Featured Authors and Poets

Want to learn more about the storytellers you’ll see on our stage this year? Scroll down to view our featured authors and poets! 

Featured Authors

  • GRAPHIC NOVEL, FANTASY, YA

    Jorge is an author and Emmy-nominated writer. Based in New Jersey, he works for Fred Rogers Productions in Pittsburgh. His graphic novel series include: The Chronicles of Claudette (ages 6-10) “A rollicking fun story.” (NY Times); Call Me Iggy (ages 13-18) "A pitch-perfect example of teenage explorations of cultural identity." (Kirkus), and Monster Locker (ages 8-13) "Laugh-out-loud humor" (SLJ).

  • ROMANCE

    Emma R. Alban is a USA Today Bestselling Author and Screenwriter. Raised in the Hudson Valley, she now lives in Los Angeles, enjoying the eternal sunshine, ocean, and mountains. She is the author of Don't Want You Like a Best Friend, You’re the Problem, It’s You, and Like in Love with You.

  • ROMANCE

    TJ Alexander is a Lambda Literary Award finalist and USA Today bestselling author who writes about queer love. Originally from Florida, they received their MA in writing and publishing from Emerson College in Boston. They live in New York City with their wife, cats, and various houseplants.

  • HORROR, YA FANTASY

    Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of dark fantasy and horror novels such as The Keeper of Night, The Scarlet Alchemist, and Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish), as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. 

  • SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

    Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. She is the Hugo, Sturgeon, Locus, and Astounding Award winning author of over 30 novels and more than a hundred short stories.

    She lives in the Happy Valley of Massachusetts with her husband, bestselling fantasy author Scott Lynch, four cats, and two Icelandic horses.

  • WEIRD WESTERN, HORROR, CHICANO FICTION, ECO-HORROR/CLIMATE FICTION

    Nicholas Belardes’s work often combines elements of literary, horror, and science fiction. The New York Times Book Review said his first book, The Deading “perfectly balances social critique, lyricism and ghastliness. It’s a claustrophobic mosaic of a novel, and an outstanding debut.” Belardes’s follow up, Ten Sleep (2025), blends elements of eco-horror with Western and Chicano fiction.

  • APPALACHIAN, AMERICAN, AND AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

    C. Aluka Berry is a documentary photographer based in the Appalachian Mountains of NC. His photographs are held in permanent collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Asheville Art Museum, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

  • YA/MG REALISTIC & SPECULATIVE FICTION

    Ciera Burch is a lifelong reader and writer. She has a BA from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. She is the author of Finch House, Something Kindred, Camp Twisted Pine, Out of Step, Into You, and Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away. Finch House was a JLG Gold Standard Selection and a New York Times Kids Year of Books selection.

    When not reading, she can be found playing D&D. 

  • LITERARY/GENRE/HORROR

    Grace Byron is a writer from the Midwest based in Queens. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Bookforum, Granta, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Herculine is her debut novel.

  • HISTORICAL FICTION

    Radha Lin Chaddah was born in London to an East Indian father and a Malaysian Chinese mother. She earned medical and law degrees at the University of Illinois, and a Master of Public Health at Harvard University. She and her family lived for 10 years in Taipei, Shanghai and Beijing, where she practiced medicine and co-wrote HIV/ AIDS: Beyond the Numbers with the China CDC.

  • MYSTERY, THRILLER, LITERARY FICTION

    Anna is the author of the novels Fine Young People and Ordinary Hazards. Her essays have been featured in NPR, WBUR, Electric Lit, LitHub, Dappled Things, Necessary Fiction, and The Des Moines Register. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an MBA from Cornell University, and a BA from Stanford University. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, two sons, and blue heeler.

  • SCIENCE FICTION

    John Chu is a microprocessor architect by day, a writer, translator, and podcast narrator by night. He won the Best Short Story Hugo for The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere. and won the Best Novelette Nebula for If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You. The Subtle Art of Folding Space is his first novel.

