Gilbert Allen is the author of six collections of poems, most recently Catma. His long poem "The Assistant" received the Robert Penn Warren Prize from The Southern Review in 2007. A book of short stories, The Final Days of Great American Shopping, will be forthcoming in 2016 from USC Press. He lives in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, with his wife, Barbara.

Sandra Marin is from a small town in central New York. She has a bachelor's degree in creative writing. When Ms. Marin is not writing, she is running or taking photos.

Hannah L. Nelson is a freelance writer currently residing in South Florida. She is studying dance performance and creative writing at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Her work has been published in Artifact Nouveau, The Sucarnochee Review, Outrageous Fortune and Slab Magazine.

Steve Meador has three books of poetry published, the full-length Throwing Percy from the Cherry Tree, and two chapbooks, A Good Sharp Knife and Pack Your Bags. His work appears regularly in print and online journals, resulting in numerous nominations for awards. However, as he has yet to see his name at or near the top of any list, he continues to sell homes for a living.

Angel Conlon is a recent graduate of Palm Beach Atlantic University with a degree in communications. Her work has appeared in the student newspaper, The Beacon, and she was a writer and producer on the show PBA Tonight. Ms. Conlon plans to build a career that fuses pop culture, media and writing.

Michael Dobberstein recently retired from Purdue University Calumet, where he taught literature, creative writing, and desktop publishing courses.

Alice Stinetorf's work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as Post Road, Best of Ohio Short Stories, Harpur Palate, Hawai'i Review, Surreal South '13 and Yalobusha Review. Her honors include the Carolyn F. Walton Cole Fellowship in Poetry, the Walton Family Fellowship in Fiction, the James T. Whitehead Award and the Arkansas Arts Council's 2015 Individual Artist Fellowship for short story writing.

Stinetorf holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas.

Clay Micallef lives in the small coastal town of Denmark, Western Australia. It is a quiet little town with plenty of space to enjoy the creative process of writing poetry. He also enjoys reading, playing guitar and song writing. He has recorded two full length albums and is looking forward to completing his first book of poetry.

Mr. Micallef's favorite writers of poetry and lyrics include of Leonard Cohen, Pablo Neruda, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac and Mary Oliver.

Troy Cunio is a poet, adventurer, and archaeologist-in-training living in Orlando, Florida. He was born in the shadow of a launch pad and saw every shuttle launch from October 1993 until they stopped shooting them off. His book Inkstained Heartbeats is available on Amazon.

Blake Lapin lives in Montclair, New Jersey and is on the verge of moving to California to attend Claremont McKenna College. He just completed his first poetry manuscript, Elastic Glory, and his poems have been published in Stylus and Y- Magazine.

Thomas Wells is a writer from Wyoming. He spent some time writing about books, but has found he more enjoys writing books. He is currently riding a bicycle across the United States.

Lee Todd Lacks is a mixed-media artist, music therapist, and clinical counselor, whose work tends to be informed by his experience of living with significant vision and hearing deficits. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Alembic, Tincture Journal, Liquid Imagination, and Latchkey Tales. Lee Todd currently resides in South Portland, Maine, where he shares his life with his wife and young son. Recordings of his spoken word material may be found at http://leetoddlacks.bandcamp.com.

Rissa Johnson, BA English Literature; Film and Video Studies, is a left-handed, Jewish, dyslexic, insomniac who stays up all night wrestling with Dog.

Bill Lythgoe has been writing poetry seriously for about five years. During this time he has won three prizes and been published in Writing Magazine. Bill won second prize in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly competition and was published in their Oct-Dec 2013 magazine. He has also won prizes awarded by the Wakefield Red Shed and Nottingham Poetry Society.

Tracy Davidson lives in Warwickshire, England, and enjoys writing poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in various publications and anthologies, including: The Binnacle, Poet's Market 2015, Modern Haiku, A Hundred Gourds, Atlas Poetica, Journey to Crone, Ekphrastia Gone Wild and In Protest: 150 Poems for Human Rights.

Iryna immigrated from Ukraine at age 15, has 3 beautiful children, loves dark chocolate and smokes thick expensive poems every night after dinner.

Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry, which she has written since college. Over 250 of her poems appear in a wide variety of online venues and in anthologies, in the U.S. and abroad. The natural world is generally her framework; she also considers the stories of people and places around her and personal histories.

Ms. Strauss is a semi-retired teacher living in California.

Abraham Adonduwa is a Nigerian writer and poet who has been published in Origami, Ontherusk, Indiana Voice, NewVerseNews, Sentinel Quarterly amongst others. He is an emerging voice burning with passion for the written and spoken word and is currently hard at work on a collection of short stories.

Michael J. Vaughn is the author of 15 novels, including the acclaimed thriller The Popcorn Girl. His poetry has appeared in more than 100 journals, including Skidrow Penthouse and Confrontation. He lives in San Jose, where he sings and drums in two rock bands.

Paul M. Strohm is a freelance journalist in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in HuKmag.com, the Berkeley Poets Cooperative, The Lake, WiND, and other literary outlets. His first collection of poems, Closed On Sunday, was published in 2014 by the Wellhead Press.

Mr. Strohm worked at the Humanities Research Center at UT-Austin cataloging the correspondence of D.H. Lawrence. If he had to count the number of times D. H. wrote that imaginative line, " Dear ____. How are you?" he would never read Lady Chatterley's Lover again.

Emily Frankenberg is an American writer and English teacher residing in Seville, Spain. She writes in both English and Spanish. Her work is has been published or is forthcoming in Typehouse Literary Magazine, The Apeiron Review and La bolsa de pipas (Spain). She was also chosen as a finalist in the poetry contest held by Editorial Zenú (Colombia).

Cate Cowie lives in Illinois and works in internet marketing. Her poems are forthcoming in Five Fiction Magazine and Ancient Paths Literary Magazine.

Kristin Fullerton lives in upstate New York. She is a proud alumna of both Elmira College and University at Albany. Previous work has appeared in Grasslimb.

Puzhudhi's fiction has appeared in EFiction India. This is Puzhudhi's first published poetry. Puzhudhi tweets as @puzhudhi and can be contacted at puzhudhi@gmail.com.

Stacey Margaret Jones lives in Conway, Arkansas. She is in the third and final year of the Arkansas Writers MFA Program at the University of Central Arkansas and has earned her master's degree from Syracuse University and her bachelor's degree from Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction and is a columnist for Sporting Life Arkansas as well working as an independent market research consultant.
Ms. Jones's essays have been published in Elephant Journal, and her poetry has been published in Shelterbelt, North Coast Review, Every Day Poetry, Slant, Ariel and Agave. In 2014, her short fiction appeared in Bewildering Stories and in the anthology Unbraiding the Short Story.

Les Morgan is recently retired and has been married for more than two score years to his best friend. He started writing poetry in high school, loves good science fiction and fantasy, and is mad for movies. He likes classic rock, jazz, and Americana. He is always reading and is on speaking terms with a bird named Saint Louie Blue.

Robert Wooten's poetry has appeared recently in Thema, Los (home.earthlink.net/~lospoesy), Bear Creek Haiku, Ancient Paths, The Dirty Napkin (www.thedirtynapkin.com), and Dead Mule School of Southern Literature (www.deadmule.com).

Chelsea K. Walker is a novice poet and creative writing student at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Specializing in spoken word and free verse, her work mostly focuses on sexuality, gender issues, spirituality, and growing up in the south. A long-time dweller in the dream of writing professionally, her journey is just beginning and her poems can most often be found in her pocket or scrawled on her hand. She currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina with her potted plant, Hubert, and her rabbit, Leonard.

Nina Romano earned an M.A. from Adelphi University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University. She is the author of four poetry collections: Cooking Lessons, from Rock Press; Coffeehouse Meditations from Kitsune Books; She Wouldn't Sing at My Wedding, from Bridle Path Press; and Faraway Confections from Aldrich Press.

Romano has published two poetry chapbooks: Prayer in a Summer of Grace and Time's Mirrored Illusion both from Flutter Press. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. She co-authored Writing in a Changing World, and her new debut short story collection, The Other Side of the Gates, has recently been published from Bridle Path Press.

More about the author at: www.ninaromano.com.

Darrell Lindsey is the author of Edge of the Pond ( Popcorn Press, 2012), and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2007) and a Rhysling Award ( 2014). He won the 2012 Science Fiction Poetry Association Contest ( Long Form category), as well as the 2014 Balticon Poetry Contest.

Ellyn is a new poet, although her poems have been heard at local poetry readings. She writes short stories, first appearing in Snow Bird Vol. 1; others stories are pending publication. She has written extensively for religious publications. Ellyn holds degrees in theology from St. Joseph University and Hartford Seminary.

Brian's writing has been published in Dreamspinner Press, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, and Wilde Oats Journal. He is currently working toward his MA in English-Writing at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Nicole Criona is a writer, inspirer, online marketer and serial entrepreneur. She is the owner of www.LAwritersgroup.com and can be found at about.me/nicolec.

Keith Nunes is a former New Zealand newspaper sub-editor who delights in poetry. He's been published widely in the southern hemisphere and in Iota in the UK. He was Highly Commended in the New Zealand Poetry Society's recent International Poetry Competition.

Mr. Nunes lives in rural Bay of Plenty with eccentric artist Talulah Belle and a coterie of nutty animals.

Dani Nicole has been writing since she could read, creating stories and poems about everything from bunny rabbits to boyfriends. After graduating from UT Austin, Dani realized that her dreams of becoming a writer hadn't faded with the imaginary friends of childhood. She is currently working on a young adult fantasy novel titled Moonstruck and actively participates in several writing groups, often sharing (or not sharing) a stack of pancakes with people who love words as much as she does.

For a complete portfolio of her published work, please visit www.daninicoleauthor.com.

John gives poetry readings and acts and directs in community theater. He exhibits his sculpture anywhere he can find an outlet. He was a scurvy looking corpse on Homicide and a shopper on WIRE. Seven of his one-act plays have been produced.

Wily Writers, The Meadow, Aoife's Kiss, Thema, Whitefish Review, Modern Haiku, Liquid Imagination, Welter, Premonitions, and Big Pulp are some of the magazines that have published his work.

