Dr. Shari O'Brien (Toledo, OH): She is a lifelong Ohioan. She earned master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan and Bowling Green State University, respectively, and a law degree from the University of Toledo. She is a lecturer in English at the University of Toledo and a practicing attorney, representing neglected/abused children in juvenile court. She also serves as a volunteer for the Children's Rights Council and sits on the Citizens' Review Board of the Lucas County Juvenile Court. A pianist and dancer, Shari lives with her husband Gary and enjoys spending time with her family. Dozens of her poems and essays have appeared in such journals as Icon, Sweet Annie & Sweet Pea Press, Poetry Motel, Palo Alto Review, and Piano Guild Notes.
Hans Ostrom (Lakewood, WA): His work has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Ploughsares, Wisconsin Review, and the literary section of the Washington Post. He is also the author of A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia. He teaches at the University of Puget Sound.
Barbara Pelman (Victoria, B.C., Canada): She teaches English at Reynolds Secondary School in Victoria and is presently Head of the English Dept. She has conducted poetry workshops at BCTELA and in Victoria. She has had poems published in the English Quarterly, out of U.B.C., and in Fireworks, an e-magazine. Two of her poems were published in Event in August 2003. At the weekly Mocambopo Poetry series, she is a frequent speaker at the Open Mic, and she was the featured poet on April 11, 2003. She has recently taken up flute and drawing.
Wanda Podgorska-Russell (Fresno, CA): She teaches at California State University, Fresno, and is also an RN. She has written articles for the Fresno Bee, and has co-authored a book on Fresno history. Her poetry has been published in The San Joaquin Review and in Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets.
Rowena Priestley (Vancouver, BC, Canada): She is a visual artist, poet, and songwriter. She has had two books of poetry published by Mellen Poetry Press, USA: "Bears and Other Shadows" and "The Dream That Becomes Us." These were published under her former name, Martine Silk. She was born in Shrewsbury, England and is a member of the British Haiku Society. She lives in Vancouver near the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park where she daily keeps company with the beautiful white swans.
Charles Rampp (Harpers Ferry, WV): He is a high school teacher and football coach. He has taught some college English, and edited a weekly newspaper while in Seminary. He interned in Buffalo, NY. He has served Lutheran Parishs in Pittsburgh, Miami, FL, Rockville, MD, Baltimore, and Manor Parish in Frederick County, MD, where he also led a poetry group. Twenty-three of his short stories have been printed; 776 of his poems have been published in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Great Britain. He has completed four novels. He retired eight years ago to write by the Shenandoah. He accepted interim ministries at five different Lutheran Churches in the Shenandoah Valley. He is currently serving at Trinity, Arden, West Virginia.
Ande Rasmussen (Martindale, TX): He is an award winning songwriter and music publisher (Gotcha Covered Music Publishing--ASCAP) from Austin, TX. He co-writes with wonderful songwriters, artists, and producers. He has a diverse and interesting catalog of songs in the country, pop, and rock genres. He gets terrific ideas for songs all the time and writes them down. Because of this, some of his co-writers call him a "Hook Machine" or "Captain Hook." He writes country, pop, and adult contemporary songs. He prefers to write positive uplifting lyrics, but will write risqué and cheating songs. He keeps a journal and writes every day. Unless inspiration strikes, writing a lyric is like solving a difficult word puzzle. He has always been good at solving puzzles, mainly because he refuses to give up until he solves it. He always begins a song with a strong hook or an interesting story. His goals at this point are to 1) keep writing when the muse strikes (daily) 2) collaborate with outstanding composers, songwriters, lyricists, artists, and producers 3) get cuts, and 4) hear his work all over the world on radio, TV, and Films. He does 95% of his songwriting by email. He and his co-writers take a hook and develop it into a lyric. He attended and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Finance. He was a walk-on member of UT's Varsity Swimming Team and earned a letter. When he was growing up, his father worked as an officer in the Air Force. He belongs to and participates in the Austin Songwriters Group (ASG) and Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI.). He and his co-writers have won numerous awards in songwriting contests, and he has had cuts with independent artists. He is the author of the Yahoo Newsgroup Inspirations for Songwriters (IFS). In February 2004, his song "Home Made of Stone," performed by and co-written with John Arthur Martinez and Steve Seskin, debuted at #56 on the Billboard Country Charts. He also co-wrote the title cut on jAm's CD Lone Starry Night on Dualtone Records, distributed by Sony.
