David Alexander has authored some thirty-two mass market paperback novels. About two years ago he decided it was time to return to writing noncommercial short fiction, something he had put off for more than a decade. Since then he has been searching for new metaphors and narrative modes suited to the age of the sound bite, the blur and the Zen koan as rock lyric.

Emily Snow Hackbarth (emily@exo.com) lives in Southern California with her boyfriend Mike and her house rabbit Hazel. She is co-author of a non-fiction book on traditional Native American culture that is currently making the rounds. She writes a weekly column on beadwork for The Mining Company, a popular on-line service. Snow Ball is her first published short story and her first submission.

Tracy Heinlein has published fiction in Reputable Artifacts, Product and elsewhere. She finished her graduate degree at The University of Southern Mississippi and now lives in Oregon. 

Susan Hubbard's book, Walking on Ice, won the AWP Short Fiction Prize, and her fiction has appeared in America West, The North American Review, Ploughshares, and other places. She teaches creative writing at the University of Central Florida

Kyle Jarrard is an editor working at the International Herald Tribune. He has published in North American Review and New Orleans Review, and his novel, Over There, has just been published by Baskerville. 

Megan Sheehan lives in Brooklyn, NY, and has taken undergraduate writing courses at Columbia University, where she is now working towards a graduate degree in business. Her nonfiction has appeared in Grand Tour.

Lily Tuck is author of Interviewing Matisse or the Woman Who Died Standing Up (1991, Knopf) and The Woman Who Walked on Water (1996, Riverhead). Her stories have appeared in Story, Fiction, The Paris Review, and The New Yorker.