Judith Skillman's new collections are Broken Lines–The Art & Craft of Poetry (Lummox Press, 2013) and The Phoenix--New and Selected Poems 2007–2013 (Dream Horse Press). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, Midwest Quarterly Review, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, A Cadence of Hooves and other journals and anthologies.

Ms. Skillman has recived grants from the Academy of American Poets, the Washington State Arts Commission, the Centrum Foundation and the King County Arts Commission. She teaches for Yellow Wood Academy. See judithskillman.com

C.E. Nichols is a new poet from Oklahoma. She has work pending or published in Red River Review, Muddy River Review, and Vox Poetica.

Anahita teaches Mathematics and Engineering at Northeast State Community College in Tennessee. She is a graduate of Odyssey Writing Workshops' wonderful online classes. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Every Day Fiction, Lorelei Signal, Forging Freedom Anthology, The Mindful Word, and a few other magazines.

James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name, "Brad Pitt."

His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Wisdom Crieth Without among other markets. His ebook collection, The New Death and others, is now available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and DriveThruFiction.

James blogs regularly at www.apolitical.info/teleleli.

Before embarking on a career as an Information Systems consultant, David R. Myers was a newspaper journalist and Corporate Communications specialist. A fluent Portuguese speaker, he organizes the Austin (Texas) Portuguese Language Meetup Group. He is the author of A Prophecy of Snow, a novel about cats (www.catnovel.com/).

Ken Burstall is a middle-aged Englishman, living in Austin Texas with far too many children. He works, intermittently, as an oilfield geologist and has calculated that he has spent six of the last twenty years on oil rigs far offshore. His poetry has appeared in Deathly Romantic ezine, Horrotica zine and Illumen magazine. He has an unpopular weblog at fallslikesnow.blogspot.com.

Jerrold Yam (b. 1991) is a law undergraduate at University College London and the author of poetry collections Scattered Vertebrae (Math Paper Press, 2013) and Chasing Curtained Suns (Math Paper Press, 2012). His poems have been published in more than seventy literary journals and anthologies worldwide, including Antiphon, Counterexample Poetics, Mascara Literary Review, Prick of the Spindle, The New Poet, Third Coast and Washington Square Review.

He has been awarded poetry prizes from the British Council and National University of Singapore, and is the youngest Singaporean to be nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He has been featured at the London Book Fair and Singapore Writers Festival. His poems have recently been translated into Spanish.

You can read about Mr. Yam's work at jerroldyam.com.

Alessandra Davy-Falconi is a dragon from Boston and Pittsburgh. She's been most recently published in Sassafras Literary Magazine, Philadelphia Stories, and The Hive: Apiary Digital Edition.

John H. Whiting retired from SUNY Orange with the rank of professor emeritus (English). During his academic years, he served on editorial boards of literary magazines, including The Hart Crane Newsletter and The Visionary Company, and published poetry in journals like Esprit and Colleague. He now lives in Southport, North Carolina with his wife Patricia, and conducts library programs on literary and film subjects.

Ty Karnitz is a former wildlife conservation educator and large animal trainer who enjoys writing. His writing has previously appeared on the Art of Manliness website.

Hope Zane lives and works in Oakland, California, which she swears isn't as bad as the news makes it sound. Her poetry has been featured in the 2010 issue of Humble Pie, California College of the Arts' literary journal.

When she isn't writing, she's working as a pastry cook, volunteering at her local animal shelter, and plotting trips to new destinations. When she is writing, you can probably find her in a bar, pretending she's Jack London.

You can also find her on http://madscientistlove.tumblr.com.

Jim Lee hails from a small Pennsylvania town better known for producing an early movie Tarzan (Johnny Weismuller), the DJ credited with popularizing the term "Rock n Roll" (Alan Freed), and millions of tons of coal dust. Jim's short stories, poetry and nonfiction has been appearing in various venues since 1982. He appears (as a suitably creepy zombie) in the low-budget film ZOMBIE DREAM, scheduled for release in April 2014.

Jim recently co-founded Sanctuary of Steele, Inc., a fledgling nonprofit dedicated to assisting creative people facing serious life challenges.

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Clinton Van Inman was born in Walton-on-Thames, England in 1945, grew up in North Carolina, and received his BA in Philosophy at San Diego State University 1977. He has been an educator most of his life, and is currently a high school teacher in Tampa Bay. He lives in Sun City Center, Florida, with his wife, Elba.

His recent publications include BelleReve Journal, Mouse Tales, Poetry, Foliate Oak Magazine, BlackCatPoems, BlazeVox, The Tower Journal, Nature Writing, Southern Poets Magazine, and Indiana University Spirits, to name a few.

A German-born UK national, Rose Mary Boehm lives and works in Lima, Peru. Author of two novels and a poetry collection (Tangents), her latest poems have appeared or are forthcoming in US poetry reviews Toe Good Poetry, Poetry Breakfast, Burning Word, Muddy River Review, Pale Horse Review, Pirene's Fountain, Other Rooms, Requiem Magazine, Full of Crow, Poetry Quarterly, Punchnel's, Avatar, Verse Wisconsin, Naugatuck River Review, Boston Literary, Red River Review, Ann Arbor and others.

Poetry by Ron Singer (www.ronsinger.net) has appeared in many publications. His collection of Maine poems, Look to Mountains, Look to Sea (River Otter Press, August 2013) won two awards, and his eighth book, Uhuru Revisited: Interviews with Pro-Democracy Leaders was published Feb. 1, 2015 (Africa World Press/Red Sea Press).

Jordan Legg is originally from Oshawa, Ontario, and is currently studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor. He has been published online in Issue 16 of epiphmag.com, the September 2012 issue of eSciFi at fictionmagazines.com, Swept Media, and Circa Journal Issue 1.2. When he is not writing, he enjoys drawing, soccer, reading, cycling, and maintaining his beard.

Nita Sembrowich grew up in suburban New York, but now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in Goblin Fruit, From the Depths, Eclectica, and various other journals. She makes her living as a transcriber and copy editor.

James Valvis is the author of How to Say Goodbye (Aortic Books, 2011). His poems or stories have appeared in journals such as Anderbo, Arts & Letters, Barrow Street, Baltimore Review, Hanging Loose, LA Review, Nimrod, Rattle, River Styx, Vestal Review, and many others. His poetry has been featured in Verse Daily and the Best American Poetry website. His fiction was chosen for the 2013 Sundress Best of the Net.

A former US Army soldier, he lives near Seattle.

Tom Gunn is a new poet from Seattle and a recent graduate of the University of Washington. His work has appeared on hellopoetry.com and in the 2013 edition of Bricolage. In addition to being a poet, he's a father, a husband, a Mormon, and a fiction writer.

David Alpaugh holds degrees from Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley where he was a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation Fellow. His first collection of poetry, Counterpoint, won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press.

Journals that have published his poems and essays include Able Muse, Chronicle of Higher Education, Evergreen Review, The Formalist, Light, Mudlark, Poetry, Poets & Writers, Rattle, Scene4, Wisconsin Review, Your Daily Poem, and Zyzzyva.

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has been a featured reader more than 100 times, as well as a finalist for Poet Laureate of California.

Nilofer Neubert is an educator, writer and spoken word poet. She is the Editor and Co-Founder of Prosaic Magazine, a literary and arts magazine. She has performed her poetry at various locations in Singapore as well as open mics in England. Her poems have been published in The Fat City Review and other online magazines. Some of her writing can be found on blackvspurple.tumblr.com and http://blackvspurple.com.

Penelope Friday is a writer and poet living in the UK. She likes red wine, knitting and cats (not necessarily in that order) and has a website at penelopefriday.jigsy.com.

Jacqui Pack lives in Hampshire, England and has had poetry featured in First Edition and Poetica Victorian. She was awarded Long Story Short's Story of the Year 2009, and her fiction has appeared in New Fairy Tales, Bewildering Stories, The New Writer, Metazen and The Pygmy Giant. A number of her short stories are also currently available via Alfie Dog Fiction (http://alfiedog.com/products-page/jacqui-pack/).

At present Jacqui is undertaking a Creative Writing MA at The University of Chichester while working on her first novel. For more information visit, http://writerscoven.jimdo.com/jacqui-pack/.

Yuxing Xia is an undergraduate student at University of Michigan, double majoring in Biology and Creative Writing and Literature. He is also a researcher of neurodegenerative diseases and has coauthored several peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the International Journal of Biological Sciences and PLOS Genetics.

Interested in the TV/Film industry and media, Sean obtained a Bachelors degree in TV Production and Media Studies. Since 2008, he has written and self published over a dozen books (philosophy, science fiction, media), and may assist other writers as a story consultant. With a deep reverence for storytelling, he seeks out stories in all mediums and genres, and strives to innovate the craft in his writing.

This philosopher poet also maintains a blog curating various works from independent artists: seanstubblefield.blogspot.com.

Until 2003, David M. Harris had never lived more than fifty miles from New York City. Since then he has moved to Tennessee, married, acquired a daughter and a classic MG, and gotten serious about poetry. All these projects seem to be working out pretty well.

Mr. Harris's work has appeared in Pirene's Fountain (and in First Water, the Best of Pirene's Fountain anthology), Gargoyle, The Labletter, The Pedestal, and other places. His first collection of poetry, The Review Mirror, was published by Unsolicited Press in September, 2013.

On Sunday mornings, at 11 AM Central time, Mr. Harris talks about poetry on WRFN-LP in Pasquo, Tennessee (www.radiofreenashville.org).

Changming Yuan, 5-time Pushcart nominee and author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Landscaping (2013), grew up in rural China and currently works as an English tutor in Vancouver, where he co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan (poetry subs welcome at editors.pp@gmail.com).

Recently interviewed by PANK, Yuan's poetry has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, Exquisite Corpse, London Magazine, Threepenny Review and more than 700 others publications across 27 countries.

Todd Hanks has had poetry published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and the Kansas City Star newspaper.

Beth Cato's poetry can be found in Mythic Delirium, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Pedestal Magazine. She lives in Arizona, but is from Hanford, California. Her website is http://www.bethcato.com.

Rachel Hayes is a stay-at-home mom. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and two daughters.

