Editors
Dominique Ahkong was born to Mauritian parents in outer London and grew up in Singapore. She holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MPS in interactive media from Tisch School of the Arts. Her poetry appears in The Southern Review, The Cincinnati Review, The McNeese Review, South Carolina Review, The Georgia Review, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. More: dominiqueahkong.com
Having published regularly in small press journals from 1995 to 2004, Johnny Cordova returned to the poetry scene in 2021 after spending ten years in Southeast Asia. Since then, his work has appeared in Water~Stone Review, Moon City Review, Salt Hill Journal, New York Quarterly, Louisiana Literature, Chicago Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of The Broken Buddha (Roadside Press, 2026).
Claire Zhou is a student from Suzhou who is now based in Los Angeles. Her poetry has appeared in Gulf Coast, Chestnut Review, Puerto del Sol, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. A 2024 finalist for Tinderbox’s Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize and Palette Poetry’s Rising Poet Prize, her work has also been recognized by the National Young Arts Foundation, Hollins University, the Adroit Prizes, and more. She founded Words Beyond Bars, a literary journal for those affected by incarceration.
Editors: Dominique Ahkong & Johnny Cordova
Junior Editor: Claire Zhou
Founding Editor: Sita Martin
Website & Social Media Manager: Dominique Ahkong
Board of Directors (Beggar Poet Press): Dominique Ahkong, Magan Arthur, Johnny Cordova, Thomas Young-Bormann, Fareeda Zubeir