~CONTRIBUTORS' NOTES~

AMANDA AUCHTER's writing has appeared in Antietam Review, Blue Unicorn, The Homestead Review, Pennsylvania English, Willow Review, Writer's Journal, and others.  She is the recipient of the 2004 Howard Moss Poetry Prize, and she currently edits Pebble Lake Review.

JACKIE BARTLEY's poems have appeared in a number of journals, including Crab Orchard Review, Image, and Phoebe.  Her first full-length collection of poetry, Bloodroot, was published in 2002.

M.J. BENDER has had work in various journals, including Longhouse, Origin, and Poetry Salzburg Review.  She received her PhD in American poetry from Columbia University.

MIKE CHASAR's poems are from a series in his first book, Notebook of Second Thoughts, currently looking for a publisher.  His poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Antioch Review, Black Warrior Review, The Formalist, and other literary journals.

PATRICIA FARGNOLI's fifth collection of poetry, Duties of the Spirit, is forthcoming from Tupelo Press. Her first collection, Necessary Light, won the 1999 May Swenson Award, and Small Songs of Pain (Pecan Grove Press) was published in 2003. A Macdowell Fellow, she's had new work recently in Margie, Mid-American Review, and Rattle. 

H. PALMER HALL's poems, essays, and stories have been published in various literary reviews and anthologies such as Ascent, Briar Cliff Review, Florida Review, North American Review, and Texas Review.  His most recent books are Reflections on Publishing, Writing and Other Things (2003) and Deep Thicket and Still Waters (1999).  The poems in this issue are from To Wake Again, a book forthcoming from Pudding House Press.  He is the library director at St. Mary's University, where he also teaches English.

GREGG HERTZLIEB is the Director of the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University.  He has been awarded the Edward L. Ryerson Traveling Fellowship by the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and a Conant Writing Award for Poetry from Millikin University.  His artwork has been exhibited widely, including at the Aron Packer Gallery, August House Studio, the Central School of Art and Design in London, Columbia College, Elgin Community College, the Goodman Theater, and Struve Gallery. 

CHARLES ISRAEL teaches English at Queen's University of Charlotte, NC.  His work has been published in The MacGuffin, Nimrod, Red Cedar Review, Slipstream, South Carolina Review, and Southern Poetry Review.

ADRIANNE KALFOPOULOU's first full-length collection of poetry, Wild Greens, was published by Red Hen Press in 2002.  Fig won the 2000 Women's Poetry Chapbook Contest from the Sarasota Poetry Theater Press.  She has also written on 19th- and 20th-century texts for various scholarly journals and published a volume of criticism, The Untidy House: A Discussion of the Ideology of the American Dream in the Culture's Female Discourses (Edwin Mellen, 2000).  Her recent publications include poems in Atlanta Review, Crab Orchard Review, Elixir, and Kindred Terraces, an anthology of American poets in Greece.  She has taught creative writing and literature in Athens for the past nine years.

MIRIAM N. KOTZIN teaches literature and creative writing at Drexel University, where she also serves as Director of the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing.  Her poetry has been published in a number of magazines, including Boulevard, Confrontation, Iron Horse Literary Review, Mid-American Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pulpsmith, and Southern Humanities Review.

GARY LECHLITER is a recipient of the Langston Hughes Award for poetry and the David Ray Award.  His poetry has appeared in Atlanta Review, Cedar Hill Review, Chariton Review, Midwest Quarterly, New Letters, and Rattle.  His recent book is Under the Fool Moon, published by Coal City Press.

DIANE LOCKWARD's poems have been published widely in magazines, including Beloit Poetry Journal, Cumberland Poetry Journal, Kalliope, The Literary Review, Poet Lore, Poetry Daily, Rattle, and Spoon River Poetry Review.  She is the author of Against Perfection, a chapbook published by Poets Forum Press in 1998, and her full-length collection of poems, Eve's Red Dress, was released by Wind Publications in 2003.

MURIEL NELSON has one full-length collection of poems, Part Song (Bear Star Press, 1999), and a chapbook, Most Wanted (ByLine Press, 2003).  Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Christian Century, Marlboro Review, New Republic, Northwest Review, and Ploughshares. 

RICARDO PAU-LLOSA's fifth book, The Mastery Impulse, was recently released by Carnegie-Mellon University Press, which also published two previous titles, Cuba (1993) and Vereda Tropical (1999).  His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines, including Cream City Review, The Fiddlehead, Manoa, New England Review, North American Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Phoebe, Ploughshares, and TriQuarterly.  His work has also been included in various anthologies, including The Norton Introduction to Literature (Norton) and Red, White, and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America (University of Iowa Press).    

DANIEL PINKERTON is pursuing an MFA in poetry at Penn State University.  His poems have appeared in several journals.

JOSEPH POWELL teaches at Central Washington University and has published three books of poems, as well as two chapbooks, the latest of which are Getting Here (Quarterly Review of Literature) and Greatest Hits (Pudding House Press).

ROCHELLE RATNER's most recent poetry book is House and Home, published by Marsh Hawk Press.  She also has two chapbooks online at Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry (Tellings and Lady Pinball).  She's the author of thirteen previous poetry collections and two novels.  Her anthology, Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness, was published by The Feminist Press.  She serves as Executive Editor of The American Book Review.   

DONALD STINSON has had poems published in Briar Cliff Review, Loonfeather, Southwestern American Literature, and Verve.  He teaches writing, literature, and humanities at Northern Oklahoma College.

J.L. TORRES is a professor of English and creative writing at SUNY Plattsburgh, and has had work published in various journals, including The Americas Review, Bilingual Review, Blue Collar Review, Connecticut Review, Denver Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, and US Latino Review, as well as Growing Up Latino, an anthology from Houghton-Mifflin.

ANNE WILSON has published widely in literary journals, including Bitter Oleander, Cedar Hill Review, Comstock Review, Oxford Magazine, Rattle, Rio Grande Review, South Dakota Review, and Weber Studies.  Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including We Used To Be Wives, E.R., and She Is the Song, I Am the Music.  She teaches writing courses at the University of San Diego and the University of California, San Diego.

KIRK M. WRIGHT is a school administrator whose work has appeared in such journals as Cider Press Review, Into the Teeth of the Wind, New Zoo Poetry Review, Plainsongs, U.S. Catholic, and Thorny Locust, among others.