L.L. Barkat, CEO. And, after that, Managing Editor, Tweetspeak Poetry, T. S. Poetry Press, Every Day Poems, WordCandy

A while back, I sat outside every day for a year. Not all day. Just the time it took to drink a cup of tea or maybe get rained on. That was the year I learned to love winter best. I have a book on writing and creativity called Rumors of Water and a poetry book InsideOut: poems. You can find me as a Staff Writer at The Curator, or my website L.L. Barkat. Follow me on Twitter @llbarkat

• • •

Note to Bookstore Representatives: All of our titles are available at Ingram. To discuss alternative purchase options with deeper discounts, contact llbarkat[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Note to Publishers and Poets: If you would like to have your poetry considered for feature in Every Day Poems or review here at Tweetspeak Poetry, please contact llbarkat[at]yahoo[dot]com about where to send review copies for our perusal.
• • •

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Contributing Writer, Tweetspeak Poetry

I teach English, Creative Writing, and Literature & Theology at Fordham University in New York City. I’m obsessed with certain things (including Moby Dick, Frank Sinatra, and The Saints). In addition to being a writer and teacher, I’m a mother to three delightful (and surprisingly well-adjusted) twenty-something sons. My most recent book of poems is Saint Sinatra, and I have an upcoming book on Flannery O’Connor’s theological imagination, The Province of Joy (Paraclete Press, 2012). You can visit me at angelaalaimoodonnell.com.

• • •

Laura Boggess, Contributing Writer, Tweetspeak Poetry

I am happiest in a place with no walls. Give me a bed of grass and a blanket-sky and I will dream deep in wonder. But a good story takes me to this place too. And a poem? Even better. I share mine at lauraboggess.com. Or you can find me on twitter @lauraboggess

• • •

Claire Burge, Director of Art and Photography, Tweetspeak Poetry, Every Day Poems, and WordCandy

I have been described as part chaos, part rocket fuel. I delight in the unknown and treat life like a playground. I’m fascinated by sensuality, science and strangers. Good writing and heart photography are my soul passions. As for you… let’s get to know each other shall we? @claireburge

• • •

Wm. Anthony Connolly, Columnist, Tweetspeak Poetry

Beneath floorboards and on board transit buses; in the cracks of doorways and behind portraits of priests; in the spines of books and magazines, rolled up pieces of paper… For years I have been a fugitive, keeping one step ahead of those who find my tiny scrolls. I stash the messages randomly and without hope of being found out. On each I leave a little bit of me. My purple-ink-stained hands daily mess journal pages, skitter across the wonky keys on my trusty Underwood and sometimes, when you look very carefully, you can see my mauve ghost prints on books like The Jenny Muck and The Obituaries. Today I am leaving messages in all the unexpected places. Visit me at my website or follow me on Twitter @WmAnthony

• • •

Sarah Elwell, Contributing Photographer, Every Day Poems and WordCandy

I am a writer from beside an old stony sea, at the edge of the known world. I am, as are we all, light against earth – everything else is just the layering of story. You can visit me at Knitting The Wind. @knittingthewind

• • •

Seth Haines, Columnist, Tweetspeak Poetry

I first fell in love with words when I overheard the captain of the high school cheerleading team offer “effervescent” as a Mad Libs adjective. I was eight. My crush on the cheerleader was fleeting. My love for words was not. My working hours are spent rendering legal services to the good people of Fayetteville, Arkansas. From time to time, I can also be found casting a fly line in the Arkansas tail waters. Connect with me on twitter at @sethhaines

• • •

Kimberlee Conway Ireton, Contributing Writer, Tweetspeak Poetry

My primary skill is birthing children (I have four), but I’m also a pretty decent writer. Once upon a time, I even wrote a book. These days, when I’m not taking knives away from my toddler twins, I write blog posts, homeschool my older kids, and try to pay attention to my life. Two cups of tea every morning helps. Follow me on Twitter @kconwayireton

• • •

Ann Kroeker, Contributing Writer, Tweetspeak Poetry

I dream of walking long stretches of shoreline, like Anne Morrow Lindbergh, collecting gifts from the sea. For now, I’m carving out a creative life in the landlocked American Midwest. On this suburban cul-de-sac, I rely on a steady intake of tea and books to set a quiet, reflective mood. A hammock helps. And a fireplace. I’ve written about slowing down in books like Not So Fast and The Contemplative Mom, and on my blog, annkroeker.com

• • •

Lyla Willingham Lindquist, Editor, Tweetspeak Poetry

I’m a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. I work out of my home in the rural Midwest most days, and other days, out of yours. When I’m not crunching numbers or scaling small buildings, you can find me with a cup of gentle tea (or, on rough days, four shots of espresso) and a book on my sofa. You can follow me on Twitter at @lwlindquist. I also design websites and write sometimes at The Willingham Enterprise.

