Ascent Aspirations Magazine Print Anthology Two - Windfire Contributors

Will Adam works as a copywriter in New York City, lives in Brooklyn, and was raised in Kansas.

Becky Alexander is a Cambridge, Ontario poet. She has been published in Pegasus, Country Woman, Tower, People’s Political Letter, Zygote, Canadian Writer’s Journal, The Amethyst Review, and many other journals. She has four poetry publications. Her work has won many awards and has been included in national and international anthologies. In 2000 she founded Craigleigh Press, which has published eight collections to date. Becky has edited books for fellow writers, and served as a literary judge for various groups. She was the 2002 recipient of the Bernice Adams Cultural Awards for the City of Cambridge, and won for best poem in the 2004 One Book, One Community writing contest for the Kitchener Waterloo Region, based on Jane Urquhart’s book, The Stone Carvers.

Richard Arnold lives on a modest acreage near Errington, BC. He teaches English at Malaspina University College in Nanaimo. Besides writing and reading poetry, he likes spending time with his family, hiking, canoeing, and camping. His work has been published in many print and electronic places across North America. He has two collections of poetry to his credit: a chapbook from Leaf Press (2002) and a haiku pamphlet from Island Scholastic (2003).

Eric Bonholtzer is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in numerous publications, and his short story collection, The Skeleton’s Closet, is now available at Amazon.com and Bn.com (Barnes and Noble). His poetry collection, Remnants & Shadows, is also available. A recent recipient of first place prizes in both the short story and poetry categories of the College Language Association (CLA) Creative Writing Contest/Margaret Walker Prizes for Creative Writing, Eric resides in the Los Angeles area. For more information visit www.ericbonholtzer.com

April Bulmer has four books and a chapbook. She holds graduate degrees in creative writing, religious studies and theology. She is interested in women’s spirituality. She recently won first prize in the TOPS, “Second Time Around Contest.” April lives in Cambridge, Ontario with her puppy, Lichee.

Kim Clark writes from the heart of the Sunshine Coast. Disease and desire, mothering, and the mundane propel her ongoing journey between poetry and prose. Kim has had work published in The Malahat Review, Portal, Artistry, Coffee Bean Shop, and The Coast Reporter, and has been a winner in six Capilano College, Cecilia Lamont, and Sechelt Library contests.

Susan Constable is a retired teacher and businesswoman who lives and writes on Vancouver Island. Her poems have been published in numerous on-line magazines, including Poems Niederngasse, Slow Trains, Ken*Again, and Lily. Her poetry can also be found in several print magazines, such as Island Writer, Tickled by Thunder, Tower Poetry, and Quills.

Carol Ramsden Deckert was the first winner of Canadian Author and Bookman’s New Poetry Contest. Her poetry and fiction have been broadcast on Sheila Martindale’s radio program, Cabbages & Kings and have appeared in various periodicals. Carol is head of the English Department at Orchard Park Secondary School in Stoney Creek and resides in Grimsby, Ontario.

Angela Dorsey of Port Alberni, B.C. is a fulltime writer of juvenile fiction novels, though she writes poetry, short stories, and articles as well. She has written twelve novels to date, which have been translated into nine languages and published in North America, Europe, and Eastern Europe. When she isn’t writing, Angela enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and animals, plus travelling and gardening. To check out her novels, go to www.angeladorsey.com

Margarita Engle is a botanist and the Cuban- American author of Singing to Cuba (Arte Publico Press), Skywriting (Bantam), and The Poet-Slave(forthcoming from Henry Holt). Short works appear in a wide variety of anthologies, chapbooks and journals, including a previous issue of Ascent Aspirations, Atlanta Review, California Quarterly, and Caribbean Writer. Awards include a Cintas Fellowship and a San Diego Book Award. Margarita lives in central California, where she enjoys hiking and helping her husband with his volunteer work for a wilderness search-and-rescue dog training program.

Peggy Fletcher, a native of Newfoundland, now living in Sarnia, Ontario, is widely published in Canadian and international journals and has six poetry books, a short story collection and a play published. She recently won second prize at the Elora Writers’ Festival.

Cindy Forsburg is a college instructor and small business owner in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she lives with her husband and their cat. She has had poems published in several print and online publications and is currently working on her first chapbook. She has lived in South Dakota all her life, and often begins a poem because of some brief image or phrase inspired by the prairie landscape and sky.

