Participating Author Biographies

OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Staceyann Chin is a fulltime artist. A resident of New York City and a Jamaican National, she has been an “out poet and political activist” since 1998. From the rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe to one-woman shows Off- Broadway to poetry workshops in Denmark and London to co-writer and performer in the Tony nominated, Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, Chin credits the long list of "things she has done" to her grandmother's hard-working history and the pain of her mother's absence. Her memoir, The Other Side of Paradise, was published earlier this year to great acclaim. NYU, Pace, Willamette, Holy Cross, Harvard, Cornell, University of Illinois, University of New Hampshire, University of Miami, University of California at San Diego, Boston University, Grinnell College, these are only few of the "institutes of higher education" at which she has shared the stories surrounding her coming. Hands Afire, Staceyann's first one-woman show ran for ten weeks at the Bleecker Theater in the Summer of 2000. The same Off-Broadway Theater welcomed the second show, Unspeakable Things, in the summer of 2001 before she took it to Copenhagen for a week long run. London, Helsinki, Sweden and Norway are in the line-up to see the new generation of the show.

Manil Suri was born and raised in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. He came to the United States as a student when he was twenty. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland (when not visiting Mumbai) and is a citizen of both the United States and India. Suri’s first published fiction in English was The Seven Circles, a short story that appeared in The New Yorker on Valentine’s Day, 2000. The Death of Vishnu, his first novel, debuted worldwide in India on January 6, 2001. In addition to being published by W. W. Norton in the United States and Bloomsbury in the UK, the novel has been translated into twenty-two foreign languages. Suri was named by Time magazine as a “Person to Watch” in 2000, and he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction in 2004. In addition to being a writer, Suri is also a mathematician. He obtained his PhD in applied mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University and is a tenured full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).

SPECIAL APPEARANCES

When Terry Galloway was born on Halloween, no one knew that an experimental antibiotic given to her mother had wreaked havoc on her fetal nervous system. After her family moved from Berlin, Germany, to Austin, Texas, hers became a deafening, hallucinatory childhood where everything, including her own body, changed for the worse. But those unwelcome changes awoke in this particular child a dark, defiant humor that fueled her lifelong obsessions with language, duplicity, and performance. As a ten-year-old self-proclaimed "child freak," she acted out her fury at her boxy hearing aids and Coke-bottle glasses by faking her own drowning at a camp for crippled children. Ever since that first real-life performance, Galloway has used theater and performance—onstage and off—to defy and transcend her reality. With disarming candor, Terry writes about her mental breakdowns, her queer identity, and her life in a silent, quirky world populated by unforgettable characters in her celebrated memoir, Mean Little Deaf Queer, published this year by Beacon Press.

Regie Cabico won the 1993 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and took top prizes in the 1993, 1994, and 1997 National Poetry Slams. He has received three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for Poetry and Performance Art and received the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award presented by Poets & Writers. He co-edited Poetry Nation: A North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry (Vehicule Press, 1998) and his work appears in Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, and Spoken Word Revolution, among other anthologies. He has appeared on two seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and his plays have been produced at the Humana Theater Festival, Joe's Pub, The Public Theater, Dixon Place, Theater Offensive, and the Kennedy Center Play Lab. He is former artist-in-residence for NYU's Asian/Pacific/American Institute and presently works as the Artistic Director of Sol & Soul in Washington, DC.

AQLF 2009 PARTICIPANTS

Franklin Abbott is co-founder and Chairperson of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. He began working in Atlanta's queer community in 1978 as co-chair of the 3rd Southeastern Gay Conference. He is an original radical faerie and long time contributer to RFD having served as poetry and arts editor and on its board of directors. He keynoted at the first Gay Spirit Visions conference in 1989 and has been active in the pro-feminist men's movement. He edited three anthologies on men's issues. The most recent, Boyhood: Growing Up Male was published by the University of Wisconsin Press. His first volume of poetry, Mortal Love, was published by RFD Press and a new volume of poetry and stories, Pink Zinnia, has just been published. He coordinates the community poetry series at Outwrite. A graduate of the University of Georgia School of Social Work, he has been in private practice as a psychotherapist in Atlanta for nearly thirty years. He lives in Stone Mountain.

