East Side Oral - The Reading Series Your Mother Warned You About

MIKE ALBO is a writer and performer who lives and loves in Brooklyn. He just finished a run of his most recent solo show, My Price Point, in Boston last month and will be returning to NYC with the production in the fall. His first novel, Hornito, was published in 2000 from HarperCollins. His new novel, The Underminer (written with his longtime pal and collaborator Dr Virginia Heffernan) came out in February from Bloomsbury. Check out his website, mikealbo.com for upcoming gigs and embarrassing ruminations he writes when he is stoned.

JONATHAN AMES is the author of I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, What's Not to Love?, and My Less Than Secret Life. He's the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is the creator of the one-man show "Oedipussy". He will be at PS 122 for the whole month of May performing Eric Bogosian's "Notes From Underground."

NICK ANTOSCA was nominated for a 2003 Pushcart Prize and has published fiction and poetry in The Barcelona Review, The Antietam Review, The Paumanok Review, USA Weekend online, Retort Magazine, Opium, Stirring, Word Riot, The Adirondack Review, and others. He is 20 years old and has worked for little or no pay as a video store clerk, a radio station intern, a freelance reporter, a medical guinea pig, and a photography model. He recently finished writing a novel and is presently a film major at Yale University.

JAMI ATTENBERG lives contentedly in Brooklyn. She has written for Salon, Nylon, Self, Time Out NY, and San Francisco Chronicle, as well as a host of publications no longer in business. Her short collection of stories about New York, Deli Life, was published by So New Media in 2003. Her new zine series "Instant Love" is available on her web site, www.whatever-whenever.net.

JAMES BRALY writes speeches for executives so he can support his wife and kids and write about the destabilizing effects of being in a stable family. His work has been featured in New York Press, smallspiralnotebook.com and Gooch!. He has also performed his stories at Beyond Words: Stories on Stage, Word/Play at Medicine Show and The Moth, where he is the current Grand StorySLAM Champion.

KIM BRITTINGHAM writes from her home in a turn-of-the-century tuberculosis asylum on the East Side of Manhattan, encouraged by an endlessly optimistic line-up of dimpled Shirley Temple dolls and a ratty old pin-up of Nick Rhodes in uber-positive pink lipstick. Lately her work has appeared on www.freshyarn.com, and she was recently named the winner of the 2005 Midnight Sun Fiction Contest sponsored by Permafrost, the literary journal of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. In addition to exercising a passion for the written word, Kim is the designer behind the Bux'm label of vintage-inspired plus size coats.

MARI BROWN is a paralegal by day and an aspiring writer by night. Before moving to Brooklyn, where she currently resides, she wrote and directed several plays in Wisconsin, including a one-woman show entitled Formaldehyde. She is currently at work on an interview-based play about Brooklyn, an excerpt of which was recently produced at the WNEP Theatre in Chicago. She's the originator of Little Red Dress, a romance novel think tank and is currently at work on a racy romantic saga set in Manhattan.

RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL is a professional porn editor and freelance writer. She edited Up All Night: Adventures in Lesbian Sex, and her latest and greatest, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z. She writes the Lusty Lady column in the Village Voice, and has also written for Blacktable.com, Bust, Curve, Gothamist.com, On Our Backs, Oxygen.com, Penthouse, Punk Planet and others. Visit her website rachelkramerbussel.com and blog lustylady.blogspot.com for more information.

CHRISTEN CLIFFORD writes about sex for Salon.com, The New York Press, Black and White, Blue, etc. as well in the anthologies Salt and The Masters. As an actor she has worked on Broadway and downtown, as well regionally and internationally. Her solo performance 17 Guys I Fucked, has been seen at Women Center Stage, The Culture Project, BRIC Studio, and the Oni Gallery. Currently a Visiting Scholar at NYU, she is also the host and curator of HEAT:sexy stories and burlesque at The Culture Project.

CLAUDIA COGANClaudia Cogan is a comedian and blogger in New York City. She's written and performed in the sketch shows Two Fisted Crazy and Siddown & Shuddup, performed improv at the UCB and Improv Olympic and created the thing she's most proud of—her one-woman show I, Claudia. Catch up on all the bees in her bonnet at her blog www.getthefoutofhere.blogspot.com.

TIM COLEMAN's work as a journalist has appeared in newspapers, magazines and websites including Playboy Online, Muze and Weekend. From 1996 to 2000 he served as Editor-in-Chief of Tobacco International magazine. Book-wise, he edited "The Bloody Mary" and contributed to "Chili," both from Lyons Press. He is also a fiction writer: his story "A Shrine to Win" appeared in The Bay Forest Reader and his tale "Monsters Are People, Too" will be adapted by Big Hairy Ape Comics next year. He recently completed his first novel, "National Anthem."

MIKE DAISEY's monologues include 21 Dog Years, Wasting Your Breath and I Miss The Cold War. His latest piece is Monopoly!, a monologue about Nikola Tesla, the Microsoft anti-trust case and Wal-Mart's looming shadow in his hometown, premieres February 18th at the Ohio Theatre. The Ugly American, Daisey's monologue of theater and its discontents, will receive full productions this year at Seattle's ACT Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and will be broadcast on BBC Radio this fall. He's currently at work on a second book, Happiness Is Overrated, a collection of essays dedicated to the proposition its title asserts.

