Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Stone Circle Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Philadelphia Stories, Midway Journal, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship, is a Best of the Net nominee, and is a poetry editor for Variant Literature. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Randolph College. Visit her website at erica-abbott.com.
Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Moist, Psaltery & Lyre, EcoTheo, The Hopper, Terrain, and other journals. Jack’s work has been selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction and Best Spiritual Literature. His latest collection is Against the Woods’ Dark Trunks (Mercer University Press, 2022). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.
Eben E. B. Bein is a biology-teacher-turned-climate-justice-educator. He was a 2022 Fellow for the “WritingXWriters Workshop” and his poems can be found in the likes of Fugue Literary and New Ohio Review, in his chapbook Character Flaws, or at ebenbein.com. He lives on Pawtucket land (Cambridge, MA) with his husband, where he is completing his first collection about parent-child estrangement, healing, and love.
Lisa Bellamy studied with Philip Schultz at The Writers Studio, where she also teaches. Bellamy has received two Pushcart Prizes and Fugue Poetry Prize and is the author of two poetry collections: The Northway and Nectar. The UN Network on Migration featured her poem “Yoho” in a 2022 multi-media exhibition. lisabellamypoet.com.
Jared Beloff is the author of Who Will Cradle Your Head (ELJ Editions, 2023). He is the editor of the Marvel inspired poetry anthology, Marvelous Verses (Daily Drunk, 2021) and the forthcoming Poets of Queens Anthology (2024). His work can be found at AGNI, Baltimore Review, River Mouth Review and elsewhere. He is a poetry editor at The Weight Journal. You can find him on his website www.jaredbeloff.com. He is a teacher who lives in Queens, NY with his wife and two daughters.
Gabriela Bittencourt is a Brazilian-American poet from South Florida. She holds an English degree from FAU. She was the Fall 2022 Brooklyn Poets Fellow and was featured in Voyage MIA and ShoutOut as one of South Florida’s emerging poets. She is the award recipient of the 2023 New York State Summer Writer Institute Poetry Scholarship. Her work appears in Mystic Owl Mag and The Acentos Review.
Marisa P. Clark is a queer writer whose prose and poetry appear in Shenandoah, Cream City Review, Nimrod, Epiphany, Foglifter, Rust + Moth, Prairie Fire, Sundog Lit, Air/Light, Texas Review, and elsewhere. Best American Essays 2011 recognized her creative nonfiction among its Notable Essays. A Southerner by birth, she lives in New Mexico.
Richard Collins is Dean Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at California State University Bakersfield. He has also taught literature and creative writing at universities in Romania, Bulgaria, and Wales. He was RosaMary Endowed Professor of English at Xavier University, where he was editor of Xavier Review (2001-2007). His books include John Fante: A Literary Portrait (Guernica Editions), and a chapbook of poetry, This Degradation (New Sins Press).
Christina Daub’s work appears in several literary journals and anthologies, including Kenyon Review & 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, edited by Billy Collins. She also translates poetry from Spanish & German, taught poetry & creative writing at various schools, including George Washington University and co-founded The Plum Review. christinadaub.com
Danielle Shandiin Emerson is a Diné writer from Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Tłaashchi’i (Red Cheek People Clan), born for Ta’neezaahníí (Tangled People Clan). She has a B.A. in Education Studies and a B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University. Danielle writes fiction, poetry, plays, and creative essays. Her work centers Diné culture, perspectives, and personal narratives.
Ariel Francisco is the author of the forthcoming All the Places We Love Have Been Left in Ruins (Burrow Press, 2024), Under Capitalism If Your Head Aches They Just Yank Off Your Head (Flowersong Press, 2022), and A Sinking Ship is Still a Ship (Burrow Press, 2020), and the translator of Haitian-Dominican poet Jacques Viau Renaud’s Poet of One Island (Get Fresh Books, 2024) and Guatemalan poet Hael Lopez’s Routines/Goodbyes (Spuyten Duyvil, 2022). A poet and translator born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents and raised in Miami, his work has been published in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets, POETRY Magazine, The New York City Ballet, Latino Book Review, and elsewhere. He is Assistant Professor of Poetry and Hispanic Studies at Louisiana State University.
