POETS
Michelle Bitting (Facebook, Instagram, Website) was short-listed for the 2020 Montreal International Poetry Prize and the 2021 Fish Poetry Contest judged by Billy Collins. She won the 2018 Fischer Poetry Prize, Quarter After Eight’s 2018 Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest, and a fourth collection of poetry, Broken Kingdom won the 2018 Catamaran Prize and was named to Kirkus Review’s Best of 2018. In 2021, her manuscript Nightmares & Miracles won the Wilder Prize and will be published by Two Sylvias Press in 2022. Michelle is a Lecturer in Poetry and Creative Writing at Loyola Marymount University and Film Studies at U of Arizona Global. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Kristina Erny (Instagram, Website) (she/her) is a poet and third-culture kid who grew up in South Korea. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s MFA program, her work has been published in Yemassee, Tupelo Quarterly, and the Los Angeles Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Prize and the Tupelo Quarterly Inaugural Poetry award. After many years of working internationally with her husband, sons, and daughter, she currently makes a living by teaching creative writing to college students in central Kentucky.
Brianna Flavin lives in St. Paul, Minnesota where she teaches English, gardens and volunteers for the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She has two children and is working on a manuscript about the triskelion. She holds an MFA from the University of Virginia and a fellowship from the Loft Literary Center. Her work has appeared in Timber, Waxwing Literary, and the Nashville Review.
Grace MacNair (Instagram, Website) is a poet, teacher, and healthcare professional. Born and raised in the mountains of North Carolina, she currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BA from UNC Chapel Hill and an MFA from Hunter College, where she taught creative writing. Grace has received support from Brooklyn Poets and research grants from Hunter College. She was an honorable mention in the 2019 NC State Poetry Contest judged by Ada Limón, received a High Commendation in the 2020 Ledbury Poetry Festival Poetry Competition, was a finalist for the 2021 Sappho Prize, and is a recipient of a 2021 Monson Arts’ Residency and Fellowship to conduct archival research related to 18th century midwifery. Grace was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2021 Frost Place Chapbook Fellowship sponsored by Bull City Press and was accepted into the 2021 Bread Loaf Workshop Series. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, RHINO, and elsewhere.
Chloe Martinez (Instagram, Twitter, Website) is a poet and scholar of South Asian religions. She is the author of the collection Ten Thousand Selves (The Word Works) and the chapbook Corner Shrine (Backbone Press). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah and elsewhere. She is the Program Coordinator for the Center for Writing and Public Discourse at Claremont McKenna College. See more at www.chloeAVmartinez.com or follow Chloe on Twitter @chloepoet.
Ottawa-born and Costa Rica-based, Cara Waterfall’s (Website, Twitter, Instagram) poetry has been featured in Best Canadian Poetry, CV2, The Fiddlehead, SWWIM, The Night Heron Barks, and more. She has won Room’s 2018 Short Forms contest, Room's 2020 Poetry Contest and PULPLit’s 2020 Editors’ Prize. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize. Most recently, her manuscript was a finalist for the Animal Heart Press Poetry Chapbook contest. She has a diploma in Poetry & Lyric Discourse from The Writer’s Studio at SFU. Learn more at carawaterfall.com.
Visual Artists
Emmet Abrams (Instagram) is a 20-year-old storyboard artist, screenwriter, and self-described “professional jester” from Los Angeles, California. He is currently a second year Film and Television B.A. at UCLA, specializing in animation while also minoring in LGBTQ studies. He can be found @nylonbandit on Instagram.
Bill Bitting was a painter, poet, and much loved brother and friend. His work is published with permission from the artist’s estate and the Yale University Art Gallery.
Kristina Erny (Instagram, Website) (she/her) is a poet and third-culture kid who grew up in South Korea. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s MFA program, her work has been published in Yemassee, Tupelo Quarterly, and the Los Angeles Review, among other journals. She is the recipient of the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Prize and the Tupelo Quarterly Inaugural Poetry award. After many years of working internationally with her husband, sons, and daughter, she currently makes a living by teaching creative writing to college students in central Kentucky.
Tia Factor (Website) received her BFA from the California College of the Arts (CCA) and her MFA from the University of California at Berkeley. Her work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions from Oregon to Denmark, Chicago to Tasmania, and exhibited in such notable venues as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF), Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Berkeley Art Museum, Richmond Art Center (CA), Oliver Art Center (CCA, Oakland), Southern Exposure (SF), Pacific Northwest College of Art, Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery (UT), Torrance Art Museum (CA), The Center for Contemporary Arts (Santa Fe), the Schneider Museum at Southern Oregon University in Ashland and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum (JSMA) at PSU. Factor has been featured in art magazines and on-line publications including Bear Deluxe, Stretcher, Artweek, New American Paintings, NAU NUA (Spain), The Semi-Finalist and art ltd. She was a RACC Professional Development Grant recipient and an artist in resident through Arts Tasmania and the Vermont Studio Center. She teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and at the School of Art + Design (PSU), co-curates Erickson Gallery and is the program director of a yearly study abroad art course in Berlin. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Learn more at tiafactor.com.
Poet/photographer, Alexis Rhone Fancher (Website) has authored seven collections, including The Dead Kid Poems (KYSO Flash Press) and Junkie Wife (Moon Tide Press). EROTIC:New & Collected, from New York Quarterly, dropped in March 2021. She’s published in Best American Poetry, Nasty WomenPoets, Tinderbox, The American Journal of Poetry, Diode, Spillway, and elsewhere. Her photographs are featured worldwide, including the covers of The Pedestal Magazine, Witness, Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review, Heyday, and Pithead Chapel, and a 5-page spread in River Styx. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Daily. Learn more at www.alexisrhonefancher.com.
Soyoung Kim (Website, Instagram, Pinterest, VSCO, Twitter) was born in Seoul, South Korea, but grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. Soyoung made her way to the USA for college and received an MFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Mayita Mendez (Website, Instagram) is a professional photographer based in New York City, Canada, and El Salvador. She was the first female staff photographer for El Diario/La Prensa and later was on staff for the daily New York City based newspaper Newsday. Her photography has been featured in major newspapers across the country, from The New York Times, NY Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Hartford Courant to the Los Angeles Times. In 2004 she went on to receive a Presidential Scholarship at the Rhode Island School of Design where she received her MFA. Her work has been recognized by the New York Newspaper Publishers Association, the Newswomen's Club of New York, and the National Association of Hispanic Publications. In 2001 she was featured in Photo District News Magazine's 30 under 30 as a young photographer to watch. She was also invited to participate in the Eddie Adam's Workshop and won the New York Times Magazine award. Her short film on a camp for inner city children which she co-directed and produced was selected for the Independent Film Project film festival. After graduating from RISD in 2006 she embarked on a 15-year personal journey of healing and practitioner trainings. Although she never put down her camera, she retreated from the professional world of photography and entered the world of energy and transformation. This training led her to facilitate wellness workshops, hands-on energy sessions, and deep meditation retreats. At the same time, she received training as a professional coffee taster and Quality-grader for a roaster in NYC and worked with her family coffee farm in El Salvador. She traveled through Central and South America working with coffee farmers helping them bring their product to market. In 2014 she began a personal photography project, taking one image a day for 6 years and is in the process of finding a publisher for her project Packing Light, a book of images from this series. In June of 2020 she held an exhibition of her work Silent Light, meditative photographs of her local landscape in British Columbia. In July of 2021 she participated in a group show at Foley Gallery in NYC.
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