Lisa Argrette Ahmad Resistance is part of a collection of mini-memoirs Lisa is writing about her twenty-year marriage to a Pakistani-American, Muslim man.  She is African-American and was Christian until the day she married.  The author is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Harvard Business School. She lives outside New York City with her husband and three children.

E.J. Antonio is a 2009 fellow in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a recipient of fellowships from the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Cave Canem Foundation. Her work has been published in various Journals and magazines, most recently, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, and Mobius: The Poetry Magazine. Her work is forthcoming in The Encyclopedia Project. Her first chapbook, Every Child Knows, was published in the Fall of 2007 by the Premier Poets Chapbook Series, and she is one of the featured poets on the CD, Beauty Keeps Laying Its Sharp Knife Against Me: Brant Lyon and Friends.

"Unraveling" is an excerpt from Rose Auslander's memoir-in-progress, Pencils on the Ceiling.  The shortest version is her six-word memoir: "Mathematician's daughter -- has trouble counting."  She is Poetry Editor of Folded Word Press, and a lawyer, but stays away from math.  Her work has appeared in Referential Magazine, Form.Reborn (winning a Three Cheers award), Conversation Magazine, PicFic and Short, Fast, and Deadly.  Her great, great uncle, Joseph Auslander, was the first Poet Laureate of the United States, and she hopes to make him proud, wherever he may be.   And she blogs! 

http://www.rausland.wordpress.com  

Radhiyah Ayobami is a 2006 Fiction Fellow with the New York Foundation of the Arts, and a Cave Canem Fellow. She has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Bowery Women:  Poems, and TwentySomething Essays by TwentySomethingWriters: The Best New Voices of 2006. She is currently blogging on Facebook about her experiences as a financially challenged mama and writer navigating the maze of housing, education and social services in the city of New York. A lifelong student of writing, African history, natural childbirth, veggie food, and religion, she loves dance class, poems that heal, the beach, and her eleven year old son.

Robyn Beattie's photography show "Hidden worlds--A closer look at tiny treasures" debuted in the Graton Gallery in Sonoma County, California, summer 2009.  One of five children raised by Bohemian parents in the Healdsburg redwoods, Robyn writes, "I see my art as a form of archaeology, digging amongst the stuff of life to find those small gem-like segments, revealing these tiny, close-up worlds." http://www.robynbeattie.com.

Mom to one, Kimberly L. Becker is a member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Her poetry appears widely, in journals and anthologies. Finalist for the DeNovo Award (C&R Press), recipient of a grant from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (MD), she is adapting Cherokee myths into plays for Cherokee Youth in Radio. 

Artist Orna Ben-Shoshan creates metaphysical paintings that infuse deep spiritual experience with subtle humor. She conceives the images she paints through channeling  Orna has been an auto dedact artist for the past 30 years. Her artwork was exhibited in numerous locations in the USA, Europe and Israel. website: http://www.ben-shoshan.com.  “Kabbalah Insights” website present various products for personal guidance based on her visionary artwork and kabbalah symbols: http://kabbalah.ben-shoshan.com .

Laurie Billman grew up in Colorado and many of her poems are inspired by the West. She now lives in North Carolina with her husband, an anthropologist, and two teenage daughters, more fodder for her creative work. She works as a mental health therapist. Her poetry has appeared in The McGuffin, 13th Moon, Seedhouse, CHEST, San Pedro River Review, and The Rambler, and in the anthologies Not What I Expected, Night Whispers, and Sand and Sea.

Greta Bolger is a mother, grandmother, writer, photographer and entrepreneur from Michigan. She has been published in print and online journals, including Thema, Raven Chronicles, The Chimaera, Third Coast, Juice Box, and elsewhere. Motherhood is the crucible through which she has learned much, suffered much, and gained compassion for all women everywhere who take on the life-long, no-guarantees responsibility of being someone's mom. Its rewards are well deserved.

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor lives in New York City; she works as a teaching artist and Social Worker in NYC. Her poems have previously appeared in The Mom Egg, Pank, To Be Left With The Body and the Naugatuck River Review, to name a few. In January 2010 Cheryl graduated from Stonecoast University of Southern Maine MFA program with a degree in Poetry.