Lisa Allender is a poet and actress from Atlanta. Her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including the award-winning Java Monkey Speaks. Her first collection of poetry, Words From Water, is coming soon. As an actress, Allender has been working on Drop Dead Diva and several upcoming Tyler Perry projects. www.lisaallender.com.

Sara Amis is a current MFA student in the Creative Writing program at the University of Georgia. She won the 2007 Mangrove Review award for creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Magpie Magazine, the anthology Jabberwocky 3, and has been adapted for the National Public Radio series “Hitchhiking Off the Map.” Her poem series The Sophia Leaves Text Messages was published by Papaveria Press as an artist's book September 2009, and she has an experimental poetry project up on Twitter.com titled “The Traveling Bobcat Poetry Show.” She likes to wander from genre to genre with blithe abandon.

Antron-Rechaud grew up in Gainesville, Fla. and began writing and creating as a child. In 2004, he was diagnosed as HIV positive, which informed his debut collection of poems, Bohemian Rebel: Naked & Exposed Vol. 1. He has dedicate his life to advocacy work and partnering with community based organizations. He is a former employee of National AIDS Education and Services for Minorities (NAESM), Assistant and Recruitment Director of L.O.V.E Coalition (Lifting Our Voices in Equality), a theatrical group that tells LGBT stories. He was the winner of the 2007 African American Outreach Initiative Poetry Contest and just released his second poetry collection, Bohemian Rebel, Vol. 2: The Rising.

Roger Bailey is a retired university and public school educator of forty years. A West Virginian by birth, he is currently exploring his boyhood journey into manhood through the provocation of memory and the confrontation of memoir.

Andrew W. M. Beierle’s debut novel, The Winter of Our Discothèque, earned a 2002 Lambda Literary Award. His second novel, First Person Plural, was short-listed for the prestigious 2007 men’s fiction award by Lambda, was named one of the ten best books of 2007 by Books To Watch Out For, and tied for the title of best men’s fiction at the entertainment site Afterelton.com. He is a member of the board of directors of American Independent Writers and recently launched a manuscript consultation service, AuthorEyes. He is a graduate of the Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Napa Valley, and Kenyon Review summer writing programs. For twenty-six years, he was editor of Emory Magazine, the award-winning flagship publication of Emory University. He now lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Born and bred in the rural Dirty South, Brook Bolen is an urban transplant who longs for the Appalachian Mountains from whence she comes. Her passions include heirloom tomatoes, social justice, and singing with her band, the F'n Heartbreaks.This redheaded tempest is the mother to the greatest pit bulls on the planet and has plans to edit anthologies on the intersections of class and queer identity, as well as queer identity and sexual abuse. She can be reached here.

Dustin Brookshire is an activist and poet living in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been published in numerous online magazines, David Magazine, won awards from state poetry societies, and received an invite to the Governor's office because of his work on Senate Bill 148. Dustin's debut chapbook, For the One Who Raped Me, is forthcoming from Pudding House Press. He also the founder of the online magazine, Limp Wrist, and was the creator of Project Verse at his blog, I Was Born Doing Reference Work In Sin.

Donovan Brown is a native Atlantan/poet and self-published novelist. He began writing short stories in grade school, but never thought that he would accomplish something as monumental as writing and publishing his own book. He began putting pen to paper in October 1996, and after countless rewrites and rejection letters, Donovan birthed his first novel, My Brotha My Brotha, in July 2003. Donovan is currently at work on a short story series entitled Brotha of My Flesh chronicling the fictional lives of gay black men in Atlanta, which he intends on producing into a one-hour drama series.

JT Bullock has stacks of Gospel records scattered across his bedroom floor. Most days he doesn't make his bed and some have even called him messy. After 17 years in the birthplace of jazz and decade in the Bible Belt, he sought asylum inside the beltway of Washington DC. Through DC's Commission for the Arts and Humanities, he has participated in the Hip Hop Theater Festival, infiltrated subway stations with Metro Performs, and recently joined the queer poetry workshop group known as Capturing Fire. He currently resides with his sister in Northern Virginia and is one pesky test away from becoming a registered nurse.

