Vivian Conan

essays

Vivian Conan is a librarian in Westchester (though she lives in Manhattan) and a volunteer teacher with SeniorNet, helping people over 55 learn to use computers. She has written for Ducts, New York Magazine, and the New York Times, and is a 2007 fellow in Nonfiction Literature from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In addition to working on her memoir, "Losing the Atmosphere," Vivian writes occasional personal essays.

Bruce Fisher

essays

Bruce was editor of the weekly Chicago Journal before working in national politics, most notably as press secretary to a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1988. He is currently deputy county executive in Buffalo, NY, and continues to help candidates run for regional, state and national office.

Sharon Gold

art gallery

Mark Goldblatt

essays

Mark is an assistant professor in the School of Liberal Arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology of the State University of New York. He writes regularly for National Review, the American Spectator and the New York Post. His novel, Africa Speaks, a satire of black urban culture, was published in 2002.

Mindy Greenstein

memoirs

Mindy first started writing as a child, but didn’t pursue it as a career because she thought, “from this you could make a living?” She became a Clinical Psychologist and Psycho-oncologist instead, but realized through her experiences with her patients how much she wanted to write again. She has previously been published in Ducts.org, (The Clock on the Wall,) and she lives with her husband and two sons in New York City.

Jessica Hall

essays

Jessica started swimming in a muddy pond at the age of 2 in the barnyard of her family's home in Maine, and, in spite of the leeches her mother had to remove afterward, has loved swimming ever since.

Ed Higgins

poetry

Ed Higgins's poems and short fiction have appeared in Duck & Herring Co.'s Pocket Field Guide, Monkeybicycle, Pindeldyboz, and Bellowing Ark, as well as the online journals Lily, Cross Connect, Word Riot, The Centrifugal Eye, and Red River Review, among others. He lives on a small farm in Yamhill, OR with a menagerie of animals including a rescued potbelly pig named Odious, and teaches writing and literature at George Fox University, south of Portland, OR.

Sally Hoskins

essays

Sally Hoskins is a biologist.

Deepak Kapur

fiction

Deepak is a lecturer in English based at Pathankot, India.  He has been published in 971 MENU and his poetry has been selected by TEN THOUSAND MONKEYS.  “Convenience” is about the hypocrisy that marks human nature especially when we are shackled by rotten customs and conventions.

Fredricka R. Maister

memoir

Fredricka is a freelance writer and screenwriter who lives in New York City. Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer,  New York Jewish Week, Unity Magazine, Brooklyn Bridge,Baltimore Magazine, Equity News, Big Apple Parent, and in the Archives of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her screenplays include the romantic comedies, "It Began With Anchovies" and "The Olympians."

Benjamin Malcolm

columns

Benjamin focuses mainly on intercultural themes in his writing, and has been at various times a weekly newspaper journalist, Peace Corps volunteer, Thai university professor, semester abroad leader, refugee camp volunteer, “international development associate,” and freelance writer. He has lived over six years in Thailand and in four out of the six states in New England. His work has appeared in the Thai national newspaper the Nation; U.S. and Thai-based periodicals including Bates Magazine, Thailand Magazine, Chiang Mai Citylife, Tropical Living, Lifestyle + Travel; and the online publications ThingsAsian.com and PopPolitics.com. He now lives with his wife Supalak in Burlington, Vermont.

essays

Adrienne settled in Manhattan 24 years ago after living in Zambia, South Africa, England, Wisconsin, Washington D.C. and Florida. Her English mother is a writer, as was her English mother. She has three daughters, all born and bred New Yorkers, ages 19, 17 and 11. She plans to start graduate studies in nonfiction creative writing at Sarah Lawrence next September.

Margie Neuhaus

art gallery

Margie lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. In September 2007 she will exhibit an installation in Wave Hill’s Sunroom Project Space. She had a solo exhibition at the Safe-T Gallery in January 2007. Her work has been exhibited at Socrates Sculpture Park, P.S.122, Art/Omi, Islip Art Museum, Hillwood Art Museum, Franconia Sculpture Park and Stone Quarry Hill Art Park. She has been granted residencies at the The MacDowell Colony, Socrates Sculpture Park, Sculpture Space, Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Vermont Studio Colony. She received an M. F. A. degree from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College, and received a B.F.A degree from Carnegie Mellon University. She is an Associate Professor at The College of New Rochelle.

Helen Rafferty

columns

Debby Schyman

fiction

Debby is a Technical Writer living and working in Virginia
Beach. She strongly feels that neither of these facts
should be held against her. 

Melissa Smock

poetry

Melissa is a poet and DJ residing in Miami's Design District.

Michael San Soucie

fiction

Michael is a high school junior at Yavneh Acadmey in Dallas, Texas. Although rather new to creative writing, he is coming around to finding a voice, with many of his pieces centering on disillusioned, nirvana-seeking characters looking for a Taoist sense of calm. The oldest of five children, he plans to find this calm before anyone else in his familial generation.

Sunsh Stein

memoir

Erich Sysak

fiction

Erich is the author of Dog Catcher (Monsoon 2005), a novel that explores the hostile sub-culture of organized greyhound racing in Central Florida. He teaches at Webster University in Cha am, Thailand.