Keith Garebian is a prize-winning poet whose second book of poetry, Frida: Paint Me As A Volcano, was longlisted for the 2005 ReLit Award. His chapbook, Samson’s Hair And Other Satiric Fantasies, has been widely acclaimed. A member of The Writers’ Union of Canada and the League of Canadian Poets, he lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

Michael Gross is a high school English teacher and writer who lives in Woodland Hills, California. He has written two award-winning plays, A Day in the Life of a Character and Limbo and is currently working on the collection, Sudden Fiction. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, California.

Sterling Haynes is a retired urban and country medical doctor. Mostly he writes humour. This summer a poem called “The Postal Telephone Blues” was published by the New Quarterly. A short story called “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” was published by The Medical Post. The two poems, “Touretting” and “Dementia Praecox” are dark. For fourteen years he looked after people who were mentally challenged, some in A.A. He sometimes writes about these people in his poetry and creative non-fiction. Perhaps the public, politicians and the legal profession will soon realize that addiction, mental aberrations and schizophrenic problems have to be dealt with in an understanding, humanitarian, non-criminal way.

Dorothea Helms, a.k.a. The Writing Fairy, is an award-winning writer and editor who makes her living freelancing and teaching creative writing. On May 28, 2005, she was presented with the first-ever Barbara Novak Award For Excellence in Humour and/or Personal Essay Writing from the Periodical Writers Association of Canada. Dorothea’s poetry has appeared in the Spring 2002 issue of Lichen literary journal and in Legacy An Anthology of Poetry, which was published by the Canadian Authors Association in 2000. In 2003, she placed third in the Adult Category of the Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Contest. Dorothea’s first book, The Writing Fairy Guide to Calling Yourself a Writer, was published in 2005, and she is working on a novel and a book of poetry.

Wendy Holborow is Welsh and lives in Corfu, Greece, where she writes and runs a small English school. She founded and co-edited Poetry Greece for several years, has had a number of poems published internationally, and has also won prizes for her short stories.

Marcelle Kasprowicz was born in Niort, France and lives in Austin, Texas. She received an M.A. from UT at Austin (Foreign Language Education Department) in 1983. She was awarded first prize for her poem “House of Bones”, in the Austin International Poetry Festival Anthology Di-verse-city 2001. Marcelle also won an honorable mention in the Tri-language Poem Contest 2001 from Gival Press. In 2005 she was awarded second prize in the Ascent Aspirations Magazine for her poem “The Seer”. Her poem “Field Hospital” was published in the 2005 Texas Poetry Calendar. Organza Skies, her first book, was published in 2005.

Heidi Kortman, aspiring novelist, published poet and member of the Christian Writer’s Guild, lives in Michigan and is aunt to nine children.

Darya Kowalski was born in Saskatchewan, grew up in Alberta, and then discovered BC was the best place to spend the rest of her life. Writing is her panacea especially during the rainy season in Surrey.

Linda A. Lavid lives in Buffalo, New York. She is the author of Rented Rooms, a collection of short fiction and Paloma, a novel of romantic suspense. Thirst, a second collection of short fiction is due out shortly. Her website is www.lindalavid.com

Sue Littleton: Born in Texas, Sue Littleton now lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her first two books, in Spanish, were published in Buenos Aires in 1972 and 1974. After 18 years in Argentina, she returned to Texas in 1976 and in 1990 received a B.L.S. from St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas. She has published six chapbooks. The Ranch on the Pecos, the story of her family’s West Texas sheep ranch was published in 1996. Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies, including three of the Ascent Aspirations anthologies and in the Ascent Aspirations Magazine online. Her poem “Regime Change Begins at Home,” from 100 Poets Against the War, has been published in Croatia and Denmark. She has edited three poetry anthologies and for five years hosted bilingual poetry venues in Austin under the auspices of the Austin Commission for the Arts. Sue is one of the four founders of the Austin International Poetry Festival, now attended by poets from all over the world. She has four books on CDrom, two with audio readings (Waltsan Publishing) and her bilingual illustrated epic poem, Corn Woman, Mujer Maiz, is available in its entirety at hhtp://www.waltsan.com/FTP/sandra/corn_woman/index.html and is the history of corn in the Americas. She has participated in the Encounters of Narrators and Poets organized by the Asociación Cultural de las Dos Orillas, Uruguay, and is presenting two books, one an illustrated bilingual re-edition of Imágenes/Images and the other Papel de Barrilete/Kite Paper (Botella al Mar, Colección Poetas del Sur) at the 2007 Uruguayan Book Fair.

