Jul/Aug 2005

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.

Julie King shares a birthday with Eminem. She has a Master's in creative writing, which she teaches along with film studies at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. Her work appears in the Iowa Press anthologies Boomer Girls and are you experienced? and she has published in Fiction International, Sundog, Puerto del Sol, Quarterly West, Gulf Coast, and others. She wrote, directed, and produced the short film Worlds, sometimes stars in B-horror movies, and is a mother to four personality-rich cats. She first appeared in the magazine back in 1996 and has been a member of the staff since 1999. Sadly, this is her final issue as Eclectica's Poetry Editor. She will be missed.

Paul Sampson is Eclectica's Nonfiction and Miscellany Editor and has been a regular contributor to the Salon. A professional writer and editor for many years, he worked until recently for a mammoth corporation. He has since been downsized, although he remains the same height and weight as formerly. Some of his essays and poems have been published in Image, The Alsop Review, The 2River View, Illya's Honey, The Sulphur River Literary Review, the British publication World Wide Writers II, and the anthology Best Texas Writing (Rancho Loco Press). He lives on the outskirts of a small town east of Dallas, Texas.

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.

Carol Fant is serving as Eclectica's Assistant Poetry Editor. She lives in Florida and has a BA in English from The University of Texas, Austin, a law degree from Stetson University College of Law, and a BA in Creative Writing from Eckerd College. She is now pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte.

Arlene Ang lives in Venice, Italy where she edits the Italian edition of Niederngasse. Her poetry has recently been published in Persephone's Moon, Stride, Dublin Quarterly, Avatar Review, Tattoo Highway and Ghoti Magazine. Three of her poems have been nominated for the 2006 Pushcart Prize anthology.

Nnorom Azuonye is a native of Isuikwuato, Abia State of Nigeria. "Isuikwuato II" attempts to reignite the scattered and dying embers of the optimistic "Isuikwuato" published in Agenda (UK) Vol.28 No.2., in 1990. He is the author of Letter To God & Other Poems (2003) and the editor of Sentinel Poetry Quarterly (from 2004), as well as the Founder and Administrator of Sentinel Poetry Movement—The International Community of Poets since 2002. His poems, short fiction and interviews have appeared in Orbis, Flair, Keystone, Poetry Monthly, and The Guardian (Nigeria) among other publications.

Brad Bostian teaches writing and is the Chair of Developmental English at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC. He's working on two novels and has a collection of poetry ready to send out. "Of Course, Roses" came about because he wanted to try something that was entirely dialogue. He writes poetry reviews at Forpoetry.com and hopes that when his kids are a bit older, he can write more.

Randall Brown lives outside of Philadelphia. HeÍs a fiction editor with SmokeLong Quarterly, an MFA candidate at Vermont College, and a recipient of a 2004 Pushcart nomination. Work has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of journals, including The Iconoclast, Ink Pot, Philadelphia Stories, The MacGuffin, Timber Creek Review, and Del Sol Review. About "Instead" he says, "I wanted to write either a love story or an infidelity story. Instead, there's this."

Patrick Carrington was born and raised in the boroughs of New York City. He teaches language and creative writing in southern New Jersey and lives on a secluded beach with his wife and the ocean they love. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various print journals, including Confrontation Magazine, Epicenter, Lullaby Hearse, Bardsong, Clark Street Review, Devil Blossoms, Poetry Motel, and Willard & Maple, and on-line at Rock Salt Plum Review, Slow Trains Literary Journal, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Artistry of Life, Facets Magazine, Carnelian, Clean Sheets, mannequin envy, Thieves Jargon and Zygote in My Coffee.

Mark Cunningham received an MFA from the University of Virginia, and he still lives in the Charlottesville area. Poems have appeared recently in Paragraph and The Potomac; a larger selection of his work—poems on parts of the body—is on the Mudlark website.

Barbara De Franceschi lives with her husband in Broken Hill (where she was born), a small mining town in outback Australia, where they own and operate an earthmoving business and have a grown-up family of three sons and two daughters. She recently launched her first collection of poems, titled Lavender Blood.In 2002 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the community especially in the area of multiculturalism. Barbara joined the Broken Hill Writer's Forum in 2000 when she started to take her writing seriously. Since then she has had her poems and short stories published in literary journals and magazines throughout Australia, including Famous Reporter, Centoria, The Bunyip, Poetrix, The Tablet and Yellow Moon, in which her poem titled "Dust Storm" won first prize in the nature poetry section (to be published in July 2003). She has also read her poetry on radio live to air. She describes her poetry as "immediately accessible."

