NANCY KENNEY CONNOLLY was too busy living to write poetry until she retired, so she’s trying to make up for lost time.  Her poems have been published in americas review, Asheville Poetry Review, Comstock Review, Concho River Review, Crucible, Free Lunch, The Lyric, Mankato Poetry Review, Pedestal Magazine, Pembroke, Pinesong, Roanoke Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Observer, Wisconsin Review, and other literary journals.   Her work won first prizes in the 2002 di-verse-city anthology, in the 2003 Outrider Press You’re    Invited anthology, and in the Main Street Rag chapbook contest 2002 for I Take This World.  She has published two other books, The Color of Dust and 33 Shades of Green.  She is an active participant in several poetry groups and a member of the North Carolina Poetry Society and the Austin International Poetry Festival Board.

JOHN DUNLAP:  Shade Ranch, Wimberley, Texas, has for 31 years been the home of John Dunlap's father, Henry Francis Dunlap, who in 1942, fresh out of college, perfected the proximity fuse, decisive in ending World War II.  Henry's appreciative superiors granted him a month's leave to marry his Margaret and take a honeymoon, which actually did not end until August 2002.  Henry never wept. He declared to all would-be comforters that he was the luckiest man in the world.  The penumbra of that luck sufficiently accounts for John's improbable marriage to Linda, the amazing children and grandchildren, and a host of other  as-yet-un-written subjects of ecstatic poetry.  John's a bit of a slacker, but is determined to get around to all of them.

KEN FONTENOT works as a reprographics technician for the Texas Department of Transportation. His two books of poems are All My Animals and Stars, which won the Austin Book Award in 1988, and After the Days of Miami.

VICKI GOLDSBERRY is the three-year editor of di-verse-city, the anthology of the Austin International Poetry Festival.  She has been a member of the board of directors of AIPF since 2001 and is the newly elected Chairman.  She is also Poetry Editor of the online journal C/Oasis, and combines careers as a realtor, writer, and editor.  In the last few years she has interviewed such luminaries as Robert Bly, Coleman Barks, and Ursula LeGuin for the television program Texas Nafas.  A native Houstonian and former spelling champion, she holds degrees in marketing and public relations from the University of Texas.  As a poet known for her performances, she attempts to sound a universal note with her audience, evoking both emotional response and a recognition of our connection with each other.

KEN HANSON received a B.A. in English from Rice University.  He founded the Austin Poetry Guild in December 2004. He is unknown, unpublished, and unmarried.  He works as a database administrator for the State of Texas.

J. TODD HAWKINS is a graduate of the University of Texas's English and psychology programs and works as a language arts editor and writer for an educational publishing   company.  His poems have appeared in Anthology, Wisconsin Review, Antietam Review, and other publications.  He has work forthcoming in Talking River and The Distillery.

JENNA MARTIN received her B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin and her M.F.A in Poetry from New England College.  Her work has also appeared in The Alembic, di-verse-city, Fugue and Entelechy International.  She has withdrawn from the group because of schedule conflicts.

TOMMIE ORTEGA has been writing and performing poetry since 1986.  She studied literature and language at UT San Antonio and moved to Austin in 1990 where she was quickly embraced by local poetry groups and performed at many local venues.  She has work in over fifty local, national, and online publications. She has five chapbooks and is presently working on a collection featuring poems and digital photography. She has launched her  visual art displays in several art spaces throughout Austin.

FRANK POOL began writing poetry when he was in high school, but he began publishing adult work a decade ago.  He has been published in a number of poetry journals, and is the author of three chapbooks and a full-length collection, Depth of Field.  He has also written reviews and criticism.  Closely attentive to sound and structure, he believes that any poem worth reading is worth reading three times, and any poem worth writing deserves multiple revisions.

MATTHEW EVAN THRASHER (1981- ), American scientist and poet, most famous for his chocolate-chip pancakes.  Thrasher was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and was educated at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He has worked as a weed picker, lawn mower, computer technician, librarian, tutor, and teacher.  He is currently a physicist's   apprentice at the University of Texas at Austin.  During his writing career, he has produced more than a dozen poems.  His verse blends the careful observation of nature with emotional distance and dilettantism.  His latest pieces combine the Internet and the cut-and-paste utility.

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