OPENING LETTERS > FROM THE EDITORS
Aardhra Chandran > Poetry > India
Aardhra Chandran is a poet and postgraduate student from Kerala, India. Her writing explores memory, family, labour, migration, and care. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Rust & Moth, Ink Sweat and Tears, Gulmohur Quarterly, Punch Magazine, Zhagaram Literary Magazine, Borderless Journal, and Philly Chapbook Review, among others.
Alina Kalontarov > Poetry > New York, USA
Alina Kalontarov is a teacher and poet based in New York. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Rattle, The Threepenny Review, ONLY POEMS, Sky Island Journal, and elsewhere.
Cami Aurioles > Poetry > Washington, USA
Cami Aurioles is an activist and business owner in Bellingham, Washington. She lives between the mountains and the sea in an old house with her partner and rescue dog. As a mixed-race Latina living in the PNW, she writes poetry that reconciles forced migration, complex identity, and childhood memory. This is her first publication.
David I. Hughes > Flash Fiction > United KIngdom
David I. Hughes lives in Cornwall, UK, where he divides his time between writing, photography, and exploring the coast. After a career in marketing and many years of international travel, he retired early to pursue the creative work he had long postponed. Much of his writing is rooted in Cornwall’s landscapes, old industries, and the lives shaped by them. Recent achievements include the October Project Grand Prize, Semifinalist in the LitFox Poetry Book award, a shortlist in the Mairtín Crawford short story award, and publication in The Berlin Review, Poetose, London Grip, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Sky Island Journal, and other international journals. His short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies: Hermitage Press (“Salt & Stone”), Four Tulips (“Out to Sea”), and Hollowpoint (“First Strike”). He launched his first novel, The Listener, a work of speculative literary fiction, in 2025. He remains grateful for every reader who spends time with his work.
Diane Mason > Poetry > North Carolina, USA
Dianne Mason is a retired English professor living in Matthews, North Carolina. She has been a finalist in the Ron Rash Poetry Contest and has had poems published in Broad River Review, The Main Street Rag, and Amethyst Review among others. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Award. Besides writing poetry, she is also a master gardener and an avid reader.
Dion O'Reilly > Poetry > California, USA + Washington, USA
Dion O'Reilly’s books include Limerence, finalist for The Floating Bridge John Pierce Competition for Washington State Poets, Sadness of the Apex Predator (University of Wisconsin Cornerstone Press 2024), and Ghost Dogs (Terrapin 2020). Her work appears in Rattle, New Ohio Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, and RHINO. Most recently, her work was chosen as one of the winners of the 17th Annual Narrative Poetry Prize. A podcaster at The Hive Poetry Collective, private workshop facilitator, and co-editor of En•Trance Journal, she splits her time between a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains and a residence in Bellingham, Washington.
Elli Mari > Poetry > United Kingdom + Greece
Elli Mari 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.
Feiya Zhang > Poetry > Australia
Feiya Zhang is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. She is a science graduate, a past recipient of the Lane Cove Literary Award and an avid backpack traveler. Her poetry work first appeared in Sky Island Journal in 2020. Elsewhere, her works have appeared in Hermes, Poetry d’Amour and SWAMP.
Fran Gilmore > Poetry > Pennsylvania, USA
Fran Gilmore is an activist, artist, and poet, long retired from her work as an industrial hygienist. She has been a teacher in many settings, including high school (biology), a prison (emotional healing), labor unions (health and safety) and community settings (racism). She has been published in American Writing, Charlotte Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, Anthology Philly, and other journals. She self-published a chapbook, Then Jumped, and recently finished a chapbook of poems about hazardous blue-collar workplaces.
Janette Schafer > Poetry > Pennsylvania, USA
Janette Schafer is a poet, photographer, playwright, and realtor living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Chatham University and is the author of three poetry collections and the chief editor of two anthologies. Her writing and photographs have appeared or are forthcoming in The Missouri Review, SWWIM, ONE ART, Vox Populi, and Split Rock Review. A winner of the Academy of American Poets Prize, she has also been recognized in the Pittsburgh Original Short Play Series and the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival.
Jennifer Blackledge > Poetry > Michigan, USA
Jennifer Blackledge is a Detroit-area poet who works in the automotive industry. She is the recipient of the 2025 Zocalo Public Square Poetry Prize and her work has appeared in publications like JAMA, Rattle, ONE ART, I-70 Review, Kestrel, Scientific American, and more. Her book, Trashmore, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2028.
Jeremy Stelzner > Poetry > Maryland, USA
Jeremy Stelzner’s stories have appeared in literary magazines, journals, and anthologies, including Prime Number Magazine, where he was awarded runner-up for the 2024 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. His poetry has been featured in Flora Fiction, the Mid-Atlantic Review, and is forthcoming in the North Dakota Quarterly. He teaches journalism and literature.
