staff bios

Susan Kay Anderson resides at the headwaters of Sutherlin Creek in southwestern Oregon’s Umpqua River Basin and is a caregiver for her mother, an immigrant from Germany. Anderson grew up in remote locations in the Far West (Nome, Alaska; Schurz, Nevada) and in Germany as her father sought government jobs as a social worker and moved the family quite frequently.  Her poetry book, Mezzanine (2019), features her work as a graveyard-shift custodian at a university. She is also the author of Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir, Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast (2021), recently excerpted in Emergency Horse #9. Her prose has been featured in Guernica, Hawaii Island Journal, Honolulu Civil Beat, and elsewhere. Anderson’s poems are published widely in journals. She was a fellow passenger on a study tour of Anatolia, Turkey with John Mellor, worked for Katherine Thalberg at her bookstore in Aspen, Colorado, and was Ed Dorn’s student at the University of Colorado-Boulder where she studied for her M.A. in English & Creative Writing. Her M.F.A. in Poetry is from Eastern Oregon University. In recent years, she has enjoyed participating in workshops led by Joan Houlihan, Martha Rhodes, Fred Marchant, and Hermine Meinhard. She has worked as an educator, archeological technician, and camp cook, among other endeavors.

Mia Bailey is a student, mother, data analyst, nerd, Sci-Fi fan, musician, cook and general dork. She began writing at a very young age and has been concerning teachers and coworkers with dark and macabre stories for decades. An MFA Student at The University of Utah she works in the area of genre fiction including fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and futurism. She has multiple undergraduate degrees including Information Technology, Writing Rhetoric Studies and English.

She currently lives in Riverton, Utah with her husband, two kids, and a house full of animals. When she isn't reading or writing, she is working in her garden or working out at a local boxing gym. Some of her favorite authors include Pierce Brown, Jay Kirstoff, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, and Alix Harrow. Her goals are to write a novel, teach, and work as either a developmental or copy editor.

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 2016 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. He has published previously in Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere, and has received support for his work from Millay Arts, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Queens Council on the Arts, the T. S. Eliot House, and elsewhere. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York.

Anna Coleman is a writer from Pennsylvania. She received her MFA from New Mexico State University. Her writing has appeared in Surely, Cathode and Terrazzo and has been awarded the Mercedes Delos Jacobs Prize. 

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.

Louis de Sully lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his spouse. His work explores working-class experience, memory, trauma, identity, and the subtle dramas of everyday life. Informed by years spent working across white-collar, blue-collar, and service sectors, his writing engages with a wide range of American experiences. He is a graduate student in literature at the University of Utah.

Will Durham is a teacher in Seattle. His work has appeared in Antigonish Review, THRUSH, RHINO, and others.

Alexander Duringer is from Buffalo, NY.

Katherine Gaffney completed her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her work has previously appeared in jubilat, Harpur Palate, Mississippi Review, Meridian, and Michigan Quarterly, among publications. She is the author of the poetry collection Fool in a Blue House, which won the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and was published by University of Tampa Press in 2023. She lives and teaches in Champaign, Illinois. 

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 was a 2025 Lucky Jefferson Poetry Prize finalist. Find her published work in Lucky Jefferson, Poetry Pause, and Juste Milieu Zine and at www.fionahartmann.com

Jeffrey Hecker is author of Rumble Seat (San Francisco Bay Press, 2011) & chapbooks Hornbook (Horse Less Press, 2012), Instructions for the Orgy (Sunnyoutside Press, 2013) & Ark Aft (The Magnificent Field, 2020). Recent work appears in South Dakota Review and Bennington Review. A fourth-generation Kepanī via Hawaii, he teaches both at Granby High School and The Muse Writers Center located in Norfolk, VA. @heckheck03.bsky.social

Marianne Manzler is a writer, educator, and editor. 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 and Eugene Van Buren Thesis Award, co-founded the Black Jaw Literary Series, and co-edited The Seattle Review. There, she taught writing to youth and undergraduate students. She has also worked in the magazine and book publishing industry in both editorial and marketing departments. She is the Director of Education at The Porch and has taught creative writing and contemporary literature at The Loft Literary Center, Carleton College, Walker Art Center, Lighthouse Writers, and more. 

