Authors Supporting Critique Mania

The following is a list of the authors who are supporting the Critique Mania fundraiser. The list is alphabetical and includes information at the end of the bio as to basic genre (fiction, poetry, nonfiction). You can look up most of these writers for more details if you want to consider your choice more fully. Two of the authors are overseas, so postage should be loose with the SAE so the authors can swap out the postage.

Have fun – This is a fantastic selection of authors!

Candace Allen , retired principal from Mercer Human Resources Consulting, established the company's Pacific Northwest communication practice and served as its national Communication Practice Leader. She has received numerous awards for client publications and communication programs, most notably Crain Publications’ National Award of Excellence. Now a freelance editor and writer, Candace's many features about log homes have appeared in Log Home Living, Log Home Design and LogKnowledge. A worldwide sailor, her sea stories have been published nationally in Sail, Cruising World, Sea and in a variety of regional publications such as 48 Degrees North, Nor'westing and Burgee. She has written for newspapers, magazines, and trade publications about the diverse topics of gardening, books, travel, bridge, pensions, health care and employee communication. A founder of the Whidbey Island Writers Association Conference, Candace established WIWA's newsletter and served as its editor for three years. She is a member of the Association's board of directors and is the content manager for WIWA's Web site. NONFICTION

Lana Hechtman Ayers is the poetry editor of Crab Creek Review and runs Concrete Wolf Poetry Chapbook Press. She is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Dance From Inside My Bones (Snake Nation Press, 2007), winner of the Violet Reed Haas Award and currently nominated for the National Book Award, and Chicken Farmer, I Still Love You (due out later this year from D-N Publishing), and a chapbook, Love is a Weed (Finishing Line Press). She was a "Discovery" / The Nation finalist, a Rita Dove Poetry Award Honoree, and a Pushcart Nominee. Her poems have appeared in The Bitter Oleander, Cider Press Review,Court Green, Feminist Studies Quarterly, In Posse, Kean Review, Rhino, Seattle Woman, Silk Road, StringTown, West Wind and many more.  For more about her, visit http://LanaAyers.com

Anne C. Barnhill has written for literary magazines, newspapers, commercial magazines and anthologies including, most recently, The Antietam Review, and Racing Home: New Stories from Award-Winning North Carolina Writers. She has received an Emerging Artist Grant, a Regional Artist Grant and a writer’s residency at the Syvenna Foundation in Texas. She was selected as a Blumenthal Reader twice, and her stories have won several awards, including the Porter Fleming Fiction Award from the Augusta, Georgia Arts Council. Her latest memoir, At Home in the Land of Oz: Autism, My Sister and Me, tells the story about growing up with her autistic sister, Rebecca. Ms. Barnhill holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from UNC-Wilmington and is currently at work on a novel set in Tudor England. POETRY/FICTION/CREATIVE NONFICTION

Michael S. Begnal was formerly the editor of the Galway, Ireland-based literary magazine, The Burning Bush (1998-2004). His latest poetry collection is Ancestor Worship (Salmon, 2007). His first collection, The Lakes of Coma, was published in 2003 by Six Gallery Press, followed in 2005 by Mercury, the Dime, a long poem in chapbook form. He is published in the anthologies Breaking the Skin: New Irish Poetry (Black Mountain Press, 2002) and, in the Irish language, Go Nuige Seo (Coiscéim, 2004, 2005). He is also included in the recent essay collection, Avant-Post: The Avant-Garde under "Post-" Conditions (Litteraria Pragensia, 2006), and is editor of Honeysuckle, Honeyjuice: A Tribute to James Liddy (Arlen House, 2006).

