Ted Lardner
Ted is not a holograph, but when Melissa was telling Helen about the man who walked through a wall, except he got part way through the wall then lost his belief that he could walk through walls, so he got stuck, and Melissa said, "and I laughed out loud, then I looked around and no one else was laughing, they were serious," and Helen and Melissa started laughing, hard, like people laugh for relief from intense inner pressure, Ted felt like a holograph, hollow, full of bee-buzz, and it felt good, and he laughed, too. Then everybody was laughing, even the molecules of the walls were laughing, even the sad molecules; they laughed hardest of all.

Nominated Poem Poem for a Son

Penny Dyer
Penny is the recipient of the 2007 Oberon Poetry Prize, and the 2006 Louisiana Literature Prize for Poetry. Other work appears in Original Sin: The Seven Deadlies Come Home to Roost, SouthernReader, Poems Niederngasse, SouthLit, Arsenic Lobster, Dogwood, Narrative, Rosebud and others. Penny stays busy inventing new words when she can’t find ones she wants. Meanwhile, she hopes her poetry manuscript, Awaiting the Fall of Babylon and her novel, Salt in the Wound, enjoy traveling the country as much as she would if they actually found publishers.

Nominated Poem Summer Storm, 1963

Regina Smith
Regina lives in Brooklyn, NY. She received her M.F.A. in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently teaches an introductory literature course at Manhattanville College, where she also serves as an academic advisor. Regina has a mild interest in wine, strange weather, and the era of the bombshell. Her poem, She, was a finalist in The Mississippi Review 2001 Poetry Prize. She was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize for Poetry.

Nominated Poem Ophelia in Winter

Jess Wigent
Jess is working towards her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Denver. She is the co-founder of the Chicago writing group Loulipo. She understandably finds Harry Mathews dreamy.

Nominated Poem What Precedes a Dash

George Kalamaras
George is a Professor of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he has taught since 1990, primarily creative writing. He is the author of six books of poetry, the most recent being Gold Carp Jack Fruit Mirrors, Even the Java Sparrows Call Your Hair, Borders My Bent Toward, and The Theory and Function of Mangoes, which won the Four Way Books Intro Series. His poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies including Best American Poetry 1997, Hambone, New American Writing, New Letters, Sulfur, TriQuarterly, and others.

Nominated Poem The Age of Bent Blood in the Throat

Andy Trebing
Andy lives and works in Chicago but still speaks Tennessee. He lives with a lady, a cat and a dog called Chickenwing.

Nominated Poem For an Old Address: