Darren Speegle

A resident of Germany, Speegle's work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in various publications, including Redsine, Chiaroscuro, Writer Online, Antipodean SF, Thorns of Nature, Infernal, and Darkness Rising.

Matthew J. Hewitt

Matthew J. Hewitt is spoken of in the press as The New King of Dark Poetry. Born in 1968, Hewitt has been published all over the world in both paid and unpaid markets. He has recently been appointed as fiction editor for Terror Tales Online, the extremely popular online horror magazine. This young poet's critical acclaim is as follows:

Simon Clark, famous British horror writer tipped as the new Stephen King, says of the poem, The Fire of Insanity,"This is a piece of real power, rich in imagery, sure to be published." About the poem Pan, Clark says, "...incredible vivid imagery..."and of the poem, It Came From the Swamp, "An intensely visual piece in a style that you seem to be claiming for your own." He dubbed the poem Evil , "...a darkly powerful piece.”

Michael Arnzen, Bram Stoker Award nominee and professor of literature says of Pan, "This is a good job of fomenting madness, and the insane chaos of pain, the collective voice is chilling, and creepy.” Referring to The Fire of Insanity Arnzen says Hewitt has, "...definitely got a talent for mood, and atmosphere, this is a dark and dangerous piece,”and of the poem It Came From the Swamp, "Chock full of creepy images, dark and disturbing." About the same poem L. Michael Lohr, editor says, "This reminds me of Lovecraft, very visual and intense."

One of Hewitt's pieces is to appear alongside Simon Clark's The Derelict of Death, due to be published shortly, and will be available from good book dealers in Great Britain and in America. Hewitt's career truly does move from strength, to strength.


Whitney Trettien, a resident of Frederick, Maryland, has had both fiction and nonfiction published in numerous webzines. A full-time junior in high school and a part-time Hood College student, she co-owns and operates Moonslush and is a tireless promoter of DIY activism in her spare time.

Mark McLaughlin

McLaughlin's nonfiction and poetry have appeared in more than 375 magazines, anthologies and websites, including Galaxy, Talebones, The Dead Inn, The Book Of All Flesh, Bending The Landscape, The Last Continent: New Tales Of Zothique, The Best Of Palace Corbie, Best Of The Rest 2, The Best Of HorrorFind, and The Year’s Best Horror Stories. His chapbooks of fiction include Zom Bee Moo Vee & Other Freaky Shows (Fairwood Press), I Gave At The Orifice (Eraserhead Press), and Shoggoth Cacciatore And Other Eldritch Entrees (Delirium Books). He has given readings of hiswork nationwide and in England. McLaughlin is also the editor of The Urbanite: Surreal & Lively & Bizarre.

Harold Jaffe

Harold Jaffe is the author of 10 books, including seven fiction collections and three novels: False Positive; Sex for the Millennium (Black Ice Books, 1999); Othello Blues (FictionNet, 1996); Straight Razor (Black Ice Books, 1995); Eros Anti-Eros (City Lights, 1990); Madonna and Other Spectacles (PAJ/FSG), 1988); Beasts (Curbstone, 1986); Dos Indios (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1983); Mourning Crazy Horse (Fiction Collective, 1982); and Mole's Pity (Fiction Collective, 1979). Jaffe's fiction has appeared in such journals as Mississippi Review; City Lights Review; Paris Review; New Directions in Prose and Poetry; Chicago Review; Chelsea; Fiction; Central Park, Witness; Black Ice; Minnesota Review; Boundary 2; ACM ; Black Warrior Review; Cream City Review, Two Girls'Review, and New Novel Review. And his stories have been anthologized in Pushcart Prize; Best American Stories; Best of American Humor; Storming the Reality Studio; American Made; Avant Pop: Fiction for a Daydreaming Nation; After Yesterday's Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology; Bateria and Am Lit (Germany), Borderlands (Mexico), Praz (Italy), Positive (Japan), and elsewhere. His novels and stories have been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian. Harold Jaffe has won two NEA grants in fiction, a New York CAPS grant, a California Arts Council fellowship in fiction, and a San Diego fellowship (COMBO) in fiction. Jaffe is editor of Fiction International. You can visit his home page at http://www.jaffeantijaffe.com

