Quay Contributors

Kate Baldus lived in Dhaka, Bangladesh for a year in 1999 and returned in 2001 to live there for five more months. Previous essays she has written on her Bangladesh experiences have been published in Expat: Women’s True Tales of Life Abroad (Seal Press), Slow Trains, and Pology. Currently she lives in Brooklyn, New York and has an M.F.A. in Fiction from Goddard College.

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger, and a salvage diver. His chapbook Remembrance was published by Origami Condom Press and The Conquest of Somalia was published by Cervena Barva Press. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced off Broadway and toured colleges and outdoor performance venues. He currently lives in New York City, where he’s busy writing.  His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous literary magazines.

Krista Benjamin recently completed her first novel and is in the process of seeking a publisher.  Her poems and stories appear or are forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2006; Creative Writer’s Handbook, 5e; Margie; The Sun; and other journals.  She is the recipient of a 2007 Nevada Arts Council Fellowship and the 2008 Robert Gorrell Award for Literary Achievement from the Sierra Arts Foundation.

Ludmilla Bollow is an award-winning actress, prize winning playwright and published novelist. Her plays have been performed in over 50 theatres in the U.S., plus numerous foreign countries from China to South Africa. One Acts & Monologues For Women (3rd edition) and The Church of the Holy Ghost are published by Broadway Plays (latter optioned for movie by Trimark Films). In The Rest Room at Rosenblooms, published by Samuel French and The Beach Club printed in The Literary Half Yearly of India. Play scenes in 12 leading play anthologies. Has taught playwriting and other writing. Website is: http://home.earthlink.net/~bollow

Beth Feldman Brandt lives and writes in Philadelphia where she is the Director of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation. Her work has been published in Philadelphia Stories and the Mad Poet’s Review.

Rima Canaan is currently working on a collection of short stories. She received her B.A. in English from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale.

Joanna Clemens is a twenty-five year old with a recently obtained M.F.A. in creative nonfiction writing from a university in New York City. Prior to earning the degree, moving to Brooklyn, and becoming employed by a notable museum, she resided in the woods of small town Pennsylvania. When not wistfully searching for post-punk videos on Youtube or straightening her bangs, Joanna sits and marvels at her luck. This is her first publication.

Patrick Dacey has published stories in such places as BOMB Magazine, The Washington Square Review, Stone Canoe, and Faultline. He is a former creative writing fellow at Syracuse University. He has recently completed his first novel.

Nabina Das lives two lives, shuttling between Ithaca, New York, and Delhi, India. Her short story “Tara Goes Home” has been selected to appear in a winning collection of fiction by writers from India as well as around the world (Mirage Books). Her poetry appears in the “urban” poems anthology SHEHER (Frog Books), in Kritya poetry journal, The Cartier Street Review, Lit Up Magazine, The Toronto Quarterly, and Muse India. A poetry commentary is forthcoming in Kritya journal. Nabina is also a 2007 Joan Jakobson Fiction Scholar from Wesleyan Writers’ Conference, Wesleyan University, CT., and a 2007 Julio Lobo Fiction Scholar from Lesley Writers’ Conference, Lesley College, Cambridge, Mass. Nabina was Assistant Metro Editor with The Ithaca Journal, Ithaca, New York, and has worked as a journalist and mediaperson in India for about 10 years in places as diverse as Tehelka.com, Down To Earth environmental magazine, Confederation of Indian Industries, National Foundation for India, and The Sentinel newspaper. She has published several articles, commentaries and essays during her tenures. An M.A. in Linguistics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, her other interests are theater and music. She blogs at www.fleuve-souterrain.blogspot.com.

J.D. Eames is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been performed from Alaska to off-off-Broadway. Her short play Excess Baggage appears in The Hollow and Other Plays, an ATHE publication. J.D. writes for the online magazine Suite101.com. She lives in Kentucky with her partner.

Shokry Eldaly is a Hunter College graduate and a Goddard College MFA candidate. He is an Aquellos Fellow and recipient of the AALC’s Naguib Mahfouz award. He teaches and conducts workshops in Brooklyn, NY and Providence, RI.

