Book 1|Kumu & Kupuna
George Abraham | (they/he) is a Palestinian-American Poet, Activist, and Engineering PhD Candidate at Harvard University. His chapbook, al youm: for yesterday & her inherited traumas, was a winner of the Atlas Review’s 2016 chapbook contest. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Vinyl, Apogee, Thrush, Kweli, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Winter Tangerine, and anthologies such as Bettering American Poetry 2016, Nepantla, and the Ghassan Kanafani Palestinian Literature Anthology.
Cathy Barber’s | work has been published in Slant, SLAB, Kestrel, and many other journals. She has an MA in English from California State University, Hayward and an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She taught for many years with California Poets in the Schools. Having now returned ‘home’ to Ohio, she serves on the board of Literary Cleveland.
Jennifer Celestin | is a writer, performer, and facilitator. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in Humanities at NYU and an M.F.A. in Fiction at CUNY: Queens College. An EMERGENYC performance fellow and a three-time attendee of the National Book Foundation’s Writing Camps, Jennifer’s work has been featured in Label Me Latino/a and Akashicbooks.com. She is presently working on a novel and knows ou kepab leer esto.
Jovica Tasevski – Eternijan |(b. 1976, Skopje) is a renowned poet, literary critic and essayist from the Republic of Macedonia. He has published six full-length poetry collections and two books of criticism and essays. Eternijan received The Enchanting Poet award for excellent contribution in poetry writing, given by The Enchanting Verses Literary Review. His work has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies both in Macedonia and abroad; in addition it has been translated into more than fifteen languages. The poems of Jovica Tasevski-Eternijan are characterized by original imagery, rich figurative language, and multilayered meanings; they spring from a powerful poetic imagination.
Matt Ito |is an M.A. student with the English Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His interests include settler studies, postcolonial literature and theory, and Pacific literature. When he isn’t reading or writing, you can usually find him fishing or playing music around town at a number of local bars/clubs.
Sandra Kingery | Professor of Spanish at Lycoming College, translates Spanish-language prose and poetry to English.
Juliet S. Kono |is the author of two poetry collections, Hilo Rains and Tsunami Years; a collection of short stories, Ho‘olulu Park and the Pepsodent Smile; and a children’s book, The Bravest ‘Opihi. She co-authored two books of renshi (linked poetry), No Choice but to Follow and What We Must Remember, both initially online writing projects. She has appeared in many anthologies and collections and is the recipient of several awards. Several of her poems are featured on the Poetry Foundation website. She is retired and lives with her husband in Honolulu.
Jessica (Tyner) Mehta | born and raised in Oregon and a member of the Cherokee Nation, is the author of the novel The Wrong Kind of Indian by Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing. She’s also the author of five collections of poetry including the forthcoming Constellations of My Body by Musehick Publications, Secret-Telling Bones by The Operating System, as well as Orygun, What Makes an Always (an Eric Hoffer Book Award honorable mention), and The Last Exotic Petting Zoo by Tayen Lane Publishing.
Lawrence Schimel | is an award-winning author who has published over 100 books in different genres, both for adults and children. These stories are from his latest short story collection UNA BARBA PARA DOS. He lives in Madrid, Spain where he works as a literary translator.
Mona Nicole Sfeir | was born in New York City but grew up in five countries. She is both a poet and a visual artist. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and her artwork has been exhibited both in the United States and abroad and recently was used as cover art for the New England Review. The poems are part of a manuscript, The Alphabet of Empire.
Eric Paul Shaffer | is author of six poetry books, including A Million-Dollar Bill; Lāhaina Noon; Portable Planet; and Living at the Monastery, Working in the Kitchen. More than 450 of his poems appear in reviews in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Scotland, Wales, and the USA. Shaffer lives on O‘ahu and teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at Honolulu Community College.
Judith Skillman’s | new book is Kafka’s Shadow, Deerbrook Editions. Her work has appeared in Zyzzyva, Sewanee Review, Tampa Review, FIELD, and elsewhere. Awards include an Eric Mathieu King Fund grant from the Academy of American Poets. She is the author of sixteen collections of poetry, and a ‘how to’: Broken Lines—The Art & Craft of Poetry. Skillman has previously done collaborative translations from French, Portuguese, and Italian. Visit www.judithskillman.com
Aya Summers | Deep in the forest belly, dancing barefoot to the breath of green or somewhere in the blue, spinning with the wild dolphins - that’s where you can find Aya, if she wants to be found that is. Poetry distills her alien experiences into human terms. She writes to enter inner space because, frankly, she’s traveled through outer space for as long as she can remember.
