Brother Benet Tvedten (Step Nine) has lived at Blue Cloud Abbey in South Dakota for fifty years.
He has three books in print at the present time. All are related to Benedictine monastic life. He has
had fiction published in literary magazines and anthologies. A novella, All Manner of Monks, received
the Minnesota Voices Project award in 1985 and was published by New Rivers Press. Brother Benet
edits his community's newsletter and participates in 12 Step Retreats that are held at the
monastery.
Christine Beck (John Doe 43 and Escape) is the President of the Connecticut Poetry Society and
the Contest Chairperson of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Her poems have
been published in the anthology, Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge, Grayson Press, 2003, J Journal,
John Jay School of Criminal Justice; Passager, Connecticut River Review, Connecticut Poetry Society;
Long River Run, and Caduceus, Yale Art Place. Her poems have also won contests in the Connecticut
River Review and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She is an attorney and
instructor of legal studies at the University of Hartford. Her textbook, Forensic Evidence in Court: A
Case Study Approach, was published in 2008 by Carolina Academic Press.
James Bettendorf (Reflection) taught math for 34 years at various levels and in his retirement
begin writing classes at the Loft in Minneapolis, MN. He was accepted for a two year poetry
internship and has been working on a manuscript with his mentor/advisor, Thomas R. Smith. He
has had poems published in Bittersweet, Studio One, Lower Stumpf Lake Review, and most recently
in Free Verse.
Timothy A. Boling (The 9:05 Out of Detroit) was a prisoner at Allenwood when he wrote this
story. During his incarceration, he authored five novels and has had excerpts and short stories
published in several literary journals. Though unpublished, my novels have been well-read and
enjoyed, and hand-bound copies have found a home in his prison library. He was working on a
sixth novel at the time of his release in January of 2009.
Justin Carroll (Runner) is a writing student at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he has
won awards and scholarships for his fiction. He has had one story previously published in Prairie
Margins. He began writing stories after being kicked out of a punk rock band.
Michael Casey (The Adaptation of Mr. Fitzgerald) is an Irish national who was educated in New
Ross, Dublin and Cambridge. He worked and taught in Ireland, the UK and Washington DC. He has
published a novel and a considerable volume of poetry and short fiction--much of it award-winning.
He contributes articles to the Irish Times and Sunday Times.
Karen Clark (Cracked) moved to New York at the age of 18 to go to college and hasn't left yet.
She graduated from Barnard College with a double major in English Literature and German. She
spent many years in the retail book business, and owned a used bookshop, The Last Word, for 12
years. She is now an M.F.A. candidate in City College/CUNY's Writing Program. Karen has
published several poems and has received the Geraldine Griffin Moore Award for short fiction. She
is working on a novel, a cookbook, a collection of love poems, and is re-writing Hans Christian
Andersen's fairy tales in verse.
David Feela (Flash Fiction) is a poet, free-lance writer, writing instructor, and thrift store book
collector. His works have appeared in hundreds of regional and national publications since 1974,
as well as in over a dozen anthologies. He is a contributing editor and columnist for
Inside/Outside Southwest and the Four Corners Free Press. A chapbook of poetry, Thought
Experiments (Maverick Press), won the Southwest Poet Series, and his first full length poetry
collection, The Home Atlas (c) 2009, is available from WordTech Editions.
Lance Feyh (Improvised Explosives) still lives in the Ozarks where he continues to enjoy indoor
plumbing. He has previously published short stories in obscure journals like r.kv.r.y., The
Community Slop and Third Wednesday.
James F. Gaines (Crier) is bilingual poet who teaches French at the University of Mary Washington
in Fredericksburg, Virginia and currently serves as president of the Virginia Writers Club. He
studied at Michigan State with William Root and in France with the surrealist master Max Milner.
His work has most recently appeared in Xanadu, Tonopah Review, Bumbershoot, and
Phantasmagoria. He is working on his first chapbook and on a translation of Guillaume Apollinaire's
pre-WWI collection, Alcools.
