Artist and writer Jessica Fenlon lives and works in Pittsburgh PA. She makes art that touches on the currents of violence, everyday joys, and haunting losses that move in her peripheral vision. BFA UW-Madison, MFA School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Her first book of poetry will soon be published by 6 Gallery Press soon. It is called Spiritual Side Effects.
She spends too much time at crossroads with scarecrows. She enjoys playing with fire in her free time. She is probably taller than you.
Karen Lillis relocated to Pittsburgh in December 2005. Her creative writing has been published in anderbo.com, A Taste of River Water, Long Shot, New York Nights, nthposition.com, Pulse Berlin, and The Southern Quarterly, among others. She is the author of the novels i, scorpion (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000) and The Second Elizabeth (Six Gallery Press, 2009); and the illustrated novella, Magenta's Adventures Underground (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2004). Her writing was recently included in the anthology of women writing experimental prose, Wreckage of Reason (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2008). She has read extensively in New York, across America, and in Paris. 
o New Media Publishing, 2006), as well as a forthcoming second novel, Light of Waters. Previously, she has written for The Believer, Monkeybicycle, Ninth Letter, Four Magazine, Bookslut, The Complete Meal and Outcry, among others. Currently, in addition to her authorey blog, Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again, and her running and fitness blog Bonkless, she is assistant fiction editor at 42 Opus and hosts the monthly Fixx Reading Series in Chicago. Once upon a time, she collaborated on a few sketch comedy productions at The Second City's training center. Around the same time, she was also fumbling around a few improv comedy stages as well, and fondly recalls the nights she played the "Kill Whitey" crayon. 
Boca Chica plays sometimes quiet, sometimes raucous alt-folk in the vein of Iron & Wine, Bright Eyes, and Sufjan Stevens. The Tribune Review describes their 2007 release, Transform into Beasts, as "Neil Young circa "Harvest" crossed with the hipster cool of Neko Case." They are currently recording their second full-length album due out in early 2009.
Jonathan Loucks was born in Southern California. He has studied at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pittsburgh. Jonathan lives in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA, where he teaches writing at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University. He also plays guitar and sings for the noise pop band Workshop. 
Tiffany Merriman-Preston is a poet and non-profiteer. Originally from Georgia, she moved to Pittsburgh in 2003. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and has published her work in such journals as Cream City Review, Rattle, Terminus, Tulane Review, Poetry Motel, and 88: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry. She also created the local blog Walking Pittsburgh with her husband, Matt. Tiffany currently resides in Lawrenceville.
Samoan Cats is a Pittsburgh soft-rock band Scott Silsbe does when not rocking with local band Workshop. Occasionally, Kurt Garrison helps keep time. The SamCats debut album, Coming of Age in Samoa, is due out sometime in the future.
in: Dawn Lundy Martin was awarded the 2006 Cave Canem Poetry Prize by Carl Phillips for her manuscript, A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering. She is the author of The Morning Hour, selected in 2003 by C.D. Wright for the Poetry Society of America’s National Chapbook Fellowship. In 2002 and 2006, she was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant for Poetry. Her poems have appeared in several journals, including Callaloo, nocturnes and Encyclopedia. She is a founding member of the Black Took Collective, a group of experimental black poets; co-editor of a collection of essays, The Fire This Time: Young Activists And The New Feminism (Anchor Books, 2004); and a founder of the Third Wave Foundation in New York, a national young feminist organization. She teaches in the Language & Thinking Program at Bard College and is a doctoral candidate in English literature at the University of Massachusetts..jpg)
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Emily Rodgers:
Kevin Finn: Kevin Finn is a poet from Pittsburgh, PA. He is currently pursuing an MFA at Carlow University, and working on his first book, Visible Extinction. Finn has been published in Tiger's Eye Journal, and the Pittsburgh City Paper. Also a singer-songwriter, Finn's Vessels has gained critical acclaim world wide. He lives with his wife, child and pet cat. Visit him at www.kevinfinn.net or at www.myspace.com/theinsectvoice.
he people who are rooted and those who are mobile in small-town West Virginia.
Kurt Garrison of The Plat Maps sings "Three Mile Island". 
Renée Alberts listens to rivers, talks to the radio, and translates the conversations into poetry, sound and collage. She learned all of this in Pittsburgh. She's been lucky to collaborate with some of the city's finest wordsmiths and musicians, and has participated in and curated many events. Her chapbook is forthcoming from Speed & Briscoe. Witness her in 1s and 0s at http://williamthesilent.blogspot.com/.
On Wednesday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m. at Modern Formations Gallery,
The New Yinzer presents...their first installment:
Fiction: Jason Jordan is a writer from New Albany, Indiana, who always says he's from Louisville, Kentucky, because people actually know where that is. His fiction has appeared in The2ndHand, Pequin, Pindeldyboz, VerbSap, Word Riot, and many other publications. Jordan is also Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine decomP. He is currently in the MFA program at Chatham University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he is working on his first novel. You can visit him at poweringthedevilscircus.blogspot.com.
Poetry: Scott M. Silsbe was born in Detroit. He now lives in Pittsburgh, where he sells books, writes, and makes rock music. His work has appeared in Kitchen Sink, Third Coast, good foot, and The New Yinzer. He is also an editor at The New Yinzer.
Music: Julie Sokolow
Some excellent dips and other light vittles provided by Quiet Storm!
The inaugural literary and musical event opens at Modern Formations Gallery
on Wednesday, April 16 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
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