Penelope Simmons, founder and artistic director of Odyssey Storytelling Series and Odyssey Storytelling Workshops, tells stories now and again.

Susan Chalker was born and bred in the jungles of the Bronx. After graduating from Hunter College, she escaped and traveled through Western and Eastern Europe, where (amongst other ventures) she did construction work on Tito's highway in the then-Yugoslavia and paraded through Moscow's Red Square on May Day. Later she became a lawyer and practiced in Washington, D.C. for many years; she defended indigent alleged "criminals" either as a defense attorney with the Federal Public Defender's Office or as an appellate attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. She was also a law professor at Antioch Law School, a radical school conceived in the notion of training lawyers for public interest rather than corporate advocacy. She is currently a teacher at Project MORE- an alternative high school for at risk teenagers where her adventures continue.

David Gilmore is the host of Outright Radio , a national gay and lesbian story-based program featured seasonally on Public Radio International. His show has won many awards from the Gay and Lesbian Journalist Association, the Golden and Silver reels from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and recently won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award. He lives in Tucson with his beloved pillow, “Pilly,” whom he intends to legally marry in Massachusetts someday.

Caz Springer is a New Yorker living in Tucson

Denise DeSio: I like to think of myself as The Lesbian Erma Bombeck. If that doesn't say it all, well, I guess you'll just have to listen to my story. 

Carol Reid is a  telecommunications consultant .

ODYSSEY STORYTELLING PHOTOS and BIOS