Petra Backonja lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin.

Christophe Casamassima was educated at Eugene Lang College at the New School for Social Research and picked up a BA in creative writing. He released a chapbook entitled mov/ement[s] last October through Furniture_Press. He is currently working on Psstcards and also completing the first issue of Ambit, a journal of the poetries of Baltimore City. His basic wisdom of poetry: the word is active and ever evolving; my work creates the question and begins a dialogue with the reader, who is encouraged to continue the practice of questioning by writing his/her own texts -- no meaning but in how --

As Amit Dwibedy, lives and places, a list of
echoes that begins to crackle, being born elsewhere
(ie the effects of durations, this is not the way a
photograph “fades”, but with silence). Waiting, many
shirts to show for it. Dolce and the white that Cole
will choose a priori. To accumulate pages is a
collection, to make them immaterial is the difference.
Sent away like balloons in the Paris sky, they return
in reflections, bound and logical. Pinch them. I
mis(s), I spell. “This secret between us is not ours.

Jason Earls lives in Blackwell, Oklahoma as a computational number theorist and poet. He has work forthcoming in Poethia and Shampoo. His favorite mathematicians are John Forbes Nash Jr and Dean Hickerson, and he loves to read Jack Spicer's poems aloud.

kari edwards is a poet, artist and gender activist, winner of New Langton Art's Bay Area Award in literature(2002), author of a day in the life of p., subpress collective (2002), a diary of lies - Belladonna #27 by Balladonna Books (2002), Electric Spandex: anthology of writing the queer text, Pyriform Press (2002), obLiqUE paRt(itON): colLABorationS, xPress(ed) (2002), post/(pink), Scarlet Press (2001), and Iduna, O Books (fall 2003) She is also the poetry editor of I.F.G.E's Transgender - Tapestry: an International Publication on Transgender issues. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including Denver Art Museum, New Orleans Vontemporary Art Museum, University of California-San Diego, and University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Edwards' work can also be found in Blood and Tears: an anthology on Matthew Shepard, Painted leaf Press (2000), Aufgabe, Fracture, Bombay Gin, Belight Fiction, In Posse, Mirage/Period(ical), Van Gogh's Ear, PuppyFlower, Vert, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry, Shampoo, xStream, Big Bridge, Nerve Lantern, FIR at potz.com, muse-apprentice-guild, Panic, Avoid Strange Men, and The International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies.

Scott Helmes' recent books include 3 Visual Poets: Ernst, Helmes, Rosenberg and Thought Bubbles (Helmes and K.S. Ernst). He has been published in over 80 magazines in 17 countries, including such publications as Paris Review, White Walls, Against Infinity Anthology, WestEast Anthology, Minnesota Monthly, The Midwest Quarterly, Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes 2nd Ed., xtant, and fugue. His work has been collected in numerous museums, including Museum of Modern Art-New York, Victoria & Albery Museum-London, Biblioteque Nationale de France-Paris, Museum for Kunsthandwerk-Frankfurt, Museum of Contempory Art-Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, Brown University, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Stephen Kirbach lives in Asheville NC. Some of his poems can be found online at Exquisite Corpse, Moira, Muse Apprentice Guild, Pom2, Shampoo, Sidereality, and Can We Have Our Ball Back?.

Dorothea Lasky is currently in the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts--Amherst. She has work in Both and Baffling Combustions. She has work forthcoming in Blue Mesa Review and Castagraf.

Rachel Moritz has work appearing, or forthcoming, in The Beloit Poetry Journal, Controlled Burn, and Poetry Motel, among others.

Sheila E. Murphy recently performed her poetry for Lit City in New Orleans. In 2000, she presented a series of readings and workshops at the Arvon Foundation at Totleigh-Barton, Devon, in the UK, in addition to performing at the third annual Boston Poetry Conference. In 1999, she was a featured performer at the annual Brisbane Writers Festival in Queensland, Australia. Murphy has authored numerous books of poetry, most recently The Stuttering of Wings (Stride Press, UK, 2002), and The Indelible Occasion (Potes & Poets Press, 2000). Books scheduled for publication include Recent Flute Silences from SUN/gemini Press and Green Tea with Ginger (Potes & Poets Press). She and Beverly Carver co-founded the Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Series and served as coordinators for 12 years. The series continues under the direction of Carolyn Robbins, Curator of Education, at the Scottsdale (Arizona) Museum of Contemporary Arts. In 1996, Murphy's Letters to Unfinished J. won the New American Poetry Series Open Competition. The book is scheduled to appear from Sun & Moon Press.

Michael Peters' writings-poetry, fiction, and essays-have appeared in Spinning Jenny, Rhino, Lungfull, Lost and Found Times, North of South, Sweet Portable You, World Letter, and Badaboom Gramophone. His visual poetry has appeared in on-line publications, such as Posted, Spinning Jenny, and Generator Press; and in various visual poetry shows such as The Art Academy of Cincinnati's 02txt Exhibit in 2001, the OSEAO gallery in Seattle (in conjunction with Seattle Poetry Festival 2002), and the Diana Lowenstein Fina Arts gallery in Miami, Florida this March of 2003.

As an assistant to the composer Petr Kotik (SEM Ensemble) in New York City from 1992 to 1999, Peters was introduced to the polyartist Richard Kostelanetz. Collaborating with Kostelanetz, Peters designed two books of visual poetry and contributed several entries to his Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes. In June of 2001, Peters attended what would become an important three-week residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, which was convened under Kostelanetz.

In September of 2001 at Wolverhampton University in the UK, Peters presented a paper at the No Future Conference, titled: "Absence and Psychogeography in the Dawn of the Trickster." In July of 2002, as a participant in the Avant-Garde Symposium that was held at The Ohio State University's Special Collections Library of Avant-Garde Literature, Peters presented a conceptual treatise: "Wholesale Form; an Attack on the Corporate Form with Text and Sound."

Also a musician, most notably in Poem Rocket, Peters has released recordings on numerous independent labels since 1990, most recently, Atavistic--the experimental, Chicago-based avant-jazz & rock label. He is also a member of the Be Blank Consort-a collaborative group of experimental writers dedicated to the creation and performance of sound-texts that has just recorded and released a CD with Luna Bisonte Prods.

Among other projects, Peters is currently working on a large poem, participating in collaborative texts of visual and linear poetry, and recording new material for another Poem Rocket release. Future projects include a biography on the French architect Fleury Colon.

Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino's poetry has most recently appeared in Xcp: Cross-Cultural Poetics, Washington Review and jubilat, and online at In Posse Review, moria, sidereality, can we have our ball back? and Shampoo. He has poetry forthcoming in yefief, and online at swirl and muse apprentice guild. His chaps include igne (1993), Ekphrasis (1993) and Go (1994). He lives in Brooklyn Heights, NY, where he edits the webzine eratio (www.eratiopostmodernpoetry.com). He can be reached at StThomasino@nyc.rr.com.

Steve Timm's work has recently appeared or will appear in Aught, Moria, Swirl, Salt Hill, Skanky Possum, and American Letters & Commentary. He teaches English as a second language at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Andrew Topel was born on December 7th, 1977. He is the co-founder of the post-contemporary movement, as well as the author of its invisible manifesto. In quoting an excerpt from the manifesto in a recent press release, Andrew said "        ,        ?        ;        !" He has work appearing in Gestalten, Basinski, Answer Shirker, Xtant, Score, Lost and Found Times and Farrago. His chapbooks are X (Broken Boulder Press), Skew (Anabasis/Xtant), Unwritten (xtant). His electronic book is Puzzles (xPress(ed)). He currently resides in Rushville, IL.

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