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RODDY LUMSDEN - Roddy Lumsden's most recent book is Mischief Night - New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books). His fifth collection is Third Wish Wasted, due in spring 2009. He teaches for The Poetry School and Morley College in London and is currently compiling Identity Parade, a major anthology of recent British and Irish poetry. more
LAURA CALGIE - I recently took up writing again after a break of 10 years, thanks to my awesome fiance who sent me on a course run by the Arvon foundation (who use the best tutors!). I'm still getting used to the idea that I might be good at it, though. I people-watch to the point of obsession, and a lot of what I see ends up on paper, although most of it is just voyeurism. I'm mainly inspired by quirks, flaws, freaks and wierdos. And gin. I like cheap frocks, vintaging, Alasdair Gray, John Waters, Mark E. Smith charity shop vinyl, boys in cardigans, Cheryl Cole's hair, proper disco, cheap magazines and fancy tights. I used to worry about trying to be intellectual. Now, not so much. more
PANDORA BLAKE - Pandora Blake had amnesia for a while. There are no known photos of her, except for one that appears to have been damaged in a fire. On that picture you can see she has long eye-lashes like spiders� legs. She had a sister, Constance, who was wrongfully convicted of murder and later became a nun. Pandora was almost named Cl�mence by her mother. She can�t help wondering if her life would have been different had she been called Cl�mence. more
JOSIE HENLEY-EINION - Josie Henley-Einion (born Josephine Henley) grew up in the Midlands and attended Bangor University in North Wales, studying Psychology and Linguistics. She has worked in a variety of areas including research, health and social care and computer programming. In 2002-2005, Josie attended Manchester Metropolitan University�s online MA in Creative Writing. During this course she wrote the novel Silence, which was published by Legend Press in 2008. Josie�s short stories have also been published by Legend Press in two of their short story anthologies, Seven Days in 2007 and Eight Hours in 2008. She is now studying for a PhD in Psychology at Swansea University and writing the sequel to Silence. She lives in Cardiff, South Wales, with her civil partner Alys, their son and a host of furry friends. more
JOHN WIGHT - John is from and currently resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. He writes long, short and non fiction, and also screenplays. He lived in LA for 5 years and in that time worked as a bottom feeder in Hollywood. He was there attempting to establish a career writing movies, but instead found himself sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a studio apartment that was so small the toilet flushed whenever anyone pressed the door buzzer. His short fiction has appeared in litzines Swans and Dogmatika, and in US lit mag, Citizen Culture. Hisnon fiction has appeared in FHM (UK), Counterpunch, Scottish Left Review, and appears regularly in the Morning Star. Since endorphin is the only drug he can afford right now, he spends a lot of time running up and down hills. more
HEATHER REID - Born and brought up in Oldham I have lived in Scotland for the past twenty years and currently live in Perthshire with my husband and two sons. I am a puppy walker for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. I have been writing for about four years now, initially poetry but, in the past year, having a go at short stories too. I have had my poems published in BBC Wildlife , New Writing Scotland 25 and the National Galleries of Scotland publication �Inspired?get Writing� as a result of winning the unpublished category of their annual writing competition in 2007. I have had one short story published in the inaugural edition of Riptide. This story was shortlisted for the 2008 William Soutar Prize, judged by Laura Hird. more
WILLIAM PITTAM - William Pittam has a first in English and Journalism from Staffordshire University. He is currently living in Derby and preparing to do an MA in Creative Writing. A keen musician, Will plays drums and a traditional Japanese flute called the shakuhachi. His favourite movies are Darren Aronofsky�s Pi and anything by Studio Ghibli. more
MERRYN GLOVER - Born in Kathmandu, Merryn grew up in Nepal, India and Pakistan and did a teaching degree in Australia, the country of her passport. In 1993, she moved to Scotland and worked as a drama and dance artist until she and her husband returned to Nepal, where she taught at an international school and started writing in earnest. Back in Scotland, Merryn�s writing is now squeezed around the lives of two young sons. Her work includes a stage play, several articles and a growing body of short stories that have been successful in publication, broadcast and competitions. In 2004 she was awarded a Scottish Arts Council New Writer�s Bursary for a series of stories set in Nepal, and in 2007 was awarded another SAC bursary, this time for a novel, which is her current project. �Pickings� was the winner of the William Soutar Short Story Award 2007. more
PAUL SILVERMAN - Paul Silverman has worked as a newspaper reporter, olive packer, sandwich man and advertising creative director. One of his commercials won a Silver Lion at Cannes. His short fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines, both online and print. His story, �Getaway,� published by Verbsap, is on the 2006 Million Writers Award shortlist list of Notable Online Stories. He�s been a Spotlight Author in Eclectica, which has nominated his story, �The Home Front,� for Best of the Net, 2008 and The Million Writers Award, 2008. He has three Pushcart nominations for stories in Byline, Lily and The Worcester Review. more
HOLLIE WYLLIE - Well, I was born in Peterhead in 1987 and continued to live in the dull but scenic North East of Scotland till I turned 18 and moved away. That backfired a little because these days I miss the countryside more than I used to hate it- city life is pretty overwhelming! I now live in Glasgow where I study Philosophy at the university- I could probably do quite well if I stopped daydreaming so much! I started a writing class about a year ago on a whim and have never looked back. Before, I didn�t have a clue what I wanted to do with my life or who I was but writing has given me a way to express myself and something to aspire to. So far I�ve only written short stories but I�m currently working on my first novel and hope I�ll get it right soon! more
KENNETH STEPHEN - Kenneth Stephen (35) is a professional features writer for the national media. He lives in Perth with his wife Clare and two angelic children, Freya (4) and Lachlan (8 months) and a garden mouse called Jessica. A Dundee University Philosophy graduate, he has lived in exotic locations including France and Forfar. His 2008 short story 'Tales From The Peninsula' is published in the 'New Writing Dundee' anthology, launched this month (June) at the Dundee Literary Festival. His 2007 work, 'Ar-Ta and Peem' won the Perth Writers Short Story competition, judged by Jess Smith. This story was shortlisted for the 2008 William Soutar Prize. more
DAN TRACY - Dan Tracy's fiction has appeared on 3ammagzine.com and Mindcaviar.com. Dan resides in Bridgeport, Connecticut USA. Dan and reality never got along well---They will never be friends. more
VICKI HUSBAND - Vicki Husband was brought up in Edinburgh and has settled in Glasgow although she came a very long way round via Carlisle, Hull, Norway, Greece, Eastbourne and Brighton. Her short stories and poems have been published in Aesthetica magazine, Mslexia magazine, The National Museums of Scotland anthology �Present Poets� and New Writing Scotland 25: �The Dynamics of Balsa�. more
KATY MANDERFIELD - Katie Manderfield began writing when she was in 'the wilderness,' a soft-padded term for a hardcore institution composed primarily of delinquent adolescents, child abusers and 'tough-love' advocates. Even though she began writing at a much younger age, it was her experience in 'the wilderness' that converted the subjects of her stories to those of drugs, losers, and the joyless adventures of nihilism. Her influences lie primarily in the works of Beckett, Foucault, Miller and Sarraute. Katie has lost her mind in two great cities (San Francisco and New York City) and one horrible state (Connecticut). She is currently residing in Orange County, CA because she enjoys suffering and smoothies. Her story, 'Recreation' has been published in the online magazine, Flask and Pen. Katie is also a regular contributor to a blog that most people (herself included) don't understand. more
JASON MICHEL - I was born in Britain by mistake in the early seventies. Since that catastrophic turn of events I have been turned on, tripped up and stumbled over all around the world on an eleven year (so far) self imposed exile. At some point I became the beaten dog. I now live in the suburbs of Paris and wonder if that was such a good idea. I have had work published in remark, scarecrow, dogmatika, zygote in my coffee, triptych haiku, TGOOW!, straight from the fridge and others. more
MAURICE GARTSIDE - Maurice Gartshore was a runner up in the 2007 William Soutar Short Story Prize competition with this story. more
ALLAN WILSON - I was born in December 1983, one month away from being born in 1984. Ever since I read that book I've been bitter towards my Mum and Dad who could have exercised just a wee bit of restraint so their kid could have more literary references in his life. Maybe I would have been called Winston or George though, which both sound like old man names, but so does Allan so It's not like I did well out of the deal. I'm from Glasgow but went away to Stirling for four years to obtain a degree in English. After that I did teacher training and now I'm a disillusioned secondary school English teacher who can't get his head round the fact that schools are determined to take the fun out of reading and writing for kids all over the land. The whole system needs an overhaul, but that's a story for a different day. I've also worked in a supermarket as a fishmonger and in various pizza takeaways. I've been writing for a while but only recently have I been taking it as seriously as I always wanted to. This is the first time I've submitted anything so is the only time I've been published. If I didn't live in Glasgow I'd want to live in Rome where I'd spend my nights drinking wine on the spanish steps and singing songs instead of doing marking and eating fish suppers like I do here. more
GRACE ANDREACCHI - Grace Andreacchi was born and raised in New York, but has lived on the far side of the great ocean for many years - sometimes in Paris, sometimes Berlin, and nowadays in London. Works include the novels �Give my Heart Ease�(Permanent Press , New American Writing Award), and �Music for Glass Orchestra� (Serpent's Tail), and the play �Vegetable Medley� (Soho Repertory Theater, New York and Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts). Her short stories and poetry appear in both on-line and print journals, including Carolina Quarterly, Calapooya Collage, Eclectica, Pen Pusher Magazine, Poetry Midwest, Rhythm, Sein und Werden, Six Sentences (featured author), Smith Magazine, From East to West, and Scarecrow, and her non-fiction articles on Her Circle Ezine. more
SHARON SANT - Sharon Sant was born 1971 in Dorset, into a family of diverse and slightly bizarre ethnicity and is now living in Staffordshire. She has tried every career from barmaid to pottery painting, fruit and veg sales to newspaper advertising sales, insurance to pop stardom. Her finest moment up until now is having appeared on �This Morning� when she was nineteen. She is currently juggling family life with an English/Creative Writing degree and still deciding what to do when she grows up. In her dreams she has written something that got made into a film. more
JEFFREY SIDE - Jeffrey Side studied English at Liverpool University and at Leeds University. His poems have appeared in magazines and websites including Nthposition, 9th St. Laboratories, Big Bridge, Textimagepoem, Apochryphaltext, Jacket and Poetry Salzburg Review. He has reviewed poetry for magazines and websites including New Hope International, Stride, Acumen and Shearsman. And has written articles on poetry for magazines and websites such as Shadowtrain, Isis and Postgraduate English. From 1996 to 2000, he was the deputy editor of The Argotist magazine. He now edits The Argotist Online website. His poem Carrier of the Seed is available as a free ebook from Blazevox Books. more
ALEX COX - Alex Cox was born in Glasgow 38 years ago to the justified silence of an indifferent world. He has been writing short stories and novels since the time computers were still 'the future', but a lack of confidence and ability has deterred him from ever imposing his stuff on others. As such he has pursued a livelihood in the spiritually crushing sphere of economics and finance and as such is now making a break whilst a modicum of his soul remains, albeit heavily sedated and with its relatives hovering around the bed and speaking in whispers. He is married to a wonderfully understanding woman and has never been to me. Or Paradise for that matter though he intended to go once, but preferred to browse round Fopp on Glasgow's Byres Road instead as it looked like rain. more
RICHARD WINK - Richard Wink is a writer based in Norwich, England. He currently edits the enigmatic litzine Gloom Cupboard. His sixth poetry collection will be published by Shadow Archer Press in 2009. more
IAIN MACKINTOSH - Based in Perth, quite old, increasingly irascible, won�t be taking up ballet now. This story was runner-up in the 2007 William Soutar Short Story Awards. more
MARK CUNNINGHAM - Mark Cunningham lives in Virginia in the United States. Poems are in recent or forthcoming issues of Practice, BlazeVox, Parcel, and Pequin (all internet). Otoliths will be bringing out a book titled 80 Beetles, which will be available soon through Lulu.com. Tarpaulin Sky Press will be bringing out a book titled Body Language, which will contain two separate collections, one titled Body (on parts of the body) and one title Primer (on numbers and letters). The poems here are closer in style to the beetle poems, but both books are thrill-a-minute, edge-of-your-seat collections. more
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 [email protected] 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 Fen�tre 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," "Caf� 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 Ferlinghetti�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 Cal� 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
H.P. TINKER - HP Tinker lives in Manchester where he has carved a niche for himself as an "hilarious deadpan surrealist". His fiction has appeared in Ambit, Pulp.Net, emwriting, CrimeSpree Magazine, among other places, and at 3:AM Magazine where he is an editor of sorts. Recently three of his "post-Gibson, neo-Lynch" crime vignettes were anthologised in Dreams Never End edited by Nicholas Royle CBE. The Independent on Sunday said: "An assiduous champion of the short story, Nicholas Royle introduces works by three young English practitioners of contemporary noir. The best is HP Tinker, whose infusions of surrealism and pop-culture references have apparently already earned him comparisons to Thomas Pynchon, though his three stories here reminded me more of Paul Auster's New York Stories. His stock detectives flounder in an incomprehensible universe overloaded with information but short on meaning, and are as baffled as the reader by the improbable suicides and motiveless crimes which they come across. Unusual, arresting, smart and very funny, his stories easily repay Royle's faith in the form, though personally I look forward to him writing a novel." But the Independent on Sunday has been wrong before. more
ANNY DI FOOSAF - Anny is a 45+-something woman from the Home Counties who was, until recently, suffering from the empty nest syndrome, the youngest (of 3) now having left her for university. Anny needed something to fill her time and had to decide between an affair or a return to writing. Having penned a short story or two in her early twenties, writing seemed the safer option. Anny is now rediscovering her love of reading and writing, rereading the classics and also enjoying so much of the new writing to be found on the Internet. She doesn�t have any grand plans to be a bestseller or delude herself thinking she is the next Maeve Binchy. But she does like to write and hopes someone else may like to read it. She welcomes comments, though it must be noted feedback of the non-gushing persuasion may result in limb removal. more
EDDIE JEFFREY - Eddie Jeffrey and his younger brother are Army Brats. Eddie was born in 1974 in Frankfurt, Germany, his brother in Fort Riley, Kansas in 1977, and they've lived almost everywhere in between. Eddie went to school to be a doctor, but ended up with a degree in ancient Celtic history and the history of science. He played in a Grateful Dead cover band in college, but before that, growing up, played guitar in church. His was a regular Partridge Family for the Gospel set. He played guitar, as did his dad, his brother played bass, and his mom sang. Eddie is married two years, with two crazy dogs, Zoey and Thunder. He is training to run a marathon and dabbles in photography and graphic design. His past writing credits include a small horde of online and print short-news items for JazzTimes (www.jazztimes.com) magazine and a short story entitled �Who Speaks Fish?� in Calliope, West Virginia University's literary journal. He also wrote for a short time for The Daily Athenaeum, the WVU newspaper while at college there. more
GARAN HOLCOMBE - Garan Holcombe is from Pontypridd, in the South Wales valleys. He left Britain in 1996 and has been moving around ever since. He has lived in several different countries, including Canada, Poland and Bolivia. He now lives in Madrid where he spends a few hours each week teaching English, which keeps him in tapas but little else. He writes for Contemporary Writers and California Literary Review. He is currently working on �Regulars� his first novel. None of his fiction has been published before. more
SUSAN CULVER - Susan Culver lives in Colorado, where she is the editor of Lily. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in several journals, including The Pedestal Magazine, flashquake, InkPot and Heavy Glow. Her first full length poetry collection, 'All the Ways We Could Have Met', is available via Lulu.com, as well as online bookstores such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. more
KIRSTI WISHART - Kirsti Wishart lives in Edinburgh but works, for her sins, in the South Gyle. She is a former editor of The Red Wheelbarrow during which time she had the opportunity to interview Janice Galloway. Her work has recently appeared in Spoiled Ink and New Writing Scotland: Queen of the Sheep. She is currently taking a two month break from work courtesy of a New Writers Bursary from the Scottish Arts Council to work on a collection of short stories and a novel. more
ROB MARSHALL - Rob hails from Rhyl. He couldn�t say his r�s properly, so he was Wob from Whyl. As a wapscallion student Wob sent scripts to soap operas (Albert Tatlock on ecstasy was a constant theme) and stories to Womans Own & Jackie et al. under the nom de plume Samantha Smith. More rejections than John Merrick at a speed dating night. So he swapped writing for apathy and killed-off Samantha Smith in an organic farm accident. Older (little bit wiser) he�s looking to complete his novel, �The Continuous Cremation of a Very, Very, Very Fat Man.� more
