Contributors to the Blue Rock Review

Dianne Arvin: Dianne Arvin is returning to painting after a twelve-year stint as an international sales executive with an engineering firm. The decision was more than fruitful – her images are stirring up great excitement and are vanishing from galleries and art retailers in the south. Her work is featured among the permanent collection in the City Hall of Tsuru, Japan. Dianne… more...
Kay Arvin: When asked to describe her life, Kay Arvin answered, “It’s been such a full life. I don’t know where to begin.” Kay began law school just weeks after she was blinded by an explosion. She focused her 40-year career on relationships, both in the family and the community. She was appointed to state-held office by three governors of both major… more...
Reed Arvin: After a successful career as a musician and record producer, Reed holed himself up in a Myrtle Beach condominium and determined not to leave until he had finished his first novel. That book, The Will, began a career that now includes three novels published around the world in many languages. Reed has received a string of accolades from the New… more...
Sam Baker: SAM BAKER is a Texan singer-songwriter whose literate, poignant, and carefully observed songs have brought him acclaim and a passionate following in North America and Europe. Two decades ago, Sam survived a terrorist bomb blast on a train in Peru. Without a shred of pretense, his music and paintings seem to go to the heart of tragedy and mercy. He… more...
Bob Bennett: Bob Bennett is a singer-songwriter who lives, he says, “behind the Orange Curtain” in Southern California. With seven solo albums and collaborations with David Wilcox, Amy Grant, Pierce Pettis, and other notables, Bob makes music that is generous of spirit, emotionally precise (read dangerous), and keenly oberservant. Artists, songwriters and critics of folk and gospel music champion his work as… more...
Alan Berecka: ALAN BEREKA grew up in the rural Mohawk Valley in central New York. He earns his keep as a reference librarian at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. His poetry has appeared in the Concho River Review, Texas Review, Christian Century, The Red River Review, and Windhover. His chapbook, Each Man Has One Life, was published by Trilobite Press… more...
Ellen Berman: Ellen Berman attended the University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, and the Glassell School of Art, Houston. She currently resides in Wimberley, Texas and exhibits widely in Texas. Her still lifes of household objects, fruits, and vegetables affect viewers on many levels. The Houston Chronicle writes that her paintings “provoke visual pleasure and wrenching emotion.” She has won… more...
Alan Birkelbach: Alan Birkelbach has published in journals and anthologies such as San Pedro River Review, Oak Bend Review, The Langdon Review, and Concho River Review. Since being named Poet Laureate of Texas in 2005, Alan has traveled across the state promoting the cause of poetry. Alan was nominated for a Wrangler Award for his contributions to Southwest Letters, and is a… more...
Milton Brasher-Cunningham: Milton Brasher-Cunningham is a minister, songwriter, teacher and chef. He holds Master’s degrees in English and Theology and taught English for seven years in the Boston Public Schools. His teaching of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been featured on PBS through The Annenberg Foundation/CPB. Milton grew up in Kenya and now lives in Marshfield, Massachusetts with his wife, Ginger, and stereo… more...
Nathan Brown: NATHAN BROWN is a poet, musician and photographer from Norman, Oklahoma. He holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Creative and Professional Writing from the University of Oklahoma and teaches writing there. He is often traveling, performing readings and concerts as well as leading workshops on creative writing. He has published five books, including the recent: Two Tables Over (2008), winner of… more...
Rodney Bursiel: Rodney Bursiel is a professional photographer, actor, and adventurer who has a great love for music and musicians. Living and traveling along with his subjects, he counts shared experience as most valuable in capturing the essence of a scene. Rodney’s acting credits include roles in the Hollywood blockbusters Pearl Harbor and True Women. His photographs of cultural Mexico, Costa Rica,… more...
Royce Carlson: ROYCE CARLSON was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Southern California. He attended California State University, Fullerton before leaving to explore creative pursuits. Now living in Prescott, Arizona, Royce creates sculptures and architectural enhancements with welded steel. His major works can be found in private collections throughout the U.S. and as permanent additions to the Yavapai Regional Medical Center,… more...
