Maggie Diep (nee Blick) is an Australian writer, married to Phuoc-Tan. Her first novel is Remembering Malcolm Macquarrie published by Fremantle Press:
“On the first of November, 1997, Malcolm Macquarrie knew the answers to everything he’d ever wondered since he was born. He left his earthly body behind him as a memento to those he left behind. They buried it like a treasure.
Remembering Malcolm Macquarrie is a celebration of story, of meaning, of the human spirit. Deftly crafted in breathtaking prose with sly and subtle black humour, Remembering Malcolm Macquarrie is a bold first novel that dares to take on and play with the grandeur and frailty that is being human” .
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Phuoc-Tan Diep is the creator of the Cleave poetic form. He is blogging at wake up, sleeper.
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John Bevan (aka Katanga at greatwriting.co.uk).
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Brett Evans (aka Brett at greatwriting.co.uk) is 35 years old. Born and living in north Wales.
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Dennis Kelly has 2 books out from SF. 4 anthologies including a Penguin… Dennis Kelly has been working with Jackson Mac Low recently and his so-called “diastic” poems (seed text + source text) described in his “Thing of Beauty” selected work (Berkeley, 2008), e.g. “Quatorzains from & for Emily Dicinson,” p. 175.
For example, here’s one I did for Mac Low–
“Quatorzains from & for Jackson Mac Low”
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Diana Manister is New York City poet who has performed her poetry live at such various venues as the late lamented punk rock club CBGBs, famed St. Mark’s Church Poetry Project, The Living Theater and at Carnegie Hall where she was a winner in the Lyric Recovery Festival.
A Contributing Editor of the ezine BigCityLit.com, she is also an elected member of the American Branch of the International Critics Association (AICA). Her poetry reviews appear regularly in The Modern Review and online at BigCityLit, about.com, small press exchange and artezine. Her poems have been published in print and web publications including PoetryRevolt, Autumn Sky, Salonika, Big Bridge, Waterworks and others, and anthologized in Distance From the Tree and The Company We Keep from Headwaters Press.
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Andrea Barton teaches Creative Writing and Communications to high school students. Her own poetry was last published in the Lewis and Clark Literary Review. Most recently she was recognized as a notable new Staff Pick at the Gotpoetry? website under the alias, “HSTeech” where much of her current work can be found. She lives with her daughter and Chacha the Cat in the bucolic suburbia outside of Hartford, CT.
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Sue Millard: (http://www.suemillard.f9.co.uk/) I have had three books published so far, One Fell Swoop, Against the Odds and Hoofprints in Eden (a 2-year project published by Hayloft). Pearl Wedding is self published, as is the second edition of One Fell Swoop. Others are in the pipeline or with publishers.
Recently I’ve also been doing a good deal of editing and proofing work for other writers, running various web forums on equestrian and literary subjects, and helping to start up a local rural writers’ group.
I’ve done quite a bit of writing for equestrian magazines over the years. However, I earn my living as a university lecturer and not as a writer; go figure.
I write to clarify thought and make it accessible, using poetic forms or prose as I think fit. I refuse to confuse, and I enjoy metrical and rhyming forms, all of which which probably excludes me from the modern poetic mainstream.
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Rachel Prudden (aka Rioka at greatwriting.co.uk).
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Brian Fone (aka patterjack at greatwriting.co.uk).
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Jennifer Semple Siegel aka The Snarkster at the Snark blog.
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Royce Icon is a writer, musician, filmmaker, artist and journalist. He is the author of the book Time is a Bastard, as well as the chapbooks Kinky Death Poems and Meaningless Text.
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KM Ryan, 19, college student, have written poetry for about 7 years, took a few months off over the summer to focus on other activities. KM Ryan’s poetry can be found at: Mind on Display.
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Ernesto Pangilinan Santiago is a poet and author of “The Walking Man”, a poetry book published by Outskirtspress. He lives in Athens, Greece.
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Thane Zander is a retired man writing poetry as a full time occupation out of Feilding New Zealand. He is a New Zealander born and bred. His secondary school was Palmerston North Boys High School, where he was first introduced to poetry (WH Auden’s Night Mail). He spent 27 years in the Royal New Zealand Navy, dabbling in poetry occassionally, but was invalided out with a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder in 2002. He has been retired since trying to cope with the illness and he turned to poetry as a means to moderate his moods and to measure his progress with his illness. To date, in six years, he has written over 900 poems, mostly at several online poetry forums. He has been published in several anthologies and ezines, but writes mainly for self gratification.
