OPENING LETTERS > FROM THE EDITORS

It's October, and I'm surrounded by ghosts.

In some ways, it's intentional. Each year, I revisit Ray Bradbury's The October Country and pop in my VHS tape of The Halloween Tree. In the Introduction of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, he recalls speaking to ghosts as a child. In other words, he spent time in libraries, reading works by deceased authors who left stories behind. This idea sticks with me. It elevates the plot of Bradbury's "Last Rites," in which a time traveler visits authors on their deathbeds, such as Edgar Allen Poe and Herman Melville, assuring them that their works will live on for centuries. In this way, we truly speak to the dead, and artists live forever.

Jason and I began reading submissions for Issue 33 in the summer swelter of July. Since then, ghosts have found us. We never set thematic parameters around an issue; instead, we seek works that move us and our readers intellectually and emotionally. Yet, the lingering spirit of Issue 33 would not be denied. A glance at some of the titles makes it clear that ghosts are in our midst. Perennial contributors Lorrie Ness and Annette Sisson offer the poems "Resident Ghost" and "Of Graveyards and Milkweed," while newcomers Tara Hashagan, A.V. Anjali Menon, and Garima Chhikara give us "Measured in Ghosts," "The Good Spirit," and "The Ghost I Refused to Raise." If you look carefully, you'll find different kinds of ghosts in pieces like "Tethered" by Ashleigh Adams and "Ọ̀rẹ́ Mi (My Friend)" by Titilayo Matiku.

For many of us, the ghosts that haunt us reside in the deep caverns of that which is unresolved. In a recent interview featuring Isabella Hammad, author of the novel Enter Ghost, she reminds us that "ghosts always have a command or some sort of unfinished business...[they] always suggest something that needs to be done… something that is not complete…something that’s unfinished.”

One year ago, I made a conscious effort to face one of my ghosts. At the age of 13, I saw my first production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the intimate setting of The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, MN, Bernardo and Marcellus appeared out of the darkness with the chilling first line, "Who's there?" I've been hooked ever since.

Over the past 30 years, I've seen hundreds of productions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works on stage and screen, and several bookshelves in my home are dedicated to the Bard. I've taught his works in my classroom, talked with friends into the wee hours of the night after a performance, and felt the full range of human emotions thanks to Will's canon, but one piece of unfinished business kept nagging at me. I never had the guts to perform his works myself. I'm an educator by trade, and I've dabbled a bit in community theater, but I've never performed Shakespeare. So when I saw an audition announcement post on social media about a local production of Hamlet, I had to give it a shot. 

In February, I filled out my audition form, listing King Claudius, Horatio, or Polonius as preferred roles, but said I'd take any part. Deep down, I knew if I got even two lines, I'd commit to the show. I wanted to surround myself with Shakespeare’s language each night and connect with people who were passionate about bringing the story and characters to life.

After the initial audition and callbacks, I received an email from the director with my role -- the Ghost. 

Talk about characters with unfinished business: the ghost of Prince Hamlet's father sets the whole revenge plot into motion! For the next several months, I spent nearly every free moment exploring this character, his motivations, the beat and pulse of his lines, and how he fits into Shakespeare's world. There were plenty of times in the rehearsal stages where I felt out of my depth. In the process, I was open to failure and criticism, while feeling driven, energized, and supported by my fellow actors. I discovered more about Shakespeare's words, more about what it takes to be an artist, and more about what it means to be human. Maybe that's what comes from meeting our ghosts.

Our director made a compelling choice by layering the casting, asking me to play the Gravedigger and Player King as well. He wanted vestiges of Hamlet’s father to appear in each of the three characters that I portrayed, in tremendously subtle ways. This happens in our lives, too. A flower sprouts out of nowhere and reminds you of a lost loved one; a song, a scent, or a shift in the wind brings them back to you at the most unexpected times. Thinking about Issue 33, I see ghosts like this appear in the lines of these poems and narratives as well. They remind me that love is an unfinished business. Devotion is an unfinished business. Grief is an unfinished business. You'll find it all here.

Rounding out my brushes with ghosts, my favorite podcast recently featured Werner Herzog as this month’s guest. At the age of 83, the actor, director, and writer has over 80 films to his credit, and he has received multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards. Yet, he still feels he has unfinished business. He has his own ghosts that swirl and tell him there's more to accomplish, more to learn, and more to share. His most recent film, released in 2025, is, of course, Ghost Elephants. (Could it have been any other title?) The documentary goes deep into the high plateau of Angola in Southern Africa to seek a mythical herd of elephants, and explores the notion that the spirit of the elephants lives on in the Angolan people. 

