BIOS - M to Z



 
Ujjwala Maharjan Love for poetry is the only thing Ujjwala Maharjan is absolutely certain about. She is a founding member of Nepal's first spoken word poetry group who call themselves, Word Warriors. It's crazy exciting that she's currently living her poetry dream- talking, sharing, teaching, reading and writing poetry as her full time job through a project called Write to Speak. But, apparently, when it's a poetry "project", there's more than "poetry-all-day"- there's a lot of planning too. She's been spotted trying to be very formal nowadays but she still dances around in her office (a bookshop, filled with books, many many books), stays silly in her workshops and walks around fascinated with the world and words.  
 
Gregory J. Markopoulos Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928-1992) from Toledo Ohio was a legendary avant-gardist filmmaker and a poet/thinker of a fine taste. His filmography includes the following: Du sang, de la volupté et de la mort (1947-48), 3 parts: Psyche, Lysis, Charmides, The Dead Ones (1949,unfinished), Christmas, U.S.A. (1949), Swain (1950), Flowers of Asphalt (1951), Serenity (1961), Twice a Man (1963), Galaxie (1966), Ming Green (1966), Bliss (1967), Eros, O Basileus (1967), Himself As Herself (1967), The Illiac Passion (1964-67), Through a Lens Brightly: Mark Turbyfill (1967), The Divine Damnation (1968), Gammelion (1968), The Mysteries (1968),Index - Hans Richter (1969), The Olympian (1969), Political Portraits (1969), Sorrows (1969), Alph (1970), Genius (1970), Hagiographia (1970, first version), Moment (1970), Cimabue! Cimabue! (1971), Doldertal 7 (1971), Saint Actaeon (1971), 35, Boulevard General Koenig (1971), Hagiographia (1973, second version), Heracles (1973), Meta (1973), Prosopographia (1976), and Eniaios (1948-c.1990, 22 film cycles).  
 
Raunala Maruti Raunala Maruti is a capricious self-proclaimed feminist who skips in the wonderful world of the interwebs under the username @marutizeus and scatters herself in her writings while being far from away from her home, Indonesia. Fueled by instant ramen, waterproof eyeliner, & culture studies, a few of her favourite pastime also includes consulting others using horoscopes & tarot cards, eating ice cream in the winter, and over thinking as she strolls around a small town in Japan called Beppu without knowing her left & right.  
 
Camille Meyer Camille Meyer grew up on a farm in Rhode Island. She is not the fairest of her parents' four daughters. She also solders and TIG welds her fiction to make the words last longer.  
 
Ayu Meutia Ayu Meutia is a copywriter who shares the love of spoken word poetry. She is a co-founder/organizer of Unmasked Open Mic, a triannual poetry open mic in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her poems have been published in the Asian Center of Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English (2014), the murmur journal vol.2 : Love and Other Drugs (2015) and independently in self-made zine called "About You" in collaboration with artist Maggie Tunggono. She opened for Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye's show with her poetry-reading performance in Jakarta, Indonesia (2016).  
 
Costas Michos Costas Michos (1936-1974 suicide) is a completely unknown poet in Greece but he deserved to be one of most important voices of the Postwar Generation. After the death of his sister, he committed suicide. During his short life he demonstrated a rare character and great talent. He lived in Paris for several years where he published his first three books Babel (1959), Les injures du brouillard (1961), Caerulium (1964). He also published Quanta and Weightless Liquids (Thessaloniki, 1969). His books and information about his life and work are very difficult to find. His archive contains several unpublished poetry, theater, and art criticism books. Manos Eleutheriou has written the lyrics for the song "Costas Michos" for Thanos Mikroutsikos' Album "Holy Chants for Murderers".  
 
Michael  Mitras Michael Mitras was born in Volos, Greece, 1946. He is a dedicated experimental poet from the 1970s to the present. He published chapbooks of Concrete and Visual poetry in England and Greece.  
 
Michael Mitsakis Michael Mitsakis (1863-1916) was a remarkable prose writer and poet who in the course of his life went mad and was institutionalized. Mitsakis wrote excellent short stories, most known The Suicider, and journal chronicles. Posthumously a collection of poems was found written in French full of puns and language tricks. His poetry was very close to Surrealism.  
 
