Participating Artists

Barbara Adams is an associate professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College. As a writer, for more than four decades she’s been a theater critic, book reviewer, and arts journalist for Ithaca area publications. Rome is the city of her heart; she visits it nearly every year. ithaca.edu/faculty/adams

Batool Alghamdi is an Arabic translator and academic. Her interest in language teaching and translation encouraged her to pursue higher education. Her journey began when she joined the MA in Translation program at Kent State University. She enjoys participating and volunteering in translation and culture-related projects. Currently, she is furthering her scholarly endeavors as a Ph.D. student in the TRIP program at Binghamton University. [email protected]

V helps people sell themselves, their creations, their ideas, and their plans and writes and publishes as Veronica Park and V.P. Anderson (screenplays, games, graphic novels, novels, articles, essays, poems, etc.); across categories (including MG, YA, and adult,); and in multiple genres; all with elements in common: queerness, neurodivergence, intersectional feminism, and irreverence. Member of SCBWI and the Authors Guild.  vpanderson.com/about-v

Felicia Ansty has completed more than 30 screenplays (features, tv pilots, shorts, specs), many of which have placed in or won competitions. Produced credits include an animated short and a trailer for a television pilot. She founded Cayuga Writers in 2003.
[email protected]

Jillian Barnet writes poetry and nonfiction from a tiny farm in the Finger Lakes. Her essays and poems have appeared in Best American Essays, North American Review, New Letters, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Falling Bodies can be purchased at finishinglinepress.com. She is working on a memoir.
[email protected]
jillianbarnetwrites.com

E.C. Barrett is a writer of strange and dark fictions. They are also a developmental editor, writing teacher, linocut artist, and book reviews editor for Reckoning literary journal. Their writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, received first place from the New York Press Association, and has appeared in Split Lip, Strange Horizons, Bourbon Penn, and elsewhere.
ecbarrett.com

Heather Bartlett (she/her) is a poet, writer, and professor. She is the author of the poetry collection, Another Word for Hunger (Sundress Publications). She is a professor of English and Writing at SUNY Cortland and is the founding editor of the online literary magazine, Hoxie Gorge Review.
heatherbartlett.com

nicole v basta is a poet, educator, visual artist, event producer, with proud roots in the coal mines and garment factories of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her poems have been published in Ploughshares, The Cortland Review, RHINO, Plume, The North American Review, Ninth Letter, etc. Her second chapbook “the next field over” was published by Tolsun Books (2022). Her work has been supported by Art Farm Nebraska, Terra Cultura, Community Arts Partnership, The New York State Council on the Arts, and Poets & Writers.
nicolevbasta.com
@nicoalvbasta

Kalynn Bayron is a New York Times bestselling author whose latest work includes the YA horror novel “You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight.” She’s a Bram Stoker Award nominee, LOCUS Award finalist, and the recipient of the 2022 Randall Kenan Award for Black LGBTQ fiction. When she’s not writing you can find her watching scary movies and spending time with her family.
linktr.ee/KalynnBayron

As the second Poet Laureate of Tompkins County and a recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a Community Arts Partnership Award for Fiction and a Cave Canem Fellowship in Poetry, Michelle is a poet, playwright, humorist, and non-fiction writer, who aims to voice the unspoken narratives that resonate with us all. In addition to being the first poet published by Horticulture, other publishers of her work include Northwestern University Press, Random House, Obsidian II, nocturnes: a re(view) of the literary arts, Paterson Literary Review, Oxford Magazine, and IthacaLit.  [email protected]  michellecourtneyberry.com

Yangzhou (Yao) Bian is a theatre practitioner from Sichuan, China. She is a Ph.D. student in Translation Studies at Binghamton University, with a research focus on intersemiotic translation, adaptation, transcreation, and playwriting. She received her M.A. and M.A. in Theatre Studies at SUNY Binghamton, specializing in theory and criticism, and Chinese folk dances. Bian published widely in recipe books, plays, novellas, and poetry, including Rainbow Dumplings, Bookworm and Butterfly, An Usher’s Diary, My Green Card Marriage, and more.
[email protected]
Rainbow Dumplings is available at Barnes&Noble.com
Other books (except The Girl Crown Prince) are available at Amazon.

