Forklift, Ohio

Jeffrey Allen is the author of Simple Universal (Bronze Man Books 2007) and bone and diamond (H_NGM_N Books 2013). He received his MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago, and currently serves as poetry editor for phantom limb and Education Outreach Coordinator for H_NGM_N. His work can be found or is forthcoming from Another Chicago Magazine, The Bakery, Ghost Proposal, RHINO, and elsewhere.

Jeff Alessandrelli lives in Portland, Oregon with his dog, Beckett Long Snout. This Last Time Will Be The First, his first full-length collection of poetry, is forthcoming from Burnside Review Press in 2014.

Holly Amos is the author of the chapbook This Is A Flood (H_NGM_N Books, 2012). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in A cappella Zoo, The Bakery, Bateau, Columbia Poetry Review, H_NGM_N, LEVELER, Phantom Limb, Pinwheel and RHINO. She is the library assistant at the Poetry Foundation and co-curates The Dollhouse Reading Series in Chicago.

Michael Bazzett has new poems forthcoming in Ploughshares, Redivider, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Hayden’s Ferry Review, 32 Poems, and Prairie Schooner. He is the author of The Imaginary City, recently published in the OW! Arts Chapbook Series, and They: A Field Guide, forthcoming from Barge Press.

E.C. Belli is a poet and translator. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, The Antioch Review, and Gulf Coast among other places. Her translation of a selected volume of poems by late French poet Pierre Peuchmaurd, The Nothing Bird, is forthcoming (Oberlin College Press, 2013). She is the author of Plein Jeu (winner of Accents Publishing’s 2010 Poetry Chapbook Contest) and her manuscript, Wick Effect, was a finalist for the 2012 Nightboat Poetry Prize, judged by Kazim Ali. She is an editor at Argos Books.

Jason Bredle lives in Chicago. A recipient of a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, his fourth book, Carnival, was selected as an Editor’s Choice for the Akron Series in Poetry and published in September 2012 by the University of Akron Press.

Kara Candito is the author of Taste of Cherry, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize (University of Nebraska Press, 2009). Her work has been published in The Kenyon Review, Diode, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A recipient of scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and the MacDowell Colony, Candito is a creative writing professor at the University of Wisconsin, Platteville and a co-curator of the Monsters of Poetry Reading Series in Madison, Wisconsin. Find her online at karacandito.com.

Charlie Clark’s work has appeared in Best New Poets 2011, Blackbird, The Laurel Review, The Missouri Review, Smartish Pace, West Branch, and other journals. He studied poetry at the University of Maryland and lives in Austin, Texas.

Ryan Collins is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Dear Twin Falls (H_NGM_N Books, 2013). His poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Black Clock, Columbia Poetry Review, DIAGRAM, Handsome, iO: A Journal of New American Poetry, LUNGFULL!, Spork, Transom, the Hell Yes Press cassette anthology 21 Love Poems, and many other places. He is the executive director of the Midwest Writing Center and an English instructor at St. Ambrose University, both in Davenport, Iowa. He plays drums in The Multiple Cat and curates the SPECTRA Poetry Reading Series in Rock Island, Illinois, where he lives.

Nick Demske is a rogue librarian, maniac prophet, devastator and redeemer of words. His first book is titled Nick Demske and it lifts its voice to the heavens in such sweet, radical song. He was featured in 2011 as one of fifteen emerging poets to watch for by Poets & Writers magazine and his book was chosen as one of the 10 Best Books of Poetry in 2010 by a Believer Magazine reader survey. A year ago, he went on a month and a half-long, cross-country book tour that involved giving 43 readings, driving over 10,000 miles, having his vehicle searched for drugs by Kansas state troopers and sleeping in five—count ’em, five!—Walmart parking lots across the nation. He also curates the BONK! performance series in Racine, which is basically like Christmas every month. Visit him online sometime at nickipoo.wordpress.com.

Darcie Dennigan is the author of Madame X (Canarium Books), The Dept of Ephebic Dreamery (Forklift, Ink.), and Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse (Fordham University Press).

Joshua Diamond holds an MFA from Purdue University. Recent work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Lumberyard, Mid-American Review, Transom, and Western Humanities Review. His first book, Some Mysterious Influence, will be available early next year from Typecast Publishing.

