Jack Henry is a writer and publisher from California who is proving that it is never too late in life to move forward and do what you love.He has a passion for small press and promoting writers, but not only that, he is enthusiastic about learning what we all have to offer.He is a hard working, take no shit kinda guy that is starting to make a splash in this little pond we call small press.Please join me in learning about Jack and reading some of his work.
Shaindel Beers is a college professor in Oregon who has recently been winning awards for her poetry. She is active in her community and online in promoting small press as well as academic achievements. Shaindel recently took the time to sit down and answer some questions for OW and share some of her work.
AD:How did you arrive at becoming a playwright?When did you know you wanted theatre to be a large part of your life?
MK:I wrote short stories before I ever wrote a play, but had been involved in theater as an actor since I was child. I studied acting fairly seriously in San Francisco in my late teens and early twenties, but when all my friends started moving to L.A. to take their careers to the next level, I realized that was not the life I wanted. I moved to Northern California and went back to school as a Religious Studies major and put down acting for a while. It was actually motherhood that brought me back to the theater, in a roundabout way. I was taking a few classes at Portland State when my daughters were both very small, one of them an acting class. The professor was the mother of two teenagers, and I think that she felt a kinship with my situation--struggling to reconnect with my art as a young parent. She recommended me for a paid internship with a professional Shakespeare company in town. The experience itself was very challenging. It was great performing again, but really hard to manage 7 shows a week with my other responsibilities. I realized that I could not work at this pace AND parent in the way I wanted to.
I was so lucky to meet Sherry Okamura, who would become my partner in crime, during that show, or I may have chucked the whole artist business until my kids were in college! She convinced me to do more experimental work with groups who would support me as an artist and a mother--or better, we would create our own shows and produce them ourselves.
This month I had the pleasure of talking with author Spencer Dew about his new collection of short stories entitled “Songs of Insurgency” which was released earlier this year by Vagabond Press.It expands over many issues about how post-9/11 mania has effected the common man.The stories move around to several parts of the country and to war torn areas as well.Please join me in discovering more about Spencer Dew and how this book came to be.
In the final part of 2007, Ben J. Biesek began his journey into the small press world by creating an up and coming journal called Cause & Effect based in San Luis Obispo. This publication embodies the various arms of our popular culture today. Ben recently took the time to tell me his story about Cause & Effect.
Click below to learn more about OW's first book and the winner of the Jack Micheline Memorial Award.
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Outsider Writers have been distributing chapbooks in dark subterranean caverns for too long. The corporate presses and literary institutions have no vision. The media is irrelevant. It's time to rise into the sun!
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Outsider o' the Month! 