Janie E. Bibbie is the Tompkins County Poet Laureate for 2023-2024. She is author of Alzheimer’s: Up Close and Personal and several books of poetry, including Keep Moving, Thunderstorm, Waiting Room, Priceless Present, and Why Me. She is a member of Business Leaders of Colors, Lifelong, and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center Senior Program. In her role as Poet Laureate, she hopes to encourage members of the Tompkins County community to join her in reading, writing, and sharing poetry.
[email protected]
Books available at www.odysseybookstore.com
and at Amazon

Cyepress Ifamayami Brathwaite (they/them) is a Trinidadian-American multimedia artist and interdisciplinary scholar. Their work is rooted in ancestral reverence, exilic exploration, and freedom dreaming. Weaving wisdom from their practice as a doula, herbalist, facilitator, and student of Ifá, their creative-theorizing serves to encourage themselves and others to reclaim the power of our bodies and imaginations.
[email protected]
cyepresscypher.substack.com

Rabbi Suzanne Brody is the author of both multiple books of poetry and a historical fiction novella. Her writing is infused with her passion for her family, education, and Judaism. She serves as the Director of Ithaca Beit Midrash, where Jewish learning that touches the heart, mind, and soul is for everyone. Books available on Amazon and Silver Bow Publishing and ithacabeitmidrash.com  [email protected]

Bubblesz is a Multidisciplinary Artist and Art Therapy Practitioner who has the mission to inspire self-love and empowerment through the Arts. Bubblesz creates Medicine in the forms of Music, Spoken Word, Somatic Therapy, Literature, and Herbalism. Bubblesz has a focus on repairing the relationship people have with their mental, physical, and Spiritual health.
[email protected]  
The Bubbly Love Course: Volume 1 is available at Amazon

Austin Bunn is the author of “The Brink: stories” and the upcoming Audible Original “DENALI”. He’s also directed the award-winning short documentaries “Lavender Hill: a love story”, “In the Hollow” and “Campfire”. He is the Director of Cornell’s Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity.
[email protected]

Amrita Chakraborty is a writer and PhD candidate in comparative literature at Cornell University from Queens, NY. Her writing has been published in The Margins, Parentheses Journal, and more, and her microchapbook ‘Cold Alchemy’ was published by Ghost City Press in 2020. In her research and creative work, she considers questions of gender, worldmaking, and utopianism. amritachakraborty.com

Lily Crane Codera is a mixed-race poet, artist, and educator from Rochester, NY. Her recent work is interested in water, dreaming, the intergenerational, and other in-between spaces. She holds a BA from SUNY Geneseo, an MFA from Cornell University, and has poems forthcoming from Stone Canoe.
[email protected]

Rob Costello (he/him) writes dark fiction with a queer bent. He’s contributing editor of “We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures”(Running Press Teens, 2024) and author of “The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times” (Lethe Press, 2024). He lives in upstate NY with his husband and their four-legged overlords.
cloudbusterpress.com
revise-and-shine.com

Lee Cotman’s goal is to foster connections between working-class people through play. They wear many hats (medievalist, poet, parent, circus clown) all of which demand a knack for storytelling. Their writing has been published in Stone Canoe, Myth & Lore Zine, Lumpen Journal, and elsewhere, and has placed in multiple contests.
leecotman.com

From hiking Mount Vesuvius and Arenal Volcano to walking Hadrian’s Wall and the black sand shores of the Venezuelan coast, to earning a Masters in Screenwriting from the National Film School of Ireland, her experiences trekking the world have been a vital muse for Naomi’s creative writing endeavors. Consequently, her stories are infused with the exotic and often otherworldly.
[email protected]
naomidaniluk.wixsite.com/author

Anthony Di Renzo has published four books of creative nonfiction, most recently “Pasquinades: Essays from Rome’s Famous Talking” (Cayuga Lake Books, 2023). Between 2013 and 2020, he contributed a monthly humor column to L’Italo Americano, a bilingual Italian American newspaper based in Los Angeles. He teaches writing at Ithaca College. ithaca.edu/faculty/direnzo