  • HISTORICAL FICTION

    Originally from Florida, Chanel Cleeton grew up on stories of her family's exodus from Cuba following the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history has inspired her academic studies and her writing. Chanel is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books including Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Next Year in Havana and most recently The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes. 

  • ROMANTASY, FANTASY

    Mai Corland is a New York Times and international bestselling author of new adult fantasy. Her romantasy murder mystery Verity Guild will be out May 5

  • FICTION

    Sheldon Costa is an award-winning fiction writer who has been published in the Georgia Review, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, and other outlets. He holds an MFA from the Ohio State University and lives in rural Missouri with his wife and three cats. The Great Work is his debut novel.

  • ROMANCE

    Liana De la Rosa is a USA Today bestselling romance author who writes historical and contemporary romance with Latine characters that challenge the world around them. When she’s not writing, Liana is listening to true crime podcasts while she wrangles her spirited brood of children with her husband in Arizona.

  • YA, HORROR, HISTORICAL

    Ryan Douglass is the New York Times bestselling author of the YA novels The Taking of Jake Livingston, The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay, and Night of Madness. His work explores the ways young people fight to survive in hostile worlds. He lives in Atlanta with his dog and spends his free time baking ambitious desserts and scoping out true crime documentaries.

  • MYSTERY/SUSPENSE, THRILLER, DARK ACADEMIA, SOUTHERN GOTHIC

    Lacey N. Dunham is the author of the novel The Belles (2025), named a Best Book of 2025 by Library Journal and Crime Reads, and the forthcoming sapphic southern gothic Fall of the House of Graystone (2027), both from Atria / Simon & Schuster. Named a 2025 Writer to Watch by Poets & Writers Magazine, Dunham lives in Washington, DC with too many books, but only two cats.

  • FANTASY, HORROR

    Frederic S. Durbin’s most recent novel, The Country Under Heaven, was named the Best Horror Novel of the Year by the New York Public Library. It received starred reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal. His novel A Green and Ancient Light was named a Reading List Honor Book by the American Library Association. He teaches creative writing to high-schoolers.

  • COZY FANTASY

    Sarah Beth Durst is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty books for adults, teens, and kids, including cozy fantasy The Spellshop. She's been awarded the American Library Association's Alex Award, the Libby Book Award, and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com.

  • MYSTERY

    Rachel Ekstrom Courage is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery and the young adult thriller Nothing Bad Happens Here. A literary agent by day, she lives in Pittsburgh with her husband (children’s book author Nick Courage) and their family. Find out more at RachelEkstromCourage.com.

  • NONFICTION

    Julia Flint is a writer from the Appalachian Rust Belt. With a background in qualitative research, she has worked as a research assistant for education and community health projects and as an instructor with the Ohio University Global Health Initiative. She has called Pittsburgh home since 2024.

  • CHILDREN’S

    Erin Frankel is a children’s book author who loves telling stories of empathy and wonder. Her picture books include Mary Oliver, Holding on to Wonder, A Plate of Hope: The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen and forthcoming Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive. She lives with her family in Pittsburgh, where she writes, teaches, and hopes.

  • YA, FANTASY, ROMANTASY

    Cassandra James grew up in a mixed immigrant family with a penchant for storytelling, so becoming a writer was almost inevitable. After graduating from Princeton University with a degree in English focusing on Creative Writing, she landed in Florida with her swoon-worthy husband, where she spends her time cooking Colombian food, obsessing over Broadway musicals, and occasionally swashbuckling.

  • HORROR, FOLK HORROR

    Carter Keane resides in and is inspired by the frequently odd and often horrifying state of Ohio. Keane writes books where the monster and the monstrous, in the end, are not the same. Morsel is their debut.

  • SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

    Isabel J. Kim lives near New York City in an apartment filled with books and swords. She is the author of numerous short stories and has won the Nebula, Locus, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and reprinted in multiple best of the year anthologies. When she’s not writing, she’s practicing law or podcasting. Sublimation is her first novel.