Leslie Edwards is a Cleveland, Ohio, native and is a freelance artist, photographer, writer and all around polymath who ran screaming from a career in the publishing industry to pursue her dreams. She is the publisher of PBR, A Journal of the Arts, a fledging multidisciplinary e-zine which challenges students to exercise rational thought.

Jennifer Finstrom lives in Chicago, IL. She is a former Eclectica Spotlight Author.

Jim Gourley lives in China and maintains a website of his photographs (see link).

David Graham teaches English at Ripon College. His most recent books are Stutter Monk (Flume Press, poetry) and After Confession (Graywolf), an essay anthology co-edited with Kate Sontag.

Robert Gray has worked as a bookseller and buyer for the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT since 1992. He was named the store's first Master Bookseller in 2000. He is also the author of Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal,, a publishing industry blog. Gray's written work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Publishers Weekly, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Tin House, and Cimarron Review. He earned an MFA in Writing & Literature from Bennington College in 2003. He is currently working on a book about reading and readers from a bookseller's perspective.

Lisa Ohlen Harris is this issue's Spotlight Author. She writes from Fort Worth, Texas, where she lives with her husband and four daughters. Her years in Jordan and Syria during the 1990s are the focus of her current writing, but she does occasionally write about other parts of the world, as in her short essay, "Up from Baja," which can be read in the current issue of Flashquake.org (v4i4).

Stephen Healey is director of the World Religions Program at the University of Bridgeport, a position he assumed in 1998 after completing the Ph.D. at Boston College. In 2005 he was named Distinguished Teacher of the Year. He has published non-fiction articles on topics such as human rights, conversion, religion and conflict, and religion and economy. "The Promised Land" is part of a collection of stories he is writing about individuals who find Something Big, whatever that is, in the damnedest place—their own lives.

Norton Hodges lives in Oakham, Leicestershire, UK. He has an M.A. and a PhD in literacy in education. After teaching French and German for many years, he took illness retirement and turned to writing. He has had many of poems published in magazines, in anthologies and now on the internet. He is the translator of the French poets Athanase Vantchev de Thracy and the francophone Greek poet Theo Crassas. He was recently awarded the Grand Prix International Solenzara for his poetry by a French jury. His recent work is short and philosophical (although he is fairly tall and sometimes humorous). With regards to "What I Owe," he says, "This poem may appear to be about self-sacrificing love but is actually a comment on codependency and asks the question: in the end what is mine?"

Katherine L. Holmes has appeared print journals such as WordWrights, The South Dakota Review, Talking River Review, The Minnesota Poetry Calendar, Porcupine, Sidewalks, Skyways and Ice Houses (a Walker Art Center exhibition catalogue). Her internet publications include Gin Bender, The Front Street Review, Facets, Rio, Ygdrasil, whimperbang, and The King's English where she was nominated for a Pushcart in Poetry. She lives Duluth, Minnesota, where she works with used and rare books when she is not writing. "Would You Like to Go Out Shoveling Tonight?" is her first attempt at a play since she was eight years old. She says, "I associate plays with being in trouble because I had spray painted our garage door for the marquee—without permission."

Allen Hope is a native Floridian living in exile in Northern California with his wife and two daughters. He earned a BA in English at the age of 48 from Sonoma State University, followed by a stint as a producer and scriptwriter for Project Censored's radio documentary series, For The Record, which aired on National Public Radio. His print publications include First Leaves, Zaum, and Snow Monkey. His online work has appeared in The Mid-South Review and Reflection's Edge. He is employed by his daughters as a stay-at-home dad.

Thomas J. Hubschman is the author of the novel Billy Boy (Savvy Press) and 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.

Stanley Jenkin's stories and essays have or will appear in Amelia, 32 Pages, The Blue Moon Review, CrossConnectand the Oyster Boy Review. A former Spotlight Author, Stanley has written a regular column for the Salon. He lives and works in Queens, New York.

