8th Annual
Fall Literary Festival

Debbie Allen is a cofounder of Poets Against Racism & Hate USA. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has performed internationally, and her poetry has appeared in various journals and collections. She practices her craft where Wahzhazhe, Kaskaskahamwa, and Erielhonan lived. Much of Debbie’s poetry tends toward response to injustices. poetsagainstracism-usa.org.

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Jen Ashburn is the author of the poetry collection The Light on the Wall and the recipient of the 2023 Lori White Nonfiction Fellowship. Her work has appeared in numerous venues, including The Fiddlehead and The Writer’s Almanac. She holds an MFA from Chatham University and lives in Pittsburgh.

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Ellen Austin-Li’s poetry appears in Artemis, Thimble Literary, The Maine Review, Salamander, SWWIM, & many other places. Finishing Line Press published her chapbooks Firefly and Lockdown: Scenes From Early in the Pandemic. Ellen holds an MFA in Poetry from the Solstice Program. She lives in Cincinnati and hosts Poetry Night at Sitwell’s.

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Ruth Awad is a Lebanese-American poet, 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellow, and the author of Outside the Joy and Set to Music a Wildfire. Her work appears in The Atlantic, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, AGNI, The Believer, New Republic, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.  

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Valerie Bacharach’s book Last Glimpse will be published by Broadstone Books. Her chapbook After/Life will be published by Finishing Line Press. Her poem "Birthday Portrait, Son" was selected for inclusion in 2023 Best Small Fictions. She has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes.

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Lee Harlin Bahan has authored three collections of translations of Petrarch’s lyric poetry. A Year of Mourning was a special honoree for the 2016 Able Muse Book Award. Finishing Line Press published To Wrestle with the Angel in 2018. The forthcoming Advent and Lent also will bear the Able Muse Press imprint.

Cathy Barber’s poetry has been published in Slant, SLAB, The Hopper and has been anthologized many times. She is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and makes her home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where she serves on the board of Literary Cleveland. She is the author of Aardvarks, Bloodhounds, Catfish, Dingoes (Dancing Girl Press, 2018) and Once: A Golden Shovel Collection (Kelsay Books, 2023).

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Casey Bell's debut short story collection Little Fury is out with Metatron Press. She has an MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her fiction appears in Sequestrum, Cream City Review, New South, The Boiler, Reed Magazine, The New Limestone Review and Timber. Casey is the co-director of Girls Rock Reno, a music camp for self-identified girls, trans and gender-expansive youth. Originally from Philadelphia, she teaches English at the University of Nevada, Reno and is the drummer and singer of the band Fine Motor.

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El Bentivegna (they/them) is a candidate for the NEOMFA through Cleveland State University, and was a finalist for the 2023 Literary Cleveland Breakthrough Writing Residency. Their work has appeared in Slant, Enby Life, and Sunday Mornings at the River. El lives in Cleveland with their husband and five cats.

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Daniel Bourne’s latest books include his third collection of poetry, Talking Back to the Exterminator (Regal House) and a collection of translations of Polish poet Bronislaw Maj, Extinction of the Holy City (Free Verse Editions.) He has lived in Poland several times, including on a Fulbright fellowship in 1985-1987.

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Philip Brady’s newest book is The Elsewhere: Poems & Poetics (Broadstone, 2021). He is the author of two essay collections, Phantom Signs and By Heart from the University of Tennessee Press; a book-length poem, To Banquet with the Ethiopians, a memoir, To Prove My Blood, and three previous books of poetry. He is Executive Director of Etruscan Press.

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Daniela Buccilli (Carlow, ‘19) has been published in Paterson Literary Review, Cimarron Review, and Northern Appalachia Review. Her chapbook is What it Takes to Carry, and her co-edited anthology is Show Us Your Papers (both from Main Street Rag). She teaches high school and serves as her union’s secretary.