It is in this spirit that I welcome you to Issue 33. To our beautiful constellation of writers and poets, and our vibrantly curious and engaged readers, I believe you are here because you also know that in this life, there is always more to learn, more to accomplish, and more to share.

Thank you for sharing this experience with us. Search the dark corners, find the light, and learn from the ghosts that reside in each of these pieces and in each one of you.

Respectfully,

Jeff Sommerfeld, Co-Founder and Co-Editor

Sky Island Journal hails from southwestern New Mexico, where the desert meets the mountains and the indigenous meets the exotic. This is a land of shapeshifters, a place where the old gods find sanctuary. This is a forever land, one of Gemini dualities: a place where the twins of time and space are conjoined. The fabric between worlds is thin here; the boundaries between dimensions are translucent and porous. You feel it in the vibration of your blood: the bright sun of all our warm origins and the dark shadows of all our cool returns. Here we honor death, we savor the sweetness of life, and we delight when the veil between the two is lifted—especially as Día de Muertos approaches.

We live in the presence of ghosts every day, literally and metaphorically, but the ghost that often haunts writers is fear. It may manifest itself as anxiety, self-doubt, shame, excuses, or hesitation. We’re often asked for advice in this regard, and the best we can usually give (as writers ourselves) is to think of one’s haunting as a false flag operation. You think fear is haunting you, but you’re really haunting yourself.

As terrifying and paralyzing as fear can be, it cannot exist on its own. It can only exist in relation to something else. It is an illusion, a mirage. But fear wants what all ghosts want: to be acknowledged. Once acknowledged, it can be respected, reasoned with, seen through, and let go of.

The problem is that writers often prefer to keep their ghosts close, and we cannot argue with this strategy. It produces tremendous art! The muse is, after all, an ephemeral spirit. But the one ghost we caution writers against allowing to become a regular houseguest is fear. When you don’t let go of it, fear gets comfortable in your life quickly, living rent-free. It double dips. It leaves the toilet seat up. It leaves its pizza crusts on the couch and its wet bath towel on the floor.

Before you know it, you’ll be blaming it for everything. Specifically, you’ll blame it for stopping you—stopping you from writing the next great poem, story, essay, memoir, or novel.

The false flag is that fear isn’t actually what’s stopping you, it’s the old version of you—the one who is afraid to die as you change and grow—that’s stopping you. Every hesitation that you feel isn’t really fear holding you back, it’s the ghost of who you used to be trying to survive. Just. One. More. Day.

You’re haunting yourself.

So, whether you’re a writer or not, it’s important to remember that the ghost of fear is not your enemy. Think of its appearance as a funeral bell. It’s a signal that something old is ready to be buried. An old version of you is ready to be let go of. What waits on the other side of letting go? Freedom! Worlds waiting to be explored. Infinite versions of you, just waiting to be lived. Sky Island Journal also exists on the other side, and, if you’re here dear reader, it means that you’ve already crossed over along with our contributors. Issue 33 contains writers who are all trying on new versions of themselves and—having let go of their fear by submitting their work to us—are now being read by over 160,000 people in 150 countries.

As a result, we’ve elected to leave the "scroll-through” experience and the pop-up ads to other literary platforms. By design, each piece of writing in Sky Island Journal opens as a protected Word document for an authentic, focused, and immersive experience that encourages a close, intimate, distraction-free reading of the work. We want your experience with the work of our contributors to be singular—just as it would be on the printed page, with crisp white paper between your collective fingertips. If your last experience with an online lit mag felt more like Tinder-swiping than reading, we offer a refreshing change of pace—one that encourages you to slow down a bit and be fully present.

It should be noted that several poems in this issue with unusually long line lengths will open as JPEGs so fidelity to the author’s original line and stanza breaks can be maintained on all mobile devices around the world.

We created this platform 8 years ago—as truly independent publication—so writers could be free to write, and readers could be free to read. We are not beholden to the politics or agendas of institutions that provide funding conditional on content. We are not beholden to advertisers who coerce editorial decisions by threatening to withhold ad revenue. We are not beholden to the group-think of crowd funding or the fickle patronage of subscribers. We are 100% free from advertising, and everything we publish is 100% free to read. We try to keep ourselves free as well, mainly from our own biases. We read blind throughout our editorial process; no cover letters or bios are allowed to accompany submissions. We select what we believe is the most powerful work from around the world, for every issue, and the identities of each contributor are only revealed to us upon acceptance or decline.

