Myriam J. A. Chancy is a Guggenheim Fellow and HBA Chair of the Humanities at Scripps College. She is the author of What Storm, What Thunder, a novel on the 2010 Haiti earthquake (Harper Collins Canada/Tin House USA 2021) which has been named a Best Book of Fall by TIME, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, The Chicago Tribune, VULTURE, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Parade, LitHub and Harper’s Bazaar among other accolades. Her Past novels include: The Loneliness of Angels (Peepal Tree 2010) winner of the 2011 Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award, for Best Fiction 2010; The Scorpion’s Claw (Peepal Tree Press 2005); and Spirit of Haiti (Mango 2003), shortlisted in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region of the Commonwealth Prize, 2004. She has authored several academic books, including, Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers 1997; ebook, 2011). She served as an editorial advisory board member for PMLA from 2010-12, as a Humanities Advisor for the Fetzer Institute from 2011-13, and as a 2018 advisor for the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Find out more at: https://myriamchancy.com/

Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam and immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee with her mother and brother shortly after the American war in Việt Nam War while her father, who had served in the Army of the Republic of Việt Nam, remained in a Viet Cong “reeducation” prison camp for nine years. Poet Laureate Emerita of Altadena, California (Editor-in-Chief) 2018-2020 and a member of the Pasadena Rose Poets, Teresa Mei Chuc is the author of three collections of poetry, Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012 & republished by Shabda Press, 2021), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018). Her new poetry chapbook, You, Fire, is forthcoming from Hummingbird Press. Teresa teaches literature and writing at a public high school in Los Angeles. 

Lisbeth Coiman is a poet, educator, and cultural worker born in Venezuela. She received a BA in Modern Languages from Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, and a Master of Education from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Coiman’s wanderlust spirit landed her to three countries—from her birthplace to Canada, and finally the USA, where she self-published her first book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017). Her poetry and personal essays are featured in the online publications and in several anthologies in print. She dedicated her bilingual poetry collection, Uprising / Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, 2021) to the freedom of her homeland Venezuela. An avid hiker, and teacher of English as a Second Language, Coiman lives in Los Angeles, CA.

For contact information, visit https://lisbethcoiman.com

Sehba Sarwar’s writings and art focus on migration and displacement. Her essays, fiction, and poems have appeared in publications including The New York Times’ Sunday Magazine, Asia: Magazine of Asian Literature, Callaloo and elsewhere. Her short stories are anthologized by Feminist Press, Akashic Books, and Harper Collins India, while the second edition of her novel Black Wings (Veliz Books) was released in spring 2019. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, Sarwar spent the first half of her life in a home filled with artists, activists, and educators. She is based in Los Angeles County, and her papers are archived at the University of Houston.