The literary work of Louis J. Gallo (Whitney) has appeared in American Literary Review, Glimmer
Train, New Orleans Review, Missouri Review, Texas Review, Baltimore Review, Portland Review, Berkeley
Fiction Review, Rosebud, Amazon Shorts, storySouth, Paradigm, Clapboard House, Raving Dove, Flash,
Rattle, Babel Fruit, Oregon Literary Review and many others.
Cathy Gilbert (For Dad, a Year After His Death) is an Instructor of English at Heartland Community
College in Normal, IL. She currently teaches many levels of composition, but will soon
add creative writing to her repertoire. Her poems have appeared in the Madison Review, Main
Channel Voices, and Pank. When she's not teaching, grading, or writing, Cathy attends as many
jazz and rock shows as her sleeping schedule allows.
Ann Howells (about that glass slipper) is a longtime member of Dallas Poets Community and
currently serves on its board. She has been managing editor of its semi-annual journal, Illya’s
Honey, for ten years. In 2005, her poem La Restancia was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In
2007, her chapbook, Black Crow in Flight, was published by Main Street Rag. She has had work
appear most recently in Avocet, Plainsongs, Barbaric Yawp, SENTENCE and the anthologies The
Weight of Addition and Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair.
Scott Kauffman (To the Heart of the Matter) tried dozens of criminal cases, first as an assistant
state prosecutor and then as an assistant public defender in a rural Ohio community, which
provides much of the background for his first novel, In Deepest Consequences. Scott now resides in
Newport Beach, California. He maintains an active law practice, which includes the representation
of those charged with white-collar crimes. He is currently at work on a second novel and a
collection of short stories. When not working or writing, Scott gardens, reads, and listens to
baroque music. Scott is a frequent contributor to r.kv.r.y.
Mary Lewis (Chimney Fire) has published many works of short fiction in the magazines Trapeze and
Valley Voice, has a story in the collection Frank Walsh’s Kitchen and Other Stories, and
contributes articles on environmental issues to her local paper. She teaches biology at Luther
College in Decorah, IA. Before that, Lewis worked on a research farm for sustainable agriculture
that she co-founded. Lewis taught piano and dance for a number of years and has a weakness
for Beethoven and Chopin. Skating is another passion, both ice and roller, but wheels work best
in parades.
Christopher Locke (Butterflies and Other Fallacies) was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize in
poetry. Locke received an MFA from Goddard College. His poems have appeared in The Literary
Review, The Southeast Review, Connecticut Review, Tuesday; an Art Project, Alimentum, West Branch,
Exquisite Corpse, Atlanta Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Sun, Agenda, (U.K.), Descant,
(Canada), The Stinging Fly, (Ireland), and twice on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Locke
has received several awards for his poetry, including a 2006 and 2007 Dorothy Sargent Memorial
Poetry Prize, and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, New Hampshire Council on the
Arts, and Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain). He was a Finalist for the Salmon Run Press National Poetry
Book Award, (Co-sponsored by the Academy of American Poets), Pavement Saw Press'
Transcontinental Poetry Award, the New Issues Press Poetry Prize, The Writers@Work Nonfiction
Fellowship, (Co-sponsored by Quarterly West magazine), the Georgetown Review Annual Literary
Contest, the Robert Penn Warren Award, and Atlanta Review’s International Poetry Competition.
His three chapbooks of poetry are Possessed (Main Street Rag, Editor’s Choice Award—2005),
Slipping Under Diamond Light (Clamp Down Press—2002), and How To Burn (Adastra Press—1995).
His first full length collection of poems, End of American Magic, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry
(Ireland) in 2010. Chris lives in New Lebanon, NY with his wife and two daughters and teaches
literature and writing at The Darrow School.
