Crystal Koch-Atamian grew up in the California Sierra foothills. She is currently pursuing her master's degree in Literature and Environment with at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her work has appeared in the UC Davis literary magazine Seele, Manzanita: Poetry and Prose of the Mother Lode and Sierra, and Brushfire.

Barry Ballard's poetry has most recently appeared in America, Quarterly West, and Rosebud. His collections include: Green Tombs to Jupiter and Charred Fragments of Light.

Laura Bayless has participated in the Women's Voices reading at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts with Bonnie Gartshore and Jennifer Lagier for the past five years. She is the author of two books, The Edge of the Nest and White Streams and Touchstones. She has also been one the Baker's Dozen for Women and Food at all five presentations.

Mike Catalano's work has recently appeared in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Rattle, Peregrine and the Southern Poetry Review. He currently manages a bookstore after twenty years of private tutoring in Alabama.

Brandon Cesmat teaches literature and writing at California State University San Marcos. His short story "Playing Peon" won the 2000 San Diego Book Awards' chapbook competition. His work has appeared in Pacific Review, City Works and Weber Studies. He has work forthcoming in ONTHEBUS, Cedar Hill Review and San Diego Writer's Monthly.

William E. Dudley has had poetry published in Whetstone, the Concho River Review and the Painted Bride Quarterly. He has recently studied with Norman Dubie. The past six years he has been running writing workshops in and around Phoenix, Arizona.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc won the Emily chamberlain Cook Prize for Poetry at the University of California at Berkeley while doing graduate work there. His poems have appeared in Oakland Renaissance, Cold Mountain Review, and The Climbing Art. He is an Associate Editor for The Café Review out of Portland, Maine.

Jim Gavenus is a professional photographer who lives in Pennsylvania. His exhibition, Scenes from Haiti, is currently traveling around the United States.

Daniel Green wrote his first poem at the age of eighty-two, he is now ninety-four. A high school dropout, he earned three degrees during the Great Depression. He also served three years in World War II and one year in China, Burma and India. He and his wife Leona currently live in Sarasota, Florida.

John Grey's work has most recently appeared in Confluence, Weber Studies, the South Carolina Review and in the Hawaii Pacific Review. His work will also appear in the New Laurel Review and in Pennsylvania English.

Clara Hsu is the proprietor of Clarion Music Center, a world music instrument shop snuggled in the heart of San Francisco Chinatown. She produces an in-house world music concert series that are occasionally combined with poetry readings. Clara has given readings at various poetry venues throughout San Francisco. Her works can be found in The Red River Review (2001), The Sacred Grounds Anthology (2001), Baker Street #6, and The Scribbler.

Victoria Joyce is a third generation San Franciscan, holds a BA in Creative Writing from SFSU and a Masters of Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Her recently published book of poetry, Witness, is a spiritual autobiography. A former teacher, she currently works full time writing, and wishes someone would pay her a football player's salary to do so.

Stephen Kopel is a teacher, cyclist, dancer and art collector. His work has appeared in Skylark, Plainsongs, 580 Split, Icon and the Haight-Ashbury Journal. He has also been a nominee for the Pushcart Prize.

Jennifer Lagier has published two books of poetry, Where We Grew Up and Second-Class Citizen. Her work has appeared in e'zines, journals and anthologies throughout the U.S. and Italy.

Sharon Mayes is a writer and sculptor residing in San Gregorio, California.

m.g.t.: http://www.mariatabor.com/

Jean Perry-Philpott is an MFA student at San Francisco State University and has a Master's degree in Pediatric Audiology. She is an Early Language Intervention specialist and works with deaf/hard of hearing children at the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in California.

James S. Proffitt is a thirty-two year old merchant in Cincinnati Ohio. His works have been published in Rattaplax, The South Carolina Review, Poet Lore and the Connecticut Poetry Review.

Alicia Rivas - I am not going to waste this free space stating my accomplishments because so many of you have. There is enough about the other poets to go around. Instead I wish to share some words that keep me sane and awake, "Graduate to the Divine". Such a small phrase yet so much can be extracted from it.

Lois Rosen teaches English as a Second Language at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon. Her poetry has been published in several publications including the Northwest Review, International Poetry Review, and the Writer's Forum. Her book manuscript was also a semifinalist for the 2001 Walt Whitman award.

Neil Smith grew up on a small vegetable and cattle farm in Burlington, N.C. He received his BA from Elon College in English and philosophy. He decided to go to graduate school at The University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He has been published in The Lyricist, out of Campbell University and The South Florida Review.

Virgil Suarez is a professor of creative writing at Florida State University. He is the author of four novels, The Cutter, Latin Jazz, Havana Thursday's and Going Under. His poems and stories appear in Poetry London, Imago, the Indiana Review, Queen's Quarterly and the Southern Review.

Paul Truttman was born in Sacramento, California in 1947, but raised in England and New Zealand. He returned to the U.S in 1966 at the age of eighteen and enlisted in the Navy, serving until mid 1987. Promise, Advocate, Twilight Ending and several more publications overseas have recently accepted his poetry.

Ryan G. Van Cleave is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. His work has appeared in recent issues of Arts & Letters, Quarterly West and Ploughshares. He is currently working on a poetry textbook due out in early 2002 from Allyn & Bacon/ Longman.

Sally Van Doren teaches creative writing in public elementary schools in downtown St. Louis. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. Her poems are currently in issues of The Larcom Review, and the Mochilla Review.

Shao Wei grew up by the Yangtze River, China, came to America in 1996 and got her M.A. from New York University, majoring in Creative Writing. She has two books published in China and Hong Kong. Currently she lives in New York and writes in English and Chinese. She is the recipient of 1999 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, 2001 New York Foundation for Arts Fellowship and Fredrica Clifton Fellowship at Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

William Woodruff has poetry published in the Aura Literary Arts Review, Connecticut River Review, the Pointed Circle, Spillway and other literary magazines.