STEVEN GILLIS - Steven Gillis is the author of the novels WALTER FALLS and THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING, both finalists for the Independent Publishers Book of the Year and ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year 2003 and 2005. Steve's third novel, TEMPORARY PEOPLE, will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2008. Steve's stories, articles and book reviews have appeared in over three dozen journals. A 6 time Pushcart nominee and 4 time Best Of... Notable Stories, a collection of Steve's stories - titled GIRAFFES - was published in February, 2007. A member of the Ann Arbor Book Festival Board of Directors, and a finalist for the 2007 Ann Arbor News Citizen of the Year, Steve teaches writing at Eastern Michigan University and is the founder of 826 Michigan and the co-founder of Dzanc Books in partnership with Dan Wickett. All proceeds from Steve's writing goes to his nonprofit programs. more

---

MIKAEL COVEY - Mikael Covey was born poor in the genteel old south of sleepy mansions and angry racists. His family moved to Nebraska, which was like a garden of eden for kids, before we destroyed it with drugs. He was schooled in literature and philosophy at various colleges. Then he joined the government and served in Panama, Italy, Florida, and Kentucky. He now lives in Dakota with his five-year old girl. He recently finished another novel and is hoping to find an agent or publisher. more

---

MICHELLE REALE - Michelle Reale is the Circulation Manager of Landman Library at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania. She is completing her MSLS in Library Science at Clarion University. Her work has been published in a variety of venues, both print and web. She is currently looking to publish a collection of linked short stories with an Italian-American theme. Her work has been published in Verbsap, 3711 Atlanic, Moondance, Lily, Bewildering Stories, The Lotus Reader, Grey Borders, La Fenetre, Yellow Mama and others. She is greatly influenced by writers writers who show through their writing how place is an important part of who we are, while understanding Diderot's dictum , "We are where we think we are; neither time nor distance makes any difference." more

---

BEN ASHWELL - Ben is a second year Journalism and Creative Writing student at Kingston University. He is known by his friends as a Harold Ramis look-a-like, Harold Ramis being the director of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, and is considered to have the general aura of a 'wire', which he doesn't take to be a compliment. He has had several short stories and poems published in University magazines and his New Years resolution is to accept mediocrity. more

---

JENN ASHWORTH - Jenn Ashworth was born in 1982 in Preston, and apart from a little jaunt down south, she lives there still. She's in the middle of finding a home for one novel about a fat woman, and is getting carried away writing another about angler fish. more

---

DEREK RAMSAY - I was born. When about thirty six I started to write and paint. Some of the intervening years were spent planting community woodlands, building dry-stane dykes and grappling with various musical instruments. more

---

MOIRA McPARTLIN - Moira McPartlin is a Scot with Irish roots. She began writing and attending creative writing classes at Strathclyde University in Glasgow in 2000 as a release from a busy career in Finance. She writes shorts stories and poetry and has had work published in Storie, The People’s Friend, and The Scottish Mountaineer. In 2006 she won the Mountaineering Council of Scotland annual poetry competition and for the past three years, has regularly contributed book reviews and articles to www.laurahird.com. She resigned from a global position in Shell Oil in October 2005 to concentrate on writing her first novel Torque which was completed in July 2007. She is currently the Sub Editor of The Scottish Mountaineer Magazine, is working on her second novel and developing her website. Moira has two adult sons and lives in Stirlingshire with her husband. She is a keen mountaineer and in 2006 compleated her round of Munros (Scottish mountains over 3000 feet high). more

---

ZACK WILSON - Zack Wilson was born in Skegness in the 1970’s, the son of Scottish father and a mother from Sheffield. After a life spent in various places in the North and Midlands of England, he is now settled in Sheffield, where he works for the City Council in a very minor capacity indeed. His work has previously featured in various places in print and online, including, amongst others, The Quiet Feather, Unquiet Desperation, Zygote In My Coffee and Winamop.com. Major influences are Alan Sillitoe, Patrick O’Brian and Brendan Behan, though he feels he owes something of a spiritual debt to Beat America too. Away from writing, he tries to enjoy football, music and politics. He is currently working on a novel length cycle of stories set in a specific Sheffield location. more

---

ANNE GOODWIN - Anne Goodwin lives in Nottinghamshire, England. After forty years of intermittent secret scribbling, she started to come out as a writer in 2003. Four years on, it is just beginning to feel real. This year her work has been placed in the Sid Chaplin, All Write and Southport Writers short story competitions, and published in Quality Women's Fiction, Pen Pusher, Allas and Positive Words. She has publications pending in Cantaraville and Carillon magazines. more

---

LEE REYNOLDSON - Lee Reynoldson is a new(ish) writer and an old(ish) person. He learnt the majority of his craft in Alex Keegan’s Boot Camp a hardworking online writing group which focuses on literary short fiction. He left Boot Camp to write novel length fantasy genre fiction. more

---

POLLY CLARK - Polly Clark lives on the west coast of Scotland. She has pursued a number of careers including zookeeping at Edinburgh Zoo and teaching English in Hungary. In 1997 she won an Eric Gregory Award, and her two collections of poetry are ‘Kiss’ (Bloodaxe 2000), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and ‘Take Me With You’ (Bloodaxe 2005), a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. more

---

CHRISTIAN WARD - Christian Ward is a 27 year old Londoner who is currently finishing the final year of a degree in English Literature & Creative Writing at Roehampton University, London. He hopes to travel after his degree is finished and then commence a postgraduate degree in English Literature. He likes to read, watch films and write. He hates sport, things which are trendy and people who refuse to be themselves. His work has previously been published in Iota, Other Poetry, The Poetry Kit, Softblow, Chronogram, Lily Lit Review, Word Riot, Andwerve, Fire, Zygote in my Coffee, nthposition, Cider Press Review and Ottawa Arts Review. more

---

SAM BEEBE - Sam Beebe is an American Black Bear in London --- a writer and musician, born in rural Wisconsin, raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, educated in Poughkeepsie, New York, migrated to Seattle (where he became a Black Bear, then flew to Bavaria to tie the shoes of kindergarteners and meet the woman of his dreams... And now he lives in London, trying to make good on the promise of a truly creative life. more

---

LYN LIFSHIN - Lyn Lifshin’s ANOTHER WOMAN WHO LOOKS LIKE ME was published by Black Sparrow at David Godine October, 2006. It was selected for the 2007 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence for previous finalists of the Paterson Poetry Prize. Also out in 2006 was her prize winning book about the famous, short lived beautiful race horse, Ruffian: THE LICORICE DAUGHTER: MY YEAR WITH RUFFIAN from TEXAS REVIEW PRESS. Other of Lifshin’s recent prizewinning books include BEFORE IT’S LIGHT published winter 1999-2000 by Black Sparrow press, following their publication of COLD COMFORT in 1997.Other recently published books and chap books include : IN MIRRORS from Presa Press and UPSTATE: AN UNFINISHED STORY from Foot Hills and THE DAUGHTER I DON’T HAVE from Plan B Press. Other new books include WHEN A CAT DIES, ANOTHER WOMAN=S STORY, BARBIE POEMS, SHE WAS LAST SEEN TREADING WATER and MAD GIRL POEMS, A NEW FILM ABOUT A WOMAN IN LOVE WITH THE DEAD, came from March Street Press in 2003. She has published more than 120 books of poetry, including MARILYN MONROE, BLUE TATTOO, won awards for her non fiction and edited 4 anthologies of women=s writing including TANGLED VINES, ARIADNE=S THREAD and LIPS UNSEALED. Her poems have appeared in most literary and poetry magazines and she is the subject of an award winning documentary film, LYN LIFSHIN: NOT MADE OF GLASS, available from Women Make Movies. Her poem, ANo More Apologizing@ has been called Aamong the most impressive documents of the women=s poetry movement,@ by Alicia Ostriker.@ An update to her Gale Research Projects Autobiographical series, AOn The Outside, Lips, Blues, Blue Lace,@ was published Spring 2003. WHAT MATTERS MOST and AUGUST WIND were recently published. TSUNAMI is forthcoming from BLUE UNICORN. Arielle Press will publish POETS (MOSTLY) WHO HAVE TOUCHED ME, LIVING AND DEAD. ALL TRUE, ESPECIALLY THE LIES summer of 2006. Texas Review Press will publish BARBARO: BEYOND BROKENNESS in March 2008 and World Parade Books will publish DESIRE in March 2008. Red hen will publish PERSEPHONE in March 2008. For interviews, photographs, more bio material, reviews, interviews, prose, samples of work and more, her web site is www.lynlifshin.com. more

---

MICHAEL LOUGHREY - Michael Loughrey was born in Greenwich, London, and has lived as an expatriate in New York, Los Angeles and Paris. His short fiction has featured in Aesthetica, Hobart, Word Riot, 5_Trope, Underground Voices, Dogmatika, The Future Fire, Sein und Werden, Aphelion, Raging Face and Halfcut Publications / Leper Colony. One of his stories was selected for the best-of-year print anthology published by Underground Voices in December 2007, and he won first prize in the UK Authors Network short story competition. Publishers interested in acquiring the outstanding opus which is his recently completed novel should form an orderly queue outside the shack where he currently hangs his hat in Norfolk, U.K., or contact him at loughreyone@talk21.com more

---

MARK EDWARDS - Mark Edwards lives and works in Aberdeen, Scotland. He has published short fiction in Cencrastus and Northwords magazines. more

---

GORDON LEGGE - After publishing a few books, Gordon Legge stopped writing. Not a big decision, just something that happened. He wrote 'My Heart And I Agree' because a few things were said/written that pissed him off. more

---

MARK HOWARD JONES - Mark lives in Cardiff and has had a couple of dozen or so stories published here, there and somewhere on both sides of the Atlantic. His novella 'The Garden Of Doubt On The Island Of Shadows" was recently published by Manchester's ISMs Press. more

---

NICHOLAS MORGAN - Nicholas R. Morgan was born in St Louis Missouri. He has lived in Southern California, Northern California and Michigan. Currently he lives in Brazos Valley Texas. He grew up skateboarding for most of his youth. Nicholas likes to write, paint, and play music in his spare time. He use to sing in two Michigan Bands, Circus Brain, and LoveTurd. He has worked a variety of jobs in his life. Most recently an OTR Truck driver. He has been working on a novel inside his brain for too long. Someday he hopes to put it all down on paper. more

---

MILES J. BELL - Miles J. Bell is 36 and from England. His father was a boxer; his mother was a cocker spaniel. He likes tapirs best of all mammals, and he considers a day without toast a very poor day indeed. He is in love with a maths teacher, but not her subject. He has been writing for three years, and has had around 70 poems published, in such magazines as Remark, Words Dance, Underground Voices, and The Quirk. One of his poems was made into a broadside by the Guerrilla Poetics project. He has released three chapbooks into the wild, the latest of which is "Murder the darkness w/ laughter & stories". A fourth, "Everyone knows this is nowhere" should be released late summer, if the fates are kind. more

---

MELISSA MANN - Born in Bradford, Melissa moved to London in 1996 where she now lives, writes and teaches Pilates to people looking to find their inner mermaid, starfish and a host of other non-aquatic mammals and inanimate objects. Melissa Mann writes contemporary fiction, poetry and notes-to-self, which her self frequently ignores. She has also carried out and published research into creativity in literature. To read her work or listen to the Melissanory Podcast Series, visit here, a website that aims to provide fresh new writing for thinkers and fresh new thinking for writers keen to explore the craft of writing. Floater is taken from Melissa's as yet unpublished anthology of short stories, The A to FF of London. Four stories from the anthology were short-listed for the following: The Asham Award 2003 and 2007, the London Arts New Writing Competition 2002 and The Harpers and Queen/Orange Prize for Fiction Short Story Competition 2001. Another story from the collection is due for publication in the literary magazine Gold Dust in August this year. Melissa also has a poetry collection Pink Knitted Love/Hate Mittens, some of the poems from which are currently being featured in an online chapbook at Open Wide magazine, a leading arts publication in the UK. Melissa is currently working on a new short fiction series called Blogus, where stories are constructed over a period of weeks from the made-up blog entries of such public figures as Ziggy Stardust and Jane Austen’s Mary Bennet. more

---

EMILY STUEVEN - Emily Stueven lives in Helena, Montana. She teaches arts and crafts to kids at an after-school program. If she ever graduates from college, she wants to be a teacher—or maybe a librarian. Her writing has appeared in Zygote in My Coffee and in several issues of the self-published Stueven Family Christmas Newsletter. more

---

FRANK BURTON - Frank Burton is a writer of surreal fiction and poetry. He has been published widely in magazines and anthologies in the UK, Australia and USA, including Poetry Monthly, Pulsar, Etchings, Skive, Gold Dust, Purple Patch, Obsessed With Pipework and Twisted Tongue. His performance poetry album, "Collected Words" is available through his website, www.frankburton.co.uk. He is the winner of the 2003 Philip LeBrun Prize for Creative Writing. He is also the science fiction columnist for the magazines, Whispers of Wickedness and The Literary Bone. more

---

JENNIFER VANBUREN - Jennifer VanBuren is the editor of web journal Mannequin Envy, which recently released it's first print anthology, ‘Trim.’ Raised in Northeast US, she now lives and loves in Texas with her husband and two sons. more

---

VANJA KOVACIC - Vanja is still a new writer, though some of her stories can now be read online or are forthcoming at A Long Story Short, Thieves Jargon, and Heavy Glow. She is currently in the process of attaining a Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratization in Venice. Hopefully, this will enrich rather than inhibit her writing endeavors. She is 27 years old and is seriously considering writing her first novel. Though maybe she is not ready yet. more

---

MARC PIETRZYKOWSKI - Marc Pietrzykowski lives in Atlanta, GA, USA, and gets his hair cut on the front porch. He writes and makes other things as well, and should have a book of poems coming out later this year from Zeitgeist Press. His writing is influenced by many other authors that he has read in the past, by people who hate reading and never do, and by love. more

---

MONA McKINLAY - Mona McKinlay's work has been in several publications, among others: The Glasgow Herald, Cutting Teeth, Literary Mama, Litro, The New Writer and The Quiet Feather. She has an MPhil in Writing from the University of Glamorgan, and is presently working on her first collection of short stories and a novel, The Hypnotist's House. more

---

DOMINIC BURGESS - Dominic Burgess was born in Manchester 23 years ago. Having recently received a degree in English Literature and Slavonic Studies from the University of Glasgow, he has returned home and hopes to spend the rest of his life writing. more

---

JASON FISK - Jason Fisk lives near Chicago with his wife, daughter, and two dogs. He is currently teaching at a residential school populated by students who have been identified with emotional and behavioral disorders. more

---

LUKE BOYD - Luke Boyd is an inner city high school teacher who spends much of his free time binge-reading and purge-writing. He is also an avid wine enthusiast (which sounds much better than just saying he drinks alot of wine) who enjoys spending summers traveling and writing, though not necessarily writing while traveling. He is currently working on a Masters Degree and has been published in Silverthought, Megan's Closet, Bewildering Stories, and several other publications. Boyd will not turn down a free cup of coffee...ever. more

---

NATHAN TYREE - Nathan Tyree is a writer from the wasteland of Kansas where he lives in a constant state of existential dread. His work has appeared in such places as Edifice Wrecked; decomP; The Beat; Straight from the Fridge; Flesh and Blood; Wretched and Violent; Coffee Faucet; Doorknobs and Body Paint and many others. He has recently been anthologized in The Flash from Social Disease Press. His book 'Mr Overby is Falling' was published in 2004. more

---

MICHAEL JAMES TREACY - An engineer by trade, Michael James Treacy lives in the evocative shadow of the (now defunct) MG-Rover factory in Birmingham, UK. He fancies himself a poet and claims that poetry is the vocabulary of his heart, soul, mind and occasionally his rear end. He has had poems published in a number of different mediums. These include anthologies by Boho Press and UKA Press, literary magazines Reach, Golddust and Twisted Tongue, and e-zines Global Inner Visions, Flutter, La Fenêtre and The Blue Room. more

---

TONI DAVIDSON - Toni Davidson was born in Ayr in 1965. He has edited ‘And Thus Will I Freely Sing’ (Polygon, 1989), ‘Intoxication: An Anthology Of Stimulant Based Writing’( Serpents Tail, 1998). His novel ‘Scar Culture’ (Canongate) was published in 1999 and his short story collection ‘The Gradual Gathering of Lust’ (Canongate) from which this story was taken, in 2007. more

---

THOM JACQUES - Thom Jacques was brought up in Newport, South Wales. Her is 27 years old and has been writing for a couple of years. Some of his poems recently appeared in 'CFUK', a Cardiff based litzine. Thom repairs shoes to make a living. more

---

TRACEY EMERSON - Tracey has lived in Edinburgh for ten years. She's currently writing her first novel - either in bed or in a converted cupboard covered in fairy lights. In an ideal world, she would be paid vast sums to write short stories. One of her stories, 'Our Big Day Out,' was a runner up in the 2004 Scotsman and Orange Short Story Prize and is published in the anthology ‘North’. She also has work published in ‘Parenthesis’ (Comma Press) and ‘New Writing Scotland 24’. more

---

RIK HASLAM - Rik Haslam is 39 and a short story and fiction writer. He runs Anything but Hackneyed - a London based writer-reading event featuring a mix of well-known published authors and new talent. He is currently completing the final year of an MA in creative writing and is fiddling with the final draft of his first novel. During the day he is a creative director for an ad agency, writing for the man. And he's about to become a dad. more

---

ALEATHIA DREHMER - Aleathia Drehmer was born in 1973 during the Carter Administration in a Polish town nestled in Central Connecticut. Her mother was a wide-eyed 16 year-old and her father a Vietnam Vet only five years home when they met. He was 8 years older than her when their daughter was born. They travelled the country like gypsies for the most part until it became too much for them. Aleathia settled in Corning, NY, which is the home of glass blowing. Here she met the love of her life while spinning records at the community college radio station in 1992. Music holds them together. They were married in the backyard in 2005. Aleathia has one energetic, ultra-friendly, and infinitely talkative 5 year-old daughter and a satanic cat named Carrot. Writing is the only way she remains sane in this world for that which does not come out of her brain serves to kill it. Her writing is almost always done between the hours of 11pm and 3 am. Aleathia’s publishing career started in 2004 at her local community college where she took first prize in poetry for two years and third prize in short fiction one of the years. Publishing online began in earnest in the summer of 2006. Zygote In My Coffee was the first to pick up her work and has remained one of her most favourite online sites. She also has work featured in Cerebral Catalyst, Haggard and Halloo, Lunatic Chameleon, High Contrast. She has upcoming work in the online journal Flutter and will be in the 3rd print edition of Zygote In My Coffee. Contact her at myspace. more