Keara Driscoll has lived in New York her whole life and isn’t even mad about it. She completed her MFA at The New School last year and currently serves wine and foods to the good people of the East Village. Her work also appears in the anthology Why I Am Not a Painter.

James Eidson is a native Texan. His work has appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, Leveler, and E-Ratio. He lives in East Chicago with his dog, Huysmans.

Noah Falck is the author of Snowmen Losing Weight (BatCat Press, 2012), and the forthcoming chapbook, Celebrity Dream Poems (Poor Claudia, 2013). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Smartish Pace, and elsewhere. He works as education director at Just Buffalo Literary Center in Buffalo, New York.

David Feinstein’s poems have appeared in Unsaid Magazine, Explosion-Proof, No Dear, Ilk Journal, and Tin House. He is currently studying in the UMass-Amherst MFA Program for Poets and Writers, where he also teaches and helps to edit jubilat.

Andrew Grace is the author of three books of poems, most recently Sancta published last year by Ahsahta Press. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Boston Review, H_NGM_N, LIT, Denver Quarterly among many others. He teaches in the English department at Kenyon College.

Matthew Guenette is the author of two collections: American Busboy (University of Akron Press, 2011) and Sudden Anthem (Dream Horse Press, 2008). He keeps his sleeves rolled up in summer. He lives, works, and loses sleep in Madison, Wisconsin.

Alen Hamza was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina and immigrated to the United States when he was fifteen. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Crazyhorse, Fence, Harpur Palate, and Country Music. He is a Poetry Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas, where he serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Bat City Review. 

Rebecca Hazelton is the author of Fair Copy and Vow. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, The Southern Review, Boston Review, Best New Poets 2011, and Best American Poetry 2013.

Bob Hicok’s latest book is Elegy Owed (Copper Canyon, 2013). Recently he received his sixth Pushcart and built a bird feeder.

Jeff T. Johnson’s poetry is forthcoming or has recently appeared in coconut, smoking glue gun, and Newark Review 3.0, and he holds a digital residency at The Organism for Poetic Research. Critical writing has appeared in The Aviary, Poetry Project Newsletter, Sink Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. With Claire Donato, he collaborates on SPECIAL AMERICA. He lives in Brooklyn, is editor-in-chief at LIT, and edits Dewclaw. For more information, visit jefftjohnson.wordpress.com.

Erin Keane is the author ofThe Gravity Soundtrackand Death-Defying Acts. Her next collection of poems,Demolition of the Promised Land, is forthcoming from Typecast Publications. She’s an arts critic and reporter for public radio in Louisville, Kentucky, where she produces the fiction-on-the-radio showUnbound. 

Mike Krutel is from Akron, Ohio, where he is a co-curator of THE BIG BIG MESS READING SERIES. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Pinwheel, iO, Jellyfish, Big Lucks, and NOÖ.

Amy Lawless is the author of two collections of poetry: My Dead (Octopus Books, 2013) and Noctis Licentia (Black Maze Books, 2008). She was a 2011 New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow. Some of her prose has recently appeared in BOMBlog and HTMLGIANT. More poems are forthcoming in The Bakery, Similar:Peaks, and Best American Poetry 2013. She teaches at Rutgers University and lives in Manhattan.

Kate Litterer is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets and Writers. Her poems have been appeared in Ilk, Jellyfish, Phantom Limb, and are forthcoming from The Destroyer and inter|rupture. 

Kyle McCord is the author of three books of poetry including Sympathy from the Devil (Gold Wake 2013). He has work featured in Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, Verse and elsewhere. He’s the co-founder of LitBridge, and co-edits iO: A Journal of New American Poetry. He teaches at the University of North Texas in Denton. 

Tessa Mellas’s debut collection Lungs Full of Noise won the 2013 Iowa Short Fiction Award and will be released in October 2013. She holds a PhD from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA from Bowling Green State University. A vegetarian for 26 years, she still has high cholesterol. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with a poet who likes bicycles, a three-legged cat who likes cream-of-wheat, and a four-legged cat who collects rubber bands.

Matthew Moore holds degrees from Kenyon College and the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned an MFA in poetry from the Michener Center for Writers. His poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Handsome, Sonora Review,Washington Square, and West Branch, among other journals and magazines. He is co-editor of the online poetry journalFlag + Void. 

Brian Nicolet thinks on planes, doesn’t torture baby seals, and uses his napkins often, if only as a precautionary measure. When he writes he writes with his eyes shut every time he blinks. Snails are hilarious. His poems have appeared.

