KAZIM ALI is is the author of two books of poetry, The Far Mosque (Alice James Books), winner of Alice James Books' New England/New York Award, and The Fortieth Day (BOA Editions, 2008). He is also the author of the novel Quinn’s Passage (blazeVox books), named one of "The Best Books of 2005" by Chronogram magazine, The Disappearance of Seth (Etruscan Press, 2009), and Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities (Wesleyan University Press, 2009).

WILLA CARROLL has been published in Tin House, Readings for Writers (13th edition), and has work forthcoming in the Spring 2010 issue of Tuesday; An Art Project. She is a MFA candidate in the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in New York City.

SAMANTHA COHEN is from a cold American suburb and now lives in Los Angeles. She is an MFA candidate in CalArts' Writing Program. This is her first published story.

DENISE DUHAMEL's most recent poetry titles are Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), Two and Two (Pittsburgh, 2005), Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005) and Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pittsburgh, 2001). A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, she is an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami.

LEA ELLESEFF is a visual artist and writer currently residing in Ithaca, NY. Her interests include timeline art, her bicycle, and making dreams a reality. Lea is a founder of the Dacha Project- an unlikely band of six creating a more autonomous and sustainable existence somewhere in Central New York. You can check out her progress at www.lealsf.com and www.dachaproject.com.

ALISA HEINZMAN is an MFA student at Saint Mary’s College. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and French from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her poems have appeared in Laurus and are forthcoming in Benefactor Magazine. She lives with her husband, Jake Gillespie, in Oakland.

PATRICK HOLIAN was born and raised in San Francisco. He currently works out of and resides in South San Francisco, The Industrial City, coming to St. Mary’s after graduating from UC Riverside in 2005. The 2007 recipient of the Chester Aaron Scholarship, Patrick has made awnings, broken the largest bone in the human body (his own), and cut school to meet Joe Montana.

COURTNEY KILIAN is a native southern Californian who is environmentally inspired by its bearded palm trees, undulating tides, and hues of avocado and citrus produce in a region tormented by Santa Ana swept fires. She has been drawn to write about the aberrant in families, in death, and in health issues that plague humankind. Her interests include the biology of cancer, health and illness, experimental prose, weather patterns, writing communities, and Native American and Tribal Government studies. She will be a part of UCSD’s MFA program’s inaugural class this fall.

Jillian Kurvers is a first-year MFA student at Saint Mary's College studying creative nonfiction. She graduated with a degree in History from Claremont McKenna College in 2005 before taking a teaching position overseas. She grew up in Orange County but has lived in Osaka, Okinawa, Los Angeles, and most recently, the San Francisco bay area. Currently, Jillian tutors the apathetic in chemistry and algebra and poses as a relationship expert for the SF Examiner.

SANDRA LIM's first book, Loveliest Grotesque, was published in 2006 by Kore Press. Her poetry has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Boston Review, Court Green, and other journals. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a Soul Mountain Fellowship, and a 2006 Pushcart Prize nomination.

PABLO LOPEZ resides in Providence where he writes brittle lyrics addressed to emptiness: Like charcoal in the hands of a fool—it cannot be helped nor should it make flesh malignancy’s ballast.

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.

NIMA NAJAFI-KIANFAR will one day live as Nima Kian. He is a Persian-Iranian who only spent the first three years of his life in Iran; he grew up in Germany. After relocating to Los Angeles when he was 12, he lived submerged in films, eventually starting work as an intern in a film production company and worked his way through miscellaneous productions and a rewarding place alongside Jeff “The Dude” Dowd. But Iran is always a part of his direction. He remains connected to his people and, once in a while, will write a piece or do an interview on the up-and-comers within the Persian-Iranian community.

DANNY NEECE was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula. His creative endeavors brought him to the Bay Area in 2000 where he attended the California College of Arts and Crafts. Since his graduation in 2004 Danny has steadily been working as a freelance Illustrator and occasionally having art shows. You can find some of his work currently published in the Shambhala Sun, Hyphen, BuddhaDharma Quarterly, and Fourteen Hills Literary Journal. He lives and works in Berkeley California.

PETER ORNER is the author of a collection of short stories, Esther Stories, a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Bard Fiction Prize for his next book, the novel The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, his work can be found in The Atlantic Monthly and The Paris Review, and he recently edited Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, a non-fiction book documenting the lives of illegal immigrants living and working in the United States.

ARIANA REINES is the author of the cow (alberta prize, fencebooks: 2006), coeur de lion (mal-o-mar: 2007), and the forthcoming translations my heart laid bare by charles baudelaire and little black book by grisélidis réal, published by mal-o-mar and semiotext(e), respectively. her first play, telephone, was commissioned by the foundry theatre and presented at the cherry lane theatre in new york in february 2009. "your mother and i" was performed by abram coetsee, norman windsor waters iv, denis yurichhkov, and kevin zeidler at small press traffic on january 30, 2009.

JARED STANLEY is the author of Book Made of Forest (Salt Publishing, 2009), as well as the chapbooks I Something Scott Inguito You (Scantily Clad, 2009) and The Outer Bay (Trafficker, 2008). With Lauren Levin and Catherine Meng, he edits Mrs. Maybe. He lives in Merced, California.

JON STICH: I find the vast majority of human interaction to be both awkward and absolutely hilarious. The way we as humans attempt in every conceivable way to live our lives in ways that exceed and hide our animal behavior is not only remarkable, but absurd. This is why my art is largely figurative, and why my illustrations are in many cases satirical. No other species feels as insecure in it’s own skin as the human species, and that is what I hope to exploit in the art that I make. Taking complex topics and deducing them to an almost completely abstract definition is at the core of many pieces. It is this methodology that helps me present the irrational aspects of humans in ways that the viewer may perhaps empathize.

MICHELLE TEA writes books, and hosts readings for other people who write books, to be listened to by people who like reading books. My last novel is called Rose of No Man's Land and is about a teenage genderqueer loner who gets mixed up with a speed freak mall rat and falls in love. Or something. My last anthology is called It's So You and it's full of essays by stylish people about how they came to look so great, such as Eileen Myles, Kim Gordon, Jenny Shimizu, Kate Bornstein, Ali Liebegott, Tara Jepsen, Beth Lisick and other modern role models. I run the Radar Reading + Salon series in San Francisco, and every so often pile a bunch of bitches in a van and set off across the country under the guise of Sister Spit: The Next Generation. Billed as an all-girl spoken word road show, it's truly an excuse to sing karaoke at dive bars across America. We hit the road April 2009!