ELISA DECARLO is a lapsed performer, published novelist and journalist and generally has experienced way too much of the seamy side of life. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Tagmag.com, Brooklyn Bridge, and on NPR. In her performing days Elisa appeared at Surf Reality, PS 122, Caroline's Comedy Club, and just about anywhere that they would let her dress like a man and sing George Thorogood songs. She is currently waiting for an epic bout of writers' block to lift and hopes tonight will help.

DAVID DEUTSCH is humor editor of Heeb Magazine, and co-author of The Big Book of Jewish Conspiracies. Born in Tel Aviv and raised in Milwaukee, he served two years as an infantryman in 101st Airborne Division. He's got a Master's in Judaic Studies from NYU, and completed most of his exams and coursework for a joint-PhD in American History and Judaic Studies before realizing he wasn't actually that bright. David teaches history at a New York area Yeshiva high school, and lives with his wife and two sons on the Lower East Side.

JESSICA DELFINO is a filthy comedian and dirty song singer. When she's not using vulgarity as a musical vehicle, she's regaling mini-masses on her blog, which was linked to by Wil Wheaton, or Mr. Wesley Crusher, for any Star Trek fans. (He called hers "the funniest blog I ever read" - she thinks he was being exceptionally generous.) She's recently been on Opie and Anthony on XM Radio and was awarded "Unsigned Band of the Month" by High Times. Read some stuff or buy her cheap CD at www.jessydelfino.blogspot.com.

INGRID DUCMANIS is returning to her writing like an athlete returning from a serious injury. Braced for the initial stiffness and diminished performance, she is, nonetheless, determined to get back into game shape and win one for the Gipper. Her first challenge: To complete a draft of "Love You Terribly," a personal biography of her father that she began five years ago. When not in training, Ingrid enjoys drinking coffee and IMing her friends about her plans to quit her job. She lives in Brooklyn.

PAT DUFFY is a native New Yorker and author of "Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color their Worlds", published by Henry Holt & Company. She has been interviewed about her book and her experience with synesthesia in The New York Times, Newsweek, on National Public Radio and The Discovery Channel.

DARYL EDELMAN has been an editor for Marvel, Archie, and DC Comics. At 42, his beautiful wife, Regina, brought him to life.

ROBIN EPSTEIN is the co-author of the novel SHAKING HER ASSETS. She’s written ten children’s books for Scholastic, a bunch of articles for magazines like Real Simple, Glamour and Marie Claire, a handful of bad sitcoms, and currently she’s scripting a video game for Atari called Tycoon City. She and her co-author, Renée Kaplan, have a website and blog at www.ShakingHerAssets.com. ANDREW ERDMAN is a journalist, author, and editor. He has written for Fortune magazine, National Lampoon, and numerous other publications. He was also the head writer for the series "Sex Lives & Video Clips" on VH1. Andy's new book, Blue Vaudeville, which is about the rise of the modern mass entertainment and its handling of sexually charged content, has just been published and is available on Amazon.com. Andy holds a Ph.D. in theatre studies from The City University of New York and has taught film, drama, and media studies at a number of colleges and universities in the New York area.

JON FRIEDMAN is the creator and host of The Rejection Show which features the rejected works of writers, comedians, cartoonists and artists. He is also the creator of the off beat humor t-shirt website ElamenoTees.com and is the host of the comedic variety show The Big Night Out. His writings have been published in Pindeldyboz and McSweeney's to name a few. Find out more about him at http://www.tremendousrabbit.com

AMY FUSSELMAN is the author of 'The Pharmacist's Mate,' now in paperback, from Viking/Penguin. She edits the very interesting art/lit experiment called Surgery of Modern Warfare. (www.surgeryofmodernwarfare.com)

TIMOTHY GAGER is the author of Short Street and Twenty-Six Pack, both collections of short fiction, and the e-book, The Damned Middle. His first book of poetry, The same corner of the Bar, is available through Ibbetson Street Press. He hosts the monthly Dire Reading Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts. www.direreader.com

GABRIELLA GERSHENSON is a restaurant reviewer and food columnist with the New York Press, and a sometime compulsive eater. She has written for the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Providence Journal, Time Out New York, and others, and recently read at Beyond Words: Stories on Stage. She lives in New York City.

LARRY GETLEN is a veteran comedy writer, screenwriter, stand-up comic, and journalist. He has performed all around New York City at venues including the Apollo Theater, the Comic Strip, Stand Up NY, the Gotham Comedy Club, and PSNBC, and his news parody column, Larry's Look at Life, ran for two years in regional entertainment publications nationwide. He has also written for prestigious publications and web sites such as Esquire, Salon, Blender, Variety, and Time Out New York.

THEA GOODMAN's stories and poems have appeared in Confrontation, Literal Latte and The New England Review among other publications. Her story "Des Moines, Iowa" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2002. She has taught writing at several schools most recently Eugene Lang College a division of The New School. "Live Dolls" was a contest winner in Story Magazine's short-short contest in 1998 and comes from her collection called Petty Female Criminals. At the moment she is working on a novel.

CHRISTINE HAMM is a psychiatric social worker and has an MA in Creative Writing. Her poetry has been published by Poetry Midwest, can we have our ball back?, Shampoo, Stirring, Taint, Whalelane, the Absinthe Literary Review, the Adirondack Review and many others. She was recently a finalist in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest. She has taught several poetry workshops in New York City and she is the literary editor of Wide Angle, a monthly cultural journal based in Queens.

