OPENING LETTERS > FROM THE EDITORS

You need to know that there are several writers in this issue who are risking their lives publishing with us. They’ve deemed that risk acceptable in order for them to express themselves and for you to have the opportunity to experience and share their art.

The fact that writers anywhere in the world have to face this dilemma enrages us, but it also fuels our operational discipline and the steady hand required to provide their work with a worthy home: an international platform with engaged readership and editors who are unafraid to privately support and publicly defend them.

Writers—like all human beings—desire and deserve the freedom to express themselves without fear of censorship, imprisonment, torture, rape, or targeted assassination by state actors. Our contributors are family, and here, it's family over everything. So, governments and regimes targeting our writers take note; we are relentless, and we will never leave one of our own behind.

Regardless of where you live in the world, your corporate media is likely compromised, and your state media is likely censored. You are being lied to on the daily. Independent news journalists—and literary writers who publish in independent journals like ours—are risking their lives right now to tell the stories of the people, places, and cultures being actively besieged. Follow them. Read them. Watch them. Listen to them. Educate yourself. Learn how you can support innocent people in places you have never been, as the horrors of war and state-sponsored terror descend upon them. Learn, as writers, how YOU can amplify your own voices in order to stand up for what is good and decent, what is kind and compassionate.

Contributor Mariam Anahita Amin’s bio passionately proclaims that she “believes that writing is a realm where every individual must express and feel with the utmost freedom.” Mariam’s belief is the foundation of Sky Island Journal’s existence. Without the freedoms to express and feel (sovereign abilities that we were all granted at birth, by our creators) we can never truly live, or love, or discover, or grow. Without them, we can never truly  become what we were created to be—what this fragile world desperately needs us to be, right now.

Our mission is to provide readers around the world with a powerful, focused, free-access, advertising-free literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. We believe in removing 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.

Our unwavering dedication to quality, consistency, kindness, respect, and expediency has helped us grow and fulfill our mission in ways we never dreamed possible when we began this passion project 9 years ago. Going from unknown, industry-disrupting outsiders to being referred to as “a bucket list publication” by accomplished writers and emerging voices alike—all around the world—has been a humbling journey that we’ve had the privilege of sharing with so many of you.

Our fierce independence and unwavering support of our contributors around the world has given us a reputation in the international literary community. It’s also given us the honor of growing and nurturing our own community. Our constellation of readers (over 160,000 in 150 countries) and our family of contributors (over 1,300 in 59 countries) learn, share, and grow together; they support and champion each other’s work in person, over email, and on social media. So, join us in supporting freedom of expression at every turn. Start with Issue 35. Read. Risk. Learn. Grow. Love. Be kind. Be curious. Be brave.

As with anything you choose to do in this life, the real flex is how many lives you can positively impact. Influence means nothing if you're not helping somebody else grow. It has been said that, “The impact you make on others will outlive every material thing you chase. This is the difference between popularity and purpose. Real power is when your presence inspires action—when your story, and the stories of those you elevate, spark positive change in the world.” Real power builds leaders, and real leaders build more leaders. That’s who we are. That’s who our contributors are. That’s who our readers are. That’s what we do here.

And we will never stop.

Welcome to Sky Island Journal. Of the 2,930 individual pieces that we received from around the world for Issue 35, we found these 69 to be the most powerful. Enjoy!

Respectfully,

Jason Splichal, Co-Founder and Co-Editor

On April 8, 2017, we received our very first submission for Issue #1 of Sky Island Journal. We had big dreams, a lot to learn, and a clear vision to guide each step of the way.

Today, we celebrate our 9th year in existence and our 35th issue, which offers readers the opportunity to experience, as we say, "the world of our writers' words." I mean that in the abstract way of exploring the emotional and intellectual landscapes that emerge for you as you fully immerse yourself in the poems and narratives, while bringing your unique perspectives and lived experiences to enhance the works for you.