Michael Garrigan writes and teaches along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and believes that every watershed should have a Poet Laureate. He is the author of two poetry collections – River, Amen and Robbing the Pillars. He was the 2021 Artist in Residence for The Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. His writing has appeared in Orion Magazine, River Teeth Journal, and North American Review. You can read more at mgarrigan.com.
Reuben Gelley Newman (he/him) is the author of the chapbook Feedback Harmonies (Seven Kitchens Press). A coeditor for Couplet Poetry, he is a writer, musician, and librarian-in-training based in New York City. His poems have appeared in Ninth Letter, The Fairy Tale Review, The Journal, Northwest Review, and elsewhere, and you can find him on social media @joustingsnail.
Faith Gómez Clark (she/they) earned their MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson. Their chapbook manuscript Unlock the Body was a semi-finalist in the Iron Horse Literary Review 2023 Chapbook Competition. They have received grants and fellowships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Vermont Studio Center. Their work can be found or is forthcoming in Salt Hill Journal, Rogue Agent Journal, Huizache Magazine, and elsewhere.
Brian Harman is a poet living in Southern California where he received his MFA in creative writing from Cal State University, Long Beach. His work has appeared in Chiron Review, a moon of one’s own, Nerve Cowboy, and elsewhere. He is the author of Suddenly, All Hell Broke Loose!!! through Picture Show Press. Find him at brianrharman.com.
Sharon Weightman Hoffmann is a writer based in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Publications include New York Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Letters, Poetica, Wild Roof, Cagibi, Showcase, The Banyan Review, SoFloPoJo, Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives (Harvard University), and Isle of Flowers (Anhinga Press). Awards include fellowships from Atlantic Center for the Arts and Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, and two Pushcart nominations.
Eric Machan Howd (Ithaca, NY) is a poet, musician, and educator. Their work has been seen in publications like Caesura, Slant, Dash, and Slab. They recently published their fifth collection of poetry, Universal Monsters, with The Orchard Street Press. They are currently working on a full-length erasure project using an H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, the theme of which is gender expectations.
Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books). Her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Poem-a-Day, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications. She earned her MFA at Oregon State University. You can find her @nafoopal.
Melissa Fite Johnson is the author of three full-length collections, most recently Midlife Abecedarian (Riot in Your Throat, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Pleiades, Ilanot Review, HAD, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Melissa teaches high school English in Lawrence, KS, where she and her husband live with their dogs.
Frances Klein (she/her) is a poet and teacher writing at the intersection of disability and gender. She is the 2022 winner of the Robert Golden Poetry Prize, and the author of the chapbooks New and Permanent (Blanket Sea 2022) and The Best Secret (Bottlecap Press 2022). Klein currently serves as assistant editor of Southern Humanities Review.
Arah Ko is a writer from Hawai’i and the author of Brine Orchid (YesYes Books 2025) and Animal Logic (Bull City Press 2025). Her work is published or forthcoming in the American Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, The Threepenny Review, New Ohio Review, and elsewhere. Arah has been nominated for Best of Net and Best New Poets and is the recipient of an Arthur Rense Prize through the Academy of American Poets. She received her MFA in creative writing from the Ohio State University where she served on the staff of The Journal. Arah is currently on staff at Surging Tide Magazine. Catch her at arahko.com.
Vannida S. Kol is a Cambodian-American poet pursuing her BA in English, Certificate in Poetry, and Religious Studies minor at the University of Texas– Austin. Her writing navigates and merges Khmer culture, Buddhist philosophy, and interpretations of the metaphysical. Her poems can be found in Hothouse Literary Journal and Silk Club ATX.
