Milspeak Anthology Contributor Notes

Stacy Atkinson, an active duty Marine, lives in Beaufort, South Carolina and works aboard MCAS Beaufort. She graduated October 18, 2008 from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, after earning a BS in Professional Aeronautics. She is currently enrolled at University of South Carolina and is pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching. Stacy is also a Marine wife. Her husband is an Air Traffic Controller aboard MCAS Beaufort. They are currently expecting their first child.

Vivian I. Bikulege was born and raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Her father was a Navy veteran, and she married a first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in 1986. Her husband later retired as a lieutenant colonel. Vivian writes Whatever, a column published in The Lowcountry Weekly, distributed in Beaufort, South Carolina and surrounding areas. Her columns have been featured on Your Day, an ETV radio program broadcast on local NPR stations. Vivian also writes feature articles for Hilton Head Monthly, and Lowcountry Monthly. She was one of the winners in the 2004 Piccolo Fiction Open (PFO) for her piece Right Credo. PFO is a literary component of the Piccolo Spoleto Arts Festival in Charleston South Carolina. Essays presented by Vivian in the Milspeak anthology are unedited. Currently, Vivian is working to develop her work as a book-length memoir, Yucca Sluts.

Born in Washington, DC, Gerard Boe was raised on the East coast in a military family. Boe graduated from W.V. Wesleyan College with BS degree, from Ohio State University with a MS and Texas A&M University with Ph.D. He served a tour in the USMC as an Air Intelligence Officer, and then transferred to the US Army. Boe retired after 21 years service in the US Army. Following retirement, Boe worked at Medical College of Georgia, and owned and operated a management consulting business. He sold the business to accept a position as Executive Director, American Medical Technologist in Chicago. Boe retired from AMT to Beaufort, and has been writing poetry and nonfiction for several years.

Charlotte M. Brock was a Marine Officer from May 2002 to July 2008. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, of a French mother and American Foreign Service Officer father, she spent most of her childhood overseas. Charlotte attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and participated in Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. While on active duty, she was stationed in Camp Pendleton, California, and Parris Island, South Carolina. She deployed twice to Iraq: with the 1st Force Service Support Group in 2004 and with Multi-National Corps-Iraq in 2005. She is currently an editor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Affairs, a Washington DC-based think tank.

Major General Matthew P. Caulfield was commissioned in 1958 and retired in 1992. He currently resides in Oceanside, CA.

Born and raised in a small town in the South, David Charles joined the US Marine Corps as a teenager during the Cold War period. Having joined for law enforcement training, his first Marine job after “recruit” and “student” was as a military policeman. Once he cut his teeth guarding gates and on patrol, David became a Marine criminal investigator. Most of his career was in military law enforcement minus some out of specialty assignments, including three years on recruiting duty. Most of David’s writing is drawn from his direct military experience, but his interest in sharing the military story has led him to help others share their stories, as can be seen in “First Combat Convoy” and “Corporal J’s Housecleaning.” David’s military decorations (in order of precedence from lowest to highest) include the Marine Corps Recruiting Service Ribbon, Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Humanitarian Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon, Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon, Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal. David has been married for over a quarter century to a supportive, loving wife and has two children. His son is currently a US Marine and his daughter is a college student. He credits MCWS for making his dream of becoming a writer come true.

Melinda Copp is a freelance writer based in Bluffton, South Carolina. In 2005, she started an editorial consulting business, The Writer’s Sherpa, to help aspiring authors achieve their writing and publishing goals. In August of 2009 she will earn her MFA in creative writing in Goucher College's nonfiction program. You can read more about her at www.MelindaCopp.com and www.WritersSherpa.com.

Bob Cowser, Jr.'s first book, Dream Season, was a New York Times Book Review “Editor's Choice” and “Paperback Row” selection and was listed among the Chronicle of Higher Education's best-ever college sports books. He is also the author of Scorekeeping, a collection of coming-of-age essays, and his essays and reviews have appeared widely in American literary magazines, including Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, American Literary Review, Sycamore Review, Brevity, Sonora Review, Fourth Genre, and Creative Nonfiction. He is Associate Professor of English at St. Lawrence University, where he teaches courses in nonfiction writing and later American literature, and an adjunct member of the faculty of Ashland University’s Low-Residency MFA program. He also serves as associate editor of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative.