Kataryna Zharkovna > Poetry > Russia
Kataryna Zharkovna is a triple-citizen poet born in Serbia and raised in Canada. She holds an English Specialist’s degree from the University of Toronto, and her work can be found or forthcoming in publications such as Underwood Press, The Astorian, Neologism, Crow & Cross Keys, and many others. She lives with her family in self-imposed exile in Siberia, where she is currently working on her debut collection. She enjoys writing both antiquated narrative poetry and contemporary verse and regularly submits to the throes of nostalgia—both for times she's lived in and times she hasn't.
Katy Luxem > Poetry > Utah, USA
Katy Luxem lives in Salt Lake City. She is the author of Until It Is True (Kelsay Books, 2023). Her work is anthologized in Love Is For All Of Us (Hachette, 2025) and has appeared in Rattle, McSweeney’s, HAD, One Art, Sky Island Journal, and many others. She won the 2025 CRAFT Flash Prose Prize and is a Best of the Net and Nina Riggs Poetry Award nominee.
Kolbe Riney > Poetry > Arizona, USA
Kolbe Riney is a queer poet and nurse from Tucson, Arizona. Their work is featured in Arc Poetry, Passages North, the Chestnut Review, and others. They were nominated to the Best of the Net and their manuscript, “mythic,” was short listed for the 2021 Sexton Prize.
Lorrie Ness > Poetry > Virginia, USA
Lorrie Ness is a writer in Northern Virginia. Her works appear in Palette Poetry, Trampset, Sky Island Journal, The Rappahannock Review & others. She is the author of two collections: Heritage & Other Pseudonyms and Anatomy of a Wound, which were published by Flowstone Press. When not writing poetry, she writes novels, which are on submission with her agent.
Lucas Reilly > Poetry > Maryland, USA
Lucas Reilly is a writer with poetry in Anacapa Review, Crab Creek Review, and Sheila-Na-Gig. His journalism has appeared on NPR, BBC Radio, and a handful of award-winning iHeart podcasts. In a past life, he was senior print editor of mental_floss magazine. In another, he was a cruise ship pianist. Originally from rural Pennsylvania, Lucas now resides in Baltimore, MD.
Lucinda Trew > Poetry > North Carolina, USA
Lucinda Trew, author of What Falls to Ground (Charlotte Lit Press, 2025), is a North Carolina poet whose work moves between the earthly and the elemental, exploring nature, science, spirit, and wonder. Her honors include Boulevard’s 2023 Poetry Contest Award for Emerging Poets, a North Carolina Arts Council Artist Support Grant, four Pushcart Prize nominations and two Best of the Net nominations. She has also been a finalist for the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award, the Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition, and Finishing Line Press’s New Women’s Voices Chapbook Series. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in Sky Island Journal, PINCH, Cagibi Literary Journal, North Carolina Literary Review, Susurrus, and other journals and anthologies.
Luke Harmon > Creative Nonfiction > Idaho, USA
Luke Harmon is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Idaho. He writes a Substack newsletter, Leaves from the Tree. His forthcoming book from Princeton University Press is about how we are all connected as leaves on the tree of life.
Manuel Alejandro Pérez Riquelme > Poetry > Cuba
MAR (Manuel Alejandro Pérez Riquelme) is a Cuban writer and poet, born in 2009. His work explores memory, identity, and the quiet fractures of everyday life. He writes in Spanish, English, French, Hebrew, and Portuguese. His work has appeared in Agire Sociale News (Italy). He lives in Guantánamo, Cuba.
Mauri Pollard Johnson > Creative Nonfiction > Utah, USA
Mauri Pollard Johnson is an essayist, writing teacher, and amateur poet. She earned her MFA degree in Utah where she lives with her husband. Her work has appeared in Phoebe, Short Reads, The Normal School, Silk Road Review, Under the Gum Tree, and others.
Mory McCarthy > Poetry > Illinois, USA
Mory McCarthy is a high school English teacher from Chicago, Illinois. After earning her bachelors in English literature with a double minor in international peace studies and economics, she has used any time she's not in the classroom to write. She primarily creates poetry and fiction that explores the intersection of relationships, love, self-esteem, and self-image. She is currently writing a contemporary fiction novel, and this is her first published poem.
Nadine Helstroffer > Poetry > New York, USA
Nadine Helstroffer is a French-American poet and writer based in New York City. After earning a PhD in Philosophy from Paris, she moved to New York. She created and led the BodyResonance Workshop, exploring the link between meditation and movement, at venues including The New School, Insight Meditation Society and the Zen Center of NYC. After years of working as a choreographer, she has fully returned to writing, drawn to exploring the interplay of breath and movement in poetry. Her work has appeared in Critica.
