Uwe Wilken owns this Norfolk bookstore, which is located downtown in the Freemason area.

The Blue Collar Review is a quarterly journal of poetry and prose published by Partisan Press. Its mission is to expand and promote a progressive working class vision of culture that inspires and that moves the class forwards. Al Markowitz serves as editor. Mary Franke is co-editor.

Cesca Janece Waterfield won first prize in the fifth grade for a county-wide essay on the wickedness of littering, which she slipped under the courthouse door two hours past deadline. It was very pious and was printed in the newspaper. Tom Robbins grew up in her dinky town, strolled the same school hallways, and was actually her uncle for several years. These facts make her feel something, though she's not sure what. Her work has been published in the Blue Collar Review, the Powhatan Review, and various collegiate literary journals. She is the editor of Urban Views Weekly out of Richmond, and the founder and editor of the online magazine Eve In Hand. She's also a noted singer and a songwriter - honest!

A literary magazine produced annually by students of Tidewater Community College. The site includes back issues through 2002 and a downloadable submission application

Prolific group of writers and readers. Founded and coordinated by Pete Freas. The group publishes Skipping Stones an annual review of work by poets and writers in Hampton Roads.

Berman was born in Williamsburg, Va. in 1967. He graduated from the Greenhill School in Addison, Texas, the University of Virginia, and the University of Massachusetts. His band, the Silver Jews, has released four albums on Drag City Records. His first book of poetry, Actual Air, was published by Open City Press on July 1, 1999. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

An artistic base organization dedicated to community service. Using art and literature to mentor to the youths and young adults. Implementing self-expression through spoken word/poetry, visual, and performing arts. Focusing on volunteerism to aid other programs and organization in their efforts. The Diversity Poet Educators hosts events, festivals, and workshops to utilize their programs. Teaching various art forms and operating open mic venues to promote performing arts and freedom of speech.

Dowe is a local poet (and public school teacher) working his way through Old Dominion University's master's of fine arts in creative writing program.

Heather McHugh grew up in Gloucester Point, across the river from Yorktown, and attended Walsingham Academy in Williamsburg for a few years before her father took at job at the Interior Department in Washington D.C. Although some of her family returned to live in Norfolk, McHugh settled in Seattle, Washington, where she teaches as a core faculty member in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and as a Milliman Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Glasser, a resident of Norfolk, has taught at Norfolk Academy, Norview High School, and as a Poet-In-The-Schools for the Virginia Beach City Public Schools system. She has been published in Georgia Review, Hudson Review, Virginia Quarterly, New Virginia Review, Southern Review, and Poetry Northwest. She published a collection of poetry called Naming the Darkness in 1991. Recently, she won the Tampa Review Poetry Prize 2005 for her manuscipt Light Persists. The book will appear from Tampa University Press in the winter.

Dziura grew up in Virginia Beach, got a philosophy degree from Dartmouth, and now lives in Manhattan, where she works as a freelance writer, erstwhile model, and SAT teacher. She does spoken-word and comedy performances in bars around NYC and emcees New York's only spelling bee for adults. She studies at the Gotham Writers Workshop and is nearly done with her book-length collection of short stories. Oh, yeah, and she wrote a teen column for The Virginian-Pilot from 1992 to 1996, where she embedded secret hidden messages in her columns that allowed political prisoners, shady underworld mob figures, and Navajo wind talkers to speak to one another undetected through the newspaper.

Pineda was born in Charleston, S.C., raised in Chesapeake, Va., and now lives in Norfolk, Va., with his wife and two children. His first book, Birthmark, won first prize in the 2003 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards, a joint venture of Crab Orchard Review and Southern Illinois Press. It was published in March 2004. His poetry also has appeared in a variety of literary reviews, including The Literary Review, Many Mountains Moving, The Asian Pacific American Journal, Poetry Northwest, Puerto del Sol and other publications.

LIQUIDMETHOD is a graphic pulp fiction artist living in Virginia Beach. He has a fascination with muscle cars, women with attitude and the gritty side of life.

Lisa Flowers is a freelance proofreader and part-time caterer residing in the Ghent section of Norfolk, Va. Her poetry has appeared in Jack Magazine and Whimperbang Journal. She is the author of Niwot's Wake, a verse memoir, and is currently at work on a book of essays and short fiction.

An Old Dominion University professor, Dr. Luisa Igloria is a poet, fictionist, and essayist who has published five books under the name Maria Luisa Aguilar Carino. She is also the author of Songs for the Beginning of the Millennium (De La Salle University Press, 1999). She is the editor of the new anthology Not Home, But Here: Writing from the Filipino Diaspora (Anvil, 2003). **WordTech Editions will be releasing her sixth poetry book, Trill & Mordent (a finalist for the WordTech Poetry Prize) next summer (2005).

Hello, I am a local poet wishing to share my poetry/creative writing blog with local readers.