Writing Contest - Meet The Judges

Thor May

Thor was one of the volunteers who decided to help rebuild the new Pusanweb in early 2002. Since then he has managed the Writings section of Pusanweb, which involves vetting submissions, web editing, and setting up things like the Writings Contest.

He arrived in Korea in September 2000, fresh from two years in China. Thor is an Australian writer, editor and teacher with a large Internet site at http://www.thormay.net/ of 1800 files and 8000 links, all his own writing and photography. He likes to live at the margin, where cultures intersect, and for twenty-six years has taught language and linguistics at universities, colleges and for industry in Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji. He thinks being 57 is completely unfair when life is just getting interesting, and tries to stay immortal by eating rabbit food and running whenever possible.

Dinah Brown

Dinah Brown has been on the Pusan scene for 2 years. She is a regular participant at Pusan Poetry Plus, a frequent contributor to The Beat and author/illustrator of Ninja Teacher. When her time isn't filled here, she's studying Japanese and for some oddball reason, has dropped back into university for the fun of it. She likes to play with FIMO, reads insatiably, and does a fair share of short story writing. Dinah has traveled quite a bit and hopes to eventually figure out the anomaly that is her camera to capture everything visually rather than just a Miffy Pen and Notepad. Downtime usually involves a trip to Kyungsung University area or a certain high-end Haeundae coffee lounge overlooking the sea. Nonetheless, she is a busy girl who likes her job, loves her extracurricular activities, and digs the adventure she's found in Korea.

Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts [rolfpotts.com] was an ESL teacher in Pusan from 1996 to 1998. He has been on the road in Asia ever since, and his travel tales have appeared in a variety of publications, including National Geographic Adventure, Salon.com, Conde Nast Traveler, Best American Travel Writing 2000, and National Public Radio. His first book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel will be published by Random House in January of 2003. For a chance to win a free copy of his book (or a free RTW plane ticket), surf to the contest page of Vagabonding.net.

Lavinia Spalding

Lavinia Spalding lived in Pusan for five and a half years. She left Korea in the Spring of 2002 with no idea how much she'd miss it until she began sobbing uncontrollably in the Seoul airport in front of thirty fascinated honeymoon-bound Korean couples wearing glittery wedding makeup and matching jogging suits. She now lives in San Francisco where she works as a freelance writer, shops insatiably and stops by the Korean supermarket several times a week asking for discounts. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and has published her poetry, fiction, essays and travel pieces in various literary journals, books and magazines. She's currently working on a novel about (what else?) ESL teachers in Pusan. She misses the bright lights of Somyon.