M. Garrow Bourke

M. Garrow Bourke’s artwork and fiction largely remain an underground phenomenon. Fried Anchovies with Bloody Bouillabaisse, his incindiary first novel, and his essay "The Art of Ribbing: a History of Sexist Humor" caused quite a stir among readers. Bourke (whose last name defies pronounciation) is currently hiding out and working on his second novel. When the urge to write wanes Bourke resorts to extreme digital image rendering. He is a traveling man who calls the roads of the United States of America his home.

David Priol

David was born in Vancouver an eon ago, but was transported to Sydney, Australia as a babe. He has been published in Antipodes, LINq, and The Pen & Quill. His poems and short stories have also appeared in bush anthologies, and he has won a number of short story competitions. When not writing, he works with autographic memorabilia, antiques, star profiles, and is 1930s film buff. For relaxation, he plays Tournament Bridge, and remains a great fan of Bernie Rhodenbarr and Matthew Scudder. As always he calls the Blue Mountains west of Sydney home. He can always be contacted at bacall1@dingoblue.net.au

Ronald Damien Malfi

Ronald Damien Malfi is an author and screenwriter living in Severna Park, Maryland. His most recent works include the publication of his novel, THE SPACE BETWEEN, and the screenplay for the film SHUDDER. To find out more about the projects he's involved in visit his web site http://personal.buildpage.com/ronisbored Not much else is known about the author. His favorite color is green.

Kurt Newton

Over the past year, Kurt Newton's stories have appeared in numerous places -- in anthologies (Poddities, The Dead Inn, Darkness Rising, Crime Spree, Strangewood Tales, Dark Testament), in magazines (Earwig Flesh Factory, The Edge, Burning Sky), and on the web (The Dream People, Delirium Magazine). His first collection of short stories, The House Spider & Other Strange Visitors, was published in 1999 by Delirium
Books. Another collection, Dark Demons, will be released in April 2002, also by Delirium Books. For more information on Kurt's literary comings and goings you can visit his Voices From the Radioactive Furnace website at http://www.kurtnewton.com. He lives with his wife and two children in the northeast corner of Connecticut.

Andy Miller

Born a little ways from the shore of Lake Erie, Andy Miller studied anthropology and Romance languages in school, and is a writer. He also paints, and his writing extends to Color Music. Two of his favorite web destinations are sciencenews.org and csicop.org.

John B. Rosenman

John Rosenman is an English professor at Norfolk State University, where he designed and teaches a course in writing SF and Fantasy. Rosenman is a past Chairman of the Board of HWA (Horror Writers Association).

Some of his fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Starshore, Iniquities, Treachery and Treason, etc. His first novel, The Best Laugh Last, was published by McPherson & Co. in 1981 and 1982. A collection of short stories, More Stately Mansions: The Selected Works of John B. Rosenman, was published by Dark Regions Press in 1999. A SF novel, Beyond Those Distant Stars, is due out this year by Pink Tree Press.

Rosenman can always be reached for comments, both good and bad, at prof@picusnet.com
Hugh Tribbey

Hugh Tribbey is an assistant professor of English at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he teaches literature and creative writing and has served as one the facilitators of the Vistas of the Word Writers' Conference. His poetry has appeared in poethia, ixnay, Lost and Found Times, POTEPOETZINE, Flint Hills Review, and elsewhere. Other work is forthcoming in the spring issue of Crosstimbers. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.


