Choose as many writers as you’d like from Menu A; then choose as many as you’d like from Menu B. It’s a frickin’ smorgasbord, Sparky!

[note: author list subject to change, so don’t get too terribly attached.]

 Fiction/Nonfiction

Jonis Agee is a native of Omaha, and has published five novels and five collections of short fiction. Three of her books -- Strange Angels, Bend This Heart, and Sweet Eyes -- were named Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times. Her most recent novel, The River Wife, was selected by the Book of the Month Club, the Literary Guild, and as a main selection by the Quality Paperback Book Club.

Jami Attenberg is the author of the story collection Instant Love. She has written for Jane, Print, San Francisco Chronicle, Nerve and many others.  Her novel The Kept Man will be published by Riverhead Books in January 2008. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Poe Ballantine is a whiskey-drinking, floor-mopping, gourmet-cooking, wildly prolific writer with a penchant for social commentary, currently living and working in Chadron, Nebraska. His work has previously appeared in The Atlantic Monthly Online, The Sun, Kenyon Review, and The Coal City Review. In addition to garnering numerous Pushcart and O’Henry nominations, Ballantine's work has been included in the 1998 Best American Short Stories and 2006 Best American Essays anthologies. His most recent books are the essay collection 501 Minutes to Christ and the novel Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire.

Charlene Ann Baumbich, a journalist, novelist, and popular speaker, is the author of the comical Partonville series, including Dearest Dorothy, Who Would Have Ever Thought?

Kiara Brinkman grew up in the Midwest and in California. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Pindeldyboyz, and other publications. Her first novel, Up High in the Trees, was released this summer.

Cindy Bruneteau recently became the new Director of Education at the Cather Foundation in Red Cloud, Neb. She is a longtime editor and college English instructor.

Maud Casey lives in Washington, D.C. and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Maryland. She is the author of two novels, The Shape of Things to Come and Genealogy, and a short story collection, Drastic. Her stories have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, Confrontation, The Gettysburg Review, The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Sonora Review, and The Threepenny Review.

Lauren Cerand, a public relations representative and consultant, was declared “best feminist literary whistle-blower” in the Village Voice’s 2004 Best of NYC issue. She is currently on the board of directors of Girls Write Now, "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998." Lauren compiles "The Smart Set," a weekly round-up of cultural happenings for premier lit-blog MaudNewton.com, and writes about art, politics and style at LuxLotus.com.

Marilyn Coffey is the author of the memoir Great Plains Patchwork, which was declared "an entertaining, insightful collection of stories, combining fact and legend," by the The New York Times. Coffey is also a poet and fiction writer, having had work in the Pushcart Prize anthology and other collections and journals. A feminist activist quoted in books on the Beat generation, Coffey wrote the controversial 1973 novel, Marcella.

Mary Connealy is the author of the novels Petticoat Ranch (a romantic comedy), Golden Days (historical novel) and Of Mice… And Murder (a mystery).

Debra Di Blasi is the author of The Jirí Chronicles & Other Fictions (FC2/University of Alabama Press), Drought & Say What You Like (New Directions), and Prayers of an Accidental Nature (Coffee House Press), praised by the New York Times Book Review for its "clear, resonant prose, laced with bittersweet humor." She is also an award-winning screenwriter, a poet, and artist. She lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Sarah Dodson Sarah Dodson is the co-publisher and an editor of MAKE magazine, a biannual literary journal distributed throughout Chicago.

Richard Dooling is a writer and a lawyer. His second novel, White Man's Grave, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among many other publications. His most recent novel is Bet Your Life, and he was a producer and writer, with Stephen King, on the miniseries Kingdom Hospital.

Sean Doolittle is the author of the crime thrillers Burn, Rain Dogs, and The Cleanup. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Year's Best Mystery Stories 2002 (James Ellroy, guest editor). His first novel, Dirt, was a Book Sense Book of the Day, and named one of the 100 Best Books of 2001 by the editors of Amazon.com.

Monica Drake is the author of Clown Girl, an acclaimed new novel with an introduction by Chuck Palahniuk. She teaches at the Pacific NW College of Art. She is a contributor of reviews and articles to The Oregonian, The Stranger, and the Portland Mercury and her fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Review, Threepenny Review, The Insomniac Reader, and others.

Kira Gale is a writer, filmmaker, and historian. She is the co-editor of the Resource Guide to Six Nebraska Authors: Bess Streeter Aldrich, Willa Cather, Loren Eiseley, Wright Morris, John G. Neihardt and Mari Sandoz. 

