The Sylvan Echo

Mel Jones has a wide variety of interests. She is a mother, grandmother, aviculturist (which is much like being a mother), teacher (again, much like being a mother), student – She is currently working on an MFA at Antioch University in Los Angeles. She tries to write something creative everyday.

She has Bachelors Degrees in History and English from The College of William and Mary and Masters Degrees in Literature and Writing & Rhetoric (commonly referred to as Composition Studies) from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Publications include The William & Mary Gallery, Sherwood Forest, several local newspapers and one book of poetry, Between The Lines.

She is passionate about writing, her parrots, good literature and music (anything but rap and opera), politics, things Irish, movies, her partner, her kids, and her day job – not necessarily in that order on any given day.

She lives and writes on a “pleasure” farm in rural Virginia with a horse, cats, a dog, chickens, peacocks, nine parrots her partner and her youngest child.

For those interested, she is a Libra, with Aquarius rising, and an Aries Moon — The aspects in her chart form a Star of David (two grand trines) — cool huh?

Andreana Binder has a wide variety of interests. She is a friend, a lover, a confidant, and at times, a spaz. Currently working on an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles, she writes sporadically, and daily.

With a BA in English-Creative Writing from the University of Houston, Andreana has over 12 years experience in art studio. Andreana’s friends say that her impressionistic portraits sometimes look wicked and scary. She’s also been known to paint a grapefruit or two.

Publications include articles on several websites including Booksisters.com, and HoustonManufacturers.com. In addition, Andreana has also been published in the Anthology of American Writers 2003, and the Temenos Journal of Central Michigan State University.

She appreciates film noir and writes from her home in Houston, Texas, where she has no pets—not even a fish. Current projects include incorporating movie techniques in her poetry. Andreana drinks loose leaf tea, and an occasional Bailey’s on ice.

For those interested, she is a Libra with a moon in Aries, like fellow editor Mel Jones—so be careful, they write passionately and love furiously—which has nothing to do with submitting your work—but they’re good people at The Sylvan Echo.

Barbara Simpson has either a wide variety of or no interests, depending on how much medication she has in her system at any given time. She does not write daily, and is, in fact, quite good at avoiding it altogether. (Feel free to contact her if you are unable to come up with your own Ways to Avoid Writing.)

She earned a BA in English at Virginia Tech a long time ago, but got little out of it besides a honkin’ huge diploma and twelve years’ worth of employment in the Office of the University Registrar (for which she is nonetheless grateful). After years of whining that she didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up, she has finally returned to her first love, writing, and is currently an MFA candidate at Antioch University-Los Angeles. (Which, by the way, Atlantic Monthly just named as one of the country’s top 5 low-residency MFA prgrams.)

An Amherst Writers and Artists affiliate, she works as a freelance proofreader and editor, teaches adult-education classes at Lake Michigan College, mentors second graders, and leads AWA writing workshops in her spare time. A short-short story, “Night Terrors,” will appear in the flash fiction anthology On a Whim, scheduled for an October 2007 release. Her nonfiction essay, “Saturdays with Mom,” will appear in an upcoming anthology edited by Holly Hughes, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. Her poems have been published in several small journals that no one has ever heard of (but to which she is nonetheless grateful).

Born in Detroit, Barbara has lived in Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Virginia and Iowa, and has recently returned to Michigan through no fault of her own. She lives in Saint Joseph, near the shore of Lake Michigan, with her husband, two cats, and the spirits of her previous cats who are, the animal communicator assures her, always with her. She loves the lake and riding her bike. That is, she loves the lake and riding her bike when she’s not avoiding all things healthy.

Kristin Stoner devotes most of her time to three things: her family, her two neurotic dogs, and her poetry. She is currently working on an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and continues to write passionately in coffee shops in and around Des Moines, Iowa.

Kristin received her BA in English and her MA in Literature and Creative Writing (specialization in Poetry) from Iowa State University. She currently teaches Composition to enthusiastic students enrolled in Des Moines Area Community College where she mercilessly forces them to listen to her “poem of the day”.

Publications include print journals such as Natural Bridge and The Briar Cliff Review, as well as on-line journals such as Prairie Poetry.

Kristin’s current obsession is the study of fairytales, specifically the story of Little Red Riding Hood. She has found Little Red to be a flowing crimson fountain of inspiration.

Look out, like Mel, Barbara and Andreana, Kristin is also a Libra. You are surrounded!

Apinya Pokachaiyapat Born and raised in Thailand, Apinya moved to the U.S. at the age of twelve to pursue her education. Years later, she is still a student in various parts of life and probably will be for the rest of her life. Currently she is working on an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and a 500 hours yoga teacher-training certification at YogaWorks, Santa Monica. She loves the outdoors and so does her dog, Mango. She received degrees in Mathematics and Engineering from Columbia and a Masters in Mathematics from UCLA before moving on to pursue her interests in writing and documentary film. Since making the transition she has produced for numerous documentaries and commercials that have aired nationally and been acknowledged on the festival circuit (Out of the Shadow – official selection Silverdocs, Vancouver International Film Festival), picked up an additional degree in film from UCLA, and spent time working for the International Documentary Association.

Desiree Kannel does not have a wide variety of interest but is Okay with that because of the fact that the few things she is interested in take up most of her time. Her number one interest is her teenage daughter, Sarah. Coming in at a close second is her writing. Desiree writes fiction and poetry and has had worked published in newversenews.blogspot.com and the literary journal for California State University Dominquez Hills. She is also the editor of Under the Structure, a literary journal (print) premiering this fall. Other interests that take up Desiree’s time include her dog, Cupcake, her creative writing studies at Antioch University and teaching.