Alan Nothnagle is a freelance writer, journalist, YA author, and simultaneous interpreter based in Berlin. He blogs on European political, cultural, and social issues at http://www.open.salon.com/blog/lost_in_berlin

Thirty-plus years ago, Amy McVay Abbott was a print journalist. Lured by earning more than minimum wage and moving out of her parent’s house, she forged a new path in healthcare sales and marketing. Now retired, Abbott is again doing what she loves, writing about family, art, travel, religion, and the Big Questions. She writes for three Scripps-Howard publications in southwest Indiana, and blogs at http://poetryfan.blogspot.com.

Ashley Schmidt is a Denver native. With a BA in Anthropology, she strives to understand cultures, sub cultures, people, and cognitive reasoning. Her influences include strong female figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Leaky, and others such as Clifford Geertz, Karl Marx, and J.D. Salinger. Her hobbies include painting, refurbishing bicycles, traveling, writing, drinking coffee, and organics.

I am about as liberal as they come, and please don't expect to change me, though I do sometimes sneak up on you with a surprise (pro-death penalty, for instance). I am a freelance writer for several Chicago publications. I write about all things urban, Hollywood, my own turbulent life, and of course, my number one passion: local and national politics.

Left-wing corporate executive. Arizona native. U.S. Navy veteran, former firefighter, backpacking guide and outdoor instructor. 50-something Non-HeteroNormative male. Dog lover. Speaking of dogs, remember Toto in The Wizard of Oz? We could all use more of that terrier spirit. Pull back the curtains to find the wizards behind them. Shine a bright light on the people who have buried our state and the nation in red-tiled roofs, golden arches, and a fog of little white lies so thick we can almost skip the sunscreen. Expose those Masters of the Universe and bankers and media moguls and advertisers and wing nuts and fools. Grab ‘em and give ‘em a good shake.

Bridget likes broken bottle fights, fights with your mom, fights-at-other-people's-parties, fights-composed-entirely-of-paper, fights-that-end-up-with-ripped-woolen-skirts, fights-that-just-don't-understand-you, fights-that-think-they-know-it-all, fights-with-one-hand-tied-to-the-other-persons head, gay-boys-on-coke fights, hippotamus vs. elephant fights, irish-men-arguing-with-polish-women fights, japanese school children fights, LARGE AQUATIC DINOSAUR FIGHTS, playground fights, puppies vs. rooster fights, stand up comedian fights, washed-up-new-wave-band fights, and cigarettes. What would you ask George Clooney?

Caroline Hagood is a poet and writer living in New York City. She has written on books, film and culture for Salon, The Huffington Post, Flavorwire, Bookslut, Film International, Think MTV, Film-Philosophy, The Journal of Popular Culture, and in her own blog, Culture Sandwich. She has also written a collection of poetry and a novel.

Charlie Portman is a visual artist residing in Denver, Colorado. Charlie's work consists of fine-art photography and graphic design, but she recently made the foray into editorial writing. Charlie has a degree in multimedia design and is currently involved in several mixed-media projects. She has won several awards for her work and is published in the College Photography Annual.

Colleen Claes is a freelance writer and blogger when she’s not working 9-5 in Chicago. She has been passionately writing since the age of seven and graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in film and screenwriting. She is particularly interested in the intersection of media (particularly film) and culture, as well the exploration of feminist themes within this context. Colleen contributed to Examiner.com as the Chicago Cult Classics Examiner and has been interviewed by USA Today for her film expertise. She also regularly contributes to Open Salon, where her posts have been chosen as an Editor’s Pick multiple times.

DeAngelo Jones is a native of Chicago, Illinois and a graduate of DePaul University where he earned a bachelors with honors in Organizational Psychology and Marketing. He currently works for United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.

A writer and lawyer with a career in development and nonprofits, much of Dina's early life experiences were shaped by growing up Italian in a small town in Ohio. After law school, she moved West, then overseas for awhile, working in places like Afghanistan, Africa, and Armenia, combining her journalism and communications background with her law degree.

Drew Emery is a writer, filmmaker and storytelling evangelist. He’s currently touring with his film Inlaws & Outlaws, partnering with equality groups and community organizations to educate, advocate and raise money for marriage equality.

Emma Kisiel is a Denver artist working with photography. She is currently pursuing a BFA in photography from the University of Colorado Denver. In her work she discusses the role of the animal in American society and how we as 21st century humans experience wildlife. She spends her free time collecting taxidermy and dead animals and riding her bike around Denver.

Felicia Lee is a freelance writer and editor living in Gainesville, Florida. Her professional experience has included testing video games, editing technical documentation for the Space Shuttle program, making desserts in the pastry kitchen of a five-star hotel, and more recently, teaching in the linguistics department at the University of Florida. Her writings on food and society have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on Salon.com.

