Ariadne Makridakis Arroyo (she/they) is a Los Angeles-based poet, writer, and feminist of Greek and Guatemalan descent who grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. They completed their Bachelor’s degree in Critical Theory & Social Justice at Occidental College in 2020 where they worked with fiction writer Zinzi Clemmons. Her work has been featured in Twisted Moon Magazine, Evocations Review, Feast Magazine, Stellium Literary Magazine, Stonecoast Review, Rush Magazine, Stanchion Zine, Latin@ Literatures, Tasteful Rude, and Text Power Telling,and she is a recipient of the 2019 Argonaut Summer Research/Creative Writing Fellowship.

Charles Stephens (he/him) is an Atlanta-based writer. He is a 2023 Periplus Fellow, and has participated in the Tin House Winter Workshop, the Hurston/Wright Workshop, and the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. His short stories have appeared in The Lumiere Review, Isele Magazine, and Queerlings. He has also contributed to Atlanta Magazine, Lambda Literary Review, Advocate, Creative Loafing, Georgia Voice, and AJC.

Nicole Goodwin aka GOODW.Y.N. They are longlisted for The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for 2023, as well as the winner of the LMCC Creative Engagement Grant awardee for 2023. They are also a 2022-23 Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient, semifinalist for the Headlands 2023 Chamberlain Award, finalist for the CUE Foundation’s 2022 Public Programs Fellowship, as well as the 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship Recipient, while advancing to the 2nd Round of the 2018 Creative Capital Awards. They published the articles “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” in the New York Times’ parentblog Motherlode. Additionally, their work “Ain’t I a Woman (?/!): Poems,” was longlisted for The Black Spring Press Group’s The Christopher Smart-Joan Alice Prize for 2020.

Hess Love, MFA(c) Hess Love(they/them) is a poet, archivist, ethnoecologist, storyteller, and healing artist. As a co-founder of the Chesapeake Conjure Society, Hess’ creative and community work as a Hoodoo historian lives at the crossroads of culture and environment. Their stories are rooted in folklore, communal ways of knowing, intimate politics, and place-based practices around the Chesapeake Bay. Hess is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at Wilkes University and pursuing certification as a Master Naturalist.

Janyce Denise Glasper (she/her) is a Dayton, Ohio based multidisciplinary artist, writer, and independent scholar focused on highlighting the historical contributions of Black women visual artists. She obtained her BFA in drawing from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and her post baccalaureate certificate and MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; primarily focused in painting and writing. Her writings have appeared in ÆQAI Journal, Belt Magazine, RaceBaitr, Black Youth Project, and other publications. Currently, she is an Andy Warhol/Creative Capital Art Writer Grant recipient, remote contributing writer for Philadelphia based artblog, and completing “Route,” her debut illustrated novel.

Jasmine Knowles (she/her) is a poet and interdisciplinary learning artist. She has received support from the Hurston/Wright Foundation, VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts, and the Periplus Collective. Her most recent publications include a poem in Obsidian Lit., two poems published in Honey Literary Magazine, and the V is for Voices! campaign and performance project. She writes to free her voice.

Javier Castano (he/him) is an unknown writer, even to himself. The seed for storytelling was planted during his youth at Leavenworth Penitentiary where he earned a college degree. That desire to write truly came alive when Javier walked the streets of Miami a free man for the first time in 34 years. He has won many local writing competitions for short stories, poetry, and for chapters of a book. Some of his work, including screenplays, have been tried in small theaters. Javier now believes that writing was destined by the Universe eons ago and has embraced his calling. He writes on the road while driving a truck that he makes his home, his office, his school, his gym, and his Divine Temple.

Joyia Manón (she/her) is a Licensed Professional Counselor with an M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and an affinity for supporting others with improving their emotional wellbeing. In her downtime, she writes fiction to maintain her own happiness. When she’s not writing, reading other people’s novels, or spending time with her two sons, she is learning as much as she can about African Traditional Religions, collecting fabric and sewing patterns to occasionally put together new pieces, or watching a horror movie. She has also been known to coach a soccer team or two. Born and raised in Sacramento, CA, as an adult Joyia has lived wherever she feels like in the United States and is probably currently in transition from one state to another, again. Find out more at JoyiaManon.com.

Lena Hamilton (she/her), a Boston native and Georgia resident, is a Black Teacher Project Fellow; a Rhode Island Writers Colony Fellow; a recipient of the Tufts University Department of English Prize, and former Teacher of the Year. Hamilton was a finalist for her district’s Good Trouble Award in 2022, & and in 2023, a winner. Currently, Hamilton is an educator in Georgia. Her work can be found in Penumbra Literary & Art Journal and 580 Split.

