ANTHONY ALESSANDRINI has recently published poems in Tin House and Hanging Loose. He is currently collaborating on an alphabet called torture, a combined poetry/visual arts project, with artist Rukiye Sahin. He lives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn (though he never seems to go to the beach, except in the winter), and teaches at Kingsborough Community College-CUNY.

ROSA DEL DUCA is an MFA student at St. Mary's and a journalist with KNTV. She lives in Berkeley, where she writes fiction from her bed, propped up with pillows—never ever at a desk with an abhorrent chair. In her spare time she reads, takes in the sun, makes up songs on her guitar, and sews extensions on the sleeves and pant legs of her favorite clothes, so they will accommodate her lanky figure. She grew up mostly in Montana, and set out for California once she couldn't stand another grey, bone-chilling, six-month winter. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her boyfriend, Nicholas Leither, is her inspiration to just about everything.

LUKAS CHAMPAGNE was born in Portland, Maine. He was educated in the Berkeley Unified School District and graduated unspectacularly from high school after three and a half years. Following a ten-year period of prolonged and morbid alcoholism, he has begun to publish his fiction and read it publicly upon occasion. A selection of his work can be found in the Lifelong Press anthology, associated with the BackRoom Live reading series. He lives and writes in Oakland. He works as a cook. This is his second publication.

LISA FISHMAN's fourth book, F L O W E R C A R T, is forthcoming on Ahsahta Press, as well as a new chapbook, _Lining_, on Boxwood Editions. She is the author of The Happiness Experiment and Dear, Read, and two chapbooks including KabbaLoom. She lives in Orfordville, WI and Chicago, where she teaches at Columbia College Chicago.

BIA LOWE's essays and stories have appeared in many magazines and journals, including Salmagundi, The Kenyon Review, Harper's, Ms, Witness and the webzine Killing the Buddha. Her first book, WILD RIDE won the QPB New Visions Award for creative nonfiction. She currently lives in Mattituck, New York, where she is co-owner of The Old Mill Inn, and where she is cobbling "Unified Field," a collection of tales, some of which appear here.

MOIRA MCDONALD is an Australian-Californian photographer living and working in San Francisco. She has just received her BFA in Photography from California College of the Arts in Oakland after transferring from Parsons School of Design in NYC. Currently, Moira is working as a freelance photographer for The Onion Media Source as well as continuing her work with Pseudo Studio artist collective (pseudostudio.net). She enjoys Polaroid and a good laugh.

RICHARD MEIER is the author of Shelley Gave Jane a Guitar and Terrain Vague, both available from Wave Books. He lives in Chicago and is writer-in-residence at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI and plays guitar in James Fishman-Morren's band The Ja Na.

CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ is a co-founder of Achiote Press and author of from unincorporated territory [hacha] (Tinfish Press, 2008). His poetry, essays, reviews, and translations have appeared in New American Writing, Pleiades, The Denver Quarterly, The Colorado Review, and ZYZZYVA, among others.

MATTHEW ROHRER is the author of five books, most recently RISE UP published by Wave Books. He teaches in the creative writing program at NYU and lives in Brooklyn.

DAN WHITE's first nonfiction book, The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind -- and Almost Found Myself -- on the Pacific Crest Trail, was published in June by HarperCollins. "Last Minute Preparations" is a scene from the original manuscript of The Cactus Eaters, published for the first time in Mary. White, who was a 2007-2008 Steinbeck Fellow, has taught writing at San Jose State University and Columbia University. His travel writing appears in the New York Times, Backpacker Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.

LAUREN WILBANKS grew up at the foot of a desert mountain preserve in Phoenix, Arizona, and spent her parching childhood summers in the cool oases of books. A fresh graduate of USF's MFA program, she currently lives in Palo Alto and teaches writing at Menlo College.

MIKE YOUNG is the author of two chapbooks: MC Oroville's Answering Machine (Transmission Press 2009) and Real Sturdy Thing (Stormy Petrel Press 2009). He co-edits NOÖ Journal and Magic Helicopter Press. He lives in Northampton, MA.

SHARON ZETTER writes words between co-editing the journal Retired Unicorn, book binding, and battling with paint and yarn. She is currently working on building a dacha, possibly made of straw, with five other humans. Documentation of their exploits can be found at dachaproject.com. Her poems have found home in Hanging Loose, Slipstream, Sorry for Snake, Soft Skull and Blood Pudding Press.