Arthur Longworth, 43 (The Prison Diaries) has been incarcerated since age 18. His youth was
spent in a variety of foster homes – usually for only two or three months at a time. He was
separated from his sister at an early age and, in his teens, he lived in a series of youth facilities. At
sixteen he was released to the streets with no means of support. He had only a seventh-grade
education and began life in Seattle breaking into cars and doing petty criminal activity. At age 18
he escalated to armed robbery and in one holdup a victim was killed. Arthur was convicted of first-
degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. After Longworth arrived in prison he asked to
go to school to get an education. He was told that as a “lifer” he wouldn’t need an education.
Eventually he visited the library and educated himself. He is a PEN prisoner writing award winner
and has published one of his Prison Diaries at the Anne Frank Center in NYC. Longworth’s writings
have also recently appeared in Iconoclast, a NY Literary Magazine. His second underground book,
Day 3,652, was circulated only in Walla Walla Prison. When it was discovered by the authorities,
Arthur spent three months in the hole as punishment. Since then he has continued writing his
diary. He has no idea where it is going but says that he was influenced by the prison writings of
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
We urge our readers to donate to the PEN Prison Writing Program here or send a Writers
Handbook to a prisoner here.
Mardith Louisell (Arias) has published essays, profiles, and book reviews in Italy, A Love Story, The
House on Via Gombito Street, The Best American Erotica, and in journals and magazines. She writes
about music, color, obsession, the WWII Holocaust, feminism, food and relationships. In January
2009, Big Basin or Two Reasons for Couples Therapy was published in Minnesota Magazine. She lives
in San Francisco where she works in child welfare and just finished singing the Mozart Requiem.
She's scheduled for the Verdi Requiem in August.
Joe Lynch (David) is a retired Fire Captain from Philadelphia with an MFA from Rosemont College.
He continues to live and write from the "City of Brotherly Love". He writes because he claims that it
is the closest thing to running into burning buildings. His prose has appeared in numerous
publications. Most recently, The View From Here and Sunken Lines. He has a story due out in
Morpheus Tales in October/09.
Graduate of the UNCG MFA program, co-editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Chair of the Sam Ragan
Poetry Prize for the Poetry Council of NC, and author of Musings, a weekly poetry column in
Outlook, Scott Owens (Bedside Manner) is the 2008 Visiting Writer at Catawba Valley Community
College. His first full-length collection of poetry, The Fractured World was published in August by
Main Street Rag. He is also author of three chapbooks The Persistence of Faith (1993) from
Sandstone Press, Deceptively Like a Sound (Dead Mule, 2008), The Book of Days (Dead Mule, 2009)
and over 300 poems published in various journals. He has been nominated for two Pushcart
Prizes and a Best of the Net Prize this year. His poem, On the Days I Am Not My Father, was
featured on Garrison Keillor’s NPR show The Writer’s Almanac. Born in Greenwood, SC, he now
lives in Hickory, NC, where he teaches and coordinates the Poetry Hickory reading series.
Paul S. Piper (Nothing Happens) was born in Chicago, lived for extensive periods in Montana and
Hawaii, and is currently a librarian at Western Washington University in Bellingham where he
spends more time than he should writing. He takes his lead from Luis Borges. His work has
appeared in various literary journals including The Bellingham Review, Manoa, Sulfur and CutBank.
He has four published books of poetry, the most recent being Winter Apples by Bird Dog Press. He
has also had the privilege of being included in the books The New Montana Story, Tribute to
Orpheus, America Zen, and the upcoming Seattle Noir. He has also co-edited the books Father
Nature and X-Stories: The Personal Side of Fragile X Syndrome. He awaits the world’s next move.
Visit his blog at: pipergates.blogspot.com
Rex Sexton (Fairy Tales Can Come True, It Can Happen to You and Diner) is an award winning
Surrealist painter exhibiting in Chicago, and his writing tends to have that illusory element about it.
