Charles Potts

Was born in Idaho Falls in 1943. Idaho State University College of Arts and Sciences gave him a Distinguished Professional Achievement Award in 1994. The Washington Poets Association honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He donated his literary archive in 2010 to the special collections of Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. In addition to 35 of the adjacent 50 states, Potts has presented his work in Japan, China, The Republic of South Korea, Canada, and Croatia. New books include Quintessential, a selected poems from Last Word Press in Olympia, WA, and Meadowland, from Hand to Mouth books in Walla Walla.  Potts has been a resident of Walla Walla, Washington for 45 years.

Charles Potts has published countless books of poetry by all types of writers including Charles Bukowski, Edward Smith, Charles Foster, Karen Waring and more.

Read an interview w/ Charles Potts here.

Photo by Bill Anderson

Travis Catsull

Travis Catsull co-founded the print and online poetry publication, Haggard & Halloo with James Oswald in 1995. He was the poetry editor for The Temple Poetry Journal and Arthur Magazine until their closing. A collection of his poetry, “Death of an Image”, was published in 2010. A book of collages titled, “The Heaven Antenna” was also published that year. Travis was a music journalist for print and online magazines in Austin and Chicago.

Travis lives in Central Texas with his wife and two children. He still writes poetry, short stories, songs and has begun working on his first fiction novel.

Dennis Held

Dennis Held lives in the Vinegar Flats neighborhood of Spokane, Washington, where he is a book editor and community organizer. His first book of poetry, Betting on the Night, was published by Lost Horse Press; his second, Ourself, by Gribble Press. His most recent collection, Not Me, Exactly, was published in 2020 by Hand to Mouth Press. His essay: What I’ll Miss, is published in Pushcart Prize 2022, the best of the small press. He lives along Hangman Creek and watches for kingfishers.

Read two of Dennis’ poems here.

Photo by Dan Pelle.

Dirk Michener

Texas based songwriter/musician Dirk Michener has been releasing music and zines for over 30 years. Co-founded prolific music and art collective Business Deal Entertainment in 1992 at the age of 16. Privileged to be taught under visual artists Vernon Fischer, Annette Lawrence and poet Bruce Bond at the University of North Texas.  Contributor to numerous online and small press publications over the years he was regularly featured at Haggard and Halloo, who published his collection “Architect in the Field of Labyrinth”.  Injecting humor and experimentation in most works, Michener likes to examine the complex banalities and surreality involved in his immediate surroundings and interactions.  

Most recently he’s been working on a collection of writing titled “Unrecorded Songs With No Music”

James Oswald

James E Oswald is the co-founder of poetry zines, Walking Mountain Range and Haggard & Halloo. He is a filmmaker, photographer, and author. In 2024, he published his debut novel under a pen name. He is the founder of Alta Real Pictures, a media production company based in Austin, TX, as well as a producer of the Levitation music festival and Austin Psych Fest. With two decades in the film and music business, James Oswald uses his experience to inform the themes of his visual storytelling style.

Dan Raphael

dan raphael is the author of 27 published books of poetry, most recently How’d This Tree Get In? (Ravenna Press, ’24) and In the Wordshed (Last Word Press, 22.) A dynamic and engaging performer, dan has read his work in 137 different places in his hometown of Portland, as well as dozens of other towns. For most Wednesdays in the last 9 years dan has written and recorded a political poem for The KBOO Evening News.

Read two of Dan’s poems here.

Sarah Rooney

An author, poet, and open mic host, Sarah has dedicated their work to fostering creative spaces where storytelling and performance intersect. Sarah is the author of Mother Media, a collection of poems that reflect on culture, literary genres, and fandoms through a creative and critical theory lens. Just having completed their MFA in Creative Writing at EWU, Sarah is putting together a second collection as well as teaching writing workshops throughout Spokane. Sarah has been featured at local events like Emerge, Foray, and Terrain.

Klyd Watkins

Klyd Watkins tried very had to quit poetry at one point in his life. He dried up the best he could. But it didn’t take. When he began writing and submitting poetry again in the late 80’s, he found the new work was rejected everywhere and repeatedly. So when Nashville poet Beatlick Joe Speer gave him copies of Charles Potts’s tabloid zine The Temple and suggested he submit there, he did so with dejected resignation. It  was a fortunate, indeed, life-giving move. He would publish in The Temple a number of times. His chapbook 5 Speed bears The Temple imprint, and his collection the wind is sacred there was published by Potts’s Hand to Mouth. Then, also from Hand to Mouth, came his chap Roy Acuff and Charley Pride talk about the Atlanta Braves on the stage of The Grand Ole Opry and other scenes.  

His most recent collection is The Wolf Can Smell This Is My Acre from April Gloaming press. He is preparing a chapbook of new poems to be called Blue Smoke.

He and his wife Linda live now on the Harpeth River near White Bluff, with three of their four sons living nearby (the fourth is in LA, working for Disney). His five grandchildren are scattered around the country, but all three of his great-grandchildren live next door, making it convenient for him to attend their ball games.

Read a poem by Klyd Watkins here.