I also mean the opportunity to converse with writers and poets from around the world. In our first issue, we published 16 poets and writers, with two of them hailing from outside of the United States. Since then, we have extended our family of international contributors to over 59 different countries represented within the pages of Issues 1-35, and we have the gift of sharing their world-class literary works with readers in over 150 countries across the globe. In Issue 35, nearly half of the 46 contributors live outside of the United States, which is our highest percentage since our inception. These are people whose hands I'll likely never be able to shake or embrace with a hug, coming from lands where I may never step foot; yet, they speak to my heart and soul in this shared experience of humanity through the gift of art. Readers, it is an honor to connect you with them as well.

In Issue 35, we welcome 37 new poets and writers to the brilliant Sky Island Journal constellation. That's 37 artists who found us, and whose works have found a home in our minds and hearts. Readers will also enjoy familiar faces in this issue, as several of our phenomenal returning contributors continue to move us in profound ways. Throughout the year, and especially at the time of a new issue release, we actively seek out the websites of these writers so that if a particular voice speaks to you, it is easy to find more of their work or even connect via social media or other means of communication. We invite you to check out the "Our Contributors" page, which contains hyperlinks to the websites of hundreds of our contributors, listed alphabetically by first name.

We continue to learn, and we continue to grow over here at Sky Island Journal. Looking over the numbers, the sheer volume of submissions has increased steadily over the past five issues, with Issue 35 standing as the highest number of submissions for a single issue in our journal's history. Our readership continues to grow with each issue as well, with over 160,000 actively engaged and astute readers in over 150 countries. Thinking about growth in partnership with our mission, while our community of readers and writers continues to grow, we remain steadfast in maintaining an advertising-free reading experience and offering these works via free access, with no required subscriptions or paywalls. We genuinely believe this offers you the focused, accessible, and transformative reading experience you deserve.

We are so thankful that you are here and part of this community. Continue to think, feel, and grow. It is an honor to be on this journey with you.

Respectfully,

Jeff Sommerfeld, Co-Founder and Co-Editor

Alex Dawson > Poetry > Canada

Alex Dawson is a writer, wildlife photographer, mom and adult ESL teacher. She’s published two poetry collections, All these Living Things and Upon Learning That. She was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize in 2026 and once for the Best of Net in 2026. Connect with her on Instagram and Substack @alexdawcreates.

Ali Leon > Poetry > Oregon, USA

Ali Leon is a poet based in Oregon, where she lives with her husband, Jason, and their two daughters. Her work has appeared in the Amethyst Review, The Reformed Journal and is forthcoming in the Main Street Rag, and elsewhere. She writes about motherhood, memory, and the sacred within ordinary life.

Alicia Potee > Poetry > Maryland, USA

Alicia Potee is a 2002 graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis and current MFA candidate at the University of Baltimore. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Radar Poetry, ballast, Gone Lawn, trampset, BRUISER, Chestnut Review, Comstock Review, Hawaii-Pacific Review, Little Patuxent Review, and Baltimore Review, among other places. She lives in Towson, Maryland with her tiny zoo of children and pets.

Amanda Faye Martin > Poetry > Aotearoa / New Zealand

Amanda Faye Martin is a playwright and poet based in Ōtepoti, Aotearoa (Dunedin, New Zealand) who is equally interested in beautiful stuff and really good jokes. Her poetry has been featured in The Spinoff, Tarot Poetry Journal, Poetry Aotearoa, Gasher Press, Oddball Magazine and other online and print outlets. She is also a Senior Teaching Fellow in Theatre Studies at the University of Otago. You can follow her on Instagram @amandafayemartin

Andrew Fisher > Creative Nonfiction > Indiana, USA

Andrew Fisher is an emerging nonfiction writer based in Indiana, where he is raising twin boys as a solo parent. A stroke survivor and advocate who has spoken before congressional members on Capitol Hill, his work explores trauma, inherited silence, and the quiet courage it takes to break generational cycles. His writing centers on showing up—especially when presence is all you can give—and is drawn from a completed memoir-in-progress.

Barrie Brewer > Flash Fiction > Utah, USA

Barrie Brewer enjoys crafting lyrical stories with richly drawn characters that illuminate the complex depths of human nature. He combines post-doctoral research with real-world experience to examine themes of ambition, adaptation, and human connections. His passion for exploring diverse cultures fuels compelling narratives that explore both inner transformation and external challenges of human behavior. He weaves together insights from adventure travel, and research in behavioral science to create vivid, emotionally resonant tales about human potential, risk, and resilience. His storytelling reveals the extraordinary within ordinary moments in life.