His novel “Desert Flower” was published by B&R Samizdat Express. His short story “Holy Night,”
which received the Eric Hoffer Critic’s Choice Award, was published in Best New Writing 2007. His
poems have been published in Willow Review, Mobius, Waterways, Edgz and others
B.L. Smith (In the End) is a recovering addict and alcoholic who had been sober since July 26,
2005. Prior to the death of her brother, she had tried controlled drinking and suffered a relapse.
She has now been clean and sober since March 17, 2009. She is a professional writer who is
presently working on her first novel. She also writes a column in the Salt Lake Examiner about
dogs, and writes about MLB for mikefahmie.com.
Tana Suter (The Menopausal Warrior Queen Dictates 7 Rules for Fighting the Evil Breast Cancer) is a
recent cancer survivor who, fed up with illness memoirs crammed with drama and pathos, used her
idle time throughout treatment to document how a serious illness muscled its way into her
previously well-organized life. She is finalizing a book entitled The Menopausal Warrior Queen Slays
the Evil Breast Cancer where she collects her non-medical frustrations and observations into a
funny, sad and often cranky call-to-arms for warrior queens and those who love them. Her
website, menopausalwarriorqueen.org, will go live in May 2009. Suter lives with her husband, Ed,
in the picturesque foothills of northern Virginia.
Richard Wirick (The Persistence of Desire) lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and three
children, where he practices law and writes. He is the West Coast correspondent for the British
journal Mind, the co-founder of the journal Transformation, and the author of the hauntingly lyrical
collection of prose poems 100 Siberian Post Cards. Wirick's stories, essays and poems have
appeared in Northwest Review, Indiana Review, Texas Review, L.A. Weekly and other journals.
Cherise Wyneken (Happy Hour and The Pregnant Camper) is a freelance writer of prose and poetry.
Selections of her work have appeared in a variety of publications, as well as in two books of
poetry, two chapbooks, a memoir, and a novel. She lives with her husband in Albany, CA where
she participates in readings at various venues in the San Francisco East Bay Area.
He has three books in print at the present time. All are related to Benedictine monastic life. He has
had fiction published in literary magazines and anthologies. A novella, All Manner of Monks, received
the Minnesota Voices Project award in 1985 and was published by New Rivers Press. Brother Benet
edits his community's newsletter and participates in 12 Step Retreats that are held at the
monastery.
Christine Beck (John Doe 43 and Escape) is the President of the Connecticut Poetry Society and
the Contest Chairperson of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Her poems have
been published in the anthology, Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge, Grayson Press, 2003, J Journal,
John Jay School of Criminal Justice; Passager, Connecticut River Review, Connecticut Poetry Society;
Long River Run, and Caduceus, Yale Art Place. Her poems have also won contests in the Connecticut
River Review and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She is an attorney and
instructor of legal studies at the University of Hartford. Her textbook, Forensic Evidence in Court: A
Case Study Approach, was published in 2008 by Carolina Academic Press.
James Bettendorf (Reflection) taught math for 34 years at various levels and in his retirement
begin writing classes at the Loft in Minneapolis, MN. He was accepted for a two year poetry
internship and has been working on a manuscript with his mentor/advisor, Thomas R. Smith. He
has had poems published in Bittersweet, Studio One, Lower Stumpf Lake Review, and most recently
in Free Verse.
Timothy A. Boling (The 9:05 Out of Detroit) was a prisoner at Allenwood when he wrote this
story. During his incarceration, he authored five novels and has had excerpts and short stories
published in several literary journals. Though unpublished, my novels have been well-read and
enjoyed, and hand-bound copies have found a home in his prison library. He was working on a
sixth novel at the time of his release in January of 2009.
Justin Carroll (Runner) is a writing student at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he has
won awards and scholarships for his fiction. He has had one story previously published in Prairie
Margins. He began writing stories after being kicked out of a punk rock band.
