Issue no. 1 contributors

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Hanging Loose, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes, watches Criterion films, and tries to stay out of trouble. His forthcoming books include poetry collections, My Pandemic/Gratitude List from Mōtus Audāx Press and Tell Us How to Live from Fernwood Press, and his first short-story collection, Always One Mistake from Running Wild Press.

Bea Bouman is a visual artist who takes the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none approach to the arts. They are an artist interested in the intersections of identity, particularly of gender, disability, race, and class. 

Ashlee Craft is a Best of the Net-nominated artist, poet, writer, photographer, actor, and more, based in Tampa, Florida. Their work often explores themes such as surrealism, nostalgia, gender, queerness, mental health, neurodivergence, and identity through symbolism, storytelling, and color.

Zach Crosswait is a filmmaker, writer, and fine artist based in Chicago, Illinois. He has created abstract visual art, often paired with poetry, for his Instagram @zrc.art since 2018. Some of these visual pieces have been shown at Accorsi Arte gallery in Venice, Italy and at the Saphira & Ventura Gallery in Manhattan, New York. Zach has made 15 short films and four features, most of which can be found on his YouTube page @zrc.filmmaker. His most recent movie is titled Secret Messages, a silent spy film that screened at Sweet Void Cinema in 2024. Zach’s poetry publishing debut is in Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine, but he has has been working on a novel since 2020, set in a Pilsen apartment building over the course of one week in early October 2018. The book is a satire about contemporary American life.

Zoë Davis is an emerging writer from Sheffield, England. A quality engineer in advanced manufacturing by day, she spends her evenings and weekends writing poetry and prose. She especially enjoys exploring the interaction between the fantastical and the mundane, with a deeply personal edge to her work. You can find her words in publications such as Ink Sweat & Tears, Strix, Roi Fainéant, Funicular Magazine and Red Ogre Review. You can also follow her on Twitter @MeanerHarker, where she's always happy to have a virtual coffee and a chat. 

Nathan Doty is a fine artist based out of Chicago, Illinois. He specializes in working in multiple different mediums, but as of late his practice has moved into the realm of quilting, fabric based works, and soft sculpture.

Gavin DuBois is a filmmaker and writer based in Chicago, Illinois. His short films have played at genre and underground film festivals across North America. In his creative work, Gavin pulls from themes of nature and the human connection between place and self, an artistic preoccupation nurtured by the landscapes of his hometown in the Catskill-Hudson Valley. Now that he’s in Chicago, Gavin draws inspiration from Lake Michigan and the wide midwestern skies.

Mal Grace is a Chicago-based writer who is unconcerned with genre or form. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mal is not afraid to get sweaty, grimy, or uncomfortable. Further inspired by the wisdom of the natural world, Mal hopes to support collective liberation with their work. She has been featured in print and online with the World Poetry Collective. Find them on Substack @slownnnotion. 

Erica Hasselbach writes from Chicago, where she also works and studies. Focusing on concepts of loss, identity, and memory, she makes her writing debut in Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine.

Rohit Karir is a storyteller, freelance writer, and blogger. His poetry and flash fiction have appeared in Haiku Shack Magazine, Delhi Poetry Slam, Serotonin Press, Books Ireland Magazine, and Paragraph Planet. He has been a journalist for news publications that include The Times of India and the global newswire Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). He can't last long without an itch for putting together himself and the world in words. Find him on Twitter @RohitKarir and medium.com/@rkarir.

Asmi Kartikeya is a writer living in Delhi. Her work has been published/is forthcoming in minor literature[s], RIC Journal, and others. Find her on Twitter @kafka_aise_kyun.

Daithí Kearney is an Irish poet and musician. From County Kerry, he now lives and lectures in County Louth on the east coast. His poetry is inspired by his surroundings and his young family. His poems have been recently published in Martello, Drawn to the Light, and Field Guide.

Maëlle Keita is a French law student, living in the Parisian region. She's always reading and writing in between assignments. She can be found on Twitter @maelleta.

Ayesha Khan has been writing ever since she learned what alphabets are—she writes constantly, everywhere, in journals, in her notes app, on napkins at overpriced coffee shops, and in school magazines every academic year since the second grade. Now almost a senior in college, writing is still the  intangible, irreplaceable, magical world it was when she first stepped into it. She usually writes long opinionated essays, fiction when she feels uncomfortable, and poetry when she wants to speak the truth while lying.

