Issue 4 - Centering Joy

Ben Greene is a proud transgender advocate and storyteller. He is the author of “My Child is Trans, Now What?” and the creator of the Substack “Good Queer News”. He leads with joy, no matter what.

Sage is an asexual author of YA stories. By day, she’s an aquatic toxicologist, keeping water safe from polluters, viruses, and supervillains. By night, she’s a supermoderator on the Absolute Write forums, where she runs the weekly Flash Fiction Challenge. Find her on BlueSky at @sagecollins.bsky.social.

Jake Salazar is a writer based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and studies English at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He is currently compiling his first collection of poetry. He is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.

Jake Salazar is a writer based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and studies English at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He is currently compiling his first collection of poetry. He is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas.

Reyzl Grace is a Russian American writer from Alaska (the border crossed her) whose poetry and prose have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and featured in Room, Rust & Moth, So to Speak, and other periodicals. Her translations of early Soviet literature have been nominated for Best Literary Translations and appeared in In geveb, Pakn Treger, and elsewhere. She currently serves as a poetry editor for Psaltery & Lyre and lives in Minneapolis with her novelist girlfriend, arguing over which of them is the better writer. (It’s her girlfriend.) Read more at reyzlgrace.com and follow her on Bluesky @reyzlgrace.

Tolulope (she/her) is a poet originally from Lagos, Nigeria. Her exposure to poetry began in the seventh grade, and she has been writing poems ever since then. She moved to the US in 2018 and has since lived in six cities across almost all regions of the US. Some of her poems reflect these frequent changes in residence. Her most recent poems, like this one, center on the experience of both remembering and separating from the realities of her home country, the person she would have been if she had stayed and the fractures, healings and human connections involved in inventing a new kind of life. Tolulope currently lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Amelia M. Burton (she/her) is an asexual lesbian and a writer of queer fiction. Find her work in Uncharted Magazine, MENACE Magazine, and The Crawling Moon: Queer Tales of Inescapable Dread from Neon Hemlock Press.

Dustin P Brown is a bisexual Michigan-born, Spain-based author of poetry and prose. He received his BA in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and currently works as an editor and interpreter. He’s published poetry at dozens of journals including NonBinary Review, Borderless Journal, and Bacopa Literary as well as flash fiction at Falling Star Magazine.

Emma Westervelt (she/her/hers) was born in Frankfurt, Germany and moved to the United States when she was thirteen. She is a bisexual college student in Massachusetts studying psychology. Creative writing has always been an outlet, and she is excited to share her love of writing with the world.

Nicole Wilbur is a YA author and full-time digital nomad. She writes about young adults breaking the rules, falling in love, and becoming versions of themselves they never expected. In 2025, she earned a certificate from Oxford University’s creative writing summer school, in addition to numerous courses, workshops, and mentorship programs. Her growing YouTube channel and Substack are active communities of writers and readers. Nicole’s fiction is shaped by her personal journey—exploring identity, finding queer love, and travels to over 40 countries.

Adrienne Rex is an aspiring author from Houston, Texas. When she’s not making her daydreams pay rent (otherwise known as writing), she’s drawing, reading, or being dragged around by her dog on what may charitably be called a walk. Her poetry has been published by the Moonstone Arts Center, Gabby and Min’s Literary Review, and WILDsound Poetry. You can find her work here: https://adrienne-rex-writes.carrd.co/