Michael Graber works as a professional editor, is a native of Memphis, moonlights as a poetry reviewer for the Commercial Appeal, and as a vaudeville, old-time, country blues mandolin/guitar /kazoo player. In a former life he served as poetry editor of River City and has published verse, songs, plays, creative non-fiction, reviews, and interviews. Work is forthcoming or recently published in the Spoon River Poetry Review, Crab Orchard Review, the Habersham Review, and on-line at Crania, among others places. Recently, Michael won first place in the Alsop Review Poetry contest. With Margaret, his wife, he spends most of the time chasing and cleaning up after three children.

Claudia K. Grinnell was born and raised in Germany. She now makes her home in Monroe, Louisiana, where she teaches English at Northeast Louisiana University. Her poetry has appeared in various print and e-zines, such as Hayden's Ferry Review and Recursive Angel. More of Claudia's work is available at her homepage

Canadian poet Heather MacLeod is a graduate of the writing program at the University of Victoria. Some of her poetry has appeared in the Canadian journals NeWest Review, Wascana Review, Fiddlehead, Grain, Prism International as well as the Canadian anthologies Breathing Fire, The Colour of Resistance and A Shade of Spring. Her poetry is currently published on the internet journal Sparks as well as the Alsop Review. Her first book of poetry, My Flesh the Sound of Rain, was released by Coteau in the autumn of 1998. Two of her plays have received honourable mentions from, the Canadian journal, Aboriginal Voices and from the Native Playwrights Contest held in Alaska. She has lived in British Columbia, Alberta, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories as well as Turkey.

Karen Masullo is originally from New York, although currently lives in Ohio "with a wonderful man I've respected for twenty-one years and two dogs." Certified trainer for the world's largest and oldest employment transition consulting firm. Her publication credits include: Perihelion, Moveo Angelus, Tintern Abbey, Melic Review, Serpentine, and Savoy; May issue of Octavo. Hard copy anthology inclusion: Every Woman Has a Story. Also, a featured reader of original work at The Greater Columbus Arts Festival, rated one of the top ten in the country, June 5th, 1999. "Will write poetry for lox or a good white Burgundy."

Linda Sue Park writes fiction for adults and children as well as poetry. Her first juvenile novel, Seesaw Girl, is forthcoming from Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin and can be advance ordered at Amazon.com, with two other novels to be published subsequently. She has had poetry published in Poetry Ireland and the Irish Times, as well as on-line at Perihelion and Octavo. Her fiction work can be found at The Alsop Review. Linda Sue teaches English as a Second Language to university students and lives with her husband and two children in upstate New York.

Neca Stoller was born in Savannah, Georgia. She was educated at University of Georgia, graduating with a B. A. Economics, Phi Kappa Phi. She drafted her county's first planning ordinances and served as Co-chairman of the County Planning Commission. After years of living in a metropolitan area, she and her family moved to a rural area and raised cattle. It was here she began writing. Recently they returned to urban living. She won the Haiku Society of America Renku Award in 1997 and place third in 1998 Kumamoto International Kusamakura Haiku competition. Her book of free verse, Bound by Red Clay,
ISBN 0-9646450-8-4 was released publication in March, 1999.

Don Taylor drinks Irish whiskey sometimes and smokes cigars never, since they are now banned, along with pipes, at poker tables in Vegas. Writing poetry and short stories comes in at an exciting seventh of necessary things to do, according to this 65-year old grandfather of five--watching the kids T-ball games, eating tacos and ice cream, playing poker, ogling cocktail girls, hanging around with the wife, watching college and pro sports often takes preference. Taylor has a doctorate in English with a specialty in botany. Success in the construction business took him away from teaching from 1977 to 1991. He resumed teaching in 1991 and has taught at Wichita State University, Friends University, Kansas Newman College, and Butler Community College. "I read Thomas DeQuincey and go west four times a year," he says. "I know how lemon pop tastes; I love gambling and The Great Gatsby. I am fascinated by Palinurus."

Jesse Weiner is co-editor and publisher of Salonika. He's a graduate of SUNY Old Westbury and Harvard Law School, and has had work in Arshile, the New York Quarterly, Wormwood Review, Mississippi Mud and numerous other magazines. His books include Animadversity, soon to be available online from New Worlds Press; and The Critique of Language, In Harm's Way (with Victor Asaro), and About These Last, from Linear Arts, POB 620727, Little Neck NY 11362, for ordering information. Mr. Weiner has been called "a master of the extended metaphor".

Teresa White, a Seattle native, grew up in an atmosphere that encouraged writing. "My Mother was a journalist and poet/would-be novelist and as a child I tried to emulate her. I wrote my first short story at age nine and by twelve had begun writing poetry on a regular basis. I recently had my first book of verse published: What Furnace?, Two Steps Publishing Co. (available online at Barnes and Noble). My work has appeared in The Melic Review, Astrophysicist's Last Tango, Partner Speaks, Savoy, Wired Hearts, and A Writer's Choice Literary Journal.

Shari Diane Willadson has been writing for over twenty years. Shari has been published in Gravity Magazine's print anthology Silhouettes In The Electric Sky available from Newton's Baby Press. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. In her spare time, she enjoys growing bonsai and gardening.

Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, David Wolf has lived in New York, New York; Oxford, U.K.; and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The poems in this issue of Avatar and others can be found in his collection, Open Season, recently published by Center Press Books. Open Season may be ordered by e-mailing the author. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines, including The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Poet & Critic, River Styx Magazine and Stand Alone. He has taught writing and literature at The University of Michigan, Drake University and Iowa State University.