Aidan’s writing hasn’t appeared anywhere, except on his computer, in his head, and sometimes in his journal. Until now. He lives on the south coast of Wellington, New Zealand. Most days he contemplates playing hooky from his day job and hitting the surf, which actually means wiping out. He’s working on a novel. But, isn’t everyone?

Andrew Felsher is a writer based in New York City. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Ligeia Magazine and Allegory Ridge. Currently, he's the Assistant Editor at The Literary Review.

Bucky Sinister is a poet, self-help author, and comedian. He has published four books of poetry and two self-help books, including Get Up: A 12-Step Guide to Recovery for Misfits, Freaks, and Weirdos. His journalism, film reviews, and short stories have appeared on The Rumpus, The Bold Italic, and a number of other online and print publications.

Cassandra Barnett (Raukawa ki Wharepūhunga) lives with her son in Te Whanganui-a-Tara on the banks of a fast-rising stream called Korimako. She has words in Cordite, Tupuranga, Te Whē, Pantograph Punch, Huia Short Stories, Black Marks on the White Page (Penguin Random House), Landfall, a forthcoming climate change anthology (AUP), many art publications and her chapbook How|Hao. Cassandra is working (stormily) on a fiction-non-fiction book.

E.C. Osondu is the author of Alien Stories (2021), which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize; Voice of America (HarperCollins, 2011); and the novel This House Is Not For Sale (HarperCollins, 2015). He is a winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and the Allen and Nirelle Galso Prize for Fiction, among other awards. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic,, n+1, Guernica, Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s, The Threepenny Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, New Statesman, and elsewhere. He lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Providence College.

Emma Hislop (Kāi Tahu) writes short fiction and lives in Taranaki, Aotearoa. She has a Masters in Creative Writing. In 2021 she was awarded the Louis Johnson New Writers Bursary from Creative New Zealand. She was a finalist in the 2021 Pikihuia Awards. Her work has been published in Huia 14, Newsroom, Sport, Verb, Takahē, Ika 4 and Ora Nui.

Grace Elizabeth Elkins is a writer and teacher from Phillip Island, Australia. Fascinated by the resonating impact of the small moments in our lives, Grace writes truth-adjacent fiction with a poetic bend. She is currently undertaking her MA in Creative Writing and Literature and is working on her first novel.

jennifer jazz is a New York writer, musician and performance artist closely associated with the Basquiat Lower East Side. Her writing has appeared in magazines that include Moko, Sukoon, Booth, Warscapes,Sensitive Skin and Afropunk. jazz has performed mixed media shows at venues that include The Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, The Kitchen, Wow Cafe Theater, Dixon Place and Bandini Espacio Cultural Gallery in Mexico City. jazz’s memoir Spill Ink On It was published by Spuyten-Duyvil Press in 2019.

Joe Ponce is from Joliet, Illinois. He holds an MFA from Columbia University, and his work has been published in Anathema Magazine, Blunderbuss Magazine, and Apogee Journal. He has taught for the Fulbright Commission in eastern Turkey, and has also taught in in La Rioja, Spain.

José Ovejero (born 1958) is a Spanish writer. He was born in Madrid but has lived outside Spain for the greater part of his life. He has worked in a variety of genres, including poetry, drama, essays, short stories and novels. He won the 2013 Premio Alfaguara for his novel La invención del amor (Inventing Love).

Katya Reno lives in Champaign, Illinois, with her partner, the poet D. H. Tracy. Her fiction has appeared in the New England Review and Quarterly West, among others.

Laura Borrowdale is a subversive feminist writer with smutty undertones. Her work has been previously published in Landfall, Sport and Turbine, amongst others, and she is the founding editor of Aotearotica. Her first book of short stories, Sex, with Animals, is available from Dead Bird Books.

Matt Lally is a writer from New York City, where he lives and works.

Michaela Keeble is a white Australian writer living in Aotearoa with her partner and kids. Her poetry and short stories have been published and anthologised widely, including in Intimate Relations: Communicating in the Anthropocene (Lexington Press, 2021). Her chapbook intertidal about change underway in our oceans was published by Anemone Press in early 2020 and she has a children’s book, co-authored with her son and illustrated by Tokerau Brown, coming out with Gecko Press in late 2022.

Sinead Overbye (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāti Porou) is a researcher and writer living in Wellington. Her work has been published in Starling, RNZ, Turbine | Kapohau and Sport, among other places. She completed her MA in Creative Writing at the IIML in 2018. Sinead is the editor-in-chief of the online journal Stasis, and is currently also a staff writer at the Pantograph Punch.

Susan Midalia is the author of three short story collections, all shortlisted for major Australian literary awards: A History of the Beanbag, An Unknown Sky and Feet to the Stars. Her debut novel The Art of Persuasion was published in 2018 and her new release is Everyday Madness. She also works as a freelance editor, mentor and workshop facilitator, and has had articles published on contemporary Australian women’s fiction in national and international journals.

Tania James is the author of the novel Atlas of Unknowns, the short story collection Aerogrammes, and the novel The Tusk That Did the Damage. Her stories have appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Kenyon Review, One Story, and A Public Space. Tania has been a fellow of Ragdale, Macdowell, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Fulbright Program. She teaches in the MFA program at George Mason University and lives in Washington DC.

Tracey Slaughter is the author of five books, including: Devil’s Triumph, Conventional Weapons, and the award-winning novella if there is no shelter. She has been widely anthologised and has received numerous awards, including the international Bridport Prize and BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards. In 2014 she established the literary journal Mayhem. She lives in Kirikiriroa Hamilton and teaches creative writing at the University of Waikato.