Lana Abernathy, Flashpoint (fiction). Lana Abernathy wears her small town-edness around her neck like an albatross, having grown up in rural Colorado. After earning her B.A. in English at USC, however, she finds herself curiously trapped in the utopian nightmare that is Davis. She hopes to earn her Master's and high-tail it out of Smallsville, U.S.A. and one day be a "writer" in the "big city."

Stuart Allen, photographs. Stuart Allen is an artist and curator based in Woodland, CA whose photographs, site specific sculpture and kites have been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad. He produces artwork which illustrates an exchange or dialogue with the natural environment. His work is represented locally by the Michael Himovitz Gallery in Sacramento. Stuart is also the gallery director of the Davis Art Center in Davis, CA.

Amy Boyer, Making Home (fiction). Amy Boyer was raised on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, which is just like the Sacramento Valley except that it's a high place between two bodies of water rather than a low place between two mountain ranges. In her wayward youth she earned a B.A. in mathematics from Oberlin College, but now that she has become older & wiser she is a starving (well, impecunious) artist. She lives in the West Plainfield floodplain near Davis, where she enjoys watching the hayfields turning into lakes each January. Since she hasn't been washed away by the winter rains, she suspects she has taken root like the cottonwoods.

Sabina Chen, Mrs. Rottenbacher's Box of Chocolates (fiction). Sabina Chen loves clarity of prose, the sound of words, the taste of plum sauce, and Cardinal football. She hates being called "Sabrina." She hates being called "the next Amy Tan."

Kirk Colvin, The Oldest Woman in the World (fiction). Employment: Twenty-seven years as a Coast Guard aviator (7000+ flight hours). I've lived in all corners of the US, including Alaska, and Hawaii. Did two years in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as the Coast Guard Attaché. Had the pleasure of helping Baby Doc Duvalier, and his corrupt entourage, sneak out of the country in the dead of night. (We thought things would get better after he left. We guessed wrong.) My wife asks me why I write. I tell her because it feels good when I stop.

Rachel Dilworth, Anniversary: San Marco, Venice, Picture Window: Snowscape Opened, The Starry Day, Backroad Ornithology (poetry). Rachel Dilworth received her B.A. in English from Yale University, where she was also awarded the Frederick M. Clapp Fellowship for poetry and the Francis Bergen Memorial Prize for poetry. Rachel is also a recent recipient of the Academy of American Poets' Celeste Turner Wright Prize. She has particular weaknesses for good coffee, good beer, Yeats, and sideburns.

Sean McDonnell, You Shovel Under Stars, Hieronymus Bosch in the Sacramento Valley (poetry). Sean McDonnell was born and raised in the wilds of Pennsylvania. After two years on the West Coast, he is still suspicious of California Cuisine. His poems are also forthcoming in Painted Bride Quarterly.

Sandra McPherson (featured poet), Research Trail, Cold Canyon, November, Path Through a Few Things that Must Be Said for Putah Creek, at the Foot of Monticello Dam, Esther Mack's Utility Quilt with the Lights in It, Mrs. Longmire Builds a Picket Fence Quilt and Talks to It, Tents-of-Armageddon Quilt, Black Improvisation, 1980s, Black Quilt from the '60s: Synthetics: The No Blocks, Finding the Quilter in Her Quilt, Waterfall with Baskets, Summer Quilt, Center: Strip and Medallion Quilt, 1890, by Mrs. Longmire. Sandra McPherson's most recent full-sized collections of her poems are The Spaces Between Birds: Mother/Daughter Poems 1967-1995 and Edge Effect: Trails and Portrayals, both published in 1996 by Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England. She has 6 other books as well as several chapbooks. She collects quilts and folk art. Anyone interested in purchasing Beauty In Use is encouraged to contact Sandra.

Pamela Moore, driving to work, Sacramento freeway, bread crumbs, tule perch, mariposa lily, yellow star thistle (poetry). Pamela Moore dreams under a quilt in Fair Oaks, California when she's not up until 2 a.m. grading papers, watching Charlie Rose, or writing poems. Until June 11th, she can sometimes be found in her office in Voorhies Hall or in line for coffee at the M.U. After that, she'll be looking for real work; you may see her delivering your mail come August.

D. Foy O'Brien, Redness Spreads Its Message, Hyacinths and Flash: Snakes: Others, Beds, Murder (poetry). D. Foy O'Brien lives in Northern California.

Laurie Regan, Signs, Contemplating Spheres (poetry). Laurie Regan is a first year graduate student in the creative writing program. She received her B.A. in creative writing at UC Santa Barbara. Her published work includes a children's book and ESL teaching manuals.

David Robertson, photographs. David Robertson is Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, where he also teaches in the Program in Nature and Culture and in the Graduate Group in Ecology. He is the author of Real Matter (University of Utah Press, 1997).

Augustus Rose, The Lost Father (fiction). Augustus Rose is a second-year graduate student in the UC Davis Creative Writing Program.

Andrea Ross, Mortar and Pestle, A Year in Chico Creek Canyon, La Negresse, The Architecture of Belonging (poetry). Andrea Ross is a first-year graduate student in the UC Davis Creative Writing Program.

Christopher Sindt, Self Portrait from a Broken Down Aviary (poetry). Christopher Sindt was recently the winner of the James D. Phelan Award and a fellowship at the Macdowell Colony. He is Program Director of the Art of the Wild writing conference and a Ph.D. candidate in English at UC Davis.

Stephen Stralka, The Inside Man (fiction). Stephen Stralka is a native of Riverside, California. He holds degrees from UC Berkeley and UC Riverside, and is currently a graduate student at UC Davis.

Claire Van Vliet, quilt designs. Claire Van Vliet is a MacArthur Fellow. A painter, book designer, and fine printer, she runs Janus Press in West Burke, Vermont.