RUBEN PALMA - Born in Santiago, Chile in 1954, Rub�n Palma grew up in San Miguel, one of Santiago's larger, working-class quarters of that time. He left Chile in 1973, immediately following the coup. Since 1974, he has resided in Denmark and is now a Danish citizen. Employed by the Danish Red Cross since 1985, he works in North Europe�s largest refugee camp; Sandholm. He has written in Danish since 1985 and has published three works of fiction in Denmark Letter to Denmark, Meetings with Denmark, and The Trail We Leave. He has also published a work of poetry; The Land After Yesterday. And his two plays, To the Flesh--To the Heart and The Trade were performed in Denmark. Rub�n Palma has won prices in literary competitions and has been awarded state and private grants; including the incomparable Lannan Foundation Residency in Marfa, Texas. After 30 years in downtown Copenhagen, he has moved with his wife Dorthe to the tiny fishing town of Espergaerde, only a few minutes from Elsinore and Kronborg Castle where, according to Shakespeare, the drama of Prince Hamlet took place. more
JAN LITVAK - Jan Litv�k was born in Bratislava in 1965. A freelance writer and editor, he has worked for the Slovak Literature Information Centre and for a number of literary magazines Kult�rny �ivot (Cultural Life), Liter�rny t��denn�k (Literary Weekly), Dotyky (Touches) and the daily SME, and, in lieu of his military service as a volunteer for the Franciscan monthly Seraf�nsky svet (The World of Seraphim). He regularly contributes book reviews to the arts programme of the Slovak radio and journals Romboid and Fragment and has published translations of poems by William Blake, Rabindranath Tagore, Velemir Chlebnikov and Arthur Rimbaud in literary journals. He has formed the literary group "Barbarsk� gener�cia" (Barbarian Generation) together with Robert Bielik and two other Slovak poets � Andy Turan and Kamil Zbru� and with Robert Bielik he compiled an antology of Slovak spiritual poetry Straten� v l'ali�ch (Lost in Lilies). J�n Litv�k has published short stories Samore� (Self-speech, 1992), a book of poems Kr�l' kalichov (The King of Calixes, 1998) and reports from India Gad�asan (1999). His latest, published in 2005, are the limited edition collection Vt�ctvo nebesk� (Birds of Heaven) and a book inspired by his travels in India, called �ivorodka. Lovky�a l'ud�. (Vivipara. The Huntress of Human Beings). Apart from his literary work he is engaged in the cultivation of organic vegetables and seeds of old arable crops. more
ROSANNE RABINOWITZ - Rosanne Rabinowitz�s published fiction includes stories in The Third Alternative, Visionary Tongue and Roadworks, plus anthology contributions to The Slow Mirror: New Fiction by Jewish Writers, Deep Ten and Caf� Ole: Too Hot to Handle. Recently two stories and an interview were featured in Midnight Street 4. She has also written reviews and articles for TTA, Interzone and of course, www.laurahird.com. Rosanne lives in South London with a rather demanding 18-year-old cat (a big party was held to mark Weeble�s 18th). Sometimes she works as a freelance sub-editor; other forms of toil have included stints as a life model, oral history researcher, part-time mental health worker and full-time dole claimer. A graduate of the Sheffield Hallam MA in Writing, Rosanne has completed one novel and is working on a second. more
DEXTER PETLEY - Anger was the heirloom that set Dexter Petley off as a writer. What coming of age in the early 70s does, in the rural poor of Kent, Maori blood on your old man's side, Cockney wrath in your mother. Decided to be a writer after reading his first book aged 16, when expelled from school for "political activities". Ten dreadful novels and hundreds of worse rejection slips before Little Nineveh was published by Polygon in 1995, the year he quit England for France, never to return. Joyride, Fourth Estate 1999 and White Lies, Fourth Estate/Harper Collins 2003(shortlist Dazed & Confused Award 03 and longlist IMPAC Dublin 05) were written on the road, beside the lake or under leaking roofs. Last few years he's parked up the caravan and gone truly wild, living off rainwater, solar power, organic gardening, looking like a scarecrow, as far from the literary world as possible. A refugee from Harper Collins after being dumped by them, for voicing ethical concerns about writer-care under corperate fascism. Can't find a publisher since. Highlights of 2005 were the publication of his and Laure Claesen's translation from the French of The Fishing Box, by Maurice Genevoix, Medlar Press. And regular spots in Waterlog Magazine, for the absolute angler. Current "New Angling Writer of the Year". Two fiction projects in progress. Further translations of Maurice Genevoix also projected and in need of a publisher. more
MICHELLE McGRANE - Michelle McGrane was born in Zimbabwe and spent her childhood in Malawi. She is a freelance writer and reviewer. Her poetry has been published in local literary journals and internationally in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Michelle has published two collections of poetry, Fireflies & Blazing Stars (2002) and Hybrid (2003). She was the recipient of the South African Writers' Circle Hilde Slinger Poetry Award in 2003 and the Quill Award in 2004. She is the English Poetry Editor of the South African literary website, Litnet. Michelle lives in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. more
MIKE BOYLE - Mike Boyle was a singer, songwriter, guitarist for many rock bands from the late 70's till the mid 90's. Most notably - New Left, circa 1983-86. As part of the early indie, DIY rock scene, New Left released 2 singles on their own label and received significant college radio airplay across the USA before disbanding in 1986 in New York City amid rumours of substance abuse and in-fighting. Since then, there's been poems, stories, home recordings & several novel messes. Currently 47 & living in Harrisburg, PA USA. Most of Mike�s stories come from a life lived & the people he has known. Then there's the old school punks & poets from NYC, the gangsters, the beat literary tradition... First poems published locally in '87 in a small press mag called The Blue Guitar. Other poems & stories have appeared in many journals including Bouillabaisse, X-Ray, Manifold, The Harrisburg Review, Underground Voices, Gypsy, Spent Meat, Zygote in my Coffee, Thunder Sandwich, Thieves Jargon and the-hold. A chapbook of poems (Laundromat Suite) was published by Rank Stranger Press in 2004. more
DEBRA BROUGHTON - Debra Broughton was born in London and lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where she runs the website of a global environmental organisation. Her short stories have been published at on-line at Word Riot and Amsterdam Scriptum, and in print at Buzzwords, QWF and the Momaya Annual Review 2004 (as a recipient of a Momaya Award). She has written a novel based on her travels in India and is currently looking for an agent. Debra is an internet addict and runs a blog, Nothing to Write Home About. more
SUSAN NACSA - Susan Nasca has lived in Chicago her whole life, which began in 1952. She�s been married for 25 years and has a daughter. She is now 14 and inspires Susan with her wide range of moods. Though Susan has a degree in Fine Arts, she'd rather write poetry than paint. She comes from European Jewish stock, and treasures the dry humour of her "people", though spiritually she aligns herself with the Buddhist approach to life. At 53, she�s realised that it's no fun to be a grown-up, and shall always be the odd one out among adults. Susan�s preferred form of entertainment is being frightened into incontinence by horrifying movies, and then not being able to sleep. Unlike many of the "showcased" poets at this site, November of this year marked the first time Susan had ever shared her poetry with humans, though her dog has been enjoying it for years. After posting several poems on a writer's web site, Susan met Maria Ganado (online), a most gifted poet - to whom she owes a debt of gratitude. Maria has encouraged her with her insightful critiques and kind words and is featured at this site as well. more
GARY BECK - Gary Beck�s recent fiction has appeared in 3AM Magazine, Fullosia Press, EWG Presents, Nuvein Magazine, Vincent Brothers Review, The Journal, Short Stories Monthly, L�Intrigue Magazine, Babel Magazine and Bibliophilos. His poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. He is a writer/director of award-winning social issue video documentaries. more
JUDITH ALAPI HIGGINS - Judith Alapi Higgins was born in Budapest, Hungary and emigrated to the U.S. after the 1956 revolution at the age of 9. She attended the State University of New York, Indiana University, and has a masters degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame. She also holds a black belt in T'ai Chi Chuan. She has been living in Virginia for more than 20 years where she has raised a son, taught T'ai Chi, and is active in the neo-pagan Goddess centred movement. She has written several short stories and been published in the Antigonish Review. She has also written 3 novels, two of which had been accepted for publication and were under contract until her publisher went bankrupt. She is now contemplating a fourth. more
CRAIG WALLWORK - Craig Wallwork is 33 and lives in Manchester, UK. During the day he works as a corporate editor (roughly translated: he edits training videos that you will never see, and if you do, you�ll pay no attention to). At night he lives in a house with walls so thin he has to wait for the neighbours to leave before he can have sex. He writes shorts stories and has completed two novels to date. All of which he wrote with foam earplugs wedged in his ears. In 2006 he plans to be in print. more
KIRK MILLER - Kirk Miller is an angry sloucher from Norfolk. When he was born he came out a pale grey. The doctors were worried. They took photos of him. They thought maybe it was the kidneys. They tested the kidneys. Kirk�s parents had had another baby come out grey before him. It had died. They were worried. They drank coffee in corridors during the tests. The doctors found nothing wrong with the kidneys. The greyness started to fade. They sent Kirk home. He�s okay now, no greyness left, so spends his time watching Eric Rohmer films and writing film scripts, a novel and short stories - little of it has been published and even less has been read. more
ALI SMITH - Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962 and lives in Cambridge. Her first book, �Free Love,� won the Saltire First Book Award. She is also the author of �Like� (1997); �Other Stories And Other Stories� (1999); �Hotel World� (2001), which was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize in 2001 and won the Encore Award, the East England Arts Award of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award in 2002; �The Whole Stories and Other Stories� (2003) and �The Accidental,� (shortlisted for 2005 Booker Prize) published by Hamish Hamilton in 2005. Ali Smith also writes for the Guardian, the Scotsman and the TLS. more
MARK SaFRANKO - Mark SaFranko is a journalist and ghost writer whose stories have appeared in dozens of magazines and journals internationally, including the renowned Ellery Queen�s Mystery Magazine. He was cited in Best American Mystery Stories 2000 and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His novels are Hopler�s Statement and The Favor, both available through all the dotcoms. A new novel, Hating Olivia, will be published in 2005 by Wrecking Ball Press in the United Kingdom and TF Editores in Spain. Mister SaFranko is also a playwright. more
LEE ROURKE - Lee Rourke is a Mancunian currently residing in Hackney, London. He is the founder and editor of scarecrow and reviews books for RSB. His fiction has appeared online at The Beat, Word Riot and will be shortly appearing over at 3:AM Magazine. His work has also appeared in various printed publications that are scarcely heard of let alone read. His novel (Dead Land) presently sits on numerous publishers' slush piles around the capital. more
MICHAEL GARDINER - Michael Gardiner is currently completing a novel and has a book of short stories coming out from Polygon in March 2006. All Michael�s fiction except for stories for magazines is set in Tokyo, where he lives. more
NATHAN HAMLETT - Nathan grew up in East London, but now lives in Chatham, Kent. He has been writing short stories for a couple of years and has had a few showcased on the Orange Labyrinth site. He enjoys his music and has played bass and guitar in numerous bands, but his latest challenge is an obscure multi-stringed instrument called a Stick! For the past ten years he has been scraping a living as an actor. more
ZSOLT ALAPI - Zsolt Alapi was born in Budapest, Hungary and grew up in Europe, the U.S. and Canada, where he now lives. He is the former editor of the little magazine, Atropos, (winner of the Pushcart Prize) and has published poetry and fiction in various magazines in Canada, the U.S. and Britain, most recently in Front and Centre. He recently published a chapbook of stories, �Three Stories,� (Mercutio Press, Montreal, Quebec, 2004). Zsolt teaches at Marianopolis College and Concordia University and has completed a Ph.D. at McGill University (Montreal) on Robert Creeley and Postmodern Poetics. He also edited a collection of poetry and short fiction, �Vistas� and has written on the poetry of Pound, Williams, and Olson. more
STEVE WHEELER - Steve Wheeler has had one fiction short story published by the Canadian Authors Association in their anthology, �Ten Stories High�, 2003 and will have another published in Canadian Stories this winter. His nonfiction story, �The Lion's Gate� was a winner in the city of Ottawa +55 short story, 2005 contest but was not published. Otherwise his is trying to get his short stories and novels read and published and awaiting the hockey season. more
EVELINE PYE - Eveline Pye was born in Glasgow and studied Statistics at Glasgow University. After graduation, she left Scotland to work as an Operational Research Analyst in Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines in the Western Province of Zambia. She lived in Kitwe for 10 years and still gets homesick when she smells a mango. After Africa, Eveline did the mother thing in Dumfries and wrote her first poem at a creative writing evening class run by Hugh McMillan. Since then she has been lecturing at Glasgow Caledonian University, bringing up her sons and studying for a Masters in Psychology in her spare time. She won the Boyd prize for Achievement in Education, last year, and is currently researching �Fear of Failure�. In her occasional free moments, she writes a poem and longs for a time when that's all she has to do. Her work has been published in Chapman, West Coast, The Herald, Northlight, Understanding, Northword, Cutting Teeth, Orbis, Writing Women, Nerve and A Strange Place � Anthology of Paisley Writers etc. more
CHRIS KILLEN - Chris Killen has had stories featured in a couple of the �Launderette� Anthologies (from Nottingham Trent uni), on the websites Thunder Sandwich and Ragged Edge. He started, put to death, and occasionally considers resuscitating the magazine Revolt (which lasted one issue) , turned twenty four, made a few short films and recently begun work on a novel, a screenplay, and a one-act, �interrupted� musical. more
KEITH ARMSTRONG - Keith Armstrong has worked as a community-arts development worker, poet, librarian and publisher. A founder of Ostrich magazine, Poetry North East, Tyneside Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Poets, East Durham Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Trade Unionists for Socialist Arts, Tyneside Street Press and the Strong Words and Durham Voices community publishing series, he has been poet-in-residence in Durham, Easington, Sedgefield, Derwentside, Teesdale, Wear Valley, Chester-le-Street, Sunderland and the Hexham Races. He lives in Whitley Bay. His publications include Pains Of Class, Dreaming North, The Jinglin' Geordie, The Darkness Seeping, Poets' Voices, The Big Meeting: A People's View of the Durham Miners' Gala, The Town of Old Hexham, Old Dog On The Isle Of Woman and Bless'd Millennium: The Life & Work Of Thomas Spence. His music-theatre collaborations include O'er the Hills (Dreaming North), Wor Jackie (Northumberland Theatre Company), Pig's Meat (Bruvvers Theatre Company) and The Roker Roar (Monkwearmouth Youth Theatre Company). Several of his songs have been recorded by Durham indie-folk-punk band The Whisky Priests. more
JOEL VAN NOORD - Joel Van Noord lives in DC where he rides around a bicycle wearing a hat and porn star sunglasses with a backpack full of environmental petitions and hands them to congressmen who smile before they walk away sniffing out coke deals and prostitutes to shit on. He is the author of an unpublished novel, THE FUNCTION OF WETLANDS, and can be found at places like unlikelystories.org and crybloxsome.com. more
CRAIG KIRCHNER - Craig Kirchner lives and works as a consultant on the east coast but considers himself a hobo of the universe. Poetry in all forms is essential to him as the only inspiring literature he seems to have time to read. He writes about what he knows best and yet least - himself - in an effort to remove those labels. His works have appeared in journals including Slow Trains, Voices, Lily, Erosha, Thunder Sandwich, 3 AM MAGAZINE, The Moonwort Review, Adagio, Triplopia, Wicked Alice, Clean Sheets, Astropoetica, Newtopia, Open Wide, Fifth Street Review, From East to West, and Zygote in My Coffee. Craig was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. more
JOOLS HUDSON - Jools Hudson planned to work in the theatre after drama school but got sidetracked by a job offer working on Windjammer Cruises around the French West Indies. She is now living in Nottingham with cross-over jobs in PR and teaching English which gives her a great excuse to write and listen to nonsense all day long. She did a late degree in Communications Studies including a creative writing module that helped to re-kindle an early interest in short stories. Jools is currently working on a treatment for a T.V. drama series based in Ireland and tinkering with ideas on travel writing with a difference. One story ( Melting Flesh ) was published in Mslexia�s New Writing feature chosen by Fay Weldon and a few others are out there waiting for decisions. more
SALMAN SHAHEEN - As comfortable with a megaphone as with a pen, Salman Shaheen is an active anti-war campaigner and political activist. Born in Norwich in 1984, and having lived in Suffolk since, he is currently studying social and political sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge. Salman�s interest in politics is often reflected in his passion for writing and recently he has been attempting to break into new styles, merging more traditional forms with punk, in musical collaborations which have been performed live to excellent reviews from the press. His first poem was published after he won the Suffolk County Council National Poetry Day competition in 2002. Since then he has had poetry published in several small anthologies, magazines and papers, and has also written a number of articles for left-wing newspapers, websites and journals. He is currently working on a novel and his dream is to make it as a successful author. more