LYNN HARRIS is author of the comic novel Miss Media (http://www.miss-media.net), described by New York Magazine as a "sharp, smart satire about an online advice columnist battling the evil superpowers of self-help." She writes about gender, culture, and media new and old for Salon.com, the New York Times, and many others. She is also the Dating Dictionary columnist for Glamour, co-creator of BreakupGirl.net, and the Humor Writing instructor for Mediabistro. Lynn is crazy about Miller's Farm, and is totally not just saying that.

CARRIE HILL WILNER is Assistant Editor at Nerve.com, where she writes the biweekly column About Last Night..., along with other sordid miscellany. Her parents love her anyway.

HAWLEY HUSSEY is an artist and writer who works as an educator for The Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn. Her widely collected, published and found fictional DEAR LOVE, letters are published on bkyn.com. Her limited edition artist books are in major collections internationally including The Museum of Modern Art in NY and San Francisco. This winter she will be performing DEAR LUCILLA, a love letter to her artist and visionary mother at the St. Marks Church poetry and performance series. Hawley will continue her tale of lust and lost, LONESOME THREESOME at this east side oral gathering.

PRUDENCE WRIGHT HOLMES is an actor and a writer. She recently wrote and performed her solo show, BEXLEY, OH! at New York Theatre Workshop. She is the author of VOICES OF THINKING JEWISH WOMEN. She has read her work at The Telephone Bar, KGB and The Cornelia Street Cafe. As an actor, Prudence has appeared in four films including SISTER ACT I and II with Whoopi Goldberg. She has also done three Broadway show, several prime time TV shows, soap operas, regional theatres and over 100 commercials.

PETER HYMAN, a former Vanity Fair staffer, has written for The New York Times, the New York Observer and New York magazine. His first book, a collection of humor essays called The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches from an Almost Hip Life (Villard), is in stores now. While he lists "writer" as his occupation on income tax forms, Peter can often be found delivering his wry stand-up comedy and reading his essays at venues across the country, usually for little or no money. www.pdhyman.com.

GARY JANETTI is currently co-executive producer of Will & Grace. Before that he wrote for Fox's Family Guy. Before that he wrote for shows such as The Naked Truth and developed pilots for Cheri Oteri and Tori Spelling. Before that he worked many horrible service industry jobs and was in massive debt.

RENÉE KAPLAN is a television producer at 60 Minutes Wednesday, and a former writer and editor for the The New York Observer. Her first novel, SHAKING HER ASSETS, co-written with Robin Epstein, came out on May 3, from Berkley Books. If you're wondering how she and Epstein actually CO-wrote a novel, well, so is everybody else. Renee currently lives in Brooklyn.

Fresh out of grad school, SCOTT KENEALLY has confessed to being a chronic bed wetter in JANE Magazine, a wannabe hippie in NYLON, and he exposed his lurid fantasies involving Jessica Simpson in McSweeney's. A relentless procrastinator, Scott spends much of his time on his hammock in Northern California thinking about finishing his collection of self-deprecating short stories. When he's not trying to be funny, he writes treatments for some of the top directors in music videos and commercials.

DAVE KOCH is a founding editor of the Land-Grant College Review. He's waitered at Bread Loaf and, last summer, was a Tennessee Williams Scholar at Sewanee. Stories of his have appeared recently in the Idaho Review and the Greensboro Review.

AMY KOPPELMAN is a graduate of Columbia's MFA program. Her writing has appeared in The New York Observer and Lilith magazine. She lives in New York City with her husband, Brian Koppelman, and their two small children. A Mouthful of Air is her first novel.

JASON KORNBLATT is really suave. Last week, he went to pick up the phone and smashed the receiver into his eye socket. But, playing it cool, he hit himself again, screaming "They won't stop! The voices won't stop!" Luckily, everyone bought his crazy act, and nobody caught on to how klutzy he really is.

MICHAEL KURHAJETZ has been a frequent storyteller at Moth Story Slams and was recently included in the The Moth's: An Evening of Storytelling, televised on the TRIO network before Thanksgiving. He has read his work at "Beyond Words: Stories on Stage" as well. His friends describe him as "gun-toting" and "mildly disagreeable". Nice friends describe him as "tall" and as having "adequate personal hygiene." He lives and writes in Astoria, where a train is rumbling through his living room right now.

SUSAN LANDERS edits the journal PomPom and is the author of 22 mgs. (50¢ off press, Seattle, WA), 28 mgs. (yumyumpress, Brooklyn, NY), and 31 mgs. (CyPress, Cincinnati, OH), all of which are excerpts from a manuscript in progress selected as a finalist for the 2002 National Poetry Series. Recent work can be found online at theeastvillage.com, shampoo, canwehaveourballback, and readme.

CATIE LAZARUS performed stand up at Caroline’s, Stand-Up NY, Gotham, Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater, Fez, Improv and in LA, MA, NJ and DC. Her humor pieces appear in The Forward, Plenty Magazine, Comedy Entertainment Magazine and Heeb Magazine, where she is a contributing editor. The New York Resident named her a Top 100 New Yorker for comedy in 2003. She has done storytelling for the Moth and Shmoth. She volun! teers for Seeds of Peace. www.lazarusrising.com.

