Biographies: Gary Brower and Lisa Gill
Gary L. Brower, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri at Columbia, has taught at Baker University (Ks.), Rogue Community College (Or.), University of Kansas, University of New Mexico, University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at San Diego (visiting), as well as with academic programs in Barcelona & Madrid, Spain, and Guadalajara, Mexico. A specialist in Hispanic Literature, especially of Latin America, he has published numerous essays on writers such as Octavio Paz, Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Juan Carlos Onetti, Manoel Bandeira, Ernesto Sabato, Ezequiel Martinez Estrada & others, in various academic journals. He has also written two books on the impact of Japanese haiku on western poetry: THE HAIKU IN LATIN AMERICAN POETRY (Ann Arbor, MI, University Micro) & AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HAIKU IN WESTERN LANGUAGES (Metuchen, NJ, Scarecrow Press).
He has also worked as a journalist & editor in the English-language press of Los Angeles; and, with the Mexican migrant worker community, directing a Spanish-language PBS TV program, an ESL Outreach Program, Hispanic Library Access Program & editing a weekly Spanish-language newspaper, which he founded.
His poetry (& translations from Hispanic poetry) have been published in magazines such as PUERTO DEL SOL, THE POETRY BAG, PUT POEMS, TANSY, COTTONWOOD REVIEW, NEW AMERICA, ANN ARBOR REVIEW, NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE, MUNDUS ARTIUM, 10.5 ARTS MAGAZINE, THE SIGNPOST & CENTRAL AVENUE. Retired, he is currently a member of the board of directors of the Duende Poetry Series of Placitas and is preparing a collection of poetry for publication. He lives in Placitas, NM.
Lisa Gill is the author of Red as a Lotus: Letters to a Dead Trappist, a book of 100 poems dedicated to the Catholic monk, hermit, and political activist Thomas Merton (La Alameda, 2002). Her next book, Mortar & Pestle, poems based on medicinal herbs, is forthcoming from New Rivers Press in the fall of 06. She is currently at work on Caput Nili, a one-woman show addressing violence which will premiere March 31st 2006 in Albuquerque. For more info, see www.lisagill.org