DAVID C. CARD - David C. Card lives in the sunny north-east of England, in a small religious town named Chapel House. He has been writing seriously now for little over a year, and have been published on websites such as: Cautionary Tale, Hack Writers, Girls with Insurance, Black Medina, Zygote in my Coffee, Romance Ever After, Crack Lenses and Red Bridge Review. more
J.L. WILLIAMS - JL Williams was born in New Jersey and studied at Wellesley College with the poet Frank Bidart. She has read her poems aloud at a number of venues both in America and in the United Kingdom. Her poetry has been published in the US and the UK in journals such as �Aesthetica� and �The New Writer� and in Harlequin(2002), Blackwidow�s Web of Poetry (2004), Obsessed with Pipework (2004/2005), Coal City Review (upcoming 2006). Since moving to Edinburgh in 2001 JL Williams has been active both as a poet and in the performing arts as a director and producer. Current projects include a collaborative CD of original music and poetry with composer Martin Parker. more
PAUL KAVANAGH - paul kavanagh was born in 1971 this accounts for his perplexity with money. a normad is he, forever peripatetic, a quixotic exile. H. Langden says: "paul kavanagh cannot sit still, he drinks too much tea, he succumbs to Pascal's melancholy for he is unable to remain quietly in a room." he is happy. his wife is happy. paul kavanagh at this juncture is existing in America, but soon he believes the Goverment will finally send him back to England. his works can be found in thieves jargon, Cerebral Catalyst, unlikelystories 2.0, underground voices, Cellar Door, Skive Magazine, and soon to be in Frigg magazine and a few others... more
DOUG DRAIME - Doug Draime was born in Vincennes, Indiana in 1943. He started writing in his early teens, but didn't publish anything until the late 1960's, while living in Los Angeles. Adhering to no school or style of writing, he believes poetry, as well as all art, "must be like axes in the forest of society's insanity." His formal education has been limited to a couple semesters at Chicago University and Los Angeles City College; although, he considers his past years on the streets, and a wide range of reading, to be like Post Graduate studies. Current works in print includes: �Slaves Of The Harvest� (Indian Heritage Publishing, 2002), �Unoccupied Zone� (Pitchfork Press, 2004)), �Spleen� an ebook, (Poetic Inhalation, 2004) and �Spiders And Madmen� (Scintillating Publications, 2005). His writing has appeared in hundreds of print and online magazines. He currently lives in Oregon, with his wife Carol. more
ANDREW SECCOMBE - Andrew Seccombe is currently travelling North America equipped with a laptop and credit card. He will return to Australia in 2005 to write an epsiode of television drama. In the last few years he's managed to squeeze out a psychology degree, see a bit of the world, work in a funeral home and a chocolate shop. In 2004, Andrew Seccombe had several concert reviews published in The Brag Magazine, (Australia). more
ANTHONY LICCIONE - Anthony Liccione was born in Chicago and recently moved from New York to Texas for reasons unknown. He is a father to two boys and a husband to one wife. Every moment in his spare time he is writing poetry and sometimes political pieces. He has a real knack for anything that has to do with ghosts... especially ghost stories. Although, he's hooked to classical writers. Recently, he started writing short stories and completed, but yet to release his first 9000 word manuscript: "The Lucky Cigarette". His poetry, has appeared in many online and print journals and magazines. This year, he earned a Pushcart Prize Nominee, released his first chapbook Heaven's Shadow with Foothills Publishing, won 1st place in a writing contest (fake rejection letter) with Bloodcookies webzine and launched an online interview with The Flow Magazine. He has a Bachelor's degree in English that just sits and collects dust in his closet. Someday he plans on putting it towards a career. more
RACHEL LAWRENCE - Rachel Lawrence was born in the English New Forest village of Hamptworth in 1981. She has been writing poetry and prose since childhood, encouraged by success in both fields. As well as writing short fiction, Rachel is currently a student of the Writer's Bureau and is working on her first novel. As far as influences go, she is a keen reader of the works of John Braine. Her work has appeared in Online Dating Magazine, Nocturnal Ooze Magazine, Zygote in My Coffee, Long Story Short Magazine, Poor Mojo�s Almanac and Open Wide Magazine. more
RODGE GLASS - Rodge Glass was born in 1978 and is originally from Cheshire, where most of his large, many-tentacled family still live. He is the product of an Orthodox Jewish Primary School, an 11+ All Boys Grammar School, a Co-Ed Private School, a Monk-sponsored Catholic College, a Jerusalem classroom, Kibbutz Yahel in the Israeli desert, Strathclyde University and finally Glasgow University. After 12 torturous months in a small quasi-semi off the Engish M62, Rodge has now escaped back to Glasgow. He is writing his second novel and a biography of the Scottish writer and artist, Alasdair Gray, and against his better judgement re-entering the education system to do a PhD. Rodge's debut novel, NO FIREWORKS will be released by Faber and Faber in July 2005: he has also written for The Herald in Scotland, Big Issue Scotland, Big Issue in the North and City Life magazine in Manchester. more
KYOTO GARDINER - Kyoko Gardiner was born in Tokyo where she grew up collecting beetles and dragonflies in her skirt pocket and dreaming of becoming the colour orange. During her teens she gained a habit of travelling around and she has spent time in various places including Iowa, Dublin, Cannes and Amsterdam, while managing to attend several universities until gaining a PhD in cultural studies and art theories from University of Tokyo. Living with a bunch of anarchists in Stockholm in the early 90s Kyoko started making small sized paintings and exhibiting them. Since then she has been producing artworks and has been exhibited internationally. When she is not making artworks she is working as a post-doctoral researcher writing about feminist art practices and psychoanalysis. It is only recently that she started producing artworks in textual form, and this shown here is one of them. She lives between Tokyo and Glasgow. more
ALLAN GUTHRIE - Allan Guthrie was born in Orkney, but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life. He is married to Donna. He has published several short stories in a variety of magazines and anthologies. His CWA Debut Dagger shortlisted novel, TWO-WAY SPLIT, was published by PointBlank in June '04. His second novel, KISS HER GOODBYE, was published on March 7th, 2005, by Hard Case Crime. Snazzy UK editions will follow shortly from Polygon. Allan is webmaster/editor of Noir Originals and commissioning editor for both Pulp Originals and PointBlank Press. Representation - US: David Hale Smith, DHS Literary - UK: Mark Stanton, Jenny Brown Associates more
MOHANALAKSHMI RAJAKUMAR - Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar was born in Chennai, India but moved to Canada at the age of 4. At 9 she moved to America, California to be exact and since then has lived in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, China, Costa Rica, and Turkmenistan. In addition to �Dasi,� four other stories from Mohana�s first short story collection, Weeds and Other Stories, have been published including �Baby�, �Tree�, �Truth� and �Plates.� She is finishing her Ph.D. in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Other samples of her work can be found at: Szirini, Americana, and River Walk Journal. more
SARAH CHAIR - Sarah Chair was born in 1959 in Manchester. She was brought up in a small village in the Lake District and has a degree in Philosophy and English. Since leaving her marriage to pursue a life of poverty she has done a variety of jobs from cleaning the toy floor in a department store to filling spice bags in an Indian restaurant. She has worked as an information gatherer at the BBC and as a speed reader at a media company. She has been published in a number of magazines and anthologies. She is currently in the final term of an M.A. at the University of Northumbria. more
A. IGONI BARRETT - A. Igoni Barrett was born in 1979, in the coastal city of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, the son of a Jamaican father and a Nigerian mother. He attended the University of Ibadan. His first book, an anthology of short stories, is to be published soon. His work has previously been published in Sigla Mag and Nigeria Monthly [Vol 2 No 6 June 2005] more
KATHERINE MAY - Katherine May is 27 and lives in Rochester, Kent. She studied Social and Political Sciences, and then went on to be - via several fairly random jobs - a Sociology teacher. She's now mainly a lady of leisure, although she keeps herself busy by organising a writing group, The Medway Mermaids. more
NEIL COCKER - Neil Cocker was born in Falkirk in 1972, and grew up in a variety of Scottish towns and villages. He likes to think of himself as attractive and erudite, but the truth is he has ginger sideburns and talks mostly about the reintroduction of national service. He has worked as a teacher in Lithuania, a dishwasher in the US, a book reviewer in Australia, and now lives in the Netherlands, where he works for a whisky company. He has been published in �Original Sins� (Canongate Prize anthology 2001), �New Writing Scotland 21�, and will be featured again in the forthcoming �New Writing Scotland 23�. He has almost finished writing a novel set in Lithuania entitled �The Vodka Angels,� which is about an obsessive compulsive Scot teaching English (badly) in a Jewish ghost town. It also concerns, amongst other things, the vanished Lithuanian community in Scotland, the transcendental qualities of Scottish heavy metal, and the philosophical dilemmas that pop up when you wipe your arse on the works of Dostoevsky. more
MARY McCLUSKEY - Mary McCluskey is journalist, for some years based in Los Angeles, presently living in a small village in Gloucestershire. She likes contrasts. Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines in the United States and the United Kingdom, including Atlantic Unbound (online edition of The Atlantic Monthly), The London Magazine, S Magazine (Sunday Express) LitPot, Dim-Sum (Hong Kong) NightTrain, 3AM, Salon.com, The Pamaunok Review, The Copperfield Review, The Melic Review, Pulp-net, Vestal Review, In Posse Review�s Ethnic Anthology, and BBC Radio 4. She was nominated in 2003 for a Pushcart Prize and was a prizewinner in the Commonwealth Broadcasting short story competition. The Salon story � Isle of Skye � was reprinted in the Salon Anthology 'Life as We Know It' published in October 2003 and still available on both sides of the Atlantic. She has just completed a novel and is giving it a final polish. more
RANJIT SINHA ROY - Ranjit Sinha Roy grew up in a small town, participating in everyday events and closely relating to people. His greatest childhood influence was his grandfather with revolutionary ideas, much ahead of his times. Observing people and surroundings became a habit with Ranjit which blossomed with his maturity and found expression in the written word. During his college days, his work was published in many leading literary publications. Later, his job took him to different parts of Europe and Russia. The influence of these travels is found in some of his work. Ranjit�s short stories and poems have been published on literary magazines and online publications like Taj Mahal Review, Leaves and NDTV Writing Corner. He now looks forward to publishing his collection of short stories. more
WILLIE SMITH - Willie Smith is deeply ashamed of being human. His work celebrates this horror. His work can be viewed at corpse.org and he especially recommends, in the archives, �Spider Fuck� and �Orestes In The Meat Department.� Shorter pieces can be found at My Favorite Bullet, Zygote in my Coffee, Jack Magazine, Milk Magazine, Dream People, Thunder Sandwich, Monkey Bicycle, Fifth Street Review, Poetic Inhalation, et al. His novella, �Oedipus Cadet� is available from Black Heron Press. Chapbooks �Execution Style� and �Go Ahead Spit on Me� can likely still be had by e.mailing here. Novella �Submachinegun Consciousness� can be read at semantikon.com. He is a regular contributor to Andrei Codrescu's Exquisite Corpse and The American Drivel Review, pride of Boulder, Colorado. He is reasonably clean, fairly sober and happily married without children. He enjoys stargazing, birdwatching, deep-breathing and hanging out at the public library with the rest of the bums. more
CATHERINE M. VALENTE - Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She is currently on hiatus from her graduate program in Comparative Literature and residing in Virginia, having recently returned from a long residence in Japan. Her work in poetry and short fiction can be found online and in print in such venues as The Pedestal Magazine, The Women's Arts Network, NYC Big City Lit, Byzantium, The Pomona Valley Review, The Book of Voices and The Minotaur in Pamplona. Her first chapbook, �Music of a Proto-Suicide,� was released in the winter of 2004. Her critical work on Greek and Roman Drama has appeared in the International Journal of the Humanities. Her first novel, �The Labyrinth,� was recently published by Prime Books. Several more titles from Valente are slated for release throughout 2005 and 2006, including �Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams,� Oracles: A Pilgrimage, The Grass-Cutting Sword, and Apocrypha. more
ANGELA READMAN - Angela was born in Middlesbrough, where she lived with her mother until she was 18. She spent three years living in Manchester, and has tried various attempts to �get a real job,� all of which made her go away and write stories that about doing various things involving stapleguns to her colleagues. She describes herself as an accidental poet, as she never made any conscious decision to write or do anything with her poetry, but found that nothing else made her happy (and her fingernails were too short and she wasn�t tanned enough to fit in with the women in the office.) She currently lives in Newcastle. more
DAVID TRAME - Davide�s poems started appearing in magazines in 1999. He started writing exclusively in English in 1993, dedicating a poem to a group of his students in the school where he still teaches English outside Venice. He considers his greatest achievements so far having been published in Orbis 120 (the last number edited by Mike Shields), Stand, Dream Catcher and recently in Event (Canada), In the Red and New Contrasts (South Africa). Davide�s poems have appeared in more than one hundred literary magazines, which he considers important although he believes it's more important feeling he can continue to catch that fundamentally elusive muse that gives birth to poems. more
RUSSELL BITTNER - Russell lives in Brooklyn, New York. His poems have been published on paper by: The American Dissident; The Blind Man�s Rainbow; The Lyric; The Barbaric Yawp; the International Journal of Erotica; and Wicked Hollow. An additional poem with appear in the International Journal of Erotica in the summer of 2005. On-line, his poetry can be found at: Quintessence-encouraging great writing; ken*again; Spillway Review; Erotica-readers; Edifice Wrecked; Ink-mag; Girls With Insurance; Thieves Jargon; Fireweed and Salome Magazine. An additional poem will appear in June at Opium Magazine; in June, July, August, Sept. and Dec. at ALong Story Short; and in Sept. at Southern Hum. His prose can be found at: Satin Slippers; Ink-mag; GirlsWithInsurance; SkiveMagazine; Quintessence, encouraging great writing; Underground voices; Dead Mule; Pindeldyboz; Mannequin Envy; and the uncom.mon Yankee pot roast.org. Additional prose pieces will appear on paper in the Edgar Literary Magazine in April of 2005, and in The International Journal of Erotica in the summer. A third story will appear on the �Net at Southern Hum.com in September. Russell completed his first novel, 'Trompe-l�oeil,' in September of 2004. A second is underway. more
KEVIN HIGGINS - Kevin Higgins was born in London in 1967, but grew up mostly in Galway. He began writing poetry in 1996. Since then his poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies worldwide, and have been broadcast on national radio. He won the Cuirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam in 2003, was a finalist in the Rattlebag/Dublin Writers Festival Poetry Slam in both 2002 & 2003, and was shortlisted for the Hennessy Award for Emerging Poetry in 2005. His first collection, 'The Boy With No Face,' is published by Salmon Poetry. more
ASHOK CHAKRAVARTHY - Ashok Chakravarthy is a poet hailing from India, presently employed with a �Govt-Partnered State Co-op Bank� at Hyderabad City, India. Ashok has composed nearly 1000 poems during the past two decades; receiving awards and commendations for poetry contributions. Over 300 poems featured across the world in several Poetry Anthologies, Magazines, Journals, web-zines etc. Two of his Poetry collections titled (1) Charismata of Poesie (2003) (2) The Chariot of Musings (2004) are in circulation. And, very recently he was conferred with D. Litt (Doctor of Literature) more
NORA NADJARIAN - Nora Nadjarian is a Cypriot poet and short story writer. She has published three collections of poetry: �The Voice at the Top of the Stairs� (2001), �Cleft in Twain� (2003) and �25 Ways to Kiss a Man� (2004). Nora�s work has been commended in various international competitions, including the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition, the Envoi International Poetry Competition and the Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Her book �Cleft in Twain� was one of the books from Cyprus recommended in an article in The Guardian on the literature of the new member states of the European Union. Her work has been published in various Cypriot literary magazines and British small press publications, including Seam, Poetry Nottingham International, Tears in the Fence, Staple, Envoi, Orbis and The Haiku Quarterly. more
KAREN McKENNA - Karen McKenna has just finished a degree in Disability Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Next year she will be attending teachers' college at the University of Toronto, after which she hopes to teach Special Education. She currently supports students with disabilities in elementary and secondary schools. She is a former 'SpEd' student and probably holds some sort of record for number of schools she�s attended. She lives with invisible disabilities and is involved in political activism at various levels. She was involved voluntarily with the Young Worker Memorial Quilt, which she has still not had the opportunity to see, although she understands various politicians and hotshots were invited to a reception for the project. But Karen is just an injured worker, with ongoing WSIB (read bureaucratic bullshit) issues. While attending an Alternative school program, a teacher read Karen�s poetry and encouraged her to publish it (thanks Mr. McKian). She has only submitted poetry once before this site, for which she won a poetry contest. Karen has published academic writing on disability several times, and will be featured in the Child and Youth Work Forum journal some time later this year.
