Contributors

Jennifer DeLeon attends the MFA Program in Fiction at the University of Massachusetts -Boston. She is the recipient of a 2007 Waiter Scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In 2006 and 2007, she studied prose with Junot Díaz and ZZ Packer in the Voices Summer Writing Workshops. She holds degrees from Connecticut College and the University of San Francisco. In addition to her work in urban schools, Jenn is also an instructor in Grub Street’s Young Adult Writers Program and is currently a reader for Ploughshares. She lives in Jamaica Plain and is working on a novel. Her work has appeared in Ms.

Alex Gang is enrolled in the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts—Boston. His Collected Works are scattered in the basement.

Michele Harris is a first-year MFA student at UMass Boston. When not reading, writing, or procrastinating the two, she enjoys singing arias and jazz, looking up old subway maps, and playing NES. She could own your soul at Mario. Her work has appeared in The Susquehanna Review.

George Kovach is in his second year of the MFA program in poetry at the University of Massachusetts—Boston. He is founding editor and publisher of the literary print magazine, Consequence, and directs a series of writing workshops for war veterans at the Vet Center in Brockton, MA. He served in Vietnam with the U. S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, 1969-70.

Jeremy Lakaszcyck is currently pursing an MFA in fiction writing at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where he teaches creative writing. He is also an associate editor of Consequence Magazine, a literary journal focusing on the culture of war in the twenty-first century.

Shea Mullaney is pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Massachusetts—Boston. His first collection of poems, Follow the Wolf Moon, was published in 2005. His poems have appeared in the New York Review, Soundings East, and Hoi Polloi. He is a regular contributor to the online political journal Pemmican. His poetry has been featured as part of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s celebration of marriage equality in MA and Boston LGBT Pride. Other work has been featured on WOMR 92.1 FM, Radio Provincetown, and WERS 88.9 FM, Boston. Mullaney’s first spoken word CD will be available Summer 2009 from Brave Records. http://www.braverecords.com/.

Thomas O'Grady has been Director of Irish Studies at UMass Boston since 1984. He joined the Creative Writing faculty in 2001. His poems and short fiction have been published widely in journals and magazines. His book of poems What Really Matters was published in 2000 by McGill-Queen's University Press. He has completed a second manuscript of poems, Makeover, and is completing work on a collection of fiction, The Great Antonio and Other Stories. He is scheduled to become Director of the undergraduate Creative Writing Program on July 1st, 2009.

Jon Papas is a poetry MFA student at UMass Boston. His collection of poems about the Boston subway system can be found at http://home.comcast.net/~jpapas.

Catherine Parnell teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston. A freelance writer and editor, she's also on the editorial board for Salamander Magazine and Arrowsmith Press, which published her chapbook The Kingdom of His Will. Her recent work has been published by The Dos Passos Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Salamander, and Stone's Throw.

Mark Pawlak's latest poetry collection is Official Versions. A new collection of his work, Jefferson's New Image Salon will appear in fall 2009 from Cervena Barva Press. He is also editing a new anthology that will be published in the fall. When We Were Countries, is the fourth anthology of the best poetry and prose by high school-age writers, drawn from the pages of Hanging Loose magazine, of which he is a co-editor.

Barbara O. Perez earned her bachelors degrees in Philosophy and English from the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2008, she was awarded the Harold F. Taylor Prize by the Academy of American Poets, and was also a finalist for the Goldblatt Prize for poetry on the neurosciences. Barbara avoids reading poetry whenever possible and was recently genotyped by the company 23andme where she learned that she may be a descendent of Genghis Khan.

Lloyd Schwartz is the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at UMass Boston and former director of the Creative Writing Program. His most recent books are Cairo Traffic (University of Chicago Press) and Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, and Letters, which he edited for the Library of America.

Gregory Stenta is grateful to be part of the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts—Boston. He studied fiction and poetry as an undergraduate at The University of New Hampshire in Durham. Some of the experiences he has had as a graduate student, besides the graduate work itself, include working on The Watermark as a poetry editor for the 2007-2008 issue, and teaching poetry to children at the Cambridgeport School in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the poet-in-residence during the Spring of 2008. He is currently a Teaching Assistant in an undergraduate creative writing class, and in the Writing Proficiency Office. The three poems included here were all written as a graduate student at UMass.

Jeffrey Taylor, originally from the Salt Lake City area, now lives and works in Boston. He is in the MFA poetry program at the University of Massachusetts, where he teaches creative writing. In 2007-2008 he worked as poetry editor for The Watermark, Prick of the Spindle, and A Small Good Thing. His work has appeared in Enormous Rooms, Centrifugal Eye, and Subtle Tea. His chapbook of poems, don’t put it in your mouth, was published by Elik Press in 2008. Forthcoming work will appear in the Breakwater Review.

Joseph Torra lives in Somerville with his wife and two daughters. From 1990-1996 he published and edited lift magazine. Presently, he’s on the editorial board of Pressed Wafer Press. His work has appeared in magazines and journals including Agni, Boston Review, The Poker, Shampoo, and Pressed Wafer. He’s the author of numerous novels and books of poetry including Gas Station, Tony Luongo, My Ground, The Bystander’s Scrapbook, Keep Watching the Sky, After the Chinese, Call Me Waiter, and his newest novel they say.

This piece is an excerpt from a longer serial poem adapted from Ed Barrett's Trilogy called Bosston.

Angela Voras-Hills is a poet in the MFA program at UMass Boston. Her work has appeared in Fox Cry Review, MARY, and The Watermark. She was recently awarded the Martha Collins Prize for Poetry.

Joleen Westerdale is a poet in the MFA program at UMass/Boston who is obsessed with LOLCats. Her poem “Hexentanz” has been published in the journal Hot Metal Bridge.