---

JAMIE LIN - Jamie Lin grew up in a colourful gray place people refer to as Brooklyn. Most of her stories are not from her own experiences but a dramatic stretch of an emotion she felt or witnessed. She writes best before dawn or after midnight. She's heading for college to take a heavy load of classes but she much rather read online ezines all day in pajamas. It's too bad that she has to do something other than creative writing to support her needs which includes going out to eat, seeing chick flicks and buying black tops. She has an ezine called alightedezine.com. Her website is at jamielin.net. She's currently working on more short pieces and a novella titled Just Do It. more

---

THE POET SPIEL - The poet Spiel is a tight-wired maverick painting naked word portraits of humankind, thin-layering its hirsute beastiness and, on rare occasion, revealing its humanity in scores of independent press publications. His often iconoclastic poetry of conflict, his profoundly human short stories, his seductive spoken word recordings and his astute bits of visual art appear both online and on the printed page around the world. more

---

SARAH ROBERTS - Sarah Roberts was born in 1978 and has lived in London and Norwich. She studied for an English degree at Goldsmiths College and has an MA in Modernism from UEA. In 2005 she received a grant from the Arts Council England to further develop her writing. This is her first published piece. more

---

STEVE ELY - Steve Ely writes poems and short stories and is currently working on a novel set in a California State penitentiary, a biographical work about former US federal prisoner Clayton Fountain and some obscure, dangerous poems about killers, Odin, the Fens and East Yorkshire. He's not had much published,but has broken surface in Papercut, the-errorist and Dream Catcher, and will shortly show his face in The Slab, Citizen 32, Savage Kick and Dogmatika. more

---

BOBBY WOMB - Jon McCall writes under the pen-name of Bobby Womb because it is more comfortable that way. Until one day, while standing at a urinal (pissing), he was asked: "Are you Mr Womb?" As well self-mythologising he also plays the "squeeze-box" and hits the tubs for the Falkirk beat combo Y'all Is Fantasy Island. more

---

ROB WOODWARD - Rob Woodard was born in Anaheim, California and was raised in the nearby Long Beach area, where he still lives. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in Anthropology from California State University, Long Beach and has worked as a field Archaeologist in California, Ireland, and Germany. ‘Heaping Stones’, his first novel was published by Burning Shore Press in late 2005. This same publisher will be bringing out ‘What Love Is’, his second novel, and ‘King Of Long Beach’, a volume of poetry, in 2007 and 2008, respectively. He has recently begun work on a third novel entitled ‘Backwaters Of Beauty’. more

---

LUCY BROWN - Lucy Brown was shortlisted in the 2006 5photostory.com competition and her story, 'Weddings and Wisdom', was subsequently published in their anthology, ‘39 Emergency Exits’. Lucy is an English student at Lincoln University, currently in her second year. Originally from Wakefield, she is enjoying the freedom university has to offer and is writing lots! She attributes her good points to her parents, though the negatives are all her own doing. more

---

DOUG TANOURY - Doug Tanoury was born and raised in Detroit and attended Wayne State University. His work has been published widely both in print and in electronic form. A number of his poetry collections are available in ebook form. In fact much of his online work can be read by typing his last name into any Internet search engine. Doug’s poetry has the subject of features in the New York Times Online and The Detroit News. One of his poems also won Honorable Mention in the Detroit Metro Times “Get Lit” special issue of 2006. more

---

D. RICHARD SCANNELL - D. Richard Scannell comes from central New Jersey. Reading the climax of ‘Moby-Dick’ when Ishmael and Ahab fight off the pod of whales with their bare hands was a pivotal moment in his life. He thought he was going to be an electrical engineer for a while, but then he got an opportunity to see what it was really like, and he decided that capacitors and dark basements weren't for him. Instead he studied English and German at Penn State. German possesses a mystical quality, something like unfiltered cigarettes stuffed with aloe leaves—raw, violent, cleansing. He retained a love of computers and programming from his engineering days, skills that come in handy. His current project is ForTheHermits.com, a website that combines flash fiction and illustration. It updates once a week and gives him a consistent relief from the insanity of introspection. Someday, he may do something really exciting, but for now, he's content to scribble down ideas in notebooks. more

---

CHRISTOPHER CUNNINGHAM - A strange freak improvising upon an old IBM typewriter, Cunningham prefers leathery Bordeaux wines, mid-sixties Miles Davis and sleeping past noon whenever possible. He's published seven books of poetry including ‘Thru the Heart of This Animal Life, A Measure of Impossible Humor’ (Liquid Paper Press; 2005), And Still The Night Left To Go: Poems & Letters (Bottle of Smoke Press; 2006) and Flowers In The Shadow Of The Storm (Sunnyoutside, 2007), as well as hundreds of poems throughout the small and large press. He is a Core Member of the Guerilla Poetics Project and hopes you join up and help spread the word. Cunningham lives with is girlfriend of sixteen years and his dog of one year in a dusty suburban compound outside of Atlanta, Ga. He can be reached at his blog, Upright Against the Savage Heavens. more

---

ROB PLATH - Rob Plath has one book of published poems called ‘Ashtrays and Bulls’ (2003 1st place winner of Nerve Cowboy's chapbook contest). His work has featured in journals and magazine internationally. He was part of a spoken word/music CD ‘Northport Celebrates Jack’ (a Kerouac tribute) featuring world famous musician David Amram. He was also a student of Allen Ginsberg's for two years. more

---

MICHAEL LEE JOHNSON - Mr. Michael Lee Johnson lives in Chicago, IL. after spending 10 years in Edmonton, Alberta Canada during the Viet Nam era. He is a freelance writer and poet whose work can be found at The Orange Room Review, Bolts Of Silk, The Flask Review, Apollo's Lyre, in their webzine, Chantarelle's Notebook website and Fresh! On Line. more

---

MAURICE OLIVER - After almost a decade of working as a freelance photographer in Europe, Maurice Oliver returned to America in 1990 to work for the Los Angeles Times. Then, in 1995, he made a life-long dream reality by traveling around the world for eight months. But instead of taking pictures, he recorded the experience in a journal, which eventually became dozens of poems. And so began his desire to be a poet. His poetry has appeared many journals and online writing sites. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is a private tutor. more

---

ALAN CATLIN - Alan Catlin recently retired from his unchosen profession as a barman to work on his fictional memoirs. So far he has finished a series of stories (unpublished) called ‘The Business’, a novel (unpublished) called ‘Chaos Management’ and is at work on what may be the last in the series of these memoirs, a group of linked stories, ‘Hours of Happiness’. A chapbook of related stories, ‘Death Angels’, was published by Four Sep Publications and is available from the author for a nominal fee (five bucks). He has published dozens of chapbooks and full length book including the infamous series of bar poems known under the working title of ‘Killer Drinks’ (titles include ‘Hair of the Dog That Bit Me’, ‘the Leper's Kiss’, ‘Death and Transfiguration Cocktail’ and ‘Screaming Mimis’). He has also published the award winning ‘Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre’, a few remaining copies left of this undergound classic (ten bucks from the author) and a book of selected poems called ‘Drunk and Disorderly’ among many others. For the record, he doesn't drink. Not any more anyway. more

---

DEREK OSTUNI - My name is Derek Ostuni and I am 27 years young. I grew up in Naugatuck Ct. most of my life and attended school at Naugatuck high and attended only two semesters of college at the local community school. I started writing when I was 19 but only started cultivating it a couple of years ago. I have suffered through manic depression and drug addiction. This is where a lot of my inspiration and writings come from. I am a survivor and a story teller. Some of what I write holds so much truth and some just sounds like my own gears grinding. Either way it is all official. I rarely make anything up just to fill a page. I am hoping that my book with give others that are struggling a sense of connection and inspiration to go after their dreams and to have courage and strength when dealing with the darker elements. I think there is something for everyone in these writings since they cover the more primal aspects of living. The light, the darkness, life, death, love, and desire are prominent in my work. I am really hoping it can reach the public for the greater good and I have a great amount of faith in it as do others in my life. more

---

APRIL-MAY MARCH - April-May March is a factory girl from Norwich. Her work is due to feature in zygote in my coffee and the beatnik. more

---

JAMES O'SHEA - James O’Shea was born in New York City and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At age eleven, he began a series of moves around the country and the world. First Toronto, Singapore, and then back to the United States: Connecticut, Harlem, Boston, Washington D.C., San Diego, Brooklyn and the enchanted island of Puerto Rico. He now lives in Chicago. His interest in poetry came out of the observations he made, the lessons he learned and the people he met throughout his travels. His poems have recently been accepted/published at remark., Concrete Meat Sheet and Zygote in my Coffee. more

---

DAVID LaBOUNTY - David LaBounty’s poetry has recently appeared in Boston Literary Magazine, Zygote in my Coffee, The Cerebral Catalyst, Autumn Sky Poetry, Four Volts and forthcoming in remark, Pemmican, Vintage Poetry Journal and Azul. His bio is unliterary. He was in the navy (and stationed in Edzell, Scotland for two years, worked in a Nevada gold mine and also as a reporter, a mechanic and a salesman. more

---

CHRIS UNDERWOOD - Chris Underwood is a twenty-two year old 3rd year undergraduate at Goldsmiths College, University of London (BA English Literature) in the final stages of putting together a collection of poetry entitled 'Love, Honour and Obey'. The collection contains one hundred pieces that cover such themes as abortion, love, loss, death, warfare and old age. These six pieces come from the beginning, middle and end of the collection but more can be found on his Myspace blog. more

