Contributor's Notes - Eclectica Magazine, v12n2, Apr/May 2008

Apr/May 2008

Tom Dooley co-founded Eclectica in 1996 and serves as its Managing Editor. In the 12 years between earning a BA in English literature from the University of Chicago and a MPA in municipal management from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he taught middle and high school English in Alaska, Arizona, and Wisconsin, amassing fond memories, dubious experiences, and debt. Two careers post-teaching later, he now creates spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides for the man by day, edits Eclectica by night, and feels very grateful for the blessings he has received—chief among them being married to the sweetest gal and the best poet he knows. He and said gal reside in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with enough rescued lapdogs to field a diminutive Iditarod racing team and the empty-nest echoes of two amazing Haitian-American children who have flown the coop.

Colleen Mondor is Eclectica's Review Editor. She also reviews for Bookslut, the Voices of NOLA, and Booklist. Short story excerpts from her novel on Alaskan aviation have recently appeared in failbetter and Storyglossia. She maintains a daily blog on all things literary (and sometimes not) at her site, Chasingray.com.

Elizabeth P. Glixman is Eclectica's Interview Editor. Her fiction and poetry have appeared online and in print in Wicked Alice, In Posse Review, 3 A.M. Magazine, Tough Times Companion, a publication of The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Her Circle Ezine, Frigg, and Velvet Avalanche, an anthology of erotic poetry. Besides Eclectica, her author interviews, articles, book reviews, and creative non-fiction pieces have appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Whole Life Times, Spirit of Change, Hadassah Magazine, and the anthologies Chocolate for A Woman's Soul II and Cup of Comfort For Women. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks: A White Girl Lynching (Pudding House Publications, 2008), Cowboy Writes a Letter & Other Love Poems (Pudding House Publications, 2010), and The Wonder of It All (Alternating Current, 2012). Elizabeth's story, "Mother's Bony Behind," was chosen one of the notable online stories of 2006 by the Million Writers Award. Elizabeth is an animal lover, and she has a blog devoted to shelter animals, especially those at kill shelters.

Jennifer Finstrom has been the Poetry Editor of Eclectica since the fall issue of 2005. This is her final issue in that capacity. A former Spotlight Author, she teaches in the First-Year Writing Program, tutors in writing, and facilitates writing groups at DePaul University. Recent publications include Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Escape Into Life, Gingerbread House Literary Magazine, and NEAT. For Silver Birch Press, she has work appearing in The Great Gatsby Anthology, the Alice in Wonderland Anthology, and in Ides: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks.

Pamela Mackey is Eclectica's Copy Editor. She teaches English at a community college in central New York. Earlier in her career, she wrote feature stories for newspapers, including The New York Times. Even earlier, she was a researcher and editor in the magazine industry, holding staff positions at LOOK and Saturday Review magazines. She writes poetry and is the mother of a gifted young novelist.

Sam Adams is an avid outdoorsman and the author of Precious Blood, true crime from Pinnacle Books.

Stephanie Anderson is a Creative Writing major. Her poetry has been published in several print and online magazines, including Volume Magazine, Clean Sheets, Poetry Monthly, and Poetic Hours. Her writing seeks to depict the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the human heart, bringing humanity in touch with the depth of their emotion. Besides writing poetry, Stephanie lives in Tennesee and is the mother of a beautiful two year old boy, Jude. She also works as an editor of the online literary review, Up the Staircase.

Grace Andreacchi was born and raised in New York City but has lived on the far side of the great ocean for many years--sometimes in Paris, sometimes Berlin, and nowadays in London. Works include the novels Give my Heart Ease, which received the New American Writing Award, and Music for Glass Orchestra, and the play Vegetable Medley (New York and Boston). Stories and poetry appear in both on-line and print journals. Her work can be viewed on her website.

Nicolette Bethel was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas, where she currently resides. She has lived, studied, and worked in the UK and Canada, and is now apprenticed to the Government for her sins and others'. She is a playwright, a poet, a fiction writer, and an anthropologist, and her work has been published in a variety of places, including The Oxford and Cambridge May Anthologies, Calabash, The Caribbean Writer, The Amherst Review, The Paumonak Review, II, The Avatar Review, and numerous local and regional collections.

Bob Bradshaw is a programmer living in Redwood City, CA. He is a big fan of the Rolling Stones. Recent work of his can be found at Tattoo Highway, Slow Trains, Boston Literary Magazine, Mannequin Envy, Poems Niederngasse, Blue Fifth Review, Orange Room Review, Apple Valley Review, and Cha.