Sheila Bender is the author of eight books on writing (among them Writing and Publishing Personal Essays, Keeping a Journal You Love, Writing Personal Poetry, Writing in a New Convertible with the Top Down and the Writer's Journal: Forty Writers and Their Journals) as well as Sustenance: New and Selected Poems. She publishes Writing It Real, an online magazine for people who write from personal experience at www.writingitreal.com and has been a feature writer and columnist for Writer’s Digest Magazine and The Writer Magazine and a book reviewer for The Seattle Times, The World and Poet Lore. In 2005, she wrote the content for Chronicle Software's journaling program, LifeJournal for Writers. Her essays and poems appear online and in numerous North American literary magazines and anthologies including the Bellingham Review, Poetry Northwest, Seattle Review, Tidepools, King County's Poetry on the Buses, and Tiny Lights. Her Seattle teaching credits include years at Shoreline Community College, Seattle Central Community College, and Lakeside High School and Middle School. During those teaching years, she created the manuscript for her popular book, Writing Personal Essays, How to Shape Your Life Experience for the Page and Writing Personal Poetry, Creating Poems from Life Experience. She continued to teach as a guest writer-in-residence at Seattle University and as a literature instructor at Peninsula College in Port Angeles and Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles. She is currently adjunct faculty at Pima College in Tucson, AZ, where she teaches weekend creative writing intensives, and a member of the writers.com faculty for online writing classes.

She has served as curator for Seattle’s Poetry on the Buses program and as a judge for the Associated Writing Program and Writer’s Digest literary contests. She is a frequent presenter, instructor and panel member at conferences, most recently the San Francisco Jack London Writer’s Conference, Washington's Whidbey Island Writers Conference and low-residency MFA program, the Society of Southwest Authors Wrangling with Writing Conference and the 2005 Conference on College Composition and Communication. She is scheduled to present at the April 2008 Erma Bombeck conference at the University of Dayton. PROSE

Marian Blue has more than 30 years experience writing and editing for magazines and books, newspaper and online sites; she’s a partner of Blue & Ude Writers Services www.blueudewritersservices.com and a volunteer for Whidbey Island Writers Association. FICTION/POETRY/CREATIVE NONFICTION

Doris Booth is the manager of Authorlink Literary Group, which operates as a separate division of Authorlink.com. The relatively new agency represents true crime, thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, and a wide range of nonfiction. Recent sales have included hardcover/softcover rights for The Devil’s Right Hand Man, to Berkley Books/Penguin USA (October 2008); Beyond Cruel by Stephen Michaud (June 2007, St. Martin’s Press); hardcover rights to Barnes & Noble Publishing for The Only Living Witness and Ted Bundy: Conversations With a Killer, by Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth. In her separate role as t he CEO of Authorlink.com, Ms. Booth has facilitated the sale of numerous fiction and nonfiction properties, including a six-figure deal to HarperCollins, and direct sales to Scribner/Simon & Schuster, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, and others . Authorlink.com is the news, information, and marketing site for editors, agents and writers, attracting nearly one million visitors per year. Ms. Booth has close ties with a broad range of editors and publishers, primarily in New York. Authorlink Literary Group is selectively seeking new clients in the areas of nonfiction, true crime, women’s fiction, and some children’s projects. PROSE

Duff Brenna is Professor Emeritus at Cal-State University, San Marcos, where he was given three Outstanding Faculty Awards. He is a former AWP Best Novel winner, and the recipient of an NEA Fellowship. His third novel, Too Cool , was a New York Times Noteworthy Book. His fourth novel, The Altar of the Body  was Book Editor's Favorite Book of the Year at South Florida Sun-Sentinel).   The Willow Man  was published by Wynkin de Word in Ireland, England and Denmark. His sixth novel, The Law of Falling Bodies (Hopewell Publications), will be published September 2007. He is currently fiction editor for Perigee. FICTION

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin, a business writer and editor by vocation, writes for a variety of publications on business topics, and has been co-editor or co-author of numerous business books. On the avocation side of the ledger, her poetry has been published in The Nomad, the Atlanta Review, and Appalachian Heritage, in the anthologies Tree Magic (SunShine Press, 2004), The Gift of Experience (Atlanta Review, 2005), Immigration, Emigration, Diversity (Chapel Hill Press, 2005), and The Moveable Nest (Helicon Nine Press, 2007). She was a finalist in the Atlanta Review’s poetry competition in 2000 and 2005, and in the 2000 Greensboro Awards. An award-winning chapbook Patriate is forthcoming from Methodist University's Longleaf Press in September 2007. She holds a B.A. in English,  Summa Cum Laude, from Western Carolina University, and has studied poetry in seminars and master classes with a number of poets, notably Kathyrn Stripling Byer, Cathy Smith Bowers, B.H. Fairchild, Jane Hirshfield, and RT Smith, to whom she expresses deep gratitude. Jeannette lives and works at the forks of Blackbird Branch near Cullowhee, NC. POETRY

