Here are this issue's writers' bios:

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz has been published or is forthcoming in McSweeney's Internet Tendancies, Rattle, Pank, Barrelhouse, Monkeybicycle and decomP, among others. Her latest book, "Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam," was published last year by Soft Skull Press. Read her poetry here.

George L. Chieffet received an MFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has published stories and poems in places such as Greensboro Review, Pebble Lake Review, and Broadkill Review. He is a devotee of the short story form although he has toiled in other areas. He is the coauthor (along with Paul Rajeckas) of Notes to the Motherland--a Theatre Mania Best Play of 2004. Recently Comstock Review chose a poem of his as a finalist for the 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry Award. He wrote the story for the graphic novel "Lucky in Love" to be published by Fantagraphics in spring of 2010. Read his fiction here.

Jeff Dutko lives in Farmington, CT, with his wife, son, crazy dog and seven month old daughter. Through his poetry he often tries to give voice to the special needs children he teaches, but has also published poetry for twenty-five years on a variety of themes and social issues. S ome of his most recent work has been published in Right Hand Pointing, Rattlesnake Review, Slow Trains, Haggard and Halloo, and Miller's Pond. Read his poetry here.

Irene Krugman grew up in New York City and graduated in 2005 from Oberlin College with a BA in Creative Writing. Afterwards, she moved to Seattle in 2005 to teach Creative Writing and Adult Education to incarcerated men and women throughout the Puget Sound area. In August she moved back to New York to get her MA in Teaching of English from Teachers College at Columbia University. In her spare time, she tries to laugh as much as possible, and jets back to the Pacific Northwest every chance she gets. Read her poetry here.

Reid Mitchell is a New Orleanian living in Quanzhou, China. A poet, novelist, and historian, he has published poems in IN POSSE, CHA, THE ASIA LITERARY REVIEW, SOFTBLOW, PEDESTAL and elsewhere. He frequently writes with the Hong Kong poet Tammy Ho Lai-ming. Read his poetry here.

David Mohrmann was a playwright for more than twenty years, for much of that time on the theatre faculty at Humboldt State University. His most significant contribution, however, was in the area of political street theatre as a trained practitioner of "Theatre of the Oppressed." His stories have also appeared in Brink Magazine and The Battered Suitcase. Read his fiction here.

Joseph Murphy has been published in The Externalist and Flutter Poetry Journal. Three poems will be published in an upcoming edition of Living Poets (U.K.). Read his poetry here.

Luca Penne's prose poems have appeared in 2 River View, Poetry Warrior, Word Catalyst, and other journals. He has an MFA from Southwestern Missouri State works, sometimes, as a carpenter, and lives in northern New Hampshire, within spitting distance of Dartmouth College. Read his poetry here.

Nanette Rayman Rivera, three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, is the author of the new poetry collection: shana linda ~ pretty pretty, published by Scattered Light Publications. Her first poetry book, Project: Butterflies was published by Foothills Publishing. She is the first winner of the Glass Woman Prize for non-fiction and was included in Best of the Net 2007. She is nominated for Best of the Net 2009. Publications include Carve Magazine, blossombones, The Worcester Review, Carousel, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Oranges & Sardines - Fall 2008 and Fall 2009, MiPOesias, Pebble Lake Review, Magnolia - Florida Journal of the Arts, Gold Wake Press, Prick of the Spindle, deComp, The Smoking Poet, Contemporary American Voices, Arsenic Lobster, Dragonfire, Whistling Shade, Counterexample, Clearfield Review, Moveable Feast and Stirring's Steamiest Six. Upcoming: bolts of silk, Sugarhouse Review, Gargoyle, Blue Fifth Review, Chaparral, and the Monongahela Review. Read her poetry here.

Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé is a native of Singapore and has worked in lifestyle and developmental journalism. Trained in book publishing at Stanford, Desmond holds a theology masters from Harvard. His poetry and prose have appeared in Café Irreal, Faultline, Gulf Coast, Harpur Palate and Sonora Review, among others. Read his poetry here.