Issue Twenty-Nine: December 2011
Rachael Button is a recent graduate of Iowa State's MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment. She hails from Metro-Detroit but currently lives just outside Tacoma, Washington where she works as a naturalist, teaching environmental education to 4th-6th graders. Her nonfiction has previously appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Redivider, KNOCK, Ozone Park, and Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. She is currently at work on a collection of essays about Michigan titled "When I Get Home." Button can be contacted at rachael.shay.button@gmail.com.
Karin Gottshall is the author of the book Crocus (Fordham University Press, 2007), and two chapbooks: Flood Letters (Argos Books, 2011) and Almanac for the Sleepless (Dancing Girl Press, forthcoming). Her recent poems appear or are forthcoming in FIELD and The Gettysburg Review, and on the web journals Blackbird and Memorious. She lives in Vermont and teaches at Middlebury College.
Sean Kilpatrick, finishing an MA at Eastern Michigan University, is published in Fence, Columbia Poetry Review, No Colony, Action Yes, New York Tyrant, LIT, The Lifted Brow, Caketrain, Tarpaulin Sky, Libra/Libera, Evergreen Review, La Petite Zine, Spork, Forklift Ohio,Everyday Genius, Wigleaf, and 30 Under 30: an anthology of innovative fiction. His first book, fuckscapes, is forthcoming Dec. 2011 (Blue Square Press). Anatomy Courses (Lazy Fascist Press), a collaborative novel written with Blake Butler, is due Valentine’s Day 2012.
Andrew David King is an undergraduate student in philosophy and English at UC Berkeley. His writings have appeared in The Rumpus, San Francisco Chronicle, Poetry, The Comstock Review, Spillway, and PopMatters, among other outlets; additionally, he contributes to the online components of The Kenyon Review and the West Coast literary magazine ZYZZYVA. He can be reached at andrewking.adk(at)gmail.com.
Johannes Lichtman's writing has been published or is forthcoming in The Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Barrelhouse, REAL, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He's an MFA candidate in fiction at UNC Wilmington, where he's working on a novel about OxyContin and plagiarism.
Robert Lopez is the author of two novels, Part of the World and Kamby Bolongo Mean River and a collection of short fiction, Asunder. He has taught at The New School, Pratt Institute, Columbia University, Pine Manor College's Solstice Low-Res MFA Program and was a 2010 Fellow in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Mike Meginnis has published fiction in The Collagist, Hobart, The Lifted Brow, Big Fiction, PANK, Booth, and many others. He serves as fiction editor at Noemi Press and co-edits Uncanny Valley with his wife, Tracy Rae Bowling.
Michael Mlekoday is an MFA candidate at Indiana University and a National Poetry Slam Champion. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Hayden's Ferry Review, The Journal, kill author, Toad, and others.
Angelo Nikolopoulos is the recipient of the 2011 “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize and a graduate of NYU’s Creative Writing Program. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best New Poets 2011, Boston Review, Cortland Review, Gay & Lesbian Review, Los Angeles Review, Meridian, New York Quarterly, The Journal, Tin House, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at Rutgers University and hosts The White Swallow Reading Series in NYC.
Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal is American culture rubbernecker whose writing has been published in PANK, Work, and GOOD Magazines, presented at the 2011 &Now Festival of Innovative Writing, and is forthcoming in the inaugural Artists Among Artists collection Faggot Dinosaur. She recently received a Lambda Literary Fellowship and is currently finishing an MFA at CalArts.
Matt Runkle is a writer, cartoonist, and book artist who lives in Oakland. His novel, Twos, was a semifinalist for the Noemi Book Award. His work was included in Sparkplug Comic Books' Gay Genius anthology, and he was recently Cartoonist in Residence at the Cartoon Art Museum. He has taught workshops in fiction, sequential collage, and visual narrative. He blogs at matt-runkle.blogspot.com.
Danniel Schoonebeek's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Boston Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, La Petite Zine, The Awl, and elsewhere. He was born in the Catskills.
Adania Shibli was born in Palestine in 1974 and is the author of two novels, Touch and We Are All Equally Far from Love, both available in English translation from Clockroot Books. She has twice been awarded the Qattan Foundation's Young Writer Award–Palestine; in 2010 Touch was long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. Her short stories and essays have appeared widely in anthologies, art books, and magazines. English translations of her work have appeared in journals such as the Kenyon Review Online, the Iowa Review, and Words Without Borders; her work has also been translated into French, German, Italian, Hebrew, and Korean. She was honored as a member of the "Beirut 39" by the Hay Festival in 2010. In 2009 she received her doctorate in media and cultural studies from the University of East London, and she is currently a research fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
John Shortino is currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Temple University. His essays and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Barrelhouse, Opium, and The Sonora Review.
Paul Starkey is head of the Arabic department at Durham University, England. He received his PhD from Oxford University, where he wrote his dissertation on the works of Tawfiq al-Hakim. He is the author of Modern Arabic Literature and a prolific translator, of such novels as Rachid al-Daif’s Dear Mr Kawabata and Maryam’s Maze by Mansoura Ez-Eldin. His translations have been featured in Banipal and he has served as a judge on the Arabic Booker committee.
Shawn Syms reviews books regularly. His own short stories have recently appeared in Little Fiction and Joyland. His fiction has been shortlisted for Canada's prestigious Journey Prize, and his essays and other writing have appeared in over 30 other publications.
Molly Tolsky is a fiction writer whose work has appeared in The Fiddleback, MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine, Pindeldyboz, and others. Originally from Chicago, she now lives in New York.