Contributors


Bill Ashford
Bill Ashford is a radio veteran of over four decades, starting in his high school years in North Carolina. After experimenting with underground radio in late 1966-1967, he became one of the pioneers of the first five full-time underground/freeform FM stations in Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Detroit. He went on to work in several other major markets and currently lives in Florida with his wife and grown children, operating a 24-hour-a-day freeform stream called The Rock Garden. Also a songwriter, he co-wrote many titles, recorded by several artists including his own early 1970s band, 60,000,000 Buffalo, whose album has just been digitally remastered and released by Collectors' Choice Music. One of the songs he co-wrote, "Floods of South Dakota", recorded by Tim & Mollie O'Brien, was nominated for a Grammy in 1992. He has reviewed artists and their work for All Music Guide. Ashford is writing a book, with collaborator Malcolm Gault-Williams, about his experiences in the wildly experimental days of FM radio from 1966-1978.
Review: A Piece of What You Need by Teddy Thompson


Tala Bar
Tala Bar is a writer and artist and lives in Israel. She studied Hebrew and English languages and literature and hold an M.Phil. Degree in literature from London University. She taught these subjects before she became a full-time writer. Her main interest is mythology, but she also writes fantasy and science-fiction stories, novellas and books, many of which have been published in print and on the Net, both in Hebrew and English. Her online home is Tala Bar's Space. Go there for a list of all her publications in English.
Essay: Dragon Lore


William Beyer

William Beyer was born in 1932 in Chicago, attended Asbury College and was employed by the Chicago Daily News. He served in the Navy during the Korean War. His poems have appeared in The New York Times, Yankee, English Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, Christian Science Monitor and others. His awards include the Amy Hempstead Branch Lyric award and the Jesse Stuart Award. Anthologies includ Day Unto Day, Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle and Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry.
Cutting: Haiku


Randall Brown
Randall Brown teaches at Saint Joseph's University. He holds an MFA from Vermont College and a BA from Tufts. Over 125 poems, essays, and short fiction pieces have appeared or are forthcoming in a variety of journals, including Hunger Mountain, Connecticut Review, The Saint Ann's Review, The Evansville Review, The Laurel Review, Dalhousie Review, Stand Magazine, and others. He has received numerous Pushcart and Best of Web nominations — and his work has appeared in several anthologies, both here and abroad. He is the editor with SmokeLong Quarterly. He’s recently finished a collection of (very) short fiction, Mad To Live, and is currently working on a post-MFA certification in picture book writing through Vermont College's Writing for Children and Young Adults Program.
Fiction: The Red-Headed Stepchild


Cecelia Chapman

Cecelia Chapman lives in Northern California where she produces short videos, artwork and stories. She uses the people, places and things around her in her work that explores the human hunger for adventure, mystery and illusion. Please go to ceceliachapman.com for more.
Artwork: Wonderstrike, The Orchid Farm


Eileen D'Angelo
Eileen D'Angelo is a songwriter, poet and author of five collections of poetry, Shooting Stars, Nightwinds, Love Songs, True Tales from the Home Front and Growing Up With a Vengeance. She has been a paralegal since 1986, with the law firm of Harris and Smith in Media, and a graduate of Main Line Paralegal, where she received special recognition for a 4.0 GPA. Her most recent poetry collection, True Tales from the Home Front, was a finalist in the University of North Carolina's 2000 Poetry Chapbook Competition. Her work has appeared in national and international literary magazines including Rattle, Drexel Online Journal, HiNgE Online, One Trick Pony, Paterson Literary Review, Negative Capability, and others.
Review: Two books by G. Emil Reutter


Rada Djurica
Radmila Djurica is a Serbian freelance journalist who has done correspondence work for the Tiker Press Agency and has had articles published in British Sunday and daily newspapers, including the Scottish newspaper, Sunday Post; in Woman Abroad magazine; and at Storyhouse.org. She has served as assistant editor, reading manuscripts for the Reading Writers Service; has published articles with the SCN Television Network in California; is a freelance columnist for the British monthly magazine Code Uncut; and wrote about Serbia's International Bitef Festival of contemporary theatre for Zowie Wowie Magazine, an American e-zine.
Reviews:

Essays: The Art of Movies (Motovun Film Festival), Cannes 2008 Red Carpet, Colonial Wisdom of Balkan Film, Cyndi Lauper in Belgrade


