 | |  | |  |
Volume 1 Issue 4 ISSN 1934-1725
 | |  | |  | |  | |  |
All files © Copyright 2008 The Sylvan Echo
| Four Melissas 2007 54 x 72 oil on canvas John Collier |
Paul Barile is a writer/actor and a founder of the n.u.f.a.
n. ensemble and a member of the sketch group HEAVY.
In 2008, Original Works Publishing released Paul’s The
Bound Trilogy. His short plays have appeared in
SNOWDANCE and ChAoS among other festivals. His
poetry has been published around the world.
Currently Carol Berg is an MFA student at Stonecoast.
She also has an MA in English Literature, and works as
a Writing Tutor at Pine Manor College. She has poems
forthcoming or in Pebble Lake Review, Rhino, The
Journal of the Association of Mothering and The
Furnace Review. In 2003, Carol was accepted at Bread
Loaf Writers’ Conference into Steve Orlen’s poetry
workshop.
Elizabeth Bernays grew up in Australia, then, in
England, she worked for the British Government and
studied agricultural pests in developing countries. In
1983, she immigrated to the United States as a
professor of entomology at the University of California
Berkeley. Later, she was appointed Regents’ professor
at the University of Arizona. Following twenty-five years
in biology, she turned to creative writing, obtaining a
Master of Fine Arts, also at the University of Arizona.
She has published essays and poems in a variety of
literary journals, and was awarded first prize in the 2007
X.J. Kennedy nonfiction contest. Website:
elizabethbernays.com
n. ensemble and a member of the sketch group HEAVY.
In 2008, Original Works Publishing released Paul’s The
Bound Trilogy. His short plays have appeared in
SNOWDANCE and ChAoS among other festivals. His
poetry has been published around the world.
Currently Carol Berg is an MFA student at Stonecoast.
She also has an MA in English Literature, and works as
a Writing Tutor at Pine Manor College. She has poems
forthcoming or in Pebble Lake Review, Rhino, The
Journal of the Association of Mothering and The
Furnace Review. In 2003, Carol was accepted at Bread
Loaf Writers’ Conference into Steve Orlen’s poetry
workshop.
Elizabeth Bernays grew up in Australia, then, in
England, she worked for the British Government and
studied agricultural pests in developing countries. In
1983, she immigrated to the United States as a
professor of entomology at the University of California
Berkeley. Later, she was appointed Regents’ professor
at the University of Arizona. Following twenty-five years
in biology, she turned to creative writing, obtaining a
Master of Fine Arts, also at the University of Arizona.
She has published essays and poems in a variety of
literary journals, and was awarded first prize in the 2007
X.J. Kennedy nonfiction contest. Website:
elizabethbernays.com
John Collier began his career working on large abstract
paintings because he enjoyed the freedom of loose, directionless
brushstrokes. Over the past several years, he has been
attempting to use those same loose brushstrokes to form realistic
human figures that appear abstract from a short distance. He
enjoys using very thick oil paint for his figures, with typically thin
backgrounds. When successful, the figure itself may take on an
almost clay sculpture appearance, rising out of the canvas. An
Ohio native and former resident of Los Angeles, John now lives
and paints in Franklin, Tennessee.
paintings because he enjoyed the freedom of loose, directionless
brushstrokes. Over the past several years, he has been
attempting to use those same loose brushstrokes to form realistic
human figures that appear abstract from a short distance. He
enjoys using very thick oil paint for his figures, with typically thin
backgrounds. When successful, the figure itself may take on an
almost clay sculpture appearance, rising out of the canvas. An
Ohio native and former resident of Los Angeles, John now lives
and paints in Franklin, Tennessee.
C. J. Conner has been creating artwork for many years in mediums ranging from oil and acrylic paints to charcoal sketches
and photography. Her works have been featured on several magazine covers and nature posters around the world. You can
see more of her work at cjconner.com.
Chris Crittenden is a quirky hermit living in the remote wilds of Maine, far from traffic lights or streetlamps. He has about four
hundred poems published (and infinite rejections). Some recent acceptances are from Juice Press, Autumn Sky Poetry, Bolts
of Silk and Barnwood Magazine.
Jewel Beth Davis is a creative nonfiction writer and theater artist who lives in Rollinsford, New Hampshire. She has
performed, directed and choreographed professionally throughout the U.S and British Isles. She has earned an MFA in
Writing at Vermont College, and holds a BA in Theater from University of New Hampshire and an MA in Theater Movement
from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She also teaches Creative Nonfiction, English Composition, Theater,
Communication and Literature at New Hampshire Community Technical College and Middlesex Community College. Her play,
Shadow Dancing, won an award from the Connecticut Playwright’s Collective. Her creative nonfiction and fiction has been
published in the Compass Rose, SN Review, Moondance Literary Magazine, Cezanne’s Carrot, Bent Pin Literary Journal, RE:
Ports Magazine, READ THIS: Montana State University’s Literature and Arts publication and upcoming in Lilith Magazine.