Keith Carter: KEITH CARTER is an internationally recognized photographer and educator. Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1948, he holds the endowed Walles Chair of Art at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Regional Survey Grants and the Lange-Taylor Prize from The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Eleven monographs of his black… more...
Peter Case: After disbanding the Los Angeles new wave/power pop group, The Plimsouls, Peter launched a career as a singer-songwriter specializing in the flat-pick guitar style and semi-autobiographical stories of drifters. Growing up in the 50s in upstate New York, he was a fan of the folk and blues of Mississippi John Hurt, Leadbelly, and Woody Guthrie. As a teenager he took… more...
Jim Chastain: Jim Chastain is an author, film critic, attorney, and poet. His memoir, I Survived Cancer, but Never Won the Tour de France (Hawk Publishing: 2006) was named a Top Ten Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Austin Chronicle. He has been reviewing movies for The Norman Transcript and on the internet for more than a decade. He currently works… more...
Leesa Condry: Leesa Condry is a medical doctor, accomplished painter, women’s health activist and devoted hockey mom. She was formerly the Co-Director of Dysplasia Services for Maternal Health and Family Planning at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. In 2003, she left her role as a private practice gynecologist in Dallas and has since co-founded the West Africa Fistula Fund to… more...
Billy Crockett: BILLY CROCKETT is a songwriter, producer, recording artist, amateur astronomer, and the Creative Director of Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio and its recording, concert, and publishing endeavors. He holds a Master of Liberal Arts Degree from Southern Methodist University, has recorded eleven solo albums, and has performed internationally. Billy has been a guitar clinician for Yamaha International and a… more...
Dodee Crockett: DODEE CROCKETT is a financial advisor, philanthropic advocate, and Director of Hospitality and Celebrations at Blue Rock. At Merrill Lynch, she leads a group of planners and advisors working with individuals and organizations interested in wealth management and stewardship. In 2008, Dodee was honored with the Spirit of Compassion Award, for her work in advocacy for the children of North… more...
Neil Cronk: Neil Cronk is an artist and sign painter from Austin, Texas. He works in oils, acrylics, and various drawing techniques. His paintings create spaces he says he’d like to be in and explore a way of life that integrates architecture and nature, the rational and intuitive sides of being. He and his wife, Jan, divide their time between Texas and… more...
Ebbesen Davis: Ebbesen Davis Working with 35 mm slide film and a Stereo Realist camera designed in the 1940’s, Austin artist Ebbesen Davis makes 3D photographs, and frames these as matched pairs of prints. Davis also exhibits transparencies in small binocular viewers, connecting these to supports he fashions from wood, copper tubing, glass, and other materials. While many of his stereo images… more...
Rolando Diaz: Rolando Diaz is a painter of expressive richness. Born in Havana, Cuba and forced to flee with his family to the United States at a young age, Ro has traveled the world gathering experiences that animate his subjects. He recently returned to visit his birthplace and will be featured in a PBS documentary on the artists of Cuba. Rolando’s work… more...
Don Dorsey: DON DORSEY is a musician, composer, recording artist, teacher, inventor and producer of breath-taking spectacles. Using music, fountains, lasers and fireworks, Don has helped people around the world experience some beautiful celebrations—from the 50th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge to Starlight Magic at Tokyo Disneyland to Reﬂections of Earth at EPCOT center. Don’s two solo CD projects of electronic… more...
Leah Dunaway: Leah Dunaway is a mixed media abstract painter who holds a doctorate in Adult Learning and Organizational Change. As a child, Leah lay on the floor copying images from art books and studying her dad’s architectural drawings. Nowadays, Dunaway considers all of her life experiences as preparation for the artist she is and the work she’s creating—making the complex accessible.… more...
Cliff Eberhardt: Cliff Eberhardt is an acclaimed songwriter, recording artist, and touring performer. With beginnings as a New York taxi driver and jingle singer for Coke, Miller, and Chevrolet, Cliff has since written songs recorded by Richie Havens, Shawn Colvin, and Buffy Sainte Marie, and has recorded his own seven celebrated albums. His songs, “The Long Road” and “My Father’s Shoes,” from… more...