Jack Kennedy is native Texan and has a Bachelor's degree in business and a Master's degree in communications from Texas Tech University. He worked as a corporate speech writer for several years in Nashville while pursuing a career as a songwriter. While there, he had three op/ed articles published in "The Tennessean," Nashville's daily newspaper. He is a published songwriter and has recorded a CD which contains 11 of his songs. He now resides in Dallas where he performs with his band, Jack & the CatDaddies.

Caroline Kepnes was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1976. She now lives in Los Angeles, which means she can't help but think about adapting this story into a script. After graduating from Brown, she moved to New York where she wrote for Tiger Beat and Entertainment Weekly. Her short stories have been published (or are forthcoming) in magazines including The Barcelona Review, Eyeshot, Hobart, Thieves Jargon, The Duck & Herring Co.'s Pocket Field Guide, Yankee Pot Roast and Word Riot. When she's not writing, she's playing cards, swimming or run-dancing on the treadmill with her Walkman of '80s mix tapes.

Cheryl Diane Kidder completed her B.A. in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University and is close to completing her M.A. Her fiction and poetry has appeared, or will appear soon in The Reed, The Story Garden, Amelia, Dog River Review, Alchemy, Sandscript, Insolent Rudder, August Cutter, Three Candles, Outsider Ink, Word Riot, Verbsap, Square Table, Priarie Dog 13, The Clackamas Literary Review, and In Posse Review. In 2004 her work was listed in storySouth's Notable Online Short Stories. Her work has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Deborah P. Kolodji works in information technology to fund her poetry obsessions and to pay for her children's college tuition. She is the editor and co-founder of Amaze: The Cinquain Journal and the owner and moderator of a yahoogroups e-mail discussion list for cinquain poetry called CinquainPoets. In addition to Electica, her cinquains have appeared in Scrivener's Pen, Wilmington Blues, St. Anthony Messenger Magazine, Autumn Pond, Short Stuff, Brevities, Hummingbird, and many other places.˛˛˛Kolodji is˛a member of the Haiku Society of America and her˛haiku has appeared in Modern Haiku, Bottle Rockets, The Heron's Nest, Tinywords, and The Red Moon Anthology.

Gary Lehmann teaches writing and poetry at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His poetry and short stories are widely published—about 60 pieces a year. He is the director of the Athenaeum Poetry group which recently published their first chapbook, Poetic Visions. He is also author of a forthcoming book of poetry entitled Public Lives and Private Secrets [Foothills Press, 2005]. When not writing or teaching, he interprets 19th century shoemaking at the Genesee Country Museum.

David J. LeMaster is the Senior Editor for Brooklyn Publishing. His work has appeared in StorySouth, RE:AL, Fiction Warehouse, Kennesaw Review, The Southern Anthology, and an upcoming Pindeldyboz. His first novel, The Passers, is published by LTD Books, and he has published over twenty plays. His story "Trash" was published by Eclectica last year and was named a "Notable Story of 2004" in the Million Writers Award.

A. Lopez is a teacher in the United Arab Emirates.

Don Mager has published some two hundred and fifty original poems and translations from Czech and German over the last thirty years, including two books: To Track The Wounded On (1986) and Glosses (1995).

Scott Malby

Kat McElroy was born in Laramie, Wyoming in 1950. She came to in Delta Junction, Alaska in 1986. She is a high school drop-out. She has a minor criminal record. She has been employed in a wide variety of occupations including drug dealing, bull-cook in a gold mine camp, bartender, wood-cutter, waitress, meat-wrapper, barroom floozie, and town drunk. She is a mother and a grandmother. She spent ten years living a subsistence lifestyle in the Interior of Alaska. During all this, she wrote, which she continues to do. She raises MacKenzie River Huskies and likes to play with fire. She has over-corrected in the criminal-behaviors arena and is now known as something of a stick-in-the-mud.

Corbitt Nesta is a retired English and English-as-a-second language teacher who has taught in schools and colleges in the US, England and Italy—specifically Naples, Verona, Palermo, Milan and Brescia. In September, 2001, having realized that life is short and unpredictable, she decided she had better start doing what she had originally set out to do when she was twenty: write. Her creative non-fiction has appeared online in Toasted Cheese and Dead Mule. She lives with her husband in Brescia, Italy, and is working on a novel.

Stanley Noah has a degree from The University of Texas at Dallas and is a member of The Academy of American Poets.

