bio

John Slater is a Cistercian monk in upstate New York where he cares for the sick and tends a quasi-Japanese garden. His poems and translations have appeared in various journals including PN Review, Canadian Literature and Crab Orchard Review. The Tangled Braid: Ninety-Nine Poems by Hafiz of Shiraz, which he co-translated with Jeffrey Einboden, was recently published by Fons Vitae.

John Manesis is a retired physician whose poetry has appeared in over fifty literary publications, including Wisconsin Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Zone 3, The Lyric, and Measure. His first poetry book, With All My Breath, was published in 2003 and his second, Other Candle Lights, was published in 2008.

Jeff Holt is a Licensed Professional Counselor who lives in Plano, TX with his wife, Sarena, and their lovely twin daughters, Julia and Allison.  He has published poems in numerous online and print publications including Able Muse Anthology, ed. Alexander Pepple, (Able Muse Press, 2010), A Mind Apart: Poems of Melancholy, Madness and Addiction, ed.

J.D. Smith has published two collections, The Hypothetical Landscape (1999) and Settling for Beauty (2005), and in 2007 he was awarded a Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. His first children's book, The Best Mariachi in the World, was published in bilingual, Spanish and English editions in 2008.

Smith lives near the Southwest Waterfront of Washington, DC with his wife Paula Van Lare and their rescue dog, Roo.

David Alpaugh's first collection, Counterpoint, won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press. Journals that have published his poetry include Evergreen Review, The Formalist, Light, Poetry, Raintown Review, Rattle, The HyperTexts, and Zyzzyva. His essays—"The Professionalization of Poetry" and "What's Really Wrong with Poetry Book Contests"—have been widely discussed on and off line.