Bella Melardi > Poetry > Canada

Bella Melardi is a poet and author. She writes about the political and personal. She attends OCADU. You can find her on Instagram @poetluvs.

Ben Daggers > Flash Fiction > Japan

Ben Daggers is a short story writer from London, England. He loves exploring the dark edges of fiction, then slowly backing away before things get a bit too dark. His words have been published in Electric Literature, PRISM International, Literary Veganism, Sky Island Journal, and many other places. When not writing, procrastinating, or feeling guilty for procrastinating instead of writing, Ben creates award-winning escape rooms in Osaka, Japan.

Brandon McNeice > Flash Fiction > Pennsylvania, USA

Brandon McNeice is a Philadelphia-based writer and educator. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Commonweal, Plough, SmokeLong Quarterly, Flash Frog, Hunger Mountain, Flyway, Bending Genres, and ONE ART. A two-time Best Small Fictions nominee, he writes about the daily negotiations by which people seek dignity, faith, and decency inside systems that are anything but simple.

Cherry Cheesman > Poetry > North Carolina, USA

Cherry Cheesman is a writer from the Carolinas. Her work is published or forthcoming from Beaver Magazine, Bending Genres, and Up the Staircase Quarterly, among other places. She is a current undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College. When she isn’t getting poems together for her first collection, she’s spending most of her money at the gas station.

Dibyangana Maji > Creative Nonfiction > India

Dibyangana Maji is a student and writer who explores grief, memory, and the quiet spaces between people. Her work has appeared in Sky Island Journal, Spillwords, Sea Glass Literary, WhyNot Magazine, and anthologies such as Writer’s Workout, among others. She is drawn to the subtle moments where absence speaks as loudly as presence.

Elaine Liu > Poetry > New Jersey, USA

Elaine Liu is a Homo sapiens writing from the afterlives of transpacific history. Her poetry has been featured in EPOCH and has appeared in Stone Poetry Quarterly, The Bellingham Review, Folio, and elsewhere. She is always grieving the lives lost in Unit 731.

Elli Mari > Poetry > United Kingdom + Greece

Elli Mari (21) is a poet based between London and Greece. She is the author of Transit (Melissa Publishing House) and is completing a BA in English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work inhabits the body as a site of change, attending to moments of quiet rupture, emotional weather, and the fragile space between presence and absence. She is currently working on her second poetry collection.

Emily Pille > Poetry > Ireland

Emily Pille was born in a small suburb outside of Detroit, and her heart was set on writing and exploring the world shortly after. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in English, she went on to live in New York, Prague, Rome, and Seoul. She is currently pursuing a master’s in literary studies from Trinity College Dublin. As both writing and reading can be solitary ventures, Emily offers her work as a meeting point, an invitation to face — and relish — longing, desire, loneliness, and hope.

Erika MacNeil > Flash Fiction > Canada

Erika MacNeil is a dancer by training, a teacher by trade, and a writer on a whim. She is a community leader, an ally of the marginalized, and an advocate for the underdog. Look for her work with Rice Paper, Tulip Wolf Journal, and The Last Stanza. Her writing comes in fits and starts, striving to make something out of nothing. Much of her work stems from the person she used to be and has been curated by the person she wants to become.

Gabrielle Munslow > Poetry > United Kingdom

Gabrielle Munslow is a poet and nurse practitioner based in West Sussex, UK. Her work has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Neon Origami, Bristol Noir, the Wild Sound Writing Festival, Sky Island Journal, and internal NHS publications, with new work forthcoming in Flash Phantoms and Half and One. She writes at the intersection of myth, grief, and defiance—often in the margins of a busy healthcare life.

Grace Lynn > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA

Grace Lynn is an emerging painter who lives with a chronic illness. 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 investigating absurd angles of art history.

