Featured Writers

Current Issue:

• Editor, M. Laurel Walsh obtained her MFA in writing from Hamline University. Having lived in England, New Zealand, Germany, Cyprus, Greece and the Czech Republic, she currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota with her two children. Her passion is grammar. For fun and profit, she teaches writing at Metropolitan State University. With Sam Roloff, she created Double Dare Press on Father’s day, 2000. The magazine is a dream come true and an opportunity to connect with brilliant artists around the world. Her first novel, Hope Haven was published in November is available at www.mlaurelwalsh.com
• Rebecca Haven spends her days doing things such as HR and accounting only to supplement her nights filled with going to concerts and writing groups. She has a passion for bad TV and is addicted to such shows as House of Carters and old Saved By the Bell re-runs. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her boyfriend and her cat, kitty, which firmly believes her lot in life is to attack everything and everyone that she encounters.
• Suzanne Nielsen (b. 1956) a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, waits for the change of seasons from winter to above freezing with suspicion. She takes 60 mg of prozac each day–with mixed results. This contributes to her obsession with writing in various genres, always in search for a clearer meaning to life. She has been published in various literary journals nationally and internationally; most recently her work has appeared in The Comstock Review, Brick and Mortar Review, Mid-America Poetry Review, Asphodel and 580 Split. She writes a monthly column, Cool Dead People, for www.doubledarepress.com. She was awarded the 2003 DeAnn Lubell Professional Writer’s Competition first–place winner for her essay: “Bruce Chatwin, He’s a Real Nomad Man.” She also won a year’s supply of Blue Bunny ice cream from the St. Paul Saints. The column is also in print quarterly through Whistling Shade Literary Journal.

Previous Issues:

• Chantal Anders–To explain a little bit of who I am and how I feel about life I would have to point to the novels that have touched me deeply: Harold Robbins "The Lonely Lady", Alexander Dumas’s "The Count of Monte Cristo" and Ray Bradbury’s "Farenheit 451". These wonderful works not only express the depth of the human soul in their quest for answers & a soothing from the loneliness of one - but have inspired me in finding my own voice. I was born in London and grew up in the states. Eight years ago I moved to France and have since written: two memoirs "The Unknown Goddess" and "Le Foutoir: Diary of a Madhouse"; three novels The World of Syvlia McKenzie, Tears of the Gods and Silence; and one non-fiction book The Power of Rage. I currently live on the coast west of Marseille and am looking for a US publisher for my mystery novel Silence.
• Amine Ben Aniba was born in Takoma Park, Maryland in 1966. In my youth I traveled a lot and to many places including France, Egypt, Tunisia, and England and was denied little in the way of some pleasures and freedoms many do not experience. Then in 1987, I had my first psychotic break followed by a decade of a series of them. Having been hospitalized and institutionalized I have drawn my story from events in my life and told them in order that some may be in awe of the reality of delusions and others be comforted by knowing they are not alone in their disorder. I welcome any feedback.
• Annie Atur spends her time jumping through hoops. She is much less of a lover and a dreamer than she would hope to be. Nevertheless, that hope for godliness is there, and that makes her a dreamer; meanwhile, a strapping boy and his hero Kermit are teaching her to love.
• Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway and toured colleges and outdoor performance venues. He currently lives in New York City, where he’s busy writing fiction and his short stories have recently appeared in numerous literary magazines.
• Allison Berger, seventeen at heart, is eighteen years old. She lives, not by choice, on the Main Line, which stretches across the suburbs of Philadelphia. She enjoys lemonade stands, indie pop, the smell of summer, old yearbooks, the city of London, getting dressed up, butterscotch pudding, her Livejournal, Canadian television, and good huggers. Everything she ever needed to know about growing up, she learned from Judy Blume, but she does not know where she wants to go to college. Allison is the editor of her high school’s literary magazine. Everything she writes is based on the truth. Look her up on MySpace. You guys can be friends.
• Donna Blacker is a recovering academic writer who completed an MA in creative writing at Hamline University in St. Paul at age 50. As a writing tutor at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, I urge students to keep writing. Now, the opportunity to submit to Double Dare is encouraging me to keep writing. This is my first ever attempt at publishing any creative work.

• John Bryan is an Ockernaut who spreads misinformation in various journals such as Unlikely Stories, The Muse Apprentice Guild, Plum Ruby Review, A Man Overboard, Wilmington Blues, canwehaveourballback?, Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry, Indie Journal, ReadingDivas, The Littoral and Wicked Alice to name a few.

• Dave "Salty" Bryson was born in a hospital at a very young age…he spent much of his youth drawing pictures, making sound effects and watching cartoons…he gave up the idea of doing art for a living while attending the Mass College of Art in Boston, and instead redirected his energies to his second passion: being a stuntman. Unable to obtain proper licensing due to his inability to grow a "real moustache," he reluctantly took up art again…Dave enjoys painting, drawing, animation, sculpture and music…art he doesn’t like involves bodily functions, thinly veiled cries for help passed off as "performance" and badly painted nautical scenes of Cape Cod boateries…what does the future hold for Dave? When reached for comment, he responded "What am I, a crystal ball?" The future is looking pretty good for Dave, pretty good indeed….
• Timothy Boudreau lives in northern New Hampshire; his day job is with a financial services company he still hopes to one day escape, through whatever means–clever embezzlement schemes? trashy best-selling romance novels?–turn out to be necessary.A story of mine called ‘Sun Catchers’ is out on Circle Magazine’s website now. (www.circlemagazine.com)
• Eliet Brookes has a new spoken word w/ music CD called the miles left over. She is author of three chapbooks including wolves & satellites and is currently looking for several thousand dollars to have her new book, Svengali Moon bound and printed. Potential patrons/benefactors don’t delay! Please contact herontree@ecoisp.com. Eliet is very happy to finally have a band and has been reworking the first several chapters of a novel since 1995.
• Jeff Buchanan is a screenwriter and TV commercial director living and working in Malibu. The majority of his life has been spent on feature film sets; first as an editor, then lighting technician, then as an assistant director and finally as a producer before switching to creating and directing national TV spots. Writing short stories is a new creative avenue for Buchanan born from the inevitable long stints between directing jobs and, perhaps more so, from the wonderful autonomy allowed writing shorts for ones self as opposed to commercials for clients and art house screenplays needing explanations to film companies — call it therapy. Buchanan is preparing to make his feature directorial debut in 2003 in sunny, sensuous Spain.
• Ovidiu Bufnila won the award for the best Romanian SF novel, ‘Jazzonia’ in 1993. He received the award for the best Romanian SF short story, ‘Mandhala’, in 2001.

