Meet Caroline “Carrie” Rudel, a poet from Arizona State University studying queer sexuality and social work. Carrie started writing poetry at a young age and eventually began setting some of it to music. Carrie’s poetry is “inspired by mental illness, trauma, religion, and their own relationship with gender and sexuality.” Carrie’s poem, Creatures Bright and Dark, can be read in Issue 21.

Read Dakota William Szaniszlo’s creative nonfiction essay, On Being an Unpublished Author, in Issue 22. In his own words: His hobbies include “mental contortionism, sleep deprivation, particle acceleration and transmutation.” Dakota says he has been searching his entire life for a thought he had once lost, or at least thinks he may have lost.

Meet Elizabeth Nelson, a writer, artist, and marketing-communications professional. She lives in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts with her husband, two cats, and a Puggle named Harper Lee. Read Elizabeth’s poem, In the Golden Hour, and her short story, The Seven Letter Word, in Issue 22.

See Sophia Ashcraft’s artwork in Issue 22. She is sixteen years old and a junior in high school in Arizona. Sophia describes herself as “quite awkward” and says she is “just riding on a rollercoaster, but it’s not ups and downs, but more like just ups and ups.”

Arizona author Trude Meister is featured in Issue 21. She was raised in Paradise Valley and obtained a degree in Ornamental Horticulture before living in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. She is the author of the sci-fi novel, Rings in Time, and a member of a local writing group the Polished Writer. Read Trude’s short story, Coffee and Crullers, in the fiction section.