Biographies
in alphabetical order by last name.| Louise Andrade... was born in 1993 in Buenos Aires, She's a lesbian/feminist activist, so far published in some Argentinian zines as well as in Warwick Unbound and Weirdyear. |
| Mary J. Breen... teaches memoir classes. She has written two books about women's health, and her essays have been broadcast on CBC Radio. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in national newspapers, essay collections, travel magazines, health journals, and literary magazines. |
| Pamela Brown...is a writer and visual artist with a BA in English Literature who resides in Los Angeles, California. Pamela began attending writing workshops in 1981 and published her first short story, “Just Another Day” in a woman’s anthology entitled, Things We Hold Secret, and several years later, it was published again by, Academic Medicine. She has been published in Sweet Annie Review, Greenfield Review, Poppy, and A World of Poetry. Pamela also wrote a PSA for Dr. Dre, Stop the Violence. She was awarded three grants from CAC/NEA as an Artist in Residence in California State Prisons working under contract with UCLA Extension’s Art reach program teaching creative writing in California prisons. Pamela is currently finishing a novel entitled, Screaming Backwards. In tandem with writing Pamela uses visual arts as a way to unhinge writer’s block. Drawing is the best way she knows to relax and many of the drawings complement her writing. Brown’s favorite saying is, “art is life the air we breathe,” and she believes that without art, life would be desolate and devoid of Joy. A Slight Fabrication was drawn while Pamela wrote a short story called, “Before the Scream;” the drawing and the short story mirror one another. While working on the drawing the words for the short story began to fall into place. |
| Kathy Carr...is the mother of a five-year-old boy and three-year-old twins. She recently went back to school to finish her English degree and also homeschools her children. This is, by definition, insanity. She loved writing from the day she first held a pencil, but thought a woman could not be a mom and a writer at the same time, so she set aside her goals to have children. One day, she realized that she truly would go insane if she didn’t start writing again. After several creative writing courses, her professors urged her to begin submitting her work and, shock of shocks, people have liked it. You can find her work in The Camel Saloon, The Cynic, and in the June issue of Stark Raving! Poetry. Besides poetry, Kathy enjoys writing short stories, satire, and is working on a novel. |
| Margaret Clark...is an aspiring author and talented graphic artist. She and her husband, Dale, a farmer and mechanic, have been married for 34 years; they reside in a small town in Illinois. Margaret and Dale have three beautiful daughters and one handsome son, and they’re insanely over-involved grandparents to Shawn, Lauren, and Tristin. With two romance novels completed, Margaret has decided to self-publish the first, Is This Love?, under the pen name Maggie Carlson. Music is another of Margaret’s passions. She volunteers her graphic talents to support the local high school music program, and she has sung with her current choir for 25 years. |
| Sirona Danu...is a nom de plume, enigma, writer, woman, struggling soul. She has had short stories published and delights in sharing what she learns about writing with others serious about pursing the art form. Words are the currency in her market. Imagination the breath in her lungs. When she writes she is rich, and as she breathes she creates. Sirona is honored to be among so many fabulous artists and authors. Membership in this creative community, any creative community, is a privilege she does not take lightly. |
| Diane Daou...was an eccentric child, and thus had no choice but to chose entertainment as a career. She has traveled the world working as a journalist and then film and television producer. Now, as retired as a red head could eve be, she and her faithful Dog companion still travel, write and occasionally produce. Truth be told, she finds staring at the stars and talking to the moon the most rewarding of occupations and is seriously considering doing that full time. |
| Diane Davis...loves to share her passion for words. She started writing fanfiction five years ago, but when she ran out of ideas she went looking for an outlet for her original stories. She found FanStory in April 2008 and has enjoyed honing her skills with feedback from fellow authors she’s met there. Since she hasn’t sold her first bestseller yet, she works for a title insurance company. She has two grown kids, a boy and a girl, and a wonderful husband of twenty-five years who tolerates her incessant scribbling. Flash fiction is her favorite format, and she has had stories published in FlashShots and A Long Story Short e-zines. One of her stories won honorable mention in the fall 2010 WOW! Flash Fiction contest. |
