Cathy Barber’s poetry has been published across four continents, including in Stone Poetry Quarterly, Belt Magazine and The Hopper, and has been anthologized many times. She is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and makes her home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where she serves on the board of Literary Cleveland. Her first full length book is :Once: A Golden Shovel Collection (Kelsay Books, 2023).

Brennan Baumgartner is a printmaker and sculptor who mainly focuses on the subjects of mental illness, trauma, and queerness. He graduated with a BA from Kent State University in 2023 and is currently working on his soft sculpture series Cosmic Critters.

KB Brookins is a writer, educator, and cultural worker. They are the author of How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (2022), Freedom House (2023), and Pretty (2024). They are an ACLU of Texas Artist-in-Residence and a Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellow. Follow them online at @earthtokb.

Marueen Clark’s“This Insatiable August” was released by Signature Books. She received nomination for a Pushcart Prize. Her memoir “Falling into Bountiful: Confessions of a Once Upon a Time Mormon” will be published by Hypatia Press.

Sylvia Clark (she/they) is a poet, musician, and visual artist from Akron, Ohio. She holds a BA in English from Kent State University. Her poetry is featured in Light Enters the Grove: Exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park Through Poetry, while her nonfiction work has been featured in KSU's Fusion Magazine.

Rebecca Cybulski is a midwesterner, through and through. She received her BA in literature from Kent State University and is an MFA candidate at Northern Michigan University. “Dog Days” is an excerpt from her memoir, "Suicide is Weird". She calls The Great Lakes home.

Johnny Damm’s comics include "I'm a Cop": Real-Life Horror Comics, which has been featured in The Washington Post, Boing Boing, and In These Times and named in The Comics Journal's best comics of the year. Damm is also the author of the acclaimed graphic novels Failure Biographies and The Science of Things Familiar, both published by The Operating System. His comics, prose, and visual poetry have appeared in Guernica, Poetry, The Offing, and elsewhere. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Phoenix Davis-Bailey just recently graduated from Denison University with their BA in studio art and a minor in Education. They currently live back home in Maine, where they spend most of their time outdoors, as well as working on my art in a shared studio with my mother. Their work has greatly shaped by their time in college, especially by trips I've taken to cities such as New York, New Orleans, and Chicago, as well as the four months they spent studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea. The contrast between their time growing up in the countryside of Maine and then living in these cities made me consider how we exist in increasingly urban and dense cities, and what that life might look like in the future. Davis-Bailey’s comics and large-scale illustrations are works of speculative fiction that are influenced by literature such as Philip K. Dick's, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," and Moebius, and Jodorowsky's "The Incal."

Felicia Denaud is a writer and poet seeking the ends of empire, capitalism, and human hierarchy.

William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He has taught at several colleges and universities. 2024). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell’s Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in various journals.

Sean Thomas Dougherty’s most recent books are Death Prefers the Minor Keys from BOA Editions, and The Dead are Everywhere Telling Us Things from Jacar Books. He works as a Carer and Medtech along Lake Erie.

Chandra Frank is an Assistant Professor of Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Taft Professor of Public Humanities (2024-2027) at the University of Cincinnati. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on feminist and queer of color cultural production, possibilities of dissent, the politics of water, and the ways in which race and the environment work as terrains of power. She is completing her first monograph on these academic interests, and is working on a creative non-fiction book that explores the relationship between tides, multispecies feminist perspectives, and queer relations. Chandra is also an independent curator and has produced exhibitions in Europe, South Africa, and the US.

Alex M. Frankel left Spain in the 1990s to settle in Southern California and sometimes publishes under the name Alejo Rovira Goldner. He writes poetry, fiction, plays and nonfiction. His full-length collection, Birth Mother Mercy, appeared in 2013 with Lummox Press. While he has written many "lunch" poems about the ordinary events of daily life, he focuses primarily on imagined realities where language and imagery work in the service of unreal worlds very real to him.

Abigail Fife is a graduate student in Library and Information Science at Kent State University and has no clear path after graduation next Spring. Her interests include reading, writing, and trying to keep her plants alive. Abby's inspiration for most of her writing stems from snippets of memories and the mundane moments in her life. Abby is wary of the future but knows it is inevitable.

Grace Gaynor is a writer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is a Feminist Press apprentice, an editorial intern at Electric Literature, and a reader for Bicoastal Review. She studied English and GWS at Hollins University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Tech.

Kristyn Garza a chicana from the U.S./Mexico border, moved from her hometown of McAllen, Texas to Austin to earn her bachelor's degree in English Literature at St. Edward’s University. She later earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in AGNI, Poets.org, Tupelo Quarterly, Cream City Review, The McNeese Review, RHINO, Pembroke Magazine, Fairy Tale Review and others. She was awarded the 2023 Academy of American Poets Billy Maich Award. Most recently, her chapbook "Dictionary of Bodies" won Gasher Press' 2024 Spring Poetry Chapbook Prize. Kristyn currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio where she is pursuing her PhD in Poetry at the University of Cincinnati.

