Michael Martone
Michael Martone's most recent books are Racing in Place: Collages, Fragments, Postcards, Ruins, a collection of essays, and Double-wide, his collected early stories. Michael Martone, a memoir in contributor's notes, Unconventions, Writing on Writing, and Rules of Thumb, edited with Susan Neville, were all published recently.
He is also the author of The Blue Guide to Indiana, published by FC2. The University of Georgia Press published his book of essays, The Flatness and Other Landscapes, winner of the AWP Award for Nonfiction, in 2000. With Robin Hemley, he edited Extreme Fiction. With Lex Williford, he edited The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction.
Martone is the author of five other books of short fiction including Seeing Eye, Pensées: The Thoughts of Dan Quayle, Fort Wayne Is Seventh on Hitler's List, Safety Patrol, and Alive and Dead in Indiana. He has edited two collections of essays about the Midwest: A Place of Sense: Essays in Search of the Midwest and Townships: Pieces of the Midwest.
His stories and essays have appeared in Harper's, Esquire, Story, Antaeus, North American Review, Benzene, Epoch, Denver Quarterly, Iowa Review, Third Coast, Shenandoah, and other magazines.
Martone was born and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He attended Butler University and graduated from Indiana University. He holds the MA from The Writing Seminars of The Johns Hopkins University.Martone has won two Fellowships from the NEA and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His stories have won awards in the Italian Americana fiction contest, the Florida Review Short Story Contest, the Story magazine Short, Short Story Contest, the Margaret Jones Fiction Prize of Black Ice Magazine, and the first World's Best Short, Short Story Contest. His stories and essays have appeared and been cited in the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Stories and The Best American Essays anthologies.
Michael Martone is currently a Professor at the University of Alabama where he has been teaching since 1996. He has been a faculty member of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College since 1988. He has taught at Iowa State University, Harvard University, and Syracuse University.
For more information on Michael Martone, visit www.webdelsol.com/martone
Peggy Godfrey
Photo by Erin Smith
"My love for the sensual offerings of language nourishes my desire to put into words what others may eat, drink and assimilate or spit out. Rather than considering poetry an exclusive art, I prefer to invite others to fall in love with the mystery that is poetry. When other forms of writing and presentation formally knock at the front door, poetry (especially cowboy poetry) has a key to the back door of people's souls."
This excerpt from a recent article by Peggy Godfrey reflects her dedication to an art that she has enjoyed all her life and now shares with others as a public poet and noted presenter. Originally from the South, Peggy Godfrey has been ranching in the high desert next to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado for the past 32 years. Drawing from the everyday events of this life, she has authored numerous books, including Stretch Marks, Extra 'n' Ordinary, and Write Tough. Her stories and poems are also featured on several DVDs and CDs including Cowboy Poetry: A Woman Ranching the Rockies and Peggy Godfrey Live: Write 'Em Cowboy.
For more information on Peggy Godfrey, visit www.cowboypoetry.com/peggygodfrey.htm