Verna Zafra-Kasala |The granddaughter of Filipino immigrants, Verna Zafra-Kasala grew up learning Ilokano from her Inang and Tatay; she dedicates the translations of these folksongs to their memory. Some of Verna’s work has been published in Grub Street, Minerva Rising, and Tayo Literary Magazine. She lives and teaches in the Pacific island of Guam with her husband.
Book 3| The Dark... The Twisted
Holly Day | has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Tampa Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, and her published books include Walking Twin Cities, Music Theory for Dummies, and Ugly Girl.
Jorge Mendez | is the standing host of Hampton Roads’ longest running open mic at 10 years: “Monday Night Open Mics at the Venue” in Norfolk, VA He started writing poetry as a child, later putting the skill he gained as a page writer into Hip-Hop format releasing 3 independent albums on UKNODACREW Productions. Later returning to his poetry roots he began exploring “Spoken Word”. In March of 2016 Jorge published a book of his works titled Keys & Crowbars released on San Francisco Bay Press.
Kathryn Merwin | is a native of Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Natural Bridge, Blackbird, and Sugar House Review, among others. She has been awarded the Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize for Poetry, the Blue Earth Review Annual Poetry Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Western Washington University and serving as poetry editor for the Bellingham Review.
Lisa Grove | is the host of the Poetry.LA interview series A Poem By. Her poems and translations have appeared in Poetry , Beloit Poetry Journal , The Puritan, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles.
Derek Otsuji | teaches at the Honolulu Community College. His works appear or are forthcoming in Atlanta Review, Crab Orchard Review, Monarch Review, Poet Lore, Puerto del Sol, Salamander, Silk Road Review, and Sycamore Review.
Krikor Der Hohannesian | lives in Medford, MA. His poems have been thrice-nominated for a Pushcart prize and have appeared in many literary journals including The Evansville Review, The South Carolina Review, Atlanta Review, Louisiana Literature, Connecticut Review, Natural Bridge and Comstock Review. He is the author of two chapbooks, Ghosts and Whispers (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and Refuge in the Shadows (Cervena Barva Press, 2013). Ghosts and Whispers was a finalist for the Mass Book awards poetry category in 2011.
Scott T. Starbuck’s | book of climate change poems, Hawk on Wire, was selected by Newspages. com as a July 12th, 2017 “Editor’s Pick” along with The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury. The Yale Center for Environmental Communication’s Climate Connections will distribute an interview about Starbuck’s book to more than 340 radio stations and online via podcast and internet radio. His ecoblog Trees, Fish, and Dreams is at riverseek.blogspot.com
Hurricane | is a caffeine dependent life form who as of today is living and creating out of Virginia. She has been writing since her heart was first broken and recently entered the realm of competition poetry where she is currently ranked at 78th in the world. She fights terrorism by day and poems by night. Her hobbies include: breakfast, lunch, and dinner...as well as memes and mimosas!
Anna D. Ralls | is an emerging poet from Columbia, Missouri. Her other works have appeared or are forthcoming in Colorado Review and others. She lives in Bloomington, IN with her husband.
Book 2| Conjunction
Ashia Ajani | is a junior environmental studies major from Denver, Colorado. She is the co-president of WORD: Spoken Word at Yale. She is a Minor Disturnance, Youth Poetry alumni. She was awarded honorable mention in poetry for the 2015 National Young Arts. She is currently working on a personal chapbook.
Andre Bagoo | Trinidadian poet Andre Bagoo’s third book, Pitch Lake, is published by Peepal Tree Press. His work has appeared at Boston Review, Caribbean Review of Books, Cincinnati Review, St Petersburg Review, Moko, The Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
nv baker | is a writer of short stories, essays, and poetry. An avid scribbler, he is inspired by the resulting confusion of existing as a stymie tethered between the imagined and the rendered. nv baker is a graduate of UC Denver in the summa cum laude tradition. You can find his work in The Fourth River: Tributaries, J Journal, The Crab Creek Review, Juked, Weber: The Contemporary West, Fence, The Roanoke Review, and many other publications. nbakerv [at] gmail| twitter.com/nv_baker
MaryV Benoit | is 19 years old and currently living in Brooklyn, New York. She was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. MaryV went to Denver School of the Arts for Stagecraft and Design where she began to photograph her friends and the teenage life she was experiencing. Now, she studied Photography at Parsons The New School. MaryV is creating art, collaborating, learning new things, and in love.
Her work encompasses topics such as self love, self identity, memories, and romantic / intimate love through portraiture photography. She works with analog and digital photography. Also uses her skills from Stagecraft and is experimenting with video, photographs on clothing, performance, and dance.
