Rare Bird Radio

Heidi Barnes ran her family's Bar Harbor, Maine inn for years, which inspired 'The Bellman' and 'The Bellman's Secret'. She has lived around the world, including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, and Canada―and now resides in Los Angeles, California. She enjoys outdoor activities, loves animals, and is a devoted mother of three. The Bellman's Secret is her second novel.

Raised in L.A by his grandfather who instilled in him his Jewish faith, Riley was a multi sport athlete who gravitated to boxing. His passion for the sport took him from the comfort of his Hancock Park neighborhood to train at gyms around L.A, eventually settling at Broadway Gym in South Central where he trained under Bill Slayton. The combination of being a straight A student and the first rate education on the L.A streets caught the attention of Robert "Puggy" Zeichick, one half of a Jewish-Italian bookmaking team. Riley started doing pick-ups and quickly graduated to felonious capers. After a stint in juvenile reform school, Riley resumed his gambling association, which had grown to working for Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello. He balanced his bookmaking business with his travels as an employee for TWA. Briefly, Riley settled on University studies in Germany, but returned to LA full time after capitalizing on the tech boom of the 90s in part by day trading stocks and then creating software that he licensed to Washington Mutual Bank, a company he worked for, which allowed him a solid foundational understanding of banking regulations, that he took with him into his online gaming ventures.

Allan MacDonell is the author of 'Now That I am Gone', 'Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine' and 'Punk Elegies: True Tales of Death Trip Kids, Wrongful Sex and Trial by Angel Dust'. MacDonell studied creative writing at San Francisco State University. He was a defining contributor to L.A.'s 'Slash' magazine. Since the turn of the millennium, MacDonell has been separating real from fake on Internet platforms like Buzz Media, Spin Media, Participant Media, and marijuana news-and-lifestyle site Kindland. He is currently director of TheSkeeve.com.

Michelle Blair Wilker is a Los Angeles-based writer and producer. Her work has appeared in "Across the Margin", "Whistlingfire", "Hollywood Dementia", and "The Huffington Post". She was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s November 2012 contest for new writers and was short listed for the Fresher Writing Prize in 2015. In 2017, she attended DISQUIET: Dzanc Books International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal, and was featured in The New Short Fiction Series in Los Angeles. TV producing credits include Stand Up to Cancer and The Grammys.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe is the author of five previous novels, including 'The Evolution of Love'. Her fiction has won a California Arts Council Fellowship in Literature, an American Library Association Stonewall Award, the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize, a Pushcart nomination, a Yaddo Fellowship, and two National Science Foundation Artists & Writers Fellowships. She’s been a six-time Lambda Literary Award finalist and a two-time Ferro-Grumley Award Finalist. Bledsoe lives in the Bay Area where she spends as much time as possible kayaking in the bay, as well as hiking and cycling in the hills.

Lise Arin, author of "Matilda Empress", has a PhD in English Literature from Columbia, and an undergraduate degree in History and Literature from Harvard. She has two children, and lives with her husband in New York City. This is her first novel, although it has been in the making for twenty years. Please follow @lisearin on Instagram and Twitter.

David Rocklin is the author of 'The Luminist' and 'The Night Language', and the founder/curator of Roar Shack, a monthly reading series in Los Angeles. He was born and raised in Chicago and now lives in LA with his wife, daughters and a 150 lb Great Dane who seriously needs to stay on his own bed. He’s currently at work on his next novel, 'The Electric Love Song of Fleischl Berger'.

Jacqueline Suskin is the author of 'The Edge of the Continent': a book about California, 'The Collected': a book of narrative poems paired with found photographs, and 'Go Ahead & Like It': a self-help book that explores the healing power and artistry of positive list making. Known for her multidisciplinary work with a project she calls "Poem Store", Suskin composes improvisational poetry for patrons who choose both a topic and a price in exchange for a unique verse. She regularly brings poetry into classrooms around the country and was honored by Michelle Obama at the White House as a Turnaround Artist.

Michelle Blair Wilker is a Los Angeles-based writer and producer. Her work has appeared in "Across the Margin", "Whistlingfire", "Hollywood Dementia", and "The Huffington Post". She was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s November 2012 contest for new writers and was short listed for the Fresher Writing Prize in 2015. In 2017, she attended DISQUIET: Dzanc Books International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal, and was featured in The New Short Fiction Series in Los Angeles. TV producing credits include Stand Up to Cancer and The Grammys.

Jon Methven is the author of three novels: 'Therapy Mammals', 'Strange Boat', and 'This Is Your Captain Speaking'. His work has appeared in Timothy McSweeney’s, Internet Tendency, the New York Times, New York Magazine, Buzzfeed, The Atlantic, and The Awl. He lives in New York City.

Tom Stern is the author of the novels 'My Vanishing Twin' and 'Sutterfeld, You Are Not A Hero', published by Rare Bird Books. He is also the writer/director of the feature films 'Half-Dragon Sanchez' and 'This Is A Business'. Tom's films have played festivals across the United States and in Europe. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Eckerd College and an MFA in Film Production from Chapman University.

