Information About the Poets
- Bill Batcher
- Margaret Bell
- Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal
- Joanna Gardner
- C W Hawes
- Bernard Gieske
- Steffen Horstmann
- Esther Greenleaf Mürer
- Joel Neubauer
- Linda Papanicolaou
- Carol Rumens
- David Sklar
Bill Batcher
Bill Batcher is a native of Long Island, New York. After graduating from the New York City Public Schools, he received a Bachelors from Syracuse University, where he majored in English. Bill earned two Masters degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York where, in 1992 he was a awarded a doctorate in the area of education of the gifted.
Margaret Bell
Margaret E. Bell earned a living as a newspaper reporter/ columnist and writer/editor of government publications. In 1973 her essay on "The Dangerous Side Effects of Women's Liberation" was awarded first place in an Armed Forces Writers League competition. She retired in 1991 and now publishes a quarterly newsletter. Her poetry has appeared on the Nevada County Commission of Arts and the Sacramento Bee/Placer County Poetry websites.
Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal
Sukhdarshan Dhaliwal is originally from village of Lohara, Punjab-India. He currently resides in Shawnee, Kansas. He works in the area of Mechanical
product design and development. He started writing Punjabi poetry in the
mid-eighties. He has published three books of Punjabi poetry. Punjabi is
the state language of Punjab. Some of his Punjabi Ghazals are composed and
sung by a famous singer Jagjit Singh Zirvi under the "Roo-B-Roo" (Face to
Face) Cassette/CD. In December, 2005 he started thinking about English
Ghazals. Besides writing, Sukhdarshan loves to listen to Urdu/Hindi Ghazals.
His first published English Ghazals are in the August issue of The Ghazal Page. He writes under the pen name of "Darshan."
Joanna Gardner
Joanna Gardner lives in New Mexico with two dogs and one husband. Her poetry has appeared in Rogue Poetry Review, Flutter Poetry Journal, RiverSedge, South Dakota Review, and others. You can visit her online at Joanna Gardner.
Bernard Gieske
"I live in Bowling Green, Ky. I am retired and like to read poetry and novels, especially historical ones. I also like to study foreign languages which probably explains my interest in poetry and especially the Ghazal. Poetry for me is a challenge. I find it especially helpful to be able to be able to compose it at any time and anywhere.
"Some of my poems have been published in Words Words Words; moonset THE NEWSPAPER, cc&d magazine, and Poetic Hours. Others will be published in foam:e, Pink Chameleon, Language and Culture, Ink, Sweat & Tears, and The Tangled Web."
CW Hawes
CW Hawes is a human services worker who resides in suburban St Paul, MN, USA. He holds a Masters of Divinity degree. Aside from writing, he is an avid reader, enjoys music, and nature walks. He especially values the poetry of Wendell Berry, Rumi, Basho, Takuboku, Edna St Vincent Millay, and Adelaide Crapsey. His poetry has been published widely on the internet and has also appeared in print. He took 3rd place in the 2007 Adelaide Award and was a winner in the 2004 and 2006 Tanka Splendor contests.
Steffen Horstmann
Steffen Horstmann was recipient of the Brooklyn Poetry Circle's National Student Award while at the University of Arizona. He has new poems recently published or forthcoming in Baltimore Review, Blue Fifth Review, Candelabrum, Common Ground Review, Freshwater, Louisiana Literature, LYNX, Pegasus, and Tiferet. He lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Esther Greenleaf Mürer
Esther Greenleaf Mürer lives in Philadelphia. At 72, she considers herself an emerging poet. She first learned about ghazals from her son George, an ethnomusicologist with a particular interest in Persianate cultures. She finds the ghazal a congenial form for using snippets of experience that she doesn't know how to develop. She has been surprised to discover that her youthful immersion in Ogden Nash helps with the tension and surprise of the ghazal rhyme.
Joel Neubauer
Joel Neubauer has enjoyed writing with various groups and is passionate about exploring the roles of ancient and established poetic forms in a postmodern context. Poetry becomes his orderable chaos wherein faith and life may freely intersect by verbal means. Originally from Maryland, he now lives a busy vegetarian life with his dog, Sal, in New England where he serves as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Chruch in America.
Linda Papanicolaou
Linda Papanicolaou is an art teacher and art historian living in the Bay Area of California. She is the editor of Haigaonline, an editor of Modern Haiga, assistant director of WHChaikumultimedia, and a resident artist at Moonset. A newcomer to ghazals, she was introduced to the form last summer at an NEH poetry seminar led by Eric Selinger at DePaul University.
Carol Rumens
Carol Rumens was born in London and currently lives and teaches in Wales. She has published 14 collections of poems and has won various awards for her work. Her new collection, Blind Spots, is forthcoming from Seren.David Sklar
David Sklar's novella Shadow of the Antlered Bird will be published in print and e-book formats by Drollerie Press. His poetry appears in over a dozen publications, including Blue Light Red Light, Wormwood Review, and Paterson Literary Review. David lives in the state of New Jersey with his wife (who lives in a state of exhaustion, thanks to) their 2-year-old son (who lives in a state of chaos) and their cat (who lives in a state of terror, thanks to the — aforementioned — 2-year-old).
Lemuel Harik and Liane McAllister are characters from the novel-in-progress The Skin We Wear: A Cynical Romance about Shapeshifters and Anti-fur Activists, in which Lemuel performs these ghazals with the band Things That Go Bump in the Night.
Visit David's web page, davidwriting.