THE EXHIBITION
•
THE EXHIBITION •
‘Apology Unraveled Before Burning’
Cady Wu is a poet, writer, and artist of all sorts based in the Seattle area. She is a seventeen-time Scholastic Art & Writing Awards winner, and her work has similarly been recognized by Saints & Fleurs and the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, among others. She ultimately aspires to use her works to express the sentiment of being humanly beautiful. In her free time, she enjoys stargazing, baking, and hugging her tabby cat.
‘Sarabande’
James Ducat’s poetry has appeared in Penn Review, Carve, Bellingham Review, CutBank, Apogee, and elsewhere, has been featured on Verse Daily, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His chapbook A Field of Nopes is from Bamboo Dart Press. His full-length collection Debris Orbits was a 2025 semi-finalist for both the Ashland Poetry Press Richard Snyder Memorial Prize and the 2025 Word Works Washington Prize. James holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and is professor of English and creative writing at Riverside City College, where he advises the literary journal MUSE. Find him at jamesducat.com.
‘grievances of schrödinger's cat’
Helena Wang (she/her) is a high school junior from Connecticut, USA. Though she's a previously unpublished writer, her work has been commended by Scholastic Writing and has made Finalist for DePaul's Blue Book: Best American High School Writing. Her hobbies include playing the viola, listening to indie-rock, and drinking overpriced lattes.
‘A Bench For One’
David Lavenda is a poet and physical therapist from Islandia, New York, with thirty years of experience working closely with patients through pain, recovery, and resilience. Drawing from both personal experience and a career spent witnessing the quiet courage of the human body and spirit, his poetry explores bullying, complicated love, legacy, and parenting. His work has been published in Academy of the Heart and Mind.
‘FRAGMENTS OF A DREAM’
Tamara Pantović is the author of the poetry collection "Shadows of our Shadows". Her iconic essay "I am not my hair" was published on the Montenegrina.net portal.
‘Nurse’
James B. Nicola is the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest three being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Actor’s Guide to Live Performance won a Choice magazine award.
‘Is This Love?’
Devon Balwit edits for Works in Progress and broods.
‘Mountains’
Bella Melardi is a poet and author. She writes about the political and personal. She attends OCADU.
‘Wasp, On Bricks’
Emelia Delaporte is a recent graduate of Virginia Tech, where she studied English. In her time at the university, she served as editor-in-chief of Silhouette Literary & Art Magazine. Her work has been published in the Silhouette, the Shenandoah Avalon and the Floyd County Moonshine. She has work upcoming in Saw Palm, Mantis, Strip Mall and Nova Magazines. She currently lives, works and creates in Virginia.
‘A Satirical Study on the Linear Process of Grief (Or Lack Thereof)’
Krysha Santiaguel is a sixteen-year-old aspiring writer based in New York City. Her work has been recognized nationally by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She enjoys writing poetry and experimenting with bold formatting. You can find more of her work on Instagram, by the username @kreeshei.
‘Earth Is Alright’
Alex Rogers is a satirical fiction writer whose words range from goofy to grotesque to unexpectedly grounded. His stories have appeared in The Write Launch, Santa Barbara Literary Journal, Starlite Pulp, Grub Street Online, Bizarro Circus of Madness, Foofaraw Press, Internet Angelz, and A Thin Slice of Anxiety. He lives in Los Angeles with his two cats, Merlin and Osha (the Tuxedo Twins).
‘Silent Laughter’
Nora Curtis is a former teacher and library desk clerk. She lives in Ypsilanti, MI with her husband, two young kids, affection dog, and capricious cat. Follow her @noraelisabethc
‘A Sister's Perspective’
Margaret Vihnly is a Toronto native and an up-and-coming writer of her own making. 'Own making' in the sense that all of her writing comes in the dark of night, under a veil of sleep, so that she may be left unbothered for a few hours until life comes back online. It is a sanctuary that lives only in her mind and within a hard drive, gathering dust, and hopefully, now for the world to read.
‘The Bridge’
Kripa Nidhi has lived in Houston, TX for the past 20+ years, and when not writing, Nidhi works as an engineer.
‘When To Run’
Elysse Ladjevic is a retired neuroscientist and writer of magical realism, literary, and Gothic stories. Marooned in Boston, she often writes about her Californian upbringing as a way to go back home.
‘Lit Up Dust’
Florence Murry is the author of Last Run Before Sunset, Finishing Line Press. Her poems have appeared in Pinch, Atlanta Review, Slipstream Press, Magazine, Off the Coast, Black Fox Literary and others. Florence lives in Southern California with her husband and two cats.