Cetti Cherniak is an ordinary looking, middle-aged lady who lives in an average neighborhood, possibly next door to you or to some uncle or cousin of yours, with her teenage son and her darling schnauzer, who has one ear up and one ear down. She has been a mother, certified auto mechanic, homemaker, mystic, Sunday school teacher, wife, gardener, electronics technician, assistant midwife, grandmother, meditator, herbalist, optical technician, substitute primary and secondary school teacher, and disabled person, in that order. She has a B.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Indiana University, studied Theology on the graduate level at the University of Notre Dame, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Seattle Pacific University. (Of SPU’s program she says, “It’s not a beach, but it’s a darned decent sandbox.”) She is the sister of the artist Larry Cherniak, whose painting of the Iraq War appeared in the Fall issue of New Works. Cetti received a New Writer Award in 2006 for her article “Napoleon Dynamite, Priesthood Skills, and the Eschatology of the Non-Rational” and both a New Writer Award and the Article of the Year Award in 2007 for “The Theology of Desire,” both published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. She loves Jesus and blueberries and singing silly songs at full volume and smelling things. She also loves reader feedback, and hopes you will enjoy her essay and story. You may email Cetti at chernc@spu.edu. Visit Cetti's New Works fiction page.

Bernadette Miller writes: "I grew up in Maryland, obtained a BA from Maryland University, and later studied fiction writing at New York University and The New School. My first short story appeared in Firelands Arts Review (Firelands College, Ohio). Since then my stories have been published in numerous literary magazines, including, University of Portland Review, Calliope (Roger Williams College), Skylark (Purdue University), The Binnacle (Univ. of Maine at Machias), Jewish Currents, and online at Pulse, The Moonwort Review, The Pink Chameleon, and The Copperfield Review." Visit Bernadette's fNew Works fiction page.

Freyda Zell writes: "I spent my early and middle adolescence trying to leave Brooklyn in the dust. I needed only to get as far as Manhattan to recognize another world. I eventually moved there, attending Columbia University and emerging as a clinical psychologist. I got lucky and fell into a full-blown practice, and with more money than I had known growing up in a working class family, I soon bought a house upstate in Woodstock.

"Woodstock was / is no cultural backwater by any means and there I grew as a writer (publishing poetry and newspaper articles mostly) as well as in my psychological work. Gratefully, circumstances came to allow me the pursuit of a dream of leaving clinical practice to work in ecological conservation, beginning a new but all-too-brief chapter of my life. I studied and worked in southern Africa and in Central America. Eight years ago I came to Puerto Rico with the intention of putting together an eco-resort with like-minded people. Instead, life steered me back to the path of helping individuals by introducing me to a local natural health institute (hence raw, living foods). Yet my conservation interests are still major.

"Spending restful days in sun and surf allows me the energy to conjure up my stories at night, many of which are reshapes of experiences that have strongly impacted me. I am also blessed with being able to spend satisfying hours tucked into my hammock, immersed and enthralled by the words and stories of others." Visit Freyda's New Works fiction page.

Geoffrey Craig has written a book of narrative verse, three novels, a novella, an epic poem, several plays, and a number of short stories. In 2008, The Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, NY produced his full-length play, The Medal.  In early 2009, The Little Theater on Broad Street in Danielson, CT will include his play, The Uniform, in their one-act play festival. The Battered Suitcase will publish his story, “The Snake,” in its February 2009 issue. Geoffrey  was an English major as an undergraduate at Colgate, and went on to get an MBA at Harvard and an MA in history at the University of Santa Clara. He served two years in the Peace Corps in Peru, worked as a consultant to small businesses, and had a twenty-seven year career as a banker. He has traveled for business and personal enrichment in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. His story, “Morocco,” is an exploration of how one woman seeks to cope with an event from which one never fully recovers. Visit Geoffrey's New Works fiction page.

