Ducts.org: Contributors

essays

Fred has lived a pretty uneventful life for your average holocaust evader. Arriving in NYC from Germany just before WWII he attended New York’s Stuyvesant High School and the University of Pennsylvania and was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Following a career in advertising and as a freelance writer he became a TV infomercial producer. In 2000 an interlude of open heart surgery inspired him to write his memoirs. Among other memories he tells about the abstract expressionist painters of the Chelsea school, 15 minutes of fame on a TV Quiz show, sex, drugs and Studio 54. He is an avid skier and photographer and now lives in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Derek Alger

fiction

Derek is a freelance writer whose most recent fiction has appeared in Confrontation, The Literary Review, Del Sol Review, and Writers Notes. He is currently the head editor of PIF Magazine, as well as its fiction editor, and a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at Columbia University

Bill Bilodeau

columns

Bill is the editor of a small daily newspaper in New Hampshire. He studied creative writing at Harvard and is currently at work on a novel. He is married... with children.

Jane Camens

fiction

Jane worked in Hong Kong as a contributing editor for the Far Eastern Economic Review. Her short stories have been broadcast on the BBC World Service, won prizes in Hong Kong and been published in literary journals and anthologies in Asia and the UK. Jane holds an MFA from the low residency writing program at Vermont College, USA, and an MA in Writing from the University of East Anglia in the UK. She is currently working on a novel as part of a PhD in Creative Writing at Griffith University in Australia.

Brandon Cole

Fiction

Brandon has written, co-written, produced, or directed five feature films, most recently 13 MOONS, co-written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell, that stars Steve Buscemi, David Proval, Peter Dinklage and Jennifer Beals. His other film credits include MAC and ILLUMINATA, co-written and directed by John Turturro; OK GARAGE, which he wrote and directed, which starred Lili Taylor, John Turturro and Will Patton; and SONS, co-written and directed by Alexandre Rockwell. MAC won the Camera D’Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. OK GARAGE was awarded best screenplay at the 1998 Avignon, France, Film Festival. The Difficult Ones is his second novel.

Michael Cook

art gallery

Michael began painting at age five and never stopped. Throughout a life-long occupation as an observer, his media has expanded from painting, photography, and graphic design to include writing (essays, articles, poetry, art criticism and far too much e-mail). He is the author of Beyond Ground Zero Gravity, a chronicle of his experiences living in the closest residential structure to the World Trade Center following 9/11/01. His paintings have been exhibited in over 70 galleries and art museums, are represented in private collections worldwide, and can be seen at www.artinsight.com.

David Evanier

profiles

David is the author of The One-Star Jew, Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin, Making the Wiseguys Weep: The Jimmy Roselli Story and co-author with Joe Pantoliano of Who’s Sorry Now. His novel, The Great Kisser, will be published in October, 2006. He received the Aga Khan Fiction Prize and has appeared in Best American Short Stories. He has published in The Paris Review, The Antioch Review, Southwest Review, Chelsea, Pequod, The Saint Ann’s Review, TriQuarterly, The New Republic, New York Magazine, The New Republic, The Antioch Review, Commentary, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Story Quarterly and many other publications.

Benjamin Feldman

essays

Benjamin, 54, lives in New York City. As an independent scholar, Ben works primarily in New York City history. Much of his past6 years have been devoted to the researching and writing of a book about the infamous 1857 murder in lower Manhattan of Dr. Harvey Burdell. Butchery on Bond Street will be published in late 2007 by Syracuse University Press . Ben’s recent essays about his wanderings in NYC and his Yiddish language interests have appeared in The New Partisan at http://www.newpartisan.com/home/a-sad-goodbye-to-the-fulton-fishmarket.html and in his blog, The New York Wanderer, at http://new-york-wanderer.blogspot.com/.

Yevgeniy Fiks

art gallery

Yevgeniy (Zhenya, born 1972, Moscow) is a New York-based post-Soviet artist. Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include: Lenin-Museo, Tampere, Finland (2007); State Museum of Russian Political History, St. Petersburg, Russia (2006); Krasnoyarsk Museum Center (formerly Lenin Museum), Krasnoyarsk, Russia (2006). Fiks is a regular contributor to the Moscow Art Magazine (Kh.Zh.). His texts and art criticism also have appeared in Flash Art, Art Journal, Tema Celeste, Artforum.com, ARTmargins, and pH Magazine.

