Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series

PERSONAL: Born May 12, 1953, in Portchester, England; son of Philip Thomas (a chartered accountant) and Margaret Ivy (Soleman) Astley. Education: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, B.A. (with first class honors), 1978.

ADDRESSES:.... View more

PERSONAL: Born May 12, 1953, in Portchester, England; son of Philip Thomas (a chartered accountant) and Margaret Ivy (Soleman) Astley. Education: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, B.A. (with first class honors), 1978.

ADDRESSES: Home—Northumberland, England. Office—Bloodaxe Books Ltd., Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland NE48 1RP, England. E-mail—editor@bloodaxebooks.com.

CAREER: Stand (magazine), Newcastle upon Tyne, England, production editor, 1975–78; Morden Tower (poetry readings organization), Newcastle upon Tyne, publications editor, 1976–78; Bloodaxe Books Ltd., Newcastle upon Tyne, founder, editor, and managing director, 1978–. Poet and writer; also worked as a journalist.

AWARDS, HONORS: Eric Gregory Award, Society of Authors, 1982; Poetry Book Society recommendation, 1988; Litt.D., University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1996; nomination for Whitbread Prize, best first novel, Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland, 2002, for The End of My Tether.

The Speechless Act, Mandeville Press (Los Angeles, CA), 1984.

Darwin Survivor, Peterloo Poets (Calstock, Cornwall, England), 1988.

Biting My Tongue, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 1995.

Ten North-East Poets, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 1980.

Poetry with an Edge, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 1988, new edition, 1993.

New Blood, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 1999.

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 2002, Miramax Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Pleased to See Me: 69 Very Sexy Poems, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 2002.

Do Not Go Gentle: Poems for Funerals, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 2003.

Being Alive: The Sequel to "Staying Alive", Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 2003.

Passionfood: 100 Love Poems, Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 2005.

Tony Harrison (criticism), Bloodaxe Books (Tarset, Northumberland, England), 1991.

The End of My Tether (novel), Flambard (Hexham, England), 2002.

The Sheep Who Changed the World (novel), Flambard Press (Hexham, England), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Neil Astley once told CA: "Before going to the university, I worked as a journalist for four years and was living in Darwin, Australia, in 1974 when the city was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy."

PERSONAL: Born August 3, 1952, in St. Paul, MN; son of Bernice Ruth Norlemann. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended college in Hayward, CA; attended University of Arizona. Politics:.... View more

PERSONAL: Born August 3, 1952, in St. Paul, MN; son of Bernice Ruth Norlemann. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended college in Hayward, CA; attended University of Arizona. Politics: "Constitutionalist." Religion: Lutheran. Hobbies and other interests: Private pilot, training tracking dogs, sailing.

ADDRESSES: Home—Tucson, AZ. Office—Ravenhawk Books, 7739 E. Broadway Blvd., Ste. 95, Tucson, AZ 85710; fax: 520-296-4497. E-mail—ravenhawk6dof@yahoo.com.

CAREER: 6DOE Investigations, Tucson, AZ, private investigator, 1981–. Worked as government consumer fraud specialist. Ravenhawk Books, affiliate; executive producer of the documentary film Searching for the Write Life, 2000.

MEMBER: International Association of Credit Card Investigators, North American Conservation Association, National Writers Association, Society of Southwestern Authors, Arizona Homicide Investigators Association, Lions Club International, Sedona Humane Society.

All … the Little Bitches (suspense novel), Ravenhawk Books (Tucson, AZ), 1999.

Stalked to Death (nonfiction), Ravenhawk Books (Tucson, AZ), 2001.

The Calling (suspense novel), Ravenhawk Books (Tucson, AZ), 2005.

Other books include Vanquishing the Predator (nonfiction), Ravenhawk Books (Tucson, AZ), and The Shadow of Trees, a fictionalized autobiography. Author of "Confessions of a Former Republican," a syndicated political opinion column, 1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Karl Arthur once told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is an effort to entertain myself and relieve boredom; especially from February through August, when there are no football games.

"My efforts in fiction were influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and Vincent Price movies. My nonfiction projects help me come to terms with and, hopefully, validate my life's experiences and maybe help others.

"I am a most undisciplined writer. I do not set aside specific times or days to write. I've tried this, but it just doesn't work for me. I write when I feel the desire, the need, the passion. When that will occur, only God knows. I write when I have something to say, even if it is only to myself."

PERSONAL: Born in Winston-Salem, NC. Education: North Carolina Women's College (now University of North Carolina, Greensboro), B.A., 1944.

ADDRESSES: Home—Bethesda, MD, and New York, NY. Agent—c/o William Morrow.... View more

PERSONAL: Born in Winston-Salem, NC. Education: North Carolina Women's College (now University of North Carolina, Greensboro), B.A., 1944.

ADDRESSES: Home—Bethesda, MD, and New York, NY. Agent—c/o William Morrow & Co., 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Former journalist with Richmond Times-Dispatch, Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel, and Newsday; Time, New York, NY, correspondent in Washington, DC, 1966–77, chief of London bureau, 1978–85, chief of Eastern U.S. Regional Bureau, 1985–89, correspondent at large, beginning 1989. Co-host of Panorama (television program), for ten years. Member, board of directors, International Women's Media Foundation; member, board of visitors, University of North Carolina School of Journalism; vice president, Correspondents Fund. Lecturer at schools and other public forums, in the United States and abroad.

MEMBER: Women's National Press Club (former president).

AWARDS, HONORS: Journalism award, Paul Tobenkin Memorial Foundation, 1961; Alumni Distinguished Service Award, University of North Carolina; Courage Award, Women's Media Hall of Fame; inducted into North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame; D.H.L., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2001.

First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents, Morrow (New York, NY), 2000, with an epilogue on new First Mother Barbara Bush, HarperPerennial (New York, NY), 2001.

First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives, Morrow (New York, NY), 2005.

Former columnist, Newhouse National News Service.

SIDELIGHTS: Bonnie Angelo has had a long and varied career as a journalist, having covered stories from all fifty states and some sixty foreign countries. She has covered such varied assignments as manned space shots, presidential inaugurations, and summit conferences. The first woman to be appointed bureau chief of a major city by Time magazine, Angelo also worked to end discrimination against female journalists in the United States during her time as president of the Women's National Press Club (now part of the National Press Club).

In First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents, Angelo tells the stories of several of the mothers of American presidents, writing of their tremendous influence over their sons' future careers. Beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and ending with Bill Clinton, the book profiles eleven first mothers and details how they influenced their sons as these men began a career path that led them to the presidency. A critic for Publishers Weekly dubbed First Mothers an "illuminating and irresistibly readable book." A Kirkus Reviews contributor found that while Angelo keeps "the pseudo-psychology to a minimum," she nonetheless "finds many similarities among these women," and provides "provocative glimpses" into their characters. First Mothers was revised in 2001 to include a profile of first mother Barbara Bush, former first lady and mother of President George W. Bush.

Angelo returned to the subject of presidential families for her next book, First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives. She covers all of the forty-three families who had lived in the White House to date, but arranges the stories about their time in Washington thematically rather than chronologically. The result, Margaret Flanagan concluded in Booklist, is a "chatty slice of Americana [that] is chock-full of fun First Family Facts." Library Journal contributor Dale Farris praised the book's "succinct and vivid anecdotes," while a Kirkus Reviews contributor called it "a must for any political junkie's personal bookshelf."