Hugh Fox was born in Chicago in 1932. He spent his childhood studying violin, piano, composition, and opera with his Viennese teacher Zerlina Muhlman Metzger. He received an M.A. degree in English from Loyola University in Chicago and his Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). He met his first wife, a Peruvian woman named Lucía Úngaro de Zevallos, while at Urbana-Campaign and was a Professor of American Literature from 1958-1968 at Loyola University in Los Angeles. He became a Professor in the Department of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University in 1968 and remained there until he retired in 1999. It was at MSU that he met his second wife Nona Grimes. They were married in 1970. He received Fulbright Professsorships at the University of Hermosillo in Mexico in 1961, the Instituto Pedagógico and Universidad Católica in Caracas from 1964 to 1966, and at the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil from 1978-1980. He met his third wife Maria Bernadete Costa in Brazil in 1978. They've been married for 28 years. He studied Latin American literature at the University of Buenos Aires on an OAS grant and spent a year as an archaeologist in the Atacama Desert in Chile in 1986.

He was the founder and Board of Directors member of COSMEP, the International Organization of Independent Publishers, from 1968 until its death in 1996. He was editor of Ghost Dance: The International Quarterly of Experimental Poetry from 1968-1995, and Latin American editor of Western World Review & North American Review during the ’60s. He is currently a contributing reviewer to SPR and SMR and is listed in Who's Who: The Two Thousand Most Important Writers in the Last Millenium, Dictionary of Middlewestern Writers and The International Who's Who. He has 85 books published and another 30 (mainly novels and plays and one archaeology book) still unpublished on shelves. A memoir of his youth in Chicago appeared in the Spring 2008 edition of NWR. Visit Hugh's New Works fiction page.

Irving A. Greenfield, Ph.D. is one of our story editors. He writes: "I owe it all to oneof those angry gods who must have said, 'This boy will toil with words for his bread.' And 'toil' I did and loved every moment of it. I've written many novels, many short stories, and several plays, most of which have been produced. I am very pleased to be one of NWR's story editors. Visit Irving's New Works fiction page.

Julie Stahl lives in Ashland, Oregon with her twelve year old son. She has held numerous jobs over the years, including but not limited to bartender, pre-school teacher, bibliographer, college instructor, research coordinator, and tutor/mentor of teens within the juvenile justice system. Her formal education consists of French and Experimental Psychology. She’s been writing since the age of eight, but only seriously since nine, and although she’ll write just about anything, lately she’s been concentrating on adult fiction and creative nonfiction, and children’s fiction. Visit Julie's New Works fiction page.

Kerry Petrichek's story "Fallen" is featured in this month's online issue of New Works Review, but we have not received any biographical information about him. We will hopefully be able to soon rectify this. Until then, visit Kerry's New Works fiction page.

Laura Chester has written and published many books (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) in the past forty years, most recently Rancho Weirdo, a book of short stories (dark humor) from Bootstrap Productions, Lowell Mass., and two children’s fantasies, Hiding Glory and Marvel the Marvelous (illustrated by Gary Lippincott) from Willow Creek Press, who also published her two literary horse anthologies, Eros & Equus as well as Heartbeat for Horses, both with beautiful photographs by Donna DeMari. Check out her website: www.laurachester.com. Visit Laura's New Works fiction page to read an excerpt from her book-length work "Hiding Glory."

LeRoy Bohrer is a sixty-seven-year-old bachelor. After graduation from high school he entered the army and served in Korea and stateside. Upon release from the service he did some writing, but with the farm and everything he found that he didn’t have the time. He helped his father on the farm and worked at the local lumberyard. It closed in 1990, and soon after that his parents retired and moved to town. Two years ago he rented out the farm and discovered that he had time to write again. “The Blond Man” will be his first published story since that earlier incarnation as a writer. The present out-dated photo, he says, will have to stand in for a more recent one since, after their father’s recent death, the sisters have absconded with the family pictures and are currently going through them.

LeRoy's story "The Blond Man" was featured last summer in NWR, but Mr. Bohrer was mistakenly not notified of publication. Since we don't have archives ... yet! ... we've decided to reprint this excellent story for your newfound enjoyment. You can read it at LeRoy's New Works fiction page.