• Brendan Burch is an animator in Los Angeles. He currently works as a full time contractor for Knowledge Kids Network in Century City. He is a lead animator in the Science division. After graduating from the highly regarded Character Animation program at Cal Arts in 2000, Brendan went to work for on-line, film giant, Atom Films. At Atom Films, he co-wrote and directed the controversial short film "ChemoPhone" and animated on many other projects. After Atom Films merged with Shockwave.com in December, he went to work under his old boss, Dean Terry. Dean began a new company called IdeaRAGE, in Pasadena. At IdeaRAGE Brendan developed two original animated pieces for the Pocket PC platform. His credits include "Stylus Guide to the Pocket PC" and "Second String Sam: Sports Fan." In addition to his lucrative free-lance career, Brendan is in the process of developing two original series for television.
• Angshukanta Chakraborty–I haven’t really figured out what to say officially about myself though I just talk "me" in anything I write. As far as writing is concerned, I live to write. I’m an undergraduate student and like many of my peers I do the stuff that the youngsters keep on doing just to have the parents scolding all the time. This is the twentieth winter of my life and it means a lot, I don’t know why exactly but it does. Living in India, in New Delhi, the capital city, is not really very different from living anywhere else because everywhere it’s hard and easy at once and everywhere you have love-stories, cars running out of fuel, offices taking the life out of you, moms screaming to keep your rooms tidy, the mental pressure to be ’successful’ and now the global tension of terrorism. Cultures do matter a lot, I agree, but somewhere we have crossed the line now. The world has become like a big jukebox and we share the pain and happiness of people living in any corner.
• Darcee Chau–currently residing in Toronto, Canada with my wife. At present working on a manuscript (complete revisit of "Refrigerator Hum") and seeking literary representation.
• Maud A. Coulter is 22 years old and a creative writing major at Metropolitan State University. Born and raised in St. Paul, MN. I enjoy writing creative non-fiction and prose poetry. My hobbies include: writing, taking my cat Tina on walks, snowboarding, knitting, making pancakes, going to concerts and dyeing my hair.
• Francis Crot was born in 1982 and now lives in North London instead. Previous publications include ‘Hurrah! To the Loo!’ for Short Stories #2 and ‘I Can’t "Run it Off," it’s _Cancer_ for Bad Press Serials #9 (forthcoming): http://badpress.infinology.net.
• Ed Curran aka Eddie Loveless; Boston born artist; loves grilled cheese sandwiches and tater tots; loves robots and turtles; hates the word "slacks" and rap rock.
• Rachel Dickenson–I’m 19 and have been writing officially since I was 12. I attend the University of Texas Pan American (Edinburg, Texas) where I am currently a Sophomore working towards a BA in English and Public Relations. Writing is my passion. Most of my characters are inspired by actual people in my life. My biggest dream in life is to own a small coffee shop/book store and specialize in rare/used books and to live in a small apartment above the shop.
• Steven Dines (b.1975) lives in The Granite City, Aberdeen, Scotland. He has been writing short fiction for many years and has appeared online and in print in such varied publications as Voices from the Web, Gold Dust, Skive, The Beat, Blue Almonds, Dark Tales, Buzzwords, The Writer’s Post Journal, 63Channels, Word Riot, Noo Journal, Underground Voices, Zygote in My Coffee, Wild Child, and in forthcoming issues of Wild Child and Outsider Ink. His website, Crayons in the Dark, can be found here: www.sdines1975.demon.co.uk
• Neal Dorenbosch’s fiction has mysteriously appeared in over twenty publications either in print, online or sometimes both. The Pittsburgh Quarterly; The Blue Moon Review; Foliate Oak at the University of Arkansas Monticello; Southern Ocean Review; Literary Potpourri; Collected Stories; Fiction Warehouse; and the Southern Cross Review are just a few publications who’s editors are at a loss to explain how Neal’s stories have materialized among their pages. His work is also scheduled to appear in Laughter Loaf, Lunarosity, Apollo’s Lyre, The Deepening and the SNReview sometime between July and August 2006. Lily Literary Review nominated his story, "Only the Washed," for the Million Writer’s award for best fiction appearing online in 2005. Neal practices educational and vocational evaluation for his day job. He writes fiction in his spare time to justify the twenty-thousand-dollar student loan he frivolously used twenty years ago to earn a degree in English.
• Alison Eastley lives in Tasmania, Australia with my two sons. Previous work has been published in Ink Pot, Snow Monkey, Can I Have In My Ball Back?, Dicey Brown, The Adirondack Review, A Zygote In My Coffee, and many other fine journals.
• Molly Snyder Edler has lived in Milwaukee her entire life. She is currently an editor and writer for OnMilwaukee.com and has published articles, essays and poems in The Sun, The Writer, Milwaukee Magazine, The Cream City Review, Aol.com, Travelocity.com and others. Molly and her husband Jamie are currently restoring a 1970 vintage Airstream camper in their backyard and plan to one day pull up their stakes and drive into the sunset with their Chocolate Lab and infant sons, never to be heard from again.

• Edwina and Robot Man are married. They write subversive poetry by day and nature haikus at night.

• Carol Ellingson practices labor and employment law in St. Paul, MN.
• R.M. Engelhardt currently lives & breathes in Albany, NY where he runs a monthly gathering for poets called "The School Of Night". His work has previously been published in Verve, Sure! The Charles Bukowski Newsletter, on nycpoetry.com and in many others. More of his work can be seen at www.AlbanyPoets.Org.
• Vickie Evans Nash is a Mississippi native, still reeling from the culture shock of the Minnesota transplant some 30 years ago. At this moment she is probably droning on about issues like race relations in the United States with her eleven or fifteen year old daughters, who are pretending to listen while wondering when it’s a good time to pump up the volume on the new Fall Out Boy CD.
• Joshua Fischer (The Sire of Humor), is the Hellraiser from the Badlands of Dakota County, MN. The story (OCD), was Josh’s first ever publication. Currently, Josh is a student at MetroState University in St. Paul, MN, as a creative writing major, with a minor in English. This was only Josh’s fourth attempt at becoming published. One of the other three was a crooked contest at a college by the phony Screenwriting Dept.
• Melinda Corazon Foley’s rhythmic verse play, "The Coconut Masquerade" will officially open at San Francisco’s Bindlestiff Studio in April 2002. [http://www.bindlestiffstudio.org] Melinda has been developing her rhythmic cadence (influenced by theatre, Spoken Word, children’s tales, hip hop, adult alternative, and her own national and international performance tours) during the coming-of-age battle against disillusionment, cynicism, and bitterness. It’s upward-bound or breathing, cease-desist.
