Contributors


no. 5: autumn, 2000
* one year anniversary *

Nicholas Bhasin
columnists
Nicholas Bhasin is a comedy writer and screenwriter. He is a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre team, Pound, and a new, exciting, but as yet unnamed, sketch comedy group. He works as a script analyst for Miramax Films.
Bill Bilodeau
columnists

Bill is the editor of a small daily newspaper in New Hampshire. He studied creative writing at Harvard and is currently at work on a novel. He is married... with children.

Thomas Blake
humor
Tom is an actor and writer who currently plays Lord Alfred Wreckingball in the wrestling comedy Piledriver, one of many shows in which he's appeared at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. He has performed his own sketch comedy in theaters and clubs around New York including Caroline's and Chicago City Limits. He also appears on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Julia Douglass
ducts stage
Julia is a singer songwriter living and performing in New York City. Lyric oriented songs with catchy melodies are her trademarks. Her music can be heard on WFMU-FM and WBAI-FM "The Fred Geobold Show". Her debut cd "Fetish for the Underdog" from Stylus Records is available on Amazon.com. "Julia is the Lilith Fair with brains," says Meredith Ochs of WFMU. Email juliadoug@aol.com to get on the mailing list for upcoming gigs.
Gideon Evans
humor
Gideon is a Producer on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He is also a playwright, actor and voice over artist. Gideon resides in Brooklyn, New York where he wanders the streets looking for new friends.
Thomas Fast
memoirs
art gallery

Thomas, a.k.a. Naked Man, is teaching English to junior high school students in Japan. He studied art history at New York University and has traveled and lived throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Eric Gillin
memoirs
Eric was born in Randolph, Massachusetts and works as a staff reporter for TheStreet.com. When he isn't covering financial matters, his work has appeared in TheSource.com, Maximmag.com and GreenMagazine.com. He lives somewhere in Manhattan and pays too much for rent.
Mark Goldblatt
humor
trumpet fiction
Mark has published op-ed columns in the New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, and Newsday, and has written feature articles for Travel and Leisure and book reviews for Reason and the National Review. Mark resides in New York City.
Joel Goodman
ducts stage
Joel is a New York based film composer who has scored music for many documentaries and independent feature films. He's also an active music producer.
Richard Goodman
profiles
Richard Goodman is the author of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France. He has written on a variety of subjects for many national publications, including The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Commonweal, Vanity Fair, Garden Design, Grand Tour, The Writer's Chronicle, salon.com, Saveur, Ascent and The Michigan Quarterly Review. He has twice been awarded a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony and twice been awarded a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He is a winner of a Hopwood Award for his fiction. He has taught creative writing in New York City for a number of years, where he is now associated with the New York Writers Workshop. Recently, he wrote the introduction for Travelers' Tales Provence, and his essay about Paris appears in the collection, The Best Travelers' Tales 2004. His essay, "In Search of the Exact Word," originally a lecture at Spalding University, appears in the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus from Oxford University Press. The University of Michigan Press will publish his essay, "Homage to Cazzie Russell" in its anthology, Ann Arbor: A Literary Portrait, in the fall of 2005.
Veera Hiranandani
kids
Veera is currently an Assistant Editor at Simon & Schuster. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and has taught fiction writing at Gotham Writers' Workshop in Manhattan. She writes both adult and children's fiction and her work has been published in Pearl Magazine.
Brian Huskey
art gallery
Brian is an actor and photographer who drives a big red Jeep Cherokee, but rarely does anything outdoorsy. He is a member of the New York sketch group, Naked Babies, the improv group Pound and of the weekly improvised movie show, Feature Feature.
Mitchell Levenberg
trumpet fiction
Mitchell has published short stories in FICTION magazine, The New Delta Review, The Cream City Review, Fine Madness and others. He teaches writing at New York University and St. Francis College.
Benjamin Malcolm
columnists
Benjamin is a Washington, D.C. based freelance writer. He currently works as a program associate in an international educational development organization. In the past he has worked as a journalist and, later, as a Peace Corps teacher/volunteer in Thailand. When he isn't working on poetry, short fiction, or his novel, Benjamin plots how he will get back to Asia in time for World Cup 2002.
Laura Emily Mason
memoirs
Laura is both a reference librarian in a pubic library, and a business systems analyst for a major U.S. Corporation. She is currently at work on a memoir, Losing the Atmosphere.
Patti Munter
trumpet fiction
Patti is currently working on her first novel, Spinning Lucy Snow. Her short story, "Pre-Dawn Massacre," won the 1998 short fiction contest in Pearl. Her short fiction can also be found in Acorn. She was a semi-finalist for the Heekin Fellowship in Short Fiction in 1997 and 1998, and is a recipient of residencies at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, and Sewanee. Her non-fiction has appeared in Nerve, Rolling Stone, and Passion. She lives in New York City.
Margaret Hundley Parker
trumpet fiction
Margaret writes fiction and nonfiction. She is Associate Editor of Fit magazine and teaches at Kingsborough College. She also teaches children through the Teachers & Writers program of New York City. Margaret received an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College in May.
Victoria Reggio
personal essays
Victoria is a freelance writer living in New York. Her essays have appeared in Clevermag and Skirt!. She thanks God every day for her rent stabilized apartment.
Sam Riegel &
Robert Blatt
humor
Sam was a New York actor. Robert was a Washington lobbyist. One guy played by the rules. The other guy auditioned for plays. Now, they write humor. Go figure. Along with writing material for ducts, Rob & Sam also co-author screenplays, sketch comedy, songs, feature articles, and various other short works of fact and fiction. This summer, comedy takes a back seat and nefarious space-monkeys grab the wheel. To find out more, visit www.amanaplan.com.
Harilyn Rousso
memoirs
Harilyn is an educator, social worker, psychotherapist and activist who has worked in the disability rights field, with an emphasis on issues of women and girls with disabilities, for more than twenty years. She is also a writer and painter, incorporating disability-related themes into her work. Harilyn is the author of the book "Disabled, Female and Proud! Stories of Ten Women with Disabilities," co-editor of a text on gender issues for students receiving special education services, and contributor to a variety of journals. Largely a self-taught artist, she has been a resident at the Millay Colony for the Arts and Vermont Studio School, and has had individual and group shows in NYC.
Hannele Rubin
bachelor girl
After a bad breakup with an Israeli Tank Commander, Bachelor Girl purchased the entire "Relationships" section at Barnes & Noble. On her way out, she also grabbed a copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude. Bachelor Girl is a 20-year veteran of fixup flops, bad bar pickup lines, great sex with bad men, and failed attempts to see the merits of socially maladjusted -- but marriage-minded -- guys. She's also a freelance journalist.
Thaddeus Rutkowski
trumpet fiction
Thaddeus grew up in central Pennsylvania and lives in Manhattan. His novel, Roughhouse, was published by Kaya Production, New York. His fiction was nominated for a 1998 Pushcart Prize. He has read his work at many New York spaces, including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, where he has won the Friday poetry slam.
Charles Salzberg
profiles