Shrawan Mukarung Shrawan Mukarung (b. 1967) is one of the prominent poets in Nepal. His poetry books include Desh khojdai janda (While Searching the Country, 1992), Hiunko darbar (Palace of the Snow, 1996), Phool ko awaz (Sound of the Flower, 1998) Bise Nagarchi ko Bayan ra anya kavita (Testimony of a Town Lady, 2010) among others. He is currently a member of Nepal Academy.  
 
Manjul Manjul is one of the prominent poets in Nepal. He is also a folk singer, essayist and travel writer. He has a dozen of books to his credit. He teaches Nepali language, literature and cross cultural studies at Tribhuvan University.  
 
Manju Manjil Manju Manjil is a poet, lyricist, editor and translator. His has two collection of poems— Aandhiko aabeg and Lamppost bata khaseko jun. He is popular for his skills in reciting poems in the public. He is also the recipient of SAARC literary award 2008.  
 
Eva Milona Eva Milona is a poet of the literary group of the magazine PALI. She has published three books of poetry, The Journey, Clear Metal and Conspiratorily. She also translated in Greek Rimbaud and Beaudelaire.  
 
Nana Nana writes and performs in Malaysian, Indonesian, English and paper. She was winner of the Malay Poetry Slam (Rentap Puisi) during Festival Belia 2014; Puteri Duyung in Pontianak; and featured poet in 2015 at If Walls Could Talk.  
 
Nethmi Nethmi is a a full time digital marketer and a hopeless chocoholic. She finds the best way to silence the voices in her head is to put pen to paper. Unfortunately, work constraints are such that she doesn't have much time for writing, hence the increase in the frequency of her therapist visits.  
 
Sandhya Pahari Sandhya Pahari is a poet with two collections of poems to her credit: Mrigatrisna ra anya kavitaharu and Ghamka akshyar. She has edited a number of literary magazines including Kavita and Antardristi. She also worked as radio and television presenter for many years. She currently works as an administrative staff at Nepal Academy.  
 
Spiros John Pantos Spiros John Pantos was a Greek-American poet of the avant-gardist tradition of the East Coast and one of earliest practicioners of Sound Poetry. His only published book "Catalyses Catacoustical" was published in 1978 by Mojave Books. Most of his work was left unpublished. Further research on his life and work is in progress.  
 
George S. Patriarcheas George S. Patriarcheas (born in Instaboul 1908- died in Athens 1999) was an important poet of the Greek avant-gardist tradition. Deeply influenced by Stephané Mallarmé and the cosmopolitan Byzantine tradition of Constantinople, Patriarcheas managed to create a unique style of linguistic experimentation and ideological Modernist purism with a strong universal and philosophical feeling. His poetry is difficult to translate as he mixes types and vocabulary of several linguistic layers of the Greek language but in a strict unified and musical monophonic style. Some of his poetry books include: Imprisoned Verses (1955), In Days of Sorrow (1959), Poema (1960), Intromirror (1961), Ideogramme (1962), Harmonium (1963), Orb of Fire (1964), Earth ... in Trials (1972), Debt (1975), Gold-Throned Preparation (1980), and From Alfa to Omega the Being (1981).  
 
Alexander G.Pop Alexander G.Pop (b. Lausanne 1921-d. Athens 1990) was a trilingual journalist, poet and author. He published "Broken Mosaic", "The Island of the Madmen", "Le Grande Psaume", "Avec mon gosse ...", "Hoshana", "Eight-Word Poems". Some of his important works remain unpublished. Pop belonged to the group of the periodical PALI.  
 
Krishna Prasai Krishna Prasai (b. 1960) is a poet and short story writer. He has to his credit 9 books including poetry collections Aanuvuti ka chaal haru (The Waves of Experiences), and Gham ko barsa (Sun-Shower). His poems are widely translated in different languages. Three languages at a time have already published with other nine literary books. He is also the editor of an anthology of contemporary Nepali poetry.  
 
Gisele Prassinos Gisele Prassinos (1920-2015) was a Surrealist writer and poet of the Andre' Breton's circle. Her brother was the noted avant-gardist artist Mario Prassinos. Her published books include: La Sauterelle Arthritique (GLM, 1935),Quand le Bruit Travaille (GLM, 1936), La Revanche (GLM, 1939), Sondue (GLM, 1939), Le Temps n'est rien (Plon, 1958), La Voyageuse (Plon, 1959), La Gonfidente (Grasset, 1962), Le Visage Effleuré de Peine (Grasset,1964), Le Grand Repas (Grasset, 1966), Les Mots Endormis (Flammarion, 1967), La Vie la Voix — Poésie (Flammarion, 1971), Le Verrou (Flammarion, 1987), and La Table de Famille (Flammarion, 1993).  
 
