Jennifer Blackledge is a Detroit-area poet who works in the automotive industry. She is the recipient of the 2025 Zocalo Public Square Poetry Prize, and her work has appeared in publications like JAMA, Rattle, I-70 Review, Kestrel, and elsewhere. www.jenniferblackledge.com

Patricia Clark is the author of O Lucky Day (Madville, 2025) and Self-Portrait with a Million Dollars. A poem from O Lucky Day ("What My Father Wished For") won a Pushcart Prize and will be published in the Pushcart Anthology Vol L in 2026. She has recent work in Plume, Sheila-na-Gig, and Cimarron Review; other work is forthcoming in Diagram, Atlanta Review, North American Review, I-70 Review, and Great Lakes Review. www.patriciafclark.com

Dolo Diaz is a scientist and poet with roots in Spain, currently residing in California. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in SLANT, ONE ART, Third Wednesday, Rogue Agent, Right Hand Pointing, Humana Obscura, among others. Her debut chapbook, Defiant Devotion, was published by Bottlecap Press. dolodiaz.com

Ken Drexler is a writer living in Washington, D.C. His short stories have appeared in the Chicago Quarterly Review, Blue Earth Review, Orange Blossom Review, The Fiction Pool, and Litro Magazine. By day, he works at the Library of Congress. kenldrexler@gmail.com

Max Fischer is a transgender novelist and poet whose work focuses on queer joy told through the lens of unconventional narrative structures and the merging of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. He is a 2025 Milkwood Writers Resident and a 2025 New Roots Artist Resident. maxfischerpoet.com

Tresha Faye Haefner is the author of When the Moon Had Antlers (Pine Row Press, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in several journals and magazines, including Blood Lotus, Blue Mesa Review, The Cincinnati Review, Hunger Mountain, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Radar, Rattle, Tinderbox and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Her honors include the 2011 Robert and Adele Schiff Poetry Prize. thepoetrysalonstack.substack.com

John A. Nieves has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as: Alaska Quarterly Review, Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, swamp pink and 32 Poems. A 2025 Pushcart Prize winner, he also won the Indiana Review Poetry Contest, and his first book, Curio, won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge's Prize. He is associate professor of English at Salisbury University and an editor of The Shore Poetry. j.a.nieves@gmail.com

Julia L. Offen is a writer, anthropologist, and editor living in beautiful coastal California after years spent trotting across North America and Europe. She teaches creative writing workshops, and her creative prose has been published in both literary and academic journals such as Green Mountains Review and Ethnography. She recently won Honorable Mention in Four Tulips' 2025 New Beginnings contest. She is the creative ethnographic prose editor for the journal Anthropology and Humanism. Decades ago, before she became an academic (and then mostly shook off that mantle), she earned an M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine. dr.joffen@gmail.com

Vivian Faith Prescott was born and raised on a small island, Wrangell, Kaachxana.áak'w, in Southeast Alaska where she lives at her fishcamp on the land of the Shtax'heen Kwáan. She's a member of the Pacific Sámi Searvi and a founding member of Community Roots, the first LGBTQIA+ group on the island. She mentors Alaskan writers in two writers' groups. She's the author of several full-length poetry collections, chapbooks, a short story collection, and a foodoir. vivianfaithprescott.com/

Sheila Rittenberg found creative writing on retirement. She creates short stories, essays, and flash prose that bring small voices into the world, drawing on irony and humor, the unexpected, and life's courageous moments. She studied as a Fellow at Atheneum, a masters level writing program, and cofounded the Stepping Stones Writing Retreat. She founded Writers Rap About Text (WRAT). Her work has been published or is forthcoming in journals such as The Bluebird Word, Chiron Review, and COMP: An Interdisciplinary Journal, as well as on platforms such as Fiction on the Web. fiction-mostly.com

Mona Leigh Rose's stories appear or are forthcoming in TriQuarterly, Pinch, Santa Monica Review, and Puerto Del Sol, among others. She is an Associate Fiction Editor at Narrative Magazine, and is honored that one of her stories appears in the flash fiction anthology The Best Small Fictions guest edited by Amy Hempel. She lives and writes in Santa Barbara, California. asapmona@gmail.com

Rodrigo Toscano is a poet based in New Orleans. He is the author of twelve books, most recently WHITMAN.CANNONBALL.PUEBLA. (Omnidawn, 2025, National Poetry Series finalist), The Cut Point (Counterpath Books, 2023), and The Charm & The Dread (Fence Books, 2022). Collapsible Poetics Theater (Fence, 2007) was a National Poetry Series Selection. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry and Best American Experimental Poetry. rodrigotoscano.com