(Guest Judge) Patricia Valdata writes novels, poems and nonfiction. Her prior publications include the novel Crosswind (Wind Canyon Publishing, 1997) and the poetry chapbook Looking for Bivalve (Pecan Grove Press, 2002).

Her latest novel, The Other Sister (Plain View Press, 2008), explores family relationships across three generations of Hungarian immigrants during the first half of the 20th century (purchase The Other Sister).

Pat received an MFA in writing from Goddard College and is an adjunct associate professor for the University of Maryland University College (UMUC).

She writes occasional articles for Chesapeake Bay and Cecil Soil magazines in addition to her day job as a business writing consultant. She and her husband Bob Schreiber live in Elkton, Maryland.

sister@zoominternet.net

Sherri Cook Woosley earned her M.A. in English Language and Literature from University of Maryland, College Park. She taught high school English before accepting graduate funding to teach classes in academic writing and world mythology at University of Maryland. Academically Sherri has published "Mythological and Archetypal Images in The Peach Thief" and presented an excerpt from her Master's research, "Women in the Shadow" at a Rutgers Conference entitled Disciplinary Boundaries. Her fiction has been published by Mount Zion Fiction Review and her story "The Man with the Patchwork Soul" is included in the Maryland Writers' Association anthology: New Lines from the Old Line State.

May Kuroiwa began reading and critiquing the work of other writers in 2004, after acceptance to Kate Gerard's Write Craft Critique Group (voted one of Writer's Digest's 101 Best Web-sites). In 2005, she founded one of the Maryland Writers Association's (MWA) critique groups and then served as MWA's Critique Group Coordinator in 2006. She is an active member of the Zoetrope.com review website and served as a judge for the 2005 Harford County Future Writers Scholarship Program. A veteran of three Gotham Writers Workshops, she's also taken the on-line Editing and Grammar courses offered by Harford Community College.

May has observed and participated in over twenty different critique groups, both on-line and face-to-face, and helped other writers found five critique groups in Maryland.

Nancy Adler is an original member of the Coffeehousefiction team and has served as both an editor and judge. She works as a Coordinator in the School to Careers office in the Baltimore County School system, where she has worked for the past 16 years. Before that, she taught high school English. Nancy received her MS from the Johns Hopkins University in Clinical Counseling and is now working on becoming an Assistant Principal. Nancy is the proud mother of a four year old and 7 week old daughter. She is currently working on several articles detailing the mysteries and myths of motherhood. Research is still pending.