Dimitris Poulikakos Dimitris Poulikakos was born in Athens, Greece,1943. He is a songwriter, musician, story-teller, actor...It's complicated...  
 
Potis Psaltiras Potis Psaltiras (1893-1946) was a "minor" poet from Calamata, Greece, whose poetry went unnoticed and his books were forgotten. Psaltiras joined forces in the early Futuristic poetry in Greece and Figurative Visual poetry. He was inspired by both the French visual poems and the Byzantine tradition of figurative models. His books Stars or Fireflies and Schemata-Figures are the most important ones. Most of his work is still unpublished.  
 
Anu Elizabeth Roche Anu Elizabeth Roche loves poetry, teaching and children. Originally from Kerala, but born and brought up in Dubai, and has moved from Bangalore to Chennai and finally to Mumbai. It's no wonder that she can't ever properly answer the question "Where are you from?". She recently co-authored a book of poems with three amazing women poets, titled "A Conversation in Four Parts".  
 
Vassiliki Rapti Vassiliki Rapti was born and grew up in Greece and studied Comparative Literature in Greece, France and the United States. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with an Emphasis in Drama from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of several books, including the monograph Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond (Ashgate, 2013) and the poetry collection Transitorium (Somerset Hall Press, 2015). Her poetry and translations have been published in various international journals including Taos: Journal of Poetry & Art, Eliot Review, Levure Littéraire, Poeticanet and Poetix. Her poetry is animated by the ludic spirit and surrealist imagery in an attempt to capture the intrusion of the marvelous in everyday life, yet it strives for simplicity in diction. She further explores the ludic element as Chair of the Ludics Seminar of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University, where she also runs the Advanced Training in Greek Poetry Translation and Performance Workshop. Besides her innovative teaching at Harvard, she also teaches literature and literary theory at Emerson College.
www.vassilikirapti.com
 
 
Cony Ray Cony Ray (poet, performer and independent publisher.) He is one of the "underground" poet-protagonists of the documentary film POETS (2009) by director Toni D'Angelo. The documentary film was accepted for the "Italian Controcampo" at the 66th Venice International Film Festival of the Venice Biennale. In 2008 he published his first book, entitled INTERNO 4, which he published himself and for which he created the graphics. INTERIOR 4 is a poem in a modern terms, in which the author through interior monologues of each character - including a poet - gives voice to those who, on the edge of so-called "civil society" and among us, are living a condition of social unrest and constant inadequacy, in contemporary times with the contemporaneity and brightness of a movie that one can see and read between its lines. Contacts: Facebook: Cony Ray e-mail: cony.ray@libero.it  
 
Riya Ray Riya Ray started performing/writing poems to talk about things she can't otherwise, things that are passed off as doodles and daydreams. Her poems have been published in The Orange Frame Literary Review anthology, Diverse Elements. She won the runner-up prize for her short-story, Necrologue of the Father, in the short-story competition held and published in Ideas and Ideologies International Journal. She also won the Extremely Queerious Poetry Slam 2014 organized by Bring Back The Poets, Delhi.  
 
Melizarani T.Selva Melizarani T.Selva is a spoken word poet, educator, journalist and author of 'Taboo' from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her poems have seen prominent stages and various events in India, Indonesia, Australia Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Kuala Lumpur. Having been published in The Asian Centre Anthology of Malaysian Poetry in English, her poems have also been translated into Bahasa Malaysia and published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Published by Perfect Binding Press, first book titled 'Taboo' (2015) made the MPH Top 10 Best-Seller List and is now available in major bookstores across Mumbai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
She currently organises Kuala Lumpur's only bimonthly spoken word poetry open mic, 'If Walls Could Talk' and poetry workshop series 'Poets in Progress'
 
 
Usha Serchan Usha Serchan is a celebrated name in Nepali poetry who has to her credit three collections of poetry Najanmekaa Asthaharu (Faiths Unborn), Akshar Haruka Shivirbaata (From the Camp of Letters), Sarbkaalin Pidaa Ra Jagriti ko Shankhagosh (Declaration of an Eternal Pain and Awareness) and a collection of short stories Tesro Rang (The Third Colour). Her songs have been reproduced in the form of music albums including Abheepsa, Sanchayan, Mero Mato Mero Geet, Sambedan, Aakash chune rahar. She is also a recipient of several literary awards in Nepal.  
 
