2008 Forrest Fest Guests
	Annie Hummingbird, Jerome, Arizona Sacred Pipe Carrier, Healer, Storyteller and drumming leader, Annie Hummingbird will assist us in the opening cremony for Forrest Fest Volunteers and the tree dedication on Saturday morning. She will also be available for Storytelling adventures with school age children

Dr. Chris Ellery -- Chris Ellery teaches poetry writing, American literature and film at Angelo State Unviersity where he co-founded and helps to organize the annual ASU Writer's Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton.  He is former poetry editor of Conho river Review and currently serves as the journal's book review editor.  his poems have appeared in such publications as descant, Iron Horse Literary Review,, Chiron Review,  and The Texas Observer. He is recipient of the 2005 Betsy Colquitt Award and a former Fulbright lecturer at Aleppo University in Syria.

Ric Williams He received his master’s degree in mythology with an emphasis in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 1998. Ric has edited the Litera listings of The Austin Chronicle since 1988. He wrote the “Poet’s Beat” column (interviews with local poets) for The Austin Light from 1987-1991. He edited for Ed Buffalo’s poetry anthologies Aileron and Vowel Movement in the late 80’s and early 90’s and was the associate editor from 1997-1999 for Alchemy on Sunday, the literary journal of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has written and/or edited for the Austin Chronicle, Man! Magazine, and the Salt Journal. His interview with Larry  McMurtry is included in Conversations with Texas Writers, published in March 2005 by UT Press. Ric’s first solo collection of poems, is the secret book of god, “I don’t know” is often the wisest thing he has ever said. Yet, he believes the universe is, ultimately, a comedy and wants you to  know that, despite any thing you may have heard to the contrary, “You matter. You will always matter.”

San Antonio, Texas

Tanya Keyser Tanya Keyser is the owner and founder of Metro Mania Press which publishes small editions of poetry. She has published five chapbooks, Très di-verse-city (1999) In Our Own Words (2000) Lummox Journal (2000) di-vêrsé-city (2005) di-vêrsé-city (2006) Awards won by T. Keyser: Forrest Fest (2005) Books by T. Keyser: Live Thru This (1995) - out of printLamentations (1995) -Serendipity (1996) -Bodhichitta (1999) This Noose Hangs Empty (2004)

Dillon McKinsey   Every Wednesday evening from 6-7pm on FM 91.7, you can enjoy the radio program "Writing on the Air" hosted by Dillon McKinsey. Guests have included Poet Laureates, jazz singers, published authors, and even Austin's Mayor Will Wynn! For anyone who does not know, Dillon McKinsey is a published poet with numerous accolades to his name, a former Austin Poetry Society president, and the newsletter editor for the Poetry Society of Texas

Paula Held A Floridian transplant to Austin, Paula Held's background in classical and jazz music creates in her a master lyricist and Queen of harmonic melancholic modulation.  She changes your heart with every change of key and her newest single, Tumbleweed Heart, will keep your eye on the highway.

Stefanie Petrik, Brisbane, Australia

I am a person who lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. On the few hours of my waking life that I am not at university,  I do performance poetry shows, I make films, and have been known to participate in random music projects. I enjoy making art that I have not seen anywhere else, and also like to seek out adventures. I would also like to note here that once you actively seek out adventures, the adventures start finding you instead and then you're in trouble. I have been described in the past as a giant dirigible, a flying toilet, a large group of colored balloons that fly through the air assaulting cities with massive bursts of fire, and I may or may not be a Hungarian noblewoman by decent

Thom Andrews,
	A natural born musician, music has been Thom Andrews life, and writing lyrics, his life saver.