Michael Casey (The Adaptation of Mr. Fitzgerald) is an Irish national who was educated in New
Ross, Dublin and Cambridge. He worked and taught in Ireland, the UK and Washington DC. He has
published a novel and a considerable volume of poetry and short fiction--much of it award-winning.
He contributes articles to the Irish Times and Sunday Times.
Karen Clark (Cracked) moved to New York at the age of 18 to go to college and hasn't left yet.
She graduated from Barnard College with a double major in English Literature and German. She
spent many years in the retail book business, and owned a used bookshop, The Last Word, for 12
years. She is now an M.F.A. candidate in City College/CUNY's Writing Program. Karen has
published several poems and has received the Geraldine Griffin Moore Award for short fiction. She
is working on a novel, a cookbook, a collection of love poems, and is re-writing Hans Christian
Andersen's fairy tales in verse.
David Feela (Flash Fiction) is a poet, free-lance writer, writing instructor, and thrift store book
collector. His works have appeared in hundreds of regional and national publications since 1974,
as well as in over a dozen anthologies. He is a contributing editor and columnist for
Inside/Outside Southwest and the Four Corners Free Press. A chapbook of poetry, Thought
Experiments (Maverick Press), won the Southwest Poet Series, and his first full length poetry
collection, The Home Atlas (c) 2009, is available from WordTech Editions.
Lance Feyh (Improvised Explosives) still lives in the Ozarks where he continues to enjoy indoor
plumbing. He has previously published short stories in obscure journals like r.kv.r.y., The
Community Slop and Third Wednesday.
James F. Gaines (Crier) is bilingual poet who teaches French at the University of Mary Washington
in Fredericksburg, Virginia and currently serves as president of the Virginia Writers Club. He
studied at Michigan State with William Root and in France with the surrealist master Max Milner.
His work has most recently appeared in Xanadu, Tonopah Review, Bumbershoot, and
Phantasmagoria. He is working on his first chapbook and on a translation of Guillaume Apollinaire's
pre-WWI collection, Alcools.
The literary work of Louis J. Gallo (Whitney) has appeared in American Literary Review, Glimmer
Train, New Orleans Review, Missouri Review, Texas Review, Baltimore Review, Portland Review, Berkeley
Fiction Review, Rosebud, Amazon Shorts, storySouth, Paradigm, Clapboard House, Raving Dove, Flash,
Rattle, Babel Fruit, Oregon Literary Review and many others.
Cathy Gilbert (For Dad, a Year After His Death) is an Instructor of English at Heartland Community
College in Normal, IL. She currently teaches many levels of composition, but will soon
add creative writing to her repertoire. Her poems have appeared in the Madison Review, Main
Channel Voices, and Pank. When she's not teaching, grading, or writing, Cathy attends as many
jazz and rock shows as her sleeping schedule allows.
Ann Howells (about that glass slipper) is a longtime member of Dallas Poets Community and
currently serves on its board. She has been managing editor of its semi-annual journal, Illya’s
Honey, for ten years. In 2005, her poem La Restancia was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In
2007, her chapbook, Black Crow in Flight, was published by Main Street Rag. She has had work
appear most recently in Avocet, Plainsongs, Barbaric Yawp, SENTENCE and the anthologies The
Weight of Addition and Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair.
Scott Kauffman (To the Heart of the Matter) tried dozens of criminal cases, first as an assistant
state prosecutor and then as an assistant public defender in a rural Ohio community, which
provides much of the background for his first novel, In Deepest Consequences. Scott now resides in
Newport Beach, California. He maintains an active law practice, which includes the representation
of those charged with white-collar crimes. He is currently at work on a second novel and a
collection of short stories. When not working or writing, Scott gardens, reads, and listens to
baroque music. Scott is a frequent contributor to r.kv.r.y.