Elizabeth Hodges is an Associate Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of What the River
Means.
Melanie Faith amuses herself educating young minds at a college preparatory high school in Pennsylvania, writing poems in
colorful notebooks, and roving the rural landscape taking nature and architectural images with her digital camera. She holds
an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. In addition to publication of her chapbook,
Restless: Relative Poems (Foothills Publishing), her writing earned 3rd place in a Maison Neuve Magazine (Montreal) writing
contest and placed honorable mention in the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prizes. She was featured reader in her alma
mater’s 2005 Wilson College Visiting Writers Series and was recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Young Alumnae Award. Her
poems and photography recently appeared in The Binnacle (University of Maine), Heavyglow, Six Little Things, Arabesques,
Siren, The Long Islander, and Fifth Wednesday Journal. Current projects include creating a manuscript combining her poetry
and photographs as well as writing a novel.
Felicity Hand was raised in Sonoma County, California, where she loved art from day one. Her love for art grew when she
was given her grade schools only art award. In high school, Felicity received one of three art awards. Now, with her recent
graduation from Humboldt State University with a BA in Art Education, she plans to pursue teaching art to help nurture young
people into the arts
Amy R. Handler is a poet, filmmaker and photographer from Brookline, Massachusetts.
More than six hundred poems and stories by Kristine Ong Muslim have been published or are forthcoming in over two
hundred journals and magazines worldwide. Her work has appeared in Blue Fifth Review, Chimera Magazine, Dog Versus
Sandwich, GlassFire Magazine, Grasslimb, GUD Magazine, Hot Metal Press, and Slow Trains.
Yvonne Helms As an emerging artist with no formal
training Yvonne Helms is always looking for ways to study
and improve her craft. Her work is somewhat eclectic and
uncomplicated, making it accessible to many. She uses
stencils and/or rubber stamps with ink on paper to create
her art, and then uses the computer for manipulation
effects. She also works with glass, plastic, fabric, metal,
wood, etc. Yvonne’s art is inspired by and dedicated to her
favorite movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's. You can view
Yvonne’s art online at centralcaligrrrl.deviantart.com.
Shareen Knight is an artist and writer who, after an
earlier life in California, now lives in a remote part of British
Columbia with her dog and cat, where she is renovating a
1910 farmhouse, writing plays, keeping the bears out of
her orchard and imagining life.
Amanda Leskovac is thirty-three years old and lives in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She earned her undergraduate
degree in Writing from Slippery Rock University, her
Master of Arts in English from Youngstown State University
and an MFA in nonfiction Creative writing from Chatham
University. She’s taught English writing classes for nine
years at schools in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio,
including Chatham University, Youngstown State and Thiel
College. She’s currently teaching composition and creative
writing at the Community College of Allegheny County
while she finishes her memoir, Cock-Eyed View. She
celebrated her eleventh anniversary in a chair this year.
Allene Rasmussen Nichols lives in Arlington, Texas. She
teaches English and drama at Gateway School in
Arlington, Texas. Her poems have been published in Illya’s
Honey, Fait Accomplit, Sojourn, and other journals, as well
as the anthology Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems
for Ken Saro-Wiwa. Her plays have been produced in
California, Dallas and New York.
training Yvonne Helms is always looking for ways to study
and improve her craft. Her work is somewhat eclectic and
uncomplicated, making it accessible to many. She uses
stencils and/or rubber stamps with ink on paper to create
her art, and then uses the computer for manipulation
effects. She also works with glass, plastic, fabric, metal,
wood, etc. Yvonne’s art is inspired by and dedicated to her
favorite movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's. You can view
Yvonne’s art online at centralcaligrrrl.deviantart.com.
Shareen Knight is an artist and writer who, after an
earlier life in California, now lives in a remote part of British
Columbia with her dog and cat, where she is renovating a
1910 farmhouse, writing plays, keeping the bears out of
her orchard and imagining life.
Amanda Leskovac is thirty-three years old and lives in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She earned her undergraduate
degree in Writing from Slippery Rock University, her
Master of Arts in English from Youngstown State University
and an MFA in nonfiction Creative writing from Chatham
University. She’s taught English writing classes for nine
years at schools in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio,
including Chatham University, Youngstown State and Thiel
College. She’s currently teaching composition and creative
writing at the Community College of Allegheny County
while she finishes her memoir, Cock-Eyed View. She
celebrated her eleventh anniversary in a chair this year.
Allene Rasmussen Nichols lives in Arlington, Texas. She
teaches English and drama at Gateway School in
Arlington, Texas. Her poems have been published in Illya’s
Honey, Fait Accomplit, Sojourn, and other journals, as well
as the anthology Dance the Guns to Silence: 100 Poems
for Ken Saro-Wiwa. Her plays have been produced in
California, Dallas and New York.
