Howl (34 page)

J
ON
G
LASER
is a writer and actor. Several of his stories have appeared in the
New York Times Magazine.
His television writing credits include
Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live,
and
The Dana Carvey Show.

T
OM
G
LIATTO
is a television critic for
People.
He is also a contributor to McSweeney’s humor Web site.

M
ARGA
G
OMEZ
tours nationally as the writer/performer of seven solo plays and as one of the first openly gay comedians in America. Her television appearances include HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central. Ms. Gomez has been nominated for New York’s Drama Desk Award and is the recipient of several performance honors, including Theatre LA’s Ovation Award and the GLAAD Award. Her dog Tabasco took second place for “Best Butt” in a Brooklyn dog parade.

L
EE
H
ARRINGTON’S
award-winning series “Rex and the City” has been appearing in
The Bark
since 2000. Her bestselling memoir,
Rex and the City: A Woman, a Man, and a Dysfunctional Dog,
based on this series, was published in 2006, and her first novel,
Nothing Keeps a Frenchman from His Lunch,
is forthcoming from Villard in 2008. She is at work on the second volume of
Rex and the City.

A
NTHONY
H
EAD
lives in Austin and is editor in chief of
Directions: The Magazine of the Texas Hill Country
(hillcountrydirections.com). He is
not
Anthony Head the distinguished English actor. This means that, despite having lived in Hollywood for fifteen years, this Anthony Head has less silver-screen time than his dog, Jerry.

F
RANCIS
H
EANEY
is the author of
Holy Tango of Literature
and several puzzle books. He is a former editor-at-large for
Games
magazine; the composer and co-lyricist of the off-off-Broadway musical
We’re All Dead;
and the author of the highly irregularly scheduled webcomic
Six Things.

A
NN
H
ODGMAN
is the author of several humor books, a number of cookbooks, and more than fifty books for children, most recently,
The House of a Million Pets.
She and her family live in Connecticut.

P
AM
H
OUSTON
is the author of the novel
Sighthound;
two collections of short stories,
Cowboys Are My Weakness
and
Waltzing the Cat;
and a collection of essays,
A Little More About Me.
She has received a Western States Book Award and her stories have been selected for the Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Awards, the Pushcart Prize, and the Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the director of creative writing at UC Davis and has been the grateful recipient of the love and wisdom of (so far) five Irish Wolfhounds.

R
EBECCA
R
OSE
J
ACOBS
is a journalist who writes for the London
Financial Times.

H
AVEN
K
IMMEL
is the author of the novels
The Used World, Something Rising (Light and Swift),
and
The Solace of Leaving Early;
the memoirs
A Girl Named Zippy
and
She Got Up Off the Couch;
and the children’s book
Orville: A Dog Story.
She studied English and creative writing at Ball State University and North Carolina State University and attended seminary at Earlham School of Religion. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

K
ATHE
K
OJA
writes adult and young-adult fiction. She is the author of
Straydog,
which was honored by the ASPCA and the Humane Society. Her novels include
The Blue Mirror, Talk, Going Under, Kissing the Bee,
and
Buddha Boy.

J
EAN
-P
IERRE
L
ACRAMPE
lives in San Francisco and is currently earning his MFA in creative writing at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he is the fiction editor of
Mary
magazine. His work has appeared on McSweeney’s Web site.

C
ATIE
L
AZARUS,
a comedian and writer, has appeared on
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,
Fox News, and the CBS Evening News, and has been heard on NPR. Awarded “Best Comedy Writer” by Emerging Comics of New York, Lazarus has contributed to the
New York Post, Forward, Time Out New York, The Jerusalem Report,
and the books
Nobody Reins, Insomnia,
and
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jokes.
Currently, she is writing for the show
Dr. Lazarus,
as well as working on her first novel,
Me Inc.
lazarusrising.com.

F
RANZ
L
IDZ
is a
Sports Illustrated
writer, a
New York Times
film essayist, and the author of
Unstrung Heroes: My Improbable Life with Four Impossible Uncles
and
Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers.
He lives on a six-acre farm in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley with two llamas (Ogar and Edgar), three Great Pyrenees (Ella, Errol, and Tyrone), two cats (Yojimbo and Sanjuro), three dozen chickens and guinea fowl (don’t ask), two daughters (Gogo and Daisy), and one wife (Maggie).

D
AN
L
IEBERT,
author of
discontinuous soup,
is known as the Verbal Cartoonist. He is one of the few modern aphorists included in the forthcoming Bloomsbury USA book
An Encyclopedia of Aphorisms,
and his work has appeared in anthologies. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, surrounded by dog memories.

