Wilson, a Ph.D. candidate in English at MSU, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1971. He has published nearly 100 stories in magazines and anthologies throughout the world. He is also the author of the books The Kafka Effekt, 4 Ellipses, Irrealities and the recently released Stranger on the Loose. For more information on Wilson and his writing, visit his official website at www.dharlanwilson.com.

“…With a sophisticated and painfully honest style, Wilson makes dark miracles and surreal revelations appear more substantial (and acceptable) than the 'normal' conventions of logic that he turns inside-out. These fictions blur borderlands between thought and action, appearance and substance...” - William P. Simmons, author of By Reason of Darkness

Foster received her B.A. from Aquinas College and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She has taught poetry workshops throughout Michigan and is the author of six collections of poetry, including: A History of the Body, A Modern Fairy Tale: The Baba Yaga Poems, Trying to Balance the Heart, Contemplating the Heavens, and Living in the Fire Nest (a finalist for the Poet’s Prize sponsored by the Roerich Museum in NYC). Her poems have appeared in more than 250 journals and magazines in the U.S. and Europe such as The Georgia Review, Nimrod, and International Poetry Review.

Foster’s newest book of poems, Amber Necklace From Gdansk, was published in 2001 by the Louisiana State University Press and has been nominated for a number of major books awards, including the Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, Paterson Poetry Prize, and the Phi Beta Kappa Poetry Award. In 2003, it was selected as a finalist for the Ohio Book Award in Poetry. Foster currently lives in Grand Rapids and in 2003 she was selected to be that city’s first poet laureate.

“Place and people, language, history, habitat and blood: the free range of Linda Nemec Foster’s richly textured witness is a gift - these poems, jewels.” - Thomas Lynch on Amber Necklace From Gdansk

Hassinger’s debut novel, Nina: Adolescence (Putnam 2003) tells the story of the creative and sexual awakening of fifteen-year-old Nina Begley as she struggles to emerge from her family’s grief after the loss of her little brother. Deemed “superb” by O, The Oprah Magazine and “truly penetrating” by Salon.com, Nina: Adolescence is also being translated into Dutch. It will be released in paperback in June. The audio recording of Nina: Adolescence received a Listen Up Award from Publisher's Weekly in January 2004.

Hassinger’s work has also appeared in Blithe House Quarterly and MsFit Magazine, and her story “La Llorona” will be anthologized in Best Lesbian Love Stories 2004 (Alyson Publications). Her story “The Kiss” received the Peter S. Prescott Prize in 1994. Hassinger is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Joseph E. and Ursil I. Callen Scholarship as well as a Teaching-Writing Fellowship.

A Massachusetts native, Hassinger now lives in Okemos with her husband and daughter and is at work on her second novel, which will also be published by Putnam.

“Very few writers are able to give the period of adolescence the wider resonance of serious adult literature. In Nina: Adolescence, Amy Hassinger does so brilliantly. This is an exciting debut by a splendid young writer.” - novelist Robert Olen Butler

Please join us for a reading by poet Gerry LaFemina. Gerry LaFemina is the author of several collections of poetry including 23Below, Shattered Hours: Poems 1988-94, and Zarathustra in Love. His latest collection, Graffiti Heart, received the 2001 Anthony Picione Prize in Poetry from Mammoth Books. Two new collections, The Window Facing Winter (New Issues Press) and The Parakeets of Brooklyn are forthcoming. (The latter book won the Bordighera Prize in Poetry and will be published as a bi-lingual edition in English and Italian.) His co-translations with Sinan Toprak of contemporary Turkish poet Ali Yuce were published as Vocie Lock Puppet in 2001. A noted essayist, fiction writer and teacher, LaFemina is currently a guest professor of writing at Grand Valley State University and director of the annual Controlled Burn Seminar for Young Writers held on Higgins Lake.

"I consider Gerry LaFemina to be the Iggy Pop of Contemporary American poetry." -- Jim Daniels

Steve has been writing horror/fantasy for most of his life. There usually isn't a time when he's not working on something - even if it is just staring out the window. His novels include, Dream Thieves, BearWalker, Soul Temple, and M, and his short stories have appeared in over a dozen magazines, including Implosion, The Midnight Gallery, Into the Darkness, Altered Perceptions, and FrightNet.

Steve is the Dean of Developmental Education at Baker College of Allen Park, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in English Composition at Wayne State University. He recently sold the motion picture rights to his novel Demonesque to After Dark Productions of Los Angeles. He writes fiction for both adult and juvenile audiences, and doesn't foresee stopping any time soon.

"Student Writers Night," features readings by MSU students who have won or placed in the annual campus literary prizes (including the Jim Cash Awards for Fiction and Poetry). Several members of the Red Cedar Review staff will emcee the event.