contributors winter 04/05



Marcus Bales
Norm Ball ** Norm Ball is an afflicted soul whose narcissism has thus far failed to respond to treatment. Every evening, he takes his anxieties out for a brisk walk around the block. Invariably they beat him back by a minute or two. His recent rants and raves can be found in Liberty, Clamor, The New Renaissance, The New Orphic Review, Epicenter and Main Street Rag. Part balladeer, troubadour, poet, social commentator, bon vivant, rake, rascal and good-time Charlie, Norm has carved for himself (with a spoon stolen from the prison canteen) a fragile niche as a Renaissance Man in a post-post-modern world. And it is a chilly promontory indeed. www.normanball.com
Walter Bargen ** has published nine books of poetry and two chapbooks. His latest book, The Feast, BkMk Press, 2004, is a series of prose poems, and was winner of the 2005 William Rockhill Nelson Award. A tenth book, Remedies for Vertigo is to be published in the summer of 2006. His poems have recently appeared in the Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry East, and the Seattle Review.
Christopher Barnes ** only writes poetry and lives with his dog in between a series of disastrous relationships
Kristy Bowen ** is the author of the fever almanac (Ghost Road Press, forthcoming 2006) and several limited edition handmade chapbooks, most recently errata (dancing girl press, 2005). A dabbler in collage, text, and book arts, she is the editor of the online poetry journal, wicked alice. In 2004, she was selected as first place winner in the Poetry Center of Chicago's Annual Juried Reading. She lives in Chicago where she toils away her day-job amidst forever scarily leaning stacks of books in the library of an arts college.
Greg Braquet ** exists in New Orleans, but like most poets lives in a world of his own schmoosing. His poetry has appeared in such publications as The New Laurel Review, THEMA, The Tap Root Review, Lucid Stone, Desire Street, Poetry Life & Times, The Breath Magazine, Red River Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Pierian Springs, Tryst, Side Reality, The Adagio Verse Quarterly, The Little Green Tricycle, The Junket, Tin Lustre,L'Intrigue, Branches Quarterly, Stylus Poetry Journal, Subtle Tea and The Exquisite Corpse. He was a recipient of the Delirium Journal’s 2003 Choice Award, and placed third in the 2005 Eugene Walter Writers Festival.
Laurie Byro's ** short stories and poetry have appeared in a dozen or so small presses. Additionally, her work has been published in The Literary Review, Single Parent, Aim, Chaminade Review, Grasslimb, Re:al Journal, The New Jersey Journal of Poets, The Red Rock Review, Potpourri, The Paterson Literary Review and others. She is in on-line zines "Miller's Pond" "The Writer's Hood, "Stirring" and "Melic Review." Her work is twice nominated for "The Pushcart Prize." Her children’s poem "A Captain's Cat" has appeared in Cricket Magazine and a textbook "Measuring up to the Illinois Learning Standards". It will be republished in a text for 3^rd graders at 100k over the next 5 years. Her work draws on myth and fairytale and her experiences of foreign places in the years she worked as a travel agent. Laurie lives in New Jersey where she facilitates a poetry circle.
Jared Carter’s newest book of poems, Cross this Bridge at a Walk, came out in 2006 from Wind Publications in Kentucky. His three earlier volumes are still in print with the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. A poem "Plastic Sack" appeared in Melic Review’s summer 2004 issue, followed by a short story "Spiral Staircase" in the winter 2004 edition. Please visit his web site at Jared Carter Poetry. [photo credit to Diane Carter]
C.E. Chaffin ** edits The Melic Review www.melicreview.com. Widely published on the net and more narrowly in print, he fears if remembered at all it will be for his criticism rather than his poetry, though he has been featured poet in over twenty literary magazines, both net and print, most recently in Tryst (www.tryst.com Summer 2004). He teaches a poetry tutorial online for a fee to support Melic and can be reached at cechaffin@hotmail.com A second-generation native Californian and retired family doctor (FAAFP), on disability for manic-depression and intractable spinal pain, he is married to Kathleen Chaffin, whom he considers a better poet. They are blessed with three daughters, a son and grandson. His one book of poems, Elementary, was published in 1997 by Edwin Mellen Press. He edited the anthology, the Best of Melic as well. Never published in Poetry, Ploughshares, or The Paris Review, he has no personal website. If you’d like to read more of his work, put "C.E. Chaffin" in Google and plenty of references should appear. Shoe size on request; same as mouth.
