CONTRIBUTORS

Poetry

Kelly Bancroft coordinates and teaches for an arts education partnership between Youngstown State University and two inner-city schools. She has received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists grant and a Ragdale residency. Her poems and stories have appeared in such journals as Literal Latte, Mudfish, West Branch, Xconnect, The Cortland Review and others.
On writers: "Whenever I need to get the writing juices flowing, I pick up Beckian Fritz Goldberg, whose poems never fail to interest and impress me. I’ve also been reading James Fenton lately, enjoying how he manages to work with sound and rhyme like no one else I’ve read."

Bob Brooks started writing poetry for the second time (the first time was in school and college) after twenty-odd years as editor for a computer systems company. Since 1997 his poems have appeared in The Beloit Poetry Journal, College English, Mudfish, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and other journals. A chapbook, Still In Here Someplace, was published in 2002 by Pudding House Publications, and he is circulating a full-length manuscript called So Many Clothes On. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.

Deborah DeNicola edited the anthology Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology, published in 1999 by The University Press of New England. She was awarded a Poetry Fellowship in 1997 by the National Endowment for the Arts and received The William T. Foley Award in 2000 from America. She is the author of Where Divinity Begins (Alice James Press, 1994) and two chapbooks, Psyche Revisited, which won the Embers Magazine Chapbook Contest, and Rainmakers (Coyote Love Press).
On writers: "Recently I read Beckian Goldberg's book, Never Be the Horse (Akron series in Poetry) which seemed to me the most impressive new poetry I've read in years. I also enjoyed recently Richard Jackson's book, Heartwall, the Juniper Prize winner from The University of Massachusetts Press."

William Doreski's poetry and reviews have appeared in many journals, most recently in Harvard Review, Larcom Review, Oregon Review, and California Quarterly. His book, Suburban Light, was published by Cedar Hill Publications. William teaches writing and literature at Keene State College in New Hampshire.
On writers: "Lately I've been reading new translations of Rimbaud, Celan, and Verlaine, and Geoffrey Hill's new book. Writers important to me are many (Stevens, Lowell, Dickinson, Hopkins, Yeats, for instance), but some of the less familiar are Andrew Glaze, Alan Dugan, James Neylon, and David Mus."

Ruth Foley teaches adult literacy for a non-profit organization in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Her work appears or is forthcoming online at A Small Garlic Press, Beauty for Ashes Poetry Review, and Zuzu's Petals Literary Quarterly. She also has work appearing or forthcoming in print from several magazines, including The Chariton Review, The GSU Review, and Potpourri.
On writers: "My two must-read poets of the moment are Robert Pinsky and David Ignatow. Pinsky has such a subtle way with formal poetry that the form sneaks up on you, and Ignatow had a fantastic ability to choose words and a great sense of humor."

Cameron Thomas received an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a PhD in English from Berkeley. She has had poems accepted for publication by Midwest Poetry Review and Marlboro Review. Her first book of poems is forthcoming in Fall 2004 from Four Way Books. She teaches part-time at Framingham State College near Boston.
On writers:"From among recent readings, I have very much liked the novel, The Bone People, by Keri Hulme from New Zealand, and Ellen Bryant Voigt's new book of poems, Shadow of Heaven. I admire both for their quiet intensity."

Hiram Larew's work has appeared in about 80 journals. He won Baltimore's 1999 ARTSCAPE Poetry Prize and the 1999 washington review poetry award.
On writers: "My recommendation: Sarah Orne Jewett!"

Ann Russek has an MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She is a freelance writer and part-time faculty at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania where she teaches creative writing. Ann's poetry and nonfiction have appeared in many national and regional publications. She has been a guest artist at Lebanon Valley College, Lafayette College, DeSales University, and Reading Area Community College. Her first chapbook, First Lie, was published by Black Spruce Press (Anchorage, Alaska, 2000). Most recently she was the first place winner in the Mulberry Poets and Writers Annual Poetry Competition. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Chester County Pennsylvania, where, in addition to her poetry and nonfiction, she is at work on children’s books and a historical romance novel."
On writers: "My current reading includes Mark Svenvold, Fleda Brown Jackson, Gerald Stern, and Elizabeth Bishop."

