J. M. Hall (Birmingham, AL): He is an undergraduate at Samford University, majoring in philosophy and psychology, and a manager at a small local restaurant. He won awards for poetry in high school, and has had several poems published in the university's annual literary journal Sojourn. The Penwood Review will also be publishing To Immanual Kant in the fall 2002 issue. He loves reading classic literature, listening to a wide variety of music, and writing. He volunteers at the Crisis Center, a suicide/crisis hotline, that serves Birmingham and the greater metropolitan area.
Mark Hall (Nashville, TN): He graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1987 with a BS in Communications. As a singer/songwriter, his goal is to reveal the hope, humor, and meaning to be discovered in even the "commonest" of life experiences. He tries to write from life, applying his imagination and his own point of view. The result is a unique combination of entertainment, artistic endeavor, and affordable therapy. He has performed since 1983 in a variety of settings, including coffeehouses, church group retreats, the Riverbend Festival, the Fall Color Cruise Festival, and the KUDZU Festival. Chattanooga Independent Artists nominated him "Acoustic Songwriter of the Year" in 2000. His travels have put him in front of a wide range of audiences in the Northwest, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, San Francisco, Harlem, Las Vegas, and Minsk, Belarus, in the former Soviet Union. He was co-coordinator of the Chattanooga NSAI chapter, dedicated to developing the craft and business songwriting.
Peggy C. Hall (S. Miami, FL): Her avocation has always been music-related (piano, organ, tenor sax). Whether playing the score in a local production of The Fantasticks or writing a free-verse "review" of a Graham Steed organ recital in Salisbury Cathedral, she has been intimately involved with the notes and the rhythms. Most recently, she received an Honorable Mention in the Soul-Making Literary Competition 2000 for "Keats Writes to His Brother Tom." Her diminishing-verse poem "Gus n' Us" and a sonnet were included in Sandra Riley's 2000 children's book, The Greenbear Chronicles.
Joseph Hart (Visalia, CA): Before he met his dearest friend, his poems were very impersonal, but have since become more feeling. His heroes in poetry are Keats and Millay. His favorite composers are Bach, Mozart, and Donizetti. He has been published in Fauquier, Riverrun, Parnassus, Raintown Review, Ship of Fools, Adept Press (Small Brushes), Catamount Press (Cotyledon), Lucidity, Homestead Review, Dana Literary Society, Northwoods, Beggar's Press (Raskolnikov's Cellar), Red Owl, Muse's Kiss, Kaleidoscope Review, Offerings, Nanny Fanny, Alura, Old Hickory Review, Mind In Motion, Straight Ahead, and various other magazines.
John R. Haws (Olympia, WA): He was born and raised in California. He is sixty-six years old and busy raising his second family of two sons, John-John and Joshua. The Olympia Copy and Printing Center first printed Poetry Book-1 in March of 1991. He has been writing poetry since his college days at San Jose State College back in 1961. His poetry can be read online at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/John-R-Haws.
Kathryn B. Hull (La Quinta, CA): She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Piano and Theory, maintaining an active studio in the California desert community of La Quinta. She is a poet and author of children's stories. The National Library of Poetry has published several of her writings. She has been published in children's magazines including First Opportunity and Young Generation. She served on the Music Teachers National Association Board of Directors for a number of years, as well as holding significant offices in her residence state. As an advocate for the arts, music and the arts are often the central theme in her writings.
Paul Humphrey (Spencerport, NY): With thirty years of commercial writing experience, he has published verse poetry in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. He learned to love opera after a stint as a scenery mover's helper at the old Met in NYC. A member of the Author's League and Poets & Writers, he is listed in Gale Contemporary American Authors, Coda Directory, and The International Biographical Center.
Richard Kennison (St. Charles, MO): He lives with his wife, Renee, and their children, Book, Zoe, Tea, and Nadia. His poems have appeared in Mid Rivers Review: A Literary Journal, Potpourri: A Magazine of the Literary Arts, Raw NerVZ Haiku, Once Upon a Time: A Magazine for Children's Writers and Illustrators, Haiku Headlines, and The Mid-America Poetry Review, among other publications.
