MARCUS BALES

Not much is known about Marcus Bales except he lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio, and his poems have not been published in Atlantic Monthly or The New Yorker.

RICHARD BISCAYART

How I finally left the University of Missouri at Columbia is still unclear; however, I ended up in Taipei, Taiwan, teaching English at Soochow University. I didn't realize how little I knew of grammar, syntax and semantics until I started teaching non-English speaking students. It was in Taipei that I coached and played on the men's basketball team. I was impressed by how the Chinese used teamwork to overcome size. In Taiwan, I was urged to study Zen. I always boast about how beautiful my teacher was. She was over seventy, somewhat frail, and ate tofu and drank tea. I was astonished at her teaching, as she taught me how to silence my thoughts, taught me how to paint with pen and ink. She urged me to return to Spain.

I arrived in the south of Spain. Soon, I found employment with the professional basketball team in Malaga, and began to study flamenco guitar. The coplas of flamenco seemed to remind me of lost love. The melancholy of flamenco saddled me with a joyful sadness, a sadness that had somehow infiltrated the depths of my being, a sadness that I could only assuage with comedy and practical jokes. My training of asking directions and going the other way was now paying dividend. I seemed to be reveling in the character of duende or the court jester that you see in so many of Picasso's paintings: the man with the pointed hat who appears to be a mime.

Not having seen anyone from MU for several years, you can imagine my expression when I ran into the Missouri Maddogs, headed by Tim and Ted Hatfield. I saw them huddled around the candlelight of a small cafe in Malaga. There were six of them and they were arranging a voyage to Katmandu, Nepal. My basketball coach would have had me thrashed had he known that I would leave the basketball team, bound for Nepal. People in Spain, and France, and Italy, and Yugoslavia saw thirteen of us packed into a red London double decker bus headed for Katmandu. Much of the trip, I sat there wondering what I would do with my life. My pretense of going to Nepal * to reach the base camp of Sir Edmond Hillary * ended in Greece. The newspapers spoke of outlaws in Afghanistan, smugglers in Turkey, and kidnappers in Iran. As I left the Maddogs in Greece, I decided to go to Israel. When in Jerusalem, I learned of a Kibbutz in the Wilderness of Zin in the desert next to the Red Sea. No sooner had I learned this that I found myself picking tomatoes in the parched desert with temperatures over 125 degrees. Not until I had wandered with Bedouins in the desert, discovered the mystical effects of some red cactus leaves, and become accustomed to the head did I leave the Kibbutz in the wilderness of Zin.

When hot, I longed for the cold. While in Israel, I imagined a wilderness place without the sounds of modern civilization. Not only were these concepts realized but much more in the wilderness of British Columbia. In spite of -40 temperatures, in spite of no running water, in spite of no electricity, in spite of no store bought food, I lived in this wilderness setting for seven years. Everywhere I looked, there were coniferous trees. Bear and moose were plentiful. I lived on a river, having the advantage of rich soil. Although I was not a carpenter, I built a log cabin with the help of some of the other settlers. Ignorant though I was about gardening and growing food, I cleared the land, planted a garden, and stored my food in a root cellar. Winters were cold and harsh and dark and long and filled with wind and sleet and snow. As long as I stayed active, I was warm, spending most of my time in the forest, cutting down trees and making firewood for my wood stove. My cabin was 24 feet by 24 feet, and warm even with the windows frosted by the howling wind. Single though I was, I soon married, needing the warmth of another to soothe the sound of that howling wind. I was so emotional when my two daughters were born in the wilderness, four years apart. It was here in this northern Canadian wilderness that the contemplative practices that I learned in China were put into use. My days were spent alone with very little human discourse. I filled my mind with scripture and with silence. These moments rivaled my youthful days at Columbia, when I first experienced what it was like to care for another person.

On account of not wanting to spend my entire life in the wilderness, I took a job as director of international programs at Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. This was an interesting job in that I was allowed to develop sport and language programs with Japan. Because of the Japanese love of baseball, they were interested in creating an English as a second language program, where the language learning took place in the context of sport. I wrote the curriculum, designed the language component, and spent some time at a high school in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. Not liking sushi, I was not sad to leave Japan. I would have been happy to stay in this position had it not been for my wanderlust; therefore, a dozen years later, I left the job, packed up my family and dog, and moved to a small Basque village in the Pyrenees Mountains. Whether the beauty of the scenery had anything to do with it or not, I began to sketch and do watercolors of the area. I don't know if the results are worthy, but I find art to be my favorite pastime. Whether a good move or not, after a time, I decided to return to Delaware.

I would probably be happier now were I twenty years old and writing poetry with some tall, brunette maiden by a river, but I am now content and fulfilled teaching English as a second language in the public school system, working with elementary and college students.

ANDREW BOERUM

Andrew Boerum lives in New York and writes poems quickly when no one is looking.

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.

MICHAEL H. BROWNSTEIN

Brownstein teaches elementary school in Chicago ’s inner city, studies authentic African instruments with his students, conducts grant-writing workshops for educators and the State of Illinois Title 1 Convention, and records performance and music pieces with grants from the City of Chicago ’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the Oppenheimer Foundation, BP Leadership Grants, and others.

ELI P. CIMOTA

A provincial, left-handed NW native, National Merit Scholar ( college dropout), voted "class poet" "least likely to succeed" by Richland, Wa HS peers. Urban child embraced 60s hippy ethic, survived rural rigors in coastal Oregon (part-time ANYthing- logger, tree-planter, commercial fisherman, moonshiner, midwife, farmer/forager, etc). Finds every musical form ear-worthy... but has a predilection for acoustic country blues, calypso, jazz, other "social protest" genre.

