Dariana Alvarez Herrera is a Puerto Rican writer and MFA candidate at Antioch University whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Bridge Eight Press, Oyster River Pages, the I-70 Review, and The South Florida Poetry Journal, among others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she is also the fiction editor at Lunch Ticket.

Maggie Felisberto is a queer nail polish enthusiast with a PhD in Portuguese literature and an MFA in creative writing. Her work has been published by Bridge Eight Press, Change Seven Magazine, Tagus Press, and Routledge. She lives in Massachusetts with her sister and nine pets.

Katherine May writes about awkward interactions, ambiguous connections, and in-between moments. She lives in New Orleans with her vast collection of increasingly outdated media. Her writing has appeared in the Mud Season Review (creative nonfiction) and God’s Cruel Joke (fiction).

Savannah S. Miller (she/her) is a queer and disabled writer across genre and form. Her fiction has been published in Jelly Bucket, Flash Fiction Magazine, Future Publishing House, and others. She is the author of the poetry collection Route 460 (Red Rook Press). Her play The House will receive its premiere production in 2026. AB: Dartmouth College (2021); MFA: Augsburg University (2025). Read more at savannahsmiller.com.

Jennifer Riggan (she/her) is Professor of Global Studies at Arcadia University. Her academic work centers around Eritrea and Ethiopia, countries with which she has a deep personal and family connection. She is the author of two books: The Struggling State: Nationalism, Mass-Militarization and the Education of Eritrea (Temple University Press, 2016) and Hosting States and Unsettled Guests: Eritrean Refugees in a Time of Migration Deterrence (co-authored with Amanda Poole, Indiana University Press, 2024). She holds an MFA from Arcadia University. Her creative work has been published in Isele Magazine and The Journal of Narrative Politics. 

Ashwini Shenoy is an Indian writer, cultural thinker, and storyteller whose work explores the intersection of mythology, contemporary life, and speculative fiction across narrative forms. She is best known for her debut novel, Shikhandini: Warrior Princess of the Mahabharata, which reimagines a lesser-known character’s journey of gender transformation and identity within the great Indian epic. The book has been translated into Tamil, with a Marathi edition to follow. Her other works include Gift of Life, a story of acceptance and healing during the pandemic, and In the Golden Mountains, a coming-of-age romance. Her experimental short fiction has appeared in Kitaab, MeanPepperVine, and the Sahitya Akademi Journal.

Laurel DiGangi’s fiction and creative nonfiction have been published in The Chicago Reader, Denver Quarterly, Fourth Genre, Asylum, Bending Genres, Atlanta Quarterly, Cottonwood, Two Hawks Quarterly, and Under the Gum Tree, among others. A Chicago-born, former graphic designer and illustrator, she now teaches writing and runs tutoring services at Woodbury University in Burbank, California. Fun fact: During a short stint as an entertainment journalist, she once retrieved Johnny Depp’s cigarette butt from an ashtray and sold it on Ebay for $200. For more information: www.laureldigangi.com 

Andreas Fleps is a poet/writer based in the suburbs of Chicago. He studied theology and philosophy at Dominican University, and his debut collection of poems entitled Well into the Night (via Energion Publications) was released at the end of 2020. His work has appeared in publications such as Marathon Literary Review, Waxing & Waning, Snapdragon, Wild Roof Journal, The Windhover, and the award-winning anthology Glissando!, among others. He translates teardrops.

John Ganshaw graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Leadership Development from New York University. After a long career in banking, John retired to Cambodia, where he lived for five years. John witnessed how people and their culture continue to be destroyed through colonization and the continued empire mentality of expats. John began writing in 2023 and is now an internationally published author/poet with over 100 poems and essays to his credit, most recently in Soup Can, Winds of Time, Thorn & Bloom, and Wayfarer. John writes in hope that perhaps, in some small way, his words can bring truth, justice, and change to this fucked up world.

Caroline Huckeba is a writer, researcher, and filmmaker from Dallas, Texas. She holds a B.S. in Psychology with a Creative Writing minor from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she studied the intersections of narrative, mental health, and the spaces where humor and grief overlap. Her work often explores intimacy, identity, and the surreal edges of everyday life.