The work of Boston-based poet and performer James Caroline is a rare mix of literary craft and vulnerability. James has competed in three National Poetry Slams and was voted Best Local Author in the 2006 Boston Phoenix poll. He was the 1st representative for The Cantab Lounge at the Individual World Poetry Slam and has worked and performed with Regie Gibson, Patricia Smith, Lynne Procope, Danny Sherrard, Roger Bonair-Agard, Logan Phillips, and CR Avery. James is a multiple winner of CPA's for Best Slam Poet, Male and Best Erotic Performance Poet. He has guest-lectured and performed at Brandeis University, Mount Ida College, Hampshire College, Emerson College and Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, among others. He has just released his fifth chapbook, is recording an album of songs with Matthew Vears under the moniker Miette, and is working on a novel in verse retelling the myth of Dionysus. James has been published in The Lifted Brow, The Cascadia Review, Quarry, Subliminal, Pinned Down by Pronouns (a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for 2004), the Cascadia Review, and Painted Bride Quarterly.

Wesley Chenault, an Atlanta-based archivist and author, is Library Research Associate in the Archives Division at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. At the Atlanta History Center, he was curator of "The Unspoken Past: Atlanta Lesbian and Gay History, 1940-1970," a well-received exhibition that led him to co-author Gay and Lesbian Atlanta, a twentieth century pictorial history (Arcadia Publishing, 2008). Chenault holds a PhD in American Studies, and is concurrently revising his dissertation for publication (forthcoming, University of Georgia Press) and co-producing a documentary. Both focus on Atlanta’s queer past.

Caitlin Petrakis Childs is a twenty-something, white, queer, intersex, femme, vegan, community organizer from Atlanta, GA. Since the age 14, she has been active in many movements for social justice. Caitlin is also a burlesque performer, a self-declared “book slut,” and (sometimes) writer. Find her on the web at www.caitlinpetrakischilds.com.

Dr. Larry Corse is Professor Emeritus of Theater and English at Clayton State University. He founded the Larry Corse Prize4 for Playwriting. A composer, he has written operas including LBJ with libretto by Brad Fairchild and The Cherry Tree, libretto by Ed Valentine. With Brad Fairchild he has written two books of poetry based on two month-long trips to Europe, Nominative Gestures: Pigeons and Centers and Travel is a State of Mind. His latest book is a novel Out Late: a memoir, a fiction.

C. Cleo Creech was born in North Carolina to Conservative Baptist tobacco farmers in 1959. He led a very sheltered life until he went to college and became the biggest partying frat boy on campus overnight. After leaving Wake Forest he moved to Atlanta, the gay capital of the South. He did all the basic wham things, worked tables, bartended. He went back to school for a BFA in ceramics and printmaking. He has been writing poetry for about 10 years now and is very active in the spoken word scene in Atlanta. He is also an active volunteer in everything from politics to tree planting. He has been HIV positive for 20+ years – which has heavily influenced his writing and activism. His work has been published in many magazines and journals, including White Crane, and is the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology, Outside The Green Zone: Poets Respond to the GLBT Cleansing of Iraq. He blogs at Salon.com and at www.cleocreech.com.

Jameson Currier is the author of a novel, Where the Rainbow Ends, nominated for a Lambda Literary award, and four collections of short fiction: Dancing on the Moon; Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex; Still Dancing: New and Selected Stories; and most recently The Haunted Heart and Other Tales. His short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and Web sites and the anthologies Men on Men, Best American Gay Fiction, Mammoth Book of New Gay Erotica, Best Gay Romance, Best Gay Stories, Rebel Yell, Wilde Stories, Unspeakable Horror, and Making Literature Matter. His AIDS-themed short stories have also been translated into French by Anne-Laure Hubert and published as Les Fantômes. His reviews, essays, interviews, and articles on AIDS and gay culture have been published in many national and local publications, including The Washington Post and Body Positive. He blogs regularly on the GLBTQ publishing community at QueerType. A native of Marietta, Georgia, he currently resides in Manhattan.

Theresa Davis was born into a family of writers and entertainers. She has expressed her artistic abilities in several mediums. She designed and created Ebony Angels (a line of hand-crafted dolls) , Mental Notes (hand-crafted books) and started a clothing line for children. A teacher for 16 years, she currently teaches middle school using the arts across the curriculum. She has published two collections of poetry, Torn and Head Games. She is a member of The Word Diversity Collective/Art Amok and represented Atlanta as a member of the 2006-2009 Art Amok Slam Team. She's also the board of Poetry Atlanta Inc. and was named Best Poet/Spoken Word Artist in Atlanta in 2009 by both Southern Voice and Creative Loafing.