Molly Larson Cook is a Langley poet, playwright and novelist. Although she’s a northwest native, she’s lived and worked on both coasts. In 1995, she was a Fellow at the Fishtrap Writers Conference, and in 1998, she was awarded the Dibner Fellowship for Fiction by the Maine Community Foundation. In 2001, she was a juror for the Maine Arts Commission’s literature and performance awards. Molly has published a one-woman comedy drama, On Our Way to Somewhere, and a jazz novel, Listen. Her poetry appears in the 1995 Fishtrap Anthology and in her chapbook, Late Spring. She has a new poetry chapbook in progress, Delicate Flies for Skinny Water. She teaches for Whidbey Island Writers Association and leads creative writing workshops and poetry readings at Island Coffee House and Langley Middle School. FICTION/NONFICTION

Carol Costa is an award-winning playwright and the published author of four novels (such as A Deadly Hand and Love Steals the Scene), two short story collections, and five nonfiction titles (such as The Complete Idiots Guide to Bankruptcy and Video Poker: Play Longer with Less Risk.) Her feature articles and short stories have been published in major magazines and newspapers. Her plays have been produced in NYC, LA, and regional theaters across the country. Carol has worked as a newspaper correspondent, an editor, a literary manager, a theater critic, a writing instructor, and a magazine columnist. FICTION/NONFICTION

Alba Cruz-Hacker, teacher, poet, editor, translator and writer, has had her creative and critical works published in the US, Canada and the Caribbean. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she has lived and traveled throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Recently, Alba was awarded the 2007 UCR Poet’s Laureate and the 2007 Tomas Rivera Endowment’s selection in poetry, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize a couple of years back. She teaches creative writing at the University of California Riverside and is the Director of Special Projects for the General Consulate of the Dominican Republic in California and the US Western Region. She lives in the mountains of San Bernardino with her husband and children.

Nancy Dahlberg’s poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Calyx, Stringtown, Northwest Review, Chrysanthemum, Poetry on Buses 2004, Poets Table Anthology, Mute Note Earthward, and Limbs of the Pine, Peaks of the Range. She’s also Membership Chair of Washington Poets Association (www.washingtonpoets.org) POETRY

Pat Detmer's humorous essays can still be read now and again in the Whidbey Marketplace. She currently has a blog on the award-winning BoomerGirl.com site, and her book Laughing All The Way – Riding Herd on My Middle Age Spread is available at The BookBay in Freeland, from amazon.com, or from her Web site www.patdetmer.com. CREATIVE NONFICTION (HUMOR PREFERENCE)

Elizabeth Engstrom is the author of ten books and over 250 short stories, articles and essays. She is a sought after speaker and instructor at writing conferences and conventions around the world. Her newest book, The Northwoods Chronicles, is due on the stands next spring. PROSE

Nancy Etchemendy lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of four novels and several dozen short stories, as well as numerous poems. For further details, visit http://www.etchemendy.com. FICTION/POETRY

Gary Ferguson has written for Outside, Sierra, Vanity Fair, Big Sky Journal and many more. He lectures regularly on wilderness and conservation issues and has had hundreds of radio and television appearances. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Hawks Rest, Decade of the Wolf (with Douglas Smith), and Shouting at the Sky. He lives in Red Lodge, Montana. NONFICTION

Ann Gerike's poems have been published in Raven Chronicles, the anthology Sea of Voices, Isle of Story, and other publications. Her two winning poems in the Washington Poets Association 2007 Poetry Contest (First Prize, William Stafford Award; Third Prize, Charlie Proctor Award, for humor) will be published in Cascade in October.

