Forklift, Ohio

Scott Abels currently lives and teaches in Honolulu, where he edits the online journal of poetry Country Music. His work can be found in print and online with RealPoetik, Juked, Lungfull!, Sink Review, DIAGRAM, H_NGM_N, and many others. Rambo Goes to Idaho, his first book of poems, is now available with BlazeVOX [books].

Nico Alvarado wrote a lot of Bad Collabs with Mike Comstock during the sweltering, dysthymic, and financially precarious summer of 2006. They were composed in Mike’s living room with the aid of moderate alcohol consumption and the knowledge that no one would ever, ever publish them.

Cynthia Arrieu-King is an assistant professor of creative writing at Stockton College. Her book People are Tiny in Paintings of China was published by Octopus in 2010. Next year, her collaborative chapbook written with Sophia Kartsonis—By a Year Lousy With Meteors—will come out from Dream Horse Press. On Sunday mornings at 11AM, you can listen to her student run radio show about writing, The Last Word, at wlfr.fm.

Micah Bateman is from Jacksonville, Texas, and currently lives with his wife in Iowa City. His poems have appeared in CutBank, Denver Quarterly, Missouri Review and elsewhere.

Bryan Beck coordinates an undergraduate practicum on faculty governance at the University of Massachusetts. His poems and other writings have appeared in such places as Octopus, Portland Review and the Everyman’s Library anthology The Art of Angling: Poems About Fishing.

Mary Biddinger is the author of Prairie Fever (Steel Toe Books, 2007), Saint Monica (Black Lawrence Press, 2011), and O Holy Insurgency (Black Lawrence Press, forthcoming September 2012), and co-editor of The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics (U Akron Press, 2011). Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Anti-, Barrelhouse, Devil’s Lake, diode, Minnesota Review, Puerto del Sol, Redivider, Toad, Waccamaw, and South Dakota Review. She teaches at The University of Akron, where she directs the NEOMFA program, and edits Barn Owl Review, the Akron Series in Poetry, and the Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics.

Emily Brandt is a co-founding editor of No, Dear magazine and a public high school teacher in Brooklyn. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in New Wave Vomit, The 2AM Project, The Furnace Review, and BluePrint Review.

Joshua Butts’ hometown is Jackson, Ohio. Poetry has appeared most recently in Wicked Alice, Ellipses, and Spinning Jenny. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he teaches at the Columbus College of Art and Design.

Katie Byrum comes from Kentucky & currently lives in New York, where she is pursuing an MFA at Hunter College. You can find her work in Lumberyard Magazine, Gulf Coast, and the recent Argos Books anthology Why I am Not a Painter. Send comments and complaints to katiebyrum@gmail.com.

Christopher Citro’s poetry has been published recently in The Cortland Review, Harpur Palate, Faultine, and The Cincinnati Review. His poetry has been featured twice on Verse Daily and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is host of The Poets Weave on the NPR station WFIU.

Brock Clarke is the author of five books of fiction, most recently the novel Exley. He teaches at Bowdoin College and lives with his family in Portland, Maine.

Smarie Clay is an MFA candidate at Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in The Offbeat (Michigan State University Press, 2009) and The Citizens Communique (2011). She currently lives with her daughter, Sky, in Battle Creek, Michigan. Her spirit animal is the norwhal.

Todd Colby is the author of four books of poetry, all of which were published by Soft Skull Press. He lives in Brooklyn and keeps a blog at gleefarm.blogspot.com.

Michael Comstock lives in Washington, DC.

Stephen Danos earned an MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry at Columbia College Chicago, where he was the recipient of a Follett Fellowship and the Eileen Lannan Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Lo-Ball, Bateau, Juked, Columbia Poetry Review, and Phantom Limb.

Nik De Dominic lives in New Orleans, where he teaches for Bard’s Early College Initiative. His work has appeared in Los Angeles Review, DIAGRAM, Parcel, Thermos, Fairy Tale Review and elsewhere. He is an editor of The Offending Adam.

Adam Deutsch lives in San Diego, teaches some college, brews some beer, and is the Publisher at Cooper Dillon Books.

Jennifer H. Fortin’s first book of poems is Mined Muzzle Velocity (Lowbrow Press, 2011). For more information, visit jenniferhfortin.com.

Chris Garrecht-Williams was born and raised in New York City. In 2008, after ten years living in California, Mexico, and Argentina, Chris returned to NYC to pursue an MFA at Columbia University. His poems have appeared at thethepoetry.com and are forthcoming in The Chiron Review and The Chattahoochee Review. Chris is a senior poetry editor at Narrative Magazine, was a 2010-2011 Teaching Fellow at Columbia University, and works as bartender in Brooklyn.