Christopher Everett: CHRISTOPHER EVERETT is an avid cook, pianist, photographer, graphic designer, and brand strategist. He’s made his mark creating retail experiences, ad campaigns, and packaging for Target, General Mills, Coca Cola, Disney, and a host of other household names. In 2007, he launched his own company in Minneapolis called See Design, Inc. The studio’s mission is to build and nurture brand… more...
Ginger Henry Geyer: Austin artist Ginger Geyer’s work offers a playful and probing mix of porcelain, story, painting, and theology. She has a MFA degree from SMU, and Masters in Pastoral Ministry from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, where she occasionally teaches. She curates exhibitions and books artists for the Laity Lodge retreat center, and is a former art museum professional.… more...
Jon Dee Graham: Jon Dee Graham is a songwriting, recording, and touring artist known for his raw intensity. After his stint as a member of the acclaimed ‘80s roots-rock band the True Believers, Jon Dee played with James McMurtry, Eliza Gilkyson, Kelly Willis, John Hiatt, Michelle Shocked, Patty Griffin, and Patty Smyth. He has recorded five solo albums, including the most recent, Full,… more...
Butch Hancock: Rolling Stone magazine described him as “a raspy-voiced West Texas mystic with an equal affinity for romantic border balladry and Zen paradox.” Along with Lubbock-bred childhood pals Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock has also been active in their group work as The Flatlanders. His solo album, Own and Own, released in ‘91, contains his “If I Were… more...
Rodney Hatfield: RODNEY HATFIELD came out of the hills of Kentucky just as soon as he was able. A descendant of the legendary feuding clan, Hatfield grew up around coal mining. There he was surrounded by the raw energies of faith healers, religious mystics, snake handlers, and musicians. When he started to put it all down on canvas, people instantly recognized it… more...
Antony Hegarty: Born in Sussex, UK in 1971, Antony arrived in New York City in his late teens. He graduated from NYU’s experimental theatre program before going on to receive a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for performance art and emergent forms. Presenting his songs in after-hours cabarets at the Pyramid Club in NYC, Antony assembled his band, The Johnsons,… more...
James Hoggard: JAMES HOGGARD, whose poetry has been praised for its intensity and craft, has also won awards for fiction, literary translation, and personal essays. A former NEA fellow and past president of the Texas Institute of Letters (TIL), his work has been published throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, India, England, the Czech Republic, and Cuba. He is the… more...
Billy Hollis: BILLY HOLLIS is an artist, musician, writer, and activist. He is a printmaker at heart having studied intaglio and lithography at Baylor University and Austin’s Flatbed Press. More recently he’s been playing with cameras, capturing the colors and mystery of his present home of Fez, Morocco. Billy works as a professional graphic designer and web developer for an Austin-based marketing… more...
Issa: Issa (say EEE-sah) is a singer, songwriter, poet, painter, and iconoclast. Formerly known as Jane Siberry, she completed her first album while gaining a degree in microbiology at the University of Guelph, Ontario. She recorded six albums including the acclaimed When I Was A Boy, featuring contributions from k.d. lang and Brian Eno. Her song, “Calling All Angels,” has appeared… more...
Lou Kimball: Lou Kimball, extraordinary and celebrated architect, designed the houses at Blue Rock and supervised implementation. His work has been featured in Southern Living, Tribeza, Sunset, and the Austin American-Statesman. His designs have earned him two AIA awards, a 5-star green building award, and multiple AIA home tours. Lou is often a visiting professor at the University of Texas. He is… more...
Tom Kimmel: Tom Kimmel is a celebrated singer/songwriter and poet. His songs have been recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Randy Travis, and Joe Cocker, among other luminaries. Featured in motion pictures such as Runaway Bride, Serendipity, and Twins, and in television shows as varied as Captain Kangaroo, Miami Vice, and Touched By An Angel, Tom’s compositions have sold millions of copies… more...
Emily Little: Emily Little is an architect, traveler, and nurturer of dreams. After receiving her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin, she achieved distinction in the rehabilitation of historic homes and commercial buildings. Emily helps clients visualize the potential of our Texas architectural treasures and has the skill to restore them to vibrant life. She also designs… more...