MARGOT LEITMAN has appeared on MTV, VH1, The Style Channel, AMC, Korean and Japanese television. In 2004 she was a guest fashion correspondent on E! Entertainment Network for New York Fashion Week. She co-hosts and co-produces the monthly variety show, "Everyone Wins" which has been running for over a year now. She is the writer and star of the new show "Just Here for the Day", an autobiographical one-woman show about her adventures and an unlikely substitute teacher. "Just Here..." is beginning its weekly run at the UCB theatre this May." www.margotleitman.com

TODD LEVIN is a comedian and a writer who struggles for your attention all over New York City. His writing has appeared in Salon, Glamour, The Modern Humorist, McSweeney's, The Onion, and on his own web site, tremble.com. He co-hosts and co-produces a comedy reading series called HOW TO KICK PEOPLE, on the last Wednesday of every month.

SHANA LIEBMAN Shana Liebman has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has written for Salon, The New York Observer, Time Out and The Village Voice. She is the arts editor of Heeb Magazine, the director of Heeb Storytelling (The Shmoth), and the managing editor of The Independent Film & Video Monthly.

TSAURAH LITZKY's erotic work has been selected for the Best American Erotica series six times. Her stories have also appeared in Penthouse, Paramour, Between the Sheets, Longshot, The Blacklisted Journalist, The UnMade Bed, CleanSheets, ScarletLetters and many other books and periodicals. She has just completed a book of erotic short stories, The Motion of the Ocean. She teaches erotic writing and erotic literature at the New School.

MICHAEL MALONE was most recently a senior editor at Playboy Online. His first novel, Too East For Numbers, is currently being shopped around by the William Morris Agency, and his work has appeared in New York Magazine, The San Francisco Examiner, Stuff, Time Out, Gear and ESPN.com.

JB McGEEVER graduated Stony Brook with a degree in English. He is an MFA student in writing at South Hampton College, where he was a recipient of the John Stienbeck Award. His fiction has appeared in Proteus, The East Hampton Star, Confrontation and hampton Shorts. His non-fiction has been published in the New York Times, Family Circle Magazine and Dan's Papers. In 2003 his short story "Like Walking Fiction" received the Pushcart nomination.

DANIELLE MCGURRAN has performed her work at 'Speakeasy Sundays' at Arlene Grocery and 'Beyond Words: Stories on Stage,' at Here Arts Center. In 2000, she staged "Lockjaw and other Stories," a solo reading of her non-fiction work. Her unemployment benefits end in July.

LESLIE MCKEOWN was born and raised in Canada, but since she was a little girl she dreamt of living in New York City, and for the past 3 years, for better or for worse, she has been living that dream. She recently left her job at a now-defunct Internet company to focus on personal creative pursuits. In addition to working on a memoir of growing up out of place in small town Canada and studying photography, she is writing a satire based on her rollercoaster ride through the dot-com boom and bust.

JOSH MELROD briefly attended the MFA program at Washington University, where he was awarded a teaching fellowship. He's published stories in numerous small but respectable literary magazines. He lives in New York and edits the Land-Grant College Review.

ELISE ABRAMS MILLER's first novel, STAR CRAVING MAD (Warner Books), about a celebrity-obsessed first grade teacher at an elite Manhattan private school, is in stores now. (Or order on Amazon.com). Maverick Films (Madonna's production company) has just optioned Elise's book. Essays from her memoir collection, COCK-CRAZY! can be read on www.nerve.com, www.papotage.com, and www.smallspiralnotebook.com.

CHRIS MISKIEWICZ is a twenty eight year old Brooklyn-born writer, living in the area for his entire life. He is currently working on a novel called "The life and death of Logan Milskie," as well as holding rank as the singer-guitarist in Brooklyn's greatest unsigned rock and roll band, "Swinger Eight." Chris wrote "Calorie Kid," a comic book soon to be released in stores, and in his spare time, writes sad poetry about his ex-girlfriends on cocktail napkins. He can be seen almost any night of the week, walking back and forth along Nassau Avenue, mumbling to himself, with his dog Nicky, keeping him company at his side.

KAREN MOULDING's fiction and poetry have appeared in the anthology, "Woman in the Window" (Starbooks Press), the Piedmont Literary Review and Spectrum. Her novel The Naked Shopper is represented by literary agent Stephanie Von Hirschberg. Since 1992 she has served as the Editor of the annually-updated legal treatise, Sexual Orientation & the Law, published by West. Karen holds an M.A. in English from the City College of New York, a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University School of the Arts. She is hard at work on a new novel, "Unbox," about a pansexual New York rock party.

CATHI MURPHY has taken numerous classes with Dean Kostos at Gotham Writers Workshop. She asks alot of questions, has her heart broken on a regular basis and likes the taste of wine, scotch and tequila - that's all you need to know about her poetry. For more information, refer to her chapbooks Re-arrangements; 26 Letters, Some He's and a She (IMDSI 2000), and Around the Time of Honey (IMDSI 2001) -- available at readings! Formerly the organiser and host SPEAKEASY at Arlene Grocery, she's currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. In a bizarre blast from her past as a political scientist, she has recently been published in an anthology about Irish Public Policy. She co-authored "Conserving the Emerald Tiger - Environmental Policy in Ireland" with Dr. G. Taylor! None of it is in rhyme or form.

MELANIE MURRAY is a recovering actress and co-founder of The Contagious Theater Company. Post-acting therapy includes work on a chick-lit adventure story featuring whistling cats and one-night stands, and a non-fiction essay collection called Dads Who Aren't Dead (But Might As Well Be.)