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DAMION HAMILTON - Damion Hamilton is twenty seven years old and lives in St. Louis Missouri. He works in a warehouse you know, so that he can pay for stuff. He had few friends in high school; so he would spend his lunch hour in the school library reading Edgar Allen Poe and encyclopaedias. He didn't really become serious about writing poetry until he was twenty. That's when he read Arthur Rimbaud's, �A Season In Hell� and he's been writing poetry ever since. He walks the streets, or drives around the streets of this city at night: seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking about things. Sometimes he's fortunate enough, to get these things down in a notebook or on a typewriter. more
STEPHEN J. GOLDS - Stephen J Golds �established 1983� was born and raised in London Colney, St. Albans, U.K and is now trying to study Creative Writing and Education Studies at the University of Derby. He has been published within a few magazines including zygote in my coffee and Dogma Press. He is currently working on a collection of short stories and an anthology of poems that he hopes will get published someday. Jobs that he has been hired and fired from include: machine operator in a cardboard box factory, sauce adder in a pasta factory, cleaner, construction site labourer and shelf stacker. His hobbies include being rejected and ejected by bouncers from bars and night clubs and poking wasps nests with sticks. He has only been stung three times.
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ALAN BISSETT - Alan Bissett was born in Falkirk in 1975. His first novel, �Boyracers,� was published by Polygon in 2001 and his second, �The Incredible Adam Spark,� will be released by Headline Review in August 2005. He has also edited the anthology �Damage Land: New Scottish Gothic Fiction.� His short stories have been published in various literary magazines and anthologies, including Chapman, Product and �The Hope That Kills Us: An Anthology of Scottish Football Fiction.� In 2000 he was shortlisted for the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition. He has a BA (Hons) and MLitt in English from the University of Stirling, and worked as a teacher of English in secondary schools before becoming a novelist. For three years he was lecturer in creative writing at the University of Leeds, and is currently tutor on the MPhil in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. more
FISHER THOMPSON - Fisher Thompson has traveled coast to coast in the USA in search of a literary home; finally settling in Southern California. His essays have been published in Abstracts Magazine (USA) and Wild and Whirling Words (USA): his fiction in Wandering Dog (UK), Keystone Magazine (UK) Muse Apprentice Guild (USA), Southern Ocean Review Magazine (NZ), Skyline Magazine (USA), Nagoya Writes Magazine (JAPAN), and The Ladder Review (UK): his poetry in The Indite Circle Literary (CANADA), and Raunchland Publications (UK). He is currently working toward having his novels published.
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ANNIE FORBES COOPER - Annie Forbes Cooper is an Aberdonian bairn, who lives in Manhattan and took to fiction writing, somewhat later in life than is generally recommended. Over the years she has earned her crust from a wide variety of pursuits including, go-go dancing, chambermaiding, silver service waitressing, barmaiding, cleaning trains, quality control person in a fish processing plant, and selling double glazing. These days however, she tends to make the most money from being a journalist for everyone from the Sunday Times, The Scotsman, the Aberdeen Press & Journal, Scottish Field, Forbes, Ad Age, Adweek, the New York Post, Campaign, New Woman, HouseBuyer, the Wine & Spirit International Year Book, Lithoprinter and Carpetbaggers Weekly (OK, she made up the last one), among others. For the past several years she has ensconced herself in the novel. All three of them. The first, she tossed. The second, languishes lonely as a shroud in a drawer somewhere, and her third is currently being turned down by some of the UK's best publishers. She has had chapters published in a UK magazine called The Source; short stories published in Peninsula, in the zines : Word Riot and Literary Potpourri, in the print magazine Inkpot, and Not Everything in Life Has To Be Explained. Forthcoming publications include NFG magazine. In 2002 she won an Honorable Mention award in the Writer's Digest Essay Competition, and an Honorable Mention in the ByLine Creative Nonfiction Contest, 2003. She is also hopelessly disorganized and sadly, has no hi-tech impressive Web site on which to display her paltry wares, nor is she very efficient at posting her work, nor in fact sending it out of late. Despite all this, she is however, an editor at NFG magazine, which she urges everyone to rush out and subscribe to.
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MICHAEL PAUL LADANYI - Michael Paul Ladanyi lives in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with his wife and two daughters. He is a two-time 2004 Pushcart Prize Nominee. His poetry, reviews and interviews have appeared in hundreds of print and online journals in the US and abroad. He is the published author of two full poetry collections and eight poetry chapbooks, and has just completed work on his latest full poetry collection 'Raindogs in the Sun.' He is creator, publisher and editor of the online poetry magazine Adagio Verse Quarterly, an Assistant Managing Editor with Underground Window, and previously served on the editorial boards of the magazines Rustlings of the Wind and Write-away-poetry! for over a year each. Additional information about Michael Paul Ladanyi, including how to purchase his books, can be found in his personal website. more
RICHARD CABUT - Richard Cabut has written for a bunch of papers, etc: The Guardian, Time Out, the BBC, the NME. Pen names include Richard North. He played in the punk rock group Brigandage, and published the fanzine Kick. He writes fiction, cycles around London and takes pictures. more
ASHOK NIYOGI - Ashok Niyogi was born in Calcutta in 1955. He was schooled all over India in Irish Christian Brothers' Schools and graduated with Honors in Economics from Presidency College. Ashok spent 30 years in the world of International Commerce, 15 in East Europe and Russia and the CIS. His work has taken him all over the world and he now divides his time between California where his two daughters live, Russia and India. He is currently unemployed because writing poetry is not considered gainful employment, but does have a timber plantation in Goa, India. Ashok has two books of poetry in India - 'Crossroads' and 'Reflections in the Dark' (both from A-4 Publications) and one book of poems from the USA - 'Tentatively' (iUniverse). He has been published extensively on line and in print in the USA, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada in magazines and Anthologies. more
SEAN McGAHEY - Over the last year or so Sean McGahey�s work has appeared in Zygote in My Coffee, Half Drunk Muse, Muse Apprentice Guild, Mini-MAG, Winamop, Cellar Door Magazine (print) poems recently accepted for #16 of Open Wide Magazine, Quintessence & BeWrite. With help from Web designer Rob Lewis of WV4 he started a poetry website The Beat. He admits to an an unhealthy obsession with anything by William Burroughs & Brett Easton Ellis and thinks �American Psycho� was the most thrilling book he�s ever read. He has a chap book due out in a month or so. more
WILLIAM TAYLOR Jr. - William Taylor Jr. lives in San Francisco, CA. with his wife, Anise, and a cat named Trouble. He is a self labelled misanthropist and refuses to answer the door or the telephone. He likes beer and wine and sitting alone in quiet rooms. His poetry and stories have appeared in the small press and on the Internet for over a decade now. His works have recently appeared in Poesy, Open Wide, Remark, and Anthills among others. He is the author of numerous chapbooks, the latest being �The Bones of Things� from Marianas Trench Press. Most recently, his critical essay appears in the book �Last Call: The Legacy of Charles Bukowski� from Lummox Press. His first full length volume of poetry is in the works from Centennial Press. more
LINDA BOROFF - Linda grew up in Minneapolis, came to California as a teenager, graduated from UC Berkeley in English Lit. She is a Chesterfield Film Writers Project semi-finalist. Her short stories have appeared, or are scheduled to appear, in Epoch, Cimarron Review, Prism International (2), Artisan, In Posse Review (2), Pulse, Starry Night Review, Stirring, The Pedestal Magazine, Eyeshot, Cyber Oasis, FictionWarehouse, Zacatecas, Outsider Ink, The Shadowshow, Summerset Review, 24:7, Storyglossia, Amarillo Bay, and Ducts. She won first prize in The Writers Place 2004 fiction competition, and her first novel is emerging at the rate of an average continent. A feature-length comedy screenplay, Flush, is under development in Seattle. more
BRIAN REID - Brian�s fae Beith but supports Kilbirnie Ladeside. He has a weird girlfriend who can still antagonise and surprise him. Two weans, wan 21 and wan 10. He loves music, movies, hardly reads novels any more. Reads journalism � a throwback to obsession with Hunter Thompson. This is the first time he�s ever written to anywhere to include his stuff. more
PHILIP QUINN - Philip Quinn was born in Hamilton, Canada, and presently lives in Toronto. A graduate of Trent University (English Literature) and Ryerson University (Journalism). Worked in broadcast television (Prince George and Vancouver, B.C.), publishing and advertising. Now freed of the 9-to-5 shackle, writes freelance newspaper and magazine articles. Working on a short fiction collection entitled, �Working Fictions,� a work in progress, and a successor novel to first novel, �The Double,� called logically enough, �The Third.� WANTED: One press that�s truly gutsy, hardcore, experimental and who is not afraid of taking on Bill Gates for his completed speculative novel, �The Bill Gates of Heaven,� which is about the founding of Microsoft and how that leads to the Heaven�s Gate death cult. Of course, it�s fiction, weird, funny, and darkly conceived and executed. His poetry and prose have appeared in a diverse range of Canadian periodical publications. more
ARYAN KAGANOF - Aryan Kaganof lives in Johannesburg. He has had several novels and poetry collections published in South Africa, including �Post Mortemist Poems,� �Drive-Thru Funeral,� �Tombstone Dues,� �Abandonment Boulevard,� �For Those Who Love To Die,� �Hectic!� and �Stones Again� (all published by Pine Slopes Publications, Johannesburg) and �The Freedom Fighter� (published by Illuseum Press, Amsterdam) more
CLEVELAND W. GIBSON - Cleveland is a BeWrite.net writer of 14 months, fresh and very enthusiastic and featured in �The Whimsy�. He is read around the world, published in most genres, is also a regular contributor to The Horse Chronicles, Opinions and Writers Post Journal. LBF Books are publishing his book Moondust. Already six stories from Moondust are set for distribution by UK based company AudioBooksForFree.com and Moondust is due to become an e-book. Bookshare.com use his �Dragon Country� for its blind members worldwide. His fast fiction �Today� won a prize at Short Story.net. He is writing a magical realism serial currently published in Cyprus and due to become a second book. It is under consideration by a Scottish filmmaker. All his children�s stories are translated into Braille for overseas literacy projects. Besides writing Cleveland is a dedicated carer, has been a Road Race director for 10 years, run 4 London Marathons, qualified as a LifeGuard. He teaches ESOL and hopes to teach Creative Writing. Sometimes he�s a guinea pig for Medical Research on Road Safety or Depression here. more
CHARLES P. REIS - Charles P. Ries lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His narrative poems, short stories and poetry reviews have appeared in over ninety print and electronic publications. He has received two Pushcart Prize nominations for his writing and most recently read his poetry on National Public Radio's Theme and Variations, a program that is broadcast over seventy NPR affiliates. He is the author of THE FATHERS WE FIND, a novel based on memory from which excerpts have appeared in a number of publications. Ries is also the author of three books of poetry - the most recent titled, 'Odd' which was published by Pudding House Publications in Columbus, Ohio. His forth book of poetry; The Last Time will be published by Dark Side of the Moon Press in Tucson, Arizona and is slated for release in 2005. more
EDMUND GORDON - Edmund Gordon was born in West London in 1982, and is currently studying philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. He was involved in founding and editing The Ladder Review (which recently folded after its fifth issue), and has published stories in various other student magazines. more
JOHN LOGAN - John Logan was born in Glasgow in 1967. His fiction has been published in literary magazines and anthologies all over the world from North America and Eastern Europe to Israel, India, and China. He�s working on his third novel and was recently paid �400 for an extract from it which will be published in next year�s Picador book, �New Writing 13�. A 6000 word extract from his unpublished second novel, �The Fourth Surface�, appears in the current edition of �Edinburgh Review�. His first novel, �Bringing Something Back�, is published by iUniverse and available to order from bookshops and internet booksellers. 11 chapters from �Bringing Something Back� were previously published in �Chapman�, 2 issues of �Nomad�, �New Writing 9,� 3 issues of �Northwords�, 3 issues of �Edinburgh Review�, and �Secrets of a View.� He has no relationship with any publisher or literary agent so far; anything he�s had published has been through his own �devices�. The interest of any publisher or literary agent in his work would therefore be welcome. more
IAN HOCKING - Ian Hocking is twenty-eight years old and currently lives in York, where he works for the Higher Education Academy. He grew up in Cornwall and read psychology at the University of Exeter. He stayed on to do a PhD, financing his studies through teaching and freelance writing and editing. In addition to his journalism and science writing, his short fiction has been published in Fragment Magazine, Thirteen, Gold Dust, the Quiet Feather, and Citizen 32. His debut novel, a science fiction thriller called �D�j� Vu,� will be published by the UKA Press in January 2005. more
GEORGE SPARLING - George�s work has been published in many literary magazines including Tears in the Fence, Lynx Eye, Snake Nation Review, Hunger, Red Rock Review, Rattle, and Chiron Review, and on the sites Paumanok Review, Slow Trains, Prose Toad, nthposition, Pittsburgh Quarterly and Word Riot. Previous jobs include welfare caseworker in East Harlem, counsellor in the Baltimore City jail, lumber yard laborer, and crab butcher. He has scuba dived for placer gold in the remote, northern wilderness of California for a year. It's no cliche: one can go mad living in isolation too long. He has spent most of his working life in bookstores. more
MARTIN GREEN - Martin Green was born in 1929 in NYC. Married 39 years (to Beverly), with 3 sons (David, Michael & Chris) and one grandson (Mason), he lives in Roseville, CA. He retired at the end of 1990, and became free-lance writer, writing mostly human interest articles for money and short stories for fun. Has published over 300 pieces in Sacramento Bee Neighbors section & other local papers, and currently does two monthly features, Observations & Favorite Restaurants, for Sun Senior News, which goes to over 10,000 households. Discovered online magazines 2 years ago and has had short stories in Fiction Warehouse, Scrivener's Pen, Clever, Pink Chameleon, C/Oasis, Hackwriters, Sidewalk's End, Writer's Hood, Laughter Loaf, Cold Glass, Defenestration, Fiction Funhouse, and two senior ones, Sonata & Allegro. more
MATT HASSELL - Matt Hassell was born in Luton in 1964. He now lives in Leicester where he works as a plasterer. He has been writing for about a year. 'Chef' is his first published piece. more
JOHN SWEET - john sweet, 36, married, father of 2, resident of the wastelands of rural upstate new york. been writing for 20+ years, opposed to all schools of poetry, and not a big fan of discussing things like style, academic vs. small press or dead poets. overeducated, underpaid, just waiting for the neighbors to move. a big believer in writing as catharsis. Published in over 2000 published poems scattered throughout the free world, both online and in print, zines journals, broadsides, cassettes, anthologies, chapbooks and whatnot. collections include the chapbooks FAMINE (www.ravennapress.com) and ENEMY (pinkanarchkittypress). e-chaps include IN THE KNOWN WORLD (www.slowtrains.com) and THIS HUMAN NOISE (www.thundersandwich.net) Full-length print collection, HUMAN CATHEDRALS, is available from www.ravennapress, and rumor has it it's been taught in a few college classes. go figure. more
MATTHEW DEVEREUX - Matthew Devereux studied Modern History at St.Anne's college, Oxford, finishing in 1999. While there he edited Books and Features sections for the Cherwell student newspaper and co-edited the May Anthologies of Oxford and Cambridge student writing. After finishing at Oxford he wanted something totally different so went to Japan to learn Japanese for a year in the city of Fukuoka, then I came back to the UK to a number of mostly short-term jobs, from working in a bookshop to recently working with children with autism. Currently involved in a number of different projects including setting up a band and working with some friends to kickstart a fanzine. more
TONY O'NEILL - Tony O'Neill is 26 years old. In a previous life he played keyboards for bands
and artists such as Kenickie, Marc Almond and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
After moving to Los Angeles he also became a heroin addict, crack fiend and a
speedfreak. He started writing about his experiences on the periphery of the
Hollywood Dream and has been writing ever since. His autiobiographical novel
'Digging the Vein' will be published in January 2006. He lives in New York where he works as a labourer and writes.