Shanny Lott: SHANNY LOTT has been painting and sculpting in Austin, Texas for the past forty years, and is collected and exhibited across the US. Her work reflects a love of color and light and her desire to show evidence of the divine in the material world. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas and studied… more...
Mac McAnally: Mac McAnally is a prolific singer/songwriter, producer, and studio/touring musician. In his thirty year career, he has authored hits for many artists including Jimmy Buffett, Alabama, Sawyer Brown, and Steve Wariner. Acclaimed for the rich literary appeal of his songcraft, he has recorded ten studio albums of his own on major labels including Geffen, MCA, RCA, and Dreamworks. He has… more...
Bill Meek: Bill Meek has devoted thirty years to the creation of the signature glass sculptures that now appear in the collections of admirers such as Tony Bennett, Lee Iaccoca, and Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines. His works also appear in the collections of the Houston Holocaust Museum, the Houston Grand Opera, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, and in galleries across… more...
Michele Miller: MICHELE MILLER is a poet, copywriter, media relations specialist, and publication designer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Arizona at Tucson. Her work was selected as a finalist in the National Poetry Series Open Competition in 1997… more...
Karla K Morton: KARLA K. MORTON the 2010 Texas Poet Laureate, is a board member of the Greater Denton Arts Council, and member of the Western Writers of America, Writer’s League of Texas, and the Academy of American Poets. Morton’s published writing includes Redefining Beauty (Dos Gatos Press); Wee Cowrin’ Timorous Beastie (book/CD, Lagniappe Publishing); Becoming Superman, (Winter, 2009); Names We’ve Never Known… more...
Rupert Neve: Rupert Neve is an audio designer and visionary. Beginning in the 1930’s, his love of sound and his passion for excellence took him around the world designing and building radios and public address systems. His quest for audio perfection led to creating mixing consoles for studios, broadcast facilities, and producers – from Sir George Martin (the Beatles) to the BBC.… more...
Pierce Pettis: Pierce Pettis is a songwriter, poet and storyteller. For over 25 years, Pierce has captivated audiences with rich melodies and poignant lyrics. What seem like individual anecdotes become intimately familiar, mirroring our own life experience. His eight albums include Making Light of It, State of Grace, Everything Matters, and his most recent, Great Big World. Pierce has appeared nine times… more...
Scott Plunkett: SCOTT PLUNKETT fell in love at age seven—with the Hammond organ his parents had just bought. He took lessons on and off, but figured out music by ear and practiced late into the night. His high school and college years were devoted to serious music study and he played in lots of bands. In 1980, producer David Foster walked into… more...
David Rains: David Rains is a composer, business consultant, and microbrewer. He holds a doctorate in Music Composition and Computer Music Applications from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation focused on the use of microtonal just intonation, which involves dividing the octave into more than 12 unequal parts. After years of professional consulting with public and private companies, David is… more...
Howard Rains: HOWARD RAINS is a fiddler, painter, graphic designer, husband and father living in Austin, Texas. Howard is a fifth-generation Texan, who has roots deep in the red soil and Piney Wood forests of Northeast Texas. Pursuing both musical and visual artistic disciplines from an early age, his work is deeply informed by the folk traditions of the American South. His… more...
André Resner: André Resner is an inspired lecturer, theologian and cultural critic. He is currently Professor of Homiletics at Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, North Carolina. André holds a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary and is the author of Preacher and Cross: Person and Message in Theology and Rhetoric (Eerdmans, 1999) and Just Preaching: Prophetic Voices for Economic Justice (Chalice Press, 2002).… more...
Avery Rose Seelig: AVERY ROSE SEELIG is now 11 years old and lives with her family in Metairie, Louisiana. She has two older brothers away at college, a dog, a cat, and two fish. She is a 6th grader at Isidore Newman School where she plays volleyball and participates in track & field. Avery is co-creator of Mega-Av’s Jewelry, her home-based jewelry business,… more...
Carl Söderbergh: Carl Söderbergh is the former Director of Amnesty International (Sweden) and a current Visiting Scholar at the University of Lund in Sweden. He served as legal advisor for the United Nations High Commissions for Refugees in Pakistan and Sudan. A true world citizen, Carl was born in Yokohama, Japan, grew up in London, and earned a law degree from Harvard… more...