Ronda Broatch is the author of Shedding Our Skins, (Finishing Line Press, 2008), and Some Other Eden, (2005).   Nominated several times for the Pushcart, Ronda is the recipient of a 2007 Artist Trust GAP Grant, and her manuscript, Rib of New Fruit, was a finalist for the 2009 May Swenson Poetry Book Award. She is currently an assistant editor for Crab Creek Review.

Elizabeth-Jane Burnett is an interdisciplinary poet with a focus on experimental writing and performance. She studied English at Oxford University, Poetic Practice MA at Royal Holloway, University of London, Applied Poetics in New York, Performance Writing at Naropa, Colorado, and is currently completing a PhD in Contemporary Poetics at Royal Holloway. Forthcoming chapbooks include slam poems for quiet people and Exotic Birds www.elizabethjaneburnett.com.

Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser is a graduate of Hampshire College & the MFA for Writers Program at Warren WIlson College. A former reproductive rights organizer/educator, she writes about women, motherhood, the arts & more.  Her work has appeared on Literary Mama, Mamazine, & Mothers Movement Online, in Brain Child, Family Fun and Ars Medica, amongst others & in anthologies, most recently The Maternal is Political (Seal Press) edited by Shari MacDonald Strong. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with her husband, four children & zero pets. Her blog, Standing in the Shadows, is at http://www.valleyadvocate.com/blogs/standingintheshadows.

Rosalie Calabrese is a native New Yorker whose poetry has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Poetry New Zealand, Poetica, Jewish Currents, Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, ByLine, Möbius, The Mom Egg, And Then, Thema and several other publications, including anthologies. She also writes short stories and books and lyrics for musicals.

Luz Celenia lives in Rockland County with her husband and three children.  She spends her time supporting the arts, working for a local family support organization and building her professional organizing business.  She dedicates this to her own mother, the most amazing warrior mom she's ever known.  http://warrior-mom.blogspot.com

Janet Chalmers, a New York writer and photographer, is currently working on a series of linked poems called Diamonds & Toads: An Invention In Two Parts. She has an MFA from Columbia University and has written political and social commentary for many publications in the US and Mexico, as well as poems and reviews for Inkwell, Barrow Street, The Kenyon Review (online), Mamapalooza, The Mom Egg and Chelsea.

Fay Chiang is a poet and visual artist who believes culture is a spiritual and psychological weapon used for the empowerment of people and communities. Working at Project Reach (www.projectreach.org), a youth center for young people at risk in Chinatown/Lower East Side, she is also a member of Zero Capital, a collective of artists (www.zerocapital.net); the Orchard Street Advocacy and Wellness Center, which supports people affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer and other chronic illnesses. Battling her 8th bout of breast cancer, she is completing Chinatown, a book-length poem and a memoir. Seven Continents 9 Lives was recently released by Bowery Press.

James Cihlar’s book, Undoing, was published by Little Pear Press: http://littlepearpress.com. The Books Review Editor for American Poetry Journal, he also reviews for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Coldfront. Winner of a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and a Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner, Cihlar lives in St. Paul.

Denise Emanuel Clemen’s publications include the Georgetown Review, Two Hawks Quarterly & Literary Mama. She’s received fellowships to The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale, and was a fellow at Moulin á Nef in France in ‘09. Denise has a completed memoir manuscript & a novel in progress. She is a blogaholic: http://www.hisbigfatindianwedding.blogspot.com, http://deniseemanuelclemen.blogspot.com/ & http://myfrenchunderpants.blogspot.com/

Julie Cline is a stay at home mom (hah!) who spends her free time managing investments, driving a cab, running a laundry service and catering 3-4 meals daily. In the wee hours while suffering insomnia she writes. She is still learning lessons from her very smart children. 

Nicelle Davis lives in Southern California with her husband James and their son J.J. Her poems are forthcoming in Caesura, FuseLit, Illya’s Honey, Moulin, The New York Quarterly, Redcations, and Transcurrent. She’d like to acknowledge her poetry family at the University of California, Riverside and Antelope Valley Community College. She runs a free online poetry workshop at: http://nicelledavis.wordpress.com/.

Wendy Levine DeVito lives in Hartsdale, NY with her husband and two young children.  Her poem "Orlando" appeared in The Mom Egg 09 Online Edition.  Her work has also appeared in Literary Mama, The Ampersand Review, and Poetica.  She teaches English.