D.E. Fredd
D. E. Fredd lives in Townsend, Massachusetts. He has had fiction and poetry published in several journals and reviews including the Boston Literary Magazine, Connecticut Review, The Pedestal, Storyglossia, SNReview, eclectica and Menda City. Poetry has appeared in the Paumanok and Paris Reviews. He received the Theodore Hoepfner Award given by the Southern Humanities Review for the best short fiction of 2005 and was a 2006 Ontario Award Finalist. He won the 2006 Black River Chapbook Competition and received a 2007 Pushcart Special Mention Award. He has been included in the Million Writers Award of Notable Stories for 2005, 2006 and 2007. A novel, Exiled to Moab, published by Six Gallery Press, will debut in 2008.
Fiction:
Faulkner & Hollywood


Margaret A. Frey
Margaret A. Frey writes from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Her work has appeared in Notre Dame Magazine, Cezanne's Carrot, Trillium Literary Quarterly, flashquake, Kaleidowhirl, Bent Pin Quarterly and elsewhere. In December 2007 her flash, "Riding the Coma," won a first place nod in the Cezanne's Carrot Return of Light contest. She was a finalist in the Erma Bombeck annual writing competition and took a Writer's Digest Chronicle win in 2003. Margaret lives with her husband John and her canine literary critic, Ruffian. She can be reached via e-mail.
Cutting:
On the Island


Jason Fritz

Jason Fritz was born in 1978 in Richmond, Kentucky, where he spent his childhood and young adult life. He is a recipient of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets at the University of Pennsylvania, a contest open to all graduate students. He is also a recipient of the Terry M. Krieger Award, a prize given to the Haverford College senior demonstrating the greatest achievement in writing during the junior and senior years. His poems have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Mad Poets Journal, Stickman Review, and Appalachian Heritage.
Poetry: On the Way to the All-Night Diner


Benjamin Heins
Benjamin Heins is an avid reader and writer of poetry, mentored by the late Dr. Len Roberts. His work has appeared in several publications over the past two years, including Lehigh Valley Literary Review, Black Book Press, and Write On!! Poetry Magazette. In December, he will graduate from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in professional writing and a minor in English literature. He then plans on finding a fun job with good wages and starting an excellent life in the "real world." In the meantime, however, he is spending his summer as a lifeguard and office assistant, with ample time reserved for family, friends, and his writing group, The Winged Poets.
Cutting: Haiku for Allentown


Linda Oatman High
Linda Oatman High is an author of books for children and teens who is currently earning her MFA in writing at Vermont College of the Fine Arts. She's also the author of The Hip Grandma's Handbook, and is also a travel writer/journalist/poet/playwright. Linda has also written a screenplay Nickel Mines, based upon the Amish school shootings. Her web site is LindaOatmanHigh.com.
Essay:
Those Ten Little Angels


Ann Hite
Ann Hite's story, "The Christmas Tree Hunter," will appear in Christmas Through A Child's Eyes in bookstores October 17, 2008. Her personal essay, "Surviving Mom," was part of Marlo Thomas' latest collection, The Right Words At The Right Time, Vol., 2, which made number 14 on the New York Times Best Sellers List (May 14, 2006). Her short stories have appeared in numerous publications, such as Fiction Warehouse, Cup of Comfort, Foliate Oak and Moonwort Review. The Dead Mule featured 18 selected Black Mountain Stories in their May 2008 Issue. Ann lives with her family in Atlanta where she has over 1,000 books, a butterfly garden, and her laptop. Feel free to visit her websites: http://www.freewebs.com/annhite/index.htm and
http://womanwriter.blogspot.com.
Humor: Warts and All (Or How I Lied to My Book Club)


Steve Honeywell
Steve Honeywell worked for 12 years as a journalist, editor, website editorial director and author in the video game industry, and used to teach self defense. These days, he works out of his basement as a freelance copy editor and proofreader. He has a master's degree in linguistics and stylistics from Northern Illinois University and has no desire to work toward a Ph.D. He lives with and is owned by his wife, two daughters, and menagerie of exotic pets. Read his movie and DVD reviews at: MovieGuySteve.blogspot.com.
Essay: Finding Jean


Michael Lee Johnson
Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, and freelance writer, author of Itasca, Illinois, The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom. He has also published two chapbooks of poetry. He has been published in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Turkey, Fuji, Nigeria, Algeria, Africa, India, United Kingdom, Republic of Sierra Leone, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia. He is also publisher and editor of four poetry, flash fiction sites — all presently open for submission: Birds By My Window, Poetic Legacy, A Tender Touch and a Shade of Blue, and Wizards of The Wind and Other Strange Places.
Poetry: Forked in Itasca


