Troy Landrum Jr. is a native of Indianapolis, IN and has lived in Seattle, WA for 10 years. His passion for reading and writing bloomed as he navigated a path of self-rediscovery through identity, faith, culture and his family’s migration stories from Jim Crow South to the Midwest. These intersections are at the helm of his human experience and literature process as a Black artist and oral historian. Troy graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Washington Bothell and is an educator, a freelance journalist for the South Seattle Emerald, and a Novelist. His novel In Progress explores the question of “Home” through the Historical American time period of The Great Migration. A period in American history where millions of African American people moved from the South to Northern and Midwestern cities. He dedicates his work to the brilliance of African American History and the brilliance of his family history through the work of literature and preservation.

Ell Lin is ta̍k-ke hó! ell (伊/they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator of Native Pacific Islander ancestry with a background in community-rooted written, visual, and performing arts. ell has facilitated multigenerational antiracist theater, developed poetry and creative writing performances with incarcerated youth, taught multilingual language arts courses as well as elementary education, and won awards in photography, teaching, instrumental music, and poetry. ell’s most recent poem is locally featured in a community celebration coupling food with poetry. Her doctoral writing is inspired by the blazing legacy of warrior poets, including Audre Lorde and Gloria Anzaldúa, who urged reclaiming language as bridges to liberatory relationship and action. The sacred mists of Coast Salish mountains, protagonist of ell’s first published poem as a child, continue sparking wonder, healing, and dreams.

Nhatt Nichols  is a graphic journalist, poet, and non-fiction cartoonist from the Okanogan. Her work centers around rural narratives, forests, borders, and food systems. You can find her graphic journalism in High Country News, Civil Eats, and The Daily Yonder, and This Party of the Soft Things (Bored Wolves, 2022), a book-length poem about the planer post-people, is inits second printing. Nhatt holds a postgraduate certificate from the Royal Drawing School in London and runs her studio practice from Chimacum. Her illustrated novel, Morels, is forthcoming from Bored Wolves in 2024.

Putsata Reang is a journalist and author of the debut memoir, “Ma and Me,” (FSG/MCD May 2022). Her writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Politico, The Seattle-Times, the San Jose Mercury News, Ms., and the Guardian, as well as anthologized in essay collections highlighting women’s and Khmer voices. She has trained reporters across the globe in conflict and post-conflict nations such as Cambodia, Afghanistan, Thailand and Bangladesh, Putsata is an alum of writers residencies at Hedgebrook, Mineral School and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, as well as the Jack Straw Writing Fellowship program. She has received grants from Washington State Artist Trust and the Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship foundation.

Vincent Rendoni is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Dead Chicano Mixtape (Red Hen Press, 2027) and A Grito Contest in the Afterlife (Catamaran, 2022), winner of the Catamaran Poetry Prize as selected by Dorianne Laux. His work has appeared in AGNI, Prairie Schooner, Ninth Letter, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Pleiades. He has received support from the Jack Straw Cultural Center and Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. A born-and-raised Northwesterner, he currently resides in White Center, WA.

Ricardo Ruiz is a multi-dimensional writer of poetry and prose. The son of potato factory workers, Ricardo hails from Othello, Washington. His work draws from his experience as a first-generation Mexican-American, and from his military service. Ricardo holds an Associate Degree in Business and Accounting from Big Bend Community College, where he was recognized as Student of the Year in both Business and Economics, and English Composition. He also holds a Bachelor of Art in Creative Writing from the University of Washington. While in the military, Ricardo earned the rank of Staff Sergeant while serving on four deployments, two to Afghanistan. His debut collection of poetry reached #1 on Amazon’s Hispanic-American Poetry Chart. He is passionate about elevating marginalized voices from rural communities and takes pride in being a conduit for cultural connection.