JP HOWARD aka Juliet P. Howard is a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is the author of SAY/MIRROR, a debut poetry collection published by The Operating System (2015) and a chaplet "bury your love poems here" (Belladonna Collaborative*, 2015). JP curates and nurtures Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS), a forum offering women writers at all levels a venue to come together in a positive and supportive space. She is the recipient of a 2015 Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Fund Grant on behalf of the Salon. JP is an alum of the VONA/Voices Writers Workshop, as well as a Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging LGBT Voices Fellow. She was a finalist in The Feminist Wire’s 2014 1st Poetry Contest and in the poetry category for the Lesbian Writer's Fund of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Three of her poems will be featured in Emotive Fruition, a lively performance series in NYC, where actors bring to life new page poetry for the stage. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, Nepantla: A Journal for Queer Poets of Color, Muzzle Magazine, Adrienne: A Poetry Journal of Queer Women, The Best American Poetry Blog, MiPOesias, The Mom Egg, Talking Writing and Connotation Press. JP holds a BA from Barnard College and MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.
JAVIER ZAMORA was born in El Salvador and migrated to the US when he was nine. He holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University, MacDowell, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Yaddo. The recipient of the 2016 Barnes and Noble Writer for Writer’s Award, his poems appear or are forthcoming in APR, Narrative, Ploughshares, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His first full length book is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press.
HAFIZAH GETER received her BA in English & Economics from Clemson University, and her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. She is a South Carolina native currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Hafizah is a Cave Canem Fellow and was a semi-finalist for the 2010 “Discovery” / Boston Review Contest. Her poem "paula" received an Honorable Mention in RHINO's 2011 Editors' Prize. A 2013 Blacksmith House Emerging Writer, recipient of a 2012 Amy Award from Poets & Writers, and a finalist in the Fifth Annual Narrative Magazine Poetry Prize, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in BOXCAR Poetry Review, RHINO, Drunken Boat, Columbia Poetry Review, New Delta Review, Memorious, Vinyl, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Hot Street, Pinwheel Journal, Linebreak, Narrative Magazine, Gulf Coast, Blunderbuss, H.O.W. Journal, and Boston Review. She was a 2014 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship Finalist. Hafizah also serves on the board of VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts, co-curates the reading series EMPIRE with Ryann Stevenson, is a poetry editor at Phantom Books and was formerly an assistant editor at YesYes Books. She is on the poetry comittee for the Brooklyn Book Festival.
MICHAEL BAZZETT’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, The Sun, Oxford Poetry, 32 Poems and Sixth Finch. He is the author of the chapbooks The Imaginary City (Organic Weapon Arts, 2012) and The Unspoken Jokebook, forthcoming from Organic Weapon, and his debut collection, You Must Remember This, (Milkweed Editions, 2014) won the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry. His verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh, is forthcoming from Milkweed in 2017. He lives in Minneapolis. Visit him at michaelbazzett.com.