James Manton lives in Dallas and is a software developer for a global internet company. His first novel was a finalist in the 2002 Santa Fe Writers Project. His current novel is about an electronic virus which brings down the electrical grid of the world. His short story collection, Guadalupe River, Texas: Collusions of Electricity was honorable mention in The Paper Journey Press, 2005. Widely traveled, James spent several winters working with a seismic crew in Alaska, and more recent computer projects landed him in England with bike riding ventures to New Zealand. Bonaire, in the Dutch Caribbean, is his favorite new island. There, they make a drink called the Bon Bini Tini. In every language it spells the same: Cheers!

Kate Marshall Flaherty's poetry has won several awards, including Word Magazine, THIS Magazine, Shaunt Basmajian Award for 2006 and was shortlisted for Descant’s Winston Collins Best Canadian Poem 2006 and Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. In Toronto she teaches yoga, meditation and leads teen retreats and workshops for Children’s Peace Theatre.

Trish McFalls: Vivacious, tenacious and a weirdo with a tremendous ability to look like she’s in control when she has no clue what’s really going on around her - that’s how her friends would describe Trish McFalls. Maybe. Her close friends would call her sensitive, caring, creative and hilarious. She would describe herself as an amateur voyeur on the world. She grew up in Southwestern Ontario, lives in the Greater Toronto Area, and has moved around the southern part of the province in her 20’s. Academically she has a background in Religious Studies and English. Practically she is a parent, a friend, a neighbour, an ex, a funeral director, and for the most part a lover of socializing.

Vincent McGillivray enjoys creation in many forms: short stories, screenplays, songs, and poetry. Two of his poems, “African Watering Hole” and “Interstate Purgatory”, were published in 2002 by Hidden Brook Press in the anthology, Oval Victory: the Best of Canadian Poetry. Vincent lives in Toronto with his wife Cassie.

Susan Mintz is currently working as a computer programmer, and has recently been to India as a CIDA intern. She has also travelled to Ghana as a volunteer teacher.

Debbie Okun Hill Since the fall 2004, Debbie Okun Hill has had two short stories and over 60 poems published in over 25 different Canadian and US publications including Quills, MOBIUS, North American Maple, Rhyme and Reason: Modern Formal Poetry, Reportage (Cranberry Tree Press), and all print editions of Ascent Aspirations Magazine. Her poems have won awards from The Ontario Poetry Society, the Canadian Poetry Association, the 2006 Toward the Light Poetry Contest, and most recently the 2007 WCDR Dan Sullivan Memorial Poetry Contest. Read her most current work in the chapbook Executive Sweet: A Collection of Poetry by TOPS Executives.

M. E. Powell (Marie Mendenhall) is a Regina-based writer. Her poetry has been published by Transition and Pandora’s Collective (second place, 2005 Summer Dream contest; honorable mention, 2006 Hibernating With Words contest). She also won first place in the Saskatchewan Writers Guild 2005 Short Literary Awards, children/youth category. Scholastic will publish her first children’s nonfiction book shortly, and Altitude will publish her first adult nonfiction book later this year.

Shannon Riggs writes for adults and children. Her first book, Not in Room 204, is due out in Spring 2007 from Albert Whitman & Co. Shannon’s work is represented by The Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Visit Shannon’s Internet home at shannonriggs.com.

Mary E. Robinson is a retired social worker. Born in Edmonton, she has lived most of her adult life in Calgary. She began writing late in life, both poetry and short fiction.

Michael Simon is a practicing physician in eastern Canada who manages to pen short stories in his spare time. His stories have been published in Stitches Magazine, Apex Science Fiction and Horror and in several anthologies. His works have been recognized in many contests including first place in the 2004 Canestoga Contest, runner up in the 2005 National Fan Federation Contest and quarter finalist in L. Ron Hubbard Writers of The Future Contest 2005. Several of his stories have been published online.