Bushra Khan is a Chicago-based multimedia artist. With a passion for storytelling through vulnerability and faith, her work transcends the traditional artist-viewer relationship, inviting audiences into the creative process. Bushra’s art has been exhibited in prestigious spaces including the New York Trade Center, galleries across Canada, and more. Her work is dedicated to making tangible works of life’s intangible feelings: the love and heartbreak of it all. 

Emma Lee is a UK-based writer whose publications include The Significance of a Dress (Arachne, 2020) and Ghosts in the Desert (IDP, 2015). She co-edited Over Land, Over Sea, (Five Leaves, 2015), reviews for magazines, and blogs at https://emmalee1.wordpress.com.

Juan Madrigal is a third-generation Chicano based out of Chicago, Illinois. Born in Fremont, California, Juan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from UC Berkeley. After teaching for five years and earning his Master’s in Education from UIC, Juan now works as a data analyst for a non-profit. In his spare time, Juan enjoys cuddling with his cat Guts, watching anime, playing video games, climbing plastic rocks, and riding his bicycle around the city.

mahnoor makes art that explores nostalgia and memory. she likes to create a sense of warmth and wonder through her work, relying on soft pastel colors and glows to mimic what a hazy memory feels like to her. find her on instagram @n00rgh0st.

Zafar Malik has a diverse background in both the arts and academia. He serves as the Director of Publications and Dean for Development and University Relations at East-West University in Chicago. His editorial journey includes his role as Managing Editor for East-West Affairs, a journal by East-West University's Center for Policy and Future Studies. Prior to his move to Chicago in 2000, Malik was based in London, where he contributed as the Art Director of Arts & The Islamic World, a quarterly journal. He currently holds the position of Deputy Editor for Critical Muslim (CM), a journal published by Hurst Publishers. Malik's literary pursuits include collaborating with a poet friend to translate Punjabi poems of the renowned poet Munir Niazi into English. Together, they have also published an Urdu translation of a poem by American poet Tara Skurtu, showcasing his dedication to bridging cultures through poetry. As an active artist, Malik maintains a studio at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, where he paints and exhibits his work regularly.

Faisal Mohyuddin is the author of Elsewhere: An Elegy (Next Page, 2024), The Displaced Children of Displaced Children (Eyewear, 2018), and the chapbook The Riddle of Longing (Backbone, 2017; Bull City, 2026). His recent work appears in Mizna, RHINO, Poetry, diode, and Jet Fuel Review, and in the anthologies Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World and What Things Cost: An Anthology for the People. He teaches high school English in suburban Chicago and creative writing at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies. He is also a visual artist.

Sara Muttar is a 23-year-old Muslim woman based in Chicago. She was born in Iraq and raised in Jordan before resettling with her family in Chicago at age seven. Her writing spans fiction and nonfiction, mostly extrapolating from her personal experiences with Islam, asylum, world-building, and the adolescent voice. As a second-year medical student at Northwestern University, writing is her solace and bridge from medicine to all corners of the universe. She hopes to share parts of the world as she sees and lives it, with pensive yet witty intonations.

Phoebe Nerem is a creative writer and visual artist torn between beauty and terror. Their work explores queerness, feeling crazy, and having a romantic fascination with fire. After miraculously earning their Bachelor's from DePaul University, their artistic and written work has been featured in numerous publications, including Get Back To Print's “Luminous Beings Are We” and Emotional Alchemy’s “Sex, Love, and Other Magic.” Now, Phoebe continues to feel crazy and ravenously reads, writes, and creates artwork for the beloved collective.

Sarah R. New (she/her) has been writing since she was six. She specialises primarily in horror or fiction with horrific elements, but also writes speculative fiction and non-fiction. Her self published travel memoir, The Great European Escape, was released in 2023, and her Gothic horror novella, Amissis Liberis, was published in 2024. Sarah lives in the U.K. but frequently travels internationally. She can be found on Bluesky, Instagram, and X @aldbera or at sarahrnew.wordpress.com.

Benjamin Niespodziany is a Chicago-based writer whose work has appeared in Indiana Review, Fence, Booth, Conduit, Bennington Review, and elsewhere. His writing has been featured in the Wigleaf Top 50 and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, and Best of the Net. The host of a bi-monthly reading series known as Neon Night Mic, he also recently launched his own indie press known as Piżama Press.

