V.T. Abercrombie received Book of the Year 2001 for Poetry award from the North Carolina High Country Writers Association for her chap book Greatest Hits (Pudding House Press). Her poems have appeared in literary magazines such as Roanoke Review, White Rock Review, Bluegrass Literary Review, American Poets & Poetry, Borderlands, Illya ‘s Honey, Visions International, and several anthologies, Co-Editor Christmas in Texas. She is co-author of Catering in Houston, Places to Take a Crowd in Houston.

Carolyn Adams’ art, photography, and poetry have appeared in Sein and Werden, Foliate Oak, The Alembic, Mannequin Envy, and Sulphur River Literary Review, among others. Her e-chapbook Beautiful Strangers is available from Lily Press (Lily Literary Review), for whom she is currently an Assistant Editor.

James Adams has studied creative writing at the University of Texas, UCLA, and the Université Paris IV (la Sorbonne). His poetry has appeared in several anthologies and reviews, including TimeSlice: Houston Poetry 2005, The David Jones Journal (Wales), The Pebblelake Review, and Five Inprint Poets. Adams’ first poetry collection, Noble Savage (St. Lukes Presse, 2006) is currently nominated for a 2007 Pulitzer Prize. Several of his poems have also been nominated for a 2007 Pushcart Prize.

June Adler has been sharing her short stories and poetry in the Archway Gallery reading series since 1999 and is currently working on a book of humorous short stories. June has had five short plays produced and is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society.

Alan Ainsworth’s work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The American Book Review, The New England Review, ArtLies, and elsewhere. He edited 75 Arguments, a reader, for McGraw-Hill. He is currently chair of English at Houston Community College Central.

Mike Alexander lives in Houston with wife and fellow-poet K. A. Thomas. He moderates an on-line sonnet workshop. His work has appeared in Mutabilis Press’ TimeSlice, Parallel Press’ Fashioned Pleasures, Alabama Literary Review, New Orleans Review, Texas Review, Link, Avatar, and other publications.

Barry Ballard’s poetry has most recently appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Connecticut Review, Margie, and Puerto del Sol. His most recent collection is A Body Speaks Through Fence Lines (Pudding House, 2006). He writes from Burleson, Texas.

Alicia Bankston is an Associate Professor of English at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas, and a member of the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council. Her poems have been published in Switched-on Gutenberg, Labyrinth, and Jeopardy, and she has held various editorial positions on literary magazines including The Bellingham Review.

Terry Barbieri’s poems have appeared in numerous literary and mainstream magazines. In 2002, she was interviewed and read her work aloud on public radio’s Houston Living Arts Broadcast. In 2003, she was a juried poet at the Houston Poetry Fest and has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize.

Wendy Barker has published four collections of poems and two chapbooks. Recipient of NEA and Rockefeller fellowships, as well as the Mary Elinore Smith Award from the editors of The American Scholar, she has had poems appear in such journals as Boulevard, Ontario Review, The Journal, Poetry, and North American Review. She is Poet in Residence and a professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Joe Barnes is a three-time juried poet at the Houston Poetry Fest. His work has appeared in TimeSlice: Houston Poetry 2005, an anthology of Houston poets, Measure, Spiky Palm, and Illya’s Honey. He is a past finalist in the Howard Nemerov national sonnet competition. Barnes is also a playwright.

David Bart is assistant editor for Illya’s Honey, the quarterly journal of the Dallas Poets Community. His poems have previously appeared in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.

Kristi Beer works for Inprint, a literary non-profit organization in Houston, and was a juried poet at the 2003 and 2006 Houston Poetry Fest. She has had poetry published in TimeSlice, Frogpond and Happy. She lives in Bellaire with her daughter, a much younger version of herself, and four cats.

Ann Reisfeld Boutté was a juried poet in the Houston Poetry Fest in 2001 and 2005. She is a former feature writer for a national wire service. Her work has appeared in New Texas, five Texas Poetry Calendars, Bylines Writer‘s Desk Calendar 2006, Suddenly V, Houston Woman Magazine, and other publications. Boutté has an M.A. in Journalism from The American University.

Carolyn Praytor Boyd’s work has appeared in UH-CL Bayousphere, The Limestone Circle, Bellowing Ark, Edgar, Atlanta Review, Writers’ Digest, Swirl, 2006 Round Top Anthology, Broken Bridge Review, Words-myth and TimeSlice: Houston Poetry 2005. She was a juried poet for Houston Poetry Fest 2006.

Martha Everhart Braniff’s book of poems and short fiction, Songs From The Bone Closet (Stone River Press, 2004) was a Finalist in the Writer’s League of Texas Violet Crown competition. Her novel, Step Over Rio, won the Writer’s League of Texas 2005 Mystery/Action Novel Contest. She was the featured poet in Muse Squared 2004. Her work has recently appeared in Windhover 2005, The Hiss Quarterly, The Bayou Review, Houston Woman Magazine, Santa Fe Poetry Broadside, and New Texas 2003.

Stella Brice received her degree in English Literature from Rice University; and has worked, variously, as housecleaner, tarot reader and performance artist. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Frank, Fine Madness, Southern Poetry Review, the anthology of border poetry Tierra Cruzada/Crossed Land and many others. She is a winner of the John Z. Bennet Prize and is co-editor of the literary journal Art Club. Her first collection of poems, Green Lion, was released in the spring of 2005.

Jericho Brown’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, AGNI, and Post Road. He holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston and an M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans, and currently serves as poetry editor of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts.

Robert Burlingame is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, Brown (Ph. D.), and Fulbright Scholar, Queen Mary College, University of London. He taught in the graduate school at the University of Texas (El Paso) and has published poems in Texas Observer, Southwest Review, Pushcart Prize, South Dakota Review, Kansas Quarterly, Massachusetts Review, and many others. Burlingame lives on a ranch in West Texas with his wife Linda, an artist.

Jimmy Burns lives in a rural area north of Houston with his wife, two sons, and elderly father. Burns obtained a M.A. in English from Stephen F. Austin State University and teaches Language Arts at Splendora Junior High. He won the Caddo Summer Prize in Poetry (1983) and read as a juried poet at the Houston Poetry Fest in 1987. Recent poetry published in Edgz, Iota, Pegasus, Pitchfork, Writer’s Bloc, and Zillah.