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HEATHER MACLEOD - Heather Macleod was born 1961 and lives in the Highlands. She is an ecologist by training, but in real life a full-time mother of four and part-time cleaner, auxiliary worker, gardener, and student with Open College of the Arts. A late but determined starter to writing, her work has featured in Pulp.net and she has had one very short story broadcast on Radio Scotland 2002 and was runner-up in the BBC Wildlife Nature Writing Competition 2003. more
 ELIZABETH GLIXMAN - Elizabeth P. Glixman is a poet, artist, and writer living in the USA. Her work has appeared in online and print publications including 3AM Magazine, In Posse Review, Wicked Alice, Outsider Ink, The Richmond Review, SouthStory, Skive Magazine and several poetry and mass market story anthologies. She is presently looking for a publisher for her book of poems, 'Voices In The Night.' more
CHRISSIE GLAZEBROOK - Chrissie Glazebrook is a novelist (The Madolescents, Blue Spark Sisters), short-story writer and former agony aunt Jenny Talia. She lives in Squalor, Newcastle. Visit her excellent website at www.the-madolescents.com more
 IAN DOWSON - Ian Dowson was born in 1967 in Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, I now lives in Burnopfield, Tyne and Wear, with his wife Zoey and two sons; Elliot and Jimmy. After a dangerous flirtation with poetry he managed to rehabilitate himself with scripting stories for film and theatre as well as devising and facilitating drama in education and community projects across the North East of England. He was involved with the excellent docu/drama �Little Angels� [ broadcast Aug. 2002 BBC2] directed by Paul McGuigan (The Acid House / Gangster No.1 / Wicker Park) and since then has scripted a series of short films for independent film makers in the region. This summer he undertook the biggest project of his career; writing, directing, and producing his first feature film, entitled �Sub Zero.� Ian is now working on his second full length feature alongside May Miles Thomas and Elemental Films of Glasgow. Ian is more commonly known as one of the editors of Liar Republic (formerly Billy Liar.) They get an issue out about once a year but they�re always worth the wait. There�s a new one due but don�t ask him when!! Ian keeps doing it because it needs to be done; there must always be an alternative to the mainstream. more
 BOGDAN TIGANOV - Bogdan Tiganov is glad to still have the enthusiasm to write. Dedication and enjoyment are the keys. He has self-published books so far but is aiming to take his ego that step further. His self-published books are: �11 Year Old Refugee,� �Romanian For Sale,� �Tarnish� and �Fakery.� He was born in Braila, Romania, and is now alive and teaching English language in London, UK. more
 ADRIAN MANNING - Adrian Manning was born in 1967 and lives in Leicester, England where he works in education. He is married to Esther and has a cat. His poems, articles and reviews have appeared in magazines in the UK, the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland and Lithuania as well as on the internet. His first chapbook, WRETCHED SONGS FOR OUT OF TUNE MUSICIANS, was published by Bottle of Smoke Press in the USA in 2003. His poems were also included in the anthology AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR, also published by Bottle of Smoke Press. His next chapbook, AS UNAVOIDABLE AS HISTORY is due to be published by Hemispherical Press in the USA in the near future. He has recently begun Concrete Meat Press. more
 JOSHUA JAMES - Joshua James is the author of a legion of plays, a few screenplays, a couple of novels and the occasional absurd comment. His publications include: �Spooge � The Sex & Love Monologues�, �No Shame Goes to War!� edited by Todd Wm. Ristau, �No Shame After September 11th edited by Todd Wm. Ristau. You can also view samples of his sketch work on the No Shame website or visit his own website which is currently under construction more
 JOHN DORSEY - John Dorsey currently resides in Toledo OH. His work has recently appeared in Underground Voices, Mystery Island Magazine, The James River Poetry Review, fearless, Poesy Magazine, Spent Meat, and the Dublin Quarterly. He is the author of �Little Boy Beat: Selected Poems� published by Paladin M & E, Inc. in 2004. His collection �The Price of Sunshine� co-authored with Iris Berry will be released in the near future by Feel Free Press. more
 MORAG McDOWELL - Morag McDowell has been writing short stories for a while, and has been published in a few magazines like QWF, Cutting Teeth and recently in the Bloomsbury/Asham Award anthology �Shoe Fly Baby.� She writes part-time in between family, kids, and working part-time for a further education college doing community education/outreach work in Glasgow. She is also writing a novel and is pretty confident now that she�ll have the first draft finished before she�s 60. more
 BENJAMIN CONSTABLE - Benjamin Constable was born in Bristol (UK) in 1968. He learned to read at the age of 20 and at 22 started working as a music producer and recording artist which he did for ten years. Feeling the need for a sensible career he studied for a degree in creative writing. Now he records music and writes stories and is still considering the idea of a sensible career. This is Benjamin's first published story. more
 NICK DOCKERTY - Nick Dockerty was born in Warwickshire, Uni in Hull then moved to South London at earliest opportunity. Been writing since 15, done various "rewarding" jobs and been working on and off as a Web editor. Self printed a "love letter" of collected poems to London recently called �Ncolas DOCK 17.99�.� Copies are available if you get in touch via email and pay for postage. See website for details. Various film/TV scripts lying around in various states of decay. The novel is looming. (hmmm.) more
 MICHAEL INTERNICOLA - A novelist, M.A. Internicola is the author of three previous novels, Kiss Me Baby, Sunflowers!, Chaz, And All Our Skies Are Blue. The poems included here are from two separate poetry books, Malism and The Darkest Place Is Under A Streetlight, both completed early 2004. His poems, prose and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in He lives in New York City. more
 DAN FANTE - Dan Fante is the author of three internationally published novels � �Chump Change,� �Mooch� and �Spitting Off Tall Buildings� - in 11 countries - and a most recent book of poems, �A Gin Pissing Raw Meat Dual Carburetor V8 Son Of A Bitch From Los Angeles.� Fante�s full-length play, �The Closer� was named #1 on The Los Angeles Times� list of Most Notable Plays Of The Year. The Los Angeles Ovation Committee nominated Dan Fante for Best Writer of a World Premiere Play. Fante�s fifth book, a collection of short stories entitled, �Corksucker� will be published in England by Wrecking Ball Press in 2004 and by Sun Dog Press in America in early 2005. And next year, his novel �Mooch� will be a Hollywood film, co-written by Dan Fante and Danny De Vito, directed by Danny De Vito. more
 BRIAN CUNINGHAME - was born in Edinburgh in the mid-seventies and was inspired to start writing after a simultaneous dead-end job and relationship. Following his escape of both, and now twenty-six he has lived in and around Edinburgh juggling casual employment, the dole, and the bottle. He is a founder member of the writers group 'writersagainstwriting'. They are a small group based in west Edinburgh who are not writing with the goal or even hope of publication or profit and are always on the lookout for new likeminded members. They are producing a small 'zine' every month or so with samples of their work which can be picked up from various places around Edinburgh including Word Power on Nicholson Street. more
 KENELM AVERILL - 29, was born in Watford and grew up in the suburbs just outside London. He has had various jobs in London, the South Coast, South Yorkshire and Glasgow including secondary teaching, librarianship and the civil service. Currently, he is
completing an MA in Political Theory at the University of Sheffield
and will then begin a PhD in the same. He has had a story and an
article published in the London Magazine, and has a collection of stories he is seeking a publisher for. If you are a publisher interested in Ken's work, please get in touch with me and I will let him know.
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 PAPA OSMUBAL - Papa Osmubal, a Macao, South China resident, is currently a graduate student at the University of Macau, enrolled in MA in Applied English. His two children, a girl named Yeda (Lei Man Lok) and a boy named Yuri (Lei Man Hou), make his home an eternal spring. more
 CAROL NOVACK - Carol Novack lives in New York City. She's worked as a journalist, researcher, college teacher of English, and criminal defense/constitutional lawyer; she recently acquired a Master's Degree in Social Work. A book of her poems was published in Australia, where she received a creative writer's grant. Carol's poetry and prose have appeared in various journals and anthologies. Recent writings are forthcoming in Wild Strawberries, Smokelong Quarterly, and Edifice Wrecked. more
 DREW GUMMERSON - Drew Gummerson was born in 1971 and has lived in the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia and the USA but now lives in Leicester. In 2002 his first novel �The Lodger� was published. It was a finalist in the Lambda Awards in the States. Drew�s short fiction has been / will be published in �Death Comes Easy; The Gay Times Book of Short Stories 4�, �Serendipity: The Gay Times Book of New Writing�, �Best Gay Erotica 2005� (Cleis Press), Aesthetica Magazine, Open Wide Magazine, The Gay Read, Pulp.net, Blithe House Quarterly, Megaera, Zygote in my Coffee, Xaxx and Forbidden Fruit. Drew is currently working with Zuluspice to turn a number of his short stories into short films. more
 F.N. WRIGHT - F.N. (Fred) Wright was born & raised in outh central Illinois. He left home at 16 & at age 17 enlisted in the Navy, serving with the Naval Amphibious Forces for four years. He is a Veteran of the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis & the Vietnam War. He is happily divorced & currently lives in a small trailer somewhere in the mountains of Southern California. He currently owns two Harleys & a souped-up 1968 El Camino. Wright likes listening to the blues when he writes or paints & is currently working on a new novel. more
 PAUL ANTHONY SCOTT - Paul Anthony Scott was born in Burnley Lancashire on the 18th June 1968 to parents Janice and David. A sister, Pamela Jane, followed in 1972. After the regular boyhood ambitions of footballer, policeman and Accountant, had subsided, a dream of popstar emerged in his early teens. Musically inept and tone deaf, the words were the only thing that kept the hope alive. Through time, and advancing years, the popstar dream has all but died and the lyrics have turned to poetry. Influenced initially by his teenage angst heroes � namely Martin Gore, Marc Almond and Matt Johnson � and followed in more recent years by Rob Dougan, Louise Hart and Florian �Dido� Armstrong, his work has taken on new and varied styles and subject matter. Now married with two incomparable Sons he has a more realistic ambition of having a collection of his work published in book format (closely followed by hearing his art set to music, and, driving along Route 66!). more
 ANDREW HOOK - NEW STORY ADDED - Over the last 10 years, more than 40 of Andrew�s stories have been published in the independent press, (recently collated as The Virtual Menagerie from by Elastic Press.) "Streetwalk" was originally published in Rue Bella magazine ("a painstaking and unsettling dissection of the mind" - Nicholas Royle, Time Out.) Previous stories have been published in Front & Centre (Canada), BuzzWords, White Noise, etc. His debut novel, 'Moon Beaver' was published by Emperor's New Clothes Press in 2004 and is distributed in the UK via Elastic Press - more
 CLARE AZZOPARDI - NEW STORY ADDED - is 26, hyper, loud, wild, frank and a collector - born in St Julians - a small party town by the sea, with an invisible soul. She is a teacher of Maltese language and literature at a Secondary School for girls � challenging, savage, bitchy, doped and yet lovable. She is also reading for a Masters, specialising in teaching writing for adolescents, at the University of Sheffield in the UK and is currently trying to get her thesis done� Clare is very active in Inizjamed (Please do visit our website www.inizjamed.cjb.net) Recently she coordinated workshops in writing for children and others for women writers. Her works have featured regularly in literary events set up by Inizjamed and Poeżijaplus. Clare has also been active in the field of publication. Works related to education have appeared in a number of books such as Prosit (2000), Skaluni (2001) and Stilel (2003-4). Her poetry has been collected in anthologies such as F�Kull Belt Hemm Kantuniera (2003). Today, Clare does not write poetry� she thinks it is too sensitive for her anger� The short story fits her perfectly! In 2003 Clare was part of the group represented by Inizjamed at the Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean held in Athens - more
 CLIVE STELFOX - Clive Stelfox was born in Manchester in 1968. In the late eighties, kids from small towns all over the north of England invaded his home town and changed its name to Madchester. They filled all the good clubs with their fake accents, 'top one mate', 'sorted bud', and the breeze from their baggy jeans blew chill through the town. He fled to Redcar, Cleveland, a town that will take you to its heart within three generations, and for two years tried to forget the twentieth century. For the last ten years he has lived in Scotland, first in Kirkintilloch, then Cumbernauld and soon who knows. In 2002 he won second prize in a North Lanarkshire Council writing competition, but since then, the postman just hasn't called. In fact litmags have a strange habit of disappearing once he submits submit to them. He has completed a number of short stories and a novel - �The Nostalgist� - although he�s spent the last six months deciding whether to change the name of the lead character. He currently splits his time between writing, cycling and saving Tesco's beer department from the sin of sloth. more
 NORBERT BUGEJA - Norrie Bugeja lives in Malta and works as a newspaper/radio journalist and spends some of his late afternoons reading postcolonial writing and critical theory. He drinks some alcohol and smokes varieties of dried leaves. Has been hankering after pretty animals since time immemorial. Approaches less pretty ones on condition they�re nice and if they�re not, will only do so grudgingly and for professional reasons. For these and other facts of life he is often deemed a dangerous thing roaming the canopies of the night, for which the membership club-card and shimmering nose-rings are sine qua non. When desparate he reads a Maltese newspaper, watches a Maltese drama, walks into a Maltese art exhibition, chats with a self-styled artist or mixes with the Malta-hungry cultural elite. After that he can murder. He is a confessed Roman Catholic with occasional bouts of intelligence. more
 MARC GOLDIN - Marc Goldin currently lives in Chicago, with three cats, each one more long-haired than the last. Interests have ranged from medieval monasticism to discontinued stations on the London Underground � literary likes too diverse (some would say schizo) to list here although the last several years have been witness to an intimacy with Scottish and Irish literature. American Southern and Beat era lit also account for some of the �missing years�. Music tastes run the gamut from Cuban Danzon to Ska (all three waves but having a specific attachment to the second, two-tone period) to the Tuvan throat singers. Has written book reviews for a now defunct Irish literature site and has several short stories in various stages of development. Mad for black and white photography and aspires to someday have a complete collection of photos documenting every close in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh. Works in the IT dept. of a French company in the current political climate. In football, supports Chelsea, Hibs, and for the sake of employment security, Marseille. more
 LUIS CUAUHTEMOC BERRIOZABAL - Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal was born in 1967 in Cuernavaca, Morelos (Mexico). He has lived in Los Angeles County since 1975 and works in the mental health field in LA. His first book of poetry, �Raw Materials,� was published in 2004 by Pygmy Forest Press. His broadside �In the House of the Butterflies� was published by New American Imagist. Some of his poetry and artwork is featured in The Hold and Remark Poetry. Luis poems have been published in Spanish and English. New Hope International reviewed poems of his that appeared in ZYX, Journeys and RawNervzHaiku. more
 DAN McNEIL - Dan McNeil was born in 1965. He�s travelled a bit, but now lives in Gloucestershire, UK. Prodigiously imaginative, he�s surprisingly useless at writing about himself. His postmodern proclivities and love of supermarket shopping can help out though. Alongside Dan�s 2 featured stories are Dan McNeil as a series of lists - the only true biographical form.
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 KARA KELLAR BELL - Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a
passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she�s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality
or in gender. She is currently completing her first novel.
