Phebe Davidson, who lived the first forty-some years of her life in New Jersey, has been a resident of South Carolina since 1991, when she joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina Aiken where she taught an array of film, literature, and writing courses. She began writing poetry in 1985 (when she was already too old to be a Yale Younger Poet). She is the author of several collections of poems, most recently Twelve Leagues In (Spire Press), The Drowned Man (Finishing Line Press), and Song Dog (South Carolina Poetry Initiative) as well as a handful of books on American Film and American Literature. In her second full year of retirement from what feels like several lifetimes of teaching and writing in a university setting, she is convinced that retirement is a nearly ecstatic circumstance for any sane person. She is the founding editor of Palanquin Press and a staff writer for The Asheville Poetry Review.
Howard Camner is the author of sixteen books of poetry. His works are in the most prominent literary collections in the world, including ten historical archives and six royal libraries. He was nominated for Poet Laureate of Florida in 1980 and has received the Fine Arts Press Poetry Award, the MiPo Literary Award, and the Library of Congress Award for his contribution to U.S. cultural arts. During his years in New York, Camner was the headliner with the West End Poetry Troupe where he performed nightly at the famed West End Jazz Club, usually in clown makeup and often backed by members of Duke Ellington's orchestra.
Patrice Vecchione is the author of Writing and the Spiritual Life: Finding Your Voice Within and a collection of poems, Territory of Wind. The editor of many acclaimed anthologies for adults and young people, her newest Faith & Doubt is forthcoming from Henry Holt in Spring 2007. Patrice teaches poetry to children through her program The Heart of the Word: Poetry and the Imagination. She also practices the art of collage.
A native Californian, Don Meredith has journeyed on five continents and told his tales in numerous journals, among them Salon.com, Image, The Texas Review, and several anthologies including Lonely Planet's just published TALES FROM NOWHERE. Meredith is the winner of the George Garrett Fiction Prize, and twice received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.