Admiration for fiction writers, and a feeling she owed them, led Persephone to try to write fiction again. Her last try was over 40 years ago. Meanwhile, she got good at copy editing.
[email protected]

Prisoner Express creates opportunities for incarcerated people to get information, education and a public forum for creative self-expression. The Durland Alternatives Library — home of the Prisoner Express program — provides resources for social change to the Ithaca, Cornell, and Tompkins County communities. Both organizations are projects of the Center for Transformative Action.
alternativeslibrary.org
prisonerexpress.org

Mona Eikel-Pohen thinks, dreams, speaks, teaches, and writes in English and German. She moved near Ithaca in 2007 and has taught German since 2012. Her writing covers verbal snapshots, short poetry & prose, and dramatic works translations. Currently, she co-develops a play with German author/director Jochen Gehle in Magdeburg, Germany. She will read from her work-in-progress friendship book “Gutschrift.”
[email protected]
germanfictionandnonfiction.wordpress.com

Local artist, working in music, video production, creative writing and coffee sales. Worked in modeling/ acting in NYC, etc. Spent time in Ithaca, Los Angeles, Miami, Denver, and NYC working in film/ video production, copywriting, acting; working in restaurants in the same cities. Authored a few theater plays, numerous film scripts & written over 300 songs on guitar and piano.
[email protected]

Brenna Fitzgerald is a writer, editor, personal growth coach, and host of Creative Recovery podcast. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing and has published work in a variety of literary journals. She is currently working on a Master’s of Social Work with plans to obtain her clinical license.
[email protected]
brennacoaching.com
@brenna.ef

Before turning to writing and music upon retirement, Joanna was a pioneer in the field of sustainable agriculture at Cornell, fighting against the continuing industrialization of farming and the impoverishment of rural communities. In 2010 she founded the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, a farmer training program which confronts the deep racial inequities embedded in our food system.
[email protected]
joannajgreen.wordpress.com
Book available at Buffalo Street Books and Odyssey Bookstore

Lesley Greene is a sound designer, playwright, composer, and event producer. She worked for 20 years at the Kitchen Theatre Company as a producer, grant writer, and theatrical jack-of-all-trades. She is co-director of Story House Ithaca, co-founder of Porchfest, and author of The Turnaway Play.
[email protected]
lesleylisagreene.com
storyhouseithaca.org

Never one to stop bumping and GRINDING, Erin the AXE is feeling as sharp as ever!  A core member of Whiskey Tango Sideshow and 14 year ‘veteran’ of the burlesque scene, she keeps thinking about retiring, but just can’t seem to keep her costumes (or anything else!) in the closet!  Her style is across the board — goofy femme fatale to heavy storyteller — you never quite know what you’re gonna get!  The Axe is honored and excited to perform with the mysterious and powerful mistress Silver Reign. Let us transport you to another realm… Instagram: @erintheaxe

Sue Heavenrich is a neurodivergent, award-winning author who brings science to life, with a touch of humor. She used to write for local newspapers and now writes for kids. Sue grows flowers for bees and co-hosts the Ithaca SCBWI Shop Talk. Her recent picture books are 13 WAYS TO EAT A FLY and THE PIE THAT MOLLY GREW.
[email protected]
sueheavenrich.com
Books available at: Buffalo Street Books; online at Barnes & Noble and bookshop.org or at your favorite local bookstore.

Roger W. Hecht is the author of two poetry collections, “Talking Pictures” and “Witness Report.” His work has appeared in Gargoyle, Anti-Heroin Chic, A-Minor, Book of Matches, and other journals. He teach literature and creative writing at SUNY Oneonta and lives in Ithaca, NY.
[email protected]
finishinglinepress.com/product/witness-report-by-roger-w-hecht/

Karel A. Hilversum is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is a geographer and explorer by passion and an educator and psychologist by vocation. He teaches leadership at Cornell University. He identifies as “Itharican” and explores his new identity. In his free time, he enjoys the outdoors, plays the guitar, and spends time with his family and friends. [email protected]   Amazon Link to “Entre la Vida y el Mundo”