Jo Ann Doane served six years in the Marine Corps before entering the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance as a trappistine nun. She left the monastery after nine years and returned to Beaufort, South Carolina where she now resides. Jo Ann works with animals and writes poetry from an esoteric perspective. Jo Ann and Sally’s friendship has continued since January 22, 1983 when they served together at Marine Air Control Squadron 5 at MCAS Beaufort.

Melissa Ellis was born and raised in the small Virginia town of Spotsylvania. After graduating high school, life took her to various places, including Maryland, Virginia Beach and eventually South Carolina. It was there, in 2002, that she began working as a civilian for the United States Marine Corps at Parris Island Recruit Depot. She currently works there, for the Sixth Marine Corps Recruiting District, handling Human Resource and performance management issues for civilian personnel. The youngest of five, family is extremely important to her as reflected in her piece, “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.”

Monica Greer was born and raised in Gadsden, Alabama and graduated from Coosa Christian High School in 1994. She married her best friend in 1999 and together they are raising their three children. Life in her hometown was the only thing that Monica knew until her husband surprised her by joining the United States Marine Corps. Monica is the Family Readiness Officer for VMFA-251 at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Yvonne Rivers Green was born and raised in Big Estate, a small community within Beaufort, SC. Yvonne has 12 siblings and graduated from Battery Creek High School in 1977. She has two adult children. Yvonne has been employed by the Federal government for twenty-two years at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, SC. Yvonne thanks Milspeak for the opportunity and inspiration, and gives thanks to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the gift.

Moe Haagensen, a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, 101rt, Airborne Air Mobile 1970-71, was born in western New York and settled in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Milspeak creative writing workshops have given this ex-soldier a new communion with which he may regenerate life. The Milspeak experience has allowed Moe to unravel rock hard memories and cast them to the wind.

Jack Hayes and his wife, Frances, are both retired from business and live on Dataw Island, a gated community near Beaufort, South Carolina. Originally a New Yorker, Jack graduated from New York State Maritime Academy with an engineering license in the Merchant Marine and commission in the Navy, a Baccalaureate from State University of New York, and Master of Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickenson University. He began writing memoir to provide his son and five grandchildren with a record of his life experiences.

Michael Kobre is the Dana Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte and On-Campus Director of the Queens Low-Residency MFA Program. He's the author of Walker Percy's Voices (University of Georgia Press, 2000). His essays and fiction have appeared in Tin House, West Branch, Mississippi Quarterly, Critique, and other journals.

Rebecca McClanahan has published nine books, most recently Deep Light: New and Selected Poems 1987-2007 and The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, which won the 2005 Glasgow prize in nonfiction. She has also authored four previous books of poetry and two books of writing instruction, including Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively. McClanahan’s work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The Best American Essays, Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, Gettysburg Review, and numerous other publications. McClanahan, who lives in New York, has received the Wood Prize from POETRY, a Pushcart Prize in fiction, and (twice) the Carter prize for the essay from Shenendoah. Rebecca’s website is www.mcclanmuse.com.

Sondra Meek was born and raised in Lakeland, Fl. She joined the Marine Corps in 1990 and is currently a Master Sergeant serving with III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa Japan. She is also married to a Marine and has two daughters, ages 13 and 8. She has served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and her husband has served in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Dinty W. Moore is the author of the memoir Between Panic & Desire (University of Nebraska). His other books include The Accidental Buddhist, Toothpick Men, The Emperor’s Virtual Clothes, and the writing guide, The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. He has published essays and stories in The Southern Review, The Georgia Review, Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Gettysburg Review, Utne Reader, and Crazyhorse, and teaches in the creative nonfiction PhD program at Ohio University.