Pat Smekal has always loved words. She would write more of them if she didn’t spend so much time with other loves, including Yoga, hiking, travel, kayaking and grandchildren. Nonetheless, during the past four years or she has won a number of prizes across Canada for her poetry, and has had work published in Island Writer, Reportage, Love the Main Course, A World of Words 2006, and Ascent Aspirations Anthologies (One and Two). Pat and her husband, George, live next to the sea, on Vancouver Island.

Kirk Stensrud was born in 1980 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He now lives in Calgary where he works for dsv2 media as a programmer.

Lynn Strongin (b. NYC 1939) grew up in and around New York and in certain parts of the rural South which made a deep impression on her. Parents of Eastern European Jewish ancestors raised her in a rich artistic environment. Her memoir Indigo is based largely on these two locales. Chapters of Indigo have appeared in various venues such as StorySouth, Atlantic /3711, Verb Sap, The Square Table, Riverbabble and in Italy’s Storie. “Audubon Wallpaper,” a chapter which came out first in StorySouth was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She will have twelve books out by mid-2006, among them the anthology The Sorrow Psalms;A Book of Twentieth Century Elegy to be published by the University of Iowa Press, June 2006. Her work appears in over thirty anthologies, seventy journals. In the Sixties, she worked for poet Denise Levertov in the political environment of Berkeley. Most recently her prose has appeared in The Dublin Review. For the past twenty-five years she has made Victoria, British Columbia her home.

Lynn Tait lives in Sarnia, Ontario. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Lichen, Windsor Review, Quills, Contemporary Verse 2, Carousel, No Love Lost III, and Ascent Aspirations Magazine Anthology Two, Windfire. She has published a chapbook titled Breaking Away, 2002.

John A. Vanek’s John A. Vanek wants to thank Ascent Aspirations Magazine - Wildfire Anthology for awarding him First Prize in Poetry. He has since published his first full-length book of poetry entitled HEART MURMURS (Bird Dog Publishing, 2009), available at Amazon.com and Borders.com. He has published four dozen poems in literary journals and magazines, been reprinted by the U. of Iowa Press (Red, White and Blues – Poets on the Promise of America), and had a poem inducted into the permanent collection of the George Bush Presidential Library. Thank you, Ascent Aspirations Magazine, for giving me a leg up.

Liz Vassallo is 22 years old and has just graduated from Boston College with a bachelor of arts degree in English and a concentration in creative writing. She is currently working as a first grade teacher on the Indian Reservation of Zuni, New Mexico where she hopes to continue writing.

Ann Graham Walker is a writer and journalist who moved to Vancouver Island in the summer of 2002, after living and working in Nova Scotia for twenty-five years. She had many wonderful experiences in Nova Scotia - raising three children, working as a CBC radio producer, getting a front-row seat on the political world as speech writer to former Nova Scotia premier, Dr. John Savage, publishing a book about Halifax, and enjoying many friendships. However being a cold-weather wimp at heart, she was very happy to leave her snow shovels behind and swap them for the West Coast’s blissful gardening and majestic landscapes. She still works as a freelance journalist, hikes and gardens profusely, and lives in Nanoose Bay with her husband, a Border collie and three cats. Since coming to BC she has published a story - “Categories” in Word Works, and had a poem published on the “Monday’s Poem” segment of the Leaf Press web site.

Kaimana Wolff is a writer with British Columbia roots, currently in hiding on an island (aren’t we all?).   Kai’s older than dirt, juicier than a mango, and busier than a rodent.

Joan Donaldson-Yarmey was born in Vancouver and raised in Edmonton. She has five children and seven grandchildren. She moved to Vancouver Island in 2004 and settled in Port Alberni this spring. She has been writing for about twenty years. Her first article was published in Western People. She has seven travel books--Backroads of Vancouver Island, Backroads of Southwestern B.C., Backroads of Southern Interior B.C., Backroads of Central and Northern B.C., Backroads of the Yukon and Alaska, Backroads of Southern Alberta, and Backroads of Northern Alberta, all of which are published through Lone Pine Publishing in Edmonton, AB. She has had articles published in Motorhome and Up Here, Life in Canada’s North, and a short story in ComputorEdge in San Diego, CA. She likes to travel, dragonboat, garden, paint, and write.