Charles is a New York based freelance writer and teacher. He has published a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction books. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Arts & Leisure section, Redbook, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure and many others.

Iris N. Schwartz
trumpet fiction
Iris is a fiction writer, poet and singer-songwriter whose work has appeared in The Pikeville Review, Blue Collar Review, Curare and other literary magazines. She has performed on TV, radio and live Internet and has curated and hosted arts benfits for 5C Cultural Center and SR JazzArts. She vows to finish her novel-in-progress, Sirena Wailing, within the new millennium.
Jeffrey Parker Thompson
criticism
Jeffrey is pursuing his Ph.D. in Art History at Emory University in Atlanta. He has lived and studied in New York, Atlanta and Rome.
Christine Walters
art gallery
Christine has produced live action and animated series for the Children's Television Workshop, Jim Henson Productions, Comedy Central and HBO. She's given voice to many bimbos on the animated series, Beavis and Butthead. Christine also performs improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater with her group "Mother."
Brad S. Wise
art gallery
Brad is a photographer and designer residing in Manhattan. He is currently involved in a number of new media projects. He also writes for film.
Francine Witte
trumpet fiction
Francine is a fiction writer, poet, and playwright. Her fiction has appeared in the Nebraska Review, Calliope, and Urban Spaghetti. Her poems have appeared in many national journals and she is the author of 6 chapbooks. She has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her short plays have been produced in NYC at Love Creek, The Turnip Theatre, and the Riant Theatre. She recently completed her first screenplay. In her spare time, she is a creative writing teacher at a high school in New York City.
Randall Woods
anniversary feature
As a mild-mannered editor for a Seattle-based national insurance magazine, Randy fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and a really good screenplay. A former managing editor for a magazine about garbage-hauling, Randy is also an amateur photographer.
Thomas Ziorjen
art gallery
Thomas lives and paints in Pender Harbour, a small community on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast, with his wife and their two sons.
Staff

 

Jonathan Kravetz
editor
Jonathan is a Brooklyn based freelance writer.
Philip Shane
designer
Philip is a freelance film editor. His programs have appeared on PBS, ABC, Cinemax, Lifetime Television, The Learning Channel, and in theaters and film festivals around the world. He lives in New York with his wife Julie.
Jenny Oh
illustrator
Jenny is a documentary filmmaker who is currently developing a project about the American coffee industry.
Jennifer Lauren Pelley
illustrator
Jennifer is studying cinematography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She just recently signed her life away and moved into a new apartment...
Bryan LeBoeuf
illustrator
Bryan is a painter living in Williamsburg, NY. He is a recent graduate of the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative Art. He is the current recipient of the Merreville Award for painting at the NYAA and is in numerous private collections throughout the United States.
Veera Hiranandani
children's editor
Veera is currently an Assistant Editor at Simon & Schuster. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and has taught fiction writing at Gotham Writers' Workshop in Manhattan. She writes both adult and children's fiction and her work has been published in Pearl Magazine.
Jennifer DeMeritt
assistant editor
publicity
Jennifer is a comedian, pseudo-intellectual and amateur hack psychologist. Her hobbies are watching bad performance art and spanking her cat Tatiana a.k.a. Fat Tati or Tati the Body.
Christine Walters
publicity
Christine has produced live action and animated series for the Children's Television Workshop, Jim Henson Productions, Comedy Central and HBO. She's given voice to many bimbos on the animated series, Beavis and Butthead. Christine also performs improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater with her group "Mother."
Helen Zelon
publicity
Helen's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Brooklyn Bridge and Scientific American: Explorations. A proud booster of her adopted hometown (New York), she is a nonfiction contributor to Totally Brooklyn.
Thank You

Special Thanks to Charles Salzberg who knows everybody including us -- thanks for sending so many folks our way.

Jon and Phil also thank the amazing group of people who have joined our staff. With your help, the ducts are growing in all sorts of new directions!