Michael Corrigan brings his strengths as a published author, playwright, and educator to NWR's ranks. He writes: "Any bio has to include the question, why write? What a ridiculous business. A writer's life can be a lonely business. As Hemingway said, 'a writer faces eternity or the lack of it each day.' Despite loneliness, writers can experience a joy that "normal" people can't imagine. I adapted the letters of a late writer friend, Rebecca Bruns, to a stage play. Born in New Orleans, she worked in San Francisco. We had known each other for twelve years and much of our relationship consisted of letters. Hers were articulate, poignant and heartfelt. When she died of cancer, I put the letters into a two person play, and the premiere in Ketchum, Idaho, gave her words flesh. The audience listened as Rebecca spoke through an actress giving her a voice. A woman came up to me after the show and said, 'You must be so proud to celebrate your friend like this.' Actually, I felt a bit depressed since the words couldn't replace Rebecca's warm presence, but it was some comfort to think a few people went home that night feeling the presence of this remarkable person who died too soon. The play, Letters From Rebecca, is available through Aran Press for those who want to hear that special voice." His wife Karen passed away on September 12, 2005. Visit Michael's New Works fiction page.

Randall Brown teaches at Saint Joseph's University, holds an MFA from Vermont College, and is the lead editor at Smokelong Quarterly. Nearly 200 essays, poems, short stories and (very) short pieces have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous journals, including Quick Fiction, Cream City Review, Hunger Mountain, Connecticut Review, Saint Ann’s Review, Evansville Review, Laurel Review, Dalhousie Review, upstreet, Night Train, and others. He is the author of the award-winning collection Mad to Live (Flume Press, 2008) and will have an essay on (very) short fiction in the forthcoming anthology The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field (Rose Metal Press, 2009).

“Also,” he writes, “as editor at SmokeLong Quarterly, I’ve had the pleasure of publishing short shorts by Natalie Goldberg, W.P. Kinsella, Dan Chaon, Steve Almond, Stuart Dybek, Sherrie Flick, Robert Shapard, Melanie Rae Thon, Larry Fondation, and many other exceptional writers. I’ve also had  the privilege of working closely with some amazing teachers, including Douglas Glover, Abby Frucht, Nance Van Winckel, Terri-Brown Davidson, Ellen Lesser, Kathi Appelt, and Pamela Painter.” Visit Randall's New Works fiction page.

Ronald Pies, MD, is a physician in the department of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, as well as Professor of Psychiatry at S.U.N.Y Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse. Dr. Pies is the author of a collection of short stories (Zimmerman's Tefillin/PublishAmerica) and a book of poetry (Creeping Thyme/Brandylane Publishers). He is also the author of The Ethics of the Sages: An Interfaith Commentary on Pirke Avot (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), and the upcoming book, Everything Has Two Handles: A Stoic's Guide to the Art of Living (Hamilton, 2008). Visit Ronald's New Works fiction page.

Stephen Graf is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and currently teaches literature at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England.  He has been published in numerous literary and consumer magazines such as The Mountain Laurel, AIM Magazine, The Black Mountain Review (in Ireland), Cicada, The Southern Review, Mobius, The Chrysalis Reader, Fiction magazine, and the Dana Literary Society Online Journal. Visit Stephen's New Works fiction page.

Tim Healy has lived an eclectic life. Years ago he chucked the corporate world for an idyllic life on St. Croix, USVI. However, old habits hung on. His St. Croix portfolio includes a boat charter business, a small retail chain, a scuba diving business, and a commuter airline. There also was a 30 Gross ton USCG captain license and a commercial pilot certificate. Tim said that the "infection" from his M.B.A. degree was hard to shake. On return to Houston, his activities included founding two executive search firms, church ministries, a Prentice Hall book on government contracting, and setting up three Web sites. He recently became a producer for Nassau Bay TV, Ch 16. The odyssey marches on! Visit Tim's New Works fiction page.