Mary Lewis (Chimney Fire) has published many works of short fiction in the magazines Trapeze and
Valley Voice, has a story in the collection Frank Walsh’s Kitchen and Other Stories, and
contributes articles on environmental issues to her local paper. She teaches biology at Luther
College in Decorah, IA. Before that, Lewis worked on a research farm for sustainable agriculture
that she co-founded. Lewis taught piano and dance for a number of years and has a weakness
for Beethoven and Chopin. Skating is another passion, both ice and roller, but wheels work best
in parades.
Christopher Locke (Butterflies and Other Fallacies) was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize in
poetry. Locke received an MFA from Goddard College. His poems have appeared in The Literary
Review, The Southeast Review, Connecticut Review, Tuesday; an Art Project, Alimentum, West Branch,
Exquisite Corpse, Atlanta Review, The Chattahoochee Review, The Sun, Agenda, (U.K.), Descant,
(Canada), The Stinging Fly, (Ireland), and twice on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Locke
has received several awards for his poetry, including a 2006 and 2007 Dorothy Sargent Memorial
Poetry Prize, and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, New Hampshire Council on the
Arts, and Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain). He was a Finalist for the Salmon Run Press National Poetry
Book Award, (Co-sponsored by the Academy of American Poets), Pavement Saw Press'
Transcontinental Poetry Award, the New Issues Press Poetry Prize, The Writers@Work Nonfiction
Fellowship, (Co-sponsored by Quarterly West magazine), the Georgetown Review Annual Literary
Contest, the Robert Penn Warren Award, and Atlanta Review’s International Poetry Competition.
His three chapbooks of poetry are Possessed (Main Street Rag, Editor’s Choice Award—2005),
Slipping Under Diamond Light (Clamp Down Press—2002), and How To Burn (Adastra Press—1995).
His first full length collection of poems, End of American Magic, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry
(Ireland) in 2010. Chris lives in New Lebanon, NY with his wife and two daughters and teaches
literature and writing at The Darrow School.
Arthur Longworth, 43 (The Prison Diaries) has been incarcerated since age 18. His youth was
spent in a variety of foster homes – usually for only two or three months at a time. He was
separated from his sister at an early age and, in his teens, he lived in a series of youth facilities. At
sixteen he was released to the streets with no means of support. He had only a seventh-grade
education and began life in Seattle breaking into cars and doing petty criminal activity. At age 18
he escalated to armed robbery and in one holdup a victim was killed. Arthur was convicted of first-
degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. After Longworth arrived in prison he asked to
go to school to get an education. He was told that as a “lifer” he wouldn’t need an education.
Eventually he visited the library and educated himself. He is a PEN prisoner writing award winner
and has published one of his Prison Diaries at the Anne Frank Center in NYC. Longworth’s writings
have also recently appeared in Iconoclast, a NY Literary Magazine. His second underground book,
Day 3,652, was circulated only in Walla Walla Prison. When it was discovered by the authorities,
Arthur spent three months in the hole as punishment. Since then he has continued writing his
diary. He has no idea where it is going but says that he was influenced by the prison writings of
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
We urge our readers to donate to the PEN Prison Writing Program here or send a Writers
Handbook to a prisoner here.
Mardith Louisell (Arias) has published essays, profiles, and book reviews in Italy, A Love Story, The
House on Via Gombito Street, The Best American Erotica, and in journals and magazines. She writes
about music, color, obsession, the WWII Holocaust, feminism, food and relationships. In January
2009, Big Basin or Two Reasons for Couples Therapy was published in Minnesota Magazine. She lives
in San Francisco where she works in child welfare and just finished singing the Mozart Requiem.
She's scheduled for the Verdi Requiem in August.
Joe Lynch (David) is a retired Fire Captain from Philadelphia with an MFA from Rosemont College.
He continues to live and write from the "City of Brotherly Love". He writes because he claims that it
is the closest thing to running into burning buildings. His prose has appeared in numerous
publications. Most recently, The View From Here and Sunken Lines. He has a story due out in
Morpheus Tales in October/09.