| Danielle Donaldson...is novice poet. She writes from Northern Virginia where she lives with her husband, a clingy Chihuahua and two fat and spoiled cats. She tweets about zombie movies, video games, and literature @ZombieDD. She only writes poetry because of her slight masochistic tendencies. |
| D'Arcy Fallon...teaches journalism and creative writing at Wittenberg University, a small liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. Prior to teaching, she was a reporter for nearly twenty years, working for such papers as the Long Beach Press-Telegram, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Colorado Springs Gazette. She has won many writing awards, including “Best Columnist” from the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. Her nonfiction has been published in The Sun and other venues. Her memoir about living in a Christian commune in Northern California, So Late, So Soon, was published in 2004 by Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts. |
| Mimi Ferebee... is the editor-in-chief of RED OCHRE PRESS, overseeing the publication of both RED OCHRE LiT and ROLiT NEWS. While originally from California, she resides in Virginia with husband, Melvin, and their Shih Tzu and Pekingese. A graduate of the College of William and Mary, she received degrees in both English (emphasis in Creative Writing and Literature) and Psychology (emphasis in Behavioral and Developmental Science). Mimi recently retired from a career as a clinical therapist to pursue her primary passions of writing and editing full-time. When not working on completing her novel "In the Distant Marshes" and various other literary projects, she diligently works to complete applications for doctoral programs. She wants to obtain a PhD in English Literature. Mimi also works with at-risk youth, refining their reading and composition skills. She spends many evenings in detention centers and twice as many weekend mornings at libraries working with this population. She prides herself on being an advocate for her students, helping them not only perceive, but achieve their potential. Her literary work has been featured recently in several journals, magazines and reviews, including Contemporary World Literature, Bewildering Stories, Decanto Magazine (UK), Both Sides Now, Flutter Poetry Journal, Leaning House Press, Caper Literary Journal, ChickenBones: A Journal & Houston Literary Review. |
| Jen Frankel... is a multi-disciplinary writer as at home with short- and long-form fiction as with screenplay and stage writing. Her work has appeared in The Griffin and the Quercus, Owen Wister, and MSU Reviews among other publications. She is a past second place winner of the International Three Day Novel competition and co-produces a monthly film festival, WILDsound, in Toronto, Ontario. |
| Nita Walker Frazier...is a past president of the Plainview Writer’s Guild, Frazier has been published in Read magazine, Jack and Jill, in Touch, Life with Children, Remedy Rx, and several other magazines. She is currently working on a Christian romance as well as a children’s book. |
| Anni Macht Gibson...is a poet who splits her time between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Traverse City, Michigan. Unfinished, Ms. Gibson’s first volume of poetry, was published in 2007 by Woven Word Press. Her poems also have been published in a number of literary journals, including Westview, Pearl, Old Red Kimono, RiverSedge, Sanskrit, Cape Rock, Quercus Review, and The University of Cincinnati Journal of Peace and Justice. Ms. Gibson holds a BA from Goucher College and an MEd (concentration in Communications) from Xavier University. Before retiring in 2001 to devote more time to her writing, she spent 24 years as a marketing manager for Procter and Gamble, where whittling memos to a single page helped her hone her craft. Ms. Gibson receives encouragement for her poetic pursuits from her husband of almost 30 years, Jeremy, and her beloved Corgi and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She is also the proud mother of a son, who recently graduated from college (Cum Laude!) with a BA in English (having inherited the “writing gene”) and a daughter who is studying classical methods of drawing and painting in Florence, Italy. |
| Larry Gottschamer...is a beginning writer living in Florida. He has held a variety of interesting positions, from Guatemalan Macadamia nut farmer, to airline pilot, and raisin inspector for the USDA. He uses his rich experiences to explore the complexity of life. He is also currently working on a science fiction novel. He is remodeling his home in Florida with his wife and started graduate school in January 2011. He can be contacted at lgottschamer@gmail.com. |
| Kimberly Harding...is a college science professor who for some reason at age thirty, upon completing a PhD in physiology, decided it would be a wonderful change of pace to create art and write poetry. She has been able to integrate both aspects of her life—science and art—with study of the embodiment of women. What does it mean to embody as a woman—to carry forth the feminine energy of the world? She wants to celebrate the power inherent in all women. |
