Contributors' Notes

MASTHEAD

Guest Editor
Martin Espada

Editor
Don Lee

Managing Editor
Robert Arnold

Poetry Editor
David Daniel

Associate Fiction Editor
Maryanne O"Hara

Founding Editor
DeWitt Henry

Founding Publisher
Peter O"Malley

Assistant Fiction Editor: Jay Baron Nicorvo. Editorial Assistants: Elizabeth Partfitt and Laura Wareck. Bookshelf Advisors: Fred Leebron and Cate Marvin. Proofreader: Megan Weireter.

Poetry Readers: Simeon Berry, Autumn McClintock, Kathleen Rooney, Zachary Sifuentes, Chris Tonelli, Elisa Gabbert, Erin Lavelle, Tracy Gavel, Jen Thurber, and Megan Weireter. Fiction Readers: Gregg Rosenblum, Nicole Kelly, Hannah Bottomy, Sara Whittleton, Jessica Keener, Leslie Busler, Matthew Modica, Ashley Joseph O"Shaughnessy, Kathleen Rooney, Asako Serizawa, Simeon Berry, Eson Kim, Wendy Wunder, Emily Ekle, Erin Lavelle, Dan Medeiros, Marin Buschel, Leslie Cauldwell, James Charlesworth, Cortney Hamilton, Susan Nesser, Emily Santolla, Patricia Reed, Brenda Pike, Laura McCune-Poplin, and Steve Himmer.

CONTRIBUTORS  

jack agüeros"s books of poems include Lord, Is This a Psalm?, Sonnets from the Puerto Rican, and Correspondence Between Stonehaulers. He is also the translator of Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos, the author of Dominoes & Other Stories from the Puerto Rican, and a contributor to Immigrant Experience: The Anguish of Becoming American.

doug anderson is at work on a memoir about the Vietnam War, the sixties, and recent friendships with Viet Cong who have become poets and fiction writers. His latest book of poems is Blues for Unemployed Secret Police. Current work has appeared in Poetry and The Pushcart Prize XXIX.

nin andrews is the author of several books, including The Book of Orgasms and Why They Grow Wings. Her newest collection, Sleeping with Houdini, is forthcoming from Tupelo in 2005.

naomi ayala, a native of Puerto Rico, is the author of Wild Animals on the Moon (Curbstone, 1997). Her work has appeared in Callaloo, The Village Voice, The Caribbean Writer, The Massachusetts Review, Hanging Loose, and Terra Incognita. She is an M.F.A. student in the Bennington College Writing Seminars program.

melissa bank won the Nelson Algren Award for short fiction in 1993. Her first book, The Girls" Guide to Hunting and Fishing, spent sixteen weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and was translated into twenty-eight languages. Her story in this issue will be included in her new book, The Wonder Spot, which will be published by Viking Penguin in June 2005.

quang bao was born in Can Tho, Vietnam. His work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, The New York Times, and on NPR. He is the co-editor of Take Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacific America and is the current executive director of The Asian American Writers" Workshop in New York City.

karen e. bender is the author of the novel Like Normal People (Houghton Mifflin). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Zoetrope: All-Story, Story, and other magazines. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

daniel berrigan is a Jesuit priest and peace activist who has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has published over fifty volumes of poetry and prose, most recently And the Risen Bread. His first book of poems, Time Without Number, won the Lamont Poetry Prize, and his play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine won a Tony Award in 1972.

richard blanco"s City of a Hundred Fires received the 1997 Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. His work on the Cuban-American experience has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. The poem in this issue is from his second book, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, forthcoming in 2005 from the University of Arizona Press.

michelle boisseau"s third book of poetry, Trembling Air (Arkansas), appeared in 2003, as did the sixth edition of her text Writing Poems. She is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she is also associate editor of BkMk Press.

kevin bowen is director of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His most recent collections are Eight True Maps of the West (Dedalus Press, Dublin) and, with Nguyen Ba Chung, Six Vietnamese Poets (Curbstone).

rafael campo teaches and practices internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His most recent books include Diva (Duke, 2000), a finalist for the NBCC Award in poetry; Landscape with Human Figure (Duke, 2002), winner of the Gold Medal from ForeWord; and The Healing Art, (Norton, 2003), essays on poetry and healing.

maria magdalena campos-pons was born and raised in Cuba, and trained at the Superior Institute of Art (ISA) in Havana. She has lived and worked in the Boston area since arriving in the U.S. in 1991, and has exhibited widely in this country and around the world. With Neil Leonard, she is the owner and founder of the Gallery Artists Studio Projects (GASP) in Brookline, Massachusetts.

cyrus cassells is the author of four books of poetry, The Mud Actor, Soul Make a Path Through Shouting, Beautiful Signor, and More than Peace and Cypresses. He is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and a Lambda Literary Award.

nan cohen"s first book is Rope Bridge (Cherry Grove, 2005). A 2003 NEA fellow and a past Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford, she lives in Los Angeles and is the poetry director of the Napa Valley Writers" Conference.