  • NONFICTION, CINEMA, HORROR

    Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His latest novel, Whalefall, was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, the New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more. He has cowritten novels with Guillermo del Toro and George A. Romero, and has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards, and more.

  • NONFICTION

    Dani Lamorte is a Pittsburgh-based artist who writes, performs, and makes photographic images.

  • HORROR

    CJ Leede is a horror writer, hiker, and Trekkie. She is the author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture. Her debut novel Maeve Fly won the Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award and Splatterpunk Award, and earned a Bram Stoker Award nomination. When she is not driving around the country, CJ can be found in LA with her boyfriend and rescue dogs.

  • FANTASY

    Julie Leong is the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Teller of Small Fortunes and The Keeper of Magical Things. She is a daughter of Malaysian Chinese immigrants, a graduate of Yale University, and works in tech. Julie currently lives in San Francisco with her husband and fluffy dog, and when she’s not writing, enjoys making unnecessary spreadsheets and flambéing things.

  • ROMANCE, WOMEN’S FICTION

    Chloe is a USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic fiction reflecting her belief that everyone deserves a love story. When not dreaming up her next novel, you'll find her reading, trying new recipes, savoring nature, and soaking up time with her big, beautiful family.

  • YOUNG ADULT

    Michael G. Long is the author of several books on politics, nonviolent protests, and civil rights history. His commentary about civil rights has appeared in the Afro, the Los Angeles Times, and ESPN. He lives in Lower Allen Township, PA.

  • COZY MYSTERY

    Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is an award-winning writer and book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and badass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.

  • ROMANTASY (ADULT, LGBTQ+)

    Sarah Glenn Marsh is an author of books for everyone, from adult romance to picture books. An avid fantasy reader from the day her dad handed her a copy of The Hobbit and promised it would change her life, she’s been making up words and worlds ever since. She lives in Virginia with her family and assorted creatures, including a turtle named Muffin who she did not bring back from any haunted swamp.

  • OUTDOOR GUIDEBOOK

    Tory Mather has explored hundreds of trails, waterfalls, scenic overlooks, and more in the over a decade since she moved to Pennsylvania. You can find her living in Pittsburgh with her husband and her rescue dog or making fun of herself on the internet @torytalkstrails. This is her first book.

  • MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY

    Meg Medina served as the 2023-2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of many notable works for young readers of all ages, including her newest middle-grade novel and first fantasy, Graciela in the Abyss and Newbery Medal–winning and bestselling book Merci Suárez Changes Gears. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in New York, and now lives in Virginia.

  • MIDDLE GRADE REALISTIC FICTION

    Kayla Miller is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Click graphic novel series and co-author of its spin-off series Besties.

  • MEMOIR & FICTION

    Anna Monardo grew up in Pittsburgh, with strong ties to her Calabrian family. After Italy: A Family Memoir of Arranged Marriage (Bordighera Press, 2024) is the factual retelling of the family story at the heart of her first novel, The Courtyard of Dreams, reissued by Bordighera Press in 2025. Monardo is also the author of the novel Falling In Love with Natassia (Doubleday). Visit annamonardo.com

  • NATURAL HISTORY

    Andrew Moore is the author of Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit, which was a James Beard Foundation Award nominee in Writing & Literature. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The Daily Yonder. He lives in Pittsburgh.

  • NARRATIVE NONFICTION

    Beronda L. Montgomery is writer, science communicator and plant biologist. She was named one of the journal Cell‘s Inspiring Black Scientists in America and awarded 2022 Cynthia Westcott Science Writing Award and 2023 Hutchinson Medal of the Chicago Horticultural Society. Dr. Montgomery is author of Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021) and When Trees Testify (Holt, 2026).

  • ENVIRONMENTAL, GRAPHIC NOVEL, MEMOIR, ACTIVISM, SOCIAL JUSTICE

    Denali Sai Nalamalapu (they/them) is the author of Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance. They are a climate organizer and comic artist living in Southwest Virginia, originally from Southern Maine and Southern India.