Denise Grier is a freelance writer, blogger, novelist and poet. Her poetry chapbook, The Queen of Flight, was short-listed in a contest in 2012, and her piece "Breathe" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Denise's poetry, essays, articles, and fiction have been published in hundreds of online and print publications. She is currently shopping her middle-reader novel, The Sun Shines on Maddy Weaver, to publishers.

Visit Denise at http://denisegrier.info.

Emily Rose Cole is an emerging poet, folksinger, and MFA hopeful currently residing in Indianapolis. Her debut solo album, "I Wanna Know," was released in May of 2012. Her poetry has appeared in several publications, including Amethyst Arsenic, Punchnel's, Third Wednesday, Innisfree Poetry Journal, and Eunoia Review.

April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two sons. She recently finished her first collection of poetry, for which she is seeking a publisher. Her work has appeared in journals such as Poetry Salzburg, Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, The Camel Saloon, Bluestem, Centrifugal Eye, Weekenders Magazine, Deadsnakes, Montucky Review, Visceral Uterus, Conium Review, Crisis Chronicles, Windmills, Inclement, Salome, and is forthcoming in Poetry Quarterly, Literary Hatchet, and The New Writer.

Ms. Salzano also serves as co-editor at Kind of a Hurricane Press.

E. Martin Pedersen left his hometown of San Francisco, California, in 1978 for a long hitch-hiking trip around the Mediterranean region, ending up in Messina, Sicily, where he still lives. He teaches English at the local university and has published numerous academic articles on American Studies. His poetry has appeared in Lyrical Passion (Best of the Best Haiku Award, 2012), Paper Wasp, Bear Creek Haiku, and Bay Area Poetstalk.

Martin is a 2011 alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. To relax, Martin plays the banjo, follows baseball, takes summer walks on the PCT and blogs at www.emartinpedersen.com.

Richard Cody, a native Californian, has been known to write poetry and fiction. His work has appeared in many and varied print and virtual journals, and been rejected by many more! Richard also writes and maintains two blogs: Notes From a Life in Progress and The Blue Dog Journal—an open ended narrative about life in a small town on the border of California and possibility.

Poet Benjamin Joseph Biesek Alabaster Fez will tweet 999,999 haiku on Twitter (@born_before) May 2012 through December 2023.

G. O. Clark's writing has been published in Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Talebones Magazine, Strange Horizons, Space & Time, Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia, A Sea Of Alone: Poems For Alfred Hitchcock, Tales Of The Talisman, and many other publications.

He is the author of ten poetry collections. The two most recent are White Shift, 2012, Sam's Dot Publishing, and Shroud of Night, 2011, Dark Regions Press. His fiction collection, The Saucer Under My Bed & Other Stories, was published by Sam's Dot Publishing in 2011. He won the Asimov's Readers Award for poetry in 2001 and has been a repeat Rhysling and Stoker Award nominee.

Mr. Clark is retired and lives in Davis, California.

See http://goclarkpoet.weebly.com/ for more info.

Matt Cox was born in Oakland, CA in 1979 and lives with his wife and three children on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where he works as an electrician. You may find his poems in 2River View, In Posse Review, and No Tell Motel.

Lynn Otto is an MFA student at Portland State University, where she was selected for the 2012 Shelley Reece Poetry Award and the 2012-13 Portland State University Excellence Fellowship in Poetry. Her work has appeared in Plain Spoke, Generations of Poetry, and Triggerfish Critical Review.

T.C. Powell starves full-time and is a freelance writer on the side. His poetry has been published by the Christian Science Monitor, New Myths, Death Rattle, Big Pulp, and others. His woeful web presence can be found at tcpowellfiction.blogspot.com.

Sarah O'Scalaidhe holds a BA in Ancient Studies, with an English minor in medieval and renaissance literature. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Classics. Originally from Maryland, she now lives, studies, and writes in New York.

You may read more about her at sarahandtheblog.blogspot.com.

Adukuri Jagannath Rao is a retired banker who lives in Hyderabad, India. His main interests are photography and writing poetry. His poetry blog can be found at adukurispoetry.blogdrive.com.

Stephanie Stanley Walls grew up in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. She now resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she is a graduate student in the writing program at Nova Southeastern University. Her academic interests also include Sociology and Women's Studies.

Ben Orlin works as a high school math teacher in Oakland, California. He has edited the Yale Record magazine, and is a lyricist and songwriter for the band Sneaky Little Comet.

Scott Owens's tenth collection of poetry, Shadows Trail Them Home, was published by Clemson University Press in 2012. His work has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the North Carolina Writers Network, the North Carolina Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of South Carolina. His poems have appeared in Georgia Review, North American Review, Chattahoochee Review, Southern Poetry Review, and Poetry East, among others. He is the founder of Poetry Hickory, editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and 234, and vice president of the Poetry Council of North Carolina.

Born and raised in Greenwood, South Carolina, Mr. Owens teaches at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, North Carolina.

Ankita Saxena is a 16 year old student in London and has been writing poetry passionately since the age of seven. She has been highly commended in The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award (in 2010 and 2011) and has published in Cadaverine, Cuckoo Quarterly, YM: Poetry, Pennine Ink, and a few other online and small press magazines. She enjoys reading, writing and drawing in her spare time and hopes to study English at University.

Kate Moscato Leen is graduate of Whitman College and Rice University. In addition to writing, she has worked as a classical singer in the Pacific Northwest for several years. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two small children.

Joan Colby's poetry has appeared in such publications as Poetry, Atlanta Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, The New York Quarterly, Epoch, and South Dakota Review. She has been awarded two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards and an IAC Literary Fellowship. She is the author of seven books

Ms. Colby lives on a small horse farm in northern Illinois with her husband and assorted animals.

Matt Kolbet teaches and writes near Portland, Oregon.

Dustin Brown studies creative writing at Western Michigan University.

Lloyd Aquino teaches English composition, literature, and creative writing at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California.

Amberle Husbands was born in Waycross, Georgia, and currently works as a writer and aircraft mechanic. She has been writing science fiction noir and poetry since she was eleven years old. See Eads City, her first published novel, came out in October of 2011.

John F. Keller is a non-traditional student enrolled in the Creative Writing Bachelor's Degree Program at Lake Superior State University, on the northern border of Michigan and Canada. He's spent most of his life in the woods and fields of Michigan, where he and his wife Norma have raised four children. His poetry has appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.

Krishan Coupland was born in Southampton, and completed a BA at Staffordshire University. He runs and edits Neon Literary Magazine. His writing has appeared in Brittle Star, Aesthetica and Fractured West. In 2011 he won the Manchester Fiction Prize. His website is: www.krishancoupland.co.uk.

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John Grochalski is the author of The Noose Doesn't Get Any Looser After You Punch Out (Six Gallery Press 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), and the forthcoming The Sun Causes Cancer. Grochalski currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he constantly worries about the high cost of everything.

Danny Earl Simmons is an Oregonian and a proud graduate of Corvallis High School. He is a friend of the Linn-Benton Community College Poetry Club and an active member of Albany Civic Theater. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals, including Naugatuck River Review, Avatar Review, Summerset Review, Toe Good Poetry, and Pirene's Fountain.

Uche Ogbuji was born in Calabar, Nigeria. He lived, among other places, in Egypt and England before settling near Boulder, Colorado with his wife and four children. A computer engineer whose abiding passion is poetry, his poems have appeared in sundry journals. He is poetry editor at The Nervous Breakdown.

Lizzy Huitson lives in Oxford and works as a laboratory assistant. She has had poetry published in Literal Translations and The Waterhouse Review.

Stephanie Smith is the author of the chapbook, Dreams of Dali (Flutter Press, 2010). Her work has appeared in Pif Magazine, decomP, Bluestem, and Every Day Poets, among others.

Originally from Mississippi, Stella Day Nickerson studied engineering at Brigham Young University. She is now pursuing an advanced engineering degree at Arizona State University. Her poetry has appeared in Cicada magazine.

Sandile "Iron Clad" Dlamini is a 24 year old South African writer. He finds much pleasure in articulating events and feelings through poetry. This is his first published poem. He has an unpublished poetry booklet consisting of 45 poems. He writes poems on topics ranging from death, relationships, abortion, and everyday situations. He has also written quotes and short stories.

Aaron lives in Ohio with his lovely wife and a slightly unreasonable number of cats.

Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up Catholic in southern California. He studied writing and Medieval Literature at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock, Barbara Hull, and Robert M. Durling.

Mr. Mitchell's poems have appeared in numerous periodicals over the last thirty-five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places, Hunger Enough, and Line Drives. His novels The Magic War and Knight Prisoner will both be published in the coming year. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the film maker and documentarian Joan Juster.

For many years Mr. Mitchell made his living in the fine wine business.

Jenifer Wallace lives in St. Louis with her fiance John and a black cat named Schrodinger.

Jasmine Templet has never left Louisiana for more than a week. She has a BA in English from Louisiana State University and currently spends most of her time working in a library. Her poetry has appeared in Triggerfish Critical Review and Counterexample Poetics.

Tanuj Solanki is 25. His work has appeared in elimae; nether; Boston Literary Magazine; and others. He is currently working on a novel about the fatalism in Indian city life. He just can't learn swimming, and is scared of airplanes.

Megan Salgado started writing at age 12 and never stopped. She currently lives in California with her family, but that is likely to change at a moment's notice. Aside from her poetry she is also working on her first novel. You can follow her novel writing exploits on her blog: http://singularlyem.wordpress.com/

R.D. Leack is a professor of English at Cal Poly Pomona who has authored several collections of poetry, including Faces in the Mirror (2008) and Remember the Planes (2010). He has been published in journals such as Pif, RipRap, Contemporary World Literature, and A Few Lines, as well as in Pomona Valley Review, which he now edits. He lives a quiet life with his wife in Los Angeles seeking Thoreauvian tranquility and harmony with words.

J. N. Khoury received her B.A. in English from Toccoa Falls College, where she helped edit and contribute to the college's literary journal The Epicentre. Her poetry and short stories have been featured in various anthologies, blogs, and radio shows, and have also been put to song by a Chicago music producer. She writes from the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and is currently working on her third YA novel. Read more on her blog at jnkhoury.blogspot.com.