Danka Hlinka is a first-gen, Slovak-American, creative non-fiction writer from Connecticut. Her essays amatuerly attempt to portray a scientific and spiritual perspective, as we follow her through her own day-to-day experiences, frequently questioning love and life, analyzing personal relationships and the circumstances she finds herself in. [email protected]

Xan is a senior Theatre Studies and Writing double major at Ithaca College. After graduating, she will go home to Columbia, Maryland and work in the D.C. area. Professionally, her interests include multimedia journalism, historical/technical writing, and creative nonfiction. Personally, her interests include dance, her family, and making the perfect cup of tea. [email protected]

Emily Sanders Hopkins, author of Emily Writes Back, a “2022 Substack of Distinction,” is a former New Yorker magazine cartoonist and the current Director of Development and Community Relations for Hospicare. She’s worked as a magazine editor, army interrogator, and fact checker and is a graduate of the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University. www.esrhopkins.com

Eric Machan Howd (Ithaca, NY) is a poet, musician, and educator. His seventh collection of poetry, “The Last Cardinal,” was published recently by sometimes y publications. He is currently seeking interested readers/publishers for his eighth collection of poetry, which is an erasure project that uses a story by H.P. Lovecraft as the foundation for the erasure.
[email protected]

Jennifer Hudak is a speculative fiction writer fueled mostly by tea. Her short fiction can be found in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, and elsewhere. Her work has appeared on both the Locus Magazine and the SFWA recommended reading lists, and has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Originally from Boston, she now lives with her family in Upstate New York where she teaches yoga, knits pocket-sized animals, and misses the ocean.
jenniferhudakwrites.com

Brian Hugenbruch is the author of more than forty speculative fiction stories and poems. When not writing, he spends his time trying to explain quantum cryptography to other nerds. He lives in Binghamton, NY, with his wife and their daughter. No, he’s not certain how to say his last name either. the-lettersea.com

What began as self-care grew into a habit, then a hobby, and now a passion, writing for Devin has grown from a childhood dread to a adulthood pleasure.

Delaney Judson (she/they) is a writer, theater artist and lately, an avid crochet hobbyist. She is a senior at Ithaca College, graduating in May with degrees in both Writing (B.A.) and Theater Studies (B.A.). Devoted to storytelling in all its forms, Delaney is excited to continue her writerly journey after graduation. Her poetry and personal essays have been featured in Stillwater Magazine. [email protected]

KP the Intellectual is an author, community organizer and curator who’s passion resides in empowering and strengthening economic development within the community through creative pathways and mediums. KP continues to incorporate concepts of wellness and personal development within community development. KP CEO of Urban Confab LLC offering support in the community to help maintain and sustain families thus creating sustainable communities. In 2024 KP launched The Writers Rock Collective, a creative space for writers and recreational readers.
[email protected]
Book available at Amazon

Jionghao Liu is a doctoral student specializing in Translation Studies at Binghamton University. Proficient in Chinese, Japanese, and English, her current research centers on Japanese literary adaptations of Chinese vernacular fiction, notably 水浒传 (Water Margin).
[email protected]

Carson is from Wichita, Kansas and holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology. He currently lives in Ithaca, writing in the horror-thriller and horror-comedy realm and bringing his studies of human psychology and experiences as a trans man to life through his stories. All current and ongoing works can be found on Inkitt, under pen name C.L. Ciraulo.
[email protected]
inkitt.com/CL_Ciraulo

Mary B. Lorson is a writer, teacher, and musician living in Ithaca.  marylorson-blog.tumblr.com  [email protected]

Lushima is an Ithaca-based creative and activist. He is a poet and storyteller who uses his voice to speak truth and justice. [email protected]
www.artstation.com/lushimalumumbakasongo

Rowen MacCarald is a genderqueer and neurodivergent author of over sixty nonfiction books for kids. Their first picture book, HOW MOM MET MAMA, is coming out in May of 2024. When not playing with words, you can find them in their home in the woods starting fires in the woodstove or herding toads off the driveway. Book available at BenchmarkEducation.com

It took Katharyn Howd Machan, Professor of Writing at Ithaca College, 71 years to get to Rome at last, and when she did, with her spouse Eric, she found herself writing sonnets. In Ithaca she writes poetry and memoir on a Dragon Patio when seasons allow. Her most recent published collection is “Dark Side of the Spoon” (Moonstone Press, 2022).
[email protected]
faculty.ithaca.edu/machan

Sula is a first year phd student at the Translation research and instruction program at Binghamton University. Her field of interests include translation of musical theatre and folk elements features in Sri Lankan cinema.

