Mariam Ahmed is a Californian poet and author. She loves to sample fresh-ground local coffee wherever she visits. Mariam lives in San Diego, CA, where she visits the ocean often to write poems in the sand.
Matthew J. Andrews is a private investigator and writer. He is the author of the chapbook I Close My Eyes and I Almost Remember and the forthcoming full-length collection The Hours (Solum Press). He can be contacted at www.matthewjandrews.com.
Michael Ball scrambled from daily and weekly papers through business and technical pubs. Born in Oklahoma and raised in rural West Virginia and South Carolina, he became more citified in Manhattan and Boston. As one of the Hyde Park Poets, he’s placed poems in numerous journals and anthologies. HeartLink published his Leaving the Party chapbook in 2024.
Danny P. Barbare is a widely published poet who grew up and continues to live in South Carolina. He resides in the same house where he spent his childhood, surrounded by pecan trees that have grown alongside him over the years. Through his work, Barbare captures the essence of simplicity, nature, and connection to place, earning him recognition in both online and print journals.
Stephen Barile is an award-winning poet from Fresno, California, and Pushcart Prize nominee. He attended public schools, Fresno City College, Fresno Pacific University, and California State University, Fresno. His poems have been anthologized, and published in numerous journals, both print and online. He taught writing at Madera College, and CSU Fresno.
Brittany Bergin-Foss holds an MFA from Western Colorado University’s Nature Writing program. Brittany’s prose and poetry have been featured in Mountain Pearl, Colorado Central Magazine and Twenty Bellows, and she was a nominee for the 2023 Pushcart Prize in Poetry. She is in her seventeenth year of public school teaching and lives in Carbondale, CO with her family and two colonies of honey bees.
Robert Beveridge (he/him) makes noise (xterminal.bandcamp.com) and writes poetry on unceded Mingo land (Akron, OH). He published his first poem in a non-vanity/non-school publication in November 1988, and it’s been all downhill since. Recent/upcoming appearances in Modern Haiku, WestWard Quarterly, and I-70 Review, among others.
Callie S. Blackstone writes both poetry and prose. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her debut chapbook “sing eternal” is available through Bottlecap Press. More information is available at calliesblackstone.com.
Lawrence Bridges‘ poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, and Tampa Review. He has published three volumes of poetry: Horses on Drums (Red Hen Press, 2006), Flip Days (Red Hen Press, 2009), and Brownwood (Tupelo Press, 2016). You can find him on Instagram: @larrybridges
Roger Camp is the author of three photography books including the award winning Butterflies in Flight (Thames & Hudson, 2002). His documentary photography has been awarded the prestigious Leica Medal of Excellence. His work has appeared in numerous journals including The New England Review, North American Review and the New York Quarterly. Represented by the Robin Rice Gallery, NYC, more of his work may be seen on Luminous-Lint.com.
Genevieve Chornenki is a Toronto-based poet, writer, editor and literacy coach who loves to cook. Her poems have been published in print and online in North America, the UK, and Australia. In 2021, her meditation on eyesight, Don’t Lose Sight, was published.
Alyssa Cokinis is a writer and theatre artist from Iowa, currently based in Oregon. Her work has been published in Smith & Kraus’s Ten-Minute Plays for the Gender Minority, fifth wheel press, Chaotic Merge Magazine, and elsewhere. She is also the founder and editor of some scripts, most recently curating the anthology Monologues by LGBTQIA+ Writers for LGBTQIA+ Actors (2023).
DJ Grant holds a B.A. in English, Emphasis Literature from The University of British Columbia. She is an award-winning poet, cook, sculptor and community volunteer. Her work can be found on The Lehrhaus, The Mighty, Wishbone Words, Litro Magazine, Cosmic Daffodil Journal and in various anthologies and cookbooks.
Christine Heriat is an enthusiastic writer, adventurous cook and committed traveler. The publication of “The Scent of Huahine” represents the first time she has published her work. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, squeezed into a small house that is full of too many books and cooking gadgets.
Elizabeth Horton writes with her mouth full. A global storyteller, she has tasted and traveled her way through cocoa forests in Madagascar, fisheries in Patagonia, dairies in the Midwest, sugar bushes in New England, and oyster farms in Maine. She believes that sense of place is an emotion, not a setting, and that a neighborly pan of lasagna bolognese can help solve many of life’s toughest problems. She is based in Portland, Maine.
