Jacob Albert lives in Brooklyn though he was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, where he still spends most of his mental time. He is currently wrapping up his MFA degree at City College and working on a novel about kidnapping Indians.

i've been told that i have 500 words to live and also with which to write this bio so ill stop at around 337 words so as to cheat death once again. do prepositions and articles count? i never know... ever the entrepreneur, by the age of four i had founded twelve factories -- churning out mud pies in the backyard. as you can imagine my work caused me to lose all of my friends. "why won't you ever come out to play on the tire swing anymore?" they would ask incredulously even though they couldn't spell incredulously. my marriage suffered at around that time and my wife of 3 months left me for a younger man. my health began to fail, but still i pressed on, insanely devoted to my factories and the children whose livelihoods depended on their parents, but also me. i'm not really sure what happened since then, but i'm now in my mid-twenties, and the back of my hand continues to surprise me with further uncharted territory. what a lark!

J. Reuben Appelman is a poet, screenwriter, and novelist currently working on a documentary executive produced by George Clooney, directed by Libby Spears (playgroundproject.com), and his first book of poems, Make Loneliness, is due out in Fall, 2007 by Otis Books/Seismicity Editions. His novel, Letters to Paris in Jail, was dictated during the 24-day Paris Hilton incarceration, and will be distributed worldwide. Visit him at letterstoparisinjail.com.

S.K. Azoulay is an Israeli writer currently living and writing in New York. Once, as a substitute teacher in a Los Angeles Hebrew high school, he caused a small scandal when he taught the children how to curse in Hebrew.

Born and raised in the MetroBoston area, Lucas is pursuing a career in art conservation and restoration with a focus on neo-classical and baroque art. He has studied painting and art in Boston and France, and currently resides in Porter Square.

Chiara Barzini is a writer and photographer. She teaches Literature and Creative Writing to people who qualify Dostoyevsky as "a hater". She is the NY correspondent for a variety of Italian magazines including Rolling Stone Italy, GQ, and Italian Vanity Fair. She would love to be financially secure enough to stop having to seek and relate American trends to Italians who are in love with Paris Hilton. But hot new purses and interviews are what she has to live on in order to afford writing fiction. She lives between Rome and NY.

matthew bologna is a photographer. he seeks the great within the small. he makes portraits, snapshots, and other illusions.

Mangina (aka Patrick Bucklew), downtown painter, sculptor, & performance artist, is best known for his prosthetic genitals, (the mangina & wenis). Bucklew performs wearing the mangina with his other inventions, (Water filled) bubble-head, aloe medallion, etc., soliciting the audience on stage to experience a hands on tactile interaction. Mangina has been written about in Jonathan Ames books, Time, page 6 of the New York Post, & countless other publications. Mangina also plays original songs with an accordion or piano singing about his life. David Clement, friend & fellow performer, once said, 'how could you not like a one legged bubble-head pussy clad skinny man singing.' Bucklew will often bring art & inventions to the show for sale. Bring an out of town guest to experience a true New York phenomenon!

Jerome Charyn was born in the Bronx in 1937. He has written 37 books, including three memoirs about his childhood in the Bronx, The Dark Lady From Belorusse, The Black Swan and Bronx Boy, the first two of which were named New York Times Book Of the Year. Jerome Charyn's latest book, Johnny One-Eye, a picaresque tale about the American Revolution, was published by Norton in February 2008.

In past lives Tyler M. Cole was a cartoonist and occasional writer for the Chicago Reader. Few things bother him more than rudeness and bad typography, so he suggests we should all be polite and stop hitting the space bar twice after periods.

Bryce R. Covert won a writing award at age 14 and was introduced to Kurt Vonnegut, who told her something about women that was meant to be inspiring but was mostly inappropriate. Despite his advice, she majored in English at Brown University and continues to write fiction.

N 36° 09.968 W 115° 08.624 UTM: 11S E 666958 N 4003971

Colin P. Delaney is a playwright whose work has appeared in New York City and Philadelphia. Productions include Sunday in the Shower with Seymour (Common Basis, '02), Scratch's Last Lament (Kraine Theatre, '03), A Hat For You (Flatiron Playhouse '03; Mad House Theatre '05) and Mask & Cape (Clemente Soto Velez, '06). Colin's play The Red Mollies, first produced at the Producer's Club in 2005 has been adapted to the screen by Ward Picture Company and will be released in 2007. Colin also writes for Outta Work Actors, a roving band of comedians who have performed at the Triad, Caroline's on Broadway, The Tank, Juvie Hall and The Belt.