Robert Gover's first novel, One Hundred Dollar Misunderstand, a satire on racism, was roundly rejected in the USA until it appeared in French in 1961 via La Table Ronde, and was covered by both daily newspapers there as a major addition to American letters. The American edition rose up the NY Times bestseller list during a citywide printers union strike in 1962. Gover went on to publish eight other novels and two books of nonfiction, and was presented (by Kurt Vonnegut) the Most Unsung American Writer Award at the PEN International Congress of 1985. He has taught writing workshops since 1988. His first novel has been in print for more than 45 years. His two most recent books are Time and Money: the Economy and the Planets,  2005, and the novel, On the Run with Dick and Jane , 2007. FICTION/NONFICTION

Lola Haskins' most recent books are Desire Lines, New and Selected Poems (BOA), Not Feathers Yet: A Beginner's Guide to the Poetic Life (Backwaters Press), and Solutions Beginning with A (Modernbook). She teaches in the low residency MFA program at PLU. POETRY

Lorraine Healy is an Argentinean poet and photographer living on Whidbey Island, Washington. The winner of several national awards, including a Pushcart Prize nomination for 2004, she has been published extensively. She holds an M.F.A in Poetry from New England College, New Hampshire. She is the author of The Farthest South (New American Press) and The Archipelago (Finishing Line Press). POETRY

Greg Herriges is a professor of English at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, Illinois. He is the author of four books, Someplace Safe (St. Martin’s Press/Avon Paperbacks) Secondary Attachments (William Morrow), The Winter Dance Party Murders (Wordcraft or Oregon), and JD: A Memoir Of A Time And A Journey (Wordcraft of Oregon). His short works, both fiction and nonfiction, have appeared in The Chicago Tribune Magazine, The Literary Review, The South Carolina Review and StoryQuarterly. FICTION/NONFICTION

Thomas Hubbard: Recent poetry appears in antiwar issue of Arabesques Review: International Poetry and Literature Journal and ToTo¹os Poetry International Fall 2006, Albani: Indigenous Poetry. Short story "Dog Salmon" was published (spring 2007) in Red Ink. Essay "Citizen, Subject, Slave" is scheduled for publication in Raven Chronicles September 2007. Storytellers profile at http://www.nativewiki.org/Thomas_Hubbard POEMS/FICTION/ESSAY

Jill Johnson, professional storyteller, teacher, and writer, has had over forty articles published in local, regional, and national newspapers and magazines. She is also a presenter of workshops on storytelling for writers at writing conferences and workshops. Her one woman show, Little, But OH My! – which she wrote and produced – was selected for the “Inquiring Mind” series of Humanities Washington and has been performed all over Western Washington. A CD of the show won a national Storytelling Resource Award in 2006. Her essay – on telling and performing in French in Africa – will be published in Storytelling Across Language Barriers by Libraries Unlimited in the winter of 2007.

Thomas E. Kennedy's 20 books include eight novels, three story collections, two essay collections, four books of literary criticism (inter alia on Andre Dubus II and Robert Coover) and several anthologies. His stories, essays, and translations from the Danish appear regularly and have won O Henry, Pushcart and other awards. He serves as Advisory Editor for The Literary Review, International Editor of StoryQuarterly, Co-editor of Best New Writing/The Eric Hoffer Awards, Advisory Editor of Absinthe: New European Writing, and Contributing Editor of the Pushcart Prize. He is a core faculty member of the low residency MFA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, teaching fiction and creative nonfiction. The Associated Writing Programs held a panel discussion of his fiction at their annual conference in 2007. Web site: www.thomasekennedy.com FICTION/CREATIVE NONFICTION (for Thomas’ critiques, please include the stamps sufficient for overseas weight – and include loose stamps for the return so he can exchange them for Danish stamps)