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Tobias Carroll is the author of five books, most recently the novel In the Sight. He is the managing editor of Vol. 1 Brooklyn and writes a monthly column for Words Without Borders.

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Sarah Carson is the author of several poetry collections, including How to Baptize a Child in Flint, Michigan (2022), winner of the 2021 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award from Persea Books. She is currently at work on a memoir about single motherhood, work and the rules that govern the universe. stuffsarahwrote.com​

Kim Chinquee is the author of eight books, most recently her novel PIPETTE. She's the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, associate editor of MIDWEST REVIEW, senior editor of NEW WORLD WRITING QUARTERLY, chief editor of ELJ (ELM LEAVES JOURNAL), and she co-directs the writing major at SUNY-Buffalo State University.

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George David Clark is the author Reveille (Arkansas) and Newly Not Eternal (LSU) and his recent poems appear in Agni, The Believer, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Editor of 32 Poems and an associate professor at Washington & Jefferson College, he lives in Canonsburg, PA.

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Lisa Fay Coutley is the author of HOST, tether, Errata, In the Carnival of Breathing, and Small Girl. She is editor of the anthology In the Tempered Dark. She's received an NEA fellowship and is Associate Professor of Poetry & CNF in the Writer's Workshop at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

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Pittsburgh writer Elisabeth Crago’s (Carlow ’17) work appears in Voices from the Attic, vols 21, 22 and 24, Eye to the Telescope, Shot Glass Journal, Dreamer’s Creative Writing, and One Art Poetry.

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Bob Craven is a poet, musician, and educator from Western Pennsylvania. He studied at Duquesne University (M.A.) and the University of Oregon (Ph.D.) and serves as Assistant Professor of English at Westminster College (New Wilmington, Pennsylvania).

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Jessica Cuello’s most recent book is Yours, Creature (JackLeg Press, 2023). Her book Liar, selected by Dorianne Laux for The 2020 Barrow Street Book Prize, was honored with The Eugene Nassar Prize and The CNY Book Award. Cuello is poetry editor at Tahoma Literary Review and teaches French in Central New York. ​

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Tommy Dean is the author of two flash fiction chapbooks and a full flash collection, Hollows (Alternating Current Press 2022). He is the Editor of Fractured Lit and Uncharted Magazine. His writing can be found in Best Microfiction 2019, 2020, 2023, Best Small Fictions 2019 and 2022, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. tommydeanwriter.com,  @TommyDeanWriter.

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-one poetry collections, most recently in defense of the goat as it continues to wander towards the certain doom of the cliff, (April Gloaming, 2024). He is the recipient of a Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Drew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.

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Jody DiPerna is an award-winning journalist. For more than a decade, she has covered books and writing with a specific focus on the Pittsburgh region, the Rust Belt and Northern Appalachia. She is one of the founders of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and is an editor at Reckon Review.

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Michael Dittman is a professor of English living and writing near Pittsburgh, surrounded by the palimpsest of the Appalachian Rust Belt. His most recent novel is Who Holds the Devil. He is also the author of Jack Kerouac: A Biography; Masterpieces of the Beat Generation; and Small Brutal Incidents.

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Lisa Dordal teaches poetry at Vanderbilt University and is the author of Mosaic of the Dark, a finalist for the 2019 Audre Lorde Award; Water Lessons, which was listed by Lambda Literary as one of their most anticipated books for 2022; and Next Time You Come Home (2023).

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Sean Thomas Dougherty’s twenty books include Death Prefers the Minor Keys (2023 BOA Editions) and The Dead Are Everywhere Telling Us Things, winner of the 2021 Jacar Press Full Length book contest. He works as a Medtech and caregiver for folks with traumatic brain injuries. seanthomasdoughertypoet.com

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Damian Dressick is the author of the novel 40 Patchtown (Bottom Dog Press: Appalachian Writing Series, 2020) and the short story collection Fables of the Deconstruction (CLASH Books 2021). His creative work has appeared in W.W. Norton’s New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, Cutbank, Post Road, New Orleans Review and Smokelong Quarterly. A Blue Mountain Residency Fellow, he is the winner of the Harriette Arnow Award and the Jesse Stuart Prize.

