staff bios
Susan Kay Anderson is the author of Mezzanine (Finishing Line Press, 2019), a book of poems featuring her work as a graveyard-shift custodian at a university, which was her MFA thesis at Eastern Oregon University, directed by James Crews. She is the daughter of her immigrant mother from Germany and restless Nebraskan father. Her family lived in Nome and on Indian reservations in Nevada and Montana and other places away from mainstream America while she was growing up. Anderson is the recipient of an Oregon Young Writers Award, a Jovanovich Award, fellowships from the University of Colorado, Telluride Writers, Aspen Writers, Ragdale, and stipends from the Student Conservation Association, AFS –Finland, and Study Abroad-Tuebingen University. Her poetry has been published in Barrow Street Journal 4 X 2 Project, BlazeVox Journal, Caliban Online, Carolina Quarterly, Mudfish, Puerto del Sol, Square One, Tom Clark Beyond The Pale, and other places. Anderson has been short-listed for numerous manuscript publication prizes, attended Tin House, Colrain, Windward Community College Writing Retreats, PEN Writers-Hawaii, Volcano Arts Center, AWP, 24 Pearl Street/Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and presented Mezzanine at The Montana Book Festival. She was the poetry editor of Big Talk in Eugene, Oregon, a free publication which showcased up-and-coming NW punk bands, published by Hank Trotter. Anderson earned degrees in anthropology from the University of Oregon (BS) and English Literature/Creative Writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder (MA). Her thesis was directed by Edward Dorn. Anderson worked in Hawaii as an educator and interviewed Virginia Brautigan Aste there. This project and its resulting memoir, Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, is forthcoming in 2021 from Finishing Line Press.
Audrey Bauman is a Chinese-American writer from Little Rock, Arkansas. She received her MFA at Northern Michigan University, where she was managing editor of Passages North, and her writing has been published in CRAFT, HAD, Jellyfish Review, and Paper Darts. She is currently pursuing her PhD in creative writing at the University of Utah.
Ryan Black is the author of The Tenant of Fire (University of Pittsburgh Press), winner of the 2018 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Death of a Nativist, selected by Linda Gregerson for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. He has published previously in Best American Poetry, Blackbird, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly, and elsewhere, and has received fellowships from the Adirondack Center for Writing, The Millay Colony for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Queens Council on the Arts, and the T.S. Eliot House. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Queens College of the City of New York. More at ryanblackpoet.com.
Jess Challis is the author of [im]perfect witness (Moon in the Rye Press, 2025). Her artists’ book body less is housed in the J. Willard Marriott Library Rare Books Collection. Her poetry, prose, multimedia, and artwork have been published in journals and anthologies such as Ponder Review, Slippery Elm, Open Shutter Press, and Beyond Queer Words and featured in solo and collective art exhibitions. She is a Creative Writing/Book Arts MFA student and writing instructor at the University of Utah.
Trevor Davis is an MA student in Literature, a writer, a photographer, and a musician. His focus is on experimental and queer literature with a specific interest in works that explore identity as well as nonconventional media in countercultural movements, such as punk zines. This interest drives both their academic and creative works and maybe one day they will be certain of who they are. Find them at SunfishPhotos.com.
Will Durham is a poet living in Seattle. He received a BA from Texas Tech University and an MFA from the University of Washington. Will's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in THRUSH, RHINO, Hoot, San Pedro River Review and others. Will's interview with Gerald Stern is available through Birmingham Poetry Review. He received a Best New Poets nomination from THRUSH. He is a reader for Quarterly West as well as The Boiler.
Alexander Duringer is from Buffalo, NY. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, &Change, and South Dakota Review among others.
Katherine Gaffney completed her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is now working on her PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in the Mississippi Review, jubilat, Rabbit Catastrophe, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Kettle Blue Review, Meridian, the Tampa Review, and elsewhere. She is currently working on her transition from the Midwest to the South with her partner, her two dogs, and her cat.