Paula Hayes holds a doctorate in Textual Studies/Literature from the University of Memphis (2008) and an M.A. in Philosophy (concentration Comparative Religions) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2000). She teaches at Strayer University. Her poetry has appeared in Dead Mule and Hispanic Culture Review. Her articles have appeared in Rupkatha, MS Academic, Panchakot Essays, and forthcoming in Platte Valley Review. She resides in Memphis with her husband and their two year old son.

Australian born poet, US resident since late seventies. Works as financial systems analyst. Recently published in Poem, Caveat Lector, Prism International and the horror anthology, "What Fear Becomes" with work upcoming in Big Muddy, Prism International and Writer's Journal.

Zoë Gabriel's poems have appeared in over two dozen publications, most recently in riverbabble, Eclectica, Jerseyworks, The Centrifugal Eye and Oysters & Chocolate. Zoë dyes her hair, but is naturally tall. When not writing poems, she works in academia.

Bethany spent her teen years in Japan, where she climbed steps to
several mountain-top shrines. Nowadays, she walks the deceptively
flat-looking countryside of Oklahoma, spins designer yarn, and publishes
fantasy genre poetry.

Karen's books include Red Goddess Poems; Bones in the Chimney (fiction); Green Rider, Thinking Horse (non-fiction); Sostenuto, (poems) and The Great Hunger (poems), which is available from Plain View Press (2009). Individual poems have appeared in a wide variety of publications. A chapbook, Two-Gun Lil, is scheduled for independent publication in 2011.

Holly Day is a housewife and mother of two living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her poetry has recently appeared in Hawai'i Pacific Review, The Oxford American, and Slipstream. Her book publications include Music Composition for Dummies, Guitar-All-in-One for Dummies, and Music Theory for Dummies, which has recently been translated into French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, and Portuguese.

Michael Curtis has worked as a painter, sculptor, architect and teacher for thirty-five years. His most significant sculptural commissions include The History of Texas at Texas Rangers Ball-Park; numerous portrait busts for the Library of Congress, The Supreme Court Building, and other public buildings, including Justice Thurgood Marshall; and, many public statues, including General Eisenhower. His specialty is portraiture and fine medals, including the George Washington Presidential Medal and the John Marshall Medal in Law. Also to his credit, Mr. Curtis has had over 30 one-man and group exhibitions; his painting, sculpture, and architectural drawings are represented in over 300 private and public collections. Recent architectural commissions include The New American Home, 2011; The Frost Building; a suite of homes for HousePlans.com. For more information see www.theclassicalartist.com.

I am a professor at California State University, San Bernardino. I attended the University of Iowa years ago where I took some poetry/creative writing courses, but stopped writing poetry after receiving advanced degrees in a different field. But I have started writing poetry again, and have published poems in A Hudson View, SNReview , A Little Poetry, Boston Literary Magazine, Maverick, Flutter, Words-Myth, and Kupozine.

Gary Bloom grew up in Minneapolis and has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Mankato (Minnesota) State University. He has been writing articles, stories, and poetry for more than twenty years with credits in many magazines and websites. Recently retired from work as a database administrator he now spends his time traveling, writing, and fishing. He lives in Pass Christian, Mississippi.

Danny Adams is the co-author, with the late science fiction master Philip Jose Farmer, of the short novel The City Beyond Play (PS Publishing 2007, e-book forthcoming). Some of his poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Appalachian Heritage, Asimov's, The Clinch Mountain Review, Ideomancer, Mythic Delirium, Not One Of Us, Space & Time, Star*Line, and Strange Horizons. He is a librarian at Ferrum College, living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with his wife Laurie and several animals of mysterious origins. As often as not he can be found online at http://madwriter.livejournal.com

Ron is a retired English teacher who lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife Jeanne. He is the author of the poetry collection South of Scranton. This is his second appearance in Strong Verse.

Erin Suurkoivu was raised in Northern Ontario, and has lived in Ottawa and Vancouver. She has been writing since a young age. Her first collection of poetry, The Honey in the Lion & Other Poems, is forthcoming (Lulu, 2012). She currently lives on Vancouver Island.

Ed Shacklee is a public defender who represents young people in the District of Columbia. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in 14 by 14, The Flea and The Raintown Review

Richard L. Provencher had a stroke in 1999, allowing him more time to write. His poems can be found in: Time of Singing, Caduceus, Parenting Express, Bacopa, Hudson View, Oak Foliate, Dublin Quarterly, The Penwood Review, and Ottawa Arts Journal. He and his wife, Esther, live in Truro, Nova Scotia."

Ken Poyner used to publish in the little magazines when he was much younger, but now looks mostly to the web. His last chapbook was Sciences, Social, out in 1995. He is working a series now on robots, with an eye on ethics and physical dementia. Some should start appearing in late 2011 and 2012.

Misty Posey is an artist on the Florida coast, originally from Texas. She has appeared in publications such as Young Adult Literary Review, Bards and Sages, Copper Wire, Moon Drenched Fables, and Einstein's Pocket Watch. Her latest poem, "Shelter Under a Tree," is in the May "Dryads" issue of EMG-zine

Michael Phillips has published several poems and short stories in publications such as Pebble Lake Review, Dark Sky Magazine, and Slow Trains. He holds a BA and MA in English and works as an editor for a nonprofit healthcare publisher.

Cameron Livermore is a 22-year-old student attending Eastern Oregon University. His writing is primarily inspired by the vitality of the various snowboarding, skateboarding, motorcycling, and wilderness-oriented cultures that he belongs to. He usually writes poetry and creative nonfiction, but hopes to publish the manuscript of his first novel in the near future as well.

Kathryn Jacobs is a poet and a medievalist from Harvard. Her latest book of poetry, In Transit, will be published by David Robert Books in 2011. She alsohas a chapbook Signs and Portents due the same year, from Finishing Line Press. Advice Column (likewise from Finishing Line) appeared in 2008; Signs of Our Time (Pudding House Press) in 2009. She has well over a hundred poems at a wide variety of journals, fourteen articles, and a book on medieval marriage contracts. Kathryn teaches at Texas A & M - C.

I was born in Los Angles, moved up to San Francisco and married a local boy. I love horror stories, alchemy, star sapphires, metaphysical poetry, and politics.

Thank you very much for your interest in my poems, and I apologize for the late response. If you would like to see more of my work, I will be happy to send it.

I have written two books of poems, Barbed Wire Olympics, jointly published by Norton-Coker Press and Minotaur Press, and Inside Out, published by Norton-Coker Press.

Adria Abbott Glass writes poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in several online venues: Miller's Pond, Driftwood Review, Girls with Insurance, Story Garden 5, Story Garden 7, Green Silk Journal and a couple of long gone publications - Insolent Rudder and Chick Flicks. She has served as ghost writer for a series of children's books and writes volumes of articles in her job with a non-profit organization. She lives on the North Coast of the US with her family.

Kristina England resides in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her poetry is forthcoming or published in Gargoyle, Haiku Journal, Red Poppy Review, Tilt-a-Whirl, and other magazines.

For more about her poetry, visit kristinaengland.blogspot.com.

K. Lou recently obtained a BA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. She has one other poem, "Emasculating Orion," published in an Australian literary magazine called Going Down Swinging.

Brandon Nolta lives in north Idaho with his wife and two children. He works as a freelance writer and editor from home, when his kids let him. He earned a MFA in creative writing from Boise State University, and his poetry and fiction have appeared in New Myths, Third Order, Lynx Eye and a handful of other publications.

James is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC. Her poems haveappeared or are forthcoming in Pluff Mud Magazine and Re:Union Journal. Whenshe isn't writing poems, she's writing nonfiction for publications such as theCharleston Scene and Charleston Style

The poet and novelist Doroth Cowlin, much missed, was the making of me as a poet, both thru example and leading me into the wilds. My poems are in traditional genres and modern with SF as for Star*line.

Susan Zenker works in El Paso, Texas, after having lived in New England, Mexico City, and Miami. Her poems have appeared in Mezcla, The Rio Grande Review, Newspaper Tree, Best Poem: A Poetry Journal, The South Boston Literary Gazette, Latino Stuff Review, The South Carolina Review, and others. Her plays were presented in public readings at the Fox Fine Arts and Chamizal Theaters in El Paso. She is a member of El Paso's Tumblewords Project.

Amanda Kimmerly received her B.A. in Journalism from Stephen F. Austin State University. Now living in Austin, Texas, she juggles three jobs, copy-editing and marketing books for Sci-Fi author Robert Stikmanz, reading fiction submissions for Fringe Literary Magazine, and managing a coffeeshop. Her fiction has appeared in Storychord Online Magazine and poetry in the art project Poetry For The Masses. Currently, she is co-writing a YA novel and a glossary for an invented language in The Hidden Lands of Nod book series, as well as workshopping short stories in her writer's group, We Put Words On Paper. Follow her on Facebook, or at her blog, messymuse.wordpress.com

Anna Sykora has been an attorney in New York and teacher of English in Germany, where she resides with her patient husband and three enormous cats. To date she has placed 239 poems in the small press or on the web, and 114 stories. Writing is her joy.

Her motto is: Eat your rejections like pretzels.

Kevin Coll lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife, Marcella Wilson, and two children, Henry and Rose. He's an English teacher and K-12 Director of the Writing Center at The Park School of Baltimore. His short stories and poems have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Crescent Review, Kingfisher, Baltimore City Paper, and others.

Neal Cline has been a professional Law Enforcement Officer for most of his adult life. He has had many adventures. He has been writing poems, song, parodies, and short stories since he was a child. Some of them have been good.

G. O. Clark's writing has been published in Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Talebones Magazine, Strange Horizons, Space & Time, Retro Spec: Tales of Fantasy and Nostalgia, A Sea Of Alone: Poems For Alfred Hitchcock, Tales Of The Talisman, and many other publications.

He is the author of ten poetry collections. The two most recent are White Shift, 2012, Sam's Dot Publishing, and Shroud of Night, 2011, Dark Regions Press. His fiction collection, The Saucer Under My Bed & Other Stories, was published by Sam's Dot Publishing in 2011. He won the Asimov's Readers Award for poetry in 2001 and has been a repeat Rhysling and Stoker Award nominee.

Mr. Clark is retired and lives in Davis, California.

See http://goclarkpoet.weebly.com/ for more info.