Srinjay Chakravarti ** is a 33-year-old journalist, economist and poet based in Salt Lake City, Calcutta, India. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications all over the world, including Eclectica Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine, The Poetry Kit and Poetry Salzburg Review (No. 7, Winter 2004-05). His first book of poems OCCAM'S RAZOR (Writers Workshop, Calcutta) received the SALT literary award from John Kinsella and an Australian literary trust in 1995.
Phillip Henry Christopher ** has previously published in New York Quarterly, The Caribbean Writer, Gargoyle, The Haight Ashbury Literary Review, Blue Collar Journal, Stepping Stones Magazine, Indented Pillow, The Argotist Online and Cokefish. He is a regular contributor to Ya¹Sou! Online. Within the coming year new work will be featured in Lullwater Review, Blue Beat Jacket, Hazmat Review and Cokefish. Currently living in Indianapolis, Christopher is a solo acoustic guitarist and songwriter. Currently living in Indianapolis, Christopher is a solo acoustic guitarist and songwriter who performs original blues songs and poems wherever and whenever he can. He can be reached at urbanosmusic@sbcglobal.net
Debi Cimo says ** I have been writing as long as I can remember; before I could put words on paper I had visions flirting with my mind. I have only recently darted into the world of publishing and have had the honor of being published in various online and printed publications. Being published never ceases to make me smile, but it's writing that brings me the deepest joy.
Alfred Corn ** is the author of nine books of poems, including Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, which appeared in 1999, and a collection of poems, titled Contradictions, which appeared with Copper Canyon Press in 2002. He has also published a novel, Part of His Story, and a collection of critical essays titled The Metamorphoses of Metaphor. In October 2003 he was a fellow of the Rockefeller Study and Conference Center at Bellagio, and for 2004-2005, he held the Amy Clampitt residency in Lenox, Massachusetts. He has been living in London since August of 2005, teaching a course for the Poetry School, and one for the Arvon Foundation at Totleigh Barton, Devon.
Debra Di Blasi ** (www.debradiblasi.com) received the 2003 James C. McCormick Fellowship from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation and a 2005 Pushcart nomination. Books include The Jirí Chronicles & Other Fictions (forthcoming from FC2 Books in 2007), Prayers of an Accidental Nature (Coffee House Press), and Drought & Say What You Like (New Directions), winner of the 1998 Thorpe Menn Award. Her fiction has been adapted to film, radio, theatre, and audio CD in the U.S. and abroad. She is president of Jaded Ibis Productions, Inc., producer of the newly released CD/DVD collection, Ümlaut: ultimate über death metal, available at www.cdbaby.com/cd/umlaut.
Camille Dungy ** author of What to Eat, What to Drink and What to Leave for Poison (Red Hen Press, February 2006), has received fellowships from the NEA, The Virginia Commission for the Arts, and several other organizations. Her poems have recently appeared in The Missouri Review, Southern Review, and online at www.fishousepoems.org. She is assistant editor of Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade (University of Michigan Press, 2006).
Taylor Graham ** is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada, and also helps her husband (a retired wildlife biologist) with his field projects. She’s included in the anthology California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University, 2004). Her newest chapbooks are Living with Myth (Rattlesnake Press, 2004) and Under the Shuttle, Awake (Dancing Girl Press, 2005), and her collection, The Downstairs Dance Floor, will appear this spring as winner of the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize from Texas Review Press.
John Gray
Frank Haberle’s ** stories have appeared recently in the Starry Night (SN) Review, Smokelong Quarterly, the East Hampton Star, Johnny America and the City Writer’s Review. Frank is a Board member of the NY Writer’s Coalition, a nonprofit group providing creative writing programs for disenfranchised New Yorkers.
