Contributors

 

Eric Boermeester - I am a behavioral needs teacher in Randolph, Massachusetts. My writing credits include having poetry published in The American Dissident, fiction published in Thuglit, and a one act play (winner of The Curry Journal's award for Best Drama) produced by the California theater company, The Rockland Theater Group.

Ilya Feldsherov was born in Kiev, Ukraine but raised in Brooklyn, NY. He is a hip-hop dancer and gymnast but after graduating from Williams College, which is in Massachusetts, this year, he will be moving to Los Angeles to teach elementary school for two years before going on to law school. He is very glad to have writing as an outlet and wishes that he had more time for it. He also likes apple pie a lot.

J. Gaspar lives in Portland, Oregon, where he earned a Masters of Arts degree in Fiction Writing at Portland State University. His work has most recently appeared in The Irreverent Fish journal, and also in Camas: A Literary Journal , and Testmarketed Downpour . He writes out of an inescapable sense of obligation, and is a compulsive shoe-polisher.

Maria Teresa Giuliani - Originally from the Greater Toronto Area (G.T.A), I studied visual arts and psychology at The University of Western Ontario.   This led to my becoming an art therapist, where I focused my studies and energy towards child behaviour and development.   Finding love, but not passion, in the art community eventually led to a quarter life crisis of sorts.   My predictable life spontaneously combusted and six months ago I somehow found myself living in Montreal, Quebec, as an aspiring writer.   Words, alas, have always been my passion and I will write them whether they are deemed publishable or not (yet to be determined).   My favorite pie is banana cream, which I have yet to find in any boulangerie in Montreal.   However, I have not given up the quest.

Carissa Halston is 24 years old.  She wrote and directed Cleavage [starring that crazy ne'er-do-well, Randolph Pfaff]. She wanted ice cream cake for her wedding, but ice cream cake makers are scarce in the Boston area. And the only one she found was negligent.   She finds coconut cream pie to be rather pleasing. She is one half of Aforementioned Productions.

Jessie Hill is a naive 19-year old who has recently moved to Portland, Oregon. In her spare time she enjoys roaming the streets and studying at Lewis and Clark College.

Oleh Lysiak - I have worked as a reporter, editor, columnist, photographer, restaurateur, carpenter, sailor, smuggler, tree planter, fishing guide, sculptor, truck driver, river guide, cook, wood cutter, trash collector, marine gravity operator and reclaimed wood broker. I have written for The Oregon Journal, The Oregonian, The Norwood Post, The Aspen Daily News, The Aspen Times, The Telluride Daily Planet, The Coos Bay World, Oregon Business Magazine, The Ukrainian Weekly. My poems were published by The Boatmen’s Quarterly, The Bay City Slug, The Stinking Desert Gazette, Estafette Literary Journal and The Word Almanac.

Corey Mesler is the owner of Burke's Book Store, in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the country's oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. He has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals including Rattle, Pindeldyboz, Quick Fiction, Cranky, Thema, Mars Hill Review, Poet Lore and others.   He has also been a book reviewer for The Memphis Commercial Appeal.   A short story of his was chosen for the 2002 edition of New Stories from the South: The Year's Bes t, published by Algonquin Books.   Talk , his first novel, appeared in 2002. Nice blurbs from Lee Smith, John Grisham, Robert Olen Butler, Frederick Barthelme, and others. He has a new novel, We Are Billion-Year-Old Carbon , just out from Livingston. He has 6 chapbooks due out in 2006.   He also claims to have written, "Sunshine Superman." Most importantly, he is Toby and Chloe's dad and Cheryl's husband.

Jen Michalski lives in Baltimore. Her fiction has appeared in Failbetter, Ink Pot, Fiction Warehouse, Thieves Jargon, Unlikely Stories, 13th Warrior Review, and many others. One of her stories received an editorial nomination this year for the storysouth Million Writers Award. She has reviewed art and books for local publications and currently is the editor in chief of JMWW: A Quarterly Journal of Writing. Her favorite pie is pumpkin, although she is more partial to chocolate in general.

Elizabeth Morrissey - I am an American writer living and working in Dublin, Ireland. Visit me at http://americanabroad.blogspot.com for a glimpse of my life!

Kat Ricker is trying to figure out whether any job market exists for her master's degree in professional writing. Through no fault of higher education, she has been published quite a bit and has won awards for her poetry, short stories and journalism. Her virtual
portfolio is at mightykat.net; her fitness and generally inspiration-related blogzine is at http://mightymix.blogspot.com; and she runs an online art advocacy project related to the troubled teen industry at lonesouls.blogspot.com (she welcomes submissions and pays the
same as apt). Her favorite pie is her mother's frozen chocolate, made with eggs, butter, sugar and baking chocolate on a flaky pastry crust and requiring two hours of Kitchen Aid mixer time.

Lukas Sherman - I am getting my teaching degree in Portland, Oregon. my schooling includes Wheaton College & Boston University. my work has appeared in the Promethean, a college arts magazine, and some online magazine.

Nathan Smith can be reached at nathanleesmith@msn.com

Violetta Tarpinian - I'm a woman, I was brought up by my atheist father to believe in original thought, and by my adventurous mother to believe in the romance of life. I studied art and film, worked in film for a while, mostly as editor/script writer/translator (English-German). I moved to Eugene, OR with my musician husband, was over-educated for work in my field here, but eventually became the secretary-treasurer of the Local 689 of the American Federation of Musicians (the musicians' union). I'm a musician on recorders, play renaissance and baroque music. I write. Stories (long), novels, and poetry. I have two finished poetry collections (in my drawer), and I'm working on a third, more open in style, mostly prose poems and shorts, called Story Book - Of random things that don't fit.

A.D. Winans is a native San Francisco poet, writer and photographer. Author of numerous books and chapbooks of poetry and prose. Graduate of San Francisco State University. Member of PEN. Work has appeared in over a thousand literary journals and zines, print and web sites. Recent books include The Wrong Side Of Town (Cross Cultural Communications) and The World's Last Rodeo (Bottle of Smoke Press).

Keith Wood lives and works in Philadelphia, but is originally from Columbus, Mississippi. He has had stories and poems published in Underground Voices, Cherry Bleeds, Thieves’ Jargon, Zygote In My Coffee, Negative Capability, the Mississippi Review, the Black Warrior Review and apt. I enjoy a well chilled Key Lime pie every now and then.