Menka Shivdasani Menka Shivdasani, a Mumbai-based writer, is the author of three collections of poetry; her most recent book, Safe House, was brought out by Paperwall Media & Publishing Pvt. Ltd in 2015. She is also co-translator of Freedom and Fissures (Sahitya Akademi), an anthology of Sindhi Partition poetry, and editor of an anthology of women's writing, If the Roof Leaks, Let it Leak (SPARROW). She has edited two anthologies of contemporary Indian poetry for www.bigbridge.org. Menka's work has been widely published, both in India and elsewhere, and has featured on radio and television; Australian Broadcasting Corporation recently presented her poem Repair Job. An active organiser of literary events, Menka conducts an annual four-day festival for 100 Thousand Poets for Change. In 1986, she played a key role in founding the Poetry Circle in Bombay (now Mumbai). Her work as a journalist includes the publication of eleven books, three of which were released by the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.  
 
Keshab Sigdel Keshab Sigdel is a Nepali poet, academic, translator and editor. Author of two collections of poetry Samaya Bighatan (2007) and Six Strings (co-authored, 2011), his writings clearly reflect his two other preoccupations: they are well-informed about the contemporary socio-cultural milieu and are marked by an indomitable spirit in his artistic advocacy for social equality and individual integrity. His poetry strikes a fine balance between the rebellious angst against the injustices prevalent in the society and tender feelings of a young man looking at the world around him with compassionate eyes.
Sigdel's poems are published in literary journals like Grey Sparrow (USA), Snow Jewel (USA), Syndic Literary Journal (USA), Sijo Saing'hwal (South Korea), Naya Gyanodaya (India), The Art of Being Human (Canada), Kabita Bangla (Bangladesh), Kampala Poetry Anthology (Uganda), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), Kalashree (Nepal) along with translations in Hindi, Kannada, Sambalpuri, Bengali, Japanese, and South Korean. A collection of his poems (translated into Slovene by Peter Semolic) is expected to be published in 2016 by Poesis (Slovenia).
Sigdel is the editor of two journals Rupantaran (publication of Nepal Academy) and Of Nepalese Clay (literary magazine of the Society of Nepali Writers in English).
Keshab Sigdel works as an Assistant Professor in English at the Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.
 
 
Eleni Sikelianou Eleni Sikelianou is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently The Loving Detail of the Living & the Dead (Coffee House, 2013), and two hybrid memoirs (The Book of Jon, City Lights, and You Animal Machine, Coffee House). Forthcoming is Make Yourself Happy. Sikelianou has been the happy recipient of various awards for her poetry, nonfiction, and translations, including two National Endowment for the Arts Awards and the National Poetry Series, and her work has been widely translated and anthologized. She has taught poetry in public schools, homeless shelters, and prisons, and collaborated with musicians (Philip Glass, Sandra Wong, etc.), filmmakers (Ed Bowes) and visual artists (Peter Cole, Mel Chin, etc.). She is on guest faculty for the Naropa Summer Writing Program, and she teaches at the University of Denver, where she runs the Writers in the Schools program.  
 
Ron Silliman Depending on how one counts collaborations, multi-volume projects, ebooks and translations, Ron Silliman has written or co-edited somewhere between three dozen and 50 books, mostly of poetry. Since retiring from the computer industry at the end of 2011, he has had books published in Canada, England, Finland, the US, and Chile. Forthcoming projects include a French translation of Albany, an Italian translation of The Chinese Notebook, an expanded edition of Legend with Steve McCaffery, Bruce Andrews, Ray diPalma and Charles Bernstein, a volume of correspondence surrounding the creation of the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, a sequel to his collection of essays, The New Sentence, a selected early poems, several new sections of his ongoing long poem Universe, and some other projects he is not yet prepared to discuss. In his free time, he has taught classes at the University of Pennsylvania, Haverford College, Naropa University, US Poets in Mexico, and several community workshops. He once registered the Republican cousins of Kenneth Rexroth to vote: "We don't like to talk about him much."  
 