Amy Guth is the author of Three Fallen Women, a novel that led Eric Spitznagel (Fast Forward: Confessions of a Porn Screenwriter) to proclaim: "If Tom Robbins and Exene Cervenka had hot, filthy sex in some dank back alley, their illegitimate lovechild might look something like Amy Guth." Guth has written for The Believer, Monkeybicycle, and Four Magazine, among others.

Melanie Lynne Hauser is the author of Confessions of Super Mom, and its sequel, Super Mom Saves the World. She also writes the popular blog, The Refrigerator Door, and lives in Chicago.

Ron Hogan is the creator of the literary website Beatrice.com and the author of The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s. He reports on the publishing industry for mediabistro.com’s GalleyCat.

Holly Hollenbeck, a former practicing attorney, is the author of Sex Lives of Wives: Reigniting the Passion. She lives in Omaha, and has been featured on The Today Show and NPR.

Dallas Hudgens is the author of the acclaimed debut novel, Drive Like Hell, (Scribner, paperback August 2007) and Season of Gene, to be published by Scribner in September 2007. He has contributed to The Washington Post and online at FANZINE. A native of Georgia, he now lives in Virginia with his wife and two sons.

Katie Kelly has written about entertainment for Time and other publications, and appeared as a critic on the Today Show and Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee. She is the author of several books, including A Year in Saigon: How I Gave Up My Glitzy Job in Television to Have the Time of My Life Teaching Amerasian Kids in Vietnam.

 Jessica Kennison blogs as Omaha Momma, frankly discussing the joys and treacheries of young motherhood with an acid tongue and sharp wit.

Alice Kim is a writer and an ex-NYC fashionista, having worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and In Style. A fan of poker, pool, and golf, Alice recently relocated to Omaha to open a shop in the Old Market of Omaha.

Amy Knox Brown is the author of Three Versions of the Truth, a collection of short stories. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, she is currently living in Winston Sale, NC. Her fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Missouri Review, Other Voices, Sport Literate, The Nebraska Review, and other literary magazines.

Tosca Lee is a leadership consultant and received her BA in English and International Relations from Smith College. She is the author of Demon: A Memoir, a spiritual thriller.

Susan N. Maher, Chair of the University of Nebraska at Omaha English department, has published widely on the literature of the Great Plains and the American and Canadian West. Former President of the Western Literature Association, a Board Member of the Cather Foundation, and a Fellow of the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she is currently helping the Center plan for a national conference, to be held in Omaha in April 2008, on the subject of violence and the Plains (affectionately called “Death, Murder, and Mayhem on the Plains” by conference organizers).

John McNally is the author of Troublemakers, a short-story collection, and The Book of Ralph, a novel that has received raves from Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo, The Chicago Tribune, and NBC's Today Show. His latest novel, America's Report Card, is currently available in paperback.

Jonathan Messinger is an author, editor, performer and joe. His first book, Hiding Out, is due out in October 2007 and has already been described as a short story collection “about nervous manhood in a good, non-Zach Braff kind of way.” He’s the book review editor for the weekly arts and entertainment magazine Time Out Chicago and co-publisher of Featherproof Books, a small press in Chicago publishing works of full-length fiction and short stories as their own, lovingly designed mini-books.

Anna Monardo is the author of The Courtyard of Dreams and Falling in Love With Natassia, both from Doubleday. Her work has appeared in McCall's, Other Voices, and Redbook, and has been performed on NPR's Selected Shorts.

Amelia María de la Luz Montes, Associate Professor of English and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has published short stories in journals and anthologies such as Hers 3: Brilliant New Fiction by Lesbian Writers and Chicana Literary and Artistic Expressions. Among her most recent scholarly publications is “Tortilleras on the Prairie:  Latina Lesbians Writing the Midwest” (Journal of Lesbian Studies).  Her current writing projects include a collection of short stories, While Pilar Tobillo Sleeps, and a memoir.

Jack Moskowitz is a retired civil servant and radio disc jockey, as well as an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. He is the author of a number of gritty and comical short-story collections, including Nothing Funny About an Old Man Laughing, Welcome to Hellville, and Dead Men Make Lousy Lovers.

David Philip Mullins is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has held the Dorothy and Granville Hicks Residency in Literature at Yaddo.  His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Massachusetts Review, New England Review, Cimarron Review, and North Dakota Quarterly and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  He recently completed a novel-in-stories, titled The Lights of Las Vegas, and teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Andrea Portes is the author of the LA Times bestseller Hick, a darkly poetic tale of a young woman’s efforts toward escape, set in Nebraska. Portes received her MFA from UC San Diego and became a script reader for Paramount Pictures. She now lives in Los Angeles and is a nightlife columnist for several websites.

