Christine Beck is the former President of the Connecticut Poetry Society and is currently the Contest Chairperson of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She is a member of the board of directors of The Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens and of The Riverwood Poetry Series. Her poems have been published in the anthologies Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge, Grayson Books, 2003, and Everybody Says Hello, Grayson Books, 2009, and have appeared in such journals as J Journal, Passager, Connecticut River Review, Long River Run and Caduceus. She is also the author of the short play Behind the Beats.

Larry "Ace" Boggess currently is incarcerated in the West Virginia correctional system. His poetry has appeared in Harvard Review, Notre Dame Review, Poetry East, RATTLE, Atlanta Review, Southeast Review, Florida Review and other journals. His books include The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (poetry, Highwire Press, 2003), Displaced Hours (novel, Gatto Publishing, 2004), and, as editor, Wild Sweet Notes II, an anthology of West Virginia poetry published in 2004.

Robert L. Bolden is a prisoner at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Katie Cotugno is a graduate of Emerson College with a BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing; she was the Emerson Review's 2007 Spotlight Fiction Writer and has been featured on Nerve.com as well as in Argestes, The Broadkill Review and The Apalachee Review. She also blogs at http://kitchendoor.wordpress.com, where she offers her (many) opinions on local produce, the small indignities of public transporation, and John Mayer's inability to quit running his mouth. She lives in Boston.

E. Michael Desilets was born and raised in Framingham, MA. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in New York. Before departing his hometown, he taught at Framingham High School and Framingham State College. He has also taught at Rowan University in New Jersey and the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, where he now lives. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Blue Collar Review, California Quarterly, Diner, The Rambler and Widener Review.

Eugene Alexander Dey is an incarcerated person who, through the process of writing, has found purpose to a life lost to bad decisions. A self-taught, litigious advocate and drug war journalist, his work has been recognized by PEN American Center on numerous occasions. He has appeared in many publications, including The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, and is currently writing a memoir titled To Die Well. Links to some of his work can be found at myspace.com/eugenedey.

Andy Douglas' essays and translations have been published in Mary, New Renaissance, Nimrod, Bayou, and Pisgah Review. In 2005, he received an MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He is completing a spiritual memoir about his seven years living in Asia, four as a yogic monk. He is the recipient of a Marcus Bach Fellowship for Writing about Culture and Religion, and has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa.

Michael Dowdy is an assistant professor at Hunter College, where his teaching and research focus on twentieth-century North American and Latin American poetry. He has published poems and articles in various journals and anthologies, and his chapbook, The Coriolis Effect, was published in 2007. He is currently working on a book about poetic responses to neoliberalism in the Americas.

Bobby Garcia, still employed to keep the peace, lives in Texas with his loving wife, Claudia. He is a graduate of St. Edward's University, an accomplishment he owes almost entirely to the dedication of his mother, Barbie.

Gene Grabiner's poetry has appeared in Waging Words for Peace, Chuck Culhane, ed., (Buffalo: Niagara River Press, 2004), Poets Against War, Earth's Daughters, HazMat Review, Mediphors, Eclectic Literary Forum, Esprit, Wordsmith, Images, Poesia and the Buffalo News. A Berkeley educated scholar and member of the collective that founded Crime and Social Justice (now, Social Justice), he teaches sociology, American History and honors courses at Erie Community College, in Buffalo.

Sally-Ann Hard's work has been published in The Gwendolyn Brooks Journal of Black Thought & Literature, Turning Wheel, a Buddhist journal, The Roswell Literary Review, Frost Place Anthology, Putnam Poets Anthology, Moonsnap, Tamarind and Salamander. Her work can also be read on-line at Rogue Scholars, Poetz.com and RainTiger.com. Medusa's Laugh Press published her chapbook Walk Into Water in May 2007. Sally-Ann has her own company, providing executive search services to progressive nonprofit organizations around the country.

Sandra Hunter's short fiction has appeared in New Delta Review, Zyzzyva, Talking River Review, South Dakota Review, Glimmer Train (awards in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010), and others. Her novel Leaving to Come Home placed as a semi-finalist in both the 2010 Dana Novel of the Year Award and the 2010 Southwest Writers Contest, Literary Novel Category. She's currently working on a novel-in-endless-progress titled Waiting for Heaven.

Sara Kirschenbaum is a writer and artist in Portland, Oregon. She works in several media: writing, drawing, photography, and ceramics. In Lipsk has been adapted from a chapter of her memoir about her family's experiences with post-partum Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). For more information see sarakirschenbaum.com.

John Lawson teaches at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. His poetry and plays have appeared in Main Street Rag, Paper Street, Lady Jane's Miscellany, Public Republic and other venues. His first book of poems, Generations, was published in 2007 by St. Andrews College Press, and his latest play, Commedia Profana, premiered as a staged reading in July, 2010 at the Hamner Theater in Afton, Virginia.

