Bios

Vidas Barzdukas ("Requiem for a Hero") is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose films have been featured at the Chicago Short Comedy Film Festival, on PBS stations in Chicago and San Francisco, and on the Movieola Channel in Toronto, Canada. He is currently the Educational Writing Consultant for the Emmy-nominated show, Taylor's Attic.

Jim Bauer ("Wind-Whipped") currently attends college in St. Louis, Missouri. He is considering entering in the audio engineering field, with other interests including writing, reading, and computer programming.

Raymond Benson is an established author, composer, computer game designer, and stage director. Hailing from Midland, Texas, Benson also holds the distinction of being the fourth official author of the James Bond novels. Benson's 007 novels, including High Time to Kill, Zero Minus Ten, Never Dream of Dying, and The Man With the Red Tattoo, were all international bestsellers. His newest novel, Sweetie's Diamonds will be published in May.

Tim Cagney ("Sky People") has divided his career between films, television, and theater. Cagney was a staff writer and story editor on the NBC daytime serial "Texas" and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America's Original Long Form Award for Stolen Memories, an original Family Channel feature. Cagney holds an M.A. in Communication Arts from Loyola Marymount University with a M.A. and a B.A. in Radio-Television-Film from California State
University.

Will Cordeiro ("Untitled," "The Book of Continuous Waking," and "On Tilt") is formerly a NYC Teaching Fellow and currently an MFA candidate in poetry at Cornell University. He is the co-founder of the Brooklyn Playwrights Collective and a staff writer for offoffonline. Recently, his poetry has been published in the Baltimore Review, Brooklyn Review, and Dirt: a Journal
of Contemporary Arts and Letters.

Robert Davis ("Down the Rabbit Hole" and "Creative Robot") is an accomplished illustrator and artist who experiments with many different styles and artistic genres. He has done design work for many high-profile companies as well as the music industry, including art for Jimmy Eat World and Tori Amos, among others. Davis currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Michel Duthin ("79 A.D.-Pompeii") is an accomplished screenwriter who was born in Bordeaux, France. He won the Best Short Film award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival for "Bisbille," which he co-wrote. He also worked on the television series "Sans-Atout" and found critical acclaim with his play "La Ronde Eternelle." Duthin's film work has seen consistent production, with several of his works currently being filmed in Poland, Costa Rica, Belgium, and the U.S. He is married and the father of a three-year-old boy, Nicolas.

Warren Faidley ("Storm Chaser") is a world-renowned weather journalist and storm photographer. Billed as "America's top storm-chaser" by MSNBC, Faidley has spent two decades capturing some of the most stunning photographs of extreme weather ever photographed. Faidley has been lauded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and was the recipient of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Journalism Award. His work has appeared in Time, Life, and National Geographic. The author of two books, Faidley is also a pilot and a certified firefighter. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Jessica Hagy ("Indexed") is a freelance writer who lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Julian Jason Haladyn ("Grave-side Confessions") is a practicing writer and artist. His poems and short stories have appeared in elimae, ´a·pos·tro·phe, Laika Poetry Review, Jones Av., Underground Voices, and identity theory, as well as in a collection titled Grubstreet 2001-2002: Standing Room Only (Huron Literary Society, 2002). His collaborative critical writing with Miriam Jordan has been included in Parachute, C Magazine, On Site Review, and several upcoming essay collections.

Michael Hughes ("Souvenirs") was born in Kingston, England. Well-traveled and politically active, Hughes's career in photography began in 1973. His work is both eclectic and insightful, revealing much about the political world as well as providing insights into human nature.

Andrea Kurtz ("Violent Indigo") grew up in West Bend, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a Colby Fellow at the University of Michigan where she is earning her MFA in Creative Writing. Her stories have appeared in Canvas and Fusion.

Ian Malloy ("The Reconciliation of Love," "Nude Before a Window," and "A Silence to Kill the Void") has been painting for a little over a year now and currently attends the University of Augustana where he is studying Fine Art. He spends his spare time painting, writing, and playing guitar. Malloy feels that "art is a magical world that begs to be explored."

Patrick S. McGinnity is currently pursuing his M.F.A. at Hollins University. His most recent publication is a nonfiction piece in the April issue of The Truth About the Fact. His short story "Hard Winter" is loosely based on the island where McGinnity grew up.

William Moake ("In the Torrid Zone") is a writer, freelance web designer, and software programmer living in Hawaii. After working as a newspaper reporter and travel writer, Moake published two novels (Terpsichore's Children and The Paradise Connection) and a short story collection (Time Is But A Stream).

Glen Phillips is a singer/songwriter who lives in Santa Barbara, California. He was the lead singer and lyricist for the popular alternative rock band Toad the Wet Sprocket. Phillips has forged a successful solo career for himself, having released the critically acclaimed albums Abulum, Winter Pays for Summer, and Mr. Lemons. He has also collaborated with the progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek to form another band, Mutual Admiration Society. He is married to the painter Laurel Phillips and is the father of three daughters.

Megan Proehl ("Untitled," "Frozen Tears," and "Negligible") is a student at The Ohio State University. Born in Chillicothe, Ohio, Proehl has written poetry for seven years and currently majors in English at OSU with an emphasis on creative writing.

Josh Rathkamp ("Missing City") teaches at Arizona State University and Phoenix College. His first book of poems, Some Nights No Cars at All, is forthcoming from Ausable Press. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Meridian, Fugue, Golf Coast, Passages North, Puerto Del Sol, 42opus, and The Drunken Boat.

Michelle Shin ("Waste") is a Ph.D. student at the University of Hawaii in the English Department. She is also a full-time teacher at a public high school. Shin was born and raised in Hawaii and loves the rich culture and beautiful landscapes.

Sean Steffanni ("All My Ages") is a singer-songwriter who grew up in Norwalk, Ohio and Las Vegas, Nevada. He has devoted time to many different cover bands, honing his craft as a singer and songwriter. Steffanni is the vocalist of the band Poormercy, also comprised of Jim Parker (guitar), Shawn Daley (bass), and Allen Carder (drums). Poormercy has recently played The Shelter, St. Andrews Hall, and the State Theater in Michigan. He is currently assembling a full-length Poormercy album, due out later in 2007.

Charles Stross ("A Colder War") is widely considered a pioneer of "new British science fiction." He has published numerous novels and short fiction that range from hard sci-fi to space opera in genre. Stross won a 2005 Hugo Award for his novella "The Concrete Jungle," the 2006 Locus Award for his novel "Accelerando," and has had many of his short stories nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards, among other prestigious honors. He currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Drew Struzan is one of the film industry's most recognizable talents. He has provided the artwork for nearly 200 movie posters, with his artwork for Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace widely considered the single most-viewed piece of art in history. His illustrations are primarily based in airbrushed acrylics and colored pencils. Struzan was honored with a Saturn Award in 2002. He lives in California with his wife and son.