Justus Ballard, Portland, OR, is a receptionist. He has an MFA from Antioch University, a wife from Kingsburg, California, and two cats from Vancouver, Washington. He recently gave $25 to the Kerry campaign, and looks forward to all the influence that will accord him come 2005.

Janet I. Buck, PhD, Medford, OR, is a six-time Pushcart Nominee. Her poetry has recently appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Magazine.com, Facets, Octavo and hundreds of journals worldwide. Buck's second collection of poetry won The Gival Press Poetry Award in 2002 and her third print collection, Beckoned By The Reckoning, was released in 2004 by PoetWorks Press.

René Capone, San Francisco, CA, attended the Parsons School of Design in New York. His work has been widely exhibited and published. More of René’s work can be found at his website, www.renecapone.com.

Casey Charles, Missoula, MT, is the author of The Sharon Kowalski Case: Lesbian Rights on Trial (Kansas, 2003) which was a finalist for a Publishing Triangle Award in Lesbian Nonfiction this year. He has published poems in two Mexican journals and has written articles on Plato, Shakespeare, and queer studies. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Montana and is one of the founders of the Outfield Alliance and the Western Montana Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

Jennifer Esrailian, Las Vegas, NV, is a Creative Writing major at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in The Talisman Review, Curio Magazine, and The Mischa Experience.

Eugene C. Flinn, Gillette, NJ, has been writing fiction and non-fiction for over 50 years, raising eight children in the process. His work has been published by Simon & Schuster, Facts on File, LIFE, Good Housekeeping, and approximately 100 literary magazines and trade journals.

Cindi Harrison, San Francisco, CA, received her master’s degree in creative writing from New Mexico State University. She taught college writing courses in Chicago and lives and teaches in San Francisco where she comes home each day to a full house-her partner, two kids and a Papillon. Her latest publication is in An Exaltation of Forms edited by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes.

Randy Scott Hyde, Los Angeles, CA, formerly a composer, is currently working on his MFA in creative writing. His work has appeared in such journals as 360 and other online journals. He lives with his partner George.

Sara Beth Jonassen, Middleburg, VA, graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Fine Art. Her specialties are oil painting, lithography, and sculpting. She is revising several short stories and is finalizing a first draft of a futuristic novel with an elderly heroine.

Stephen Kopel, San Francisco, CA, has work residing in Antigonish Review, Oxford Magazine, Skylark, 580 Split, Ginger Hill, Hampden-Sydney Review and dozens more. His collection, crux, is now in the San Francisco Public Library and in 2002/03 Stephen was a nominee for San Francisco Poet Laureate.

Deb R. Lewis, Chicago, IL, holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College. She is an adjunct professor in Fiction at Columbia College and an associate editor for F Magazine. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Blythe House Quarterly, Sleepwalk, Dyversity, International Drummer, Bad Attitude, Little American, and Hair Trigger. She just completed a novel, These Mundane Freaks.

Kimberly Mark, Forest Lake, MN, is paying more attention to writing short stories, following 14 years in the banking business. She has gone back to school at Metropolitan State University to study creative writing. Her work has been published in Potpourri, Hob-Nob, Lacunaue, and Metro State’s Haute Dish.

Michael Montlack, New York, NY, attends New School’s MFA program and teaches English at Berkeley College. His work appears in Christopher Street, New York Native, Skidrow Penthouse, Mudfish, In the Family and other magazines.

Erika Mueller, Milwaukee, WI, was a Hogrefe Fellow in Creative Writing at Iowa State University and was a recent recipient of the AWP Intro Journals Project award. She is pursuing her MFA at the University of Oregon and has poems in many journals including The Cream City Review and Willow Springs.

David Napolin, Port Washington, NY, has been writing poetry for many years and has been published in the Hollins Critic, Amherst Review, Parnassus, Sonora Review, Connecticut River Review and many other poetry journals. In 1999, one of his poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is a retired English teacher, having taught in the New York City schools.

Kimberly Robinson, Bloomfield, NJ, has had work published in The Seattle Review and UNM Honors Review.

Anna Smith, Junction City, CA, grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. She lives and works at a center for Tibetan Buddhism in the Trinity Alps of Northern California, and teaches English part-time.

E B. Vandiver, San Jose, CA, was the recent recipient of the Yemassee prize in fiction. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in So to Speak, Blithe House Quarterly, Fourteen Hills, Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley and other publications. She works as a journalist and is the associate editor of the literary journal Convergence.

Sara Verstynen, Westminster, CO, has been published by Bay Windows, Sierra Nevada College Review, and the Allegheny Review. She is a recent graduate of the University of Colorado at Denver, where she majored in English Writing.

Jason Weidemann, Minneapolis, MN, has had work appear in various Twin Cities publications in addition to Poetry Motel and the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide. His website is www.fiveoclockbot.com.