Ann Levorson Kieffer (San Francisco, CA): She is a retired teacher and theatre director who is now living and writing in San Francisco. Some of her pieces have appeared in "Plainsongs," "Alive Now," "The Poet's Art," "The New York Times Metropolitan Diary," and others.
Susan Landgraf (Seattle, WA): A writer and photographer, her poems have most recently appeared in Nimrod, Kalliope, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, and Riverwind. She also has been published in The Laurel Review, Third Coast Review, Pikeville Review, Interim, A Room Of One's Own, Ploughshares, Cincinnati Poetry Review, Calyx, Spoon River Quarterly, Sun Dog Review, and Paintbrush, among others. Honors include a Fulbright-Hays Grant in 1999 to South Africa and Namibia; Pablo Neruda, Society of Humanistic Anthropology, and Academy of American Poets awards; a Willard R. Espy Writing Residency in 2003 and a Theodore Morrison scholarship at Bread Loaf. In 2002, she taught PhD students for one semester at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China. A former journalist, she teaches writing and media classes at Highline Community College.
Allen Lenicheck (St. George, UT): He received his BA and MM degrees from The Julliard School. He is a piano instructor, as well as a composer, and writer of short stories and poetry. His teaching piece for piano Cornhuskin' Time was published by Montgomery Music in Buffalo, NY, and has been used in national piano festivals and competitions. His poem Music has appeared in print five times previously, including The National Library of Poetry and The Poetry Society of Pennsylvania.
James Lipsky (DePere, WI): He is a retired university professor who also taught in elementary schools. He earned his Ph.D. in Elementary School Counseling, and for thirty years taught teachers and other professionals to be school and community counselors. While teaching, he loved to write poems and published many, especially in professional counseling journals. Some of his poetry hangs in the USS Arizona Museum in Pearl Harbor and a National Shrine in MA. His song "Addicted to the Dictionary" is included on the Kidtunes CD by Piano Press. This song received honorable mention in the 2002 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the children's category. He also received 4th and 6th places in the Just Plain Folks 2002 Songwriting Contest. Jim is from a large family and has been around young people for years. From these experiences, he learned to enjoy writing songs and poems.
Lisa Stokking Lutwyche (Landenberg, PA): A writer for over thirty years, Lisa's poetry has appeared in dotdotdot, Mad Poets Review, The Tamafyr Review, Sea Change, Image and Word (a collaboration of poets and artists, in 1994), and other literary magazines and anthologies. In 1999, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has taught creative writing to adults and teens at a community arts center since 1992, and is now working on two anthologies and a novel. She is also a watercolorist and watercolor teacher, and has been showing and selling her work for many years. Lisa lives with her English poet husband, two teens, and six pets. Her father, William Stokking, is principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, affording Lisa a lifetime backstage. Like Elizabeth Axford, Lisa is a breast cancer survivor.
Brenda Lyons (Waxahachie, TX): She is married and a mother of three children, a fifteen-year-old daughter and twin eight-year-old boys. Now that her children are in school, she has gone back to The University of Texas at Arlington and is working on an English degree. She enjoys music and poetry and was inspired to write while listening to a cellist play during a poetry class.
Bruce Madole (Brampton, Ontario, Canada): He is a writer of short fiction, poetry, and songs. An active member of the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA), the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), he is co-coordinator of the NSAI Toronto regional workshop. For his daily bread, he has worked in journalism, public relations and technical communications for over twenty years, and has operated his own consulting firm, Bruce Madole and Associates Inc., since 1988.
Alana Merritt Mahaffey (Hot Springs, AR): She teaches writing at Garland County community college, is founder and editor of the Arkansas Collective, and is associate editor of the Arkansas Literary Forum. She has been recognized repeatedly by the Arkansas College Media Association, and received the Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1997. The National Society of Arts and Letters, the Arkansas Society of Arts and Letters, and the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas have recognized her. Her work has been described by poet and writer Josip Novakovich as “beautiful.” Recent publications (1999-2001) include Fugue, Lucid Stone, New England Writers' Network, New Authors Journal, Agnieszka's Dowry, Poetry Motel, Midsouth Poetry Collection, Eureka Literary Magazine, Long Line Writer, Abbey, Grasslands Review, Spadra, New Works Review, Arkansas Literary Forum, and Aura Literary/Arts Review.