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 MARK GALLACHER - Mark Gallacher was born in 1967, the youngest of seven children, and grew up in Girvan, a small town on the west coast of Scotland. The sea at his front door, the Ayrshire hills at the back. His father died in a traffic accident when he was five years old. He graduated from Dundee College of Technology and moved to England and worked in Manchester for a number of years. He returned to Scotland and lived in Edinburgh. In 1999, crazy with love, he moved to Denmark to live with his Danish girlfriend. They have one son. They are still crazy. His pamphlet of poetry, �More Than A Dedication� was published by Envoi Poets Publication - �profoundly moving� - Chapman Magazine; �haunting poems that deserve to be read and re-read�- New Hope International. - more
 SHANE ALLISON - Shane Allison's poems, stories and reviews have appeared in James River Poetry Review, remark, Mind Caviar, Velvet Mafia, Suspect Thoughts, Frigg, Dicey Brown, Shampoo, Thunder Sandwich, The Glut, Plum Ruby Review, Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, Coal City Review, Babel and others he can't remember right off hand. He has poems forthcoming in Blaze Vox, Gargoyle and Dream Virus, and his third story will be pubished in Best Black Gay Erotica in the fall. Sloppy, wet kisses and big ole bear hugs go out to the editors of these publications, those he forgot to mention, Mrs. Kanu, his tenth grade English teacher who introduced him to this 'thang' called poetry, and Brian Fugett. - more
 MARTIN BLYTH - Born 1934 in Poole, Dorset, where he has lived all his life, worked for 35 years as a local newspaper reporter, and lived in the same house for 41. Married to Margaret since 1959. Four daughters, five grandchildren. Member of management team, SOUTH Poetry Magazine. Life member, The Philip Larkin Society. Trustee of Poole Historical Trust, for which he co-authored two books of local history. Martin�s work has appeared in Doors, South, The Rialto, Tears in the Fence, About Larkin, and various anthologies. Designed, printed and self-published XIX Poems (1995) and Afternoons at Ansty, poems by Phillip Whitfield, RG Gregory and Martin Blyth (1996). - more
 KAREN MACLEOD - Karen Macleod was born in Glasgow of Highland extraction and is now married and living in Edinburgh. She has a history degree from the University of Glasgow and has completed five novels and three plays (of which three novels and two plays have so far escaped the wastepaper basket), plus sketches, pieces of prose and the odd poem. She has been published in Edinburgh University's Groundswell magazine, Scene magazine and Visible Ink (lottery funded) magazine. - more
 ROBERT CIESLA - Robert Ciesla was born in Finland in 1979. He is currently a student at the Finnish Business Polytechnic and working on several non-business projects on the side. He has written several short stories that will hopefully become a highly-acclaimed book and a tasty film-adaptation (sic). In the mean time, Robert has begun approaching "smaller" literary venues, such as various ezines to spread the word. He is the chief editor at Kant-magazine and occasionally dabs with his orchestra, Thrill. - more
 MUHAMMAD NASRULLAH KHAN - Muhammad Nasrullah Khan sent this story from Pakistan. He says: "I live in a country where people are afraid of life. Their sleep has lost dreams. I want to reawaken their oppressed dreams; I want to share their woes; I want to share the suffering of their shrieking souls. Humanity is dying and I am trying to put a few drops of water on its dry tongue so that it should face death bravely. My writing is the echo of their flagging hopes and raging desires." - more
 CLAIRE WYBURN - Claire Wyburn took her first E in 1991, a decision that dramatically improved her career. One fateful weekend she went to Aberdeen for an illegal all-nighter; the dance floor collapsed and the � ahem � promoters vanished, rumour has it, to Jamaica. Claire got so wrecked, she turned up for work as a Junior Reporter for free local rag, The Ayr Leader, four days late. She was fired on the spot. But Claire knew she was destined for better things. She became Clubs Editor of Scotland�s then highbrow indie music magazine, M8, changing it into a streetwise rave �zine, and later doubling its circulation as Editor. In 1997, she re-located to Brixton, London, to edit England�s respected underground music mag, Wax. By 2002 Claire was all raved out and wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Besides, what else can you do when you�re sick of your dream job? �Aaaah, I will become a novelist and lounge around all day in my nightie!� She concluded, thinking this was the easy option. Sadly, her hedonistic lifestyle left her lacking one important skill: discipline. So she had to go back to work, as Assitant Editor of another youth title, 18-30�s Melt, but she plans to leave this September to add the finishing touches to that same first novel, Deadbeat� - more
 ADRIAN GRIMA - Adrian Grima is a lecturer in Maltese literature at the University of Malta. He is the coordinator of the cultural organization Inizjamed and the Maltese correspondent of the Babelmed.net website about culture in the Mediterranean. His doctoral thesis dealt with the creation of the Maltese national imaginary in Maltese literature. Adrian Grima has read papers about Maltese literature, the Mediterranean and cultural activism at conferences and seminars in Europe, the USA and the Caribbean. In 1999 he published 'It-Trumbettier,' a collection of poems in Maltese with translations in English which placed second in the Tivoli Prize for books by Young European poets. His poetry has also appeared in publications in France, Italy, Israel and Cyprus. He is the editor of 'F�Kull Belt Hemm Kantuniera' (Inizjamed, 2003) and other collections of contemporary Maltese literature.
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 G.N. HARRIS - Ex-poet hitchhiker, creature of the in-between, the cracks and crevices, the road less travelled, the alternative method, the other way, opposite of the recommended policy. G.N. is the one who your parents warned you about. He is author of the novel�s, "Highlights from a Lowlife," "Beat the Machine," and "Connecting the Dots." His work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Northridge Review, Voices International and Underground Voices. - more
 RALPH LOPEZ - Ralph Lopez was born in the most God-forsaken part of Texas but happily his family moved right away. After they were blown about the country by his father's career he somehow wound up at Yale, where he drank, chased women, and read everything but what was assigned. Home now is mostly Cambridge, Massachusetts USA. Ma, Pa and the family home are in New Mexico. A ritual for Ralph is re-reading long passages of Mark Twain every couple of years, especially "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," from which, as Hemingway said, all American literature springs. Like Huck Ralph seems to have trouble with social conventions, like holding down a steady job, and has decided some people are just born no damn good that way and so you may as well "go the whole hog." He'll do anything from roofing to writing grant proposals to support his writing habit. Like Huck he�s fine with going to hell as at least he'll be with all his friends, and not lonesome in the other place. - more
 TARA HANKS - Tara Hanks was born and grew up in London. Since then she�s lived in Brighton, Lancaster and now Derby. She is married with two children. Her novella, �Wicked Baby,� (of which this is the prologue) is a sideways glance at the Profumo Affair. She is currently working on a novel about the life of Marilyn Monroe � as she might have told it herself. - more
 M. BLAKE - M. taps away at the keyboard in Rhode Island and is looking forward to the summer season. About ten years ago, a small zine � �The Hunted News� - printed a chapbook of his poems called The Moral Whirlpool, stuff written in drunken inspiration at a flophouse inn. He is working on a novel length project now and has published some short stories online. Skive; Stick Out Your Neck; Fiction On the Web; 3711 Atlantic; Madswirl; 63 Channels (June); Thunder Sandwich (July); Open Wide (August). - more
 K.M. DERSLEY - K.M. Dersley writes in an unstuffy style that has been called unique. It's very neo-Beat. His latest collection of poems, 'Between the Alleyways at the World's Fair' is available from Feel Free Press. To read more of his work, visit his website, �The Ragged Edge�. The Other Side section of the 'Ragged', is now onto issue #8, has attracted illustrious underground writers from all over the world and is now pre-booked with cracking poems and articles well into #11 and 2005. Get into the Derz's work, not a lot of people thought a British bloke could could write like it. - more
KARL KOWESKI - Karl Koweski, originally from Chicago, now lives on top of a mountain in Alabama for reasons that involve a woman. Once the lead singer/banjo player of the disco/punk/country band The Screaming Shits, he now spends his time writing articles for porn magazines. - more
 ALIYA WHITELEY - Aliya Whiteley was born in North Devon in 1974. She currently works as a library assistant in Lincolnshire. She loves red wine and can't keep house plants alive. She has had poetry published by Tears In The Fence, Poetic Licence and Carnelian. Short stories of hers will be coming up shortly in Dreamvirus and Shred Of Evidence. Her first novel, 'Mean Mode Median,' is being published by bluechrome in Sept 2004. She is also known as bluepootle on UKAuthors, where she has an online journal and an update page - more
 D.B. COX - Originally from a small town in South Carolina. He grew up in a Southern Baptist children�s home.
In an escape attempt, at the age of six, he and a friend hopped a freight train, and rode from Greenwood, S.C. to Augusta, GA (which seemed like a long way then). At the age of 14, he picked up the guitar, and the next year (1965), played his first paying job with a band called (for some reason he can�t remember) �The Checkmates�. Once he discovered that someone would actually pay him to wank on a guitar, drink beer, and run women, he was sold on being a musician. After a 4 year stint, with the Marines in the 60s�, he spent a few years in the southeast playing whatever jobs he could get (mostly Top-40) in clubs and bars. In 1978, he moved to Boston to attend the Berklee School of Music. He eventually found the blues circuit in New England, and since then, has played the music he loves with some really good bands, in a lot of different places. He has always enjoyed writing poetry for the same reason he loves playing the guitar; trying to communicate how he feels, at a given time, on a given day. - more
 DELPHINE LECOMPTE - Delphine Lecompte has her father to thank for her French name (he hails from Lille) She�s 23 (born 22nd January 1981) , born and raised in London where she lived with her grandparents. She is now an expat now as four years ago she met a Flemish singer/songwriter, they fell in love and she moved to his home country, dreary Belgium. They are no longer together. She stacks milk bottles for a living. Her work has been/is due to be published in: Juked - Mad Swirl - Spoken War - Skive Magazine - The Raging Face - Scriberazone - more
 NEIL AYRES - Neil Ayres was born in East London in 1979. He left school with a handful of GCSEs when he was 16 and has worked at times (and in no particular order) as a warehouseman, a cattery hand, a copy-shop assistant, a barman, a professional dog trainer and a cheap alternative to a computer database. He currently works in publishing. He lives on the Surrey/Sussex border in a house without a resident cat, though if there was one it could live without fear of being swung, as there�s not enough room to do such a thing. His debut novel, �Nicolo�s Gifts,� was nominated for the ManBooker Prize 2003 and is published in the UK by Bluechrome. It is currently in the process of being translated into French. Neil is project manager for the �Book of Voices,� an anthology of short stories due to be published by Flame Books in March 2005 in an attempt to raise awareness of the work of the Sierra Leone office of International PEN. Neil is also a member of Godisin, the first TTA writers� workshop. In between all of the above, he is trying to get round to finishing his second novel and finding a decent agent. more
 PAUL MARTIN - In 2002 Paul, 47, a native Londoner, returned to the UK with his partner and what must be the world�s best travelled dog, after living half his adult life in California. He�s now working towards an MA in Creative Writing and is drawing on his two very disparate lives on both sides of the Atlantic as inspiration for much of his fiction. His piece �Bloodlines� won an honourable mention in the Gay Read competition early in 2004 and he is working on a number of short stories which reflect his fascination with the personal intrigues of the both the urbane and suburban. more
 KATHLEEN KIIRIK BRYSON - *NEW STORY ADDED* - Kathleen Kiirik Bryson is a novelist/actor/painter who was born and raised in Alaska. Her first novel, 'Mush,' was published by Diva Books in 2001 and she is just finishing her second, 'Girl on a Stick,' a pitch-black comedy about Rebus puzzles, Catholicism and Americans - a chapter of which is showcased here. She is currently working on He's Lucid,' a satirical futuristic novel set in Alaska; as well as co-directing the low-budget feature 'The Viva Voce Virus,' which she has written, and in which she has a cameo role. Since July, her day job has been as Books Publisher at MPG. more
 JUSTIN BARRETT - justin.barrett lives in Salt Lake City with his wife. He is a chemist. His first book, i was a third grade genius..., was published by Bottle of Smoke Press in 2003 and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is the editor of the poetry journal remark. and started Hemispherical Press with salvatore and Glenn W. Cooper. justin.barrett writes poetry. - more
 BHUPINDER D MAHI - Abandoned at birth by German missionaries, who rolled me into a waterpot, in a
remote Indian jungle I was brought up by a band of itinerate monkeys trying
to write Hamlet. Once they'd realised that evolution had been a complete
bastard to them they sold their tails, to be used as fly swots, through a
global fair-trade company, and used the money to buy me a one way ticket to
England. Expecting to be met by the Queen and the Prime Minister I was
disappointed to be detained as an illegal immigrant - my parents'
occupations were listed as jungle swingers and mine as a trainee nut
cracker- but managed to convince the authorities of my usefulness as another
dishwasher in an Indian restaurant. Since that heady arrival my rise has
been spectacular; chief dishcloth wringer at the Papadom Palace hangs
tantalisingly close. All other time is spent writing and trying to complete
a BA in English. My first novel, "Portraits of Them" is influenced by the
women who've touched me - not just that way - and the various masks I've
adopted to survive. It's up on the web, while I wait for the big break time,
with all proceeds going to fuel my addiction for fruit of the forest
cheesecake - no doubt memories of my German genes - and apple flavoured
bottled water, and of course in bribing literary agents to push my work.
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 EDDIE WILLSON
Eddie Willson was born in Yeovil, Somerset in 1962 and later moved to London. He has lived on the same street in Deptford, South London since 1986. He has played and sung in various bands over the years, but music currently takes second place to writing fiction. A few copies of his debut novel the black car leaving are still available via his website. more
 OWEN ROBERTS
Owen Roberts lives in Toronto/Canada with his wife and three children. Bottle of Smoke Press published a collection of his poems in 2003; 'My Best Years are Probably Behind Me.' He just finished assembling a new anthology; 'AGGRESSIVEBEHAVIOR,' all copies handmade and for sale through www.bospress.net. It features A.D. Winans, Justin Barrett, Neeli Cherkovski, Henry Denander and many others. He has started a new press publishing anthologies, broadsides. If you are a writer and interested in submitting, please check out Compulsive Press. more
 ALAN RAM - *NEW STORY ADDED* -
I first came across Alan's work while I was co-tutoring an Arvon course at Lumb Bank in 1998. I loved the way he uses language, the intensity and urgency of his stories and the powerful characterisation. I've been following his work ever since and I long for the day he has his first book published so I can buy it for everyone I know and plug it mercilessly. He is currently working on his first novel. His stories have previously been published in Liar Republic #1 and #2 and Front and Centre magazine. My love of Alan�s writing is one of the reasons I set up the showcase in the first place. For this reason, I feature two new stories by him:-�Dennis Peter Liddington� and �A Cup of Coffee, Eva� and in the archive, his story, �Make Sure There�s Something in the Freezer�
MIKEL K - Mikel K is a father, a writer and a dog walker. He also feeds the cat. K is currently seeking a literary agent for
his book, "The Delivery Guy...," an ample portion of which may be found under "word of," at the "official" Mikel K website here. Mikel was voted best spoken word performer for his work with the Mikel K Band on their, "Sober," and "Don't Say Hate..." cd's, but, more importantly, his three kids and his dogs Javi, Shawtie and Morisson and his cat, Madonna, are always happy to see him when he gets home.. - more
 STANLEY BORG - Stanley Borg is 26 and writes loads of articles for the Times of Malta as well as read existentialism and write poetry. He spent most of his years in theological conundrums, such as � if, when I die, I find myself in heaven, surrounded by all my relatives, then I will think it's hell. Whereas, if I go to hell, and find myself without them, wouldn't that be heavenly? What is the meaning of life? He is also an active member of Inizjamed with whom he has been coordinating activities for the past years, as well as published his poetry in the collections G�ejjer (2000), Bliet u Miti (2002) and F�Kull Belt Hemm Kantuniera (2003). He was also part of the group represented by Inizjamed at the Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean held in Athens. Currently, he's collaborating with installation artist Norbert Attard and painter James Vella Clark. - more
 IMMANUEL MIFSUD - Immanuel Mifsud was born on 12 September 1967, youngest of 8 children. Never read a book before age 16, except for Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Then, grace fell upon him on his 16th birthday in the form of Sigmund Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams.' Since then he became an assistant lecturer at the University of Malta, giving lectures on modern Maltese poetry and theatre to students who don't care less...but that's life. - more
 ROB ROSEN - Rob Rosen was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1966. He spent his childhood in the suburbs of New Jersey, his teen years in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and much of his early adulthood in Atlanta, Georgia, where he graduated from Emory University with a B.S. in Biology and then worked for eight years as a Clinical Biochemist. When he turned thirty, he packed it all in, sold his car, broke his lease, gave up his career and followed his dreams to San Francisco, where he is now an Office Guru. So much for that expensive education. His first novel, "Sparkle", was published in 2001 and he has been writing diligently ever since. - more
 DAN PROVOST - Once�being disillusioned with life (why is not important), and being an ex collegiate Offensive Lineman, I began to frequent the many dive bars that were both in Woonsocket and Providence Rhode Island. My size helped me � I was either thought of as a cop or some big galoot who was unhappy with everything (which I was) so I was pretty much left alone by the patrons of these establishments. I sat and observed them � the hookers, the guys who were struggling to make ends meet, the criminals, and the ones who were losing the battle with the bottle. I was lucky; I could leave the �environment� and go home to my apartment�knowing I had a job to go to. The ones who I saw, talked to and hung around with never knew when their next pay-check or meal was coming from. So I guess Bukowski lived it, I just saw it from up-close with my feet still being afar. Today, I work at Assumption College in Worcester Massachusetts as the Assistant Director of Graduate Services. I also am the Head Football Coach at Nipmuc High School in Upton Massachusetts. I�m happily married to Bonnie and my family consists of her two great kids Deasy and Alex. And sometimes I still go to dive bars and remember� - more
 MARK BARBER - Born in December 1973, Bethnal Green, East London. Then moved to the Mursell Estate in Stockwell, South London, which I was recently told by a mate I grew up with is the most claustrophobic and architecturally depressing council estate in the country. I find that hard to believe, yet also very believable; he couldn�t provide any proof, but there you go. I left home at 19, rented a �studio flat� (bedsit), worked as a warehouseman, then after 18 months of that was fired by the night manager and then day manager respectively (understandable, in retrospect); couldn�t get a job or pay rent so went to Sussex Uni, studied philosophy, graduated, did the traveling thing, and then came back to a variety of jobs ranging from grill chef, barman, accounts assistant � to current job as a reporter in the trade press. Currently living in Queens Park, West London. Like everyone and their dog, I�m in the process of writing a book. - more