Anna Girgenti is a writer living in Chicago. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such places as Cider Press Review, Lunch Ticket, Cumberland River Review, Zone 3 Press, and Mid-American Review. She was a recipient of the 2018 Iowa Chapbook Prize from the University of Iowa. She spends her days working with incarcerated writers and supporting San Diego State University's Equitable Access program. Visit annagirgenti.com to get in touch with her or read some of her published work.
Clay Grubbs is an alternative game developer and visual artist from New Jersey. They hold a BS in Games from the University of Utah and are currently pursuing an MA in Video Game Narrative and Aesthetics at the same school. Their visual artwork is currently on display at the Art at the Main co-op gallery at the Salt Lake City Public Library and their “games” can be found at https://konjoue.itch.io/.
Fiona Hartmann is a writer living in Toronto, Canada. She is interested in creating thought-provoking fiction that creates emotional connections that transcend through the digital landscape of modernity. She is a finalist for Lucky Jefferson's 2025 Poetry Contest. Find her published and forthcoming work in Kelp Journal, Poetry Pause, Juste Milieu Zine and at www.fionahartmann.com.
Jeffrey Hecker is the author of Rumble Seat (San Francisco Bay Press, 2011) & the chapbooks Hornbook (Horse Less Press, 2012), Instructions for the Orgy (Sunnyoutside Press, 2013), Before He Let Them Guide Sleigh (ShirtPocket Press, 2013) & Ark Aft (The Magnificent Field, 2020). Recent work has appeared in Posit, The Laurel Review, LEVELER, decomP, Entropy, BOAAT, Dream Pop Journal, & DELUGE. A graduate of Old Dominion University, he’s a fourth-generation Hawaiian American and he currently resides in Norfolk, Virginia, where he teaches at The Muse Writers Center. Reach out to him on Twitter @jeffrey_hecker.
Jannah Hinthorne is a writer and teacher hailing from Seattle, Washington. She received her BA in English from Western Washington University and is beginning her PhD in literature at the University of Utah, where she studies Victorian literature and life writing. She is a book reviewer, manuscript editor, and obsessive notetaker. You can often find her shamelessly snooping through her favorite Victorian authors’ private letters (for research purposes, she says).
Aiman Tahir Khan is the inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate of Pakistan. Her work is featured in or forthcoming from Shō Poetry Journal, Nimrod International Journal, Muzzle Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in Lahore, Pakistan, and was most recently a Brooklyn Poets Fellow.
Marianne Manzler is a writer and educator from Ohio. She earned a BA in English literature from The Ohio State University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington, where she was awarded the Grace Milliman Pollock Fellowship, co-founded the Black Jaw Literary Series, co-edited The Seattle Review, and won UW’s Eugene Van Buren Award. Marianne’s essay “On the Making of a Mumu,” which originally appeared in Fourth Genre, received a notable in Best American Essays 2022. Her work can be found in fine publications such as The Seventh Wave and 5280, and she is the recipient of fellowships from U.S Fulbright-Malaysia, Vermont Studio Center, and Martha's Institute for Creative Writing. She works and teaches at Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, MN. Find her at mariannemanzler.com.
Nafisa Marei lives and writes across continents. She also enjoys balancing on her hands and baking with a pet sourdough starter that she refuses to name.
Savannah McDaniel lives in Utah, where she is pursuing an MFA in prose at the University of Utah. She received the Alison Regan Library Thesis Award for her thesis comparing the creature from Frankenstein to Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Her fiction has appeared in the Periphery literary journal.
Hadley Moore’s collection Not Dead Yet and Other Stories won Autumn House Press’s 2018 fiction contest and received many other award commendations. Her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Witness, the Alaska Quarterly Review, the Indiana Review, and numerous other literary journals, and she is an alum of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Anna Newman holds an M.F.A in poetry from the University of Maryland. Their work has appeared in Best New Poets, Poetry Northwest, Rattle, [PANK], and elsewhere. They were the recipient of the 2022 Nature and Place Prize from Frontier Poetry, judged by Amaud Johnson. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Paul Oh is a Malaysian-Chinese poet and book artist previously based in the Bay Area. Publishing under the imprint Rascally Sophist Press, Paul has produced a range of fine-press chapbooks, zines, experimental posters, and artist books in collaboration with local artists and organizations. He’s only mostly embarrassed at the state of his website, rascallysophistpress.com, which purports to house more info about his work.
