KGB Bar

Xavier Trevino dropped out of the Pratt Institute film school in his senior year after succumbing to the lure of the drug culture of the time. He spent the next twenty-odd years in various low-paying jobs and using heroin and cocaine, as well as spending 18 years on methadone. He got clean in 2001. Xavier started taking creative writing courses offered by the 32BJ union local of which he is a member in 2005, and in 2006 published his first short story “The Door” in a book called “Kindred Spirits”, sponsored by the Workers Writing Project. He has been taking Charles Salzberg’s advanced non-fiction writing classes since the spring of 2008 and continues to write about people he encountered during his using years. He was a guest blogger on Phoenix House’s Recovery website this past fall.

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Before John Gorman’s stories made it into print he snapped the Eyesore of the week for the Queens Ledger. He’s performed in Off-Off Broadway shows, poured artisanal wines for collectors and enophiles alike, taught tennis, and held a handful of other odd jobs along the way. His fiction, essays, and articles have appeared in Mississippi Review, RiverSedge, Monkeybicycle, Thieves’ Jargon, Circle Magazine, Plum Ruby Review, The Rose & Thorn, Nexus, and elsewhere. His debut novel Shades of Luz is published by All Things That Matter Press. He is the founder and publisher of the Paper Cut blog that covers a wide range of topics from the literary arts, pop culture, personal essays and current events. He also scribes interviews.

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Erica Abeel is the author of 5 books, including the novel Conscience Point (Unbridled Books), which has been called “Sex in the City meets Brideshead Revisited.” Her novel Women Like Us was a Book-of-the-Month-Club selection. A former dancer, Abeel is also a journalist who has written the “Hers” column for the New York Times and covers film for a variety of publications, including indieWIRE.com, IFC.com, and the Huffington Post.