Among Brothers are a Cardiff-based five-piece, who have been compared to bands like Efterklang, Grammatics and Anathallo. They fuse electronic rhythms, theatrical chants and percussive flourishes to create vibrant pop-influenced arrangements anchored by narrative themes.

Christopher Ankney’s manuscript, the river’s backward sky, was finalist for the 2011 Robert Dana Prize at Anhinga Press, and in both the 2011 Crab Orchard First Book and Open competitions. His work has found home in Fourteen Hills, Gulf Coast, Hunger Mountain, The Journal, Prairie Schooner and The Los Angeles Review. His days are spent playing Mr. Mom to his infant son, Robin, while he moonlights as a creative writing teacher around Annapolis, Maryland.

Amanda Bales received her MFA from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Her work has previously appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Bateau, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. She writes, teaches, and plays her accordion in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the seat of the Cherokee Nation.

Beat Radio is the often collaborative music of Brian Sendrowitz, crafting hazy, literate, heartfelt pop songs since 2005.

Nickolas Butler was born in Pennsylvania, raised in Wisconsin, and now divides his time between Minnesota and Iowa – where he is a student at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.  His fiction has appeared in: Ploughshares, Narrative, The Kenyon Review Online, and Little Village.  His poetry and non-fiction has appeared widely.

Chicken Little is a Tennessee half pint folk punk duo.

Sean Cooney is a one man writer, recorder and producer of genre-crossing, indie pop.

Claudia Cortese’s poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2011, Crazyhorse, and Rattle, among others, and are forthcoming online at DIAGRAM and Front Porch Journal. Cortese just completed her first book of poems, Cut a Hole and Pull You Through, which explores trauma, myth, fairy tales, and girlhood. She lives and teaches in New Jersey.

Blas Falconer is the author of The Foundling Wheel (forthcoming, Four Way Books, 2012);  A Question of Gravity and Light (University of Arizona Press, 2007);  and The Perfect Hour (Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2006).  He is also a co-editor for The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity (University of Arizona Press, 2011) and Mentor & Muse:  Essays from Poets to Poets (Southern Illinois University Press, 2010).

William Ford has published two books of poems, The Graveyard Picnic (Mid-America Press, 2002) and Past Present Imperfect (Turning Point, 2006) and, in 2010, two chapbooks from Pudding House, Allen & Ellen and Descending with Miles. His poems have appeared in Brilliant Corners, The Iowa Review, New Letters, The North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere.  A winner of the 2001 Writing Award from Mid-America Press and of two Des Moines National Poetry ‘Iowa Poet” awards (2003, 2004), Ford has also received three Pushcart nominations (1994, 2002, 2008).   He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Todd Fredson’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Blackbird, Gulf Coast, Interim and other journals, as well as anthologies. His collection, The Crucifix-Blocks, won the 2011 Patricia Bibby First Book Prize. He is pursuing his doctorate in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. Lead singing lead drummer Cliff Cobain and lead guitarist Kurt Burton have delivered four national tours, a full-length record, and two music videos for the band’s singles ‘I Tried’ and ‘Na Na Na’. Their connection to skateboard culture has earned them valuable press in San Francisco based Lowcard Magazine and documented footage of their flaming drum-set at Skatopia. Plans for the future include a merch table unmatched Hurts to Laugh is lead singer/lead drummer Cliff Cobain and lead guitarist Kurt Burton.

Juxedo is a five-piece pop band out of Austin.

Andrew Kozma’s poems have recently appeared in Passages North, Cerise Press, Linebreak, and Cave Wall.  His first book of poems, City of Regret (Zone 3 Press, 2007), won the Zone 3 First Book Award. He has been the recipient of a Jentel Residency, a Houston Arts Alliance Fellowship, a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship, and a D. H. Lawrence Fellowship.

Lo Kwa Mei-en was raised in Singapore and Cincinnati. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, PANK, The Kenyon Review, and other journals. She lives and works in Columbus, Ohio.

Jenny Lederer grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Memphis, and currently at work on her first novel, a ghost story.

Allyson Goldin Loomis is a Los Angeles native turned Midwesterner.  Currently she lives and writes in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where she teachers creative writing at the fine, local university.  You can read more of her fiction and nonfiction in archived issues of Pleiades, Glimmer Train, The Madison Review, and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications.

Kelly Magee‘s first collection of stories, Body Language (University of North Texas Press 2006) won the Katherine Ann Porter Prize for Short Fiction. Her writing has appeared, or will soon, in The Kenyon Review Online, Diagram, Ninth Letter, Black Warrior Review, The Journal, Crab Orchard Review, Colorado Review, Cream City Review, Indiana Review, The Journal, The Pinch, and others. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University.

Megafauna is a three-piece experimental grunge band out of Austin.

Jacob Newberry is pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Florida State University, where he is the recipient of the University Fellowship. He was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in Creative Writing and is spending the year in Jerusalem as a result. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Granta, The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, The Normal School, and Best New Poets 2011, among others. He is the former Poetry Editor of The Southeast Review.

Ra Ra Riot is a six-piece rock band out of Syracuse.

Swimming in Speakers is a two-piece electronic-indie-pop-something new- band out of Adirondack Park, NY.