• Dane Franklin lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand and spends far too much money on records and CDs. bores people stupid ranting on about the greatness of Blue Oyster Cult, Legs Diamond, Tommy Bolin and the new Vital Tech Tones album, has watched Dazed and Confused too many times recently (while refuting suggestions that he lives in the past), and is rapidly running out of excuses as to why he is not currently in a band.
• Megan Frazer grew up in New Hampshire, after which she bounced around the world (Southern California, New York, Ireland, the Ivory Coast), before landing near Boston. She is a high school librarian. Her work has appeared in Thieves Jargon and Megaera. She is currently at work on a novel.
• D. E. Fredd lives in Townsend, Massachusetts. He has had poetry appear in The Paris Review, Café Review, and The Paumanok Review. His short fiction has or will soon appear in The Southern Humanities Review, Rosebud, The Armchair Aesthete, Word Riot, Prose Toad, SNReveiw, Tribal Soul Kitchen, Writethis, Verb Sap, LitVision, JMWW, Grasslands Review and The 13th Warrior Review. A novel Exiled to Moab and a short story collection await publication.
• Zaak Fresh Bowling Green Univ. — English and economics, Nightclub comedian & freelance writer, email laker@crisp.net, presently, I live in New Jersey. Single, no children.
• Gamahucher has been writing erotic poetry for a number of years. Gamahucher, derived from gamahuch, is an English erotic underground term of the 19th century meaning pussy licker or cock sucker. Thus gamahucher purposely leaves the gender of gamahucher in doubt so as to not influence the reader/reciter in his or her appreciation or interpretation of the poems. Thus the reader/reciter is free to genderize the poems -which in some cases are left vague or are androgynous- and thus multiple interpretations are possible depending upon the gender of the reader/ reciter. The poems are meant to be recited, not read in silence, as the poems full hypnotic and lyric effects cannot be felt unless recited. The poems are influenced by the imagist poets as well as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Swinburne and the fin de siecle What gamahucher likes in poetry is strong images with a lyrical or melliflerous melody, the poems should sing and the images explode in the mind By using language in a poetic and melliferous manner and assaulting the reader with the obscene, the shocking, the unexpected, and unimaginable gamahucher seeks to jolt the reader is jolted into simultaneous juxtaposition of loathing and pleasure. This emotional ambivalence and corresponding cognitive dissonance, or in other words mental stress or angst is meant to break up the bourgeoisie conventional sets of classification and categories and thus unsettle the utility, sobriety and normality of their everyday lives.
• Michael Gardner is in constant existential crisis. twenty minute fixations keep him going. he lives in montana, working in a food bank. ultimately, the goal is to kill or grow everything he eats. he loves his girl very much, enjoys sequencing accidental sounds into patterns, and is way too scene for you. its lovely how nothing is always perfect. someday, he’ll read a book all the way through. apex.node@gmail.com
• Ricky Garni is a graphic designer living in North Carolina. He recently successfully purchased an airplane ticket to Budapest, shortly after discovering that he had been invited to his 30th high school reunion, feeling that his best chance at appearing both successful and worldly (without having to lie about it) would be to say: "I would love to attend, but I will be in Budapest that week."
• Claudia Grinnell was born and raised in Germany. She now makes her home in Louisiana, where she teaches at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, Cream City Review, Exquisite Corpse, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Fine Madness, The New Formalist, New Orleans Review, Mudlark, Logos, Minnesota Review, and various others. Her first full-length book of poetry, Conditions Horizontal, was published by Missing Consonant Press in the fall of 2001. Ms. Grinnell was the recipient of the 2000 Southern Women Writers Emerging Poets Award. In 2003, she was a finalist in the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize Competition. In 2005, she received the Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.
• Kevin Guzman resides in Washington Heights, Manhattan. By day, he buys and sells stock. By night, he drinks.
• Amrapali Hazra is a first year student of designing in India’s National Institute of Design at Ahmedabad. She has been writing from a very young age and won a number of awards for writing. She has a collection of stories on deprived childhood which she would like to get published. She can be reached at chilli_pippa@hotmail.com.
• Scott Heckmann is a 22-year-old in Los Angeles currently working as an electrician. Middle child in a family of seven. Born in a small stable in Bethlehem.
• James C. Henderson (b. 1955) is a writer for whom the power of story has always held the best hope of understanding and expressing life. He attended the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf in southern Minnesota for a time and is now enrolled at Metropolitan State University as a Technical Communications major. He lives with his lovely wife and their two granddaughters in St. Paul, Minnesota.
• B.J. Hollars, a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a sophomore at Knox College. He has been previously published in various literary magazine, has had work featured in the National Literary Magazine Marathon and was recently awarded first place in the Davenport Fiction Contest.
• Peter S. Hotman is eldest of three siblings born to Enoch and Ora Hotman during the mid-1950’s. He presents his first book HOTMAN’S INNOCENCE. Peter’s childhood home, the family’s impoverished, backwoods community of Loafer’s Glory was nestled deep in the Ozarks’ mountains of northern Arkansas. This was a place that would seem to leap out of a John Steinbeck novel, or compare to TOBACCO ROAD. Modern progress overlooked the area for more than two decades. Scribbles on the page, learning to write at an early age. After the family breakup, being tossed through thirteen different families, eventually, moving to the plains of Texas, Peter’s desire to be an author escalated during his adolescent years. Editor of school newspapers and winner of several Texas journalism awards for photography, and feature writing while attending Travis Jr. High, and Palo Duro High school in Amarillo Texas. He also placed in Texas’ poetry contest, as well as the national Quill & Scroll competitions for feature writing in the early 1970’s.He was eventually promoted to news director at a large regional radio station in the Ozarks. Many of his stories were aired on the syndicated news program, Arkansas Radio Network News. He also produced a radio talk show featuring country music artists from Nashville and the Ozarks, as well as writing and delivering radio commercial spots. Peter trained several other radio announcers during his tenure in broadcasting. He and his wife Elisabeth have helped to raise thirty-eight foster children over the years. Today, a grandfather, Peter Hotman lives in Arkansas, cares for his aunt Leve and has three grandsons. He is a freelance writer. The past few years, he has worked closely with developmentally disabled and mentally ill adults. He is an advocate for the rights of children, elderly, mentally ill, and disabled. Life’s experience is where he gets the inspiration for many of his non-fiction stories. Writing HOTMAN’S INNOCENCE, a family saga/memoir was closure for his blustery early childhood. This was his message of survivor’s hope, an encouragement for all victims, NEVER BE SILENT about the abuse. The shame ALWAYS belongs to the perpetrators. Men do tell! Peter returned to the ol’ breeding grounds a few years ago, and lives there now. The haunting ghost of the past are gone. He has found the peace he never had as a child.
