Mark Eleveld is copublisher at EM Press and a board member of the Midland Authors Society in Chicago. He is a freelance writer and book reviewer for the Kankakee Daily Journal in Illinois. Mark Eleveld did press relations for poet Marc Smith from 1993 to 1996. He teaches English at Joliet West High School and is a philosophy instructor at the University of St. Francis in Illinois. <br <br Few people can say that they single-handedly created a whole new art form. Marc Smith is one of those people. Since Marc began the Poetry Slam in 1987, competitive performance poetry has spread throughout the world. Through his creation of the Uptown Poetry Slam and many poetry organizations and… ensembles such as the Pong Unit One, the Bob Shakespeare Band, Neutral Turf's Chicago Poetry Festival and the Poetic Theatre Project, Marc has influenced and inspired poets to shake off the notion that poetry belongs only to the high-minded. Author of Crowdpleasers, Marc has performed poetry to more than one hundred thousand people during his sixteen-year-strong weekly show at the Green Mill Lounge in Chicago. He lives in Chicago.