Ashley Hasburgh was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Madison. She works as a nurse practitioner for the VA, is part owner of a bait and tackle shop, and moonlights at a local record store when she’s not raising her two boys. She is a lover of love, the arts, music, and the written word. Instagram: @nedryerson13

Samina Hadi-Tabassum was born in Hyderabad, India, and immigrated to Chicago with her family in the early 1970s. Her first book of poems, Muslim Melancholia (2017), was published by Red Mountain Press. She has also won awards for her short stories and essays. Website: saminahaditabassum.com

An active volunteer with her local non-profits, Wendell Hawken (she/her) earned her MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College's Program for Writers. To date, publications include two chapbooks and six full collections. In 2023, Hawken was named the inaugural Poet Laureate of Millwood VA, an unincorporated quirky village in the northern Shenandoah Valley where she lives. Website: wendellhawken.com

Yuyu He is a multimedia artist and architect based in New York and Shanghai. She received her degree from the Architectural Association in London. Her work explores how perception is shaped through lived spatial experience and our relationship to the built environment. Instagram: @heyuyu

Erin Heney, a North Carolina multimedia artist, blends her passions for cultural arts and community service. A recent high school graduate, she’s pursuing architecture at Appalachian State University. Instagram: @TaiyozDreamz

Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s work has appeared in Rock and a Hard Place, Dead Housekeeping, Low Life, Going Down Swinging, Punk (Kissing Dynamite), Under Her Skin (Black Spot), and other nefarious and not so nefarious venues. X: @poetforest / Bluesky: @juleigh.bsky.social

Juliana Huxtable is a writer, artist, and musician based in New York. Her work has been exhibited at The Guggenheim, The New Museum, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, The ICA London, The Brooklyn Museum, and elsewhere. Her first collection, Mucus in My Pineal Gland, was published in 2017. She also co-authored Life: A Novel (2018), and her latest poetry collection is forthcoming in 2026. Instagram: @julianahuxtable

Colin James has a couple of chapbooks of poetry published—Dreams Of The Really Annoying from Writing Knights Press and A Thoroughness Not Deprived of Absurdity from Piski’s Porch Press—and a book of poems, Resisting Probability, from Sagging Meniscus Press. He lives in Massachusetts.

Ellena Kappos is a graduate of University College London. As a writer and artist, her work has appeared in galleries including Tate Britain, as part of the Tate Lates x Lee Miller curation. "By the Hand" is her first published poem. Instagram: @Kappos_

Joseph Kerschbaum's most recent publications include Learning How to Drown (Finishing Line Press, 2026), Midnight Sunrise (Main Street Rag Press, 2024), and Mirror Box (Main St Rag Press, 2020). His recent work has appeared in Reunion: The Dallas Review, Hamilton Stone Review, and The Inflectionist Review. Joseph lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with his family.

Robert Kinerk writes poetry at his home in Cambridge, MA, sited midway between Longfellow’s house and Longfellow’s grave. Kinerk grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska, where he worked as a logger, disc jockey, and in his father’s grocery store. Website: robertkinerk.com

Mark LaMonda is an artist and writer living in Santa Clarita, California. He is part of a writers’ workshop led by Lou Mathews. His short stories have appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Lullwater Review, and Salt River Review.