CONTRIBUTORS

BLUE7

Blue7 Photo by LadyK

Musician, filmmaker, sculptor, painter and illustrator. Blue made films and music in Hollywood for 14 years. He directed, produced and wrote the music score for his own film Girl With a Tail which can be seen at ifilm.com.

Now in Krakow, Blue's creating a multimedia experience called the URBAN-JELLEN TEST. It features a "Dada Ballet", a unique presentation of many talents such as music, projections of art and photography, drama and strange and beautiful ideas. And all of it with a heart as big as the universe. Transcendence into an artful mind.

Blue has a degree in Illustration and Painting from California State University.

 

KIMBERLEY DIAMOND BONES

Bio coming soon...

 

E B Bortz photo by Sandra Hazley

E B BORTZ

Bortz's political conscience manifests itself in his writings and doings. Every spring, he coordinates a poetry even in Pittsburgh, "Poetry Without Walls". The first year I went, a dozen poets stayed over his house for the weekend. Half of us joined him in a peace march that Saturday before the reading. It's one of my best poetry memories ever.

Bortz has a poetry blog at ebbortz.blogspot.com.

 

 

Bree photo by Jim Lang

BREE

Bree is an artist, singer/songwriter, poet and founder of Green Panda Press, which produces anthologies and chapbooks of poetry and art. All books are handmade and bound using household materials like double sided window insulation tape, or minty dental floss. Green Panda titles include Rain Poet (2004), by Daniel Thompson and the memoir of Charles Potts Valga Krusa (2007) in two volumes.

 

Miles Budimir Literary Cafe

MILES BUDIMIR

1) Budimir pays the bills by freelance writing and teaching philosophy to the youth of America. When not engaged in these activities, he reads, takes photographs, and scribbles, sometimes even while grilling home-made ground spiced lamb kebabs to a soundtrack of Gogol Bordello.

2) Budimir is a Cleveland-based writer and poet whose work has appeared in The Plain Dealer, the Cleveland Free Times, Northern Ohio Live, and Ohio Writer among others. Poetry has appeared in Poetry Motel, the deep cleveland junkmail oracle, The City Poetry, ArtCrimes 21, Sein und Werden, and in chapbooks Smoke, Mist and Mirror (Poets and Writers League of Greater Cleveland) and First Person Plural (Twin Cranes Press). His own chapbook, Rustbelt Romance, was published by Deep Cleveland Press in 2006.

KE

KE

My name's Kevin Eberhardt. Been writing for so long I'm startin' to see things. Now for good, bad or ugly I can't stop. It's like havin' a hangover everyday without the benefit of a good drunk the night before, or at least, in my case, not for a long time. Could be worse, could wake up one day as an honorary member of the Red Hat Society. That would definitely start me drinkin' again (though I do look good in red)...

 

SUE JOHNS

was born in Cornwall in 1958. Now living in London, she is a veteran of the performance poetry circuit, performing solo and with Dodo Modern Poets. She has performed at festivals around the U.K. including the Edinburgh fridge. Sue has published six volumes of poetry and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies.

 

Jim Lang

JIM LANG

Poet, photographer, potter, philosopher, publisher, and poartist from Cleveland, Ohio USA who frequently accompanies his readings with multimedia visual works.

I've been the open mic host for the 3rd Saturday poetry reading at The Bookstore on West 25th Street forever and give a Bagozine of poetry, tea, pennies, incense and nonesense each month to everyone who attends.

I have taken photos of most every poet who has passed through Cleveland as far back as d.a. levy & Charles Dickens.

I gratefully edited issue #9 of ArtCrimes and coedited issues #15 and 17. I have published many chapbooks of my own and other's poetry.

I am a cantankerous full time professional curmudgeon , but an oddly a nice guy even so.

 

Peter Leon Photo collage by Lady K

PETER LEON

Peter Leon is a poet and artist in Cleveland Heights. His poetry is holistically ecstatic, celebrating youth and old age alike. It floats atop modern slipstream, looks for purchase on the ground of Good Olde Bright & Sleepy America where the blousy curtains blow and Mother hangs the wash amid benevolent quotidian activities of milkmen and janitors. Recollections of quantum childhood from the context of adult awareness, a certain knowledge of death.

Leon has been published in the The Literary Review, Whiskey Island Magazine and Colorado North Review.