Mark Mansfield (Arlington, VA): He is a document analyst and musician. He has been the Assistant to the Publications Officer at the U.S. Supreme Court, a guard on sound stages in Hollywood, a proofreader for a Christmas card printer, a theatre usher, a janitor at an art school, a night watchman for a concrete company, a telemarketer, and a gas station attendant. He received his M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. His work has recently appeared (or is forthcoming) in Aethelon, The Antietam Review, California Quarterly, Candelabrum Poetry Magazine, City Works, Concho River Review, Confluence, Creosote, The Evansville Review, First Offense, Frank, Front Range, Good Foot, The Ledge, Lilliput Review, Limestone, Literary Lantern, The New Writer, Poetry Depth Quarterly, Poetry Motel, Poetry Nottingham International, Potomac Review, Scrivener, Ship of Fools, Tulane River, Windhover, and Words of Wisdom. He was Feature Poet in the Spring 2003 issue of Poetry Nottingham International. The Ledge Press previously published "Für Elise." The Bay Area Poet's Coalition previously published "The Surf Aces" and "Wonderful World" in the Summer 2002 and Autumn 2002 issues, respectively.
Arthur McMaster (Valrico, FL): He has served until recently as the faculty adviser to his college's poetry club, and has published widely in the U.S. and Ireland. His latest acceptances are from Blueline and Beggars Press . He was honored to win the "Best of the Festival" award for poetry from the College of William and Mary. As an undergraduate at Indiana University, he lived in a house full of music majors. He studied under the poet Philip Appleman. The previously published poem included here is Visage (Flipside Magazine, Fall 1999).
Carol Milkuhn (Waitsfield, VT): After retiring from
teaching, she has concentrated on her interest in creative
writing. A member of the Mad River Poets, and former Vice President of
The Poetry Society of Vermont, she contributed to Pebbles from the
Stream, a collection of poems published five years ago. Her poems have
also appeared in Lyric magazine, Vermont Literary Review, Green
Mountain Trading Post, Bloodroot, and the 1929 Anthology of Vermont
Writers published by The League of Vermont Writers. In addition to
writing poetry, she is at work on a novel, The Rebel Pawn. Her agent
will be seeking publication for this book in the Spring of 2009.
S. Minanel (Marina Del Rey, CA): She is a poet and artist. Her work has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Becoming the Woman I Wanted, When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple, New Millennium, Light Quarterly, and The Advocate. Internationally, her work has appeared in The Gentle Reader and Krax in England, and in The Dawn in Australia.
Lori Mula (Hazlet, NJ): She writes about nature and family.
John David Muth (North Brunswick, NJ): By trade, he is an academic counselor working for Rutgers University, his alma mater. Music is his great passion, particularly from the Late Romantic (Tchaikovsky and Brahms) and the Post-Romantic (Mahler) periods. Having never learned to play an instrument, he uses poetry as an outlet for the way the music makes him feel. He tries to create the sounds of an orchestra through words. Parnassus Literary Journal published his poem "Cello Sonata in G Minor" in Spring 2000.
David Napolin (Port Washington, NY): He is a retired English teacher, having taught in the New York City schools. Since retiring, he has been published in over 150 magazines including Hollins Critic, The Amherst Review, Parnassus, Sonora Review, The Connecticut River Review, and other poetry journals. One of his poems was nominated for the 1999 Pushcart Poetry Prize.
Dennis Norville (Lattimore, NC): He is the owner of a poetry business in North Carolina called Poetic Potpourri Concepts. He has written some 800 poems and songs. He has been published 200 times and has won 150 contest awards, including many first, second, and third-place winnings. He is author of ten books and his poetry is circulated in all 50 states of the USA and in five foreign countries as well. He spends his spare time playing the piano and guitar, singing, hiking, and mountain biking.