Volume 1 Contributors

Taylor Altman lives in Northern California and works for the Quest Scholars Program, a non-profit organization that connects talented low-income students with college opportunities. Her poems have been published in journals including Mezzo Cammin, The New Formalist, Salamander, and TRACHODON. Her first book, Swimming Back, was published by sunnyoutside. She is a graduate of Stanford University and the Creative Writing Program at Boston University.

Lucile Barker is a Toronto poet, writer, and activist who has been writing since she first swiped her grandmother's Waterman fountain pen and her mother's lilac ink. The time spent in the corner gave her more opportunity to write.

Since 1994, she has been the coordinator of the Joy of Writing, a weekly workshop at the Ralph Thornton Centre. The group now has a Facebook group and out-of-town members, some of whom actually do the assignments.

Recent publications include "Glass Coffins" in Memewar, "Summer Vacations" and "Flower Shows" in The Antigonish Review, "Diminishing Territory" in Rougarou, "May 2-4 Weekend, Friday Night" in Litterbox Magazine, "Upside Down Summer" in Flashlight Memories, "Beauty Shop - December 30" in The Bat Shat and "Jake" in Snakeskin Review.

Poetry and short stories are also forthcoming in The Nashwaak Review, Lost in Thought, and Hinchas de Poesia.

"The Golden Age," the first-place short story winner in the Creative Keyboards contest, a project of the Hamilton Community Arts Council, will be published in an anthology in February 2012.

With an unlimited supply of postage and chutzpah, there is the possibility of having the largest collection of rejection slips in the world. However, there are no plans for an exhibit of these at present.

Margaret Bashaar's most recent chapbook, Letters From Room 27 of the Grand Midway Hotel, was released by Blood Pudding Press in the summer of 2011. Her poetry has also appeared in journals such as New South, The Pedestal Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Caketrain, and others. She edits the chapbook micro press Hyacinth Girl Press. Every so often she blogs at pluckedfromogygia.blogspot.com. She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, her son, and far too many typewriters, which she firmly believes are haunted.

Eleanor Leonne Bennett is a British teenager whose photographs have been exhibited in galleries and published in magazines worldwide. She is the winner of the UK National Geographic Kids Photography Contest 2010, the World Photography Organisation's Photomonth youth award 2010, the Nature's Best Photography contest, Winston's Wish (February) 2011, Papworth Trust (under 16s: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place), and three National Art contests (from the age of 11) of the Woodland Trust Nature Detectives. In 2009, she was the only UK entrant chosen (Highly Commended) for the Airbus and National Geographic competition See The Bigger Picture. Her photographs have been published in dotdotdash (Australia), Alabama Coast and Alabama Seaport (USA), The Guardian (UK), REVOLUTIONART (USA), The Big Issue In The North (UK), RSPB Birds and RSPB Birdlife (UK), and in the world's most popular children's magazine, NG Kids! Her work has been sold for the charities, Great Ormond Street, Love Drop, and The Red Cross. Her website is at eleanorleonnebennett.zenfolio.com.

C.L. Bledsoe is the author of two novels, $7.50/hr + Curses and Sunlight, three poetry collections, _____(Want/Need), Anthem, and Leap Year, and a short story collection, called Naming the Animals. He also has two poetry chapbooks, Goodbye to Noise and The Man Who Killed Himself in My Bathroom. A minichap, Texas, was recently published by Mud Luscious Press. His story, "Leaving the Garden," was selected as a Notable Story of 2008 for storySouth's Million Writers Award. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times. He blogs at Murder Your Darlings. Bledsoe has written reviews for The Hollins Critic, Arkansas Review, American Book Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Prick of the Spindle, The New York Quarterly, and elsewhere. Bledsoe lives with his wife and daughter in Maryland.

Leo Victor Briones was born in El Paso, Texas in 1963. His father came from a family of "mueblerias" or furniture makers who fled the Mexican Revolution for the border town of El Paso. His mother's family were first-generation immigrants, but well established in the social circles of Northern Mexico, West Texas, and New Mexico. His grandmother's second cousin was the lauded Mexican muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. Briones credits his blending of art and with social justice to this family lineage. "Siqueiros believed that any form of art should be available to all people – even the desperately poor. And that art should have a social conscience. I too believe that art should have a purpose whether for social change or spiritual transcendence," reflects Briones.