Dinos Siotis Dinos Siotis (b. 1944) is a poet and publisher of the magazine Dekata. He has lived in the US, Canada and Greece. In the 1970s he directed the small publication press Wire Press in San Francisco. His poetry has affinities with Language Poetry and the poetry of the Greek Generation of the 1970s.  
 
Aina Singh Aina Singh is a student of English literature at St. Stephen's college. Born and brought up in Delhi, she has been surrounded by books from a very early age and have grown up to be a vociferous reader and an aspiring writer. Her passion for equal rights has inspired her to venture into slam poetry as a means of expression.  
 
Theodore Skourlis Theodore Skourlis (1906-1969) was an important but neglected poet of the Greek avant-gardist tradition. Exiled by the dictatorship of Metaxas (1936) he emigrated to the United States where he lived for many years until his death in 1969. In the meantime he also lived for about twenty years in Mexico, Peru and other Latin American countries studying indigenous peoples and civilizations. Most of his work remains unpublished and unknown. He published a book in Greece with the title Five Chapters-The Hand. Skourlis was a brilliant poet and a rare man of superior morality.  
 
Jay Snodgrass Jay Snodgrass is a co-director of Anhinga Press, he is a poet. He is artist in Residence at the Thomasville Center for the Arts in Thomasville GA.  
 
Adam J. Sorkin Adam J. Sorkin grew up in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including Xavier Review, Mississippi Review, Mid-American Review, Nebo, Confrontation, Crania, Apalachee Quarterly, and Phantasmagoria. She has also published work in New World Writing, Many Mountains Moving, Forge, and Phantasmagoria under the pseudonym Hiram Goza. Her novel, Birds of Paradise, was published under that name in 2005.  
 
Theon Spanoudis Theon Spanoudis (Smyrna 1915-Sao Paolo 1986) was a renowned psychoanalyst, a visual and philosophical poet and a fine theoretician of the avant-garde and art collector. From a well-known Greek family that suffered the 1922 catastrophe in Smyrna Spanoudis, he spent most of his life in Greece and Brazil. In 1957 he abandoned Psychoanalysis to devote himself to poetry and art. He was an active member of the neo-concrete movement and one of the creators of Brazilian kinetic poetry. His published books include "Poesia Integra", "Poetica", "Gestaltungen", "Jose Antonio Da Silva", "Volpi", "Skizzen und Klange", "Spruche und Sange", "Movements" (four volumes of poetry and prose in Greek) and some more prose books in Greek. In 1979 he donated his collection of 453 works of art to the Museum of Contemporary Art of University of Sao Paolo.  
 
Peter Spiro Peter Spiro is a poet, playwright and multi-media artist. His plays have been produced in New York City and Los Angeles and his poetry has been widely published in magazines and anthologies. Pete has appeared on the PBS special "The United States of Poetry" and MTV's Spoken Word Unplugged. He has collaborated with Bob Holman and Miguel Algarin at the Nuyorican Poets Café.  
 
Matina L. Stamatakis Matina L. Stamatakis is a freelance photographer and writer from upstate New York. She is the author of The ChongDong Misfits with Carmen Racovitza (Avantexte Press, 2011), EoS (Oystercatcher Press, 2010) and Metempsychose (Ypolita Press, 2009). She is currently working on a full-length book of poetry, A Late Sketch of Final Doves; a dedication to her late father, Demetrios Stamatakis.  
 
Nikos Stangos Nikos Stangos was born in Athens in 1934 from a Greek refugee family from Sozopol of Black Sea. He was a major force in art publishing in UK directing Penguin Books and Thames & Hudson for 35 years. He was a well-known art critic and philosopher. He was also a poet from the literary group of the avant-gardist review PALI. Stangos' poetry was influenced by philosophy, language poetry, John Ashbery, Samuel Beckett, and the existentialist and erotic poetry of Yiannis Ritsos and C. P. Cavafy. During his lifetime Stangos published two poetry books in Greek, "Poems" and "The Unfamiliar Surroundings of Words". He passed away in 2004. A volume of collected poems entitled "Pure Reason" was posthumously published with the editorial care of David Plante.  
 
Petros Stilitis Petros Stilitis lived in Herakleion Crete. He was a daily newspaper editor and a poet. He published two poetry books Swallows (1935) and Signs to Chaos (1938). Research on his complete biographical data and unpublished work is still in progress.  
 
