BIOS - S to Z



 
Menka Shivdasani Menka Shivdasanis first book of poems, the critically acclaimed Nirvana at Ten Rupees, was published by Adil Jussawalla for XAL-Praxis in 1990. Her second collection Stet first appeared in 2001, and her third collection, Safe House, was published recently by Paperwall Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd. Menka is also co-translator of Freedom and Fissures, an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry, published by Sahitya Akademi in 1998 and editor of If the Roof Leaks, Let it Leak, an anthology of women's writing that forms part of a series being brought out by Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW). Menka's poems have appeared in several publications, both in India and elsewhere. These include Poetry Review (London), Poetry Wales, Fulcrum (USA), Seminary Ridge Review (Gettysburg), the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, 60 Indian Poets (Penguin Books India), and the Harper Collins Book of English Poetry. She is also represented in Indian Literature in English: An Anthology, a textbook of the University of Mumbai.
Menka is joint coordinator of the Culture Beat initiative at the Press Club in Mumbai and has been a member of Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Association since its inception. As Mumbai coordinator for the global movement, 100 Thousand Poets for Change, she organises an annual poetry festival at the Kitab Khana book store. Menka's career as a journalist includes a stint with South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, and the publication of nine books as co-author/ editor, three of which were released by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 1986, she played a key role in setting up the Poetry Circle in Mumbai.
 
 
Anthony Seidman Anthony Seidman is the author of three collections, including Where Thirsts Intersect (The Bitter Oleander), as well as the artist book The Motel Insomnia, created with Jean-Claude Loubieres and published by AdeLeo Editions of Paris, France. His poetry, translations, articles and short fiction have appeared in numerous publications in the United States, England, France and Mexico, including Ambit, The Black Herald, Pearl, Newsweek en español, Luvina, Nimrod, Pearl and World Literature To day. Some of his work was recently included in The EcoPoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press) and The California Prose Directory (Outpost 19).  
 
Trey Stockard Trey Stockard writes poetry, short fiction and songs. He lives with his wife and son in Portland, Oregon, and enjoys fly fishing.  
 
Christopher Woods Christopher Woods is a writer, teacher and photographer who lives in Houston and Chappell Hill, Texas. His published works include a novel, THE DREAM PATCH, a prose collection, UNDER A RIVERBED SKY, and a book of stage monologues for actors, HEART SPEAK. His fiction has appeared in a number of publications including STONE VOICES, THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, COLUMBIA, NEW ENGLAND REVIEW, NEW ORLEANS REVIEW and GLIMMER TRAIN. He conducts private writing workshops in Houston. His photographs have appeared in many journals, with photo essays published in GLASGOW REVIEW, PUBLIC REPUBLIC, DEEP SOUTH, SHADOWGRAPH and NARRATIVE MAGAZINE, among others. His photographs can be seen in his gallery - http://christopherwoods.zenfolio.com/
Photo by Linda Woods.
 
 
BARNALI RAY SHUKLA Barnali Ray Shukla is a filmmaker and a writer. Starting off as a cell molecular-biologist specializing in plant tissue culture and a topper of the Delhi University both at graduate and post-graduate level, Barnali soon turned towards filmmaking. Over the years, she has worked with Ram Gopal Varma, Sudhir Mishra and Ekta Kapoor. Her first feature film as a writer-director Kucch Luv Jaisaa, was released in May 2011. In two consecutive years, 2013 and 2014, her scripts were long-listed for the SUNDANCE-Mahindra Script Lab, one of which she will be making as a feature film in Bengali early next year. Apart from story and scriptwriting, she also writes poetry and was published in Kitaab last July. She likes to describe herself as a 'mutant poet' and when she is not doing any of the above, she goes off to climb mountains. Currently, she is finalizing the sound-design of her documentary film titled , Liquid Borders, of which she is writer, director and line-producer. She is in the midst of research for her next documentary titled 'Tufaani'.  
 
SRIDALA SWAMI Sridala Swami is a poet, essayist and photographer. Her first collection of poems, A Reluctant Survivor (2007), was published by the Sahitya Akademi/ National Academy of Letters. It was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award. Swami has written four books for children, published by Pratham Books in 2009 and 2012. She was the 2011 Charles Wallace writer-in-residence at the University of Stirling, Scotland, and was a Fellow of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, 2013.
Swami's second collection of poetry, Escape Artist, published by the Aleph Book Company (2014), is the first book to appear under the aegis of the Jehangir Sabavala Foundation (JSF). It was shortlisted for the inaugural Khushwant Singh Poetry Prize. The poems reproduced here are from Escape Artist, published by Aleph Book Co., New Delhi, June 2014. (Photo: Greg Bal)
 
 
Jake Tringali Jake Tringali Born in Boston. Lived up and down the East Coast, then up and down the West Coast, now back in his home city. Runs rad restaurants. Thrives in a habitat of bars, punk rock shows, and a sprinkling of burlesque performers. Since July 2014, publications include The Manhattanville Review, Oddball Magazine, Rio Grande Review, The Commonline Journal, Apeiron Review, Catch & Release, Boston Poetry Magazine, and others."  
 
Eric Selland Eric Selland is the author of Arc Tangent (Isobar Press, Tokyo, 2013). His translation of The Guest Cat, a novel by Takashi Hiraide, was on the New York Times Bestseller list in February of 2014. Eric currently lives in Tokyo where he works as a translator of economic reports.  
 
