Ben Ohmart has had 100s of stories and poems in zines and journals, and had 4 plays produced last year. His lyrics will be on 2 CDs this year, 1 a gothic album, the other a rock album. He's currently writing films, with hopes of having one done in Malaysia soon, and is also trying to break into the prison of television. He's white, 26, single and loves British comedy. He lives in Boalsburg, PA, right next to PSU, and enjoys watching rabbits eat his garbage.
Stephen Pain is an Anglo-American poet. He was born on September 21st 1956 in London a stone's throw away from John Keats' house. He has contributed to several magazines and zines. He has also edited American classics. Currently he is working on his novel "New Cynics".
W T Pfefferle is the author of Writing that Matters, a freshman comp rhetoric from Prentice Hall (September 1998). He's published poetry in Ohio Review, Kansas Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Georgetown Review, and elsewhere. He runs a Buddhist zendo in Dallas, Texas and currently has 14 students. For guitars he favors Telecasters, for vodka, Finlandia.
Walt Phillips writes: i'm a retired long-time journalist, who also worked some years in the amusement park business. i've published about everywhere in the small press world since '59, poems and drawings.
Alex Pilling was born in Essex, England (Olde, not New) in the year of the Queen's Coronation and the Conquest of Everest. Retired with good grace from a 25 year career in the Royal Air Force in 1996, having travelled the world, (in a mutitude of various computing roles), leaving all countries on friendly terms and friends scattered thoughout the Globe. Finding the travelling a hard habit to break, continued the hi-tech gipsy life as an IT Consultant for a large multi-national corporation for the next year-and-a-bit before taking up an offer of employment in LA in the early weeks of the New Year, 1998. The saga unfolds; the adventure continues... Pleasures? Good food, fine wines, lively company, reading, writing, auto mechanics, amateur dramatics, clever cats, stupid dogs, sunshine, particular fan of Terry Pratchett... Oh, and: "Use the talents that you possess; for the woods would be silent indeed, if no birds sang but the best"......
Rochelle Randel writes: To earn my bread, I work as a Marketing Assistant at a computer security company in Columbia, Md. To feed my soul, I've been writing poetry and short fiction for more years than I care to count. I'm actively involved in HeartSong Connection, a Baltimore women's group who through celebration and experimental group sessions explore issues of inner growth to rediscover the divine in life.
Joy Reid writes: I have had an extensive number of poems and short stories accepted by electronic magazines (60 poems in twenty two e-zines) this year and won prizes in nine competitions. I have also been selected as one of twenty four poets nation wide taking place in a ten day New Poets seminar in January run by 'Island'/ 'Scarp' and the University of Woolongong. I have also a novel, 'Serpent Call' which has been offered a publication contract by Northernlights Publishing, a Canadian company.
Mark Reimer, 27, lives in Bothell, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and works as director of development for a private school. He has published poetry in journals and periodicals including Poet, Christianity and Literature, and Scop, and in various on-line journals including Ygdrasil. He has published chapbooks entitled "Folkways" and "oklahoma," and is at work on two more. He also plays a pretty lousy guitar.
rialtos writes: Preferring to work anonymously I use "rialtos" as my pen- and page-owner name. I have been writing poetry on and off for fifteen or twenty years now. Sometime I "hit it," sometimes I don't. More of my work can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/athens/olympus/3360/
Amanda Richards resides in Palatine, Illinois (northwest suburb of Chicago). A graduate of St. John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, she is currently an Assistant Editor of The Great Ideas Today, the yearbook for the Great Books of the Western World, both published by Encyclopaedia Britannica. Previous publications include various articles for the Britannica Book of the Year. Activities include performing with the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra (violin) and singing with the Countryside Madrigal Singers.
Scott Ross writes: I'm an undergraduate at Wright State University near Dayton, Ohio. I've been writing poetry for almost a year and I'm just at the point where I feel comfortable sharing it with others. I live with my wife and daughter and three cats in a mundane middle-class existence. Poetry is my passion--to read it, to write it, to critique other writers' work, I love it all.
Jude Roy writes: I have been published in THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, AMERICAN SHORT FICTION, and National Public Radio. I have a BA and MA from The University of Southwestern Louisiana and an MFA from George Mason University. I am currently teaching at Southwest Missouri State University.
Perry Sams writes: Journalism degree, English minor, 1980. Wrote sports, courts, cops, music, features. Got canned, staggered sideways into poetry, got into Arizona art-scene early '80s. Have worked carnival, factory, cabs, convenience-store clerk, temps, library, bookstore and foodservice since to support my writing jones.