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Mal lives in Montana. Often misplaces his shoes. Gets 1950’s model tail-finned American convertibles mixed up with deepwater fish, much to his detriment. Otherwise a mystery.
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Carol Lynn Grellas is the author of two chapbooks: Litany for Finger Prayers, forthcoming from Pudding House Press and Object of Desire available from Finishing Line Press. She is a two-time Pushcart nominee and widely published in magazines and online journals, including most recently, The Hiss Quarterly, Flutter, Oak Bend Review and an electric chapbook, Desired Things from Gold Wake Press. She lives with her husband, five children and a blind dog named Ginger.
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Andrea Defoe lives with her family on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. She prefers to think of herself as being at least of few cats shy of crazy cat lady, but she’s honestly not sure. Her poems have appeared in various literary journals, most recently: Rattle, 32 Poems, New American Writing and Margie.
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J.S. MacLean lives in Calgary Alberta, Canada. His poetry has been published in online and print publications including This Magazine, The Maynard, Beano Anthology and Vidya and will appear in upcoming issues of Every Day Poets and Perspectives.
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Margot Brown was born and raised in Massachusetts and now lives in Northern Illinois with a Hurricane Katrina evacuee (Miss Kitty), and her husband, Michael Morrison. Margot’s poetry has appeared in joyful!, The Shine Journal and The Boston Literary Magazine and in an upcoming anthology, Poetry for Suzanne, published by Avalanche.
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Laurie Byro is a thrice nominated Pushcart Prize poet who has been published widely in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Laurie lives in Northern New Jersey where she works as Head of Circulation in a library and facilitates “Circle of Voices.”
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P.A.Levy, having fled his native East End, now hides in the heart of Suffolk countryside learning the lost art of hedge mumbling. He has been published in several magazines, although these days he spends far too much time controlling his characters on the Clueless Collective website at: www.cluelesscollective.co.uk.
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Janet Hamill: Often inspired by her travels through southern Europe, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, Janet Hamill has published 5 books of poetry: Troublante, The Temple, Nostalgia of the Infinite, Lost Ceilings, and her most recent, Body of Water in 2008, with photographs by Patti Smith. Hammill has released two CDs: Flying Nowhere and Genie of the Alphabet. A strong proponent of the spoken word, she has featured at readings in the U.S., England and Ireland.
Of Body of Water Anne Waldman wrote: “Janet Hamill turns her wizard poet’s eye on an immense body of alchemical empathies”, and Patricia Spears Jones said “Hamill’s mastery of form and feeling come together to create a poem that delicately examines celebrity, gallantry, silence, talent, and beauty. Only a poet could do that. Or maybe only Janet Hamill.”
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Nancy Williams Lazar worked as a wood-shop manager for 18 years. After her business closed she wrote for The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Her poems have appeared in The Loch Raven Review, Mindfire: War and Peace special issue; and Soundzine, July 2008 Beat Poetry Issue.
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Boris Kipnis:
1. I live now (sometimes) in Michigan. i was born in Kiev, Ukraine 52 years ago. Went to school there (tri-lingual: Russian, Ukraininan, English), then off to the university in Russia 150 km from Moscow to major in Roman-German linguistics. Besides languages, studied world literature. Wrote poetry in Russian since i was a kid, loved Russian poetry, some classical poets (Pushkin and Lermontov), but especially the first half of the 20th century poets (Blok, Pasternak, Mandelshtam, Akhmatova, Tsvetayeva, etc.). Translated some of the English and American poetry into Russian.
2. Moved to the US in the beginning of 1979, lived, worked and studied in Ohio – Engineering and Psychology. Got MBA in International Business in 1991 from Baldwin-Wallace. Worked most of my adult life in the automotive industry, still do international business consulting. Spend most of my time in Europe now – Germany, Austria, Russia.
3. Was happily married for almost 31 years until my wife passed away in 2007. have 2 great daughters and 3 wonderful grand children, 1 more coming soon!
4. I write poetry whenever and wherever – love it and wish i could spend more time writing. Translated some of the Russian poetry into English and hope to translate some more of my favorite Russian poetry into English the way it should be translated, even though it is extremely difficult. Also, recently started to write songs, since I’m able and willing to torture my acoustic guitar and a piano sometimes. hope to spend some time this year working on a cd (wrote 8 songs so far, working on 4 more).