From former South African diplomat in Palestine to slayer of corporate monsters, Sue’s career has been thoroughly non-linear. Adventurer. Post-PTSD thriver. And rocker of a bad-ass phoenix tattoo. All of this is weaved into her debut historical fiction novel On the Road to Jericho.
[email protected]
sansurising.com

Sir Kenneth McLaurin is an award winning comedian who has made Ithaca his home for more than a decade. “Life’s a joke, find the funny” is his life’s motto, and all that knows him will tell you Kenneth, has certainly found it. ​ Witty, Clever, Insightful, sometimes Shocking, but always Funny is what you get with Kenneth! kennethmclaurin.com

Will McMahon is a union organizer and writer living in New York. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, and others, and his literary criticism has appeared in The Ancillary Review of Books. His greatest work is in the genre of incendiary union flyers.
will-mcmahon.com

Jonathan Miller is a freelance writer, editor, and radio and podcast producer. He is founder and co-director of Story House Ithaca, an organization that brings people together to share, study, create, and enjoy stories in all their forms. As executive director of the nonprofit journalism collective Homelands Productions, he has led several large international projects for public radio and television.
[email protected]
storyhouseithaca.org
homelands.org

Matt Minton is a dedicated senior writing and film student at Ithaca College with a passion for entertainment journalism and queer media. Throughout their time at Ithaca, Matt has interned with The Ithaca Times and The Ithaca Voice, along with being press accredited for TIFF, Tribeca, Fantastic Fest and NewFest. Matt plans to move to Los Angeles after graduation. linktr.ee/matt.minton
twitter.com/6MattMinton14
ithacamminton.wixsite.com/my-site
[email protected]

Abdul Razak Mohammed is a Binghamton University student from Ghana pursuing his master’s degree in Theatre with a focus on Directing. He has directed three shows so far in his career and has acted in numerous plays. Recently, Abdul Razak had the opportunity to be an assistant to the director of Will Pomerantz who directed Chekov’s “Three Sisters” in the Theatre Department at Binghamton University.  [email protected]

Keyturah (Candy) Moore is an Ithaca, NY-based creative writer. Using her personal experiences as inspiration, she transforms them through writing into powerful narratives of love, loss, and hope that inspire and uplift others. Although life circumstances pulled her away from her screenwriting/directing pursuits in Hollywood, she is thankful for the experiences it gave her to share. Her archive spans across several genres including poetry, spoken word, screenwriting, novels, and more.
[email protected]
passionbehindthepen.com

Kathy Morris is a visual artist, creative non-fiction writer, photographer and yoga teacher. She grew up in New York City, received her MFA from Cornell University and currently teaches for the Cornell Prison Education Program. Awards include Light Work Grant in Photography, CAP’s Special Opportunity Stipend and State of the Art Gallery Annual Juried Photography Show. Her fascination with word, image and social change is reflected in her memoir-in-progress.
kathymorris.net/collage-sketchbooks

Grace Period is Elisabeth Nonas’ fourth published novel. She has written several screenplays as well as short stories, magazine articles, essays, and coauthored with Simon LeVay the nonfiction City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America. She taught screenwriting and writing for emerging media at Ithaca College for twenty-five years.
[email protected]
elisabethnonas.com

Karen Osborne is a speculative fiction writer and visual storyteller living in Halfmoon, NY. The author of “Architects of Memory” and “Engines of Oblivion” from Tor Books, she is a graduate of Viable Paradise and the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and also won awards for her news & opinion writing in New York, Florida, and Maryland. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Fireside, Escape Pod, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and more.  karenosborne.com