Anna Nguyen has been a displaced PhD student for many years, in many different programs and departments at many different universities in many different countries. She decided to rewrite her dissertation in the form of creative non-fiction as an MFA student at Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine, which blends her theoretical training in literary analysis, science and technology studies, and social theory to reflect on institutions, language, expertise, the role of citations, and food. She is also preparing for her second MFA, in poetry at New England College where she is an adjunct instructor. She also hosts a podcast, Critical Literary Consumption, which features authors, poets, and scholars discussing their written work and their thoughts on reading and writing practices. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @anannadroid.

Farhan Nurdiansyah is a 22-year-old Indonesian writer studying Communication Science. He has work published or forthcoming in londemere lit, Waffle Fried, and more. Free Palestine. 

Vaghawan Ojha is a writer from Kathmandu, Nepal. The wind chimes with the sweet fragrance of all new leaves, and sometimes, they have nice drizzles. Some of Vaghawan’s works have made their way through literary journals, lately, appearing or forthcoming in Cable Street, Porch Lit, Call me [Bracket], and elsewhere. His forthcoming chapbook is being published by Ethel Micro Press.

Samuel Plauché is a poet, journalist, and prose writer based in Chicago, Illinois. Influenced by his upbringing in rural Washington, his lived experiences, and travel, Plauché's writing offers not an analysis but a playful dance with love, loss, halfhearted attempts at defining "freedom," and various other paradoxes (his favorite word), set deep within dark forests, crowded city streets, or the highways between. He has been published in CommuterLit, Black Poppy Review, and Mementos CHI. His novels, As The Rain Falls and BANDIT, are available for purchase on the Raging Opossum Press website, the publishing house he runs, or various Chicago bookstores such as Tangible, Quimby's, and Citylite. 

Colette Postaer—named after the late, great French writer of the 1920s—was destined to put feeling to paper. Her journals are filled with boundless poetry and raw, stream-of-consciousness short stories. Writing is the medium that continues to resonate with her; it feels the most poignant, the most true. Colette is the founder and creative director of Knotted Lace, a Chicago-based art magazine. Deeply community-driven, she is committed to building spaces for creative expression. She writes to connect—and shares her stanzas with anyone willing to listen.

David Raygoza is a writer, born in Culiacán and raised in Texas. He really likes kindness and sincerity, music and poetry, sci-fi and horror. 

Tori Rego is a writer from Charleston, South Carolina. She currently lives in Chicago where she hosts the monthly reading series Written on a Napkin. Her poetry chapbook Briefly, Gently was recognized as a finalist for the Chicago Reader's Best New Poetry Book by a Chicagoan in 2024. A complete list of her published work can be found at www.torirego.com.

Stefanie Reinhart is an artist based in Oslo, Norway. Since October 2023, she started the solidarity art project NO SILENCE IN THE ARTS FOR GAZA (with the hashtag #nosilenceintheartsforgaza and #12x12solidarity), where creative people from all around the world have participated. Her mission is to create art to show the real horrors of the current situation in Gaza—from baby formula and water shortages to bombings at aid distribution sites—and reach new people every day. Stefanie is a Buddhist, and her work ethic is based on compassion and kindness; she still believes in humanity even though we are in a dark place right now. Her mantra is: “Stronger together!”

Maddy Rowe is a poet and performance artist. Their current interests include, but are not limited to: fermentation, cultivation, dirt, teeth, the water cycle, food systems, urban infrastructure, death, motherhood, the digestive system, and the feeling of the sun drying the ocean water on your skin. Maddy approaches their artwork as a kind of metabolization of the world, a practice in which they break down the raw material and process it into language that reflects how things are changed through consciousness and consumption. In a world that is always already happening, she seeks to move intentionally through the constant churning that is the human experience. You can follow them on Instagram @squigglybitch_ for jokes mostly.

Patricia Russo's work has appeared in One Art, The Sunlight Press, Vagabond City, Hex Literary, Heimat, Waffle Fried, The Engine Idling, Revolution John, and Crow and Cross Keys.