Cameron Gorman is a journalist, writer, and artist working from Ohio. Cameron has published works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and has been featured in outlets such as No Contact, The Rumpus, and Juked.

Lora Gray (they/them), is a non-binary speculative fiction writer and poet from Northeast Ohio. Lora has been published in various anthologies and magazines including Uncanny Magazine, F&SF, Strange Horizons, and Asimov's. Lora is also a graduate of Clarion West, a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council's Individual Excellence Award in Fiction Writing, and has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award. You can find Lora online at lora-gray.com

Kimberly W. Heiman is a Senior Lecturer of Biology at Muhlenberg College. She loved the oceans from a young age and pursued her passion with a BA in Biology from New College of Florida and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. As her pandemic coping strategy, she began writing in 2021 and is currently enrolled in the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing. Her creative nonfiction essay “Quaking” was published in the International Human Rights Arts Movement Literary Magazine (2024) and nominated for the Best American Short Story Anthology.

When Isaiah Hunt isn’t studying Pan-African history or obsessing over 90s and Y2K culture, he is teaching Fiction Writing and Afrofuturism at John Carroll University. He is currently working on a novel of linked stories that focuses on the entertainment industry, commercialism, Black cyberculture, and R&B, along with a companion novel set in a near-future Cleveland. He received his MFA from Northeast Ohio Masters of Fine Arts in ‘22, is one of the recipients of the Ohio Arts Council Award for Fiction in ‘24 and is a Clarion West ‘24 alumni. You can find his stories in his instagram bio: @Casual.dream.

Salvador Jimenez-Flores

Jessica Jones is a poet, Indigenous rights ally, environmentalist, lover of travel. Full-time writing prof at Kent State; summer faculty University Montana Upward Bound.

Emma Nicole Klunzinger is a poet and amateur birdwatcher from Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Baldwin Wallace University, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in library science from Kent State University. Her poetry has been featured in Baldwin Wallace University's Journal The Mill, and in Elevation Review’s LKMNDS Podcast. She shares her work through her Instagram account, @emmanicolepoetry, and at open mics around Northeast Ohio.

Michael Loderstedt’s debut book of poetry Why We Fished (published by Redhawk) received the UK Poetry Book Award’s silver award in 2023. Other poems have recently been published in the NC Literary Review (receiving the James Applewhite Prize in 2021), Muleskinner Review, the Naugatuck River Review, Pinesong, Kakalak and in recent anthologies entitled Light Enters the Grove, Poem for Cleveland & the Edith Chase series Tributaries (KSU Press). Michael received an Ohio Arts Council Fellowship in Literature in 2020.

Olivia Martin is a writer from Ohio. Her work has appeared in Luna Negra Online and Brainchild Magazine.

Maya Marshall, a poet and essayist, is the author of All the Blood Involved in Love. Her features in numerous publications including Prose for the People (Penguin Random House), Prairie Schooner, and the American Poetry Review. She serves as an acquiring editor for Haymarket Books.

Olivia Mirmohamed is a poet from Newark, Ohio. Her work has appeared in Ashbelt. She is working towards an MFA in poetry through the Northeast Ohio MFA program. She lives in Kent and teaches at Kent State University.

Jenny Molberg (she/her) is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently The Court of No Record (LSU Press, 2023), a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Cincinnati Review, The Missouri Review, Oprah Quarterly, and elsewhere. A National Endowment for the Arts fellow, she is Professor of Writing, Literature, and Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of Ploughshares at Emerson College.

Sara Lupita Olivares is the author of Migratory Sound (The University of Arkansas Press), which was selected as winner of the 2020 CantoMundo Poetry Prize and the chapbook Field Things (dancing girl press). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Black Warrior Review, Salt Hill Journal, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois Springfield and a poetry editor for Waxwing.

Sean Prentiss is the author of Finding Abbey: the Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave, which won the National Outdoor Book Award. He has written Crosscut: Poems. He co-wrote two textbooks, Environmental and Nature Writing and Advanced Creative Nonfiction, and he is the co-editor of The Science of Story: The Brain Behind Creative Nonfiction. He is a professor at Norwich University. He and his family live on a small lake in northern Vermont.

Miles Purdy is a writer and medieval combat aficionado based in the Rubber City. He finds creative inspiration from his surroundings in the Rust Belt, its decay and its revitalization. His work has appeared in Luna Negra, Camel Coat Press, and a few other places.

Emily Rae is a speculative fiction writer, and a proud member of Literary Cleveland who sits on the committee for the Literary Youngstown Writing Conference.

Jessica Nirvana Ram is an Indo-Guyanese poet. She is the author of the poetry collection Earthly Gods (Game Over Books, 2024) and the chapbook in the aftermath (Fifth Wheel Press, 2025). Her work has appeared in Poet Lore, Cream City Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Jessica lives and writes in Lewisburg, PA.