---

JUSTIN HYDE - Justin Hyde was born in Iowa. He grew up in a trailer park. There was adequate food and shelter, but he was not exposed to literature, and erudition in general was not valued by his parents. Justin spent a-lot of time alone as a youth. He managed to graduate from the University of Iowa with a degree in psychology. He has since embarked on a series of careers, both white and blue collar. His heart has never been into any of them, and he often feels detached from his surroundings. He is currently a parole officer. As a side note: Justin has been bombarded throughout his life with attempts at proselytization; mostly by rangy street folk. He often wonders if there is something on his face that indicates he is close to full blown nihilism. more

---

GRANT D. MCLEMAN - Grant D. McLeman is Scottish, born in Glasgow in 1952 and now living on the Clyde Coast. He started writing in the 1970s, won diplomas in the Scottish Open Poetry competition, appeared in several antholgies and then stopped writing. Resumed in 2002 encouraged by Edwin Morgan, and wrote pieces in collaboration with U.S. photographer for broadcast during 2003 on U.S. cable T.V. programme Coffee House. Since then he has been involved with Limerick based Whitehouse Poetry Society with whom he has read and been published. Published in a number of other outlets both print and on-line. Some of his work is in the process of being translated into Persian and Spanish by the poet/academic Saeid Hooshangi. more

---

MISTI RAINWATER-LITES - Misti Rainwater-Lites was born in Texas in 1973. She had to leave the state because her socks don't match and her hair is a mess. Misti writes a lot of poems and blogs and the occasional short story and novel. She also takes photographs and makes collages out of old magazines. Misti's poems have been published in various online and print zines such as Zygote in my Coffee, LitVision, Cherry Bleeds, Triptych Haiku, Haggard & Halloo, Poesy, remark and Nerve House. Misti is happily married to Michael, who helps her put together her print pornographic poetry zine Instant Pussy. more

---

CHRIS DAVIS - Chris Davis is a United States citizen, and was born in Oakland, California. He lived there for fourteen years with his Mom; until one day the fence became so high he could not see the street. Once this happened, they moved to Pennsylvania where people don't build as many fences, and instead live in highly controlled, homogenous populations. He later attended a small liberal arts school, Albright College, in Central Pennsylvania. It was there he began acting and writing plays. Since graduating two years ago he has attended the National Theatre Institute in Connecticut, had his play Spring Chicken or When I Flew the Coop produced in Boston, acted in New York with the Vintage Group, and had poems published in various small-press magazines. After working for a year in a Literary Office he decided it would best to leave the country. He is currently living with a Mexican family in a small town in the state of Chiapas, studying Spanish and teaching English. His future plans are to: start a theatre group, become fluent in Spanish, and get published one more time. This is his first published prose piece. He is 24 years old. He'd like to thank his mom, their four cats (Saturn, Chloe, Charlotte, Babet), their dog Storm, for their continuing support. And he'd like to thank his dad. more

---

CYNTHIA ROGERSON - Cynthia Rogerson used to be a californian, but after 30 years in Scotland is starting to mutate into a being not quite scottish, not quite american, not quite anything interesting at all. she claims to love writing, yet procrastinates insanely to avoid the actual act. she also currently (as of nov. 22, 2006, 8:45 pm) loves Amaretto, emailing, fiction, red wine, poetry by John Glenday, black and white movies, black and white photographs, stories by Laura Hird, mainstream blockbuster movies, white wine, long walks on rainy beaches, beachs in any weather, any movie with shirley henderson, or meryl streep, or kevin spacey, or marilyn munro. oh, and her 4 kids and her scottish-italian boyfriend. Any or all of these things may be different at time of reading. more

---

CRAIG TERLSON - Craig Terlson has been an illustrator, drawing for magazines and books for the past 20 years. His work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Psychology Today, Florida Trend, and many others. Out of a desire to tell stories more than a few panels long, he started an alternate career as a writer. His fiction has appeared in Hobart, Bound Off, Thieves Jargon, Cezanne's Carrot, Write Side-Up and other literary journals. He was finalist for the Glimmer Train 2005 New Writers Award. Craig thinks that listening to baseball on the radio is one of the top ten things in life. more

---

KRISTINE ONG MUSLIM - Kristine Ong Muslim's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Adbusters, Amarillo Bay, Birmingham Words, Color Wheel, GUD Magazine, Free Verse, Her Circle, The Journal, Loch Raven Review, The Pedestal Magazine, T-Zero, Tipton Poetry Journal, Turnrow, and WORDs DANCE. She lives in the Philippines--in a small town straight out of a Stephen King novel. She dropped out from a Comparative Literature course during her freshman year and graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Philippines. She has written more than three hundred fifty stories and poems for genre, mainstream, and literary publications in Australia, Austria, Canada, UK, and USA. more

---

KATHY POLENBERG - Katharine Polenberg was born in 1958 to an Alabama lineman named Ralph Edwin Glasgow and an unfathomable, northern woman. She became Howard Polenbergs’ wife in 1981 and has been driving with an expired license all year because she doesn’t want to tell Howie she can’t find the marriage document with her name change (the DMV requires for renewal) and has never had reason to get a passport (the only other document they accept.) As of this biog they remain married so don’t blow it for her by tipping him off, okay? She has a legit excuse for forgetting some major stuff anyway. Since getting hit by a car in the late 1970s, Katharine has suffered episodes of amnesia and mental confusion. She reads and writes poetry partly for the exercise (and if she does say so herself – her synapses and dendrites are looking pretty buff, and her brain in a thong has the 6-pack corpus collosum of a 20 year old). Her grown daughters know what she’s up to and are nonverbally supportive and quietly impressed. Katharine’s writing has appeared online at Cerebral Catalyst, Thieves Jargon, Zygote In My Coffee and Poor Mojos’ Almanac(k). Visit her website here. more

---

RICHARD J. PARFITT - Richard J Parfitt was born in the 60s and left school at fifteen to work in a dry cleaners until he'd saved enough to buy a guitar. He has played in a lot of different groups and worked as a session player, van driver and pizza waiter. more

---

DOUG HOLDER - Doug Holder was born in New York City in 1955. He graduated from the State University College at Buffalo with a B.A. in History in 1977, and from Harvard University with an M.A. in English and American Literature and Language in 1997. Holder founded the Ibbetson Street Press in 1998, and since then has published over 30 books and chaps of poetry, and twenty issues of the journal "Ibbetson Street" Holder's taped interviews with contemporary poets and writers are housed at Harvard University, Buffalo University, and Poet's House (NYC) libraries. He founded the Somerville News Writers Festival with Timothy Gager in 2003, and is the Arts/Editor for The Somerville News, as well as the Boston editor of Poesy Magazine, and the book review editor of the Wilderness House Literary Review. Some of his poetry and articles have appeared in "The Boston Globe," "Hunger," "the new renaissance," "Café Review," "American Poetry Monthly," "Presa," "Poetca," and numerous anthologies such as "Inside the Outside: An Anthology of American Avant-Garde Poets." ( Presa Press) He is the director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series in Newton, Mass. more

---

MARK FLEMING - Mark Fleming was born in 1962 and brought up in Shandon, Edinburgh. The most profound influence on his artistic development occurred in the 70s, when his mid-teen obsessions for Blake's 7, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Blue Oyster Cult were utterly eclipsed by the punk rock revolution. Like many of his contemporaries, he was so inspired by the words of John Lydon, Mark E Smith, Siouxsie, Poly Styrene, Howard Devoto, TV Smith, Paul Weller, Gene October, Mark Perry and, of course, Joe Stummer, and so many others, that he joined a band (4 Minute Warning) and began feverishly scribbling 'anti establishment' lyrics. They spent just as much time producing flyers and fanzines and pestering people in pubs, or making huge banners for gigs and CND marches along Princes Street, as composing punk anthems. They even participated in an open-air festival to stop them building a nuclear plant near Torness. (It fucking pissed down that day and none of the bands got to play a note! Then, to add insult to injury, the bastards went behind their backs and built it anyway!) As Mark grew up and outgrew his Doc Martens (and that school blazer festooned with lapel badges) his writing evolved from raw verses of teenage angst into more reasoned fiction. He’s been published in diverse outlets: an anti-war statement he composed with 4 Minute Warning actually appeared (uncredited) in the first ever edition of I.D. Magazine. Short stories have been published in The Big Issue in Scotland, Scottish Child Magazine, Cutting Teeth and football fanzines, as well as literary anthologies, including the 1997 Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction and the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday 'Shorts' volume of 1998. Nowadays, things have gone in a bit of a circle as he’s started playing guitar in a 'post-punk' band again (The Axidents). more

---

TOM MURRAY - TOM MURRAY is a full time writer living in the Scottish Borders. He is currently, along with Stuart Hepburn, one of the Writers in Residence to Clackmannanshire Council. He has been a lecturer in Creative Writing at Borders College. He works extensively with writers groups and Schools. Recently he was Writer in Residence to Galashiels Academy and he is currently Writer in Residence to Peebles High School. He is also co editor, along with Julian Colton, of the Eildon Tree magazine. Along with Julian he organised the 2005 Borders Book Festival fringe. He has had a collection of stories published, ‘Out of My Head.’ Also a poetry collection ‘The Future is behind You.’ Also a play ‘The Clash.’ He has been widely published in magazines and anthologies in the USA and Canada, as well as the UK. more

---

ALAN McWHIRTER - Alan lives in Sweden. Is married, has three kids and a Volvo. Has strongly felt for many years that his probably unhealthy obsession as a football father (all three of my kids play and all are damn good - I was always awful) is ripe material for a novel. Feels also that the beautiful game itself is a minefield of cryptic metaphors for the substance and patterns of life. Alan has only had one story out in any sort of media, which was a tale called ‘Filming’. It was part of an Australian e-anthology that bombed spectacularly in 2001. The magazine was called Briefs. more