Without advertising to distract from and cheapen the literary experience, you can fully engage with the worlds that our contributors have so carefully crafted for you. Without bullshit paywalls, you’re welcome to read and enjoy whenever you like, wherever you like, regardless of your means. We believe in removing the barriers between readers and access to high quality literature, especially in regions of the world that have traditionally been underserved by English language journals or completely ignored by the literary establishment.

So, welcome to Sky Island Journal. Of the 2,595 individual pieces that we received from around the world for Issue 33, we found these 56 to be the most powerful. Enjoy!

Respectfully,

Jason Splichal, Co-Founder and Co-Editor

A.V. Anjali Menon > Flash Fiction > Estonia

A.V. Anjali Menon is an Indian writer and spoken word artist based in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and now travels with her poetry collections, performing spoken word at slams, open mics, and curated events. Her work has been featured in Fjords Review, Kitaab, Still Here Magazine, Bottle Rocket, and several other literary journals.

Alexa Brockamp Hoggatt > Poetry > Washington, USA

Alexa Brockamp Hoggatt is a poet and programmer from Tacoma, Washington. Although there is endless machine to rage against, Alexa writes poetry as a sort of running list of reasons humans deserve to go on existing: the tenderness, the shared experience, the soft parts. Her dad woke up every morning after coughing through the night from breathing sand and dust at work and said, “It’s another perfect day,” and that is what she wants her poems to say: even if you have sand in your lungs, it’s another perfect day.  Her poems have been published in Sky Island Journal, Wildscape. Literary Magazine, and Gather Literary Magazine, among other places. She was selected as a Garden Poet for Lakewold Gardens’ 2024 ‘Poetry in the Garden’ event.

Ali Asadollahi > Poetry > Iran

Ali Asadollahi is an Iranian poet, translator, and editor based in Tehran. He pursued an M.A. in Persian Language and Literature from the University of Tehran and is the author of six books of poetry in Persian. Over the past two decades, his poems have been widely published in leading Iranian literary journals and anthologies. A permanent member of the Iranian Writers’ Association (est. 1968), he has received several domestic literary honors, including the Iranian Journalists’ Poetry Prize and the Young Poets’ Book of the Year Award. His poetry and translations have appeared in Bellingham Review, Consequence, Denver Quarterly, Diode, Epoch, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Hypertext, The Los Angeles Review, MPT, etc. and are forthcoming in Another Chicago Magazine, Blue Unicorn, Columbia Review, Poetry Wales, Third Coast, among others.

Alice Hatcher > Poetry > Arizona, USA

Alice Hatcher is the author of the novel The Wonder That Was Ours (Dzanc, 2018) Her poetry has appeared in Water~Stone Review, Minetta Review, and Pembroke Magazine, among other journals. She teaches at the Tucson branch of The Writers Studio.

Allison Zhang > Creative Nonfiction > California, USA

Allison Zhang is a poet and writer based in Los Angeles, California. An immigrant and bilingual speaker of English and Mandarin, she writes about inheritance, memory, and the quiet violences of daily life. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Pithead Chapel, Midway Journal, Vagabond City Lit, and others. She is the author of An Everlasting Bond, honored by the BookFest Spring Awards and the International Impact Book Awards.

Amanda Leal > Poetry > Florida, USA

Amanda Leal is a 32-year-old poet from Lake Worth, Florida. Her work has been featured in publications such as CAROUSEL, Poet Lore, Twyckenham Notes, Tampa Review, Sky Island Journal, and many others.

Amro Alkado > Creative Nonfiction > United Kingdom

Amro Alkado is a British Iraqi writer who grew up in Baghdad before moving to the United Kingdom as a child. His work explores memory, war, scarcity, migration, and life with his neurodivergent son. This is his first publication. He has a forthcoming piece with HuffPost Personal and also shares essays on Medium.