• A novelist, M.A. Internicola is the author of three previous novels, KISS ME BABY, SUNFLOWERS!,CHAZ, and ALL OUR SKIES ARE BLUE. and two separate poetry books, MALISM and THE DARKEST PLACE IS UNDER A STREETLIGHT, both completed early 2004. His poems, prose and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Subterranean Quarterly, Tryst3, Half Drunk Muse, Slow Trains, Words Dance, Poetry Super Highway, Mouseion, Locust Magazine, 63 Channels, Spoken War, Confused In A Deeper Way, Willow Lake Press, Open Wide Magazine, Edifice Wrecked, Snakeskin, The 2nd Hand, Caffeine Magazine, Zygote In My Coffee, Remark, Ragged Edge,The Quadrangle, Mule, Spent Meat, The-Hold, Antipatico,Lunatic Chameleon, Kant Magazine, Subtle Tea, Fragment Magazine, The Surface, The God Particle, Thieves Jargon, Smokebox, James River Poetry Review and The Mosquito Lounge Review. He lives in New York City.
• Julia Iverson is a writing major at Metropolitan State University. Her work has appeared in the Metropolitan Newspaper. Assistant editor of Double Dare Press, she is currently looking for a sweet job (anyone? anyone?) juliaiverson@gmail.com
• Karim Bliz Johnson was raised in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York, I have for the past 10 years served a sentence for a felony conviction. Where I started my writing by way of a political newsletter published throughout the correctional system. My experiences include a tour in Germany with the US Army where I served as a combat medic, New York City Golden Gloves Boxer, connoisseur of the Hip-Hop culture and student of life. I also serve as an artist manager and advisor to several top selling Rap groups and solo acts including Wu-Tang, AZ, Phat Gary and others. My notoriety in the Hip Hop industry as well as the New York State Prison System, community groups gave me the opportunity to sell over 3,000 copies of my book, The Last Hardrock in 4 months.
• Kristin Faye Johnson writes primarily suspense fiction. Because of this, she often suffers from PFWD (post-traumatic fiction writer’s disorder), a condition by which she cannot help but keep reliving the characters and scenes created in her mind until she is brought to the brink of utter insanity. Then she stops. And she remembers that she is a writer and that makes it all okay, at least for a while. She resides in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities. She lives in her writing. And she loves learning the craft. She says when we read good writing, it makes us feel like we are not alone. It is like spending time with a close friend.
• Iranian born Sheema Kalbasi is a human right activist, a poet, and literary translator. She is the director of Dialogue of Nations Through Poetry in Translation, director of Poetry of Iranian Women, the poetry editor of Muse Apprentice Guild and the associate director of the Other Voices International Project. Furthermore she has created the horizontal and vertical poetry and is the first Iranian poet to have co-authored in English. Her works have been published and translated or are forthcoming in various anthologies, literary journals and on line magazines. Her latest collection, Echoes in Exile are due publication this fall. Kalbasi has worked for the United Nations and the Center for non Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, and in Denmark.
• Kevin P. Keating has worked as a boilermaker in the steel mills in Cleveland and Chicago and now finds himself condemned to the intellectual purgatory of teaching college composition classes. His stories and essays have appeared in a number of places, including Identity Theory, Tattoo Highway, Numb Magazine, Fiction Warehouse, The Oklahoma Review, The Spillway Review, Exquisite Corpse, and many others. A mysterious old woman at a carnival once promised him that he would not die until his fiction appeared in The Paris Review. This means, of course, that he will never die. He is quite pleased.
• kid mercury is an Indian American singer/songwriter and author residing in New York City. More of his songs and writings, including the novel Baby in a Microwave, can be obtained at this web site at www.kidmercury.net.
• Donna Kuhn has published over 100 poems in print and online journals and anthologies including poethia,aught, big bridge, generator press, unlikely stories, sidereality, xstream, muse apprentice guild, juxta, 5-trope, moria, poetry new york, onyx and sendecki. Her e-chapbooks are "no bird on yr arm" published by Tamaphyr Mountain Press and "red plastic mystic fish ladle" published by Xpressed. "when yr eyes snow" is her first print chapbook published by Foothills Publishing and a second on "up bluen" is forthcoming from furniture press.Three mini-chapbooks were published by poems-for-all.Visual poetry has been published online by generator press, juxta and xstream. She is a visual artist and dancer as well and she lives in Aptos, CA.
• Jason LaMotte was born an Artist in late 60’s Los Angeles. At first he carried around a small set of bongo drums, then conducted experiments with electricity and volatile chemicals, and later attended the San Francisco Art Institute where things got a little weird. He has done time marooned, caught wondrous glimpses and driven plenty of different roads in California (some of them many times). He continues to move ahead and remain interested, and tries to live wherever he happens to be.
• Michael Leone has been published in The Carolina Quarterly, Wind, and Green Mountains Review. He lives in Brooklyn.
• Charles Lidgard–I was born and raised in the small town of Wanganui, New Zealand. After leaving school I moved to Wellington where I lived for 4 years working and studying a BA majoring in English Literature at Victoria University. My key interests were modern literature and American literature and I found I had a strong affinity with other NZ writers which were also a staple of the courses I was taking. Whilst in Wellington I also worked freelance as a music correspondent for City Voice (Wellington’s community paper at the time) reviewing live bands, CDs, demos and the occasional comedy performance and play. I also did some writing for Victoria University’s student rag, Salient. I completed an art-murder themed novella at this time, "A Forming Destruction", which was never published but released to a circle of my friends and acquaintances. In conjunction with my short-story writing I began experimenting in poetical forms of literature - a collection of which I released as a prologue to the novella - and spoken word recordings. In February 2000 I relocated with my band (in which I play bass) to Melbourne, Australia where I now reside. My band is currently recording its third EP with an ARIA-award winning engineer which we hope to have released in the near future. I am 25 this November, work in the health insurance industry, recently completed a short course in freelance journalism and am on the constant search for an equilibrium between my love for music and my love for writing and of course the time to dedicate to both.
• Prasen Maiti (b. 1971) is a senior lecturer in Political Science, Burdwan University, West Bengal, India. Dr. Maiti would like to publish his maiden poetry chapbook. He resides in Calcutta and may be contacted at pmaiti@vsnl.com.