 BRADLEY MASON HAMLIN - Bradley Mason Hamlin is a writer and publisher of alternative literature. He was born in Los Angeles and currently lives in �Capitol City� Sacramento, California with his beautiful wife Nicky and their many amazing children. His work has appeared in several small press magazines in print and on line and he is the creator of the metaphysical crime series: Monster Zipper, featuring the intoxicated detective known as Alcoholman. His latest book: Ginger�s Blues is now available from Mystery Island Publications - more
THE GAY READ SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2003 - Was delighted and flattered when Trev asked me to act as judge in The Gay Read�s Inaugural Short story competition, not only because I�ve watched the site go from strength to strength over the past year or so, but because it allowed me to judge blindly and therefore visit each story with no preconceptions. It was near impossible to work down my original shortlist to the finally 3 - which I showcase here, and for this reason, Trev is showcasing some of the stories that came very close in the Competition Issue of the Gay Read which you can access by clicking - here
JAMES QUINTON - James has been writing from an early age and he vividly remembers winning a writing competition at primary school. In more recent years he has had poetry and fiction published in over 80 ezines, magazines and presses. His first paperback poetry collection, �Ambulance� is due for release late 2005. He also runs Open Wide Magazine, a cutting edge bi monthly arts magazine with a worldwide readership. OWM publishes fiction, poetry, reviews and interviews. He is 26. - more
DAN PEARSON - Dan Pearson lives in Stonington, Connecticut and writes about municipal government for The Day newspaper in New London. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and Bowdoin College in Maine and received an M.Litt degree in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews. He is the only Connecticut member of the Raith Rovers Independent Supporters Society. He is also a regular film reviewer for this site - more
 BENYAN ALI SINJIN - Benyan Ali Sinjin, poet, philosopher, musician, was born in Zululand in 1969. Confrontation with unjust authority is the central tenor of his life, from the fight against nationalist apartheid in South Africa to the fight against injustice committed by most governments abroad in their �witchhunts� against narcotics and psychotropic substances. Benyan remains an Anarchist, �until someone gets a better idea. We exist in anarchy all the time anyhow, rules are followed freely, or not. Capitalism is absolute anarchy. The only alternative could be a theocracy with a nature deity as its source, this will most likely only follow a major ecological disaster, unfortunately, and will be its own form of anarchic capitalism: the hoarding of the environment.� He now travels the world researching his next novel. �The Galaxy in Her Eyes�, a futurist look at humanity as it begins its exploration of the stars, and its self. more
 BRIAN FUGETT - Brian Fugett is a member of the slacker, fast food generation that has been branded with an �X�. He sits in his pad all day consuming more oxygen than he�s worth. He�s been doing it for nearly 32 years now & has become quite efficient at it. Eating & voiding are the only things he really knows how to do. Between meals & trips to the shitter, he writes. Rumor has it, authorities in the San Francisco Bay area claim he's been incarcerated numerous times for publicly milking West Nile Virus from the tits of pregnant mosquitoes. Ask him about it at: [email protected] & he will vehemently deny it. Some day he hopes to be president of the �International Society of Incontinent Gum Swallowers�, a support group for people who compulsively swallow gum & piss themselves. Until that day arrives, he occupies his time with writing, cartooning, filmmaking & editing the webzine Zygote in my Coffee. more
 CHRIS MAJOR - Chris Major is 41 and lives in Stoke On Trent. He has a degree in chemistry, which is really handy in his job as a Support Worker with people who have learning difficulties. His poetry has been widely placed in the UK print small press and online at over 60 e-zines. He has never won a decent poetry competition, and wants one poem accepted by 'Poetry Review' before he dies. As we speak a poetry book manuscript is ready to be sent out and to receive its first rejection. more
 DEBBIE KIRK - Debbie Kirk drives a hearse and eats gummy bears. She feels strange referring to herself in the third person. She doesn't care much for poetry, she merely writes as part of her longterm plan. Obviously, poetry in small zines will make her rich, and fast! She will then use that money to make explosives and figure out some way to turn numbers into colors. Her strangest sexual fantasy is to be a gay man for one day and have sex with Rob Halford of Judas Priest. She got this statement at gunpoint from a vagrant for her bio: "Debbie Kirtt, she's an OK broad. Don't mug her, also she bought me a 40 oz." She is currently stalking Jack Black (no restraining order yet.) more
 MAX DUNBAR - Max Dunbar was born in London in 1981 but grew up in the urban north. He recently graduated in English and Philosophy from Sheffield, and currently works, rests and raves in Leeds. His major influences are Irvine Welsh, Hunter S Thompson and William Blake. He has just completed a full length novel and his hobbies are writing, excess and misleading focus groups. more
 CALUM CUMMING - Calum Cumming was born in 1962 in Forfar, Scotland, the younger of two boys. In high school, he was a star amateur cyclist and he was National Team Champion in 1977. He left school at 17, trained as a Civil Engineer and began the resless wandering that punctuates much of his book. Calum currently lives in North East Scotland and continues to write. Among his interests are golf, movies and finally getting to grips with 'Ulysses.' more
 MATT SMITH - Matt Smith lives in Winston-Salem, NC. He did well in school until the 4th grade but it went down hill quickly after that. He has a healthy relationship with his socks, which is rather unusual in this day and age. Matt spends most of his time reading and trying to avoid hard labor. He hopes to smell like cinnamon and orange peel one day. He would like to sleep through as much of this as possible; and like all benevolent deities, he loves you dearly. more
 DAVID GARDINER - Following success in a number of short story competitions, including the Fish Competetition, David set up his own web page, and in the year 2000 got a science fiction novel called "SIRAT" published in America. The novel presents a highly possible scenario for the first emergence on earth of true electronic intelligence, and, if nothing else, is well researched. He loves good science fiction and had great fun writing it.
In 2002 David's story, "Letting Go" was placed second in the Fish. Second prize was a week at Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat in Co. Cork in Ireland, and during this week David got the inspiration for a loosely linked collection of short stories called "The Rainbow Man" which has just been published by Bluechrome/Boho. more
 ANDREW O'DONNELL - Andrew O'Donnell was born in Blackpool in 1977 and spent his youth drinking Kestrel lager on the streets of Bromley Cross and Egerton, the 'posh end' of Bolton, Lancs (where the moors creep in on the urban sprawl that is Bolton and Manchester.) He studied Literature and Philosophy at Staffs University before travelling around India and Nepal. He has (sometimes tenuously) lived in Kobe, Osaka (Japan), Pokhara (Nepal), Vancouver and London. He has been writing poetry and prose since he was about sixteen and has had poetry published with a handful of literary magazines and websites in England, Canada and the U.S. more
 MARK WILLIAMSON - 40-year-old Mark Williamson began dreaming of being a writer at boarding school, over long sessions drinking bromide-laced tea with fellow-fantasists in a draughty dining hall. Early projects such as a never to be started in earnest history of France betrayed a tendency to let the grandeur of his visions run some way ahead of his ability. Four years studying history at Edinburgh University fanned the flames, which ten years hard as a chartered accountant in London failed to extinguish but it was only after returning with his partner Deirdre to Edinburgh in 1995 that he began to get a return on the investment on a word processor he made in 1993. Since winning a prize for student financial journalists in 1998 he has made a living as a business writer. He is currently employed on The Herald for which, in addition to stories about money matters, he has filed features on subjects ranging from the lives and times of the great and good to Nepal and infant cataracts (archived at www.theherald.co.uk) In between working and trying to help care for his two young daughters he scratches out short stories and notes for something he hopes may become a novel.
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 DEE RIMBAUD - Dee Rimbaud is a Poet, author, artist, illustrator, graphic designer, spiritual healer, house-husband, dad and jack of many trades. One of Scotland�s major iconoclasts. His poetry, short stories and artwork have been published extensively on the internet and in hundreds of magazines and anthologies throughout the USA, Canada, Australia, UK and Europe. His first poetry collection, �The Bad Seed� was published by Stride (1998). His second collection, �Dropping Ecstasy With The Angels� will be published by Bluechrome in March 2004 (and can be ordered online now at their web-site. His novel, �Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God� will be published by Bluechrome in September 2004. You can read his poetry, prose, short stories and novel - and view a massive collection of his artwork - at his web-site, here. You can also buy limited edition prints of his art here
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 WAYNE WOLFSON - Wayne is a California based author.His works have widely appeared over the years in both journals and sites. Recently, he has collaborated with Mars Syndicate on the album Midnight Latitudes which is being released through Con Troppo Records and will be available through all the usual suspects. For more information on his works, go to his site Terrible Beauty - more
 PAUL SUMMERS - Paul Summers was born in Blyth, Northumberland in 1967 and now lives in North Shields where he works as writer/artist/tutor. His work has appeared in magazines for over a decade and he has performed his work in Britain, Europe and Australia. He is founding co-editor of Billy Liar/Liar Republic and a co-director of Liar Inc Ltd. He occasionally works as a community development consultant and is currently involved in trans-national anti-discrimination research for the EU. He was awarded Northern Arts Writer�s Awards in 1995 and 1998 and an Oppenheim/John Downes Award in 1998. The British Council supported his Australian Tour in 1998.
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 ALAN BEARD - Alan Beard's stories have appeared in many magazines (including London Magazine, Panurge and Malahat Review,) anthologies ('Best Short Stories,' 'Neonlit' and 'Telling Stories') and on BBC Radio 4. His collection, 'Talking Doreen Out of the Sky' was originally published by TSFG and subsequently by Picador (1999). He has won the Tom Gallon Trust Award for a short story. He has lived and worked in Birmingham since 1982. more
GRAHAM RAE - Graham Rae is a 34-year-old Scottish scribbler from the cheery charming picture-postcard-perfect post-industrial up-and-coming internationally renowned tourist destination of Falkirk. He has been writing for as long as he can remember (started at any early age, carving graffiti into womb walls) and am halfway through my first novel (well, third, but the other mishmash misfires don�t count),� Weekend Warriors.� He has been writing about film for various electronic and print publications for 16 years now, and you can see a sporadically entertaining eclectic selection of his ramble/rantings at www.filmthreat.com. To read his article, 'No Fight Club,' click more
 DAVID FLOYD - David Floyd is a left-handed vegetarian who was born in north London in 1980. He started writing poetry in his GCSE Maths class as a protest against simultaneous equations. A former film critic for the 'Morning Star' and library assistant at the University of North London, he has had poems published in a range of strangely named small-circulation small press magazines, and his collection, 'War in the Playground' was published by Hearing Eye Press in 2003. He is currently co-editor of satirical magazine, 'Piffle' and writing website ABC Tales. more
 DAWN WOOD - grew up in Omagh, Co. Tyrone and studied at Queens� University in Belfast before moving to Dundee in 1986. She works as a science lecturer at the University of Abertay, Dundee. Although her background education and employment is within traditional science she is also a painter and a poet and is especially interested in science to poetry/ poetry to science interactions. Currently she is working towards a PhD in the art and science of animal husbandry. Her poems have been published in New Writing Scotland, The Red Wheelbarrow, Magma, and won 2nd prize in the Fringe Poetry Competition 2003. A selection of her paintings were reproduced in Poetry Review (Volume 93, 4 Winter 2002/3).
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 STEVE SMITH - As far as a literary biography, there's nothing ... yet (apart from second prize in a rotary club competition when Steve was 10 - his mother thought he'd copied it from a book.) He is writing a novel at the moment (when he gets the time) - "Behind Closed Doors": a seedy collection of stories that have a loose connection to one another. Steve is 32, married, 2 kids, software developer for a bank in the city of London. Born to an Irish-American father, English mother. Raised in Battersea, he now lives out near Croydon in Surrey. Sports mad. Literature mad. Earliest recollection of writing something people would have noticed: a school magazine in primary school: a horror story detailing the murder and mutilation of all the teachers - with elaborate disposal plans that included tipping buckets of blood into the drains. How they included it, he'll never know. He recalls Dennis Nilsen was in the news at the time. more
 HELEN WALSH - Helen was born in Warrington, in 1978. At 16, she moved to Barcelona. By day, she �dipped� and �kited� along the Ramblas and by night, she worked as a fixer in the red light district, seeking out male punters in the transvestite bars and hooking them up with prostitutes. She saved up enough money to put herself through language school. Burnt out and broke, she returned to England a year later, moving to Liverpool. In 1997 she studied Sociology at to Liverpool University. The Uni was situated in the seamy underbelly of Liverpool�s Cathedral area. Although it lacked the seamy prowess of Barcelona�s red light district, she discovered a gang of pubs and streets, independent of the city that were equally spellbinding. She did her dissertation on queer theory, masculinities and pornography and graduated in 2000 with a first class honours and two scholarships. After Uni, she took a job with a Film and Literary agency in London, hacked it for five months then moved back to Barcelona. She returned to Warrington in November 2001 and moved back to her Mum's. Her mum supported her while she wrote 'Brass' (her debut novel, to be published by Canongate in March 2004.) She now lives on Merseyside, working with socially excluded teenagers in North Liverpool, whilst writing her next novel (a chapter of which can be read) here
ROSS WILSON
Ross Wilson is a twenty five year old dishwasher. Earlier in the year he was a stubbly six foot �maid� in the Fleapit Inn, but gave this up to live in a tent in Holland, before upgrading to a caravan thirty minutes on bike from civilization. With no heating, a leak in the roof, and a shower in a cupboard in a hut in the garden (he had to light it with a match; it trickled) he lasted four days, got drunk, and attended a �Bible discussion� in a Christian youth hostel in the red light district. Afterwards, he drowned his giggles with Heineken and found his true vocation in the dish rag. Meanwhile, his manuscripts are a dust devouring drawer dwelling unknown species. Ross exists with them in Fife and feeds them words now and then, all the while planning their escape. It will not be easy, surrounded as they are by dirty dishes and a species of Fife author at the top of the ink chain known as IAIN (Bahlaj, Banks, and Rankin.) Some of his stories have been lucky enough to find a home in New Writing Scotland 15, Fife Fringe, Shorts 4, Northwords 28, An Gae Bolga 1 and Liar Republic 3. To read his short story, 'Weird Goings On With the Heads of Other People,' click here
 MARIA GRECH GANADO - Maria has published 2 collections of Maltese poetry, the first of which won the National Book Council�s 1st prize for poetry in 1999, the second, nothing except the approbation (probably just as proper as propensity) of some quantum-sighted friends � and some of Maria�s English verse has appeared in Orbis, Envoi, Imago. Her first collection of English poetry � called �Ribcage� - will be published in Malta on 25 October 2003. To read two of her poems, click here
 GODFREY FEATHERSTONE - has published short stories, poetry, art criticism and articles on literary criticism, war, the media and third world issues. He has taught FE and HE courses in literature, cultural sturied and sociology in London, Birmingham and the Black Country. He lives in Kings Heath and has two daughters, twenty-seven and twenty-nine. A member of Tindal Street Fiction Group for eighteen years, he has had a new transplanted heart for the last eleven and savours every moment of his new life.
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 IAIN BAHLAJ - lives in Fife, Scotland. His short stories have appeared in Front & Centre, Fife Fringe, Chapman, Pulp.net and The Macallan Shorts 3 and 5. His novel, 'Tilt' was published in 2003 (Pulp Books, London). The short story 'Sugar' is a prequel to 'Tilt.' Iain currently works as a night-shift shelf-stacker, while working on a novel about vampires, in this spare time. more
 KEVIN MacNEIL - is an award-winning writer of poetry and prose, who I was lucky enough to co-tutor an Arvon course with last year. He was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis and is currently working on a Writing Fellowship at Uppsala University, Sweden. His first poetry collection won the prestigious Tivoli Europa Giovani International Poetry Prize (2000). (see review in Books.) MacNeil frequently collaborates with artists and musicians and is a founder member of the trip-hop poetry band Tommorrowscope. His work has been translated into ten languages. Michael Palin is one of his greatest fans more
MATTHEW FIRTH -
Matthew Firth was born and raised in Hamilton and currently lives in Ottawa. He writes prose exclusively and has published two chapbooks through his own imprint, Black Bile Press. In 1997 Rush Hour Revisions published a collection of short stories entitled �Fresh Meat.� In addition to writing fiction, Matthew co-authored one book of non-fiction called �Workplace Roulette� (Between the Lines, 1997) which sold over 5000 copies. He is also an editor. From 94-97 he edited the litzine Black Cat 115. He is currently co-editor of Front&Centre;, a fiction/review magazine. His short story collection (which includes this story,) �Can You Take Me There, Now?� was published by Boheme Press and in 2002 he edited �Grunt & Groan� (Boheme Press, October 2002) which featured sixteen
previously unpublished short stories about work and sex. Details of where you can get your hands on all these publications can be found next to Matthew�s story
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MICHELLE WALSH -
Michelle Walsh describes herself as a "glamour loving, hippie-spirited
slightly antisocial,word wrangling girl who was born too late". She is an
activist and writer living in New York City who lives for the written word,
and has been writing since the age of five. She dyes her hair as often as
most people change their clothes, is obsessed with Judy Garland and can
often be found on the streets of NYC advocating and educating on animal
rights. Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, and
her essay, "Hawaii" will be featured in an anthology to be released by RDR
Books in July 2003. She is currently working on several creative projects,
writing freelance for print and web publications, volunteering on behalf of
animals and the environment and turning her words into performance art at
spoken word gigs
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 PAUL HOUGHTON -
Paul Houghton is a fiction writer who lives in a cabinet of curiosities in
the West End of Glasgow featuring John Merrick's head, a number of cats (live
and dead!), strange books and films, an iguana and a ventriloquist dummy.
