du5tin.net

   Dustin Neal, twenty-two years old, Christian, pacifist, thinker, and constant dreamer. He is currently an English major at East Texas Baptist University. His passion in life is to lead students toward the freedom and expression that is found within poetry and literature.

     Haiku discovered Dustin after years of little satisfaction from the free verse he was writing and sharing. Dustin's introduction to Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation eventually led him to haiku, which brought him to Basho and Issa, leading him further into the art. Dustin is now and avid reader, writer, and student of haiku and other related Japanese literary forms.

     Dustin has had haiku, senryu, tanka, and haibun published in Haiku Harvest, White Lotus, the Heron's Nest, Triptych Haiku, Haiku Presence, Moonset, Simply Haiku, Roadrunner, Paper Wasp, Contemporary Haibun Online, and a few other journals around the world wide web.

   Favorite poets and writers consist of Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa, Shiki Masaoka, Michael McClintock, Paul Mena, Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Philip Levine, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Langstone Hughes, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, J.D. Salinger, and a whole list of unknown writers in small literary magazines and online journals.

     Favorite bands and artists consist of Radiohead, mewithoutYou, The Band, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Bob Dylan, Bright Eyes, Cat Stevens, The Chariot, Norma Jean, The Cure, As I Lay Dying, The Decemberists, Deftones, Derek Webb, Jars of Clay, Elliott Smith, Thursday, Explosions in the Sky, The Flaming Lips, The Format, Interpol, Iron & Wine, Johnny Cash, Magnetic Fields, Mates of State, Underoath, Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Shooter Jennings, Nine Inch Nails, 1 Mile North, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Otis Redding, Bruce Haack, Nirvana, Old Crow Medicine Show, Smashing Pumpkins, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Stone Temple Pilots, The White Stripes, Sufjan Stevens, and so much more from diverse fields of rock, jazz, hardcore, classical, and experimental genres.

     Dustin is also interested in film, any form of experimental art, scriptwriting, theatre, acoustic guitars, baseball, football, the Houston Astros, the Dallas Cowboys, hot tea, coffee, and possibly you.