Asha is an actor and poet from Chicago. She is a recent MFA graduate and former teaching fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. Asha has worked as an investigative researcher for the Invisible Institute, a non-profit journalism production company, and at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, where she co-created the Radical Black Women of Harlem Renaissance tour with Mariame Kaba. Her poetry chapbook is forthcoming from The Song Cave, and her poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Bennington Review, Conduit Magazine, The Journal, ANMLY’s Radical Avant Garde Poets of Color Folio, and Interim Poetics.

Sophia Mautz is a poet from Portland, Oregon. She is a recipient of the 2021 Academy of American Poets Prize, a Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize, a Pushcart nomination, and several poetry prizes and fellowships from Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree as a Bryan Cameron Impact Scholar. She recently completed her MFA in Poetry at Columbia University, where she held the Writer’s Scholarship, was the at-risk site coordinator for Columbia Artists/Teachers, and the online poetry and art editor for the Columbia Journal. She was also awarded an adjunct professor teaching position in poetry at Columbia University starting in Fall 2024. Her work can be found on poets.org, EcoTheo Review, The Harvard Advocate, The Women’s Issue, and elsewhere. Currently, her poems, which were commissioned for an original oratorio set by composer Matt Hazzard, is touring the country and most recently was performed at UCLA.

Jaroslav Kalfař, born in the Czech Republic, immigrated to the United States at the age of fifteen. His debut novel, Spaceman of Bohemia, a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the Dayton Literary peace prize, was translated into seventeen languages. Spaceman is now a major motion picture starring Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan. His second novel, A Brief History of Living Forever, was called one of the best books of the season by Lit Hub, WIRED, and Esquire. Kalfař is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Kalamazoo College. He holds an MFA from New York University and lives in Brooklyn.

Melissa Larsen is the author of The Lost House and Shutter. She received her M.F.A. from Columbia University and her B.A. from New York University. When she isn’t traveling somewhere to research her next novel—and somehow hurting herself in the process—she lives in New York City and teaches creative writing.

Ricky Tucker is a bestselling author, multi-media writer, educator, and culture critic based in NYC. His work explores the imprints of art and memory on narrative, and the absurdity of most fleeting moments... He has written for the Paris Review, Lithub, and Public Seminar, among others, and has performed for reading series including the Moth Grand SLAM, Sister Spit, Born: Free, and e-flux. Tucker was chosen as a 2017 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Fellow for creative nonfiction, and his L.A. Times bestselling debut, And the Category Is...Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community (Beacon Press) was one of Pitchfork’s 15 Best Music Books of 2022. It is available online and in stores.

Taylor Michael is an arts and culture writer. She is an associate editor at A Public Space and an adjunct instructor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Previously, she has worked in public programming at the National Book Foundation and as the 2020 A Public Space editorial fellow. Her writing is in and forthcoming in Belt Magazine, The Observer, All Arts, Baffler, Prism, and Hyperallergic. Her writing has been supported by the Southampton Writers Conference and The Hurston/Wright Foundation. She has an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and a BA from Brown University.

F.M Papaz (Fi) is a Greek-Australian writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Fi believes that there is space at the literary table for everyone and is excitedly setting up your cutlery. Her poems have appeared in Wild Roof Journal, Five South, Mantissa Poetry Review & Literary Revelation’s Poetry Anthology ‘Hidden in Childhood’. She does editorial work for Tabula Rasa Review and Milk Press, Poetry Society of New York's (PSNY) literary magazine. Her work at PSNY extends to Marketing and Production across programs from poetry workshops to The New York City Poetry Festival. See more of her work at fmpapaz.com and find her monthly newsletter ‘-ings’ about living a creative life.