Crispin Oduobuk lives in Abuja, Nigeria. He's been published in some print media, including BBC Focus on Africa and Genevieve. Online his work has appeared at Eclectica, East of The Web, Gowanus, Ken*Again, The Ultimate Hallucination, Prose Toad, and he has new work forthcoming at Spoiled Ink. While trying to earn an honest living as the Group Literary Editor of Daily Trust and Weekly Trust, he used to disturb his colleagues at work with loud music by artistes as diverse as LL Cool J and Kamelot. He has repented of this habit and has recently bought a bicycle and a skipping rope to battle the "bulge." Sadly, his cramped living space won't let him use the skipping rope as often as he would like to. He's happy to report, though, that the bike is fun to ride between home and work.

Kevin O'Cuinn comes from Dublin, Ireland. He travels and teaches and writes, and travels and teaches and writes, aaaaaand travels and teaches and writes! He can't sing.

Tim Peeler recently published Baseball in Catawba County, a pictorial local history that he co-authored with Brian McLawhorn.

Jayne Pupek holds an MA in Psychology and lives near Richmond, VA. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in several online and print publications. Primitive, her chapbook of poetry, is available from Pudding House Press. Her first novel is scheduled for release Spring, 2006 by Algonquin at Chapel Hill.

Gilbert Wesley Purdy had had work in poetry, prose and translation appear in many journals, paper and electronic, including: Jacket Magazine (Australia); Poetry International (San Diego State University); Grand Street; SLANT (University of Central Arkansas); and Eclectica. His Hyperlinked Online Bibliography appears in the pages of The Catalyzer Jourrnal.

Ilie Ruby graduated from the Professional Writing Program at USC. Credits include the Edwin L. Moses Award for Fiction (chosen by T.C. Boyle), the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Fiction, a Kerr Foundation Writing Scholarship, and the Wesleyan Davidoff Journalism Scholarship. Ilie has published fiction and poetry in literary magazines throughout Southern California. Her novel, The Language of Trees, was published by Harper Collins in July 2010.

Todd Shy is a writer living in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Dave "the fod" Smith is a full-time student and part-time lifeguard. At the completion of a BA degree in English Literature at the University of Toronto, he will commence work on his B.Ed. and MA degrees. Involved in several musical ventures, Dave enjoys lyric writing just as much as poetry.

Maryanne Snell lives in California. Her degree in Literature convinced her that she could make a living reading and talking about books, and it hasn't failed her yet. She's spent the last eight years working in the comic book industry, and is currently the director of marketing for Oni Press. When she's not reading comics or novels, she's trying to write them.

Barry Southam is the author of two books of poetry (Lovers and Other People and The People Dance) and a collection of short stories (Mixed Singles) as well as a number of radio and stage plays. He has also acted in many New Zealand television plays and films. His latest book, Footprints on a Gravel Road, a collection of poems and stories, is about to be published by Dunedin publisher Square One Press.

Sarah Stodola calls Brooklyn her permanent home and London her sometimes home. She is a writer and the editor of the Me Three Literary Journal. "What Was Heard" was conceived in Buenos Aires during a three-month self-made writing retreat.

Luke Tennis has published short stories in Antietam Review, Connecticut Review, Puerto Del Sol, Paumanok Review, and elsewhere. His novel, Bernardo the Daredevil, won the 2003 St. Andrews College First Novel award, and was published by St. Andrews College Press. He has been a fellow at Ragdale and a Breadloaf Scholar. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a passionate though mediocre distance runner.

Davide Trame is an Italian teacher of English writing poems since 1993, which have been published in around one hundred literary magazines in the U.K., the U.S., and elsewhere since 1999. He lives in Venice.

Chris Wilson lives in Virginia, where he works as a journalist and freelance writer. While at the University of Virginia, he studied with Sydney Blair, John Casey, Chris Tilghman, Deborah Eisenberg, and Ann Beattie, and is grateful to all of them for their guidance and insight, along with the comments they penciled in the margins of his stories. He has published two stories in storySouth, one of which, "The Dry Season," was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He currently is working on a screenplay adaption of "The Dry Season," as well as a novel that he occasionally lets out of the drawer.

Molara Wood is a Nigerian writer living and working in London.

Charles Yu has had stories published in Eclectica, The Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review, Mississippi Review, Mid-American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Malahat Review and Sou'wester. A story of his was awarded the 2004 Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award, and another story was selected as a finalist for the 2005 Mississippi Review Prize.

 

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