Carlos Dews was born into a world-class cockfighting family in East Texas but fled to the halls of academe where he received a Ph.D. in American literature. After ten years as a university professor he escaped the noose of tenure to write fiction and book reviews. He knows more about Carson McCullers's life and work than he knows about himself.

Michelle Dicinoski lives in Brisbane, Australia, where she is completing a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland. Her work has appeared in various journals and The Best Australian Poems 2004.

Heather's knowledge of medieval warfare is surpassed only by her enthusiasm for bicycling. Remember to ask her about the endearing nicknames she accumulated while teaching children the finer points of the book and the blade.

Shannon Doyne is a freelance writer and editor. You can find her halfway up Pringle Hill in beautiful northeastern Pennsylvania. Her stories and poems have appeared in Pleiades, The Mississippi Review, The Bend, and elsewhere.

Steven Dube is a poet and writer of nonfiction who lives in Brooklyn. His works have been published in failbetter, Dicey Brown, Canon, the Terrarium, and others. He writes the music blog, StevenOnMusic (stevenonmusic.blogspot.com).

Sharon Fishfeld likes traveling, reading, writing, and eating.

Peter Gerstenzang attended Columbia University both as an undergrad and a graduate student. He was a Claire Woolrich Fellow in Fiction at the Graduate Writing Program. His humor and journalism has appeared in Dog Fancy, The New York Times and SPIN. He?e's recently completed a screenplay, "Personality Crisis."

Hello, you've reached Alida's profile at Smyles & Fish. Alida is currently away from her life. If you'd like to leave a message after the beep, she may or may not get back to you in the next year or so. Thank you for calling. Beeeeeeeeeeep <alidamaria@gmail.com>...

John Goldbach lives in Montreal, Quebec.

April Gornik lives and works in New York City, where she has been a resident since 1978, and in North Haven, Long Island, NY. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1953, she received a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1976. She has work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the Cincinnati Museum, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Modern Art Museum of Art of Fort Worth, the Orlando Museum of Art, and other major public and private collections. She has shown extensively, in one-person and group shows, in the United States and abroad.

S.E. Grant is a novelist, playwright, artist, and critic. Currently working on her novel, entitled "Short Attn. Span Theater," S.E. Grant also teaches in the Riggio Writing and Democracy Program at the New School, where she will receive her MFA in May 2007. A member of Princeton University's class of 2005, she is a former writer and conductor for the Princeton Triangle Club, which produces and tours student-written musical comedy.

"I guide river trips on several stretches of the Colorado River. I like homemade t-shirts but I am not a big fan of glitter. I have been known to associate with goats. I am currently working on an MFA in creative writing at Bowling Green State University."

Emily Haydock likes clothing and dislikes disclosing personal information - when it's ostensibly about her. She prefers projecting by spreading gossip, which she infuses with as many details as possible; in writing, on the other hand, she tends to be narrowly narrative and more minimalist than not. She adores alliteration, assonance, consonance, and above all, contradiction. In her life as in her writing, however, she strives to be as honest as possible, though she disbelieves in truth.

John Holliday is in the midst of Syracuse University's MFA program. He is a member of the National Society of Very Important Things and regularly attends meetings.

Earl Holloway is an illustrator who contributes to several magazines. His clients include The New York Times, Jane, ESPN, Hanley Wood Publications, The Progressive and others. He has received awards from the Society of Illustrators and American Illustration. He lives in New York City.

1977 born in Vaxjo, Sweden.
97-03 architecture school in Gothenburg.
Live and work in NY.

S.K. Kelen is an Australian poet whose poems have been published widely in Australia and around the world. His recent books include Shimmerings (2000), and Goddess of Mercy (2002).

Jonathan H. Kemp graduated from Maryland Avenue Elementary School in 1993. He was last seen in Upper Manhattan walking down the sunny side of the street with a bad attitude. He is a musician, a writer, and an outlaw. Visit his band here: http://www.myspace.com/kempmusic. He also teaches middle school.