  • PICTURE BOOK, COMIC, NATIVE AMERICAN, FANTASY, HORROR, HISTORICAL

    Born on the shore of Lake Superior in 1983, Winona is an illustrator and author originally from Duluth, Minnesota, now living in Pennsylvania. A member of the Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Ojibwe who identifies as Two Spirit and queer, her work focuses on diversity and representation, especially of Native and Ojibwe culture. Her work often incorporates traditional beadwork.

  • CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK

    Malcolm Newsome is a traditionally published children's book author and cyber security expert from the Chicago area. He is the author of beloved children's picture books including, Dear Star Baby, Sydney's Big Speech, I Am The Spirit of Justice (co-author), and The Daddy-Daughter Dance. When not writing you’ll find him spending time outside in his mini-orchard, baking bread, or being a lumberjack.

  • JUVENILE FICTION, LGBTQ+, PERFORMING ARTS

    Eureka O’Hara started out as a small country child in the heart of East Tennessee. She is known for competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race and as the co-host of We’re Here on HBO.

  • SPECULATIVE FICTION, LITERARY FICTION

    Alexandra Oliva is the author of The Last One, her debut which was selected as a Best Book of 2016 by The Seattle Times and was translated into twenty-five languages; and Forget Me Not. She grew up in a tiny town in New York's Adirondack Mountains and received her BA from Yale University and her MFA from The New School. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

  • ROMANCE/ROMANTIC COMEDY

    Laura Piper Lee enjoys laughing, flirting, and avoiding exercise, so writing romantic comedies like Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair; Zoe Brennan, First Crush; and Pot Shot is pretty much a perfect career choice for her. She lives in Philadelphia with her partner and their son and loves nothing more than a perfectly ripe mango.

  • ROMANCE, FANTASY, COZY, ROMANTASY

    A.T. Qureshi is a Pakistani, Muslim American award-winning and USA Today bestselling author. When she's not writing, she loves to travel to new places where she can explore different cultures or to Pakistan where she can revitalize her roots. She also loves baking complicated desserts, drinking fancy teas and coffees, watching sappy rom-coms, and going for walks about the estate (her backyard).

  • NONFICTION

    Adriana E. Ramírez is an award-winning nonfiction writer, columnist, critic, and poet based in Pittsburgh. She is the author of The Violence (2026, Scribner), and she writes twice a week for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

  • MIDDLE GRADE HORROR

    Cassandra Ramos-Gomez is a Mexican American writer focused on creating middle grade and young adult fiction that centers Latinx experiences. She also enjoys writing horror stories that are infused with humor and heart. Cassandra lives in Texas and her hobbies include painting, collecting animal bones, and playing Minecraft with her kids. Lost on Doll Island is her middle grade debut.

  • HORROR, SPECULATIVE FICTION

    Sam Rebelein lives in Poughkeepsie, NY. His fiction has appeared in PseudoPod, The Deadlands, Press Pause Press, Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, and elsewhere. His books explore the fictional landscape of Renfield County, New York. The most recent novel in this world is Galloway’s Gospel. For more about Sam, and pictures of his scruffy pooch Frodo, follow him on Instagram @rebelsam94.

  • ADULT NONFICTION

    Dr. Ashanté M. Reese is an award-winning author, anthropologist, and teacher. Mixing Black geographies, food justice, and care, she offers stories about how to use the knowledge we have to get free. Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness (Norton, 2026) is her latest book. She teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.

  • YA COMING OF AGE & ADULT ROMANCE

    Born and raised in Arizona, Sonido Reyes is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School, The Luis Ortega Survival Club, The Broposal, and The Golden Boy's Guide to Bipolar. They also have contributed short stories to the anthologies Transmogrify! and For the Rest of Us.