David Ruekberg (MFA, Warren Wilson) is a poet, teacher, and climate activist in Rochester, NY. Poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Borderlands, Cimarron Review, Lake Effect, and elsewhere. His books include Where Is the River Called Pishon? (Kelsay Books, 2018) and Hour of the Green Light (FutureCycle Press, 2021).

Carly Sachs is the author of the steam sequence (Washington Writers’ Publishing House 2006) and Descendants of Eve (Blue Lyra Press, 2020). She is the editor of the why and later (Deep Cleveland Press, 2007), a collection of poems about rape and assault. Her poems and stories have been included in The Best American Poetry series and read on NPR’s Selected Shorts. Recent work has appeared in the Jewish Book Council’s Witnessing series, the Mid-Atlantic Review, Three Fold, and on the At the Well blog. This summer she attended the Yetzirah Poetry Conference. When not writing, you can find Carly teaching yoga or baking with her daughter. She lives in Lexington, KY and works in a Montessori school.

Alexandra Salata was born and raised in Arizona. Her stories appear in Witness, Black Warrior Review, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere, and she was named a finalist for the 2024 Salamander Fiction Prize. She lives in or around Cleveland and teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Read more at alexandrajsalata.com.

Chet’la Sebree is the author of the poetry collections Blue Opening; Field Study, winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and Mistress, nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Her debut essay collection turn (w)here: a geography of home is forthcoming in 2026. Currently, she’s an assistant professor at the George Washington University and faculty in Randolph College’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing program.

Mackenzie Stafford is a Kent State Graduate, now based in Portland, Oregon. She experiments with form in writing, often reflecting on experiences of mental health and the body. This is her first published work.

Clayton Tarantino is a fiction writer and occasional poet living in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he works as a copywriter. His creative work explores apathy, masculinity, and cruelty through humor and absurdity. He is currently applying to schools, hoping to earn a MFA in Creative Writing.

Mercy Tempest Turle is a poet/educator/bearded lady from Cleveland, Ohio. Their work explores the relationship between language, gender, knowledge, and consciousness through Midwestern images and Buddhist schools of thought. By day, Mercy is a poetry and English educator for elementary, middle, and high school students, and the moderator of the high school’s Creative Writing Club. Mercy’s favorite poem to teach is Diane DiPrima’s “Some Lies About the Loba”and their favorite color is indigo.

Charles Velasquez-Witosky is a writer whose work has been published in Analog, among other venues. He’s a graduate of Clarion West 2024. He currently lives on the East Coast with his wife and two incorrigible dogs.

Olivia Wachtel (they/she) is a writer and speech-language pathologist living in Boston, MA. As a midwestern transplant on the East coast, Olivia explores themes of transition, discomfort, and personal growth in their writing. Her prose and poetry have appeared in Folio, Luna Negra, and Brainchild Magazine.

Sara Moore Wagner is the author of three prize-winning full-length books of poetry, Lady Wing Shot, winner of the 2023 Blue Lynx Prize (Lynx House Press, 2024), Swan Wife (Cider Press Review Editors Prize, 2022), and Hillbilly Madonna (Driftwood Press Manuscript Prize, 2022), and the author of two chapbooks, Tumbling After (Red Bird, 2022) and Hooked Through (2017). She is also a 2022 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient, a 2021 National Poetry Series Finalist, and the recipient of a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals and anthologies including Gulf Coast, Smartish Pace, Waxwing, Beloit Poetry Journal, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. In 2023, she became the Managing Poetry Editor of Driftwood Press. She teaches Creative Writing part time at Northern Kentucky University, where she recently received their Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity award.

Annie Wenstrup (Dena’ina) is the author of The Museum of Unnatural Histories (Wesleyan University Press in March 2025). Wenstrup is a 2025 Whiting Award in Poetry recipient. She lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Nicole Wilson is the author of the collection Supper & Repair Kit (The Lettered Streets Press). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Action, Spectacle; Vast Chasm; Volt; Another Chicago Magazine; jubilat; Destroyer; & elsewhere. She has an MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and lives in Ohio where she owns an independent fitness business.

Felicia Zamora is a poet, educator, and editor currently living in OH. She is the author of eight books of poetry including, Murmuration Archives, Akrilica Series with Noemi Press forthcoming in 2026, Interstitial Archaeology selected as an Editor’s Pick for The Wisconsin Poetry Series (forthcoming in April 2025 from University of Wisconsin Press), Quotient (Tinderbox Editions 2022), I Always Carry My Bones, winner of the 2020 Iowa Poetry Prize (University of Iowa Press 2021) and winner of the 2022 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry, Body of Render, winner of the 2018 Benjamin Saltman Award (Red Hen Press 2020), Instrument of Gaps (Slope Editions 2018), & in Open, Marvel (Parlor Press 2018), and Of Form & Gather, winner of the 2016 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize (University of Notre Dame Press 2017).