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 fifth book of poetry is Nothing Between Us, a novel in prose poems that was runner-up for the Del Sol Prize and was published by Del Sol Press in 2009. Her third chapbook, Things of the Weather, was also published in 2009, by Pudding House Press. Her poems and translations have appeared in many magazines, including Poetry, Georgia Review, Southern Review, and Gettysburg Review. She has received NEA and Rockefeller fellowships, and is Poet-in-Residence and a professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she has taught since 1982.

Joe Barnes has lived in Houston since 1994. His poetry has appeared in three anthologies—TimeSlice, The Weight of Addition, and Lineup—and in journals such as Bat City Review, Measure, and Illya‟s Honey. Barnes is also a playwright. He works at Rice University.

Patricia Barone was born in Gainesville, Texas, before her father served as a surgeon during World War II. She was a media coordinator at Newman School in New Orleans during the tumultuous years of school integration. A novella, The Wind, and a book of poetry, Handmade Paper, were published with New Rivers Press. Her poetry has appeared in many periodicals, e.g., Future Cycle, Earth's Daughters, Revival (Limerick, Ireland), The Shop (County Cork), American Poetry Journal, Great River Review, Pleiades, and Commonweal. Her awards include a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in poetry and a Lake Superior Contemporary Writers Award for a short story.

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.

Michael Berryhill grew up in Houston, ran away to the Midwest, East Coast and Europe for fifteen years, and came back to spend the last thirty years in Houston as a journalist and teacher at the University of Houston and now at Texas Southern University. In October 2011, his book, The Trials of Eroy Brown, the Murder Case that Shook the Texas Prison System, was published by the University of Texas Press. He is working on a book about the Texas coast.

Mario G. Beruvides is AT&T Professor of Industrial Engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. He has written and published three books of poems with Cuban themes (in Spanish). In addition to his Engineering accomplishments, he is currently pursuing a second doctorate in Spanish Literature at Texas Tech.

Darrell Bourque's books are Plainsongs (Cross-Cultural Communications, 1994), The Doors Between Us (Louisiana Literature Press, 1997), Burnt Water Suite (Wings Press, 1999), The Blue Boat (Center for Louisiana Studies, 2004), Call and Response: Conversations in Verse, with Jack B. Bedell, (Texas Review Press, 2009), In Ordinary Light, New and Selected Poems (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2010) and Holding the Notes (Chicory Bloom Press, 2011). He was Louisiana Poet Laureate in 2007-2008 and 2009-2011. He is Professor Emeritus in English (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and is currently completing a new work, Megan's Guitar and Other Poems.

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 is a fourth generation Texan who currently lives in The Woodlands and teaches at The John Cooper School. Her poetry and writing have appeared in UH-CL Bayousphere, Limestone Circle, Bellowing Ark, Edgar, Atlanta Review, Writers' Digest, Words-myth.org, Swirl, Round Top Anthology, Independentteacher.org, TimeSlice: Houston Poetry 2005 and The Weight of Addition. She was a juried poet for Houston Poetry Fest 2006 and 2007. She was a featured poet at Houston Poetry Fest 2009. Her chapbook, The DNA of Sand, is published by Finishing Line Press.

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 graduated from Rice University and has worked, variously, as housecleaner, tarot reader and performance artist. She is the author of two chapbooks—the latest a collection of dark fairy tale poems called Outgrow—which was cited in the Ellen Datlow anthology The Best Horror of the Year. She is a Pushcart nominee; a winner of the John Z. Bennet Prize; and her work has been featured in numerous journals and anthologies. Stella lives with her husband David in a 105-year-old house in Houston.

Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans before receiving his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He also holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a BA from Dillard University. The recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Brown is an Assistant Professor at the University of San Diego. His poems have appeared in journals and anthologies including The American Poetry Review, jubilat, Oxford American, Ploughshares, A Public Space, and 100 Best African American Poems. His first book, PLEASE (New Issues), won the American Book Award.

Jenny Browne was a James Michener Fellow in Poetry at the University of Texas from 2004-06, and is the author of two collections of poems, At Once and The Second Reason. A recipient of fellowships from the Texas Writers League and the San Antonio Artist Foundation, her recent poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Tin House and Threepenny Review. She lives in downtown San Antonio and teaches at Trinity University.

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.

Megan Burns edits the poetry magazine, Solid Quarter. She has been most recently published in Jacket Magazine, Callaloo, New Laurel Review, Trickhouse, and The Big Bridge New Orleans Anthology. Her poetry and prose reviews have been published in Tarpaulin Sky, Gently Read Literature, and Rain Taxi. Her book Memorial + Sight Lines was published in 2008 by Lavender Ink. She has two chapbooks, Frida Kahlo: I am the poem (2004) and Framing a Song (2010) from Trembling Pillow Press. She lives in New Orleans where she and her husband, poet Dave Brinks, run the weekly 17 Poets! Literary and Performance Series.