Emily Loretta Robinson
(New York, NY): She has taught Creative Writing at the State University of New York at
Purchase. She has published poems in Literary Adagio, Second Wave, and
Silver Boomers. She recently received an Honorable Mention for her
poem, "Shadow People" about the after hours haunts in the French
Quarter of New Orleans which kept the spirit of the City alive
post-Katrina, from New Millennium Writings. She has given many Featured
Readings at New York venues including The Cornelia Street Café, The
Knitting Factory, and Café Reggio. She lives with her husband in
Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
Edwin Romand (Wind Gap, PA): He is the author of three books of poetry, Home Fire, Macaroons, and Blue Mountain Time: New and Selected Poems about Baseball. His work has appeared in many journals such as The Sun, The English Journal, Poet Lore, and The Rockhurst Review. He has received poetry fellowships from both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania State Councils on the Arts. In 1994, he received an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C. He lives with his wife, Mary, and their son, Liam.
Ruth Rotkowitz (Matawan, NJ): She is a freelance writer residing in New Jersey. She has published nonfiction in "Chicken Soup for the New Mom's Soul," "Chicken Soup for the Sister's Soul 2, Expecting," and "The Woman's Newspaper of Princeton," where she was a staff writer and member of the editorial board. One of her articles received a first-place award in feature writing from the National Federation of Press Women. She has published poetry in Piano Press, Hopscotch, and Shemom. She has completed two novels and begun work on a third. She is also an English teacher, and has taught on both the college and high school levels, in New York and New Jersey. She currently tutors English at The Tutoring Club in Marlboro, New Jersey.
Ruth Rotkowitz (Matawan, NJ): She is a freelance writer residing in New Jersey. She has published nonfiction in "Chicken Soup for the New Mom's Soul," "Chicken Soup for the Sister's Soul 2, Expecting," and "The Woman's Newspaper of Princeton," where she was a staff writer and member of the editorial board. One of her articles received a first-place award in feature writing from the National Federation of Press Women. She has published poetry in Piano Press, Hopscotch, and Shemom. She has completed two novels and begun work on a third. She is also an English teacher, and has taught on both the college and high school levels, in New York and New Jersey. She currently tutors English at The Tutoring Club in Marlboro, New Jersey.
Jennifer Rudsit (Wayland, MA): She received her undergraduate degree from Purdue University and a Masters in Creative Writing from Northern Michigan University. She is a Midwest girl at heart, born and raised on the shores of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana, recently transplanted into a strange world called Boston. She moved there three years ago and has never, ever gotten used to the traffic! Jennifer currently works in the education field to support her poetry addiction. Her poems have appeared in publications, including: Spirits, North Coast Review, White Pelican Review, Alembic, Anthology, Sierra Nevada Review, Nanny Fanny, Small Brushes, Hard Row to Hoe, Limestone, Zillah, Free Fall, Thought Magazine and Into the Teeth of the Wind, The Advocate, Omnific, and 360 Degrees.
Bonny Barry Sanders (Jacksonville, FL): Her poems have appeared in many literary magazines and journals including Blueline, California Quarterly, Ginger Hill, Hayden's Ferry Review, Kalliope, The Louisiana Review, Midwest Quarterly, Negative Capability, Pig Iron, Plainsong, Red Owl, Red Rock Review, South Dakota Review, White Pelican Review, and several others. She has also published book reviews, literary essays, and children's stories. She lives with her husband. "Sequoias" was published by Pig Iron in Environment: Essence and Issue.
Sharynn Rose Schibig (Seattle, WA): She was born in Seattle and has lived in the great Pacific Northwest for thirty-nine years. She loves the culture, arts, and entertainment that the city of Seattle has to offer. She has been writing poetry for over twenty years, and has had work accepted for publication many times over the last ten years. Each acceptance is an honor that she appreciates and greatly enjoys.
Robert Sedgwick (Del Mar, CA): He is a retired research scientist. He currently is writing his autobiography, children's stories, poetry, and songs. Some of his work can be viewed on his two web sites, www.ussongs.com and www.poARTry.com.
Bobbi Sinha-Morey (Brentwood, CA): She is a freelance quote researcher for Running Press Book Publishers, poetry editor for Dark Regions, secretary, editor of her own Selected Poetry Series, and a poet. Her work can be seen in a variety of publications such as New Thought Journal and many others. She has done a number of poetry books, including The Lighter Side Of The Writing Life, Serendipity, The Sixth Vision, and The Lilac-Bleeding Star. On the Internet, her books of poetry The Sylvan, Tears Of A Mourning Rose, Sorceress At Breakfast, and Heart Of An Indian can all be seen at ebooksonthe.net. In addition, she has won first place in the First Annual Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Poetry, Short Story, First Chapter Contest in 1996 held by the North Texas Professional Writers Association, the 1997 Cedar Bay Press LLC Poet's Award for Outstanding Achievement, and as Best Poet of 1994 by the Small Press Genre Association. In the past, she has been co-editor of Horror Magazine, editor of The Genre Writer's News, associate editor for Aberrations, poetry editor for the original Aberrations, poetry editor for Midnight Zoo, and writer for The Orinda News . She has also done a variety of nonfiction that can be seen in many magazines. She has been a poetry columnist for years. Her fiction includes work in Alternate Realities and Lost Ages Chronicle, among others. While a student at Wright State University she worked on the student body literary magazine, Nexus . In 1987 she graduated from WSU with honors and a BA in Communications. In her lifetime she has been to France, India, and England.