---

DAVID PLUMB - David Plumb grew up in North Adams, Massachusetts and attended Syracuse University majoring in Political Science and English. He worked as a medical technician, paramedic and laboratory technician during those years, but found himself attracted to writing and literature. One evening he went to a party where someone was reading Lawrence Ferlinghettiâ’s #Coney Island of the Mind.’ It changed his life forever. After his tour as a U.S. Naval Officer, he rented a farmhouse in upstate New York, where heI worked in a slaughterhouse for not enough cash and all the heart and tongue he could take home. Then he headed west, working and hitchhiking to San Francisco. In San Francisco, he went to printing school and published Journal 31, directed the Intersection Poetry Series and worked a series of jobs to maintain his writing. In Sonoma, California, he raised chickens and ducks. From time to time he has acted in Hollywood films such as Fat Man, Little Boy and Tucker. One of David’s fondest achievements is his teaching career. He taught Poetry in the Schools California and expedited the Northern California Poetry in the Schools Handbook. In 1991 he was one of 48 people in the world to present at the first International Conference on Literature and Addiction at the University of Sheffield, UK. more

---

SHUG HANLON - If he had any remaining sense Shug Hanlan should be making last-ditch efforts to complete his PhD at Glasgow University or persuading publishers to put out the follow-up to his 2000 novella and short story collection ‘Hi Bonnybrig and Other Greetings’. Instead, the old fool spends most of his time watching the Hallmark Channel (‘Dr. Quinn’), listening to Jah Stitch bootlegs (‘Scratch’), pouring over the local paper (‘Denny X’), and betting heavily on the greyhounds while under the influence of powerful narcotics (‘Drugz & Dugz’). Hanlan is not the brutally honest and fearless writer normally associated with this site. Critics will note that nowhere during ‘Dr.Quinn’ does he mention the celestial creature revenge programme ‘Touched By An Angel’, claiming that it is too medieval for his tastes and citing his fear of heavenly bodies who choose to help people facing unseen crossroads in their lives especially ones that resemble Toni Morrison or the drummer in the Corrs after catastrophic cosmetic surgery. More of his stuff can be found in magazines such as Rebel Inc, Northwords and Billy Liar and in the anthologies ‘Ahead of It's Time’ and ‘The Knuckle End’. Hanlan currently works in a sausage factory in the Tamfourhill area of Falkirk and performs on the local Intellectual's Tribute circuit under the moniker Naw Ah'm No Noam Chomsky. more

---

R.K. WALLACE - R.K. Wallace comes comes from Glasgow, Scotland, is 26 and plays the guitar on the streets to make a living. His work has been, or is due to be published in 400words, Instant Pussy, St Vitus Press, Underground Voices, Poetic Diversity, In Between Hangovers and The Beat. more

---

MIKE COLBOURNE - Mark Colbourne was born in 1976. He likes books by Martin Amis, songs by The Clash, films by Bill Murray, and whisky by the Irish. He currently lives in the West Midlands and is attempting to become a full time writer following a succession of failed career moves and occupations of dubious legality across the UK, New York and a brief stint in Prague. more

---

JEFF CALLAWAY - Jeff Callaway was born in Athens, Texas on April 24, 1976. He has blond hair and blue eyes and may be a descendant of Daniel Boone. His most recently published chapbook is ‘Satori in Paris, Texas’ (December 2005). Previously published works include, ‘Hotter Than a Four Balled Tomcat’ and ‘Rode Hard and Put Up Wet’. Jeff frequented many poetry open mics in Austin, Texas before being incarcerated on an outstanding warrant from a prior charge of possession of a controlled substance. He is currently doing time in the Bradshaw State Jail in Henderson, Texas. more

---

ALEX HILDEGARDE - Alex Hildegarde was born in 1970, of mixed Welsh, French and German descent. He attended the local comprehensive, studying sciences for 'A' level. After watching by chance a school production of Chekhov's "The Seagull", he went back every night till the show closed, and ultimately applied to university to study English Literature. He graduated with a First from Oxford in 1992, and went on to study Comparative Literature at Toronto University, with a thesis charting Slavic Romantic influences in the West, and showing the debt authors like Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, George Bernard Shaw, Henry James and George Eliot owe to their Russian counterparts, Chekhov and Turgenev. Since 1994 Alex has worked as a freelance Software consultant. He lives in Edinburgh South, near the Meadows, with his wife Rebekah and 2 children, Tabitha and Alice. Alex has been writing actively since 1989, during which time he has produced 4 novels and several hundred short stories. His appearance on laurahird.com is his first fictional publication to date. more

---

DAVID McNAMARA - David McNamara is a 23 years old from a small town in Ayshire on the west of Scotland called Ardrossan. He went to Aberdeen university to study English and is currently living in South Korea teaching English to pay off his students debts but will be returning to Scotland in March. The only work David has had published are social commentary articles and interviews for rollerblade magazines Be-mag and Unity magazine. He got into that because he used to be an amateur inline stunt skater. more

---

RONALD BAATZ - Ronald Baatz was born in New Jersey, 1947. He currently lives in Upstate New York. The first book he read in childhood that influenced him was ‘Tom Sawyer’. The last book to influence him was ‘Everyman’ by Philip Roth (which is also the book he just finished reading). more

---

MISHA CAHILL - Misha Cahill is 34 years old and lives in New Zealand. Her work has been published in the Beat, VerbSap, Skive, Long Story Short, Smokebox and Thieves Jargon. She studied sociology and art history at university. more

---

DAVE HEMMINGS - Dave Hemmings is 26 and works in a books and music shop in Brighton. His work has been published by Ascent, Zygote in my coffee, My favourite bullet and Circle magazine. more

---

A.D. WINANS - A.D. Winans was born, raised and lives in San Francisco. He graduated from S.F. State College (now a university). A.D. returned home from Panama in 1958 and discovered the North Beach beat scene, and later was a fringe participant in the Hipper Era. He was privileged to know Jack Micheline, Bob Kaufman, Charles Bukowski, and many other Beat and post-beat poets and writers. He edited and published Second Coming Magazine and Press for l7 years. Some of the many highlights of his life include having a poem of his set to music and performed at Tully Hall (NYC), meeting and having a drink with John Lee Hooker, shooting pool with Janis Joplin, and meeting the late Robert Kennedy, one of his early heroes. Author of over 40 books and chapbooks of poetry and prose. Work has appeared internationally. Presa Press will be publishing a book of his Selected Poems in January 2007. Becoming more active in photography and loves dogs, all kinds of chocolates, and three year old children before they become corrupted by adults. more

---

IMAN NIELSTROY - Iman is Costa Rican born. He will take his hand from his pocket to shake yours. He makes a living as a water chemist in Boston. Look for his work at places like Dogmatika and Cerebral Catalyst. more

---

MIKE ESTABROOK - Seems I've been writing poetry for so long that Methuselah should be taking notice, but in reality, time is simply doing its thing streaking ahead blithely pulling all of us along for the wild ride whether we like it or not; reminds me, I've published 15 chapbooks over the years, the last one just came out about my Dad, "methinks I see my father," and before that was "when Patti would fall asleep," about my wife, guess you could say I'm a family man. I've been published in quite a few places over the years, starting in 1989. more

---

EDDIE KILOWATT - Eddie Kilowatt is a 25 year old sometimes wanderer who calls Milwaukee, WI his home. At current, his work has been accepted for Thunder Sandwich, remark., My Favorite Bullet, Defenestration, Ugly Accent, and Thieves Jargon among others. His first collection of poetry titled ‘Manifest Density’ was released in April 2006. Over the next two years he is writing his next book via dictation while riding a motorcycle around the U.S. with a microphone in his helmet. In between he's compiling his next collection of poetry, ‘Carrying a Knife in to the Gunfight.’ more

---

J.J. CAMPBELL - J.J. Campbell was born Jan. 21, 1976 in Ohio, where he currently still resides and is rotting to hell. He was misfortunate enough to believe he was given the gift of poetry as a teen and has been blinded by such tomfoolery since. He is unmarried and has no desire for a marriage, let alone children. J.J. lives on an 80 acre farm with his mother, his step father's ashes and a slew of animals buried in the back. They all died of natural causes by the way. When not writing, masturbating or laughing at what people write about him on message boards, you can find J.J. in front of a television somewhere, 99% of the time watching sports. You can email him if you so desire, but most people will tell you it's really a waste of time. more

---

DIGBY BEAUMONT - Digby Beaumont lives by the seaside, in Brighton on England’s south coast. He spent his early twenties teaching Sociology and English then worked as a professional nonfiction writer for many years, with numerous publications. His English language courses and grammar books have been best-sellers in Europe, Latin America and the Far East. Nowadays he writes mainly short fiction. His stories have appeared in various magazines and journals: Leafing Through, Barfing Frog Press, The Raging Face, Slingink Magazine, Zygote in My Coffee, Static Movement and The Scruffy Dog Review, among others. One of his stories will also be included in the forthcoming print anthology ‘Small Voices, Big Confessions’. more

---

ANDREW LANDER - After ten years in the print industry, Andrew Lander started up a bookselling company which he has now run with his partner, for the last eight years. He writes and paints, when time allows, and his work can be seen in many print and online literary journals. Past appearances include: Poetry Now, Purple Patch, Never Bury Poetry, Zygote In My Coffee. more