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Lyndsey Ellis is a writer, teaching artist and community organizer who is passionate about exploring regional history and intergenerational experiences. Her work appears in Kweli Journal, Narratively, Shondaland, Catapult, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Electric Literature and several anthologies. Her debut novel, Bone Broth (Hidden Timber Books), was published in 2021.

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Bonnie Jill Emanuel is the author of GLITTER CITY, which released in early 2024. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Mid-American Review, and other fine publications. Born in Detroit, she now lives in New York.

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Laura Evers (she/her) is an instructor and PhD candidate in English and American Literature living in the Midwest. She serves as an Associate Editor for RHINO, a poetry journal based in Chicago. She has received support from the Indiana University Writers' Conference. Her most recent work can be found in The Georgia Review, and she is a proud member of Literary Cleveland.

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Jim Ferris is author of Slouching Towards Guantanamo, Facts of Life, and The Hospital Poems. Past president of Society for Disability Studies and Disabled & D/deaf Writers Caucus, Ferris was Poet Laureate of Lucas County, Ohio 2015-2019. He holds the Ability Center Endowed Chair in Disability Studies at UToledo.

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Christina Fisanick is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including the memoir, The Optimistic Food Addict (MSI, 2016), and Digital Storytelling as Public History (Routledge, 2020), co-written with Robert Stakeley. Her poetry, essays, and articles have appeared in Still: The Journal, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, the North Meridian Review and others. She is president of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA) and a professor of English, and is passionate about the history of her hometown, Wheeling, WV.

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Charlene Fix writes poems: Jewgirl (Broadstone 2023), Taking a Walk in My Animal Hat (Bottom Dog 2018), Frankenstein’s Flowers (CW 2014), and Flowering Bruno (XOXOX 2006), also prose: Harpo Marx as Trickster (McFarland 2013). She is Emeritus Professor of Columbus College of Art and Design and Hospital Poets co-coordinator at OSU. Charlene has three kids, two grandchildren.

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Ariel Francisco is the author of the forthcoming All the Places We Love Have Been Left in Ruins (Burrow Press, 2024) and translator of Haitian-Dominican poet Jacques Viau Renaud’s Poet of One Island (Get Fresh Books, 2024). He is Assistant Professor of Poetry and Hispanic Studies at Louisiana State University.

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Sarah Freligh is the author of five books, including Sad Math, winner of the 2014 Moon City Press Poetry Prize and the 2015 Whirling Prize from the University of Indianapolis, and the recently-published A Brief Natural History of Women from Harbor Editions. Recent work has appeared in anthologies New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction (Norton 2018) and Best Microfiction (2019-22). Among her awards are poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Saltonstall Foundation.

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Molly Fuller is the author of the full-length collections For Girls Forged by Lightning: Prose & Other Poems (All Nations Press) and Always a Body (Cornerstone Press), as well as two chapbooks. She is the winner of the Gris-Gris Literary Journal Summer Poetry Contest. Her work has appeared in Nothing to Declare: A Guide to the Flash Sequence, New Poetry from the Midwest, 100 Word Story, and Bellingham Review. Fuller is the recipient of Artist Residencies from Wassaic Project and Vermont Studio Center.

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Carrie George is a poet and teacher living in Akron, Ohio. She received her MFA from Kent State University and the Northeast Ohio MFA program. She is the manager at Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre. Her work has appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, The Florida Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Indianapolis Review, and elsewhere.