Malaika King-Albrecht ’s poems have been or are forthcoming in many literary magazines and anthologies, such as Kakalak: an Anthology of Carolina Poets, Pebble Lake Review, Quarterly West, New Orleans Review, and The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel - Second Floor and other online and print magazines. She has taught c reative writing to sexual abuse/assault survivors and to addicts and alcoholics in therapy groups, and is a volunteer poet in local schools. Her manuscript “Never the Same River” was a semi-finalist in the Seventh Annual Elixir Press Poetry Awards, and her poem “Magician’s Assistant” won the Poetry Southeast Poetry Contest and will appear in their summer 2007 issue. L inks to poems online : http://www.ncarts.org/freeform_scrn_template.cfm?ffscrn_id=132
http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/Secure/Content/cb.asp?cbid=5102
http://www.shampoopoetry.com/ShampooTwentyeight/albrecht.html
POETRY

Christopher Klim www.ChristopherKlim.com is the author of Idiot!, Jesus Lives in Trenton, The Winners Circle, and other novels and works of nonfiction. He mentors emerging writers and frequently lectures on writing and publishing. He also serves as a journalism and writing professor at The College of New Jersey. He is the executive editor of Best New Writing, the chair of The Eric Hoffer Award for books and prose, and primary architect of www.WritersNotes.com. PROSE

Kirby Larson’s novel, Hattie Big Sky, won a 2007 Newbery Honor award book, as well as the Montana Book award. The Tale of Two Bobbies will be out in August 2008 from Walker Books. YA/CHILDREN’S

Michael Lee is the Literary Editor of The Cape Cod Voice, a bimonthly magazine based on Cape Cod, for which he also writes a column called, "LeeWay." He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and PEN International and the author of a collection of short stories, "Paradise Dance," published by Leapfrog Press and his latest book is a collection of essays called, "In an Elevator with Brigitte Bardot and other appreciations," published by Wordcraft of Oregon. Lee also produces and directs "New Works Weekend," an annual literary event on Cape Cod, now entering its 23rd season. He is currently working on a novel. Upcoming work will appear in New Letters and The Literary Review. FICTION

Susan Lefler lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Her book Brevard, is a photographic history of a fascinating mountain town published by Arcadia’s Images of America series in 2004. Her poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Kakalak, 2006 Anthology of Carolina Poets, and Lights in the Mountains, anthology of writers living in and inspired by the Southern Appalachian Mountains. She writes and edits for Smoky Mountain Living magazine, a quarterly which covers the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. POETRY/PROSE

Don McQuinn is the author of nine novels. Targets, an observation of the Vietnam war, was a Book Of The Month Club selection. Three following novels were set in the world of espionage, one of which, Shadow of Lies, was granted the Governor's Writing Award. Of his five novels in the science fiction genre, two (Warrior and Witch) were national best sellers. He has been presented with the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Achievment Award. His teaching experience includes the University of Washington Extension Program, Retreat Instructor at the Maui Writer's Conference, the Whidbey Island Writers Conference and various other conferences. FICTION

Barbara Moran: My entire career has been as a nonfiction writer for newspapers, magazines, Web sites, and more (such as zoo exhibit signs) and I have written two books, including one about how to write for multimedia. I have self-published five editions of Special Species books that feature the nature writings of children. I teach English, Journalism, and Media writing at Skagit Valley College on Whidbey Island. Visit my Web site: WWW.msbmoran.com NONFICTION

Paul E. Nelson is a poet, teacher and broadcaster who founded Global Voices Radio and co-founded the Northwest SPokenword LAB (SPLAB!) in Auburn, Washington. He earned his M.A. from Lesley University in Organic Poetry. His poetry and essays have been published around the world in Dirt, The Argotist, The Raven Chronicles, Unlikely Stories, Fulcrum, the OlsonNow blog and other publications, on and off-line and he has performed his work at a number of venues. A Broadcaster for 26 years, he interviewed Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Michael McClure, Robin Blaser, Wanda Coleman, Jerome Rothenberg, Joanne Kyger, Eileen Myles, George Bowering and other North American poets and uses sound from those interviews in poetry workshops, having facilitated more than 300. He is working on an epic poem re-enacting Auburn history titled A Time Before Slaughter, writes at least one American Sentence everyday and is Office Skills Instructor at the Muckleshoot Tribal College in the shadow of Tahoma. POETRY/NONFICTION