---

RACHEL FOX - Born in the north of England in 1967, Rachel Fox has lived on the Angus coast in Scotland for 4 years. She has been a researcher, a nightclub DJ, a journalist, a tutor, a learning assistant, a shop assistant, a layabout and a nervous wreck. Currently she looks after family, writes poetry and is relatively calm. She reads her poems regularly at the Montrose folk club and has published 6 poetry postcards (on sale around the country – see website for details). Almost all her poems are on her website, Crowd-Pleasers more

---

JASON JACKSON - Jason Jackson lives in the South West of England with his wife. He supports Sunderland AFC, plays the guitar badly, and spends too much time doing his real job when he should really be writing (or spending time with his beautiful wife!). He has been writing for four years, and for the last year he has been a member of Alex Keegan's Bootcamp, an online writing cooperative. He also contributes to Slinkink, another online writing group. His work has been published in a variety of places, including Pulp.net, Thirst For Fire , The Green Muse, Opium Magazine, and Buzzwords on line, as well as in Cadenza Magazine and a Momaya Press anthology in print. He hopes to continue writing. more

---

LEON B. STERN - Leon Stern has written, doodled and scibbled since his youth. He has written sci-fi short stories sporadically since high school. But found it easier to make a living writing non-fiction business materials. (Don’t you turn up your nose!) He’s written presentations for corporate executives, training videos, proposals, and many more. He tried wrapping his brain around novels a few times, years ago, and always gave up. Lesson one: if the author is not intrigued, there’s no way the reader will be. He has also moved about way too often, living in S.F., Los Angeles, and Chicago and environs and many addresses within each. This has been informative, formative, and time consuming. The last few years have seen a greatly rekindled interest in fiction writing. He now has a couple works on lulu.com, including The Descartes Decision, a comedic murder mystery. His second novel, The Dandelion Conspiracy, which is a collaborative effort with a long time friend, should be available there soon. He has started two more novels, Renier the Ready, a novel of the awakening of political awareness in a peasant in medieval France and Our Sacred Lady Liberty, a satire on the growing symbiosis of American politics and religion. He’d better hurry with that last one or it will be too true. And too late. more

---

KEVIN WILLIAMSON - ‘Kevin Williamson has lived in Edinburgh since 1979 and feels very much at home there with his daughter and his mates and some of his family and his football team and all the people he likes and the people he bumps into when he walks around aimlessly photographing things. He likes the historic bits of Edinburgh with cobbles and sandstone much more than the shiny new bits with black glass windows and computer terminals. He can’t get enough of Arthur’s Seat and Portobello beach and Leith Walk and the Botanic Gardens and the house where Robert Louis Stevenson was born and both the bars on the opposite corners of Iona Street and Buchanan Street and the back of the East Stand where folk meet for a smoke and a laugh at half time and the National Museum of Scotland with all the butterflies on pins and the view from the top of Calton Hill in the winter. Some days he likes watching bands at the Liquid Rooms or movies at the Cameo and others he likes watching folk lying around in the summer having picnics in the Meadows and taking the long and winding path along the Water of Leith from the Modern Art Gallery to the Shore and staring down at the burnt out shell of La Belle Angele from The Bridges wondering what would have happened if the Old Town had burnt down. In a previous life he was a publisher but can’t recall the details and some of his poetry has appeared here and there and some of the things he has done have worked out okay and others haven’t which aint a bad batting average. more

---

SARAA ENNAGAR - Safaa Ennagar was born on 15 May 1973. She has a BA in Communication – Radio and Television, Cairo University, and is studying for an MA. She works as a presenter for al-Arab Radio and Television (ART) and is a film critic. She has one collection of short stories (2004) and one novel ‘Istiqalat Malik al-Mawt’ [‘The Resignation of the King of Death’], Dar Sharqiyat, 2005. more

---

GERARD HANBERRY - ‘Rough Night’, Gerard Hanberry’s first collection of poetry was published in May 2002 by Stonebridge Publications, Ebbw Vale, Wales. A second collection ‘Something Like Lovers’ was published in October 2005 also by Stonebridge. Publications. In summer 2004 Gerard won the Brendan Kennelly Sunday Tribune Poetry Award. Gerard Hanberry’s poetry has been published widely in many literary journals and newspapers and as been shortlisted for many of Ireland’s top poetry prizes including a Sunday Tribune/Hennessy Award in 2000, Strokestown 2003 and RTE’s Rattlebag Poetry Slam 2003, he was runner-up in the Firewords City Poetry Award (Galway) 2005. In 2000 Gerard won the Originals Short Story prize in Listowel Writers Week. He has been invited to read at many literature festivals and been broadcast on Lyric FM, Galway Bay F.M., Cape Cod Radio in US and RTE’s Rattlebag, Sunday Miscellany and The Enchanted Way. Gerard has also worked in journalism and for many years in the 1980’s and early 90’s wrote a weekly column for the Galway Observer under the name ‘Joe Barry’. These days he teaches English at Saint Enda’s College, Salthill. A performing musician in the singer/songwriter tradition, he gigs regularly around the West of Ireland playing ‘classic acoustic’ songs. Gerard has a First Class Honours MA in Writing from NUI, Galway and runs a weekly ‘creative reading’ workshop in Galway Arts Centre called ‘exploring contemporary poetry’. more

---

JOSEPH RIDGWELL - Joe grew up in the East End of London and left school with few qualifications. He then embarked on a succession of menial jobs. After being stabbed in a bar brawl and getting robbed at knifepoint he decided it was time to leave the country and promptly travelled the world; Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. He stayed in Australia for three years living mostly in the Kings Cross area of Sydney until he became an illegal immigrant. To avoid being deported Joe then went to Thailand and brought a share in the world's smallest bar, the famous and now defunct Barcelona Bar. After fleeing Thailand with a tail between his legs he returned to London in 2001 where he lives and writes to this day. more

---

GREGORY VINCENT ST. THOMASINO - Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino was born in Greenwich Village, New York, and was raised in both the city and in the country across the Hudson river in New Jersey. He was educated at home, eventually to enter Fordham University where he received a degree in philosophy. Today he lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where he edits the online journal, eratio, and works as a private docent. An interview appears online at Here Comes Everybody. more

---

MEGAN HALL - Megan Hall resides in Whitechapel but hails from nowhere town, Yorkshire. Crap previous jobs include chatline hostess, window dresser, dairy farm midwife, leather factory processor, and 24hour petrol station pump attendant. Last Chance Disco’s work can be spotted under various guises in Scarecrow, Full Moon Empty Sports Bag, Straight From The Fridge Fanzine, and occasionally in The Times. Her favourite bedtime reads include Dan Fante, Niall Griffiths, Nelson Algren, Tony O’Neill, and Chuck Palahniuk. more

---

PETER WILD - Peter Wild is the co-founder of www.bookmunch.co.uk. He is the editor of a forthcoming series of books for Serpent's Tail, the first two of which - Perverted by Language: Fiction inspired by The Fall & The Empty Page: Fiction inspired by Sonic Youth - will be published in 2007. His writing and fiction have appeared in NOÖ Journal, Word Riot, SN Review The Big Issue, Nude Magazine, Alt Sounds, City Life, 3AM magazine and Eyeballkid. He lives in Manchester with the wife and two kids. more

---

HAYTHAM AL-WARDANY - Haytham al-Wardany was born in Cairo in 1972. He has a degree in electronic engineering from Cairo University (1995). He has published two collections of short stories (the first co-authored), with the second 2003 collection winning the Sawaris Young Writer’s Fiction Prize in December 2005. He lives in Berlin and works as a journalist on Deutsche Welle’s Arabic-language website. He likes to make short documentary video films, and has translated from German some works of Walter Benjamin and Wolfgang Hermann. more

---

STEPHEN SHIEBER - Stephen Shieber's lust for glory was awakened at an early age, when, in 1980, he won first prize in a Methodist colouring-in contest. He suffers from an irrational fear of barbershops. Born in Germany, Stephen has little desire to travel, but recommends holidaying in Finland. He lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he works as a cod philosopher at a local school. more

---

CIARA MacLAVERTY - Ciara MacLaverty was born in Belfast and has lived in Scotland for most of her life, where she studied Arts at Glasgow University. She has had ME from the age of 18. Her short stories have appeared in New Writing Scotland and several magazines. ‘Seats for Landing’ (Dreadful Night Press 2005) from which these poems are taken, is her first poetry collection. more

---

COLIN JACKSON - Colin Jackson was born in 1972 and raised in Edinburgh. He now lives in Bristol. He is currently involved in a business in Romania that deals in land and property development. He have also recently completed a postgraduate diploma at the London School of Journalism and does freelancing and writes short stories in his spare time. more

---

ANDREW DEMCAK - Andrew Demcak is currently working on his second Master's Degree at U. C. Berkeley. When he is not hard at work driving the Bookmobile for Oakland Public Library, he can be found attending "GuyWriters" poetry readings at Anthony's house in San Francisco, or eating Tibetan momos with his partner, designer Peter Oliver. Viva Wallace Stevens! more

---

ROSALIND WYLLIE - Rosalind Wyllie is 36 and lives in Newcastle where she works part time for social services in a therapeutic role with young people leaving care. (Her background is in Psychology and Counselling). Over the last few years she has won several prizes in short story competitions and had stories published in local anthologies and on the web - (Jigsaw Lounge and Floatation Suite) Most recently her short story ‘Freshers’ was published in an anthology by Tonto Press. Rosalind has attended a number of writing courses, including an Arvon course on Writing Popular Fiction and a BBC funded course on Writing For Radio. She has MA with distinction for Creative Writing from the University of Northumbria. In February 2006 her first full-length stage play ‘Green Beans’ was professionally produced at The Customs House Theatre. The Newcastle Journal described it as a ‘Brilliantly witty debut.’ The British Theatre Guide called it ‘A remarkably assured piece of work’ (The full review is available here. She has recently completed her first novel ‘Everything You Ever Wanted’ and is currently looking for an agent. She is also writing a second full-length play called ‘All Messed Up’ and is churning up ideas for her next novel. more