Demetrio Stratos Demetrio Stratos (Alexandria 1945- New York 1979) was a multi-artist of the avant-garde mixing poetry, sounds, performance, music, psychology, and ethnomusicology. Most known in Italy where he lived for many years forming the progressive rock band Area - International POPular Group and collaborated with the Italian Beat group I Ribelli. He performed in many festivals worldwide and collaborated with artists, such as Mogol, Lucio Battisti, Gianni Sassi, Gianni Emilio Simonetti, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti, John Cage,Tran Quang Hai, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Grete Sultan, Paul Zukofsky, Nanni Balestrini, Claude Royet-Journoud, and Antonio Porta. He studied ethnomusicology, vocal extensions, Asian music chant, compared musicology, the problem of ethnic vocality, psychoanalysis, the relationship between spoken language and the psyche, the limits of the spoken language.
He was able to reach 7,000 Hz, and to perform diplophony, triplophony, and also quadrophony. Daniel Charles has described him as the person who decimated monody by the demultiplication of the acoustic spectrum. His vocal abilities were explored and documented. Stratos died in New York City Memorial Hospital on June 13, 1979 at the age of thirty-four. His self-proclaimed mission was to free vocal expression from what he considered to be the slavery of language and classical lyrical melody. He considered the exploration of vocal potential as a tool of psychological and political liberation. His studies and recognition of the voice as musical instrument carried this ethos to the edge of human vocal ability. His work is considered by many critics and vocalists as important in the progression of experimental and novel vocal techniques. Some of his alboums are Metrodora, Futura: Poesia Sonora, Cantare la voce, Le Milleuna, Carnascilia.
 
 
Abhi Subedi Abhi Subedi (b. 1945) is the author of more than a dozen of books of poetry, essays, plays and criticisms that include Bruised Evenings (2011), Nepali Theatre as I See It (2007), Dreams of Peach Blossoms (2001), Chasing Dreams: Kathmandu Odyssey (2003), and Nepali Literature: Background and History (1978). He taught for forty years at the Central Department of English in Tribhuvan University. Professor Subedi is vice-President of the Nepali Folklore Society of Nepal. He is the founding former President of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) UNESCO from 2000 to 2008 and member of International Playwright's Forum from 2000-2011  
 
Prakash Subedi Prakash Subedi is a Lecturer at the Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University. He has to his credit two collections of poems Stars and Fireflies (2009) and Six Strings (a co-authored anthology, 2011). His poems, essays, critical writings, translations and reviews have been published in journals and magazines in Nepal and abroad. His writings have been prescribed in Master Level syllabi at Tribhuvan and Kathmandu University.  
 
Illya Sumanto Illya Sumanto is a herbalist and eco-feminist who has worked and performed with powerful female poets around the world, to heal through performing arts and spoken word. Illya is a part of Poetry Café KL; a collective that organizes poetry workshops, readings and slams in Kuala Lumpur. Being born into a political family, politics was a dish served cold, but in public, expressed with rhythm then told.
Ideologies aside, as an educator she specializes in working with young writers and theater performers- which she has trained, stage-crafted, and written for numerous in and out of school productions. Recently, the Education Ministry of Malaysia has acknowledged her for her work as a director and scriptwriter for children's theater. She also received a special award from University of Malaya for her achievements and contributions to the field of Education .
 
 
John Swain John Swain lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Least Bittern Books published his second collection, Under the Mountain Born.  
 
Cole Swensen Cole Swensen is the author of fifteen books of poetry and the translator some twenty volumes of French contemporary poetry, prose, and art criticism. The co-editor of the Norton 2009 anthology American Hybrid, she is the founding editor of La Presse, a nano-press dedicated to contemporary French writing. coleswensen.com . lapressepoetry.com .
Photo credit: "Carly Ann Faye, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 2015."
 
 
Elli Synadinou Elli Synadinou is an innovative female poet who in the 1960s associated with Allen Ginsberg in Greece and other poets of the literary group of PALI. She has published many poetry books, including In Moments of a Serene Mind, The Road, Confession, Jesus' Way, This Adventure of Existence, and I Am. She is also a translator of Emily Dickinson.  
 
Stavros Tornes Stavros Tornes (1932-1988) was a legendary Greek Avant-Gardist poet-filmaker. His films include: Studenti (Students, 1973), Farewell Anatolia (1976), Coatti (1977), Exopragmatiko (Unreal, 1980), Balamos (1982), Karkalou (1984), Danilo Trelès (1985), A heron for Germany (1987).  
 