Shannon is a stay at home mom of three little boys. In between wiping their various body parts and playing helpless animals in games of "Predator & Prey," she blogs at http://themildlyinterestingcaseofbanana.blogspot.com. Shannon has a BA in Psychology that was enjoyable to pursue but has otherwise gone unused. She is also a dancer, having taught and performed her whole life. Shannon has always loved writing, but only recently found the courage and audacity to call herself a writer.

Crystalee is a children's writer and poet currently living in Pittsburgh, PA.She is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Chatham University,Her poetry and short stories have previously appeared in Every Day Poets, DailyFlash: 365 Days of Flash Fiction, and Poetry Quarterly. She is also the author ofone picture book, Angeline Jellybean. She teaches computer classes during the dayand takes education classes at night with the goal of becoming a secondary Englishteacher.

Adam Burrell is a student and working poet living in the SacramentoValley. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Creative Writing at CaliforniaState University of Sacramento. His work has appeared in Miller's Pond PoetryMagazine.

After working as a librarian for some years, Tom Blumenthal decided toreturn to school to obtain a second lucrative masters degree, this time in ClinicalSocial Work. When he isn't managing an Employee Assistance Program he oftenconsults with his two canine muses and family.

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Mari lives in her beloved wasteland of Arizona, writing short stories and poetry in the early hours of morning. She maintains several PBeM games with the love of her life for fun, does Tarot Card readings for a living, and is working on a degree for her future.

Lindsey Duncan is a life-long writer and professional Celtic harp performer, with short fiction and poetry in numerous speculative fiction publications. She feels that music and language are inextricably linked. She lives, performs and teaches harp in Cincinnati, Ohio. She can be found on the web at http://www.LindseyDuncan.com/writing.htm

Dawn Flora Cadwell's freelance feature work has appeared in The Oregonian newspaper and her poetry in Literary Mama (slated for March 2011 issue). She is a recipient of the Young Readers' Literature Fellowship from Oregon Literary Arts and is currently at work on a novel. Dawn lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and son.

Helen R. Peterson is the managing editor of Chopper Poetry Journal out of New London, Ct, and has previously published in over 100 print and online journals, both nationally and internationally. Her work was also featured in The Work Book, an anthology put out by Poet Plant Press in 2007. She will be reading at the Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan in November. A mother of three, she lives in Connecticut and works in the local schools.
Her blog can be found at: http://mspetersonexplains.wordpress.com/

Alexandra Seidel is quite certain that traveling the world is a worth while goal. China is next on her list. Alexandra writes, which is also worthwhile, and she has been published, which is just really cool: Sybil's Garage, Basement Stories, Cabinet des Fées and others. Nil Desperandum even saw fit to make a podcast of one of her stories. Go read her blog: http://tigerinthematchstickbox.blogspot.com

Claudia Serea is a Romanian-born poet who immigrated to the U.S. in1995. Her poems and translations have appeared in Ascent, Meridian, Mudfish, Main Street Rag, Harpur Palate, Exquisite Corpse, The Fourth River, The Red Wheelbarrow, among others. She is the author of two poetry collections: Eternity's Orthography (Finishing Line Press, 2007) and To Part Is to Die a Little, forthcoming from ervená Barva Press. She also writes creative nonfiction, published by The Rambler and The Writers' Workshop Review. Claudia lives in New Jersey and works in New York for a major publishing company.

Lillian Wheeler is currently finishing up her BA at the University of Waterloo, majoring in Classical Studies. When not studying, she teaches Highland dance, and when not dancing, she writes short stories and poetry. To learn more visit her at llwheeler.livejournal.com

Bhuwan Thapaliya was born in Kathmandu in 1976, and is one of the most widelyread Nepali poet writing in English in the West today. He is the author of OurNepal, Our Pride (Cyberwit.net, ISBN 978 - 81- 8253 - 115 -4), narrative versesof love, peace and human understandings. He is presently working on his New andSelected Poems.

His main theme often hinges round the globalization of love, peace and universalsolidarity. He is seen by many as scandalous because he openly expresses hisviewpoints in his lifestyle through his poems. Nonetheless, he has read his poetryacross the country and abroad.

His poems and articles have been widely published in such journals andperiodicals such as Kritya, The Foundling Review, Tajmahal Review, NuveineMagazine, Poetry Life and Times, VOICES (Education Project),The VallanceReview, Longfellow Literary Project, The Global Politician and Poets Against theWar.

His poetries have been published in the CDs and books such as The New PleiadesAnthology of Poetry (ISBN 1- 878431-52- 8) and Tonight: An Anthology of WorldLove Poetry (The Poets Printery, East London, South Africa, 2008, pp.118,Paperback, ISBN 0-620-41372-7).

Fred Longworth restores vintage audio components for a living. His poems haveappeared in numerous journals including California Quarterly, Comstock Review,Pearl, Rattapallax, and Spillway.

Nancy A. Henry is a children's advocacy attorney and a college professor. She is afive-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, and her poems have been twice selectedby Garrison Keillor for presentation on The Writers' Almanac. Nancy has twofull-length poetry collections, Our Lady of Let's All Sing, and Who You Are, bothfrom Sheltering Pines Press. She lives in Westbrook, Maine, with her husband, Dr.Harold Persing, a physicist and bass player, and their three cats: Moxie, Moon Pie,and Fred Astaire.

I was born in India and educated in England. I am the author of seven books. Mybook of poetry, called Shades of Islam: Poems for a New Century, will bepublished in September of this year.

George Bishop was raised on the Jersey Shore before moving to Florida where helives and writes. Recent work has appeared in Philadelphia Stories, Evening RedPress and Prick of the Spindle. Forthcoming work will be featured in GreySparrow Journal. His chapbook, Love Scenes, is available from Finishing LinePress & new chapbook, Marriage Vows and Other Lies, has been released byFlutter press.

Kevin Gillispie is a former sailor, former audio engineer, former cadet, aworld traveler on hiatus, and current undergraduate English major at VirginiaTech. He blogs, tweets, and rants under the nom de guerre Oakenquill, because hevalues his anonymity, but can't keep a secret.

Elizabeth Gallenberg first formally studied poetry at Pellissippi State,where she won the George Scarborough Award for Structured Verse. She went onto receive a B.A. in English from the University of Tennessee. Intrigued by themechanics of storytelling, she is constantly on the lookout for new metaphors todescribe how writing works. She enjoys writing free and structured verse, flashfiction and Twitterfiction. She currently lives in Minnesota.

Cathy Douglas lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with one of her two sons. She works at a metaphysical bookshop, volunteers at the library, and bikes about town poking her nose into things—sometimes in order to write about them.

I am a high school English teacher with a wife and two teenage sons,spending most of my off-duty time watching my sons play video games I get toomotion-sick to actually play myself.

Matthew Quinn received a BA in English from the University of Illinoisand is a freelance writer, editor and genealogy researcher in St. Louis, Missouri.

K.P. Anderson lives and writes in Washington, DC.

Joanna Kurowska, Ph.D. is the author of five books of poetry, most recently The Wall & Beyond (eLectio Publishing, 2013); Inclusions (forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press, 2014), and The Butterfly's Choice (forthcoming from Broadstone Books, 2015). Joanna's work has appeared in American and European journals such as Apple Valley Review, Atticus Review, Bateau, Christianity and Literature, Illuminations, International Poetry Review, Levure littéraire, Kultura, Off The Coast, Penwood Review, Room, Solo, Strong Verse, Time of Singing, Tipton Poetry Journal, and elsewhere.

Book lover and word-smith Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert creates short storiesand poetry from her snug blue colonial in Massachusetts. She is currently writingher first speculative fiction novel, in between her job at a non-profit and otherfull-time jobs of "wife" and "mom." Read her musings at: http://suzannereynoldsalpert.blogspot.com

Aharon Horwitz lives and writes in Jerusalem.

Cheryl Wilder is a recent graduate from Vermont College of Fine Arts'MFA in Writing Program. She's currently working on a nonfiction manuscriptabout architectural space with her boss, Ligon Flynn, Architect. She resides inWilmington, NC with her son and fiance.

Bill R. Moore is a freelance writer/editor living in Durant, Oklahoma, with his wife. He has an English degree from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Currently, he is seeking to publish a critical Bob Dylan book and a poetry book.

C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in print and electronic journals out of North America, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria and India. His book of poetry, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder, was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.

Joseph Yenkavitch, a retired teacher, is a freelance writer who has published numerous articles, poems, short stories, and a young adult novel On a Distant World.

Jennifer Wong is a Hong Kong writer with poems published in Iota, Coffeehouse Poetry, Cha, Dimsum, Aesthetica, Mascara, New Writer and The Reader. Her debut poetry collection, Summer Cicadas, was published by Chameleon Press. Her poem "Myth" was long-listed in the UK's Plough Prize 2008. She graduated from Oxford with an English degree and took a creative writing MA at the University of East Anglia. She is now working on a second collection and a novel.

Erika Wilson lives and writes in Maryland. She received a degree in Philosophy from St. John's College and enjoys using it whenever possible.

Heather Williams is a writer and psychotherapist living in Washington,DC.

After receiving unsatisfactory grades in penmanship as a second-grader, Melissa Westemeier learned to type, earned a Master's degree from UW-Madison ,and became a writer, teacher and blogger. Today she lives with her husband and three young sons in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Ajay Vishwanathan is mesmerized by the power of words, more now when he sees his two-year old twins form them. Two-time Best of The Net Anthology nominee, Ajay has work published or forthcoming in over sixty literary journals, including elimae, The Potomac, DecomP, Drunken Boat, and LITnIMAGE

Jenn Shields holds a M.S. degree from Nova Southeastern University and a B.A. degree in English and Criminology from the University of Florida. She resides in Saint Petersburg, FL.

Seth Oakman is a 24 year-old fiction writer and poet who graduated in 2008 with a BA in English from Knox College in Illinois. He is currently traveling around the world with his partner while working together on cooperative projects. This is his first poetry publication.

Cole is terrible at arithmetic and has a dog.

Words linking Les Merton to writing are: author, poet, editor, dialectician, reviewer, competition judge, publisher, promoter, performer, and festival organiser. He was made a Bard of Gorseth Kernow in 2004 for services to Cornish Literature. May God have mercy on his poetry.

Michael McSweeney is a Massachusetts poet and cat lover. His blog can be found at: http://macsubhine.blogspot.com

Leo McKay was born in Brooklyn New York. The echos of the streets he grew up on can be heard in his writing.