Renée Olander’s poems, interviews, and essays have appeared in publications including Artword Quarterly, Verse and Universe-Poems About Science and Mathematics, 13^th Moon, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Margie, Rhino, The Writer’s Chronicle, Conversations with John Edgar Wideman, The Tulsa Review of Women’s Literature, Port Folio Weekly, and many more. A longtime teacher at the university, elementary, and secondary levels, Olander has led seminars in teaching poetry for The Tidewater Writing Project and for The Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching. She currently directs Old Dominion University’s Virginia Beach Higher Education Center. POETRY

Alice Osborn (www.aliceosborn.com) leads creative writing workshops, teaches at Raleigh Charter High School, serves on the board of Carolina Wren Press and is a freelance editor and contributor to the  Independent Weekly and her poetry has appeared in the Iodine Poetry Journal and Mothering Magazine, among others. She is also a United Arts 2006-07 Grant recipient for literature and Right Lane Ends (Catawba, 2006) is her most recent book of poems. Alice holds her MA in English from North Carolina State and lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband and son. NONFICTION/FICTION

William B. Patrick’s works have been published or produced in several genres: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, and drama. Saving Troy, his creative nonfiction chronicle of a year spent living and riding with professional firefighters and paramedics, was published in December 2005, and a radio play inspired by one of the book’s chapters was commissioned and aired worldwide by the BBC. Mr. Patrick’s memoir in poetry, We Didn’t Come Here for This, was published by BOA Editions in 1999. Kirkus Reviews called the book a “marvelous memoir-in-poetry and a wonderful hybrid, written in a voice that’s compassionate, fresh and American, without ever proclaiming itself such.” An earlier collection of his poetry, These Upraised Hands, was also published by BOA Editions in 1995, and his novel, Roxa: Voices of the Culver Family, won the 1990 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for the best first work of fiction. William Patrick is currently a professor at the College of St. Rose. POETRY/NONFICTION

Lennox Raphael lives in Copenhagen, Denmark where he writes plays, poetry, fiction, and essays. His first play, CHE!, ran in Manhattan for over a year; his last book, published in October 2006,  was Garden of Hope, Autobiography of a Marriage, (Hopewell), co-written with Maryanne Raphael. He has published five books of poems in the last several years, and one, a book of love poems, comes out in London early autumn. A link to online projects: www.art-money.org/276. Because Lennox Raphael lives in Denmark, please include your postage for the SAE loose, so he can swap it appropriately. FICTION, NONFICTION, POETRY

Kathryn Renner specializes in profile, home and lifestyle stories for regional and national magazines. In addition, she writes essays to feed her soul. Her essays have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Country Home, Home Companion, Horizon Air magazine and others. Most recently, she contributed to Woman’s Best Friend, Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives; and Cat Women, Female Writers on their Feline Friends, both published by Seal Press. She’s a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. ESSAYS/ARTICLES

Susan Rich http://www.susanrich.org is the author of Cures Include Travel and The Cartographer's Tongue / Poems of the World, winner of the PEN USA Award and the Peace Corps Award for Poetry. Her poems appear in Alaska Quarterly Review, North American Review, Harvard Magazine, and Witness. She is the recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship and GAP Award. An editor for Floating Bridge Press, she lives in West Seattle, WA. POETRY

Richard Robbins was raised in California and Montana. His second poetry collection Famous Persons We Have Known was published by EWU Press in 2000, and a third, The Untested Hand, is due soon from Backwaters Press. He currently directs the creative writing program and Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University, Mankato. POETRY

Bruce Holland Rogers won the 2006 World Fantasy Award with his story collection The Keyhole Opera.Links to some of his Web-published stories are at www.shortshortshort.com. FICTION – Because Bruce currently lives in Great Britain, please enclose sufficient overseas postage as loose stamps to return the manuscript to you.