Anna Britten is a freelance arts journalist living in Bath, England. After reading modern languages at Oxford, she spent several years in London working for record companies and then for Time Out magazine. Since taking up fiction she has been published in the Bloomsbury anthology Is This What you Want? (via the Asham Award) and shortlisted for various other competitions. She is also the author of a career guide to the music industry and a children's book about Mozart. Her picaresque debut novel is seeking an agent. She is a member of online writing collective The Fiction Workhouse and would like to dedicate this flash to Richard Dawkins.

Elizabeth Bruno lives and works in Wisconsin, where she recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin Parkside with a B.A. in English. She says she has a beautiful, energetic little boy named Uriah and a fiance named Sam who is the love of her life. She also has two quirky cats named Frida and Calmness. She and her family just bought their first house, and she feels especially excited because she finally has a space where she can write without disruption. Her previous publications include Lily, Stirring, The Potomac, and Eclectica.

Jared Carter recently published Cross this Bridge at a Walk, from Wind Publications in Kentucky. The book was reviewed by Gilbert Wesley Purdy in the October/November 2007 issue of Eclectica. Additional poems and stories may be found on his web site.

Antonia Clark works for a medical software company in Burlington, Vermont. She has taught college-level creative writing and is currently co-administrator of an online poetry forum, The Waters. Her poems have recently appeared in kaleidowhirl, Lily, Loch Raven Review, Lucid Rhythms, Orange Room Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Rattle, Stirring, and elsewhere. She loves French travel, food, and wine, and plays French cafe music on a sparkly purple accordion. Toni invites poets to visit The Waters, home of 77 Sunset Beach, where members go to write a poem a day for seven days.

Barbara De Franceschi is an Australian poet who lives in Broken Hill, a small mining town in outback New South Wales. When not writing poetry or committed to family and business, Barbara involves herself in community work. She was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2002 for her achievements in the area of multiculturalism. Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals Australia-wide and online in the USA and Switzerland. Barbara is an adventuress writer who is continuously trying to find new ways and forms to present her work; she has experimented with sound and musical composition to enhance her recitals, with stimulating results. Her first collection, Lavender Blood, was published in 2004, and the manuscript for a second collection is well under way. Barbara is a member of the performance group "The Silver Tongued Ferals" and performs at caravan parks, arts festivals, etc., and has read her poetry live to air on ABC Radio on a number of occasions.

Xujun Eberlein has published fiction and literary nonfiction works in the Unites States, Canada, England, Kenya, and Hong Kong, and she has won many awards. Her debut short story collection, Apologies Forthcoming, won the 2007 Tartt Fiction Award and will be published in May 2008. She hosts a literary and cultural blog (see link).

Fernando Morro Emerson was the last passenger to board TWA flight 469, San Juan to Miami, on December 12th, 1988. After hurrying through a metal detector, and once seated aboard, he patted his suit pocket only to discover that he inadvertently retained a Batangas knife carried for protection. For some unknown reason the metal detector had never sounded. Soon after takeoff, another passenger hijacked the airliner to Cuba. Mr. Emerson currently lives in New York City and is armed only with words.

Michael Estabrook has published a few chapbooks and appeared in some terrific poetry magazines, but he knows he is only as good as his next poem, and like a surfer looking for that perfect wave, he is a poet prowling for that perfect poem. Right now he is looking for that perfect poem in his wife, who just happens to be the most beautiful woman he has ever known.

Brent A. Fisk has appeared in over 150 magazines in the last four years, including Prairie Schooner, Rattle, and Southern Poetry Review. Last year he won the Willow Award from Willow Review, the Sam Ragan Prize from Crucible, and he received one of two honorable mentions in Boulevard's Emerging Poets Contest.

Lyn Fox is a professional writer whose work appears regularly in publications ranging from Outdoor Canada and Monday Magazine to Canadian Ethnic Studies and The Dalhousie Review. The phrase "philosophical adventure" describes both his writing and his life as an avid world-trekker with a master's degree in philosophy.

Larry Gaffney has been a sportswriter, tennis instructor, and English professor. One Good Year, published by Level 4 Press in 2007, was a finalist in the Indie Excellence awards for Best General Fiction. His short stories, poems, and satires have appeared in Rosebud, Light Quarterly, Opium, Chronicle of Higher Education, Underground Voices, Yankee Pot Roast, Rumble, and a few other places.