robert cording teaches English and creative writing at the College of the Holy Cross. He has published four collections of poems: Life-list, which won the Ohio State University Press/ The Journal Award in 1987; What Binds Us to This World (Copper Beech); Heavy Grace (Alice James); and Against Consolation (CavanKerry).

robert creeley teaches in Brown"s Graduate Program in Literary Arts. His most recent book is If I Were Writing This (New Directions).

theodore deppe is the author of four collections of poems, including The Wanderer King (Alice James, 1996) and Cape Clear: New and Selected Poems (Salmon Books, Ireland, 2002). His poems are included in recent issues of The Southern Review, Sou"wester, Iron Horse Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, and Green Mountains Review.

richard garcia is the author of Rancho Notorious (BOA Editions). His poems have recently appeared in the web publications Perihelion, The Blue Moon Review, The Cortland Review, and in the print journals Sentence and Pool. His next volume of poetry, The Persistence of Objects, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in 2006. His website is www.richardgarcia.info.

stephen gibson is author of a poetry collection, Rorschach Art (Red Hen, 2001), as well as the story collection The Persistence of Memory, a finalist for the Flannery O"Connor Award and the Spokane Prize. New work can be found in Epoch, McSweeney"s Internet Tendency and in The People"s Press anthology Familiar. His poem here is from a new collection, Masaccio"s Expulsion.

aracelis girmay writes poetry, fiction, and essays. A Cave Canem fellow, she currently resides in her native California, where she leads community writing workshops. Her collage-based picture book, Changing, Changing, is forthcoming from George Braziller Publishers in spring 2005.

eugene gloria "s first collection of poems, Drivers at the Short-Time Motel, a National Poetry Series selection, was published by Penguin Books. He has received the Asian American Literary Award and a Pushcart Prize, and his poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, and elsewhere. He teaches English and creative writing at DePauw University.

alyson hagy is the author of four works of fiction, including the story collection Graveyard of the Atlantic and the novel Keeneland. She lives and teaches in Laramie, Wyoming.

donald hall will publish The Best Day the Worst Day, a memoir of his life with Jane Kenyon, in the spring of 2005. His most recent book of poems is The Painted Bed. More recently, he has collected essays about poetry in Breakfast Served Any Time All Day, and short stories in Willow Temple.

sam hamill was Editor of Copper Canyon Press from 1972–2004. He is the author of more than forty volumes of poetry, poetry-in-translation, and essays. His book of new and selected poems and translations, Almost Paradise, was recently published by Shambhala. He founded Poets Against the War in 2003.

nathalie handal is a poet, playwright, and writer. Her latest poetry book, The Lives of Rain, was shortlisted for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. She is Poetry Books Review Editor for Sable (UK) and Associate Artist for the production company The Kazbah Project. She teaches at Columbia University.

myronn hardy is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University. He is the author of the book of poems Approaching the Center. He lives in New York City.

david hernandez is the author of A House Waiting for Music (Tupelo, 2003). His poems have recently appeared in TriQuarterly, The Iowa Review, Quarterly West, Epoch, and Agni . He is married to the writer Lisa Glatt, and his website is at www.DavidAHernandez.com.

bob hicok"s most recent book is Insomnia Diary (Pittsburgh, 2004). He teaches in the M.F.A. program at Virginia Tech.

al hudgins was born and raised in Virginia and now makes his home in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. His work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Confrontation, and elsewhere, and for eight years he served on the administrative staff of the Bread Loaf Writers" Conference.

colette inez has authored nine poetry collections, most recently Spinoza Doesn"t Come Here Anymore from Melville House Books, and has won Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and two NEA fellowships. She is widely anthologized and teaches in Columbia University"s Writing Program. Her forthcoming memoir, The Secret of M. Dulong, will be published in 2005 by the University of Wisconsin Press.

yusef komunyakaa"s latest book is Taboo. He teaches at Princeton University.

melissa kwasny is the author of one book of poetry, The Archival Birds (Bear Star, 2000), as well as the editor of Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry (Wesleyan, 2004). She is currently Hugo Visiting Writer at the University of Montana.

adrian c. louis has worked in the Minnesota State University system since 1999. His most recent book of poems is Evil Corn (Ellis, 2004).

julio marzan has published two books of poetry, Translations Without Originals and Puerta de Tierra, as well as The Spanish American Roots of William Carlos Williams (Texas). He has also translated Selected Poems: Luis Palés Matos (Arte Público). Poems have appeared in Harper"s, Parnassus, The Massachusetts Review, Tin House, and New Letters.

joshua mckinney is the author of Saunter (Georgia) and The Novice Mourner (forthcoming from Bear Star Press). His work has appeared in such journals as American Letters & Commentary, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, The Kenyon Review, Poetry International, Volt, and many others. He is an associate professor of English at California State University, Sacramento.

david mura has written three books of poetry, Angels for the Burning (BOA Editions, 2004), The Colors of Desire, and After We Lost Our Way. His book of criticism, Songs for Uncle Tom, Tonto & Mr. Moto: Poetry & Identity, appears in the University of Michigan"s Poets on Poetry series.

