Kaitlin Meadows is a nurse specializing in the creative and peaceful passage to death and the wildly enthusiastic embrace of life. She is a poet, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of the illusive and beautiful jaguar now beginning to reventure into Arizona. Kaitlin is the sort of woman who makes and keeps and tells stories as life blood.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Jamie Sunshine moved to Tucson for a job. When not dancing for change on street corners, he can be found teaching 7th/8th grade writing in an undisclosed location. Usually he is seen correcting spelling in bathroom stalls while speed dialing numbers in search of a good time. This self-proclaimed King of Sarcasm may have traded trees and squirrels for desert and snakes, but the one thing he brought with him was his ability to laugh at anybody in any situation for any reason. Let the fun begin.

Burgess Needle, after two years in Thailand as a Peace Corps Volunteer, earned a graduate degree in school librarianship and then enjoyed thirty years avoiding the dewey decimal system and learning how to hold the attention of 7th graders with stories about the constellations. His storytelling skills were honed around a dinner table that included a forcefully articulate father, a mother who knew innumerable family tales and five siblings who all wanted their minute on stage. A wonderful opportunity as co-director of the Southern Arizona Writing Project gave Burgess the chance to work with other teachers on writing across the curriculum, motivating students to write and work on his own narrative projects. He's currently editing a journal he kept in Thailand and working on a novel structured around a trip he took recently through the south that emphasized good food and fine music. He occasionally presents the life of Edgar Allan Poe, in the first person, to English classes.

Recently released from the witness protection program this Scottish born gentlemen has had to recreate himself in the image of a Jewish New Yorker. Formally Sean MacGregor, now Aimee Finkelstein, she lives in Tucson with her children and partner and assorted menagerie.

Chandra Hershey Lear lives downtown with her husband Robert, dog Kootzey and cat Buddha. She is an artist and a singer.

Dennis Pepe. Surfer, Hockey Player, Singer/Songwriter, Entrepreneur, Dad and go getter whether it makes sense or not. Born and raised in Southern California I came to Arizona in 1985 after the girl I went out on three dates with got pregnant with our twin children. Now, twenty years later, I'm still friends with my ex-wife and have a wonderful new fiancée. After working at Bookman's for 8 years I decided to give it go on my own and opened the Green Fire Bookshop. Green Fire still exists but it's not a bookshop anymore and thus my wacky roller coaster of a life continues to rise and fall.

ODYSSEY STORYTELLING PHOTOS and BIOS