Annette Sisson > Poetry > Tennessee, USA

Annette Sisson’s poems appear in The Penn Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Rust & Moth, Citron Review, Cumberland River Review, Sky Island Journal, and many other journals and anthologies. Her second book, Winter Sharp with Apples, was published by Terrapin Books in 2024. Her first book, Small Fish in High Branches, was published by Glass Lyre Press in 2022. Last year one of her poems was a finalist for the Charles Simic Poetry Prize and two were nominated for The Pushcart Prize. In 2025 her poems have been finalists in River Heron Review’s and Passager’s annual poetry prizes.

Ashleigh Adams > Flash Fiction > Texas, USA

Ashleigh Adams is creative director and fiction writer. She tends to write about messy and complex female characters because she is one. Her words are featured or forthcoming in HAD, New Flash Fiction Review, Your Impossible Voice, Bath Flash Fiction, and JAKE among others.

Barbara Westwood Diehl > Flash Fiction > Maryland, USA

Barbara Westwood Diehl is senior editor of The Baltimore Review. Her fiction and poetry appear in a variety of journals, including Fractured Lit, South Florida Poetry Journal, Poetry South, Painted Bride Quarterly, Five South, Allium, Split Rock Review, Blink-Ink, Midway, Gargoyle, Free State Review, Ghost Parachute, Fictive Dream, Pithead Chapel, and New World Writing Quarterly, and once in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

Becks Simpson > Flash Fiction > Canada

Becks Simpson is an Australian emerging writer and software developer based in Montreal, Canada. Her fiction explores grief, transformation, and belonging, often blending myth, and the natural world. She’s published in SQUID Literary, Hot Source Magazine and writes about tech and innovation for Mouser Electronics. When not writing, she plays in a punk band and illustrates the world in ink and watercolor.

Bella LoBue > Poetry > Virginia, USA

Bella LoBue is a poet and tree lover based in Richmond, Virginia. She is currently studying English at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her poetry can be found in Glass: A Journal of Poetry and Virginia Literary Review. She is a founder of the underground writer's assembly, Mooncat. She runs.

Caroline Sutphin > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA

Caroline Sutphin is a poet currently living and writing in Boston, Massachusetts. She grew up on a farm in Appalachia, and this experience informs much of her work. She received her MFA from Western Kentucky University and today works for a nonprofit while maintaining a YouTube channel (@CarolineSutphin) on all things literary. Her work has appeared in Prism Review, Rappahannock Review, Ponder Review, and Mount Hope, among other publications.

Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith > Poetry > Arizona, USA

Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith was born in Merida, Yucatan, grew up in Tucson, Arizona and taught English at Tucson High School for 27 years. Much of his work explores growing up near the border and being raised biracial/bilingual. An Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award Honorable Mention, a two-time Pushcart nominee, and an Eleventh-Hour Literary Journal and Kay Snow Poetry contests winner, he is trying to drink less coffee and get better at sitting and seeing.

Dara Laine > Poetry > Maryland, USA

Dara Laine (she/her) is a poet based in Baltimore, originally from a hay farm in New Jersey. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Journal, Pine Hills Review, LEON Literary Review, Thimble, and Passionfruit Review. She was selected as a Tupelo Press 30/30 poet in July 2025. Her poems explore memory, grief, and the sacred ordinary through restrained lyricism and domestic detail.

Dibyangana Maji > Poetry > India

Dibyangana Maji is a young poet from India whose work explores themes of silence, memory, and emotional depth. Her poems have appeared in Sky Island Journal, Spillwords Press, Wildsound Writing Festival, Literary Yard, Academy of the Heart and Mind, and Synchronized Chaos. A firm believer in the quiet magic of language to heal and connect, she often finds herself lost in books, stargazing, or late-night dramas — searching for the stories that feel like home.

Elisa Maiz > Flash Fiction > Mexico

Elisa Maiz is a Mexican author, teacher, and mom who graduated from Harvard's ALM in Creative Writing and Literature and is a founding member of Story Street Writers, a collective of emerging authors that supports the writing craft and hosts micro-fiction contests. Before committing to writing full-time, she worked as a newspaper editor for Grupo Reforma and taught high school journalism.

Etya Vaserman Krichmar > Creative Nonfiction > Florida, USA

Etya Vaserman Krichmar is a narrative nonfiction writer whose work explores resilience, exile, Jewish identity, and the unbreakable bonds of family. Her essays and stories have appeared in The Orlando Sentinel, SpillWords Press, MasticadoresUSA, The Write Launch, White Rose, and several anthologies, earning her an honorable mention in the Writing Away Refuge First Chapter Contest. She is a member of the Florida Writers Association and Writing Away Refuge. Born in Kazakhstan, and raised in Ukraine under Soviet oppression, she now lives in Florida, where she continues to craft stories that weave memory, history, and survival into lyrical testimony.