| Jim Howard... isn’t a woman, though sometimes he thinks like one (or so his wife claims). He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and has done graduate work in public policy, which is why he once drove a taxi for a living and was employed as a short order cook. He also spent many years working in Human Resources, not because he likes people (he doesn’t) but because he likes money (he does). Catbert from the “Dilbert” comic strip is his hero. He and his wife have raised three relatively well-adjusted kids who claim to be adults but often act otherwise. He loves to write. |
| Judian James...lives to mold words–smart, sly, wry words, conveying finely crafted pictures of life and lives, as her senses dictate. A morning person, she greets each day with childlike enthusiasm, bringing to her writing all of the freshness of dawn. Married to her hero for many years, she and her husband still live in the home they bought as newlyweds in the coastal Maine village where they raised three sons. She has had two books published by Foothills Publishing. |
| Dawn Boeder Johnson...is a published author who creates stories and novels in genres from sci-fi and fantasy to crime and historical drama. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with a BS in English, Dawn has always been a writer at heart, even while she worked as a graphic designer, marketing professional, and museum director. These diverse career paths created opportunities to explore many subjects and fueled her imagination. Two of her stories placed highly in the 2009 Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition and were published in the anthology. Also in 2009, Dawn received top ten recognition for a short story (7th place, genre short category) and an acrostic poem (8th place, non-rhyming poetry category) in the 78th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Her stories and essays have been featured in The Muse Marquee. When she’s not writing, Dawn offers editing and other services through, www.word-edge.com and teaches writing courses online. She is highly devoted to her sweet husband and delightful daughters. Visit her at www.dawnboederjohnson.net. |
| Ash Krafton...is a speculative fiction writer whose work has appeared in several journals, including Niteblade, Ghostlight Magazine, Expanded Horizons, and Silver Blade. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee. Ms. Krafton resides in the heart of the Pennsylvania coal region and lurks near her website Spec Fic Chick AshKrafton.com. |
| Georgia Kreiger... lives in Western Maryland, where she teaches literature and creative writing. Her poems have appeared in Earth’s Daughters The 2River View, poemmemoirstory, The Orange Room Review, Literal Latté, Poet Lore, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Outerbridge, Backbone Mountain Review and others. |
| Le roi et la reine...is also known as Louis and Louise. Louise is a writer, poet, sometime artist, and servant to two cats, who lives in Melbourne, Australia. She writes about her connection with Louis, her love, who lives in Spirit. Louis is an artist, writer, poet, sometime king of France and servant to numerous cats and dogs, all of whom live with him in Spirit. He writes about his connection with Louise, his love, who lives on the earthly plane. They work together by conscious channelling. When Louis has something to write, he talks, Louise types. She calls it being his unpaid secretary. When they are not doing this, and Louise is not at work, they are likely to be strolling Melbourne’s shops, parks and beaches, or at night, crossing the veil to their home in Spirit, where general domesticity is the order of the day. Louis and Louise have been in contact for three years, but the connection goes back much further than that. Louis has loved Louise since she was born; he knew his soulmate had come into being. Louise has loved him since she saw his picture when she was seventeen. That was thirty years ago. Apart from diaries and poetry, they are working on a joint autobiography about their connection, which they hope to have published. Louise has had poetry published on two e-zines. |
| Patricia "Jamie" Lee...has traveled extensively within tribal America during the nineties with her husband, Milt Lee. Together they produced over 60 documentary radio programs on Indian people. A visionary thinker and writer, Lee is the author of several books including Washaka—the Bear Dreamer and the nonfiction book The Lonely Place, Re-Visioning Adolescence and the Rite of Passage. Washaka was awarded The Ben Franklin Award for Best New Voice in Fiction and was also a finalist in the PEN USA for Children’s Literature. Jamie Lee’s short stories and essays have appeared in The South Dakota Review, Bellowing Ark Magazine, Winds of Change Magazine, The South Dakota Magazine and others. Jamie and her husband have recently moved to Cass Lake in northern Minnesota and are building a straw bale house. |
