BIOGRAPHY:
F. J. Bergmann is presently and originally from Wisconsin and has lived in France, England, New Jersey and Maryland. In a previous life she spent all her time working with horses. Fred is her still-present and original husband, since 1978, and she is the Space Lord Mother of three more recent offspring. She claims to have an MFA from the School of the Americas, and is to blame for everything on this website, as well as madpoetry.org and other iniquities. Her poems have been published in numerous print and online journals, including (under the nom de plume Easter Cathay) on asininepoetry.com. Her hobbies include narcolepsy, retrophrenology, and Fainting in Coils. Her hairstyle is deceptive. One of her pseudopodia can reach all the way from the bedroom to the refrigerator.

AWARDS:
In 2011, “Flash” won the Heartland Review Joy Bale Booneprize; Blood Loyalty was a finalist in the Romance Junkies 10-page contest; Fall of Snow received an honorable mention from the Speculative Literature Foundation Older Writers Grant; “The Further Suns” received an honorable mention from the Tapestry of Bronze Apollo contest; and “A New Life” received a Pushcart nomination from Niteblade.

In 2010, Travels in the Antipathies was a finalist in the White Eagle Coffee Store chapbook contest; “Rain” won the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Triad Poet's Choice award; “Point of Order” won the Triad Travel theme award.

In 2009, “The Catch” won Tattoo Highway’s Picture Worth 500 Words contest; “garlic breath” was a finalist in the Writer’s Digest Red Heart/Black Heartcontest; “Demeter in the Agora” won the Tapestry of Bronze contest; “Gender Characteristics” received a Pushcart nomination from Niteblade; “The Collection” was a finalist in the Parsec flash-fiction contest; “Synechdoche” won second prize in Opium’s 250-word bookmark contest; and "How It Starts" was nominated for Best New Poets 2009.

In 2008 she won the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award for the Short Poem for "Eating Light." “Whenas in Bed my Freddie …” won first prize in the Asinine Poetry erotic parody contest, and “Scenes from Ben-Hur” was a finalist in Margie: The American Journal of Poetry's Editor's Prize. "Symbiosis" was a finalist for Opium's 7-line contest. "How It Starts" was a finalist for the Mississippi Review Poetry Prize. "Mirror" won second place in the Newport Review flash-fiction contest.

In 2007 she received an International Publication Prize from the Atlanta Review for "Death Wish" and won Tattoo Highway's Picture Worth 500 Words contest with "Captivity." "Companion to the Guide to the Norton Reader" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by VOX.

In 2006 her poem "Great Horned" was the runner-up in the Hotel Amerika poetry contest and "It's Perfect" won second place in Asinine Poetry's haiku contest.

In 2005 she received third places in The Writer's New Discovery contest with "Dissolution" and in the Lumina Ultra-Short competition with "The Woods," and won Rosebud's Mary Shelley Imaginative Fiction Award for "Pale Horse."

In 2004 her poem "What Matters" was the runner-up for Words + Images' Stephen Dunn Award and "Wall" won the Pauline Ellis Prose Poetry Award. She was also a finalist for both the Violet Reed Haas Book Award and the Winnow Press Open Book Award.

In 2003 she won the Mary Roberts Rinehart National Poetry Award for the poem "Grand Tour" and was the runner-up for Wind's Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize with the poem "Alice Speaks", as well as a finalist for the North American Review's James Hearst Poetry Prize with the poem "An Apology," and her manuscript Sauce Robert was the co-winner of the Pavement Saw chapbook contest.

In 2002 her Flash translation "Lace" was selected for the Electronic Literature Organization Symposium, her poem "Suspended Animation" won the BaltiCon science-fiction poetry contest, and she received a scholarship to the Catskill Poetry Workshop.

She received Merit Awards in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2009, and International Publication Awards in 2007, 2010, and 2011 in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition.

"When are we going to make a picture with horses again? I like horses."
      — Ronald Reagan persona on Saturday Night Live