Elaine Bartlett was the recipient of a scholarship to the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Poetry Workshop in July 2002. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in various literary journals and magazines, including So to Speak, The Mid-South Review and Blithe House Quarterly, and she has won the 2003 Yemassee prize in fiction. Bartlett lives and works in San Jose.

Email: elaine@sjal.org

Designer

Luis Ledezma is a graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He is currently the webmaster of the San Jose Art League (www.sjal.org) and the town of Tuxca (www.tuxca.com). Ledezma resides in San Jose.

Email: lledezma@alumni.calpoly.edu

Poetry Editorial Board

Bea Garaidh is a poet and visual artist whose ceramic sculpture, plaques and drawings have been shown up and down the West Coast. She has also hosted poetry readings in the San Jose area for about seven years and has helped create and edit various publications throughout her artistic and poetic career. Garaidh has been president of the San Jose Art League (SJAL) since April of 2001.

Lara Gularte is a graduate student in the M.F.A. creative writing program at San Jose State University and a contributing writer for Downtown Magazine in San Jose. Her poetry has been published by The Santa Clara Review, The Montserrat Review, Writing for Our Lives, The Sandhill Review and others. Her chapbook, Days Between Dancing, was published by Poet’s Corner Press of Stockton. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2002.

Art Editorial Board

Bea Garaidh

Patrice Grant-Mitchell is an artist, a consultant and vice president of the San Jose Art League.

Contributors

Arnold Chao, a native of Boulder, Colo., studied art as an undergraduate student at UC-Santa Cruz, earning a B.F.A. and B.A. in psychology in 1996. His focus is on oil paintings and color pencil drawings. His work has been shown in various venues in Silicon Valley, and he has received several invitations to international shows, such as the Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy.  Music is also a part of Chao’s artistic endeavors.  He currently plays bass with the band The Working Poor. Chao resides in Santa Clara.

Email: arnisto@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.arnisto.com

Robert Claus was born in Göttingen, Germany and grew up in Germany, France and England before settling in San Jose. Although currently working as a freelance translator and voice-over artist, he has also worked as a warehouse porter, filing clerk, mechanic, bodyguard, teacher and composer. His work is influenced by music, German poets such as Eichendorff, Heine, Goethe and Hesse, as well as by modern English poets such as John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, Dylan Thomas and Craig Raine. Claus’ poetry has appeared in numerous journals, such as the Central California Poetry Journal, the PWReview, Poet’s Cut and San Jose’s Downtown Magazine. He hopes to produce a new chapbook shortly.

Email: claustrans@earthlink.net

Linda Lappin was a technical writer for many years and is currently in the M.F.A. creative writing program at San Jose State University.

Ginger Thompson, currently a resident of San Jose, moved to the United States from South Korea in 1978. She received her B.F.A. from East Tennessee State University in 1997 and her M.F.A. degree in painting from Boston University in 2001. She has participated in numerous shows and residency programs. The monotypes featured in Convergence are the base for her new works in progress. An exhibit of her oil paintings is featured through May 31 at Inca Gardens Peruvian Restaurant in downtown San Jose.

Andrena Zawinski, a native of Pittsburgh, Penn., lives in Oakland. Her full collection of poetry, Traveling in Reflected Light, was released as a Kenneth Patchen competition winner from Pig Iron Press, and her last chapbook, Greatest Hits 1991-2001, was published by Pudding House as part of their archival and invitation series. She also has an online chapbook from Autumn House Press and The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Elegies for My Mother. She has a chapbook forthcoming from Small Poetry Press titled Writing Lessons.

Zawinski’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including Quarterly West, Nimrod International, Gulf Coast, Slipstream, and Rattle, as well as in numerous anthologies. Zawinski works as an adjunct writing instructor for Laney Community College and as a lecturer for St. Mary's College in Moraga. She is also a member of the Thirteen Ways Writing Workshop, is on the editorial board for UnitedPoets.org, and is feature editor at PoetryMagazine.com.

Websites: http://www.poetrymagazne.com/zawinski and http://www.writersregister.com/artists/CA326