Clifford Garstang lives in the Shenandoah Valley. His work has appeared in Shenandoah, The Baltimore Review, Potomac Review, and numerous other literary magazines. He is currently working on a novel in stories set in Washington, D.C.

Taylor Graham has appeared many times in Eclectica and also in International Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, The New York Quarterly, Poetry International, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere, and she's included in the anthology, California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University, 2004). Her book, The Downstairs Dance Floor (Texas Review Press, 2006), was awarded the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize. Her current project is Walking with Elihu, poems on the American peace activist Elihu Burritt, the Learned Blacksmith.

William Reese Hamilton lives in Choroni, a fishing village on the coast of Venezuela, butted up against a mountainous cloud forest, in a region that produces the finest cacao in the world. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The North American Review, Puerto del Sol, Night Train Magazine, Eclectica Magazine, Review Americana, In Posse Review, Steel City Review, Taj Mahal Review, Ink Pot/Lit Pot, Smokelong Quarterly, and elsewhere. He has found his paradise and is studying it, warts and all.

Thomas J. Hubschman is a regular contributor to Eclectica's Salon, the author of the novel Billy Boy (Savvy Press), and the publisher of Gowanus, an ezine for authors in and from the so-called Third World. He is also editor of The Best of Gowanus: New Writing from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean (Gowanus Books). His short stories, articles and reviews have appeared in The Blue Moon Review, Morpo Review, New York Press, on the BBC World Service and in numerous other print and online publications.

Niranjana Iyer is a writer from Ottawa, Canada, whose work has appeared in The Missouri Review, The Smithsonian Magazine, and SmokeLong Quarterly, amongst other venues. Her blog is called "Brown Paper" (see link).

Beverly Jackson is a writer, poet, and artist living in Asheville, N.C. Her work can be found in print and online venues, including In Posse Review, Tattoo Highway, Hiss Quarterly, GUD, Smokelong Quarterly, Absinthe Review, and Zoetrope All-Story Extra. Her flash "The Dead" was nominated for BASS (Best American Short Stories) by Vestal Review and is anthologized in You Have Time for This. Her story "Heavy Transport" is a top-ten finalist in the 2008 Per Contra short story contest. Her poetry chapbook Every Burning Thing will be published by Pudding House in 2008. Beverly was the founder, former publisher and Editor in Chief of Lit Pot Press, Inc., and the literary journal Ink Pot (1999-2006). "Buddha Gold" came out of a group flash-challenges at Fiction Workhouse (Vanessa Gebbie's online writing group) using the Buddha collage as a prompt. Beverly does abstract paintings, collage and encaustics. "Buddha" (collage/encaustic ©2007) is in the collection of John and Nancy Cottle, Destin, FL.

Cicily Janus has appeared in or will appear in Underground Voices, Aesthetica, Del Sol Review, Writers Post Journal, Whirligigzine, and Perspectives Magazine. She is also an assistant editor for Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens: A Literary Magazine of the Absurd and Surreal. Two novels, working titles Burden of Betrayal and Awaiting Exile, are in progress. A chapbook, The Pencil Pusher's Prose, will be coming out in 2008 from Scintillating Publications. She writes a popular blog, Writing About You When YouÍre Not Paying Attention, and she's been featured in an interview regarding her writing life on Designyourwritinglife.com and on a podcast with author Paul A. Toth.

Larry Jer is able to lament "Why me?" in several languages, which has been more useful than he likes to admit. Among his travails, he has shared a bus seat with a goat and a boat cabin with a chicken. Ever optimistic, Larry hopes future travel includes more human companions than livestock. He daydreams plenty, submits cannily, publishes sparingly. He blames his diet. He can be found online and in print, if you look hard enough.

Leesteffy Jenkins holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University. She has a story published in the The Louisville Review and one forthcoming in Driftwood. In 2007, she won first place in the ABROAD writer's contest. Recently, she completed her first novel, Death is a Dream Where Flowers Bloom. Previously, she was an attorney specializing in international trade and environment. She has a JD and MA in Middle Eastern Studies from George Washington University and a BA in International Relations from UCLA. She lives in southern France.

Richard Lighthouse is a contemporary writer and poet. He holds an M.S. from Stanford University. His work has been published in The Penwood Review, West Hills Review, Mudfish, and many others worldwide.

Carla Lopez de Azua was born and raised on the tropical beaches of Puerto Rico, where she grew up fearless of barracudas and jellyfish. She moved away to New York and now works for Sesame Street, hence fulfilling her life long dream of befriending Grover and Cookie Monster. "Cargo" is her first published story.