Margie Prahl is an artist and abstract painter living in Alexandria, VA. She has studied art for many years at The Torpedo Factory Art Center a unique and highly respected visual arts center. She recently made her debut at Alexandria's Art on the Avenue where her paintings were much in demand. To see more of her work visit Margie's web site http://www.angelfire.com/art2/mprahl/index.html

Kevin L. Donihe has had over 100 stories and poems published in/accepted into over 70 magazines and anthologies in five countries. These venues include: The Mammoth Book of Legal Thrillers (Published in the U.K. by Constable & Robinson and in the US by Carroll & Graf), Eldritch Tales, Cemetery Sonata II (Chameleon Publishing), Darkness Rising (Cosmos Books), Thin Ice, Crossroads, Enigmatic Tales, Nasty Piece of Work, Frisson, Roadworks, Freezer Burn Magazine, Rictus, The Dream Zone, Penny Dreadful, Psychopoetica, Frightnet, and many others. Shall We Gather at the Garden? -- an 80,000 word novel -- was recently released in trade-paperback by Eraserhead Press. He is also the editor of BARE BONE -- the second issue of which is going to press this month. Visit his web site at http://users.chartertn.net/mbs/kldwriter/

L. Rachel Fisher

L. Rachel Fisher is from southern Ohio (she holds claim to no one sleepy, or sleepless, town along the Ohio River). She is Kevin L. Donihe's ex girlfriend and close friend. She often comes up with her best ideas when chatting online with Donihe, or simply through experimentation. Her music, thoughts, and art can be accessed on the web at http://rachelocity.homestead.com. She has helped edit THE SILHOUETTE, a literary arts magazine at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. She plans to graduate soon with a bachelor's degree in English and the humanities, and is working on a sci-fi novel she plans to finish within five years, fingers crossed. Rachel enjoys breakdancing, playing the baritone ukulele, and talking with a fake English accent.


Eric Hauser has been making photographs on and off since 1991. His favorite time to use a camera is when he is travelling, which he does every chance he gets. From his various trips to the Middle East, Europe, and Central America, he has visited 20 countries. You can read his travelogues and see more photographs on his Web site - www.erichauser.org. When not travelling, he enjoys spending quality time with his cat Zoe, eating vegan food, watching Seinfeld reruns, and reading books by John Fante. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia. You can email him at eric@erichauser.org.

Christopher is a painter and designer, and a past recipient of the William C. Nealon Award for outstanding performance in visual arts. He is also a member of the underground music collective POJO. Pursuing an interest in poetry, Christopher served as a board member for The Egerian literary magazine. His own writing focused on the haiku and tanka forms until he recently made the jump to fiction with works appearing in Absurdism!, Amoret, and The Dream People. His architectural projects have included the revitalization effort in suburban Pittsburgh, such as converting abandoned bars into halfway houses in hopes of building safer communities.

Valerie Epstein is currently a student in Studio Art at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD. Valerie holds a B.A. in Psychology and hopes to enroll in a Master's program in Art Therapy in the fall of 2002. Eclectic in subject and materials, her art explores a range of emotional states and experiences. Valerie can be contacted at vgepstein@yahoo.com.

SHANON INGLES discovered she had the power to regenerate lost limbs. She has catalogued volumes of information regarding the unsolved murder of Kurt Cobain because she is obsessed. SHANON INGLES believes Courtney Love murdered her husband in cold blood.

NO.

SHANON INGLES believes Trent Reznor murdered Kurt Cobain with drummer Chris Vrenna because, "There can be only one King of Angst-Ridden Teen-Age Pop" [See http://www.cobaincase.com/manual.html]. She believes Trent Reznor is no longer human and was replaced by a facsimilie robot in early 1989. She lives in Sarasota, FL. She works for no one.

"Thanks from the burning, nauseus pit of my stomach. Aaagh, Kurt, I fucking hate you you selfish son of a bitch!"--Courtney Love quoting her late husband, in a recorded speech to millions of vigil-holders.


Born a poor black child in rural Manhattan in the mid 60's, polycarp kusch grew to define the term--disinterested party. Lacking both ability and drive, he rose quickly in academic and business circles and finally landed a job as a K-Mart cashier. The following day he was fired and dedicated his life to literature. Popular opinion said this was a bad thing. This man should not be allowed access to sharp things like pencils. Then came latex gloves and computers and people forgot about polycarp kusch. But soon after World War 2, the "lost writings" of polycarp were rediscovered by a new generation of people with way too much time on their hands--and thus was born--the cult of the polycarp. He now lives in Budapest, Hungary existing on a simple diet of pork and Czechoslovakian beer with his third wife Evacarp.