Geeta Tripathi Geeta Tripathi is a poet, essayist, and short story writer. She is the author of half a dozen of literary works including Nrisansa parkhalharu (The Callous Walls, 2002), and Ma eklo ra udas ustai (The Same Lone and Saddened Me, 2013). She teaches Nepali language and literature in Kathmandu.  
 
Chandrabir Tumbapo Chandrabir Tumbapo (b. 1985) is the author of a collection of poems Bhiraibhir Rangai ranga (2005). He selects themes from diverse sources, but he has written poems about the aesthetic and cultural experience of growing in a Limbu culture.  
 
Bhisma Uprety Bhisma Uprety (b. 1968) is an award winning poet. He has to his credit six collection of poetry and seven anthologies of essays. He is widely published in Nepal and abroad and his works are translated into English, Korean, Japanese, German, Serbian and Hindi among others. He is a joint-secretary at PEN International Nepal Chapter. He works at the Central Bank of Nepal in Kathmandu.  
 
Peter Valente Peter Valente was born in Salerno, Italy and grew up in New Jersey. He holds a B. S. in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. He is the author of A Boy Asleep Under the Sun: Versions of Sandro Penna (Punctum Books, 2014), The Artaud Variations (Spuyten Duyvil, 2014) Let the Games Begin: Five Roman Writers (Talisman House, 2015), a book of photography, Street Level (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016), and the chapbook, Forge of Words a Forest (Jensen Daniels, 1998). He is the co-translator of the chapbook, Selected Late Letters of Antonin Artaud, 1945-1947 (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2014), which includes six of Artaud's letters, and has translated the work of Luis Cernuda, Gérard de Nerval, Cesare Viviani, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, as well as numerous Ancient Greek and Latin authors. Forthcoming is a second book of photography entitled Blue Book (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016), and a translation of Nanni Balestrini's Blackout (Commune Editions, 2017). In early 2019, City Lights will publish all 33 of Artaud's late letters that he co-translated. His poems, essays, and photographs have appeared in journals such as Mirage #4/Periodical, First Intensity, Aufgabe, Talisman, and Oyster Boy Review. His work has also been published online in Talisman, The Poems and Poetics Blog, Oyster Boy Review, and Sibilia. In the late 1990s, he co-edited the poetry magazines Vapor/Strains and Lady Blizzard's Batmobile and wrote articles on jazz for the Edgewater Reporter. In 2010, he turned to filmmaking and has completed 60 shorts to date, 24 of which were screened at Anthology Film Archives.  
 
Nanos Valaoritis Nanos Valaoritis (b. Lausanne 1925) is a trilingual poet, author, critic and Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature and Creative Writing. He lived in Greece, France, England and the United States (San Francisco). Valaoritis is a major force in the Greek Avant-Garde. He was the founder director of the literary journal PALI and later in the 1990s of the periodical SYNTELEIA. His poetry ranges from Surrealism, Absurdist themes, Language Poetry, and Postmodernism. He has received numerous poetry awards. Some of his books include:
Poetry : The Punishment of the Magi (1947), Central Arcade (1958),Terre de Diamant (1958), Hired Hieroglyrhs (1970), Diplomatic Relations (1971), Anonymous Poem of Foteinos Saintjohn (1977), Flash Bloom (1980), The Feathery Confession (1982), Some Women (1983), Poems 1 (1983), The Color Pen (1986), Poems 2 (1987), Anideograms (1996), Sun, the Executioner of the Green Thought (1996), Allegoric Cassandra (1998)
Prose: The Traitor of the Written Language (1980), Rising from the Bones (1982), Xerxes' Treasure (1984), The Assasination (1984), The Talking Ape or Paramythologia (1986), My Afterlife Guaranteed (1990), God's Dog (1998).
 
 
Preeti Vangani Preeti Vangani works as a brand manager by day and loves to experiment with theater & poetry. She has been writing poems for page & stage, and is most passionate about spoken word poetry. With a knack for storytelling, Preeti likes to question the status of otherwise commonplace relationships, often raising bold, introspecting questions about identity & gender through her personal experiences. Her encounter with spoken word poetry started by performing at various Open Mics in Mumbai and Pune. She won the Poetry Slam at Green Mill in Chicago in Jun' 2014 and has thereon performed at open mics in New York & Paris. In 2015, she published her first anthology of poems, 'A Conversation in Four Parts', along with three other women poets from Mumbai. She has performed at various events like TEDx, Godrej India Culture Labs, Pen at Prithvi chairing discussions on activism in poetry.  
 