Julie Speed: JULIE SPEED After dropping out of Rhode Island School of Design at age 19, Speed spent her twenties moving around the country working pickup jobs (house painter, horse trainer, ad writer, farm worker etc.) until moving to Texas in 1978 where she settled down and taught herself to paint. She switches back and forth regularly between oil painting, printmaking, mixed… more...
Phil Strahan: Phil Strahan is an art dealer and conversationalist. After his early successes in banking, oil, and computers, he became passionate and qualified in the engagement and development of visual art and artists. He has a long tenure on the board of Big Thought, promoters of creative education, and is enthusiastic about helping people have transforming experiences with art. Phil is… more...
Larry D. Thomas: LARRY D. THOMAS, a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate, retired in 1998 from a thirty-one year career in social service and adult criminal justice, and has since published ten collections of poems. His most recent collection is an e-chapbook titled The Circus (Right Hand Pointing), and a book-length print collection, The Skin… more...
Connie Todd: CONNIE TODD is curator of the Southwestern Writers Collection and the Wittliff Collection of Southwestern & Mexican Photography at Texas State University in San Marcos. There she manages a talented staff and a busy schedule of activities, exhibits, classes, and acquisition and fundraising efforts. In eleven years, as editor of the SWWC Book Series with the University of Texas Press… more...
Eric Tucker: Eric Tucker is one of a handful of world-class pyrotechnic designers. At the prestigious “world cup” of fireworks, the annual Montreal International PyroMusical Competition, Eric won five Gold and two Silver Medals in eight entries. He has designed fireworks displays for four Olympics, fifteen Super Bowls, three Houston Sky Powerspectaculars, touring rock ‘n’ roll shows (including the Rolling Stones and… more...
Jennifer Tull: JENNIFER TULL began writing fiction in junior high school when she adopted the nom de plume, Bethany Sweet, and wrote elaborate letters in an attempt to score a date with Davy Jones of the Monkees. Devastated by Mr. Jones’ lack of a response, Jennifer threw herself into her work. She is now a leader in the emerging field of Collaborative… more...
Emanuel Vardi: Emanuel (Manny) Vardi is an internationally known painter and world-renowned viola virtuoso. As a student at Juliard he was hired directly into the NBC orchestra of Arturo Toscanini. He has performed in the White House, at Carnegie Hall, and on recordings of Louis Armstrong, Wes Montgomery, Carmen McRae, Herbie Hancock, and many others. His paintings have appeared in numerous publications… more...
Kevin Welch: KEVIN WELCH After one semester of college music school, Kevin Welch dropped out, joined a bluegrass band, and hit the road before settling in Nashville as a songwriter for Tree International. In 1990, Kevin was signed by Warner Brothers Records, and made two acclaimed solo records. His own label, Dead Reckoning Records has released 25 projects since 1995 and spawned… more...
Susan Werner: SUSAN WERNER is a singer-songwriter with nine albums to her credit, a thriving touring career, and a string of accolades from the likes of The Washington Post, The Village Voice and The New Yorker. She has become one of the defining artists of the folk music genre. Susan was named Best Contemporary Artist at the International Folk Alliance awards in… more...
David Wilcox: DAVID WILCOX is a songwriter known for his lyrical insight, lilting baritone voice, virtuosic guitar chops, and creative open tunings—giving him a harmonic and emotional range rare in folk music. He graduated from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina in 1985, and by 1989 he had signed with A&M Records. His first release on the label, How Did You Find… more...
Bill Wittliff: Bill Wittliff is a publisher, photographer, screenwriter, producer, and director of films and television. His motion picture and TV credits include Lonesome Dove, Legends of the Fall, The Perfect Storm, and many others. Bill has published three books of photography with the University of Texas Press, including A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove, 2007. Bill and his wife, Sally,… more...
Beth Wood: Beth Wood is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, friend, and keeper-of- secrets who threw caution (and her day-job) to the wind to become a full-time musician. Seven solo albums and eleven years later, Beth spends her time creating soulful, organic, free-range music and playing with her sweetie, Fun Marty, and their dog Marble (a.k.a. “Meatball”). Beth is the winner of the… more...