Alana Ruben Free

essays

Alana is a poet, performer (Beginner at Life), writer, and doc. filmmaker (The Last Stand.) She is the founding editor of The Mom Egg, the literary periodical of Mamapalooza. She has performed with Po’ Jazz and published her prose in Neshama. She received her masters in Jewish Studies. Her art blends and reflects her environmental influences: the down-to-earth quality of Atlantic Canada, the intellectualism of the yeshiva world of Jerusalem, and the urban edginess of New York. Being a mother to her ten-year old son is one of her full-time jobs.

Andy Garvey

fiction

Andy spent most of 2000-2005 living as a solitary in the northern Minnesota borderland. He is the author of a real estate book and was a historian for northern Minnesota. He now lives in Washington state and will have attended two NYC Algonkian Pitch & Shop Workshops this year.

Mindy Greenstein

essays

Mindy first started writing as a child, but didn’t pursue it as a career because she thought, “from this you could make a living?” She became a Clinical Psychologist and Psycho-oncologist instead, but realized through her experiences with her patients how much she wanted to write again. She has previously been published in Ducts.org, (The Clock on the Wall,) and she lives with her husband and two sons in New York City.

Corey Ann Haydu

essays

Corey Ann is a recent graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she earned her BFA in drama, with a minor in creative writing. She is pleased to be finding wonderful homes for her short stories. Her recent work was published in Foliate Oak, and she was chosen as a finalist in Glimmer Train Press’ Summer Fiction Contest. Corey lives in NYC’s East Village, but is still a New Englander at heart.

Sarah Iverson

essays

Sarah is an essayist and novelist. Her first novel, Iris, Messenger, written under Sarah Deming, will be out in May ’07 from Harcourt. It is a middle grade novel about Iris Greenwold, a twelve-year-old who discovers the Greek gods are living in her suburban Philadelphia town. Sarah’s essay “Sex Ed,” which first appeared in ducts.org, will be anthologized in The Single State from Seal Press. Before becoming an author, Sarah was a Golden gloves boxing champion, chef, yoga teacher, hedge fund recruiter, sperm lab technician, personal trainer, calculus tutor, and wine seller. She lives in Park Slope with her husband, pianist Ethan Iverson.

Mark Jackley

poetry

Mark is a business writer who lives in the Washington, DC area. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and his chapbook, “Brevities,” will be published later this year by Ginninderra press.

Robert Jeske

fiction

Robert is a Professor of Humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) at New York University. He has written two novels, a book of short stories called THE SEURAT STORIES (one of which is ‘The Models’ excerpted in this issue) and is currently working on the third volume of an autobiography called THE RUPRECHT CHRONICLES.

John Jodzio

art gallery

John lives and breathes in Jersey City, NJ. He recieved his undergraduate degree from The Columbus College of Art and Design 8 years ago, and has refused to go to graduate school since. Mr. Jodzio makes large-scale drawings depicting feelings of paranoia, anxiety, pessimism and fear. But generally, he’s a very easy-going guy. You can see images of his work at www.fred-london.com.

Rick Kempa

essays

Poet and essayist Rick lives in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where he teaches writing and philosophy at Western Wyoming College. Other recently published work of his can be found in ConteOnline, JAMA, Midway Journal, Mountain Digest, Bellowing Ark, and ReDivider. Of “Nightshift,” he writes, “The essay is set in Tucson in the mid 80s. At that time, I was at the tail end of my long post-college vagabonding phase, and just beginning to discover—with the help of a year’s worth of deep night ramblings—that I could stay in one place and still be free.”

Kris Kimmel

essays

Kris is a comedy writer/performer/independent filmmaker that lives in Los Angeles. You can find her performing her essays around L.A. in fine shows like “Bigger Than a Breadbox,” “Spark,“ and “Sit & Spin.” Her short films have won awards at festivals such as “Best Actress.“ (she won that, but she really wanted Best Screenplay). She is currently compiling a collection of essays, preparing to direct a new short comedy she wrote and writing another screenplay.

