Deborah Gorlin is the author of two previous books of poems, BODILY COURSE, White Pine Poetry Press Prize, 1997, and LIFE OF THE GARMENT, Bauhan Publishing, winner of the 2014 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize.  Her new book of poems, OPEN FIRE, Bauhan Publishing, has been published this Spring, 2023. She has published in a wide range of journals including Poetry, American Poetry Review, Bomb, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best Spiritual Writing 2000. Recent poemsappear in Plume, On the Seawall, the Ekphrastic Review, Mass Poetry, the Hard Work of Hope, The Common, and Rumors, Secrets & Lies, Swwim. Her lyric essay, “Jack of All Trades,” was published as a finalist in Calyx magazine’s 2022 Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing.  Emeritus co-director of the Writing Program at Hampshire College, she served for many years as a poetry editor at The Massachusetts Review.

Lori Shine received her MFA from UMass Amherst in 2004. Her poems have appeared in 6x6, APR, Boston Review, Conduit, New American Writing, Tin House, and other magazines, and in the chapbooks Weather Eye (2025) and Coming Down in White (2007), both with artwork by Kathranne Knight. She and Knight have worked together on multiple collaborative projects, including Correspondence Publishing. Lori has given readings at St. Mark's Church, in art studios, backyards, bars, lecture halls, festivals, and at James Turrell's Roden Crater. For twelve years she worked as a managing editor to independent publishers including Wave Books and Catapult. She currently writes for UMass Magazine and other publications. She lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Karen Keough-Huff, also known as ‘Q’, has self-published 4 books and recently published a book of poetry, When I Was 8.  Her background in education and in business includes curriculum and handbook writing, as well as technical writing as a documentation specialist.  She is a member of the Writing Sisters, a group of BIPOC and LBGTQ+ women writers in western Massachusetts. You can find her book When I Was 8, at www.Blurb.com.

Kali Lightfoot lives in Salem, MA. She worked as a teacher, wilderness ranger in Washington state, executive at Road Scholar, and retired from her position as founding Executive Director of the National Resource Center for Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. Kali earned an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2015. Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies; been nominated for Pushcart prizes by Lavender Review, and Poetry South, and for Best of the Net by *82 Revies. Her first full-length collection of poems, Pelted by Flowers, was published by CavanKerry Press in April, 2021. The book was chosen as a Must Read book for 2022 by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and was selected as a Best-Dressed by Sundress Publications. Kali’s reviews of poetry books have been published by Broadsided Press, The Hopper, and Solstice. Kali's recent poetry collection is Big Band Night at the Good Life Bar, Moon Pie Press.

Poet Eric Wasileski (M.Div), is a long time writer and facilitator for Warrior Writers, a national veterans writing group out of Philadelphia. His poetry book, Live Free (or die) is available from Human Error Publishing. He has also been included in many anthologies including Warrior Writers, Massachusetts Bards, and locally in Silkworm. His second collection Consoling the Weeping Willow is nearing readiness for publication. His Children's book, How the Rainbow Became Truly Beautiful is only available directly. Critics have called him a protest poet. Eric is a lifetime member of Veterans for Peace, DAV and VFW. Rev Wasileski has worked professionally in ministry in Quaker, UU and Buddhist settings. He resides in Pittsfield with his dogs. He is a father, poet, preacher, activist, veteran and man of conscience. 

Darlene’s professional career spans 32 years from working on youth leadership development programs with the United Way, runaway youth and their families for RAP, then a program of the YWCA, a s a social worker for Holyoke DCF, a crisis worker for Mount Tom, a clinician, a Juvenile Probation Officer, and now she works to mediate civil petitions in Family Court, and also by helping individuals with their recovery journey from substances and trauma. Darlene has been known to be on the frontline leading Black Lives Matter marches, advocating for housing, education, and immigrant rights, fighting for labor rights as a union Stewart, also for diversity equity and inclusion in the workplace, she has run for political office both as a city councilor and vice president of the United States with the Green Party. She is currently the treasure for Alianza DV services, a cause that is near and dear to her heart as a survivor. She is now embarking upon a career as an author, as her passion is writing and poetry. She is the 2025 Strawdog Emerging Writer Fellow, and recipient of the Valley Creates Assets 4 Artists Building Capacity grant. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Mount Holyoke College, and a master’s in social work from Springfield College. Her first loves are her children, and grandchildren. She proudly boasts about the Writing Sisters, a collective of BiPOC and LGBTQ writing women who convene regularly to write, share their work, grow as literary artist and make a difference in the community, which she helped co-found. She currently is working on her memoir and a poetry collection, and her family, friends, and writing sisters serve as her daily inspiration as she feels very loved and supported by them. Her favorite saying is “love heals all wounds, so love as much as you can.” Darlene lives in Holyoke with her partner, and their two dogs Bella and Daisy.

Since 2012, Carla Manene Cooke has facilitated writing groups in and from her home in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Her poetry has appeared in the literary journals Emulate, Meat for Tea, Naugatuck River Review, Persimmon Tree, Pineapple, Plum, RavensPerch, Silkworm, and Wordpeace.  She is a freelance copy editor and 2022 Pushcart nominee.

Brad Crenshaw has published four collections of poetry. His most recent book, Chased by Lunacies and Wonders, has won the 2023 Catamaran Poetry Prize. His other books include My Gargantuan Desire, Genealogies, and Memphis Shoals. His work has appeared in a wide range of journals including Catamaran, Shenandoah, Chicago Review, Massachusetts Review, and recent poems appear in Salt, Hawaii Pacific Review, Pacifica Literary Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Phren-Z. His poems have also been anthologized in Bear Flag Republic, The Hard Work of Hope, and California Fire and Water. He can be found at https://wordpress.com/view/bradcrenshaw.me.

Carolyn Zaikowski is a fiction writer, poet, essayist, and death doula. She is the current Poet Laureate of Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Carolyn is the author of two prose poetry/experimental novels: A Child Is Being Killed (Aqueous Books, 2013), which poet Eileen Myles called a "saint of a little book", and In a Dream, I Dance by Myself, and I Collapse, which won the Mainline Contest at Civil Coping Mechanisms and was released in 2016.
Her fiction, poetry, and essays have been published widely, in such publications as Washington Post, Alaska Quarterly Review, West Branch, Denver Quarterly, The Rumpus, PANK, Sixth Finch, Heavy Feather Review, DIAGRAM, Dusie, Huffington Post, and Everyday Feminism.
​Carolyn holds a BA summa cum laude in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she researched trauma, the psychology of meat eating, and political protest movements. She then earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, where she studied trauma and narrative, the subversion of Western literary genre constructs, and the roles that poetry and storytelling play in anti-fascist, anti-colonialist, and feminist resistance. She has taught English and gender studies in the USA and abroad, including in Kolkata, India's red light districts and to political exiles in safe houses at the Thai-Burma border.
Carolyn works as a creative writing teacher, manuscript consultant, and funeral celebrant/death doula. Sign up for her newsletter here for updates. Webpage:carolynzaikowski.com

Ellen Miller-Mack is a nurse practitioner (retired/rewired) with an MFA in Poetry from Drew University. Her book reviews have appeared in Rattle, Valparaiso, Bookslut, the Rumpus, the Poetry Cafe, and the Poetry Foundation. Her poems have appeared in Lavender Review ( journal and anthology January 2025), Lily Poetry Review, Antiphon, 5 A.M., Redheaded Stepchild, Affilia, and The Lake Rises: poems to and for our bodies of water. Ellen co-wrote The Real Cost of Prisons Comix ( PM Press) and the comic books are downloadable from the Real Cost of Prisons website.