Liz Dolan’s first poetry collection, They Abide, has been published by March Street Press. A five time Pushcart nominee, Liz has won a 2009 fellowship as an established professional from the Delaware Division of the Arts. In addition, a yet to be published manuscript, A Secret of Long Life, has been nominated for the Robert McGovern Prize, Ashland University. She has also been published in On the Mason Dixon Line: An Anthology of Contemporary Delaware Writers, U of DE Press. Most recently she received an honorable mention in creative non-fiction from the DDOA, 2010.  Currently, she serves on the poetry board of Philadelphia Stories. She lives with her husband in Rehoboth Beach. Her nine grandchildren live one block away.

Rebecca Dosch-Brown lives in media res in Minnesota with her husband, an electronica composer, and their bright son, whose name means ‘sun’ in Japanese. She is a teacher of creative writing, EFL, and cultural awareness. She also has enjoyed stints as a gardener for rich people, a translator of modern Japanese poetry, and served as an apprentice in modern bonsai and tile-making.

R. H. Douglas is a diarist, performance artist and storyteller. Her work has been published in anthologies and literary journals, including: Life Notes; Patchwork of Dreams; Erotique Noire; Pearls of Passion; In Praise of African American Mothers; Creation Fire and New Voices.  She has conducted writing workshops for senior citizens through Poets & Writers.  RH has performed at several venues, as an individual and with her performance group, SpiritWoman.

Allison Elrod is a poet and essayist whose work draws deeply on her love of plain language and ordinary life.  Her essays have appeared in The Living Church and on Charlotte’s National Public Radio station, WFAE.  Her poems have been recognized by the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition and the Poet Laureate Contest of the North Carolina Poetry Society.   Her recent work is included or forthcoming in Kakalak, an Anthology of Carolina Poets, Iodine Poetry Journal and Cave Wall.  She is an associate editor at Lorimer Press in Davidson, North Carolina.

 

Elizabeth Enslin received a 2009 Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission and is currently finishing an ethnographic memoir on her experiences as anthropologist and mother in Nepal. Recent work appears in The Gettysburg Review, Crab Orchard Review, Opium Magazine, Fringe Magazine, The Truth About the Fact, The Smoking Poet, High Desert Journal, and Oregon Literary Review.  She divides her time between a house in Portland and a yurt in northeastern Oregon.  Learn more at www.elizabethenslin.com.

Kathryn M. Fazio is a mother engaging in literary activism. She is winner of the First Ed Rehberg Prize for poetry naming her poet laureate of the College of Staten Island, C.U.N.Y. She is a recipient of the Silla Gold Crown World Peace Literature Prize, and represented the U.S.A. at the 5th World Congress of Poets for Poetry Research and Recitation.

Jessica Feder-Birnbaum is a playwright, teaching artist, non-fiction writer, licensed tour guide, real estate agent and mother of two teens. She is lyricist and librettist for a biographical musical, entitled 'Margaret Sanger: A Woman Rebel,' for which a July 2010 reading is slated at the Richmond Shepard Theatre in New York City. She is creator/founder of the mulit-generational MAMAPALOOZA family event and proud to serve on MAMAPALOOZA's board of directors. 

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, M.J. Fievre is the author of several mystery novels and children’s books in French; her latest  include Le Fantôme de Lisbeth and Les Fantasmes de Sophie. Her short stories and poems have appeared in literary journals, such as P'an Ku and Healthy Stories. M.J. holds a B.S. in Education from Barry University. She’s presently a graduate student in the Creative Writing program at Florida International University and working on a memoir. M.J. is the secretary of Women Writers of Haitian Descent, Inc.

Alana Ruben Free is a playwright (The Eden Trilogy), poet (Bowery Women), performer (“Beginner at Life)”, and writer (The Mom Egg).  She was founding editor of The Mom Egg and is the producer of the documentary, “The Last Stand”.  Her play, “Beginner at Life”, is currently in production in Australia, Israel and Italy.  “Fear and Desire” was showcased at last year’s ARM/Mamapalooza conference and coming to Australia, May 2010.  “Love Thy Stranger” had its first reading in NYC in February, 2010.   http://www.beginneratlife.com. 

Louis Gallo teaches English at Radford University, Virginia.  His work has appeared in Glimmer Train, American Literary Review, Missouri Review, New Orleans Review, The Ledge, storySouth, Raving Dove (Pushcart nominee), Rattle, Baltimore Review, Portland Review, Greensboro Review and many others.

