David Warner - Editor
David's been editor of Creative Loafing since 2004. Originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, he was previously editor of the Philadelphia City Paper, an alt-weekly in the Creative Loafing vein. He has a B.A. from Harvard and an M.A. in Theater from Villanova, and was a 2001-2002 National Arts Journalism Fellow at Columbia University. In October 2008 he played a Talmudic scholar in Stageworks’ production of The Chosen.
email: [email protected]
Leilani Polk - Music and Events Editor
Leilani’s been writing for CL since she was an intern back in ’03, before she earned her Mass Communications degree at USF and used it and her wits to get a full-time position at the paper. She is quiet and unassuming, except when it comes to food (chocolate and sushi), travel (the farther the better), sci-fi (books, movies and some TV), dancing (the girl can tear a rug) and music (from pleasant to dissonant). These diverse interests collided for her in the perfect storm of ear-opening music otherwise known as Phish. This has been both a blessing and a curse – the knowledge that she is superior in her musical evolution is counterbalanced by the fact that she is mocked by most who consider themselves fellow critics. Persevering through this musical McCarthyism has left her confident, however, that she has an unfiltered, all encompassing love of sound and she’d like to spread it ‘round.
email: [email protected]
Leilani's Facebook | Leilani's MySpace
Megan Voeller - Visual Art Critic
Megan teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa, edits the weekly online newsletter of CreativeTampaBay and blogs at Artsqueeze.com along with the Daily Loaf. Her writing has also appeared in Art Papers, NY Arts and d'Art International. Megan is a graduate of Williams College and the New School's Media Studies Program.
email: [email protected]
David M. Jenkins - Contributor
David is the Producing Artistic Director for Jobsite Theater and Senior Marketing Manager for TBPAC. He has a BA in Theater from USF and an MFA in Acting from UF. He has also studied at Moscow State University, with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Russian Academy of Theater Arts. He was voted Best Actor by the readers of Creative Loafing in 2001, and has received Loafies for Best Artistic Direction in 2006 and 2008. In his free time he enjoys traveling, football, pub games, really good beer, DIY projects, playing guitar, playing video games. He lives in Tampa Heights with his rad wife, three dogs and a mess of cats.
email: [email protected]
Bridget Bean - Contributor
Originally from Yorkshire, England, Bridget has lived in the Tampa Bay area since 1995 and has served as managing director at the Gorilla Theatre since 2005. Bridget has been fortunate to work with the many wonderful professional theatres in the area including American Stage, Stageworks, Jobsite Theater, Fresh! Live! Theatre, and the Alley Cat Players. In recent years, Bay Area audiences have seen Bridget in Shirley Valentine (for which she was awarded a Best of the Bay Award), Measure For Measure, Talking Heads, Underneath the Lintel, and The Vagina Monologues, among others. Bridget lives near Lowry Park Zoo with her cats, Milkymouth and Spotty.
Mark E. Leib - Theater Critic
Mark has been theater critic for Creative Loafing in Tampa Bay and Sarasota since 1998. His criticism has won four awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including the first-place statewide Sunshine State Award for Critical Writing. Leib is also a playwright whose plays and adaptations have been produced at the Players Theatre in Greenwich Village, the Manhattan Punch Line, the American Repertory Theatre and at the Edinburgh and Singapore Theatre Festivals. His play The Return to Zion was chosen for a staged reading at the Southern New Plays Festival at New Orleans’ Southern Rep, and his play Art People is scheduled to appear this spring at the Studio@620 in St. Petersburg. Leib now teaches at the University of South Florida and Eckerd College.
William McKeen - Contributor
is chairman of the University of Florida’s Department of Journalism and author of several books, including the Hunter S. Thompson biography Outlaw Journalist. His book blog can be read here.