John Price was a recipient of a 2004-05 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his memoir, Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey into the American Grasslands was published by the University of Nebraska Press. He is on the faculty of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Leslie Prisbell chronicled the often sadly satisfying Omaha nightlife in her cheeky, boozy, controversial, Dorothy Parker-esque column, "Bar Hag." She is now part of a lounge act, and writes the Towering Informer, the newsletter for the Twin Towers Condominiums.

Michael Pritchett is the author of the novel The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis and an award-winning collection of stories, The Venus Tree. His stories have appeared in Passages North, Natural Bridge and New Letters, among other noteworthy magazines. He teaches fiction writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Ladette Randolph is the humanities editor of the University of Nebraska Press, where she oversees the novel and short-story series, Flyover Fiction, and the memoir series, American Lives. She is the author of the short-story collection This Is Not the Tropics, and editor of A Different Plain: Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers.

Aaron Raz Link, a writer, performing artist, curator, and historian of science, is the director of the Museum of Nature in Portland, Oregon. He is the co-author, with his mother, of the memoir, What Becomes You, which was declared “one of the hottest memoirs in the [LGBT] category this year” by Publishers Weekly.

Hilda Raz, a professor of English and women’s and gender studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is the Glenna Luschei Endowed Editor of Prairie Schooner and author of the poetry collections, Trans and Divine Honors. She wrote the memoir What Becomes You with her son, Aaron Raz Link.

Nancy Rips is a bookseller and library activist. She reviews books for KMTV, Omaha’s CBS affiliate, and for radio, and hosts book tours of New York City.

Cyndy Salzmann is the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction; her latest project is a lighthearted mystery series set in Omaha which is published by Howard Books--the inspirational imprint of Simon & Schuster. Dying to Decorate, the first book of the Friday Afternoon Club mystery series was released in June, 2005. Book two, Crime & Clutter, was released last spring.

Timothy Schaffert is the author of three novels, most recently Devils in the Sugar Shop. His first novel, The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters, will be reissued by Unbridled Books in November. He is the director and founder of the (downtown) omaha lit fest, and director of the Nebraska Summer Writers’ Conference.

Jonathan Segura is the deputy reviews editor at Publishers Weekly. His  first novel, a noir set in Omaha, will be published by Simon & Schuster in Summer 2008.

Gerald Shapiro is the author of three collections of award-winning short stories, most recently Little Men. Shapiro, along with Peter Riegert, adapted stories from Shapiro's book Bad Jews into the film The King of the Corner.

Tim Siragusa is a playwright, actor, and artist, responsible for groundbreaking Omaha theater, much of it as part of the Blue Barn Theater’s exceptional contribution to the city. Last year, his play Slave Revolt in Pharaoh’s Bath had its premiere at the (downtown) omaha lit fest.

Carolyn Turgeon is the author of Rain Village, the tale of a misfit who becomes a famous trapeze artist in a traveling circus. The book was a Book Sense pick and a selection for the Pulpwood Queens Book Club.

Otis Twelve has won Britain's Lit Idol competition, and was recently awarded the prestigious Debut Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association. His work has appeared in The North American Review and other publications. In addition to a stint as a popular radio personality in Omaha, Otis has had experience as a Benedictine monk-in-training, a stand-up comedian, TV critic, and concert narrator. Otis now lives in bucolic Walnut, Iowa (pop.897).

Kellie Wells is the author of a collection of short fiction, Compression Scars, 2001 winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award, and a novel, Skin. She is at work on a second novel, entitled Fat Girl, Terrestrial.

Annasue McCleave Wilson, writing for years for the Sunday travel section of The New York Times, for Cincinnati Magazine, for online magazines, chapters in other peoples' books; editing other peoples' books, even serving as assistant to Charles Scribner II when he was corresponding with the likes of Alan Paton and P.D. James, finally decided to do what she ought to have been doing all along:  write a novel. 

Michael Zapata is the co-publisher and an editor of MAKE magazine, a biannual literary journal distributed throughout Chicago.

Poets

Susan Aizenberg is the author of two collections of poetry, Peru and Muse (Southern Illinois UP/Crab Orchard Poetry Series 2002), winner of the Nebraska Book Award for Poetry and the Larry Levis Reading Prize. She teaches creative writing and English at Creighton University.

