M.Z. Cox (Guest Editor) is a media specialist and a graduate student at Florida State. She's had non-fiction articles published in School Library Journal and School Library Media Activities Monthly and won an honorable mention in the Seven Hills Fiction Contest in 1997 and two honorable mentions in 1999. M.Z. lives in Tallahassee with her husband, Bob, and has three grown children: Robert Sidney, Gordon, and Natalie. She plays claw hammer banjo in Booger Holler, the first place winner in the 1999 Florida Fiddler String Band Contest. Her new CD, Vintage Banjo, will be ready next month. E-mail at: infocon@netally.com Web: http://www.nettally.com/infocon

Rusty Barnes (Guest Editor) teaches writing and works for Trident Booksellers and Cafe in Boston MA, where he lives with his family. His work has appeared in the anthology Between the Leaves and in the Mercury Review, Fat Tuesday, Poetry Motel, Misnomer, and the Shattered Wig Review. His email is: papacookie@aol.com

Cynthia Hartwig was born in Missoula, Montana, and now lives in Seattle, Washington. She published her first short fiction in Zoetrope: All Story last spring (Vol. 3, No. 1.). She is a board member of Copper Canyon Press whose poetry has been nominated for four of the last six National Book Awards. She would like to encourage everyone to read more poetry, especially Copper Canyon Press poetry. Email:chartwig@ricochet.net and let her know if you do.

Gerard Siino is a New England native, and is currently living near Boston with his wife, Hillary, and their little dog named, Samson. His stories and poetry have appeared in The Providence Journal, Inkwell Magazine, Shoreline, Beacon Street Review and Fledgling. In December, his story, "Lodo," will appear in the premiere issue of Deeply Shallow, an online literary publication.

He works as a financial application consultant for a small New England-based consulting company. A reasonable person might observe that a business career path is the antithesis of maintaining the drive to write creatively. In response to that, however, he would say that he now fully appreciates the adage "grist for the mill." Emails welcome at: rsiino@aol.com