---

ILONA LAGOWSKI-TIMOSZUK - In 1975, Ilona Lagowski-Timoszuk was born in Warsaw, Poland during the height of communist rein. Her father landed a professorial position at MIT and relocated the family to the USA. Her father opened the first doors to Ilona’s creative drive–freedom of speech. Growing up in Boston was coarse. A teenager in the height of the 80’s drug boom, Ilona’s life was threatened numerously. It was through her writing, and teachers who believed in her unique voice, that she bloomed, publishing her first poem at sixteen. After graduating Cum Laude with a BA in Creative Writing, Ilona’s priorities took a radical swing. She didn’t want to be torn between children and career, so she gave up her scholarships to graduate school in order to focus on her two children. Ilona is a graduate student at University of Manchester, UK, where she is completing her MA in Novel Writing. Her writing has been featured on the BBC and published in numerous literary journals. Ilona resides both in Florida and the UK with her husband and their two children. more

---

ROBERT SCOTT LEYSE - Robert Scott Leyse is a co-founder and the editor of the literary erotica website Sliptongue.Com and the founder and editor of the ShatterColors Literary Review. He has two novels forthcoming, one in the summer of 2006 and one in the winter of 2006 or 2007. A native of San Francisco, he resides in Manhattan. More information may be found at his still-in-progress website, Robert Scott Leyse Online. more

---

BEN MYERS - Born in Durham, Ben Myers retired from conventional working life at the age of 23. Since then he has existed solely by writing. Now 30, he is the author of the novel 'The Book Of Fuck', several music biographies and one collection of his journalism. He also lyricist/artist for The Gulag whose debut album is released next year, and his second novel, 'The Missing Kidney' will also be published in 2007 through Wrecking Ball Press. He currently lives in Peckham, London and also runs Captains Of Industry record label. He has no hobbies. No time. Born in Durham, Ben Myers retired from conventional working life at the age of 23. Since then he has existed solely by writing. Now 30, he is the author of the novel 'The Book Of Fuck', several music biographies and one collection of his journalism. He also lyricist/artist for The Gulag whose debut album is released next year, and his second novel, 'The Missing Kidney' will also be published in 2007 through Wrecking Ball Press. He currently lives in Peckham, London and also runs Captains Of Industry record label. He has no hobbies. No time. more

---

GRAHAM STACK - Born in Glasgow in 1972, studied at various locations in Europe a variety of subjects, now based in Berlin while regularly attending Scotland and St. Petersburg. Writes novels when there is the time, short stories or nothing at all when there isn’t. Writes in libraries. Has never been to Denmark. more

---

LISA ZARAN - Lisa Zaran was born in Los Angeles, California, yet spent less than one year there. She moved over 40 times before the age of 18. Since then, she has slowed down considerably, moving only 8 times so far in her adult life. Born to Norwegian parents who enjoyed living a nomadic lifestyle, Lisa too, is always on the lookout for the next great adventure. Although, now that she has settled down with a family she finds she can experience as much fulfilment through music and poetry as she used to experience travelling, meeting new people and always being the new kid in town. She is the author of four poetry collections, ‘the sometimes girl’ (InnerCircle Publishing), ‘You Have A Lovely Heart’ (chapbook, Little Poem Press), ‘Clipped From Our Days’ (online collection at Argonauts' Boat) and The ’Blondes Lay Content’ (Lulu Press) She writes and lives in Arizona. Many of her poems, essays, and artwork can be found in literary journals, ezines, and anthologies worldwide. more

---

DAVID NIALL WILSON - David Niall Wilson is approaching a half-century on the earth. He lives and loves in the historic William R. White House in Hertford, NC with author/editor Patricia Lee Macomber, their kids, pets, books and dreams. He has somewhere around a dozen published novels, over 130 published short stories in various halls of literature. He still hopes, despite all of this, to one day be a great writer. more

---

R.W. HURST - R.W. Hurst was born in East York, Ontario, Canada in 1955 and now lives in Ajax, Ontario, Canada where he has for the past 20 years owned and operated a small industrial publishing company: The Electricity Forum. His poetry has appeared in several Canadian poetry magazines and journals over the years. He is also active in community theatre where he acts and directs small productions. He has numerous writing awards from the Canadian Business Press Association. He has lived in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, St. Catharines, NYC and Moscow. Semi-successfully married. One cat: Osma Bin Kitty. more

---

KIRAN BHARTHAPUDI - Kiran Bharthapudi is a freelance writer lost in New York City. With his writing, he effortlessly converts what seem to be brilliant ideas in his head into total fiascos. This is his first completed attempt at fiction. more

---

MARCO MONTALTO - Marco Montalto was born on the 14th of May, 1979 in Malta. He attended Primary and Secondary School at De La Salle College, Vittoriosa and later read Psychology and Theatre Studies at the University of Malta. He has been writing poetry since the age of sixteen and also writes short stories as a pastime. He also has various ideas for installations and ready-mades, which he would like to see set up. He aspires to become as famous as Giuseppe Calì and live longer than Anton Inglott. Apart from a certain Anthony, he dedicates his recently published first book of poems, Anthology: Passages of Love, to all the patients at Mount Carmel Hospital. more

---

TERRY ROGERS - Terry Rogers is Managing Editor of Menda City Review, a small online literary magazine. His first novel, ‘JT’, is available at most major online book sellers. Terry began his current spasm of writing about three years ago when, like so many authors before him, life as he knew it was seemingly collapsing in on him and the last of his dollars fell from his hand like dry lifeless oak leaves to buy the cheapest bottle of booze available. Now he's really happy and chronically hungover. There you go, proof positive: good things do sometimes happen when you’re drunk! Terry is currently being held captive in Santa Cruz, CA, USA, and in desperate need of attention. Please send cheap floozies and expensive bourbon ASAP. more

---

DON WINTER - Don Winter went from being owner of Southeast Real Estate to poverty after a 1998 divorce. He’s since taken up the poem, with acceptances from New York Quarterly, Passages North, 5 AM, Southern Poetry Review, Pearl, Portland Review, Slipstream, Sycamore Review, Chiron Review, and close to 500 other journals in the US, Canada, England, Ireland, Switzerland and Australia. He has published 2 chapbooks of his poems, Things About to Disappear and On the Line (both Bone World Publishing), which are distributed by New York Quarterly. His poems have been nominated for nine Pushcarts. He is co-founder of the journal Fight These Bastards. more

---

CHRISSIE GITTINS - Chrissie Gittins is from Lancashire and lives in SE London. Her short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies including The Printers Devil, Cadenza, Orbis, The Reater, How Maxine Learned to Love Her Legs (Aurora Metro), Signals 3 (London Magazine Editions), and Adrift From Belize to Havana (Biscuit Fiction). Four have been broadcast on BBC Radio Four, read by Anne Reid, Stephanie Cole, Penelope Wilton, and one which Chrissie read herself last December. Last year she received an Arts Council Grant for the Arts to complete her short story collection. She also writes poetry and radio drama. Her first adult poetry collection is ‘Armature’ (Arc, 2003); ‘a true original … she has a genuine gift.’ Jane Yeh, Poetry Review. Her first children’s poetry collection ‘Now You See Me, Now You …’ (Rabbit Hole, 2002) was shortlisted for the inaugural CLPE Poetry Award and contains two poems which won Belmont Poetry Prizes. Her four radio plays have been broadcast on BBCR4 as afternoon and Saturday plays. The last one – ‘Dinner in the Iguanodon’, which went out in January, was a Radio Choice in the Radio Times, The Guardian and The Independent. She has read her short stories at the ICA, Lewisham Theatre, Sydenham Library and on BBCR4. In 2004 she judged short stories for the London Writers Competition. Chrissie's collection 'Family Connections' will be published by Salt Publishing in March 2007 and her new children's poetry collection, 'I Don't Want an Avocado for an Uncle' is due out in September 2007. more

---

MARK VANNER - Mark Vanner is 28yrs old and wakes up most mornings to find he is still in the same city in which he fell asleep. Nottingham. He survives on a strict diet of cheap lager, cigarettes and filthy pot noodles. His poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies and ezines worldwide, most recently Thieves Jargon Press. In 2004 his poem 'It Only Hurts When You Walk Away' was short listed for the Forward top 100 Award. more

---

C.W. SMITH - C. W. Smith has lived in both Ohio and Florida. He has travelled across the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas and Venezuela. There are lots of stories there but none that he will tell or admit to. He started in the music business in the 70's, always close to the brass ring but never quite reached it. He then started working the hardware side of computers in the 80's and moved into programming just before the 90's. He has had two technical articles published in computer magazines and has written poetry, songs and stories (most that he has never finished). He also takes a few pictures that he will sometimes share. C. W. Smith is currently a computer consultant and he is working for a Fortune 100 company and has moved again to somewhere warm, and subtropical where he is settling down and will be writing even more. more

---

NICOLE TAYLOR - Nicole Taylor was born in Glasgow in 1979. She has written for The Guardian, the Jewish Quarterly and the New York weekly The Forward. She read Law at Oxford and lives in London. She is working on her first novel. more

---

NICHOLAS OSBOURNE - Nick is a quarter of a century old and was born on a hill in Lincolnshire. He was educated at the universities of Warwick, Berkeley, and Cambridge. ‘The Incredible Flight of Birdman’ is part of a collaborative collection of short stories written with writer and poet, Richard Yates. It is unpublished. more

