René Steinke is the author of the new novel, Holy Skirts. Her debut
novel, The Fires, was published by William Morrow in March 1999. It
was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered," and the movie rights
were optioned to Madonna by Madguy Productions and Handprint
Entertainment. Steinke has an M.F.A. from the University of Virginia,
where she studied with Charles Wright and George Garrett, and a Ph.D.
from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her work has also
appeared in such places as The New York Times Sunday Magazine,
Newsday, and TriQuarterly. René Steinke is also the Editor-in-Chief
of The Literary Review and teaches writing at Fairleigh Dickinson
University. Currently, she plays the keyboard in a rock band, Ruffian.
Her husband, Craig Marks, is the Editor of Blender magazine. Rene has
lived in New York City since 1994.

Paula Kamen, a Chicago journalist, is the author of the new memoir,
All in My Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally
Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache. She is also the
author of Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution, (NYU
Press, 2000, Broadway Books, 2002), which was noted as the first
comprehensive "big picture" journalistic report of Generation X
women's changing and enhanced sexual attitudes and choices. Her first
book was Feminist Fatale: Voices from the 'Twentysomething' Generation
Explore the Future of the 'Women's Movement,' (Donald I. Fine, 1991),
another journalistic documentary which was highlighted as the first
post-boomer feminist book. She has held the position of "Visiting
Research Scholar" with Northwestern University's Gender Studies
Program since 1994. Her commentaries and book reviews have appeared in
The New York Times, Washington Post, Salon, Ms., Chicago Tribune, In
These Times, and more than a dozen anthologies, including Shiny Adidas
Track Suits and the Death of Camp: The Best of Might Magazine (Berkley
Boulevard, 1998) and Appeal to Reason: The Best 25 Years of In These
Times (Seven Stories, 2002). Kamen's analyses of young women's sexual
attitudes -- specifically activism against acquaintance rape -- also
appeared in "Bad Girls/Good Girls": Women, Sex and Power in the
Nineties (Rutgers University Press, 1996). Kamen, who holds a
bachelor's degree in journalism, is a 1989 graduate of the University
of Illinois. She was born in Chicago and grew up in Flossmoor,
Illinois.

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