Homecoming

Melba Morel (she/her) is a Dominican-American poet and healing arts practitioner based in Florida. Melba is the author of Unplanted Yet Flourishing, and her work has appeared in Chimosa Zine and Lolwe Magazine. She is the founder of Poetic Nectar Collective, a sacred space for poetry, art, and ancestral healing.

Amuri Morris is an artist based in Richmond, Va. She recently graduated from painting and printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. Throughout the years she has acquired several artistic accolades such as a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship and has participated in dozens of exhibitions. Find more of her work at http://www.murisart.com.

Lisa K. Bates (she/her) is a scholar-activist and teacher living in the gentrifying Woodlawn neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. In writing about place and community, her persistent question is, what would it be like if our city loved Black people like we love being Black?

Gloria Ogo is an American-based Nigerian writer with over seven published novels and poetry collections. Her work has appeared in Eye to the Telescope, Brittle Paper, Spillwords Press, Metastellar, CON-SCIO Magazine, Kaleidoscope, The Easterner, Daily Trust, and more.

Khalisa Rae is a Black queer poet, cultural organizer, and author of Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat (Red Hen Press). Her work centers themes of identity, ancestral memory, spirituality, and Southern reclamation. She is the co-founder of the Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference and currently serves as the Theater and Literature Director at the North Carolina Arts Council.

A nomadic writer and filmmaker, the elusiveness of home is where Asia G. Nichols lives. She adapted her first poem “Dwelling” into an animated film, which screened at the 2022 Helios Sun Poetry Film Festival. Other works appear in Obsidian Lit, Vagabond City and Lungs Project Magazine. Currently pet-sitting a grey parrot in the UK, she’s wrapping up a witchy Scottish short film.

Currently studying at the University of Michigan, Christian Hooper (he/him) writes poetry to capture untold stories. He has work published in the Seventh Wave and Third Wednesday, and was a recipient of the 2025 Hopwood Undergraduate Award in Poetry. His Instagram is @chrisisbliss64.

Audley Puglisi (they/them) is a playwright and poet. Fellowships include VONA/Voices, Lambda Literary, Playwrights Realm, and NYSCA. Writing has been published in Garage Magazine, ColorBloq, and Lambda Literary. audleypuglisi.com.

Mikayla Beaudrie completed her MA in English from the University of Florida and currently teaches an array of rhetoric and composition courses at the University of North Florida. Her creative work traces the lines between blackness, ecology, the body, and space. Her work can be found among the pages of The Elevation Review, Rigorous, Pensive, and 300 Days of Sun, among others.

Tamara J. Madison is a writer, poet, and instructor living in Central Florida. She is an MFA graduate and Hedgebrook, Ucross, and Anaphora Literary Arts fellow. Her recent collection, Threed, This Road Not Damascus, was published by Trio House Press. Find more at tamarajmadison.com.