JOSH NEUMAN is the Editor and Publisher of Heeb Magazine. Called "one part scholar, one part Beastie Boy" by LA Weekly, he has been teaching undergraduate courses in the Philosophy of Religion at New York University since 2000. He is currently at work on a book about Jewish conspiracy theories that will be published by St. Martin’s Press. He lives in downtown Manhattan in a building his father could have bought for $12 in 1974.

Jane Ormerod moved from London to New York in 2004. Her work has appeared in roguescholars.com, Magma, Take 20, and Words and Pictures. Recent featured performances include the Bowery Poetry Club, Nightingale's, The Back Fence, Oz Bar and Lounge, and the Central Park Conservancy. Jane's website is www.janeormerod.com

CHELSEA PERETTI is a comic/writer hailing from Oakland, California. Her humor has been featured on VH1, Comedy Central, and AMC. With her brother Jonah, Peretti co-created the Rejection Line (212-479-7990; www.rejectionlnine.com) and the web satire www.BlackPeopleLoveUs.com. Her writing has appeared in Details, Jest, American Theatre Magazine, Flyer, and The Village Voice. She blogs and co-produces the monthly show “Variety SHAC” at Galapagos. She lives with her husband and four dogs in Brooklyn. (That last part's not true—she’s single, on the isle).

BOB POWERS

MARY PURDY is a regular contributor to NPR's "The Next Big Thing," and she's written for girlcomic.net. Her solo show "PURDY WOMAN" was produced at WestBeth, HERE and PSNBC, as well as in Charleston, SC and in Chicago's Funny Women Fest. Her second piece, "Judy Blume Owes Me," was produced in LA and NYC. Mary appeared Off-Broadway in "LIFE GAME" at the Jane St. Theatre, and in "Fame Takes a Holiday" at La Mama. She spent 3 years with Chicago City Limits and a year with "Chicks with Schticks" at Caroline's on Broadway.

ELIZABETH REAL is the recently named recipient of the 2004 Drecksel Prize for Creative Non-Fiction, a skill for which she’s honed in the nine years spent writing advertising strategy for some of America’s top brands. She’s happier writing fiction, though, and her short stories have appeared in The First Line, Agni, Applefish and at conversely.com. A native Californian, Elizabeth now works and writes, dates and drinks in New York.

ROBERT ROSS is an award winning original blues artist who wowed audiences this year at the Chicago Blues Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival. Guitar World called Robert's new Fountainbleu cd "Sleight of Hand", "Excellent." Robert has recorded with Big Joe Turner and worked with many music legends. Johnny Winter recorded one of Robert's songs "Sittin' In The Jailhouse." Legendary blues guitarist Albert King said, "Ross is so fast, lightning would have to get on roller skates to catch him." Jimmy Page used one word to describe the Robert Ross Band, "HOT!" Bill Carlton of the NY Daily News wrote, "Robert Ross is the total package...a fine singer, a snappy lyricist, and an even better bluesrock guitarist." Check out Robert online at: RobertRossBand.com

VICTORIA C. ROWAN has written cultural journalism (The NY Times Magazine, The Financial Times magazine, New York, Time Out NY, Architectural Record, ARTnews), radio commentaries (NPR and Northeast Public Radio), and poetry (The New York Times). From 2001-2002, founded and implemented a continuing education writing school that now offers courses in 10 cities. She now teaches journalism, narrative and creativity workshops for private and corporate clients. The show she founded 10 years ago, BEYOND WORDS: STORIES ON STAGE was recently recognized in NY Press as "BEST LIVE READING & PERFORMANCE SERIES" of 2003.

THADDEUS RUTKOWSKI is a graduate of Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University. His novel, Roughhouse (Kaya Press, New York), was a finalist for the Members¹ Choice of the Asian American Literary Awards. His work has been anthologized in Sweet Jesus: Poems About the Ultimate Icon, Help Yourself, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, and The Naughty Bits: Columns from Nerve.com. His stories have appeared in Fiction, American Letters and Commentary, and other magazines. He teaches at Pace University and the Writer¹s Voice of the West Side YMCA. He is working on his second novel and is looking for an agent who will fall in love with it.

ALLEN SALKIN cast industrial films in Hong Kong, wholesaled rubber duckies in Las Vegas, picked oranges in Crete, peddled oil paintings door-to-door in Western Australia, and penned stories for The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Details, Talk, Detour, Yoga Journal, People and other venues. U.C. Berkeley, Calabasas High. An investigative reporter who also writes about culture, Salkin has filed stories on robot dogs, corruption in the Brooklyn Courts, dicey Indian gurus, upskirt videos, and breakfast on Roatan. He's spending most of his time somewhere warm right now working on a book which he's not telling anyone yet what it's about.

Karen Salmansohn

Born and raised in Brooklyn, JOSEPH E. SCALIA taught junior and senior high school English and Creative Writing on Long Island for 33 years. He started writing "terrible rhyming poems on bathroom walls" in elementary school and over the years he has written and published three books, including two novels, FREAKs and Pearl, and No Strings Attached, a collection of his short stories. Family Scenes, a collection of family essays and poems is scheduled for publication later this year, to be followed, he hopes, by My Life And Hard Times Or: Scalia vs. The Universe, a volume of humorous stories.

