Brother Paul Quenon o.c.s.o. has been a monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky since 1958. He received his initial formation from Thomas Merton, and lives a regular life of prayer and contemplation, and has been community cook since 1973. He has published eight books of poems and his journal, A Matter of the Heart, appeared in 2024. His memoir In Praise of the Useless Life, received the Catholic Press award for memoirs. Andrew/Sunfrog (he/him) is a poet, DJ, blogger, author, editor, fanzine & chapbook publisher, multimedia artist, theologian, ex-preacher, university teacher, sober creature, & music superfan. This Detroit amphibian & abolitionist activist resides in a college town in Tenasi (Tennessee), Cherokee land. In addition to the long-running music website & radio program Teacher On The Radio, Andrew has recently launched the collaborative music fanzine Everything's Folked and has joined friends on the monthly music-discussion podcast the Music Nerds Record Club. He has begun drafting fiction for the first time in decades, having completed a few short stories and begun the first few chapters of a potential novel. His visual art exhibit Collage Is Everything was recently featured at The Tiny Cloak in Cookeville. Recent poetry publications include: What Kind Of Music Do You Like: poems from a music fandom (2024); Broken Megaphones: Christ-haunted poems about loving & losing religion (2023); Cardboard Amphibian: new & selected poems (2022); Don't Touch Your Face: poems from a pandemic (2021). Andrew's frequent collaborator Rick Quin said this about Broken Megaphones: "I don't know many poets and mystics, but Andrew William Smith is the genuine article. His poetry exudes passion, and his vulnerability on these pages is nothing short of stunning. Poets are often feared because their deep vulnerability can expose our dangerous illusions. Mystics find themselves marginalized because they see through our artifices. But we need them and their honesty. Broken Megaphones is witness and testimony, fire and love." J. M. (Michael) White did graduate study in Phenomenology at Duquesne University and holds an M.A. in philosophy from Vanderbilt. His poems, interviews, essays and book reviews have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Sewanee Review, Parabola, Janus Head and The Mirror as well as in magazines and journals in Canada, England, Romania, Italy, Japan and India. He has fourteen books in print and has compiled and edited: Safe in Heaven Dead: Interviews with Jack Kerouac, and Opening to Our Primordial Nature by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche. He has studied with the Dalai Lama as well as teachers from each of the major schools of Buddhism. He attended summer sessions at Naropa Institute during the 1980's and studied with many of the poets and writers associated with the Beat Generation literary movement, including William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. He has visited the ancient cities and monuments of the indigenous people of prehistoric America including Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Cahokia, Poverty Point, Watson Brake, Ocmulgee, Etowah, Fort Ancient, Serpent Mound, Chichen Itza, Palenque, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Tulum, Uxmal, Kabah, Teotihuacan, Machu Picchu, Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Cusco, as well as the pueblos of the Taos, Zuni and Hopi Indians. He is currently hiding out on the back roads of rural Tennessee. Poet, writer, editor, publisher, professor, scholar, activist, U.S. National Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate Ron Whitehead is the author of 30 books and 40 albums. A UNESCO Europe Writer-in-Residence, his work has been translated into 20 languages. The City of Louisville presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in The Arts. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has produced thousands of music and poetry events, festivals, and Insomniacathons across Europe and the USA. In May 2024 he produced his 3rd 24-hour non-stop music & poetry Insomniacathon in Estonia. In July 2024 he produced The Last Insomniacathon, a 57-hour non-stop music & poetry & arts happening, at the Chapel of St. Philip Neri in Louisville. At 74, he continues to perform and record with The Storm Generation Band and many others. His newest book, TAPPING MY OWN PHONE, was just released by the National & International Beat Poetry Foundation. OUTLAW POET: The Legend of Ron Whitehead (Storm Generation Films/Dark Star TV), a feature length documentary on Ron's life and work, is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime Films Documentaries.
