KGB Bar

Cheryl B. has performed her humorous, narrative work at venues throughout NYC and abroad. She has been published in numerous publications such as the literary journal Ping Pong and the anthology Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution (Seal Press, 2007), among many others. Cheryl is also the co-host of Sideshow: The Queer Literary Carnival which takes place every second Tuesday of the month at Phoenix Bar in NYC.  Her awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in poetry and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her website is www.cherylb.com.

Kaylie Jones is the author of the acclaimed memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me (Harper Collins, 2009, paperback: fall 2010). Her works include A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, released as a Merchant Ivory Film in 1998; Celeste Ascending (Harper Collins, 2000); and Speak Now (Akashic Books, 2003). She is the author of numerous book reviews and articles which have appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, Confrontation Magazine, and others. Kaylie teaches at SUNY-Stony Brook’s Southampton College MFA Program in Writing, and in the low residency MFA Program in Professional Writing at Wilkes University. She co-chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 yearly to an unpublished first novel.

Shawn Stewart Ruff is the author of two novels---Finlater, and the soon-to-released Toss and Whirl and Pass. He is also the editor of Go the Way Your Blood Beats: Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African American Writers. He lives and works in New York City.