Blake Lee Pate is co-editor of Smoking Glue Gun Magazineand an MFA candidate in poetry in the New Writers Project at the University of Texas, Austin. She earned her BA in Creative Writing and French from Louisiana State University where she served as Co-Editor of Delta Journal, and she is currently a reader for Bat City Review. Her work can be found in The Anemone Sidecar, Elimae, decomP magazinE &Grist.

Taylor Jacob Pate is co-editor of Smoking Glue Gun Magazine. He is an MFA candidate in the New Writers Project at the University of Texas, Austin. His poems have appeared in, or are forthcoming from, Mad Hat Lit, Coachella Review,Everyday Genius, decomP magazine & The Anemone Sidecar.

In general, Layne Ransom only drinks wine with her mom. Her chapbook You Are The Meat was recently released from H_NGM_N Books. She is the design editor for Stoked Journal, an online contributor to Vouched Books, and a new MFA candidate in the New Writers Project at University of Texas,  Austin. Spiced rum is really her preference.

Virgil Renfroe often corners people to ask them if they’ve read Camus’s L’Homme Révolté. Lately the book has consumed his life. Some days he’s a walking column of its words but feels he withstands the wind gusts from conversations on rebellion and economics well enough.

Michael Robins is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Ladies & Gentlemen (Saturnalia Books, 2011) and In Memory of Brilliance & Value (Saturnalia, 2015). He teaches literature and creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

David Rutschman is a Soto Zen priest. His work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review Online,Massachusetts Review, Puerto del Sol, Seneca Review, The Southeast Review and many other journals. He lives with his wife and son in Alameda, California.

Eszter Takacs is an MFA candidate at the University of Arkansas. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming inBarn Owl Review, Phoebe, Adroit Journal, Ghost Proposal, Cloud Rodeo, ILK Poetry, Cell Poems, Word Riot, Thrush, andDIAGRAM. Her chapbook The Spectacular Crash is forthcoming from H_NGM_N Books this fall. Eszter is also an expert in tire maintenance and blogs photos at ethula.tumblr.com.

Amber Tamblyn is a Venice, California native. She has been a writer and actress since the age of 9. She has been nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award for her work in television and film. She has two collections of poetry, Free Stalion (Simon & Schuster, 2005) and Bang Ditto (Manic D. Press, 2009). She is the creator of the annual poetry series, The Drums Inside Your Chest (thedrumsinsideyourchest.com) and co-founded the nonprofit Write Now Poetry Society (writenowpoets.org) She has a poetry book review column in Bust Magazine. Her next book is a collection about the lives and deaths of child star actresses, due out in 2014. She lives in New York City.

Gale Marie Thompson is the author of Soldier On (Tupelo Press, 2014) and the chapbooks Expeditions to the Polar Seas (Sixth Finch Books) and If You’re a Bear, I’m a Bear(H_NGM_N Books). Her poems can or will be found in places like Denver Quarterly, Parcel, Banango Street, iO: Poetry,Best New Poets 2012, New Megaphone, and H_NGM_N. She is the founder and editor of Jellyfish Magazine and lives, writes, and teaches in Athens, Georgia. 

Anthony Tognazzini’s recent work has appeared in Guernica,BOMB, Crazyhorse, Gigantic, and TriQuarterly. His fiction collection, I Carry A Hammer in My Pocket for Occasions Such as These, is available from BOA Editions. He lives in Brooklyn with the writer Robin Beth Schaer and their son, Faro.

G.C. Waldrep’s most recent books are Your Father on the Train of Ghosts (BOA Editions, 2011), a lyric collaboration with John Gallaher; The Arcadia Project: North American Postmodern Pastoral (Ahsahta, 2012), co-edited with Joshua Corey; and a chapbook, Susquehanna (Omnidawn, 2013). He teaches at Bucknell University, edits the journal West Branch, and serves as editor-at-large for The Kenyon Review.

Maw Shein Win is the author of three chapbooks, Tales of a Lonely Meat Eater, The Farm Without Name, and, most recently, Ruins of a glittering palace with artist Mark Dutcher. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Big Bridge,Chiron Review, Hyphen, and No Tell Motel. She is co-founder of Comet, co-publisher of Stretcher, and co-curator of Broadside Attractions: Vanquished Terrains. She is a college instructor and lives in Berkeley, California.