Contributor Bios

Franz Baskett: I am a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arkansas. My poetry has appeared in the Southern Review, The Pacific Review, The New Orleans Review, The Houston Literary Review and Grey Sparrow Journal, et al. My book, The Accident Prone Man, was published in 1994 by Orchises Press of Washington, D.C. I am the winner of the Raymond L. Barnes Award and The Academy of American Poets Prize. I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where I work in the newspaper industry.




Tom Besson is a product of 1950s America and a Czech immigrant subculture. He studied at The University of Houston Art College for 3 years before moving to Austin in 1974. In 2001 he co-founded a Neosymbolist Collective of international artists. Besson has curated the collective’s exhibitions in the United States and across northern and central Europe. Besson’s work has been displayed in museum exhibitions sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Culture and in galleries in Texas, Denmark, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. His work is in the permanent collection of the University of Houston, The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and in private collections in Ireland, Wales, Czech Republic, Canada and the United States and can be seen at http://www.tombesson.com./



Chris Castle is English but currently teaches in Greece. He has sent his work out this past year and been accepted over 100 times. His influences include Ray Carver, the films of PT Anderson, and Bill Murray. He can be reached at chriscastle76@hotmail.com



Dan Cirilo: Greetings from Chinatown, San Francisco. Liz & Laura (editrices to you) will tell you I'm a ‘father’ figure, but the darker secret is that when asked about their relationship, Liz says, “She's my daughter, my sister,(slap!) my daughter, my sister” (slap!) & Laura , “She’s my mother, my sister(slap!) my mother, my sister” (slap!) Proud father/lover to them both, I remain...yours in incest, EAP (aka Cirilo) Editrice Note: We categorically deny everything.



Chris Crittenden: I teach Environmental Ethics for the University of Maine and do much of my writing in a hut in a spruce forest. Some recent acceptances are from Brink Magazine, Vox Humana, The Centrifugal Eye and Portland Review. I was recently featured in the Moonday Poetry Reading Series, and Tom Hanks walked by during the session ... (No one else seemed fazed except me).



John Grey: I’ve been published recently in the Georgetown Review, The Pinch, South Carolina Review and The Pedestal with work upcoming in Alimentum and Big Muddy.



Paul Handley is transgendered on the advice of his father. Paula was a star camogie player in college. Paula now works as a sales manager that has imbued the sales staff with a proportional sense of fear and is considering reversing her operation. She wrote a pilot about her experiences that aired in the fall of 2006 that resulted in threats by sponsors to pull all network advertising.



Writer and saboteur, Brenton Harper-Murray is based in Chicago and will only let you in on his plans if you have read the right literature. He has been published in The Logan Square Literary Review, Why?Vandalism, and Everyday Weirdness among others. More of his work can be seen at: poorbrenton.blogspot.com



Steven Mayoff: I am a writer living on Prince Edward Island, Canada. My fiction and poetry have appeared in magazines across Canada and the USA, as well as Ireland, Algeria and France. My first collection of fiction, “Fatted Calf Blues”, was published in 2009.



William Neumire: Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Los Angeles Review, Sugar House Review, and Puerto del Sol.



Deborah L. Reed currently resides in a small bedroom community in Central Texas with her daughter, grandson, and two dogs. She is a retired science teacher who now works in Code Enforcement. Her story “Big Bad Blue” was published in the May 2010 issue of The Scrambler. “Leah And Her Stuffed House” was in the April 2010 issues of Bananafish and was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. “Smoke Screen” appeared in the June 2010 issue of Einstein’s Pocket Watch.


Fred Skolnik is the editor in chief of the 22-volume second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, winner of the 2007 Dartmouth Medal. He was born in New York and has lived in Israel since 1963. Now writing full time, he has published over 30 stories in the past 2 years (in TriQuarterly, Gargoyle, The MacGuffin, Minnetonka Review (Pushcart nomination), Los Angeles Review, Prism Review, Underground Voices, 34th Parallel, River Poets Journal, Third Wednesday, Sonar4, Skive, Neon, Johnny America, etc.). His novel The Other Shore will be published by Aqueous Books in 2011 and his novella Like Soldiers Everywhere has appeared as an e-book (Cantarabooks).

In addition to writing, Leland Thoburn plays jazz saxophone and flute. He has been writing fiction for three years, during which time he has had 28 stories published in a variety of journals and magazines. You can read more of his stories online at http://lelandthoburn.wordpress.com./