Issue Nine Contributors

Gary Beck's poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His recent fiction has been published in numerous literary magazines. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced Off-Broadway.

Aslynn Brown – Singer. Writer. But not a singer songwriter. Also an out-of-work actress.  Lives in southern NH working as a Healthcare Recruiter and is taking some classes on the side. Single, enjoys long walks off short piers and suffers from perpetual foot-in-mouth syndrome. Appreciates feedback of all kinds and is very excited to have ‘You Don't Bring Me Flowers' serialized here. She hopes you'll enjoy reading it as much as she's enjoyed writing it.

Despite only minute and sparse encouragement, Wendy Chapman, 28, still holds on (with childlike abandon) to the belief that poetry is her true gift - her voice is unique, her words give her life meaning. She indulges in musical frolics, baking cookies and relaxing at home in Austin, but cinematic adventures, creating, and rebelling from the waist up and down remain her top priorities. Wendy has taken this bio way too seriously, and must now console herself with several slices of Granny's Lemon Icebox Pie.

Suzanne Cope - I am a writer and college professor in the Boston area. I recently graduated from Lesley University with my MFA and have published a number of essays on food, culture, and family. I am included in the upcoming anthology Single State of the Union, coming out this spring by Seal Press, and I am currently finishing a memoir entitled Wingwalking: Growing Up on the Other Side of the Runway.

Nikki Frankel is currently working towards a B.A. in English at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in Farmhouse Magazine and the forthcoming Boink Book anthology. Her favorite pie is pepperoni and mushroom as she is originally from Long Island, New York and misses her native state's superior pizza making abilities. She greatly encourages anyone interested in her work to contact her at nikkif610@gmail.com so she can bombard them with material ripe for anyone's viewing pleasure.

Lloyd H Frye - Born in California in 1947. He earned a BS degree in Business Administration from CSUC in 1975. He spent 28 years working in electronics before being NAFTAed in the back in 2003, at the age of 55. Bitterness and boredom were the engines for joining Zoetrope writer's workshop February 2006. He's been published in humdingerzine.com, dyingwriters.com, writers-voice.com, skivemagazine.com, associatedcontent.com, mockfrog/westnet, writesideup.com, localwriter.com, the vagrantquarterly.com, eastsidesun.com, Amistad-Howard University.

Carissa Halston (contributing editor) has several works-in-progress at the moment.   She's editing, drawing thumbnails, waiting to hear back on submissions, doing away with rejection letters and trying to figure out what she wants the back of her book to say. She has been published online and in print. Her first book, a collection of plays entitled Cleavage, can be purchased here. She will miss Boston.

Erin Jenkins - I currently reside in Lowell, Massachusetts. I've always had a passion for writing, which started at the age of seven, where I would write short, morbid, and badly illustrated stories about vampires and a woman dubbed "the pigeon lady". I didn't start writing poetry until I was in college, where I majored in English (no surprise there). I have a full time job that doesn't include too much creative writing, but I still find time to write poetry everyday, which is a great release. Maybe someday I will write the great American novel and share a couch with Oprah, but until then, I am happy to be inspired and inspire others with my writing.

Viola Lee was born in Chicago in the year 1976. I received a Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing and a minor in Women Studies at Loyola University. A few years ago, I was awarded the opportunity to study at New York University in pursuit of my MFA. I received my MFA from NYU in 2003. I have published in small literary journals and I am currently living in Chicago with my husband.

Pedro Marrero Jr., 23, lives in the Bronx, New York. 1982 is his first published work. We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that he loves pumpkin pie.

Corey Mesler owns Burke's Book Store, one of the nation's oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores, with his wife.   His publications include prose or poetry in Turnrow, Adirondack Review, American Poetry Journal, Paumanok Review, Yankee Pot Roast, Monday Night, Elimae, H_NGM_N, The Journal of Experimental Fiction, Poet Lore, Forklift OH, Euphony, Rattle, Jabberwock Review, Dicey Brown, Cordite, Cellar Door, and others. His novel-in-dialogue, Talk, was published by Livingston Press in 2002. Lucky blurbs from Lee Smith, Robert Olen Butler, Steve Stern, Debra Spark, Suzanne Kingsbury, Frederick Barthelme and John Grisham.   His new novel, We are Billion-Year-Old Carbon, is also from Livingston Press. Kind words this time from George Singleton, Marshall Chapman, Marshall Boswell and others. He published five chapbooks in 2006, with two more due in 2007. His poem, Sweet Annie Divine, was chosen for Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. He has been nominated for the Pushcart numerous times.   He's been a book reviewer, fiction editor, university press sales rep, grant committee judge, father and son.

Lauren Sarat teaches creative nonfiction and fiction workshops at Brown University, and has taught creative writing at University of Connecticut and Rutgers University.   Her work has appeared in Shenandoah, New York Stories, Anonymous, The Plum Creek Review, Turnstile, and Confrontation. Her story, 'Russian Lessons' was nominated for a Pushcart prize, and 'Tejas' was a finalist in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. Several of her short works have been broadcast on the radio literary journal, The Lumberyard.

Most importantly, she likes all pie that does not contain meat products.

Ann Tinkham is a writer/instructional designer based in Boulder, Colorado. She has written over 30 online courses in subjects ranging from emergency preparedness to energetic healing. Ann is working on a nonfiction book, Climbing Mountains in Stilettos (SourceBooks, 2007), and a novel, Analyzing Abbey. Her fiction has appeared in Hiss Quarterly, Lily, MotherVerse, Stone Table Review, Syntax, Thirst for Fire, Toasted Cheese, and Wild Violet.

M. Andre Vancrown currently resides in the Chicagoland area where he can generally be found writing (really, it's true) when he isn't too busy trolling after weak-and-willing publishers (lies!). Visit his website if you'd like to learn more about this amazingly talented guy (I'm single) or to see a complete (growing!) list of his published works. (Oh, and by the way, my favorite pie is banana crème all the way!)

Amanda Wilding is a writer, editor, and photographer. Her poetry has not appeared in print previously, unless you count scrawled and unreadable ideas on receipts and other lost paper. Wilding earned her Bachelor's Degree in English at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and currently resides in Salem, Massachusetts.

A.D. Winans is a native San Francisco poet, writer, and photographer, whose work has appeared internationally, and has been translated into eight languages. He is the author of over 45 chapbooks and books of poetry and prose, including The Holy Grail: Charles Bukowski and the Second Coming Revolution (Dustbooks). Presa Press published a book of his Selected Poems in January 2007. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University and a member of PEN. He edited and published Second Coming for seventeen years, where he met and became close friends with the late Bob Kaufman, Jack Micheline, and Charles Bukowski. His favorite pie is chocolate cream or old fashioned apple pie. He can be contacted at: slowdancer2006@netzero.com.