Lawrence Coates has published short fiction in The Missouri Review, The Greensboro Review, The Long Story, and elsewhere. His first novel, The Blossom Festival, appeared in 1999. It received the Western States Book Award in fiction and was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover series. His second novel, The Master of Monterey, was published in 2003. He currently teaches at Bowling Green State University.
Patricia Fargnoli
Patricia Fargnoli, the New Hampshire Poet Laureate from December 2006 to March 2009, is the author of six collections of poetry. Her newest book is Then, Something (Tupelo Press, fall 2009). Recent publications include Poetry International, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review et. al.
Al Maginnes
Al Maginnes is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Ghost Alphabet (White Pine Press 2008) which won the 2007 White Pine Poetry Prize, Dry Grass Blues (Pudding House Press 2007), a single long poem published as a chapbook, and Film History (Word Tech Editions 2005). Recent or upcoming work can be found in Tar River Poetry, Asheville Poetry Review, Cave Wall, Chautauqua Literary Review, Connotations, Waacamaw, Lake Effect, and Grist. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and teaches at Wake Technical Community College.
J.R. Hanson
After growing up in north Idaho, J.R. Hanson earned degrees from a variety of institutions, including Cornell and the Sorbonne, and has taught foreign languages in the U.S. and English abroad. He is a published translator. His fiction has previously appeared in New Orphic Review and is forthcoming in Massachusetts Review. He now writes full-time from Paoli, Pennsylvania.
Edith Pearlman
Edith Pearlman’s fiction has appeared three times in Best American Short Stories, three times in the O. Henry Prize Collection, twice in The Pushcart Prize Collection, and once in Best Short Stories from the South. She is the author of three story collections: Vaquita (1996), Love Among The Greats (2002), and How To Fall (2005). A fourth, Binocular Vision, will be published in 2010 by Lookout Books, and will include several stories from Ascent including “Capers”.
Kirsten Wasson
Kirsten Wasson has published poetry in North American Review, New York Quarterly, Seneca Review, and elsewhere. “Articles May Shift” is part of a book-length memoir. She lives with her son Noah in Ithaca, New York.
Robin Chapman
Robin Chapman is author of five chapbooks and six books of poetry, including The Dreamer Who Counted the Dead, winner of a WLA Outstanding Poetry Book of the Year, and Abundance, winner of the Cider Press Review Editors’ Award. Her poems have appeared recently, or will soon, in 5 AM, Poetry East, The Southern Poetry Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review.
Peggy Shumaker
Peggy Shumaker’s new book of poems is Gnawed Bones, due out 2010 from Red Hen Press. Her poem “Calls of Birds We Cannot See” comes from a manuscript of poems set in Costa Rica. She’s the editor of Boreal Books, which publishes fine literature and fine art from Alaska–www.borealbooks.org. Please visit her website at www.peggyshumaker.com.
J. Malcolm Garcia
J. Malcolm Garcia’s essays have been anthologized in Best American Non-Required Reading and Best American Travel Writing. His memoir about his work in Afghanistan, The Kharagee: A Chronicle of Friendship and War in Kabul, was recently released.
Lisa Ohlen Harris
Lisa Ohlen Harris’s mother-in-law passed away in November, 2008, one year after the events in “Autumn Sage.” Lisa’s essays have received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology and notable essay recognition in Best American Essays and Best American Spiritual Writing. She lives in Oregon with her husband and four daughters, and her first book, Through the Veil, comes out in summer 2010.