• Kamane` Malvo is the queen diva of telling it like it is. As a recent graduate of California State University, Hayward’s Mass Communication undergraduate program, she knows her future lies within entertainment journalism. Her dynamic personality, tenacity, and gift of gab will put her on the map as a positive new voice representing women of color, power and size all over the world. She can be reached at kmalvo@yahoo.com.
• Karen Mandell–over the past eight years, I’ve moved back and forth from Boston to Minneapolis. I am hopelessly torn between the East Coast and Midwest. I recently completed a novel called Repairs and Alterations and I’m hoping to get it published. It’s about an elderly man who reveals to his wife and daughter what really happened to him in World War II in Europe. I teach writing at Mount Ida college in Newton, MA.
• C. Mannheim is a pseudonymous code name for a pinko, leftist, hippie holdover from The Sixties. Currently on assignment as an undercover, bionic operative, endowed with a 55-gig, hard-driven Pseudo-Intel processor, Mannheim has just effected a successful infiltration into the politically conservative domain of Midwestern suburbia, where she is piloting small scale projects in social agitation and political reform.
• Andrew Matthews–I am a 17 year old high school senior at McNeil High in Austin, Texas. I have always loved writing and expression thorugh words, but I have only recently started to write poetry. My inspiration is derived primarily out of my own experiences and feelings, which I express through my work whenever I feel the need. I hope to continue writing for as long as I live, either for pleasure or a career.
• Sean McKenna is a stand-up comedian widely known for his work with Milwaukee’s infamous group, the Dead Ale Wives. He currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota with his partner and their five-year-old son.
• Tom Meek is a contributing film critic for the Boston Phoenix and a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics. He can also be heard as a regular on WRKO’s Taste of Boston Tonight Radio show. His ramblings and rants have also appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Web del Sol, Film Threat and E! Online. His fiction can be found at found at The Sink, Thieves Jargon and Word Riot. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, practices yoga religiously and rides his bike everywhere. Tom is currently working on a collection of short stories that take place in Boston and the surrounding cityscape.
• Erin McKnight was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and raised in South Africa. Her writing will appear this year in ‘Long Story Short,’ and she has been offered inclusion in the spring issue of ‘The Rose and Thorn.’ She now lives in Virginia.
• Carrie Miller is an artist and perpetual student. She received a Bachelors degree in Art and Art History with a specialty in decorative arts from Rice University in 1998 and has continued with studies in many disciplines since graduation. After spending three months soaking up the post-modern nightmare of economic inequality that is Los Angeles, she moved to San Diego, to develop her graphic design and computer skills. In her free time, Carrie creates art in various media, including copper enamel and cloisonné, traditional and photographic etching, sewing and quilting. In addition to creative work, Carrie devotes time to studying new technologies, ancient civilizations and the changing meaning of creative expression. Having spent many hours agonizing over the meaning of art, she has adopted the philosophy expressed by William Morris in his 1876 treatise, "The Art of the People", ‘The thing which I understand by real art is the expression by man of his pleasure in labour.’
• Eric Miklasevics, a founding member of the Latvian Writers Brigade, currently lives in South Minneapolis with his domestic accomplice, their four-year-old daughter, three cats, a dog, four fish, and a guinea pig who goes by the name of Phil. He (Eric, not Phil) is a recent graduate of Metropolitan State University and is now desperately trying to escape the clutches of restaurantland.
• Laurie Mona most often writes to make herself laugh. She still loves country living, even though she never did earn the title of farm bride. Bravely, she carries on, hoping her example of courage in the face of crushing disappointment inspires other losers like herself to keep the faith. Surely there is a support group in the works somewhere. Words of encouragement and generous donations are always welcome.
• Sarah Monson is currently in her 5th (or maybe 6th, yes, it could be 6th) year in college at her 5th or maybe 6th college, UCLA, where she is an English major with a concentration in creative writing. Originally from South Dakota, Sarah grew up in the Seattle area and only has 6 months left of her prison term in LA. From there, maybe Europe, maybe the circus. She has one child, her kitty cat, Heiney, and is tickled pink to be writing this bio.
• Ed Moorman grew up near Princeton, New Jersey and studies comic art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. ‘Moorman’ is different from the religion ‘Mormon.’ The closest connection he has to the latter is that his favorite functioning band is Low. ‘Moorman’ means ‘man of the moors (swamps),’ so if you like you can either think of Othello or Swamp Thing. He’s okay with both. Both written by badass English men with funny hair. His website is a piss-poor step up from Geocities, but more of his comix and poetry can be seen at http://edisdead.bravehost.com/. So it serves its purpose.
• Luis Munoz is an English literature junior studying at Arizona State University outside Phoenix. He has spent none of his 20 years outside of the state of Arizona, and thus has a fondness for saguaro cacti, invisible subways, and serrated clouds. He frequents corporate coffeehouses on Mill Avenue in search of the perfect siren to capture his unrealized songs onto tape, and likes to enjoy an occasional glass of dewy lemonade. He just finished reading Kerouac’s retchingly fantastic "On the Road" and was inspired to find a stoop at the Greyhound station to sleep on.
• When Craig Murray is not writing prose, short stories or full length fiction, he consults in Leadership Training and Engineering Support. He is also a Captain in the Canadian Forces. More information and details are available at my site www.cmurray.com.
• Christina Nation is an Improvisational Performance poet, film-maker, writer and illustrator. When all of that is put to bed, she is an actor and voice-over artist as well. She resides currently (but not permanently) in Seattle, WA. She loves email (love or hate) and would be happy to send along any info in regards to her upcoming projects and performances. Christina’s website is: http://www.christinanation.com and can also be found on http://www.livejournal.com/users/christinanation/.
• Neurophilosopher, meta-theorist and hair stylist, Malvolio Rutteledge has been involved with the cutting-edge of hair styling for over a decade. He virtually invented the "spiked wave" which took 80’s hair styling by storm. His recent work has been with his own line of experimental hair tonics and gels; products that maintain standing waves and flips during the post-permanent process. His use of hair as a pioneer metaphor for the will to power has been held in high regard by cadres of international hair stylists and hair cognoscenti. MR wears his hair in a convoluted Bob, a style he invented after a vision quest. It is clear that the future of hair styling belongs to MR.