Satori is an author, poet, teacher, and community activist based in Chicago. Her writing explores themes of identity, belonging, and transformation, drawing on her upbringing in Upstate New York, generational trauma, the immigrant experience, and love in all its forms. When she needs advice, she goes to the rustle of leaves in the breeze, the hum of cicadas, a spider making webs atop her windowsill, and other lovely things. Satori’s work has appeared in several Chicago literary magazines, and her short story “Cap de Xai” is featured in the anthology Dream.Fm (Raging Opossum Press). Monsters, Clowns, & The Holy Fool, published October 2025, is Satori’s debut collection of poetry and prose.

Ayden Scott is a poet and performer from Chicago, and the author of A Fool’s Gambit. His work wrestles with love, faith, and belief through a voice that is raw, devotional, and unguarded, mixing mythology and confession. Ayden curates and hosts open mics across Chicago, including Notes App Poetry Night and Reach Out Touch Faith, cultivating spaces for spoken word.

Brandon Shane is a poet and horticulturist, born in Yokosuka, Japan. His work can be seen in trampset, Variant Lit, Chiron Review, Stone Circle Review, Heimat Review, among others. He graduated from Cal State, Long Beach with a degree in English.

Sameen Shakya’s poems have been published in Alternate Route, Cosmic Daffodil, Hearth and Coffin, Roi Faineant, Thin Veil Press, and more. Born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, he moved to the USA in 2015 to pursue writing. He earned an undergraduate degree in creative writing from St. Cloud State University and traveled the country for a couple of years to gain further informal education. He returned to Kathmandu in 2022 and is currently based there.

Eli Sugerman is a writer and illustrator based in Chicago, Illinois. His writing has appeared in Raging Opossum Press, Mangoprism, Two Headed Press, and Same Faces Collective. He runs Borametz Press, an experimental publishing project, alongside Dizzy Turek.

Dylan Terry is a Chicago-based writer and professional nerd. His prose attempts to show how humanity can exist within messy and bizarre circumstances, though sometimes he writes about rock concerts and bug-people. His award-winning audio-drama and improv comedy podcast work can be found by searching for Some Nobodies on all platforms.

Anca Varvara-Piccozzi can be found writing poetry and fiction most often in her notes app, a chaotic and loose approach that weaves itself into something over time or in an instant. Therapist by day (and by night), she gathers inspiration lately from sea shells, ovulation, light filtering through the trees, Nicholas Cage, the taste of fruit, the sound of heels walking, and monastic life. If you’re lucky, you may catch her reading smut and other classical works by the lake, crocheting in a coffee shop, or zipping past you on a bike in Chicago. 

Ethan Viets-VanLear is a Black abolitionist poet born and raised on the far north side of Chicago. He is also the co-founder of Stick Talk, a mutual aid association co-created by young Black and Brown people who are both authors and survivors of gun-related harms, and the author of Antidote, his first completed collection of poetry. He is currently working on his second collection of poetry, Code Switch.

​​Rebecca Watson is a writer and storyteller whose work blends humor, metaphor, and emotional honesty, often with a dark, horror-tinged edge. She is the creator of the Substack publications Stay Weird Press, where she explores everything from absurd short fiction to eerie, unsettling tales and reflections on identity, motherhood, and the strange poetry of everyday life. Her work moves between the chaotic and the profound, searching for beauty, fear, and meaning in unexpected places.

Jenny Whidden is a writer from Rolling Meadows, Illinois, with a background in climate journalism. As a reporter, her work has been published in the Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune, and others. Jenny is also a co-host of Poets’ Club of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her PC and her black cat, Princeton.

gray lindsey is a poet and student from Orlando, Florida. They learned linguistics in undergrad and are now pursuing a Master’s of Social Work at the University of Chicago, where they hope to work towards decarceration for marginalized populations. Their work is often political and always gay—they love writing about transnes s, spirituality, psychedelia, and queer relationships. Some of their previous work can be found in the Bacopa Review and TEA Literary Magazine. When they’re not writing, you can find them reading, learning a new art form, or petting a neighborhood cat.

Ammara Younas is a poet and writer from Gujranwala, Pakistan. Her work has found a home in spaces like Rattle, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Verse Daily, ONLY POEMS, Tahoma Literary Review, The Shore, The Marrow Poetry, wildscape. literary journal, Gabby & Min's Literary Review, The Imagist, Small World City, Lakeer, and Resonance. She has worked as a prose & poetry editor at Subtext Literary Magazine. 

Zaid Zaheer sometimes has trouble reading. Maybe hard of hearing. God save him from typos.