Briones' debut book The Poet Remains was published in October 2006. The Poet Remains, a mixture of meditations, love poems, and Beat poetry was well received and was highlighted at The Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word in Memphis, Tennessee. Subsequently Briones was invited to a poetry reading series across several states, including venues in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina; and Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia. Briones has been honored as the featured poet at the famous Beyond Baroque in Venice, California as well as other Spoken Word venues in the Los Angeles area.

Recently, Briones finished the manuscript for his second book of poems Postcards from the Apocalypse. The work deals with issues of the post-post-post-Modern world from love to war and everything in between.

Briones owns his own communications firm in Los Angeles, California. A single father, he has two curious, engaging, and strictly high maintenance sons: Andres, 14 and Diego, 10.

Gary Budden is the co-editor of the upcoming anthology Hackney: Acquired for Development By… He runs Out of Step Promotions, which has been putting on an eclectic mix of punk, ska, folk, hip-hop and spoken word for the last four years, in venues ranging from massive crumbling squats to the intimate settings of bookshops and cafes. He has most recently worked on the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, as well as continuing to work as a one-to-one English tutor with disadvantaged young people across London. He has worked for the Richmond Literature Festival, the British Film Institute, and has written for Stalking Elk, Whippersnapper Press, Brain Cloud, Distorted Magazine, Cigarette Burns, Pinpoint Music, Hackney Hive, and Hackney Citizen. He loves punk rock, literature, and being a vegetarian. He lives in London and writes at newlexicons.blogspot.com.

Florida born and Texas raised, Cristi Cain has traveled the world, but has always called the third coast home. As the woman who put the Rowdy Girl in her successful avant-garde photography business, Rowdy Girl Media, which focuses on art, culture, music, revolution, and sexuality, Cain produces work considered by some to be thought-provoking and disturbing, and by others to be "Digital Domestic Terrorism." For more information on Cain and to get a glimpse of her work, visit www.RowdyGirlMedia.com.

Ed. note: Sadly, Cristi Cain passed away in January 2019. We are honored to host her riveting images.

Ruben Connell is a new fiction writer from England. Since making his first submissions to literary journals earlier in 2011 he has now been published in Litro and The Recusant, and his work has also been performed by the Liars' League. His first novel is now complete and the daunting job of finding an agent must now begin. Sadly, too much of his time is spent behind desks and on trains between London and his native Yorkshire engaged in thoroughly un-bohemian pursuits.

Flower Conroy's poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Serving House Journal, BlazeVOX, Saw Palm, American Literary Review, Psychic Meatloaf, Labletter, Interrobang?!, Lavender Review, and others. She is currently an MFA student at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Escape to Nowhere, her chapbook collection of poems, was published by Rain Mountain Press.

Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared within Action Yes, Barn Owl Review, Columbia Poetry Review, DIAGRAM, Diode, and many more print and online entities. She is the editor/publisher of Blood Pudding Press (print) and Thirteen Myna Birds (online). Juliet's first full-length poetry book, Horrific Confection, was published by BlazeVOX. She also has oodles of published poetry chapbooks, most recently including FONDANT PIG ANGST (Slash Pine Press), Tongue Like a Stinger (Wheelhouse) and POST-STROKE (Blood Pudding Press for Dusie Kollektiv 5), with another new chapbook, Thirteen Designer Vaginas, coming very soon from the new Hyacinth Girl Press. She is currently submitting her second full-length poetry book, Deadly Doll Head Dissection. To find out more about all of the above and other details, please free to visit www.JulietCook.weebly.com.

Beth Coyote is published in synapse, Gumball Poetry, When It Rains From the Ground Up, Borderlands, qarrtsiluni, The Concher, sawbuck, 51 Stars, Breadcrumb Scabs, and many other publications. She was nominated for Seattle Poet Populist in 2007. One of her poems was put to music in a choral piece on women and war performed by the Denver Women's Chorus. She maintains a blog at becoy.blogspot.com.

Beth has two imaginary poodles named Gina and Jean Paul. They are very well-behaved and never need to be on a leash.

Hannah Craig lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her work has recently appeared in Fence, The Columbia Review, 32 Poems, and elsewhere. She is an assistant editor for Anti-.

