Sally Bellerose

Sally Bellerose is best known for her writing on sexuality, illness, and class. She published a volume of poetry, Sex Crimes (Orogeny Press, 1995), and has been published in numerous anthologies and literary journals. An award-winning writer, Sally Bellerose has received various grants and fellowships from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and Writers at Work. Sally is also a past Thomas Wolf Fiction Prize finalist, James Jones First Novel Fellowship finalist, and Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change finalist. Most recently, she was a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship finalist and awarded the Barbara Deming Fiction Prize to continue work on her second novel. Visit Sally and read the first chapter of her first novel, The Girls Club, at SallyBellerose.com.

Jen Burke

Photo Credit: Wildun Photography

Jen Burke covers legal issues involving sex, gender, and gender identity at Transcending Gender: JenBurke.com. She also blogs at ALifeLessConvenient.com, the blog on which the book, A Life Less Convenient: Letters To My Ex, is based. She shares parts of her new fiction in progress at ALifeLessConvenient.com and on her MySpace book page. Her personal MySpace page is here.

Monica Dulberg

Monica Dulberg is a compulsive writer known for waking up at 2 a.m. and for pulling over to the side of the road to write. She lives in the liberal haven of the Bay Area with her adorable son and a veritable zoo of dogs and cats. Monica was a graduate student studying literature at California State University, East Bay, until she decided to pursue her other passion, photography. You can visit Monica at MonicaMichelle.com.

Ethereal

Photo Credit: Joseph A. Jackowski

Ethereal calls herself the “One Woman Army.” She is a published poet, graphic designer, promoter and recording artist. Ethereal’s story, “Room for Rent,” in Queer Shorts is her first published work of fiction. Ethereal is currently in the studio working on her new album, Albatross, scheduled for release in the spring of 2007. For more information on this multitalented woman, connect with her at EtherealVox.com.

F.I. Goldhaber

F.I. Goldhaber has written professionally for more than a quarter-century and has won seven awards for fiction. Magazines, e-zines, newspapers, and anthologies have published F.I.’s short stories, novelettes, poems, news stories, feature articles, editorial columns, and reviews. A resident of Salem, Oregon, F.I. reads to elementary-school children as a SMART volunteer, and is active in Lions Clubs International. Find more information on F.I. at Goldhaber.net.

Nairne Holtz

Nairne Holtz is a Montreal-based fiction writer whose short fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, Blithe House Quarterly, Velvet Mafia, Other Voices, and Matrix, as well as in various anthologies. She is the co-editor of No Margins: writing canadian fiction in lesbian (Insomniac, 2006), an anthology comprised of award-winning writers including Dionne Brand, Nicole Brossard, and Ann-Marie MacDonald. No Margins also excerpts from Holtz’ annotated bibliography of Canadian literature with lesbian content, which reviews more than one hundred books (see CanadianLesbianLiterature.ca). She has recently completed a novel, which her agent is attempting to sell.

Gayle Lloyd

Photo Credit: StudioFitz.com

Gayle Lloyd delights in being retired and finally having time to do just what she loves: write, read, garden, travel, and, recently, tai chi. She earned her degrees, an AB and MA, in English from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and has held assorted jobs in teaching, sales, public relations, writing, and editing. Besides short stories, Gayle is currently working on The Cat Comes on Little Fog Feet, a humorous, illustrated, literary cat book; a novel; a play about gay marriage; and occasionally, at her whim, nonfiction pieces. She lives in Atlanta with her partner of nineteen years and their two lovely cats, Sassy and Lucky.

Jeff Mann

Photo Credit: John Ross

Jeff Mann’s poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many publications, including The Spoon River Poetry Review, Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry 1950-1999, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Laurel Review, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Crab Orchard Review, West Branch, and Appalachian Heritage. He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks — Bliss, Mountain Fireflies, and Flint Shards from Sussex — as well as two full-length books of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine and On the Tongue. His other publications include a collection of personal essays, Edge; a novella, “Devoured,” published in Masters of Midnight; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and a collection of short fiction, A History of Barbed Wire. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

William Reichard

William Reichard is a writer and editor. He is the author of three collections of poetry: An Alchemy in the Bones (1999); How To (2004); and This Brightness (forthcoming 2007). He is the editor of The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s: A Gay Life in the 1940’s (2001). He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he directs the City Arts Program for the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs.

S.G. Reichen

S.G. Reichen is a Queer, Deaf, Jewish, kinky, trans-masculine Australian with a strong Butch heritage and diverse racial and ethnic origins whose writing has been featured in various other publications. Dedicated to the visual and performing arts, he has exhibited and performed his work internationally. Both his passion and his profession, he focuses primarily on community outreach and education in the fields of LGBTIQQ concerns and HIV/AIDS. S.G. Reichen currently lives in San Diego, California.

Alan Witchey

Alan Witchey earned his MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2005 and his Post-MFA Certificate in the Teaching of Creative Writing in 2006. Alan was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but currently resides in Irvine, California. His fiction has appeared in Small Town Gay and Gertrude. He edited a collection of creative writing and visual images about HIV/AIDS entitled Unfinished Works. He enjoys playwriting, fiction writing, and teaching creative writing because they’re cheaper than therapy. Alan’s story, “Leaving Indiana,” in Queer Shorts is dedicated to his life partner, Paul, who decided hell or high water that they were moving to California.