• Ashok Niyogi was born in Kolkatta, India in 1955. After graduating with honors in Economics from Presidency College, Kolkatta University, he spent more than 25 yeas in trade and commerce working in different parts of the world. For over a decade he was in the USSR and Russia. Ashok’s poetry doesn’t follow strict grammar laws but is a spontaneous expression of what he sees, hears, smells, touches or feels. His English is abundantly Indian (with its colonial burden) but because of his travel, the odd Russian, European or American ‘ism’ has crept in. He now divides his time between the US where his daughters live and India where he is based in Delhi but travels all over the country.
• Yarb Nomis–Almost 20 years to the day I was conceived in a damp corner of Merrion Square. I am now 29 years of age and am wondering where the missing years have gone. I have blue eyes, hair in the right places and am looking for a fresh girl (GFCH) to play table tennis with sur le weekends. Owning her own feet would be an advantage. Besides that, I am known to take a dare.
• After spending almost a decade working as a freelance photographer in Europe, Maurice Oliver returned to America in 1990. Then in 1995 he made a lifelong dream reality by traveling around the world for eight months, recording his experiences in a journal instead of taking pictures. And so began his desire to be a poet. His poetry has appeared in The Potomac Journal, Circle Magazine, The MAG, Tryst3 Journal, Eye-Shot, Pebble Lake Review, Megaera, The Surface, Wicked Alice, Word Riot, Taj Mahal Review (India), Stride Magazine (UK), Dandelion Magazine (Canada), Retort Magazine (Australia), & online at unlikelystories.org, girlswithinsurance.com, subtletea.com, interpoetry.com (UK), kritya.in (India), & blueprintreview.de (Germany). He currently lives in Portland, Oregon where he is a private tutor. His poetry blogsite can be visited at: www.bloxster.net/mauriceoliver.
• Composer, musician, and writer Nick Padron lives in Madrid and Miami. To date, he has published over one hundred musical compositions, including numerous TV themes and soundtracks for Spain’s TV, and a rock opera based on Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan series. His writings include comedy sketches for television, interviews, and music reviews. His short stories have appeared in The Blue Moon Review, The Littoral, Boston’s Full Circle, The Barcelona Review, New Works Review, Canada’s Thirteen Stories Magazine, Twin Cities’ The Whistling Shade, Stony Brook University’s Rio art magazine and others. He has completed a novel and a novella It Tolls For Thee (a sequel to Hemingway’s For Whom The Bells Toll) rated number one at Zoetrope All-Story Oct. 2002. He is currently at work on his second novel.
• Nada Pavlak is a mild-mannered public servant by day, wild, unstructured cat-lover by night, Nada currently lives with life partner Tim and two Supercats -Thimble and Grimmy, in Canberra. Arrived in Australia October 1969 on the Achilles Lauro, a grand old dame of the sea, after 28 days of Coca Cola, ice cream, Italian movies and fierce exploration of every nook and cranny accessible to a gaggle of unsupervised 10 year olds. In adult years has been through the ringer of relationships: twice married, once widowed, once divorced but undeterred by these events, sailed into living with Tim in 1991. Along the way, she founded Alesco support group for people who’ve ended long term relationships and volunteered on a telephone crisis line for about 10 yrs. She is a founding member of Pageturners book group.Nowadays, when not doing good deeds on behalf of the Government of Australia or studying towards her Master of Public Health degree, she dabbles in writing, painting and gardening.
• JP Pollard was born in Peoria, IL, and given the authentic sounding name of Jeffery Hollis Pollard II by his father. His mother, Sherri Pollard, nurtured a love of reading in him almost as soon as he came off the line. His two years at Illinois Central College as an english major were so droll, he was forced to crush his mother’s dreams of having an awarding winning author son and run off to Minneapolis College of Art & Design to draw funny books. This is the first story he’s ever submitted.
• Mircea Pricajan was born in Oradea, Bihor County, Romania on September 2nd 1980. Even though not such a big reading fan in his early youth (he was more inclined to listening to recorded fairy-tales and classical plays) he discovered in a sunny summer day one book which was meant to change his life. He was about 14 years old. The covers of the books showed a scratched screaming face behind a typewriter. The name was Stephen King. The novel-"Misery". He read that book in a single setting, forgetting even that he had to drink or eat. Afterwards, his mind was completely… warped. Every single movement, every thing his eyes lay on started sounding in his mind like words in a book. The next important step in his development as a horror writer was when his father had bought a typewriter (much similar with the one on the cover of "Misery"). All the words bound in the confines of his skull could now be set free. His fingers started rapping on the keyboard and the first pages of what was to become "Into the Deep Shadow of Reality", his debut novel, were written. Mircea Pricajan also wrote many short stories, of which many were published by literary magazines like: "Luceafarul", "Familia", "Cele trei Crisuri", "Crisana Plus". He wrote articles, took interviews and made translations, being the first one to introduce to the Romanian public authors like: Rob Butlin, Dilys Rose and Brett Alexander Savory. These articles, interviews and translations were published in: "Tribuna", "Observator cultural", "Dilema" and "Aurora".In June 2002, "Into the Deep Shadow of Reality" was published by University of Oradea Publishing House and immediately received good reviews.The very same year, Mircea Pricajan’s first novel won the Special Debut Prize from ASLA (The Science, Literature and Art Academy) at The International Book Fair from Oradea. He’s now the Editor-in-Chief of Imagikon [www.imagikon.ev.ro] and Avangarda [www.avangarda.ev.ro] e-zines and editor at Familia Cultural Magazine from Oradea, Romania.
• JP Rodriguez is an English born Canadian currently living and teaching in London, England. Most of his time (not allocated to molding the 8-year old minds of future world-leaders) is spent writing, but he also makes music and paints. At the moment he is polishing up his first novel–which he hopes will someday see the light of your bedside table.
• After having lived in several states growing up, Alisonn Rose now lives in Orlando, FL. She has been writing since she figured out how to hunt and peck on a typewriter. At the age of 8, she wrote a short story about a kidnapping where all of the characters were mostly drunk, which was surprising to her family since no one in the family really drank. Unsure of whether the influence was her wild imagination or the television, they settled on the latter and sadly revoked TV privileges. Happily, she still found things to write about over the years. She went to school at New England College in Henniker, NH and Arundel, England, and graduated with a B.A. in English, and she still looks forward to writing about the weird and unusual cracks in the middle of a "normal" life and what happens when someone takes a detour from the ordinary into the strange and surreal. Fortunately, the characters in her stories are now usually sober….mostly.
• Brian G Ross is twenty nine and was born in Sydney, although he now lives in Scotland. Publications range from humour (Buzzwords, Fools Motley, Laughout) to horror (DemonMinds, Nocturne, Shadow Box, Thirteen, Twisted Dreams) and everything in between (Stephen D. Rogers, T-Zero). Upcoming appearances include, Escaping Elsewhere, Events Quarterly, Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, and Gold Dust.