| Davon C. Loeb...was born and raised in New Jersey. He earned his BA from Montclair State University in English Education and Creative Writing. Davon’s poetry and artwork has appeared in the literary journals: The Normal Review, Nefarious Ballerina, and PaleHouse. He also writes essays, screenplays, and poetry. Besides writing, he is a middle school English teacher, a painter, and a photographer. |
| L. lora...is an artist of many talents. Born in the mid 1940s, she is known as a Breed. Her paternal grandfather and her father are Native American registered (first people/aboriginal) with the Oklahoma Cherokee out of Georgia. Her mother is of Irish/Italian and Native American decent. Through the years, Lora has been honored to live among many different people in diverse environments. She has been blessed with a passion for art, writing, and music, and has pursued these since childhood. Her two children have been likewise gifted with a passion for art, writing and music. Lora feels ever fortunate that her late husband was so supportive of her creative passions. She has written one novel and four poetry books published by Desert Sun Publishing. Although currently out of print, she is busy revising and updating these books. Also to her credit are six story/coloring books for children and one meditation music CD . Her poetry was included in Poetry for Suzanne (available through Lulu.com) an anthology dedicated to the Macmillan Cancer relief fund. |
| Janet McCann... is a crone poet who has taught at Texas A&M since 1968. Poems hither and yon: most hither, Brazos Gumbo; most yon, Poetry Australia. Most recent collection: Emily's Dress (Pecan Grove Press). |
| Joanie McCoy-Cook...lives in a large suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, with her significant other and the sweetest Yorkie you’ve ever seen, Phoebe. She has two daughters who were born on the same day two years apart, the youngest of which has blessedly given Joanie her pride and joy, a grandson. Joanie makes a living working for a construction supplier in Accounts Receivable. She has been writing poetry since middle school, but until recently, wasn’t brave enough to share it with more than friends and family. She prefers to write poetry that flows similar to a song; something that anyone can relate to and hopefully will recall either the poem itself or the feeling it leaves behind. Joanie hopes to pursue publishing more poems or even a book of poetry in the future. |
| Catherine McGuire...has been widely published over the past two decades, including New Verse News, The Smoking Poet, Poetry In Motion, Folio and Main Street Rag. She has published a chapbook, Joy Into Stillness: Seasons of Lake Quinault, and has given poetry workshops and readings around Oregon. |
| Nona... is a scientist in cellular biology. She came to digital art after many years of working with the microscope in her lab. She was always fascinated by the microworld and, using the image processing software for her micrographs, she was astonished by the countless possibilities offered by digital technology to express thoughts and feelings. And she started to draw and paint. Most of her art is digital abstracts, computer generated or mixed media compositions containing specific elements from electronic or light microscopic images. Two of her works were selected for the 2nd International Festival for NanoArt organized by NanoArt21 held in Stuttgart, Germany, by NAHVISION Institute for International Culture Exchange, in November 2008. She was awarded fourth place in Nanoart Online's 2009 international competition in March 2009 and second place in March 2011. Together with the other top-ten artists she was invited to exhibit one work at the Passion for Knowledge Festival in San Sebastian, Spain, in the fall of 2010. Nona is the recipient of Diploma of Excellence (Honorable Award) at the 3rd Annual Juried Contemporary Art Online Competition/Exhibition 2008-2009 www.artoteque.com for eight works she exhibited. Recently, she acquired a camera and has begun using her own photographs to create mixed media art. She likes to capture nature and flowers, looking for tiny details; she remains forever enchanted with the microworld. |
| Shawn Paula O'Brian...is an artist/writer from Southern California. She is a former member of the Monterey Park Art Association. In the traditional sense, she has worked with almost all artistic mediums. She sold works through the Art Association, and has done many commissions for friends. She has been working with digital art for nearly fourteen years. |
| Patty Sue O'Hair-Vicknair...is an artist driven by emotion and color. These lie behind her image choices. Patty likes to explore these forces through bright colorful paintings depicting figures in costume. Clowns and Carnival or Mardi Gras figures often are chosen for subject matter because they lend themselves beautifully to her artistic style. She loves a great portrait where the emotion comes through the eyes. Patty paints mostly in acrylic with glitter accents. Her images are bold and bright and light up a room. Fans can find her on Facebook. Her work is currently being shown in several galleries, and can be found online by searching for PSOVART or visiting her web site: Patty Vicknair Fine Art. |