Scott Malby lives and writes from Coos Bay, Oregon.

Jami Macarty lives between the desert of Arizona and the rain forest of British Columbia. When in the rain forest, she teaches contemporary poetry and poetics in the English Department and the Writing & Publishing Program at Simon Fraser University. Poems from her first manuscript, The Notion of Hollow, have been published in The Cafe Review, Diagram, EOAGH, Spork, and Volt, among other necessary journals. She has poems forthcoming in Cimarron Review and Istanbul Literary Journal.

Ravi Mangla lives in Fairport, NY.

Nancy Matson has published short stories in journals such as The Carolina Quarterly and Hayden's Ferry Review, and has been nominated for the Pushcart prize. She is also the author of a middle-grade novel, The Boy Trap. The essay in this issue, "Big Dogs and Asian Butts," is from her collection-in-progress entitled Workin' It: A Job Memoir. Other essays in the series can be read at Smith Magazine's Memoirville and an upcoming issue of Weber: The Contemporary West. You can visit her blog, which is all about writing and the working life.

Nathan McClain recently appeared or is forthcoming in Barn Owl Review, Rougarou, Sojourn, Poet Lore, Redactions, The Eleventh Muse, Pebble Lake Review, and elsewhere. He has formerly served on the editorial staff for three candles journal. He is a recent Pushcart Prize nominee and his favorite Monopoly game piece is the thimble.

Natalie McKelvy is a 58-year-old former freelance business writer who has self-published dozens of novellas and novels under The Dunery Press imprint. She lives in Harbert, Michigan, and has been self-publishing for twenty years. "Camp Sycamore" will be published in printed form in the fall of 2008 as part of a collection of her novellas, The Sick Man and Other Works. Anyone interested in her work can get on her mailing list and receive notice of when her work comes out.

Chris Middleman began writing almost a decade ago during a blackout in his hometown of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Now living in Boston, his work has appeared in Perigee, The Orange Room Review, and The Commonline Project.

Gary Moshimer lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, two sons, and four cats, in a house not quite big enough for all of them. He works in a hospital as a respiratory therapist. This is his second appearance in Eclectica, and his other work can be seen at TQR, Antithesis Common, Dark Energy Speculative Fiction, Green Silk Journal, The Flash-Flood, and Bewildering Stories.

A. Ray Norsworthy has appeared in Eclectica, Storyglossia, Night Train III, Zoetrope All-Story Extra, The Story Garden, and 12 Gauge. His story collection, Indiahoma: Stories of Blues and Blessings, is available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Besides Indiahoma, he has written two novels and a number of plays and short stories. The most recent novel is True Revelations (A Love Story of the Apocalypse), excerpt available on Amazon.

Marilyn Peake is the author of both adult and children's literature, and the editor and compiler of two books about acting and writing. Her trilogy of children's fantasy adventure novels are: The Fisherman's Son, The City of the Golden Sun, and Return of the Golden Age. The Fisherman's Son audio book was named a Finalist in the 2006 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards. Her short stories have appeared in the following anthologies: Twisted Tails: An Anthology to Surprise and Delight, Twisted Tails II-Volume 1: Time on our Hands, Twisted Tails II-Volume 2: Out of Time, Twisted Tails III: Pure Fear, and Illuminated Manuscripts.

Chris Potter has been head moderator at The Gazebo forever--or seemingly so. Her first collection of poetry, Zero Degrees At First Light, was published in autumn 2006 on David Robert Books. She's also published in The Pedestal, Stirring, and The Umbrella Journal recently. Christine lives in a very old house on a creek with her husband and two spoiled kitties.

Meg Pokrass lives in San Francisco. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Emry's Foundation Journal, Flutter Magazine, The Orange Room, Halfway Down the Stairs, 971 Menu, Toasted Cheese, The Rose and Thorn, Thieves Jargon, Eclectica, and Chanterelle's Notebook. She has performed with theatre companies throughout the United States and considers writing a natural extension of sensory work developed as an actor.

Gilbert Wesley Purdy has published poetry, prose and translation in many journals, paper and electronic, including: Jacket Magazine, Poetry International (San Diego State University), The Georgia Review (University of Georgia), Grand Street, SLANT (University of Central Arkansas), Consciousness Literature and the Arts (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), Orbis (UK), Eclectica, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Links to his work online and to a selected bibliography of his work in paper venues appear at his Hyperlinked Online Bibliography.

