John M. Anderson (Scots Wed, Home Bridal) teaches creative writing and literature at Boston College. He divides his time between Boston and Cripple Creek Colorado. His new chapbook, Dictionary Quilt, just out from Pudding House Press, explores the weird and mystic landscape of the American Southwest.

Laura Barcella (My Eczema, Myself) is a writer and editor in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Salon, AlterNet, The Village Voice, ELLEgirl, Playgirl and a host of other fine publications. Two of her big loves are cats and candy. My Eczema, Myself originally appeared in SMITH magazine.

Denise Dooley (Homesick Poem) holds a BA in English and Religious Studies from University of Iowa and an MPhil in Criticism and Culture from Cambridge University. She lives, works and writes in Chicago.

Amanda Field (Prologue to Heartbreak, Winter Landscape, Aperture) is the managing editor of ZYZZYVA. Her chapbook of poems, That Year, has just been published by Etherdome Press.

Laura Fraser (Suburban Hottentot) is a freelance writer and the author of An Italian Affair and Losing It: America's Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It. She has written a great deal about body image, weight, and food obsession, but these days prefers to write about the pleasures of eating. Her website is laurafraser.com.

Mimi Ghez (Oracles, Egypt and Auras) was recently selected as winner of the Washington Post's "Vacation in Lights" contest for a travel piece about her trip to Yogaville, and was also published as part of the Post's "Twelve Days of Christmas" series. She has been asked by Tiny Lights to be its feature writer in 2007, and will be published in 2008 as part of a forthcoming HarperCollins book called NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING: And Other Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Mimi is also a life coach with a special interest in working with writers to achieve creative goals. See www.eaglecoaching.com. She can be reached at mimi.ghez@gmail.com.

San Francisco-based Sez Giulian (We Paint the Walls) began playing piano at the age of four but a few years later traded it in for the classical viola. She taught herself how to strum guitar at sixteen and since then has picked up the cello, bass and accordion. She moved to SF from Philadelphia in 1997 and has since performed her own music at the Fillmore, Cafe du Nord, Hotel Utah and many other SF venues. Sez co-wrote and recorded several songs with Looq Records producers Jondi & Spesh on their album The Answer. She is currently working on a collaborative album with Jondi in their band Good at Human. Learn more at sezg.com.

Grey Held (First Time I Saw Grandpa Shirtless) is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His recent publication credits include: Antigonish Review, Comstock Review, Fox Cry Review, Potomac Review, Slipstream, and Brooklyn Review.

Daniel Hernandez (The Question of the Year) is a freelance writer and photographer living in New York City. dghernandez@gmail.com

Audrey Howard (Just So Ya Know) bought a four-track and recorded her first cd, the bedroom recorded, bare-bones ep., Mischief in 2000. Mischief was put on the juke at her local pub and her first hit, “New Strings" was in heavy rotation. She then formed the punk-pop trio, Strumpet, which produced Phase (2001), a 4-song ep. Audrey then went into the studio to record a full-length solo album, called Summer Thunder, a gorgeous record which delves into her personal world, from relationship missteps, to the horrors of working in an office, to the death of her father. Audrey put together an energetic and talented band, "Audrey Come Lately," which released their album, Kismet, in 2005. A natural-born performer, Audrey continues to play out solo and with her band, from headlining Biscuits and Blues, to recording a live showcase on KZSU, to performing each year at the Salmon River Festival in Northern California. You might also catch her perform as her alto ego “Stain’d” – the cowboy guitar player in S.F. 70’s rock drag band, Wood. She is currently working on material for her next album and searching for an independent label.

Thomas Kilts (An Eye for an Eye) plays in the duo Diablo's Dust. Tom takes turns on banjo, mandolin, and acoustic guitar all the while keeping time with one foot on the bass drum and the other kicking a block and tambourine. His partner, Sarah Kilts, plays bass, and both lend their vocals to folk-Americana originals and occasional olde-tymie covers. Diablo's Dust hails from the SF Bay Area. For show dates check: www.myspace.com/diablosdust.

Mary Kolesnikova (Frost) is writing right now, as you read this. She has a young adult series and a chick lit book in the works. After night falls, she fondles her wild side with her beloved online personality, Rantasaurus Rex, a sarcastic, hilarious dinosaur who runs a rant and humor-based online magazine. Rexie is always looking for great writing, sharp wit and a furious sense of humor. Submit your own rants and check out our contests: RantasaurusRex.com.