Tyler Gobble is lead editor of Stoked Press, blog editor for The Collagist, and a contributor with Vouched Books. His writing recently appears in PANK (online), Country Music, and Smalldoggies Magazine. His first chapbook, Tell Me You’ve Got Good News, will soon be out from H_NGM_N BKS.

Matthew Guenette’s first book, Sudden Anthem, won the 2007 American Poetry Journal Prize from Dream Horse Press. His second collection, American Busboy, was named an Editor’s Choice in the 2010 University of Akron Press Poetry Book Prize and will be published in 2011.

Catherine Hardy teaches writing, literature, and film studies at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where she also chairs the Academic Studies Department. She wrote the poem “Random River Bubbles” in the summer of 2011 while enjoying an artist residency supported by the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of Taos, New Mexico.

Andrea Henchey’s MFA is from Pacific Lutheran University; her work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Journal, H_NGM_N, Absent, Muzzle, Other Rooms, Drunken Boat, The Scrambler, Pank, and A River & Sound Review. Founder of Hartford Connecticut’s “Inescapable Rhythms” poetry reading series, she currently lives and teaches in Windhoek, Namibia. Learn more at andreahenchey.com.

Ken Henson now rides the bus, which in his opinion is not unlike astral travel. When he gets off the bus, he enters the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where he teaches people automatic drawing techniques and other methods for achieving deep trance. This pays the bills so that Ken can afford his basement sanctuary, where he makes his black mirror drawings. Find him at artistkenhenson.com.

Liz Hildreth lives in Chicago and works as an instructional designer. She’s a regular interviewer for Bookslut and blogs occasionally at The Effect of Small Animals (theeffectofsmallanimals.blogspot.com).

Geoffrey Hilsabeck received his MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop in 2009. He recently finished a Fulbright in Portugal. The Kenyon Review published his chapbook The Keepers of Secrets; a second chapbook, Vaudeville, is forthcoming from The Song Cave. His poems, interviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in 6x6 (Ugly Duckling Presse), MAYDAY, Propeller, the Seneca Review, and on NPR’s “Day to Day.”

Jeff Hipsher is the founding member of the artist collective The Gold County Paper Mill. His work, under the name Jak Cardini, has previously appeared in Caketrain, elimae, The Alice Blue Review and others. In 2010 he recieved an honorable mention in Sarabande’s Flo Gault Poetry Prize. He is the head editor of Catch Up, a journal of comics and literature.

Lesley Jenike’s first book of is Ghost of Fashion (CW Books, 2009). Her poems have appeared recently in Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review,Sou’wester, and The Birmingham Poetry Review. She teaches at the Columbus College of Art and Design.

Jeff T. Johnson’s poetry is forthcoming or has appeared in 1913 a journal of forms, Boston Review, Slope, VOLT, Caketrain, and The Laurel Review, among other publications. Critical essays have appeared in Coldfront, Fanzine, The New Yinzer, and Kitchen Sink. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. He lives in Brooklyn, is the poetry editor at LIT, and is an editor at Dewclaw. For more information, visit jefftjohnson.wordpress.com.

Scott Alexander Jones is the author of a chapbook of poetry: One Day There Will Be Nothing to Show That We Were Ever Here (Bedouin Books, 2009). He holds an MFA from The University of Montana and was Writer-in-Residence at The Montana Artists Refuge during October of 2009. Currently residing in Wellington, New Zealand, he is co-founder of Zero Ducats, a literary journal assembled entirely from stolen materials, and he releases music as Surgery in the Attic.

Steven Karl is the author of the chapbooks, emissions/ of (H_NGM_N, 2011), (Ir)Rational Animals (Flying Guillotine Press, 2010) and with the artist, Joseph Lappie, State(s) of Flux (2009). In one way or another he is involved with Sink Review, Coldfront Magazine, Stain of Poetry reading series, and Borough Writing Workshops.

Amy Lawless is the author of Noctis Licentia (Black Maze Books, 2008) and a pamphlet of four poems from Greying Ghost Press. She is from Boston but lives in Brooklyn. She teaches writing in New York and New Jersey.

Joseph Leff has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a variety of places including The Adirondack Review, Confrontation, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, and Black Belt. Especially Black Belt. He lives in Santa Monica, California and teaches writing at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Aubrey Lenahan holds an MFA from George Mason University, where she was a 2010-11 Poetry Fellow. She translates Estonian poetry and teaches literature courses at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and also works for several arts non-profits. Her poems can be found in The Massachusetts Review and The Greensboro Review. She is from New York City and claims the South.