Nancy Gerber is the author of Portrait of the Mother-Artist: Class and Creativity in Contemporary American Fiction (Lexington, 2003) and Losing a Life: A Daughter's Memoir of Caregiving (Hamilton, 2005).  She is grateful to the mother-artists of The Mom Egg community for their support of her work.

Gail Ghai’s poetry has appeared in Descant, JAMA, Kaliope, Poet Works, Shenandoah and Yearbook of American Poetry.  Her awards include a Pushcart Prize nomination, a Henry C. Frick scholarship for creative teaching and a travel scholarship from the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Her Color Thesaurus poster, “Painted Words” can be found @ www.artpoetica.com.

Janlori Goldman received an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, where she had the good fortune to work with Tom Lux and Laure-Anne Bosselaar.  She has also studied with Jean Valentine, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Ilya Kaminsky. Janlori has a poem in the Spring 2010 issue of The Cortland Review, and was a semi-finalist for the 2009 Lois Cranston Memorial Award in Poetry from Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women.  For over 25 years, Janlori has been a civil liberties and health advocate. She teaches at the School of Public Health at Columbia University, and lives in New York City with her teenage daughter.

Ira Joel Haber is a sculptor, painter, book dealer and teacher. His work has appeared in group shows in the US and Europe, and he has had nine one-man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum & The Albright-Knox Art Gallery. His paintings, drawings and collages have been published in many on line and print magazines.  He has received three National Endowments For The Arts Fellowship, two Pollock-Krasner grants and The Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grant. Currently he teaches art at the United Federation of Teachers Retiree Program in Brooklyn

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/irajoel/artwork/

Michael Haeflinger is originally from Dayton, OH.  His work has appeared at Maverick, BlazeVOX, milk, and in the tall-lighthouse anthology, city lighthouse.  He lives in Berlin, Germany.

Heather Haldeman lives in Pasadena, California and began writing professionally nine years ago.  Her essays been published in The Christian Science Monitor, Chicken Soup for the Soul, From Freckles to Wrinkles, Grandmother Earth and numerous online journals.  She has received first, second and third place awards for her essays and is currently writing a book. 

Monica A Hand is a mother, grandmother, writer, book artist and poet. Her poetry can be found in Black Renaissance Noire, Aunt Chloe, Naugatuck River Review, E. Ethelbert Miller's Beyond the Frontier, Cave Canem's Gathering Ground and online in the Beltway Quarterly.

Emily Hayes has an MA in English literature from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.  She teaches English at Carbondale Community High School and is the co-editor of The Village Pariah, a new literary journal sponsored by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum.  Her works have previously appeared or are forthcoming in The Mom Egg, Paterson Literary Review, Diverse Voices Quarterly, InkSpotter, Big Lucks, Bayonet, and New Scriptor.  She is known as Mama to her four-year-old son, Benjamin, a little boy who already understands the power of poems.

Lynn Hoffman is the author of The Short Course in Beer and The New Short Course in Wine, and the novel, Bang BANG.  He was born in Brooklyn and lives in Philadelphia. A few years ago, he started writing poetry.  His poetry has appeared in Angelic Dynamo, Melusine, Waterways, Abramelin, The Broad Street Review and Short, Fast and Deadly. 

Angela Hooper is an Oklahoman born and raised.  Her only child, a daughter, was born to her when she was 44 years old.  She feels extremely blessed and has found her to be an inspiration for her work.  Her poetry was published in The Crosstimbers, a journal published by the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. 

Kelli Stevens Kane's poetry has appeared in Spider Magazine and Denver Syntax, and is forthcoming in Word Riot and Mythium Literary Journal. She is the recipient of a Serpent Source Foundation grant for an oral history work in progress about the Hill District of Pittsburgh. She was a selected participant in the 2009 VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation) workshop for writers of color, "Building a Poetry Collection," taught by Willie Perdomo. Her first poetry manuscript is currently making the rounds in multiple first book contests. For more info visit www.planetsaturday.com/kelli.

Donna Katzin is Executive Director of Shared Interest, a non-profit  investment fund that advances equitable development in South Africa's communities of color. Her poetry is informed by he work, her family and struggles for social justice.