Marilyn Kirsch

art gallery

Marilyn is a painter living in New York City. Her solo exhibitions include shows at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (1999), Akar Architecture & Design in Iowa City (1999), the University of Szeged in Hungary (2005) and most recently at the Curtis Gallery in New Canaan, Connecticut. Her work has been purchased for many private and corporate collections. More of her work may be seen at www.marilynkirsch.com.

Marge Lurie

fiction

MargeBarnard College and her M.F.A. in writing from the New School for Social Research. Her work can also be found online at www.fictionwarehouse.comand www.pindeldyboz.com.

Benjamin Malcolm

columns

Benjamin focuses mainly on intercultural themes in his writing, and has been at various times a weekly newspaper journalist, Peace Corps volunteer, Thai university professor, semester abroad leader, refugee camp volunteer, “international development associate,” and freelance writer. He has lived over six years in Thailand and in four out of the six states in New England. His work has appeared in the Thai national newspaper the Nation; U.S. and Thai-based periodicals including Bates Magazine, Thailand Magazine, Chiang Mai Citylife, Tropical Living, Lifestyle + Travel; and the online publications ThingsAsian.com and PopPolitics.com. He now lives with his wife Supalak in Burlington, Vermont.

Vitta Halberstam Mandelbaum

profiles

Yitta, daughter of a Hassidic Rabbi, is the author and co-author of eight books, including the NY Times bestseller Small Miracles.

Nita Noveno

essays

Nita Noveno has been a teacher, mentor, and literacy consultant at Bronx public schools for the past thirteen years. She is a graduate of the New School MFA Creative Writing Program and is the founder and co-host of the Sunday Salon prose reading series in Williamsburg www.sundaysalon.com. She has been published in Lost and Found: An Anthology of Teachers Writing and Worldview magazine and was a finalist for the Missouri Review’s 2005 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. Nita lives in lovely Astoria but still calls Ketchikan, Alaska home.

Patricia O'Hara

fiction

Patricia teaches literature and creative writing at Franklin & Marshall College. Her creative work has appeared in Southwest Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Harpur Palate, Sycamore Review. She is the former editor of the scholarly journal, Ninenteenth Century Studies. She divides her time between PA and New York. She's working on a couple of fiction and nonfiction projects.

Gregor Podlogar

fiction

Gregor, born in Ljubljana in 1974, graduated with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana. He has published his poems in various literary magazines in Slovenia and abroad. Aleph Press published his first two collections of poetry, States (1997) and Joy in Vertigo (2002). In co-authorship with the poet Primoû ?u?nik and éiga Kariû, a painter, an experimental book on New York entitled Ode on Manhattan Ave (2003) came out with Sherpa Press. In 2006 A Million Seconds Closer was published by Literatura Press. He lives, works and drinks tea in Ljubljana.

Helen Rafferty

columns

Brooklyn born and bred, Helen now resides in beautiful Mamaroneck, New York with her husband and three daughters. Her short stories have appeared in journals such as Lynx Eye, Sanskrit and Studio One. Helen’s essays chronicle the heinous crimes of her youth and her subsequent cruel banishment to the suburbs. This ability to see high drama in the most mundane circumstances has led to a reporting job for her local newspaper.

Elizabeth K. Rosen

fiction

Elizabeth is currently a visiting assistant professor in the English department at Lafayette College where she is finishing her forthcoming book on apocalyptic fiction and film, Apocalyptic Transformation. She’s taken to sending out her fiction without her name on it to test the telepathic abilities of the editors, but long ago she was a writer for Nickelodeon Television, an associate producer for the weekend news, and a creative writer who signed her name.

Janie Starr

profiles

Janie holds masters degrees in public health and clinical psychology. In the mid 1980s, she left her private practice to work for issues related to peace, justice, and community building. She has been a passionate speaker and writer on topics ranging from adolescent development and human sexuality to the nuclear threat, environmental sustainability, diversity, and cancer. In 2002, she published a memoir entitled Bone Marrow Boogie - The Dance of a Lifetime. She lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with her family, and feels immensely blessed.

Sunsh Stein

memoir

Sunsh lives in New York City, but has one foot out the door. She’s a freelance writer with a master’s degree in journalism and a day job as a patient advocate. She was recently called an “advanced hippie.”

Emma Sweeney

fiction

Emma studied English at Cambridge University and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her teaching and writing career has taken her as far afield as South East Asia, Japan and India. She runs creative writing programmes at New York University’s London centre and Cambridge University. Emma has won various prizes for her first novel, including an Arts Council Writer’s Award, a Royal Literary Fund Bursary, and writer’s residencies in Cambridge, Dublin and Barcelona.