This year she will be having her first Solo Show at gallery Space 776 and having some of her current ‘Gender Documentation’ work shown in a gallery in Manchester, England. MaryV is very excited for these experiences.
She hopes her works make you feel something special.
Kapena Landgraf | was born and raised on Hawaiʻi Island along the Hamākua coast. He currently studies creative writing as a graduate student at UH - Mānoa where he also teaches composition and literature courses. He’s also interested in Native Hawaiian literature and Hawaiʻi’s local literature scene. Kapena has published short stories with Hawaiʻi Review, Bamboo Ridge Press, Red Ink: International Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Humanities, and IKA Journal.
Serena Michel | is a student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa pursuing a double-major in English and Pacific Island Studies. She desires to become a writer for Oceania and the Caribbean, making connections between both regions’ histories and diasporas. Michel employs cultural approaches to deconstruct the ideology of “blackness” in her work, while also advocating non-indigenous peoples embracing indigenous perspectives on national, international, and global issues.
Linda Ravenswood | is a Poet and Performance Artist from Los Angeles. She was short listed for Poet Laureate of L.A. in 2017. Current projects include new versions from Subtle Inquiries at Rockhaven; and a Poetry Residency at The Natural HistoryMuseum L.A. | website: lindaravenswood.com
Veronica Sefic | Veronica Sefic is a creator, writer, and editor from Denver, Colorado. She is studying at Knox College. She belongs to a multitude of communities– including the queer and the artistic community within Denver. She was the editor-and-chief of Serendipity Magazine and created after school clubs that push the creation of poetry. She is best known for her intimate work that is centric to her family dynamic and her introverted tendencies.
Kris Tammer | escape artist from Melbourne Australia currently trying to escape the country without leaving.
Ayaka Takao | Collecting unloved and forgotten material, Ayaka Takao attempts to join disparate worlds of the high and low to mobilize empathy in our increasingly lukewarm culture. Born in 1996 in Kitakyushu-shi, Japan, she immigrated to Honolulu, Hawai’i at the age of four, residing there until embarking to receive a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Though most times unintentional, her cultural genes are the dust of her work, while also unconsciously responding to trauma that had shaped her into a maker in the first place. Exploring the friction between cultural other and America, she hopes to give a home to those who feel misplaced.
Jay Thompson | Thompson is a Chicagoan living in Florida. She writes fiction and creative nonfiction, and co-founded weirderary, an online literary magazine, and First Draft, a monthly live literary event in Tampa. Her writing has been published in marieclaire.com, Proximity, Luna Luna Magazine, LimeHawk, theEEEL, and Chicago Literati.
Soo Young Yun | Soo Young Yun is a student living in Seoul, South Korea and has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, Origami Poems Project, Ann Arbor District Library, and Writing for Peace. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Aerie International, Burningword Literary Journal, DUENDE, Emerald Coast Review, Hawaiʻi Review, and Skipping Stones Magazine, among other journals and anthologies.
Book 4|The Maidan After Hours
Vasyl Lozynsky | born in Lviv, is Ukrainian poet, essayist, translator, literary critic and curator. In 1999-2004 he studied German language and literature in Lviv and Berlin. He has published two collections of poetry Feast after Debauchery (2014) and Another Country (2016) as well as a collection in German translation, Das Fest nach dem Untergang (2016). His work appeared in translation in the journals 10 TAL, manuskripte, Ostragehege, Lichtungen, Vozdukh, Trafika Europe, punctum, Wyspa, Hawaiʻi Review, and in Prostory, Krytyka, SHO, Chetver, KORYDOR, Znak in Ukraine. His poetry has been translated into English, German, Swedish, Italian, Polish, Latvian and Russian. Vasyl Lozynsky translated Franz Kafka’s collection of short stories Meditation (2012) and Ron Winkler’s collection of poems Fragmented Waters (2015), from German into Ukrainian, as well as translated Tadeusz Dąbrowski’s collection of poems, Black Square (2013), from Polish into Ukrainian. He was awarded the Smoloskyp literary prize for poetry in 2010. Since 2008 he is a member of the interdisciplinary curatorial association HUDRADA (http://hudrada.tumblr.com/) and is on the editorial board of Prostory (Spaces) (http://www.prostory.net.ua/), a magazine about culture and society. Vasyl Lozynsky lives and works in Kyiv.