Mark DeCarteret's work has appeared in 42opus, Caketrain, DIAGRAM, La Petite Zine, Prick of the Spindle, Scythe, Vinyl Poetry, and Word Riot, as well as in the anthologies American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon University Press), Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader (Black Sparrow Books), and Under the Legislature of Stars: 62 New Hampshire Poets (Oyster River Press), which he also co-edited. From 2009 to 2011, he was Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Please check out his Postcard Project at pplp.org.

Born the child of international, high stakes bounty hunters, Despain's childhood was filled with the usual trappings of a young boy. High speed car chases through exotic locales, overeducated private tutors, shadow style martial arts training, Gypsy stunt-horse riding, French fashion cuisine, and of course, fully automatic small arms fire were the norm, but Brian always yearned for something more. So, when it came time for him to venture forth from the compound, he turned his back on the only world he knew and pursued the always rewarding, highly glamorous, and financially lucrative career of an artist.

Working as a professional artist from the age of eighteen, Brian has applied his craft in graphic design, illustration, and photo retouching, as well as a long stint in the video game industry doing 3D modeling and texturing, before finally settling into a full time concept artist position. Recently, Brian switched gears again, leaving the workaday world of entertainment art to pursue his own visions as a full-time gallery artist.

Currently, Brian lives in Florida with his lovely wife, his daughter, and a number of furry charges. He spends most of his working time in the studio wondering how he got so lucky. More at despainart.com.

Like nomadic Pericú natives before him, Matthew Dexter survives on a hunter-gatherer subsistence diet of shrimp tacos, smoked marlin, cold beer, and warm sunshine. He lives in Cabo San Lucas.

Stephanie Dickinson, raised on an Iowa farm, has lived in Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, and now New York City, a state unto itself. Her novel Half Girl (winner of the Hackney Award given by Birmingham-Southern) is published by Spuyten Duyvil. Corn Goddess (poems) and Road of Five Churches (stories) are available from Rain Mountain Press. A new novella Lust Series is just out from Spuyten Duyvil. Her stories have been reprinted in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and New Stories from the South, Best of 2008 and 2009. She is the winner of New Delta Review's 2011 Matt Clark Fiction prize judged by Susan Straight. Her work has appeared in many journals most recently Blue Lotus Review, Magnolia, Pear Noir!, Prime Mincer, and the upcoming Main Street Rag anthology The Book of Villains. She is an associate editor at Mudfish, and along with Rob Cook and the cats Vallejo and Sally Joy, she edits Skidrow Penthouse. The journal regards itself as tasked with the anachronistic mission of being one of the last print lit mags standing. She works a day job in midtown Manhattan and spends nights in the East Village, where she shares a five-flight walkup with the Skidrow Penthouse editors, and lesser creatures. Her website is www.stephaniedickinson.net. Although she was once a farm girl, she's a member of Farm Sanctuary, the ASPCA, and American Fondouk, a veterinary clinic that serves the working animals of Morocco and their human families.

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. His most recent collection of poetry is Waiting for the Angel (2009). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell's Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in many journals, including The Massachusetts Review, Notre Dame Review, The Alembic, New England Quarterly, Harvard Review, Modern Philology, The Antioch Review, and Natural Bridge. He also writes at williamdoreski.blogspot.com.

Jeff Encke taught writing and criticism at Columbia University for several years, serving as writer-in-residence for the Program in Narrative Medicine while completing his Ph.D. in English in 2002. He now teaches at Richard Hugo House.

His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from American Poetry Review, Barrow Street, Black Warrior Review, Boston Review, Colorado Review, Fence, The Kenyon Review Online, Salt Hill, and Tarpaulin Sky, among others. In 2004, he published Most Wanted: A Gamble in Verse, a series of love poems addressed to Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi war criminals printed on a deck of playing cards.

Rita Feinstein is a senior at Wells College in Aurora, New York, where she is pursuing an English/Creative Writing degree. Her work has appeared in Santa Fe Literary Review and is forthcoming in Adobe Walls.

Seattle poet and educator Laura Gamache believes that writing and reading can save your life. She has had poems published online, on buses, in print, on bikinis and tee shirts, and on the radio. More of her writing can be found at Nothing to Hold On To.

Cheryl Anne Gardner prefers writing stories to writing bios because she always seems to forget what point of view she is in. When she isn't writing, she likes to chase marbles on a glass floor, eat lint, play with sharp objects, and make taxidermy dioramas with dead flies. Her flash fiction has been published at Dustbin, Three Minute Plastic, The Carnage Conservatory, Pure Slush, Negative Suck, Danse Macabre, and The Molotov Cocktail, among other ezines and print journals. You can find more of her work at Twisted Knickers Publications.

Was born a twin in Indiana at least years 7 ago. Her twin's name? Mab Graves. She paints like a chimney and smokes like a fish. Drinks coffee like its illegal. The name Mab? It's not short for anything. She is or has a cat. They are sworn enemies. Mab is a Pop Surrealist painter. She says she is a Dreamchild Neverist. I don't know what that means. Mab never went to Art School. She is a pretend artist. The nicest thing a stranger ever said to her? "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought maybe you were a child. Or a vampire." Her work is available at mabgraves.com.

Carl James Grindley's most recent work, Icon, is a collection of three novellas, Still Life, The Memoirs of a Supervillain, and The Fear of Contagion (No Record Press, 2008). His poetry and fiction have appeared in Connecticut River Review, California State Poetry Quarterly, Chase Park, Cranial Tempest, Canadian Literature, The Dalhousie Review, and Queen's Quarterly, among others. He lives in Connecticut but rides the train most days to Manhattan. He writes on the train.

Amanda Gowin lives in the foothills of Appalachia with her husband and son. Her works have appeared online and in print in various magazines, including Thunderdome, Nefarious Muse, Blackheart Magazine, Blink Ink, and the print anthologies Warmed and Bound: A Velvet Anthology and In Search of a City: Los Angeles in 1,000 Words. Her monthly column, "Appalachian Acumen," appears in ManArchy Magazine. She has always written and always will. Updates on her work and play can be found at lookatmissohio.wordpress.com.

Christine Hamm is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature. She won the MiPOesias First Annual Chapbook Competition with her manuscript, Children Having Trouble with Meat. Her poetry has been published in The Adirondack Review, Pebble Lake Review, WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, Lodestar Quarterly, Poetry Midwest, Rattle, and many others. She has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize, and she teaches English at CUNY. She has performed all over the country, and was one of the featured poets in the Poetic Voices Festival of Hartnell College. The Transparent Dinner, her book of poems, was published in 2006 and her second book, Saints & Cannibals, came out in 2010. BlazeVOX is publishing her third book, Echo Park. Christine is a poetry editor for Ping-Pong, a literary journal published by the Henry Miller Library of Big Sur and the editor of the anthology, Like a Fat Gold Watch: creative/critical works inspired by Sylvia Plath.

Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick graduated with her Masters in Fine Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 2010. She recently completed her first full-length manuscript of essays and poetry and has a chapbook in print. Some of her work has been featured or is upcoming in magazines in the US and UK, including: 3:AM Magazine, Night Train, Sein und Werden, Whale Sound, and Sugar House Review, among others. She writes in the deserts of West Texas.

Lauren Henley is an artist and writer living in California's low desert. The intention of her art, in all of its various forms, is to get herself thinking in a not-so-ordinary way. When she can give herself the chills, it's a joyous happening. Lauren is the winner of the 2012 Duckabush Prize for Poetry, and her poetry is forthcoming in River Styx. This is her first photography publication. She thanks you for being a fellow lover and supporter of the arts.

Don Hucks is the author of a short story collection, My Secret Life as a Ham and Gruyère on Rye (and other adventures in applied psychology). His fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in a variety of publications, including Bartleby Snopes, decomP, and Moon Milk Review.

Amorak Huey is a former newspaper reporter and editor who now teaches writing at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. His poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, Oxford American, Subtropics, H_NGM_N, Rattle, and other journals, and is forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2012. More information is available at www.amorakhuey.net.

P. Hurshell's poems have been heard on Oregon radio's Literary Café and appear in the journals Puget Soundings, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Drash: Northwest Mosaic, and Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature for Women, among others. She won an honorable mention in Knockout Literary Magazine's International Reginald Shepherd 2009-10 Memorial Prize, and was a finalist in Melusine's 2011 poetry competition. "Soprano Stuck in the Opera" is forthcoming in the anthology Myths and Legends (Scarecrow Press). "In Winter" is included in Best American Poetry 2009.

Nancy Ibsen makes and sells accessories for avatars in Second Life. She is studying graphic design at a local college in Prescott, Arizona. Her second toes are longer than her big toes.

