Jerry Dreesen has been writing poetry, as well as a few short stories and essays, for more than 40 years and has self-published three collections of poetry: Where There Was a River, Bird Watching and Other One Act Plays and At Sixty-five. He retired last year after a 40 year career in health care imaging research.

He has been active in several internet poetry forums, including The Critical Poet, in which he was a moderator. He has been published in a number of small-press journals including Loose-Ends, Agnieszka's Dowery, Skylark (a literary journal of Purdue University) as well as e-zines such as Stirrings, Fandango, Bonfire, HaikuHut, the WHC Review, Nectarzine, Carnelian, The Muse Apprentice Guild, and Artella (an art and poetry journal). He was first place winner of the 2002 "Masterpiece in a Day" Poetry Competition in Historic Fountain Square, Indianapolis.

Jerry is currently writing haiku, having "graduated" from the WHC Beginners Forum. During this time he was introduced to the art of haiga and now spends most of his time experimenting with the form and working to find his voice in both the watercolor images and in the haiku. He hopes to craft these two art forms into a pleasing haiga moment for his readers.

A collection of Jerry's abstract watercolors and haiku were published in Simply Haiku, January/February 2004, v2n1.

Joyce Maxner is a native of the Massachusetts seacoast north of Boston, and has been a resident of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania over the last 30 years. Her educational and professional experience includes Centenary Junior College, Harvard University School of Extension Studies, College of the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, and a Masters Degree in Counseling and Human Relations from Villanova University.

She has had careers in advertising, in both radio and newspaper journalism, and in juvenile justice and family therapy.

She is now semi-retired in Pennsylvania, has a daughter in Bethesda, Maryland, and a son and granddaughter age 16 living in Mt.City, Tennessee.

In her early teens, she began composing short poems including haiku, and she continued writing haiku and other poetry forms over the years. She has published two well known children's books in narrative verse, Nicholas Cricket, with illustrations by William Joyce (Harper Collins, 1989) and Lady Bugatti, illustrations by Kevin Hawkes (Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1991).

She is a participant in various Internet haiku groups, notably WHChaikumultimedia, where she has been serving as 'haiku coach' and has earned the deep respect of all the list's members for her insightful critiques.

A collection of her haiku was published in Simply Haiku, May/June 2004, v2n3.