Betty Wald

essays

Betty is a retired counselor and college teacher. Her work has appeared in the Westchester Review, Irish America, and Pilot magazine, as well as in newspapers, including The Scarsdale Inquirer, The Bedford Record Review, and Ireland's The Kerryman. For four years, she wrote a monthly column for PrimeTime, a magazine published by the Cape Cod Times. Her life’s aim is to finally finish her book about an alternative high school she started and ran back in the 80’s. She lives in Westchester County, but is a Bronx girl at heart.

Sara Williams

essays

Sara Williams is a former Spanish teacher and social case worker. She has a Masters degree in Latin American Literature and has written a coming of age memoir set in the early Sixties which she is currently trying to publish. She is also the spouse of the president of The City College of New York.

Richard Willis

memoirs

Richard grew up on a farm near Marengo, Iowa. He is both an actor and a teacher. After receiving his Ph.D. at Northwestern University, he taught and directed there for three years, and later at Lewis & Clark College where he was chairman of the Department of Theatre. He has been active as a member of Actor's Equity, the Screen Actor's Guild, and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists for over twenty years. He is published in New Author's Journal, Words of Wisdom, Red Wheelbarrow, Phantasmagoria, and Iconoclast. He and his wife, Linda Barry, live in New York City.

Brenda Wilson

fiction

Brenda has an MFA from Queens University in Charlotte, NC and has been published by on-line magazines, including Chicken Bones and Bound Off (podcast).  Additionally, her short stories have been included in the Maryland Review and Pride Magazine.

Helen Zelon

memoirs

Helen’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Brooklyn Bridge and Scientific American: Explorations. A proud booster of her adopted hometown (New York), she is a nonfiction contributor to Totally Brooklyn.

STAFF

Jonathan Kravetz

editor-in-chief

Jonathan is best known for his ability to scratch his forehead and squint his eyes simultaneously . He is a writer, editor and some time trumpet player who spends too much time reading long feature stories on the world wide web. He is a co-founder of ducts and founder of the New York based reading series, Trumpet Fiction, held each month at KGB Bar in the east village. He has studied writing with a number of teachers in New York, including Alice Eliot Dark (fiction), the late Fred Hudson (screenwriting) and Alison Estes (children’s fiction) and has held a number of odd jobs, including news reporter, taxi cab driver, projectionist and ducts installer (hmmmm). He currently works as a computer consultant. He has recently taken up improv comedy classes with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater of NYC as a way to discover finer and more glorious ways of embarrassing himself on a weekly basis.

Philip Shane

Philip is a freelance film editor and co-founder of ducts.org. His programs have appeared on PBS, ABC, Cinemax, Lifetime Television, The Learning Channel, and in theaters and film festivals around the world. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Julie.

Sharon Gurwitz

treasurer

Sharon's careers as psychology professor, banker, and management consultant all come in handy for managing the business side of ducts. When she's not working on a consulting project or writing her novel, she enjoys going to the theater, ballet, and classical music concerts.

Val Kacik

assistant fiction editor

Born in Laredo, Texas, shipped almost immediately to the isle of Trinidad and Tobago, only to be dropped – most say on his head – in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania three years later, and all this before reading James Tate and Charles Bukowski. Not to mention, which he does his best not to, studying with Tim Tomlinson. The truth has no choice but to turn to fiction.

Anne Mironchik

assistant

Anne, although a fine assistant, is much more renowned for her songwriting, which reaches back to capture the classic brilliance of favorite hits by Carole King and Laura Nyro. She blurs the lines between jazz, country, rock and R&B, weaving melody and rhythm together in masterful ways. Her rich alto voice leads listeners from one genre to another as she explores the struggles, loves, fears and joys of everyday heroes. When she’s not writing great music, Anne is busy crunching numbers for ducts! Anne’s new CD “Find Me” is now available and can be found at: www.annemironchik.com. 4newsongs@earthlink.net

Cindy Stockton Moore

art gallery editor

Cindy is a Brooklyn-based painter in a constant state of optimistic upheaval. Outside of the studio, she spends her time shuffling from college to college as an adjunct art professor. Her work was most recently exhibited at A.I.R Gallery in Chelsea and at Kunsfort in Vijfhuizen, The Netherlands. Her writing on art has appeared in New York Arts Magazine, NY Sun, in addition to on-line publications.  You can view her portfolio at www.cindystocktonmoore.com

Jenah Pelley

illustrator

Elizabeth Rosen

essays and profiles editor

Elizabeth is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College. In previous incarnations, she has also been a writer for Nickelodeon, an associate producer for the news, and the editor of two academic journals. She has published her nonfiction and fiction in various publications.

Charles Salzberg

memoirs editor

Charles is a New York based freelance writer and teacher. He has published a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction books. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Arts & Leisure section, Redbook, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure and many others.

Tim Tomlinson

fiction editor

Tim’s fiction has appeared in The Missouri Review, North American Review, Libido, and elsewhere. He’s published haiku in Modern Haiku, Time Haiku, and Black Bough. He’s an occasional journalist, and a full time teacher, working at both NYU and the New York Writers Workshop.

Ryan Van Winkle

poetry editor

Ryan has had poems published in a bunch of small magazines you have never heard of including: Small Fry, Submit, and CIA Nights. His journalism has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Sunday Herald and Black and White Magazine. He burns himself a lot and is the founder of a popular cinema-going club.

INTERNS

Cara Brumfield

Cara is a Freshman studying liberal arts at Lafayette College.

Cary Marshall

Cary is an English major at Lafayette College. She will be spending next year studying at Trinity College in Dublin.

Hayley Rosado

Hayley is a double English and Math major in the class of 2009 at Lafayette College.