Richard Willis

memoirs

Richard grew up on a farm near Marengo, Iowa. He is both an actor and a teacher. After receiving his Ph.D. at Northwestern University, he taught and directed there for three years, and later at Lewis & Clark College where he was chairman of the Department of Theatre. He has been active as a member of Actor’s Equity, the Screen Actor’s Guild, and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists for over twenty years. He is published in New Author’s Journal, Words of Wisdom, Red Wheelbarrow, Phantasmagoria, and Iconoclast. He and his wife, Linda Barry, live in New York City

Malerie Yolen-Cohen

essays

Malerie is a Stamford, CT, based freelance writer. She contributes regularly to several regional magazines and writes a monthly column for the Stamford Advocate.

Helen Zelon

memoirs

Helen’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Brooklyn Bridge and Scientific American: Explorations. A proud booster of her adopted hometown (New York), she is a nonfiction contributor to Totally Brooklyn.

STAFF

Jonathan Kravetz

editor-in-chief

Jonathan is best known for his ability to scratch his forehead and squint his eyes simultaneously . He is a writer, editor and some time trumpet player who spends too much time reading long feature stories on the world wide web. He is a co-founder of ducts and founder of the New York based reading series, Trumpet Fiction, held each month at KGB Bar in the east village. He has studied writing with a number of teachers in New York, including Alice Eliot Dark (fiction), the late Fred Hudson (screenwriting) and Alison Estes (children’s fiction) and has held a number of odd jobs, including news reporter, taxi cab driver, projectionist and ducts installer (hmmmm). He currently works as a computer consultant. He has recently taken up improv comedy classes with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater of NYC as a way to discover finer and more glorious ways of embarrassing himself on a weekly basis.

Philip Shane

Philip is a freelance film editor and co-founder of ducts.org. His programs have appeared on PBS, ABC, Cinemax, Lifetime Television, The Learning Channel, and in theaters and film festivals around the world. He lives in New York with his wife Julie.

Sharon Gurwitz

treasurer

Sharon’s careers as psychology professor, banker, and management consultant all come in handy for managing the business side of ducts. When she’s not working on a consulting project or writing her novel, she enjoys going to the theater, ballet, and classical music concerts.

Anne Mironchik

assistant

Anne, although a fine treasurer, is much more renowned for her songwriting, which reaches back to capture the classic brilliance of favorite hits by Carole King and Laura Nyro. She blurs the lines between jazz, country, rock and R&B, weaving melody and rhythm together in masterful ways. Her rich alto voice leads listeners from one genre to another as she explores the struggles, loves, fears and joys of everyday heroes. When she’s not writing great music, Anne is busy crunching numbers for ducts! Anne’s new CD “Find Me” is now available and can be found at: www.annemironchik.com. 4newsongs@earthlink.net

Cindy Stockton Moore

art gallery editor

Cindy is a Brooklyn-based painter in a constant state of optimistic upheaval. Recently married & relocated, she is currently preparing for an upcoming solo show at Yellowbird Gallery, while shuffling from college to college as an adjunct art professor. Her work was most recently exhibited at 3rd Ward Gallery and ADA Gallery. Her writing on art has appeared in New York Arts Magazine, NY Sun, in addition to on-line publications.

Jenah Pelley

illustrator

Jenah is currently pursuing a career in film. Through Ducts her love of
paint and pencil is still thriving.

Charles Salzberg essays, criticism and reviews editor

Charles is a New York based freelance writer and teacher. He has published a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction books. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Arts & Leisure section, Redbook, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure and many others.

Tim Tomlinson

fiction editor

Tim’s fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, North American Review, Libido, and elsewhere. He’s published haiku in Modern Haiku, Time Haiku, and Black Bough. He’s an occasional journalist, and a full time teacher, working at both NYU and the New York Writers Workshop.

Ryan Van Winkle

poetry editor

Ryan has had poems published in a bunch of small magazines you have never heard of including: Small Fry, Submit, and CIA Nights. His journalism has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Sunday Herald and Black and White Magazine. He burns himself a lot and is the founder of a popular cinema-going club.