Ellen Austin-Li's work has appeared in Artemis, Thimble Literary Magazine, The Maine Review, Salamander, Lily Poetry Review, Rust + Moth, and many other places. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks—Firefly (2019) and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic (2021). She’s a Best of the Net nominee. Recipient of the Martin B. Bernstein Fellowship, she earned an MFA in Poetry at the Solstice Low-Residency Program. Ellen co-founded the monthly reading series, "Poetry Night at Sitwell's," in Cincinnati, where she lives with her husband in a newly empty nest. www.ellenaustinli.me.

Whitney Bell is a writer and editor. Her recent work includes editing the essay collection Gathering of Flowers: An Anthology (Litdigital, 2023); she also serves as associate editor for a local literary publication, Mock Turtle Zine. Whitney lives in an artists’ town and enjoys singing, painting, and hanging out with her two best friends: the rottweiler and the German shepherd.

Felicia Chappelle is the daughter of a poet’s daughter, actually following the fourth generation of women in her maternal line to express in verse, prose and spoken word. Primarily a playwright, her self-penned one woman show, Interrupted Womanhood, completed a tour schedule in March 2020. Her collaborative work with Professor John Fleming, The Vampire Tales was workshopped by students at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. It left the stage in November 2022. A radio drama adaptation airs on WCSUfm.org. Currently, her flash fiction series Faces on the Train can be heard streaming on all major platforms. @womenworkwonders

Phoenyx Fyre is a spokenword poet with roots in both Kentucky and Ohio. She began writing poetry as a child and started performing in 2009. Phoenyx writes about topics ranging from her love of nature & metaphysics to powerful thought-provoking political & social justice pieces.

Amanda Hayden (she/her) is Poet Laureate and award-winning Professor (Humanities, Philosophy, and Religions) for Sinclair College. Her chapter, Saunter Like Muir, was published by Routledge (2022) in the textbook: Eco pedagogies and many of her poems are published in journals and anthologies. River Heron Review recently selected her poem, “Roma Museum” as a finalist for their Poetry Prize, and her debut, American Saunter, is forthcoming from FlowerSong Press (2024). She lives with her family on a small windy farm with many rescue babies, including a very special blind, three-legged pup named Vinny Valentine.

Nick Hrkman is the Community Impact Editor at the Dayton Daily News and a co-founder of The Journalism Lab. He was born and raised in Dayton and graduated from Ohio University, where he was the editor of their undergraduate literary magazine, Sphere.

Artie Isaac writes poetry, essays, and other notes in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he is spouse to Alisa and human to dog Margo. He is the author of Throw Me a Bone: Poetry for Dogs (2019), Pandemonia: Poems in Seclusion (2020), and Cheerleading: A Little Encouragement (2021) Raised in Ohio, Artie was trained in high school as a writer, improviser, and cheerleader. There has been little development since.

Stella Mia Ling is out of China into the patulous Midwest, bewitched by the slang, twang, and drawl of the cornfields, the big moon, and buffeted by the seasons. Founder of the Wilmington Writers Collaborative since 2006, member of Tower Poets, OWA, and Wright Library Poets, often heard on WYSO Conrad’s Corner poetry minute. Passionate about Argentine tango, Hawaiian mango, and Australian kangaroos.

Vera Grace Menafee (they/them) is a Black multidisciplinary artist, community activist and aspiring educator searching for liberation through the arts, embodied liberation and decolonial solidarity. Vera is in their final year as an undergraduate student at Oberlin College, pursuing a B.A. in Africana Studies with concentrations in Performance and Environmental Studies. Through their writing, Vera seeks to bring breath and voice back to their ancestors and divine connection with the environmental world, and radically envision new realities for Black and Indigenous communities in the United States. Their poetry has been previously published in Mock Turtle Zine and Porchwater Press.

Ismail Soldan is a novelist and poet who has made waves for the style and depth of his work. Soldan's skill as a wordsmith led to him winning the 2022 Spectrum Awards for Adult Fiction and placing second in the Adult Poetry category the same year. Fans of the written word can look forward to the publication of his first novel and poetry collection, the latter of which is due to come out next year. Those looking for more immediate gratification can find his work in Flights Literary Journal, Illustrated Worlds, and The Clarion.

Myrna Stone is the author of six full-length books of poems: The Resurrectionist’s Diary (Dos Madres Press, 2021); Luz Bones (Etruscan, 2017), In the Present Tense, Portraits of My Father (Kelsay Books, White Violet Press, 2013); The Casanova Chronicles (Etruscan Press, 2010), which was a finalist for the 2011 Ohioana Book of the Year Award in Poetry; How Else to Love the World (Browser Books Publishing, 2007); and The Art of Loss (Michigan State University Press, 2001). She is a founding member of The Greenville Poets, a writers’ group that meets in Greenville, Ohio whose members have published fourteen full-length books of poetry since 1998.