Melanie J. Simms (Liverpool, PA): She is an emerging poet and has been publishing poetry for the past four years under the mentorship and editing talents of Gary Young. Her poems are published in Zuzu's Petals, Angel News Magazine, Red Coral, and various newspapers such as the Monterey News Herald, York Times, and Santa Cruz Sentinel. She has been a private opera student and soloist with various opera companies and universities including the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA, Cabrillo College Opera Festival, and a private student of Jean Garson with the San Jose Opera Company. She is the recipient of several operatic scholarships.
Wanda D. Simoni (Sacramento, CA): A Massachusetts native, she is a graduate of Smith College and the mother of five children. She has taught English in high school as well as at colleges in Breckenridge, CO, Miranda, CA, and Yuba College, CA. She supplemented her own education with creative writing courses, and is a member of the Range of Lights Workshop in Sacramento. She has been published in forty-three journals, newspapers, and magazines, including The Writer, The Village, Piano Quarterly, Science of Mind, Sierra Journal, San Fernando Poetry Journal, American Rose, Orphic Lute, The Acorn, and Reflect. Her poem "Piano" was first published in Piano Quarterly in the Fall 1987 issue, Vol. #139. She begins her day gravitating to the piano before her first cup of coffee. At one point, she had three pianos in her home.
Christopher Smith (Lubbock, TX): Born on the Massachusetts coast, he has played blues, jazz, and traditional Irish music since childhood. Now professor of music history at Texas Tech Univ., he plays and teaches in Ireland and across the US. He cites T'ang poetry, Zen Buddhism, the Beats, and San Francisco Poetry Renaissance, and the colloquialisms of musicians as influences on his writing. He has published books, book chapters, scholarly articles, liner notes, and teaching materials on many topics in jazz, classical, and world music, and records and tours internationally with Altramar medieval music ensemble, Last Night's Fun, and the Juke Band.
Jena Smith (Scarsdale, NY): She makes her living as a musician. Music is not only her livelihood, it is her joy. Initially a mezzo-soprano, Jena attended the Julliard School on scholarship, toured with The Robert Shaw Chorale. She later formed and conducted The Performing Arts Society, an opera and chamber music organization in Westchester, NY. She also has conducted musical comedy on Cape Cod. Presently conductor of the chorus "Cantemus." she also teaches voice, paints, sculpts, composes, and writes poetry. She has had numerous poems published in The Iconoclast, Sunday Suitor, Sunflower Dream Summer, The Writer's Gazette, Creative With Words, Long Island Quarterly, Northern Star, Syncopated City, Twilight Ending, and many others. She has placed in poetry contests, and was awarded a $1,000 grant for poetry from the Vogelstein Foundation in 2000.
Mary Beth Stone (New York, NY): An award-winning songwriter (finalist in Lilith Fair and NSAI songwriting contests), she performs solo, with her band, Stone Pulse, and with the Good Ol' Boys (& girls!) Songwriters Circle. Making her home in New York City, she is regional coordinator of the NSAI chapter there. She is also a member of ASCAP (and an alumna of ASCAP's Advanced Songwriters' Workshop), NARAS, the Songwriters Guild of America, the National Academy of Popular Music, Women in Music, and the New Jersey Country Music Association. She is currently at work on her own CD. Her song, Strange and Wonderful Thing, is the theme song for the radio talk show, Brainline, hosted by Rev. George Soroka. The song is included as an insert in a book by Rev. Soroka, Focused or Dead: How to Live in Joy, on which she also has a prose-writing credit.
Sarena Straus (New York, NY): She spent five years working as a prosecutor at the Bronx District Attorney's Office. The last three years of her career were spent prosecuting felony cases in domestic violence, sex crimes, and crimes against children. She began writing poetry as a way to cope with the trauma that she faced in dealing with the victims of these crimes. She first showed her work to her father, also a published poet, about a year after she began writing. He encouraged her to enroll in a workshop. She has been writing ever since, and had the honor of studying with Thomas Lux, Molly Peacock, and Marie Ponsot over the last three years. Her poems have since evolved to not only function as a coping mechanism, but also as an outlet for the things she loves, such as singing and music. To that end, she has also been a member of the New York Choral Society for the last four years. Her grandmother was a librarian and a piano teacher. She wrote her first draft of Remembering Schubert shortly after her singing Debut in Carnegie Hall, as she stood there wishing that her grandmother could have seen her. Symphony Beat combines her love of music with her coping with tragedy as it acknowledges peaceful moments that we all have even in times of personal difficulty.
