Fiction

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Poetry

The Ten

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Chapbooks

In Memory

Contributors Kim Addonizio For more information about Kim Addonizio, see her Web site. Listen to clips from Kim's CD, Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing. Featured work: The Slow Trains Ten: writers on the creative life Fred Afflerbach Fred Afflerbach is a freelance writer/journalist, attending Texas State University in San Marcos. He has been published in Edgar, A Literary Journal, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, San Antonio Express News, and various other newspapers. He is against the designated hitter, Wal-Mart, and bullies -- both in Congress and on the sandlot. He is for the double steal, Mom and Pop shops, and biodiesel. He is looking for a home for his collection of short stories, and spend his free time on his ranch, hoping one day to see the mythic battle between a rattlesnake and a roadrunner. Featured work: Bobo, Hank, and Me Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal Dr.Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal is a Lecturer in English at a P.G.College of India, and translates English works into Hindi and Hindi works into English. Featured work: Godhara, Tempest of Passion Magdalena Alagna Magdalena Alagna is an editor and a freelance writer who lives and works in New York City. Featured work: How I Became a Single Woman Tracy C. Alston Tracy C. Alston is a passionate writer and compassionate lawyer living in Washington, D.C. with her daughter. Her poetic works have appeared in various publications. Featured work: Everything Blue Richard Ammon For more information, see Richard Ammon's Web site, GlobalGayz.com, a Webplace of Worldwide Gay Life, Sites and Insights for Curious Minds and Thoughtful Voyagers. Featured work: Gay Shanghai Gay Switzerland Gay Ireland Gay Egypt Arlene Ang Arlene Ang lives in Venice, Italy, as a freelance translator, volunteer Web designer, part-time poet, and occasional writer. She is also the editor of the Italian Niederngasse. Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals, including Zuzu's Petals Quarterly Online, Rattle, and Oyster Boy Review. Featured work: Morning After, Black Cat Snow White and the Seventh Dwarf, se solamente ti ripenso Dirt Therapy (chapbook) Stella Apostolidis Stella Apostolidis is a professor and a poet from Queens, New York. She is a poet who finds beauty in documentary and human experience. She has a Masters degree in English, and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Literature. Featured work: Mykonos 1940 Namit Arora Namit Arora is a prose writer and photojournalist. He has lived in four countries, and traveled to over sixty. He divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and New Delhi. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Divinity is Here Amanda Auchter Amanda Auchter is the editor of Pebble Lake Review, and was a finalist in the Atlanta Review 2004 International Poetry Competition. She is the recipient of the 2004 Howard Moss Poetry Prize, and won third prize in the 2003 Writer's Digest Writing Competition for creative nonfiction. Featured work: Advice for Little Girls Kate Baldus Kate Baldus is a writer, lexicographer, and teacher, who lives in New York City. Her travel essays have been published in Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad, and on www.far-and-near.com. She also has had short fiction published in the Peralta Art and Literary Journal. Featured work: Eat, Eat, Eat Claire Barbetti Claire Barbetti is a co-editor of the journal Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts. Her work has appeared in American Journal of Print, Slow Trains Literary Journal, Eclectica, and is forthcoming in Cimarron Review. Featured work: Day 7 (Special September 11 section) Christopher Barnes Christopher Barnes studied literature and history at Newcastle College, then Poly. In 1998, he won a Northern Arts Writers Award, and his first collection, Lovebites, is published by Chanticleer Press in Edinburgh. See more of his work at his BBC Web page. Featured work: The bohemian in winter David-Matthew Barnes David-Matthew Barnes' fiction and poetry have appeared in anthologies and literary journals, nationwide, including California Quarterly, Poetic Voices, Oasis Magazine and Down In The Dirt. His stage plays have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best Stage Scenes of 2000 and The Comfusion Review. Barnes wrote and directed the coming-of-age film, Frozen Stars. He is represented by All Star Management Group. Featured work: Kitchen Stacie Barry Stacie Barry currently lives in Missoula, Montana. More of her work can be found in 2 River View, Circle Magazine, Gumball Poetry, Grey Matter Tapestry and RealPoetik. Featured work: Tail Lights, Big Sky Mary Bast Mary Bast is a member of the Gainesville Florida Poets & Writers, and a participant in the 2004 (poetry) and 2005 (short fiction) Wildacres Writers Workshop. She is the author of a book on personality types, and she is a psychologist who uses poetry and fiction in her work as a catalyst for change. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: alice's wonderland Dorothy Bates Dorothy Bates is a magazine editor, lyricist, and writer of special material for cabaret performers. She has been published many times, including Crone Chronicles, Sedona Journal of Emergence, ZeBooksZine, Realizations, and poetz.com. Poems in Off the Cuffs (anthology; Soft Skull Press 2003) and The Pagan's Muse: Poems of Ritual and Inspiration (anthology; Kensington Publishing Corp 2003). Featured work: Aubade, In Memoriam Stephen Beal Stephen Beal was born and for the most part raised in Evanston, Illinois. During World War II he lived with his family in Pittsburgh, a city that serves as the setting for many of his poems. A 1960 graduate of Williams College who did graduate work at Oxford, Beal is the author of five nonfiction books. His needlepoint canvases have been exhibited around the world and figure in many private collections. Featured work: The Very Stuff Lytton Bell Lytton Bell graduated magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1993. Her poetry has appeared in Outsider Ink, Poems-for-All, and is scheduled for publication in Still, Poetry Now, Poetic Voices, and Clean Sheets. Her latest chapbook, The Book of Chaps, will be available in early 2002. Featured work: Falling Back Sieannen Bell Sieannen Bell is a poet, artist, and naturalist living in the Gila Wildlands of southwestern New Mexico. Previous publication credits include Stirring, Wicked Alice, Eclectica, and Megaera, among many others. She is also the editor of The Divine Animal. Featured work: Angels Born Falling Tim Bellows Tim Bellows is a poet, writer, and teacher who is devoted to wildland and inner travels. Tim has taught college writing for over fourteen years. He graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has seen publication of poems in a variety of journals, and also in A Racing Up the Sky (Eclectic Press), Wild Stars (Starry Puddle Press), and Desert Wood (University of Nevada Press). Featured work: Reaching 80 Together A Little Sugar on Bread, A Cup of Wine Wetlands. Melody and Meditation. Alan Berecka Alan Berecka resides in Sinton, Texas, with his wife and two children. His poetry has appeared in American Literary Review, Red River Review, Windhover, and New Texas. The Trilobite Press published his chapbook Each Man Has One Life. He earns his keeps as an academic reference librarian Featured work: Reconciliation Jeff Beresford-Howe Jeff Beresford-Howe is a writer living in Oakland. Featured work: Bob Dylan: An Appreciation of How He Is Now Bob Dylan's Love and Theft Standing Up Against the Yankees Trading Ethics Lewis in the Bush League Good Morning Aztlán: Music Reviews Baseball as the Antidote On Cancelling Japan Music Reviews Sarah Black Sarah Black lives in Northern Arizona. Her fiction has been published in Flashquake, Word Riot, Clean Sheets, and Ruthie's Club. Featured work: Lost in Canyonlands Jon Blackstock Jon Blackstock has published short stories and poems with Internet and print journals, manages the Teaching Theatre column at Suite101.com, and has published a book, The Down River Prophet, with Greatunpublished.com. He is a graduate of the College of Charleston (SC), and is currently enrolled in graduate school at Georgia Southern. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Poverty, My Friend Valentina Bonnaire Featured work: The Bravery of Braverman: an Interview with Kate Braverman Julie Bolt Julie Bolt is a New Yorker currently residing in Los Angeles with her family and dog. She is an instructor at The Art Institute of California, and a doctoral candidate who publishes both creative and academic work. She hopes other writers and artists stand in solidarity against The Patriot Act. Join her discussion group at her Web site. Featured work: Willies Put Down Your Bugle, O Bard! Kristy Bowen Kristy Bowen's work has appeared in a number of journals, including Blue Fifth Review, Verse Libre Quarterly, and Stirring. She lives and writes in Chicago, where she edits the online journal Wicked Alice. Her chapbook, The Archaeologist's Daughter, is forthcoming in spring 2004 from Moon Journal Press. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: You Talk to Me About Italy About Destruction the blue dress poems Shawn Bowman Shawn Bowman is a lifelong lover of language who has studied linguistics across Northeast Ohio. He is a former wood worker, truck driver, and Jacob's Field Usher. He currently lives in Cleveland with his wife and daughter. Featured work: A Clerihew Indians 13 White Sox 11 Theresa Boyar Theresa Boyar's writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Florida Review, Rattle, The Adirondack Review, Samsara Quarterly, The Paumanok Review, and Pierian Springs. She currently lives with her husband and two sons in Helena, Montana, where she is working on a collection of short stories. Featured work: In Defense of Chaos Theory When Woolworth's Sold Lives Andrea L. Boyd Andrea L. Boyd is a writer and poet, mother and wife, lover and friend, physician assistant and fly-fisherman. She lives in northern Ohio, where the steelhead run the icy waters of Rocky River each spring and fall. Featured work: Heart and Soul, Mind and Body: Attempts at the Language of Love Robert F. Bradford Robert F. Bradford has won two Theater Critics Awards for Best Play in the Fringe of Marin Festival of One-Acts. Recent stories have appeared in Boheme Magazine and Long Story Short. He is a graduate student of the Humanities at Dominican University of California. Featured work: WildCare Bob Bradshaw Bob Bradshaw is a programmer living in Redwood City, California. Recent work of his can be found at Paumanok Review, Subtle Tea, Fifth Street Review, VLQ(Smorgasboard), Slow Trains, and Red River Review, among other publications. He is a big fan of the Rolling Stones, although you wouldn't know it from the moss gathering on him. Featured work: Desperate, I'm Learning To Skate In Love, Wearing Heavy Coats, Sometimes No Escape Greg Braquet Greg Braquet exists in New Orleans, but like most poets, lives in a world of his own schmoosing. His poetry has appeared in such publications as The New Laurel Review, THEMA, The Tap Root Review, Lucid Stone, Desire Street, Poetry Life & Times, The Breath Magazine, Red River Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Pierian Springs, Tryst, Side Reality, The Adagio Verse Quarterly, The Little Green Tricycle, The Junket, Tin Lustre, L'Intrigue, Branches Quarterly, and Exquisite Corpse. He was a recipient of the Delirium Journal’s 2003 Choice Award. Featured work: Arteries The Hard Way Michael L. Braverman As a consequence of growing up in Indiana, Michael L. Braverman lives in Los Angeles and works in the entertainment industry. He is still trying to figure out the difference between "vocation" and "avocation." Featured work: Paraphernalia Steve Brightman Steve Brightman is a baseball fan and a poetry fan. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Ken Harrelson's Nehru Jacket Arndt Britschgi Arndt Britschgi was born in Finland, but spent the best part of his life in Madrid, Spain. He just took his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His writing has appeared in Literary Fragments, Kulttuurivihkot (Finnish), Southern Cross Review,the EOTU Ezine and Word Riot. Featured work: Beauty Dive Arthur Davis Broughton Arthur Davis Broughton is an Ohio artist and amateur musician who often portrays the figure in motion. He has a masters degree in fine arts, and played guitar in a bar in Spain once for some San Gria (you see, the musicians were also the bartenders and when new people would come in, well...). Much of his recent work has focused on musicians, and and the psychological portrayal of the artist (musician) at work. He is also interested in the intermingling of personalities, the "conversation" so important to the improvisational musical art forms such as jazz and the blues. This is represented by a search for sizes, frequencies, and colors of marks/brushstrokes to identify the various sounds/personalities involved in the full musical/visual experience of live music. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Ben Allison (art) Tiffany Lee Brown Tiffany Lee Brown is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. Editor of the forthcoming Northwest arts, culture, & literature magazine 2 Gyrlz Quarterly, she also edits the webzine Signum. Her fiction and poetry appear or will soon appear in Bust's Guide to the New Girl Order (Penguin), In Our Own Words (MWE), How To Mutate & Take Over the World (Ballantine), and the Clear Cut Press anthology, as well as Bust, The Jitter Review, Sauce*Box, and Pulp. She's been a regular contributor to Bookforum, Venus, and Wired, among other magazines. Featured work: Recipe for Success Alfred Bruey Alfred J Bruey is retired from a career in the computer field. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications. His two chapbooks, Practicing Insanity and Greatest Hits are available from Pudding House Publishers in Johnstown, Ohio. Featured work: The Man With A Bag, His Domestic Friend, A Glass Poem That Avoids Sentimentality While Teaching You Many Facts Janet I. Buck Janet I. Buck is a two-time Pushcart Nominee and the author of four collections of poetry, including Calamity's Quilt. Her work has appeared in hundreds of anthologies and journals world-wide. She is a recent winner of the Kota Press Anthology Contest, and her poem " Acrylic Thighs" was featured at The United Nations Exhibit Hall in New York City. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Selected Poems Nervous Doorknobs (Special September 11 section) Grandfather's Chair Street of Flags R.J. Bullock R.J. Bullock lives with his beloved and their children in Cincinnati. Sorely separated from his natural habitat, he is nonetheless grateful for his daily reprieve. There is still time Featured work: Bob Frog Judy Bunce Judy Bunce is a zen monk currently living at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the training monastery of San Francisco Zen Center. Featured work: Entering the Monastery: An Ongoing Journal Janet Butler Janet Butler currently lives in the Bay Area, California, after spending many years in central Italy, where she began writing poetry and painting watercolors. She is a current member of the California Watercolor Association and ProArts, an Oakland, California artist cooperative. Ms. Butler's poems have been published in enough magazines to keep her (relatively) happy. Recent publications include Miller's Pond, Mannequin Envy, and Spiky Palm. She was featured poet for Sage of Consciousness, Fall, 2005. Featured work: sky fell in a minor key Ptim Callan Ptim Callan's fiction has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Poetry Midwest, Eyeshot, and others. He's written and produced independent films that have screened at San Francisco International Film Festival, The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films, and other festivals. He studied English at UCLA, and his first name is pronounced "Tim." See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Flip Pasquale Capocasa Pasquale Capocasa is the editor of Poems Niederngasse. Featured work: The Clown Trilogy Who's the Ju-Ju Man? Writers on the Creative Life Joseph Carcell Joseph Carcel is an attorney residing in New York. His work has most recently appeared in Dallhousie Review. The winner of several IBPC prizes, he is currently working on a libretto for an opera about the boxer Sonny Liston. He is also finishing a chapbook called A Theory in the Bone. When not writing poetry or practicing law, he enjoys rockclimbing and reading remaindered college texts. "You'd be surprised what you can learn for a buck," he says. Featured work: Crispin and Cricket, Funambulist Seduction, Fourth of July Farewell Patrick Carrington A native of New York City, Patrick Carrington teaches creative writing in New Jersey, and is the poetry editor for the Web-based art & literary journal Mannequin Envy. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various print and on-line journals, most recently The New Hampshire Review, The DMQ Review, Pearl, The Raintown Review, Meridian, Tiger’s Eye, Mobius, Ascent Aspirations, and Adagio Verse Quarterly. He is currently appearing as the featured writer in the fall issue of the literary journal Artistry of Life. Featured work: returning her home disheveled Marching with Saints, Cut of the Briar Rose The Logic for Improving a Neighborhood Isabelle Carruthers Isabelle Carruthers' short fiction has appeared in print in Prometheus, Best Women's Erotica, Mammoth Book of Best Erotica, and The Mainline, and also in various Internet magazines. She is a fiction editor with Clean Sheets Magazine. She lives in New Orleans. Featured work: The Path of Marigolds Michael Ceraolo Michael Ceraolo is a fortysomething civil servant/poet trying to overcome a middle class upbringing. Has had numerous poems published in numerous publications, and is also the author of the forthcoming book-length poem Euclid Creek: A Journey (Deep Cleveland Press). Featured work: The Base-Stealer Reprised Washington Post March: Twenty-First Century Edition Ode to Ichiro Charles Christian Charles Christian is a UK-based lawyer-turned long-time technology journalist, now starting to get some short stories and poetry published in anthologies, print magazines, and online webzines. His poetry has been described as "walking a narrow edge that could crumble into cleverness," while his stories fall into the science fiction/dark fantasy genres. For more information see his Web site. Featured work: Remembering Robert Palmer (1949 - 2003) Elizabeth Christopher Elizabeth Christopher lives north of Boston with her husband and two cats, Nuala and Ted. She thanks her father for getting her started, and the sessions with Sara at Diesel Café for keeping her going. Featured work: Maurice Charles Phillip Henry Christopher Phillip Henry Christopher spent his childhood in Paris, Biloxi, Vermont, and Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He grew in the shadow of smokestacks. He has been a reporter, mechanic, taxi driver, karate sensei, activist, reggae and mambo bandleader. Currently, he¹s trying to find a publisher for his first novel, Steeltown Dream. Featured work: Sweat, Smog And Sugar Donuts Mambo Urbano Amber Clark After earning her B.A in English from The College of William and Mary, Amber Clark attended the Harvard-Radcliffe Publishing Institute. She is now a freelance writer and editor living on the Emerald Coast of Florida. Her work recently appeared in Underground Window, but in the world of poetry, she is just now beginning to emerge. Featured work: Hibiscus Rebecca Clifford Rebecca Clifford lives in Italy with her husband, three cats and dog. She recently finished her first novel, "The Fifth Season". Featured work: Summer of Color and Songs: A Reflection of 2001 Robert R. Cobb Robert R. Cobb retired as a high school art teacher two years ago, culminating thirty-five years of teaching experience with Maine Township High School District #207 in Park Ridge and Des Plaines, Illinois. He lives with his wife of forty years, Lorna, in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. They have three grown sons and five grandchildren. Robert is a professional artist as well as a sometime poet. His works of art, largely drawings, paintings, and prints may be found in over 150 collections. His poetry may be found in recent issues of Snakeskin Webzine, Basket Case Magazine, The Southern Ocean Review, The Free Cuisenart, The Nexus, The Paradigm Press Zine, and BeFreeZine. Robert's poem "Sestina Senses and Nonsense" won second place in The Black Swan Review's national poetry contest. Robert was also the featured poet of the month in The Nepenthe Journal in June 1999. Featured work: Internet Heaven Destiny Train/New Millenium 2000 Michael Cocchiarale Michael Cocchiarale is an Assistant Professor of English at Widener University (Chester, PA), where he teaches American literature and writing courses. "Someday Morning" is part of a story collection (in progress) about a small, midwestern college town. Featured work: Someday Morning At the Good Looking Shop-a-Lot It's Up to You Lisa Cochran Lisa Cochran is a graduate student at Texas A&M University, and a former high school English teacher. She loves to read, travel, and drink red wine. Lisa moonlights as an aspiring writer and poet. Her poetry has been published in Words-Myth. Featured work: A Contemplation of Death, While Reading Walter Benjamin Amy K. Cogswell Amy K. Cogswell is a 2-time winner of the Nancy Potter Fiction prize. She is currently at work on a novella. She is also a student at the University of Rhode Island, after traveling around through North and South America for several years. Featured work: Africa Christopher Cokinos Christopher Cokinos is the winner of a Whiting Writer's Award and the Glasgow Prize for an Emerging Writer in Creative Nonfiction. He is the author of Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds, and editor of Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature & Science Writing. Featured work: The Bodies We Press Tightly Eileen Cruz Coleman Eileen Cruz Coleman's prose has appeared in Rosebud Magazine, The Saint Ann's Review, In Posse Review, Slow Trains Literary Journal, Quality Women's Fiction, Small Spiral Notebook, Thought Magazine, Sundry: A Journal of The Arts, Bathtub Gin, The Taj Mahal International Review and others. Her prose has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won third place in Glimmer Train's 2002 Short Story Award for New Writers. She is currently at work on a novel. Featured work: My Sadness Is My Own Victoria May Collett Victoria May Collett is an RN living on Long Island, New York. She writes stories so she can make up her own endings, and her beginnings too. Some of said stories have been published in Inkwell, Lumina, Left Curve, Edge City Review, and pacificReview. Featured work: Razor Blade Chaser Has Always Hated Champagne Marguerite Colson Marguerite Colson is an English teacher in Australia who writes short stories to escape from the literary boundaries that stifle education systems. She has previously been published at Literotica and Clean Sheets Magazine. Featured work: Story From a Quilt Nina Simone Michael J. Compton Michael J. Compton is a writer and filmmaker who teaches African American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Memphis. Featured work: The Invisible Hand Brendan Connell Brendan Connell has fiction either forthcoming, or already published, in numerous places, including RE:AL, Tabu, Heist, Penny Dreadful, Fishdrum, The Dream Zone, Darkness Rising 3 (Cosmos Books 2001), Redsine (Cosmos Books 2002), The Best of Devil BlossomsAsterius Press 2002), and Leviathan 3 (Ministry of Whimsy Press 2002). Featured work: School Day Susan Constable Susan Constable lives on the west coast of Canada, where she has time to enjoy the ocean at her doorstep. Her poems have been published in several print magazines, including Tower Poetry, Quills, and Island Writers, as well as online, most recently in Poems Niederngasse and Lily. Featured work: Lozenges of Light Jack Conway Jack Conway's novel, The Road To Ruin, was published in 2003. Life Sentences, his third collection of poetry, was published in 2002. His work has appeared in: The Antioch Review, The Columbia Review, The Land-Grant College Review, RALPH, The Peregrine Review, Rattle, The Paumanok Review, Yankee, Eclipse, and The Norton Anthology. Featured work: My Picnic with Lolita The Curator The Murder of a Beautiful Theory by a Gang of Brutal Facts Rebecca Cook Rebecca Cook writes poetry and prose, and has published her work on the Web and in print journals and magazines. Current work can be online found at The Adirondack Review, and is forthcoming in print at The Comstock Review, The Baltimore Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Northwest Review. Her essay, "Soaping the Stream," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2002. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: What You Want K.R. Copeland K.R. Copeland is a prolific poet residing in Chicago, Illinois. Her work has been featured in such publications as, Artvilla, Atomicpetals, Can We Have Our Ball Back?, Comfusion, Glass Tesseract, Locust, Miller's Pond, Mipo, Niederngasse, Pig Iron Malt, Snakeskin, Snow Monkey, The American Muse, Unlikely Stories, and others. Featured work: I Wonder, When I am Dead Brian K. Crawford Brian K. Crawford is a programmer living in Marin County, California, with his wife and teenage son. He enjoys hiking, sailing, geocaching, and writing. He has completed two novels: Isildur, a fantasy, and Toki, a historical novel, as well as several novellas and many short stories, essays, poems, and memoirs. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Swing Jeff Crouch Jeff Crouch lives in the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex of Texas. Interests include culture as history, politics, and art, the conjunction thereof. Also time as Moebius strip, and splicing poetry into it. Featured work: Appearances Waking, Going On Mustansir Dalvi Mustansir Dalvi teaches architecture in New Bombay, India. He is Poetry Monitor at the Desert Moon Review. His poem "Peabody" was awarded 1st Place in the InterBoard Poetry Competition, December 2002. He is published in Snakeskin, Octavo, Writer's Hood, Pierian Springs, Crescent Moon Journal, The Brown Critique, Poetry India and Poiesis. Featured work: hardback awakening Cathleen Daly Cathleen Daly writes poetry and experimental theater. She has published a chapbook of poems called Ode to the Unhinged. The last play she wrote, How to be a Secret Agent Girl, won "Best of the San Francisco Fringe Festival." She also teaches theater and poetry to children. Featured work: On Watching The Bachelor Deirdre Day-MacLeod Deirdre Day-MacLeod achieved early success in the Family Circle National Children's Poetry Contest with her entry "Butterflies," a poignant evocation of insect life. After decades of literary silence, where she wrote about everything from laundry on nuclear submarines to hair care products and salty snacks, she is nearing the completion of a collection of short stories, and is also working on a novel. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Your Name Here William Dean William Dean writes erotica under his own name and pen name Count of Shadows, including monthly columns, and is the Associate Editor of Clean Sheets Magazine. Featured work: What Was I When? Uneasy Kesey The Dictionary of Youthful Lies Edward Teller Diane E. Dees Diane E. Dees is a psychotherapist and writer in Covington, Louisiana. Her short stories, essays and commentaries have appeared in many publications. Diane and her husband, Orvin, are the webmasters of princesscafe.com, a virtual rock and roll restaurant. Diane's recent misfortune at a Shell station plummeted her across the boundaries of genre. See more of her work at DED Space. Featured work: Talkin' Freewrite Flammable Blues The Smoke Clears Hurricane Plan Kelly DeLong Kelly DeLong has been published in many literary magazines, including The Jabberwock Review, RiverSedge, and Zone3. Featured work: A Pale Shade of Yellow Richard Denner Richard Denner is a Berkeley street poet of the 60s, self-exiled to the Alaska outback, printer of dPress chapbooks, cowpoke, treeplanter on the slopes of Mt. St. Helens after the blast, longtime bookseller. He is currently living with his elderly mother in North Bay suburbia, gaining a little weight, getting a little grayer, and still reading his poems in coffeehouses. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Mimics in the Mist Joanne Detore-Nakamura Joanne Detore-Nakamura, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Her creative work has appeared in publications such as Purdue's VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, York University's The Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering, and will be anthologized in the forthcoming Sicilian Voices. Featured work: Ice Princess C Nolan Deweese c. nolan deweese is 22 years old and graduated in 2001 from Oberlin College with a degree in creative writing. His first book was called Cowboy Atlas, and was published in 2000. His new book, His Buck Passed, His Gulch Robbed, His Horn Tooted and Done, from which these poems are taken, is looking for a publisher. In August he will move from Philadelphia to his home town, Port Townsend, Washington. Featured work: Turncoat Appliances and The Bike Ride Eric Diamond Eric Diamond is a poet, psychologist, and men's work leader, living in Gainesville Florida. Major influences are Robert Bly, Tony Hoagland, Bob Dylan, Persian poetry, myth, and archetype. Featured work: Six Passengers in Search of a Conductor Apologia to a Vine Silver River Trail Emily Ding Emily Ding writes and takes pictures compulsively. She resides in Malaysia but will soon be studying law in London. Featured work: Land of the Morning Calm Erin Dionne Erin Dionne teaches writing at a small college north of Boston. Her work has appeared in The Beacon Street Review, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, and other publications. Someday she hopes to write full time and have a dog. Featured work: Artificial Colors (includes Yellow 6, Red 40) Susan DiPlacido Susan DiPlacido's first novel, 24/7, will be published in early 2005. Her second novel, Trattoria, has also been sold and is awaiting a publication date. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Going Yard Megan Doney Megan Doney is a teacher and writer who lives in New Hampshire. She has previously been published in the Nieve Roja Review and Old Crow. Featured work: Night Terrors Joe Dugan Joe Dugan is a junior English/Honors student at Cedarville University, a private college in southern Ohio. Joe's life and writing are inextricably tied; he particularly loves complex coming-of-age stories. He ultimately seeks to discover the link between literary fiction and a broader cultural motif. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured Work: Puberty on Polaroid Chris Duncan Chris Duncan lives in the hills of southwest Virginia. He is enrolled in the low-resident MFA/ Creative Writing Program at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. His most recent publications can be found in Small Spiral Notebook, Intertext, Carve, Boomerang UK, Southern Ocean Review,and 3 A.M. Magazine. Featured work: Sikes Hebert: Triangle Player Jim Ellis Jim Ellis writes safety training manuals for a living, and loves poets of many styles and sensibilities. He doesn't think there's a rightful separation between engaged and introspective poems. "Sure, it's a drag to keep saying it, but the world's future is obviously very much in question. On the other hand, if we can't believe in dreams, the journey ends at birth." (Komunyakaa) Jim's poems have been published in Pig Iron, Thorny Locust, Vs., Zillah, Lake Effect, Tryst, Red Owl, Comstock Review, Kaleidoscope Review, Lilliput Review, Dream Fantasy, Olive Trees, Snakeskin, VLQ, Flesh From Ashes, and Unlikely Stories. Featured work: Selfless John Eivaz John Eivaz was born in New York and lives in California. He loves to write, because it is the cheapest thing one can do for fun when one is broke. He writes a lot, and has been published online and in print in various places, including past issues of Slow Trains and its first print anthology. In past incarnations he was the editor of MiPo~Print and the poetry and flash fiction editor of the Erotica Readers and Writers Web site. His writing has been recognized online by the IBPC, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He works at a winery. Read more of his work at the Web site he shares with P.J. Nights. Featured work: Blur Trio The Cover Cascades and is Purple (and) Time Machine rossellini shooting while the seamstress ceases copying life Soup Sonnets (an online chapbook) helpless before her Gilroy for Garlic train There's Music the lone prairie countdown to myself, at 52 James V. Emanuel James V. Emanuel, also known as Rod Harden, lives in Ohio with his wife, two sons, and three cats. He began writing on a whim in 1998, concentrating on erotica. His stories have appeared on the Web at Erotica Readers Association, Mind Caviar, and others, including his own Web site. Two collections of his short stories have been published by Renaissance E-Books. Featured work: Duck, Duck, Goose Maragarita Engle Margarita Engle is a botanist, and the Cuban-American author of several books about the island, most recently The Poet Slave of Cuba, a Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano (Henry Holt & Co., 2006). Short works appear in a wide variety of anthologies and journals, including Slow Trains, Atlanta Review, Bilingual Review, California Quarterly, Caribbean Writer, Hawai'i Pacific Review, Nimrod, and Poetry Salzburg. Awards include a Cintas Fellowship, a San Diego Book Award, and a 2005 Willow Review Poetry Award. Her poetry was also a semi-finalist selection for the 2006 Nimrod Hardman/Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize. Margarita lives in California, where she enjoys hiking and helping her husband with his volunteer work for a wilderness search-and-rescue dog training program. Featured work: Beisbol Terminology The Old Cars of Cuba Michael Estabrook Michael Estabrook says: You're not going to believe this but, I'm in my mid-fifties and just got my first tattoo! My beautiful daughter Robin, who has a tattoo of a shiny blue dolphin on her upper thigh, encouraged me, "Come' on Dad you have to do it!" So now there are two romantic red roses (drawn by my wife, Patti) nestled in a bed of green leaves perched on my left shoulder. My other beautiful daughter, Laura, is simply relieved I didn't get a Mike-Loves-Patti tattoo. Featured work: Dear God, (May I call you God?) Marc Estrin Marc Estrin is a writer, cellist, and activist living in Burlington, Vermont. His debut novel, Insect Dreams, the Half Life of Gregor Samsa, was published in February, 2002, by BlueHen Books (Penguin-Putnam), to critical acclaim. He was a Fellow in Fiction at both the Wesleyan and Bread Loaf Writer's Conferences, 2002. See more of his work at Web Del Sol and Exquisite Corpse. Featured work: Offense in Black and White Jerry G. Erwin Jerry G.Erwin has written six utterly charming novels, as yet unpublished. He also has sold film scripts that were never made, to people he'd only feel creatively involved with if he had strangled them to death in their sleep. However, not one to complain, he continues to pursue his resiliant literary dream (as delusional psychotics tend to do). See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Cow Girl and Pig Heaven Richard Evans Richard Evans is a writer, visual artist and occasional performer, based in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to collecting a not unrespectable list of the kinds of jobs cited in artist's bios, he is also co-host of the Art Conference on the the WeLL, one of the oldest online communities. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Art, Hope Requiem Utahna Faith Utahna Faith. lives in New Orleans with Story, her miniature dachshund. Utahna's work appears in Exquisite Corpse: a Journal of Letters and Life, Night Train, Clean Sheets, and elsewhere. She is flash fiction editor and poetry editor for 3am Magazine, and is editor of Wild Strawberries: a journal of flash fiction and prose poetry. Featured work: The New Bohemians Jill L. Ferguson Jill L. Ferguson is a poet, novelist, journalist, professor, and public speaker. Her first fiction book, Sometimes Art Can't Save You, was published in October 2005, by In Your Face Ink. She chairs the General Education Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Featured work: Backyard Sinfonietta Vicky Fish Vicky Fish lives with her three sons and husband in Vermont, where she is a freelance writer. "The Sari" is her second published story. Featured work: The Sari Joe Flower Joe Flower has been writing, speaking, and consulting about creating change for nearly two decades. He is the author or co-author of several books, including: Run Toward The Roar: Managing Healthcare in Turbulent Times (2003), China’s Futures (2000), The 21st Century Healthcare Leader (1999), The Encyclopedia of the Future (1996), and Age Wave (1989). Featured work: The Slow Trains Ten: Writers on the Creative Life Michael Fontana Michael Fontana was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. His writing has appeared in Colorado Review, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. He currently works at a community mental health center in northwest Arkansas. Featured work: Summer Night's Dream of Appalachian Children in the City Gerald Forshey Gerald Forshey has mowed lawns in Nevada, California and Illinois. He taught ethics and world religions in the City Colleges of Chicago, and he has written about movies in various venues. Featured work: The Lawn Poems Phoebe Kate Foster Phoebe Kate Foster is an associate editor for two online journals, PopMatters and The Dead Mule. Her short fiction is forthcoming or has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Eclectica, Electric Acorn, Emrys Journal, The Distillery: Artistic Spirits of the South, The Dead Mule, Starry Night Review, Megaera, Tattoo Highway and Barbaric Yawp, among others. Featured work: Mazzonelli's Masterpiece Goo Cares J. C. Frampton J.C. Frampton flashes signals from the lower left-hand corner, where detritus tends to collect. His work has appeared in places like Spork, Pindeldyboz, Eclectica and the Eclectica Favorite Stories Anthology, Sweet Fancy Moses, Pig Iron Malt, Paumanok Review, Thieves Jargon, and Aileron. J.C.'s newest novel has not yet found a home. Featured work: The Losers Thaisa Frank The fiction of Thaisa Frank, according to the New York Times, works "by a tantalizing sense of indirection." She is a two-time PEN Award winner. Sleeping In Velvet (1998) and A Brief History of Camouflage (1992) have both been BABRA nominees. She has served as a judge for the Djerassi Colony and the Oregon Council for the Arts. For more information see her Web site. Featured work: Traveling Clothes Writers on the Creative Life D. E. Fredd D. E. Fredd lives in Townsend, Massachusetts. He has had poetry appear in The Paris Review, Café Review, and The Paumanok Review. His short fiction has or will soon appear in The Southern Humanities Review, Rosebud, The Armchair Aesthete, Word Riot, Prose Toad, SNReveiw, Tribal Soul Kitchen, Writethis, Verb Sap, LitVision, JMWW, Grasslands Review, and The 13th Warrior Review. Featured work: Ayn Rand and the Cleveland Indians Greg Frohring Greg Frohring works in Denver as a principal software architect.He believes that writing poetry provides a counterbalance to the "automaton" world of logical constraints and irrational business needs. His work seeks to find the passion within the instant images of our lives. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: First time Scattered Moonlight Emmitt Maxwell Furner, II Emmitt Maxwell Furner II is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at the Grand River Academy, where he lives on campus with his wife and three children. Emmitt's first novel, Forgotten, will be published in the summer of 2002. Emmitt is also a member of the U.S. Army reserves, where he serves as an Engineer officer. Featured work: The Horse-Fly Watcher Alex Galper Alex Galper was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and came to America at the age of 20. In 1996, he graduated from Brooklyn College, majoring in Creative Writing. His poems have been published in many Russian magazines. In 2002, his friends Igor Satanovsky and Mike Magazinnik translated some of his poems into English, and published his only book of billingual poetry, Fish Du Jour. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Real Galper Jamie Joy Gatto Jamie Joy Gatto is a writer, editor, columnist and bisexual activist from New Orleans. She is editor-in-chief of Mind Caviar. Her work has and will appear in numerous projects, including The Unmade Bed, Best Bisexual Erotica 2000 and 2001, Best SM Erotica, Unlimited Desires, and Black Sheets. Her first collection of short fiction, Sex Noir: Stories of Sex, Death and Loss, will be published in 2002 by Circlet Press. Featured work: Read My Mind Drinking in Hurricanes Mark Gaudet Mark Gaudet was first published at the age of 15. He is a lover of free verse, and his two major influences are Charles Bukowski and William Carlos Williams. His poetry has appeared in many journals, including Interpoetry, True Poet Magazine, Redbridge Review , The Persistent Mirage, Zygote in My Coffee, Children, Churches and Daddies, Remark, and Thieves Jargon. Featured work: Summertime Elizabeth Gauffreau Elizabeth Gauffreau grew up in New England in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Currently she is an academic advisor with the College for Lifelong Learning in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She has previously published fiction in Blueline, The Long Story, Soundings East, Mystic River Review, Ad Hoc Monadnock, and Rio Grande Review. Featured work: To The Phillips Motel in Sheldon Michael K. Gause Michael K. Gause currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota. His works have been published in The Venerable Seed, ArtWord Quarterly, Karawane, Rape of Narcissus, Poetry Motel, Unarmed, BigCityLit, Red River Review, and Half Drunk Muse. Minnesota Web site publications include Minneapolis Underground and mental contagion. Featured work: Satori in the Fifth P.L George P.L. George is a writer from Oklahoma City. His work has been published in Foliate Oak at the University of Arkansas, where he won best short story of the year, crybloxsome.com, reddirtreview.org, oraculartree.com, admit2.net, and Absolute Literary anthology. He's heavily influenced by the Beats and Bukowski, but is looking for a new revolution, as well as a publisher for his collection of short stories. Featured work: The Rest of the Dharma - Part 1 Paul Germano Syracuse writer Paul Germano (pictured with his dog Jessica) offers this advice: Listen to the Blues. They're good for you when you're feeling bad, and even better when you're feeling good. Germano's fiction has been published online in CollectedStories.com, House of Pain, MWP Journal, Sonata, and Twilight Times, and also in print in the Java Snob Review and SlugFest. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Car Trouble in a Blues Bar Jennifer Gibbons Jennifer Gibbons lives in Pleasant Hill, California. She has been known to watch As The World Turns every other day. Featured work: In Memory: Mary Stuart In Memory: Chris Bruney Robert Gibbons Robert Gibbons currently has work in: Conspire; The Drunken Boat ; Linnaean Street; Niederngasse; pith; Recursive Angel; & Tatlin's Tower. Work is forthcoming in Cauldron & Net; Evergreen Review; Gargoyle ; Janus Head ; & In Posse Review. His sixth chapbook of poems, This Vanishing Architecture, has just been published by Innerer Klang Press . A collection of prose poems, Brief History of Erotic Gesture, will be the first of a chapbook series published online by Linnaean Street. Featured work: Nature or Civilization The Confusion, The Slender Path, and She Wanted to Go to Pere Lachaise An Echo of the Silence of the Dead (Special September 11 section) The Best Two Things About Verlaine Miracles of Art Streets for Two Dancers The Slow Trains Ten: Writers on the Creative Life (short interview) Ode to New York City Gold December Horizons, Dual Gifts of Strength & Patience Another Kind Light, Nativity With Dance It Snows a Bit Differently in New York City Slitting: Planned Improvisations The Outskirts of New Haven Aaron Gilbreath Aaron Gilbreath was born and raised in the refried bean belt of central Arizona, but could just as easily been born in BBQ pork country. His nonfiction and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Hobart, Opium Magazine, Storyglossia, AntiMuse, powells.com, Hamilton Stone Review. Featured work: After the Funeral Gary Glauber When not writing fiction, Gary Glauber is a music journalist for PopMatters.com and Fufkin.com. Recent short stories have appeared in Dead Mule, Hobart, The Glut, Insolent Rudder, 42 Opus, ken*again, Mocha Memoirs, Pindeldyboz, Eyeshot, and elsewhere. Upcoming stories can be seen at MonkeyBicycle and Long Story Short. Featured work: A Hard Place Matthew R. Gleckman Matthew Gleckman has worked as a journalist throughout the western United States. His fiction and poetry have been published in magazines and anthologies including: Telluride Magazine (winner, summer 2000 poetry contest), Continuum, Windfall, and Kota Press. A poem is forthcoming in Dazzling Mica. He is currently living in Issaquah, WA. Featured work: Places You've Been, Places You'd Like to Go Poem Ascending, Glass Life as a Raindrop, Memory of Love Making Terry Godbey Terry Godbey’s poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Rosebud, Primavera, Potomac Review, CALYX Journal, and Slipstream. She won first prize in the Writers Contest of the Mount Dora Festival of Music and Literature in 2005 and 2004. She is a copy editor at the Orlando Sentinel. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: For This Life, We'll Be Serving Meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes Howard Good Howard Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the poetry chapbook Death of the Frog Prince (FootHills Publishing, 2004). His poems have appeared in numerous journals and ezines. Featured work: Wasted Chantey JJ Goss JJ Goss resides with her husband in central Massachusetts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as Happy, The New England Writers Journal, The Beltane Papers, Net Authors E2K, Babel, Branches Quarterly, Amarillo Bay, Copious and Lightening Bell. Her short story, “Missing a Beat,” was nominated for a 2001 Pushcart Prize. Featured work: waiting for the change, Window Disturbances Candy M. Gourlay Candy M. Gourlay was born on a windy day during autumn 1973 in South Africa, where she still works, writes, and lives with her husband and three children. Her work has appeared in WideThinker, Extraverse, Beatnik Journal, Platinum Poetry, Reflections Anthology, and elsewhere. Featured work: Level 4 West, Time Taylor Graham Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada. Her poems appear in Grand Street, The Iowa Review, The New York Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her work is included in the new anthology, California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University, 2004). Featured work: Throwing It Back and Backing Up Adventure Broccoli, Alzheimer's Merlin E. Greaves Merlin E. Greaves is a freelance writer and poet. He is a Dallas resident and a Colorado native. Other works of his can be seen on www.SpokenWar.com, www.Kotapress.com, and www.Niedergasse.com. Featured work: lamborghini smiles, infinite sadness walking Ralph Greco, Jr. Ralph Greco, Jr. is an internationally published author of short fiction, essays, one-acts, button slogans, coffee can labels, and 800# phone sex scripts. He is also an Ascap licensed songwriter. Featured work: The Floating Man Dave Gregg Dave Gregg currently resides in Missouri, as a born-again Midwest male transplanted from California. He has been writing for nearly thirty years. He has two sons, Ian and Craig, and he works for the state. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Hartsburg Kathryn Gresham-Lancaster Kathryn Gresham-Lancaster is a writer, art teacher, and performer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has published in the online journal, Recursive Angel. She has been, in various incarnations: a theatre director (Hundreth Monkey Productions), actor, and performance artist. Featured work: War and the Wordless (Special September 11 section) Kelle Groom Kelle Groom's first collection of poems, Underwater City, will be published by University Press of Florida in July 2004. Her second collection, Luckily, will be published by Anhinga Press in Fall 2005. She lives in Orlando. Featured work: Jack Kerouac's House and Cadiz Michael Gruber Michael Gruber's first novel, Tropic of Night, has received unanimous rave reviews across the board. For more information, see his Web site at Harper Collins. Featured work: The Slow Trains Ten (mini-interview) Tony Gruenewald Tony Gruenewald earns his keep as an Assistant Studio Director and Communications Coordinator for the New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. In previous lives he has worked in radio journalism and advertising and, if all else fails, still has his Teamsters card. His work has been seen in The New York Times, Caffeine, U.S. 1, Adbusters and other mostly defunct publications. Featured work: Route 1 Free Association (To the Guy in the Black Lincoln Riding My Bumper)andRed Light District New Jersey's Poet Problem Ashok Gupta Ashok Gupta is an Indian who works in Jakarta, Indonesia, as a chemical engineer, and started writing poetry at the age of fifty. A few poems have been published in e-zines like FZQuarterly, and in print in Reflections and Times of India. Featured work: Don't Make Mistakes Ramla, Family Album Darryl Halbrooks Darryl Halbrooks has been a painter, printmaker, sculptor and educator for all of his adult professional life. Over the last three years he has tried to add writer to those credits.His writing is informed, he hopes, by the visual arts, and his artwork has always been informed by literature as well as life in general. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Red State Christine Hamm Christine Hamm has a Master's in Creative Writing. Her work has been published in 3am Magazine, Stirring, Diagram, Shampoo Poetry and Poetry Midwest. She recently was the inaugural poet of the summer reading series at The Read Cafe in Brooklyn. In October she will be teaching a poetry writing workshop through the Women's Studio Center in Astoria. Christine is the literary editor of the new magazine, Wide Angle. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: The Curse, Woman in Search of Her Sex Jane Hammons Jane Hammons teaches writing at UC Berkeley. Her writing has most recently appeared in River Walk Journal, The Big Stupid Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Rhino, Kitchen Sink, and Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her two sons. Featured work: Staking Claim Lizzie Hannon Lizzie Hannon is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist (CCHT). To date, her poetry, essays and fiction have been published in six anthologies. Lizize lives and dreams in Santa Rosa, California. Featured work: The Phoenicians Josh Hanson Josh Hanson is a graduate of the University of Montana Writing Program, with MA's in fiction and literature. He currently lives in Humboldt County, California, where he is working on stories, poems, and a novel for young adults. Featured work: Three Theses Jonathan Hayes Jonathan Hayes is the author of Echoes from the Sarcophagus (3300 Press, 1997), St. Paul Hotel (Ex Nihilo Press, 2000), and self invented (split chapbook with Mark Sonnenfeld, Marymark Press, 2003). Recently published by Main Street Rag, Political Affairs, and Street Sheet, he edits the literary/art magazine Over the Transom. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: A Green Monster Grins The News, Inside the Mushroom Kate Heartfield Kate Heartfield is a writer in Ottawa, Canada. Her columns, editorials, and features appear frequently in the Ottawa Citizen and other publications. Her fiction has appeared in Another Toronto Quarterly and The New Quarterly. Featured work: Skin Joseph Hegwood Joseph Hegwood lives and teaches in the lower Mississippi Delta, with his beautiful wife Corinne. He enjoys hanging out with her, running, cycling, and pitching horseshoes. This is his first published story. Featured work: When Flesh Covers Bone, A Creature is Made Janice J. Heiss Janice J. Heiss lives in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including Herotica 2 (under the pseudonym, Daphne Slade), Storyglossia, Mad Hatters' Review, Passages North, and Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. In 2005, one of her short stories was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Featured work: Play Klee J.D. Herniak J.D. Herniak is 26 years old, a musician, artist, and family man. He has been cosmicly displaced over the last five years as an army medic, and has served two tours in Iraq, during the second of which, he started writing poetry again (including these pieces). He seeks future endeavors in music, art, and fantastic happiness. Featured work: An Entirely Different Universe Songs of War J.D. Heskin J.D. Heskin resides in a northern Minnesota city. His work can be found in such diverse places as Red Lamp, Southern Ocean Review, Snakeskin, ArtWord Quarterly, Poetry Magazine, Prairie Poetry and American Outback Journal. Featured work: All Things Considered Michael A. Hoerman Michael Hoerman's poetry has appeared in The Rockhurst Review, WordWrights, The Heartlands Today, Prison Life Magazine, Freshwater 2002, and Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, with poems forthcoming in Off the Cuffs (Soft Skull Press) and Mischief, Caprice and Other Poetic Strategies (Red Hen Press). Featured work: Another Boring Academic Poem Thomas E. Howard Thomas E. Howard has traveled extensively over the past five years as an independent journalist and union organizer. He completed his first novel, Chasing the Whirlwind, from which this story is excerpted, in early 2005. He wants to live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Featured work: At the End of the World John Calvin Hughes John Calvin Hughes has published poems, stories, and criticism in numerous magazines and journals. He is the author of The Novels and Short Stories of Frederick Barthelme, from the Edwin Mellen Press. Featured work: Voices Carry William G. Hutchings William G. Hutchings is an ex-skier, ex-tech writer, and current fly fisherman. He bums around in his fifth-wheel trailer, following the sun from Idaho to Mexico, with his co-pilot, Max -- a small Swiss herding dog. Bill is in his thirteenth printing of Radio on the Road: The Traveler's Companion, the fourth printing of the NPR Station Directory, and struggling to get Max to type his new novel, Gold of Guadalupe. Featured work: The Kid, the Aliens, and Uncle Charlie Susannah Indigo Susannah Indigo is the editor and founder of Slow Trains. She is also the editor-in-chief of Clean Sheets, a Web zine devoted to literary writing about sexuality. She is the author of Oysters Among Us: erotic tales of wonder and the co-editor of the anthology series From Porn to Poetry: Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind. Her writing has appeared in many anthologies, including The Best American Erotica 2000 and 2004, Herotica , and Best Women's Erotica. She is also a contributor to Salon Magazine (salon.com). See her Web site for more information. Featured work: Dancing With the Streets God@heaven.com Better Angels (Special September 11 section) bluebells & eucalyptus trailing like kindness Tiger Stadium: October, 1968 The Ten Mike Ingles Mike Ingles is a freelance writer living in Ohio. He holds a degree in American Literature from Franklin University. His stories have appeared in several magazines, including the Southern Cross Review. The anthology, Laughing and Learning, featuring his story, "Dog Days," will be published in November 2003. Featured work: Colorado in June Mark Jackley Mark Jackley is a business writer who lives in the Washington, DC, area. His poems have appeared in various journals, and his chapbook, Brevities, is scheduled to be published later this year by Ginninderra Press. Featured work: Life in an All-Night Diner Photo of my Mother as a Newlywed Returning From the Airport When Dad Went to Vietnam Harold Janzen Harold Janzen says that composition using word-medium, rhythm, and rhyme has been his exercise for equilibrium and his vehicle to reach the underlying properties of reality. So he writes. Featured work: tom waits Grapevine Dream Supply (and) Last Night You Said Tommorrow Elizabeth Was a Bonfire of a Cat Person Wonderland The Morning Sun Streams Into the Understory Derek Jenkins Derek Jenkins is editor of The Foliate Oak Online. He spends most of his time listening to music, talking about music, camping, and falling down in public. Featured work: The King Biscuit Blues Brently Johnson Brently Johnson is an MFA student studying poetry at the University of Idaho. Originally raised in East Tennessee, he followed his wife west, losing his accent in the process. Now they live in the small town of Moscow, Idaho, where they can hear the trains hauling grain from their apartment's window. Other publications include Yale Anglers' Journal, Gray's Sporting Journal, Riverteeth, and Ascent Literary Journal. Featured work: Traveling Through America's Backyard Tom Johnson Tom Johnson teaches writing at The American University of Cairo, Egypt, where he lives with his wife and daughter. He is a recent graduate of Columbia University's School of the Arts. Featured work: Conversion and Gambler's Logic Hank Kalet Hank Kalet is the author of the chapbook, Suburban Pastoral, and the editor of The Other Half, a literary journal published by Voices of Reason, which uses poetry and music to raise money and awareness of hunger issues in Central New Jersey. He is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and the Cranbury Press and is a political columnist for the Progressive Populist. His poetry and journalism have been published in dozens of small-press journals and magazines, including Big Hammer, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, the Writer's Gallery, Big Scream, the Aquarian Weekly, the Free Press, and City Belt. See more of his work at his blog and at Hank Kalet's Poetic Blues. Featured work: Boplicity Hareendran Kallinkeel After obtaining voluntary retirement from an elite commando outfit under the government of India, Hareendran Kallinkeel now works for an online portal, helping college students from the U.S. with their writing projects, and resides in his hometown, Taliparamba (Kerala), India, with his family, consisting of his wife, two children, and mother. He owns a farm of rubber, coconut, pepper, and areca nut plantations, where he also keeps his cows and chickens. He is published online in Sulekha, Cyberman Books, Literary Potpourri, Poet's Canvas, Cenotaph Pocket Edition, Gator Springs Gazette, Muse Apprentice Guild, Blood Lust UK, Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine, Whispers of Wickedness, Chick Flick E-zine; print publications include Peeks & Valleys, Thought Magazine, and Literary Potpourri anthologies. His stories are forthcoming in Golan Publications and Tales of the Talisman. Featured work: Frog-Smitten Blue Wind Kami Blue Wind Kami lives in Colorado with her husband, a redneck cat and 6 horses. She loves weather, animals of all ilk, and fine words well used. Featured work: For The Birds Meena Kandasamy Featured work: The Eighth Day of Creation Kevin P. Keating Kevin P. Keating's fiction has appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Inertia, Tryst, Tattoo Highway, Wild Child, Kant Magazine, Thunder Sandwich, Subtle Tea, The Circle, and Whiskey Island. He is currently writing a "Letter from America" column for the British publication Numb Magazine, in which he describes the cynicism that has swept over the American consciousness during the presidency of George W. Bush. He teaches English at Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, Ohio. Featured work: Safe and Familiar Faces Ward Kelley Ward Kelley has seen more than 1300 of his poems appear in journals worldwide. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee whose publication credits include: Another Chicago Magazine, Rattle, Midstream, Zuzu's Petals, Ginger Hill, Sunstone, Spillway, Pif, Whetstone, 2River View, Melic Review, Thunder Sandwich, The Animist, Offcourse, Potpourri and Skylark. He was the recipient of the Nassau Review Poetry Award for 2001. Kelley is the author of two books: histories of souls, a poetry collection, and Divine Murder, a novel; he also has an epic poem, comedy incarnate on CD and CD ROM. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: I Gave You My Watch Michael Keshigian Michael Keshigian's poems have appeared in The Fairfield Review, Sierra Nevada College Review, Sahara, California Quarterly, Bellowing Ark, and Red River Review, among others. He has had three chapbooks published, and have been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. He is a college educator and performing musician in Boston. Featured work: Thief Rebecca Lu Kiernan Rebecca Lu Kiernan's fiction and poetry have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction Magasine, Ms. Magazine, North American Review, Space and Time, Gargoyle, and other magazines and books in the United States and Australia. Her collection of poetry, Sex With Trees and Other Things Equally Responsive was published by 2 River Press. Canada's Ygdrasil will soon dedicate an issue to the presentation of her new collection, The Man Who Remembered Too Much. She edits the print literary, Gecko, and lives on the Gulf Coast with her spunky chocolate labrador, Rocky. Featured work: A Kiss in Dreams Escape Artist Afterglow Eraser, The Cold Sleep Gray Dog Monica Kilian Monica Kilian studied literature, philosophy, and law, and now works for an engineering company. Her short fiction can be found or is upcoming in Cafe Irreal, Pindeldyboz, QWF, The Morpo Review, Tatlin's Tower, Projected Letters, and Margin. Last year she joined the editorial team of the Rose & Thorn. Featured Work: The Sadness of Strangers Kyle Killen Kyle Killen is a fiction and screenwriter whose previous work has appeared in various journals, including Pindeldyboz, Salon.com, and Reed Magazine, where he received the 2003 John Steinbeck Award For The Short Story. He's at work on his first novel. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Without Louise Phoebe Kitanidis Phoebe Kitanidis is a Greek-American writer who lives in Seattle. She teaches creative writing and speech classes, and she recently finished a novel, Be My Yoko Ono. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Woman Derek Kittle Derek Kittle is twenty-nine and lives in Auburn, Alabama, with his wife, who is a veterinary student. In past lives, he has been a lawyer, soldier, singer and cook. Besides poetry, he also writes children's books, including The Adventures of Travel Tiger and Kittens in the Wild, both out this year. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Exile of the Sun Vanessa Kittle Vanessa Kittle is a writer and cook who lives on Long Island with her partner, Erin. She also takes care of a very evil kitten named Sombrero. Featured work: Joe Mark Kline Mark Kline left the Flint Hills prairie of Kansas for wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen twenty-one years ago. He is a bluegrass musician and songwriter, and plays regularly for square dances in Denmark. His time is split between family, his fiction, music, and in-between he tends a mean garden. Featured work: Maniac Island Karl Krausbart Under his real name, Karl Krausbart publishes fiction, poetry, humor, and literary and technical essays in mainstream periodicals, "little" literary magazines, and computing and scientific journals. He has read at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, the International Monetary Fund Visitors' Center, GRACE (Greater Reston Virginia Arts Center), The MAC (McKinney Avenue Contemporary) Theatre in Dallas, and elsewhere, and has survived interviews by The New York Times and USA Today. He has held too many responsible positions, and has been awarded too many academic degrees. Featured work: Thirteen Channels Susanna Laaksonen Susanna Laaksonen is a writer from Finland. She recently spent two months in Lapland researching her TV drama series, to be aired on Finnish television in 2004, and learned that she is probably more of a city person. Susanna received her undergraduate degree in the U.S, and has been writing in English off and on ever since. Her credits include writing for TV, a play, some theater translations and journalism, and a short film. She is starting her own e-zine because she likes Slow Trains so much. Featured work: The Angel in the Municipal Pool The Ten (interview) Tony Leather Tony Leather is a writer from the U.K. who loves to put pen to paper, then hear from readers how they feel about his work. He's not a full-time writer, but has been published about 150 times around the world since he started writing seriously three years ago. He just wants to feel that he has something to say that people will enjoy reading, and if he achieves that, he's a happy man. Featured work: Pictures That Became Words Pete Lee Pete Lee's former occupations include army sergeant/counterintelligence agent, federal intelligence operations specialist, private investigator, newspaper reporter, and social worker. His poetry has been widely published, both in print and online. Featured work: Hiking Boots Thank You Carl Leggo Carl Leggo is a professor at the University of British Columbia, where he teaches courses in writing. He is the author of three books: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill, View from My Mother's House, and Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom. Featured work: Cross-Word Puzzle Naomi Leimsider Naomi Leimsider earned an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. Her stories have appeared in Zone 3, Pindeldyboz, Nerve Cowboy, and Drunkenboat. She is almost finished with her first collection of stories. Featured work: A Little Sacrifice Seonaid Lennox Seonaid Lennox lives in Toronto and is an Assistant Editor at Slow Trains. Featured work: Mad Ida Loved the Wind Nathan Leslie Nathan Leslie's first book of stories, Rants and Raves, was published early 2003. He also has a new short story collection, A Cold Glass of Milk, published in October by Uccelli Press. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2002, and his fiction and poetry has or will appear in over ninety publications, including Gulf Stream, StorySouth, Amherst Review, Wascana Review, Red River Review, X-Connect, Fiction International, Adirondack Review, The Crab Creek Review, Fodderwing, The Sulphur River Literary Review, 3 A.M., Orchid, and Daybreak. Nathan completed his MFA at the University of Maryland in 2000. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Pinch Hitter Robert Levin Robert Levin is a former contributor to The Village Voice and Rolling Stone and the coauthor and coeditor, respectively, of two collections of essays about jazz and rock in the '60s: Music & Politics and Giants of Black Music. His fiction and essays have appeared in numerous print and online magazines. Featured work: The Author How to Make a Baby Arnold Levine Arnold Levine was born in the UK, and lived in London until settling in beautiful San Francisco in 1977. Since then, he has lived there with his wonderful wife and trail-blazing daughter. He has ridden with a bison herd in South Dakota, picked grapes in France, run a pirate radio station in England, is a passionate environmentalist, as well as being an activist for parks and other city issues. Arnold so far has confounded critics by not writing anything they could critique. Well the waiting is over… Featured work: The Head of Karl Marx Marc Levy Marc Levy served with the First Cavalry Division as an infantry medic in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970. His work has appeared in various publications, including Skid Row Penthouse, PLACES Magazine, Slant, Rattapallax, Suspect Thoughts , BlueFood, Slow Trains, The Best American Erotica 2000, Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Vol. 2, Stories From the Infirmary, and Will Work For Peace. In 2001 he was selected to attend an ACA residence with Spalding Gray. A video of his war related prose and photographs, The Real Deal, has received critical acclaim, and is distributed by The Cinema Guild. See more of his work at www.voicesofevillage.com. Featured work: The Exit Stage Vietnam Journal: Willimantic -- 11.10.00 Torque in Angkor Wat Richard Lighthouse Richard Lighthouse is a contemporary writer and poet, and has traveled all over the world. He is also an inventor, artist, pilot, and musician. He holds an M.S. from Stanford University. His work has been published in West Hills Review: A Walt Whitman Journal, Red Cedar Review (Michigan State University), Mudfish, and many others journals worldwide. Featured work: this poem can swim James Lineberger James Lineberger is a retired screenwriter and playwright. He has been writing poetry full-time since 1992, and his work has appeared in a number of online and print publications. He has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Featured work: When the Wind is Southerly betwixt and between Karin Lin-Greenberg Karin Lin-Greenberg is currently a graduate student in the MFA program at the University of Pittsburgh. She teaches composition, and is on the staff of nidus, the University of Pittsburgh's literary magazine. Featured work: Big Brother Norman Lock Featured work: Review of Kathryn Rantala’s The Plant Waterer Christopher Locke Christopher Locke's poetry has appeared widely in magazines and e-zines across North America, including The Literary Review, Exquisite Corpse, Descant(Canada), Connecticut Review, The MacGuffin, and recently on National Public Radio. His second book, Slipping Under Diamond Light, is forthcoming this summer from Clamp Down Press. Chris is a staff writer for Red Herring Magazine. Featured work: Selected Poems Gabe Long Gabe Long is a senior college student at the University of Alabama, studying English and Classics. He was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta and has been writing poetry and fiction since he was a child. Featured work: What Grey Smells Like John P. Loonam John P. Loonam's work has appeared in Antithesis Common, The Fifth Street Review, The Black River Review, Here's Me Bus, Rubicon, The Mississippi Review, The English Journal, and been featured by The Mottola Theatre Project. He lives happily in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons. Featured work: Even Richard Nixon Werner Low Werner Low's stories and poems have appeared (or will soon appear) in Falling Fountain, The Journal (of Ohio State University), Piedmont Literary Review, Pinehurst Journal, The Literary Review (of Trinity College, Hartford), Void Magazine, and The Square Table (in January, 2007). Featured Work: Found Pen Charles Lowe Charles Lowe lives in Alfred, New York. His work has appeared in The Hardy Review and is forthcoming in print in Poetry Motel. The prose poems in Slow Trains are a part of a work, in progress, entitled A Blind City. Featured work: Prose Poems from The Blind City Richard Lutman Richard Lutman lives in Vermont. He has taught fiction and composition classes in Connecticut and Rhode Island. He has won several prizes for his fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting. His first novel was published in April of 1994. He has a MFA in Writing from Vermont College. Featured work: de nada Scott Mackey Scott Mackey is the author of two books, Barbary Baseball: The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s, and the novel Blood Runs Deep. When not writing, he teaches writing at Sacramento State University. He is currently working on a book of personal essays, entitled A Father's Guide to Baseball. Featured work: The Significance of Willie Mays Andrew Madigan Andrew Madigan lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and children. Featured work: The Shailah Dennis Mahagin Dennis Mahagin is a musician and writer currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada. His work has recently appeared online in Stirring, Twelfth Planet, and Alchemy, as well as the print journal, The Temple. He is currently at work on a chapbook of poems. Featured work: When Good Things Happen to Patient People Jamie Moyer Has Perfect Pitch Crazy-Ass Grackles Prasenjit Maiti Prasenjit Maiti is a political scientist by occupation and a writer by compulsion. His print credits include 2River View, Blue Collar Review, Brittle Star, Brobdingnagian Times, Carillon, Circle, Concrete Wolf, Diner, Famous Reporter, Green Queen, GW Review, Harlequin, Hermes, Homestead Review, Konfluence, Micropress Oz, Monkey Kettle, Nightingale, Nomad, Paper Wasp, Parting Gifts, Peeks & Valleys, Phoenix, Poetic Licence, Poetry Church, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Poetry Greece, Poetry Scotland, Promise, Pulsar, Quercus Review, Rattle, Red Lamp, Reflections, Skald, Skyline, South, Spinnings, The Journal, WinterSPIN and Xtant. He has been widely published in electronic journals as well in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. His CD-ROM credit to date is Heist. Featured work: Calcutta Poems Karen Mandell Karen Mandell has lived in the Midwest and on the East Coast, and she's hopelessly torn between both parts of the country. Right now she's in Boston, where she teaches writing at Mount Ida College. She recently completed a novel, Repairs and Alterations, about an elderly tailor's secrets and revelations. Featured work: Chaos Theory Ed Markowski Ed Markowski lives and writes in Auburn Hills, Michigan. His work has been published in The Birmingham Poetry Review, Sho, The Elysian Fields Quarterly, Fan Magazine, and Modern Haiku. Featured work: Ticket to Desire section 408 tiger stadium homage to williams Walter L. Maroney Walter L. Maroney is a lawyer who lives in New Hampshire. He is married and has two children, named Eli and Zeke, who are the reason he believes that the Holy One just might be a child. Featured work: God and Baseball on the Roofs of Brooklyn Marlene Mason Marlene Mason's work has appeared in numerous literary journals and film magazines. She resides in the UK, and is currently at work on a literary thriller and a book of short stories based on her travels. Featured work: Captive Brent McCafferty Raised in the wine country of southern France, Brent McCafferty recently moved from Bordeaux to the Pacific Northwest. As a sometime sommelier for the Chateaux St. Michelle, Haut-Brion and d'Yquem, the author has developed a fondness for Michelle Eroica Riesling, vintage 2003. He lives and writes in Great Falls, Montana. Featured work: Ode to a Banana Slug Holter Lake, Fishing with My Brother Snowshoe Rabbit Brandon Kills a Cereal Leaf Beetle Outside a Teton Park Outhouse Laura McCullough Laura McCullough is on the writing faculty at Brookdale Community College, where she is the Chair of the Visiting Writers and Lecturer Series. She holds an MFA from Goddard College, won a NJ State Arts Council Fellowship in 1995, and has had poetry, prose, or essays appear or forthcoming in Lucid Stone, Poetry Motel, The Coastal Forest Review, Slant, Whimperbang, Pierian Springs, Faultline, The Paterson Literary Review, and In Posse. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Of Cuckolds and Crucifixions, Pump Your Own Gas David Alexander McFarland David Alexander McFarland lives and works in Illinois, and has published in journals such as Southern Humanities Review, Stories, and on the Internet in Southern Ocean Review, The Paumanok Review and SubtleTea.com. Featured work: The golden calf Paul D. McGlynn Paul D. McGlynn is a retired professor of literature and creative writing, but doesn't consider himself an academic poet. The major influences on his work have been art, travel, and love (not necessarily in that order), plus the work of Wallace Stevens, William Blake, and Allen Ginsberg. Featured work: Full Day Patricia Ann McNair Patricia Ann McNair teaches fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been published in American Fiction, Other Voices, Fourth Genre, Brevity, and other journals and magazines. Her honors include Illinois Arts Council Awards and Pushcart Prize nominations in both fiction and creative nonfiction. Featured work: The Temple of Air A. Michael McRandall A. Michael McRandall is married, with two adult children, and no formal writing background. He decided to pick up the pen about two years ago, and has been pecking away ever since. His work has been published in Megaera, Carnelian, and Mastodon Dentist, and he's currently working on his first collection of poems. Featured work: Unclaimed Epiphany,If Ever, Oh Ever Tom Meek Tom Meek is a contributing film critic at The Boston Phoenix. His ramblings and rants have also appeared in, The Improper Bostonian, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Film Threat, Playboy.com and E! Online. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, practice yoga religiously, and rides a bike everywhere. His fiction and essays can be found at The Sink, Thieves Jargon, and Word Riot. Currently he's working on a collection of linked stories that take place in Boston and the surrounding cityscape. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Season That Almost Wasn't Bill Mehlman Bill Mehlman, a graduate of Yale University, has been a professional chef for twenty years. He has owned restaurants, a takeout, a catering company and a jazz club. He is working on a mystery novel and an ever-lengthening poem about World War II. Featured work: Chile-eating Days Jalina Mhyana Jalina Mhyana is co-editor of Rock Salt Plum Poetry Review, an online journal, and her chapbook, Spikeseed, is forthcoming from Bad Moon Books in 2004. Jalina has lived in northern Japan for the past six years, where she owned and operated a massage therapy college. Currently the bulk of Jalina's time is spent homeschooling her two wonderful daughters. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: On Buying Our Daughter a Camera; August 6, 1945 Amitabh Mitra Amitabh Mitra is a Medical Doctor in a busy hospital in East London, South Africa. A powerful voice dispersing a reverie of time and heritage, his love poems, with a backdrop of feudal Gwalior and Delhi, take you on a sentimental journey to old family homes, forts, palaces and places where he grew up. His first book of poems was published in 1980 under the title of Ritual Silences. A Slow Train to Gwalior is a CD of his ten most popular poems, recited against a background of African and Indian traditional music. He gave his first show of poems, drawings, visuals and prints, juxtaposition of words, lines, and colors at The Anne Bryant Art Gallery, East London, South Africa in July 2005. Featured work: Zubeida Mary Anne Mohanraj Mary Anne Mohanraj is the author of several books, including Silence and the Word, Torn Shapes of Desire, Aqua Erotica (ed.), Kathryn in the City, and A Taste of Serendib. She founded and served as editor-in-chief from 2000 - 2003 for Strange Horizons, a Hugo-nominated speculative fiction magazine. She currently serves as a referee for Foundation, The International Review of Science Fiction,, and as Director of the Speculative Literature Foundation. Mary Anne has recently received a Neff fellowship in English, a Steffenson-Canon fellowship in the Humanities, and the Scowcroft Prize for Fiction. She lives in Chicago, and her latest book is Bodies in Motion (Harper Collins), an exploration of sexuality, marriage, and Sri Lankan/American immigrant concerns. Featured work: Slow Trains Ten: writers on the creative life K.L. Monahan K.L. Monahan is a Texan. Her poetry has appeared in VLQ, The Rose and Thorn, Poetryz, Poems Niederngasse, Kenoma, Mythic Delirium, and poetry is forthcoming in Wicked Alice, The Wheel, and Whispering Spirits. She has won several awards, one of which landed her a week in Paris. Featured work: After Black Forest Cake, an Abortion, and a Cup Of Coffee Off With Her Head! Do Not Expect To Like This Poem Peter Montfort Peter Montfort has been a waiter, gas pump attendant, taxi driver, yard man, layabout, almond factory worker, surfer, journalist, and freelance writer, among other things. Currently he works in home health care, and lives on the island of Kaua`i. Featured work: Ambivalence Mike Moran Mike Moran is a teacher, playwright, and performer, known locally as the Iowa Goatsinger. He's had work produced in Chicago and Philadelphia, and has performed his solo goatsinger shows throughout eastern Iowa. For more information see his Web site. Featured work: Jacob's Breath J.B. Mulligan J.B. Mulligan is married, with three grown children, and has published poems and stories in dozens of magazines, including Outpost Entropy, Curbside Review, Steel Point Quarterly, White Pelican Review, Bayou and Numbat, along with two chapbooks: The Stations of the Cross, and This Way To the Egress (Samisdat Press). Featured work: ideas are things some of us like water sports Amy Nawrocki Amy Nawrocki is a poet and teacher living in Hamden, Connecticut. She teaches at the University of Bridgeport, Sacred Heart University, and Housatonic Community College. Her poems have appeared in The Loch Raven Review, PAWPARS, SNReview, Flutter, and Baby Clam Press. Featured work: Learning to Be Drown Proof Sprout Suzanne Nielsen Suzanne Nielsen, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, teaches writing at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and at Metropolitan State University. Her poetry, fiction, and essays appear in literary journals nationally and internationally; some of these include The Comstock Review, The Copperfield Review, Mid-America Poetry Review, Foliate Oak, Juked, Identity Theory, The Pedestal, Pindeldyboz, Rosebud, Rumble, Thunder Sandwich, The 13th Warrior Review, Word Riot, and 580 Split. Upcoming work will appear in Banyan Review, R-KV-R-Y, Lodestar Quarterly, 3711 Atlantic, and Gin Bender Poetry Review. So'ham Books released her collection of poetry, titled East of the River, in December 2005. So'ham will publish her collection of short fiction in December of 2006, titled The Moon Behind the 8 Ball & Other Stories. Featured work: The Wonderful World of Machiko Hasegawa P.J. Nights P.J. Nights lives in coastal Maine with her family and various pound pets. She teaches high school astronomy and physics and is the senior poetry editor of MiPo Magazine. Her poetry has been published in journals such as Animus, Penumbra, Blue Fifth Review, Rock Salt Plum Poetry Review, Stirring, the Slow Trains anthologies, and the textbook, Language and Prejudice. Her poem "three parts wormwood, one part Solomon's Seal" won 1st place in the 2003 (6th annual) Poetry Super Highway contest. Featured work: 10 word for red collating notes on index cards Hangover Sestina rossellini shooting while the seamstress ceases copying life to hell in a handbag Soup Sonnets (an online chapbook) landfills & musical interludes So Much in Five Worlds and Five Suns all their characters reflected in my face Slumming, Songs