Johnson Cheu is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures at Michigan State University. His poetry and essays have appeared in publications such as Family Matters: Poems of our Families and Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Literary Disability.
Jim Ferris is an award-winning poet and disability studies scholar. His poetry collections include The Hospital Poems and Facts of Life. Past president of the Society for Disability Studies, he teaches disability studies and communication arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In Fall 2008 Ferris will assume the Ability Center of Greater Toledo Endowed Chair in Disability Studies at the University of Toledo.
Ona Gritz's poetry has been published in numerous online and print literary journals. In 2007, she won the Inglis House Poetry Contest, the Late Blooms Poetry Postcard Competition, and was nominated for two Pushcart prizes. Her chapbook of poems, Left Standing, was released by Finishing Line Press in 2005. She has written two books for children, including Tangerines and Tea: My Grandparents and Me, which was named Best Alphabet Book of 2005 by Nick Jr. Family Magazine and one of six best children's books of the year by Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine. Gritz writes a monthly column for the online journal, Literary Mama, about her experiences as a mother with a disability raising her nondisabled son.
Leilani R. Hall is author of the poetry collection Swimming the Witch. Her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including the Laurel Review, the Cincinnati Review, North American Review, and the Mississippi Review. She teaches creative writing, poetics, and disability studies at California State University Northridge.
Shayda Kafai is completing her master's thesis at California State University Northridge, where she co-founded the Scribbling Poets, a group that brings nondisabled and disabled communities together through art (www.scribblingpoets.com). In the fall, she will begin doctoral work in cultural studies at Claremont Graduate University.
Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist, community artist, and associate professor of English at the University of Michigan. A poetry collection co-written with Neil Marcus, Cripple Poetics: A Lovestory, with photos by Lisa Steichmann, is forthcoming from Homofactus Press in summer 2008. Kuppers is the author of Disability and Contemporary Performance: Bodies on Edge (Routledge, 2003), The Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Art (University of Minnesota Press, 2007) and Community Performance: An Introduction (Routledge, 2007).
Stephen Kuusisto teaches in the graduate creative nonfiction writing program at the University of Iowa. His forthcoming book, Mornings With Borges will be published by Copper Canyon Press.
Laurie Clements Lambeth's first book of poetry, Veil and Burn, was selected by Maxine Kumin as a winner in the 2006 National Poetry Series. She holds MFA and PhD degrees from the University of Houston. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Paris Review, Mid-American Review, American Letters & Commentary, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She currently serves as DSQ's Reviews Editor.
Charles Jason Lee is the author of The Metaphysics of Mass Art (Mellen, 1999) and Pervasive Perversions (Free Association Books, 2005). His poetry collections include The Day Elvis Died, Polaroid Noise, and God's Potato Peeler. Lee has taught at the universities of Central Lancashire, Essex, East London, and St Martin's College.
Kobus Moolman has published three collections of poetry and two plays. He has won numerous awards both locally and internationally for his work. He teaches creative writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.
Margaret Price is assistant professor of writing at Spelman College. Her poetry, articles, and essays have appeared in Breath & Shadow, Wordgathering, College Composition and Communication, Across the Disciplines, and Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture. She is at work on a book about psychosocial disability and academic discourse.
Philip Wedge is assistant professor of English at the University of Kansas and poetry editor of Cottonwood Magazine and Press. His work has appeared in American Scholar, Stone Country, High Plains Literary Review, Amelia, and Aethlon: the Journal of Sport Literature, among others. His chapbook, Slowly Along the Riverbeds, was published in Coal City Review.