john murillo is the 2002 and 2004 winner of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities" Larry Neal Award for Poetry. He is a Cave Canem fellow and former instructor with DCWritersCorps.

joan murray is a National Poetry Series winner whose books include Dancing on the Edge (Beacon, 2002), Queen of the Mist (Beacon, 1999), and Looking for the Parade (Norton, 1999). She is editor of Poems to Live By in Uncertain Times (Beacon, 2001) and general editor of the forthcoming Pushcart Book of Poetry.

pablo neruda (1904–1973), the Chilean poet, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. His books include Residence on Earth, Canto General, and The Captain"s Verses. A generous selection of his work is included in The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (FSG), edited by Ilan Stavans, which has just been published in paperback.

d. nurkse is the author of eight books of poetry, including The Fall (Knopf, 2002) and Burnt Island (Knopf, 2005).

sharon olds"s books are Satan Says; The Dead and the Living; The Gold Cell; The Father; The Wellspring; Blood, Tin, Straw; The Unswept Room; and Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980–2002. She teaches at NYU and helps run the NYU workshop at a state hospital for the severely physically challenged. She was New York State Poet Laureate from 1998–2000.

ishle yi park is a Korean American woman who is the Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Poetry 2003. Her first book, The Temperature of This Water, was published by Kaya Press.

marge piercy is the author of sixteen collections of poetry, most recently Colors Passing Through Us (Knopf), and sixteen novels, most recently The Third Child (Morrow/HarperCollins). A new CD of her political poetry, Louder, We Can"t Hear You (Yet)!, is just out from Leapfrog Press, which also published So You Want to Write, co-authored with Ira Wood.

dannye romine powell is a local news columnist for The Charlotte Observer. Her second collection of poems, The Ecstasy of Regret, came out in 2002 from the University of Arkansas Press. She has won an NEA and a North Carolina Artists fellowship, and she spent part of the 2004 winter at Yaddo.

leroy quintana, winner of two American Book Awards, was born and raised in New Mexico and served in the LRRPs (Long Range Recon Patrol) in the Vietnam War. He is author of La Promesa and Other Stories (Oklahoma) and the poetry collections The Great Whirl of Exile (Curbstone), The History of Home, and My Hair Turning Gray Among Strangers (Bilingual Press).

adrienne rich"s most recent books of poetry are The School Among the Ruins: Poems 2000–2004, and Fox: Poems 1998–2000 (Norton). A selection of her prose, Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations, was published in 2001. A new edition of What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics, appeared in 2003.

luke salisbury is a professor of English at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. He is the author of the novel The Answer Is Baseball; The Cleveland Indian, nominated for the Casey Award in 1992; and Blue Eden, a collection of stories. A novel, Hollywood & Sunset, will be published this year.

valerie sayers, professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, is the author of five novels, including Brain Fever. Her stories, essays, and reviews appear widely.

eric paul shaffer"s books include Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen and Portable Planet. He publishes in ACM, American Scholar, The North American Review, and The Threepenny Review. He received the 2002 Elliot Cades Award for Literature. L¯ahaina Noon, his fifth book of poetry, will be published in April 2005.

r. t. smith"s collections of poetry include Messenger (LSU, 2001), which received the Library of Virginia Poetry Prize; Brightwood (LSU, 2003); and The Hollow Log Lounge (Illinois, 2003), which received the 2004 Maurice English Poetry Prize. He lives in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

gary soto"s most recent book is the young-adult short story collection called Help Wanted (Harcourt, 2005). He lives in Berkeley, California.

ilan stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His latest books are Dictionary Days (Graywolf) and The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature (Random House). The paperback of The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (FSG), for which he was awarded Chile"s Presidential Medal, is just out.

gerald stern is the author of fourteen books of poetry, including This Time: New and Selected Poems, which won a National Book Award in 1998. Not God After All was published in 2004 by Autumn House, and Everything Is Burning will be released by Norton in the spring of 2005. His essay collection, What I Can"t Bear Losing: Notes from a Life, was released in 2003.

lidia torres"s poems have been published in The Massachusetts Review, Hayden"s Ferry Review, Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe, Calabash, and The Beacon Best of 2000. She lives in New York City.

lewis turco"s most recent books, all published in 2004, are The Collected Lyrics of Lewis Turco / Wesli Court 1953–2004, A Sheaf of Leaves: Literary Memoirs (Star Cloud), and The Book of Dialogue (New England), companion volume to The Book of Forms and The Book of Literary Terms.

chase twichell "s new book, Dog Language, will be published by Copper Canyon in the fall of 2005. She is the editor of Ausable Press.

david williams has published two books of poetry, Traveling Mercies (Alice James, 1993) and Far Sides of the Only World (Carolina Wren, 2004). His work can also be found in many journals, including The Atlantic Monthly, The Beloit Poetry Journal, and The Kenyon Review, as well as in several anthologies.

ira wood is the author of three novels, The Kitchen Man, Going Public, and Storm Tide (with Marge Piercy), all published by Ballantine, and the co-author of So You Want to Write: How to Master the Craft of Writing Fiction and Memoir. He is Associate Publisher of Leapfrog Press.