Matt Sanborn was born in Haverhill Massachusetts, January 18, 1969. Attended haverhill public schools until 1987, when he moved on to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; where he graduated in 1991 with degrees in Journalism and English. In late 1991, he was hired by the Eagle-Tribune, (circulation 45,000), in Lawrence Massachusetts. In 1993 he found himself unemployed due to his "poor attitude... 122 violations of company's dress code.... and lack of motivation." When Sanborn showed up to clean out his desk, he was told should he return to the building, "legal actions" would be taken out. Finally settling in as a disciplinarian at a reform school, he began publishing Angry Youth Comix, with artist friend J. Ryan. The magazine brought Sanborn in reporting assignments, as well as reviews in publications such as New Rave, Bikini magazine and Psychotronic Film Review. Working feverishly he set down to write his newest novel KNOCK, which is now under contract with his agent. He has also published short stories "Theatre Mutalato" in The Brink, "Everybody's Needs Get Met" in The Edge, and child-safety articles for several women's publication. His most publicized piece was a tribute to punk icon GG Allin in the June 1996 issue of New Rave. He continues to live in Haverhill Massachusetts, where he has developed a dislike for almost all its residents.
Julie Schillinger is a secretary for a chemical company in northeast Ohio. A handful of her poems have been published in various e-zines on the web and small poetry journals. Julie often non-verbally communicates with her cat.
Claudia Scott writes: I am a humble person. I have not been published before, though am ready to be. I live in South Carolina, go the local high school and have attended South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts.
Jolie Simmons was born under an auspicious sign in June 1967, the summer of love, the day peace was declared from the Six Day War, and has been trying to remedy an incomplete education ever since. A native of Long Island, she most recently finds herself living in Atlanta, by way of West Virginia and D.C.; she plans to live in many, many more places. Both blessed and cursed a Gemini, she writes, designs, photographs, illustrates, prints, sings… and reads everything she can get her hands on. Jolie wrote her first poem at the age of four, has been writing all her life and was published a fair amount when she was much younger but then stopped showing her work for several years. Upon the closing of her twenties, she is pleased to discover a new writer within her psyche and has been stretching her wings and fingers furiously since. She is a core member of The Usual Suspects, an Atlanta-based writers' group, co-producer and -publisher of The Usual Suspects Meet Frankenstein and producer and publisher of the upcoming Bride of The Usual Suspects (both are book & audiobook sets). The latest in a long tradition of late bloomers, she plans to live a long life as it may take a while for her to find time for everything. She hopes to be catching a nap sometime soon.
j r sherman. a shy San Franciscan SWM, 30+, Taurus, who is looking for that special someone who likes walks along the beach, hiking in the woods, reading poetry by moonlight and being in tune with the spirit that sings to us all. If you believe that you might also believe that he's been published in several Northern California poetry journals and bathroom walls, including Jim Gove's "Minotar" and William Talcott's "Carbuncle 5", and also has a self published chapbook entitled "The Legends Of Mt. Olivet", available, strangely enough, through him, and all participating Walmart stores(don't forget to use his name while shopping there). If you do believe all of that, you might just be the only one, he doesn't, but that's just him.
Dave Skyrie writes: I am from Williamsburg, Ontario, Canada, and have previously been published in many small Canadian poetry magazines, such as Quarry, Cyan-Line, Cross Country,Canadian Author & Bookman, Grain, etc. I have also published a small chapbook entitled Several Cranes in the Blue Air, through South Western Ontario Poetry Press. I have been away from poetry for a while, but am now getting back with a vengeance, and working on a collection I have tentatively entitled Smiling In The Foxhole.
Dave Sloan writes: I am thirty-four years old. I live in or around Atlanta most of the time. I do much of my writing in a barn in Fayetteville, which is south of Atlanta. I usually sleep either in my van or in a tent pitched near the barn. I believe in love. I look for it everywhere.
Rebecca Skversky is an administrative assistant living in San Diego
Jody Solis is twenty-three and writing from NJ.
Robin Sommo is a computer consultant and Somebody's Mom, currently living in Massachusetts.
Spark (Mark M. Sparkman) lives in northern Utah, studies English, writes poetry and fiction, and works as rarely as possible. He is 42 years old -- no small feat considering what he has put himself through. Recently, he rode an amusement park ride called "Collussus" and realized that drugs were far too expensive a way to get a rush.