Jason R. Riley is a writer from Duluth, Minnesota. On his travels through Latin America he has spent time in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia. He lives in Northern California, where he is putting the finishing touches on his debut novel. Recently his fiction appeared in the Winter 2007-2008 issue of Whistling Shade. Regarding "Don't Share a Cab in Peru" he would like to say, "Thank you to William Reese Hamilton for his encouragement with this piece."

Steven Schutzman is a playwright and fiction writer, the author of seven published books and of numerous stories and plays published or forthcoming in literary journals, including The Pushcart Prize, TriQuarterly, Alaska Quarterly Review, Post Road, Cafe Irreal, Painted Bride Quarterly, Third Coast, and the anthology, The Art of the One-Act, with work forthcoming in Night Train and Gargoyle. The winner of five Maryland States Arts Council Individual Artist Grant Awards, he has written many plays that have been produced at various theatres around the country. "The Salesman" was published by Poems&Plays, in 2003. The play was voted audience favorite at the BareBones 15 Minute Play Festival in 2000 and was produced at the American Globe Theatre as part of the New York 15 Minute Play Festival in 2002. "The Bank" was published a few years ago by Post Road, a print journal out of Cambridge, MA, and has had several staged readings, including one at the Kennedy Center. "Ancient Island in the Brain" was produced by Revolution Theatre in Chicago as part of the "Abbie Hoffman Died for your Sins Festival." A monologue from it will be published soon in an anthology from Meriwether Publishing. Actors, producers, agents and others interested in finding out how to obtain copies and rights to Steven's dramatic work are invited to contact him. Those interested in reading more of Mr. Schutzman's drama and fiction can go to his website.

Ann Skealives in Australia. She is the author of Ted Hughes: The Poetic Quest (UNE Press, Australia).

Sarah J. Sloat is an American who's been living in Germany for 16 years, where she works for a news agency. She has a handful of publications in print and online literary journals, including Rhino, DMQ Review, Front Porch, Third Coast, and West Branch.

Michelle Tandoc-Pichereau grew up in Manila, greased elbows in Los Angeles, and is currently sharpening her pen in Bretagne. She was a finalist at the 2008 Kathy Fish Fellowship sponsored by SmokeLong Quarterly, and has work recently published in elimae, Chronogram, Contemporary Rhyme, Raving Dove, Brink Magazine, Word Riot, and flashquake. She's grateful to her mom, Eloisa, for inspiring her to write, and to her husband, Bernard, for inspiring her to love.

Ruth Taylor lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their three children. She has lived in several other Canadian cities, in (the other) London and Madrid; she also spent ten years in Guatemala working as a journalist. Now she writes fiction and works as a freelance copy editor. Her fiction has appeared in Kiss Machine, online at The Danforth Review, and in the 2007 anthology Ten Stories High.

Ray Templeton is a former Spotlight Author. A Scottish writer and musician living in St. Albans, England, his poetry, short fiction, writings on music, etc., have appeared in a wide range of both print and online journals, including Magma, Iota, Eclectica, Poems Niederngasse, Thieves Jargon, The New Verse News, The Argotist, Musical Traditions, and Antithesis Common. He is a member of the editorial board of Blues & Rhythm Magazine.

Venantius is a penname.

Mona-Lia Ventress was born in Hollywood, California, educated in Florence, Italy, and began writing in boarding school at the age of 11, trying to combat what she remembers as an intense period of isolation. She received a B.A. in English from Immaculate Heart College and soon began contributing articles to the Los Angeles Weekly and other literary outlets. She is also a composer/sound designer, who with her husband Mark owns a lucrative internet business, Partners In Rhyme. The three Indochina stories in this issue are excerpts from her book Horizontal Rain, which will be going up for sale through Amazon soon. Mona-Lia wrote Horizontal Rain while living in Wellington, New Zealand. She now resides in Barcelona, Spain.

Brandi Wells is a student at Georgia Southern University, soon to graduate with a BA in Writing and Linguistics. Her work can be found in or is forthcoming in Pequin, The Dream People, Sub-Lit, Robot Melon, and Wandering Army.

Kajsa Wiberg is a freelance writer, translator, and horse trainer. Her stories have appeared in The River Walk Journal, Long Story Short, Prose Toad, Chick Lit Review, Flash Shot, and Insolent Rudder. She is a script reader for Blue Cat Screenplay. She lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, where she's at work on her second novel.

Sarah Yost teaches reading and writing to seventh grade students in Louisville, Kentucky. Her work has appeared in Eclectica, The Orange Room Review, Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, and is forthcoming in Loch Raven Review.