ABOUT THE EDITORS


The idea for OFF BASE came about in 2001 during the Idyllwild Poetry Festival, in conversations among fellow brat-poets Cathie Sandstrom, Katherine Williams, and Brenda Yates. We noted the many fine poets military families have produced, and began wondering what a collection of our poetry would look like and how it might illuminate our sub-culture. Our friend Candace Pearson, not a brat herself, is as enthusiastic about the project as we, and brings fine editorial skills and an outsider's perspective.

The project remained conversational until last summer at Idyllwild, when we received a godsend in the person of Marilyn Nelson, who generously agreed to accompany us through the process of generating this collection.


Marilyn Nelson, daughter of a Tuskegee airman, is a recipient of distinguished awards for her several volumes of poetry, Professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, former Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut, and founder of Soul Mountain Retreat for writers.

Candace Pearson is a friend of brats. She grew up in an emotionally itinerant household, but that's another anthology. In her work life, she is a journalist and freelance writer/editor. A Pushcart nominee, she is grateful that her poems have appeared in such fine venues as Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, Cider Press Review, VOX, Poem/Memoir/Story and Rattle.

Cathie Sandstrom has never been "from around here." Her father served 28 years as an Army officer and a secret jazz musician. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Solo, Lyric, Cider Press Review, Runes, and several anthologies. She was a winner in 1999 and 2003 of Poetry in the Windows, sponsored by the Lannan Foundation, and currently serves on the auxiliary board of the Los Angeles Poetry Festival. She lives in Sierra Madre, California and has not heard from the Pentagon in many years.

Katherine Williams, whose father was a career Naval officer, has poems in various anthologies, received a Pushcart nomination, and her chapbook Cranioglyph is forthcoming from University of South Carolina Press. She lives on James Island, South Carolina, with her husband, poet Richard Garcia, where she develops websites and studies Caribbean coral health and disease.

Brenda Yates, whose father was an E-9 in the Air Force, served for eighteen years as daughter of base sergeant-major, daughter of squadron first sergeant, and new girl at school, on SAC bases here and overseas. She was the 2005 recipient of the Patricia Bibby Memorial Scholarship at Idyllwild Arts. Her poems have appeared in Cider Press Review, Blue Satellite, Spokenwar, 51%, HayWire, So Luminous the Wildflowers: An Anthology of California Poets, Pearl, Sheila-Na-Gig, Spillway, Live at the Ugly Mug: Volume I, Eclipse, and Blue Arc West. Her chapbook will be the June feature in the Los Angeles series 12 by Twelve, published by Half Shell Editions.