b stephen is a lost maritimer, who is in no real hurry to return. With nothing better to do with his time he daydreams about the perfect word. Poems by b stephen can be found in Free Verse, an anthology by above/ground press, Chasing Sundogs, (anthology) Friday Circle Chapbook Series, Bywords, Hook & Ladder, the Friday Circle Broadsheet series, Bard Celebrates Ottawa Poetry, volume 1(cassette tape, containing 16 Ottawa poets), Remember Earth, and Paperplates. His first chapbook called Surcharges Sometimes Apply was published by Friday Circle Chapbook Series in 1996.

Seymour is the author, editor, or translator of more than thirty books and monographs. His collection Name (1975) won the Segal Prize, and a later volume, Killing Time (Mosaic Press,1992), was awarded the Jewish Book committee Prize. The Song of Moses (InterAccess Technology Corp./Concertina/ Menard,1995), a selection of his biblical poems, was published in both electronic and print editions. A sequence of poems on Spanish themes, Dragon Trees (Friday Circle Chapbook Series), is scheduled for publication later this year. Editor of a number of texts and anthologies including Jerusalem (Vehicule Press, 1996), he has also translated poetry from several languages. In 1990, he received an American Literary Translators Association Award for his translations from the Yiddish.

Kane is a prolific artist, writer, and musician who is currently involved as co-ordinator of the Dusty Owl Reading Series. He is an up and coming individual who merges art and writing to form brave new creations. This year he will be producing 3 chapbooks, a literary-visual cohesion book, and has a novel in the works. With his youthful vigor and attention to culture and subue the lack of unity and widespread apathy. Kane's first chapbook called MeniscuS was published by Dusty Owl, in 1997.

There wasn't much before, but after being a little girl for a while, she got married and had a bunch of children. Now that they are almost all grown up, she, too, has decided to become an adult. Poetry appeals to her because it is the purest form of the drug (and not because it gets her dated, which, after all, are reasonably priced at most grocery stores.) She co-hosts Sasquatch, a poetry reading series in Ottawa, publishes YOU & I, a quarterly newsletter at Orleans United Church, and writes the Odd book review. She thinks men who appreciate chubby thighs are sexy, even though most of them are dead. Apparently.

Stephanie Bolster's first book, a collection of poems inspired by Alice in--and out of-- Wonderland and entitled White Stone: the Alice poems, is forthcoming from Signal Editions (Vehicule Press) in Spring 1998. She was the 1996 winner of the Bronwen Wallace Award. Her chapbook, Three Bloody Words, was published by above/ground press in 1996 and her poetry has appeared in many literary journals and in the anthology Breathing Fire: Canada's New Poets (Harbour). She has work forthcoming in another anthology, A Room at the Heart of Things (Vehicule) and in the journals PRISM international, The Malahat Review and Contemporary Verse 2, where she recently won the 1996/97 poetry contest. Originally from Vancouver, she now lives, writes and teaches writing in Ottawa.

Tamara Fairchild is a former Ottawa poet who recently relocated to to Toronto. She divides her efforts roughly 50/50 between performance and printed poetry. She recently performed at Word on the Street, the Idler Pub and the Basement reading series' in Toronto, as well as at LitLive in Hamilton. On the printed poetry side, her work has appeared in Room of One's Own, as well as in numerous small publications. Her second chapbook, "Mississauga and other made-up places," is forthcoming shortly by above/ground press. She is presently at work on a book-length manuscript entitled: "How childbirth unhinged me." In Spring '97, Tamara and co-editor Grant Wilkins (Ottawa) will be launching a new nationally-distributed literary magazine called "The Canadian Journal of Contemporary Literary Stuff." 

David Collins was born in Kinston Ontario in 1964, but has spent most of his life in and around the Ottawa area. He has also lived in Toronto, Montreal and New Delhi. He started writing poems in 1982. His little books include:

close-up (Paragon Enterprises) 1986 
a month in the life of a fool (above/ground press) 1993 
half-serious (Sanity Press) 1994 
in twenty words or less (Black Squirrel Press) 1994 
devour with eyes (Black Squirrel Press) 1996 
the words that remain (Sanity Press) 1996

His next collection of poems entitled moon + moon = venus will likely appear in the spring of 1997. 

Robin Hannah recently won the 1996 New Muse Award run by Broken Jaw Press, for her manuscript It is the gift of screws.  The New Muse Award is given annually to a first full-length poetry manuscript & the winning entry is published by Broken Jaw Press. Her collection will appear in June 1997. She is also the author of the chapbook Line of Half, published by above/ground press. Robin was one of the original members responsible for the BARD Poetry Reading Series and one of the co-founders of Hook & Ladder, an Ottawa poetry journal.  For more information on the New Muse Award, or previous winners, write Broken Jaw Press, box 596 stn A, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A6. 

Christal was with graffito for a year or more and was one of the founding members. She published her first chapbook, Fluting Through Bamboo, with Friday Circle Chapbook Series in 1996. Her poetry has also appeared in bywords and the Friday Circle Broadsheet Series.

Robert to was one of the founding members of graffito. He is one of the original poets of the modern era in Ottawa. Along with a few of his friends he start one of Ottawa first zines in the early '70's called Sparks, which later became a Radio show on one of the local radio stations. Most recently Robert successfully, produced at evening of blue and poetry called Lady Reads the Blues. Presently Robert is working as chief organizer for the Ottawa Valley Book Festival 1997.