• • •

Joy Noel Messimer, Advertising Associate, Tweetspeak Poetry, Every Day Poems and WordCandy

Not to be allowed in a bookstore with a credit card, I am a mixed-media artist and poet suffering from a serious coffee habit. I have an incurable fondness for mint and chocolate. I also have quite the collection of Christmas ornaments with my name on them from well-meaning friends and family who consider themselves entirely original in the thought. (I prefer bookstore gift certificates, if you’re asking.) I blog at Memoria Arts, writing from where art and life intersect. You can find me on Twitter at @memoriaarts

• • •

Kathryn Neel, Contributing Writer and Wizard in Residence, Tweetspeak Poetry

Mad Scientist by day. Mad Poet by night. Environmental Surfer and Gadgeteer in between. I was nominated for the Pushcart by Naugatuck River Review, Winter 2010. I live near the quaint artist colony beach town of New Smyrna Beach, FL. Visit me on Twitter @KathrynLNeel

• • •

Tania Runyan, Editor, Every Day Poems

I live in Lindenhurst, Illinois, a sort-of suburb, sort-of small town, where the deer and the minivans play. I’m a 2011 NEA fellow and mama to three poetry books—A Thousand Vessels, Simple Weight, and Delicious Air—and three (much cuter and noisier) human children. When not writing or spending time with the family, I tutor high school students, play Celtic fiddle and mandolin, and get gloriously muddy in the garden. Visit me at TaniaRunyan.com

• • •

Kelly Sauer, Contributing Photographer, Tweetspeak, Every Day Poems and WordCandy

I’m a work-at-home-mom who launched a wedding photography business in 2010. A poet-photographer and incurable restless heart, I make fine art out of real life as I focus on authentic relationships and transparent branding. @kellysauer

• • •

Karen Swallow Prior, Contributing Writer, Tweetspeak Poetry

I live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where I love to run. When I’m not running or reading or writing, I get to talk about the books I love at Liberty University where I also happen to chair the department of English and Modern Languages. I write regularly for Her.meneutics, the women’s blog at Christianity Today. You can follow me on Twitter @LoveLifeLitGod

• • •

Monica Sharman, Assistant Editor, Tweetspeak Poetry and Every Day Poems

I once was an engineer, but while raising and educating three sons, I became enamored with poetry, children’s literature, editing, drumming, and hula (though I still admit to the title of “nerd”). I grunt when I hit a tennis ball (my college teammates called me “Big Guns”), and my favorite stroke is the serve. I blog occasionally at monicasharman.wordpress.com and tweet, too @monicasharman

• • •

Charity Singleton, Contributing Writer, Tweetspeak Poetry

I am a data analyst by day, writer by night, and I love the stories I can tell with both numbers and words. I’m a Content Editor for theHighCalling.org, and I write about art, singleness, and whatever else crosses my path as a freelance writer and a blogger (Wide Open Spaces). You also can find me on Twitter @charsingleton and on Facebook.

• • •

David K. Wheeler, Consulting Editor, T. S. Poetry Press

I’m the author of Contingency Plans: Poems and the independently produced album There There. You can occasionally find me at The High Calling, Burnside Writers Collective, and The Morning News. Somebody thought it would be good to have my writing in The Pacific Northwest Reader, an essay collection from Harper/Delphinium, and so it is. Visit me at Dave Writes Right or follow me on Twitter at @daviewheeler

• • •

Glynn Young, Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver, Tweetspeak Poetry

I live in St. Louis where I’m the team lead for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. I write poetry, short stories and fiction, and I love to bike. You can find me at The High Calling as a Contributing Editor and at my blog Faith, Fiction, Friends or follow me on Twitter @gyoung9751.

• • •

We also need to thank Eric Swalberg and Bradley J. Moore, for being so fun and bantering on Twitter. That led to our very first Twitter poetry party, which led to this site, which led to an award-winning small press, which led to a Daily called Every Day Poems. And Rod Karmenzind, who graciously lent his art (the header) right from the beginning, not knowing it would someday go this far.

