Spark (Mark M. Sparkman) is a fictioneer and poet who lives in Ogden, Utah. His work has appeared in God's Bar Un*plugged, Gravity, Bitterzone Terminal, Tomorrow Magazine, The Chicago Review, Sub-urbanterrain, ANGST, and many others. He hopes you will all come to visit his lovely, lonely state for the 2002 Olympics, and then go away, because, like the song says, "Name a place paradise/and you can kiss it good-bye."
He lives with his wife, the estimable Ladybug; a neurotic cocker spaniel; two amazing cats and an Alaskan sled dog who hates snow. He's big, bad and ticklish, not necessarily in that order.
Dancing Bear grew up and continues to live in the San Francisco Bay area. He enjoys stone carving, jewelry making and watercolor painting. Recent print publications include: Ebbing Tide, Laughing Boy Review and Neon Quarterly. For a complete list of Web publications, try the Dancing Bear's Lair, http://www.hooked.net/users/bear/index.html.
Perry Thompson was born in Georgia in 1950. Two years running he was awarded first place in Columbia University's Gold Circle Award For Poetry for which he received a nice letter. He holds no college degrees. Perry has been previously published in Columbia Review, Dekalb Literary Arts Journal and Chattahoochee Review. A civil rights and anti-war activist during the '60s, he has been handcuffed, spit on, hosed down, beaten up and generally abused by his fellow Americans. He currently resides in Atlanta with his wife, Marsha, and their cat, Bramble. Perry is the proprietor and local music guru of Rainy Day Records.
Ray Heinrich published his first chapbook by secretly placing copies in local bookstores and libraries. His poems have appeared in RealPoetik, CrossConnect, 33 Review, Agnieszka's Dowry, Electronic Soapbox, Katanaville, Enterzone, Morpo Review, 256 Shades of Gray, TransMog, Sparks, So It Goes..., Sand River Journal, BiSexual Journal, Cherry Street, The Wicked, Surreal Voices, billetdoux, Droplet Journal, No Trace, Sub-UrbanTerrain, Biopsy, his own "Word Biscuit E-letter" and elsewhere. An electronic edition of his chapbook: "years of water" (Word Biscuit Press) is available free via email. Send requests to: ray@vais.net
John Carle is a freelance writer, sometime educator and mid/southwestern expatriate living in Atlanta. He's glad the Olympics are over, and gladly cedes them to Spark. His poetry has been published in, among others, Nimrod, Rain Dog Review, Backroads, and, of course, Gravity which he edits and publishes. He has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and currently reviews local and acoustic music for Creative Loafing.
Peter Casey is a free spirit and jaded idealist. He is currently in disguise as a computer programmer in Dallas which, on the whole, is a really ugly city.