Rose Sky
Christopher Woods
Christopher Woods
Diane Sabatier holds a PhD in contemporary American literature from the University of Orléans (France). Her Doctoral
dissertation, entitled “Dissidentities: American Short-Story Writers’ Double Absence/Double Belonging (1992-2003)",
researched short-story collections by Native, African, Mexican, Caribbean and Asian American writers born in the 1960s. She
has made a dozen presentations in conferences and several of her articles were published, including one in the Journal of
the Short Story in English. Diane Sabatier teaches at the University Paris XII-Val de Marne.
dissertation, entitled “Dissidentities: American Short-Story Writers’ Double Absence/Double Belonging (1992-2003)",
researched short-story collections by Native, African, Mexican, Caribbean and Asian American writers born in the 1960s. She
has made a dozen presentations in conferences and several of her articles were published, including one in the Journal of
the Short Story in English. Diane Sabatier teaches at the University Paris XII-Val de Marne.
Gerard Sarnat splits time between his San Francisco Bay Area forest home and Southern California's beaches. He is a
seeker and Jewbu, father of three, grandfather, physician to the disenfranchised, past CEO and Stanford professor, and
virginal writer 'til the recent tender age of sixty-two. Gerry has been published or is forthcoming in print and electronic literary
journals including EZAAPP, The Hiss Quarterly, Penson Fire, PoetsAgainstWar, Thieves Jargon, Underground Voices,
Flutter, Jack, Atavar, Wilderness House Literary Review and Juked, among others. Pessoa Press plans to publish his first
book.
Catharine Amanda Sowards is a fiction and essay writer who earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University Los
Angeles. She is currently working on completing a post-graduate certificate in Publishing Arts from Antioch. Having left her
day job at the movie studio, she now spends inordinate amounts of time sitting on the couch, watching the Food Network.
When she is writing, she can be found working on her collection of short stories about women in various states of peril,
tentatively entitled One False Move, and the Girl Gets It. She currently lives in Northridge, California, with some cats and her
twenty-year-old daughter – none of whom seem particularly inclined to leave home any time in the near future.
Robert E. Wood is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech. His film
studies include essays on Fosse, DePalma and Verhoeven, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He is the author of
Some Necessary Questions of the Play, a study of Hamlet. He currently appears in Quiddity and online in flashquake and
Poetry Midwest. Poems are forthcoming in Umbrella and Quercus Review. Previous poetry publications include Wind,
Southern Humanities Review and South Carolina Review.
Christopher Woods is the author of a prose collection, Under a Riverbed Sky, and a collection of stage monologues for
actors, Heart Speak. He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas.
Andrena Zawinski is Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com. Her poems appear in print at publications like Rattle,
Slipstream, Gulf Coast, Nimrod and others. They also appear widely online. She is author of a full collection of poetry,
Traveling in Reflected Light, and three chapbooks, with a CD forthcoming. She hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but has
made the San Francisco Bay area her home. Zawinski is a long time teacher of writing.
seeker and Jewbu, father of three, grandfather, physician to the disenfranchised, past CEO and Stanford professor, and
virginal writer 'til the recent tender age of sixty-two. Gerry has been published or is forthcoming in print and electronic literary
journals including EZAAPP, The Hiss Quarterly, Penson Fire, PoetsAgainstWar, Thieves Jargon, Underground Voices,
Flutter, Jack, Atavar, Wilderness House Literary Review and Juked, among others. Pessoa Press plans to publish his first
book.
Catharine Amanda Sowards is a fiction and essay writer who earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University Los
Angeles. She is currently working on completing a post-graduate certificate in Publishing Arts from Antioch. Having left her
day job at the movie studio, she now spends inordinate amounts of time sitting on the couch, watching the Food Network.
When she is writing, she can be found working on her collection of short stories about women in various states of peril,
tentatively entitled One False Move, and the Girl Gets It. She currently lives in Northridge, California, with some cats and her
twenty-year-old daughter – none of whom seem particularly inclined to leave home any time in the near future.
Robert E. Wood is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech. His film
studies include essays on Fosse, DePalma and Verhoeven, as well as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He is the author of
Some Necessary Questions of the Play, a study of Hamlet. He currently appears in Quiddity and online in flashquake and
Poetry Midwest. Poems are forthcoming in Umbrella and Quercus Review. Previous poetry publications include Wind,
Southern Humanities Review and South Carolina Review.
Christopher Woods is the author of a prose collection, Under a Riverbed Sky, and a collection of stage monologues for
actors, Heart Speak. He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas.
Andrena Zawinski is Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com. Her poems appear in print at publications like Rattle,
Slipstream, Gulf Coast, Nimrod and others. They also appear widely online. She is author of a full collection of poetry,
Traveling in Reflected Light, and three chapbooks, with a CD forthcoming. She hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but has
made the San Francisco Bay area her home. Zawinski is a long time teacher of writing.