Garima Chhikara > Flash Fiction > India

Garima Chhikara is a fiction writer from Bangalore, India. Her stories explore themes of emotional depth and personal transformation. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Forge Literary, Hobart, Lost Balloon, La Piccioletta Barca, and Halfway Down the Stairs.

Grace Lynn > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA

Grace Lynn is an emerging queer painter who lives with a chronic illness and is working on her first collection of poetry. Her work explores the intersections between faith, the natural world, art and the body. In her spare time, Grace enjoys listening to Bob Dylan, reading suspense novels and exploring absurd angles of art history.

Hellen Nuhu > Poetry > Nigeria

Hellen Nuhu is a Nigerian poet and Microbiology student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi. She sees words as microscopic truths—small yet powerful tools to illuminate the overlooked corners of human experience. Her work explores themes of identity, emotional memory, quiet resistance, and often examines the multifaceted experiences of womanhood.

Hunter A. Allund > Poetry > Rhode Island, USA

Hunter A. Allund is an MFA candidate in fiction at Brown University. They currently write, paint, and live in Providence, Rhode Island with their partner, two cats, and an imaginary greyhound named Gauss.

Jake Hernandez > Poetry > New York, USA

Jake Hernandez is a poet and visual artist based in New York City. They are thrilled to have their work featured in Sky Island Journal, one of their first publications, with additional work forthcoming in Belladonna’s Garden. Jake is currently at work on their first chapbook, alongside a growing body of paintings and drawings. A graduate of Arizona State University, they continue to explore the interplay between language and image in their creative practice.

Kevin B > Flash Fiction > Rhode Island, USA

Kevin B is a writer and poet from New England. Their work has been published in Lemonwood Quarterly, Mania, storySouth, Folly, and Apotheca. Their story, “Uncle Grendel,” won the George Lila Award. They are the recipient of the Rose Warner Prize for Fiction.

Kristen Reece > Poetry > Canada

Kristen Reece is a neurodivergent poet based in Alberta, Canada. She worked in the oilfields as a foreman before turning to the page. She writes about class, memory, and the sacred inside ordinary rooms. “A Tavola Con Dio” is her first publication.

Laura B. Weiss > Flash Fiction > New York, USA

Laura B. Weiss is an author, journalist, and fiction writer with fiction in JMWW, Flash Boulevard, Bright Flash Literary Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Five on the Fifth, and 10 x 10 Flash. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Food Network, Travel + Leisure, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Interior Design, Saveur, The New York Daily News, and Library Journal. She was an adjunct journalism professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU. Laura is a Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellow. She authored the well-reviewed Ice Cream: A Global History (Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press 2011). She also covered Congress for Congressional Quarterly and was a writer for Time’s school edition.

Leah Skay > Creative Nonfiction > New York, USA

Leah Skay is an author from Delaware. Her work has recently appeared in 45th Parallel, The Quarter(ly), HAD, Ink in Thirds, and others. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing from Ithaca College and has taken to fiction, memoir, and poetry equally. Outside of her writing, Leah lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is a proud alumna of the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program.

Lorrie Ness > Poetry > Virginia, USA

Lorrie Ness is a poet in Virginia whose work can be found in numerous journals, including THRUSH, Palette Poetry, Trampset, and Sky Island Journal. She was nominated for multiple Best of the Net and Pushcart Prizes. Her collections, Heritage & Other Pseudonyms (2024) and Anatomy of a Wound (2021) were published by Flowstone press.

M. Nova > Creative Nonfiction > Pennsylvania, USA

M. Nova is a bilingual writer and data science student who splits her time between code and poetry, equations and memory. Born in China and educated in North America, she writes to map the intersections of science, language, and emotion. Her work often wanders between grief and wonder, silence and metaphor, always searching for a pulse beneath the surface.

Madison Christian > Creative Nonfiction > California, USA

Madison Christian is a lawyer by trade. He is a nature activist, beer elitist, native plant nerd, and dharma-bum wannabe by birth. As an emerging writer, Madison focuses on creative nonfiction, including memoir, personal essay, and travel (or what he likes to call “vagabond”). He dabbles in poetry. Some of his writing is collected on the two blogs he maintains: Wildsouthland and The Black Sage Journal. He lives in Southern California with his wife Kellie where he is perpetually at war with Black Mustard and Russian Thistle.