HAL SIROWITZ is the current Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. He has been the opening act for They Might Be Giants, & Studio 360 aired a program interviewing the band members about it. Garrison Keillor had him read his & other poems on his audio book tape, "Good Poetry." His first book of poems, "Mother Said" has been translated into 9 languages. One of his poems appeared in the Poetry In Motion series on NYC subways & buses.

RAVEN SNOOK is a writer/performer/diva who has appeared all over downtown New York (sometimes even on stage) as well as on TV. She is currently one of the hosts of VOOM's Divine HD, an HDTV channel devoted to gay cinema, where she fulfills her role as a glittery Elvira with bigger boobs. Past credits include acting in the original downtown cast of Urinetown; being typecast as a vampire on the ABC sitcom "Talk to Me"; appearing as a "female female impersonator" on "The Maury Povich Show"; and playing a dominatrix-like self-help guru in the award-winning short film Slo-Mo on Cinemax. As a writer, Raven regularly contributes arts-related articles to numerous publications including Time Out NY, The Village Voice, the New York Post and NYMetro.com, and is an associate editor of Heeb Magazine. Raven is most proud of her autobiographical one-woman show How I Became a Drag Queen Trapped in a Woman's Body, which she has performed portions of in New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Berlin. She has also told stories on the main stage of The Moth as well as the Heeb Storytelling Series, and hosts a sexy assortment of New York burlesque shows. Visit www.ravensnook.com for more info and hot pictures!

For three years AMY SOHN wrote the "Female Trouble" column in New York Press, which elicited loads of bitter invective from readers and shamed her parents at cocktail parties. Amy writes the "Naked City" column, a series of profiles of Manhattan love lives, which appears every other week (pretty much) in New York magazine. An animated series based on "Female Trouble" (entitled "Avenue Amy") is currently running on the Oxygen cable channel. In 1999, Simon & Schuster published Amy's first novel, Run Catch Kiss. It was released in paperback in 2000. She received her B.A. from Brown University. She was born in 1973 and grew up in Brooklyn, where she still lives today. Amy's website it amysohn.com

ALBERT STERN is a writer and performer living in Brooklyn. His one-person shows, Let Me Digress... and Well, I Hope You're Happy, were developed and staged at Westbeth Theater Center. He is currently working on a third show, All's Well That Ends.

ANDREW K. STONE's All Flowers Die (1999), "the definitive Boston rock and roll novel," is taught in universities throughout Mexico. His follow-up, Disappearing Into View (2001), is the recipient of Wordweaving.com’s Award for Excellence, and reached #4 on Harvard University’s bestseller list. (Read the first chapters at www.sotherebooks.com). His third novel, Ronny With A "K" is now being shopped to publishers and he is writing a fourth. Before turning to fiction, Stone wrote for the NBC hit comedy, The Golden Girls. He is married and lives in Washington, DC.

ALIX STRAUSS, the media savvy social satirist, has been a featured lifestyle trend writer on national morning shows and talk shows including ABC, CBS, CNN and most recently, VH1. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, Daily News, Time Magazine, Town & Country Travel, Travel & Leisure Golf, Marie Claire, Self, Men's Health and Outside, among others. Alix's collection of shorts, THE JOY OF FUNERALS (St. Martin's Press, 2003) is the recent winner of the Ingram Award, and was named Best Debut Novel by The New York Resident.

DARIN STRAUSS is the author of the international bestseller "Chang and Eng," and the New York Times Notable Book of the Year "The Real McCoy," one of the Public Library's "25 Books to Remember of 2002." His work has been translated into fourteen languages, and he is a writing professor at New York University. He lives in Brooklyn.

FELICIA SULLIVAN is a New York based writer with an MFA from Columbia University. Her work has been published in Post Road Magazine, Drunken Boat, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Adirondack Review, among many other publications. Work is forthcoming in Swink Magazine, the anthology, Homewrecker - An Atlas of Illicit Love, & Kitchen Sink. She is the founder and editor of the literary journal, Small Spiral Notebook, www.smallspiralnotebook.com and is also the director of the Non-Fiction series at KGB Bar in NYC. Felicia is at work on a memoir and a novel.

MARK SWARTZ's Instant Karma, published by City Lights, is out now. Booklist calls it "a first novel of remarkable compression, lithe satirical humor, impressive intellectual dimension, and sly provocation." (On the other hand, Publishers Weekly calls it "an erratic, unfocused series of snippets and truncated scenes.") Mark works in the marketing department of the Museum of Modern Art and is the author of a reference book on artists. He and his wife live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on the same block as John Turturro.

EM and LO (Emma Taylor and Lorelei Sharkey) are contributing editors at Nerve.com, where they pen the weekly sex and relationships column, "The Em & Lo Down: Advice from Near-Experts." Their first book, a sex manual titled The Big Bang, will be published by Plume in August 2003. They also write weekly horoscopes for Nerve and a weekly column debunking sex myths for the London Guardian.

MARY VALLE is working on what she hopes is the final draft of her first novel, The Velvet Landing, whilst cheating on it with her second, The Fugue. She is a freelance writer living in Baltimore with her husband, bunnies and cats. Her work has appeared in Esquire, Salon and the Los Angeles Times.

