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George Bilgere directs the Creative Writing Program and the Visiting Writers Series at John Carroll University. His fundraising efforts in the Cleveland community have allowed him to bring four current or former U.S. Poet Laureates to perform their poetry and work with students at John Carroll in the past five years: Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, and Ted Kooser.

He is the host of Wordplay, a weekly radio program on WJCU that features poetry by local and nationally known poets. He is the winner of the 2008 Distinguished Faculty Award, the highest honor John Carroll bestows upon a faculty member in recognition of outstanding teaching and scholarship. In 2006 he won the prestigious May Swenson Poetry Award for his book of poems, Haywire. In the same year he received the Ohioana Award, which honors an Ohio poet who has made significant contributions to poetry and teaching.

In 2002 his book of poems, The Good Kiss, was chosen by U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins to win the University of Akron Poetry Prize, and in 2003 he received the Cleveland Arts Prize in literature. Radio host Garrison Keillor has read a number of Bilgere’s poems on the nationally syndicated program, The Writer’s Almanac, most recently on July 5, 2008. Bilgere has received two grants from the Ohio Arts Council, most recently in 2007. He has also received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Witter Bynner Foundation, and the Fulbright Foundation. He has read his poetry at schools and various venues around the country, and on four occasions at the Library of Congress. He has also performed at the 92^nd Street Y in New York with Billy Collins. He teaches modern literature and creative writing at John Carroll.

Anthony Mastromatteo

www.amastromatteo.com

Anthony is an Ohio native, having been born and raised in the Akron area. He attended Walsh Jesuit High School from where he graduated in 1988. Anthony attended Princeton University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Art History with a focus in the visual arts of the late medieval period and the northern Renaissance.

Upon graduation in 1992 he worked at Christie’s auction house in New York City, specializing in 19^th century European art, maritime art and objects, and American paintings. In 1997 he left Christie’s to begin studying drawing and painting under New York artist, Jacob Collins, who offered a course of study centered on the French 19^th century atelier system. Anthony studied with Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier in Brooklyn from 1997 to 2002.

From 2002 until 2003 he began to grow his career as a professional artist in New York City. In 2003 he moved with his wife back to Ohio to continue developing his career. Anthony currently works as a professional artist with representation in New York City and in San Francisco.

Matt Perko

www.mattperko.com

Matt Perko is a freelance photographer and graphic designer originally from Painesville. Also a professional jazz musician for the past 15 years, Matt has developed into a sensitive and creative multitalented artist. His photography has brought his passion to visual form through stunning nature and landscape photography, striking urban street scenes, powerful and dynamic portraits, and thought-provoking still lifes.

He spent his teenaged years drumming with Cleveland’s best jazz musicians, and has since performed throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Austria. At the age of 21, he underwent a heart transplant operation at the Cleveland Clinic. This life-changing experience made him realize life’s rhythms needed to be captured in every way possible.

Matt lives with his wife Marge in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

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