Anye Elite's debut album, Gay 101, was released last year and the first single, "Just In Case" received praise and significant airplay. Anye Elite has performed at clubs around the southeast and at events such as Mondo Homo and the Gay Black Pride Festival. He is also a community activist, working with AID Atlanta and the American Cancer Society. www.anyeonline.com.

Jim Elledge’s H, a collection of prose poems about outsider artist Henry Darger, is due fall 2009. His A History of My Tattoo: A Poem won the 2006 Lambda Literary Award for gay male poetry and the Georgia Author of the Year in poetry award. His work has appeared in Paris Review, Jubilat, Five Fingers Review, Denver Quarterly, North American Review, and other journals. He directs the M.A. in Professional Writing Program at Kennesaw State University, the Writers Workshops of Puerto Rico, and Thorngate Road, a press for queer poets.

Brad Fairchild lives in Atlanta but wishes he were at sea. He enjoys television and working on his Cornell-inspired boxes when he is not writing or sleeping. He’s currently working on a novel, and has plans to complete it.

Lakara Foster is a spoken word artist, host of The Brown Sugar Vibe reading and She Speaks!, a radio show that focuses on relationships, love, life, and everything in between on WRFG 89.3 FM in Atlanta. Her book is the The Day the Truth Was Told: Poetic Confessions of a Liar.

Karen G. is the co-founding performance poet of Cliterati, the twice monthly, Atlanta-based open mic for radfemale/trans/punk/queer spoken word. Cliterati features book signings, readings by published authors, touring slam poets and verbal misfits. She’s held it together for 8+ years and still gets nervous every time. She curated events for Ladyfest South and Estrofest’s Seen + Heard Festival and currently is a performer and slam ma’am for the Art Amok/Slam Amok! series. She’s taken three teams to the National Poetry Slam. She’s been a sacrificial poet and emcee for the Individual World Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam. She’s been published in Crux: An Anthology of Words and Images from the American South to South Africa and Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution. By day she works behind the book spines at Emory University’s library.

Jessica D. Hand attended Carnegie Mellon for Creative Writing. Now MFA-ing at Georgia State, Jess features here/there, is published in the Minnesota Review, among others, was a finalist in the 2007 Agnes Scott Poetry Competition, judged by Yusef Komunyakaa, first place in 2008, judged by Martín Espada, and a finalist in the River Styx 2008 competition, judged by Kim Addonizio. Jess’s favorite hobby is naked fire-hooping. She also loves her wife, cat, and a raucous game of Scrabble. But don’t make her play Boggle.

Deb/ra Hiers has been writing poetry since her college days and mixing it up with improv music for almost as long. She is thankful that her grandmother had the foresight to put a clarinet in her hands when she was just eight years old. She works as an editor for a small book wholesaler.

Joanna Hoffman has been on three DC/Baltimore National Poetry Slam teams. In 2006, her team performed on finals stage and ranked 4th in the nation. In 2007, she was the DC/Baltimore Grand Slam Champion and the Individual World Poetry Slam representative for Baltimore. Since relocating to New York for grad school, she has joined the Spoken World Almanac Project. She enjoys dumplings, parks and long walks down the lesbian bar.

Reginald T. Jackson is a founding member of the Other Countries: Black Gay Men Writing Collective. His books, Hejira: From Cradle To Grave, and Sticks and Stones, were both nominated for the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Poetry Awards in 2008 & 2009 respectively. His other literary works have appeared in the anthologies Brother To Brother, Sojourner and Flesh and The Word 2. His work has also appeared in BlackOut Magazine, BGM Magazine, Outweek Magazine, American Writing Magazine, Click Magazine and Flavalife Magzine. He will be featured in the upcoming VAN GOGH’s Ear World Poetry Anthology to be published in France.

G. Winston James is a Jamaican-born poet, author, essayist and editor. He holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and is the author of the collections Shaming the Devil: Collected Short Stories, The Damaged Good: Poems Around Love and the Lambda Literary Award finalist collection Lyric: Poems Along a Broken Road. James is also co-editor of the historic anthologies, Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing and the Lambda Literary Award finalist publication Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity.