Grant Smithies > Flash Fiction > Aotearoa / New Zealand

Grant Smithies has had some interesting jobs over the years: landscape gardener in Dublin, naked life model at Edinburgh College of Art, house painter on Aotearoa’s rugged East Cape. In the end, a facility with words saved him from a life of dirty fingernails, nagging coughs and paint-splattered clothes. After returning to his homeland and falling hard for long-form journalism, he has written extensively on music, art, travel and popular culture in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 30 years and had short stories published in literary journals in the South Pacific. He co-founded NZ dance festival The Gathering, wrote the 2007 book Soundtrack: 118 Great NZ Albums, and runs the tiny Nelson vinyl shack: Family Jewels Records.

J. Alan Nelson > Poetry > Texas, USA

J. Alan Nelson, a writer, journalist, lawyer and actor, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of Net and Best Microfiction. He played the lead in the viral video “Does This Cake Make Me Look Gay,” the verbose “Silent Al” in HBO’s Emmy-winning SXSWestworld,” and narrated New York Times videos on AIDS programs in Africa. 

Jeff Burd > Flash Fiction > Illinois, USA

Jeff Burd is a graduate of the Northwestern University writing program and is soon to retire after 31 years of teaching high school English. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, MacQueen’s Quinterly, Flash: The International Magazine of Short-short Fiction, and Third Wednesday. His memoir, All the Pitches, All at Once, is a reflection on teaching, COVID, and PTSD. Mr. Burd spends a lot of time writing and thinking about writing and worrying about not writing and thinking about writing. 

JH Tomen > Flash Fiction > Illinois, USA

JH Tomen lives in Chicago and works in clean energy. When not writing fiction, he's also the author of the climate Substack, The Carbon Fables. You can find him on all socials @jhtomen.

Joey Whitton > Poetry > Alabama, USA

Joey Whitton is a poet with a BA from the University of South Alabama. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, and raised in San Diego, he has lived in Mobile, Alabama, for most of the past three decades with his brother and their cats—Ethan, Mio, and Honeydew. A devoted fan of punk rock, especially hardcore, he is grateful to have the best brother a guy could have. His poetry is forthcoming in Misfit Magazine, Poetry Pacific, BlazeVOX Journal, and has appeared in Flipside Magazine. This poem marks his first appearance in Sky Island Journal.

Kristen Reece > Prose Poetry > Canada

Kristen Reece is a Canadian writer who works in the oilfield. She often explores loss within her work. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee with work upcoming, or appearing in Puerto del Sol, ANMLY, Bull, Miracle Monocle, Rawhead, Sky Island Journal, NUNUM, and elsewhere.

Lila Shaver > Poetry > New York, USA

Lila Shaver, a Vassar College class of 2025 graduate, is currently a Master’s student at Union Theological Seminary, concentrating in Social Ethics. An avid surfer and water being, her work is deeply informed by the natural world, seeking to convey a reciprocal relationship made possible through our uniquely embodied positionality. She explores themes surrounding embodiment, nature, and eventual liberation from the disconnected systems that attempt to govern us.

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.

Louisa Prince > Flash Fiction > Australia

Louisa Prince is a Melbourne-based writer and self-proclaimed late bloomer whose stories often explore themes of family and health. Committed to honing her craft, she is an active member of The Society of Women Writers Victoria and Writing Victoria. Her work has appeared in CafeLit Magazine, Certain Age Magazine, Sudden Flash, New Plains Review, and in Flash Fiction Magazine.

Madison McClintock > Poetry > California, USA

Madison McClintock is a writer and multimedia artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Her work blends personal narrative with cultural critique, often exploring memory and the shifting terrain between intimacy and performance.

Maria Surricchio > Poetry > Colorado, USA

Maria Surricchio is originally from the UK and now lives near Boulder, Colorado. A lifelong lover of poetry, she began writing in 2020 after an extensive marketing career. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has been published in Blackbird, Salamander, River Heron Review, SWWIM Every Day, Chicago Quarterly Review and elsewhere. She has a BA in Modern Languages from Cambridge University and an MFA from Pacific University. Her debut full-length collection is the winner of the 2026 Longleaf Press Book Prize and is forthcoming spring 2027.

Mariam Anahita Amin > Poetry > Pakistan

Mariam Anahita Amin is 20-year-old Pakistani poet. She published her debut book at age 14 and continues to explore themes of identity, longing, and inheritance in her work. Mariam believes that writing is a realm where every individual must express and feel with utmost freedom.

