John Bargowski is the recipient of a 2009 NEA Fellowship in Poetry, a 2000 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Distinguished Artist Fellowship, The Rose Lefcowitz Prize from Poet Lore, and the Theodore Roethke Prize from Poetry Northwest. Several of his poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In addition to Journal of New Jersey Poets, his work has been published in Poetry, Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, and Paterson Literary Review, among others.
Kate Bernadette Benedict is the author of the full-length poetry collection Here from Away (CustomWords 2003) and the editor of two online poetry journals: Umbrella: A Journal of Poetry and Kindred Prose and Tilt-a-Whirl, the latter a resource for poetry written in repeating forms. In Company, a second collection, will be published in 2011.
Michael Broder’s poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, BLOOM, Columbia Poetry Review, Court Green, and other journals, as well as in the anthologies This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians 2 and My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them. He is currently completing a doctoral dissertation on queer kinship and camp aesthetics in Roman satire at the City University of New York.
David Crews’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Greensboro Review, The Aroostook Review, Exit 13, Edison Literary Review, the anthology Voices from Here, and others. He is also a 2009 Green Heron Poetry Project winner. Currently completing an MFA in Poetry and Translation from Drew University, he both teaches and lives in New Jersey.
Okey Chenoweth earned a BA and an MA in English, Drama and Speech and has taught for many years in high schools and colleges. His passions are teaching, poetry, and drama. His play, Hitchhiking All the Way to the Nuthouse played Off-Broadway in 2002. Several of his poems and an essay were published in A Passion for Teaching. Others have been published in Paterson Literary Review and other journals.
Terry Culleton lives and teaches in Bucks County, PA. He was the Bucks County Poet Laureate in 1993. A semi-finalist in the Nation/Discovery Poetry Contest, he has an MFA from the Warren Wilson Creative Writing Program. He has published poems in The Amherst Review, The Birmingham Review, Edge City Review, and The Schuylkyll Valley Journal, among others. His work has been featured on National Public Radio.
Jessica deKoninck’s first collection, Repairs, was published by Finishing Line Press in December 2006. Repairs was a finalist in the Ledge 2005 poetry competition, a semi-finalist in the 2005 Black River Chapbook Contest, and an Honorable Mention in the 2005 Juniper Creek Chapbook Contest. Her poems appear in many journals and anthologies. She is a long-time Montclair resident.
Jim Gwyn began writing poetry and fiction in the Sixties. His series of chapbooks, The Dubya Poems, evoke the alternative presses of that era. Recent work can be found in Lips, Paterson Literary Review, and Seventh Quarry: The Swansea Poetry Quarterly. In addition to winning the 2008 Allen Ginsberg poetry contest, he has received three Pushcart Prize nominations.
Therese Halscheid's book, Uncommon Geography, received a Finalist Award for the Paterson Poetry Book Prize. She is a NJ Fellowship recipient, and has spent many years as a house-sitter to write.
Penny Harter's most recent books are The Night Marsh, and The Beastie Book, an illustrated alphabestiary. A new chapbook, Recycling Starlight, will be out late summer from Mountains & Rivers Press (Eugene, Oregon). She has won three poetry fellowships from the NJSCA, and awards from the Poetry Society of America and the Dodge Foundation.
Gloria Healy's poems appear in such journals as Connecticut Literary Review, Edison Literary Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Lips, and Paterson Literary Review, and in the anthology Poets of New Jersey: From Colonial to Contemporary Times. She is the editor of Monmouth County: A Poetic Portrait; Poetic Reflections of Monmouth County; and Spindrift. She was co-host and consultant to both the Long Branch and Walt Whitman Poetry Festivals.
Adele Kenny is the author of 23 books (poetry & nonfiction). She is the recipient of various awards, including poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Arts Council and a Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award. A former professor of creative writing in the College of New Rochelle's graduate School, she is founding director of the Carriage House Poetry Series
Don Kloss is an Ohio native who has lived in South Jersey for 22 years. He has appeared in a number of print and on line publications. In 2006 his poem, "The Ice Pick Surgeon," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. When not writing poetry or music he can be found engaging in outdoors pursuits.