Ricki Rycraft's work has appeared in the online literary journals, PIF Magazine and VerbSap. One of her pieces, “Sanctuary,” is included in the proposed anthology Words & Images of Belonging edited by Carol Smallwood and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent. Her story "You Know" was selected as one of the Million Writers Awards 100 notable short stories for 2006. She is an Associate Professor of English at Mt. San Jacinto College in Menifee, California. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Literature and Writing Studies at California State University, San Marcos, and her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. FICTION

Eva Shaw, Ph.D ., is a best-selling author and ghostwriter with more than 70 books, many of which have won prestigious awards. A vivacious and inspirational public speaker, prolific ghostwriter, successful magazine freelancer, and noted authority on recovery, she teaches writing and mentors writers and ghosts as they launch the careers of their dreams. Eva gives writing workshops around the country, keynoting at the Las Vegas Writers Conference, Cape Cod Writers Conference, Whidbey Island Writers Conference, Pikes Peak Writers Conference, Society of Southwestern Writers, and others. Eva may be the world’s most famous online writing instructor, having mentored more than 50,000 writers and creating five different writing courses available at nearly 2,000 colleges worldwide via Education to Go, www.ed2go.com. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, San Diego Union/Tribune, Costco Connection, Westways, LA Times, and hundreds of other publications. She regularly appears on television and radio and in the media. “Knows her onions and peels them well,” Columbia School of Journalism. “Show's writing is illuminating,” Washington Post. "Practical writing, truly supports the self-help genre at its best,” Publisher’s Weekly. Her books include: Ghostwriting for Fun & Profit, Writeriffic: Creativity Training for Writers, Write Your Book in 20 Minutes (an 60-minute instructional DVD), Shovel It: Nature’s Health Plan, What to Do When a Loved One Dies, The Successful Writer’s Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles, Writing the Nonfiction Book,Insider’s Guide to San Diego, The Sun Never Sets, and more. Eva Shaw can be reached through her Web site, www.evashaw.com. Avid travelers, hikers, and gardeners, Eva and her husband Joe live in Carlsbad, California with their rambunctious Welsh terrier Miss Rosy McDogal Shaw. NONFICTION

Maureen Sherbondy: My chapbook, After the Fairy Tale, was published in March by Main Street Rag. Work is forthcoming in Southeast Review, Pinyon Poetry, and the North Carolina Literary Review. My Web site is www.maureensherbondy.com. POETRY

Bruce Taylor, aka. Mr. Magic Realism, is best known for his writing of Magic Realism, surrealism and, more recently, in the anthology, The Bizarro Starter Kit,http://www.pantarbe.com/mrmagicrealism. Bruce is called one of the “…ten … leading authors in the bizarro genre.” Bruce has two books in print, The Final Trick of Funnyman and Other Stories (FairwoodPress.com) and Kafka’s Uncle and Other Strange Tales (Afterbirthbooks.com). Edward: Dancing on the Edge of Infinity is due out in November 2007 from RedJack books. Under editorial consideration: Stormworld (co-authored with Brian Herbert), The Mountains of the Night, The Tails of Alleymanderous and Other Odd Tales, Kafka’s Uncle: the Unfortunate Sequel and Other Insults to the Morally Perfect are also making their editorial rounds. Bruce has just completed two new books, Kafka’s Uncle: the Ghastly Prequel and Other Stories of Love and Pathos in the World’s Most Powerful, Third-World Banana Republic, and The Magic of Wild Places, a sequel to The Mountains of the Night. Bruce was Writer in Residence at Shakespeare & Company, Paris, and has taught short story and novel writing at North Seattle Community College. He is former co-director, The Wellness Program, Harborview Medical Center, a clinical hypnotherapist, and vice-president of Switchback Backpacks. Recently, Bruce has accepted the position of president of the Seattle Free Lances, the oldest (1921) and reputed to be the most respected, professional writers group in the Northwest. In autumn 2007, he will be teaching fiction writing at Edmonds Community College in the ArtsNow Program. FICTION

Otis Twelve (D.V.Wesselmann) Winner of the British Crime Writers' 2006 Debut Dagger, and the 2005 London book Fair Lit-Idol Competition, was runner-up for the 2005 Vonnegut Prize for short fiction. His stories have appeared in the North American Review, Crimespree Magazine, and the forthcoming Expletive Deleted anthology (Bleak House Books, Nov. '07) FICTION

