Issue Two  – Author Biographies

Neil Ayres

"...is a Londoner by birth and place of work, a wanderer by spirit, and anchored on the Surrey/Sussex border in reality. His novel, Nicolo's Gifts, was released by Bluechrome in 2003 and is currently being translated into French. A collection of short stories entitled All Paths Lead to Solitude will be released by Project M Publishing in the near future, with an introduction by Laura Hird."

 

Abi Hirschmann

"Abi Hirschmann has had work published in the poetry anthology 'Of Wider Things' (1998), exhibited 'Travelling Without Packing' a multimedia work (2000), written and performed for perfomance poetry duo Abi Hirshmann + Steve Skinner (2001-2). She is a community artist and sexual health educator. She is currently designing kites."

 

Danny Rhodes

"...lives in Kent and writes for children and adults. You can find his fiction in Open Wide Magazine, Aesthetica, Riot Angel Magazine, Bloodlust Magazine, Flashquake, Destination Anywhere (Anthology published by Feel Free Press) and on various websites.

He is currently seeking an agent for his longer fiction, particularly his children's and young adult fiction which continues to gather praise from
publishers...

'Circles' is a small segment from an ongoing project entitled 'The Lament of the Lonely Frog' but perhaps you don't want to know that!"

G H Caudill

"Bio: Ginger Hamilton Caudill writes to provide a day pass for the characters locked in her head. If she didn’t write she’d be like Aunt Ellie who lives in the attic, and nobody wants that.
Email: Caudill_1@charter.net
Blog: http://chickenscratches.blogspot.com/"

Kara Kellar Bell

"...is a Scots writer whose work has appeared in QWF, the Showcase at Scottish writer Laura Hird's site, The Gay Read, Aesthetica and a forthcoming issue of Open Wide. She is currently working on a novel, a cerebral gothic thriller set in Scotland, France and Germany"

Grant Perry

"...began writing stories when his promising career as a virtuoso Jew's harpist was curtailed by chronic gingivitis. Though yet to achieve the acclaim he garnered for his re-workings of classic 70s TV themes for the Jew's harp, his literary endeavours have met with limited success; appearing or upcoming in Eyeshot, Pindeldyboz, Thunder Sandwich, Megaera, FRiGG, Uber, Thieves Jargon and Snow Monkey, amongst others. 'Reflections of a Swordsman' is an excerpt from his difficult first novel. He lives in South London."

Jun de la Rosa

"...is 31, from the Philippines. He was conferred the Ateneo Dean's Award for Literature in 1994 and has attended various writing workshops. His works have appeared in major magazines and literary books in the Philippines; Literary Vision (USA), Marianas Variety (Marianas); soon in Writers Publishing (Canada) and Rattle (California). Now, he dreams of having his collection of poems published and released internationally. He is currently the president of the Filipino literary organization Peaks^ that seeks to cultivate creative writing outside the academic institutions. "

Tom Leins

"...was born on Valentine’s Day, 1980. He has spent the last six years of his life working as a Beach Attendant in a small town called Paignton. Minimum wage, maximum sunshine. He has published one volume of poetry: Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances, and has had stories featured in Texts’ Bones, Riot Angel and Open Wide. He is currently applying the finishing touches to his debut novel: Thirsty & Miserable, which he hopes to get published sooner rather than later, so that he can retire to the Caribbean with a suitcase full of cash and spend his days playing tennis with Lou Reed and Roger Waters from Pink Floyd.

He is technically tall enough to be a catwalk model.

Contact : tomleins@hotmail.com"

Shane Allison

"Shane Allison poems have appeared in countless e-zines, magazines and anthologies such as Absinthe
Literary Review, Plum Ruby Review, Tattoo Highway, Suspect Thoughts, Velvet Mafia, Mind Caviar, Coal City Review, Mississippi Review, New Delta Review, Blind Man's Rainbow, can we have our ball back?, Surgery of Modern Warfare and many others. His books "Black Fag" (Future Tense Press), and "Cock and Balls" (Feel Free Press) are out. He has a story forthcoming in Best Black Gay Erotica this winter from Cleis Press. The poet Jarret Keene is in his will."

James Paul Wallis (editor)

Taken from www.thequietfeather.com:

"...looks at his feet and then at the stars.  Hunts for paper.  Catches the wind.  Finds the exotic in the everyday.  Currently reading the shapes that Bristol makes as the city and people meet.    Fan of Sam Maloof, Björk, aluminium, silver screen, mackerel, reality, love."

By day I work for an international bank.  I live in Bristol, England.

M Lynx Qualey

"...fled no apparent persecution in the American Midwest for a life in the Near East, where she writes and wrangles a one-year-old boy. You can find more of her work at www.mlynxqualey.com"

Stoyan Valev

"...was born and live in Bulgaria, Eastern Europe.

He is specialist in Bulgarian language and literature. He graduated Paisii Hilendarski University in Plovdiv in 1982 and taught there 5 years as an assistant in Russian literature of XX century. He used to work as a journalist in radios, weekly papers and daily papers. He used to be chief editor of the weekly “Freedom”, the daily press “Maritza” and “Twenty-four-hour news maker”. In 1999 Hermes Publishing House published his first book “When God Was On Leave” – about the drama of the Bulgarian village in the time of socialism and after 1989.

In 2000 two Bulgarian theatres put on scene his play for teenagers “An United Class”. His second book is “The Bulgarian Decameron”, in two volumes published in 2002 and 2003 by Golden Apple Publishing House. The two volumes include 30 stories about the love life of the Bulgarian in the past. Now that the two books of “The Bulgarian Dekameron” are here, we Bulgarians now have our own encyclopedia of the art of love.

In 2003 Golden Apple Publishing House published a story collection of 40 stories named “Time for Infidelities”. Some of his stories have been published in many issues in USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Italy, Poland, Kingdom of Nepal, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland and some are going to be published soon. In Russia, Moscow, was published a book "Book about love", which includes some of his stories and stories of a russian writer - Igor Kuznetzov."

Katharina Yakovina

"BIO: I was Born in 1967. I create a space of my art. I have chosen among my Options."  www.tcart.com

Colm Ryan

"...lives in Milan, Italy. Born in Ireland, he spent far too much time sitting at a desk before he realised computers were slowly killing him. He teaches English (well, a sort of English, anyway) and he translates arbitrarily hacked-up documents that translation agencies farm out to different translators over the Internet. The analogy with The Orphan Leaf Review is clear. Just what device was that user manual he translated last week FOR, exactly? Among other things, Colm is currently working on an Italian cookbook for computer programmers. His wife is extremely jealous of this and frequently pouts, "You love that damn book more than you love me". Colm's favourite singer is Leonard Cohen and his favourite magazine is the Quiet Feather."

Veronica Aldous

"I am an artist and poet. Having suppressed writing (for no good reason), I can hold back no longer and now spend hours writing as well as drawing. I aim for sharply tailored with an erotic edge in all things. The images enter through the doorways in the poems and loll like sybarites on the velvety chaises longues of the language.

I originally trained as a filmaker, so word and image come together in my head. I live in the hideous urban sprawl of Croydon - I am usually looking at the stars - with occasional glances to the gutter - sometimes dirt is quite pretty.

My aim is to make my readers spontaneously combust. You will see burned edges as testament to this inflammatory desire, and indeed as possible evidence of my partial success to date.

As a child I was romantically influenced by the Jack of Hearts and this means that I can only give my heart to artists, poets, musicians - and very charming editors.

Our love will transform the whole deck."