Ostap Kin | has published work in The Common, The Poetry International, Hawaiʻi Review, Ohio Edit, Springhouse Journal, St. Petersburg Review, Trafika Europe and in anthologies. He has edited the anthology New York Elegies: Ukrainian Poetry on the City (forthcoming with Academic Studies Press). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Ali Kinsella | has been translating from Ukrainian for five years, and Vasyl Lozynsky for three. She holds a master’s degree in Slavic studies from Columbia University. She most recently lived in Chicago where she also sometimes worked as a baker.
Book 5 | Waterways
Back Cover: She Counts Kāhu: art by Penny Howard
Penny Howard | graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1995, she is a contemporary NZ Artist represented by Whitespace Gallery in Auckland and has work in various public collections in NZ, including The Wallace Arts Trust, Foundation North and Auckland University and private collections in China, U.K and Australia. http://www.whitespace.co.nz/exhibitions/2017-penny-howard.aspx
George Abraham| (they/he) is a Palestinian-American Poet, Activist, and Engineering PhD Candidate at Harvard University. His chapbook, al youm: for yesterday & her inherited traumas, was a winner of the Atlas Review’s 2016 chapbook contest. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Vinyl, Apogee, Thrush, Kweli, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Winter Tangerine, and anthologies such as Bettering American Poetry 2016, Nepantla, and the Ghassan Kanafani Palestinian Literature Anthology.
Māhealani Ahia | is a Los Angeles born Kanaka ʻŌiwi writer, performer, cultural practitioner, and activist whose ʻohana is rooted in Maui. She is currently a PhD student at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she teaches English Composition. Māhealani also serves as a cultural curriculum and resource teacher for Keiki O Ka ʻĀina Preschools. Her interests include kapa making, atmospheric indigenous identities, lāhui moʻo, and chanting traditions. She dedicates this piece in loving memory of Hinaʻaiināmeleonālani.
Autumn L. Bernhardt | writes about and speaks environmental and cultural resources. She is a Colorado native, is of mixed Lakota descent, and is two-spirited. She has worked as a college professor, a Tribal Attorney, a judicial law clerk, and an Assistant Attorney General. Her work has appeared in Red Rising Magazine, the Tulane Journal of Law & Sexuality, The Moon Magazine, Red Ink, and Blood, Water, Wind & Stone.
Rhael ‘LionHeart’ Cape | Lionheart is a TEDx speaker, Award Winning Poet, and International Spoken Word Performer. Author of upcoming poetry collection The Mute's Rebellion, which excavates memories of social anxiety, selective mutism, emotional vulnerability, and more. Honorably commissioned by Lloyds, the BBC, The British Library for Shakespeare's 400th birthday, and leading pharmaceutical companies worldwide. He writes for those with walls for windows.
Seo-Young Chu | teaches at Queens College CUNY. Her publications include “M’어머니,” "Life 38," “Chogakpo Fantasia,” "Hwabyung Fragments," and “CHIMERICAL MOSAIC: SELF TEST KIT IN D# MINOR.” She is not always a human being.
Currently, LA Felleman | is an accountant at the University of Iowa. Before that, she was a seminary professor. Prior to that she was a pastor. She moved to Iowa City in June 2016 and started writing poetry soon afterwards. In order to learn this new craft, LA attends workshops and participates in local poetry readings. Her poems have appeared in the Moon Zine, Cedar Valley Divide, and the Write Launch.
Brooke Elyse Jones | was born in New York, grew up in Haleʻiwa on Oʻahuʻs North Shore, and is a Kahuku High grad. She holds an MA in English with a focus on creative writing from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and writes fiction, creative nonfiction, cultural journalism, and occasionally, poetry.
Craig Santos Perez | is a native Chamorro from the island of Guam. He is the author of three books, most recently, from unincorporated territory [gumaʻ], which received the American Book Award in 2015.
Doug Poole | (b. 2 November 1970) is a widely published and performed poet who identifies his poetry and editing work as a Pasifika Poet. Doug is the creator and editor of blackmail press, an online poetry journal, which he has self-funded since June 2001. blackmail press has become a highly regarded online poetry journal. http://www.blackmailpress.com/
Lehua Taitano | a native Chamoru from Yigo, Guahan (Guam), is a queer writer and interdisciplinary artist. She is the author of A Bell Made of Stones, appalachiapacific (winner of the Merriam-Frontier Award for short fiction), and Sonoma. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in numerous journals, including Poetry Magazine, Kartika Review, and Witness. She has exhibited her visual art installations with the Smithsonian Institute's Asian Pacific American Center and currently serves as the Outreach Coordinator on the Executive Board of the Thinking Its Presence: Race, Literary and Interdisciplinary Studies Conference.