Adrian Kien is a recent graduate of the MFA program at Boise State University. Currently, he tries very hard to concentrate as he counts to ten over and over at his job, Counting to 10, Inc. He expects to be fired soon.

Dave Kim is a writer, filmmaker, and self-delusionist. He lives in New York.

Steve was born in Philadelphia, raised in Dallas, schooled in Pittsburgh, and resides in New York. His current works explore the recurring themes of football and BBQ.

Brendan Lott is an artist. He enjoys reading and listening to physics lectures. He wishes things had gone better for him.

Jerry D. Mathes II is a recipient of a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, was named the Outstanding Humanities Graduate at Lewis-Clark State College, has published in numerous journals and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He fights wildfire on a helitack crew in the summer and is in the MFA program at the University of Idaho, Moscow. He loves his wife and two daughters very much.

AMANDA NAZARIO is a fiction writer getting her MFA at the City College of New York. She has had stories published in Harpur Palate and poems published in The Heights of the Marvelous, an anthology edited by Todd Colby for St. Martin's Press. She was born in Manhattan and may someday leave. She sometimes likes to draw.

Arthur Nersesian is a novelist, playwright, poet, and artist. His novels include The Fuck-up, Manhattan Loverboy, dogrun, Chinese Takeout, Suicide Casanova, and Unlubricated. He has also published a collection of plays, East Village Tetralogy. He has written three books of poems and one book of plays. In 2005, Nersesian received the Anahid Literary Prize for Armenian Literature for his novel Unlubricated. Nersesian was the managing editor of the literary magazine, The Portable Lower East Side.

Luis Amate Perez (Lou Perez) is a graduate of Gallatin at NYU. He's a member of the sketch comedy group, Hammerkatz (www.hammerkatz.com), and one half of the comedy duo Greg and Lou Present Lou and Greg (www.myspace.com/gregandlou); both groups perform regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres in NYC and LA. He's appeared in such films as Granted, Blue Ribbon, Checkout (Best College Short at the 2006 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival) and Flux. Apart from performing, Luis is at work on a live action sitcom called On the Job, an animated series called Tay's Way, a novel entitled Before Burial, and a number of shorter works. He reads submissions for Voices Radio and Fiction Magazine and is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at CCNY.

Nate Pommer is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Past shorts include Monkey Vs. Robot!!, Don't Trust Whitey, and Eye Am Your Eye, as well as music videos for James Kochalka Superstar and Gogol Bordello. His work has screened at Slamdance, NY Underground Film Fest, Chicago Underground Film Fest, and on MTV and Sci-Fi channel.

Danny Rivera lives in New York City, where he aims to become "fully realized" as a "man" by earning a "salary" with which to purchase soundtracks to films not yet made, tick-repelling sprays, 45 RPM record adapters, and other such sundries. His "poems" are written strictly for the kids.

Julie Rubin was born in New Jersey and summered in the Massachusetts Berkshires. As Captain of her high school Varsity tennis team, Julie led her first doubles team to a "1st Team All County" win and a "2nd Team All State" win. Julie recently took the LSAT and then moved to Israel. She hopes to pursue a career as a chef or an event planner.

Ari Samsky is a young man and also a medical anthropologist. He very briefly lived in Park Slope and now is in New Hampshire where he pursues manly hobbies such as splitting wood, cleaning and maintaining fountain pens, and backgammon ? la mis?re. Many bulldogs admire him. His work has appeared in the Nassau Literary Review and Beeswax magazine.

Matthew Sandager is a photographer based in New York City. Originally from Minnesota, he's a member of the fashion collective Loden Dager and also an actor. his photographic work includes book covers, editorial, fashion, and gallery installations.

Michael Sanzone was born in New Haven Connecticut, 1977. He is the co-writer, director and editor of five short films, including the award winning “Post Haste”. He adapted A.M. Homes’ Jim Train for the stage in 2002, and has recently collaborated with visual artist, M.P. Landis and composer/performer, Tom Abbs on “The Animated Adventures of Knox”. Michael studied drawing and photography at the New York School of Visual Arts and graduated in 1999 with a BFA in Illustration. Michael’s latest exhibition, Life Studies Of The Living Dead and Other Portraits, was held at 55 Mercer Gallery between July 3rd – July 14th 2007. Michael is currently at work on a feature film as Art Director.