Denise Banker, a native of Lincoln, Neb., is a new voice writing about exile, desire, and abandonment. She has won numerous awards for her poetry including the Academy of American Poets Award. Her work will be featured in the Winter 2006 Prairie Schooner. She has been published by Houghton Mifflin, Backwaters Press, and the National Council of Teachers of English.

Brian Bengtson has published two books of poetry, Gay... Some Assembly Required and First Chill. Bengtson is an actor and playwright; his one-act play, Fags in the Mall, was first produced by the Crawlspace Theater in New Orleans. His new collection is from Backwaters Press.

Michael Catherwood's poetry has appeared in Agni, Black Warrior Review, Graffiti Rag, and several other journals. A collection of his poems, Dare, was published by Backwaters Press. He teaches at Creighton University.

Paul Dickey is a poet, prose poet, and micro fiction author. Since 1980, he has owned and operated an out-of-print book business and pioneered the use of the personal computer and the world wide web in the antiquarian book trade. After taking a long hiatus from publishing his work, Dickey started to publish again in 2003. Recent work is in Rattle, Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics, Concho River Review, and Wild Strawberries. 

Twyla Hansen's latest book, Potato Soup (Backwaters Press, 2003), won the 2004 Nebraska Book Award for poetry. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her writing has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Prairie Schooner, Crab Orchard Review, and Ascent.

Anthony Hawley grew up in Massachusetts and was educated at Columbia University. He is the author of The Concerto Form (Shearsman Books, 2006) and the chapbooks Afield (Ugly Duckling Presse) and Vocative (Phylum Press). Recent poems of his have appeared/are forthcoming in Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Jacket, and Verse. He is currently on the faculty of University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he teaches poetry and creative writing.

Bruce Koborg has been involved with the local poetry scene for the past seven years. His work has been anthologized and he likes walks along the beach at sunset.

Greg Kosmicki is the author of several collections of poetry, including The Patron Saint of Lost and Found, and he is the editor and publisher of Backwaters Press, whose books have been featured on the Poetry Foundation's bestseller list and on Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor.

Mel Krutz's poetry and some prose can be found in many publications, such as Plainsongs; Fine Lines; Times of Sorrow/Times of Grace; Rural Voices: Literature from Rural Nebraska; and A Journey Not Chosen: Stories (and Poetry) of Breast Cancer Survivors.

Steve Langan is the author of a collection of poems, Freezing, and a chapbook, Notes on Exile & Other Poems, which received the Weldon Kees Award. He lives in Omaha.

Matt Mason has published several chapbooks of his work, and has won the Chicago Poetry Slam. His latest collection of poetry is Things We Don't Know We Don't Know, a Poetry Foundation bestseller. He maintains a comprehensive list of area literary events at poetrymenu.com

Sarah McKinstry-Brown, after studying poetry in New Mexico and the UK, embarked on a six-month North American tour performing in coffee houses, bars, libraries, and bookstores. A member of Omaha's award-winning Poetry Slam Team, McKinstry-Brown has had her work anthologized, recorded on spoken-word CDs, and recently collected in the chapbook, When You Are Born, from Blue Light Press.

Todd Robinson’s poetry has appeared in Margie, Potomac Review, Mankato Poetry Review, The Southeast Review, and elsewhere; his essays and reviews have graced the pages of Prairie Schooner, M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, The Lincoln Journal-Star, and The Dictionary of Literary Influences. He teaches at Creighton University and in the Writer's Workshop at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Marjorie Saiser has three books of poetry, including Bones of a Very Fine Hand (Backwaters Press).  She received a merit fellowship from the Nebraska Arts Council, the Literary Heritage Award, and a Nebraska Book Award.  Her poems have been published in Prairie Schooner, Georgia Review, Crab Orchard Review and other journals, as well as read by Garrison Keillor on Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac.

Mark Scott teaches English at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha. He has published two collections of poetry, Tactile Values and A Bedroom Occupation. His poems have appeared in Raritan Review, Kenyon Review, Western Humanities Review, Paris Review, and Poetry.

Mary K. Stillwell, a native of Nebraska, studied writing in both New York and on the Plains and has published poetry in a wide variety of journals, including The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, The Massachusetts Review, Confrontation, and The Little Magazine.  Her book of poems, Moving to Malibu, was published by Sandhills Press.

Laural Winter is a poet from Portland, Oregon. She has published several chapbooks, and has had poems published in Nosedive, Stanza, Feminist Broadcast Quarterly, River City Review, Playing with a Full Deck, and Riot Grrl Vancouver. Most recently she had a poem traveling in the Binder Archives of Temporary Services Organization.