Yen Ospina is self-taught multi-talented Colombian-American artist who creates in multiple mediums and scales – digital & traditional art, to community murals. Her work centers on themes of power, mysticism, and visibility. She utilizes a core color palette that makes her diverse body of work instantly recognizable as done in her hand.
[email protected]
yenospina.com
@yenospina

Jayke Paver (they/them) is a non-binary writer specializing in experimental narrative writing and screenwriting. They’ve also professionally dabbled in tabletop board games, writing and publishing two Dungeons & Dragons rule addendums, one released May 2023, and one soon-to-be-released Fall 2024. Additionally, “Sobriquet”, their Senior Capstone Project is set for a 2024 publication and release.  jaykepaver.me  [email protected]

Tish Pearlman is a poet & journalist, from California. She was creator of the award-winning public radio show “Out of Bounds.” Her 2012 poetry chapbook “The Fix Is In” was published by Finishing Line Press. Her collection “Afterlife” was published by Foothills Publishers. Her new collection, “Leaves Falling Backwards” (Finishing Line Press, 2024) covers her 2017 heart attack experience. She was (2013 &14) Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, NY.  [email protected]

Terry Plater is a contemporary realist painter focused on the figure, portrait, and landscape. Her work speaks to stories — both singular stories and shared histories. A passionate reader and a lover of words, she also writes prose and narrative poetry. Her work is conscious of beauty and justice. She invites the viewer to contemplate how the two can be reconciled. [email protected]

Judith’s varied experiences– actor, director, professor, fundraiser, and freelance writer–inspire my novels, stories, and plays. Most recently, her stories were published in “The Gateway Review” “Fifth Di” and “Magic” magazines. They have also appeared online in a number of publications. She self-published her first novel, “The Dry Country,” in 2017. Her second novel, “Siljeea Magic”, was indie-published in 2019.
[email protected]
www.judithpratt.com
The Dry Country is available online at Amazon

Bob Proehl is an Ithaca author and part-time game show host. He wrote The Nobody People and A Hundred Thousand Worlds, which are novels, and Dragon Day, which is sort of a radio play and will be out from Audible later this year. He writes for the Disgraceland and Musicland Stories podcasts. BobProehl.com

Jon Raimon teaches personal and creative writing at the Lehman Alternative Community School. He writes along with his students, focusing on poetry and short fiction.

Barbara Regenspan is a retired educational philosopher-turned-poet whose pursuit is the education of autobiographies allied with a social justice orientation. She published her first volume of poems, The Chessmaster’s Daughter, with Cayuga Lake Books in 2022 and is now dedicated to practicing and teaching the art of “Writing Light in Dark Times,” with as much humor as possible.
[email protected] 
cayugalakebooks.com/ordering-books
colgate.edu/about/directory/bregenspan

Silver Rein is an Ithaca-based performing artist, whose electric cello-driven work explores feelings of isolation and belonging, life and death against the landscape of an old yet familiar world. silverreinmusic.com  [email protected]

Aurora Rey is a college dean by day and a life coach and award-winning author of queer romance the rest of the time, except when she’s puttering in the kitchen, riding the tractor, or pining for goats. She’s recently come to terms with being addicted to side hustles.
aurorarey.com
@aurora.rey

Erin Riddle earned a B.A. at Ithaca College studying German, Spanish, and Art History and then worked for a small book publisher in Ithaca for seven years. She then attended Binghamton University and earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. studying translation and literature. She lives in Owego, NY, and works as a language professional translating, editing, teaching, and writing grants.
[email protected]
erinriddle.com

Laura Rowley (she/they) is a teaching book artist and library assistant from Trumansburg, NY. She is the founder of Illuminated Press, a micro publisher that crafts books by hand. Laura studied bookbinding, letterpress printing, and papermaking at Wells College (BA) and The University of Alabama (MFA).
illuminatedpress.org

Barbara writes non-fiction. She sucessfully blended her medical background with extensive studies in natural health modalities. As a Mind Body Health Care practitioner and hospice nurse, for over 40 years she helped people from birth to death, domestic animals large and small and rehabilitated wildlife. She is published in several magazines. [email protected]

Cheyenne Shaffer is a speculative fiction writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and The Never-Ending Odyssey, and her work has previously appeared in Factor Four Magazine and Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic: An Anthology of Hysteria Fiction. This fall, she will be relocating to start her MFA in creative writing.

