r u s s e l l   b i t t n e r

Once upon a (better) time, Russell lived with a wife and two mischievous children in Brooklyn, New York alongside that product of Vaux and Olmsted’s most creatively prolific hour: the aptly named "Prospect Park." While he never actually struck gold there, he did find a muse and alchemy enough to be able to convert abject failure into poems of love, longing and despair.

His muse, unamused, moved on. He now dithers alone as the Sergeant-at-Iambs of Sunset (Gunset) Park, Brooklyn, dodging bullets and dispensing further despair.

Russell's poems have been published on paper by: The American Dissident; The Blind Man's Rainbow; The Lyric; The Barbaric Yawp; the International Journal of Erotica; and Wicked Hollow.

On-line, his poetry can be found at: Quintessence-encouraginggreatwriting; ken*again; SpillwayReview; Erotica-readers; EdificeWrecked; LauraHird; GirlsWithInsurance; ThievesJargon; ALongStoryShort; and SalomeMagazine. Additional poems will appear in Aug. at Fireweed, in Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. and Jan., '06 at ALongStoryShort; at SouthernHum and OpiumMagazine in Sept., and at PlumBiscuit and 3 a.m. sometime in the fall of 2005.

His .com prose can be found at: GirlsWithInsurance; SkiveMagazine; Quintessence-encouraginggreatwriting; Undergroundvoices; DeadMule; BlueFood; Pindeldyboz; Hackwriters; 10,000 Monkeys; writeThis; ALongStoryShort.net; and the uncom.mon Yankeepotroast.org. On paper, his prose has appeared in the Edgar Literary Magazine and in The International Journal of Erotica. An additional story will appear on the ‘Net at SouthernHum in September, 2005.

He completed his first novel, Trompe-l’oeil, in September of 2004. Agents and publishers are swarming to it like mosquitoes to repellent. His second novelette Girl from Baku, excerpted here, was completed in June of 2005 to provide the first with some quietly (and equally) repellent company.