Jim Standish's desk-top-published collections are: Pine & Peterkin, Bring Everything, Right Around the Next Bend, Because We're All In This Alone Together, Some Spunk in the Old Sport Yet. He has had poems published in several places over the decades, inluding Liberation, Fuck You/A Magazine of the Arts, Will Inman's Kauri, and Zapizdat. He was a math major in college, getting a BA at New York University and an MA at Berkeley. For thirty years he was a computer programmer in biomedical research, and now is retired. He's been single again almost as long as he was married, and his two sons and a daughter are all over thirty. He hosts a weekly poetry program on subscriber-supported KKUP-FM in Cupertino & Santa Clara. His poems and commentaries can often be found on the rec.arts.poems internet news group. He reads often in the San Francisco Bay Area, and likes to decorate his readings with improvisations on flutes, harmonicas, and drums (no, not all at once).
David Starkey writes: I teach creative writing at North Central College and am the editor of Teaching Writing Creatively (Heinemann-Boynton/Cook, 1998) and co-editor of Smokestacks and Skyscrapers: An Anthology of Chicago Literature (Loyola, forthcoming 1999). My poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Flyway, Folio, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, The Nebraska Review, New Orleans Review, Oxford Magazine, Santa Barbara Review, Sonora Review, Sycamore Review, Writers' Forum, and others. In addition, I have published several collections of poems with small presses: Koan Americana, Adventures of The Minor Poet, A Year with Gayle and, most recently, Open Mike Night at the Cabaret Voltaire (Kings Estate, 1996).
Christopher Stolle writes: I'm a 20-year-old senior at Indiana University majoring in journalism and education. I've been writing poetry for about four years. I've had poems published in the following small press print magazines: Blank, Cafe Bellas Artes (now defunct), Country Confetti, Droplet Journal, The Ebbing Tide, Echoes Magazine, Etcetera, The Extreme, Freeverse, Icon, Illya's Honey, The Laughing Boy Review, Mind Purge, The MOOsletter, Naugahyde Literary Journal, The Oak, Obscure, Offerings, Original Creations, Parnassus Literary Journal, Pegasus, The Poet's Pen, Poetechniciens, Poetry Motel, Skipping Shiny Stones, Teacup, Talus and Scree, VEINS and WICKED.
David Sutherland writes: As for my background, my poetry has seen good distribution in journals, reviews and magazines. Recent pieces of mine have appeared in The Hollins Critic, Anthology, The Trincoll Journal and The Fairfield Review.
A.Y. Tanaka was born on Maui in 1936, raised in Newark, NJ (safer than the West Coast); lived, sometimes worked, in Puerto Rico, San Francisco, Hawaii, Chicago, Amherst, perhaps elsewhere. His proudest achievement was inventing a phantom senior for his high school yearbook (Weequahic HS, Newark). Since then it's been downhill. Subsequent honors and attainments are as nought.
Perry Thompson was born in Georgia in 1950. He graduated from high school in 1966. 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. Mr. Thompson has been previously published in Columbia Review, Dekalb Literary Arts Journal, Lonesome Virgin and Chattahoochee Review. A civil rights and anti-war activist during the '60s, Mr. Thompson has been handcuffed, spit on, hosed down, beaten up and generally abused by his fellow Americans. He currently resides in Key West with his wife, Marsha, and their cats, Bramble and Midnight. Mr. Thompson is the proprietor of Rainy Day Records.
C. Tilley-Williams lives in a small rural town in Louisiana with her husband, David, also an accomplished poet. Carol is publisher and senior editor of The Writer's Quill literary e-zine, and has had her poetry published in an international literary magazine,and other smaller publications. Along with her husband, she has organized a very successful internet poetry workshop, and has coordinated a local poetry workshop in affiliation with their local library. Samples of her work can be seen at Writer's Quill.
Peter Tomassi writes: I am an American writer living in Melbourne and I am the editor of www.looksmart.com, a daily review of destinations on the World Wide Web. My work has been published by Painted Bride, Poetry Hi-Fi, Magma, The Cafe Review, Word Salad, and other online and print journals around the world.
CK Tower resides in Lansing, Michigan and attends Michigan State University, where she is continuing her studies in creative writing and literature. CK is very involved in the internet literary scene, as editor for Conspire Poetry Journal, and poetry editor for Recursive Angel. CK is continually working to provide useful, top-quality resources, to assist readers and artists in their literary pursuits. Some of the journals where her work as appeared include: CrossConnect, The Allegheny Review, The Mississippi Review, Zuzu's Petals, The Morpo Review, Poetry Cafe, The Astro Pages, and The Morpo Review.
Lee Tracy works as a claims adjuster in Southern California, and is married with one daughter. He has had work accepted for publication in ElDorado Poetry Review, and online in Agnieszka's Dowry. He is a member of Valley Poets, a San Gabriel Valley writing group, and posts frequently on rec.arts.poems. He is active in Toastmasters, and is obsessed with identifying birds. He's not very good at it, mind you, merely obsessed.