Marina Lee Sable's poems have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Coyote Wild, Illumen, Book of Dark Wisdom, Lone Star Stories, and Aoife's Kiss. Her poem "Crossing" received Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror #17. She lives in New York City.

Paul Handley is one of his many names. He lives on a skiff tied up in Lake Okeechobee working as a hunting and fishing guide, all tax-free. Weapons, books and Southern Comfort are his best friends.

Samara Golabuk is a self-employed graphic designer living in Gainesville, Florida. She is a wife and mother, a poet and actor and student and dabbler and foodie and life-lover who manages to keep herself much busier than she thinks reasonable or even possible. She is currently challenging herself to generate 2010 poem submissions in 2010. You can track her progress at http://samaragolabuk.livejournal.com if you are, like her, the curious type.

Matt Britton has lived throughout the Northeast, and is currently living in Queens. He has a B.A. in political science from Williams College.

Bobby Steve Baker is a practicing Cosmetic Surgeon in Lexington Kentucky and enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing program at National University as a Poetry Major. In a addition to a few hundred medical publications his poems have appeared in Poet's Podium, Jones Av, Gnu, tinfoildresses, Public Republic, Strong Verse, Divine Dirt Quarterly, Yellow Mama, and The Boston Literary Review. He has been nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize.

Cameron is a 22-year-old writer for Michigan. He was the winner of the2009 Cohodas Literary Prize and the 2009 Legler Poetry Prize at Northern Michigan University. His work has appeared in Barwood International Poetry Magazine and has been accepted by the Ambassador Poetry Project. He has been writing poetry since sixth grade, when he was taught how to write haikus in Catholic school.

Hal Sirowitz is the former poet laureate of Queens, New York. He's the author of four poetry books. His first, Mother Said, was translated into nine languages.

William P. Robertson is a freelance writer from Duke Center, Pennsylvania. His poetry, articles, and short stories have been published in over 490 magazines in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Romania. He has also published twenty-four books, including the Bucktail Civil War novel series co-written with David Rimer. For more information about Bill's writing, visit http://bucktailsandbroomsticks.com.

John Nichols is a high schools Social Studies teacher in northeast Ohio. Before he retires he would like to lead his classes to a black hole.

Charles Musser lives in Lansing Michigan, and works for the American Red Cross. His work has appeared in The Shit Creek Review, Umbrella, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Mimesis, and other venues, both pixel and print. He enjoys wilderness hiking with his golden retriever, Benjamin.

Rachel Lim is an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, where she interns at the University of Virginia Press and writes a weekly book column for the school newspaper. She plans on double-majoring in English and East Asian Studies.

Ben Langhinrichs is a 47-year-old software entrepreneur living in Shaker Heights, Ohio with his lovely wife, two cats, and one of three children still at home. When he is not writing software, he enjoys writing poetry and fiction.

Michael Kalisch is an 18 year-old poet from Devon. He is a previous overall winner of the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award 2008. He enjoys Elizabethan drama and spending time with Maude.

A student, poet, and part-time micro publisher of Etched Press, Kevin enjoys spending time moderating his websites, filming video adaptations of poetry, and hanging out in downtown Wilmington's Bottega Bar & Art Gallery. More information about Kevin and his poetry can be found at www.kevindublin.com.

Shelly Bryant splits her time between Singapore and Shanghai, sometimes teaching English literature and sometimes studying Chinese language. She loves to read and write, and is an avid cyclist and traveler.

Shelly's first collection of poetry, Cyborg Chimera, was published by Sam's Dot Publishing in October 2009. The following month, a collection of designer artpieces built around 30 of her haiku were launched by decollection in Shanghai.

Caleb JW Brasset lives in Toronto

F.J. Bergmann frequents Wisconsin and fibitz.com. She has no academic literary qualifications, but is kind to those so encumbered. Publication credits include Asimov's, Margie, Opium, Southern Poetry Review, and Weird Tales. She has won a number of literary awards; most recently, the 2008 SFPA Rhysling Award for the Short Poem; and is the author of three chapbooks: Constellation of the Dragonfly (Plan B Press, 2008), Aqua Regia (Parallel Press 2007), and SauceRobert (Pavement Saw Press 2003).

Katherine Beasley works and writes in Houston, TX. In her increasingly rare spare time, she enjoys playing with her son, browsing Gutenberg.org, and making idle use of a rhyming dictionary. She is a volunteer reader at Houston's Taping for the Blind, Inc.

After performing for years, as both a musician and poet, in and around the Boston area, Derek Richards has recently decided to begin submitting his work for publication. So far he has been accepted for publication in Ghoti Magazine, Lung, MediaVirus, Word Riot, Right Hand Pointing, Tinfoil dresses, The Legendary,Breadcrumb Scabs, Shoots and Vines, Cantaraville, Soundzine and The Centrifugal Eye. His poetry aims to be direct and honest, brilliant and lucrative. He is currently residing in Gloucester, Mass., happily engaged and cleaning windows for a living.

Kristine Ong Muslim's work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications worldwide, including Abyss & Apex, Farrago's Wainscot, GUD Magazine, Kaleidotrope, Labyrinth Inhabitant Magazine, Sounds of the Night, and Tales of the Talisman. She was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and twice for the Rhysling Award. Her publication credits can be viewed here.

Steve Meador's book Throwing Percy from the Cherry Tree, released by D-N Publishing in 2008, was an entrant for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He has been widely published, resulting in several Pushcart nominations. Recent work appears in Prism Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, Quicksilver, Hobble Creek Review and many others. Pudding House released two of his chapbooks in 2007.

Krystal Lyons is an English major at Northeastern State University. In addition to her studies, she also works at a used bookstore large enough to get lost in. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her fiancé, cat, and dog.

Melanie Houle is a physician and former jeweler. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and The Raintown Review's first featured poet. Her poetry also appears in The Lyric, California Quarterly, Mobius, The Aurorean, The Barefoot Muse,The HyperTexts, Contemporary Rhyme, Shatter Colors, Innisfree Poetry Journal,The Centrifugal Eye, Lucid Rhythms, Journal of the American Medical Association and others.

A genuine "Okie from Muskogee," Sarah Ashwood is a full-time college student working towards a B.A. in English with an emphasis on creative writing from American Military University. Her short work and poetry have appeared in a variety of publications while her first book, a volume of poetry titled A Minstrel's Musings, was published by Cyberwizard Productions in April 2009. In 2010, Sarah's Young Adult fantasy novel, Knight's Rebirth, will be published by the same. For more information, please visit www.sarahashwood.com.

KJ likes to make poems a lot

Originally from Arkansas, John Schellhase is currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. In 2007, he won the Walton Fellowship in Translation for his work with ancient Greek poetry.

William Clunie is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at billclunie@yahoo.com.

Courtney King is an editor for a special education publisher and a freelance writer. She writes in between working and chasing her two young daughters.

Nina Romano earned an M.A. from Adelphi University and an M. F. A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University.

Her short fiction, memoir, reviews and poetry appear in The Rome Daily American; The Chrysalis Reader; Whiskey Island; Gulf Stream Magazine; Grain; Voices in Italian Americana; Vox; Chiron Review; The Salt Lake City Weekly; Rough Writer's Ink; Mangrove Review; Irrepressible Appetites; Roads Literary Magazine; Night Train; A Little Poetry;ExPatLit and GULFSTREAM!NG; Grey Sparrow Journal; The Northville Review; and will soon appear in the Bosphorous Art Project Quarterly.

Excerpts from her novel-in-progress, The Secret Language of Women, appear in Dimsum: Asia's Literary Journal and also in Driftwood.

Romano's debut poetry collection, Cooking Lessons, was published in June, 2007 by Rock Press, and submitted for a Pulitzer Prize.

Her new collection, Coffeehouse Meditations, is forthcoming by Kitsune Books.

Susan Clemons lives in Florida with her husband. She has published poems in Loch Raven Review and Amaze- the Cinqauin Journal. She is the co-manager of an on-line writer's groups, The Writer's Journals. She is also a member of a local poetry group, The Poet's Corner.

Clare Kirwan is based near Liverpool and performs as part of Dead Good Poets Society. She won Liverpool's Slam in 2005. Her poems have been published in Orbis, MsLexia, Iota, Aberrant Dreams and Citizen 32 amongst others. She also writes short fiction. www.clarekirwan.co.uk

Thomas Lesh was born in Chicago, IL. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from the University of Chicago and spent several years abroad studying Politics at the London School of Economics. He has always been interested in poetry and the theater and has resumed his literary pursuits recently, having achieved a sufficient degree of idleness to indulge these ambitions. In addition to occasional poetry, he has written several dramatic works, none of which have been produced to date, but one of which, The Awful Tragedy of Big Ed, had several excerpts read recently at a local Chicago theater group.

Gail White lives in Breaux Bridge Louisiana. She is a recent winner of the Anita Dorn Poetry Prize, and has recent work online at Bumbershoot and Mezzo Cammin.

Carol Lynn Grellas is a Northern California-based writer. She has been widely published in literary journals including most recently, Chanterelle's Notebook, Dogzplot and The Boston Literary Review. She has poems forthcoming in Flutter, The Hiss Quarterly and Up The Staircase and many more. Her chapbook, Litany of Finger Prayers will be released in 2008 from Pudding House Press. Her second chapbook, Object of Desire will be forthcoming from Finishing Line Press sometime this year.

Nicole Nicholson is a 31 year-old poet who has been writing poetry since age 12, drawing inspiration from the world, people, and events around her.

Her poetry has recently appeared in Word Slaw (http://wordslaw.blogspot.com/) as well as Word Catalyst Magazine (http://www.wordcatalystmagazine.com/).

Her first chapbook, "Raven Feathers", will be published in July of 2008. A collection of her recent work can be found online at: http://ravenswingpoetry.com. She lives in Columbus, OH with her fiance.

Maryann Corbett's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in /Measure, The Lyric, Alabama Literary Review, The Barefoot Muse, First Things, Mezzo Cammin, The Raintown Review/ and other journals in print and online, and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net anthologies. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and works as a legal-writing adviser, editor, and indexer for the Minnesota Legislature. Her chapbook Gardening in a Time of War is forthcoming from Pudding House Press.