Conrad Squires is a writer who owns a small direct fundraising agency and he lives, works, and make poems in Nahant, Massachusetts. He has had poems published in various magazines and anthologies, and Puddinghouse Publications issued his chapbook, Dancing with the Switchman, his first (brief) booklength work.

Marc J. Sheehan is an associate editor of Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, a journal published by Michigan State University Press, and the author of Greatest Hits, a collection of poems from New Issues Poetry Press. He has published poems, essays, articles, fiction, and book reviews in such journals as Apalachee Quarterly, Fine Madness, High Plains Literary Review, Water-Stone, and many others. Support for his work has come from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs. He is also News and Communications Coordinator for Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
On writers: "Philip Larkin, for all his personal failures, is a poet I greatly admire. A poet who just seems to get better with age is Jim Harrison. His book, After Ikkyu, is just astonishing. I'm looking forward to reading the most recent book by the Australian poet Les Murray. And I love the volume of selected poems, The Beauty of the Weapons, by Canadian poet Robert Bringhurst. The title poem of that collection seems especially poignant given the current situation in the Middle East."

Jean Flanagan is the author of Ibbetson Street (Garden Street Press, 1993). She has just completed a manuscript called Black Lightning, about the Great Irish Hunger and immigration to America. Jean teaches literature and writing at Pine Manor College and Middlesex Community College. She also teaches in the Changing Lives Through Literature Program at Roxbury District Court.
On writers: "Lately I have been reading books by Paula Meehan, an Irish poet. I find her work very engaging and thought provoking. I just started The Buru Quartet by Pramoedya Ananta Toer and find it very compelling."

Pamela Lee Cranston was born in New York City and was raised in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts. She received her BA from San Francisco State University in 1984, and in 1988 she received an M.Div. from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, CA. Ordained in 1989, she has served as an Episcopal priest in San Francisco Bay area churches and hospices for the past eleven years. She also is an adjunct teacher at CDSP, and writes, lectures, leads retreats and has been a spiritual director for twenty years. Her works include the books Clergy Wellness and Mutual Ministry; An Eccentric English Journey (limited edition); and a novel, The Madonna Murders, currently being submitted for publication. Her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals, both on and off line. Pamela lives with her husband in Oakland, California.
On writers: "Poets I have been reading recently include Mary Oliver, Chase Twichell, William Stafford, and R.S. Thomas."

C.J. Sage's poems have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and journals, most recently The Threepenny Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The Seattle Review, and The Bitter Oleander. C. J.'s new poetry collection is entitled Let's Not Sleep (Dream Horse Press).
On writers: "There is so much wonderful poetry out there; happily, I don't think one can avoid being somehow influenced by all of it. Stevens, Frost, Cummings, Rilke, Neruda, and Strand have been favorites; Hirshfield's new book is lovely; two of my contemporaries whose work I admire and believe will do well are Jennifer Swanton Brown and Julia Alter. I continue to be awe-struck by Gary Short's beautiful poem, 'Psalm.'"

Fiction

Bob Thurber grew up in Rhode Island and now lives in Southeastern Massachusetts, where he works full time at writing and part-time at not much else. His essays, poetry, and fiction have appeared in a number of print and online publications, including The Providence Journal, Zoetrope's All Story Extra, elimaev, Cafe Irreal, The Melic Review, The Phone Book, In Posse Review, Blue Murder, and Linnaean Street (for which he received the Spring 2000 issue Award for Excellence and Clarity in Writing). He recently won first place in FlashQuake's Spring 2002 issue, and he has work forthcoming in a number of venues. Bob is a Contributing Editor to Linnaean Street, and co-editor of the literary site, Gargoyle: Arts and Letters on the Web.
On writers: "I frequently return to the works of Richard Ford, Annie Dillard, Diane Williams, Lydia Davis, Anne Sexton, Charles Bukowski, William Carlos Williams, Sherwood Anderson, and Ernest Hemingway."

Mike Greene makes digital videos, teaches college students and small children, enjoys photography, film, and small children -- and the pond which lives beside him.
On writers: "Writers I enjoy include William Gibson, Wole Soyinka, Robert Parker, Gary Snyder, Jonathan Lethem, John Irving, and Samuel Clemens. I like to read and I enjoy words and stories."

Cover Art

Cover photograph by Lee Mandell.



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