Publisher/Editor

R.G. Rader is an award-winning poet and playwright, actor, director and a professor of English and Theater.

He founded Muse-Pie Press in 1981 with the publication of Muse-Pie: A Journal of Poetry #1, which was distinguished by an effort that still characterizes Muse-Pie Press, a recognition and appreciation of a wide range of genres and styles of the poetic voice. A poet himself, he has been widely published and recognized with a number of awards for his poetry and has taught and studied a wide variety of genres and styles of poetry and has judged numerous poetry and book contests over the years.

His 1985 collection, Neon Shapes, a collection of haiku, was awarded a Merit Book award from the international organization, The Haiku Society of America and received critical acclaim for his original work using the haiku form to explore the inner city and its landscapes. He was widely published in haiku journals throughout the world in the 80s and early 90s and has work featured in a number of anthologies. He continues working with the haiku form and was recently published in the Australian journal, Stylus Poetry Journal. His collected works of haiku and tanka, Raising the Blade: Collected Haiku and Tanka 1980-2000 is online at http://www.ahapoetry.com/raisbk3.htm. His longer work of poetry has also been widely published over the years in online journals, magazines, and hard copy journals including Tiferet, The Paterson Literary Review, Black Swan Review, Cerebration, Lunch, Stepping Stone, Passaic Review, and more. His new collection of poems, Kicking the Rain, is published by Finishing Line Press.

Rader has been both writer in residence and playwright in residence at several art and theater organizations in the eastern United States, including the William Carlos Williams Center for the Performing Arts in Rutherford, New Jersey and has published a number of essays on poetry and is a contributor to "Society Matters," a British political journal of the Open University.

In addition to his work as poet and writer, he is a playwright and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and the National Audio Theatre Festivals. His stage and audio plays have been performed and heard (audio) throughout the country. Two of his audio plays, The Wind at Our Back and Spit won awards from the National Audio Theatre Festivals. The Wind at Our Back was produced live by the National Audio Theatre Festivals and is often heard on radio stations that carry audio drama throughout the US. He is co-founder along with film director David Maquiling of Arrowhead Theater Company (www.arrowheadtheatercompany.com) and is a director and actor with the Company. As an actor, Rader has appeared in numerous Off, Off-Off Broadway & Regional plays and in film, including David Maquiling's film "Too Much Sleep" and a series of shorts including the celebrated "The Hard Kill' (www.YouTube.com).

He is an English Professor at a college in New Jersey where he directs the Theater program and teaches acting, theater, and literature.