• Kim Rush is a fifty-one year old Communication and English college teacher, living in the comprehensive nothingness of the Midwest-hopefully for only a short time. I’ve published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Google me. I refuse to label myself under any political party and choose to think situational specifically on each event in reality. I am an atheist and reject all religious approaches to objective reality.
• Jackson Scales was born in the New Mexican desert, then spent some time in the piney woods of East Texas, and currently resides in Cream City, Wisconsin. When he’s not dealing in antiques, Jackson tries his hand at writing fiction. Jackson’s first published piece appears in the premiere issue of Edifice Wrecked. He also has work forthcoming in The Spillway Review, Ophelia’s Muse, and The Southern Ocean Review.
• Logan Scherer is currently studying English at Princeton University. His television reviews are featured on TVBlend.com. A bit ashamed of his conventional, drab suburban upbringing, he thrives on trashy pop culture for true inspiration.
• Maxine Sharples is married. This fact should exclude her from writing a sex column. She still doesn’t understand why the hell anyone would allow her to write about sex. She almost passed out from embarrassment signing on for a subscription to Playboy. She’d be better off writing a column about how to make beautiful food entirely from condiments. Sex and the Suburbs indeed!
• Gerald Sheagren is a fifty-six-year-old, balding, white-bearded, slightly plump individual, who might best be described as a cross between Kenny Rogers and old Saint Nick Besides writing, his interests include reading the current bestsellers and adding to his ever-increasing collection of Civil War artifacts. He’s a father of two and a grandfather to four. He resides in Torrington, Connecticut with his wife, Sharon, and a cat by the name of "Molly Brown." Gerald has had over a hundred stories in a variety of genres published both in hard print and online.
• Ryan Shiroma is studying and enjoying the weather at California State University, Long Beach. He also interns at Swink Magazine. His writing has recently been featured on Konundrum Engine Literary Review. He whispers in his sleep, "Can’t nobody take my pride. Can’t nobody hold me down…"
• Dan Shneider writes. Read his work at www.cosmetica.com
• George Sparling–I have a degree in English from Iowa Wesleyan College, not a prestigious place of learning, but educating nonetheless. There, a peace officer decided I needed a quick tutorial in manners, so he knocked my front tooth out with his fist. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. I felt like I was always standing in front of a huge wind tunnel, constantly being thrown to earth by its hurricane-force gusts. My nephew told me I’m naturally high. That puts a nice spin on plain old insanity. I’ve been published in many literary magazines. I’m in early retirement, after spending most of my working life in bookstores. I’ve had many jobs ranging from a welfare caseworker in East Harlem, a counselor and reading instructor in the Baltimore City Jail, a bookstore manager, a health food store assistant manager, and a scuba diver for placer gold in the northern wilderness of California. Joseph Conrad was right: one can decay and go mad living too long in isolation.
• Exley Steward is South African, grew up in Italy and was regurgitated onto New York City where he decided he might as well get a degree or sumthink. So he got a BA in English writing from Hunter College and upon its completion he started his education. So here he is in New York, taking up space, saving face, exuding grace (and a foul stench.) He hopes to end up in a tropical jungle with the monkeys at some point but is patient. As far as writing goes, he likes to steer clear of the oft trodden paths. He has had short stories and poetry published on happyrobot.com and glowlab.com and knows his best works are still unwritten. Contact: exleysteward@hotmail.com
• Mike Stewart was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1955. When I was 17, I left Scotland to travel and work around Europe, eventually ending up in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1976, where I’ve been ever since. Writing has been a favourite hobby of mine for many years. mstewart@tiscali.nl
• Harvey Sutlive live in a rural area outside Athens Georgia. Stories recently at Prism International, The Richmond Review and Slate Magazine UK.
• Evan Sutton can usually be found under a black cowboy hat, seated on a lawn chair atop the roof of his garage. There’s an awful (and we do mean awful) lot more to say, but we’re pretty sure you don’t want to know any of it. And if you do, too bad.
• Sharon Suzuki-Martinez came to Minnesota via Arizona via New York via Arizona via Hawaii. She and her husband live in Minneapolis and work at the University of Minnesota, for now.
• John Sweet lives in a house without insulation in the totally unpicturesque town of Endicott, NY with his wife and son and their 3 cats. He has been writing for 20 years now, and appearing in the small press for 14. His recent chapbooks include Seasons of Rust (Via Dolorosa Press) and Faith in Nothing (Kitty Litter Press). He is opposed to all schools of poetry, and is currently attempting to raise being antisocial to an art form.
• Justin Teerlinck is a stone cold wood tick killa. He was born and reared on the mean streets of upper middle class, St. Paul suburbs. He grew up in abject poverty, in a household that never had new cars or a maid. All he ever knew was gently used cars, and a cleaning lady. Early on, Teerlinck got involved with morally suspect suburban gangsta activities like ding-dong ditch and running into parked cars on his bicycle while hopped up on sweet tarts. Teerlinck and his stone cold thug friends got to be playas by manufacturing candy cigarettes in a clandestine candy cigarette lab, and selling them to kindergartners for stone cold cash money. They used these ill-begotten gains to purchase large tank super soakers, and bigger, faster bicycles from K-mart. These new, unregulated thug weapons made it easier to control more turf in the midst of internecine battles with other gangs of hoods and stone cold bangers, who all fought hard for a bigger piece of the dope and dead presidents. Teerlinck lives in St. Paul with his girlfriend, works in a group home, and votes. Don’t even think of messing with a stone cold thug like Teerlinck…because you might hurt him. He has asthma, debilitating headaches, and a heart condition. Teerlinck has been published in the Whistling Shade.Contact: Here-Leezard@juno.com.
• Cathy Tenzo is a writer, artist and a woman in the midst of giving birth to herself. She has led several recent past lives, including one in which she received a Master’s Degree in Medieval History from the University of Minnesota. She is currently finishing up an 18 year starring role as one of the Married Women, in which she played the role of Mrs. Tacinelli. She has published all of her main work to date under this name, and you might have seen her in Asimov’s Science Fiction, where she received 6th place in the 2004 Reader’s Poll for Poetry, or in Poetry Motel, Tales of the Unanticipated, Troubadour, Mythic Delirium or various other places. She is a member of the poetry performance troupe The Lady Poetesses from Hell, where she delights in dressing in lady-like attire and reading unladylike poetry. She LOVES classic cars, and the 55 Chevy Bel-Aire is her very favorite.