| Alison O'Meara...lives in Western Australia and wears many hats: A wife and mother to a wonderful husband and two gorgeous children aged eight and four; an Administrative Assistant/PA for the last twenty years; and recently, a graduate teacher of secondary English, a dabbler in art and a prolific writer with a passion for telling a tale. Alison attended Applecross High School through an Art Scholarship program, and after graduation studied at the WA Academy of Performing Arts: Set Design – a position obtained through a challenging portfolio presentation and interview process. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Studies, with a minor study in Public Relations through Edith Cowan University. Graduating the degree, she went into administration as a way to earn money for study and somehow managed to stay there for the next twenty years. Only been in recent months has she been able to return to art and began displaying her works, principally as a member of Fan Art Review, but also creating cover art for her various books and characters. |
| Kay Patterson...has lived as a traveller, in a commune and in various caravans, houses, and tents around the UK. She’s now settled in West Yorkshire with her two teenage daughters, and after a chequered career, works in a charity shop for the R.S.P.C.A. She’s written all her life, and has so far completed five novels, but lost her nerve for submitting anything for publication. She is only now just dipping a toe in the water, while wrestling with a sixth novel (which is taking forever and driving her mad). She loves living in the countryside, and it often ends up as a character in her stories. She finds the atmosphere endlessly inspiring. Kay writes fantasy, darkish and contemporary, but very much set in the present, and usually involving the search for satisfying versions of family and home in a complicated world. |
| Dawn Proctor...is a 55-year-old former Development Director for a botanical garden. Since being sidelined by a disability, she has taken up writing and painting and has been encouraged by several honorable mentions in local art shows. Her greatest joy has been found in helping to raise her seven-year year old granddaughter. Married to an urban planner, she lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where the large university keeps the atmosphere energized and the city looking forward. |
| Barbara Purbaugh... received her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. She is an English instructor at Pennsylvania Highlands Community College in Johnstown, PA. She has published short stories and poetry and won a variety of creative writing contests. More information is available on her website .www.barbarapurbaugh.com |
| Ruth Sabath Rosenthal...lives in New York City and Long Beach, Long Island, with her husband Alfred and doggie Sweetie-Pie. She began writing and studying poetry in her golden years. The 92nd Street Y and West Side Y are her favorite locations for workshops and readings. She has also studied privately with some fine New York (and elsewhere) poets. Ruth has been published in various literary journals and anthologies. In 2006, she received a nomination for the Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook Facing Home is available from Finishing Line Press. |
| Walter Ruhlmann... was born in 1974 in France. He currently lives in Mamoudzou, Mayotte, where he works as an English teacher. He has been publishing mgversion2>datura (ex-Mauvaise graine) for fifteen years. Walter is the author of several poetry chapbooks and e-books in French and English and has published poems in various printed and electronic publications worldwide. He co-edited and translated poems for the bilingual free verse and form section for the anniversary issue of Magnapoets in January 2011. Read his blog at .Walter's blog |
| Nadia Scrieva...is a writer hailing from the culturally diverse city of Toronto, Canada, where she has just completed her B.A. in English and Anthropology from the University of Toronto. She has been writing since she was six years old, but is happy to report that the quality has slightly improved since then. She has a strong background in dance and martial arts, and has been employed as a model for several years. Her writing almost always features powerful female characters. She intends to create original pieces which communicate with the reader on an intimate level. |
| S. Slottje...is an internationally published author of Dutch origin who now resides in Gloucestershire, England. As a member of the JPP writing group, she is an inspired writer of short stories often with a science fiction or fantasy theme. She has written and produced several plays for the local youth theatre group. |