Brad Liening is the author of Ghosts and Doppelgangers (Lowbrow Press) and several chapbooks. He’s an editor at InDigest Magazine and can always be found at bradliening.blogspot.com.

Carrie Lorig was raised mostly in Wisconsin and continues to be aged by Korean magnolia trees, record crackles, and the month of July. She was the token girl bike messenger, but is now in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota. She has been published by Spork Press, red lightbulbs, Miracle Monocle, and Radioactive Moat, among others.

Joseph Mains is the author of the chapbooks Poum Poum Tralala (Poor Claudia), and To Live Don’s Life: A Film in 15 Creams (Scantily Clad Press). His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart and have appeared, or are forthcoming, in, Diagram, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Spork, Shampoo, Diagram, Anti-, Poor Claudia, Portland Review, and others. He lives in Portland, where he co-curates the reading series Bad Blood.

Sebastian Matthews has been busy recovering after a major car accident. HIs new book of poems, Miracle Day, is due out from Red Hen Press in spring 2012.

Chris Mattingly, of Louisville, Kentucky, is the author of the chapbooks Ad Hoc and the forthcoming A Light for Your Beacon: Adaptations of Anglo-Saxon Riddles, both from Q Avenue Press. His poems have most recently appeared in Lumberyard, Still, Louisville Review, & Southern Indiana Review. When not writing poems, Chris sometimes likes to scour Kentucky for good chess pie and / or burgoo. But mostly he just sits around in his backyard listening to his neighbors tell tales. He has one of them MFA’s in Poetry from Spalding University.

Kyle McCord is the author of two books of poetry. His first book, Galley of the Beloved in Torment, was the winner of the 2008 Orphic Prize. His second book, co-written with Jeannie Hoag, is a book of epistolary poems entitled Informal Invitations to a Traveler from Gold Wake Press. He has work forthcoming or featured in Boston Review, Columbia Poetry Journal, Cream City Review, Gulf Coast, Volt and elsewhere. He lives in Des Moines where he teaches and co-coordinates the Younger American Poets Reading Series and edits iO: A Journal of New American Poetry.

Lynn Melnick’s poetry has appeared in A Public Space, Narrative, The Paris Review, Boston Review, The Awl, Guernica, and Gulf Coast, and is forthcoming inBomb. A short-short recently appeared in Opium.

Roberto Montes! What a rascal! You can view other things by him at Sixth Finch, or Vinyl Poetry, or love among the ruins.

Erika Moya’s poems have appeared in elimae, 2River View, & Unsaid Magazine among other places. She co-curates the Stain of Poetry reading series in Brooklyn where she lives.

Paul Otremba is author of the poetry collection The Currency, published by Four Way Books.

Jean-Paul Pecqueur’s first book of poetry, The Case Against Happiness, was published by Alice James Books. New work has appeared in Fourteen Hills, So and So, Gulf Coast, and Fence. Jean-Paul is from the Pacific Northwest, yet he currently lives in Brooklyn, where he teaches writing at the Pratt Institute.

Sheng Peng is finishing a graphic novel, Love in the Time of Acne, with artist Nathan Huang (nathanhuang.com). Read more of Sheng's poems at sheng-peng.blogspot.com.

Masin Persina's poems can be read at elimae, Everyday Genius, Leveler, Lines and Stars and Sixth Finch. He teaches English and Creative Writing at a small charter school in the East Bay.

Kiki Petrosino is the author of Fort Red Border (Sarabande, 2009). She lives & teaches in Louisville.

Amy Pickworth is an editor and writer living in Providence, Rhode Island.

Derek Pollard is co-author with Derek Henderson of the book Inconsequentia (BlazeVOX 2010). His poems, creative non–fiction, and reviews appear in American Book Review, Colorado Review, Court Green, Diagram III, H_NGM_N, Pleiades, and Six–Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, among numerous other anthologies and journals. He is a contributing editor for Barrow Street, Inc., and is on faculty at Brookdale Community College, at Pratt Institute, and at the Downtown Writer’s Center in Syracuse, New York.

Thibault Raoult, born in Pithiviers, France, & raised in Rochester, NY, has published two chapbooks—El P.E. (Projective Industries) & I’ll Say I’m Only Visiting (Cannibal Books)—as well as a full-length collection, Person Hour (BlazeVOX). Other work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Octopus (nominated for a Pushcart), Typo, & Mary. A former Dolin Scholar at the University of Chicago, he gently holds an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University, where he won the Weston Poetry Prize, & the Michael S. Harper Prizes in Poetry & Praxis. Thi lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Christie Ann Reynolds is a native New Yorker and holds degrees from Hofstra University and The New School. She is the author of three chapbooks: idiot heart, which won the 2008 New School Chapbook Competition, GIRL BOY GIRL BOY (Correspondences 2010) and Revenge Poems (Supermachine). Her work can be read most recently in Maggy, TheThe Poetry, Interrupture, Barrelhouse, O’clock Press and Poor Claudia. She teaches writing at Hofstra University and is a co-founder of Borough Writers Workshops. Listen to an interview with Ben Pease at thethepoetryblog.com.

