Chen Chen’s (he/him) second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in September 2022. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. His work appears in many publications, including Poetry and three editions of The Best American Poetry. He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He was the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University and currently teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.

Destiny O. Birdsong (she/her) is a Louisiana-born poet, essayist, and fiction writer whose debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published by Tin House Books in October 2020, and was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection. Her debut novel, Nobody’s Magic, was published by Grand Central in February 2022. She earned her BA in English and history from Fisk University, and her MFA and PhD from Vanderbilt. In 2022, she was selected as the Hurston-Wright Foundation’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Rutgers University-Newark, and she will serve as an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville from 2022-2023.

Indrapramit Das (aka Indra Das) (he/him) is a writer and editor from Kolkata, India. He is a Lambda Literary Award-winner for his debut novel The Devourers (Penguin India / Del Rey), and a Shirley Jackson Award-winner for his short fiction, which has appeared in a variety of anthologies and publications including Tor.com, Slate Magazine, Clarkesworld and Asimov’s Science Fiction. He is an Octavia E. Butler Scholar, and a grateful member of the Clarion West class of 2012. He has lived in India, the United States, and Canada, where he received his MFA from the University of British Columbia.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo (he/him) is a memoirist, poet, essayist, translator, and immigration advocate. He is the author of the collection Cenzontle (2018), which won the 2017 A. Poulin Jr. prize, and the chapbook Dulce (2018). His memoir, Children of the Land (2020), is his most recent publication. His work has appeared or been featured in The New York Times, PBS Newshour, People Magazine en Español, The Paris Review, Fusion TV, Buzzfeed, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, New England Review, and Indiana Review, among others. He currently teaches in the Low-Res MFA program at Ashland University.

Charlie Vázquez is an author, editor, and creative mindfulness instructor. He’s designed and facilitated arts and wellness programs for underserved communities in collaboration with the NYC Department of Health, New York Public Library, Bronx Council on the Arts, and PEN America. Charlie consults with organizations on initiatives that merge the creative and holistic and hosts live meditation sessions via @conexionesnyc on Instagram. He lives in The Bronx.

Laia Bové (she/her) is an Afro-Catalan yoga & meditation teacher and polyglot writer. As a former professional athlete herself, Laia works with Olympic and Paralympic athletes in order to introduce wellness practices to support their lives. She also teaches accessible yoga and meditation classes, workshops, retreats and trainings that invite folks to tap into their authenticity and their creative truth so that they can increase their wellbeing and live in harmony.

Faylita Hicks (she/they) is a queer Afro-Latinx activist, writer, and interdisciplinary artist. Born in South Central California and raised in Central Texas, they use their intersectional experiences to advocate for the rights of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people by interpreting policy’s impact on the individual using poetry, music, performance, and digital art. They are the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the forthcoming poetry collection A Map of My Want (Haymarket Books, 2024), and the debut memoir about their carceral experience A Body of Wild Light (Haymarket Books, 2025).

Carolina Pichardo is an editor and writer for a national publication. She’s worked as a journalist, marketer and producer for several top publications and websites, including DNAinfo New York, NY1 Noticias, Crains Communications, Parents Magazine, Working Mother Magazine and Everyday Health. Her study and passion for astrology began almost two decades ago, after taking an undergraduate astronomy class and falling inlove with the skies. She’s completed several programs and fellowships, plus worked with several educators, including Dena deCastro, Steven Forrest, Patrice Kamins and Dr. Elena Lumin.

Denne Michele Norris is the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature, winner of the 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize, where she is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. A 2021 Out100 Honoree, her writing has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, VCCA, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction, and appears in McSweeney's, American Short Fiction, and Apogee Journal. She co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot, and her debut novel, When The Harvest Comes, is forthcoming from Random House.

Naseem Jamnia is the author of the critically praised debut novella The Bruising of Qilwa, which introduces their queernormative, Persian-inspired secondary world. In addition to receiving fellowships from Bitch Media, Lambda Literary, and the Otherwise Award, they were named the inaugural Samuel R. Delany fellow. Their nonfiction has also been published in venues like The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Cosmopolitan, and others. A Persian-Chicaogan, former scientist, and child to Iranian immigrants, Naseem now lives in Reno, NV, with their husband, dog, and two cats. Find out more at www.naseemwrites.com, where you can sign up for their newsletter, and on social media @jamsternazzy.