Peter Lilly > Poetry > France
Peter Lilly is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominated poet who grew up in Gloucestershire, England. After studying theology and working with the homeless in London, he moved to the South of France in 2014. He lives in a rural village with his wife and son, where he concentrates on writing, community development, and English teaching. He is the author of the collections A Handful of Prayers (Wipf & Stock, 2024) and An Array of Vapour (TSL Publications, 2023).
Sarath Reddy > Poetry > Massachusetts, USA
Sarath Reddy’s poetry explores the Indian diaspora, memory, inheritance, and the ways culture and ritual persist and adapt across generations and geographies. His work has appeared in The Healing Muse, Paterson Literary Review, West Trade Review, New Plains Review, and Atlanta Review. He is completing his first poetry collection and lives in Boston with his wife and three children.
Seth Frame > Creative Nonfiction > New York, USA
Seth Frame's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Blood+Honey, The Argyle, Sky Island Journal, Great Lakes Review, Thomasonian, Muleskinner Journal, Under the Gum Tree, Thin Places Literary Journal, and Boreal Zine. 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.
Susan Graham > Flash Fiction > New York, USA
Susan Graham is a visual artist whose work has been shown at galleries and museums. She has received fellowships and grants from organizations such as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Sustainable Arts Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her process includes writing about her inspiration, methods, and wider implications of the art objects she creates. Fiction is a new endeavor, inspired by the same questions and mysteries that spark her visual work.
Susmita Mukherjee > Poetry > India
Susmita Mukherjee is an Indian author and former teacher at Army Public School, based in Kolkata, India. Her work explores the intersections of labour, resilience, and human tenderness. A trained classical vocalist with a background in IT education and hospitality, she writes with precision and empathy. Her work has appeared in Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi), Muse India, Intrepidus Ink, Flash Fiction Magazine, Fractured Lit Magazine, Sky Island Journal, NUNUM Magazine, BULL Lit, Kitaab, Setu, Epistemic Literary Magazine, Gulmohur Quarterly, Fictive Dream, Literally Stories, Literary Yard, Shabdodweep Web Magazine, and other journals. Her work has received second prizes in the Flash Fiction Magazine Contest, the Inkspot Story Competition 2025–26, and the 3 Minute Arts Story Writing Competition 2025–26. Her debut poetry collection, When the Earth Sang of Us: A Meditation on Love, Life and Nature, is available worldwide.
Swetha Amit > Flash Fiction > California, USA
Swetha Amit is an MFA graduate of the University of San Francisco. She is the author of the memoir, A Turbulent Mind, and three chapbooks. Her work across genres appears in Bending Genres, Ghost Parachute, Gone Lawn, McNeese Boudin, Sky Island Journal, and other publications. She is an active member of the Writers Grotto, where she chairs the literary salon series. A Rooted and Written Fellow in 2024, she has received support from Tin House, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Community of Writers, The Writers Grotto, Vona Voices, Bending Genres, and Lit Camp. Her stories have appeared in the Ghost Parachute anthology, been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 2026, and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fiction, and Best Microfiction.
Tara Melanie Moore > Flash Fiction > California, USA
Tara Melanie Moore is a writer, poet, and journalist currently living in Oakland, California. Her work has appeared in Fortune, Fast Company, and Apple Stories, as well as her own Substack publication, Between the Lines. Tara enjoys writing about dystopian futures, alternate worlds, Indigenous issues, and race relations. She is currently working on Eulogies Deferred, her debut literary thriller set in Oakland in the near future about the erasure of Indigenous women, law enforcement’s complicity, and the power of remembrance. When she is not writing, Tara enjoys climbing with her Black Rock climbing community and hiking with her mini Australian Shepherd, Poe.
Veronica Tucker > Poetry > New Hampshire, USA
Veronica Tucker is an emergency medicine and addiction medicine physician, writer, and mother of three in New Hampshire. She is the author of the chapbook, The House as Witness (Quillkeepers Press, 2026). Her work has appeared in The Offing, ONE ART, The American Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she was also selected for Best Microfiction 2026. She writes about medicine, motherhood, family, and the small moments that refuse to stay small.
Warren Merkel > Creative Nonfiction > Germany
Warren Merkel is an American expat and lecturer in the English Department at the University of Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany, where he teaches courses on grammar, speaking, sociolinguistics, language and culture, and academic writing. His creative work has been published in Under the Sun, Hippocampus, Last Syllable, Lowestoft Chronicle, Eclectica, The Under Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, and elsewhere.