Iris Lee’s debut poetry collection, Urban Bird Life, has been praised by Molly Peacock and Vijay Seshadri. A Brooklyn native, Iris edits poetry and prose and leads a writing workshop for theater professionals at The Actors Fund. Her poems have appeared in Passager, Subway Chronicles, and New York Quarterly.
Bruce Lowry, a native Southerner, is a career journalist and formerly book editor of Alabama's The Anniston Star. His poems have appeared in a number of journals, including Exit 13, Paterson Literary Review and Paper Street. His short story, "The Enumerator," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Union County, New Jersey, where he is at work on his first book of poems.
Charlotte Mandel
has published seven books of poetry, the most recent, Rock Vein Sky from Midmarch Arts Press. Other titles include Sight Lines and two poem-novellas of feminist biblical re-vision—The Life of Mary and The Marriages of Jacob. An independent scholar, she has published essays on the role of cinema in the life and work of poet H.D. She edited the Eileen W. Barnes Award Anthology, Saturday’s Women. She recently retired from teaching poetry writing at Barnard College Center for Research on Women.
Rick Mullin is a business journalist and painter whose poetry has appeared in print and online journals including Unsplendid, The Raintown Review, 14 x 14, and Chimaera. His chapbook, Aquinas Flinched, was published by Modern Metrics. His book-length poem, Huncke, is forthcoming from Seven Towers, Dublin. He hosts a monthly poetry reading series at Tasty Coco Bistro and Dessert Lounge in Caldwell, NJ. He is a senior editor at Chemical & Engineering News, the flagship weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society in Washington, DC.
Bruce W. Niedt is a South Jersey native and "beneficent bureaucrat" whose poetry has appeared in Up & Under, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Edison Literary Review, US 1 Worksheets, and others. He has won first prize for poetry at the Philadelphia Writers Conference, and he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Award. His latest chapbook, Breathing Out, is from Finishing Line Press.
Kathe Palka is the author of two chapbooks, The Grace of Light, 2004, and Faith to See and Other Poems, 2007, both from Finishing Line Press. Her poems have appeared in such print and online publications as Alehouse, Canary, Exit 13, Poet Lore, U.S. 1 Worksheets, and Windhover. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and placed third in the Haiku Society of America’s 2009 Gerald Brady Memorial Senryu Contest.
Jose Antonio Rodriguez is a doctoral student at the State University of New York in Binghamton. His poetry and prose have been published in various journals, including Paterson Literary Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Connecticut Review, cream city review, and Memoir(and). He is also the recipient of the 2009 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award.
Hayden Saunier's work has appeared in 5 A.M., Beloit Poetry Journal, Mad Poets Review, Rattle, Schuylkill Valley Journal and elsewhere. Her first book of poetry, Tips for Domestic Travel, was published by Black Lawrence Press in 2009. She won the 2005 Robert Fraser Award, is a Bucks County, Pa Poet Laureate and a Pushcart Prize nominee.
Jason Schneiderman is the author of Sublimation Point, a Stahlecker Selection from Four Way Books, and Striking Surface, winner of the 2009 Richard Snyder Prize from Ashland Poetry Press. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry, Poetry London, Grand Street, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, Story Quarterly, and Tin House.
John J. Trause is Director of the Oradell Public Library. His poetry appears in U.S. 1 Worksheets, Sulphur River Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, and Lips. He is the author of two chapbooks, Seriously Serial and Latter-Day Litany. In 2005 and 2006 he was chosen to participate in the Visible Word exhibition and poetry reading at Stevens Institute. In 2005 he co-founded the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in Rutherford, where he serves as programmer and host.
Joe Weil is a lecturer in the graduate creative writing program at Binghamton University-State University of New York. He is also a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation poet in the schools. His book, Painting the Christmas Trees, was published in 2008 by from Texas Review Press. His most recent book, The Plumber's Apprentice, was published by NYQ Books. A lifelong resident of New Jersey, he now makes his home in Vestal, New York.