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Rick Dale has a D.Ed. in Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University, and is a professor in the Special Education Department at a state university in Maine. He is a Jack Kerouac enthusiast who plays bluegrass music semi-professionally and enjoys a multitude of outdoor sports. Rick lives with his partner and her two sons—and two cats—on a lake in Maine. The Beat Handbook is his first book.
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Steve Parker, originally from Liverpool, now lives in Haworth near Emily Bronte’s grave in West Yorkshire, UK. His poetry has been been published in Ditch, Cause and Effect, Dogzplot, Underground Voices, Admit Two, The Chimaera and Chaos International, as well as two chapbooks published by Stylus Books in the UK: Selected Poems by Steve Parker and Tearing the Veil. His blog is: brickstackblockstack.
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Victoria Rivas has been published in many journals including Bogg, Connecticut River Review, Caprice, Common Ground Review, and the Journal of Asian Martial Arts; and in the anthologies Working Hard for the Money from Bottom Dog Press and Along the Lake from Ye Olde Font Shoppe. She has one chapbook Doing Laundry, and is working on a new book, Yo Miss! I Need a Pencil which includes poetry and prose.
Victoria was on the board of directors for the The 8th Annual National Poetry Slam Championship & 1997 Connecticut Poetry Festival, and the 2001 and 2003 Connecticut Poetry Festivals. She was also an alternate on the 1998 CT Slam Team.
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Michael Williams. I live in southern Indiana, USA. I’ve been interested in writing most of my life, but gave up on poetry while in college. This lasted for nearly 30 years before I returned to it in 2003. I’ve been writing poetry ever since, and I enjoy experimenting with forms and styles. In “real life” I do computer support for a manufacturing corporation. Other interests include antique marbles, chess, and other games of skill.
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Graham & Fleur Blick: “you never retire”.
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Beppo
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Chris Bryan is a 26-year old American living in the UK. I am a ‘cellist, composer and stay-at-home dad, and I write poems, short stories and song lyrics when I feel inspired.
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TD Euwaite (Richard Brotbeck): Before publishing it, we spent several weeks trying to find a form similar to the Trigee. We honestly thought we had invented the thing. The ‘Cleave’ does appear to be similar, and, since publishing the book last year, we have found a 15th century form with similar characteristics. I am writing some notes for the third edition. I will say something about this.
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Richard Dates: was doing what you call cleave poetry in the late 90’s with the poetry group centered in Arlington Heights, IL. We called the poems triptychs because they could be read three ways. We also did wreath poems which shared words or phrases at the top and bottom but could be read three ways and V poems which shared only one word or phrase at the top or bottom. Our group performed at Barnes and Noble, Borders, various coffee houses and the Green Mill where Marc Smith, the founder of slam poetry has his performances.
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RH Peat: I wrote a form very similar to this back 1996, In fact it was a complete book called “Thin Shadows” But it had a third part as well of a small topic poem attached to what you are calling a cleave poem. There were 80 full page poems in the book dealing on all kinds of subject, I’d be happy to share some of them with you if you would like to see some of them. I only self published 50 books at the time I compiled the book out here in California. I only have one copy left now. Interesting that you were doing the same thing back there around the same time.
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Jessica Lafortune lives in Florida, loved by humans and canines who (barely) tolerate her obsessive reading and writing habits. Her current fantasy involves living on an island in the Pacific Northwest, reading and writing to her heart’s content, supported by lottery winnings. Until then, she can be found substitute teaching, writing poetry, playing blackjack, and loving well those who know her best and keep coming back for more. Her poems can be found in Amaze, Simply Haiku and Babel Fruit.
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Ashley Bovan lives and writes in Cardiff and is an MA student of Creative Writing at Lancaster University. His website is www.ashley-bovan.co.uk
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Romella Kitchens has had poetry published in Iodine Poetry Review, The California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Lilliput Review, Ship Of Fools and others. She has four published chapbooks. The latest chapbook was published by Pudding House Press in April of 2009 and is titled: “The Red Covered Bridge.”
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Lauren McBride‘s work has appeared in the contest chapbook the Drabbler #14, the Aurorean, Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine, and online in various Ezines. She was chosen first runner-up in Crossed Genres’ flash fiction contest of July 2009 for her story, “Go-Green Grass”.
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The Cleave 