Poet/performer Penn Kemp has published 25 books of poetry and drama, ten CDs and six videopoems: www.myspace.com/pennkemp, http://www.mytown.ca/pennkemp/. She is University of Western Ontario’s writer-in-residence. The League of Poets proclaimed Penn a foremother of Canadian poetry. http://mytown.ca/poemforpeace/ includes many translations of her poem.

klipschutz is the pen name of Kurt Lipschutz, a long-time resident of San Francisco; his books are Twilight of the Male Ego (2002), The Good Neighbor Policy (1989) and The Erection of Scaffolding for the Re-Painting of Heaven by the Lowest Bidder (1985, o.p). He is the publisher of the limited edition collectible ALL ROADS. . .But This One (Luddite Kingdom Press, 2006). His work has been in anthologies and magazines, e.g. Poetry (of Chicago) and Ambit (U.K.).  He is also a songwriter, with Chuck Prophet, Bone Cootes and others. 

Cynthia Kraman's new poetry collection is The Touch (Bowery Books 2009),nominated for the Kingsley Tufts Award and The Poetry Society of America¹s William Carlos Williams Award. ³My Own Private Iditarod² was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. “Promised Land”, her play set in the aftermath of 9-11, previewed at the Algonquin Theatre in October. Cynthia was lead singer/songwriter for the Seattle punk band CHINAS COMIDAS whose live and studio recordings were released in 2006 on Exquisite Corpse Records.

Mindy Kronenberg teaches writing and literature at SUNY Empire State College, and has published poetry and prose in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Southampton Review, Confrontation, and The Saint Ann's Review. She edits Book/Mark Quarterly Review, and authored a chapbook of poems, Dismantling the Playground.

A working actor, DINAH LENNEY has written for numerous journals, and is the author of Bigger than Life: A Murder, a Memoir, excerpted in The New York Times. She currently teaches in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California, in the Bennington Writing Seminars, and for the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. Dinah lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Veronica Liu's writing and visual art have appeared in Broken Pencil, Quick Fiction, Pax Americana, We'll Never Have Paris, Get Ahead, and other journals and zines. In 2010 she is the recipient of a Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance grant to support the completion of her first novel, and a Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant to coordinate an uptown arts festival. She is cofounder of the publishing collective Fractious Press and the online community radio station Washington Heights Free Radio.

Tara L. Masih is editor of the acclaimed Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (2009) and author of Where the Dog Star Never Glows: Stories (Press 53, 2010). She has published fiction, poetry, and essays in numerous anthologies and literary magazines (including Confrontation, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, Flash, Night Train, and The Caribbean Writer). Several limited edition illustrated chapbooks featuring her flash fiction have been published by The Feral Press. She receieved first place in The Ledge Magazine’s fiction contest, and Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and Best of the Web nominations. www.taramasih.com. “Catalpa” © by Tara L. Masih, from Where the Dog Star Never Glows, originally appeared in Fragile Skins.

Joan Mazza has worked as a medical microbiologist, psychotherapist, certified sex therapist, writing coach and seminar leader. She is the author of six books, including Dreaming Your Real Self (Perigee/Penguin). Her work has appeared in Potomac Review, Möbius, Pennsylvania English, Writer's Digest Magazine, Playgirl, The Writer, and Writer's Journal. She now writes poetry and does fabric art in rural central Virginia. www.JoanMazza.com

Heather McAllister, full time mother of Clayton 10 and Jake almost 2,  is an actress, director and writer jumping back into the working world after her baby break. Her NY theatre reviews can be found here: http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/reviewerinfo.php?rev=16

Kim McMechan is a singer-songwriter and poet who lives in Kelowna, BC, Canada.  She has won multiple awards for her songs, which, these days, are mostly about life with her two daughters, Iryn 7 and Ella 4.  When songwriting time became a little more scarce two years ago (her daughters stopped napping and started drawing on the walls) Kim took up photography.  This is her first published photo.  www.kimmcmechan.com

Colleen Michaels teaches writing at Montserrat College of Art. Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Literary Mama, Bread and Circus, and Blue Collar Review. She was a finalist in the Split This Rock 2010 poetry competition for her poem "Something Fragile."  She has been commissioned by The Trustees of the Reservation to create a public art installation of her poem "Align" at Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts with her grounded husband and buoyant daughter.