 

RONNIE MCGRATH

Born in Kensington, London, Ronnie McGrath is a founding member of the now defunct musical group The London Afro-Blok, who performed for the Queen and opened the 1994 Commonwealth Games in British Columbia, Canada. He is a poet, artist, researcher and lecturer, with a string of achievements to his bow. In 1993 he was commended for his writing by ACER (Afro Caribbean Education and Resource), who also published and awarded his writing first place in 1994. A graduate of Manchester University's MA in novel writing, Ronnie's formidable short story The Day Before That One, Too, is published in the very successful IC3, The Penguin Book of New Black Writing In Britain. His other published work is a book of poems entitled Poems From The Tired Lips Of Newspapers, published by purplex poetry, an imprint of the tall-lighthouse 2003, and his novel On The Verge Of Losing iT by Ankhademia Press.

 

JACK MCGUANE

Poet Laureate of Lakewood through 2007 and poetry editor of Whiskey Island Magazine. He has published work in Whiskey Island, Family Matters, ArtCrimes, Hessler Street Poetry and Prose Annual, 2006 (third prize), Nov Third Club, First Person Plural from Twin Cranes Press (with Eric Anderson), in the Underground Literary Alliance e-zine and in the upcoming Favorite Lakewood Poetry. His poems received Honorable Mention in the last three Best of Ohio Writers Competitions. A chapbook--working title Sleeping With My Socks-- is coming soon by Deep Cleveland Press.

 

Eric Shaffer

ERIC SHAFFER

Is a poet and artist and framer who lives in Cleveland, back after an extended sabbatical in Florida, more like a life experience. He's been busy making lamps out of bottles for more than four years. A graduate of Shaker Heights high school, he went to the University of Michigan in the early eighties, and holds an AA degree from a junior college in Tampa, Florida.

 

Wendy Shaffer

WENDY SHAFFER

Wendy Shaffer is a gratefully recovering poet who lives in the city of Cleveland amid firecrackers, roosters, boom boxes, gunshots, small children with muddy little hands & feet, her brother, Marian, 17 cats & 2 dogs. She likes animals.* She has a BFA in writing from Carnegie Mellon University & an MFA in the same from Bowling Green State University. Shaffer's poetry blog, house of cats, features many Cleveland poets.

*Anyone who needs a fine, fixed kitty with all his or her shots (for free), please call 216-631-9841.

 

David Smith

DAVID SMITH

David Smith aka Handsome Duke Deal, is a bartender in the classic style. His books include Closer to Jesus (Ouija Madness Press) and in collaboration with Scott Wannberg, Rockets Redglare (Green Panda Press). Between Singapore Slings, he is finishing his next book White Time, which includes the Handsome Duke Deal galleries from the mythical Hotel Malaria. A long-time small press editor and publisher, he is proud of his recent partnership with the S.A. Griffin-helmed deluxe cruise ship, Rose of Sharon Press. Smith is not quite as handsome as Amos Alonzo Stagg, but he is generally happier than King Farouk. Life is good. In his dreams he has dated lake Erie, and made love to Truman Capote's closet.

 

Baby Lady Kathy

LADY K & S B SMITH

Kathy Ireland Smith -- Smith's "Lady K" -- edits The City Poetry. In 2006, Lady left the U.S. to make art, write poetry, and have adventures with S B Smith, who is a fractal finding ambiance adjuster on the run from reality wandering the Earth. Smith and Lady document their continuing adventures on the blog Walking on Thin Ice.

Lady has a chaplet and broadside package with Green Panda Press. Lady is on MySpace.

 

Steven B Smith

STEVEN B SMITH

smith:
was born.
is currently living.
eventually won't be.
all the rest is lie.

and i am NOT insane.

 

 

Cheryl Townsend

CHERYL TOWNSEND

I am a poet, avid photographer and the onetime publisher/editor of Impetus Magazine, which I published through Implosion Press. Implosion Press now proudly publishes epitome magazine, a regional magazine that celebrates the arts. minds and ambitions of women in NE Ohio. I am the cofounder of the Womens Art Recognition Movement (W.A.R.M.), based in the North Water Street Gallery in Kent, OH and used to be the owner of Cat's Impetuous Books, also in Kent, where I specialized in small press books and held regular poetry readings, art exhibits and live musical performances. I don't like living in the past, but.. Hell, that's where the fun was.

In 2004, I played Jesus in the indie film Jesus & Her Gospel of Yes, produced & directed with Alfred Eaker which should soon be available on DVD.

Cheryl is on MySpace.

 

Jason Floyd Williams

JASON FLOYD WILLIAMS

Former mad gadfly poet now trying to remain on the wobbly straight & narrow but is constantly distracted by the curious items & strange produce local riffraff sell at roadside push carts, Jason Floyd Williams--the John Edwards finalist (w/out the handsome hair), two years in a row, for the Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate gig--is exhausted by gray skies & finds great satisfaction in karaoke bars that feature Talking Heads tunes.

 

LU YU

Lu Yu (733 - 804 AD) was respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture. He was best known for his monumental book The Classic of Tea.

 

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