Poet and lyricist Sati Mookherjee is the author of the poetry collections Eye (Ravenna Press) and Ways of Being (MoonPath Press). Her collaborations with contemporary classical composers have been performed or recorded by ensemble and solo musicians. She has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes, and is the recipient of an Artist Trust/ Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship Award. (satimookherjee.com)
Stephanie Niu is the author of Survived By, winner of the 2023 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, and She Has Dreamt Again of Water, winner of the 2021 Diode Chapbook Contest. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Offing, Missouri Review, Copper Nickel, Georgia Review, and elsewhere.
Robert Okaji was recently diagnosed with late stage metastatic lung cancer. He lives, for the time being, in Indiana, with his wife, the poet Stephanie L. Harper. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Vox Populi, Only Poems, Southern Humanities Review, Slipstream, Threepenny Review, Wildness, Verse Daily and elsewhere.
Quinton Okoro is a Black, nonbinary poet from North Carolina. They are a 2023 Tin House Summer Scholar, winner of the 2023 Anne Williams Burrus Prize sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, and semi-finalist for the 2023 Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry from Nimrod. Their poetry is featured or forthcoming in tiny wren lit, Allium, Driftwood Press, Poets.org, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Find them on Twitter @quintonpoet.
Mollie O’Leary is a poet from Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. Mollie’s chapbook The Forgetting Curve was published in 2023 through Poetry Online. Her poetry has appeared in Frontier Poetry, Chestnut Review, and elsewhere. Find more of her work at mollieoleary.com.
Nathan Xavier Osorio is the son of a Mexican grocer and Nicaraguan nurse. His chapbook, The Last Town Before the Mojave, was selected by Oliver de la Paz as a recipient for the Poetry Society of America’s 2021 Chapbook Fellowship. His poetry, translations, and essays have also appeared in BOMB, The Offing, Boston Review, Public Books, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. His writing and teaching has been supported by fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, The Kenyon Review, and Poetry Foundation. He is currently a PhD candidate in Literature and Creative/Critical Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Kailee Pedersen‘s poetry has appeared in Strange Horizons, AGNI, They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets (Blue Oak Press), Shō, and others. Her debut novel, Sacrificial Animals, is forthcoming in August 2024 from St. Martin’s Press. She was adopted from Nanning in 1996 and currently works as a software engineer in NYC.
The poetry and prose of Robert L. Penick have appeared in well over 100 different literary journals, including The Hudson Review, North American Review, Plainsongs, and Oxford Magazine. The Art of Mercy, his first full- length collection, was published by Hohm Press in 2023. For more, visit theartofmercy.net.
Carlos A. Pittella (he/him) is a Latinx poet & the recipient of a Frontier 2022 Global Poetry Prize. Born on traditional lands of the Tupi, Guarani, & Goitacá (Rio de Janeiro), he lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. His writing is haunted by borders, having recently appeared in Frontier, Acentos, HAD, & Jacket2.
Sage Ravenwood is a deaf Cherokee woman residing in upstate NY with her rescue dog Yazhi. She is an outspoken advocate against animal cruelty and domestic violence. Her first collection, Everything That Hurt Us Becomes a Ghost was published by Gallaudet University Press in October 2023. Her work appears in The Worcester Review, The Indianapolis Review, Contrary, Grain, The Rumpus, Massachusetts Review, ANMLY, The Normal School, Colorado Review, PRISM International, 128 Lit, and elsewhere. sageravenwood.com.
Kevin Ridgeway‘s latest book is Invasion of the Shadow People (Luchador Press). His work has appeared in Paterson Literary Review, Slipstream, Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review, Plainsongs, Spillway, Heavy Feather Review, Main Street Rag, Trailer Park Quarterly, San Pedro River Review and The American Journal of Poetry, among others. He lives and writes in Long Beach, CA.
Lana Matthews Sain lives and works in Sewanee, TN. She recently received an MFA from The University of The South’s Sewanee School of Letters and serves as associate editor for the Northwest Review.
Eylie Sasajima (she/they) is a recent graduate of Washington College. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming in pamplemousse and The Windward Review. She is the 2023 winner of the Sophie Kerr Prize. She lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania.
