READERS' BIOS
Mark B. FriedlanderÂ
a fourth-generation resident of Los Angeles, lives in his adopted hometown of Riverside, CA and is a first-year MFA student in poetry at CSULB. A retired social services professional, his poetry and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review, Evening Street Review, Oberon, San Diego City Beat, and San Diego Reader.
Jen FrenchÂ
is a second year fiction student in CSULB’s MFA creative writing program. She is currently working on her thesis, which is a collection of short stories that focus on the dark complexities, oddities and humor of the human psyche. When she’s not writing stories of pedophile compounds, hateful crones and heroic hallucinogen peddlers, she enjoys spending her time swimming in the Pacific and dancing to cumbia.
Mary KinardÂ
received a BA with an emphasis in Creative Writing in 2008. While pursuing an MFA Fiction degree at CSULB, she makes time for scrapbooking, the works of Frank McCourt and Rick Bragg, and collecting insects with her grandsons. She loves God and Pennsylvania above apple pie and bright flannel shirts.
Ramsey MathewsÂ
is a first-year MFA poet. He grew up in rural Georgia. As a kid he worked in tobacco, soybeans, and peanuts, where he learned the art of cow tipping. He camps and climbs, especially at Joshua Tree, where he broke his leg. “When all other inspirations fail, there remains the surreal nature of love to write about.”
Jax NTPÂ
is a second-year MFA poet, Editor-in-Chief of RipRap Literary Journal Volume 35, and the Coordinator of this MFA Reading Series. Her thesis and poetry explore the psychology of the grotesque, identity&gender binaries, and “neurosity” the velocity of neurotic paralysis in both modern and surreal environments. She has an affinity with Jellyfish and Polaris.
Matthew Ramelb
is a first year MFA Fiction. Originally from West Maui, currently residing in the beautiful city of Lawndale. South Bay surfing enthusiast.
Cassady OzimecÂ
is a first-year MFA fiction writer. He’s from Santa Ynez Valley, California. He likes to paint, ride his bike, drink beer, write, travel, and look at people. If he weren’t an MFA student, he would be a matador in the Barrio Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Espana. Please enjoy responsibly.
Olivia Somes is a first-year MFA poet. She’s President of HipPoetics, CSULB’s Creative Writing Club. She won the William T. Shadden Scholarship Award for Poetry in Spring 2011. Her first chapbook, Life After Purgatory, was released in Fall 2012 and is available for purchase. She loves narrative and snarky contemporary poetry, dystopians, small presses, tacos, beer, barbecuing, and laughing at bad television. She hopes to one day write a graphic novel and a television pilot.