Nora Delaney currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and works as an academic writing instructor at MIT. She has lived in Poland, South Africa , France, Holland, and Britain, and has worked as a journalist and Dutch-English translator. She is currently an associate editor for 66: The Journal of Sonnet Studies.

Jennifer Burton was born and raised in Jasper, Alabama. She has been an avid reader throughout her life.

Jennifer is a full time mom with two lovely daughters, Macy and Ella. She plans to finish her education in Programming when her children begin school.

Michaela A. Gabriel lives in Vienna, Austria, where she helps adults to acquire computer and English skills, and gets together with the muse as often as possible. She has been published in English, German, Italian, and Polish, both online and in print. Her first chapbook, "apples for adam", was published by FootHills Publishing in January 2005, and she has another chapbook, "the secret meanings of greek letters" forthcoming from dancing girl press in October 2007. When she is not writing, she is reading, listening to music, watching movies, blogging, communicating with friends, playing tennis or travelling - usually several of these at the same time.

Mary Sutton-Paul works as a development editor at an educational publishing company in NYC and writes memoirs and poetry in her free time. has been a member of a local writing group since 2000.

Juleigh Howard-Hobson has lived in the UK, Australia and both coasts of the US.

Her writings, like her passports, have appeared all over, in places such as The Edinburgh Festival of Arts: Writers Quarter 2002, Aesthetica Magazine (UK), The Australian Reader, Shatter Colors Literary Review, Flipside , The Raintown Review, The Hypertexts, and Arena (Australia) among dozens of other places. The recipient of the New South Wales ANZAC Day Award for poetry, she's also edited and contributed to the Arets Boker award winning Norwegian-press literary collection Undertow. Her work is forthcoming in The Non Euclidean Cafe, Her Circle, Solanaceae & The Arabesques Review (Algiers) . She's never been to Algiers, but now her words are going....amazing place, this world, isn't it?

Jason Kelly Richards was born in Kentucky in a classic year for Chevolets, raised in North Carolina during the best decade of music and is currently planning his escape from the state of Florida in search of sanity. His work has appeared in Pearl, The Chiron Review, and the Ever-Dancing Muse, plus online at ThunderSandwich, Red Booth Review, AntiMuse, PoetsCanvas, 63 Channels, Miller's Pond, Indite Circle and UnderGround Voices.

Rose Drew is a bio-anthropologist with a focus on human skeletal material from archaeological contexts and has moved to York to pursue a PhD in Archaeology from the University of York. Her day job consists of interpreting lifestyle and behavior from skeletal remains; but at night she can be found reading her poems as often and as loudly as possible. No subject is safe; no topic off limits. Rose has founded The Spoken Word Open Mic Poetry and Prose venue in York which has recently been featured, as a group, on Radio Ryedale, and she was the co-founder of a popular Open Mic in CT, America that is still running after 4 years

James R. Whitley's work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared or is forthcoming in several publications, including Barrelhouse, Can We Have Our Ball Back?, Gargoyle, JMWW, Mississippi Review, Poetry Southeast, Umbrella, and Ward 6 Review. Whitley's first book Immersion won the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. His second book This Is the Red Door won the Ironweed Press Poetry Prize and will be published in 2007. He is also the author of two poetry chapbooks: Pietà and The Golden Web.

Joseph Josephides was born in Cyprus in 1948. He has a B.Sc. in Mathematics, a B.A. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Statistical Economics (Distinction Excellent). He wrote theatre, books and articles in Economics, EU affairs, mathematics. He published 3 Collections of Poems Some of them were translated in many languages, musically composed, presented in Anthologies, Web Sites, Conferences on EU Literature. He translated medieval Chinese poetry, tourkish-cypriot and nombelist poets (P.Neruda et.al). For the society and the poet himself, good poetry is like other great values such as love and wisdom; each one in their own way, they put the foundation for spiritual prosperity and hope as well as for self esteem; now and for ever.

Eva Poon graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 2004 with a Bachelor's in International Relations. She is an aspiring writer (as are we all) and in her spare time imagines traveling to remote corners of the world. Eva currently resides in New York City where she is hard at work dreaming up stories and finding words that rhyme.

Johnny Rocket Ibanez is a student, poet, performer and restauranteur in Gainesville Florida. One fifth of the Letterbomb Collective, a spoken word group out of Gainesville Florida, Johnny has published two solo books of poetry, "Johnny Rocket Flies to the moon, the movie" and "Disenchanted Angels" and is working on two anthologies, one of which with the Letterbomb Collective. She has appeared in shows in Atlanta GA, Asheville NC, Gainesville FL, Greenville SC and Tampa FL, and can frequently be found at the Civic Media Center poetry jam on Thursday nights.

Lawrence Nielsen is a native Northern Californian. He shares his life with his wife of 39 years, who has patiently followed him from California to Brazil, and back to California. After years of teaching in the publish and perish world of universities and colleges, he chose to change direction and teach in the public schools of California. Currently, he teaches at H. P. B. Carden School which serves students in the Yuba-Sutter Bi-County Juvenile Hall. He lives in the foothills around the Yuba Goldfields and spends as much time as possible writing poetry and science fiction, beading and fabricating jewelry, hunting mushrooms in the coastal redwoods, and chasing gold and ghosts in California's gold fields and ghost towns.

Carol Carpenter lives in Livonia, Michigan. Her stories and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Margie, Stickman Review, Snow Monkey, America, The Pedestal Magazine, Connecticut Review, Cape Rock, Sulphur River Literary Review, Karamu and various anthologies. She received the Richard Eberhart Prize for Poetry. Formerly a college writing instructor, journalist and trainer, she now writes full time.

Eric D. Lehman is a professor at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and has published fiction, poetry, travel stories, and essays in numerous journals, such as Hackwriters: The International Writer's Journal, Travelmag, Ultraverse, Niederngasse, Moria, Simply Haiku, INK, Mastodon Dentist, Nature's Wisdom, and Bootsnall.

Charles P. Ries lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His narrative poems, short stories, interviews and poetry reviews have appeared in over one hundred and forty print and electronic publications. He has received three Pushcart Prize nominations for his writing and most recently read his poetry on National Public Radio's Theme and Variations, a program that is broadcast over seventy NPR affiliates. He is the author of THE FATHERS WE FIND, a novel based on memory. Ries is also the author of five books of poetry - the most recent entitled, The Last Time which was released by The Moon Press in Tucson, Arizona. He is the poetry editor for Word Riot (www.wordriot.org) and on the board of the Woodland Pattern Bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most recently he has been appointed to the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. You may find additional samples of his work by going to: http://www.literarti.net/Ries/.

Robin Merrill has her MFA from Stonecoast and her BS from Maine Maritime Academy. A former Merchant Mariner, she traded seafaring in for a teaching career. Now her life is more adventurous. Her poems are forthcoming in Margie, Poetry Southeast and The Raintown Review. You can visit her at www.robinmerrill.com

Fred Longworth lives in San Diego and makes his living restoring vintage audio components. His poems have found homes in on-line journals such as kaleidowhirl, Melic Review, miller's pond, Poetic Voices and poetryfish; and in hardcopy journals including California Quarterly, The Pacific Review, Pearl, Pudding Magazine and Rattapallax.

A native of Vancouver Island, Catherine divides her time between writing, working as an editor for Shimmer magazine, and wandering the trails of the Pacific Northwest rain forest.

Adam Z. Robinson was born in Halifax, England, in 1983. He is currently reading English Literature at the University of Leeds, England. Co-founder of the Leeds based 'Sticks & Stones' live poetry event, along with Andy Craven-Griffiths (Manchester and Glastonbury Slam Poetry Champion), his efforts to alter people's perception of modern poetry is both fervent and constant. His recent publications include The Leeds Review and the forthcoming edition of 'The Scribe' Magazine.

David lives in Glenrothes, Scotland with his wife Christine. He gained an Advanced Diploma in Computing from Herriot Watt University in 1986 and Graduated from the University of Strathclyde as a Further Education lecturer in 1991.

He started writing in 2003 and did achieve some literary success the following year - David was in the last six for the BBC 'End of Story' for the Shaun Hutson section and was flown down to London for filming at the BBC studios. The programme was broadcast in October 2004.

David has had positive reviews for my poetry including several "Picks of the week" on the "Writers Dock" website - Formed after the closure of the BBCi site "Get Writing". He has also had his work featured on Poetry Scotland, Poetic Hours, Snakeskin, Decanto and Poetry, Songs and Writers of Scotland.

G. M. Palmer's family has lived in Florida since before it was a state, and he continues this tradition by residing in Jacksonville.

He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Florida (2000) and master's degree from the University of New Orleans (2007).

Apart from writing and editing poetry, Michael teaches, tutors, sings, cooks, and plays the blues.

Michael, his wife Heather, and their daughters Cordelia and Josephine live in an old, wood-frame house with their dog Vonnegut.

Cate is a junior in high school. She is a journalist for her school's newspaper. She would like to live to be 100 and to run hundreds of pens dry along the way.

Since the age of two, C. E. Bollinger has lived in several cities in North Carolina. Her two master's degrees and B.A. from Duke University indicate her broad range of interests, as do the many jobs she's held, which include groundskeeper, psychiatric technician, and archeologist. Mostly, she has worked as a technical writer for a number of the IT companies that populate the Research Triangle region of the state. She currently lives near Pittsboro, where she gardens obsessively on five acres that she shares with her spouse and myriad creatures, some wild, some nearly tame.

Abel is the author of the memoir Room for Two. He is also a political columnist, writer, and editor. Besides writing, Abel enjoys running and lifting weights. He has a bachelor’s degree from Weber State University. He and is wife are the proud parents of two boys and a girl. He is currently working on his second book. Visit his website at http://www.abelkeogh.com

Geoff grew up in the small town of Fort Scott, KS, home of the country's first National Cemetary and one-time leading exporter of over-alls. He has a B.S. in Psychology that he considers to be just that and an M.A. in Russian & East European Studies that he considers to be worth little more, but his education has only just started. Geoff has nearly 5 years of experience living and working overseas, mainly in Poland, where he volunteered for two years, and Russia, where he performed consular work at Embassy Moscow. He has a wife and two sons.

