Draoi Allta: my true name (birth name) is dana culling, but i am known as draoi allta, which means "wild druid" in gaelic. i was born and raised in michigan, and currently live in rochester hills. my passion for writing started when i was 12, an escape from drudgery and from pain, it became an art form in and of itself after a couple of years when my style began to develop. while i don't have a writing regimen, i do love to do it and i try to write at least two poems per day. other interests include music, spirituality, art, and working with animals.

Dawn Andres: I'm a 17 year old girl from suburban chicago. I love art and music and I plan on going to college next year and majoring in art. More about me can be found on my webpage (http://www.gurlpages.com/me/sisterbliss/untitled.html).

Derik A. Badman: is a human living in Glenside, PA (just outside Philadelphia). He makes his living working in a library, but his first love is books. Reading overtakes all other obsessions (which include writing, playing guitar, something else). He graduated from art school but gave up on drawing in favor of writing (some may wonder at that wisdom). More of his poems may be found at http://www4.50megs.com/partialtruth his website. Derik thinks you should read Kenneth Rexroth, for he is a highly underrated poet, and a big influence.

Robert E G Black: I'm 24. I live in Southern California (I'd specify the city, but I'm hoping to move very soon). I've been writing stories most of my life. I've even graduated into longer forms (novels and such).

Leslie Morris Britt:A native of Greensboro and a graduate of Wake Forest, Leslie Morris Britt resides in Winston-Salem where she has taught high school English for fifteen years. Winner of the Dave Fairly Award for Balladry, she writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays. She is also a Reiki Master. Her hobbies include singing, gardening, rock collecting, and hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where she soon hopes to live.

Melissa Consiglio: I'm a nearly 19-year-old sophomore anthropology student at the University of Florida. I love reading, writing, and photography, but my career goal is forensic science. I've only been writing seriously for a couple of years, and I'm frequently harassed by bouts of low productivity and inspiration, but there's nothing like the feeling of completing a poem after a dry spell.

Erin Elizabeth: I am a Southern girl who grew up in a rural community outside of Columbia, SC and now makes my home in the wonderfully thick soup of New England accents, primarily Providence, Rhode Island. I am currently paying the bills with the advertising from my online opus, Stirring, a monthly literary collection, the scant checks I receive for pieces published on and offline, and of course the baubles sent to me from the Insomniac Asylum's Poetry Slam (sponsored by Warner Brothers), of which I am a 15-time winner. (Stirring can be accessed at http://thunder.prohosting.com/~stirring.) Some recent publications include Disquieting Muses, Agneiska's Dowry, Aubade, Polemic, Dithyramb, PRISM, Silencio = Muerte, pith..., Tuesday Café, Dragoneyes, and mostlyPOETRY. Awards include third place and platinum honorable mention from the Amazing Instant Novelist (sponsored by Barnes and Noble), and Poet of the Year by Poetry Superhighway; I am also a five-time winner of Anima's Poetry Slam (sponsored by Simon and Schuester).

Richard Harrison: Escaped from an engineering career by sailing, with his bride-to-be Karen, to Kealakekua Bay on the Island of Hawaii in his small Swedish double-ended sloop named 'Ecstasy' in 1977. Has been writing poetry quietly since 1972, with an occasional ezine publication after discovering the internet in 1997. Probably the most notable publication was in "The Astrophysicist's Tango Partner Speaks" at heelstone.com edited by Jennifer Ley. Has a 10 year-old son named Ben who reveals miracles daily to his lucky father. (Editor's comment: Does not use subjects when writing bios. *grin*)

Ellen Killoran: I am 24 years old and I live in New York City. I moved here from Boston under a year ago for a job at Chanel, Inc. I have recently left that company to pursue a career as a freelancer. I was born in the small, suburban town of Somerset, Massachusetts and stayed there until I began my undergraduate degree at Boston University. I recieved a B.S. in Communication in 1998 and stayed in the city for a year while I was employed at an educational publisher. I love almost everything about NYC but I still have the urge to travel more, so I may move to Geneva for a few months this summer, depending on whether I can tear myself away from the raging metropolis that I call home. Almost all of my energizing interests fall into the arena of lifestyle and popular culture. I am a clothing fanatic with a penchant for shopping. I am a die hard bargain hunter and particularly enjoy wasting a Saturday at the Chelsea flea market, weather permitting. I love to travel, particularly by train, but I don't get to do it as often as I would like. My latest addiction is Who Wants to be a Millionaire. (I do!) I enjoy good food, drink, and long cigarettes. I am a vegetation but otherwise not picky at all. I have frequent, bizzare nightmares that make for good conversation sometimes. My dream is to write a league of books for twenty-thirtysomethings based on the Choose Your Own Adventure series that kept me engrossed as a child. Then again, my dreams are transient.

Sam Leonard: A 19 year old male from South western Kentucky. Lived his whole live in a factory town. Raised with only one parent, his mother, which provided him with plenty of love, motivation, and enthusiasm. She is the only reason why he is the artist that he is.

Duane Locke: Doctor of Philosophy in Renaissance Literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, Poet in Residence at University of Tampa for over twenty years, he has had over 2,000 of his own poems published in over 500 print magazines such as American Poetry Review, Nation, Literary Quarterly, Black Moon, and Bitter Oleander, is author of 14 books of poems, his latest being WATCHING WISTERIA (to order see www.vidapublishing.com or call Small Press Distribution-1-800-869-7553), as a cyber-poet, since Sept 1, 1999 has had 659 acceptances of his poems by online e zines, photographer, listed in PSA's WHO'S WHO as one of the top twenty nature photographers, painter, currently having a one-man show of over 30 painting at the Pyramid gallery in Tampa, winner for poetry of the Edna St. Vincent Millay, Charles Agnoff, and Walt Whitman awards, now lives alone and isolated in the sunny Tampa slums. He lives estranged and as an alien, not understanding the customs, the costumes, the language, some form of postmodern English, of his surroundings. The egregious ugliness of his neighborhood has been mitigated by the esthetic efforts of the police who put up bright orange and yellow posters on each post to advertise the location is a shopping mall for drugs. His recreational activities are drinking wine, listening to old operas, and reading postmodern philosophy.

Donny May: is a Dallas native transplanted to Fort Lauderdale, FL. He is 20 years old and has been writing off and on for 10 years. He is currently performing with a company called the Alliance of Miami and is a bartender by trade.

Michael Pollick: was born in Ohio in 1964, but has called Alabama his home for the past 15 years. His interest in poetry began at the age of 16, when his English teacher submitted his work to several anthologies and magazines. Nearly twenty years later, his work has appeared in such magazines and journals as the Iconoclast, the Midwest Poetry Review, Elk River Review, HART, and the Vermillion Literary Project. His poem Pinaud's Tonic is included in a peace anthology entitled Will Work for Peace, edited by New York poet Brett Axel and featuring a virtual who's who of today's working poets, including Lyn Lifshin, Donald Hall, Martin Espada and Marge Piercy. Michael is happily married to his wife Amy, a news assistant for the local paper. He enjoys reading and critiquing poetry, so feel free to contact him at phaedrus65@hotmail.com.