Contributers

Harding Stedler - USA

Harding Stedler, an Ohio native, now makes his home in Cabot, Arkansas. A retired teacher, he now designs Language Arts materials for a local publishing house. This is his third year as secretary of the Poets' Roundtable of Arkansas.

Doug Tanoury - USA

Doug Tanoury grew up in Detroit and still lives in the area. Doug is exclusively a poet of the Internet with the majority of his work never leaving electronic form. He is published widely across the World Wide Web.

The greatest influence on Doug and his work was the 7th grade poetry anthology used in Sister Debra's English class: Reflections On A Gift Of Watermelon Pickle And Other Modern Verse, Stephen Dunning, Edward Lueders and Hugh Smith, (c)1966 by Scott Foresman & Company.

Bill Webb - USA

I will be 49 March 31. I have written bad poetry off and on all my life, but never read others works it or ever took it seriously, and never shared my poetry except with lovers. And never kept any of it. A couple of years ago I started writing again and found it therapeutic. I joined the Poetry Kit and began to really learn something about poetry. And have learned a lot but have so much farther to go, and have started at least off and on to study and read poetry. I can also attribute joining the list to making some very good friends that invited me to England. I don't think I would ever have gone without their invitation. It's hard to convey how grateful I am for their encouragement to make the trip and how the trip enriched me spiritually anyway. But with the help of

the sweet and spunky Lynn Owen, Mick Moss the best conversationalist I met in a long time and a very interesting person, and the tender, fascinating and elusive Christina Fletcher, all from the list offering to put me up, my trip was also less costly and a lot more fun. Lynn and Mick, and Lynn's son Jono are planning to visit me soon and I can't wait.

 

I grew up on a small ranch in Oklahoma. My first major was Political Science, then Cultural Anthropology and I dropped out after a couple of years. I still love those subjects and history. I then did manual labor jobs for another couple of years, joined the Army for three years and spent 16 months in South Korea. I married a Korean woman there and when discharged had a 3 week old son. He is 23 now. In 1992 we divorced, and I married my current wife in 1993. After I was discharged from the Army I

changed my major to Accounting (could make a living and support a family, you know). After graduating I worked for ten years at a Public Accounting Firm, and then started my own practice in a small town in East Texas about 70 miles from Dallas. About a year ago a client asked me to go to work at his company as the Controller, and here I remain. I live in a small modest house with lots of windows on almost 19 wooded acres of land with my own half acre pond which I love to gaze at and listen to the frogs. I have 3 cats, an 102 lb German Shepard, 7 geese, 5 guinea fowl, an assortment of

chickens, a widowed lovebird and a duck. My second wife is about to move back in with me after several months of separation and if it weren't for tax season life would be good. But anyway she stays with me now most of the time again so you can add her to the list of things I have to feed. I am the cook in the family.

Duane Locke - USA

Duane Locke, Doctor of Philosophy in English Renaissance literature, Professor Emeritus of the Humanities, was Poet in Residence at the University of Tampa for over 20 years. Has had over 2,000 of his own poems published in over 500 print magazines such as American Poetry Review, Nation, Literary Quarterly, Black Moon, and Bitter Oleander. Is author of 14 print books of poems, the latest is WATCHING WISTERIA ( to order write Vida Publishing, P.O. Box 12665, Lake, Park, FL. 33405-0665, or Amazon or Barnes and Noble). Since September 1999, he became a cyber poet and started submitting on-line, and since September 1999 he has added to his over 2,000 print acceptances with 1,316 acceptances by e zines.

He is also a painter. Now has exhibitions at Thomas Center Galleries (Gainesville, FL) and Tyson Trading Company (Micanopy, FL) Recently a one-man show at Pyramid Galleries (Tampa, FL)

Also, a photographer, has had 116 of his photos selected for appearance on e zines. He photographs trash in alleys. Moves in close to find beauty in what people have thrown away.

He now lives alone in a two-story decaying house in the sunny Tampa slums. He lives isolated and estranged as an alien, not understanding the customs, the costumes, the language (some form of postmodern English) of his neighbors. The egregious ugliness of his neighborhood has recently been mitigated by the esthetic efforts of the police force who put bright orange and yellow posters on the posts to advertise the location is a shopping mall for drugs. His alley is the dumping ground for stolen cars. One advantage of living in this neighborhood, if your car is stolen, you can step out in the back and pick it up. Also, the burglars are afraid to come in on account of the muggers.

His recreational activities are drinking wine, listening to old operas, and reading postmodern philosophy.

Rich Furman - USA

Rich Furman is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at Colorado State University. He has had numerous poems published in literary journals throughout the years, including Pearl, The Hawaii Review and Sheila-na-gig. He publishes in academic journals on ethics, friendship, the woes of managed care, and social work practice. He enjoys contemplating the meaning of his navel, lives with two terrifying looking yet sweet American Bulldogs, a sweet looking and sometimes terrifying fiance, and two kids who are as terrifying as banana slugs to a rhinoceros. He has traveled and lived in Central America, and tries to get back as often as he can. To him, poetry should be accessible and direct, while creating a sense of wonder and mystery at the time. He loves to read poetry form the small press, poetry that is real, alive, hits you in the gums and gets out. He dislikes poetry that is overly processed and demands a level of sophistry to which he prefer not to aspire.

Joe Sichi - Japan

I have previously published poems and stories in Verve, Ajisai (Hydrangea) and on-line at Poetry Cafe (before it disappeared). Currently I edit Nagoya Writes, a biannual publication of fiction, poetry and essays from Nagoya, Japan where I live. I believe my poems can tell you more about me than I am capable of without them.

Mandy Caruana - UK

I'm 40 years old. I live in Hampshire England .I'm married and have 4 beautiful daughters, who have encouraged me to expose my Poems. Up until now I have kept them hidden from family and friends. I started writing Poems from my early teens upwards. I have viewed this as "My Thearpy" - an outlet from the knocks and scrapes life brings. It is my constructive way of coping with a crisis. I would describe myself as deeply emotional and sensitive, and I hope my poems portray this. I enjoy Love Poetry and its many complexities ie. the joys of love, the pain of love and the deep abyss of lost love.

David Conway - UK

David Conway has been involved with poetry for the last ten years. His work has appeared in various anthologies and exhibitions of poetry in conjunction with The Open Windows Gallery and Poetry On Walls. David’s work has contributed to raising money for Shelter and War On Want and he will be currently studying Literature as a mature student at Queen Mary University.

Jim Bennett - Liverpool, U.K.

A poet who was born and lives in Liverpool, UK. Has had over forty books published some for children, many technical and six collections of his poetry. In addition there are tapes and CD's of Jim reading his own poems and singing his songs. Jim regularly tours in the UK and America and teaches Creative Arts at the University of Liverpool. He has been published widely in paper and in on-line magazines. A detailed interview with Jim is available on the Poetry Kit website.

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