Contributors to Kmareka.com

Kiersten Marek I'm an editor, writer, social worker, and mother. I started writing young and haven't given up yet. My first serious novel is in the works. Editing and writing have brought great joy and satisfaction to my life, along with a lot of hard work. I started out with The Hudson Review, and went on to Pif. In 1996 I earned a Masters in Social Work from Smith College, and have since been trying to figure out how I can best contribute to the world. As editor of Kmareka.com, I think I may have found my niche.

Kevin Marek I'm a business consultant with 15 years experience working for a major insurance corporation. In other facets of my being, I am a lover of Classical and Medieval History, an amateur investor, a reader of two daily newspapers, several weekly magazines, and a frightening number of blogs.

Laura Cherry One of my greatest challenges is not to be so focused on my own personal commitments, however compelling they may be, that I lose sight of the role I want to play in the larger sphere. I'm proud to be associated with Kmareka.com because it focuses on so many of the things I care deeply about -- good writing, the environment, politics at all levels, and, not least, vegetarian cooking. Kmareka.com provokes important questions about what it means to be an individual in a community: what are the compromises we have to make? What are the responsibilities and rewards? These are the questions that concern me as a writer, business partner, life partner, mom, friend, neighbor, voter, even as someone who buys her coffee from the independent coffeehouse down the block rather than the Starbucks -- most of the time.

Kathryn Kulpa I am a writer, teacher, student, librarian, and editor -- not necessarily in that order, and often simultaneously. I began writing at the age of five, but I had to wait a bit longer for my first professional publication, in Seventeen. Since then I have published fiction in many journals in the US and Europe, including The Florida Review, Terra Incognita, and Quality Women's Fiction. My first collection of short stories, Pleasant Drugs, was published by Mid-List Press in 2005. I've spent a long time trying to figure out the Virginia Woolf dilemma, or how to reconcile life (and the need to make a living) and art. I don't think I've solved it yet, but I know I feel at home on the virtual pages of Kmareka.com, with its focus on learning, creativity, and community activism. Not necessarily in that order, and often simultaneously.

David L. Jaffe is a clinical social worker working for change in Western Massachusetts. He is a lifelong progressive and occasional writer of political commentary and satire. David received his M.S.W. from Smith College School for Social Work in 1996, his M.A.T. from Brown University in 1986, and his B.A. in English from the University of Florida in 1983. During these challenging times, David maintains his tenuous hold on reality by spending time outdoors, rooting for the Boston Red Sox, preparing gourmet vegetarian meals, and searching for intelligent life inside the Washington Beltway.