Aurelie Sheehan is the author of two novels, History Lesson for Girls and The Anxiety of Everyday Objects, as well as a collection of stories, Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant. She is the director of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

J.D. Smith's second collection of poetry, Settling for Beauty, was published in 2005, and his children's book The Best Mariachi in the World is forthcoming in 2008. He writes in several genres and lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Paula and Roo the Rescue Dog. Further information is available at his website: http://www.jdsmithwriter.com.

Iris Smyles is a writer and artist whose work appears in print and on-line publications of wide variety. She has received several awards for writing including The Doris Lippman Prize for fiction in 2007. She earned an M.A. degree from Columbia University and is a guest lecturer in creative writing and literature at the City College of New York.

Mike Solomon is an advertiser, filmmaker, graphic designer, musician, photographer, songwriter, and whiskey collector. His website, http://www.TheCleverest.com, is pretty cool I guess.

Ray Succre currently lives on the southern Oregon coast with his wife and baby son. He has been published in Aesthetica, Laika, and Rock Salt Plum, as well as in numerous others across as many countries. He tries hard. Visit him at www.raysuccre.blogspot.com.

Neil Swaab is a New York based artist, designer, and writer. His illustrations and comics have appeared in numerous publications in the US as well as abroad in Germany, Prague, and Italy. Among the honors Neil has received are his inclusions into the Society of Illustrators 46th, 47th, and 48th Annual Exhibitions,Communication Arts 46th Annual, a feature in Print Magazine's New Visual Artist Review as one of the top visual artists in the U.S. under the age of 30, and a piece in Print Magazine's 2004 Regional Design Annual. His acclaimed weekly comic strip, Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, currently runs in Real Detroit Weekly, Internazionale (where it is translated into Italian), Mercury, The Badger Herald, and New Times Broward-Palm Beach, and was a regular feature in both Razor and Gear Magazine. His comic work has been collected into two books: Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles Vol.1 (2002) and Attitude Featuring: Neil Swaab, Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles (2005). Currently, he is illustrating the novel, Yet Another NASTYbook by Barry Yourgrau and working on ideas for his first full length graphic novel. Neil is also an instructor at Parsons School of Design.

Mike Topp was born in Washington, D.C., and is currently living in New York City unless he has died or moved. Some of his books, like HAPPY ENDING and OWN YOUR OWN, are available from Future Tense Books. Jonathan Lethem wrote a blurb for HAPPY ENDING, even though he doesn’t write blurbs anymore. Mike has a poorly written, ill-conceived blog at http://red-boldface.blogspot.com/.

Frederic Tuten is the author of four previous novels including Tin Tin in the New World and Van Gogh’s Bad Café. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

C. Brannon Watts lives in Rockford, Illinois with his beautiful wife... and four moderately insane cats. He has recently returned to consciousness from a word coma ? the likes of which have left him with a lingering headache and an unexplained nickname that he cannot remember but that he responds to favorably. His work was previously published in both Stylus and The Stump, as well as in a limited edition chapbook entitled Flow. He sincerely hopes that you?ll see more of his words soon, and possibly even the pen that wrote them.

Jacob Weber is a freelance writer and filmmaker. His work for radio comedy sketches and musical commentary has been heard on NPR, WNYC, WMLB, and WGKA. As a filmmaker he's been fortunate enough to collaborate both technically and creatively on projects that have been honored by acceptance into, among others, the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. He frequently wears brown socks and has some character failings.

Rachel Weber was born in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her BA from Brandeis University in 2003 with a double major in Fine Arts and European Cultural Studies. Rachel spent two years of additional studies in painting and drawing at the New York Studio. She received her MFA from Parsons this May, 2007. Her work was most recently shown at Mahan Gallery in Columbus, OH and at Caelum Gallery in Manhattan. Rachel will be living and working in Israel next year on a Fulbright Grant.

Gary J. Whitehead’s first full-length collection, The Velocity of Dust, was released by Salmon Publishing/Dufour Editions in 2004. A third chapbook, After the Drowning, was recently published by Finishing Line Press. He has also been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship in Creative Writing at Iowa State University, and the PEN Northwest Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency. He works as a high school English teacher at Tenafly High School in New Jersey, and lives in New York City.