A Toronto-based opera singer, Fesche Lola's passions include high heels, re-using Ziploc bags, expensive lip gloss and dry martinis. She has no heroes. She's too disillusioned for heroes. She reluctantly speaks German, longs to have a passionate affair with an Italian and eat too many pickles. Looking at pigeons makes her nauseous. Escalators make her nervous. So do men with thin lips. Fesche Lola is taller than some people and shorter than others.

Graham Hunt currently lives and works in Guatemala as an International Human Rights Observer representing the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA). He has worked previously in El Salvador as an election observer and documentary photographer.

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher’s essays have appeared in The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, New Letters, Fourth Genre, New Ohio Review, Water~Stone Review, Puerto del Sol, Palabra and other literary journals. A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and National Magazine Award essay finalist, his recent honors include a New Letters best essay award and Pushcart Prize special mention. He teaches literary nonfiction at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and Regis University and is co-editor of Shadowbox.

James Hebb is a Colorado Native who was born in Salida, Colorado, where he attended classes at Denver University developing his post-modern existential philosophies in psychology. He set up residence in Steamboat Springs where he worked in many kitchens gaining much needed skills in cooking and kitchen management while writing under his pen name of James Nodding about his worldview and life experiences. He then moved to Canton, New York to open a café, bistro with his older brother focusing on local product and fair trade items and now attends New England Culinary Institute, where the Executive Chef Tom Bivins is a founder and board member of Vermont Fresh Network, a collaborative effort of farm to table principles in sustainability. He is currently finishing up his last residency for his Bachelor’s degree in Culinary arts with a specialization in sustainability, while honing his skills in food writing.

Joan Haskins is a teacher living in Washington, D.C. with her husband. Her daughter has recently gone off to college leaving Joan to figure out what to do with all that space inside her head.

William Joel Turner is a professor of psychology and a mental health therapist in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jowita Bydlowska is a writer and photographer in Toronto, Canada. You can find her other stuff at Ryeberg.com and at Lightstalkers.org.

K.C. Stirling was raised on an apple orchard and now lives in a 400sqf apartment in Toronto. Trained as a classical singer, she enjoys writing in her free time, in addition to eating hot dogs. Her stories come from everyday experiences and life in general. You can read more embarrassing moments on her blog, The Concrete Orchard.

Karl Eysenbach is a retired government administrator and teacher. He is the author of a novel,The Story of the Century, and he lives in Eugene, Oregon and middle Baja California. Watch for his blogging as old new lefty at open.salon.com.

Kevin Gosztola is a multimedia editor for OpEdNews.com. He follows media, activism, and religion and its influence on politics and also writes movie reviews. His work can be found on Open Salon, The Seminal at Firedoglake, Media-ocracy.com, and his SpeakEasy blog on Alternet called "Moving Train Media." He is also a documentary filmmaker and a member of CMN News, an independent news team which does a weekly radio podcast live on Saturdays (which can be found on, listened to, and/or downloaded from TalkShoe.com).

Kevin is a marketing consultant with a BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has worked on both the agency and client-side exploration of consumer behavior, retail shopping insights and all things digital. He is a contributor to ShopperCulture.com and is currently Account Director/Digital Strategist at Forte Advertising in Denver, CO.

Laura Deurmyer is a full-time mom, full-time HR professional and part-time blogger/ writer. Her work has appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Corpus Christi Caller Times, Salon and Adopt-a-tude.

LC Neal resides in extreme South Florida, which is quite literally crawling with inspiration if one remains calm. She leads a dual, verging on Superhero-ish, life as a writer of fiction, irrational and baseless opinion, and reviews of books and music; she also grows orchids commercially.

Leslie M. Fenton is an attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since graduating from NYU Law five years ago, she has successfully survived two different bar exams, one hurricane, four jobs and three cross-country moves. While she previously enjoyed brief professional flings with capital appeals and disability rights, she usually represents victims of domestic violence in family law proceedings. She and her wife are expecting their first gayby in February.

Martha Nichols is Editor in Chief of Talking Writing, a new online literary magazine that seeks new submissions and a lively community of writers and readers. A long-time journalist and freelance writer, Martha has published in Utne Reader; Brain, Child; Youth Today; Salon; and other journals. A former editor at Harvard Business Review, she is currently a contributing editor and blog manager at the Women’s Review of Books. Martha teaches in the journalism program at the Harvard University Extension School. Come find her at Athena’s Head, her website and personal blog; she also cross-posts on Open Salon.

