Dr. Phyllis Moore is director of the School of Liberal Arts, program head of the creativing writing program and coordinator (with Dr. Reed Anderson) of the Paris Study Abroad Program.

She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her collection of short stories, "A Compendium of Skirts," was published in 2002 by Carroll & Graf. The story "Rembrandt's Bones," first published in The Georgia Review, has been anthologized in the 25th fiction anniversary edition of The Georgia Review, called "A Home in Other People: Selected Stories and Art, 1984-2007," and is included in "Stories Only Wanting to be Heard" (February 2012) from the University of Georgia Press.

Her poems and short stories have also been published in Tri-Quarterly, Chelsea, Redbook, The Mississippi Review and The Michigan Quarterly Review. Her work has been listed in both "The Best American Short Stories" and the Pushcart Prize anthologies. Her story "Big Pink and Little Minkie" was anthologized in "Chicago Works," a collection of short stories by Chicago authors, and her poem "Why I Hate Martin Frobisher" was reprinted in a special edition of Tri-Quarterly, Issue 128. She has received five art council grants from the states of Illinois and Florida. She is presently at work on a novel, "The City Wife."

Dr. Moore has taught literature and writing for 29 years. In 2011 she was honored with KCAI's Excellence in Teaching Award.

Rush Rankin, who joined the KCAI faculty in 1975, teaches creative writing, fiction, poetry and aesthetic philosophy.

Rankin earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University; an M.A.C.T. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and an M.F.A. degree from the University of Iowa.

His book of poems, "The Failure of Grief," was published in 2000. Another book, a poetic essay on the philosophy of postmodernism, "The Postmodern Comedy," was published in 1993 by Aldus Press of Massachusetts.

He has published fiction, essays and poetry in magazines in the United States, France and England. His poetry essays and fiction have appeared in Antioch Review, Epoch, Pleiades, New Letters, Poetry Northwest, Paris Review, Stand and Another Chicago Magazine. His poems have been anthologized over the years in The Carnegie Mellon Anthology, Seneca Review Anthology, A to Z, Voices from the Interior and Spud Songs. His poetry was presented in a performance in 1988, titled "GLEE" after one of his poems, at the Theater for the New City, New York. As a tribute to his teaching, he was selected to the National Faculty of the Union of Independent Colleges of Art in 1980.

Rankin's story "Smart Men," which was published by TriQuarterly in 1982, was listed by "Best American Short Stories," 1983, as one of the "distinguished" stories of the year. His essay on the poet Louise Gluck, published in New Letters Review, was selected for inclusion in the anthology "Contemporary Literary Criticism," 1987-88.
A work of aesthetic philosophy, called "In Theory," was published in January 2006 by Xenos Books with the collaboration of Chelsea Editions. Word Press also published Rankin's next collection of poems, called "Pascal's Other Wager," which appeared in December 2006. His book, "Bene-Dictions," selected by Rosanna Warren, won the Vassar Miller Prize and was published by UNT Press in 2003. Rankin's poetry has also been published in magazines in France and England, and in 2005 a translated chapter from "In Theory" appeared in Italy.
Contact: 816-802-3375 or email: rrankin@kcai.edu

Anne Boyer is the author of a book of poetry, "The Romance of Happy Workers" (Coffee House 2008), and the forthcoming novel "JOAN." Her interests include small press and micro-publishing, and she has published many smaller works and chapbooks of poetry and prose, including "Anne Boyer's Good Apocalypse" (Effing Press, Austin, 2006), "Selected Dreams with a Note on Phrenology" (Dusie Collectiv, Switzerland, 2007) and a book of conceptual work, "Art is War" (Mitzvah, Lawrence, 2008).  Other forthcoming works include the cyber-opera "The 2000s" and a narrative based on Google Earth called "My Time on Earth." 

Cyrus Console holds a B.S. degree in organismal biology from the University of Kansas, an M.F.A. degree in writing from the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College and a Ph.D. in literature  and creative writing from the University of Kansas, where his poetry won the William Herbert Carruth Prize, the Victor Contoski Prize and the Ana Damjanov Prize. He is the author of "Brief Under Water" (Burning Deck, 2008), for which he received a Fund for Poetry award, and "The Odicy" (Omnidawn, forthcoming 2011). Recent poetry has appeared in Boston Review, Critical Quarterly, Lana Turner: A Journal of Poetry and Opinion, Seattle Review and No: a journal of the arts, where he served as contributing editor 2002-2009.

Jordan Stempleman is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop where he was a Leggett Schupes Fellow in Poetry. He is the author of six books of poetry: "Their Fields" (Moria, 2005), "What's the Matter" (Otoliths, 2007), "Facings "(Otoliths, 2007), "The Travels" (Otoliths, 2008) "String Parade" (BlazeVOX, 2008) and "Doubled Over" (BlazeVOX, 2009). He is also associate editor of The Continental Review, a video-only forum for contemporary poetry and poetics.