Paul Potts is a poet from Oklahoma. He was awarded the Jim Spurr Poetry Prize, won the 2026 The Howl Poetry Contest, and was a finalist for the inaugural Rowayat Poetry Prize. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing jazz on both the drums and vibraphone.

Ryan Rahman is a writer based in Orlando, Florida. His works have appeared in Wingless Dreamer, The Words Faire, and Neon Origami, among others. When he’s not writing, Ryan enjoys reading, listening to music, watching movies, and traveling. Find him on Instagram and Linktree: ryanrahmanwriter.

Travis Hall (they/them) is a queer poet from Nebraska currently pursuing a BFA in creative writing. Their work has been featured in PilePress and Cathexis NW. They currently live with their cat Captain in Portland, OR. @maddbuttons.

Daniel Paton has had short fiction published in multiple print anthologies and online literary journals and websites, and also writes screenplays and stage plays. Having completed his Creative Writing MA, he looks to work on new projects including, someday, a debut novel.  Instagram: @danielpaton96

David Anson Lee is a poet, philosopher, and former academic ophthalmologist whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Right Hand Pointing, Braided Way, Ink Sweat & Tears, Eunoia Review, Silver Birch Press, The Scarred Tree, The Orchards, Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and Mouthful of Salt. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he often explores themes of memory, identity, landscape, medicine, environmental stewardship, and the enduring relationship between human beings and the natural world. His poetry combines lyrical imagery with philosophical reflection and is informed by a lifelong interest in literature, science, and Indigenous traditions. He lives in Texas and is currently assembling a collection of poems exploring ecological responsibility, cultural memory, and hope. Substack: https://davidalee.substack.com/

Jason Ryberg is the author of twenty-five books of poetry, six screenplays, and a few short stories. He is an artist-in-residence at The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books. His work has appeared in As it Ought to Be, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Thimble Literary Magazine, I-70 Review, Main Street Rag, The Arkansas Review, and other journals and anthologies. His latest collection of poems is “And When There Was No Crawfish, We Ate Sand” (co-authored with Abraham Smith, Justin Hamm and John Dorsey). He lives in Kansas City, MO, and in the Ozarks. 

Max Polenberg is a 22-year-old writer from Long Island, New York, whose work explores the quiet moments, the big questions, and everything in between. His work explores the transition from childhood to adulthood, trauma, and what it means to actually turn survival into living.

Writing and creating under the name Prince Philippe, the author is working across poetry, songwriting, music, and visual storytelling. He currently based in Toronto, Canada, and originally from Italy.

Zahir Hossain Baidya is a student of English Honours at Fakir Chand College under Calcutta University. He tends to write things down when his emotions get triggered, be that in a pathetic way or in a very sweet and mesmerizing way. He writes and composes poems to let go of those intense thoughts that cause some kind of chemical reactions in his brain. His poems, including 'Parasitic Jaeger' and 'Sinister Sense', have appeared in Parcham and KabitaLive.

henry 7. reneau, jr. writes words of conflagration to awaken the world ablaze, an inferno of free verse illuminated by his affinity for disobedience. He is the author of the poetry collection, freedomland blues (Transcendent Zero Press) and the e-chapbook, physiography of the fittest (Kind of a Hurricane Press). His poetics are situated at the intersection of experimental modernist and autobiomythographic free verse. His work is published in Superstition Review; TriQuarterly; Prairie Schooner; Notre Dame Review; Punt Volat; The Ana; and Oyster River Pages. His work has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

Magnus Briar is a poet based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their debut collection, Prairie Chicken - a self-published love letter to their home province - appeared on several Amazon poetry bestseller lists shortly after its release. They have performed original poetry at festivals across Manitoba.

Tanis O’Connor began writing in her teens, when she was a horse girl. In her early 20s, when she was immortal, she wrote erotic poetry and fearlessly performed spoken word. Many mortal years later, she’s performing spoken word again—not as fearlessly but maybe more courageously—and writing stories of loss and revelation, conjuring a subtle magical realism. A themed work of her short fiction will be included in an upcoming issue of Beyond Words Magazine.

Serenay Özkan is a Turkish poet and author whose work serves as a distinct voice in contemporary literature. Born October, 2004 in Istanbul, Özkan began writing poetry during her middle school years. She made her literary debut with the poetry collection Viata, published in 2019. Currently, she is pursuing her academic studies at the Istanbul University Faculty of Letters while also advancing her literary career. In November 2025, she published her short story collection, Farklı Bir Mehtap, published by the Yol Akademi Publishing Group. Her poetry and short stories have been featured in various national and international literary journals including The Arlington Literary Journal, Dominique Literary Magazine, Karıncafil Öykü Dergisi, and Daima Edebiyat Dergisi. Email: serenaayozkann@gmail.com.

Amber Noel Wilbur is creative writing graduate of Cardinal Stritch University, born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She written poetry about nature, beauty, chaos, life, death, and spirituality, for over twenty years. Poetry is her form of meditation and how she expresses her perspective on and appreciation for existence. She has also published five books of poetry on Amazon, and is currently working on a new collection, and a new novel. The attached poem is her take on a woman's life and her inner secret world, her umwelt. It captures this world as a metaphor, as if she were a painting of a garden.