Charles Jensen is the author of three chapbooks, including Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award, and The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon (New Michigan Press, 2007). His first full-length collection, The First Risk, has just been published by Lethe Press. A past recipient of an Artist’s Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, his poetry has appeared in Bloom, Columbia Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, The Journal, New England Review, spork, and West Branch. He holds an MFA in poetry from Arizona State University and is currently pursuing an MA in Nonprofit Leadership and Management. He is the founding editor of the online poetry magazine LOCUSPOINT, which explores creative work on a city-by-city basis. He serves as director of The Writer's Center, one of the nation's largest independent literary centers, and as secretary of the board of directors of the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County.

Collin Kelley is an award-winning poet, playwright and journalist. His debut novel, Conquering Venus, has just been released by Vanilla Heart Publishing. He is also the author of the chapbook, After the Poison (2008, Finishing Line Press), Slow To Burn (2006, Metro Mania Press), Better To Travel (2003) and a spoken word album, HalfLife Crisis (2004). He is the recipient of a Georgia Author of the Year Award and a multiple Pushcart Prize-nominee. Kelley’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Atlanta Review, MiPOesias, LocusPoint, Terminus, Velvet Mafia, In Posse Review, Blue Fifth Review, New Delta Review, Chiron Review, poeticdiversity, The Pedestal, Lily, Welter, SubtleTea and the critically acclaimed anthologies, My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press) Red Light: Superheroes, Sluts & Saints (Arsenal Pulp Press) and We Don’t Stop Here (The Private Press, UK). He is also co-editor of the award-winning Java Monkey Speaks Anthology series (Poetry Atlanta Press). For more information, visit www.collinkelley.com.

Robin Kemp’s debut collection, This Pagan Heaven, has just been published by Pecan Grove Press. Her poems and critical reviews have appeared in a number of literary journals, including Able Muse, Chattahoochee Review, Chili Verde Review, Ellipsis, GSU Review, Oxford Journal, Texas Poetry Journal, Texas Review, and Verse Daily. Her poetry also has been published in various anthologies, such as Letters to the World: Poems from the WOM-PO Listserv (Red Hen Press), Maple Leaf Rag III (Portals Press), and Rites of Spring: A Miscellany of Flowers (Pecan Grove Press). She teaches in the English Department at Georgia State University.

Asha Leong has always been a southern belle at heart and lives in Atlanta, GA. Asha is the product of many parents, is proud queerspawn, and above all loves her international family. Asha identifies as a queer, Femme, multi-racial, and immigrant. At heart, Asha is a community organizer with a passion for social justice who has spent a decade organizing for queer allied communities. When not rabble rousing with the queers Asha indulges her artistic side through writing, dancing, and performance art. Asha’s drag king alter ego, Al Schlong, can be found gracing dark alleyways and stages nationwide. Full details of Al’s deviant desires can be found at myspace.com/alschlong. Asha is proud to be published in the book Visible: Femmethology a celebration of Femme identity. Currently Asha serves as an Online Organizer for 9to5, National Association of Working Women.

Catherine Lundoff lives in Minneapolis with her multi-talented wife. Her books include the award-winning collection Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing (Lethe Press, 2007) and Night’s Kiss: Lesbian Erotica (Lethe Press, 2009). She is also the editor of Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008) and a writing instructor at The Loft Literary Center. Her website may be viewed at <http://www.visi.com/~clundoff>.

Elliott Mackle’s new novel, Captain Harding’s Six Day War, will be published by Alyson Books in November. It Takes Two, his first, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. He previously served as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's dining critic and has written for Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, the Los Angeles Times, Florida Historical Quarterly and Atlanta and Charleston magazines. A longtime columnist at Creative Loafing, Mackle earned a PhD in American Studies at Emory University and taught critical and editorial writing at Georgia State University. He is profiled in Who’s Who in America.

Ken J. Martin's first album 3 Years 8 Days has established him in Atlanta's soul music scene. Hailing from Atlanta's 4th Ward neighborhood, Ken j. fuses his acoustic melodies effortlessly with his sultry vocals. He's been featured on BET's Lyric Cafe and other notable venues across the United States. His latest album, Ken j. and Friends, is a live recording where he is accompanied by several other rising soul artists.