Vicki Stringer (Riverdale, NY): Her publication credits include American Poets & Poetry, Troubadour, Light, and Amelia. At poetry workshops within the last ten years, she has studied with Nicholas Christopher, Scott Cairns, and Stephen Dunn. She has an MA in Music from Columbia University, and is a retired professional violinist and actress. She had a long, successful career in theatre, film, and TV. She appeared as solo act on twelve major TV shows, including the Steve Allen show, and has worked all over the world. She taught Music/Drama for nine years in the NYC public schools, including all the orchestra instruments.
Katherine Swarts (Houston, TX): She has published three articles with the Institute of Children's Literature, one article in a Houston parenting magazine, and one devotional in Keys for Kids with a second, pending publication. She also has a poem in an issue of Holidays and Seasonal Celebrations. Her articles cover such topics as versatility, creativity, persistence, and love of learning. She has a bachelor's degree in English and a master's in journalism, and is a member of SCBWI.
Ann Taylor (Woburn, MA): She is a professor of English at Salem State College in Salem, MA, where she teaches writing courses, English Literature, Arthurian Literature, The Art of the Essay, and Poetry Analysis. She has written two books on college composition, academic and free-lance essays, and most recently, a book of personal essays, Watching Birds: Reflections on the Wing (Ragged Mountain/McGraw Hill, 1999). She has recently published poems in Wavelength, Mobius, Pine Island Journal of New England Poetry, Ibbetson Street Press, Tiger's Eye, Reflect, The Aurorean, Sahara, The Unrorean, InLand, Arion, and The Dalhousie Review. She lives with her husband, Francis Blessington, and their two children, Geoffrey and Julia.
Erin Alan Thomas (Willits, CA): He has lived in Mendocino County, CA since July of 1999. Born in Riverside, CA and raised in various locations up and down the coast, he has been a resident of CA throughout his life. His interest in poetry began at age twelve with a publication from Doubleday, The Best Loved Poems of the American People. He has since never ceased to be an avid reader of poetry. Over the years, he has developed an interest in the lyrical works of many classical poets. Aside from developing his skills as a writer of poems, he has made a hobby of memorizing and reciting poems, many of which he also sings, or cantillates.
Holly H. Thomas (Meadowview, VA): She was born in Texas, and now lives in the mountains of far Southwestern Virginia. She and her husband, Jim, run a small decorative painting and mural business in the region, and their work has been featured in several regional and national publications. They have been writing songs for over twenty years. Holly is currently a coordinator for the Johnson City, TN, NSAI songwriters workshop, very near Bristol, VA/TN, recognized by Congress as the Birthplace of Country Music. She also writes poems and short stories, one of which won the 1993 Lou Crabtree Award for fiction.
Bud Tower (New Orleans, LA): He has been a writer throughout most of his career. Majoring in English and Economics, he received a BA from Lake Forest College and went on to graduate with an MBA from Tulane University. Various jobs in public accounting and the oil industry led him to the securities industry where he spent thirteen years in sales, investment banking, and ultimately research. As a stock analyst and Director of Research for regional investment bank, Howard, Weil, Labouisse, Friedrichs, Inc., Mr. Tower wrote 100s of research reports concerning the oil industry in general and major and independent oil companies and refiners. He is an accomplished guitar and bass player and has been writing music for thirty years. His song We Are America has received airplay in various U.S. radio markets in the wake of the September 11, 2001 tragedies. He recently completed the soundtrack for a locally produced play about survivors of Hurricane Betsy, which devastated parts of New Orleans in 1965. He is a single parent of one 21-year old daughter, Elizabeth.
Doak Turner (Nashville, TN): He is originally from St. Albans, WV. He is a songwriter with the cut Righteous Right Hand on the Sacred Call CD. His song Dreamin' 'Bout Sunday Afternoon played on the NASCAR USA syndicated radio show to over 200 radio stations across the country. He was the NSAI regional workshop coordinator for Charlotte, NC. He organized and worked with sponsors and media for the very successful "Music Row To Charlotte" event in coordination with NSAI in July of 2001. He has twenty years of experience in the radio, sports marketing, sponsorships, concert, and events business. He is the publisher and editor of The Nashville Muse www.nashvillemuse.com
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