Marin Smith > Creative Nonfiction > Oregon, USA

Marin Smith is a wordwrangler, poet, essayist, mother, and an Enneagram 4. She has an M.A. in English from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and her work has been published in MER Literary, Milk Art Journal, Literary Mama, Split Rock Review, Oregon English Journal, CALYX Journal, DEHP Journal, and others. She serves as Editorial Director and Founding Editor of Abraxas Review and writes creative nonfiction focused on horses, landscape, and the American West. She lives in Hood River, Oregon, with her husband, two children, and a small menagerie. You'll find her in the garden, coffee in hand,

Melanie Maggard > Flash Fiction > Colorado, USA

Melanie Maggard is a flash and poetic prose writer who loves dribbles and drabbles. She has published in Cotton Xenomorph, Ghost Parachute, X-R-A-Y Magazine, Peatsmoke Journal, The Mackinaw, The Dribble Drabble Review, Five Minute Lit, and others. She can be found online at @WriterMMaggard.

Mitchell Toews > Flash Fiction > Canada

Mitchell Toews is a Canadian author of literary fiction focusing on themes of fairness, rural life, intergenerational bonds, and the Mennonite community. Nominated by Pulp Literature for a 2025 Writers’ Trust McClelland Stewart Journey Prize, he is a 4X Pushcart Prize-nominated writer known for gritty, character-driven storytelling. Mitch is the author of Pinching Zwieback (At Bay Press, 2023). A novel, Mulholland and Hardbar, is forthcoming in mid-2026 as is a second collection of short stories in December 2026. He and wife Janice live in the wild air north of 50° with a proliferation of skiis, snow shovels, WiFi dishes, and a rowing scull named Catcher in the Sigh.

Nabhan Khraishi > Creative Nonfiction > Palestine

Nabhan Khraishi is a Palestinian journalist, media researcher, and writer based in Ramallah. For more than four decades, he has worked across print, broadcast, and digital media, documenting political, social, and cultural life in Palestine for local, regional, and international audiences. His career began in the early 1980s as a journalist and editor with Al-Fajer Daily Newspaper, where he reported during a formative period for the Palestinian press. From 1989 to 1991, he worked as a reporter and columnist for the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat, writing on Palestinian affairs for an international Arabic-language readership. In the early 1990s, he was part of the Jerusalem bureau team of The Washington Post, contributing to regional coverage and news gathering. Between 2003 and 2022, he served as a West Bank correspondent for Radio Sawa, producing reports and features grounded in fieldwork and lived experience. Alongside his reporting, Khraishi has played a significant role in media education and development in Palestine. He directed the Media Resource Center at Birzeit University, a nonprofit community outreach center supporting journalists and media students, and later lectured for many years in online journalism, focusing on digital tools, ethics, and professional standards. He has authored numerous research papers on Palestinian media, including media law, press freedom, ethics, and the impact of foreign funding. Khraishi holds a degree in Middle East Studies from Birzeit University and completed graduate studies in broadcast journalism at Syracuse University. He writes in Arabic and English and continues to explore literary nonfiction rooted in lived human experience.

Nicholas Olah > Poetry > Illinois, USA

Nicholas Olah has self-published four poetry collections, and his work appears in The Poetry Lighthouse, Querencia Press, Shadow and Sax, Thimble Literary Magazine, Wildscape Literary Journal, and more. Olah is a 2x Pushcart Prize nominee. Check out more of his work on Instagram at @nick.olah.poetry.

Paul Julian > Poetry > Colorado, USA

Paul Julian is a writer and attorney living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His poems have appeared in Inverted Syntax, Pinyon, and other journals.

Perla Kantarjian > Poetry > Lebanon

Perla Kantarjian is a Lebanese-Armenian poet and journalist based in Beirut. Her debut poetry collection, You Must Become Field, is forthcoming from Bad Betty Press (UK) in September 2026. Her poems have been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition, highly commended in the Charles Causley Poetry Competition, and her manuscript has been named a semi-finalist for the Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes and the St. Lawrence Book Award, and shortlisted for the Magma Poetry Pamphlet Competition, among others. Her work appears in Wasafiri, Electric Literature, Black Warrior Review, and others, and is archived on the Moon as part of NASA's Lunar Codex. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she was the Sonny Mehta Scholar.