Sharon Mathis is a writer, performer, and psychologist in Atlanta. She has appeared at the Academy Theatre, Atlanta Storytelling Festival, Ladyfest South, national professional conferences, and venues from bars to churches. Sharon created the Open Invitation Theater, whose multimedia musicals and dramas featured diverse casts and themes reflecting their Candler Park community. Television reporter and storyteller Audrey Galax calls Sharon, “among the most innovative storytellers on the Atlanta scene today, combining psychology and theater in work with depth, resonance, and grace.”

Out and About Newspaper described Ami Mattison as "Defiant, poignant and straightforward. Her work hits you where you live and cuts to the very core with a razor sharp edge of rage at the policies of exclusion, apathy and greed that permeate out society. Unafraid to offend delicate sensibilities or coddle the faint-of-heart, Mattison tackles the issues of poverty, homophobia, gender issues, and civil rights with an unparalleled ferocity that challenges even the most stalwart of opposition." Her debut CD is entitled Strange and Potent Mixture (Fluid Mosaic) and her self-produced chapbook is entitled Slug, Mojo, Poetry. Check out Ami on Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube.

Marty McConnell’s work explores the intersection of gender, sexuality, religion, and history. Her work on page and stage fuses academic rigor with compelling performance, taking her from national poetry slams to literary journals. After nearly ten years in New York City, during which she co-founded the louderARTS Project and co-curated its renowned weekly reading series, she returned to Chicago to establish its sister organization, Vox Ferus. Through Vox Ferus and solo, she travels the country performing and facilitating workshops at colleges, universities, and festivals. She appeared on the second and fifth seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Her work has been published in anthologies including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Movement, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, and Bullets and Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry, as well as journals including Salt Hill Review, Rattapallax, Fourteen Hills, Pedestal, Thirteenth Moon, and Rattle. Her poetry has been cited in nonfiction works ranging from "How to Read the Oral Poem" (John Miles Foley, University of Illinois Press, 2002,) to "The God of Yes: Living the Life You Were Promised" (David Edwards, Howard Publishing, 2003). www.martyoutloud.com.

Louisa Merchant is a poet and a writer of creative non-fiction. She teaches Spanish at Emory University and is getting a Masters in Psychology from the University of Georgia in order to be a body-centered therapist in the field of trauma. Her recent work includes: The Triumph of the Abject: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Fat. She also is Refugee Ministries Coordinator for All Saints' Episcopal Church. Her poetry and non-fiction explore such varied topics as Islamophobia, the intersection of immigration and disability issues, and the effects of Kundalini yoga.

Award-nominated recording artist Lucas Miré released his second CD, "Never Regret the Nights," just last month. Armed with his acoustic guitar, a singular voice, and direct, yet clever, lyrics, this contemporary troubadour examines gay relationships from all angles in his work. Miré burst onto the queer singer/songwriter scene in March 2005 with his folk/pop debut, "Forever's Not As Long As It Used To Be." He's performed on many stages in the Atlanta area, including Atlanta's Gay Pride, the Atlantis Music Conference's Odd Man Out showcase for GLBTQ performers, Acousticpalooza, Eddie's Attic and others.

John Mifsud was born in Sliema, Malta and currently lives in Oakland. He is a playwright and filmmaker published in three anthologies including New Men, New Minds: Breaking Male Tradition by Crossing Press and Boyhood: Growing Up Male - A Multicultural Anthology by University of Wisconsin Press. He has written and directed several original scripts for the theatre including Lavender Horizons, They Called Her Moses and At Second Sight. The Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center in Seattle commissioned his one-act play for Black History Month entitled Angels’ Wings Flyin’. Mr. Mifsud won the 2001 Jack Straw Writer’s Award in Creative Non-Fiction and curated the same program in 2005. John produced, directed and scripted two films entitled Finding Our Way Together and Speaking for Ourselves, a national award-winning PBS documentary about Gay and Lesbian youth. In 2006, he published his manuscript, All Clear, a recollection of family stories about surviving Nazi aggression and immigration to Canada.