Joe Loya (Prison Face-Off) is an essayist, playwright, and contributing editor at Pacific News Service. His opinion pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Washington Post, and other national newspapers. His memoir, The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell, was published by HarperCollins. www.joeloya.com

Mark MacNamara (Woman from the Mainland) is a journalist. His recent fiction has appeared in The King's English and Southern Gothic.

Angela Marino (The Twelve Steps of Don’t Say It in So Many Words) is just finishing her M.A. in creative writing at San Francisco State University. In her spare time she teaches reading and creative writing to elementary school students.

RG McCartney (Love So Divine) was born in Omagh, Northern Ireland and now lives in Sydney, Australia. His short stories have been published in Overland, Aurealis, and The Wine Dark Sea. He is currently working on a novel.

Chad Morgan (The Old Man’s Daughter Never Came Home) is working toward his BA in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago but would rather be in New York. He has a mean cat.

Stephanie Gene Morgan (The Body) is an artist based in Oakland, CA. Her work has appeared in Dwell, The Advocate and L'Actualitie. She is currently working on film projects. www.stephaniegenemorgan.com, www.sneakylittlesister.com

Kristina Moriconi (Out on a Limb) holds an M.A. in English from Arcadia University and is an Adjunct Professor of English there. She has published a nonfiction essay in Flashquake. Currently, she divides her writing time between suburban Philadelphia and New York City with a five-year plan to finally move to Manhattan.

Michelle Morrison (Heavy or Prolonged Bleeding) is a recent graduate of the Fiction Writing Program at Columbia College Chicago. She is currently at work on a novel in stories.

Peter Orner (Tram) is the author of The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and Esther Stories.

Derek Patton Pearcy (Six Things I Will Not Say Tomorrow at My Father’s Funeral) is a native Texan. After 12 years in Austin he left his heart there, only to find it again in San Francisco.

Voted as one of the top 10 folk artists in Austin, Vanessa Peters (antihero) has criss-crossed America twice in the last two years and toured all over Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic, both as a solo artist and with her Italian band, Ice Cream on Mondays. But touring hasn’t stopped her putting pen to paper either; she released “Thin Thread” in 2005 to glowing reviews in the States and in Italy, and released her fourth and fifth albums (Blackout and Little Films) in 2006. Vanessa and Manuel Schicchi, the band’s guitarist, have just wrapped up a 40-stop tour across America promoting Little Films.

Andy Raskin's (A Gut Above) stories have appeared on public radio's This American Life and All Things Considered and in publications including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Fast Company, Travel & Leisure, and Playboy (Japan). Fluent in Japanese, he is currently writing a book about the inventor of instant ramen.

Kia Simon’s (The Dive) work most often walks a fine line between quirky and genuinely affecting, balancing the unusual with the universal — Looking for Sly, about an Armenian Rambo impersonator and his quest to meet Sylvester Stallone, is a bittersweet look at celebrity and the lure of Western culture (Best Short Doc SXSW); Disarmed is a touching tale of the perfect first date between a shy engineer and a wannabe amputee. Also a music video director, Simon’s videos have played in frequent rotation on MTV. She has had retrospectives from Varnish Art Gallery and KTEH Public Television, participated in AFI’s Women Director’s Workshop, and Film Independent’s Director’s Lab and FastTrack program. www.sneakylittlesister.com

Edward Smallfield’s (score) poems have appeared in The Big Ugly Review, Five Fingers Review, New American Writing, Parthenon West Review, Traverse, 26, and a number of other magazines. He is the author of The Pleasures of C and the coauthor of One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a book-length collaboration with Doug MacPherson.

Sabrina Tom (Camo) is the fiction editor at Hyphen (www.hyphenmagazine.com). Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Slow Trains, Storyglossia and Utne Reader. She was born in Taiwan, raised in Santa Monica, and currently lives on the sunny side of San Francisco, where she is at work on a novel.

Wendy VanLandingham (Baby Go Bye Bye) is a writer whose short stories have recently appeared in The Portland Review and Taste. She is a recipient of UCLA's James Kirkwood Prize in Creative Writing, and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is working on her first collection of short stories.