---

RICHARD YATES - Rich is twenty-six and lives in Essex, England, where he was born and now upholds the illusion of hard work. He was educated at the University of Warwick. He spends most of his spare time writing short stories, poems, and songs for his band, Noid (which rhymes with the word void and has nothing to do with having no form of identification). Look out for Noid in the near future. He likes being in the countryside, but does not enjoy reading or writing poetry about it. He finds being around people far less appealing and far more traumatic, though unfortunately, far better subject-matter. In his poems, he aims for clarity, honesty, and humour. more

---

MICHAEL KEENAGHAN - Michael Keenaghan was born in North London. As a teenager he read Alan Sillitoe's 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning', and ditched formal education for a job in a factory. After six weeks, the doomed romantic was out on his ear. Various occupations followed, the nadir being a stint in the fast food business. He has also been in several groups that have journeyed the musical underground of the capital. Addicted to the pen, he has work published in Scarecrow magazine. more

---

JOHN VICK - John Vick lives in Minnesota, where he is co-administrator of the online poetry workshop, Inside the Writer's Studio. He has been published in several journals, including The Hiss Quarterly, Neiderngasse, and Lily. John also placed in the December 2005 Interboard Poetry Competition. He studies poetry at the University of Minnesota and through a mentorship as part of the Split Rock Writing Program. more

---

M. FRIAS-MAY - M. Frias-May is a native Californian, born in Santa Ana in 1956, and presently living in Cambria, with his best friend, lover, and muse, his wife of decades, Juanita of Sweden. They have three grown children who were raised with humor and knowing they would have to start working with the old man at the restaurant when they turned 13. Besides his restaurant career that spanned from 1983 to 2004 (washing dishes, busing tables, bartending, cooking & managing), Frias-May has cleaned pools, picked lily bulbs, worked newspapers and was rejected by military recruiters for being too educated and having too many kids. He enjoys keeping his plants alive and playing blues runs on a small-bodied Martin folk guitar that he purchased in 1974 for $200. He’s been sober for two years. He’s written screenplays (Juarez), plays (Morro Bay Noir), novels (Psychonaut, Pinocchia, Devil on Dialysis), short stories and poetry. His novella (The Longest Suicide Note by Stanley K) is at The Kings English and has received a Million Writers’ Award nomination for best online story for 2005. His poetry can be read at Angry Poet, My Favorite Bullet, Coe Review, & Static Movement. more

---

LARRY CHIARAMONTE - Dr Chiaramonte was chosen as one of the best doctors in America in part because of his published scientific works. He is a graduate of Yale College and Yale medical school. He had an eventful thirty- five year career teaching, practicing, doing research and clinical writing mostly in Brooklyn. He was asked to do a book for the general public entitled ‘What your doctor may not have told you about your Child’s asthma and allergy’ with Dr Paul Ehrlich for Time Warner Books. They had fun using examples from their clinical practices. This attempt at fiction is the result. more

---

JOHN VANDER - John Vander was born in Glasgow’s east end on a snowy Thursday night in November 1965. The next few years are a bit hazy, but he remembers being bathed in the kitchen sink. Then there was school. On his first day there he attempted to enter the girls’ toilet by mistake and had the door slammed on his head, an experience he would later come to regard as prophetic. Since leaving school, John has seen and done a lot of things, some good, some bad. He has written poems and songs about these things and will write more if he does not die before he has the chance. He has also written a book called ‘Carcassonne’, which tells the story of the time he spent working as a musician in the southern French town of the same name. He is currently working on a new book called ‘The Mushroom Days’. Despite its title, it has nothing to do with cooking. These days, John lives in Lorraine in northern France. He has previously been published in Aesthetica magazine. more

---

R.D. LARSON - RD Larson can‘t help writing. Her imagination forces her to write every day. She lives on an island off the west coast of the US. She reads like she’s feasting and writes like she’s starving. She has had more than 230 articles, stories and essays published online and in print. Her interests are reading, sailing, kayaking, hiking along the coast, and gardening. more

---

CATHY CAMPBELL - Cathy Campbell was born in 1964 on the same day as her twin sister. She grew up in Kirkcaldy and then did art college in Dundee. After that it was Glasgow in a studio on various enterprise allowance schemes which were popular at the time as a means of getting the dole off your back for a year so you could get on with doing paintings that no one wanted to buy which was fine by her. Cathy wrote on the form that she would be a sole trader as a 'freelance artist', and then the next year it was 'freelance illustrator' which meant she was free to look out of the studio window for long spells of time uninterrupted. When the studio blew up, (a combination of vats of old turpentine substitute and calor gas) Cathy honed her skills at waiting tables while jiggling scalding food on her tongue. Other skills at this time included cleaning folks' baths and melting their manmade fibres on the ironing board. She is now married with two daughters and teaches drawing and painting part time in Continuing Education. more

---

R.C. EDRINGTON - RC Edrington has been a scourge on the small press for years. His first full length poetry collection, ‘Use Once & Destroy’, was published in 2004 by the UK publisher BlueChrome. In 2005, RC once again found himself victim of his heroin demon after fighting it off and staying clean for over a decade. Clean since November 2005, RC is currently putting the finishing touches on ‘Demon Raped Morning’, a chapbook of poetry about his most current relapse. RC publishes the unliterary literature journal, Spent Meat, with Linda Wandt as poetry editor. more

---

HAZEL DEAN - Hazel Dean lives in Co. Durham (England) and hit 50 in October last year. She has 2 grown up children who have both left home now. Finding herself on her own and having moved back to her home town 4 years ago, Hazel took a 2 year Creative Writing course to rekindle the love she had for writing as a child. She completed and passed the course but has continued to attend the class for motivation and friendship. Hazel’s publishing achievement to date is limited. She had one poem published in a book called ‘Bright Voices’ and got down to the last selection of poems for the Great North Poetry Competition 2002 with a poem about the Tyne Bridge. Hazel enjoys writing poetry and short stories but would love one day to write and have a book published. more

---

ZACHARIAH McNAUGHTON - Zachariah McNaughton lives, works and plays at the Collingwood Arts Center as a full time hobo and part time poet with his short-haired tabby and a spider plant named Alphonso. He's a member of the US army's Independent Ready Reserve, a staunch catholic, as well as a merciless ping-pong player. more

---

MARILYNN M. WILKINS - Marilynn lives and writes in San Antonio, Texas. She workshops her pieces at Zoetrope All Story Virtual Studio. She is also a member of several critique groups, including San Antonio Writers Guild. To date she has published twenty pieces of her work in such publications as: Skive Magazine, Word Riot, Thieves Jargon, Long Story Short, The Notebook, Star Magazine, World War II Women Anthology and the first issue of Penwomanship coming March 1, 2006. more

---

IAIN JAMES ROBB - Iain James Robb was born in Greenock, his parents passing through toward Glasgow, where he has lived all his life, on the sixteenth day of January 1976, three days within the birthday of EA Poe. At school, he showed precocious skill in art but this was not to be his vocation. Though his parents divorced when he was still young, he lived a very happy childhood. He began writing short stories and the first few chapters of a novel while still in secondary school and completed the novel at college, where he briefly suffered a breakdown and never graduated: and the book was entirely lost when the old computer he was using went faulty. Though he recognised that what he wrote was of not much value, he turned to poetry in time to avoid the loss of any more large scale work. Ironically, much of his best poetry is to modern sensibilities unfashionably long. Due to romantic disappointments and being ignored by big name publishers more concerned with imagined trends than artistic acheivement, Robb retreated into dispomania for a few horrible years in his late twenties, but after a near-death experience managed to get his bouts of drinking under serious control. He lives a relatively happy life sharing house with a friend and has aspirations to be a critic when his poetic inspiration fades away. more

---

PETER McCABE - Peter is 24 and lives in Glasgow. He loves his music, but after buying a guitar donkies ago has realised he’s no David Gilmore. Which he thinks is a real bummer. He has been writing fiction nocturnally for a couple of years and ‘In Limbo’, one of his earliest pieces, is his first publication. more

---

DAVE MORRISON - Dave Morrison is a writer of novels, short stories, poetry, and many notes on scraps of paper; a chronicler of strange dreams, blurry memories, momentary visions. Descended from Mull fishermen and Toronto hustlers, born near Boston he is the spiritual love-child of Janis Joplin and Carl Yazstremski. After years of playing guitar in rock & roll bars in Boston and NYC, he currently resides in coastal Maine. His work has been featured in Thieves Jargon, FRiGG, Rumble, Dispatch, Psychopoetica, Juked, Mad Hatter's Review, Void, Poor Mojo's Almanac(k) and Zygote in my Coffee. more

---

LAUREN McCARTHY - Lauren McCarthy currently lives in the heart of England’s Black Country. A storyteller from a young age, her first short story was used as the script for a play at primary school. Her writing displays the observations and memories of one who has always inhabited the fringes of a large, historically industrial city, combined with the nuances of the everyday, the tensions, passions and experiences which are not only her own, but those of an anonymous mass. more

---

TRACY PATRICK - Tracy Patrick is the founder/editor of Earth Love poetry magazine; a small press publication featuring nature/environmental poetry that donates all its profits to environmental charities, built up around the idea that nature and poetry are interlinked. Tracy is currently working on an anthology of the best of Earth Love so far, due out in July this year. She also performs poetry, is attempting to write longer prose pieces, and is studying for an HNC in Professional Writing Skills in attempt to widen her scope and hopefully, one day, make a living from the pen. more

---