L. Jordan James has held a variety of jobs. He is a veteran. He worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But no job he ever held gives him the same satisfying feeling as writing.
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Mike Joyce received his degree in Rhetoric from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, and only recently has started writing for publication. His work has appeared in DOGZPLOT, Dark Chaos, Short Fast and Deadly, BoySlut, and The Carnage Conservatory.

Anne Kilfoyle lives and works in Boise, Idaho. She divides her time between working at a bookstore and writing weekly music reviews for the website TG Daily. After graduating from Boston College with a degree in English, she moved back to Idaho, where she grew up. Now living in a supposedly haunted hotel, she believes that a sense of humor and a good meal will get you through almost anything.

Kate LaDew is a recent graduate from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a B.A. in Studio Art. She currently resides in Graham, North Carolina and is working on her first novel.

Rebecca Loudon lives and writes in Seattle. Her most recent book is Cadaver Dogs, published by No Tell Books. She is a professional musician and teaches violin lessons to children..

Dana Guthrie Martin is a writer, editor, and poet who lives in a town called Walla Walla, situated in the county seat of Walla Walla County in Washington State. She shares her home with her partner, their chihuahua, and a very old hermit crab named Palmer. Her work includes The Spare Room (Blood Pudding Press, 2009), Toward What Is Awful (YesYes Books, forthcoming), and In the Space Where I Was (Hyacinth Girl Press, forthcoming).

Fred McGavran is a graduate of Kenyon College and Harvard Law School, and served as an officer in the Navy in Vietnam. He practiced law as a litigation partner with Frost Brown Todd LLC in Cincinnati, Ohio, defending psychiatric malpractice cases and litigating business cases. In June 2010 he was ordained a deacon in The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, where he serves as Assistant Chaplain at Episcopal Retirement Homes. The Ohio Arts Council awarded him a $10,000 Individual Achievement Award for The Reincarnation of Horlach Spenser, a story that appeared in Issue 37 of Harvard Review. Black Lawrence Press published The Butterfly Collector, his award winning collection of short stories in December 2009.

Barton McKinley started writing fiction at age 7 and was published a few times by 9. Then, for reasons beyond the scope of this short text, he put the pen down at 10. Too much of the rock and roll life style!

In the time since, he has written a lot of non-fiction.

But, this is his first published, short story since Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon and he is pretty thrilled about it (the story that is...well, the Moon landing too).

The story itself was inspired by Brian's art.

When he is not writing fiction, non-fiction or poetry he works as an I.T. consultant in the Great White North (Canada, eh?) and no, he does not live in an igloo but he does sometimes go to work in a canoe.

Kiara McMorris hails from sunny Seattle, Washington. Between attempting (and close to failing) to become a barefoot runner and shaking what her momma gave her in sparkly pasties, she writes. She was recently published in amphibi.us. Her turn-ons include thievery and liquor. Her turn-offs include pedestrians, underpants, and justice.

Dustin Michael's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Brevity, Asinine Poetry, Big Muddy, Red Fez, Ginger Piglet, and Palooka. He teaches writing at Savannah State University, and lives in South Carolina with his wife and daughter.

Nils Michals' first book, Lure, was published by Pleiades Press and LSU Press. His recent work has appeared in Gloom Cupboard, diode, and White Whale Review. He is currently teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Chenelle C. Milford is the manager, web designer, consultant, all-around aficionado, and archivist of The Joe Milford Poetry Show. She is the founder and editor of the literary journal, Scythe. Some of her work is displayed on new aesthetic. She now resides in rural Georgia with her husband and three daughters.

Nathan Moore shares his writing at Exhaust Fumes and French Fries. He spent seven years working full-time in a photograph factory while getting an undergraduate degree in English literature at Clarion University in Clarion, Pennsylvania. He spent the next six years working on a master's degree and Ph.D. in English at Ohio State University (the Ph.D. didn't work out). His work has been published in several places including elimae, Postal Poetry, qarrtsiluni, and Everyday Genius. In May 2009, he was named first-place winner of the William Redding Memorial Poetry Contest sponsored by The Poetry Forum.

Tracie Morell is just a poet.

