Stephen Cooper received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Irvine, and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. In addition to scholarly articles in literary magazines and film journals, he has published short stories in such periodicals as Southwest Review, The Threepenny Review, American Fiction, and Hot Type. Among his honors are an N.E.A. Creative Writing Fellowship in Fiction and CSULB's Distinguished Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activities Award. He is the editor of Perspectives on John Huston and the author of Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante. He discovered and edited the manuscript of John Fante's last book, The Big Hunger: Stories 1932-1959/, and is also a co-editor of John Fante: A Critical Gathering. His biography of Fante and his edition of The John Fante Reader were named among the Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year.
Elliot Fried received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Irvine. His books of poetry include The Man Who Owned Cars and Marvel Mystery Oil. He has also edited three anthologies: Amorotica, Men Talk, and Gridlock, and has published fiction and poetry in many anthologies and magazines. He is a co-founder of the Long Beach Poetry Festival.
Winner of the 2003 Drue Heinz Prize for Literature, Suzanne Greenberg is the author of Speed-Walk and Other Stories. She is also the co-author of Everyday Creative Writing: Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink, which is now in its second edition. Her fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in numerous publications, including the Mississippi Review, West Branch, and The Washington Post Magazine. Recipient of Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Fiction, she received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland.
Gerald I. Locklin received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. His books include The Case of the Missing Blue Volkswagen, Charles Bukowski: A Sure Bet, Candy Bars: Selected Stories, The Life Force Poems, The Firebird Poems, and Go West, Young Toad. He is co-editor of A New Geography of Poets and poetry editor of Chiron Review. His work has appeared in Wormwood Review, American Scholar, Prairie Schooner, Western Humanities Review, 5 AM, and hundreds of other anthologies and magazines.
Considered an invaluable resource to MFA students at CSULB, The Locklin Collection spans more than 40 years of writing. The Collection is comprised of books, magazines, manuscripts, correspondence, and clippings that relate to Locklin. An Index to the extensive Locklin Collection, in the CSULB Library's Special Collections archive, may be accessed online. Scholars of Charles Bukowski and others frequently utilize the collection, which contains over fifty letters written to Locklin by Bukowski, as well as those from many from other well-known authors.
Locklin's book The Pocket Book: Novella and Stories, is out now.
Bill Mohr's writing has been published in over six dozen magazines and a dozen anthologies, including Best of the Web 2008 (Dzanc Books). His collections of poetry include Hidden Proofs (Bombshelter Press, 1982), Vehemence (New Alliance Records, 1993), and Bittersweet Kaleidoscope (If Publications, 2006). Prior to earning a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, San Diego, he served as the editor and publisher of Momentum Press, in support of which he was awarded four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The poets and writers he published included Leland Hickman, Alicia Ostriker, Jim Moore, James Krusoe, Holly Prado, Harry Northup, and Kate Braverman. He also edited two major anthologies of Los Angeles poets, The Streets Inside (1978) and “Poetry Loves Poetry” (1985). In addition to being awarded grants to do research at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Dr. Mohr was a Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 1996.
Charles Harper Webb received his MFA in Professional Writing and his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern California. His books of poetry include Reading the Water (Northeastern University Press), which won the 1997 Morse Poetry Prize and the 1998 Kate Tufts Discovery Award; Liver (University of Wisconsin Press), which won the 1999 Felix Pollak Prize; Tulip Farms and Leper Colonies (BOA Editions, 2001), and Hot Popsicles (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005). His poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, and Poets of the New Century. He is the editor of Stand Up Poetry: An Expanded Anthology, co-editor of Grand Passion: The Poets of Los Angeles, as well as recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. He is a licensed psychotherapist and worked as a professional singer and guitarist for many years.
Rafael Zepeda received his MFA from the University of Oregon. His books include Horse Medicine & Other Stories, The Yellow Ford of Texas, and The Durango Poems. His poems and stories have appeared in many anthologies and magazines. He is the recipient of an N.E.A. Creative Writing Fellowship in Fiction and a P.E.N. Syndicated Fiction Award.