Nafisa Marei lives and writes across continents. She also enjoys drawing, balancing on her hands, and baking with a pet sourdough starter that she refuses to name.

Savannah McDaniel lives in Utah, where she is currently pursuing an MFA in prose at the University of Utah. She is a recipient of the Richard Scowcroft Prize for Prose. Her fiction has appeared in Periphery Art and 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.

Ugochukwu Damian Okpara is a Nigerian-born writer and poet. He is the author of the poetry collection In Gorgeous Display (Fordham University Press, 2023), which was named one of Book Riot’s must-have poetry collections and one of the Boston Globe’s favorite poetry collections of 2023. A Lambda Literary Fellow and alumnus of the Tin House Summer Workshop, his work has appeared in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, New England Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, and other publications. He was a semifinalist for the James Adams York Prize and a finalist for the Vanderbilt University Literary Prize. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi. Website: www.ugochukwudamian.com

Alexander Ortega is a Salt Lake City–based fiction writer who creates strange dimensions by blending nostalgia with the fantastic. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Eastern Oregon University and is currently pursuing a PhD from the University of Utah. His work has been published in Quarter After Eight, Quarterly West, Moss literary journal, and an anthology titled EVERGREEN: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest. In 2022, he was a Summer Fishtrap Fellow.

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.

Phoebe Phelps is a writer and professor based in Brooklyn NY. She holds an MFA from Stony Brook University. Her writing has been been published in The Driftwood Anthology and phoebe journal (which is a real place that she did not make up) and has been a finalist for some prizes. You can find her at her website, phoebephelps.com, or writing about books on her substack, “A Passing Moon.” 

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 Iowa Writers' Workshop and works at Everlaw, a company that develops software for legal professionals. He serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Poetry Center and lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Mercedes Rodriguez is a poet and educator from Los Angeles, CA. Winner of The Georgia Review’s Loraine Williams Poetry Prize, their work appears in New England Review, Washington Square Review, Michigan Quarterly Review: Mixtape, like a field, The Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. Their work has received support from Bread Loaf, Millay Arts, the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts, and the Charleston Literary Festival’s Cato Fellowship Prize. They hold an MFA from North Carolina State University and serve as program associate for the Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets. 

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.

Zoey Sheinberg lives in Salt Lake City and is pursuing a PhD in English Literary and Cultural studies at the University of Utah. Her research focuses on 18th and 19th Century British literature, 20th Century Critical Theory, and experimental forms of the novel. 

Kyle Stolcenberg is a PhD student in literature at the University of Utah. 

Nora Sullivan is a poet from Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Review, 32 Poems, Bat City Review, ONLY Poems and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan and is a PhD student at the University of Utah.

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, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from North Carolina State University and is a PhD student in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Utah.

Kieron Walquist is a queer, disabled poet and visual artist from mid-Missouri. Author of OUR HANDS HOLD VIOLENCE [Beacon Press], a 2024 National Poetry Series winner and 2026 Norma Farber First Book Award finalist, his other work appears in Poet Lore, The Rumpus, The Slowdown, and elsewhere. A 2026 Unbound Emerging Poet honoree, he holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and is currently a PhD student at the University of Utah.

Albert Abdul-Barr Wang is an indigenous Taiwanese-American, Los Angeles post-digital bard and experimental writer, as well as an MFA candidate in fiction at CalArts. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Waterstoning Journal, The Goby Review, TIMBER, The Adroit Journal, New Delta Review, BRINK, Clockwise Cat, The Ekphrastic Review, The Hooghly Review, Brooklyn to Gangnam, and fractured lit. My 2026 book, J.Six: History Makes a Novel / The Novel Makes a History, was published through Amazon/KDP.

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/