Jessica Harris ** graduated Magna Cum Laude this May from George Mason University, with a B.A in English and minor in Anthropology. She currently teaches Ashtanga yoga, and is applying to several graduate programs in the Northeast. Her poetry has also appeared in Verse Libre Quarterly.
Michael Hartford ** is a writer and photographer living in Minneapolis with his wife and twin sons. His stories have appeared online in Small Spiral Notebook, Failbetter, and Clean Sheets, and in print in Duck & Herring and Ballyhoo Stories. Email: michael.hartford@earthlink.net
Bob Hicok ** enjoys chasing squirrels.
Mark Jackley ** is a business writer who lives in the Washington, DC, area with his seven-year-old daughter and two cats. His work has appeared in numerous small presses, most recently 2 River, The Pebble Lake Review and Foliate Oak.
Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis ** works and writes in Cincinnati. Her first book, a collection of poems called Intaglio, was the 2005 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Kent State University Press in Autumn 2006.
Kirsten Kaschock's ** first book of poetry, Unfathoms, is available from Slope Editions. Currently a PhD student at the University of Georgia, she holds MFAs in choreography from the University of Iowa and in poetry from Syracuse University. Her work can be seen in American Letters & Commentary, Barrow Street, Denver Quarterly, La Petite Zine, Gulf Coast, Court Green, Volt, and elsewhere.
Meg Kearney’s ** first collection of poetry, An Unkindness of Ravens, was published by BOA Editions Ltd. in 2001. The Secret of Me, her novel in verse for teens, was released by Persea Books in 2005. Her poetry has been featured on Poetry Daily and has been published in such publications as Poetry, Agni, Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, Black Warrior Review, and the anthologies Where Icarus Falls (Santa Barbara Review Publications, 1998); Urban Nature (Milkweed Press, 2000), Poets Grimm (Storyline Press, 2003), Never Before: Poems About First Experiences (Four Way Books, 2005), Shade (forthcoming, Four Way Books), and The Book of Irish American Poetry from the 18th Century to the Present (forthcoming, Notre Dame Press). She is also co-editor of Blues for Bill: a Tribute to William Matthews (Akron University Press 2005). Meg is Director of the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA, as well as Director of Pine Manor’s Solstice Summer Writers Conference. For more information, visit www.megkearney.com.
Charles Lowe ** lives with his wife and daughter in Geneseo, New York. "The State Newscast at 10" is a short-story from a collection entitled A Blind City. Other short stories and poetry from that collection have appeared in Slow Trains Literary Journal and The Quarterly Literary Review of Singapore. Email: lowecd828@hotmail.com.
Rachel Mallino ** is 28 years old and lives in South Florida. Her work has appeared in various zines but most recently in Stirring, Neiderngasse and Centrifugal Eye. Rachel is also the editor for Tilt, an online literary journal.
Frank Matagrano's ** poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Another Chicago Magazine (ACM), Many Mountains Moving, Crab Orchard Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Cimarron Review and Rhino, among others. A collection of his poems, I Can Only Go As Fast As the Guy in Front of Me, was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2005.
Cathy McArthur ** lives in NY with her husband and son. Her poetry has appeared in Cross Connect, The Memphis State Review, Promethean, Shampoo, and Unpleasant Events Schedule, and is forthcoming on SonaWeb in Winter, 2006. Her work was selected for CUNYArtsGala, 2004 and 2005. She recently received The Malanche Prize for Literary Translation at The City College of New York where she is a candidate for an MFA in Poetry. She is also Program Coordinator for the Readings On The Bowery series, sponsored by FourWay Books. [photo credit to Greg Palermo]
Michael Mobley ** is currently taking a break from graduate school at Oklahoma State University, where he pursued a Masters degree in Creative Writing and English Literature. He lives in Oklahoma City, OK, but kind of wishes he didn't.
