Jean Valentine won the Yale Younger Poets Award for Dream Barker in 1965. Her most recent book is Little Boat (Wesleyan University Press, 2007). Her previous collection, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965 - 2003, was the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry

Michael McColly is a writer and AIDS activist. His book, The After Death Room: Journey into Spiritual Activism, by Soft Skull Press, follows his search to African-American preachers on the Southside of Chicago, Buddhist monks in a remote Thai monastery, and male sex workers in urban India.

Maggie Anderson is the author of four books of poems: Windfall: New and Selected Poems published in 2000. Her other books include Cold Comfort (1986) and A Space Filled with Moving (1992). Anderson is also co-editor of Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School.

Terese Svoboda’s memoir Black Glasses Like Clark Kent was published by Graywolf Press in 2008. Her ten books include fiction: Tin God (U of Nebraska Press, 2006); poetry: Mere Mortals (U of Georgia), and translations.

Vijay Nair’s first novel Master of Life Skills was launched by Harper Collins, India, 2006. Dronequill Publishers published The Gloomy Rabbit and other plays, 2003. Nair spent a month long residency at the "City of Asylum,” Pittsburgh.

Gerry Rosella Boccella’s work has been published in Voices from the Attic Vol. XII. She is an arts advocate, educator, and designer.

Laurin B. Wolf is working on her MFA at Kent State University. Her poems have been published in City Paper, Two Review, and Voices from the Attic, Vol. XIII.

Holley’s books include Late Day Thoughts, The Garden Journals: Poems and Garden Notes, and A Whole Quart Jar (all by FootHills Publishing). Holley is a member of the Madwomen in the Attic Writing Workshop at Carlow University.

Holley’s books include Late Day Thoughts, The Garden Journals: Poems and Garden Notes, and A Whole Quart Jar (all by FootHills Publishing). Holley is a member of the Madwomen in the Attic Writing Workshop at Carlow University.

Lori Jakiela is the author of Miss New York Has Everything (Warner Books, 2006). Her chapbook, The Regulars, was awarded first prize in Nerve Cowboy’s 2001 chapbook contest and published by Liquid Paper Press.