• • •

Guest Writers Who’ve Appeared at Tweetspeak

Richard Berlin

I’m a physician, psychiatrist, medical school faculty member and poet with a full time practice in a small town in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts. Living in the Berkshires also allows me to garden, kayak, X country ski, and spend time on my mountain bike as well as the Tanglewood Lawn. I’ve published two chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections, most recently Secret Wounds, which won the 2010 John Ciardi Award in Poetry, and was selected by USA Book New Awards as the best general poetry book published in 2011. Feel free to visit me at RichardMBerlin.com

• • •

Todd Davis

I never dreamed I’d write poems when I was reading comic books and working at my dad’s animal hospital as a teenager. After discovering the poems of Maxine Kumin and Galway Kinnell in a college English class, I was sold on the idea. Now the author of four full-length collections, I’ve been honored to be featured by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac and Ted Kooser in American Life in Poetry. I also teach creative writing and environmental studies at Penn State University’s Altoona College. Feel free to visit my page.

• • •

Maureen Doallas

If you’ve ever had to edit government documents you know why I gave up my “Editor” shingle to write poetry in 140 characters. And while I’m officially retired and older than just about everybody else here, don’t call me retiring, especially while I’m reading Neruda’s Memoirs in public. When I can’t get “Jack” and “MacDuff” out for their walks, I like to spend my time breathing in art and Writing Without Paper and wondering how to sell my flock of peacocks and still-blooming garden of orchids at Transformational Threads. Follow me on Twitter @Doallas

• • •

John Estes

I’m Director of Creative Writing at Malone University, a small school in the Quaker tradition located in Canton, Ohio. If you live outside Northeast Ohio you most likely have never heard of the place (and if you know anything of Canton at all it’s probably something do with the NFL Hall of Fame). I’m also the author of Kingdom Come, as well as two chapbooks. You can find out more about my work and read my occasional blog at JohnEstes.org

• • •

Dave Harrity

I’m a teacher living in Kentucky, with a book due out this fall—Making Manifest: Toward Sacred Collisions of Faith and Art. I’m also the author of the chapbook Morning and What Has Come Since, which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, a Kentucky Literary Award, and the Conference on Christianity and Literature’s Book-of-the-Year Citation in 2007. As the founder of Antler—a teaching and resource initiative—I invite you stop by and visit us or follow me on Twitter @DaveHarrity

• • •

Joel Jacobson

I live in Colorado with my beautiful wife, two busy little boys, and Haiku the Wonder Lab. My days are rounded out with teaching high school English and creative writing, blogging about faith and art, and writing poetry. As if that’s not enough, I am an avid fan of baseball and football. You can follow me on Twitter @jejpoet

• • •

Julia Spicher Kasdorf

I’m an associate professor of English and women’s studies at the Pennsylvania State University and teach in the MFA program in creative writing. I have two collections of poetry with the University of Pittsburgh Press, and a third, Poetry in America, debuted this fall. Eve’s Striptease was named one of Library Journal‘s Top 20 Best Poetry Books of 1998, and Sleeping Preacher won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and the Great Lakes College’s Association Award for New Writing. You can visit me at my website.

• • •

Paula J Lambert

I was born and raised in a New England mill town and lived much of my life in the Deep South; I am, therefore, sensitive to the nuances of autumn and easily wooed by 12-bar blues. I now live in Columbus, Ohio, which just might be the poetry capital of the world. It took nearly forty-five years to find my tribe, but here we all are, in a city that has featured-poet and open-mic shows nearly every night of the week. I also do mixed-media collage art and co-host one of those poetry shows. Visit my website Full Crescent. Or follow me on Twitter @pjlambert_poet

• • •

Dave Malone

I’m living a thousand lives in one (so please don’t tell me differently)—a couple of those are poet, playwright, and fiction writer. I call the southern Missouri (Missourah down here) Ozarks home. The title for my e-newsletter, If I Had a Nickel, is rooted in a phrase from my Ozark grandfather. I write about romance, sensuality, and nature. You can find what I’m up to via my website or Twitter.

• • •

Darrelyn Saloom

Although I co-wrote a boxing memoir with former champion Deirdre Gogarty (My Call to the Ring: A Memoir of A Girl Who Yearns to Box), my pugilistic passion is confined to a keyboard. I’ve also been published at the Virginia Quarterly Review, and I spend most of my time on a farm south of I-10 in Louisiana with my husband, various critters, and thoroughbred racehorses. Feel free to drop by my website or visit me on Twitter.

• • •

Jim Wood

I’m a full-time executive who likes to write about the joys and challenges of connecting business life with spiritual life. You can find me at Shrinking the Camel or follow me on Twitter at @shrinkingcamel