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Sandra Rivers-Gill is a teaching artist, mentor and an award-winning poet featured in numerous journals and anthologies. Her writing is often influenced by family, culture, and social injustice. Her debut chapbook As We Cover Ourselves With Light was published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions (2023). linktr.ee/sandrariversgill

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Therese Gleason is author of three chapbooks: Hemicrania (Chestnut Review, 2024); Matrilineal (Finishing Line, 2021; Honorable Mention Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize, New England Poetry Club); and Libation (co-winner, South Carolina Poetry Initiative Competition, 2006). Her writing appears in 32 Poems, Indiana Review, New Ohio Review, Rattle, and elsewhere. theresegleason.com

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Stacy Gnall is author of poetry collections Dogged (winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry from The University of Massachusetts Press, 2022) and Heart First into the Forest (Alice James Books, 2011). Her work has appeared in Pleiades, Massachusetts Review, Bennington Review, and New American Writing. Gnall holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama’s MFA program in Creative Writing and Sarah Lawrence College. Originally from Cleveland, she is Poet-in-Residence at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Steubenville, Ohio, native Richard Hague’s work has appeared in Poetry, Smartish Pace, Appalachian Journal, Northern Appalachian Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Nowhere Magazine, Hiram Poetry Review, Nimrod, Mid-American Review, Ohio Magazine, and Creative Nonfiction, among others. He is author or editor of 23 volumes of prose and poetry.

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Janay Harden, LCSW affectionately known as “The Story-Telling Therapist” is a millennial mental health therapist and author. She is the CEO of Restoring Your Destiny Counseling & Consulting, a mental health agency in New Jersey. Harden’s written and published five novels centered around melanin-rich characters navigating love, friendship, and family.

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Jean Harper lives and teaches in the Midwest. Her work has appeared in The Florida Review, North American Review, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Indiana Arts Commission, and residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

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Jason Harris is a Black American writer, editor, and teaching artist. He currently serves as editor-in-chief for Gordon Square Review. He has received fellowships from The Watering Hole and Twelve Literary Arts.

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JoeAnn Hart is the author of the novel ARROYO CIRCLE, published by Green Writers Press in October 2024. Her other books include the prize-winning fiction collection HIGHWIRE ACT & OTHER TALES OF SURVIVAL, the true crime memoir, STAMFORD ’76 as well as the novels, FLOAT and ADDLED.

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Katie Hartsock's second poetry collection Wolf Trees was listed as one of Kirkus Review's Best Indie Books of 2023. Her work has recently appeared in Threepenny Review, Oxford Poetry, Plume, Tupelo Quarterly, Image, and elsewhere. She teaches at Oakland University in Michigan.

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T Hetzel is a poet, photobook and zine maker, and host of WCBN FM Ann Arbor’s Living Writers. She is a teaching professor at the University of Michigan, where she received her MFA in poetry.

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Nora Hickey lives in Springfield, Ohio, where she is a librarian at Ridgewood School. She writes about comics with her colleague Amaris Ketcham at Autobiographix on Substack. Her poetry and nonfiction also appear in Guernica, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, Hyperallergic, and elsewhere.

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Cynthia Marie Hoffman is the author of the OCD memoir in prose poems Exploding Head (Persea Books, 2024), as well as three previous collections of poetry: Call Me When You Want to Talk about the Tombstones (Persea Books, 2018), Paper Doll Fetus (Persea Books, 2014), and Sightseer (Persea Books, 2011). She lives in Madison, Wisconsin. cynthiamariehoffman.com

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Erin Hoover is the author of two poetry collections, Barnburner (Elixir, 2018) and No Spare People (Black Lawrence, 2023). An assistant professor of English at Tennessee Tech University, Hoover also hosts Sawmill Poetry, an in-person monthly reading series.

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Ann K. Howley's debut young adult novel, The Memory of Cotton, was a 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award winner. She is also the author of the TAZ Award-winning memoir, Confessions of a Do-Gooder Gone Bad. She writes for Pittsburgh Parent Magazine and is an adjunct writing instructor.

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Andrea Iglar is founder and executive editor of South Fayette Connect, the award-winning quarterly magazine of South Fayette Township near Pittsburgh. An honors graduate of Kent State University, Iglar holds bachelor’s degrees in English and psychology. She serves on the board of the National Association of Government Communicators.