  • FICTION

    Alyssa Reynoso-Morris is a queer Afro-Latine and Indigenous (Taino) award-winning author, speaker, mother, and community organizer with Dominican and Puerto Rican roots. She crafts heartfelt stories entitled Plátanos Are Love (English & Spanish); The Bronx Is My Home; Gloriana Presente (English & Spanish); and Bold, Brilliant and Latine. You can learn more about her at alyssaauthor.com

  • FICTION

    Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus; The Editor; The Guncle, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for Novel of the Year; The Celebrants, a Today Show Read with Jenna book club pick; The Guncle Abroad; and the novella The Dogs of Venice. He resides in Palm Springs, California.

  • MIDDLE GRADE HORROR

    Ally is the author of It Came from the Trees, Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave, Down Came the Spiders, and Wednesday: Book of Outcasts. She grew up on a steady diet of Halloween parties, horror films, Unsolved Mysteries, and Goosebumps books. She hails from Pittsburgh—ground zero for the zombie apocalypse. She’s afraid of the woods, the dark, and heights.

  • FICTION, MYSTERY/THRILLER

    Brandy Schillace is a historian and mystery novelist. The Framed Women of Ardemore House won the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award; its stand-alone sequel The Dead Come to Stay released in 2025. Brandy hosts Unsolved Mysteries of Medicine and has appeared on The Unbelievable with Dan Akroyd, Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny, and History's Greatest Mysteries with Lawrence Fishburn.

  • HORROR

    Leila Siddiqui is a Chicago-born Texan who calls New York home. She is currently works in publishing in the marketing department. Leila spent a childhood fascinated by history and horror, and how intricately both can be entwined, and now wants to write the kind of fantastical and strange fiction that sheds light on pieces of history the rest of the world tends to forget.

  • BOOK CLUB FICTION

    Jessica Strawser is the USA Today bestselling author of 8 novels, including Not That I Could Tell (Book of the Month pick); The Next Thing You Know (People Magazine Pick), The Last Caretaker (Talk Pittsburgh Book of the Month & Amazon First Reads), Catch You Later, & her latest, The Quitters Club. She is Editor-at-Large at Writer’s Digest & former Public Library of Cincinnati Writer-in-Residence.

  • PICTURE BOOK, POETRY

    Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, PhD is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, and scholar. Tallie is author of We Go Slow (Atheneum Books for Young Readers) which was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and chosen as a NYPL Best Book of 2025. Her first children's book Layla’s Happiness (Enchanted Lion Books) won an Ezra Jack Keats Honor for writing.

  • MIDDLE GRADE, GRAPHIC NOVELS

    Brenna Thummler has never robbed a mailbox or run away from home—she has far better things to do, like soup-making and musicals. She sometimes considers running away, but when this thought occurs, she instead writes a story. She highly recommends this approach. It is how she was able to create the Sheets series as well as a few plays, and not get caught up with the likes of an outlaw.

  • HORROR

    Vincent Tirado is a nonbinary Dominican born and raised in the Bronx. Their first novel, Burn Down, Rise Up (2022) was recognized with the Pura Belpré Award, and is a Bram Stoker and Lambda Literary award finalist. Since then, they’ve written We Don’t Swim Here (2023), and We Came to Welcome You (2024).

  • HISTORICAL FICTION (LGBTQ+)

    Milo Todd is a Lambda Literary Fellow, co-EIC for the award-winning Foglifter Journal, and the nationally bestselling author of THE LILAC PEOPLE. His debut novel is also a New England Book Award Finalist, an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon Editor’s Pick, an Apple Best of the Month Pick, and featured in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Boston Globe, the LA Times, People Magazine, and more.

  • HORROR

    Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana author of House of Margins and The Silence of Wilting Skin. Her novel, Womb City, is a Nommo-Award winner, an Ignyte and Locus Award finalist. Her novel, The Bloodwinds, is forthcoming from Knopf. A Caine Prize finalist, she received support from the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She is a PhD student in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

  • PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE/THRILLER

    Marisa Walz is a Federal Reserve executive who also writes novels about people behaving badly. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and two young children.