Kathryn Evans Parker went to work with Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) at Parris Island, South Carolina in August 1976 and is still working there. The work she does is varied, but always involves details. Currently her position is in the Review and Analysis department where she manages programs and audits. Kathryn grew up in a small town, Salters, South Carolina, where her Mother still lives. During high school her first real job was typing and bookkeeping for a small Western Auto Store, then went on to become a “Soda Jerk” at a local “Drug Store.” Her parents could not afford to send her to college, but she wanted to continue her education so badly that they sacrificed everything for her to attend Columbia Commercial College in Columbia, SC. She promised her parents that she would pay them back and is blessed to have her Mother, age 86, to continue to pay back in wonderful ways. Her majors were accounting and IBM Automation. Shortly after college, she moved to Charleston, SC where her first job was in data processing and accounting with Data Processing Service Company. This job offered her great training in both of her career choices. In December 1964, she married Bertis Reed Parker, Jr. of Beaufort, South Carolina. They moved to Beaufort in February 1976 where they still live with their two beautiful cats, Frank and Jesse James.

Richard Peabody, a prolific poet, fiction writer and editor, is an experienced teacher and important activist in the Washington, D.C. community of letters. He is editor of Gargoyle Magazine (founded in 1976), and has published a novella, two books of short stories, six books of poems, plus an e-book, and edited (or co-edited) nineteen anthologies including: Mondo Barbie, Mondo Elvis, Conversations with Gore Vidal, A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation, and Kiss the Sky: Fiction and Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix. Peabody teaches fiction writing for the Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Program. You can find out more about him at: www.gargoylemagazine.com or www.wikipedia.org.

Debra A. Pochie traveled the world as a military child before settling in her father’s hometown, Beaufort, South Carolina. She is employed by Marine Corps Community Services at Marine Corp Air Station Beaufort and Parris Island Recruit Training Depot. Debra has three children and two and a half grandbabies that are proud enough to call her Mother as well as Goobergaa.

Ian Pounds began his education traveling ten thousand miles on the angle of a genetically transmitted hitchhiker’s thumb. He sailed around the world with Semester at Sea, a shipboard campus devoted to global studies. He acquired his B.A. in creative writing from The Evergreen State College, and later studied Elizabethan literature at Oxford University. For three years he practiced Vipassana meditation, and for three years he homesteaded an otherwise deserted island in Southeast Alaska. His plays have been showcased at Seattle’s New City Theatre and Olympia’s Black Box. He’s been a stonemason, a performance poet, a counselor of runaway teens, and led workshops with the Association for Experiential Education and the Vermont Stage Company. He was a scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, where he served over ten years on the admissions committee and coordinated the Bakeless Literary Prizes. He has recently completed a memoir, The Hippie and the Marine: an American journal. He hails from Ripton, Vermont.

Lisa Annelouise Rentz lives and gardens in Beaufort with her husband Irby Rentz, and works as the editor of ArtNews, the print magazine of the Arts Council of Beaufort County. Her essays, short stories, and illustrations have been published by Skirt, Salon.com, night rally, Noshi Knitting, Charleston Magazine, Boston Public Radio, and accepted into the University of South Carolina-Beaufort’s permanent collection.

Atsuro Riley is the author of Romey’s Order, forthcoming in 2010 from the Phoenix Poets series of The University of Chicago Press. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Threepenny Review, and McSweeney’s, and has been awarded the Pushcart Prize and Poetry’s Wood Prize. Brought up in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Riley lives near San Francisco.

Debra Sharkey enlisted in the Marine Corps in December 1984. Now a First Sergeant soon to retire, Debra originally trained as a heavy equipment operator. She has served as a heavy equipment operator instructor and as a Drill Instructor, Senior Drill Instructor and Series Gunnery Sergeant. After leaving the Parris Island drill field in April 1998, she reported to Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia, where she spent a summer serving as a Sergeant Instructor at the Officer Candidate School. First Sergeant Sharkey deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2003 until June 2003 with 180 Marines and Sailors under her charge. In October 2004 in preparation for deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom 04-06, she completed SASO Training and deployed to Desert Talon 1-05 with 250 Marines and Sailors in her company. At her present duty station, she has served as a First Sergeant for a Female Training Company at 4th Recruit Training Battalion and is currently serving as a First Sergeant for Service Company Headquarters and Service Battalion, which has 284 Marines.

Jillian Schedneck taught Literature and Creative Writing at the American University in Dubai for the 2007-2008 academic year. In 2006 she was a professor at Abu Dhabi University. Jillian holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from West Virginia University. She is currently working on a travel memoir about her experiences in the United Arab Emirates titled “Abu Dhabi Days, Dubai Nights.” Her creative work has been published in literary journals such as The Common Review, Brevity, and Fourth River.