He teaches creative writing at Stirling University.
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 STUART THOROGOOD - Stuart Thorogood was born on St. Patrick�s Day 1978. He�s been writing since he was eleven years old, and his first novel Outcast was published to critical acclaim when he was just nineteen. The sequel, Outside In, was published in June 2001, and the third and final instalment in this trilogy, Over and Out, should be published in the near future. Stuart�s work has also appeared in the Lambda-nominated anthology Bend Sinister : The Gay Times Book of Disturbing Stories. He is currently putting together an anthology of LGBT related witchcraft tales, writing his new novel Trash, and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life. Born in a small market town in Buckinghamshire, he now lives in London with his boyfriend. He adores dance music, clubbing in Ibiza, his friends and family, and considers pure evil to be pretentious people and quashing good intentions. more
 NEVILLE CLAY - Biog: Parents = shoe-shop worker and civil servant respectively,
Grandparents = methodist lay-preacher, miner, shipyard foreman, long-suffering
ex-Scottish mother-of-twelve; self = ex-middle-school whizz-kid, free place
Grammar School weirdo turned down sniff of Oxbridge Eng Lit path to opt for
Slade School of Fine Art dropout route. Won Newton Aycliffe New Town's Sid
Chaplin essay prize age 15 followed by 25 yrs of non-published ignominy
including 3 yrs as "singer" in indie-metal band Rufus Beer and 8 yrs as solo
singer-songwriter (occasionally under alias of "Brenda System") supporting
the likes of Lindisfarne, Dave Edmunds, honorary Geordie Kathryn Williams
and ELP's Keith Emerson; played at Edinburgh Fringe 2002 to rapturous
indifference. Three self-penned CDs under belt, most recently
critically-overlooked "Pearshaped" - title track played over Tannoy at
half-time during home leg of NUFC's Inter Toto Cup 2001. Currently temporary
team supervisor in Govt call centre, playing non-speaking part in project to
eradicate UK pensioner poverty. Published several times in local
anthologies, not least in recent acclaimed publication "Sand". Likes:
municipal flowerbeds, housemartins, buses. Loves/hates: rain soaking through
cheap suit on walk to work, having to buy pints of milk and bananas at
petrol station on way home.
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 JOHN GLENDAY -
John Glenday was born in 1952 and works as an addictions counsellor in
Dundee. He is the author of two books: The Apple Ghost won a Scottish Arts
Council Book Award in 1989 and Undark was a Poetry Book Society
Recommendation for 1995. He was appointed Scottish/Canadian Exchange Fellow for 1990/91, based at the University of Alberta and in 2000 Associate Writer at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh.
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 ART ANGEL - A selection of work from members of Art Angel (formerly the Arts Advocacy Project run at Dundee Rep Theatre.) Tutored a weekend Arvon course at Moniack Mhor with the group last month and they have allowed me to publish selections from each of their work. Many of the stories and poems were produced on the course itself, and the rest are samples from the group's excellent anthology, 'Life is Not an Easy Matter... But Still...' - Edited by Delia Gallagher. I hope that this section of the showcase will be organic and the group will continue to send me work for the site. more
TREV TAYLOR Trev Taylor is 32. He started writing when he was very young, stopping in his early teens when life got in the way, then started again about 18 months ago. His first novel, about domestic (gay) violence, was finished towards the end of last year. He is currently writing short stories. He is also editor of the excellent www.thegayread.com, a great new resource and writing site for gay writers more
 JONATHAN STONE - Jonathan Stone (aka. Jack_Cade) studies English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. He writes, and has always written, loose poetry and experimental novels. Since his teens, he's also written pirate songs, many of which seem to be about the Russian revolution. His poetry has been published in Eggbox Magazine. more
 NIAMH O LEOCHAIN - Niamh O Leochain is Irish, proud of her Celtic roots, age 27 though that's really not an issue! Her name - Niamh ironically means 'Princess in the Land of Promise.' She is searching for her place in this land of promise. Niamh describes herself as a pessimistic optimist with a sense of humour, often her saviour. She believes the glass is half empty but the far off hills are green. She is both creative and lazy. After doing a degree in languages and dabbling for a short time in teaching she spent a great Summer in Montpellier in the south of France to recharge her batteries before deciding to leave Galway, Ireland for Edinburgh, Scotland. Her life in Edinburgh since January '02 has been both challenging and inspiring. She spent some time caught in the web of 'temping', where the general principle of induction is 'knowing your way oot'� She hopes now to find a 'real job', something creative, maybe in Communications and to continue with her aspirations to write. Her writing is mainly short, lyrical prose. She loves the fact that her father, Sean is a much published poet 'as Gaeilge' and hopes that she has inherited even a fraction of his talent. Her greatest ambition is to publish a book of short stories as she believes that growing up in Ireland has given her a depth of material. more
 ANDY THATCHER -
Andy Thatcher is a full time student on the MA in Creative and Life Writing
at Goldsmiths' College in London . He is married, lives in one of the less
interesting parts of East London and cooks a mean garlic-stuffed tilapia.
�Talisman� is his one and only piece of autobiography as he doesn�t want to
bring anyone down. He is currently working on a novel about two brothers
going mad on mushrooms in Mexico. He sulks when he loses at Monopoly.
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 ELENA GEORGIOU - Elena Georgiou is the recipient of the Lambda Literary Award; a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship; the Astraea Foundation Emerging Writers Award and a finalist for a Publishing Triangle Award. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. In her smart and sexy high-octane debut, entitled, Mercy Mercy Me, (Painted Leaf Press, NYC 2000), she explores traditional notions of sex, race, politics and identity in contemporary America. A Greek-Cypriot by way of London, she now lives in Brooklyn. She teaches poetry at Hunter College of the City University of New York. more
 CHARLIE SKINNER - was born in the northern wilds of Highland Perthshire but somehow [for reasons he can least explain himself] is now resident in the wilds of a northern Edinburgh council estate. Charlie is new to writing and has never been published although it is true to say that he hasn`t really tried yet. His works up to now are exclusively in the short story format which he considers to be the medium in which he can best express himself. He cites �A Clockwork Orange' as one of his most powerful influences and of course all the good Scottish talent. more
 SUHAYL SAADI - Suhayl Saadi is a widely-published short-story writer and novelist. In 1997, he won Third Prize in the Bridport Competition and in 1999, he won 2nd Prize in the Macallan/Scotland-on-Sunday Competition. He also edited Macallan/Scotland-on-Sunday Shorts 5 in 2002. He has worked on many community projects, and in 1999 he was the recipient of a Millennium Commission Award to set up and run a writers� group aimed at minority ethnic groups in Glasgow, and four years later this group is still running. Saadi has worked on the Literature Committee of the Scottish Arts Council, and has performed readings of his work in New York City and in Brussels, as well as appearing frequently on BBC Radio. He is due to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. Suhayl Saadi, a practising physician, lives in Glasgow with his wife and daughter.
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 DAVID VERONESE -
David Veronese was born in Chicago and raised in Denver, Colorado. After
attending Stanford University he dropped out of society for seven years. He
has lived in Bolivia, Spain, Denmark and Key West, Florida, among other
locales. He has run contraband, taught Sunday school, worked as a bodyguard at a discoteque near Alicante and was night clerk at the Southernmost Motel, etc. He currently lives in Washington, DC where he owns an art gallery. He apologizes to the people of the world for the US government. more
 LIZ FINCH - Liz Finch was born in 1951, Blackburn Lancashire . She lives now in Hastings
with her son , dog and three cats, where she works as an artist and writer.
One of her most recent projects was the formation of '1067' an art group
composed of 12 people and a fictional one. Their exhibition last year of a
large collage rivalling the Bayeux Tapestry, attracted a sudden amount of
tourist attention after being featured in a newspaper article entitled,
" Gay porn art controversy." After leaving art college she worked as a window dresser, cleaner, invoice
clerk, freelance greetings card designer . She has performed with the
Neobutnoteccentric-Absurdists and the Neo-Naturists, performed poetry on
Richard Strange's 'Cabaret Futura ' tour of the US, and held various
exhibitions of her painting and drawing.
She has had short stories and poems published in various magazines and is
currently working on a book of illustrated short stories. more
 MARK TURLEY - Mark Turley / Kenochi Stein is 30 years old which he knows isn't really a big deal, but it still bothers him. He was born in Dorset to Welsh / German parents, but at 6 months of age the family moved to South London where he grew up playing pool and breaking windows. After 5 years kidding himself that being utterly unable to sing would not prevent him becoming a rock 'n'roll icon, he has decided to channel his efforts back into the first thing he ever found he was good at - writing.
Having produced his first piece of fiction at the age of 4, he has, since
then, filled several drawers with unreadable junk. Lately he has become more
pleased with his work and has begun pushing it into the public arena. Mark's
first novel, 'The Rainbow Maker', is due for publication shortly.
. more
 MURRAY ROBERTSON - Murray Robertson has lived in Edinburgh his whole life, close to the Cenny then Stratties and now the Mid. He was born at the same time as Alex Chiltons Box Tops were number one in the US charts with "The Letter". Most of his writing is inspired by real events and people, but this one is a more factual report of a trip through to Glasgow to see Vic Godard. Now he can no longer afford to go out on the scoosh he intends to sit down at the computer and write more but suspects that the lure of internet porn is too strong.
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 ANNETTE McCONE - Annette McCone is 25 years old and works in South Lanarkshire College as a Communications lecturer. She studied English and Politics at Strathclyde and graduated in 2000. Since then though, she hardly ever reads and doesn�t give a shit about those in power. (Education does that to you) When she does read, it�s usually a book that was on offer in Bargain Books but her main influences are Irvine Welsh and the great poet Alison Flett. She hasn't written much even though at every opportunity she tells people that she is an aspiring writer. She did, however, come third in a short story competition run by Company magazine in 2000 but couldn�t claim her prize because she was going travelling and her mum was turning her bedroom into a dining room so there was nowhere to put the 24 books. She would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who were at Arvon 2003 for giving her the confidence and belief to keep at it and for listening to her drunken madness. Special thanks to Laura, for all her feedback and for showcasing this wee story, Glaswegian banter and all.
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PATRICIA GOLLEDGEAfter twelve years in the Foreign Office (the last six in West Africa) she now lives in Clevedon, near Bristol with her husband and three year-old son, Jack. Working part-time in a local Tesco store gives her plenty of potential material for her writing. She is also doing a Creative Writing evening class. All of which does not leave much time for the actual sitting down and writing, especially as her house is a bomb site due to the construction of a new extension. Last year she won a competition in a national women�s magazine, the first prize being a weeks Arvon Foundation course. She also received a Highly Commended award for a piece submitted to the Weston Super Mare Arts Festival Short Story Competition. She writes mainly short stories but is now feeling inspired to continue with an idea for a novel.. more
 MARK BROWN - Mark is an editor for ABCTales, a creative writing website set up by John Bird (of Big Issue fame), Gordon Roddick and Tony Cook. The site is dedicated towards social inclusion, providing people an opportunity to share their stories for free with others. There are currently about 24,000 individual pieces and 9,000 registered users. ABCtales.com. Drop by and have a look and mail him at [email protected] to
tell him what you think. more
ALLY MAY - Ally May's poetry has been widely published, his readings are legendary, and his name is as synonymous with the North East of England as the Angel of the North (except Ally was synonymous first.) He likes listening to music, playing 5-a-side football and doting over his beautiful new baby daughter (whose first poem I look forward to featuring on the showcase.) He lives in Newcastle more
 ALISON CRAIG
Alison Craig was born in Birmingham 40 years ago. She was raised and miseducated there before a family move to the west coast of Scotland in 1981. An honours degree in English and History at the University of Strathclyde followed, and in 1985 she entered the disappointing, time-consuming world of work. She is now employed as a Sports Development Officer in North Ayrshire, and daily wonders what the hell she is doing. Home is Dalry, a place full of character/s. She writes every day (mostly), fitting it in - often covertly - around all the other more important things. Ideas come from small observations of life, places, weather, people, wee beasties, whatever. Her work often plumbs the darker side of life, however unintentionally. more
 MEGAN HORNBUCKLE
Megan is a 23 year old Occupational Therapist, originally from rural Shropshire, but now working in Manchester. She enjoys stories about peoples' relationships, and stories with a bit of a dark side. She gets many of her ideas from loitering around the centre of her hometown, where there seems to be a disproportionately high number of three legged aliens and other disturbingly dysfunctional characters. She awaits contact from Tim Burton, asking her to script his latest film.
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 JACCI GARSIDE
I first read Jacci�s work on an Arvon Course, three years ago. The poem printed here is part of an excellent novel she had completed at that point. For some time she was living with the Findhorn Community and the last I heard, she was doing some work in Cambodia. If anyone knows where she is, or she happens to read this, please get in touch.
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 MARION ARNOTT - lives in Paisley, Scotland. She was winner of the Phillip
Good
Memorial Prize For Women's Fiction 1998, CWA Short Dagger 2001 and
shortlisted for CWA Short Dagger 2002. Work has appeared in Scottish Child, West Coast, Solander Magazine,
Peninsula , QWF, Hayakawa Mystery Magazine (Japan), Books Ireland,
Northwords, Chapman, Crimewave, and Datlow and Winding's Year's Best
Fantasy
and Horror volume 15.
Her short story collection 'Sleepwalkers,' was published in August, 2003 (details at
[email protected]) more
 BRENT HODGSON
Brent's latest unique, bizarrely wonderful collection of poems, "Hello Maister Smyth", as well as poetry from James Robertson, Andrew McNeil etc, fiction from Matthew Fitt, Hamish MacDonald and many more immorally neglected Scottish wordsmiths are available from Kettillonia, 8 South Street, Kingskettle, Fife KY15 7PL or e.mail: [email protected] or remember Brent from Rebel Inc magazine. Wonder what that Kevin Williamson boy is up to now? more
LINKS TO OTHER WRITING I LIKE:
Philip Larkin - 'This Be The Verse' - here
W.B. Yeats - 'An Irish Airman Foresees his Death' - here
Chuck Palahniuk - 'Guts' - here - WARNING: THIS EXTERNAL LINK INCLUDES FLASHING IMAGE THAT MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR THOSE PRONE TO SEIZURES. UNFORTUNATELY IT IS THE ONLY VERSION OF THIS STORY I CAN FIND ONLINE. IF ANYONE KNOWS OF ANOTHER LINK TO IT WITHOUT FLASHING IMAGES, PLEASE CONTACT ME here
Dan Fante - 'Wifebeater Bob' - here
Francesca Beard - 'The Poem That Was Really a List' - here
Benjamin Zephaniah - 'What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us' - here
Shorts III - link to website of Polygon Shorts III and read great new fiction from Ali Smith, Iain Bahlaj, Alan Bissett, Sophie Cooke, Anne Donovan, Michel Faber, Alan Spence etc. Go on. Spoil yourselves! - here
Bob Dylan - 'Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie' (lie back and listen to possibly the best poem ever written - here
Rodney Relax - 'Blackie's Back' - along with work by Jim Ferguson, Alan Barr, Nick Brooks etc on the Air Magazine website - here Iain Bahlaj - 'Sightseeing' - check out Iain's former showcase featured story (now sold for a tidy sum. Congratulations Iain) on Pulp.net website - here
Jeremy Worman - 'Terry' - Really stunning piece of characterisation by Jeremy Worman (anyone know where I can contact him?) on the excellent Multi Story website - here
Vicki Feaver - 'Coat' - Vicki Feaver's simple but wonderful ode to loss - here
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Gail Chester - 'Murder Mile' - Gail Chester's brilliant, award-winning poem about Hackney - here
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