Jenny Morse will soon earn her Ph.D., having successfully jumped through the requisite hoops despite her shaky coordination. Seriously, on her 5th grade gym report card her evaluation for "hand/eye coordination" was marked "Not Applicable." Despite this lamentable physical condition, she has managed to visit 5 continents and 47 states. She will reach Oregon, Washington, and Alaska to complete the collection this June, so that should be a fun trip. Some of her work has been published and some of it is forthcoming.

Photo: Ianthe Moul

Keith Moul's work has appeared widely for more than 40 years, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Last year, Blue & Yellow Dog Press released his chapbook, The Grammar of Mind. His newest chapbook, Beautiful Agitation, is available here.

Scott Musgrove paints creatures such as the Harry Brook Trout and the Dwarf Basket Horse back into their pristine environments through an unusual (and scientifically discredited) practice of zoological impressionism. A lone star in the field, he ventures where the gray-maned, khaki-clad anthropologists have not – tunneling beneath freeways and combing along the rough borders of American mini-malls in search of extinct animals. His unorthodox research methods combined with his unmatched facility with paint and color result in a fascinating survey of what might have been in modern North America, if not for the invasion of pernicious settlers.

In his first full-length book, The Late Fauna of Early North America, Scott Musgrove illuminates hitherto undiscovered animals, plants and bio-wonders in this 172-page volume, published by Billy Shire Fine Arts Press and Last Gasp.

Photo: Meredith Nelson

SPLAB founder Paul Nelson wrote Organic Poetry (a book of essays to be republished this fall by Apprentice House of Baltimore) as well as a serial poem re-enacting the history of Auburn, Washington, A Time Before Slaughter.

In 26 years of radio, he interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Anne Waldman, Sam Hamill, Robin Blaser, Diane di Prima, Nate Mackey, Eileen Myles, Wanda Coleman, Joanne Kyger, Jerome Rothenberg and others, including many Northwest poets for the Rattapallax website.

His latest chapbook is Haibun de la Serna, a series of Haibun inspired by the neo-baroque Spanish poet Ramon Gomez de la Serna, projective poetry, and life at the end of the Mayan Calendar. He lives in the most diverse ZIP code in the United States, 98118, and writes at least one American Sentence every day.

Brenda Nicholas teaches English literature and writing classes at Siena College in Loudonville, New York and hoards any leftover time for writing. Her work has appeared in rumble magazine, Micro Fiction Magazine, and Main Channel Voices, and is forthcoming in Red River Review.

Meg Pokrass is the author of Damn Sure Right (Press 53) and serves as Editor-at-Large for BLIP Magazine (formerly Mississippi Review) and before that, for SmokeLong Quarterly. Her stories, poems, and flash fiction animations have appeared in nearly one hundred online and print publications. Meg lives with her small family and seven animals in San Francisco. Her website is www.megpokrass.com.

M.P. Powers lives in Berlin, Germany. His poems have been published in The New York Quarterly, Rosebud, Existere, Main Street Rag, Third Wednesday, A cappella Zoo, and many other fine places.

Ken Poyner has lived in the lower-right-hand corner of Virginia all of his life. He took up writing both suddenly and unexpectedly in his late high school years after being introduced to the work of Randall Jarrell. Later, he began publishing in places like The Alaska Quarterly, The Iowa Review, New Mexico Humanities Review, GW Review, and the ever popular elsewhere. He then took about fourteen years off. Coming back in late 2009, he started rummaging about on the web and has been seen in Corium Magazine, PANK, Alice Blue Review, FRiGG, Eclectica Magazine, Metazen, and again in the ubiquitous elsewhere. His wife of more than 30 years is one of the world's top raw power lifters, and holds 20 or 30 national or world records for various power lifting organizations. Together, they raise their rescue cats and are beginning to appreciate that their interests might not be quite common for middle-class couples.

Misti Rainwater-Lites is most proud of her collaboration with M. P. Powers, Enrique's Motor Lodge Room #22, a collection of poems, prose, and photographs available exclusively at lulu.com.

Daniel Romo's poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Gargoyle, The Los Angeles Review, MiPOesias, decomP, and elsewhere. His first book of poetry, Romancing Gravity, is forthcoming from Pecan Grove Press. His second book of poetry, When Kerosene's Involved, is forthcoming from Black Coffee Press. More of his writing can be found at danielromo.wordpress.com.