Madison Ellingsworth > Flash Fiction > Maine, USA

Madison Ellingsworth likes walking in Portland, Maine. Her work is available in an array of publications, including West Trade Review, Fractured Lit, and a recently published short story anthology titled "Positivity Bias: Maine Author's, Defiantly Happy Endings," available with Littoral Books. She has been nominated by Apple Valley Review for Best of the Net 2026.

Maureen Clark > Poetry > Utah, USA

Maureen Clark’s book, This Insatiable August, was released by Signature Books in 2024 and won the Association of Mormon Letters Award for Best Poetry Book. Her Memoir, Falling into Bountiful: Confessions of a Once Upon a Time Mormon, won Honorable Mention in the 2024 Utah Original Writing Competition and is forthcoming by Hypatia Press in 2026. Her second poetry manuscript, A Country Without You, will be out in 2028. She received her MFA from the University of Utah, where she taught writing for 20 years. She was president of Writers @ Work 1999-2001.

Michael J. Kolb > Poetry > Colorado, USA

Michael J. Kolb is a poet and a professor of archaeology based in Colorado. He writes across disciplinary thresholds, exploring nature, memory, commemoration, and illness—asking what we carry, and what we leave behind. His work appears or is forthcoming in Third Wednesday, Eunoia Review, Defenestration Magazine, and Moss Piglet, among others. He is the author of Making Sense of Monuments (Routledge 2020)

Moudi Sbeity > Poetry > Colorado, USA

Moudi Sbeity is a Lebanese-American author, poet, and transpersonal psychotherapist. Born in Texas and raised in Lebanon, he moved to the United States at the age of eighteen as an evacuee following the 2006 July war. In Utah, Moudi founded and operated Laziz Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant celebrated by the New York Times as “the future of queer dining.” Moudi was also a named plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to Utah and the 10th circuit states in 2014. A lifelong stutterer, Moudi is passionate about writing and poetry as practices in fluency and self-expression. Their first poetry collection, Want A World, is set to be published in 2026. They now call the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado home.

Patrick G. Roland > Poetry > Pennsylvania, USA

Patrick G. Roland is a writer and educator living with cystic fibrosis and hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He explores life’s experiences through poetry and storytelling, seeking to inspire others in the classroom and through writing. His work appears or is forthcoming in Hobart, scaffold, Emerge Literary, Maudlin House, and others.

Sarah Hassan > Flash Fiction > New York, USA

Sarah Hassan is a writer and bean counter for the antiquarian book trade. Her work has appeared in The Thieving Magpie, Architectural Digest, Treats!, Playboy, The Coveteur , Sage Cigarettes, and extensively in Harper’s Bazaar Arabia: Art. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she currently lives in New York City but is always plotting her escape back to the desert.

Savanna Sherman > Poetry > Virginia, USA

Savanna Sherman is a poet, novelist, and essayist living in Virginia. Her work surrounds old wounds, healing, and the complicated work of forgiveness, often drawing inspiration from personal experiences, her family, and nature. Her poetry is featured in multiple publications from The American Library of Poetry.

Shawn R. Jones > Poetry > New Jersey, USA

Shawn R. Jones was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She is a 2023 Civitella Ranieri Fellow, and her poetry collection, Date of Birth, won the 2022 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry. She is the author of two chapbooks, Womb Rain (2008) and A Hole to Breathe (2015). Her work has appeared in Tri-Quarterly, New Ohio Review, Callaloo, Cider Review, Obsidian Journal, Rattle, Essence, and elsewhere. Shawn is the co-owner of Tailored Tutoring LLC and Kumbaya Academy, Inc., a dance instructor at Halliday Dance, member of the poetry performance troupe, No River Twice, and the co-host of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway presented by Stockton University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers-Camden. When she is not writing, dancing, or teaching, she enjoys spending time with her family and her lucky pit bull, Ross.

Sian Maciejowski > Poetry > United Kingdom

Sian Maciejowski is a London-based writer and poet, born in Zambia and raised in the UK, where she lives with her husband and daughter. Her work explores the complexities of the human experience, often focusing on small, easily missed moments, believing these hold the deepest truths. She is particularly drawn to how writing can offer clarity and voice in a world that often feels overwhelming. Her poetry has appeared in Ink & Marrow Literary Magazine and Sky Island Journal and was longlisted for the 2021 erbacce–prize for poetry. She is currently at work on her debut poetry collection.

