2009 Guest Poets

Robert Gray

Robert Gray is best known for being almost good at writing poetry, singing, playing guitar, cooking, designing web sites and keeping his hair combed.  He began writing poetry in college, where he discovered Wordsworth and decided against all logic and common sense to become an English major.  After writing for twenty years, he published his first book of poems, I Wish That I Were Langston Hughes last year.  His second book, me & drew & blue water, is due out this summer.  He has also redently published poems in The Birmingham Arts Journal and The Oracle. A native of Sylacauga, AL, he holds a BA and MA in English and a PhD in Industrial Technology, all from the University of Alabama.  He is currently the Director of the Program for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of South Alabama, where he also teaches part-time for the English Department. He has taught composition and literature at the University of Alabama, Michigan State University, Troy State University and Montcalm Community College.  He has also worked at UAB and eCollege, where he helped other faculty improve their teaching through the sue of technology. He currently lives in Mobile, AL with his wife Kim and their two children, Liam and Emma.

Jerri Hardesty

Founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of the nonprofit, New Dawn Unlimited, Inc., dedicated to poetry publishing, production, performance, promotion, preservation, and education. She and her husband, Kirk, live in the woods of Alabama with too many animals and a print shop.  Besides publishing, writing and being published, they also organize many Alabama poetry events as well as sponsor and participate in poetry slams at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Jerri also did the school thing, completing her Masters degree from the University of Montevallo with a thesis of original poetry.  She enjoys many different genres, from sonnets to slam, from haiku to epics, from sestinas to free verse. She often spends so much time publishing other people's poetry, she neglects to send her own work out.  However, her personal experience includes over 150 publications in magazines and anthologies, as well as numerous speaking engagements, lectures, workshops, and performances, and scores of awards and honors for both written and spoken word/performance poetry at the local, regional, national, and international level.

Bruce Alford

After he broke into a house and accidentally started a fire, which subsequently burnt the house to the ground, he was able to save an armful of comics; thus he embarked on a life as a reader of ''fine'' literature-very fine.  Bruce's life of writing began, in earnest, when he created a comic for his sixth-grade class. He was a starving artist for many years, living off of wild berries in the spring and pecans in the fall.  He could never write.  Finally he said, "To hell with this!"  He got a full-time job at the University of South Alabama.  There, he works with the poet laureate of Alabama, Dr. Sue Walker and novelist Carolyn Haines. Before becoming assistant professor of creative writing adn the University of South Alabama at Mobile, he worked as a reporter for the Hammond Daily Star, Hattiesburg American and The Birmingham Post Herald.  His most notable interview was of General Colin Powell. He teaches Poetry Writing, Creative Non-Fiction, Short Fiction and the Graphic Novel. "I think that my journalism skills inform my writing in a good way," he says. "In a nutshell, my literary sensibilities are shaped by The King James Bible, Comics, and newswriting."