Akron/Family is an experimental folk band formed in 2002, whose latest release was Akron/Family II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT in February 2011 on Dead Oceans.

Janee Baugher lives and teaches in Seattle, and she holds a BS from Boston University and an MFA from Eastern Washington University. Her début collection of poems is Coordinates of Yes (Ahadada Books, 2010), a collection of ekphrastic and travel poems. In March, Baugher presented her work at the Library of Congress. More information: http://JaneeJBaugher.wordpress.com.

Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the Mayor of New Orleans before receiving his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Radcliffe Institute, among others. Brown is an Assistant Professor at the University of San Diego. His first book, Please (New Issues), won the American Book Award.

Mark Burrier is the artist behind Rare Words (rarewords.org) and the Ignatz Award-nominated comic, Noose. His work has received awards from the Society of Illustrators, Communication ArtsPrint, and American Illustration.

Kenneth Calhoun is a native of Southern California who now lives in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. His fiction has appeared in Tin House, The Paris Review, Fence Magazine, Quick Fiction, The St. Petersburg Review, New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best 2010 and other publications. This spring, his story “Nightblooming” was recognized with a PEN/O. Henry Prize.

Brittany Cavallaro‘s poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, The Journal, and Meridian, among others. She’s currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she’s the editor-in-chief of Devil’s Lake (http://devils-lake.org).

Victoria Grace Elliott is a Media Studies & Linguistics student living in Austin, TX. She works at The Daily Texan as a comics artist, illustrator, and editor.

Factory Of Lights is the songwriting project of guitarist and producer Luke T. Allen, of Austin’s Dudes Die. Allen’s EP, Dust, was self-released last fall.

Ross Gay is assistant professor of English at Indiana University and author of two poetry collections, Against Which and Bringing the Shovel Down. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Ploughshares, Sou’wester, among other publications. Gay also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Drew University and has received fellowships from Breadloaf and Cave Canem.

Good Gang Music Factory is trumpeter, arranger, and jazz composer Paul Epp and singer Charlie Anderson. Check out goodgangmusicfactory.com to purchase or download Animal Friends, to book the Good Gang Music Factory for a private party or school event, or simply to learn more about the antics of Roy’s friends The Workout Sloth, Andy the Blue Raccoon, and more. www.pauleppmusic.com

Lois Marie Harrod‘s chapbook Cosmogony won the 2010 Hazel Lipa Chapbook contest, and her book Brief Term, poems about teaching, is forthcoming from Black Buzzard Press. Her chapbook Furniture won the 2008 Grayson Press Poetry Prize. Previous publications include the chapbook Firmament (2007); the chapbook Put Your Sorry Side Out (2005); Spelling the World Backward (2000); the chapbook This Is a Story You Already Know (l999); Part of the Deeper Sea (1997); the chapbook Green Snake Riding (l994), Crazy Alice (l991) Every Twinge a Verdict (l987). She won her third poetry fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts in 2003. Over 350 of her poems have appeared in online and in print journals including American Poetry Review, Blueline, The MacGuffin, Salt, The Literary Review, Zone3. A Geraldine R. Dodge poet and former high school teacher, she teaches Creative Writing at The College of New Jersey

Amy Martin is a cartoonist and librarian from Chicago, currently living in San Francisco. She has self published fourteen mini-comics, including The Single Girls. As to whether the story in this issue really took place, Ms. Martin cites her right to privacy.

Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of Alibi School, The Forgiveness Parade, The Splinter Factory, and The Endarkenment. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies including Best American Poetry 1994, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, and New (American) Poets. McDaniel has won several awards including an NEA Fellowship. He is professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

Gerardo Tony Mena is a singer/songwriter, poet, and a decorated Iraqi Freedom veteran.  For more information go to www.gerardomena.com.

Anders Nilsen’s comics have appeared in Mome, Kramers Ergot, and Best American Comics. He has written three graphic novels, including Dogs and Water, which won an Ignatz Award, and a graphic memoir, Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow. The collected issues of his ongoing comic series Big Questions will be published this month. Born in Minneapolis, he now lives in Chicago.

Naomi Shihab Nye‘s most recent collection is You & yours. She lives in San Antonio.

Pet Lions expands on the sound that established them as an artist to watch with their debut album Houses, set to be independently released May 10, 2011.  Houses was produced by Neil Strauch (Iron and Wine, Bonnie “Prince” Billy) at Engine Studios and was mastered by John Golden (Girls, St. Vincent, Sonic Youth).

Ellen O’Connell, originally from California, just completed an MFA in nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. In addition to publication in several literary magazines, she has an essay forthcoming in a collection called “The Moment,” to be published by Harper Collins. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2010. Ellen currently teaches creative writing at UC Santa Barbara.

Roger Reeves‘ poems have appeared or are forthcoming in PoetryPloughshares, American Poetry ReviewAmerican Literary Review, Gulf Coast, and the Indiana Review, among others. Kim Addonizio selected his poem “Kletic of Walt Whitman” for the Best New Poets 2009 anthology. Reeves has received a Ruth Lilly Fellowship by the Poetry Foundation in 2008, a Bread Loaf Work-Study Scholarship, an Alberta H. Walker Scholarship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and two Cave Canem Fellowships. Reeves recently earned his MFA from the James A. Michener Center for Creative Writing at the University of Texas and is currently a Ph.D. student in the English Department at the University of Texas.