Mary Harter Mitchell was a Professor with the Indiana University School of Law, Indianapolis.  In addition teaching law and writing, Mary homeschooled both her daughters to high school and cared for her own mother who suffered from Parkinson's Disease. Although Mary passed

away this November from breast cancer, she continues to inspire her many students and friends.  Mary's poems have appeared in the Journal of Legal Education and the Indianapolis Star.

Teddy Norris would like to live in a seaside villa and play the cello.  In real life, she writes poetry in the Midwest where she lives with her husband and one geriatric cat, teaches creative writing at St. Charles Community College, and edits the college literary journal, Mid Rivers Review.

Sandra Ramos O'Briant's work has appeared in LiteraryMama, Whistling Shade, Flashquake, Café Irreal. La Herencia, latinola.com, and The Copperfield Review. In addition, her short stories have been anthologized in Best Lesbian Love Stories of 2004, What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest (University of Texas Press, Spring 2007), Latinos in Lotus Land: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, (Bilingual Press, 2008), and Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery (Arte Publico, 2009). Visit her at www.bloodmother.com

 

Judith O’Brien has had three volumes of her poetry published:  Everything That Is, Is Connected, Village Books Press, 2007, By the Grace of Ghosts, co-authored with Jane Taylor, Village Books Press, 2005, and Mythic Places, ByLine Press, 2000, Crossing a Different Bridge: an Oklahoma Memoir will be published late Spring of this year, 2010 by Mongrel Empire Press.

Theta Pavis is a poet, journalist and editor. Her work has been widely published in journals and magazines. She's been honored twice by the Society of Professional Journalists. She blogs about parenting for the New Jersey Moms Blog and on her blog North Jersey Beanstalk: www.beanstalknj.blogspot.com/. She is the founder of Ink Stained Mothers, a network for moms who write.

Puma Perl’s poetry and fiction have been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, published in 2008, was awarded the Erbacce Press 2009 Poetry Award in a field of over 1400 applicants; a full-length collection, knuckle tattoos, was published in early 2010. She performs her work in many venues, in and out of New York City. She lives and writes on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison.  She believes in the transformative and healing power of the arts. http://pumaperl.blogspot.com/               

Marcia Popp is a retired university professor and the author of several textbooks and biographies. Her first book of poetry, comfort in small rooms, was published in 2009, and the title poem won the Robert G. Cohn Prose Poetry Award for 2008. “strike up the band” from the collection was included in Best New Poets 2008, edited by Mark Strand.  Other poetry has appeared in Memoir (and) and Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poems.

Kyle Potvin’s poetry has appeared in print and online publications including The Lyric, The Mom Egg, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), Literary Mama, The Barefoot Muse, Measure, The New York Times “Well” blog and The 2008 & 2010 Poets’ Guide to New Hampshire.  She was named a finalist for the 2008 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. She is principal of a public relations firm and mother to two boys, 8 & 10.

Recent poetry by Tania Pryputniewicz appeared either in print or on-line at Autumn Sky, Literary Mama, Linebreak, Salome Magazine, and Tiny Lights; new poems are forthcoming at The Blood Orange Review. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is the poetry editor at the Fertile Source (www.fertilesource.com). She lives in Sonoma County, California with her husband, three children, and five feral cats and keeps a blog documenting the process of mothering while writing at Feral Mom, Feral Writer (www.poetrymom.blogspot.com).

Jessy Randall's young adult novel The Wandora Unit (Ghost Road Press, 2009) is about love and friendship in the high school literary crowd. Her collection of poems A Day in Boyland (Ghost Road Press, 2007) was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Her website is http://personalwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~jrandall.

Charles P. Ries lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His narrative poems, short stories, interviews, and poetry reviews have appeared in over two hundred print and electronic publications. He has received four Pushcart Prize nominations for his writing.  Most recently he was interviewed by Jane Crown for Blog Radio.  www.janecrown.com . You may find additional samples of his work by going to: http://www.literati.net/Ries/.   He is a founding member of the Lake Shore Surf Club, the oldest fresh water surfing club on the Great Lakes and the proud father-mother of Isabel and Catherine.

Ellen Rix is a mom, wife, artist, gardener and very happy with life!