John Joyce
John Joyce was born at Hampton Court in England. He held school records for running the mile. He was educated in London and Salford, Lancashire, where he gained an honors degree in electrical engineering. Subsequent studies have been at Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia and Capilano College. John Joyce started writing philosophy at school and has been extensively published. Moniques's Interview was his first short play and Going Standby is his latest. He departed England for Montreal to go around the world, living at different times in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Dartmouth. He resides in self-imposed exile in Vancouver, Canada. Altus Arts promotes his works worldwide.
Essay: The Green Frisbee in Toronto
Humor: The National Sales Meeting


K.A. Laity
Nature abhors a vacuum, but K. A. Laity abhors a label. Her short story collection Unikirja ("Dreambook") was inspired by Finnish folklore and mythology and will appear this fall from Aino Press. A medievalist at the College of Saint Rose in New York, she also teaches film and popular culture. She's wrapping up a slipstream novel born from the grief of knowing there will never be another Kurt Vonnegut novel. Visit her website, kalaity.com, for more details and to read the ongoing gothic serial about mystery, romance and pockets.
Essay:
Me and Margery Kempe


Peter Layton
Poetry: Spelling, A Home is Not a Home


Lyn Lifshin

Lyn Lifshin has published more than 100 books of poetry, won awards for her non-fiction and edited four anthologies of women's writing. She is the subject of an award winning documentary film, Lyn Lifshin: Not Made of Glass.
Poetry: Rhumba on the Subway, On the Afternoon Before the Photographs


Richard Lighthouse
Richard Lighthouse is a contemporary writer and poet. He holds an M.S. from Stanford University. His work has been published in: The Penwood Review, West Hills Review, Mudfish, and many others worldwide.
Poetry:
wear this poem hat


Ashley Magnani
Humor:
Slugling


Arlene Mandell
Arlene L. Mandell's work has previously appeared in Wild Violet as well as in 275 other publications and 11 anthologies. She is a retired English professor living in Santa Rosa with Gabrielle, Gatsby, Maxwell and Larry (dog, cat, dog, husband) where the roses and lilacs are splendid this season.
Poetry:
Port au Prince, Haiti, 1979


Christopher Mulrooney
Christopher Mulrooney has had poems published in Vanitas, Guernica, Delmarva Review and Beeswax, and his criticism has appeared in Blue Fifth Review, Elimae, The Film Journal and Small Press Review.
Poetry:
port o' call


Kevin J.B. O'Connor

Kevin J.B. O'Connor is a writer and musician raised in the valley of Hornell, New York. He studied at the Johns Hopkins University and afterwards spent time living and studying in Argentina and Bolivia. He has written one novel, entitled Don't Say Charm, and is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science for research work completed at the Institute for Genomic Research.. At Johns Hopkins he contributed music reviews to The Johns Hopkins Newsletter. You may hear a small portion of his music oeuvre at: www.myspace.com/summerbabe33. This is his first published poem.
Poetry: You or Yourself in Red


Marta Palos
Against her inclinations, assistant editor Marta Palos almost became a lawyer in her native Hungary when history and circumstance stepped in. Tossed about in the world awhile, she landed in America and turned her attention to literature, her old love. Her life revolves around words — she writes, reads, translates and edits them. She also helps copy-edit Wild Violet.


P. Pratt
P. Pratt works hard at reading everything she can get her hands on,
enjoys film, theater, cooking, and travel.
Review: Spitting Water


Doug Ramspeck
Doug Ramspeck’s poetry collection, Black Tupelo Country, was awarded the 2007 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry and will be published in the fall of 2008 by BkMk Press. His poems have appeared in West Branch, Connecticut Review, Seneca Review, Confrontation Magazine, Rattle, Nimrod, and numerous other literary journals. He directs the Writing Center and teaches creative writing and composition at The Ohio State University at Lima. He lives in Lima with his wife, Beth, and their daughter, Lee.
Poetry:
Cottonmouth Dreams


Kent Robinson
Kent Robinson's first story for Wild Violet was "Beans About It," published in Vol. VI Issue 2 (Blue Moon). He's also had 130 stories in nearly every genre published elsewhere. His first book, a collection of mainstream tales titled Bears in the Punch Bowl and Other Stories (AuthorHouse), was published in 2004. His second book, a collection of horror works titled Why You Should Shudder: 27 Tales of Terror, will be out from AuthorHouse later this year. He is a graduate of Franklin College in Indiana and a former public relations worker for the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.
Fiction:
All the Great Structures Go


