Mike Barney

Michael J. Barney works for a multi-national insurance megalith (not the same one as Wallace Stevens, alas) where he toils day and night to facilitate the transfer of wealth from one pocket to another within the same pair of pants. In his spare time he scribbles poems, dotes on his wife, speculates on why Leonard Cohen and Jacques Brel are not nearly as popular as Ricky Martin or Britney Spears and runs Gravity Presses (lest we all float away) Inc., a small literary press. His work has appeared in dozens of magazines almost no one reads, like WordWrights, Midwest Poetry Review, Gravity, Eidos, Furry Chiclets, and Twisted Nipples.

Alison Marshall

Alison Marshall lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. She is a mystic who works part time as a business writer and spends the rest of her time studying Sufism and the Baha'i Faith and writing poetry. Her ghazal "reflection" is about the betrayal of love and resurrection, both in religion and personal relationships.

Rukhmini is a character in the unpublished novel Tirthankara, which is based on the life of the 19th century Bengali mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Rukhmini teaches Ramakrishna about tantra and symbolises the spirit of his teachings, which are betrayed by his successor.

Mirabai is a 15th century Hindu mystic, poetess and Rajput princess, who spent her life in exile so that she could practice her religion freely.

Zaynab was the daughter of Imam Ali and sister to Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn. She was present at the massacre of Karbala, when Husayn was martyred, and looked after the holy family until the fourth Imam, who was then a child, grew up.

Werner Reichhold

Werner Reichhold born 1925 in Berlin, Germany. Studies in Berlin, Hamburg and Paris.

He taught sculpture and drawing at the Art School in Hannover, Germany. He lived till 1981 in Germany, since 1982 exclusively in California, U.S.A.

Werner Reichhold's poems appeared in the following magazines: Mirrors, Lynx, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Raw NerVZ, Luna Bisonte Prods, The American Tanka, (all USA) and The Tanka Journal (Japan), Haiku International (Japan), The Haiku Quarterly (England), Vierteljahresschrift der deutschen Haiku-Gesellschaft, Albatross (Romania), Sparrow (Croatia).

Since 1993, Jane and Werner Reichhold have co-edited an International Journal for Linking Poets, published by AHA Books.

Rick Slottow

Rick Slottow has been writing poetry for most of his life. It has been only in the last five years that he has started to sumit his work for publication. He has one self-published book, Poems of Wit and Wisdom that can be bought by emailing Rick through the link beginning this paragraph. He enjoys using forms in poetry, like the Ghazal and Sijo because they help to put those square thoughts into round holes. Rick Lives in Rohnert Park Ca. because the weather is perfect. It is never too cold or too hot. At the young age of 45 Rick looks forward to seeing more of his poetry being published.