NED VIZZINI is the author of Teen Angst? Naaah...: A Quasi-Autobiography and the forthcoming novel Be More Chill (Hyperion/Miramax Books, June 2004). Be More Chill will be published 06/01/04 (that's June, 2004) in the US and Germany, with French and UK publication to follow shortly. Teen Angst? Naaah..., meanwhile, has 40,000 copies in print and has been honored by New York is Book Country, BookSense, YALSA and the New York Public Library. Ned maintains NedVizzini.com and does his best to keep up with a loving contingent of dorks and rejects who email him. He lives in Park Slope, NY.

Jason Wachtelhausen

Greg Walloch

KATHLEEN WARNOCK's short stories have been published in Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, Free Spirit, U-turn Magazine, and in the anthology "It's Only Rock and Roll." As Kyle Walker, her erotica has appeared in Best Lesbian Erotica 2003, 2004 and 2005 as well as in Best of the Best Lesbian Erotica. She's written articles and interviews for Ms., BUST, Gargoyle, Metal Maidens, and Gay City News, and is a contributing editor to ROCKRGRL Magazine. Her plays have been produced in New York and London, as well as regionally in the U.S., and Kathleen is the hostess/curator of Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB Bar the third Thursday of every month.

DEKE WEAVER is a three-time recipient of NEA regional grants in film/video making, and has been a resident at Yaddo, Ucross and MacDowell arts colonies. His video work has been shown in festivals and on public television stations in Russia, Brazil, Australia, Europe and the United States. His solo theater work has been presented in Wales and throughout the U.S. The novel-version of "The Crimes and Confessions of Kip Knutzen: A Hockey Way of Knowledge" was published by Wide Press Books in '98. In New York his work has been presented at P.S. 122, HERE, Dixon Place, Surf Reality, Tonic, The NY Video Festival, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and other venues.

TARA WRAY's stories and comics have appeared in Fiction, Sycamore Review, 3rd Bed, Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast, New Orleans Review, LIT, and Land-Grant College Review (of which she's an associate editor). She's currently working on a documentary about Kansas.

RENA ZAGLER has appeared on NBC's "Late Friday." She has also performed at Caroline's, Stand-Up New York, Luna Lounge, Tinkle, "The Schmoth," Don't Tell Mama's and New York Comedy Club.

PAUL ZAKRZEWSKI (Zak-shef-ski) is a writer, editor and literary events curator. Until recently, he was the directory of literary programs for the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, where he ran the popular "Rough Cut" reading series featuring new and provocative Jewish writers at the KGB Bar. He’s the editor of LOST TRIBE: JEWISH FICTION FROM THE EDGE, published summer 2003 by HarperCollins. In addition to being an editor for Heeb magazine, he’s written for a number of publications including Time Out, The Forward and Poets & Writers.

MUSICIAN BIOS:

Once in a while, Brooklyn-bred DEBBIE DEANE writes a song, but only when she feels like it. She has played the piano since she was 6 and credits her older brother for turning her on to all the great divas of folk, pop, and jazz. Her debut CD was picked up by a German label, leading to a European tour, as well as gigs in local clubs including The Bitter End and The Living Room. Debbie's songs appear on Jennifer Love Hewitt's debut Atlantic Records Release, as well as on the first season DVD for the TV show, Party of Five. Right now, she is working on her second CD, which takes a while. Please visit www.debbiedeane.com.

Originally from Southern Illinois, JAMEY GARNER is a country singer/songwriter and musician. He has shared the stage with such Country music artists as Jessica Andrews, Blackhawk and Bryan White and has recorded with Grammy winner Harry Connick, Jr. Recently, his first single with his band The Ranchhands, spent two weeks at #2 on the European Country Music Charts and he currently has two songs in the top 15! He is also planning his second European tour to promote his new CD with The Ranchhands.

MR. DAVID GOULD is considered the Jackie Chan of old-time American music. He writes his own bios and performs all his banjo parts himself. His band, The Bootleg Remedy, plays a daring -- if not deadly -- mix of Western Swing, Dixieland Jazz and Bluegrass, and would be extremely profitable by now were it not for the downturn in the economy. The group has released two CDs and runs the popular website bootlegremedy.com.

JACK GRACE alleges that he is a is a hard working guitar, banjo, accordion playing singer/songwriter that has an ever evolving line-up of weird dudes who play some other instruments. Featuring fingerpicking blues, swing, polka, and country with a heapin' helpin' of Americana, Jack's dreams of world dominance are there for all to see. His sarcastic, often humorous, sometimes desperate sound has been rejected by music biz zombies, not surprisingly. He's a pretty nice guy and sincere to boot. Except when he's lying. Or drunk. But other than that, he's really sincere. Honest. jackgrace.com

REBECCA HALL began playing music in 1990, after moving to New York from her native Boston. Her first album, Rebecca Hall Sings! was released in 2000. In 2001 she formed a band, Rebecca Hall and The Falling Stars, and began playing regularly all over the city. She's appeared live on WFMU radio, performed in London at the Golden Lion in Camden Town and also at the acclaimed 12-Bar Club in Soho. In October she was featured in an hour-long live broadcast on Fairleigh Dickinson University Radio WFDU, and is planning another, more comprehensive, UK tour for spring 2002 to coincide with the release of her second album, currently underway.

