Len Richmond
An American from Santa Monica, California, LEN RICHMOND created and co-wrote one of the most popular comedy series in British Television. Agony, about an advice columnist whose life is in disarray, has been broadcast in 24 countries (including twice on PBS). The series (starring Maureen Lipman) was nominated for numerous BAFTA and Writer’s Guild Awards, and won the AGLA Media Award for the "Responsible portrayal of its gay and lesbian characters".

Len is co-editor of "The Gay Liberation Book" (Ramparts Press), which had original contributions from John Lennon, William Burroughs, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Isherwood. It was a landmark book, stocked extensively in libraries, and used as a course text in Universities. It was followed several years later by The New Gay Liberation Book, which Len also co-edited.

More recently, he wrote and directed an award-winning independent feature film. "A Dirty Little Business" (ThinkFilm) is a romantic comedy set in the sex toy business. It stars Michael York, Brian Cox, and Beverly D’Angelo, with an original musical score by Erasure.

Jo Perridge
was born in Somerset, England in 1979 and developed a taste for writing after writing several pantomimes and plays that were performed by a local amateur dramatics group. After obtaining a degree in Classical History and Civilisation she worked for several years for the UK government and then moved into the legal field, specialising in motorcycle incidents. She currently lives in Hampshire, England with her husband and young daughter.

Brenda Petrakos
Brenda Petrakos is a writer/spoken word artist from Los Angeles, CA.
In 1979, her first play was published and produced at The Mercury Cafe Theater in Denver, CO. Her prose adventure started 20 years later in Los Angeles poetry scene.
Her work has been published by poeticdiversity, Sylvan Press, The Messenger, Voices of New Women Writers (Spring 2007 Duke University Press), Falling Star Magazine, and Really Big Show Anthologies 2& 3.
She has performed as a spoken word artist in various venues including: Beyond Baroque, The World Stage, London’s Barbarian Poetry Reading, World Theater Festival, World Poetry Festival, and anywhere else that will allow.

Connie Bailey
I was born on an Air Force base and I’ve been in flight ever since. My father took the family with him wherever he was stationed; Spain, Morocco, Turkey, and Alaska were among his postings. While studying commercial arts, I married a musician who turned out to be a pilot in disguise. Having no burning ambition of my own at the time, I devoted myself to his dream. His job as aircraft designer and competition pilot has taken us all over the world. I have now set foot on almost every continent (a personal life ambition), but I don’t hold out much hope for Antarctica anymore.

I have always loved to read. Since I was four, reading has been my favorite diversion and books my best friends. A few years ago, with my husband’s support, I set out to become a writer. I wrote every day and posted what I wrote at various Internet groups and later on livejournal. I cannot recommend this school of writing highly enough. The candid feedback I received was invaluable to my development. I kept working at it, and one day I received the most exciting e-mail ever. A publisher wanted to talk to me.

That’s pretty much it so far. There are a few fun facts like: my only child is a rescued Greyhound named Lizard, I live at a small grass airfield with a hang gliding school, I have what’s commonly referred to as a “photographic memory”, I collect words as a hobby, and my only nickname is “The Judge.”

Pleased to meet you.

To learn more, visit her website: conniebaileyfiction.com

D. L. Warner
D.L. Warner has been an aspiring writer for as long as she can remember. However, despite degrees in Journalism and Creative Writing, she did not pursue this profession seriously until ten years ago and after many years of working in Public Relations and public service. After the death of her mother, Patricia, Deborah decided that it was time to stop playing it safe and take a chance on her dreams. Fortunately, she had a man in her life crazy enough to think that was a good idea. Thus, Deborah and her husband, Jon Cunningham have been flying without a net in the wilds of Los Angeles for nearly ten years. Aside from a lot of experience in retail, they have a feature film, Demon Under Glass, to their credit and several projects in development.

To learn more, visit her website: dlwarner.com

Marie Lecrivain
Marie Lecrivain is the executive editor of poeticdiversity: the litzine of Los Angeles. She's a 2nd-level denizen of Dante's Inferno, and is a writer in residence at her apartment.
Her prose and poetry have appeared in AE Magazine, Earth's Daughters, Subtle Tea, Triplopia, and in the upcoming anthology Literary Angles: the second year of poeticdiversity (Sybaritic Press 2005). She is the author of two poetry collections: Canticle of a Bored Hausfrau (Sybaritic Press 2003), and poetry whored, an e-chapbook (Tamafyhr Mountain Press 2004).
Marie's avocations include photography, Sean Bean, felines, expensive handbags, and sensual tributes upon her neck from male artists-except male poets, who only write about it.

Wayne Popelka
Following a horrible break up and a period of binge drinking, Wayne E. Popelka woke up to find himself enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Trained as a Spanish linguist, Wayne served with distinction in Washington DC, San Antonio, TX and sunny Monterey, CA. After his enlistment, general malaise and an incident involving a lack of birthday cake motivated Wayne to seek work overseas.  

Wayne secured a position as an Intelligence Analyst with the Iraq Survey Group. This, his first book, documents his conquests, exploits, and overall melancholy as existing in or around the U.S. military. Wayne now distributes his time equally between comic books, history, music, languages, bad first dates, and Texas Hold‘em.

To learn more, visit his website: somewhereinthemiddlebook.com

Steve Goldman
Steve Goldman is the founder/MC of The Venice Poetry Readings in The New Library, successor/continuation of The Venice Poetry Readings in the Old Jail, after a short 20-year hiatus.
His work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Solo, Verve, Glue, The Venice Beachhead, The Santa Monica Bay News, Abalone Moon, poeticdiversity and The Walt Whitman Pioneer, the last his junior high school literary magazine in 1951. In that publication, the last two lines of his debut poem were cut off via Goldman’s failure to include his whole text on just one side of a page, as required. Additionally, he appears in Abalone Moon, of which he is an Associate Editor. Goldman fervently denies conflict of interest thereabout; if Editor-in-Chief Velene Campbell is silly enough to publish Goldman’s poems, he disclaims responsibility.
His long awaited (by himself at any rate) collection The Canon of the Lone Ranger is now ready for publication, after a short interlude of 35 years in preparation. His chapbook Rachmunas has been approved for publication by Casa de Poesia Press.
Goldman teaches fencing, the sport based on sword fighting, not the art of receiving stolen goods. Inasmuch as Goldman is also the king, he has recently awarded himself an MFA. Following Octavio Paz, who said “Poetry is important, the poet is not.” – Goldman abominates the Yupoet phenomenon.