D
AVID
M
ALLEY
has worked in various editorial capacities for the Discovery Channel,
Rolling Stone,
and most recently
Maxim.
He currently lives in Berlin, Germany, where he is writing, performing with Belgian theater director Michael Laub’s Remote Control Productions, and trying, with great pains, to learn the German language.

M
ERRILL
M
ARKOE,
as the multiple Emmy Award–winning head writer for
Late Night with David Letterman,
created “Stupid Pet Tricks.” In addition to a wide variety of television and print, she has penned eight books, including
What the Dogs Have Taught Me
and
Walking in Circles Before Lying Down.
For more, including dog videos, try MerrillMarkoe.com.

R
OBERT
M
ASELLO
is a journalist, television writer, and bestselling author based in Santa Monica, California. His most recent book is a supernatural thriller entitled
Bestiary
(Berkley Books). He has written for several popular television series, including
Early Edition
and
Charmed,
and also serves as the visiting lecturer in literature at Claremont McKenna College.

P
ATRICK
M
CDONNELL,
children’s book author and creator of
Mutts,
lives in New Jersey with his wife, Karen, their dog, Earl, and their cat, MeeMow. Patrick’s cartoons, as well as his efforts on behalf of humane and shelter groups, have received awards from the National Cartoonists’ Society, HSUS, and PETA.

R
OB
M
CKENZIE
wrote a funny article about his dog that nobody wanted. Then one day he saw a
Bark
bumper sticker. He sent the article to
The Bark
and voilà, a meeting of minds. Rob lives in Ontario, Canada, with his wife, Pam, daughter McKenzie, and dog Kiki J. His day job is TV critic for the
National Post
newspaper.

P
ATRICK
F. M
CMANUS
’s columns for
Outdoor Life
and other magazines have been collected in several books, including
The Bear in the Attic, Never Cry “Arp!,” How I Got This Way, The Good Samaritan Strikes Again, Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink!, The Grasshopper Trap, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They?,
and
A Fine and Pleasant Misery.

SUSAN MILLER
is a playwright best known for her critically acclaimed one-woman show
My Left Breast.
Winner of two OBIE awards and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Miller has had plays produced at The Public Theater, Second Stage, Mark Taper Forum, and Naked Angels. Her articles appear in
O, The Oprah Magazine
and
American Theatre.
Miller was a consulting producer on the hit Showtime series
The L Word.

MARK NEWGARDEN
is a cartoonist whose work has appeared in alternative weekly newspapers and publications ranging from
Raw
to the
New York Times
op-ed page. His work has also graced the walls (and screens) of the Smithsonian Institution, the Cooper-Hewitt, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Television and Radio, and the ICA in London. Mark has also worked as a novelty creator and has conceived, scripted, and designed programming for Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. He is the author of
Cheap Laffs, We All Die Alone,
and, with Megan Montague Cash, has recently created a number of “Bow-Wow books” starring a dog that looks suspiciously like their little Terrier. laffpix.com

LAURIE NOTARO
is the author of six books, keeps a jar of dog cookies on her desk, and is an idiot who regrettably taught her dog Maeby to nudge her when in need of something. Like dog cookies from the jar on her desk. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, and spends a great deal of her day dressing Maeby in raincoats and washing Oregon mud off her paws.

ALISON PACE
is the author of the novels
If Andy Warhol Had a Girlfriend, Pug Hill,
and
Through Thick and Thin.
She lives in New York City with her extremely cool dog, Carlie.

ALYSIA GRAY PAINTER
’s work appeared in
Dog Is My Co-Pilot;
the humor compilations
May Contain Nuts
and
More Mirth of a Nation;
and McSweeney’s anthologies,
Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans
and
Mountain Man Dance Moves.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two Pugs who are skilled at turning any new lap they encounter into their very own chaise longue in under twenty seconds flat.

MELISSA HOLBROOK PIERSON
is the author of three books, one of which,
Dark Horses and Black Beauties,
is about our equine companions. Her next will be about shifting styles in dog training, as well as about the dogs with whom she has been honored to live and learn.

NEAL POLLACK
is the author of the bestselling memoir
Alternadad,
hailed as “the most off beat parenting memoir ever written.” In addition to his four-year-old son, he’s also dad to Hercules and Shaq, two gassy Boston Terriers. Because of the dogs, he’s having a hard time persuading the boy that incessant humping and licking aren’t acceptable human behaviors. They all live in Los Angeles.