Lee Evans was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1950. After graduating from college, he worked as a landscape laborer, floral delivery person, and Goodwill Industries trailer attendant before settling into a job at the Maryland State Archives, where he is now. His interests are literature, philosophy, and eastern religion; he considers himself a contemplative more than anything else. His wife of over twenty years and two cats live in Edgewater, Maryland, south of Annapolis.

Ann Walters is a physical anthropologist who put her career on hold to raise her two young daughters. After the birth of her second child, she began writing, and discovered a true passion for putting words on the page. Although she now lives happily in the lush Pacific Northwest, much of her work is influenced by the sparse beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Her background in archaeology also informs her writing with a sense of the past and a deeply felt connection with all those who have gone before. Ann's poetry has appeared in Bonfire, NOÖ Journal, Salome Magazine, and edifice WRECKED

Barbara Archer received her PhD in English and Comparative LIterature from Columbia University. She has taught literature and creative writing and is now living and writing in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Alric Bolt was born in Indiana, but grew up in southern California. He currently lives in Nappanee , Indiana; the heart of Amish country. Sharing his home and limited sanity with 8 lovely women, age 7 to 30-something, has taught him a great deal about patience and rather more about the value of silence. He'll occasionally seek out the dozen or so rabbits, pigs, turtles, and other more respectful co-habitants for a more sympathetic audience.

For relaxation he works as a technician and data administrator, but has previously worked in fields as wide ranging as a systems specialist for IBM and an exotic animal importer for several zoos. A new photography business is rapidly growing by word of mouth, and filling up weekends with portraits, events, and weddings (great practice for all those daughters!).

Adrienne J. Odasso's poetry has appeared in a wide variety of strange and wonderful publications, including Sybil's Garage, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Cabinet des Fées, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Stone Telling, and Strange Horizons. Her short fiction has appeared in both online magazines and print anthologies. Her two chapbooks, Devil's Road Down and Wanderlust, are available from Maverick Duck Press. Her first full collection, Lost Books, was released by Flipped Eye Publishing in April 2010.

Laura Lawlor Hewitt lives in Ray Bradbury's Green Town, Illinois, also know as Waukegan, a few blocks from her alma mater, Shimer College, where she got her B.A. in Impractical and Impracticible Arts.

She has one daughter, Catherine, and shares a hedgehog and a cat with her downstairs neighbor, rpg.net columnist Edward McEneely.

Lara Gose lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with her fiancé, author Ed Gentry. A stint in graduate school, pursuing a doctoral degree in comparative literature, encouraged her to use her knowledge of literature, culture, and literary theory to develop her own creative writing. She writes short fiction, usually in the sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery genres, and when writing poetry she enjoys playing with forms like the pantoum, terzanelle, or sestina.

Zachary West was born and raised in Homestead, Florida and spent much of his early childhood throwing over-ripe avocados at avocado trees. He attended the University of Florida in Gainesville where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English. He currently lives in Gainesville where he plans his excursions to the four corners of the earth. One may hear him read his poetry at the Civic Media Center's Poetry Jam.

Born in Israel in 1980, Daniel Arenson lived in Manitoba and New Jersey before settling in Toronto, Ontario. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and enjoy painting in his spare time.

He is the author of FIREFLY ISLAND, a fantasy novel. Visit his website at www.DanielArenson.com.

Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell lives and writes in sunny AZ with her Naval officer husband, two sons and extensive collection of books and Wonder Woman memorabilia. She is a member of both the SFWA and SFPA with over 40 short stories and poems in print. You can read more about her here: http://biodegradable.blogspot.com/

Julia DeLong is an economics student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Besides economics, she enjoys writing, reading, translating, and music. When she's not at school in Provo, she is usually either at her parents' home near Minneapolis or visiting friends in Hungary, where she has been an exchange student, intern, and missionary. She's not sure yet what she wants to be when she grows up, but is more likely to be a writer than an economist.

Scott M. Roberts was raised in Marquez, Texas, a bustling metropolis of 236 people. Since leaving Texas in 1989, he has lived in Wisconsin, Virginia, Utah and Italy. He calls Fredericksburg, Virginia, home now, and lives there with his wife and four children. There may also be a cat named Toonces.

Scott will be published in the upcoming Writers of the Future XXI anthology. He has written plays for a professional children's theater group, and worked as freelance reporter.

When he isn't writing, he enjoys listening to audiobooks and singing acapella. He also likes to annoy his family by speaking Italian at them.

Emily Whitby was born in Ogden, Utah, the youngest of seven and the daughter of a cattle rancher. She lived for almost two years in Russia, teaching English to six-year-olds and falling in love with everything Russian, including borsch, winter,and folktales. In addition to her stint as an English teacher, she has also worked as a piano teacher, professional storyteller, and children's museum tour guide.

Her poems have previously appeared in Writer's Journal, Haiku Headlines, Metaphor, and Salt Lake City's City Weekly. She is the author of a book of haiku and senryu, "snow falling lightly."

Jimmy nil Fishhawk is a poet, teacher, farmworker and activist who lives and works in the Gainesville, Florida area. He is the author of many unpublished poems, some of which you may see him read at the Civic Media Center thursday night poetry jam in Gainesville. He is also the author of a few published poems, which you may find in his self-published chapbook "Virus, Part One: I Infest Yr Consciousness," and another chapbook entitled "Gone," published by Ghost Dog Press out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Cory Swainston is an English student at Utah Valley State College. He lives in Orem, Utah with his wife, and his first child is expected any minute now.

Frustrated with the postmodern fascination with inaccessibility in literature, Cory composes his poetry to be easily understandable by maintaining depth of meaning, not of language.

Justin Taylor was born and raised in North Miami Beach, Florida but considers Gainesville his adopted hometown.

He earned a bachelor's degree in English at the University of Florida, where he divided his time between creative writing, critical theory, and the Civic Media Center, the country's longest-surviving info-shop and the first institution of its kind when it was founded. He spent three years as a host of the CMC's legendary Poetry Jam, the oldest open-mic event in Gainesville.

After graduating, Justin moved briefly to Franklin, Tennessee, which is outside of Nashville. He currently lives in New York City, where he interns at the national weekly newsmagazine The Nation.

Professor R. Allen Shoaf holds the BA degree from Wake Forest University, where, in 1970, he was selected the first Marshall Scholar in the university's history. After studying in England, he returned to the US and enrolled in Cornell in 1972 as a Danforth Fellow where he studied with Robert Kaske and Giuseppe Mazzotta, gradually pursuing interests that would lead to his first book, Dante, Chaucer, and the Currency of the Word.

After a brief period at Yale, he was appointed Professor of English in the University of Florida in 1985 and Alumni Professor in 1990.

In the 1980s he continued his concentration on Dante and Chaucer and other Middle English writers as well, producing a teaching edition of Troilus and Criseyde and a monograph on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During this time he also continued his study of Milton and Shakespeare, begun in his youth, and now part of his intellectual life for more than 40 years.

In 1985, he published Milton, Poet of Duality, and in 2003, he finished the draft of his book, Shakespeare’s Theater of Likeness, which has occupied his otherwise available time for nearly 25 years; he hopes to see the book into print over the next two to three years.

In 1989, with the late Julian Noa Wasserman, the Publisher Mario A. DiCesare, and his wife, Judy Shoaf, he founded Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, which is now entering its 17th year of continuous publication and 10th year of presence on the World Wide Web.

In 27 years as an academic, he has been fortunate to enjoy four years of research leave, twice as a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. During this time, he has studied, and occasionally taught, in England, France, Italy, and Switzerland.

In November he will travel to Geneva where he will serve as an extramural member of the Appointments Committee for the Chair of Medieval Literature in the Department of English in the University of Geneva.

Author or editor of 10 books, 40 articles, and 41 reviews, he also finds time to write poetry and pet his Welsh Corgis.

Elizabeth Barrette lives in central Illinois with her partner, Doug. An avid wordsmith, she works as a writer and editor, doing articles, essays, short stories, reviews, interviews, poetry, and more. Her main fields include speculative fiction, gender studies, and alternative religions. She serves as Managing Editor of PanGaia and Assistant Editor of SageWoman, and she selects the poetry for both of these magazines.

In 2003, she won the Poet Laureate Competition at Sol Magazine. Publication credits include the articles "Anthimeria: Verbing Weirds Language" in Sol Magazine and "Do Women and Men Really Write Differently?" in Internet Review of Science Fiction; and poems "Autumn, Late Afternoon" in Gray's Sporting Journal and "Origami Emotion" in the upcoming anthology The Impossible Will Take a Little While.

Her favorite pastimes include haphazard gardening, studying obscure languages, and questioning authority.

Christopher Way graduated from the University of Florida in 1999 with a Bachelor's in English. After teaching himself to play the piano and guitar, he began writing and recording songs shortly thereafter. He spends most of his spare time now writing and singing in Hoboken, NJ.

Michael Collings has taught literature, composition, and creative writing at Pepperdine University for 25 years. In addition to a number of collections of poetry and individual poems appearing in a wide array of print and internet venues worldwide, he has published books, articles, and reviews discussing the works of Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz, and others. In spare hours, he designs wire-wrapped jewelry; his designs have been featured several times in The Wire Artist magazine.

Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender's Game, Enchantment, and the Alvin Maker series, did not originally plan to write fiction. He spent his journeyman years as a playwright. Before that, however, it was poetry that engaged his pen.

Never content to write just one thing, Card has continued writing poetry along with his more well-known work in other forms. He has submitted little of it for publication, because there are no journals that seem to welcome the kind of poetry he values.

An Open Book, Card's first published collection, is selected from thirty-five years of poems. The title reflects his attitude that this book and all the poems in it remain works in progress.

It also reflects Card's commitment to clarity, especially in poetry. As he says in his afterword: "To be clear and yet also say something worth saying is what I believe poets should strive for.

Helena Bell (or Hel as she is known by her friends) is a recent graduate of Tulane University where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies. Though an aspiring writer all of her life, it was not until recently that she finally committed herself to the study and perfection of her craft. And she freely admits that a near fatal car crash was the best thing that ever happened to her poetry.

She is a feminist, a debutante, and a SCUBA Instructor who hates salt water. Her hobbies include cycling, buying more books than she can read, cave diving, and staring at her two guitars wishing she knew how to play.

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