J. WALTER HAWKES hails from Pascagoula, Mississippi. A trombone and ukulele player, he has played or recorded with such luminaries as Slide Hampton, Jon Hendricks, Bob Hope, The Temptations, Beth Orton, Jet Set Six, Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, Dave's True Story, and The Flying Neutrinos. He can now be heard till the wee hours playing trombone and ukulele in the better dives around town. During the day, he composes music for Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues" and also for documentary/independent film (such as Martin Bell's "Twins" documentary & Intervenus Films' "The Loneliest Time Of My Life.")

Lythion is ILYANA KADUSHIN and JAMES HARREL. What happens when formal training and strict discipline meet non-conformity and sheer stubbornness? Throw in a lot of love and mutual respect and the only children that bind this duo transforms from "Me" to "We." Within a year and a half of meeting, Kadushin & Harrell created their first record, performed around NYC venues, and did sound design for television and theatre. Their debut record, "...From the beginning" is now being released and you can find out all about it at www.lythionmusic.com

ANDREW INNES, aka the Mad Ohioan, plays sax for puppets (Uncle Jimmy's Dirty Basement), musical saw and jazz washboard (Bootleg Remedy), piano for his own tunes (Laddie), and much, much more. Follow his multi-instrumentalist movements via 24-hour webcam at www.weescotsman.com.

After almost 2 years busking in the subway, AMANDA KAPOUSOUZ, a.k.a the "Tin Cup Prophette," started fiddling above ground with an Irish rock band, the "multi-genre" Bootleg Remedy, and occasionally with the always-entertaining Uncle Fucker. Check out www.subvenue.com to see her in action. Amanda has played Shea Stadium, performed and arranged music for a modern dance company, and for a documentary on Ireland. As a teacher, Amanda tutors children all over the world in unusual settings like the back of a tour bus, or under a circus tent. Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Amanda has recently moved to Athens Georgia, and we’re thrilled that she’s back for a visit.

Besides being the fearless husband of ESO hostess Elise Miller, BRYAN MILLER is also the fearsome leader of Brooklyn's favorite Americana band, Miller's Farm. His strong voice, clever lyrics and knack for melody have been said to be able to "refresh even the most downtrodden New Yorker." Bryan's music has been featured on ABC's "Houston Medical" as well as on televisions and computers across the US with the rest of his band (and Elise) in his NY-centric video "Williamsburg Cannonball." He has won a few songwriting awards, and is most known for his song "Those Jeans." Visit Mr. Miller and the rest of the farm at millersfarm.net

MATT MUNISTERI is a guitarist and a New Yorker. He also writes songs. He reckons you are someone who likes to read, and so you are invited to check out The Gentle Rant at mattmunisteri.com

PREACHER BOY is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has released four albums, including most recently "The Devils' Buttermilk" (Manifesto Records). He also co-wrote and performed on six songs on the new Eagle-Eye Cherry record "Present/Future" (MCA). He is featured on "New Coat of Paint: the songs of Tom Waits" and "Blind Pig Records' 25-Year Anniversary CD." His lyrics are included in the poetry collection "In Our Own Words" (MWE Press), and his albums are featured in "The Rolling Stone Guide to Jazz and Blues." England's Melody Maker says Preacher Boy is "a songwriter of startling originality," The Phoenix New Times call him "a devilishly talented performer," and Seattle's The Stranger says "you don't want to miss this show, he's a one-man musician wizard." preacherboy.com

Saxophonist/flutist ROB SCHEPS played with the Gil Evans Band, Al Grey, Buddy Rich, Sam Rivers, John Scofield, Cecil Taylor & Linda Ronstadt. He appears on 16 CDs by various artists, and leads The Rob Scheps Big Band, Salon des Refuses, and Magnets!, a NY based jazz /funk collective with Kim Clarke & Ronnie Burrage. Rob travels widely but is based in Portland, Oregon—for now.

THE USELESS BASTARDS play songs everyone loves on instruments nobody likes. Their fearless leader, JON DRYDEN portrayed a Latino keyboard player named Sanchez on the Dave Chappelle show, and plays keyboards with the band Marcy Playground. Other Bastards include J. WALTER HAWKES (trombone, ukulele), BRYAN MILLER (banjolin), and JIM WHITNEY (big bass). You can catch those Bastards in all their Useless glory at 10:30 P.M. on the first Wednesday of every month at Café Steinhof in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

A native New Yorker, ANDREW VLADECK's debut record on Organ Grinder Records features his red-hot musician friends Fil Kronengold, Greg Gonzalez, Jason Crigler, Dan Green, and Rachel Loshak. The self-titled CD received three BILLBOARD World Music Song Contest Honors. After a smash CD Release Party at New York's Bowery Ballroom in November, Andrew will be returning this winter to perform. Vladeck also played the Best of the Living Room Concert Series, has the lead track on Arlene Grocery's "Best of" CD, and was commended by Indie Band Search's Best Unsigned Band Competition.

NOAM WEINSTEIN grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and currently lives in New York City, where he plays with a four-piece band and accompanies other songwriters on electric guitar. For more information, please visit enoam.com.

Bassist/composer BEN WOLFE played for years with Harry Connick's Big Band. He has also toured the world with Wynton Marsalis and Diana Krall. His CD, "Murray's Cadillac," features 20 original compositions, with Rob Scheps on Baritone sax, flute and Bass clarinet. He currently teaches at the Juilliard School.

Guitarist/singer STEFF ZELLINGER is the founding member of STARLING CURVE, a Brooklyn based band whose first CD of rhythmic, sometimes moody songs was released in December.