Amateur ecologist, native plant maven ( grower/marketer), religious recycler, morphing from the strident to the curmudgeonly, over time.

DELL

Peter Dell is a cool cat from Mentor, Ohio. I like his photography lots.

GARY DUMM

Gary and his wife/collaborator Laura live on the west side of Cleveland with their family of 11 somewhat goofy cats in a house overfilled with books and art.

Dumm has worked with Harvey Pekar on American Splendor since its author’s self-published beginning 30 years ago through its current incarnation under the D.C. Comics imprint. Currently he writes and draws pieces for biographies of blues musicians, Music Makers. He's also working on a graphic novel/history--The Students For A Democratic Society--which will be published soon. Dumm continues to vent regularly via political cartoons.

Dumm shows nationally in exhibitions from Cleveland to San Francisco and internationally from Canada to Germany. His cartoons are published in Cleveland’s Scene, Free Times and Plain Dealer, with appearances in Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times and France’s Le Monde. A retrospective of his work was recently shown at the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland.

LAURA DUMM

I was born, raised and still reside in Cleveland, Ohio. Self taught, I’ve always been interested in art. I married cartoonist/artist Gary Dumm in 1971. In 1986, after working for various publications, I made the decision to become a freelance graphic artist/illustrator. My freelance business ranges from designing logos, brochures, ads and newsletters to larger jobs such as book production.

In my off time I do my own artwork. My style is primitive, patternistic and graphic; not concerned with realism but concentrating on creating a mood, usually playful, using a bright color palette. Some of my influences include Andy Warhol, Vincent Van Gogh and David Bowie. My projects include murals, paintings, illustrations, painted furniture, painted wooden boxes, greeting cards and cartoons. The painted works are done with acrylic paint. The cards are photos of flowers and cats combined and manipulated on the computer. The cartoons are drawn in ink, scanned and then colored using the computer. I also collaborate with my husband Gary coloring some of his black & white cartoon projects, including art for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor.

I’m a homebody. I love to work and am very deadline oriented. Being a freelancer affords me the opportunity to pursue other interests like gardening, cooking and being with my animals. I remain involved with animal rights issues and volunteer at North Coast Animal Rescue in Cleveland. Please prevent overpopulation and unwanted litters by spaying and neutering pets.

I live in a multiple cat household, all rescued strays. They are complex little creatures who inspire me every day. The way they move, think and react can be interpreted in so many ways and styles. Sometimes they're quiet, then in a second they turn wild! In 2003 I had a one woman show titled “A Cats Eye View” at SmarTArt Gallery in Tremont, Oh.

My illustrations have been published in Northern Ohio Live and Cat Fancy magazines. I designed a graphic novel for Warner Brothers Independent Films, entitled “A Scanner Darkly” from the novel by Philip K. Dick, to accompany the movie version . I have done cartoons for the newsletter Pet Press in Los Angeles, Ca., and cat cartoons and illustrations for the e-newsletter The Daily Mews. www.thedailymews.com.

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)...

GERALDINE GREEN

i'm a poet, i've had two collections published: PASSIO in 2005, THE SKIN 2003, both by FLARESTACK PUBLICATIONS ---- & currently working on my third --- performed in ITALY, GREECE, US & UK --- poems published in these countries --- within the UK i've read from scotland to cornwall, oxford, liverpool, manchester, wales & cumbria, including the first international women's arts festival, held at the brewery arts centre, kendal, uk and will be reading at the wordsworth trust, grasmere, uk in september '07 --- i run poetry workshops & have worked with musicians, visual and digital artists and photographers.

an ASSOCIATE EDITOR of POETRY BAY www.poetrybay.com, EDITOR (UK) POETRYVLOG www.poetryvlog.com, --- i run CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS ---- enjoy reading alongside RHONDA WARD, GEORGE WALLACE, PENELOPE SHUTTLE and GRAHAM MORT --- welcome to my POEMS! more info about me can be found on www.poetrypf.co.uk/geraldinegreenpage

 

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.

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

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 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.

 

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

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

and i am NOT insane.

 

GEORGE WALLACE

George Wallace

---SKY IS, GEORGE WALLACE & THE MOONTONES, on CDBABY --- 'the surreal surprise, the whitmanic impulse!'--- new york-based poet and performer --- coming soon to a beat museum near you --- travels widely in the us, uk and in europe to read his work and lead writing workshops --- works solo or in improv sessions with musical combos --- conversations with baez, bly, cassady, creeley, donovan, ginsberg, lurie, max, plymell, stafford, tambellini, vega, yevgeny yevtushenko --- appearances at howlfest, lowell celebrates kerouac, woody guthrie festival, dylan thomas centre, shakespeare and co/paris, rexroth festival, international womens arts festival --- nyc hang time @ bowery poetry club, back fence, cornelia street cafe, tribes gallery -- appeared on stage or cds with david amram, claire daly, levon helm, tony lamb, martin loyato, joe mannix, jonny mcewan, glen moore, dave rave, lee renaldo, dj spooky, paul winston --- digs reading with larry carradini, steve dalachinsky, emily xyz, kirpal gordon, geraldine green, denis grey, simon pettet --- edits poetrybay (www.poetrybay.com), polarity (www.poembeat.com), poetryvlog (www.poetryvlog.com) --- fourteen poetry chapbooks, us/uk/italy --- poetry workshops in new york and skiathos greece --- judge of beowulf prize and beat poet of the year competition, guest editor for bigcitylit and orbis -- a surreal trip through the heartland of america (a.d.winans) --- cool and musical (donovan) --- a post-existential enigmast (charles plymell) --- his reading voice reminds me of ee cummings, the best i know (mary de rachewiltz).

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