Jessy Randall and Daniel M. Shapiro have been collaborating on projects since they were in middle school together in the 1980s. Their poetry collection, Interruptions, was published in August 2011 by Pecan Grove Press. Jessy's website is personalwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~jrandall, and Dan's blog is littlemyths-dms.blogspot.com.

Michelle Reale is an academic librarian on faculty at Arcadia University in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Gargoyle, PANK, jmww, SmokeLong Quarterly, Staccato, Word Riot, and elimae. Her work was included in Dzanc's 2011 Best of the Web anthology. Her short fiction collection, Natural Habitat, was published by Burning River in 2010. Her short fiction chapbook, Like Lungfish Getting Through the Dry Season (2011), is available from Thunderclap Press. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Sarah J. Sloat grew up in New Jersey, but lives in Germany, where she works in news. Her poems have appeared in Barn Owl Review, Bateau, and Linebreak, among other publications. Her chapbook, Excuse me while I wring this long swim out of my hair, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2011. Sarah blogs at The Rain in My Purse.

Ray Succre is an undergraduate currently living on the southern Oregon coast with his wife and son. He has had poems published in Aesthetica, coconut, and PANK, as well as in numerous other journals across as many countries. His novels Tatterdemalion (2008) and Amphisbaena (2009), both published through Cauliay Publishing, are widely available in print. Other Cruel Things (2009), an online collection of poetry, is available through Differentia Press.

Scott Summers is a musician in the band Schew Aquarium, and has been painting murals professionally for 20 years. "Larva Live," a mural he conceived and painted on the back wall of The Trading Musician, a Seattle music store, was the image we used to set the mood while we were building the Menacing Hedge website, and we are delighted to be able to include it in the inaugural edition. His website is ssmuralman.com.

Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson is preoccupied with absence. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in many places, including EDGE, Welter, Going Down Swinging, Conium Review, Black Lantern Publishing, The Literary Review of Canada, Labletter, and the anthology Killer Verse. You can read more of her writing at www.caitlinthomson.com.

James Valvis lives in Washington State. His work has appeared in Arts & Letters, BLIP Magazine (formerly Mississippi Review), Front Porch Journal, The Los Angeles Review, Nimrod, PANK, The Pedestal Magazine, Rattle, River Styx, and Verse Daily, and is forthcoming in Clackamas Literary Review, Hanging Loose, The GW Review, The New York Quarterly, Night Train, Slipstream, Third Wednesday, and many others. His fiction has twice been named a storySouth Notable Story, in 2005 and 2010. His poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Web anthologies multiple times. His poetry collection, How to Say Goodbye, is forthcoming.

Rachel Van Blankenship was raised in Northern California, studied Photojournalism and Creative Writing at The University of Montana, Missoula and (for now) resides in Northeastern Pennsylvania working as a Features Designer for a local newspaper. She's writing in third person because that's what everyone else seems to do, but believe her (me) this is really her (me). She wrote her first poem at age 8 about the untimely death of her hamster, Muffin, and has been writing ever since. She lives with her not-very-Irish boyfriend named O'Farrell and their illegitimate cat Tula. Visit her (my) website and blog at www.rachelvb.com.

Craig Wallwork lives in West Yorkshire, England, with his wife and daughter. After leaving Art College he studied to be a filmmaker before becoming a full-time editor for nine years. In his spare time, he writes short stories and is working on his fourth novel. His fiction has appeared in various anthologies, journals, and magazines. Follow his progress via his website: craigwallwork.blogspot.com.

Julene Tripp Weaver, a former New Yorker, is now a counselor living in Seattle. Her book, No Father Can Save Her, is newly published by Plain View Press. Her chapbook, Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues was published in 2007 by Finishing Line Press. Her poetry is published in many journals; two recent anthologies that include her work are A Dream in the Clouds, featuring art inspired by the 2008 Presidential Election, and Spaces Between Us: Poetry, Prose and Art on HIV/AIDS. She does wordplay on Twitter @trippweavepoet and has a website: www.julenetrippweaver.com.

Bill Wolak is a poet who has just published his fourth book of poetry entitled Warming the Mirror with Feral Press. He is currently working on a translation of the Italian poet Annelisa Addolorato with Maria Bennett.

Kathryn Zurlo is a cat enthusiast who teaches as an adjunct English professor to feed her habit for collecting cat towers. She also enjoys baking, and biking when she doesn't fall off. She hopes that these poems give you pleasure to read, and thanks you for your time.