Helen Ruggieri spent some time in Japan recently researching a 13th century trip by a 57 year old Buddhist nun who traveled from Kyoto to Kamakura and kept a record in her "Journal of the Waning Moon."   The video is on Ruggieri's website www.HelenRuggieri.com

Ellen Saunders’ poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Poetry East, Calyx Journal, Pearl, Toronto Review, Boston Literary Review, The Lyric, and The Mom Egg, among several others.    

Lee Schwartz is a wife and mother whose daughter is a freshman at Smith College. She has won Honorable Mention 2008 and Editor’s Choice 2009 Allen Ginsberg Awards in the Paterson Literary Journal.  She has published in The Mom Egg print and online Journal since 2007.  She is included in the Seed6 Journal from Hidden Book Press. Her work appears online in Protestpoems.org, 2009. She has been an Artist in Residence at the 92nd St Y.  Catch her reading at The Bowery Poetry Club and Cornelia Street Café in her own Greenwich Village locale.

Elizabeth Schwyzer has worked as a freelance writer and arts journalist in the UK and the states since 2002. She is currently an arts editor and writer for the Santa Barbara Independent. She has also worked as a professional dancer and choreographer, yoga and martial arts instructor, and outdoor guide. When she's not writing, you can find her dancing, mentoring teenagers, riding her powder blue Vespa, snowboarding, hiking, and training for a triathlon and for a second degree black belt in Dynamic Circle Hapkido.  http://www.independent.com/elizabethschwyzer

Marguerite Scott teaches composition and poetry at The College of Charleston. She earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from The Florida State University and her work has appeared in Feminist Studies and The Evansville Review among others. Aside from these career facts, her days are spent, mostly, jotting down new surprises on scratch pieces of paper, changing diapers, and laughing at the absurdities of love intersecting with stress.

Lynne Shapiro is a writer and teacher who lives in Hoboken, New Jersey with her husband and son.  She's had poems and essays published in Mslexia, Terrain.org, Umbrella, Quay, and Qarrtsiluni.  Her work has been included in Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems (Ragged Sky Press), Pain and Memory (Editions Bibliotekos) and Decomposition, An Anthology of Fungi-Inspired Poems (Lost Horse Press).

Marian Kaplun Shapiro, a previous contributor, practices as a psychologist and poet in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is the author of a professional book, Second Childhood (Norton, 1988),  a poetry book, Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007) and  two chapbooks: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line, 2007); and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House, 2007). She was named Senior Poet Laureate of Massachusetts in 2006 and again in 2008. 

Carolee Sherwood’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Pirene’s Fountain, Awakenings Review, Wicked Alice, Qarrtsiluni, Glass: A Journal of Poetry and Ballard Street Poetry Journal (which nominated her poem “How to Let Wild Birds Out” for a Pushcart Prize in 2008).  For three years, she was part of the creative team that produced Read Write Poem.  She co-edits Ouroboros Review and writes reviews for Poets' Quarterly.

Ana Silva is a new mother of fraternal twin girls, now 2, who writes poetry and teaches English at The Spence School in New York City. She has an MA in Philosophy and one in English. She says, “The moment I became pregnant was the moment my relationship with my own mother became more difficult. I'm still trying to figure out why. These poems are part of my attempt to understand my mother, myself.”

Amanda Skjeveland's work has recently appeared in Melusine, Eclipse, Flutter Poetry Journal, Burst, Literary Mama, The Write Room, and Tonopah Review.  She lives with her husband and two little boys on the east coast, where she teaches English and edits the literary magazine at a community college.

Golda Solomon, poet, professor , parent and grand-parent is the host of Po’Jazz (Poetry in Partnership with Jazz) in residence several  Third Thursdays at The Cornelia Street Café.  Solomon also gigs around the city and goes on the road with a fabulous roster of jazz musicians. Her words may be found in anthologies, e-zines,  journals and CD’s. Her work is in previous Mom Eggs and she is currently preparing a manuscript for publication. She is a member of WOMENWRITE, nyc  and Word of Mouth writers.  Solomon is also a proud poetry outreach mentor for CCNY and the  annual City College Poetry Festival.  She was recently appointed poet-in-residence at The Blue Door Gallery, Yonkers, New York where she facilitates ArtSpeak , ekphrastic creative writing workshops.( partially funded by Poets and Writers). www.jazzjaunts.com, contact gs@goldajazz.com.