Stuti Sinha > Poetry > United Arab Emirates

Stuti Sinha is a published and award-winning Indian writer, who lives in Dubai.  She writes immersive narratives about the human experience and emotions.  Being passionate about travel, she loves to weave different cultures and her heritage into her writing. She has won the International Westmoreland Award for short fiction & The International Allingham Festival Prize for Poetry.  She has also been acclaimed in the Anthology Awards, San Antonio Writers Guild Poetry Competition, Erbacce Poetry Competition, The Letter Review Poetry Contest, Passionfruit Review Poetry Contest, and the DiBiase Poetry Contest amongst others. Her work has been published in Sky Island Journal, Celestite Poetry, Moss Puppy Magazine and Sonder Magazine amongst several other international publications. Stuti has two adorable cats named Yuki and Sushi.

Susanna Stephens > Poetry > New York, USA

Susanna Stephens, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst and poet living in Manhattan. Her work has been published in Rust + Moth, Thimble Literary Magazine, No, Dear, Scapegoat Review, ONE ART, and other places. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2024. In addition to writing, she maintains a private practice in New York City.

Susmita Mukherjee > Flash Fiction > India

Susmita Mukherjee is a Kolkata-based author whose fiction, poetry, and screenplays trace memory, silence, and the subtle emotional undercurrents of everyday life. A former teacher at Army Public School, she brings over two decades of professional experience in hospitality and IT education to her craft. Discipline, resilience, and the quiet drama of ordinary existence often shape her narratives. Trained in Indian classical vocal music and holding a diploma in Multimedia, Susmita infuses her work with cultural and artistic sensibilities. Her writing has appeared in Reflections, Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi),  Kitaab, AllPoetry, PoetrySoup, Realistic International Poetry, and The Writer Monk, where it has received multiple accolades. Her debut poetry collection, When the Earth Sang of Us, is available worldwide, alongside a wide body of articles and travelogues. Through her work, she seeks to preserve moods, voices, and lives that might otherwise slip quietly into silence.

Svetlana Litvinchuk > Poetry > Missouri, USA

Svetlana Litvinchuk is anticipating the release of her debut poetry collection, Navigating the Hallways by Starlight (Fernwood Press, spring 2026) and is the author of a poetry chapbook, Only a Season (Bottlecap Features, 2024). Nominated for Pushcart, Best of the Net, her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Redivider, swamp pink, Flyway, About Place, Moon City Review, ANMLY, Lake Effect, Sky Island Journal, and elsewhere. She is the Managing Editor of ONLY POEMS and an Editor for Rockvale Review in 2025. Originally from Ukraine, she now tends her garden in Missouri.

Tanja Lau > Poetry > Switzerland

Tanja Lau is a Swiss-based poet and writer with German-Italian roots. A highly sensitive observer and mother of two, she explores life’s complexity with vulnerability and a hint of humor. She studied Comparative Literature before venturing into entrepreneurship. Her first children’s book is scheduled for publication in 2026, and several of her poems are forthcoming in international anthologies.

Tanuja Viswanath > Flash Fiction > India

Tanuja Viswanath lives in Bangalore, India. She teaches literature and writes fiction about relationships, modern Indian life, and the weird things that happen to us. Her short fiction appears in Sky Island Journal and is forthcoming in Out of Print.

Tara Hashagen > Poetry > Hawaii, USA

Tara Hashagen lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she writes essays, short fiction, and poetry exploring the unpolished marvel of being gloriously, catastrophically human. Her recent work has appeared in Hobart, O:JA&L, and Chicago Story Press Literary Journal, and she shares new writing on her Substack, Footnotes & Fault Lines. Most of her best ideas arrive when she’s away from her desk, which she finds deeply inconvenient.

Titilayo Matiku > Creative Nonfiction > Nigeria

Titilayo Matiku is a doting auntie who enjoys spontaneous conversations with her nieces and nephews. When she isn't daydreaming about an ideal world, she uses her pen to rewrite perspectives, one story at a time. She dreams of having a family and also raising a macaw, a cockatoo, and a grey parrot someday. Her works are featured in The Shallows Tales Review, Voyage of 90 years with Kongi, Umuofia Books and Arts Festival, PFPOI, Black glass pages, Mouthful of Salt and are forthcoming in other publications.