Issue Four: November 2009
Arlene Ang is the author of four poetry collections, the most recent being a collaborative work with Valerie Fox, Bundles of Letters Including A, V and Epsilon (Texture Press, 2008). She lives in Spinea, Italy where she serves as staff editor for The Pedestal Magazine and Press 1. More of her work may be viewed at www.leafscape.org.
Chad Benson is a Michigan native currently living in Brooklyn, NY, where he is at work on a novel. His work has appeared in The South Carolina Review and Portland Review.
Benjamin H. Cheever's most recent book, Strides, is a history of running. He lives in Westchester County, part of the transient culture that horrified and amused his father. Sometimes the evening seems to hang by a golden thread. Sometimes not.
Anna Clark's writing has appeared in The American Prospect Online, AlterNet, Blood Lotus, Utne Reader, Common Dreams, Women's eNews, Religion Dispatches, The Women's International Perspective, ColorLines, Bitch Magazine, Writer's Journal, RH Reality Check, truthout, and many other publications. She edits the literary and social justice website, Isak. She lives and writes from Detroit, MI.
Stephen Dobyns has published twelve books of poems, twenty novels, a book of essays on poetry and a book of short stories. Palgrave will publish a new book of essays, Next Word, Better Word, in 2011. Copper Canyon will publish his thirteenth book of poems, Winter’s Journey, in May 2010.
Nicolle Elizabeth is a contributing writer for The Brooklyn Rail, Fictionaut, Words Without Borders, and other publications she cannot believe let her anywhere near a keyboard. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Elimae, Caketrain, Wigleaf, Night Train, Dogzplot, and other lovely publications she is grateful to be a part of. She is also a bike mechanic. Her teenie personal blog, which apparently has some kind of following in Japan is http://glassatlassassafras.blogspot.com.
Judy Huddleston received her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and her MFA from Eastern Washington University. Her memoir This is the End was published in 1991. She has recently completed her second memoir and first collection of poetry. She currently teaches Literature, Writing, Film and the Novel at Globe University in the Twin Cities.
John Madera once suffered from convulsions and blood discharge from his ears. He did not cry then but trembled and jerked around and blinked his eyes. As a toddler, he had sprained his fingers after playing leapfrog in the living room with his brothers. And he was once rushed to the emergency room after swallowing a marble. He later marveled at his x-ray where a shiny orb of light sat underneath his scaffold of ribs. Not long after this, he fell on top of a two-liter glass bottle of soda he had accidentally dropped on the sidewalk. The neighborhood drunk had scooped him up in his arms, rushed him to his home, and kicked on the front door. A doctor sewed up the hole in his chest. Despite all of this, not to mention the removal of a swollen lymph node from his neck, a fall in the shower where he’d hit his head on the bathtub, and the painful removal of all of his impacted wisdom teeth, he has survived to tell many a tale. You may find him at www.johnmadera.com.
Jill Meyers is the editor of American Short Fiction. Her book reviews have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and Mid-American Review as well as on Bookslut.
Stacy Muszynski writes. Her recent work appears at elimae, Opium, Everyday Genius, The Rumpus, more. She web edits American Short Fiction and co-hosts Five Things Austin.
Brian Oliu is originally from New Jersey and currently lives in Alabama. His work has been featured in Ninth Letter, New Ohio Review, Brevity, DIAGRAM, Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2, and others. His website is http://www.brianoliu.com. This is an automated message.
Andi Olsen’s short film Where the Smiling Ends was exhibited recently at the Revolving Museum in Lowell, MA, and the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, and also screened at the LA International Shorts Festival and Valley Film Festival. Her ongoing installation, Hideous Beauties: A Freak Show, consists of video/DVD, assemblages, and collage-texts that explore the notion of monstrosity. The piece in this issue forms part of Lance and Andi Olsen's fake disease series.
Lance Olsen's latest novel, Head in Flames, was published in November by Chiasmus. His short work has recently appeared in Artifice, Hotel Amerika, Conjunctions, Black Warrior Review, and Denver Quarterly. He teaches innovative narrative theory and practice at the University of Utah. His website is www.lanceolsen.com.
Kate Petersen’s work has previously appeared in The Iowa Review, Brevity, Quarterly West, Phoebe, The Best of the Web 2009, and the Fourth Genre: Writers of/on Creative Non-fiction. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and works in Boston, where she writes for PostScript and the Health Policy Hub.
The author of six books of fiction and one biography, Melissa Pritchard has received numerous awards, including the Flannery O’Connor and Carl Sandburg Awards, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, several O. Henry Award and Pushcart Prizes, as well as Hawthornden International, Howard Foundation, and NEA fellowships. Her most recent fiction appears in Conjunctions, Agni, Image, Fanzine (forthcoming), and A Public Space (forthcoming). She has just completed a collection of short stories, The Odditorium, and teaches at Arizona State University. Her website is www.melissapritchard.com.
Cooper Renner's fiction has appeared recently in or is forthcoming from Keyhole, New York Tyrant, Anemone Sidecar, Grey Sparrow Journal, Sleeping Fish, and Unscroll. "Dr Polidori's Sketchbook" will appear in March in the Mud Luscious chapbook series. His website is www.cooprenner.com.
Anis Shivani’s short fiction collection, Anatolia and Other Stories, has just been released from Black Lawrence Press/Dzanc Books. He is finishing a novel and a book of criticism.
Keith Taylor's most recent book is If the World Becomes So Bright.
Ornela Vorpsi was born in Tirana, Albania and now lives in Paris. The Country Where No One Ever Dies was her first novel and won several prizes in Italy, including the Grinzane Cavour and Viareggio Prizes. It has since been published in fourteen languages.