Wayne Scheer
Wayne Scheer retired after twenty-five years of teaching writing and literature in college to follow his own advice and write. He's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net. His work has appeared in such print and online publications as Notre Dame Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Pedestal Magazine, flashquake, The Internet Review of Books, Sniplits, Pindeldyboz and Eclectica, as well as Wild Violet. Wayne lives in Atlanta with his wife and can be contacted via e-mail.
Cutting: It's About Time
Humor: SOB


Susan Snowden
Susan Snowden's stories, poems, and interviews have appeared in nine anthologies and a variety of literary journals, including New Orleans Review, Now and Then, Pisgah Review, Slow Trains, and Moonshine Review. She has received awards for her writing from Writer's Digest magazine, the North Carolina Writers' Network, the Appalachian Writers' Association, and others. An Atlanta native, Susan now lives in western North Carolina, where she works full-time as a freelance book editor (fiction and nonfiction).
Fiction: A Road as Wide as the World


Thomas Sullivan
Thomas Sullivan writes humor essays about contemporary American Life. He is the author of You Can't Paint Chainlink: True Tales From A Beautifully Flawed World. His writing has recently appeared in the webzines Eleventh Transmission, Grumble Magazine, Rumpot Magazine, Backhand Stories and The Externalist. He can be reached via e-mail.
Humor: Welcome to the New Economy


Anna Sykora
Anna Sykora has been a tax attorney in New York and a teacher of English to Germans in Germany. She lives in Hanover with the world's most patient husband and three enormous Norwegian Forest Cats. Though she's had no luck with her three novels, writing is her joy; and to date she has published 24 stories and over 50 poems in the small press or on the Web.
Cutting: Building Breakfast


John C. Weil

John C. Weil has published poetry and fiction in literary magazines such as Pearl , Dana Literary Society Journal, Poetry Forum & Stories, California Poetry Quarterly and Chiron Review. He has won three major writing awards in the fields of education, public safety and short story writing. His articles have appeared in KPBS On Air Magazine, Time, Reader's Digest, and many newspapers.
Fiction: Probe


Ernest Williamson III
Ernest Williamson III is a 31-year-old polymath who has published poetry and visual art in over 165 online and print journals. He is a self-taught pianist and painter and his poem "The Jazz of Old Wine" has been nominated for a Best of the Net award by the editors of Thick with Conviction. He holds the B.A. and the M.A. in English/Creative Writing/Literature from the University of Memphis. Ernest is listed in the Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. Ernest is an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University and an English professor at Essex County College. Professor Williamson is also a Ph.D. candidate at Seton Hall University in the field of higher education, and a member of The International High IQ Society based in New York City.
Poetry: The Chords of Life's Journey
Artwork:
The Freedom Dancer, Very Shy, The Woman of an Angel


Alyce Wilson
Alyce Wilson is Wild Violet editor and in her copious spare time writes humor, non-fiction and poetry, keeps an online journal, Musings, and is researching a book on creative wedding planning, My Wedding, My Way: Real Women, Real Weddings, Real Budgets. She has self-published a book of poems, Picturebook of the Martyrs, and an e-book, Stay Out of the Bin! An Editor's Tips on Getting Published in Lit Mags, both of which can be ordered from her web site. She lives with her husband in the Philadelphia area and takes far too many photos of her adorable dog, Una, and attractive cat, Luke.
Reviews: From the Rill to the Ocean by Imre Kalanyos, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine, No One Should Get Pregnant Alone by Elaine D. Fox and Not on the Level by Michael V. Maddaloni, Grace Notes by Dandi Daley Mackall, Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad, Are These My Lions? by Daniel E. Levenson, 21st Century Bread by Leland Jamieson, Two books by Judith Goldhaber, From the Bookshelf (capsule reviews)
Probes: Eric Flint, Jeremiah Zagar


Mark Arvid White
Mark Arvid White lives in Alaska and has had hundreds of poems, as well as stories, letters, articles, and reviews, appear in magazines such as Modern Haiku, Candelabrum, Webster Review, Bible Review, Minas Tirith Evening-Star, Frogpond, Arnazella, and many others in the U.S. and abroad. He has appeared in numerous anthologies, such as A Haiku Moment, and is the author of a serialized novellette, Olly Boffin and the Pocket Locket, and is past Alaska Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. He is the creator of the online Shin Tao Haiku Retreat, located in the virtual community of Second Life.
Cutting: Odin's Eye


John Woodington
John Woodington is a twenty-four-year-old writer from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. His work has previously appeared in multiple publications, including Every Day Fiction, The Square Table and The Moonwort Review. He holds a minor in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire.
Humor: Better With Age