Mejdulene Bernard Shomali is a queer Palestinian poet and Associate Professor in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her first book, “Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives” was published by Duke University Press in 2023. Her poetry chapbook “agriculture of grief: prayers for my father’s dementia” is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press (August 2024). dukeupress.edu/between-banat

Jada Simone (b. 1997) is an Ithaca, NY based artist-poet and author of the chapbook “Unfollowed into the Dark” (2024). It wasn’t until she started performing at local open mics in 2023 when Jada was encouraged to expand upon her writing practice. When she’s not writing, she enjoys running, crocheting, and playing guitar.
[email protected]
anotefromjada.com

Amber Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels for young adults, including the international bestseller, “The Way I Used to Be,” as well her critically acclaimed sophomore novel, “The Last to Let Go,” award-winning “Something Like Gravity,” and “The Way I Am Now,” the New York Times and USA Today bestselling sequel to “The Way I Used to Be.” Along with her middle grade debut, “Code Name: Serendipity,” she also contributed to the award-winning YA anthology, “Our Stories, Our Voices”. She lives in Ithaca, New York with her wife and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats.
[email protected]
ambersmithauthor.com

A poet, printmaker and gallery owner, Daphne studied poetry and book-making at Wells College Summer Book Arts Institute and produced artist-books and chapbooks. Her work has been published in The Healing Muse, Poetry of the Ithaca Times, in Vol.5, 6, of The Finger Lakes Anthology, in Bluff and Vine, and Avocet. A MYTH IN REVERSE, a poetry volume is published by Kelsay Books.

A queer disabled nonbinary femme writer and educator in upstate New York, Angie Somma was born and raised in a borough of NYC and studied Literature, Writing and Education at Manhattanville College. Published in Inkwell Magazine, the Anthology of Poetry, and various content on websites, they have been the recipient of the: Karen Finley Scholarship for Women & Non-Binary Writers; Hudson Valley Writers Center – Scholarship ( BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+); Hudson Valley Writers Guild: Writers in the Mountains Residency Scholarship; All Write, Columbia County Fiction Writers Conference Scholarship.  [email protected]
www.CoreCreativeWriting.com

D.A. Xiaolin Spires’ 100+ speculative fiction stories are published in Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Nature, Terraform and elsewhere. Her works have been selected for The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror and The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time Stories. Her poetry has been nominated for the Dwarf Star, Rhysling, Best of the Net and Pushcart Awards.
bsky.app/profile/spires.bsky.social
twitter.com/spireswriter
daxiaolinspires.wordpress.com

Leora is a queer Jewish bibliophile and SFF writer living in Ithaca with her fiance, cat, and snake. Her work has appeared in both of Speculatively Queer’s anthologies, “It Gets Even Better” and “Xenocultivars.” Her story “This Excessive Use of Pickled Foods,” published in khoreo magazine, won the 2023 Subjective Chaos Kind Of Award for Short Fiction. leoraspitzer.com

Erica is an award-winning actor and voice teacher. She has been seen most recently in The Ding Dongs at the Kitchen Theatre and at Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and in the critically acclaimed What the Constitution Means to Me at the Kitchen and Hangar Theatres. She is working on a collection of personal creative narrative and memoir essay. ericasteinhagen.com

Isabel Sterling is a master certified coach and the founder of The Confident Author Academy, where she helps novelists create sustainable, burnout-free careers. Isabel writes twisty paranormal thrillers about magical queer girls who find love after heartbreak. Her novels include “These Witches Don’t Burn,” “This Coven Won’t Break,” and “The Coldest Touch.”
isabelsterling.com