Janet Metzger is an actress and singer who lives in Decatur with her partner of 32 years and their mischievous cat, Mahjong. For more visit her website, www.janetmetzger.com .

Michael Montlack is the editor of the essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin, 2009) and the author of three poetry chapbooks: The Slip (Poets Wear Prada, 2009); Girls, Girls, Girls (Pudding House, 2008); and Cover Charge (Winner of the 2007 Gertrude Prize). His work has appeared in Cimarron Review, Swink, Court Green, New York Quarterly, Poet Lore, 5AM, Gay and Lesbian Review, and other journals. He splits his time between New York City (where he teaches at Berkeley College) and San Francisco. His new chapbook, The Slip, has just been published.

Margaret Price is an assistant professor of writing at Spelman College in Atlanta. Her essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in Ms., Creative Nonfiction, Bitch, Disability Studies Quarterly and the Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide. Her book, Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life, is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press. Margaret is an avid knitter and also loves really tiny dogs.

Maura Ryan is a queer high femme, a sociologist, a feminist, a fighter, and a dreamer. She's been published in academic journals, queer anthologies, and magazines like Clamour and Off Our Backs. She's a lecturer at Georgia State University and she just moved to Atlanta. Oh, and the girl loves femmes. She is a contributor to Femmethology.

Sincere is a poet, writer and performance artist residing in Atlanta. A writer at heart, one of her short stories, Turn Your Lights Down Low, was featured in a course, Gender Role Imagery Study in Internet Fiction, by Dr. Gloria Gadsen at FDU. She also has numerous works published for Gay Black Female Magazine, Lesbian Nightlife and the California based organization, ULOAH. In 2007 Sincere became associate editor for Sable Magazine. This led to becoming a journalist for PYMNER Inc.’s the Myne Spotlight where she has interviewed fellow authors such as SKY, author of Choices, as well as Frederick Smith, author of Right Side Of The Wrong Bed. Branching off into the performance aspect, Sincere has performed at numerous events including Mondo Homo, Erotically Speaking, Atlanta Pride 2007 & 2008, The Brown Sugar Vibe and more.

Bob Strain is a poet, jazz pianist, composer, and teacher at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. Originally from West Texas, he spent many years in Washington, DC, with his life partner Dexter. Widowed in 2000, he now lives with beloved canine companion Bayou in the Shenandoah Valley of West Virginia. He participated in the AQLF Stonewall reading in June, and several poems have been published in RFD magazine and Visionary newsletter of the Gay Spirit Visions tribe. Downloads of his compositions are available at http://sinistral3.com.

Alice Teeter’s collection of poems entitled String Theory won the Georgia Poetry Society’s 2008 Charles B. Dickson Chapbook Contest. Her book When It Happens To You . . . was published in 2009 by Star Cloud Press. Alice Teeter is working in collaboration with the String Theory Consort on an evening-length piece combining dance and poetry. She co-leads ‘Improvoetry’ workshops with actor/director/creative coach Lesly Fredman, using improvisation techniques as poetic inspiration and poetry as a springboard for further improvisation. Alice is a graphic production artist for a marketing services company and lives near Stone Mountain with her partner Kathie deNobriga.

Kristyl Dawn Tift is a performer and educator. She holds a MFA in Acting from The Actors Studio Drama School and a BA in Theatre from Georgia Southern University. She has brought a myriad of characters to life on stage, including Aunt Em in True Colors’ The Wiz, Ronnette in Little Shop of Horrors, and Aurora Theatre’s Buy My House, Please! In 2006, her essay, Black Theatre in the Hands of Generation X, was published in Black Masks. In 2008, Tift served as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Georgia Southern University. She can be found performing at open-mics around Atlanta.

Megan A. Volpert holds an MFA in Creative Writing from LSU and currently teaches High School English in Atlanta, where she has settled with her wife, Mindy. the desense of nonfense, her second full-length book of poems, was published by BlazeVOX Books in 2009. She published two collections in 2007: face blindness, also with BlazeVOX, and domestic transmission, a chapbook with MetroMania Press. She has been in competition at the National Poetry Slam, and is a board member of Poetry Atlanta. Volpert has previously been nominated for Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry and for a Pushcart Prize.

