Sebastián H. Páramo is the author of Portrait of Us Burning (Northwestern University Press/Curbstone Books, 2023). His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, Poetry Northwest, The Arkansas International, Prairie Schooner, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, and elsewhere. His work has received fellowships and support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program at UT-Austin, and CantoMundo. Sebastián received his MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the University of North Texas. He is the founding editor of The Boiler, Poetry Editor for Deep Vellum, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

Kimberely Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American diaspora poet originally from Omaha, Nebraska but now living in New York City. Her work can be found in diaCRITICS, Muzzle Magazine, The Minnesota Review, The Journal and others. She was a recipient of a Beatrice Daw Brown Prize, and 2023 Best of the Net. She was a 2021 Emerging Voices Fellow at PEN America and was a 2022-2023 Poetry Coalition Fellow.

Angélique Jamail is a Lebanese-American author whose poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including Synkroniciti, Equinox, New Reader Magazine, Waxwing, The Milk of Female Kindness, Femmeliterate, Literary Mama, and others, and her poetry has been featured on the radio. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions, has been a finalist for the New Letters Prize in Poetry, and has won various essay contests. The first time she read one of her stories to an audience was fourth grade; it was a character-building experience. Her novelette Finis. (Odeon Press), first published in 2014, has been praised by fiction writer Ari Marmell as having “some of the most real people I’ve encountered via text in a long time,” and by poet Marie Marshall as “a witty tale of conformity, prejudice, and transformation, in a world that is disturbing as much for its familiarity as for its strangeness.” Her poetry collection The Sharp Edges of Water came out in 2018, and Homecoming, a standalone follow-up to Finis., in 2020, both from Odeon Press. She is the Creative Writing Director at The Kinkaid School in Houston and began serving on the Board of Directors for Mutabilis Press in December 2019. She’s also the creator of the popular zine Sonic Chihuahua. Find her online at her blog Sappho’s Torque and on social media.

Fortune Onwunali, also known as Chief Ikenna, emerges from the vibrant city of Houston with a cultural backdrop rooted in a Nigerian household. As a graduate of Wiley University and a former Great Debater, he refined his talents at the Nate Parker Foundation Film Institute. Noteworthy accomplishments include contributing to the 2023 Southern Fried National Poetry Competition where he became part of the National Championship Slam Team and making a memorable debut in the musical, “A Motown Christmas” at The Ensemble Theater. Chief Ikenna’s creative flair extends to TikTok, where he crafts humorous and innovative videos during his free time. Acknowledging the influence of a higher power, he remains grateful for the opportunity to use his God-given talents to weave impactful stories and inspire positive change.