Annie Sumi is an ethereal-folk artist from Canada. Her work takes shape from the rich melodies of landscape and human experience. With support from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, she has toured across North America, the United Kingdom, and central Europe. She currently resides in the Fingers Lakes Region of upstate New York.  [email protected]
anniesumi.com

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Roselyn has lived most of her adult life in Ithaca, NY. She taught math and computer science for 30 years at Ithaca High School. Since retirement in 2009, she’s been a writer of mysteries and thrillers. A RELUCTANT SPY and THE FOURTH WOMAN will be published by The Story Plant in 2024 and 2025. [email protected]
roselynteukolsky.com

Kyle is a writer, crafter, and miniature painter daylighting as a software developer from Corning, NY. He lives on a hill with his wife, Kim, three hyperactive herding dogs, and a grumpy black cat. He goes on adventures whenever possible. [email protected]

Juliana Torres Forero is a Ph.D. candidate in Spanish with graduate minors in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality and LGBTQ Studies at Cornell University. Her research delves into the poetics of monstrosity in the literary work of 20th-century women writers and poets from the Andean Region and the Southern Cone. She holds a BA in Literary Studies from Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.  jt7[email protected]

Wren Tuatha is a queer, disabled poet who earned her MFA at Goddard College. She’s author of Thistle and Brilliant. She has appeared in Silk Road, The Lake, Kaleidoscope, Inverted Syntax, Lavender Review, etc.. She’s formerly Artist-in-Residence at Heathcote Center. Wren and partner author/activist C.T. Butler herd goats among the Finger Lakes. She’s director of Ithaca Poetry Center.
Book available online at finishinglinepress.com    Author page at facebook.com
Ithaca Poetry Center

Melissa Tuckey is a poet, editor, and teaching artist who lives in Ithaca, New York. She is author of Tenuous Chapel, which won the first book award at ABZ Press and Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology published by University of Georgia Press. She’s a former Poet Laureate of Tompkins Country.

Debbie Urbanski is the author of the novel After World (Simon & Schuster, 2023). Her stories and essays have also been published in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Best American Experimental Writing, The Sun, Orion, and Granta. She lives in Syracuse and spends a lot of time hiking in state forests.
debbieurbanski.com
Instagram: @debbieurbanski

Anna Warfield is a Binghamton-based artist who turns her original poems into floating sculptures. Like a concrete poem in 3-dimensions, the text and form work together to shape meaning. Anna’s debut solo museum exhibition, “Placid Thoughts From Inside Her Eyelids,” is currently on view at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton. Anna received a 2023 NYSCA Artist Fellowship and is a 2023 residency alumna of the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. She earned her BFA from Cornell University. annawarfield.com

Poet and actor. Born and raised in Central New York. Wandered. Held interesting jobs (some not so much). Returned to teach at SUNY Cortland. Now emeritus. Four books of poems published.
[email protected]
Books available at FinishingLinePress.com and Amazon.

Susan Weitz is a retired librarian who lives in Cortland, NY. She started writing poems at age 8, is still a big fan of Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, and T.S. Eliot, and will borrow your cat if you let her.

Risa Wolf is a nonbinary, neurodivergent genre writer who imagines houses for book-ghosts for a living. Their short stories can be found in the science fiction and fantasy magazines Apex, Clarkesworld, and Diabolical Plots, among others.
killerpuppytails.com

Keegan Young is a 40 year old male living in Ithaca, a systems-impacted fiction writer/poet who earned two degrees while incarcerated, he works with systems-impacted people in the community, and he performs poetry at local open mic nights.

Winniebell Xinyu Zong is a Chinese poet and chapbook editor at Newfound Press. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review, among others. She holds an MFA from Cornell University, where she teaches creative writing as a lecturer. Zong believes in a free Palestine in our lifetimes and denounces all forms of imperial occupation and complicity. winniebellxzong.com

A short history of me: a native son of Brooklyn, New York, a painter and emeritus professor at the City University of New York where I taught graduate classes in media studies, language and literacy. I coordinate the monthly ‘The Verb Takes A Walk’ collaborative poetry and music events in Lansing. I live astounded at the potentials of the world, of worlds burrowed within words.
[email protected]
ithacasavageclub.com