• Shirley J. Thompson–I live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with my husband Richard and three mischievous cats. We successfully raised 4 boys to adulthood which was, by no means, an easy task. My husband is totally disabled with MS. Dealing with his illness and being a care-giver is not always easy. My writing is how I cope with the stress and keep my sanity. I enjoy writing and have entertained my family and friends with my humorous stories via e-mail for the last few years. With their prompting, I finally decided to try writing as a second career.
• Ann Tinkham is a writer/instructional designer based in Boulder, Colorado. She has written over 30 online courses in subjects ranging from emergency preparedness to energetic healing. Ann is working on a nonfiction book, Climbing Mountains in Stilettos (SourceBooks, 2007), and a novel, The Bean Stalkers. Her fiction has appeared in Edifice Wrecked, Hiss Quarterly, Lily, MotherVerse, Stone Table Review, Syntax, Thirst for Fire, Toasted Cheese, and Wild Violet.
• Davide Trame is an Italian teacher of English writing poems exclusively in English since 1993. They have been published in around one hundred literary magazines since 1999, in U.K, U.S. and elsewhere. Recently in "Poetry New Zealand" , "New Contrast" (South Africa). Nimrod (U.S.). He lives in Venice-Italy.
• Uncle Frank is an extremely perverted individual who lives in middle America.
• Stoyan Valev from Bulgaria (Europe, the Balkan Peninsula) isthe author of four books - ‘When God was on Leave’, a novel (1999), ‘The Bulgarian Dekameron’, a book of love stories with unknown end (2002 and 2003), ‘Time to be Unfaithful’. A play of mine was presented in two Bulgarian theaters, the Bulgarian National Television made a TV series based on a story of mine.
• Jerry Vilhotti–I graduated from the only college that won the NIT and NCCA basketball tournaments in the same year but more importantly than that-Jonas Salk who helped rid some of the world of polio with his vaccine was also given the opportunity to contribute to Mankind and graduated from the same NYC school that’s called in some circles - "The poor man’s Harvard"- this and the fact that there was a place of higher learning that indeed gave every race, nationality and creed an opportunity to play in the game of sculpting a better world gives me greater joy. To use an analogy: I was a pretty good ballplayer in my day: I could hit singles, doubles and triples and sometimes home runs! I hit balls for fly outs or ground outs and sometimes I even struck out! That’s how I feel like a writer-no more no less.I have been fortunate to have had stories published in the USA, Greece, India, Scotland, Ireland, England , Canada Singapore …. many of which were literary magazines. I now live among the Litchfield Hills, in a simpler place in time, with the ghosts of Mark Twain in the east, Harriet Beecher Stowe on the west and John Brown to the north. I am with a beautiful wife who treats me well and waits for me to return from my imaginary meandering and we both helped–I swears to God!–in bringing three sort of nice kids into this world of whom we are very proud and I hope find loved ones as good as I found once a time ago.
• Alan Walsh was born in 1977 and studied Design in Dublin. I have worked for many years as a freelance journalist for magazines in Dublin like Magill, In Dublin and Sixmag and in London for the likes of The Illustrated ape. I write stories as I travel, and am at the moment travelling Europe. I have lived in Italy since last November and have just moved to Bologna. I write stories and critical articles.
• Kathleen Walsh was born in St. Paul, Minnesota sixty-plus years ago. She moved around the world only to end up living three blocks from where she started. She writes some, paints some, gardens some, works some and reads a lot. There is much on the ezine that she does not read as her spiritual program is not quite that elastic.
• Pauline Werkmeister lives in Milwaukee with her partner and a big yellow lab named Jake and one beautiful newborn son. She attends Alverno College where she studies art and education. Painting is a lifelong passion and experimental elements in texture and medium became pronounced during the year that she lived in Prague. During her time in the Czech Republic, she created Four Women and Nightmare.
• Kelley White was born and raised in New Hampshire, have degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School, and have been a pediatrician in inner-city Philadelphia for the past twenty years. I write to survive, returning to poetry when I found myself an unwontedly single mother of three after a very difficult divorce a few years ago. I started sending work two years ago with very modest goals (I hoped to have a half dozen poems published by my fiftieth birthday in 2004) but have had somewhat surprising success, with well over 600 poems accepted or published by about one hundred and fifty journals including American Writing, The Café Review, the Chiron Review, Feminist Studies, The Larcom Review, Minnesota Review, Rattle, and Whiskey Island Magazine. A book of my "medical" poems, The Patient Presents, was published this spring by The People’s Press in Baltimore and a chapbook of very different material, "I am going to walk toward the sanctuary," was published this fall Nepenthe Books/Via Dolorosa Press. I received a Pushcart nomination for an experimental piece (from Gravity Presses) in 2000, my first year of submission. This month I have received a contract to publish a second chapbook, "Blues: Songs for Desdemona," with Via Dolorosa Press and to publish "At the monkey-feast table" with ZeBook, a new online poetry publisher. My children and I are shocked by this success. I welcome your comments on the following pieces.
• Alun Williams was born, raised and is still living in Wales-right next to England. Massive fan of Charles Bukowski. On several e-zines including Zoetrope, Writers Dock and Critters. Usually under maxie slim, but occasionally known as Maxwell Allen. Had several shorts published in mags such as Cambrensis and Bonfire. I work for a living, which tends to stifle my creativity and output, but I need to eat!
• Your Correspondent spends his working hours on the front line of the culture wars, teaching young adults how to develop a bad attitude and a mean disposition. In his spare time, YC enjoys experiencing unimaginable pleasures.
• Alexander Zelenyj’s fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including Front & Centre Magazine, Cerebral Catalyst, Revelation Magazine, Whispers of Wickedness, Freefall Magazine, Crossroads Magic, and The Lightning Journal, and anthologies such as Windsor Salt, The Sands of Time, and forthcoming in Revelation: Volume 2 and Dead Men and Women Walking. He has recently received multiple grants from the Ontario Arts Council under recommendation of Coach House Books, Descant Magazine, and Kiss Machine Magazine towards two separate novels-in-progress. He is currently a regular fiction columnist for Upfront Magazine, an arts and culture periodical for which he also writes book reviews. His work is set to appear in forthcoming issues of Worlds of Wonder, Simulacrum Magazine, and The Rose & Thorn, and has been short-listed for THIS Magazine’s Great Canadian Literary Hunt Short Story Contest. He has also recently completed a children’s book to be published by Crabtree Books in fall, 2005. His most recent achievement is having his speculative fiction short novel, Black Sunshine, accepted for publication by Fourth Horseman Press and scheduled for release in September, 2005.