Rich Espey is a playwright and teacher living in Baltimore. His award-winning play Hope’s Arbor was produced by Gallery Players in New York City in June, 2008. Rich’s plays have been produced throughout the United States, and his work has also been produced in New York by 3Graces Theater Company, Turtle Shell Productions, Native Aliens Theatre Collective, Action Theatre and This Woman’s Work Theatre Co.  Rich is a two time winner of the Carol Weinberg Award for best play at the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and was honored with an Individual Artist Award in Playwriting by the Maryland State Arts Council in 2007. He’s won awards at the SUNY Brockport Biennial Festival of New Plays (2005), SLAMBoston Play Festival (2006) and has been a finalist in the Coe College Playwriting Competition in 2007 for Ben’s Extraordinary Experiment. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, a member of Lizard Claw Playwrights, has served as Chair of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and proudly teaches science at The Park School of Baltimore. Check out samples of his work and a production history at www.richespey.net.

Kathryn Good-Schiff earned her M.F.A. at Goddard College, where she edited The Pitkin Review. Her work has appeared in Kalliope, Twelve Stories, Pank, The Equinox, and other journals. She facilitates outdoor writing workshops and leads groups using the Amherst Writers and Artists Method. Kat lives in western Massachusetts and blogs at www.dragonsmeow.blogspot.com.

Joseph Goosey recently discovered that he is cruel by nature. He hopes that this will subside but he doubts it. He has a chapbook available via Poptritus Press and thanks you for reading. 

Angel Hogan. After studying Literary Theory at Bucknell University, Angel traveled cross-country and spent time in the Yucatan area of Mexico, where her mother currently lives. Much of her writing is fueled by her non-traditional upbringing on a horse farm and a passion for seeking out the unusual. Angel currently works at University of Pennsylvania and is a member of The New Philadelphia Poets. She lives with her cat, Mamacita, and is completing her first book, Blind Foal. See more of Angel’s work at: www.angelhogan.com

Arka Mukhopadhyay, a.k.a. theStillDancer, lives in Bangalore, India and wanders all over the country finding various means of not making money such as performance poetry, theatre, performance art and so on. He is twenty-eight and sometimes howls at the moon. 

Ashok Niyogi was born in Calcutta in 1955. He was schooled all over India in Irish Christian Brothers’ Schools and graduated with Honors in Economics from Presidency College, Calcutta. Ashok spent 30 years in the world of International Commerce, and has lived and worked in East Europe, Russia, the CIS and South East Asia. His work has taken him all over the world and he now divides his time between California where his two daughters live, and India. Ashok has two books of poetry in India—Crossroads and Reflections in the Dark (both from A-4 Publications) and one book of poems from the USA—Tentatively (iUniverse). He has been published extensively on line and in print in India, the U.S.A., the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Holland, etc.

Sherry O’Keefe, a descendent of one of the first Montana pioneers, a mother of two, sister to four, cousin to dozens, credits/blames her Irish upbringing for her story-telling ways and her collection of pocket rocks. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barnwood Poetry Review, Avatar Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Two Review, Soundzine, and Main Street Rag. Her chapbook, Making Good Use of August is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.  She likes peanut butter/dill pickle sandwiches. You may contact her for the recipe: redmittengirl.yahoo.com.

Sean O’Leary is the author five plays including Valu-Mart, the 2007 winner of The Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award for plays confronting racial and ethnic issues, Beneath Shelton Laurel, winner of a National Endowment for the Arts Access to Artistic Excellence grant, Pound, winner of the Ostrander Award for Best New Play of the 2006-7 Memphis theatre season and Claudie Hukill, nominated for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Sean is also the 2004 winner of the West Virginia Commission on The Arts Fellowship for Drama and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. He lives near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Kristine Ong Muslim has more than seven hundred stories and poems published or are forthcoming in over three hundred publications worldwide. Her work has been accepted in Adbusters, Bellevue Literary Review, Farrago’s Wainscot, Narrative Magazine, New Madrid, and The Pedestal Magazine. She received a nomination for Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award, three nominations for the Pushcart Prize, and several Honorable Mentions in Year’s Best in Fantasy and Horror.

Suzanne Roberts is the author of three poetry collections, Shameless (Cherry Grove, 2007), Nothing to You (Pecan Grove Press, 2008), and Plotting Temporality (forthcoming from Red Hen). She was recently named “The Next Great Travel Writer” by National Geographic’s Traveler Magazine. She holds a doctorate in Literature and the Environment from the University of Nevada-Reno and currently teaches English at Lake Tahoe Community College.

Seren Schreiner received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She currently lives and works in Princeton, New Jersey.