Shelby Handler is a writer, organizer, and translator in Seattle on Duwamish land. Recent work has appeared in or is forthcoming in POETRY, the Iowa Review, Redivider, and Poetry Northwest, among others.

Miriam McEwen writes about disability and bodily autonomy. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She serves as an associate editor at the South Carolina Review. Miriam’s work is anthologized in The Best Small Fictions, and has appeared in SAND Journal, Under the Gum Tree and Tilted House Review, among others. She lives in the foothills of South Carolina. Find her on Instagram @miriammcewen.

María Esquinca is a poet and a producer at KQED. Her poetry has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Waxwing,The Florida Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Cream City Review, and others. Her book reviews and interviews have appeared in Adroit Journal and ANMLY. A fronteriza, she was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México and grew up in El Paso, Texas. She’s currently based in Oakland, CA.

Meg Cass (they/them) is a queer, trans fiction writer and teacher who lives in St. Louis. ActivAmerica,their first book, was selected by Claire Vaye Watkins for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize and was published in 2017. Recent stories have appeared in Ecotone, Foglifter, and  Passages North. They co-founded Changeling, a queer reading series focused on works-in-progress. They teach at University of Illinois Springfield.

M. L. Krishnan originally hails from the coastal shores of Tamil Nadu, India. She is a 2019 graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, a 2022 recipient of the Millay Arts Fellowship, and a 2022-2023 MacDowell Fellow. Her stories and essays have appeared, or are forthcoming in The Offing, Trampset, Zócalo Public Squareand elsewhere. Her work has been anthologized in Wigleaf Top 50, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions and more. You can find her at: mlkrishnan.com.

Robert Américo Esnard was born and raised in the Bronx, NY. He studied Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Dartmouth College. His work has been published by or is forthcoming in Bat City Review, Cutbank, Michigan Quarterly Review, New York Quarterly, The Offing, and many other journals and anthologies.

Tobi Pledger is an emerging writer living in Durham, North Carolina. She is a veterinarian—specializing in avian and exotic animal medicine—currently working as a staff assistant at Duke University. She has been published in Catamaran.

Oswaldo Vargas is a former farmworker and a 2021 Undocupoets Fellowship recipient. He has been anthologized in Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Colorand published in Narrative Magazine and American Academy of Poets’ “Poem-A-Day” (among others). He lives and dreams in Sacramento, CA.

Megan Savage is a queer multi-genre writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her publications include Sixth Finch, Hunger Mountain, and the Routledge anthology, Pandemic of Perspectives: Creative Re-Imaginings. She holds an MFA from Indiana University, where she was Fiction Editor of Indiana Review. Currently, she teaches writing at Portland Community College, where she helps coordinate the Carolyn Moore House, the first and only writing residency housed at a community college. Find her at https://www.meganesavage.com/

Shelby Newsome is a writer and bookseller living in Maryland. Her flash fiction has appeared in Rejection Letters and Tart magazine’s newsletter. She writes The Kernel with her friends, a weekly newsletter by writers for writers. Follow her on Instagram at @shelby_newsome or check out her website shelbynewsome.com for more information.

Miley Lu | 卢兆东 is a queer Asian-American poet, artist, and drag-performing creature from many places, all of which she calls home. She is an undergraduate at Vassar College. Her work is forthcoming from Squawk Back, Empty House Press, and Stanchion.

Kalie Boyne is a painter and graphic novelist living in Alabama with her partner and a half-dozen feral cats full of personality and probably fleas. Through a combination of portraiture and narrative, the overarching goal of her work is to provide a space to reflect on the social messages we have unconsciously absorbed while consciously restoring an inherent recognition of others and an enduring faith that unearthing and fully embodying our deep selves is possible.