Riley Perez, author of 'What Is Real: The Life and Crimes of Darnell Riley'. Raised in L.A by his grandfather who instilled in him his Jewish faith, Riley was a multi sport athlete who gravitated to boxing. His passion for the sport took him from the comfort of his Hancock Park neighborhood to train at gyms around L.A, eventually settling at Broadway Gym in South Central where he trained under Bill Slayton. The combination of being a straight A student and the first rate education on the L.A streets caught the attention of Robert "Puggy" Zeichick, one half of a Jewish-Italian bookmaking team. Riley started doing pick-ups and quickly graduated to felonious capers. After a stint in juvenile reform school, Riley resumed his gambling association, which had grown to working for Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello. He balanced his bookmaking business with his travels as an employee for TWA. Briefly, Riley settled on University studies in Germany, but returned to LA full time after capitalizing on the tech boom of the 90s in part by day trading stocks and then creating software that he licensed to Washington Mutual Bank, a company he worked for, which allowed him a solid foundational understanding of banking regulations, that he took with him into his online gaming ventures.

Tyler Knight author of 'Burn My Shadow: A Selective Memory of an X-Rated Life', is an adult film actor who has performed in over 500 films. He was a Playgirl Spokesmodel. In 2009 he won the Good For Her Feminist Porn Award as Heartthrob of the Year, and was nominated for the Urban X Award: Performer of the Year. He has been nominated for 18 AVN Awards and has won 3. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Allan MacDonell is the author of the upcoming novel 'Now That I Am Gone'. His other works include; 'Punk Elegies: True Tales of Death Trip Kids, Wrongful Sex and Trial by Angel Dust', 'Prisoner of X: 20 Years in the Hole at Hustler Magazine' and was a defining voice of the groundbreaking punk periodical "Slash" magazine. While writing for Slash, he also co-invented slam-dancing.

Kevin Rutmanis is an American bass guitarist. He is of Latvian descent. Before getting into music, he was a student teacher. In late 1985, along with his younger brother Sandris Rutmanis, Thor Eisentrager, and then Jayhawks drummer Norm Rogers, he started the band The Cows. After the dissolution of The Cows, Rutmanis was the bass guitar player for The Melvins from 1998 to 2005. He was also the bass guitarist in the supergroup Tomahawk featuring Mike Patton. Kevin played bass on Tomahawk's first two long play releases, titled Tomahawk and Mit Gas, and played for two world tours supporting those albums. He has recently recorded with Hepa-Titus.

Karen Stefano is the author of the forthcoming memoir Vigilance (Rare Bird Books 2019) and the short story collection The Secret Games of Words (1GlimpsePress 2015). Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Ms. Magazine, California Lawyer, Psychology Today, The South Carolina Review, Tampa Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Epiphany, and elsewhere. She is also a JD/MBA with more than twenty years of complex litigation experience. To learn more about Karen, please visit: www.stefanokaren.com

Dr. Rosenna Bakari is a scholar, motivational speaker, and social advocate. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado, her Master's degree in Counseling from the State University of New York and her undergraduate degree in psychology from Cornell University. As a psychologist, writer, black belt, spoken-word artist, and a marathon finisher, she lives life to the fullest. Dr. Bakari has always loved writing and wrote her first book while she was a stay-at-home parent in 1994. Her poetry collection consists of over 150 poems and she enjoys participating in open mic events. She has 15 years of training in tae kwon do and is an avid runner as well. She finds her mental strength through training her physical body and uses her writing to support others in their healing journey. She is the founder and executive director of Talking Trees, Inc., an empowerment organization for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Karen Stefano is Fiction Editor for Connotation Press. Her stories have appeared in The South Carolina Review, Tampa Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, Epiphany, and elsewhere. She was nominated for the XXXVIII Pushcart Prize. To learn more about her work, please visit www.stefanokaren.com.

Nancy Stohlman's books include The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories (2014), The Monster Opera (2013), Searching for Suzi: a flash novel (2009), Live From Palestine (2003), and Fast Forward: The Mix Tape (2010), an anthology of flash fiction that was a finalist for a 2011 Colorado Book Award. She is a founding member of Fast Forward Press, the creator of FlashNano, the founder and curator of The F-Bomb Flash Fiction Reading Series in Denver, and her work has been recently nominated for The Best of the Web.

Kathy Fish teaches for the Mile High MFA program at Regis University in Denver. Her short fiction has appeared in Indiana Review, The Denver Quarterly, New South, Quick Fiction, Guernica, Slice, BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING 2018, edited by Sheila Heti. THE LIST: 25 PROVOCATIVE WOMEN WRITERS (Black Lawrence Press, 2014), and BEST SMALL FICTIONS, 2016, 2017, 2018. She is the author of four collections of short fiction: a chapbook of flash fiction in the chapbook collective, A PECULIAR FEELING OF RESTLESSNESS; FOUR CHAPBOOKS OF SHORT SHORT FICTION BY FOUR WOMEN (Rose Metal Press, 2008), WILD LIFE (Matter Press, 2011), TOGETHER WE CAN BURY IT (Lit Pub, 2012), and RIFT, co-authored with Robert Vaughan (Unknown Press, 2015).