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