Sara Frances self-identifies as a photojournalist-poet with a personal storytelling mission. She is uniquely prepared and equipped to judge poetry books from both content and design aspects. Based in part on her comparative experiences judging art and photographic contests and book contests, she has formulated a new way to evaluate and award the many, diverse sub-sets of the poetry genre.
Jen Soriano (she/they) is a Filipinx writer and movement builder who has long worked at the intersection of grassroots organizing, narrative strategy, and art-driven social change. Jen is the author of Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing, which was recognized by TIME, GLAMOUR, The Atlantic, Poets&Writers, and other outlets as a notable book of 2023.
Tanicia Pratt is an interdisciplinary poet, writer, and artist from the Bahamas. She began her career in Nassau’s underground poetry scene, dedicating years to spoken word performance before moving to London to study experimental poetics. Tanicia defines her practice as a spiritual act, creating space for divine connection, introspection, transformation, and ancestral reverence. She is currently interested in writing through the body within the Caribbean landscape and an afro-feminist lens.
Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, two novels, and a photo memoir of her 400-mile trek in the Nepal Himalayas. She is also Chief Editor of Blue Light Press. While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems won the 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Poetry. Diane plays cello in the Golden Gate Symphony and collaborated with Matt Arnerich to create an orchestral suite based on her poem, “Tree of Life.”
Sharon Gelman is a writer, editor, and activist. She was the U.S. managing editor and lead interviewer for 200 Women: Who Will Change the Way You See the World (Chronicle, 2017). As longtime head of Artists for a New South Africa, she created the award-winning audiobook Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales (Hachette, 2009) and penned the afterword for the unabridged audiobook of Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom (Little, Brown, 2013).
I’m Molly. I am 32. Married with two beautiful daughters. I work as a pharmacy technician. My hobbies include reading, pc gaming, and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Lida Amiri is a former refugee from Afghanistan and a multilingual artist fluent in English, French, Persian and German. She writes multilingual poetry and translates Persian poetry into English. As Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, Lida teaches prose and poetry while contributing with her research to Persianate and Refugee Studies.
I am a ukelele-playing, Lego-building, mother-of-two writer from Australia, with many opinions about how science fiction should explore the grey areas of life. I thrive on doing lots of things: some of them well, all of them with gusto. When not writing science fiction, I build websites for creative people, write about photography, wield a camera with enthusiasm, and I have been known to teach teenagers physics and math, too.
Caterina Sauro is a multi-faceted artist, poet, and graphic designer. She’s the self-published author of Hi, My Name is Monella, an anthology of work including 80 poems and 20 illustrations released in October 2022, reflecting the journey of her return to self post-divorce. As much as she loves to hold a mic and perform, Caterina also designs book covers, logos, and other custom artwork on commission. As the founder of Exprosé, a free writing workshop series based in Mississauga, Caterina enjoys creating space for poets and poetry enthusiasts to celebrate each other and write together.
Annie Tan is an educator, writer, activist, speaker, and storyteller from Chinatown, Manhattan. Annie is working on her first book, Learning to Speak: A Daughter’s Journey Toward Languages, Activism, and Legacy, a memoir of not sharing a common fluent language with her parents while wanting to uphold the legacy of her cousin Vincent Chin, whose 1982 Detroit murder sparked an Asian American civil rights movement.
Christian Garduno’s work can be read in over 100 literary magazines. He is the recipient of the 2019 national Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry, a Finalist in the 2020-2021 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Writing Contest, and a Finalist in the 2021 Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize. He lives and writes along the South Texas coast with his wonderful wife Nahemie and young son Dylan.
Mariella Saavedra Carquin has practiced as a licensed mental health counselor in New York City in clinical, higher education, and middle school settings and now works as a clinician in integrated pediatric primary care. She is a graduate of Middlebury College, holds an EdM and an MA in psychological counseling from Columbia University, and recently earned an MA from Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. She was the first-place winner of the Robert Haiduke Poetry Prize in 2020 and the third-place winner in 2022.
Debbie Bowles is a writer, reader and media assistant at her local elementary school. She has won numerous writing contests and loves a challenge. When she’s not working, you can find her in her garden, at any bookstore or traveling for inspiration for her writing. Her current manuscript was written due to a lack of stories addressing children whose parents are incarcerated. Debbie resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, not only in the beautiful home she grew up in, but where she and her husband over the years raised two daughters and several corgis.
Kathie Giorgio is the author of a total of fifteen books: eight novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. Her newest novel, Don’t Let Me Keep You, will be released on October 3, 2024. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award in Fiction.
Nancy Brashear lives in Southern California with her husband, Patrick, where her grown children and seven grandgirls support her writing. She began her teaching career as a credentialed k-12 teacher and reading specialist and ended as a university professor. She has published short stories, poems, academic articles, textbook chapters, and educational website content. Gunnysack Hell, her debut thriller, was inspired by a true-crime event. And, yes, she did live off-grid with her family in a homestead cabin in the Mojave Desert when she was a child.
Adam Horvath grew up in Bayside, Queens, and studied English at Columbia, where he was infected by Chaucerian irony and the “metaphysical ideas and scholastical quiddities” of John Donne & Co. He never recovered. After a two-year stint as Navigator of the cargo vessel USS Arcturus, he embarked on a career as a senior acquisitions editor at several university presses and a trade book editor for McGraw-Hill.
A.H. Zamparelli lives in New Jersey, U.S., with her husband Rick, and enjoys writing, and reading mystery novels and historical biographies. In addition, Annie enjoys sketching now and then, having provided the artwork for a children’s story as gifts for her niece’s and nephew’s babies.
Kristen Henderson began her writing career decades ago at the Stanford Daily (Stanford University), where she served as editor-in-chief. Her life has seen a lot of twists and turns through medical challenges, bringing her to understand that the creative process of writing fiction is where she thrives. During the pandemic, she founded Bright Flash Literary Review, an online journal for flash fiction and memoir. Through Bright Flash, Kristen has developed a vast online community of writers from all over the world.
Kim D. Brandon is a Poet/Artist/Activist/Storyteller. Her work has been included in stage performances, anthologies, and journals. She is a 2021 Brooklyn Poets’ Poet of the Week, and a VONA alum. Her poem “Love On the Front Line” was nominated for Best Of the Net. She has attended Women of Color Writers, Wild Seed Retreats and Cave Canem Writers Workshops.
Rayshell E. Clapper lives and loves in Martinez, CA, where she spends her time with words as a writer and a Professor of English at Diablo Valley College. She began her teaching career in 2002 and has found her dream job at DVC. She’s deeply involved with the literary community of her campus bringing authors to read, hosting the biannual Literature Week, and planning mini-workshops for creative writers. She loves teaching about the power of words, helping students tap into that power, and spreading her enthusiasm for writing and reading.