kentucky University where he also serves as interim director of the African/ African American Studies Program. He makes his home in Lexington, Kentucky.

Ginger Walker

Ginger Walker was born in Alaska and grew up in Virginia. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. Her work has been published in Five Points and Frantic Egg. She currently lives near Washington, DC.

Jennifer Weathers

Jennifer Weathers graduated with her bachelor's degree in English and American Literature from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2006. She will be attending the MFA program in poetry at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington beginning Fall 2006.

Teri Weefur

With more than a decade of experience in the arts world, the humanitarian industry, and the civil rights corridor, Teri Weefur uses her writing as a tool to shed light on and put a human face to the issues that move her the most: humanitarian and social justice causes. As a native of Liberia, currently living in the U.S. for the past 15 years, her sense of culture, the arts and the new media merges together to make her a well-rounded, cutting-edge writer. Teri, who is mother to a five-year-old boy, is working on her first novel.

Kelley White
Spring 2004
Summer 2005

Kelley White is a mother of three, Quaker, inner-city pediatrician for more than twenty years, collector of stray animals and seeker after Buddha nature. Her two full-length poetry collections, The Patient Presents and Late, were published by The People's Press. Her two chapbooks, I am going to walk toward the sanctuary and Against Medical Advice, were put out by Pudding House.

James R. Whitely

James R. Whitley lives in Boston. His poetry, which has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, has appeared in such literary journals as The Caribbean Writer, The Paumanok Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. His first poetry book Immersion (Lotus Press, 2002) was selected by Lucille Clifton as the winner of the 2001 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. His first poetry chapbook Pietà (Pudding House Publications, 2001) was a finalist in both the Summer 2000 National Looking Glass Poetry Chapbook Competition and the Maryland State Poetry & Literary Society's 2000 Chapbook Contest. His second poetry chapbook, The Golden Web, is currently available from Wind River Press.

Peter Wild

Peter Wild is the co-founder of www.bookmunch.co.uk. He is the editor of a forthcoming series of books for Serpent's Tail, the first two of which - Perverted by Language: Fiction Inspired by The Fall & The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth - will be published in 2007. His writing and fiction have appeared in Scarecrow, NOÖ Journal, Word Riot, Laura Hird's Showcase, The Big Issue, Nude Magazine, Alt Sounds, City Life, 3AM magazine and Eyeballkid.

Robert W. Witt

Robert W. Witt, a member of the faculty at Eastern Kentucky, has published four novels, including Hour in Paradise and Breakfast at Noon. In addition he has published numerous stories and scholarly books and articles. Various of his plays have been performed in California, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina. At the university he teaches courses in both Shakespeare and creative writing and edits The Chaffin Journal, an annual literary review.

J. Lang Wood

J. Lang Wood's stories, essays, and travel articles have been published in journals across the country and online, such as Crimson, Island Sun News, Songs of Innocence, EWGPresents, Monthly Stories, Perigee Arts Magazine, and Quiet Mountain Essays.  She has also won a short story contest given by a local environmental organization. When not writing short pieces, she writes women's fiction and mystery novels set in places she knows well and loves.

Christohper Woods
Summer 2007

Christopher Woods is the author of The Dream Patch, a lyrical novel about a Texas family during the 1940's. His collection of prose poems and brief fictions, Under a Riverbed Sky, was published by Panther Creek Press. His collection of stage monologues for actors and actresses, Heart Speak, was published by Stone River Press. His work has appeared in more than four hundred publications including Columbia, Southern Review, Confrontation, Rosebud, and Glimmer Train. His plays, such as A Woman on Fire and Moonbirds, have been produced in a dozen major cities. He has received a grant from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation. He has received residencies at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming and the Edward Albee Foundation in New York. He has taught creative writing workshops at Rice University Continuing Studies Program, The Women’s Institute Of Houston.

Deidre Woollard

Deidre Woollard graduated from Spalding University’s MFA in Writing program. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Sojourn, Sundry: A Journal of the Arts, Pebble Lake Review, Coe Review, Phantasmagoria, the Mota IV anthology, and on the www.rhapsoidia.com and www.storyglossia.com. She won second place in the Confluence Fiction Contest for 2003, second place in the Andre Dubus Award in Short Fiction, second and third prize in the Writer’s Challenge Contest 2003, and first place in the Oregon Writer’s Colony Contest. She writes a blog on fiction writing available at www.thefictive.com and is working on several novels.

Wynn Yarbrough

Wynn Yarbrough is finishing his Ph.D. in Children's Literature at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. His poems, interviews, and book reviews have appeared in the Pedestal Magazine, the Potomac Review, Segue, Black Zinnias, and Branches Quarterly. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2004 and has just finished a manuscript, Forgiving is Easy, where these poems are from. He spends a lot of time with water and birds when he isn't pretending to be a kid and a scholar at the same time.

Frank Zafiro

Frank Zafiro's short stories have appeared in small press magazines such as Starsong, Unknowns and Wide Open Magazine, as well as online at Ascent Magazine and A Cruel World. Currently, he is working on his series of police fiction novels known as River City Novels, which are under consideration with a publisher. He is a graduate from Eastern Washington University with a degree in history and works as a police officer in the Pacific Northwest. His website: http://spaces.msn.com/members/frankzafiro/; his email: frankzafiro@msn.com.

Samantha Zighelboim

Samantha Zighelboim is a Venezuelan-American poet and translator. She recently graduated with a BFA in Writing for Publication, Performance and Media from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where she specialized in poetry, short fiction and creative translation. Previously, Sam studied at El Instituto de Diseño de Caracas in Caracas, Venezuela, majoring in graphic communications.   She is the managing editor of Rattapallax, a journal of international poetry.  Her translations have been published in Rattapallax.  She currently lives in New York City.

Aaron Zimmerman

Aaron Zimmerman's debut novel, By The Time You Finish This Book You Might Be Dead (www.greebee.com), was selected as a new and notable book by Poets & Writers magazine. His fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary magazines and he holds an MA in Creative Writing from City College.  Zimmerman is the founder and executive director of NY Writers Coalition (www.nywriterscoalition.org).  Zimmerman, who lives in Brooklyn, was named one of the "Top 100 New Yorkers of 2003" by New York Resident newspaper for his work with NY Writers Coalition.