Nathan Anderson - Contributor
Nathan Andersen has lived in Saint Petersburg with his wife Andrea and four children for 10 years, teaching philosophy and film at Eckerd College. He also runs the International Cinema Series and is the co-director of the annual "Visions of Nature, Voices of Nature," Environmental Film Festival. This is his fifth year taking students
to Sundance. He's into independent and international film and Hollywood classics and metaphysical science fiction and monster and mobster movies.
Bluelucy - Contributors
Blue Lucy creates brands, websites, animation, print stuff & custom paintings.
Blue Lucy's Complete Daily Loaf Archive
Rick Dakan - Contributor
Rick Dakan is the author of three novels, Geek Mafia, Geek Mafia: Mile Zero, and Geek Mafia: Black Hat Blues. He co-created the hit online game, City of Heroes, and has written for and about games of all kinds since the mid-90's. He is obsessed with games, books, other life's great pleasures and measures his self-worth based on his Xbox Live Gamer Score. Find out more at www.rickdakan.com.
Rick's Complete Daily Loaf Archive
Lizz Straight — Contributor
Elizabeth "Lizz" Straight has been on the spoken word scene nationally and internationally for the past nine years. This 28 year-old native of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is not only one of the United States' top spoken word artists, but she's also a radio personality and activist. She is currently the host of a weekly poetry radio show titled "Poetry Is..." broadcast weekly on WMNF, 88. 5 FM, out of Tampa, FL and on the web at WMNF.org. She was WMNF's Programmer of the Year for 2007. She has been applauded for her work in correctional institutions throughout central Florida, bringing poetry into the walls of the prison system. Some of her other accomplishments include winning First Place in the Southern Fried Poetry Slam in 2003 and 2008 as well as placing 7th overall at the Individual World Poetry Slam, 2008.
email: [email protected]
Velva Lee Heraty - Contributor
Velva Lee Heraty is a Jungian depth psychotherapist from Chicago, IL. She has studied dreams for nine years at the C. G. Jung Institute in Evanston, IL and is a member of the Association for the Study of Dreams. As a result of her studies, Velva created a dream processing method called Subjective Symbol Immersion designed to help dreamers everywhere understand their dreams. She has taught this method both nationally and internationally, most recently in Iceland, and is currently writing a book on the subject. A member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and a former columnist for Chicago Woman Newspaper, she lives in St. Petersburg.
email: [email protected]
Peter Meinke - Contributor
Peter Meinke has published fifteen books of poems, seven in the prestigious Pitt Poetry Series. He has received two awards from the National Endowment from the Arts, and three from the Poetry Society of America. His writings have appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Yankee, and many other magazines. His stories have been included in the O’Henry, Best American, Best of the South, and other anthologies. For many years he was Director of the Writing Workshop at Eckerd College, and since his retirement has been writer-in-residence at many colleges and universities; he was Distinguished Poet-in-Residence at Wichita State University in 2008. He and his wife, the artist Jeanne Clark, have lived in St. Petersburg since 1966.
email: [email protected]
Kim Colvin - Contributor
Kim Colvin is a USF advertising program grad and makeup artist. She authors Mode Maven, a CL beauty blog.
email: [email protected]
Ami Sallee Corley - Contributor
I'm a freelance actor/director/designer/arts educator and arts administrator. I'm sure it's obvious that I love my job. I was formerly the managing director for Jobsite Theater and the operations and producing manager for The Patel Conservatory at TBPAC. You may have seen or can continue to see my work or study with me through Jobsite, The Gorilla Theatre, The Patel Conservatory, American Stage, The Eleanor Dempsey Performing Arts Center and others. Above all else, I support local art.
email: [email protected]
Sally Bosco - Contributor
Sally Bosco is corporate trainer by day, but has the heart of an artist. She was a dance and theater major at FSU, but realizing she might need to earn a living some day, graduated with a BA in Graphic Design from University of Florida. Sally recently received a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from Seton Hill University. She has published a young adult horror novel, AltDeath.com and an adult paranormal romance, Shadow Cat (as Zoe LaPage). Her hobbies include working out, running, making costumes and attending theater and art events.
email: [email protected]