Mary Ruefle’s latest book is Selected Poems (Wave Books, 2010). A collection of her lectures, Madness, Rack and Honey, will be published by Wave in the fall of 2012.

Michael Schiavo lives in Vermont. The Unruly Servant resides at michaelschiavo.blogspot.com.

M. Bartley Seigel’s writing has appeared in Bateau, Lumberyard Magazine, Monkeybicycle, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. His poetry collection, This is what they say, is forthcoming from Typecast Publishing in 2012. He is founding editor of [PANK] and teaches at Michigan Technological University.

Daniel M. Shapiro is a schoolteacher who lives in Pittsburgh. He is the author of the chapbooks Trading Fours (Pudding House Press, forthcoming) and Teeth Underneath (FootHills Publishing), and he is the co-author of Interruptions (Pecan Grove Press, forthcoming), a collection of collaborations with Jessy Randall. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Chiron Review, Gargoyle, and Oyez Review.

Kevin Shea is originally from Quincy, Massachusetts. He now lives in Brooklyn and works at The New School for Social Research. He is also a recent graduate of the MFA program at The New School. His writing has previously appeared in The Alembic, Asinine Poetry, The Equalizer, and is forthcoming in dislocate.

Jordan Stempleman’s most recent collections of poetry are Doubled Over (BlazeVOX Books, 2009) and No, Not Today (Magic Helicopter Press, 2012). He is the co-editor of The Continental Review with Nicholas Manning, teaches writing and literature at the Kansas City Art Institute, and curates A Common Sense Reading Series.

Nick Sturm is a graduate student in the NEOMFA: Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Dinosaur Bees, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Red Lightbulbs. His reviews and interviews can be found in Barn Owl Review, Bookslut, Coldfront, HTMLGiant, H_NGM_N, The Laurel Review, On the Seawall, and Whiskey Island. His first book-length editorial venture, The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics, was published in January 2011. He is assistant editor of the Akron Series in Poetry and associate editor of the Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics.

Marcela Sulak is the author of Immigrant (Black Lawrence Press, 2010) and the chapbook Of all the things that don’t exist, I love you best (Finishing Line Press, 2009). She has translated three collections of poetry from the Czech and the French. She directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University, and lives in Tel Aviv, where the produce is always local and seasonal.

Minko Terez is working on a graduate degree in anthropology & playing in a band (why not). His dog’s name is Yuki.

Tony Towle has been involved in the New York School of Poetry since 1963, when he took workshops with Kenneth Koch and Frank O’Hara at the New School. In 1970, he received the Frank O’Hara Award, in conjunction with which his first major collection, North, was published. His twelfth book of poems, Winter Journey, appeared from Hanging Loose Press in 2008. He has received fellowships from the National Foundation of the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, among other honors and awards. 

Patti White teaches creative writing at The University of Alabama.  She has two collections of poetry, Tackle Box (2002) and Yellow Jackets (2007), published by Anhinga Press, and a third collection (not yet titled) forthcoming in 2013. She is currently at work on a novel that addresses blindness, hard-rock gold mining, and wild burros.

Angela Veronica Wong is the author of the forthcoming chapbook 25 little red poems on dancing girl press as well as two previous chapbooks on Flying Guillotine Press and Cy Gist Press. She has a website at angelaveronicawong.com.

Joseph P. Wood is the author of two books—Fold of the Map (Salmon Poetry, 2012) and I & We (CW Books, 2010). His poems in this issue are excerpts from his current book-length project, The Vyvanse Triolets. Other excerpts appear in RealPoetik, Anti-, Transom, So-&-So, DIAGRAM, Catch-Up, and EAOGH. Most importantly, Wood discovered the joy of Thomas Hardy’s poetry and a whole slab of French poets. As the writer ages, he enjoys learning how rich and diverse the poetic tradition is. Visit him at josephpatrickwood.com.

Laurie Saurborn Young is a poet, writer, and photographer. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and studied in the Program for Writers at UMASS-Amherst. Poems have appeared in Bat City Review, Borderlands, Crazyhorse, Mississippi Review, Narrative Magazine, New South and elsewhere. Her photographs have been exhibited in Austin, TX, and Southampton, NY. Carnavoria, a book of poems, is forthcoming from H_NGM_N BKS. She lives in Austin, Texas.