Robert Klein Engler
Robert Klein Engler was born in Chicago. He worked many years as a department chairman and as a faculty union leader at the City Colleges of Chicago until he was ethnically cleansed and banned by the Chancellor in May, 1997. He now teaches at Roosevelt University.
Read The Poisoned Note

Ryan Kamstra
rYAN kAMSTRA is a baroque lyrical robot currently residing in Toronto. First book lATE cAPITALIST sUBLIME is due out in May 2002. For more info on projects: ryankamstra.com
Read bOY hUSTLER kICKS

Audrey Lemon
Audrey Lemon is an artist and sometimes-writer who lives in Toronto. She has appeared in Goodgirl Magazine and Dry Pleasure. Contact her at audreylemon@hotmail.com
Read Gemini Lines

Sean Meriwether
In addition to his work on Velvet Mafia, Sean is the editor of Outsider Ink, the content editor of the gay links resource TheGayMaleBody.com and half of the Blowsquish.com design team. His fiction has appeared in Best Gay Erotica 2001 and 2002, Of the Flesh, as well as online in Suspect Thoughts and other literary venues. Sean lives in New York with his partner, photographer Jack Slomovits, and their two dogs, Sasha and Nik Nak. If you are interested in reading his fiction and erotica, visit his website at seanmeriwether.com.
Read The Theory of Forward Motion

Kirk Read
Kirk Read (kirkread.com) is the author of How I Learned to Snap, a
humorous memoir about being openly gay in a small southern high school. His
writing has appeared online at Suspect Thoughts and in the anthologies Best
Gay Erotica 1999, Bears on Bears and Out in the Castro. He's written for the
gay press for the past five years and was the editor of Virginia's LGBT
newspaper. He lives in San Francisco.
Read The Patriot

David Schultz
David began as a poet in college. As time went by, he became very interested in short stories and is looking forward to seeing a whole book of stories, as well as a book of his poems, become reality this year. He has had stories published, online and in hard copy, in Transition (Canada), Somniloquy, FriendlyVoice (U.K.), Liquid Pony, and Mediphors. His poems have appeared in Footwork, Horizontes (in Spanish), Poésie USA (in French), Tin Wreath, Ambrosia, The Haven, and Italian Americana among others.
Read Core N'grato

Gregg Shapiro
Gregg Shapiro's poetry and fiction have been published or are forthcoming in a multitude of literary journals, literary websites, anthologies, and textbooks. Shapiro is the music and cinema editor at Windy City Times (Chicago) and the music editor at NEXT Magazine (NYC). He is a contributing writer to a variety of publications including Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco), Bay Windows (Boston), Between the Lines (Detroit), En La Vida (Chicago), Gay & Lesbian Times (San Diego), Gay Life (Baltimore), Nightspots (Chicago), Out Front Colorado (Denver), Philadelphia Gay News, Wisconsin Light (Milwaukee), and XTRA! (Toronto), to name a few. He is also music director at Windy City Radio (105.9 WCKG) in Chicago.
Read Chocolate Dipped

Jack Slomovits
Jack Slomovits is a commercial and portrait photographer as well as a graphic and web designer. Maturing sexually during the 80's, in an age of AIDS, Jack's lust for adventure was tempered by his fear and awareness of the disease. He refocused his sexual energy into his art and his camera became his wand of control. Jack's work has been collected by galleries in New York and Los Angeles, and have been published in two photographic anthologies. Visit his website at jackny.com
Check Out his Photography

Matt Bernstein Sycamore
Matt Bernstein Sycamore is the editor of Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers
Write About Their Clients (Haworth 2000), and Dangerous Families: Queer
Writing on Surviving Abuse (forthcoming). His writing has appeared in Best
American Erotica 2001, Best American Gay Fiction 3, Best Gay Erotica 2000, 2001, and 2002 and other publications. He recently finished a novel, Pulling Taffy. He can be reached at tricksandtreats@hotmail.com.
Read Ten Dollars

Ray Van Horn, Jr.
Ray Van Horn, Jr. has published fiction with numerous publications including Outsider Ink, Anotherealm, Parchment Symbols, Story Bytes and Amoret. Five of his short stories were collected in the Cyber Age Adventures anthology, "Playing Solitaire." Additionally, Ray was the winner of Quantum Muse's fiction contest in 1999. A freelance hockey analyst, Ray has contributed sports and entertainment articles journals, as well as essays to Satire, I Love My Job and TooWrite. Finally, Ray's first novel, Mentor, has been accepted for publication by Publish America, LLLP and is scheduled for release in early 2003.
Read Dirty Pool

Greg Wharton
Greg Wharton is the founder and publisher of Suspect Thoughts Press, editor of the webzine suspect thoughts: a journal of subversive writing, and the erotica editor for Velvet Mafia. He is the editor of the anthologies Of the Flesh: Dangerous New Fiction (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2001), Meat: Tales of Lust, Appetite, and 100% Grade A Beef--The Best of the Best Meat Erotica (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2002), and Love Under Foot: An Erotic Celebration of Feet (co-edited with M. Christian, Haworth Press, 2002). His short fiction, reviews, and creative nonfiction have been widely published online and in print, including the anthologies Balls Without a Chain, Best of Friction, Best S/M Erotica, Buttmen, Friction: Best Gay Erotica Volume 5, Quickies 2, Rough Stuff 2, and Vixens & Villains. He is hard at work on a forthcoming collection of his own gay erotic fiction for Alyson Books.
Read Johnie Was