Contributors Biographies

Robin Ekiss

Bio: she is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award for emerging women writers, and author of the book, The Mansion of Happiness (University of Georgia Press, VQR Poetry Series, 2009). Her work has appeared widely, in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She lives in San Francisco. Visit her at: http://www.robinekiss.com/

Frank X Walker

Bio: he is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a Cave Canem fellow, and a recipient of a 2005 Lannan Literary Fellowship. He is the author of five collections of poetry including the upcoming I Dedicate This Ride: The Making of Isaac Murphy (Old Cove Press). He is Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky and lives in Lexington. Visit him at: http://www.frankxwalker.com/

Dobby Gibson

Bio: he is the author of the collection, Polar (Alice James Books, 2005), won the 2004 Beatrice Hawley Award and was a finalist for the 2006 Minnesota Book Award. His poetry, which has won fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and Jerome Foundation, has appeared in Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, New England Review, Fence, jubilat and elsewhere, and his second collection, Skirmish, will be published by Graywolf Press in 2009. He lives in Minneapolis. Visit him at: http://twitter.com/dobbygibson

Dierk Topp

Bio: he is retired and makes photographs using a Nikon Coolpix 990 and 995 (up until 2004) and a Nikon DSLR D200 from 2006 until now. He calls his images a "one man show" and that photography is exclusively a hobby. He is German but now lives in La Palma, The Canary Islands in Spain. See more of his work at: http://www.pbase.com/dierk/profile

Emmy Perez

Bio: she the author of Solstice (Swan Scythe Press, 2003), received an MFA from Columbia University. Her poems have appeared in Achiote Seeds, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, LUNA, New York Quarterly, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, and other publications, including the anthologies The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press, 2007) and The Weight of Addition: an anthology of Texas Poetry (Mutabilis Press, 2007). She has received poetry fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and she received the James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation for her prose writing. She is an Assistant Professor of English and teaches in the M.F.A. program at the University of Texas-Pan American near the U.S.-Mexico border. She also teaches poetry in juvenile and adult detention centers. She lives in Edinburg, TX. Visit her at: http://www.ysletapoeta.blogspot.com/

Diana Der-Hovanessian

Bio: she was twice a Fulbright professor of American Poetry and is the author of more than 23 books of poetry and translations. She has awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Society of America, PEN/Columbia Translation Center, National Writers Union, Armenian Writers Union, Paterson Poetry Center, Prairie Schooner, American Scholar, and the Armenian Ministry of Culture. Her poems have appeared in Agni, Prairie Schooner, Nation etc., and in anthologies such as Against Forgetting, Women on War, On Prejudice, Finding Home, Leading Contemporary Poets, Orpheus and Company, Identity Lessons, Voices of Conscience, and elsewhere. She works as a visiting poet and guest lecturer on American poetry, Armenian poetry in translation, and the literature of human rights at various universities here and abroad. She serves as president of the New England Poetry Club. She is based in Cambridge, Mass. Visit her at: http://www.dianaderhovanessian.com/index.html

Julie Babcock

Bio: her writing appears in many literary journals including The Iowa Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Apple Valley Review, MiPOesias, and Fifth Wednesday Journal. She is a Lecturer at University of Michigan ans lives in Ann Arbor. She has no current website.

Ambera Wellmann

Bio: she was born in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1982, and is earning her BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, where she focuses on painting, printmaking and drawing. Her work can currently be seen at Seeds Gallery and the Art Sales and Rental Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she lives. Visit her at: http://www.amberas.com/

Carey Salerno

Bio: she is the Director of Alice James Books. Her first book, Shelter, won the 2007 Kinereth Gensler Award and was published in 2009. Carey has an MFA from New England College. Her work has appeared in such journals as Rattle and Natural Bridge. She lives in Farmington, Maine. Visit her at: http://www.careysalerno.com/

Dan Nowak

Bio: he is a poet with an MFA from Spalding University and is pursuing his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His first book, Recycle Suburbia, won the 2007 Quercus Review Poetry Series Award. His work has appeared in magazines such as the Blue Collar Review, Blood Lotus, Heliotrope, freefall, Broken Bridge Review, Licking River Review, FRiGG Magazine, and others. Dan is also the editor for Perfect Bound Karma (a poetry review site), an editor for New Sins Press and co-founder of Imaginary Friend Press. He lives in Toledo, Ohio. Visit him at: http://perfectboundkarma.blogspot.com/

Closing Note: The editor would like to thank the contributors for the use of their work. Each contributor reserves their original rights. Look for the next issue of CSR online on August 1st. Copyright 2010 by Maurice Oliver. All Rights Reserved.


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