| Kay Christine Steward...uses pen and keyboard as creative outlets, since she is severely disabled and unable to pursue physical activities. She has a passion for poems and short stories about Australia and loves to paint in all mediums. Kay has completed two diploma courses in Comprehensive Writing and Romance Writing. She has had a poem published in New York and would love to have more poems published. Kay is a Poetry Fellow of Noble House England. Her motto for life is: Never run away from a challenge – you will miss an adventure. Learn to laugh at your mistakes; learn to listen to other people even if you are bored. She does not believe in coincidence, rather, everything happens for a reason. A car accident could have taken her life, but she survived more determined than ever to express herself through art and writing. Now, through an on-line writer’s group, she finds herself surrounded by wonderful poets and writers. She believes in getting on with life. It is so precious. |
| Jodi Sway...is a native of Houston, Texas. She is a wife, mom, student, volunteer, and (on occasion) an employee. She has always loved the written word and reads ravenously. As a writer she pens poems, short stories, and quotes, and is currently working on her first novel. She has taken creative writing classes, and works on her book and other pieces almost daily. She is also pursuing her Master's degree, while she plugs away at her laptop to give her creative urges a voice. She writes in a freestyle manner, letting out whatever comes--afterwards, she edits it to death. What drives her work is connection, common ground between her and other human beings, rather than what separates them. |
| Tobi Lopez Taylor...is an award-winning writer and editor who lives on a small ranch outside of Tucson, Arizona, with her five horses. Her work has been published most recently in Concho River Review, Journal of Arizona History, and American Indian Art Magazine. She is currently at work on a novel. She can be reached at tobi.taylor@cox.net, and her website is: TobiTaylor.com. |
| Barbara Webb...turned 50 and found it came with an unexpected sprinkling of “wake-me-up-dust.” She’s not sure how or why, but it was her bestowal, her salvation, her motivation. She took a deep breath and inhaled all of the wondrous dust and her passions were awakened. Barb decided who she wanted to be, and what she wanted to do. She wanted simply to be “Me”; the creative, whimsical, spontaneous, nonsensical woman who spent too much time in emotional limbo. She wanted to create and express herself, and it was now or never. Many years were spent waiting on “someone” to believe in her… when the only thing she really needed was to believe in herself. It took a while, but she’s here! Her confidence now overflows and her passion for the arts has soared. Barb enjoys expressing herself through painting, photography, and poetry. She is exceedingly optimistic the second half of her life is going to be marked by unparalleled personal enrichments. She’s just ”Me”–Barb, a woman with a mind swimming with ideas, who totally believes in herself. Her only regret: not finding “Me” a little sooner but regardless, all is good in her world. |
| Changming Yuan...is a two-time Pushcart nominee and author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Politics and Poetics (2009), who grew up in a remote Chinese village and published several books before moving to Canada. Yuan currently teaches writing in Vancouver and has had poems published in Barrow Street, Best Canadian Poetry, Exquisite Corpse, London Magazine and nearly 300 other literary publications worldwide. |
| Bec Zugor... has had work appear in all sorts of places, including Microhorror, Weirdyear, and the horror anthology M is for Monster. She even had a nonsense poem chosen to be framed and displayed in a public loo somewhere in the Shetland Islands! Recently her short stories have been published in Escape Velocity: The Anthology, and the sci-fi/fantasy art book The Sixty. To relax, she dabbles in art and juggles badly, but not at the same time. Samples of Bec’s writing lurk at . www.beczugor.com |
| Chani Zwibel... is a recent graduate of Agnes Scott College. Her poetry is an exploration of reality and illusion that covers subjects from nature to love and some odd bits in between. She writes and tends a garden in Marietta, Georgia. |
an artist of many talents. Born in the mid 1940s, she is known as a Breed. Her paternal grandfather and her father are Native American registered (first people/aboriginal) with the Oklahoma Cherokee out of Georgia. Her mother is of Irish/Italian and Native American decent. Through the years, Lora has been honored to live among many different people in diverse environments. She has been blessed with a passion for art, writing, and music, and has pursued these since childhood. Her two children have been likewise gifted with a passion for art, writing and music. Lora feels ever fortunate that her late husband was so supportive of her creative passions. She has written one novel and four poetry books published by Desert Sun Publishing. Although currently out of print, she is busy revising and updating these books. Also to her credit are six story/coloring books for children and one meditation music CD . Her book Poetry for Suzanne is available through Lulu.com.