Pratiksha Ahuja > Poetry > India

Pratiksha Ahuja is a poet based in Goa, India. She began writing as a child while growing up in a fractured home, using language to survive and to understand who she is. Her work holds trauma, love, rage, and an irrepressible wonder for life. Themes explored often include self-identity, feminism, climate, and politics.

Rachel Beachy > Poetry > Kentucky, USA

Rachel Beachy is the author of Tiny Universe. Her poetry has also appeared or is forthcoming in Have Has Had, Mulberry Literary, ONE ART, Rust & Moth, Sky Island Journal, and others. She was nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology 2025 and shortlisted for the Central Avenue Poetry Prize 2026. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and children. You can find her on Instagram @rachelbeachywrites.

Robert Nordstrom > Poetry > Oregon, USA

Robert Nordstrom has published poetry in numerous regional and national publications, including upstreet, Main Street Rag, The Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, Chiron Review, Third Wednesday, ONE ART and various others.  Several poems have garnered awards from the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Oregon Poetry Association. His poem “Old Lovers” won the 2014 Hal Prize, and his 2016 poetry collection, The Sacred Monotony of Breath (Prolific Press), received honorable mention from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. His collection, Dust on the Sill (Kelsay Books) was published in 2023. His new collection, Ring Along the River (Kelsay Books), is scheduled for publication in 2026.

Sara Schraufnagel > Poetry > Colorado, USA

Sara Schraufnagel is a poet based in Colorado. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Sonora Review, Jet Fuel Review, The Fourth River, Slipstream, and Midwest Quarterly, among other publications.

Sarah Platenius > Poetry > Canada

Sarah Platenius is a writer and visual artist. Her writing has appeared in Orion, Terrain, North American Review, and other journals and anthologies, and she was a 2024 semi-finalist for the Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize. Her artwork has appeared in publications including Sage Magazine (Yale School of the Environment) and Camas Magazine.

Seth Frame > Creative Nonfiction > New York, USA

Seth Frame's work has appeared in Blood+Honey and The Argyle, with work forthcoming in Great Lakes Review. He is a writer based in Schenectady, New York. His creative nonfiction explores themes of place, memory, and human connection, drawing on his background in archaeology and his years living in the American West.

Sian Maciejowski > Poetry > United Kingdom

Sian Maciejowski is a London-based writer and poet, born in Zambia and raised in the UK. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Ink & Marrow Literary Magazine, Sky Island Journal, Gather Literary Magazine, The Poetry Lighthouse, Literary Mama, and Femme Social. Her poem “Self-Portrait as Silence” was nominated for the 2025 Best of the Net, and “Stone Fruit as a Postpartum Body” was nominated for the 2025 Pushcart Prize.

Stacey C. Johnson > Poetry > California, USA

Stacey C. Johnson is a writer, educator, and speaker. She is the author of Flight Songs (Finishing Line Press, 2024), and her essays, poems, fiction, and hybrid work have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. She teaches literature and creative writing and is currently working on a book-length project exploring creativity, care, and survival in precarious times. Her work often examines language as a practice of attention and resistance in moments of personal and collective precarity.

Sydney Lea > Poetry > Vermont, USA

Sydney Lea is a Pulitzer finalist in poetry, founder of New England Review, Vermont Poet Laureate (2011-15), and recipient of his state’s highest artistic distinction, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. He has published two novels (most recently Now Look, 2024), six volumes of personal essays (most recently, Such Dancing as We Can, 2024), and sixteen poetry collections (most recently What Shines, 2023). His new and selected poems, Dancing in the Dark, is due in early 2027.

Zoleikha Baloch > Creative Nonfiction + Poetry > Iran

Zoleikha Baloch is a poet, memoirist, and cultural archivist from a remote village in Golestan Province, Iran. Her work honors the silences, resilience, and everyday beauty of Baloch women, blending poetic memory with lived experience. She writes to preserve voices often forgotten, and to build bridges between worlds through literature.