 

Dr. Roxanne Sukol is a physician and writer in Cleveland, Ohio.  She is a 2008 winner of the Baltimore Review's Creative Nonfiction Contest (2nd place) for her essay "Redefined Wheat."  She blogs on real food and nutrition at "Your Health is on Your Plate."

Katherine Swett is a native of New York City where she lives with her husband and three children. In addition to writing poetry, she is chairman of the English department in an independent K-12 school.

Susan Tepper’s collection Deer & Other Stories is just out from Wilderness House Press.  She has received five Pushcart Prize Nominations for fiction and poetry, and her stories have appeared/forthcoming in Green Mountains Review, American Letters & Commentary, Gargoyle, Crannog (Ireland), WOW! (Ireland), Schuylkill Valley Journal, Sundaysalon.com, Cervena Barva Press and elsewhere.  She curates FIZZ a reading series at KGB Bar in NYC, and is Assistant Editor of the Istanbul Literary Review (online journal based in Turkey).

Flora Trebi-Ollennu holds an MA in Geography from the University of Saskatchewan and BSc (Hons) in Planning from the University of Science and Technology, Ghana. She has authored five books for young adults, including My Daily Walk: Discover the Life of Jesus, the second in the My Daily Walk series, which will roll out in 2010. In addition to homeschooling one of her four children, she also reads regularly in various elementary schools, and has been featured as a main speaker in church related events.

Heather Truett is a young mom, writer and minister's wife living in the birthplace of Elvis, Tupelo MS.  She teaches poetry and creative writing, does a lot of laundry and reads way more than is emotionally healthy.  http://www.madamerubies.com/

Donna Vorreyer lives in the Chicago area where she is both a middle school teacher and a mom. Her work has been published in numerous journals including Cider Press Review, Literary Mama, New York Quarterly, Autumn Sky Poetry, Boxcar Poetry Review, and Ghoti. Her chapbook Womb/Seed/Fruit, which chronicles her journey to motherhood through infertility and adoption, will be published by Finishing Line Press in June 2010.  http://www.donnavorreyer.com/

Amy Watkins' poems have recently appeared in The Louisville Review, Literary Mama and Conclave: A Journal of Character. She lives in Orlando with her husband and daughter. The best thing she learned from her mother is that whatever you are most self-conscious about "will never be seen on a galloping horse."

Lisa Williams is the author of the memoir, Letters to Virginia Woolf, published by Hamilton Books (June 2005), www.letterstovirginiawoolf.com. She also wrote, The Artist as Outsider in the Novels of Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf (Greenwood Press, 2000). Lisa’s work has appeared in such publications as The Mom Egg, The Women’s Studies Quarterly, The Tusculum Review, The Virginia Woolf Miscellany, and For She is the Tree of Life: Grandmothers Through the Eyes of Women Writers. She teaches writing and literature at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Kris Woll has lived and worked in New England, New York City, and now Minneapolis since leaving her prairie hometown. She has a MA in history and is interested the pasts we've lived, inherited, and imagined. She is a 2009 mnartists.org mnLit miniStories Grand Prize Winner, and her work has appeared in Minnesota, MinnPost, Prairie Poetry, Edible Twin Cities and (forthcoming) Memoir (and).  Read her blog at http://alittlepractice.blogspot.com/. 

Catherine Woodard lives and plays basketball in NYC, was a journalist and president of Artists Space and is part of the Poetry Society of America’s Centennial cabal. More poems about a Southern family miming Egyptian death rituals are or will be in Poet Lore, RHINO, Podium and RiverSedge. Woodard is curating SeePoemsHear (.org online) and working to return Poetry in Motion to the NYC subways.

Joanne G. Yoshida is a visual artist and poet who lives in Oita, Japan with her husband and daughter.  Her most recent design project is a line of Yoga Mats to inspire peace and tranquility based on the Japanese character meaning "Stop". She chronicles her daily life and things she finds on http://aikawarazulifeinjapan.blogspot.com and http://foundinjapanjgy.blogspot.com.

Kirstin Hotelling Zona’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a number of magazines, such as The Southwest Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, The Spoon River Poetry Review, and Literary Mama. She is also the author of Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and May Swenson: The Feminist Poetics of Self-Restraint (2002, Michigan UP), and Editor of The Spoon River Poetry Review. Kirstin lives with her family in Maine and Illinois, where she co-hosts Poetry Radio (WGLT 98.1) and is an associate professor at Illinois State University.