Chen Chen’s (he/him) second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in September 2022. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. His work appears in many publications, including Poetry and three editions of The Best American Poetry. He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists. He was the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University and currently teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo (he/him) is a memoirist, poet, essayist, translator, and immigration advocate. He is the author of the collection Cenzontle (2018), which won the 2017 A. Poulin Jr. prize, and the chapbook Dulce (2018). His memoir, Children of the Land (2020), is his most recent publication. His work has appeared or been featured in The New York Times, PBS Newshour, People Magazine en Español, The Paris Review, Fusion TV, Buzzfeed, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, New England Review, and Indiana Review, among others. He currently teaches in the Low-Res MFA program at Ashland University.

Cortney Lamar Charleston (he/him) is the author of Telepathologies (Saturnalia Books, 2017) and Doppelgangbanger (Haymarket Books, 2021). He was awarded a 2017 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and he has also received fellowships from Cave Canem and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Winner of a Pushcart Prize, his poems have appeared in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Granta, The Nation and elsewhere. He serves as a poetry editor at The Rumpus and on the editorial board at Alice James Books.

Joanna Volpe (she/her) is a literary agent and the president of New Leaf Literary & Media, where she represents a broad range of fiction and non-fiction. Joanna works with incredible talent such as Tracy Deonn, John Picacio, Leigh Bardugo, Gabby Rivera, Daniel José Older, Holly Black, Samira Ahmed, Veronica Roth, Amerie and the packager Cake Creative, to name a few. Joanna seeks unique and diverse perspectives, and she has a soft spot for speculative and/or fantastical storytelling. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter at @JoSVolpe.

Kayla Lightner is an agent and rights manager at Ayesha Pande Literary. Prior to joining APL, Kayla worked as an assistant at Liza Dawson Associates. She is a member of the AALA (Association of American Literary Agents) as well as a member of their DEI committee. A Georgia native, she earned her B.A. in English from Vassar College. Before finding her way to publishing, she held various positions including a fashion market assistant at Harper’s Bazaar and a freelance writer at Creative Loafing Atlanta. An adventurous reader, Kayla loves stories—across commercial fiction, literary fiction, and nonfiction—that masterfully straddle the line between story-telling and teaching her something new.

Ms. Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency. Her agency is the largest African American owned agency in the country and has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Serendipity is home to New York Times Best Sellers, National Book Award finalist and Michael Printz, Newbery, Coretta Scott King, and Caldecott honors.

Brooks is the Vice President of the Association of American Literary Agents, a member of the board of trustees of Association of Writing Programs, and a founding member of Literary Agents of Change and a member of National Book Foundation’s Book Council. She is the author of Writing Great Books for Young Adults and You Should Really Write a Book: How to Write, Sell, and Market Your Memoir.

B. Sharise Moore is an author, curriculum designer, and the Poetry Editor for FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. Moore’s poetry has appeared in These Bewitching Bonds, Mermaids Monthly, Starline, and Fantasy Magazine. Her short poem, “Black Beak” was nominated for a 2022 Dwarf Star Award.

Fangs, Feathers, and Folklore, her middle grade field guide of African mythological creatures, is forthcoming from Algonquin Young Readers in 2023 and Fatimah’s Fantastic City, her social justice picture book, is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2025. She lives in Baltimore, MD with her husband and young son.

Matt Ortile is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name and the co-editor of the nonfiction anthology Body Language. He is also the executive editor of Catapult magazine and was previously the founding editor of BuzzFeed Philippines. He has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and MacDowell; has taught at Kundiman, Catapult, and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY; and has written for Esquire, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Out magazine, and BuzzFeed News, among others. He is a graduate of Vassar College, which means he now lives in Brooklyn.

Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She seeks out communities of care and craft and is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Macondo. She is the author of black god mother this body, three other full collections of poetry, and two chapbooks. She publishes across forms in visual art, poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and scholarly work. She has received several fellowships and residencies. She is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, and is additionally a digital archivist, emerging visual artist, writing coach, and curriculum developer.

Vonetta Young is a writer and financial services consultant based in Washington, DC. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Indiana Review, Barrelhouse, Lunch Ticket, Catapult, Cosmonauts Avenue, Gargoyle, and the anthology, Furious Gravity, among others. She serves as Insight (nonfiction) Editor for The Offing and was formerly Senior Fiction Editor at The Rumpus and Assistant Flash Editor at Hippocampus. Vonetta is working on a memoir about growing up with an emotionally abusive father who was the bishop of three churches and a story collection about Black women being messy. Follow her on Twitter at @VonettaWrites.