Patrique Vosges is an aspiring poet and author living in Forsyth, Georgia with his parents and younger brother. He has studied abroad in Paris and in Saudi Arabia. Heeding the words of Rilke, he writes because his soul knows no other way to live. After careful consideration and introspection, he currently has decided to take the risk of pursuing his dreams, casting his catcher of dreams made of paper and ink. In the presence of published authors and poets he hopes to learn as much wisdom as they are willing to impart. He attended University of Georgia, serving as Public Relations Liaison for Stillpoint Literary Magazine for two years, organizing two poetry readings and one magazine launch. He spends entirely too much time at www.patrique.wordpress.com honing this craft of verse.

Scott Wiggerman has one published book of poetry, Vegetables and Other Relationships (Plain View Press, 2000), and a second is forthcoming from Pecan Grove Press, Presence. He has been published in dozens of journals, including Borderlands, modern words, Pacific Review, Concho River Review, Poesia, Southwestern American Literature, Gertrude and Spillway. He is one of the featured poets in This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys & Barbarians 2, and numerous other anthologies, including Best Gay Poetry 2008. In addition, he is one of the two “cats” (i.e., editors) of Dos Gatos Press, which publishes the Texas Poetry Calendar, now in its twelfth year, and editor of Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair (Dos Gatos Press, 2008), an anthology of Texas poetry.

Timothy Wright is an artist, writer, and designer living a wonderfully angst-filled life in the south. His book, Ribbon, the Art of Adornment published by Gibbs Smith came out last October. His poetry has appeared in a number of magazines and journals and his paintings and drawings are in public and private collections across the US.

Kit Yan is a badasss Asian American tranny boy. Yan’s spoken word tackles race and gender with candor, eloquence, and humor. Hailed by the press as "a slam force to be reckoned with," Yan's resolute delivery packs a mighty punch, leaving his audience completely transfixed. Originally from Hawaii, but now calling New York home, he has been performing poetry for 7 years and has competed with Boston’s Lizard Lounge team at NPS as its youngest member, competed in IWPS, and has won numerous slams from the Nuyorican to the world’s largest slam in Honolulu; he is one half of the Good Asian Drivers an internationally touring spoken word and music group, you can find out more about him at www.goodasiandrivers.com.

Yolo is a young spirit and life force, born as Micheal T. Robinson, who is known as a poet, activist, and artist. He is the co-founder of Da C.R.I.B.B, an HIV prevention center for young African American men in Atlanta, and the author of the critically acclaimed chapbook Poems In the Key of Green. He has published poetry, articles and commentary in Oracle 20-20, Red Pulp Underground, The Charis Review, and Atlanta Urban Life Magazine. He has worked and continues to work on numerous human right issues; and has worked extensively with AID Atlanta, National AIDS & Education Services to Minorities, Men Stopping Violence and many others. He was the feature performer for the 2008 "State of Black Gay America Summitt" and has performed and featured At Agnes Scott College's Unity Banquet, Charlotte & Atlanta Black Pride, and The 2009 Southeast Students Against Sweat Shops Conference. He is a 2008 ZAMI Award Recipient, and also received a 2008 "Unity In Community Award" from Unity Fellowship in Christ Church Atlanta. www.yolothepoet.com.

Lara Zielinsky's first novel, Turning Point, received the 2007 Lesbian Fiction Readers Choice Award. She was also a finalist for the 2008 Debut Author award from the Golden Crown Literary Society. Happily bisexual, she lives in Orlando with her husband and son. Her short stories have been included in several anthologies, and reviews and articles have appeared in the Boston Bisexual Women's Network newsletter and others. Her second novel arrives in bookstores in December 2009. She freelance edits for several publishers. She also hosts the biweekly radio show "Readings in Les and Bi Women's Fiction." www.lzfiction.net

DJ Diablo Rojo and has been described as providing an eventing that's "deliciously decadent and tastefully troublesome" when hosting the The ManShaft at Mary's in East Atlanta. He spins a very diverse set of music, not your typical "big club" sound, with sounds of old mixed with sounds of new. The first hour of his set for the Atlanta Queer Lit Festival will be somewhat lo-key, to provide an easy, up beat soundtrack for everyone to mingle. After the readings, he'll move you to the dance floor after you've gotten your conversation, cocktails, and culture on for evening.