Miranda Paulson is a current MFA student at the University of Utah and writing tutor at Utah Valley University. Her poetry has appeared in Sunstone Magazine, Touchstones, and Body of Work: She Said Anthology. She currently lives in Springville, Utah with her husband and son.
Amanda Pope was born and raised in Salt Lake City. She received a BS in English from the University of Utah and is now pursuing her MA in Literature. As a second-year graduate student, her work spans a broad range of literary and writing interests, with particular attention to prose fiction.
Tanner Pruitt studied creative writing at the University of Virginia and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and works in corporate strategy at Everlaw, a litigation software company. He lives in San Francisco.
Aishwarya Sahi is a poet and translator from Patna, India. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston and is currently pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Utah. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, The Cincinnati Review, Blackbird, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.
Ellie Snyder is a Montanan poet who writes and manages social media for a global nonprofit and is passionate about literature, fashion and music. Find her work in Pangyrus, The Dewdrop, River Heron Review, Pile Press and elsewhere, and find her fitchecks on Instagram @elliegsnyder.
Jeffery Allen Tobin is a writer based in South Florida. A Pushcart and multi-time "Best of the Net" nominee, he has been writing for more than 30 years. His latest poetry collection "Scars & Fresh Paint" was published in 2024. Tobin's work is featured in Chicago Quarterly Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Ibbetson Street Press, and many others.
Margaret Wack is the author of the chapbook The Body Problem, winner of the 2021 Orison Chapbook Prize. Her work has appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Sixth Finch, Hayden’s Ferry Review, EcoTheo Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Poetry from North Carolina State University and is a PhD student in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Utah.
Kieron Walquist is a queer, neurospicy poet and visual artist from Missouri. His debut collection, OUR HANDS HOLD VIOLENCE [Beacon Press], was a 2024 National Poetry Series winner, and his other work has received support from FAWC, Monson Arts, and VSC. A PhD candidate at the University of Utah, they live in Salt Lake City.
J. L. Yocum is a musician and poet living in Brooklyn. He holds a B.A. in English Composition, concentration Poetry, from the University of North Texas. His poems have appeared and/or are forthcoming in Albatross, The Orchards Poetry Journal, ionosphere, The Big Windows Review, The Broken Teacup, Pinhole Poetry, $ Poetry Is Currency, The Comstock Review, Thimble Literary Magazine and Moonday Mag. His musical endeavors span a few decades and a handful of projects, including work on the soundtrack of at least one award-winning film. He pays the rent working in a fine-art-adjacent industry and splits the bills with his wife and their indolent marmalade tabby. Find him online at https://jlyocum.com/
Xueyi Zhou was born and raised in Foshan, a city of manufacturing in Guangdong, China. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Guernica, Southeast Review, Waxwing, Passages North, Chestnut Review, Tahoma Lit Review, AAWW The Margins, Best Small Fictions 2022 and more. Her recent honors include a fiction longlist in Disquiet Prize 2024, a finalist in Black Warrior Review Flash Contest in both 2022 and 2023, a shortlist for the winter Oxford Flash Fiction Prize 2023, a Best of Net nomination for poetry, and more. Her poetry has appeared in BOOTH (runner-up of 2022 Beyond the Margins Prize) and Frontier Poetry. Her writing has been supported by Lighthouse Writers Workshop and Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. She served as Editor at Witness magazine 2023-2024 and she is a prose reader at Chestnut Review. She holds an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and She is currently pursuing her PhD in creative writing at the University of Utah. Find her at xueyizhou.com.