Graduate of the UNCG MFA program, co-editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Chair of the Sam Ragan
Poetry Prize for the Poetry Council of NC, and author of Musings, a weekly poetry column in
Outlook, Scott Owens (Bedside Manner) is the 2008 Visiting Writer at Catawba Valley Community
College. His first full-length collection of poetry, The Fractured World was published in August by
Main Street Rag. He is also author of three chapbooks The Persistence of Faith (1993) from
Sandstone Press, Deceptively Like a Sound (Dead Mule, 2008), The Book of Days (Dead Mule, 2009)
and over 300 poems published in various journals. He has been nominated for two Pushcart
Prizes and a Best of the Net Prize this year. His poem, On the Days I Am Not My Father, was
featured on Garrison Keillor’s NPR show The Writer’s Almanac. Born in Greenwood, SC, he now
lives in Hickory, NC, where he teaches and coordinates the Poetry Hickory reading series.
Paul S. Piper (Nothing Happens) was born in Chicago, lived for extensive periods in Montana and
Hawaii, and is currently a librarian at Western Washington University in Bellingham where he
spends more time than he should writing. He takes his lead from Luis Borges. His work has
appeared in various literary journals including The Bellingham Review, Manoa, Sulfur and CutBank.
He has four published books of poetry, the most recent being Winter Apples by Bird Dog Press. He
has also had the privilege of being included in the books The New Montana Story, Tribute to
Orpheus, America Zen, and the upcoming Seattle Noir. He has also co-edited the books Father
Nature and X-Stories: The Personal Side of Fragile X Syndrome. He awaits the world’s next move.
Visit his blog at: pipergates.blogspot.com
Rex Sexton (Fairy Tales Can Come True, It Can Happen to You and Diner) is an award winning
Surrealist painter exhibiting in Chicago, and his writing tends to have that illusory element about it.
His novel “Desert Flower” was published by B&R Samizdat Express. His short story “Holy Night,”
which received the Eric Hoffer Critic’s Choice Award, was published in Best New Writing 2007. His
poems have been published in Willow Review, Mobius, Waterways, Edgz and others
B.L. Smith (In the End) is a recovering addict and alcoholic who had been sober since July 26,
2005. Prior to the death of her brother, she had tried controlled drinking and suffered a relapse.
She has now been clean and sober since March 17, 2009. She is a professional writer who is
presently working on her first novel. She also writes a column in the Salt Lake Examiner about
dogs, and writes about MLB for mikefahmie.com.
Tana Suter (The Menopausal Warrior Queen Dictates 7 Rules for Fighting the Evil Breast Cancer) is a
recent cancer survivor who, fed up with illness memoirs crammed with drama and pathos, used her
idle time throughout treatment to document how a serious illness muscled its way into her
previously well-organized life. She is finalizing a book entitled The Menopausal Warrior Queen Slays
the Evil Breast Cancer where she collects her non-medical frustrations and observations into a
funny, sad and often cranky call-to-arms for warrior queens and those who love them. Her
website, menopausalwarriorqueen.org, will go live in May 2009. Suter lives with her husband, Ed,
in the picturesque foothills of northern Virginia.
Richard Wirick (The Persistence of Desire) lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and three
children, where he practices law and writes. He is the West Coast correspondent for the British
journal Mind, the co-founder of the journal Transformation, and the author of the hauntingly lyrical
collection of prose poems 100 Siberian Post Cards. Wirick's stories, essays and poems have
appeared in Northwest Review, Indiana Review, Texas Review, L.A. Weekly and other journals.
Cherise Wyneken (Happy Hour and The Pregnant Camper) is a freelance writer of prose and poetry.
Selections of her work have appeared in a variety of publications, as well as in two books of
poetry, two chapbooks, a memoir, and a novel. She lives with her husband in Albany, CA where
she participates in readings at various venues in the San Francisco East Bay Area.
r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal
spring 2009 contributors