Nico Vassilakis Nico Vassilakis is Vispo Editor at Coldfront Magazine http://coldfrontmag.com/category/vispo/ . He has two upcoming books of poetry, Alpha Noir and In The Pocket Of A Fine Overcast Day, coming out in 2016.  
 
Byron Vazakas Byron Vazakas (1905-1987) was a Greek-American poet influenced greatly by both American and European Modernism and French Symbolism. Vazakas was well esteemed by Williams Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore and became acquainted with abstract expressionism in painting and new music. He was a nominee for Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1947. His published poetry books include: Transfigured Night: Poems. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1946.The Equal Tribunals: Poems. New York: Clarke & Way, Inc. 1961.The Marble Manifesto: Poems. New York: October House. 1966. Nostalgias for a House of Cards: Poems. New York: October House. 1970. He also wrote prose, essays and dramas. A great amount of his works remains unpublished. Vazakas' poetry has not yet found the recognition it deserves.  
 
S.C. Wahleyre S.C. Wahleyre is a fiction writer and former academic who lives in Pennsylvania. She loves kayaking, Mozart, and fiction published in Big Bridge.  
 
Tisa Walden Tisa Walden is the editor of Deep Forest, a small press of slim volumes of verse founded in 1984, now publishing online issues of Beatitude. She has been published by Vanitas, and by City Lights, and numerous other small press Lit. mags including Nick Whittington's Amerarcana. She also has a long poem Elegy -- a devotion to her partner poet Howard Hart, in her photography book called San Francisco in the 21st Century published by Loosestrife Editions of Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from the University of Maryland, and a M.A. in Literature at San Francisco State University going on to teach graduate poetics at the New College of California with David Meltzer and Tom Clark.  
 
Maw Shein Win Maw Shein Win 's writing has appeared in various journals including Cimarron Review, Ping-Pong, Eleven Eleven, vitriol, and most recently in the anthology Cross-Strokes: Poetry between Los Angeles and San Francisco (Otis Books/Seismicity Editions). She is a poetry editor for Rivet. Win often collaborates with visual artists and musicians, and her collaborative book with paintings by Mark Dutcher, Ruins of a glittering palace, was published by SPA/Commonwealth Projects. Along with composer, Amanda Chaudhary, she is part of musical duo Pitta of the Mind. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto  
 
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright Jeffrey Cyphers Wright is a poet, artist, critic, eco-activist, impresario and publisher. He initially studied with Ted Berrigan and Alice Notley at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, He then received an MFA in Poetry after studying with Allen Ginsberg. From 1987 to 2000 he ran Cover Magazine, the Underground National. He's the art editor of Boog City and for many years was poetry reviewer for The Brooklyn Rail. In 2014 he won Theater for the New City's poetry contest. His 13th book, Party Everywhere, is out from Xanadu. Wright currently writes criticism for White Hot Magazine and ArtNexus. He also produces his own art and poetry showcase called Live Mag! www.livemag.org.  
 
Costas Yiannoulopoulos Costas Yiannoulopoulos was born in Peireas, Greece, in 1948. He studied Economics and Political Sciences in the Universities of Thessaloniki and Athens. He published the periodical "Jazz" and was radio producer for avant-garde, electronic and jazz music. He published chapbooks of avant-garde and concrete poetry and translated Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Richard Brautigan into Greek.  
 
Mark Young Mark Young is the editor of Otoliths, lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia, & has been publishing poetry for more than fifty-five years. He is the author of over thirty books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, & art history. His work has been widely anthologized, & his essays & poetry translated into a number of languages. His most recent books are Bandicoot habitat & lithic typology, both from gradient books of Finland. An e-book, The Holy Sonnets unDonne has just come out from Red Ceilings Press, & another e-book, For the Witches of Romania, is due out from Beard of Bees.  
 
Vassilis Zambaras Vassilis Zambaras (b. 1944) was born in Greece but at the age of 4 was taken to the US where he lived until 1972. He has been writing poetry in English for forty years. His first books were Sentences (1976) and Aural (1984).