Mildred Kiconco Barya is a North Carolina-based writer, educator, and poet of East African descent. She’s the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently The Animals of My Earth School released by Terrapin Books, 2023. Her prose, hybrids, and poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Joyland, The Cincinnati Review, Tin House, New England Review, and elsewhere. She’s now working on a collection of creative nonfiction essays, and she blogs here: www.mildredbarya.com.
Brysen Boyd is playwright, TV writer, and essayist originally from Tacoma, WA. He served on the writing staff for HBO’s Succession (in a position created for him), is a 2023 Artist-in-Residence at Williamstown Theater Festival, the inaugural Playwright-in-Residence at Reverie Theater Company and is a proud member of Youngblood/ Ensemble Studio Theater. Having come to playwriting and creative nonfiction in undergrad by way of his first love, TV, his goal in life is to write stories that make others feel as excited as nine-year-old him felt when watching David and Keith on Six Feet Under. Writing means everything to him—second only to his miniature wiener dogs, Simon and Alvin. B.A., Boston College MFA, Columbia University. brysenboyd.com.
Callie Crouch is a graduate student at Saint Joseph’s University pursuing a MA in Writing Studies and is former Editor-in-Chief of the university’s literary magazine, The Crimson and Gray. Her work appears or is upcoming in sixteen other journals and anthologies, including Coffin Bell, Roanoke Review, Pinky Thinker Press, and Hive Avenue Literary Journal. Callie is originally from Florida, but lives and writes in Philadelphia with her cat Idgie.
Alida Dean’s short stories have recently appeared in The Forge, Nashville Review, Ninth Letter, and Smokelong Quarterly, among other venues. She earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati and is a lecturer in the Writing Department at Ithaca College. Her agent is currently looking for a home for her debut novel, I Don’t Think I’ll Miss You Much.
Wren Donovan’s poetry appears or is upcoming in Poetry South, Chaotic Merge, Anti-Heroin Chic, Harpy Hybrid Review, Emerge Literary Journal, and elsewhere in print and online. She studied creative writing, folklore, and literature at UNC-Chapel Hill and University of Southern Mississippi. Wren also reads Tarot, practices dance meditation, and talks to cats. She lives in Tennessee and lurks on twitter @WrenDonovan. Links to published work: WrenDonovan.weebly.com.
Elisa Faison holds a Ph.D. in Contemporary American Fiction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Carrboro, NC and works as a freelance editor. You can find her published and forthcoming stories in Electric Literature, The Missouri Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, and The Lumiere Review. She is currently editing her debut novel and completing a collection of linked stories.
Susan Eve Haar is a playwright and writer living on Long Island. A member of Ensemble Studio Theater, The Actor’s Studio, and the Writer’s Guild East, her essays and short stories have been published in CRAFT, North Dakota Quarterly, and Pembroke Magazine. Her plays have been published in The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2020 and 2018, Monologues for Headspace Theatre: Radical Thinking Inside a Box 2019, and The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2018. www.susanevehaar.com
William Hawkins has been published in Granta, ZZYZYVA and TriQuarterly, among others. Originally from Louisiana, he currently lives in Los Angeles where he is at work on a novel.
Dany Mangrove is a graduate of The New School’s Creative Writing MFA program. Some of her other work can be found in Red Noise Collective, Sinister Wisdom Journal, and Beyond Words Literary Magazine. She is happy you are reading poetry.
Carolynn Mireault is a recipient of the 2022 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award in Literature and the 2022 Florence Engel Randall Fiction Award. She holds an MFA from Boston University, where she served as a Leslie Epstein Fellow and the Senior Teaching Fellow. She is a Leslie Epstein Global Fellow. Her work has appeared in Cutleaf, Louisiana Literature, Glassworks, Pithead Chapel, and Abandon Journal among other venues.
Nathan Nicolau is a writer/poet based in Charlotte, NC. Since his published debut in 2019, his work has been featured on multiple websites and magazines. He is also the owner and Editor-in-Chief of New Note Poetry, an indie poetry magazine. Find out more about him at nathannicolau.com.
C. Mikal Oness is a cottage farmer in SE Minnesota and editor/printer of the literary fine presses Sutton Hoo Press and The Last Press (www.thelastpress.com). His books include Husks (Brandenburg), Water Becomes Bone (New Issues Press) and Oracle Bones (Winner of the Lewis-Clark Press Prize). Others of his Tankas can be read in Red Noise Collective, Cholla Needles, and SALT.
R.S. Powers’ stories have appeared in Wigleaf, Grist, Sou’wester, Juked, JMWW, and X-R-A-Y, among other journals. They lived in Mainland China for eight years, and they currently teach at the University of Delaware.
Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is an Appalachian Alabama-born, Palestinian-American writer who now calls Columbus, Ohio, home. Their essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and others. Their first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, is forthcoming from Belt Publishing. Read more about them at mandyshunnarah.com.
Mark Thomas is a retired English and Philosophy teacher, and ex-member of Canada’s national rowing team. Check out his website: flamingdogshit.com.
Evan Morgan Williams is the author of three collections of stories: Thorn (BkMk Press, 2014), Canyons (self-published, 2017), and Stories of the New West (Main Street Rag Press, 2021). His stories have appeared in Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Witness, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. Williams holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and he recently retired after twenty-nine years of public school teaching. Website: evanmorganwilliams.com. Twitter: @EvMoWi.
Winner of the 2023 Esoterica Magazine short story contest and nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Sundress Publications’ Best of the Net, Emily Zasada’s short stories have appeared in several literary magazines, including Your Impossible Voice, The Forge Literary Magazine, Straylight Literary Magazine, Menacing Hedge, Spectrum Literary Magazine and more. Originally from the Baltimore area, she now lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.