of the City in the wee hours the mock turtle’s tears for lobster quadrilles smoking bravado, burning opposition sea of tranquility blue notes, the rain writes black driving in a blizzard, listening to npr happy you, anchored Ashok Niyogi Featured work: Russian Pencil Sketches Shane Alan Noecker Shane Alan Noecker lives in Baton Rouge, where he attends the Creative Writing program at Louisiana State University. He has worked as a high school teacher in Louisiana, California, and Bahrain. Featured work: Men With Briefcases Are Shocking Me Chloe Noland Chloe Noland resides in Burbank, California, and is a high school junior in Pasadena. She has previously been published in Facets, a Literary Magazine and is a contributing editor of her high school's literary journal. Featured work: Rainy Day Stephanie Nolasco Stephanie Nolasco is a writer who currently attends Eugene Lang College, located in the East Village of New York City, where she was born and raised. Describing herself as "an illustrator of words," Nolasco enjoys roaming around the city, to obtain inspiration for future pieces. To learn more about her writing background, please visit her Web site. Featured work: Marilyn Erin Noteboom Erin Noteboom is a Canadian poet with two books, a poetry blog, and a small fistful of awards, including the CBC Canadian Literary Prize. Paint colours in her house include Botticelli, Pale Naples, Roast Potato, and Nightmare. Featured work: I Paint My House Eric Obame Eric Obame was born in Africa and raised in Europe for a good part of his childhood. His family came here when he was nine, and he has lived here ever since. He started writing poems in college, but the writing bug bit him after graduation. He received his Master's at Towson University in Maryland, where he majored in film. He has written three scripts, The World After, Seven Souls, and Boy Apocalypse, and is now working on Rise Icarus. Although he loves movies, he is also fond of poetry. His poems have been published in various journals, magazines, and on the Internet. Featured work: Meek Maurice Oliver Maurice Oliver spent almost a decade working as a freelance photographer in Europe, then returned to America in 1990 to work for the Los Angeles Times. Then, in 1995, he made a lifelong dream reality when he traveled for eight months around the world. But instead of taking pictures, he used the same acute sense of creative energy to record the experience in a journal, which eventually became hundreds of poems. And so began his ambition to be a poet. With five completed but yet-to-be-published books of poetry, he currently resides in Portland, Oregon, where he is a private tutor. His poems have appeared recently online at retortmag.com and ink-mag.com, and will appear in Eye-Shot Holy-Ignorance, Tryst3, and SpaceBreather in winter 2003-4. Featured work: Postcard to Samantha, Italian Trains, Gitanes Jane Olmsted Jane Olmsted is director of the Women's Studies Program at Western Kentucky University and associate professor of English. She earned her Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Her work has been published in Poetry Northwest, Nimrod, Beloit Fiction Journal, Kalliope, and A Kentucky Christmas. She is co-founder and co-editor of the Kentucky Feminist Writers Series, which has produced three collections, one each of poetry, fiction, and life writing. Featured work: Dream of Extraordinary Ease Martin Hill Ortiz Martin Hill Ortiz is a PhD pharmacologist, poet, playwright, and crimefighter. His writings have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Crescendo, Haunts, and San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, among others. He lives in Puerto Rico. Featured work: The Greatest Sentence Jennie Orvino Performance poet Jennie Orvino's CD, Make Love Not War, explores the body erotic and the body politic in collaboration with some of the San Francisco Bay Area's most accomplished musicians. Hear sound clips from the CD and read reviews at CdBaby. More of Jennie's work can be seen at her Web site, and an interview with her can be found at Clean Sheets Magazine. Featured work: Speak and Doublespeak (Special September 11 section) Main Squeeze Blues (audio) Three-Minute Love Affairs Papa Osmubal Papa Osmubal's previous books are Parnaso, a poetry collection in Tagalog, and Lighthouse, a poetry collection in English. He has been anthologized in Synaptic Graffiti: Slam the Body Politik (Literature and Art on CD, Australia, Oct. 2004). His poems have found home in various places, both online and hardcopy. An amateur artist, in early 2004 he held a solo art exhibition of his pen-and-pencil collection, called "White and Black", at Unesco Center, Macao. For more information, see his Web site. Featured work: Tai Chi Master, Lighthouse Carol Papenhausen Carol Papenhausen is a Chicago native, and graduated Northwestern University. She is the author of two dozen-plus stories and poems in literary journals (Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Literary Review), and has had two stories cited in Best American Short Stories. This will be her fourth story online. She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Featured work: Rockin' Robin Bennett Paris Bennett Paris's hammock hangs in Jersey City and in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Featured work: Playing Softball Blind Lee Passarella The poetry of Lee Passarella has appeared in Chelsea, Cream City Review, The Formalist, The Louisville Review, and other publications. Passarella's long Civil War poem, Swallowed Up in Victory (White Mane Books), appeared in 2002. In 2006, a poetry collection entitled The Geometry of Loneliness will be published by David Robert Books. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Dvorak and the Crows Aaron Paulson Aaron Paulson currently divides his time between Tokyo and rural Hokkaido, where he teaches English and writes freelance articles and stories for online and print journals. Recent travelogues and stories have appeared in Kyoto Journal and the Blue Moon Review. Currently he is at work on a book about living and working in rural Hokkaido. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Ugly Gaijin: Love and Lust in the Land of Princess Disease You Speak Good English In the Inaka Mary Paulson Mary Paulson's poetry has appeared in Nerve Cowboy, and is forthcoming in Main Street Rag. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and works in New York as a Technical Writer/Analyst. She was featured as one of the Poets Among Us at the 2002 Geraldine Dodge Poetry Festival, and is currently working on creating a body of work for a first collection. Featured work: Shine Diane Payne Diane Payne's book, Burning Tulips, has been published by Red Hen Press. Her agent, Erin Reel, is looking for a publisher for her short story collection. Diane lives with her daughter and a lot of cats and dogs in the Delta region, smack dab in the world of Bible Belters. Featured work: Love Prevents War On Track The Hospice Garden Maps & Detours Phillip W. Perna Philip W. Perna was born and raised in Connecticut, and has a BA in Liberal Arts: Philosophy from the University of Connecticut. He is currently pursuing an MA in Education Technology, and works from home as an online editor. Featured work: All Healthy Men Paul Perry Paul Perry was born in Dublin in 1972. He won the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award in 1998. He received a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Brown University, and has been a James Michener Fellow of Creative Writing at The University of Miami, and a C. Glenn Cambor Fellow of Poetry at The University of Houston. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, TLS and The Best American Poetry 2000. He served as Writer in Residence for Co. Longford, from 2000-2002. In 2002, he won the Listowel Prize for Poetry. He’s also been writer in residence on Rathlin Island. Currently, he is Writer in Residence for the University of Ulster. His first book, The Drowning of the Saints, was published in 2003 to critical acclaim. Wintering, his second book, will be published by Dedalus Press in 2006. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Map lover Robert Pesich Robert Pesich's recent work has appeared in The Montserrat Review, ALBATROSS, and The Bitter Oleander. His book, Burned Kilim was published by Dragonfly Press in 2001. He is the secretary for Poetry Center San Jose. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Featured work: Break Brian Peters Brian Peters lives precariously between a river and the great midwestern prairie on the low-rent side of a limestone bluff. He is the Managing Editor for Clean Sheets Magazine, and also the Web designer for Slow Trains. Featured work: The Theater of Time The Persistence of Memory The Fritz Chapel The Zen of Lawn Care Dred Scott Surveying the Koran Jala Pfaff Jala Pfaff writes, teaches, sculpts, and plays the guitar in Boulder, Colorado, where she lives with her husband and five wonderful fur people. Her work has been published in The Rose & Thorn online, and her first novel, Seducing the Rabbi, will be published this year. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Fine Bones Phillip Poff Phillip Poff is an elementary school principal, former theater owner, and a keeper of the flame. Featured work: In Memory: John Lee Hooker Carrie Pomeroy Carrie Pomeroy has published work in The Baltimore Review, The Laurel Review, and has work forthcoming online at LiteraryMama.com and WordRiot.org. Mother of a young son and daughter, she is currently writing a memoir about motherhood. Featured work: The Game of Grief Scott Poole Scott Poole is the Assistant Director of EWU Press. His first book of poetry, The Cheap Seats (Lost Horse 1999) was a finalist for Foreword Magazine's book of the year awards. He reads his work every Monday morning at 7:50 a.m. on KPBX, Spokane Public Radio, which can also be heard live at KPBX Listen Online. His second book of poetry, Hiding From Salesmen, is forthcoming from Lost Horse Press in 2002. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured Work: Selected Poems Sincerity (Special September 11 section) For Alcaeus The Slow Trains Ten (short interview) Hiding From Salesmen (excerpt) Ron Porter Ron Porter lives in Florida and swims in the ocean most days. He works at his life-ambition, to ply his trade as a carpenter, and is passionate about Henry Miller, classical music, and his three children. He traveled across Europe for two years, and has crossed the U.S at least six times. Featured Work: Mari Got Silk? Tim Pratt Also check Tim's bibliography page, with links to online stories. Featured Work: The Slow Trains Ten (Interview) Anthony Puccinelli An independent filmmaker in love with all genres, Anthony Puccinelli hopes to make every imaginable type of movie. His current motto: "Follow your desire as long as you live; do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit." Ptahhotpe, Egpyt, 24th century B.C. Featured work: In the Beginning There Was Theda David Quinn David Quinn lives in Illinois and is a retired professor of Spanish literature. His stories have appeared in The Fiction Primer, Downstate Story, Eureka Literary Magazine, and www.amarillobay.org. His story "To See Right," was nominated for an Illinois Arts Council Award. Featured work: Cecilia's Rosary Jessy Randall Jessy Randall is Curator of Special Collections at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Her poems have appeared in Antietam Review, Mudfish, and Pif, and she writes regularly for Verbatim: The Language Quarterly. See an online illustrated collection of her poems at The 2River View. Featured work: Selected Poems Selected Poems #2 Viola Ransel Viola Ransel's poetry is available at DissidentVoice.org, OpEdNews.com and poemhunter.com. She currently conducts "Speakeasy: Poetry in the Back Room", a workshop for Hamilton Library, Hamilton, New York, and "Bards at the Barge", a series of poetry appreciation presentations for the Barge Canal Coffeehouse, also in Hamilton, New York. Featured work: Mesozoic Menu Reboisement Kathyrn Rantala The founder and co-editor of Snow Monkey magazine, Kathyrn Rantala has recent work in (or upcoming) in 3rd Bed, Tatlin's Tower, Spinning Jenny, La Petite Zine, Niederngasse, Pig Iron Malt, elimae, Notre Dame Review, and others. Featured work: Unintentional Provinces Patrick Rasmussen Patrick Rasmussen is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He enjoys reading history and historical fiction, and has recently returned to college after a thirty-year hiatus. He is currently working on a speculative fiction novel involving the second World War. He works in Supply Chain Management for a national retailer. Featured work: Where Have You Gone, Joe Garagiola? Vidya Ravi Vidya Ravi studied creative writing as part of her undergraduate studies at Emerson College in Boston. She recently finished a Masters in English Literature at Durham University, U.K. Currently, she works at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, writing for the "World of Work" magazine and editing books for the Communications department. Featured work: Arun D'Silva Tripp Reade Tripp Reade has left a hard-to-follow trail through eight or nine literary journals around the country, but always returns to his lair in Durham, North Carolina, to plot and scheme. He was last spotted at the 2004 South Carolina Book Festival, where spectators claim he told an amusing anecdote that prominently featured a weasel, but these reports have proved contradictory and inconclusive. Featured work: Before the Plunge Benjamin Reed Benjamin Reed is twenty-six and lives in Austin. He writes prose for both online and print journals, self-publishes chapbooks of his literature and other miscellany, and has a novel, The Bow Tie Gang, which is available from Amazon.com. Featured work: See a Match Burn Twice Ol What's-Her-Face Timothy Reilly Timothy Reilly is an elementary teacher, living in Southern California with his wife, Jo-Anne, who teaches university English courses. His short stories have been published in The Seattle Review, Sidewalks, and The Small Pond Magazine. His favorite saints are Mozart and Frank O’Connor. Featured work: Sub Ann Regentin Ann Regentin has written everything from reading comprehension tests and reference material to poetry and music. Her work has appeared in such diverse places as The International Journal of Erotica, The Albion Review, and Hip Mama, and she is a Contributing Editor for Clean Sheets. She lives with her family in the Midwest. Brian Reynolds Brian Reynolds is a retired middle school teacher, landscape artist, library clerk, and volunteer basketball referee. He lives in southern Ontario. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, edifice WRECKED, Gator Springs Gazette, Melange Magazine, and FRiGG, among others. Featured work: Listening to the Game Brady Rhoades Brady Rhoades writes poems and short stories. His work has appeared in Amherst Review, Art Times, Blue Mesa Review, Cold Mountain Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Slipstream, Visions International, and other publications. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry in 2005. He lives in Southern California. Featured work: Insomnia XXI S. E. Rindell S. E. Rindell is a writer and poet from San Francisco, and has recently completed her first novel. Her work has appeared in The Georgetown Review, Sulphur River Literary Review, and The Texas Review. She is an active member of l'Alliance Francaise, likes to paint in greyscale, and spends much of her free time looking for new hiking trails in her native California. Featured work: Love as a Spatial Presumption Cinthia Ritchie Cinthia Ritchie is a freelance writer living in Alaska with her son, stubborn cats, and hyper dog. She is currently struggling over the last stages of her MFA. Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction publications include Conspire, Horse Thief's Journal, Retrozine, Explorations, Clean Sheets, Dare Magazine, Ophelia's Muse, Scarlet Letters, Girlphoria, Ice Floe: International Poetry of the Far North, Inklings, Inside Passages, Mind Caviar, and Sho, with upcoming work in Moist and Thermoerotic. She's also had two short plays produced. Featured work: My Sister's Bones, Eve in Homer Alaska Bill Roberts Bill Roberts is a retired nuclear weapons expert who writes poetry for the small press to relax. He has recently returned from France fifteen pounds heavier, and has resumed spoiling his two dogs. If he could turn back the clock, he'd get up much later and pursue a career in opera (non-singing roles). Featured work: Squeeze Play Devilled Crabs Adrienne Ross Adrienne Ross' essays have appeared in Tikkun, Northern Lights, New Age Journal, Earth Light, An Intricate Weave:Women Write on Girls and Girlhood, the American Nature Writing anthology series, and other publications. She received a 1996 Seattle Arts Commission literary award, and the 2001 Artist Trust Literature Fellowship. Featured work: Walking in Nepal The Lady Medea Kristen Roupenian Kristen Roupenian graduated from Barnard College in 2003, and recently returned from two years in Kenya with the Peace Corps. At the moment, she’s living on Cape Cod, working at a bookstore, and writing as much as she can. Featured work: The Night Bus Sankar Roy Sankar Roy is a poet, translator, and multimedia artist living near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a winner of PEN USA Emerging Voices, and the author of two chapbooks of poetry from Pudding House. He is an editor of an international poetry anthology, Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Rupa Publication, India and Bayeux Arts, Canada). Featured work: Homespun Melancholy Indian Couple My Geography Teacher Stephen Roxborough Stephen Roxborough (aka "roxword") is an award-winning performance poet, illustrator, and author of two chapbooks Making Love in the War Zone and All the Very Important Subversive Mind-expanding Long Ones). His spoken word CD, "spiritual demons" is available at Amazon.com and CDBaby.com. Featured work: Drinking with Dylan Thomas another roadside attraction J. R. Salling J. R. Salling is a teacher, a rare book appraiser, and a former apartment mover. Publication credits include Pindeldyboz, Opium Magazine, Flashquake, Yankee Pot Roast, Zygote in My Coffee, Poor Mojo's Almanac(k), Insolent Rudder, Journal of Modern Post, Rouse Magazine, Dead Mule, uber, Ten Thousand Monkeys, and Thieves Jargon. Featured work: Bird in the Grass Arthur Saltzman Arthur Saltzman is a professor of English at Missouri Southern, and the author of seven books, including Objects and Empathy, which won the First Series Creative Nonfiction Award from Mid-List Press. His essays have appeared in such journals as Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Cream City Review, Black Warrior Review, Florida Review, and Southeast Review, and awards from his writing include the 2002 Nebraska Review Creative Nonfiction Award and the 2003 Victor J. Emmett Prize (Midwest Quarterly). Featured work: Time Out Arlene Sanders Arlene Sanders is an Appalachian Mountain writer, with stories published or forthcoming in Iconoclast, Mindprints, Sanskrit, and Tertulia, among others. She has had Honorable Mentions in the Hemingway Short Story Competition and the E. M. Koeppel Short Fiction Awards. She has written two short story collections, and is completing her first novel. "The Companion" first appeared in The Edgar Literary Magazine. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: The Companion Eduardo Santiago Eduardo Santiago is the recipient of PEN USA's Rosenthal "Emerging Voices" Fellowship 2004. This Magic Moment is one of eleven short stories that comprise his book about Cubans in America, titled The Sex Lives of the Saints, and the second to appear in Slow Trains. Stories from this collection can also be found in the award winning journals Zyzzyva and The Caribbean Writer. Currently, Eduardo is putting the final touches on his first novel, Tomorrow They Will Kiss. Featured work: This Magic Moment Tia Norma's Wig The Slow Trains Ten Mami, Interrupted Lisabet Sarai Lisabet Sarai has been writing forever. She has produced poetry, fiction, marketing literature, technical specifications, and a dissertation, and is author of two published novels, Raw Silk and Incognito. Ms. Sarai has traveled widely, but currently resides with her husband and pampered felines in western Massachusetts. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Providence, July, 1974 To KR Wayne Scheer Wayne Scheer retired after twenty-five years of college teaching to follow his own advice and write. His work has appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Moonwort Review, Dana Literary Journal, Literary Potpourri and Flash Me Magazine. "Naked Lady in 3B" will appear in the new anthology, Sex & Laughter. His writing awards include a Pushcart Prize nomination. He and his wife live in Atlanta, Georgia. Featured work: Naked Lady in 3B Michael Schein MichaelSchein. Self. <50Words. Homosapiens. Male. American. Vermont. MomKindergardenTeacher. DadDentist. JudySisterDoctor. Boomer. Beatles. Cats. Skiing. Redsox. Poems. GladysTeacher. Friends. Expos. Portland. Reed. Cats. Poems. Europe. Eugene. Law. Poems. Vermont. PhilMentor. CarolWifeScientist&MuchMore. Cats. AvaRoseDaughter. Seattle. Professor.Toto. Mariners. Lawyer. Novel. NellieAliceDaughter. Unpublished. Bicycle. Stories. Cats. Poems. ACLU. OpenedHeart. SlowTrains. Published. Hooray! Featured work: 4-6-3 Poetry Farewell to Edgar Lawrence Schimel Lawrence Schimel, born 16 Oct 1971 in New York City, is a full-time author and anthologist who currently lives in Madrid, Spain. He has published over 40 books, including His Tongue, The Drag Queen of Elfland, Kosher Meat, Things Invisible to See, PoMoSexuals, Two Hearts Desire, and numerous others, in a wide variety of genres. Featured work: Free Books Long Distance Love Carl Schinasi and Noah Schinasi Carl Schinasi teaches at Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama. During the spring and early summer he can be found lolling around little league and school baseball fields. Noah attends Guilford College in Greensboro North Carolina. He is an accomplished singer/songwriter with two CDs to his credit. He is surely the only songwriter to have ever included the words "Barry Bonds" and "chutzpah" in the same song. Featured work: Getting Big Mac's Autograph Ryan Scott Ryan Scott is originally from Australia, but now lives and works in the Czech Republic. He has had poems and short stories published in a number of journals. Most recently his work has appeared in Neidergasse, DMQ Review, and the Pixel Papers. Featured work: What about the Vultures? Catherine Segurson Catherine Segurson recently graduated from California College of the Arts in San Francisco with an MFA in Creative Writing. She has been published in Coastal Living Magazine and Monterey Poetry Review. She has recently completed writing her first novel. Featured work: The Odd Vertex Tom Sheehan Tom Sheehan's fourth poetry book, This Rare Earth & Other Flights, was recently released by Lit Pot Press in July. His third novel, Death for the Phantom Receiver, an NFL mystery, was just released by Publish America, to go along with Vigilantes East, issued last year. 3amMagazine.com is currently serializing another novel, An Accountable Death. Wind River Press will issue his chapbook this year, The Westering. He has received four Pushcart nominations (prose/poetry), two other nominations for excellence for prose work, a Silver Rose Award from American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) for short story excellence, and was last year's non-fiction competition winner of London's Eastoftheweb site. More than 500 pieces of his work have appeared in print and Internet sites, including 3amMagazine, Three Candles, Story South, Slow Trains, Clackamas Review, Tryst, Eclectica, Nuvein, Fiction Warehouse, Pierian Springs, Pindeldyboz, Small Spiral Notebook, Paumanock Review, Stirring, Electric Acorn, Summerset Review, Megaera, Kudzu Monthly, and others. Featured work: The Final Summer Those Old Suntanners The Bill Collector Leonard the Blind Man A Small Red Star for Me and My Father The Undies Pennant Marcy Sheiner Marcy Sheiner is a writer, editor and teacher. For more information, see her Web site. Featured work: How Baseball Changed My Life Lo Siento Claire Sherba Claire Sherba is an undergraduate at the University of Rhode Island, studying English composition. Her poetry has appeared in the URI Review and in poetry.com's upcoming publication. Featured work: Still Life Oona Short Oona Short writes frequently on sports, the arts, and a wide range of other topics. She has published fiction and non-fiction in numerous national magazines, written documentaries for PBS and Lifetime Television, and has had two works produced off-off-Broadway. She is currently at work on a novel. Featured work: The Truth About Paradise Steve Silberman Steve Silberman is a contributing editor at Wired magazine. His articles have appeared in Wired, The New Yorker, Time, and many other national publications, and he is the co-author of Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads. "The Drum Circle," written in 1989, is published here for the first time. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Drum Circle In Memory: Philip Whalen Jenny Sinclair Jenny Sinclair is a writer from Melbourne, Australia. Her fiction has appeared in the magazines Island, Litmus, Verandah and Woorilla, in her zine BlueBug, online at www.totalcardboard.com, on the radio program Words and Music, and will be included in the forthcoming books Best Australian Stories 2006 and Under Our Skin. Featured work: Little Miss Perfect Nicola Evans Skidmore Nicola Evans Skidmore lives in San Francisco. Featured work: Dive Robin Slick Robin Slick is widely published on both the Web and in print, and short stories have appeared in Small Spiral Notebook, In Posse Review, NFG, Insolent Rudder, Yankee Pot Roast, Word Riot, Uber, Flashquake, Salome, Reading Divas, Hackwriters, Fiction Warehouse, Storyhouse, Nagoya Writes, Smokelong Quarterly, Clean Sheets, The Beat UK, and Spoiled Ink, as well in upcoming editions of Monkeybicycle and ken*again. Her new novel, Three Days in New York City, was recently published by Phaze/Mundania Press. Featured work: 1980: A Memoir About a Loss and a Win DeAnne Lyn Smith DeAnne Lyn Smith lives right in the heart of Mexico, where she teaches English and hangs around with her girlfriend, the mime. Her poetry has appeared in the Baltimore City Paper, the anthology Revolutionary Voices, and on Dicey Brown. She has poems forthcoming in Stray Dog, Poetry Motel, and Rock Salt Plum. She'll be attending Montreal's Concordia University to study creative writing this fall, if they'll have her. Featured work: Letter-Writing Tips for When You're Sailing Off the End of the Earth Gail South Gail South lives in Covesville, Virginia, and has been teaching English to refugees for the past four years. She recently graduated from Goddard College with an MFA in Creative Writing. Featured work: African Refugees William Sovern William Sovern has promoted over 200 poetry readings in the last fifteen years in the Evansville, Indiana area. He is currently the host of the Tuesday Night Reading Series at the Jungle Restaurant & Fat Cats Bar in Evansville, which includes local, regional & national poets. He is the founder of the poetry performance group, Shakespeare's Monkey. which has performed in New York this year at CBGB's, The Poetry Project at St. Mark's, and at the Nuyorican Poetry café. Featured work: Blue Highways Pop Poetry 101 The Salvador Dali Blues George Sparling George Sparling has been published in many literary magazines, including Paumanok Review, Potomac Review, and Snake Nation Review. He has a degree in English Literature from Iowa Wesleyan College, and recently worked scuba diving for placer gold in the California wilderness. He notes that "It's no cliche: one can go mad living too long in isolation." Featured work: Spitting Quasars Chris Spradley Chris Spradley lives in Sacramento, California, where he teaches English at Sacramento City College. He is taken care of by his wonderful wife Guinevere and their beloved dog Abby. Featured work: It was on a Tuesday David Steinberg David Steinberg's columns are available at the Society for Human Sexuality's David Steinberg Archives . He is the editor of two books -- Erotic by Nature: A Celebration of Life, of Love, and of Our Wonderful Bodies and The Erotic Impulse: Honoring the Sensual Self. To receive his monthly "Comes Naturally" column and other writings via email (free and confidential), send name and email address to David. Featured work: Scattered Thoughts in a Scattered Time (Special September 11 section) Rachel Cathleen Stewart Rachel Cathleen Stewart plans to graduate from the University of Chattanooga at Tennessee in May 2006, with a B.A. in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing. After graduation, she plans to get her M.A. in Creative Writing. She has been writing poetry and short stories since the age of 10. For more information, see her journal. Featured work: And on Election Night Robert Stinson Robert Stinson lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work has appeared both online and in print. Recent publications include Stirring, Snow Monkey, Grasslimbs, and Can We Have Our Ball Back? Featured work: Drowning in the Sun Jon Stocks Jon Stocks has been writing poetry for four years and is widely published, with work in magazines which are archived by both the English and Scottish National Poetry libraries. He is currently working on his first novel, Lost Diaries, about the experience of being in a punk band in 1977. Featured work: The Six-Thirty for St Pancras Alicia's Diary Absinthe on Black Hill Rich J. Stone Rich J. Stone is a New York-based playwright and monologist. His plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles, and the U.K. His fiction and plays have appeared in Thunder Sandwich, Poems and Plays, and The Main Street Journal (U.K.) He recently completed his first novel, Another Typical Hare-Brained Scheme. Featured work: Beyond Superman Alex Stolis Alex Stolis has been a janitor, a counselor, a waiter, a bartender, a housekeeper, a salesman, a cook, a criminal, a has-been and a never-was. He loves his wife, his dog, his kids, The Replacements, The Pixies, Smarties, and Paris. Featured work: Still Life With Bullets, Scratching the Surface of the Sun Brooke Strauss Brooke Strauss is a spoken word poet in Philly, and performs at various events and venues. She also sings and recently started taking theater classes. Featured work: Rainbow Stains M. Stefan Strozier M. Stefan Strozier is a playwright in New York City. His play, Guns, Shackles & Winter Coats, has been performed at several ooff-off Broadway theatres. He is one of the founders of the theater company La Muse Venale, Inc. His next play is called The Greek Killer Whales. His fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have been published in several journals and in other places. His former pen name is Mila Strictzer. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Magical Publishing Pen Cat's Eyes Daniel Sumrall Daniel Sumrall is currently completing a MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame. His poems and reviews can be found in the the journals Rain Taxi, 42 Opus, Locust Magazine, The Hyde Park Review of Books, Lightning Bell, The Literary Review, and Pierian Springs. Featured work: When does it happen? , Songs to an unseen film David Surface David Surface is a writer, teacher and musician living in Brooklyn. His fiction and essays have appeared in Doubletake, Crazyhorse, From Porn to Poetry, and Fiction. His story, "Tuesdays When It's a Full Moon," appears online in Marlboro Review. He also records some deeply disturbed music with his partner Mik under the monicker Silas Barnaby. Featured work: Going Out With Angela Carmen Who Lives By the Lake John Sweet john sweet has been writing for 20 years, and appearing in the small press for 14. He lives with his wife and son in a hideously depressing town in upstate New York, which serves as the backdrop for much of his work. Featured work: triptych, right panel: scenes from the book of wasted days you read about these things, trinity poem in the known world Lorelei Tabor Lorelei Tabor holds a Bachelor's degree with majors in public relations and English. She is currently pursuing her master's in communication. Her hobbies include baseball, writing, and classic movies. She resides in Kentucky. Featured work: Being a Baseball Chick Lisa Taddeo Lisa Taddeo is a graduating college senior, and works as a Content Editorial Specialist at Dow Jones in Princeton. She enjoys writing literary fiction with quasi-supernatural twists. she read avidly and is currently working on putting together a short story collection. Featured work: The Blue Room Cecilia Tan Cecilia Tan writes about her many passions (baseball included) from her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has been a contributor to Yankees Magazine, Isaac Asmiov's Science Fiction Magazine, Ms., Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Fan at Work Bruce Taylor Bruce Taylor's poetry has appeared in such places as The Chicago Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Formalist, Light, The Literary Review, The Nation, The New York Quarterly, The Northwest Review, and Poetry. Taylor has won awards from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Fulbright-Hayes, the NEA, NEH, and the Bush Artist Foundation. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: What They Can and Cannot Fake and Poetry Sex Love Music Booze & Death: A "Lite" Sestina The Story Is David A. Taylor David A. Taylor travels often with his wife, Lisa Smith. His fiction has appeared in Main Street Journal, The Baltimore Review, Fodderwing, Eclectica and elsewhere, and he received a Literary Arts Film Award from Web Del Sol. His nonfiction has appeared in DoubleTake, Smithsonian and The Atlantic Online, among others. Featured work: Turning Green in Ecuador Djamming Traffic in a Thai Forest Joseph P. Thayer Joseph Thayer's work has appeared in Ramble Underground and Outsider ink. He was recently awarded third place in the New Letter's Annual Short Story Contest. He lives outside of New York City with his wife and daughter. When he is not writing, he is happily entangled in that triangle. Featured work: 99 Cents Janet Thorning Janet Thorning is a writer who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Her work has appeared in various journals, most recently, anderbo.com. She is currently working on her first novel. Featured work: Who Will Save Him Lad Tobin Lad Tobin has published two books of creative nonfiction about teaching creative nonfiction: Writing Relationships, and Reading Student Writing. His autobiographical essays have appeared in Fourth Genre and other literary journals, and have been cited in The Best American Travel Writing. He teaches and directs the first-year writing program at Boston College. Featured work: Sorting Things Out Itir Toksoz Itir Toksoz was born on the Aegean coast of Turkey in 1975. She left Turkey upon graduation from college to pursue graduate studies abroad, first in France, then in the USA. For the last 3 years, she's been a Ph.D candidate specializing in International Security, at the Political Science Department of Northeastern University in Boston. This is her first poem written in English, rather than her native Turkish Featured work: Girls Named After Flowers Chris Tolian Chris Tolian is one of those people constantly searching for things that he doesn't yet understand. Finding muses makes him blissfully happy. He is intrigued by people, and forever trying to connect. He can be found mostly around Chicago, looking for that quiet place between the city and serendipity where the wild things dance and the sidewalk ends. He has been published with Clean Sheets, Slow Trains, and The Divine Animal. He is currently spewing various short stories and attempting a novel or two. Mostly he works and raises beautiful little gypsy girls. Featured work: Dancar Tempestuoso River Candles Michael Edward Tolle Michael Edward Tolle's work has been published in Persona, Revolt-in-Style, and The Soup. In addition to his writing, he is a DJ, music producer, and a tutor for Korean international students. Featured work: Roar Hiphop Anne Tourney Anne Tourney's fiction has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including The Best American Erotica and Best Women's Erotica series, Zaftig: Well-Rounded Erotica, Embraces: Dark Erotica, and the online magazines Clean Sheets and Scarlet Letters. Featured work: Pink Oleander Claire Tristram Claire Tristram's first novel, After, is the story of an intense love affair between two people whose lives have been forever altered by terrorism. The New York Times Review of Books called it "a dark comedy of sexual gamesmanship;" Entertainment Weekly deemed it "a balanced, taut narrative...truly chilling suspense." After was published in May, 2004 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and has been translated into eight languages. Claire Tristram's short fiction has been published in Fiction International, Hayden's Ferry Review, Massachusetts Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, North American Review, and many anthologies. She is also a freelance journalist who has written about politics, science, and culture for Salon, Wired, and the New York Times. Featured work: The Slow Trains Ten Bill Trudo Bill Trudo lives in Chicago, Illinois. His work has appeared in print in Signal, and in several online publications, including The Poet's Canvas, Melic Review, The Adirondack Review, Prairie Poetry, and Poems Niederngasse. Featured work: Northern Night And a thousand questions Boris Tsessarsky Boris Tsessarsky is a 28 year-old short-story writer and novelist. He has been published in Threshold Magazine, Short Stories Bi-Monthly, Ceteris Paribus, and Barbaric Yawp, and is currently looking for an agent. Featured work: Bass Violin Brian Turner Brian Turner is a poet living in the Pacific Northwest. He's lived in Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia. He has poems forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review, L'Intrigue, Clean Sheets, and the Black Bear Review. The poems in Slow Trains are from his collection,How We The Damaged Touch. Featured work: CitizenX and Silk J. A. Tyler With words yet to pay the bills, J. A. Tyler writes in the wee hours of night and the early hours of morning, crouched over a kitchen table. He has recent publications in The Crucible, upcoming work in The Writers Post Journal, and is looking forward to continued literary success. Featured work: The Black Hole in Tommy's Backyard Michael J. Vaughn Michael J. Vaughn is the author of The Legendary Barons, and two other novels from Dead End Street LLC. He lives in San Jose, California, where he is fiction editor of The Montserrat Review and left fielder for a coed softball team, the WYSIWYGs. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: The Redemption of Billy Saddle Barry Bonds, Dodger Blue and the Deaths of Mothers Break Marc Vender Mark Vender is an Australian living in Bogota Colombia, putting the finishing touches on his first novel. Featured work: I Don't Know Where It Comes From Jamieson Wolf Villeneuve Jamieson Wolf Villeneuve is a young writer who has had his work published in a variety of magazines. These include: Mytholog Magazine, Clean Sheets, Green Man Review, Slow Trains, Muse It and the Everymans Journal. He also runs a Web site for writers called Reflections of the Muse. Featured work: Magic Man Alana Noel Voth Alana Noel Voth is earning her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Oregon beginning September 2002. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have appeared in Metrosphere and Element Magazine. Her alter ego, Lana Gail Taylor, is doing better writing erotica. Featured work: Where's My Brown? Timmy Waldron Timmy Waldron's work has appeared in Words! V, Monkey Bicycle, Word Riot, Snow Monkey, Futures Mystery Anthology, Eyeshot, Pindeldyboz, Fiction Warehouse, Thieves Jargon, Hack Writers, Soma Literary Review, Zygote in my Coffee, and The Journal of Modern Post. He's open to pain and crossed by the rain. Featured work: The Sad Little Happiness of Drinks and Kisses Rae Weaver Rae Weaver lives in Virginia. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various online and print publications, including Poems Niederngasse, Gin Bender, Lotus Blooms Journal, Dead Mule, bloc, Carnelian, Erosha, Wicked Alice and VLQ. She is also a 2003 Pushcart Prize Nominee, and Poetry Editor for ERWA. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Sunday Morning at the Outdoor Market Marnie Webb Marnie Webb lives and writes in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been published in various online and print publications and is currently working on a collection of short fiction. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Names, On His Body J. Marcus Weekley J. Marcus Weekley has just graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with his Master's degree in English. He lives with four roommates and their cat, Oliver, and will be moving to Beloit, Wisconsin in a month, then to Texas Tech in Lubbock for the doctoral program. He is also a visual artist. His work(poetry and/or photography) is forthcoming in Aileron, Snow Monkey, and Tundra, and he has had work in Fourth River and Modern Haiku. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Discombobulating, Before I Stopped Clubbing, Modern Christy Wegener Christy Wegener’s poetry has appeared in the Potpourri Journal and Butter, a self-published zine. She was previously employed as a travel, arts and news reporter in New Mexico. She presently researches the issue of racial profiling for a non-profit organization in Los Angeles. Featured work: Tree/Arbol and With Time Brian Weiss Brian Weiss is a sixteen year resident of Planet Vegas, a freelance Web developer (visit his Web site), a part-time daddy, a musician, a writer, and a recovering compulsive gambler. He appreciates email, but assures incorrect answers to any stupid tourist questions. Featured work: Confessions of a Compulsive Gambler Patricia Wellingham-Jones Former psychology researcher, writer, editor, and lecturer, Patricia Wellingham-Jones has recently been published in Red River Review, Ibbetson Street Press, and Centrifugal Eye. She won the 2003 Reuben Rose International Poetry Prize (Israel), and is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. See more of her work at her Web site. Featured work: Narrow Gauge to Silverton California High Tim Wenzell Tim Wenzell teaches English at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He has published a novel, Absent Children, as well as a number of short stories, poems, and essays in various literary magazines. Featured work: Idiot Boy Greg Wharton Greg Wharton is the author of the collection Johnny Was and Other Tall Tales. He's the publisher of Suspect Thoughts Press, co-coordinator for Project: QueerLit, and an editor for two Web magazines, suspect thoughts: a journal of subversive writing, and Velvet Mafia. He's also the editor of numerous smutty anthologies, including The Best of the Best Meat Erotica, The Big Book of Erotic Ghost Stories, Law of Desire: Tales of Gay Male Lust and Obsession (with Ian Philips), The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Essays on Queer Sexuality and Desire, Love Under Foot: An Erotic Celebration of Feet (with M. Christian), Men of Mystery: Tales of Intrigue and Suspense (with Sean Meriwether), Of the Flesh: Dangerous New Fiction, and Out of Control: Erotic Wild Rides. He lives in San Francisco with his honey Ian, a cat named Chloe, and a lot of books. Featured work: Slow Trains Ten (mini-interview) Kelley J. White A New Hampshire native, Kelley J. White studied at Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School and has been a pediatrician in inner-city Philadelphia for more than twenty years. Her poems have been widely published over the past five years, including several book collections and chapbooks, and have appeared in numerous journals, including Exquisite Corpse, Nimrod, Poet Lore, Rattle, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Featured work: Washington Post March: Twenty-First Century Edition Back Hardbed Blues, His head is covered like a shepherd’s Kevin White Kevin White is a 21-year old undergraduate English Major at Western Illinois University, who finds the mature yet childlike mysticism of William Blake, the practical education-driven compass of Matthew Arnold, and the satire of Alexander Pope to be equally high literary ideals. Featured work: October Swoon James R. Whitley James R. Whitley currently lives in Boston, MA. His poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in several journals, including Coal City Review, HEArt, Peregrine, and Xavier Review. His first book, Immersion, was selected by Lucille Clifton as the winner of the 2001 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. Featured work: Jumping Bean and Champagne for One Jean Wiggins Jean Wiggins writes from Huntsville, Alabama. Over the past thirty years, she has published poems in many journals and small magazines. In late 2005, Windhover, a publication of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, published her short story, "Where Real People Live." She continues to work on writing poems and short stories. Featured work: Fear of Diving Poetry Reading Gary Charles Wilkens Gary Charles Wilkens studies creative writing at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. His poems have appeared in print and online journals, including The Texas Review,The Anemone Sidecar, The Adirondack Review, The Cortland Review, Hinge,The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Snakeskin, Pemmican, Underground Window, and Prairie Poetry. See more of his work at his Web site. Featured work: Jennifer Paints Susan M. Williams Susan M. Williams works for the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development in Nashville, Tennessee. Her first published poetry appeared in www.halfdrunkmuse.com in January, 2004. Featured work: In the World of Hip Hop and Rap Obedience School Drop Out On Occasion Francine Witte Francine Witte is a poet, playwright, and fiction writer. Her flash fiction pieces have been published in Cutbank, Nebraska Review, The Rambler, Potomac Review, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City, where she is a high school English teacher. Her work has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. Featured work: Gladys, Pear Woman Christopher Woods Christopher Woods is the author of a prose collection, Under a Riverbed Sky, and a collection of stage monologues for actors, Heart Speak. His play, Moonbirds, about doomed census takers in a desert country, was produced in New York by Personal Space Theatrics. His play, Interim, about souls in Purgatory, will be produced in England in the Spring. He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas. Featured work: What Music Can Mean Appearances Waking, Going On Jennifer Wright Jennifer Wright is a freelance writer, who shares her Bay Area home with her dogs Ernie and Scout. Her fiction has most recently appeared in Roman Candles, and she is currently at work on a number of scientific writing projects and a novel. Featured work: Resurrection Emanuel Xavier Emanuel Xavier is the author of Americano, Pier Queen, and the Lambda Literary Award nominated debut novel, Christ-Like. He has performed at venues as diverse as Washington Square Park, American Crafts Museum, Barnes & Noble, Queensborough Public Library, Dixon Place, Columbia University, DePaul University, St. Mark's Poetry Project, Irving Plaza, The Henry Miller Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Le Petit Theatre and Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where he became a two-time Grand Slam winner. He has produced several spoken word events, including the Realness & Rhythms poetry series, the annual Glam Slam and the Words To Comfort benefit for the World Trade Center Relief Fund. Emanuel Xavier is the recipient of a Marsha A. Gomez Cultural Heritage Award for his contributions to gay and Latino culture, and has been selected as Poet Laureate of the 2002 Brooklyn Pride celebration. Featured work: Born This Way Shellie Zacharia Shellie Zacharia teaches in Gainesville, Florida. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in the Raleigh News & Observer's Sunday Journal, Washington Square, South Dakota Review, Dos Passos Review, The Powhatan Review, and Parting Gifts. Featured work: QWERTY Darlene Zagata Darlene Zagata is a freelance writer and poet. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Ascent, Spirithunter, Some Words, Verse Libre, Reading Divas, Lingerings, Dayspring Contemporary Christian Poetry, and forthcoming in All Things Girl and The Writer's Hood. She is the editor of the poetry ezine Thought Fragments. Featured work: Remembering The End Michael Zbigley Michael Zbigley resides somewhere between the mountains and the sea in Eureka, California, or in Missoula, Montana, variously. "Landscaping a Year in Paradise" is a part of a longer work, "Lives-forever," another section of which has been published in The Red River Review. Featured work: Landscaping a Year in Paradise Melanie Burke Zetzer Melanie Burke Zetzer is originally from Louisiana, but is currently happily nestled into the wooded and scenic hills of Hot Springs, Arkansas in a rustic cabin with her teenage son and her new puppy, Scrappy Doo. She is a home health care nurse, and is attending UALR college part-time, where she enjoys their excellent Creative Writing Program. Featured work: Ritalin, Hitting on Buddha Fredrick Zydek Fredrick Zydek is the author of eight collections of poetry. Takopachuk: the Buckley Poems is forthcoming from Winthrop Press later this year. Formerly a professor of creative writing and theology at the University of Nebraska and later at the College of Saint Mary, he is now a gentleman farmer when he isn't writing. He is the editor for Lone Willow Press. Featured work: Things My Mother Never Told Me Electronic Musicians

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