Ellen White Rook

Ellen White Rook is a poet, writer, and contemplative arts teacher who divides her time between upstate New York and Maine. Retired from a career as an information technology manager, she now offers writing workshops and leads retreats that combine meditation, movement, and writing. Ellen holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Lindenwood University and has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Suspended, her first collection of poetry, was released by Cathexis Northwest Press in May 2023. Visit her website at ellenwhiterook.com.

Gary James Erwin

Gary James Erwin's work has appeared in a number of journals over the years—The Sun, Santa Fe Literary Review, Red Cedar Review, 3288 Review, The MacGuffin, Clockhouse and Third Wednesday to name a few. He has received several Pushcart Prize nominations and had a story anthologized in The PrePress Awards Volume II: Michigan Voices. His book of short stories, Trail Crossing Sixteen Counties, was published in 2019 by Adelaide Books (https://amzn.to/2XW44Fh). The piece included here is an excerpt from his novel in progress, Cut River Redemption. He's also working on a new collection titled The Injury List. He lives with his family in Clarkston, Michigan.

DL Pravda

DL Pravda tries to keep it together either by jamming distorted reverb juice in his ears or by driving to the country and disappearing into the woodsfarm dimension. Recent poetry appears in Blue Collar Review, Bookends Review, Poetry Quarterly, Rockvale Review and South 85, recent photography in Santa Clara Review, Streetlight Magazine and Ponder Savant. Pravda teaches at Norfolk State University.

Jack Lindsay

Jack Lindsay is a student and writer from South Carolina. His fiction is a place where his experiences can rest, fit in the files of the story and make it real: a tie hanging from a street sign, the look of a conch shell after it cuts your foot, a blue heron taking flight. At any given time, he can be found writing in about eight different notebooks, talking to strangers, and perusing his grandfather’s old books on his remote barrier island home near the ocean.

Paola Alvarez

Paola Alvarez Ramirez is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist (b. 2006, Paris, FR). Raised in Miami, she has attended magnet art schools since 6th grade. She currently studies at the New World School of the Arts and is due to graduate in June of 2024. Paola’s work revolves around growing up in a patriarchal society as a young woman. She unsettles and directly confronts the viewer, challenging them to acknowledge and address the issues women face through the use of discomforting materials and fluorescent pinks. She was named a Young Artists with Distinction in 2024 by the Youngarts organization and is also a Silver Knights Nominee and nominee for the Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Her first major show was the New World School of the Arts Rising Stars Showcase, following this her work won two Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention in the Scholastics Art and Writing competition. Two of her works were exhibited at the Rubell Museum for the Scholastics exhibition and she has recently displayed her work at the Pérez Art Museum for the NFTE Metaverse Art Exhibit.

Timothy Geiger

Timothy Geiger is the author of the poetry collections Weatherbox, (winner of the 2019 Vern Rutsala Poetry Prize from Cloudbank Books), The Curse of Pheromones (Main Street Rag Press), and Blue Light Factory (Spoon River Poetry Press), as well as ten chapbooks. He runs a small farmstead in northwest Ohio (overrun with goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, and dogs), operates Aureole Press (a letterpress imprint publishing contemporary poetry since 1989), and is a professor of English (teaching creative writing, poetry, and book arts) at The University of Toledo.

Liam Wholihan

Liam Wholihan's other poems appear in The Dewdrop, Kelp, Red Noise Collective, Quail Bell Magazine, and others. He uses his MFA in poetry to teach creative writing at Point Park University and drive a Zamboni.

Taylor Franson-Thiel

Taylor Franson Thiel is a writer from Utah, now based in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Master’s in creative writing from Utah State University and is pursuing an MFA at George Mason University. Her writing frequently centers on playing as a Division One basketball player, the body, and mental health. Along with writing, she enjoys lifting heavy weights and reading fantastic books. You can find her on twitter @TaylorFranson.

Kalie Johnson is a 26 year old living in Lorain, Ohio. She has been previously published, mostly creative non-fiction and nature writing in The Mill, The Watershed Review, Fatal Flaws Literary Magazine, The Bookends Review, Coffin Bell Journal, The Quillkeeper’s Press, The Howler Project, New Plains Review, Jet Fuel Review, Thirteen Bridges Review, and Humans of the World. She teaches children in residential care how to garden! When not writing, you can find her traveling the United States in her van! You can find her writing on Instagram at @Thingsfeelwrite.

Kalie Johnson

Ava Dawson

Ava Dawson is a highschool student as well as an artist from Charleston, South Carolina. Her work typically follows human and animal depictions across multiple mediums.

Manola Silva-Hanson

Manola Silva-Hanson is a mixture of Mexican and Norwegian culture. Driven by her identity as a biracial individual, she captures her close circle and loved ones through paintings, sculptures, and wearables. She has won the 2024 Young Arts Award Winner with Distinction and was featured in the Rubell Museum Miami, the New World School of the Arts Gallery, The Institute of Contemporary Art, and the YoungArts Gallery. During her free time, she watches fashion runways, scrolls on Pinterest, and unconventionally pursues collecting soda can tabs. Manola's artistic journey is a fusion of diverse influences. With a dream to turn her passion into a lifelong career, she envisions exploring various mediums and careers within the art world, creating a narrative beyond personal identity to invite others into the rich tapestry of cultural diversity through her artistic lens.

Emma Ludwikowski