  • THRILLER/LITERARY

    Canwen Xu is a writer living in New York City. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Chalkbeat Magazine, Kansas City Star, and more. Her TEDx talk, titled “I Am Not Your Asian Stereotype,” has been watched over 3 million times. She graduated from Columbia University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and computer science.

  • PICTURE BOOK, MIDDLE GRADE

    Kat Zhang started writing at age 12 and hasn’t let up since. In high school, she wrote What’s Left of Me, which expanded into her YA series, The Hybrid Chronicles. She then pub'd four MG novels: The Emperor’s Riddle, The Memory of Forgotten Things, and the Magic Paintbrush duology. Her Amy Wu PB series has been featured by the NYTimes, Parents magazine, and the 2021 Read for the Record Campaign.

Featured Poets

  • POETRY

    Syrian born American poet who is a junior at Pittsbrugh Capa 6-12. She values her family, friends, and focussing on her future. In her free time, she likes to bake, build and solve puzzles, and watching and reading interesting stories.

  • POETRY

    tommy wyatt blake (they/he) is a multi-nominated Pushcart and Best of the Net poet. they have many books, including NECROPIA (dogleech books), FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT!  (Troublemaker Firestarter), Mutually Assured Destruction (Ethel Zine), and others. Currently they are synthesizing liminal spaces, digital archives, confines of the body, and manipulated time.

  • POETRY

    Dr. Angela Campbell is a poet, social worker, spiritualist, and tarot reader devoted to healing and transformation. Her poetry weaves resilience, heartbreak, and hope into an invitation for readers to reconnect with their inner child. Angela has dedicated her career to uplifting others and promoting holistic healing.

  • POETRY

    Ann Chiappetta (she/her) is a writer and artist living in western Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in Plum Tree Tavern, Tiny Seed Journal, Breath and Shadow, and Magnets and Ladders, among others. She holds an M.S. degree from Iona University.

  • POETRY

    Poet and spoken word artist whose words pulse with raw emotion and captivating rhythm. Known for blending elements of street culture with deep introspection, Shockie G’s work reflects the complexities of identity, struggle, and triumph. Shockie G's verses have a unique way of connecting with audiences on a deeply human level, sparking conversations about the world and our place within it.

  • POETRY

    Violeta Garcia-Mendoza is the author of Songs for the Land-Bound (June Road Press, 2024). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Sugar House Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, RHINO, The Slowdown, and elsewhere. Violeta lives with her family on a small certified wildlife habitat in suburban western Pennsylvania.

  • POETRY

    Erica Hom (she/her) is a teacher, artist, and queer Filipina diaspora writer originally from Long Island, New York. Her work has been featured by various publications including West Trade Review, Honey Literary, The Arkansas International, ROOM magazine and others. Her writing focuses on women’s experiences in immigration, inherited trauma, cryptids, ghosts, and unreal worlds.

  • POETRY

    Vanshika Jain is a youth poet ambassador and student at Mt. Lebanon. She is the author of Letters to the Empire, an Amazon International Bestseller. Alongside her writing, Vanshika is passionate about social justice and amplifying youth voices. She was recognized as the “Most Powerful Youth Advocate” by Save the Children for her work as the Student President of the international charity DTCare.

  • POETRY

    Monroe Law is a poet and social activist who believes the most powerful thing a person has is their voice. Through creative writing, she confronts injustice while revealing beauty within dismal truths. She is passionate about prison reform, Project Second Chance, and exploring how AI impacts human connection, using her pen to speak on what matters most.

  • POETRY

    Bonita Lee Penn is a poet, multi-media artist, literary curator, and Managing Editor of Soul Pitt Quarterly Magazine. Author of When the Trees Will Testify and Every Morning a Foot is Looking for My Neck; she is an Obsidian and Martha’s Vineyard fellow and an Advancing Black Arts grant recipient. She is at work on a new manuscript, Indigo Psalm: Water and Memory.

