Tarik Abdel-Monem has lived in places as disparate as St. Mary's County in rural Maryland, and the frozen tundras of Bangkok, Thailand. He has a law degree from the University of Iowa. Tarik currently lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the Salt Creek tiger beetle.

Molly Sutton Kiefer is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Minnesota, where she also teaches. Her work has appeared in CutBank and Wicked Alice, among others. She lives in Red Wing with her husband and two dogs.

Sara Lier's poetry has recently appeared in Inkwell, The Sow's Ear, So to Speak, Cloudbank, and The Writer's Block. She currently lives in New Jersey.

Erika Meitner is the author of Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore (Anhinga Press, 2003), and the forthcoming collections Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls (Anhinga Press, 2011) and Ideal Cities (Harper Perennial, 2010), which was selected as a winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series. Her poems have appeared most recently in the Indiana Review, APR, The Southern Review, and Blackbird. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she teaches in the MFA program.

Caridad Moro-McCormick is the recipient of a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship for poetry. Her work has appeared in The Comstock Review, Crab Orchard Review, MiPoesias, The Seattle Review, CALYX, Spillway, The Pedestal, The Sun, Fifth Wednesday Journal, and others. Her chapbook, Visionware is available from Finishing Line Press (www.finishinglinepress.com)

D. Eric Parkison was born in upstate New York, and grew up in a town on the shore of lake Ontario. He received his MA in English from the University of Rochester. He currently resides and works in Rochester.

Leigh Phillips is an Assistant Professor of English at Hostos Community College. She is the author of one poetry manuscript, and is currently writing a novel in verse. Her critical writings appear in The Women's Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third-Wave Feminism, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. Her creative work appears in the following literary journals: Sunset and Silencers, Squid Quarterly, Connecticut River Review, Vox, Paterson Literary Review, Hazmat Review, Lodestar Quarterly, Fringe, Shampoo, Harpur Palette, and Longshot.

David Pinault is an associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University. In addition to stories published in the magazines Verdad, Realms of Fantasy, and Tales of the Talisman, he has also written books on Arabic literature and folk rituals in Pakistan and India. His latest book is Notes From the Fortune-Telling Parrot: Islam and the Struggle for Religious Pluralism in Pakistan (London: Equinox Publishing).

Corinna McClanahan Schroeder is currently completing her MFA degree at the University of Mississippi where she is the recipient of a John and Renee Grisham Fellowship. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Hayden's Ferry Review, Measure, and The Country Dog Review, and she currently serves as the poetry editor for The Yalobusha Review.

Randy Rex is a writer, musician, artist, and Zen practitioner. He creates fiction, poetry, and whatever comes to mind. He plays guitar and sings in the band Charlene, but lately finds himself playing songs to his pets more often than cheering crowds. He lives in a tiny house on a farm with his girlfriend, their cat, and big brown dog. You can connect with Randy on facebook or via his band.

Erica Stisser is twenty years old and is currently in her junior year at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She has always been an avid reader and writer, but has recently discovered a passion for the creative nonfiction genre that she hopes to pursue in a career in journalism. This is her first published piece.

Ryan Van Winkle is the Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review and New Writing Scotland.

Roger Weingarten is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Premature Elegy by Firelight (Longleaf Press, 2007) and Greatest Hits: 1972-2002 (Pudding House Press, 2003). His poems have appeared in APR, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Paris Review, The New Republic, Ploughshares, The Prague Revue, and The Kenyon Review, among many others. He has also co-edited seven poetry anthologies, including New American Poets (2005) and Poets of the New Century (2001), both with David R. Godine. Poetry Consultant for David R. Godine, 1987-1994, he is General Editor of the Invisible Cities Press Poetry Series, and Editor for Interpoezia, an international online and print journal presenting poems in Russian and English. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, a Louisville Review Poetry Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, and an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in Literature. He founded the MFA in Writing and the Postgraduate Summer Writers' Conference at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

 

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issue design by Andy Hefner

 

Volume 5, Issue 2

©2010 the Conte Online staff

 

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All original works are Copyrighted (©2010) by their respective authors. Authors retain all rights and privileges associated with their work as delineated in our blanket copyright policy, and reprinting, copying, or reproducing in any fashion any of the works contained in this issue without the creator's express consent is strictly prohibited. For information on contacting any of the authors featured in this issue, please email poetry@conteonline.net or prose@conteonline.net.

 

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