David Ward hails from Richmond, Virginia, where he spends time being involved in writing, music, theatre, and activism. Holding down a job in the technical writing and web design field, he also delights in spending time with his dog and cats and staring out the window, ever waiting for those precious stormy southern days and nights.
Jonathan Waterbury is an artist and composer living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA.
Michael White is currently an undergraduate computer science student at Clemson University in SC. In his spare time, he enjoys skysurfing over the Swiss Alps, negotiating foreign peace treaties, and playing professional baseball. Since he has no spare time, he settles for the occasional party. Unfortuneately, poetry is only a hobby. Check out the homepage he designed for his fraternity at http://hubcap.clemson.edu/SigmaPi/.
Mike Whitney , 55, oldest steadily-employed lounge lizard in Atlanta. Mike has been entertaining at Dante’s Down the Hatch since 1976. Author of about 100 songs, about 20 of which are "pretty damn good". Happily married for 16 years to Shelagh, to whom he proposed on the first date. Said date took three months to arrange (see "Mine, These Are Mine" by Mike Whitney) due to Shelagh’s instant dislike of her future mate. They live in Atlanta and Hayesville, North Carolina. They plan to retire to North Carolina by 2006 if they can both stay employed. Shelagh is a self- employed dealer representative for a large commercial line of office furniture. They have two cats who prefer the hills of North Carolina to the city, but have adjusted well to the frequent car trips. Neither care a whit about Mike’s singing and playing, preferring to nap in the other room when he practices.
Tori Wilfred is a freelance writer and editor living in Ohio with her husband and daughter. On her birthday, February 20, Tori found out her family will include another child, due in October. Recently she completed her Master of Arts degree in English. Never limiting her avenues of creativity, she writes vignettes, essays, poetry, articles and is currently working on a novel and a screenplay. Her website is http://members.tripod.com/~ToriWilfred/index.html.
Colin Will was born in Edinburgh in 1942. Scientist (geology, botany) and librarian, working at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Widely published in Scottish magazines, first book of poems (Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Highlands, and More) published in 1996, currently working on a second. Beard has gone white, mind still youthful (I think).
Shari Diane Willadson has been writing for over twenty years.She has been published in The Astrophycist's Tango Partner Speaks, Moonshade magazine, Poetry Cafe, and Poetry Magazine. She lives in Washington State, USA with her husband and daughter.
J. Kevin Wolfe writes: I write and talk too much. I write and sidekick for the nationally syndicated Weekly Rear View Radio Show. I co-host the regionally syndicated "Everybody's Cooking" on public radio. My fourth cookbook is in the works. I just completed editing and retranslating (with the author) the war diary of a 12-year-old Bosnian poet (published in two languages in Europe and being typeset for US publication.) When I grow up wanna to be a poet; a journalist for the soul.
Gerard Wozek writes: I teach writing at Robert Morris College in Chicago. My work has appeared in various publications including Strong Coffee, Amythest, Prairie Street Companion, Backspace and Chiron Review. Recently, my poetry video, "Spirit of Place: Belmont Rocks," won People's Choice Award at the Sixth National Poetry Video Festival.
Amy Wright wrights: I graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in English and am currently doing web work in Washington, D.C.
Karen Wurl is a dramatist, poet and songwriter. While awaiting film stardom and marriage to a series of Oscar®-nominated actors, she studies Theatre and Speech at Kennesaw State University, and works part-time in a video store. Miss Wurl has a small but rabid cult following (consisting of at least four people); her further ravings may be found at http://www.mindspring.com/~ophelia and http://pigseye.kennesaw.edu/~kwurl/. Contrary to rumors she may have started herself, she does not really mind being known as a confessional poet.
David Young writes: I am a writer living in New York City
Susan Young writes: I live in Tulsa, OK, with a husband and two teenaged boys. I write poetry occasionally. It's a family thing. I used to be a nurse, now I volunteer my time and $$ to causes and manage family business matters. My web page has links to various esoteric interests and some nice pictures taken on trips to Canada.
Joy Olivia Yourcenar writes: I am a poet,teacher, mother, technical writer and spoken word DJ presently dividing my time between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Orono, Maine. If I am writing, the door of my bedroom is closed and there is a sign on it that reads, "Before you knock, ask yourself, `Am I on fire? Am I bleeding?' If the answer to both of these questions is no, DON'T KNOCK!" My children, amazingly enough, are both young writers. I collaborate with Eric Boutilier-Brown, my muse and life-partner, on visual poetry website, icon/graphy, that combines my imagery with his photographic images. There is more poetry on my website, Mythologies . The best way to get to know me is through my poetry.