Charles Lowe teaches at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. His work has appeared in J Journal, Guernica, Pedestal, Raven Chronicles, Fiction International and elsewhere. He lives in Shanghai with his wife and daughter.

Paul Many's poems and stories have appeared in such publications as The Journal, Kaleidoscope, Exquisite Corpse, Blueline and The Kerf, among others. He teaches English and journalism at the University of Toledo.

John Martino aims to make small-format, black and white, street- style photographs that function as works of fiction, which suggest and entertain rather than document or confirm. His images have appeared in such diverse publications as Photographer's Forum, The Advocate, New Orleans Review, and The Boston Globe. To view more of his work, please visit www.johnmartinophoto.com.

Tara (Emelye) Needham writes poetry, essays and pop songs. She lives in Albany, NY, where she is writing a dissertation on representations and rhetoric of violence in the global modern novel. She has released records with her bands The Reverse and Mad Planets, was co-founder, with Sasha Cagen, of the feminist 'zine Cupsize, and has published academic writing on the politics of the interior design of Starbucks cafés.

Darlene Pagán teaches literature and writing at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Turning Wheel, Hiram Poetry Review, Lake Effect, Two Review: An International Journal of Poetry and Creative Nonfiction, The New Verse News, Willow Springs, MacGuffin and The Birmingham Poetry Review. Her essays have been published in The Nebraska Review, Mom Writer's Literary Magazine and Literal Latté.

David S. Pointer was the son of a piano playing bank robber who died when David was three years old. David later served in the Marine military police. He earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice and M.A. in Sociology. David is scheduled to start teaching adjunct classes in the near future.

Aparna Reddi spent four years in New York as a social worker. She now lives in San Francisco. This is her first published piece.

Elaine Schear's poetry and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in The Boston Globe, Bellevue Literary Review, Carquinez Literary Review, Blueline, Rive Gauche, Pennsylvania English, Mudfish, Pearl, Jewish Currents, Poetry East and Feile-Festa. She has also published articles on education issues. She is president of a non-profit organization
raising private funds for public high school education in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she resides with her partner and two teen-aged daughters.

Arnold Stead began writing poetry in prison during the early 1970s. Upon leaving prison he led a vagabond life for several years before returning to school and earning the degrees necessary to teach at the post-secondary level. His poetry has appeared in several journals in the U.S. and abroad including Open Places, Silk Road and Wisconsin Review. He has published a collection of short fiction and is currently working on a novel.

Shelby Stephenson's Family Matters: Homage to July, the Slave Girl received the Bellday Prize for Poetry in 2008, Allen Grossman, judge, and the Oscar Arnold Young Award, 2009, Jared Carter, judge. He has also published Possum (Bright Hill Press) and a long booklength poem, Fiddledeedee (The Bunny & the Crocodile Press). Shelby and his wife Linda live on the farm where he was born. www.shelbystephenson.com

Elizabeth Swados is an award-winning author and composer; she is a Tony nominated, Obie award-winning theater artist, Guggenheim and Ford Foundation recipient, and a Pen/Faulkner citation. Recent publications include: At Play-Teaching Teenagers Theater (Faber and Faber), My Depression (Hyperion) and The Animal Rescue Store (Scholastic). Her theatrical credits span from Broadway, off-Broadway, to around the world, including Runaways. Her book of poetry, The One and Only Human Galaxy, was released in April 2009.

Ken Victor is a recipient of a National Magazine Award for poetry. His poems have appeared in various journals in both the U.S. and Canada, including the Beloit Poetry Journal, Grain, Queen's Quarterly and Texas Review. He makes his home in the hills of West Quebec with his wife and three children.

Allison Whittenberg is a poet and novelist (Life is Fine, Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine and Tutored, all from Random House). She has an MA in English from the University of Wisconsin. She lives in Philadelphia.

Fred Yannantuono: Fired from Hallmark for writing meaningful greeting card verse, he once ran twenty straight balls at pool; finished 183rd (out of about 10,000) at the 1985 U.S. Open Crossword Puzzle Tournament; won a yodeling contest in a German restaurant. Work has appeared in 75 journals in 30 states. Work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2006. His book, A Boilermaker for the Lady (www.nyqbooks.org/fredyannantuono) has been banned in France, Latvia and the Orkney Isles.

Robert Yune was born in Seoul, South Korea. He teaches at Chatham University's MFA program (Pittsburgh campus and Low-Residency). His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Connecticut Review and Green Mountains Review. In 2009, he received a fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Paula Anne Yup first published poetry as an undergrad at Occidental College. She has had over one hundred poems published, including those appearing in The Third Woman: Minority Women Writers of the United States, Passages North Anthology, What Book!?, Mid-American Review and a number of Outrider Press anthologies. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and received her MFA from Vermont College. She has had extended visits to Tokyo and Baja, California, and now lives in the Marshall Islands.