Eric Walker Eric Walker Born Eric Bailey Walker on September 8, 1964 in Los Angeles. He grew up in Bonny Doon (California) a rural community high in the Redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains. While still in his early teens he began hitchhiking to San Francisco and Berkeley and was taken in by the community of poets there. He had three chapbooks published by Tisa Walden's Deep Forest press. He struggled with mental illness throughout most of his life. In 1994 Eric Walker died in Humboldt County Jail under mysterious circumstances, aged twenty-nine.  
 
Lina Ramona Vitkauskas Lina Ramona Vitkauskas (Lithuanian-American-Canadian, b. 1973) is the author of White Stockings (2015); SPINY RETINAS (Mutable Sound, 2014); Professional Poetry (White Hole Press, 2013); A Neon Tryst (Shearsman Books, 2013); HONEY IS A SHE (Plastique Press, 2012); THE RANGE OF YOUR AMAZING NOTHING (Ravenna Press, 2010); Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star (dancing girl press, 2006); and Shooting Dead Films with Poets (Fractal Edge Press, 2004). http://linaramona.com/about/  
 
Virgil Suárez Virgil Suárez is the author of THE SOVIET CIRCUS VISITS HAVANA & OTHER STORIES and 90 MILES: NEW AND SELECTED. He lives and works in Florida and when he is not writing, he is out riding his Yamaha V-Star 1100 motorcycle up and down the Blue Highways of the Southeastern United States.  
 
Jordan Soyka Jordan Soyka received his MFA from Louisiana State University, where he was the poetry editor for New Delta Review and an editorial intern at The Southern Review. Currently, he lives in New Orleans where he co-directs the local chapter of The Poetry Brothel. His work has been published in GlitterPony, kill author, Cave Wall, The Quarterly Conversation, La Petite Zine, Horse Less Review, Spork, TENDERLOIN, Similar Peaks, and Tarpaulin Sky, as well as the Fuck Poems anthology (Lavender Ink).  
 
Alberto Vitacchio Alberto Vitacchio Born in Torino in 1942. Linear, visual and sound poet and performer, he also makes artist's and object books. Co-editor of the multimedia magazine 'Offerta Speciale'. He personally elaborates sound materials of Sound Poetry works. He widely exhibited and performed (France, Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Serbia, Mexico, Cuba, Brasil and Italy).  
 
Laura Shovan Laura Shovan is poetry editor for the literary journal Little Patuxent Review. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. Laura edited the Maryland Writers' Association anthology Life in Me Like Grass on Fire: Love Poems and co-edited Voices Fly: An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artists-in-Residence Program, for which she teaches. Laura is a Rita Dove Poetry Award finalist and won a Gettysburg Review Conference for Writers scholarship. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her novel-in-verse for children, will be published by Wendy Lamb Books/Random House in 2016.  
 
Lisa Vihos Lisa Vihos is a poet, blogger, and grant writer living in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Currently in a period of transition between jobs, she recently took a break from everyday reality to attend the inaugural 100 Thousand Poets for Change World Conference in Salerno, Italy where she was honored to hang out with poet-activists from all over the world, share poems in multiple languages, and envision how poetry can make the world a more just and peaceful place. Along with two chapbooks, A Brief History of Mail (Pebblebrook Press, 2011) and The Accidental Present (Finishing Line Press, 2012), her poems have appeared in Big Muddy, The Camel Saloon, Forge, Main Street Rag, Mom Egg, Red Fez, Seems, Verse Wisconsin and other journals and magazines. She recently received first place in the 2015 Wisconsin People and Ideas Poetry Contest and has two Pushcart Prize nominations. She is the poetry and arts editor for Stoneboat Literary Journal and an occasional guest blogger for Best American Poetry online. Visit her blog at Frying the Onion.  
 
Mar von Zellen Mar von Zellen a Prague-based writer and editor who's had work published (or is forthcoming) in places like Pretty Owl Poetry, Temporary Infinity, Gargoyle Magazine, and Open Field. Her most recent work mixes ideas of raw physics--planetary rotations, entropic reasoning--with the substance of consciousness, somewhat like a crazed existentialist. It's a most gratifying pain.  
 
Suzi Winson Suzi Winson is the Director and Co-founder of Circus Warehouse, a collaborative effort to produce the next generation of elite circus performers, bring circus to the broader public, and provide a space for the development and performance of new and experimental works. She's also ringmistress of Circus Warehouse Events and Founder/Director of Art and Circuses Gallery, an associated fine art space. She was the editor/publisher of Fish Drum Magazine from 1995 through 2010. Fish Drum was founded in 1988 by her brother, the late Robert Winson, a Buddhist priest, poet, musician and wordsmith extraordinaire.
Suzi's many past incarnations include professional ballet dancer, Broadway gypsy, street clown, small business owner, political speech writer, and in recent years, aerialist, dance teacher, and arts champion /impresario.
Suzi produced 2009's POEM: Poets on an Exchange Mission, a book and International performance festival of modern poetry translations (in collaboration with the French American Cultural Exchange - FACE). In 2011, she created and launched Circus Warehouse's Aerial Text Experiments, performances mixing language and aerial arts. (Aerial Text Experiments takes place annually in conjunction with the viral, global phenomenon, 100 Thousand Poets for Change.)
She is a trustee of FACE, a director of Poets in Need, Inc., and a board member of Dzul Dance.