Tom Sheehan’s latest books are Brief Cases, Short Spans, November 2008 from Press 53 of NC; From the Quickening, January 2009 from Pocol Press of VA; a proposal for a collection of cowboy stories, Where the Cowboys Ride Forever, is in the hands of a western publisher; other in-process works are Epic Cures II, and novels Murder from the Forum, Death of a Lottery Foe, An Accountable Death, The Keating Script, and Death of the Final God. His work is currently in or coming in Ocean Magazine, Perigee, Rope and Wire Magazine, Qarrtsiluni, Green Silk Journal, Halfway down the Stairs, Ad Hoc Monadnock, Hawk & Whippoorwill, Eden Waters Press, Milspeak Memo, Milspeak Mentoring, Ensorcelled, Canopic Jar, SFWP, Eskimo Pie, Lock Raven Review, Indite Circle, Northville Review, Pine Tree Mysteries, and in the book coming from Press 53, Home of the Brave, Stories in Uniform. He has 10 Pushcart nominations, a Noted Story of 2007 nomination, the Georges Simenon Award, and a selection for inclusion in the Dzanc Best of the Web Anthology for 2009.

Lisa Kahn Schnell served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, West Africa, from 1998-2000. Her essay “Circling,” which first appeared in Brevity, will be anthologized in Online Writing: The Best of the First Ten Years (Snowvigate Press, 2009). She lives in Kutztown, Pennsylvania with her husband and their two daughters.

F.P. Siedentopf retired from the Marine Corps after serving thirty years on active duty. Starting as a Reservist “grunt” in 1959, he integrated into the Regular Marine Corps upon graduation from recruit training and opted for aviation training as an avionics technician. After aviation training at NAS Memphis, TN he was assigned to Sea Duty aboard the USS Boxer, LPH-4. After Sea Duty, he had various postings to aviation units in North Carolina, Okinawa, and Vietnam. In 1968 he retrained as a technician on the Tactical Air Operations Center (TAOC), a tactical data computer for aircraft interception. Until his retirement in 1990, he served in various technical billets and in logistics billets as both a Supply Officer/Supply Chief and Logistics Officer/Logistics Chief. His personal decorations include the Good Conduct Medal, The Navy Achievement Medal (2 awards), The Navy Commendation Medal (2 awards), and the Meritorious Service Medal. He currently writes a column, “Imp-Revised News” as “The Bad Sied,” for Bruce’s Really Good Quotes at http://www.reallygoodquotesonline.com/about/.

Warren Slesinger was a university press editor for several years and teaches part-time at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. In 2008, Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, A Word For It. Warren edited Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry and The Whole Story: Editors on Fiction, both books published by The Bench Press and used in creative writing courses. His poetry and his “definitions” have been published in numerous magazines, including The Georgia Review, New Letters, and South Carolina Review. In 2003, the SC Commission on the Arts awarded Warren a poetry fellowship.

Shawne Steiger is a social worker in the Syracuse VA, where she works as the PTSD Clinical Team Lead. She earned an MSW from Syracuse University in 1991 and an MFA in Fiction from Vermont College in 2006. Her work has appeared in The Berkshire Review, The Portland Review, Trillium Literary Journal, upstreet 3 and Segue Online Literary Journal.

Nancy Whitworth lives in Beaufort, South Carolina, and works aboard MCRD Parris, Island.

Shana Tamla Willoughby was born in Raleigh, NC. She is in the Marine Corps, stationed in Miramar, California, and has one daughter. During 16 years in the military, Shana has experienced a lot and has grown a lot. Writing is cathartic for Shana, who uses her words to create a canvas of beauty. Revealing her deepest thoughts or the fun side of her imagination allows a look into the heart of her words as she unveils her soul. Her most precious assets are the wisdom and foresight gained through different experiences that cause her to glean certain priorities in her life. She chooses to live her life with no regrets from the past or present, or from future decisions, but to overcome these seasons of her life through many blessings bestowed and to blossom where she’s planted.

A. M. Yallum has been on active duty in the Marine Corps more than twenty years and is currently stationed in Okinawa, Japan. He writes fiction and studied journalism for three years before enlisting in the Corps.