Ben Iboshi is an emerging writer and stand-up comedian from Portland, Oregon, currently studying English and American Studies at The University of Alabama. He serves as the president of UA’s Writers Guild, and his work has been featured in Dewpoint Magazine and the New College Review.
Benjamin J. Kirby is a writer in St. Petersburg, Florida. His poetry is in the 2024 Florida Bards Poetry Anthology, The Ulu Review, and more. Personal and political essays are in the Sun Shine Republic (Substack). For eight years, he produced the award-winning political blog The Spencerian. Read more at BenjaminJKirby.com.
Mario Loprete is an Italian artist who has distinguished himself in the contemporary art scene through innovative use of materials and a unique vision of urban art. His work lies at the crossroads of painting and sculpture, exploring themes of memory, identity, and urban transformation. Loprete uses raw materials like cement and plaster to create works that evoke urban architectural structures. This choice is not only aesthetic but also conceptual: cement, with its hardness and permanence, becomes a symbol of collective and personal memory, fixing the traces of our urban existence over time. Plaster, on the other hand, with its fragility, represents the vulnerability and transience of human life and experiences.
Jane Mangelli, a senior at The University of Alabama, is pursuing a major in News Media and Journalism with minors in English and Communication Studies. Originally from a small town in New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia, Jane has a passion for writing, particularly about Italian cuisine.
Austrie Martinez is an internationally published writer and a US military veteran. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. Her work has been published in the Little Patuxent Review, Into the Void Magazine, The Deadly Writers Patrol, and The Baltimore Fishbowl. Austrie currently teaches English and Communication at a community college.
Janet McCann is an ancient Texas poet who taught at TAMU for 47 years, and is now emerita. Her most recent book is Life List, Wipf and Stock, 2022, Widowed, she lives with two wild dogs, Poirot and Marple.
Barbara A. Meier is a retired teacher who now works in a second grade classroom as a paraprofessional in Lincoln, KS. Her poem “The Skunk at Ennis Riffle” has been nominated for the Pushcart Award. She has three chapbooks published: “Wildfire LAL 6,” from Ghost City Press, “Getting Through Gold Beach,” from Writing Knights Press, and “Sylvan Grove,” from The Poetry Box. She loves all things ancient.
Sandeep Kumar Mishra is an outsider artist, a freelance writer and teacher. He founded “Kishlaya Outsider Art Academy” in 2016. His first art exhibition was in National Club Art Gallery, Rajasthan, India, January 1- 3, 1994. His latest exhibition is in Holy Art Gallery in London (UK) and Athens (Greece) from August 2-August 11, 2024. This year, he won the Talent Award at the Blue Koi Art Gallery, Commended Award in the National Photographic Society’s photo contest, Distinction and Laurel Awards at the Gallery4 Percent Art Show, Honourable Mention Award by Teravarna Art Gallery and Finalist Award at Blue Space Gallery. More information- https://www.sandeepkumarmishra.com/art.
Gabrielle Myers cooked and cheffed in restaurant and catering companies for over fourteen years in the San Francisco Bay Area before receiving her MA in English (University of California at Davis) and MFA in Creative Writing (Saint Mary’s College of California) and embarking on her teaching and writing career. Her books include a memoir, Hive-Mind, and the poetry collections Too Many Seeds, Break Self: Feed, Points in the Network (forthcoming in fall 2025), and Go Forth: Lose Yourself into Life (forthcoming in 2026). Gabrielle is the Farm-to-Fork columnist for Inside Sacramento magazine (https://insidesacramento.com/sacramento-dining/farm-to-fork/). More about her writing and work can be found at www.gabriellemyers.com.
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. A graduate of Yale, he has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller’s People’s Choice award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels stunned and grateful.
Donald Patten is an artist and cartoonist from Belfast, Maine. He creates oil paintings, illustrations, ceramic pieces and graphic novels. His art has been exhibited in galleries throughout Maine. To view his online portfolio, visit donaldlpatten.newgrounds.com/art.
Martha Patterson‘s 27-story collection Small Acts of Magic was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her work has also been published in more than 20 anthologies and journals, and her plays have been produced in 21 states and eight countries. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and loves being surrounded by her books, radio, and laptop.
Madari Pendas is a Cuban-American writer and cartoonist. She received her MFA from Florida International University, where she was a Lawrence Sanders Fellow, and won the 2021 Academy of American Poets Prise, judged by Major Jackson. Her work has appeared in Craft, Smokelong Quarterly, The Masters Review, Oyster River Pages, PANK, and more. She is the author of Crossing the Hyphen (2021) and She Loves me, She Loves me Not (2025). Visit: https://madaripendas.com/.
Grace Poynter is an English enthusiast with degrees from Samford University and The University of Alabama. When she’s not lost in a book or tip-tapping away at a keyboard, she is telling her seventy-pound lapdog, Otis, that he’s a brave boy for enduring the scary outdoors. Most importantly, she loves food that loves her back, especially cheese fries and apple pie (not necessarily in the same meal).
Sabrina Richard (They/Them) is a junior majoring in Creative Media and Gastronomy. Their love of culinary is a part of some of their earliest memories and they constantly seek to connect food with community, sexuality, advocacy, and understanding.
Diana Raab is a poet, memoirist, blogger, speaker, and award-winning author of 14 books of poetry and nonfiction. Her latest book is Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors. She writes for Psychology Today, Sixty and Me, The Good Men Project and Medium. Visit: dianaraab.com.
Stephanie Rick balances her roles as a sixth grade English teacher and single mother of two while completing her Master’s degree at Cal State, Los Angeles. Holding a BFA in Theatre Arts, she crafts and performs narratives for both page and stage, also previously having written poetic lyrics and melodies in a band. Her favorite food has and always will be: mac and cheese.
Morgana Rubini is a writer, cheesemonger and an MA Cultural Studies graduate. She is particularly interested in autotheory and personalizing our relationship to theory and academic writing. In her writing, food becomes a way to re-contextualize and situate experiences within the embodiment of eating and cooking.
Gerard Sarnat is a poet, aphorist, humorist, or sometimes meanderist. A multiple Pushcart/Best of Net Award nominee, his work’s been widely published across four collections and in Israel Association of Writers in English, The Nature of Our Times/Poets For Science, Brooklyn Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Gargoyle, New Delta Review, Buddhist Review, New York Times, and in university presses associated with Oberlin, Northwestern, Yale, Pomona, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Brown, North Dakota, McMaster, Maine, British Columbia/Toronto/Chicago and Virginia. He’s a Harvard Medical School-trained physician, Stanford professor, and healthcare CEO. Currently, he’s devoting energy and resources to dealing with climate justice, serving on Climate Action Now’s board. Sarnat’s belonged to the longest-running U.S. Jewish-Palestinian dialogue group. Gerry’s been married since 1969 and has three kids, six grandsons — and looks forward to future granddaughters. gerardsarnat.com
Kay Sexton has had hundreds of short stories published, been a finalist for writing awards including the Sunday Times Short Story Award, and winner of both the Fort William Festival Contest and the Wollongong Literary Festival Short Story Contest. In addition she has had two non-fiction books and one novel published.
Victoria Spaulding holds a BS in Environmental Toxicology from UC Davis and a BFA in Fiber/Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born (Sanchez) in Oxnard, California to immigrated from Mexico parents, Victoria is currently in the Lighthouse Writers Poetry Collective.
Travis Stephens is a tugboat captain who lives and works with his family in California. His book of poetry, skeeter bit & still drunk was published by Finishing Line Press. Visit him at: zolothstephenswriters.com
Angela Tang is a writer based in Fairfax, Virginia. Her writing has appeared in the Wicked Shadow Press and in a short story anthology, Period Pieces. She is a first year MFA student at George Mason University.
Celebrated for newspaper work in Anchorage, Seattle and Portland, Stuart Watson has placed literary work in Bull, Yolk, Barzakh, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Bending Genres (Best Microfictions nominee), The Writing Disorder, Reckon Review, Sensitive Skin, The Muleskinner Journal and other publications, all linked from chiselchips.com. He lives in Oregon with his wife and a dog of mixed parentage.
Nelly Woodhead is an author based in Texas. She writes about rural landscapes, mother-daughter relations, and the consequences of hoarding. Her essay, “An Observation of Color,” will be published in an upcoming issue of the literary magazine Griffel.
Kenton K. Yee’s poetry appears (or will soon) in Kenyon Review, Threepenny Review, Cincinnati Review, RHINO, Quarterly West, Scientific American, Plume Poetry, TAB Journal, Terrain.org, Yalobusha Review, and Rattle, among others. Kenton writes from Northern California. INSTA: @kentonkyeepoet FB: @scrambled.k.eggs.