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Jason Irwin is the author of three poetry collections, most recently The History of Our Vagrancies (Main Street Rag, 2020). He was a 2022 Zoeglossia Fellow and took part of the Poetry Foundation’s Disability Poetics Project. He grew up in Dunkirk, New York and now lives in Pittsburgh. jasonirwin.blogspot.com

Lori Jakiela is the author of seven books, including the memoir BELIEF IS ITS OWN KIND OF TRUTH, MAYBE (Atticus Books/Autumn House), which received the Saroyan Prize for International Writing from Stanford University. Her latest book, THEY WRITE YOUR NAME ON A GRAIN OF RICE: ON CANCER, LOVE, AND LIVING EVEN SO, was published by Atticus in 2023. lorijakiela.net

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Nicki Johnson is a poet, fantasy writer, copy editor, story editor, proofreader, and writing consultant. Her sixth literary opus, The Marassa: Book I of the Birth*Life*Death Series, won the 2022 Lee & Low Books’ New Visions Award, and is set for publication in spring 2026. She lives in Los Angeles.

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Jeremy Jusek teaches technical and creative writing, internet marketing, and copywriting. As Poet Laureate of Parma and founder of the Flamingo Writers, he hosts Ohio Poetry Asscoation’s podcast Poetry Spotlight. Widely published, he focuses on social justice issues and poetry as a community outreach tool.

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Charles Kell is the author of Ishmael Mask, (Autumn House Press, 2023.) His first collection, Cage of Lit Glass, (Autumn House Press, 2019) was chosen by Kimiko Hahn for the 2018 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize.

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Richard Klin is the author of the novel PETROLEUM TRANSFER ENGINEER (2018, Underground Voices). His work has been published in THE MILLIONS, the ATLANTIC, the BROOKLYN RAIL, CULTURAL DAILY, and many others.

Ellen Kombiyil is the author of Histories of the Future Perfect (2015), and a micro chapbook Avalanche Tunnel (2016) and Love as Invasive Species, Cornerstone Press (2024). A 2022 BRIO Award winner from the Bronx Council on the Arts, she teaches creative writing and composition at Hunter College. ellenkombiyil.com

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Nancy Krygowski is Tiny Day's Pittsburgh Bureau Chief and staff meteorologist/poet. She is the author of two books of poetry. When she's not working on Tiny Day, she's teaching poetry at Carlow University's Madwomen in the Attic writing program and serving as a co-editor of The Pitt Poetry Series. purpleporch.net/krygowski

Paula J. Lambert’s fourth full-length poetry collection As If This Did Not Happen Every Day is from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. She has authored five chapbooks, including Uncertainty (The Only Hope We Have), from Bottlecap Press. Lambert is a visual artist, small-press publisher, and literary translator. Her work has been recognized by PEN America and supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband Michael Perkins, a philosopher and technologist. www.paulajlambert.com

Dawn Leas has published A Person Worth Knowing (Foothills), Take Something When You Go (Winter Goose), and I Know When to Keep Quiet, (FLP) with poetry in Literary Mama, The Pedestal Magazine, SWWIM, and elsewhere. She’s a writer, writing coach, editor, and arts educator who lives in northeastern Pennsylvania. thehammockwriter.com

Cathy Cultice Lentes recently retired from teaching and working with students with disabilities. She is a poet who also writes creative nonfiction and works for children. She received her MFA in Writing for Young People from the Solstice Program in 2013. Her chapbook Getting the Mail was published in 2016.

Michael Loderstedt is a visual artist, writer, urban farmer, sailor, birder, activist, citizen, husband & father, and a decent cook.

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Diana Lueptow has received the Wick Chapbook Prize and two Individual Excellence grants from the Ohio Arts Council. She holds an MA and MFA and studied literature and writing at Miami University, The University of Akron, and the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She has always lived in the Great Lakes Midwest.

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