Marsal Soren lives in Bokaro Steel City, India. His usual interests lie in sociocultural themes, and some of his works appear in reader communities such as Stretch Your Shelf and in magazines including TwoTwoOne.NYC, The Literary Times, and The Fib Review. Instagram: www.instagram.com/babblebay

Mark Keane has taught for many years in universities in North America and the UK. Recent short stories have appeared in The Sunlight Press, The Interpreter’s House, Foofaraw, Inlandia, Paris Lit Up, Prosetrics, Twin Bird Review, For Page & Screen, Shooter, untethered, and Night Picnic. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

J. R. Welch is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and photographer from Hayti, Missouri, in the Bootheel, and based in New Orleans. His work explores the cultural memory of the Lower Mississippi River Valley through painting, photography, installation, poetry, memoir, and essays. Drawing from the landscapes and communities of the American South, his stories examine memory, faith, identity before they disappear from the historical record. His writing has appeared in The Christian Century, Reckon Review, Blueline, Queen's Review, Pictura Journal, and other literary journals. He is a 2026 Arts Interchange Resident with the Ross Lynn Foundation and an MFA student at Louisiana State University, New Orleans.

Brooke Bovee’s poetry appears in SWWIM Every Day, The Quarter(ly) Journal, Toil & Trouble, and Free the Verse, among others. Her writing draws upon her upbringing in Michigan, her education and adventures in the American West, and the life she has built in the city of Miami.

Patrick Johnston is an Anglo-Australian writer and former professor of psychology and neuroscience. His work appears in Washington Square Review, The Louisville Review, Chautauqua, Eastern Iowa Review, Litro Magazine USA, and South Florida Poetry Journal, among others, and has received a Pushcart Prize nomination. He is the author of the completed novel The Gaps Between the Stories. More at dr-patrick-johnston.com

Khedaren Perumal is a 22-year-old Mauritian poet, independent researcher, and mechatronics engineering student. His creative and academic work spans poetry, philosophy, sociology, political science, criminology, and mathematics. His poems have appeared in international literary journals, and his writing often explores memory, family, grief, labour, tenderness, and the quiet pressures that shape ordinary lives.

Bennett Durkan's fiction has appeared in Still Here, Crow Name, and October Hill. His poetry has appeared in Divot, Willard & Maple, and Ikleftiko. His nonfiction has appeared in Nomandartx, Lit Mag News, and WritingBad.

Mahmoud Elmardi is a Sudanese novelist and award-winning visual artist based in Cairo. His multidisciplinary work explores themes of memory, migration, and human conflict, creating a unique intersection between narrative fiction and abstract expressionism. A graduate of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Sudan University of Science and Technology and winner of the prestigious Katara Prize for Fine Art. Elmardi is the author of acclaimed novels including The Secret of the Chisel and Lost in the Mango Orchards. His artwork has been featured in prominent American literary journals, and he is currently developing a large-scale narrative project titled The Walls of Guernica.

Jean Reyes has been writing scripts, lyrics, cringe, and analyses since her high school creative writing study in San Diego, California. She is a retired classical pianist, a chemist, animanga enjoyer, and deep-reads children's books for fun. Dialogue and argumentative essay are her fortes, but imagery in poetry and prose are her most practiced areas. Her hobbies include freestyle cooking, killing pens, and doodling mishaps with her sister. You can send a piece of your mind to @rhedrion on Instagram and X.

Annelise Richardson is a NYC-based writer with a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Her work has been published by Romeing Magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Catharsis Literary Magazine, and more. She is a novelist represented by Ampersand Agency, with her first novel currently on submission and in the process of writing her second.

Paul Potts is a poet from Oklahoma. He was awarded the Jim Spurr Poetry Prize, won the 2026 The Howl Poetry Contest, and was a finalist for the inaugural Rowayat Poetry Prize. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing jazz on both the drums and vibraphone.

Naomi Dennis is a 15‑year‑old African American high school student beginning their writing career as a poet. Their work mostly pertains to emotionally driven concepts like familial trauma, the dark side of growing up, and the complexities of being a young woman in today’s world. They hope to attend Howard University in the future to earn a bachelor’s degree in English Literature.

Marie Anne Arreola (Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net nominee) is a bilingual interdisciplinary artist and journalist whose work engages speculative lyric, digital culture, and diaspora memory. She is the founding editor of VOCES, a bilingual platform amplifying global writers and artists, and a Rotten Tomatoes–certified critic. Her writing appears in over sixty literary journals across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America.

Sabrina Shabana Vellani is an Indo-Canadian actress and poet from Vancouver, BC, Canada. Her photography and poetry can be found at @sabrinavellanipoetry on Instagram. Her work has appeared in The New York Quarterly, The Literary Review of Canada, Dark Winter Literary and more. She has just finished her debut poetry manuscript with the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive. Her latest poem, Identity, was released recently in Blue Moon Publishers' Canada Is Our Poem Anthology as well as her three poems in Tidewater Press' Emerge 25 collection.

Jada Johnson is a recent graduate of Auburn University at Montgomery where she won the 2025 Outstanding Capstone Project for her poetry chapbook. She plans to publish this chapbook, cementing her unique abilities within their literary world. Her favorite hobbies include baking Trader Joe’s blueberry muffins and collecting Studio Ghibli journals.

David Anson Lee is a poet, philosopher, and former academic ophthalmologist whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Right Hand Pointing, Braided Way, Ink Sweat & Tears, Eunoia Review, Silver Birch Press, The Scarred Tree, The Orchards, Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and Mouthful of Salt. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he often explores themes of memory, identity, landscape, medicine, environmental stewardship, and the enduring relationship between human beings and the natural world. His poetry combines lyrical imagery with philosophical reflection and is informed by a lifelong interest in literature, science, and Indigenous traditions. He lives in Texas and is currently assembling a collection of poems exploring ecological responsibility, cultural memory, and hope. Substack: https://davidalee.substack.com/