  • POETRY

    Ellen McGrath Smith's poetry has appeared in The Georgia Review, The New York Times, The American Poetry Review, and other journals and anthologies. Books include Scatter, Feed (Seven Kitchens 2014) and Nobody's Jackknife (West End Press 2015). Her chapbook Lie Low, Goaded Lamb was published in January 2023 by Seven Kitchens Press as part of its Keystone Series.

  • POETRY

    Pablo Miguel Martínez's collection, Brazos, Carry Me, received the 2013 PEN Southwest Book Award for Poetry. His chapbook, Cuent@, was a runner-up in the 2015 Center for Book Arts Chapbook Competition, judged by Cornelius Eady. Pablo is a Co-Founder of CantoMundo, a national workshop-retreat for Latiné poets that is based at Arizona State University.

  • POETRY

    Meredith Nnoka is a Chicago-based poet, teacher, and prison abolitionist. She is the author of Les Portes, winner of the 2025 CAAPP Book Prize. Nnoka has a BA from Smith College and an MA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She teaches poetry in carceral facilities and has received fellowships from Illinois Humanities, Lambda Literary, and the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.

  • POETRY

    Yamini Pathak's debut poetry collection is Her Mouth A Palace of Lamps (Milk & Cake Press, 2025). She is the author of chapbooks Atlas of Lost Places (Milk & Cake Press) and Breath Fire Water Song (Ghost City Press). Yamini is a member of the 2025 Poets & Writers' Get the Word Out Poetry Cohort and recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship by the NJ State Council on the Arts.

  • POETRY

    Claudia M. Reder is the author of Dizzying Words (Main Street Rag),  How to Disappear, (Blue Light Press) and My Father & Miro (winner of the Bright Hill Press Award). She was awarded the Charlotte Newberger Poetry Prize from Lilith Magazine. Retired from teaching at California State University at Channel Islands, she now lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

  • POETRY

    Judith Sanders has published two poetry collections, In Deep and The Universe with Borscht. Her work appears in numerous publications, including Pleiades, The American Scholar, Modern Language Studies, Vox Populi, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her poems won the Hart Crane and Wergle Flomp Humor prizes. Her prose has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and selected as a Longreads “Top 5.”

  • POETRY

    Ivy Smith is a writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which informs her writing. She hopes, in some small way, to connect with the world and its people through writing and reading. She is the Youth Poet Laureate of Allegheny County and her work has appeared in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The West Trestle Review, Rune, and The Antithesis Review.

  • POETRY

    Kendall Snee is a Pittsburgh-based poet and 10th-grade English teacher. On Tuesdays she helps host the open mic through Poetry Lounge in Millvale. Her book: A Teacher Writes About A School Shooting is there, available for purchase. Snee is a former writer-in-residence at City Books, and a volunteer at City of Asylum. Consider following her Substack: SneeLikesToRead for all things literature.

  • POETRY

    Steffan Triplett is the author of the hybrid memoir Bad Forecast (Essay Press) and the essay chapbook Constraints (New Michigan Press). He is the Managing Director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and has received fellowships and support from Cave Canem, Outpost, Lambda Literary, Callaloo, and the Blue Mountain Center.

  • POETRY

    Robert Walicki's poetry speaks to the rich tradition of working-class poetry through his years in the construction fields. A two-time Pushcart and a Best of The Net nominee, Robert has published three full-length poetry collections. Black Angels from Six Gallery Press, Fountain from Main Street Rag Press and his most recent collection, Watershed, was just released by Broadstone Press.

  • POETRY

    Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Najya A. Williams, MD, G.Cert, is a resident physician, multidisciplinary artist and dreamer. Najya is devoted to the liberation and healing of all oppressed peoples. Her poetry, essays and other writings have been accepted and/or published by a number of organizations, including POETRY Magazine, Button Poetry, and wildness.