Jack Ridl‘s poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, Gulf Coast, and The Denver Quarterly, among others. In 2007 he was named one of the 100 most influential sports educators in America by the Institute for International Sport. Ridl has written three collections of poetry, including his latest Losing Season, and three chapbooks.

Noah Rothschild—when not playing at renowned music joints like the Hotel Café in Hollywood, or The Mint in Los Angeles—is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, specializing in providing Transformational Psychotherapy to individuals, couples, children/adolescents, and families. Noah maintains a private practice in Los Angeles and is also the lead Marriage Family Therapist at Passages Malibu, one of the worlds leading substance recovery centers. And as of January 25, 2009, Noah is the proud father of Jacob Psalm Rothschild. http://www.reverbnation.com/noahrothschild

Celia Rowlson-Hall is a New York based choreographer, filmmaker and Bessie Award-winning performer.  She has choreographed music videos for Chromeo, Kid Sister, MGMT, Sondre Lerche, and Sleigh Bells, as well as several videos for CollegeHumor and various fashion videos. As a dancer, she has performed at the New Museum, PS1, Joyce Theater, American Dance Festival, Lincoln Center Clark Theater, Jacobs Pillow, and American Dance Festival, among many others. She is now entering the world of filmmaking and has created over 15 art house videos that she screens in her studio/performance space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Chris Smith has fiction published and forthcoming in UK and American anthologies and journals, including: Tindal Street Press’ Roads Ahead (ed. Catherine O’Flynn), The Manchester Review, The Blue Mesa Review, and Mid-American Review. He was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers 2009 and long-listed for The Brit Writers Award 2010. www.chrismithonline.com He is currently working on a documentary to film street performers: www.thebuskingproject.com

Southeast Engine is a modern day folk band based out of Ohio, whose latest album, Canary, was released in March of 2011.

Tyler Stein is a filmmaker based out of Nashville. He is a student of Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School.

K.D., Ryan Sartor, Lawrence Scott Parkinson, Gwenn Gebhard, Kathryn Locey, Nikolina Kulidzau, Michael Barach, Kate, Steven Wolfe, Tom Wheatley, Burt Kimmelman, Jana Russ, Michael Rumore, Ariel Moore, Allyson Mead, Heather Severson, Alex Geng, June Marie Wade, Harvest Henderson, Meredith Gray, Bryn Chancellor, Tim Dempsey, Michelle Tokarczk, Emma Sovich, Freya Gibbon, Jen Dempsey, Mark Spitzer, BJ Hollars, Paul E. McCullough, Lesley Clark, Adence Washington, Lindsay Moore, Brit Blalock, Sara Grossman, Sandee Umbuch, Helen Ruggieri, Holly Stone, Elizabeth Lara, Ivy Page, Joshua Mensch, Bradley Paul, Peter Jurmu, Brad Modlin, James Celestino, Katherine Pearl, Noelle Rankin, Gro Flatebo, Michael Khandelwar, J.S., Bridgette Shade, Karen Lizon, Cathy Che, Brittany Cavallaro, Michael Barron, Jim Hilgartner, Jenny Lupes, Laura Davis, Sharon Harrigan, Tyler Harper, Mattie Davenport, Samantha Killebraw, Tyler Harper, Frank Dobson, Gwyn Fallbrooke, Amy Whitaker, Tyler Harper, Angie Hogan, Jessica Handler, Mickey Dubrow, Araba Maze, Adrienne Su, Juan Carlos Reyes, Vinny Sunguttuvan, John Carr, Tommy Dean, Michele Reese, Mary Marwitz, Lindsay Key, Eleana Levine, David Dill, Daniel Schall, Christine Herrmann, David M., Kona Morris, Lena Rogue, Becky Firesheets, Karen Chronister, Margaret Hutton, E.K.P., C.E. Wheeler, C. LePage, David Collins, Robert Evory, Michelle Banczek, Linda Umans, Isaac Butler, Tyler Harper, Emily Anderson, Leslie Sussan, Tina Richardson, Christine Cutler, Erin Tocknell, Max Thamos, Ava Leavell Haymon, Jacqueline Mehring, Louisa Dang, Amira Pierce, Marilyn Knight, Madelaine Hoptry, Samantha Holley, Lucy Green, Tarfia Faizullah, Khaled Mattawa, Kate Cumiskey, Purvi Shah, Elsbeth Pancrazi, Julie Chinitz, Mason Manna, Marissa Tinloy, Mark Jarman, Sara Marshall, Terri Witek, Lucy Norman Spencer, Peg Boyers, Don Petersoy, Catherine Pond, June Rockefeller, Jillian Clark, Matt Ramey, Ezekiel Rahloof, P.S. Salvador West, Gina Vivinetto, Joshua Gottlieb-Miller, Robyn Kohlwey, Alyse Knorr, Grigsby Hubbard, Valerie Vogrin, Liam Beare, Anna Joy Springer, Beth Staples, Josh Morsell, Britt Melewski, Taylor Mankid, Adrienne Celt, Emily Howarth, Mariette Pan, Bob Girardi, Dewitt Brinson, Sebastian Paramo, Cynthia Grier Lotze, Wendy Oleson, Tera Vale Ragan, James Ragan, Colin Pope, Casey Smith, Susan Levi Wallach, Maria Tomasio-Moore, Amy Souza, C.A., Mant, Abby Beckel, Smallhands Rejected, Anastasia Kozak, and Trenna Sharpe wrote, in February 2011 in Washington D.C., The World’s Tallest Exquisite Corpse.