Mariana Goycoechea (she/her/ella) is a writer and educator of Guatemalan-Argentinian descent based in New York City. Her work has been featured in NYSAI Press, The Rumpus, The Acentos Review, Harvard’s PALABRITAS magazine, Fourth River, The Selkie, the BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT, and most recently, the anthology Leaning Toward Light (August 2023). She is a former alum of Tin House and VONA workshops with received fellowships and scholarships to the Fine Arts Work Center, The Watering Hole, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Juniper Summer Writing Institute, and Macondo. She was also nominated for Best of the Net in 2019. She holds an MFA in poetry from Ashland University.

Nilsa Ada Rivera’s (she/her) work explores socio-economic, gender, and diversity issues. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Hippocampus Magazine, Huffington Post, 50 GS Magazine, Six Hens Literary Journal, and elsewhere. Her essay published in Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and The Literature of Uprootedness was nominated for the 2022 Pushcart Prize 2022. She has a Creative Nonfiction MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She may be found online in IG and Threads as @nilsawrites

Pegah Ouji (she/her) is a writer from Iran. she writes stories in both Farsi and English. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and two little children where she is currently working on a short story collection set in various regions of Iran. Each story showcases the local customs and traditions of each area while highlighting some of the contemporary challenges faced by the local populations and their efforts to overcome such challenges. Her work is forthcoming from Isele Magazine.

r. erica doyle (she/her) was born in Brooklyn to Trinidadian immigrant parents. Her debut collection, proxy won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and was a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry.

Samar Johnson (they/them) is a Black, queer and gender expansive creative and ensoulment doula. Their work has been featured with Pile Press and Querencia Press and they have had the pleasure of reading their other poetry with other artists such as Letonia Jones and Silas House. Currently, they are the director of the Spirit Writers project with I Was Here, a nonprofit committed to using the power of art to repair the broken understanding of citizenship in the US. Samar's writing and work centers the experiences of Black and queer femmes. In addition to writing, they are also an ensoulment doula. Their work in that role works to bring Soul to Self through the use of various spiritual modalities.

Sylvia Chan (she/her) is an amputee-cyborg writer, educator, and activist. Her debut poetry collection is We Remain Traditional, published by the Center for Literary Publishing in 2018, and her foster care essays appear in The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, The Cincinnati Review, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019. She is a National Poetry Series finalist and Zoeglossia fellow. She has taught in foster care, domestic violence, and prison communities. She lives in Tucson, where she works with crossover and foster youth.

After giving 10 years of her life to the Florida Department of Corrections, Tanaine Jenkins (she/her) has dedicated her voice to shining a light on the Second Sentence that Returning Citizens face once they are released from confinement. Tanaine is the best-selling author of From Prison to President: 7 Ways to Succeed in Your Second Chance, the President of Everything I Am LLC, the CEO of The Loc’d Line, and a 2022 TEDx Jacksonville speaker. She has also been featured in Forbes, on the CW Channel, PBS and is Florida Restoration and Rights Coalition’s “One to Watch” for 2023. Through her company, Everything I Am, Tanaine has helped hundreds of returning citizens and justice involved individuals find their 'Why' and learn the power of self-forgiveness.

Tonia Dixon (she/her) honors her mother’s transition during the pandemic by adopting a pseudonym of her mother’s surname and her nickname. Currently, stretched between her career as a college professor and writing aspirations—she looks forward to retirement. She is loquacious with strangers offering unsolicited compliments and directions. Anxiety, her frequent companion, keeps her intimate with God, whispering prayers for solace. One way she discharges anxiety is with a pen on the page or her fingers against the keyboard. She empties ink of most writing utensils sometimes in one setting. Tonia feverishly crafts poems and plays and writes as a social scientist on various issues dealing with social and identity theories. Tonia latest writing obsession is Mind the Glass, a debut novel about love gone awry in Nigeria.

Tyriese Holloway (they/he) is a poet, educator and organizer from Camden, New Jersey and lives in Philadelphia. They have a Bachelor’s degree in English and Education from Rowan University and currently teach English in West Philadelphia. He was published in Commonline Journal, Avant, and At the Write Place, at the Write Time under their former penname E.M. McPherson. When writing, their poetry deals with themes of adoption, confusion, and psychological occultation, but writes for the dispossessed, desperate and honest to help find their way out. When not writing or organizing, TJ enjoys sports and weather watching.

Yesenia Veamatahau (they/them) lives and learns in Huichin AKA East Oakland, with family roots stretching back to the 70’s. Their experiences as a youth mentor, community organizer, data nerd, ops wizard, plant guardian, and cultural worker form a spider’s web pattern, weaving space for healing and thriving. They believe that in our bodies and communities, we already hold the answers we seek, and as a budding "historyan," they are dedicated to recording those recipes. On any given day you might find them taking a walk in the redwoods or putting out fresh nectar for their hummingbird neighbors. They're just getting started in the world of sharing their writing.