Having fled the city, V.C. Nash enjoys a slow rock on the front porch amid the buzz of neighbors’ gossip. vcnash@yahoo.com
Richard Newman ** is the author of the poetry collection Borrowed Towns (Word Press, 2005) and several poetry chapbooks, including Monster Gallery: 19 Terrifying and Amazing Monster Sonnets! (Snark Publishing, 2005). His poems, stories, and essays, have most recently appeared or are forthcoming in American Life in Poetry, Best American Poetry 2006, Boulevard, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry Daily, StoryQuarterly, The Sun, Tar River Poetry, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He lives in St. Louis where he edits River Styx and reviews books for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Richard's website is at www.vacuumpacked.net
Chris O’Carroll ** is a writer, actor, comedian, Pushcart Prize nominee, and two-time Cambridge Poetry Award recipient, once for his individual work, once as a member of the Doc Brown’s Traveling Poetry Show ensemble. He also performs with People’s Poetry Theatre. In addition to previous appearances in The Melic Review, he has poems published or forthcoming in Avatar Review, Blue Unicorn, Folly, The Guardian, Iambs & Trochees, and other print and online journals.
Scott K. Odom ** is a poet and artist who makes his living as a detective for a Sheriff's Department on the Central Coast of California. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Quarterly, Pleiades, Gulf Coast, and others. His artwork was recently profiled in the most recent issue of Mannequin Envy, available online. He maintains a blog where you can check out his artwork and poetry at www.thedishwasherstears.blogspot.com. He lives in Cambria, CA with his artist wife, his beautiful daughter, and three unruly dogs.
The poetry of Lee Passarella has appeared in Chelsea, Cream City Review, The Formalist, Antietam Review, The Literary Review, The Wallace Stevens Journal, Slant, Cortland Review, Poems & Plays, The Louisville Review, Tar River Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and other publications. Passarella’s long narrative poem based on the American Civil War, Swallowed up in Victory (White Mane Books), appeared in 2002. In 2006, his poetry collection The Geometry of Loneliness will be published by David Robert Books. Passarella teaches English at Georgia Perimeter College and acts as senior literary editor for Atlanta Review magazine.
Lee Ann Roripaugh ** is the author of two volumes of poetry: Year of the Snake (Southern Illinois University Press, 2004) and Beyond Heart Mountain (Penguin, 1999). She is currently an Associate Professor of English at The University of South Dakota.
Jim Simmerman ** is the author of five poetry collections, most recently American Children (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005), and the co-editor of Dog Music: Poetry about Dogs (St. Martin’s). A recipient of fellowships from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Bread Loaf and Port Townsend Writers Conferences, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, and the National Endowment for the Arts, he is Regents’ Professor of English at Northern Arizona University.
Andrew Slattery’s ** poems have appeared in literary journals, newspapers, magazines and on radio, including Meanjin, Quadrant, The Weekend Australian, Poetry Salzburg Review and Black Ink’s Best Australian Poems. In 2004 Andrew was awarded the Harri Jones Memorial Prize for Poetry. He is a communications graduate from Newcastle University and lives in Lake Macquarie, Australia.
Gary Sloboda** lives in San Francisco where he works in the legal field. He has been writing and publishing on and off for the last eight or nine years, and has placed poems recently in Rattle, The Journal (U.K.) and Whimperbang.
Michael Virga writes -- "It's an honor to be a contributor to the MELIC 27 - the swan song issue - the Jisei of one of the 1st & best online literary magazines. by midnight the silhouette of a swan orbits the moon By the way, the poem is indeed autobiographical: My father passed peacefully in his sleep early morning December 27th, 1997. So, this contribution in poetry is like a memorial to him. This is an ideal time & place for this particular poem, and I have always wondered about & hoped for an appropriate home for Foghorn."
Emily Waples ** is a student at Vassar College.
Dara Wier's ** Reverse Rapture was published by Verse Press (acquired by Wave Books of Seattle) in 2005. In fall 2006 Wave Books is bringing out Remnants Of Hannah. Wier lives and works in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Michael White's ** latest book is Re-entry, winner of the Vassar Miller Prize, which will be out this spring. He teaches at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Can V. Yeginsu ** is Major Scholar of the Inner Temple, London. He is currently writing a book on literature and censorship in Early Modern England.