Andrew Schelling lives in the foothills along Colorado’s Front Range, studying languages, ecology and animal tracks. He writes poetry and essays, and translates poems of ancient India. His most recent poetry collection is The Facts at Dog Tank Spring. He is the author of Tracks Along the Left Coast: Jaime de Angulo & Pacific Coast Culture and eight volumes of poetry translated from Sanskrit and related tongues. Songs of Mirabai will be issued in a new edition by White Pine Press in 2024. Schelling teaches poetry and Sanskrit at Naropa University in Boulder.
Valerie A. Smith’s first book of poems, Back to Alabama, is forthcoming from Sundress Publications. She has a PhD from Georgia State University and a MA from Kennesaw State University where she currently teaches English. Her poems appear in print and online journals. Above all, she values spending quality time with her family.
Sophia Terazawa is the author of Anon (Deep Vellum, 2023) and Winter Phoenix (Deep Vellum, 2021), a finalist for CLMP’s 2022 Firecracker Award, along with two chapbooks I AM NOT A WAR (Essay Press, 2016) and Correspondent Medley (Factory Hollow Press, 2019), winner of the 2018 Tomaž Šalamun Prize. Her first novel is forthcoming with A Strange Object, and she currently teaches poetry at Virginia Tech as Visiting Assistant Professor. Her favorite color is purple.
Elise Thi Tran (she/her) is a Vietnamese-Filipina-American writer based in Chicago. She is the 2022 First Pages Prize winner, a Chicago Literary Club Collyer Fellow, and fiction judge for NYC Midnight. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Blackbird, diode, the minnesota review, SAND, Salt Hill, and elsewhere. Find Elise on Instagram @elise.tran.
Richard Vargas received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Published collections: McLife, 2005, American Jesus, 2009, Guernica, revisited 2014, and How A Civilization Begins 2022. A fifth book, Leaving A Tip At The Blue Moon Motel, Casa Urraca Press, was released July 2023. He currently resides in Wisconsin, near the lake where Otis Redding’s plane crashed. richardvargaspoet.com
MT Vallarta (they/them) is a poet and an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. They are the author of the poetry collection, What You Refuse to Remember (Harbor Editions), and the microchapbook, The Science of Flowers (Blanket Sea). You can also find their work in The Selkie, Madwomen in the Attic, Nat. Brut, Apogee, and others.
Laura Villareal is a poet and book critic. Her debut poetry collection, Girl’s Guide to Leaving, (University of Wisconsin Press 2022) was awarded Texas Institute of Letters John A. Robert Johnson Award for a First Book of Poetry and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award for Poetry. Her writing has appeared in Shenandoah, Guernica, AGNI, among others.
Fred Voss has published 4 full length collections of poetry and a novel about his 50 years working on machine shop floors. His latest collection, Someday There Will Be Machine Shops Full of Roses is published by Smokestack Books (U.K.).
Elinor Ann Walker (she/her) holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and prefers to write outside. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Cherry Tree, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Nimrod, Northwest Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Plume, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. Find her online at elinorannwalker.com.
Bella Zhou is a junior at UWC Pearson College. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Greyhound Journal and her work has been previously published or is forthcoming in GASHER, Polyphony Lit and Jet Fuel Review. She can be found in Vancouver, Canada listening to Bon Iver or filming on her Sony A7M4.
Lisa Zimmerman’s poetry collections include How the Garden Looks from Here (Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award winner) The Light at the Edge of Everything (Anhinga Press) and Sainted (Main Street Rag). Her writing has appeared in Redbook, Cave Wall, Poet Lore, Vox Populi, nominated for Best of the Net, five times for the Pushcart Prize, and included in the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology.
Jane Zwart teaches at Calvin University, where she also co-directs the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, TriQuarterly, and Ploughshares, as well as other journals and magazines.
ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST
Harim Choi (she/her) is a Korean-American illustrator based in Long Island, New York. She obtained a BFA at Rhode Island School of Design in 2020. She currently works as a painter at a pottery studio. Her work explores absurdity. Follow her on instagram: @ha_rym