Amanda Izzo is a writer from Boston, MA. After years of writing privately, she’s begun to share detailed recollections of her life and youth in the form of creative nonfiction. In the hopes of connecting to other readers, and shy creatives alike. Recently, her work has been published in Levitate Magazine, The Ana Magazine, Braver Collective, Waymark Literary Magazine, and Querencia Press, to name a few.

Skye Ayla Mallac is a South African writer, poet and creative. She has worked as a freelance writer for over a decade. Her debut poetry anthology Whole, Gold, Crystalline was published in 2022 through One Mountain Press, and her debut novel The Bee People was published on AmazonKindle in 2025. Her work has appeared in the FicSci 02 anthology night_sky, Ubuntu Magazine, The Argyle Literary Magazine, and Schumacher Magazine. She is deeply inspired by the intricacies of her own psyche, the exploration of vulnerability, and the South African landscapes she grew up in.

Sreeja Naskar is a young poet based in India. Her work has appeared in Poems India, Crowstep Journal, ONE ART, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Temz Review, FRiGG, The Chakkar, Trace Fossils Review, and elsewhere. She believes in the power of language to unearth what lingers beneath silence.

Kirby Michael Wright was born and raised in Hawaii. His family land on Moloka’i served as the breadbasket for Kamehameha’s warriors while they were training for their assault on Oahu.

Alexandra Bergmann is a writer, educator, and scientist from the San Francisco Bay Area. They hold an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her poetry has appeared in The Madison Review; Black Warrior Review; Mantis and other publications.

Ray Carey is an Irish poet and composer. He was selected by the late Irish Poet Laureate Paul Durcan for his Trinity Workshop Poets and studied writing with the novelist Clark Brown in California. He has composed adaptations of Boucicault and Wilde and lives in Waterford, Ireland. His recent publications include Southword: New International Writing; Innisfree; The Argyle Literary Magazine; The Broken Spine; Meniscus and The Broadkill Review.

Julianne DiNenna is the author of Girl in Tulips and Other Non-Communicative Family Diseases (Fernwood Press, 2023).  Her poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in Summerset Review; Literary Mama; Rattle;  Journal of Compressed Creative Arts; Rise Up Review; And If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing; Unruly Catholic Feminists; Adanna Literary Journal; Gyroscope Review; Stanford Medical Blog; Italy, a Love Story; and others. She was a finalist in the Harbor Editions Marginalia series, a semi-finalist in the Wicked Woman Book Prize, and a winner of poetry prizes. https://juliannedinenna.wordpress.com/

Gail Epps sees poetry as a technical language between souls and another way to tell a story. Within a creative life that includes careers as a chef, a headhunter and a rock singer, poetry is a natural toolkit for making images and plans for a kinder world. Her poetry is published in The Journal of Expressive Writing; Crosswalking; the annual Havik literary journal and upcoming editions of eMerge Magazine; Amplify, a Sheila Na Gig anthology; Tipton Poetry Journal; and The Journal of Undiscovered Poets.

Mary Herrington-Perry’s work recently has appeared/soon will appear in venues such as The Sewanee Review; Boulevard and The Penn Review. Her chapbook, “The Country We Live In”, was published by The Heartland Review Press, and her poem “Fragile Animals” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She currently is a master naturalist in residence at The Perry Farm, where she and her husband grow-to-share organic fruits and vegetables and tend a hundred acres of native plants. 

Marlo Scheitler is inspired by issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Marlo’s poetry addresses racial identity, social justice, and personal resilience, offering a powerful and heartfelt reflection on contemporary struggles and strength. Her poetry is power—the power to engage, heal, and unite by providing fresh perspectives. Since February 2025, her ekphrastic poetry contest finalist piece, “Dance of the Ladyfingers”, has been on display at Southminster Art Gallery in Charlotte, NC. Her poem, “Steps”, a winner of the NC Poetry Society’s “Poetry in Plain Sight” contest, is forthcoming in January 2026. Find her passionately building connections of community through poetry by hosting monthly “Poetry Night Out” events.

Kenton K Yee’s recent poems appear (or will soon) in Kenyon; Threepenny; Cincinnati; RHINO; Quarterly West; Poetry Northwest; Columbia Journal; Electric Literature; Poetry Wales; Stonecoast; Rattle and other venues. He writes from Northern California. FB: @scrambled.k.eggs INSTA: @kentonkyeepoet