Mary T. Kelly AKA Mary Kelly-Williams is a writer and psychotherapist who has been working with individuals, families and couples for over 15 years in Boulder, Colorado. Mary is a regular contributor to Salon.com, Open.Salon.com, StepMom Magazine, Psychology Today and Fabulously40.com. She has published articles in local and regional magazines (Denver Divorce Magazine, Women’s Magazine, Boulder, CO, Catholic Family Magazine, Chicago, Illinois). Kelly-Williams co-authored the book “Hot Women, Hot Flashes” published by Marabout Publishers (French translation). Mary appeared as a therapist and life coach on the A&E Series, “God or The Girl”.

Matt Roberson is a writer and works in the theatres of New York. His work has appeared on McSweeney’s, and he is a frequent contributor to Nytheatre.com. He is currently writing a history of the 1983 production The Gospel at Colonus.

Michelle Hainer is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in numerous national publications including InStyle, Country Living, Real Simple, The Washington Post, People, Teen People, and Parenting. A former teen magazine editor, Michelle’s covered everything from pregnancy to peer pressure, but these days she writes mainly on the subjects she is most passionate about: cooking, crafting, traveling, and of course, eating. (She’s never met a potato or a piece of dark chocolate she didn’t like.) Michelle loves to knit and to cook, though not simultaneously. Visit her blog, Made By Michelle, below.

Michelle Motoyoshi has wanted to be a writer since she first learned how to scribble words on a page. Since then she has cobbled together a few accomplishments, like having her work performed by local theater groups, publishing three educational books for children, and writing articles for local and online publications. She has also managed to earn a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, while supporting her writing addiction by working as a writing instructor and program coordinator with Ohlone for Kids in Fremont, CA.

Nikki Stern is a writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek and USA Today. She is the author of Because I Say So and blogs at 1 Woman’s Vu. Stern served as executive director of Families of September 11 following the death of her husband on 9/11.

S.H. Carlyle is humor writer whose works have appeared in McSweeney's, Cavalier, and other publications. While he fears the awesome mystery of the world wide internet, you can reach him at shcarlyle@gmail.com.

Sam Helman is a current junior at Brown University from California. He is a computer science major who enjoys writing stories in his free time.

Steve Klingaman is a nonprofit development consultant and nonfiction writer living in Minneapolis. He blogs on public policy and politics from a progressive point of view at Open Salon and writes on personal finance at Wisebread.com. His music reviews can be found at minor7th.com.

Steven Wingate's debut short story collection Wifeshopping won the Bakeless Prize for Fiction from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2008. His fiction, poetry, cross-genre work, and reviews have appeared in Gulf Coast, Witness, Mississippi Review, The Pinch, Colorado Review, The Journal, Brand (UK), Waccamaw, Sonora Review, and elsewhere. His column on the writing craft and life appears regularly in Fiction Writers Review. In 2010-11 he will be Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

Former Wall Street professional: Deloitte & Touche, Ziff Brothers Investments. Turned Peak Oil propagandist and adventure capitalist: Energy, India, green-tech, alternatives. Inside the box thinking. Because all the nutters are outside.

Susan has been writing the whole of her adult life but has no literary awards, professional successes or degrees from academia to weight her efforts with temporal achievements. It has only been recently that she has chosen to share her thoughts publicly. She writes and reads incessantly. She also draws, paints, makes jewelry and creates art in any medium she can manipulate without risk of severe injury. At this time she is a semi-retired Domestic Space Cadet and current arbiter of mid-life dysfunction. It is a full-time job.

Suzanne Des Marais is a visual artist living in a hundred+ year old house in Washington, DC. She does yoga but drinks strong coffee, and is pissed off that DC residents still have no voting representation in Congress. Some of her artwork can be seen at www.hipchickindc.com.

Te V. Smith is a poet, musician, writer and singer who has shared stages, studios and street corners with the likes of HBO, VH-1, Current TV, and several European Colleges and Universities.

Wendy York has written for such prestigious publications as the American Drivel Review and the virtual zine ICON Lifestyle Magazine under the pen name, Vespa Runner. She aspires to someday punch Weezer’s lead singer, Rivers Cuomo, in the face and go on to write about it because he really deserves to be taken down a notch. Other than that, she whistles a lot, hula hoops and fights the good fight. Feel free to contact her at yorktot@gmail.com. Especially with delicious sandwich ideas.

Wilson Diehl lives in Seattle where she writes, teaches, and cuts food into very small pieces for her child to eat. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Iowa and has published pieces in Salon, The Iowa Review, Mudfish, The Paterson Literary Review, Seattle Metropolitan, and on buses around Seattle. Her short, sassy film “How to Go on a Man Date” made the rounds on the national film festival circuit and is anthologized in the Seattle Women in Film DVD. She’s currently working on a book of essays about bra shopping, being a reader in a runner’s world, and all the things they don’t tell you about pregnancy or marriage until it’s too late.