Pop and Sizzle - The Loudest Voice 1/29/9

Neil Tangaroa Aitken is the author of The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga Press, 2008), winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. His work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, The Drunken Boat, Ninth Letter, Poetry Southeast, Sou'wester, and elsewhere; and he edits Boxcar Poetry Review, an online poetry journal that features reviews and interviews pertaining to first books. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Neil grew up in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the western parts of the United States and Canada. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Brigham Young University, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California - Riverside, and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California.

Emily Fridlund grew up in the Twin Cities and received her M.F.A. in fiction from Washington University in Saint Louis in 2004. She has published work in Boston Review, New Orleans Review, Quick Fiction, The Portland Review, The Great River Review, and Beloit Poetry Journal. After teaching writing for a year in Dalian, China, she returned to the United States, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California

Eric Gudas's poems, essays, and literary interviews have appeared in such publications as The American Poetry Review, Crazyhorse, The Iowa Review, Poetry Flash, and The Southern Review. He and his wife Alyssa Sherwood, an animator, live with their daughter in Pasadena, California. As a doctoral candidate in English at UCLA, Eric is working on a book-length study of Eleanor Ross Taylor's poetry.

Elizabeth Wilcox graduated from Yale University in 2005 with a B.A. in English. Her poems have appeared in Ghoti Magazine and HazMat Literary Review. After teaching 11th grade English for two years, where she became adept at tricking students into liking poetry before they knew what was happening to them, she moved to Los Angeles. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California.

Bryan Hurt is a Ph.D. candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. His fiction has appeared in Hot Metal Bridge and Salt Hill.

Charlie Shipley's love for pop music was fiercest around the summer of '99, when Britney, Christina, and *NSYNC ruled the airwaves and forever predisposed him to over-the-top songs with memorable melodies. His musical tastes have broadened somewhat since then, but those and other influences have left an indelible mark on his music, which he began writing when he moved to LA to go to USC in 2006.