contributor bios

Amit Parmessur hails from the heavenly island of Mauritius. Aged 28, he has been writing for the past 8 years. He has been accepted and appeared in several magazines including Ann Arbor Review, Yes Poetry, Leaf Garden Press, Burnt Bridge, Calliope Nerve, Catapult to Mars, Censored Poets, Clockwise Cat, Clutching at Straws, Damazine, Gloom Cupboard, Heavy Hands Ink, LITSNACK, Mad Swirl, Orchard Press Mysteries, Puffin Circus, Shalla Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, The Camel Saloon, The Houston Literary Review, The Scrambler and Word Slawamong others. He is also busy with Golden Apple Ezine, of which he is one of the editors.

Catfish McDaris is a journeyman New Mexican bricklayer in Milwaukee. He has been published widely for 20 years. His most infamous chap is Prying with Jack Micheline & Bukowski. His works have been in NYQ, Rattle, Louisiana Review, Chiron, Haight Ashbury, Pearl, Main St. Rag, Slipstream, & Cafe Review. His last big reads were in NYC & The Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore in Paris.

Claire Joanne Huxham’s fiction has appeared in Monkeybicycle and The Molotov Cocktail. She lives just outside Bristol, UK, and teaches English at a local college. She can often be found obsessing over Buffy and Battlestar Galactica, cats, sushi and cheese. This is her first poetry publication. http://clairejoannehuxham.blogspot.com/

This is Elena Riley's first published poem. She's bashful, so instead of telling you more about herself, she's going hide in her room and watch TV.

[d]avid : [t]omaloff (b. 1972) | racine, WI, US | author, LIONTAMER’S BLUES (six eight press) | likes: jazz | hates: jazz | photography: yes | his work has also appeared in: Ditch Poetry, Otoliths, elimae, and/or, Counterexample Poetics, BlazeVOX 2KX, the Delinquent, and Calliope Nerve | see: davidtomaloff.com

Howie Good is the author of the full-length poetry collections Lovesick (Press Americana, 2009), Heart With a Dirty Windshield (BeWrite Books, 2010), and Everything Reminds Me of Me (Desperanto, 2011).

Kevin Heaton writes in South Carolina. His latest chapbook, "Measured Days," has published at Heavy Hands Ink Press. His work has appeared in: Elimae, Nibble, The Catalonian Review, Bananafish Magazine, and many others. His is listed as a notable poet at: KansasPoets.com. More of his work can be seen at: http://kevinheatonpoetry.webstarts.com/publications.html

Kyle Hemmings is the author of three chapbooks of poems: Avenue C (Scars Publications), Fuzzy Logic (Punkin Press), and Amsterdam & Other Broken Love Songs (Flutter Press). He lives and writes in New Jersey.

Matt Ryan is the author of Read This Or You’re Dead To Me:(forthcoming from Hopewell Publications). His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Pindeldyboz, Word Riot, Mud Luscious, Ghoti and Opium. He is the publisher and editor of the poetry press, Lowbrow Press, the fiction editor of Best New Writing and teaches creative and academic writing at Concordia St. Paul University.

By day, Matt Specht is the Harbormaster of Reefpoint Marina in Racine, WI. By night, he is tired, and cuddles with a local chupacabra of some repute.. www.jumpymatt.com

Melanie Browne likes to eat crispy creme donuts while watching the third class steerage dance scene from the movie Titanic over and over again. She also has an online literary journal that you should check out: http://theliteraryburlesque.com/.

R.D. Kimball is a religious scholar, a Hawaiian shirt enthusiast, and one hell of a model American. His short stories and poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in places like decomP, Yellow Mama, and The Red Cedar Review. He enjoys fishing, black coffee, well-stocked haberdasheries, vinyl records, and a good cigar. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Online, you can find him at http://curiousorthodoxy.wordpress.com

Robert McDonald's work has appeared recently in Court Green, Pank, elimae, La Petite Zine, and The Prose-Poem project, among others. He lives in Chicago, works at an independent bookstore, and blogs at http://livesofthespiders.blogspot.com.  While he has never seen a ghost, he heard footsteps once in an old hotel in Germany, footsteps in the room when no one was there.

Walter Conley got his start writing comic books. His poetry and fiction appear in the small press, anthologies and at such websites as Danse Macabre, Gloom Cupboard and In Between Altered States. He draws banner art for A Twist of Noir and a monthly comic for Pulp Metal Magazine. His current project, as editor, is the e-book series Flashdrive. Walter lives in VA and his blog, Back Again and Gone, is at http://baag2009.blogspot.com.