Wayne Ude: Growing up on the plains of eastern Montana became the chief influence on his first four books of fiction, including Becoming Coyote and Buffalo and other stories. Currently he teaches in and directs the Whidbey Writers Workshop low-residency MFA program. Ude holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts. FICTION

Sharon Weinstein, Ph.D., is a musician, artist, and former professor of English and humanities at Arizona State University, and Hampton University, where she held the endowed chair of University Professor. She writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for a wide range of national publications, including Poetica, Lilith, and The Poet's Domain. Her first book of poems is Celebrating Absences. She is completing her manuscript for her second book of poems, Art Lessons. She has received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Mellon Humanities Project. POETRY/PROSE

Michael Dylan Welch is editor of Tundra: The Journal of the Short Poem ( http://hometown.aol.com/welchm/Tundra.html). His poems have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies in thirteen languages. POETRY

Leslie What: Nebula Award winner Leslie What teaches writing at UCLA Extension. New stories appear in Perigee, Flytrap, Logorrhea from Bantam Books, and Interfictions from Small Beer. FICTION/NONFICTION

Eric M. Witchey's fiction has sold nationally and internationally in multiple genres under several names. His how-to articles have appeared in The Writer Magazine, Writer's Digest Magazine, and other print and online magazines. When not writing or teaching, he restores antique, model locomotives or tosses small bits of feather and pointy wire at laughing trout. For additional information, go to www.ericwitchey.com. PROSE

Frances Wood: Author of Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West Fulcrum Publishing, 2004), Down to Camp: A History of Summer Folk on Whidbey Island (Blue Heron Press, 1997) and Community at the Crossroads: A History of Bayview on Whidbey Island (Goosefoot Community Fund, 2002.) Frances has published over 100 articles on birds and nature and continues to write a syndicated monthly column on bird watching for local newspapers. She is former lead writer for BirdNote, which airs daily on Public Radio, and has written over 120 on-air pieces. Before becoming a writer and editor, Frances taught for many years. She earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in art and teaching. Frances has painted and illustrated birds and flowers for sale and publication. She completed the Seattle Audubon's Master Birder class in 1995 and served as editor of Seattle Audubon's Earthcare Northwest for five years. NONFICTION

Carolyne Wright has published eight books and chapbooks of poetry, including Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire, winner of the Blue Lynx Prize and American Book Award (Eastern Washington UP/Lynx House Books, 2nd ed. 2005); three collections of poetry in translation from Spanish and Bengali; and a collection of essays. Her new collection, A Change of Maps (Lost Horse Press, 2006), nominated for the LA Times Book Award as a finalist for the Idaho Prize and the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, has won the Bronze Award for Poetry in the 2007 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Forthcoming is an anthology of translations, Majestic Nights: Love Poems by Bengali Women (White Pine, 2008). She has received awards and fellowships from the Bunting Institute/Radcliffe College, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Fulbright Commission, NEA, New York State Council for the Arts, Nimrod (Pablo Neruda Prize), PEN/Jerard Fund, Seattle Arts Commission, and Witter Bynner Foundation. A visiting professor at colleges, universities, and writers' conferences around the country, Wright moved back to her native Seattle in 2005, and teaches in the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program and at Seattle’s Richard Hugo House.  POETRY

Andrena Zawinski is a widely published poet and teacher of writing who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA but now lives in Oakland, CA. Her full collection, Traveling in Reflected Light, was released as a Kenneth Patchen Prize from Pig Iron Press in 1995; her Greatest Hits 1991-2001 is part of Pudding House's invitational and archival series; and an online chapbook, Elegies for My Mother, is from Autumn House Press at The Pittsburgh Quarterly. Her works have appeared in Gulf Coast, Rattle, Slipstream, Nimrod, CQ, Potomac Review, Monterey Poetry Review, San Francisco Reader, and a host of others with many works anthologized. She has a DVD and a new collection of poetry forthcoming. Zawinski is also Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com where a sampler of her poetry appears. POET