Peggy Kyoungwon Lee is a queer Korean American writer and professor based in DC. Her novel-in-progress is inspired by anticolonial Korean anarchist resistance. Creative non-fiction is a significant practice for her fiction writing and cultural criticism. She was a part of the inaugural cohorts for creative non-fiction at Kundiman and the Asian American Writer’s Workshop Open City Fellowship. She has been invited to read her creative work at community spaces like Bluestockings or the first Asian American Literature Festival hosted by the Smithsonian and Library of Congress. When not writing or teaching, she is pursuing Piscean pleasures on a daily, from bringing a ranch sauce fountain to karaoke to thrifting vintage Korean silk pieces. Learn more at peggyleewrites.com.
Nora Hikari (she/her) is an Japanese- and Chinese-American transgender poet based in Philadelphia. Her work has been selected for publication by Ploughshares, Foglifter, Palette Poetry, The Journal, Washington Square Review, and others. She is the author of two chapbooks: DEAD NAMES and GIRL 2.0, and was a runner-up for the Benjamin Saltman award. Her work seeks to investigate the internal cosmologies of religious trauma, transgender exegesis, and hypermediated cyberlife. When happiest, she can be found at the aquarium with the sharks. She is currently working on two chapbooks and a debut full-length collection. Her website is norahikari.com.
Poonam Dhir (they/she) is a queer playwright, poet, Punjabi descendent, and settler currently based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal on the traditional, unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka people. Their work explores identity, trauma, memory and the relationship between belief and belonging. They contemplate themes of migration, displacement and loss. Poonam was a finalist for the 2021 PEN Canada New Voices Award in poetry. They are the recipient of the 2022 Concordia Award in Poetry, 2021 Award in Drama and finalist for the 2022 Award in Fiction. They are a 2022-23 Artist-in-Residence at Infinithéâtre. You can read her latest pieces in Vallum, Contemporary Verse 2 and PRISM International. Find them on twitter @pnmdhir
Quinn Diacon-Furtado writes about gender, magic, and ancestral healing across multiple genres. After years of teaching middle school and high school, they particularly love writing for young readers. Their fiction has been recognized by Voyage Magazine’s First Chapter Contest, the Francelia Butler Conference, and the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature.
Quinn is also the creator of the newsletter/podcast The Slow Read, a series about their personal experience with reading (dis)ability.
They hold an MFA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University. They live with their partner on Mohican lands. You can find them at www.thisisquinnswebsite.com OR @ya_quinn_ya on IG & Twitter.
Rafi Kleiman is a queer, Jewish, nonbinary author of speculative sci-fi and fantasy. They know firsthand the value of being able to see yourself reflected in the media you consume, and believe it’s vitally important that people of all types, especially those who have been historically underserved, are thoughtful represented in fiction. They love modern fantasy, bad puns, mythical creatures of all kinds, and live punk shows. They believe thoroughly in the power of hope, community, and friendship, but also believe that necromancy is pretty cool and maybe not that big of a deal. They are occasionally on twitter at @mothmanlives.
Sam Heyman (he/they) is a gay, nonbinary playwright and fiction writer based in Nashville, TN. His prose has been published in Hashtag Queer, Ordinary Space and Typehouse, and his plays have been produced at the university and community theatre level. Sam is passionate about capturing unique queer perspectives in his work, and always strives to tell the stories that aren’t being told–and to challenge the ones that are. Sam is currently developing a musical for the stage and making revisions to a prospective debut novel. In his spare time, Sam enjoys playing Magic The Gathering with friends and consuming queer love stories in whatever form he can find. You can find him on Twitter @sheymanCYCO and on IG @heysamhey4292.
Sachiko Ragosta (they/them) is a Bay Area-based speculative fiction writer, sexual and reproductive health researcher, and sex educator. As a mixed nonbinary nisei, they like to write about light, feathery things such as the limits of the self and the body, mothers, and failed technological solutions for loneliness. Their work is in Ms. and forthcoming in It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (Feminist Press, October 2022) and the Intergalactic Gaysians anthology (2022). They are an alum of the Tin House Summer Workshop and a first reader for khōréō magazine. Check out their multimedia online chapbook and say “greetings” at sachikor.com or @v3rsachiko.
Sean Dowie is an Assistant Editor at Augur Magazine where he finds many creative, hidden spec fic gems in the slush pile. He also reviews books, movies, and TV at Nerds of a Feather and FIYAH Literary Magazine. Recently, his has been published at Carousel Magazine. He loves writing in pretty much every genre but weird fiction is where he gravitates toward the most. Sean is biracial (Black/white), gay, and resides in Toronto, Canada. Find him on Twitter @DowieSean
Seoung Kim (he/they) is a librarian and writer. They have published short stories with If There’s Anyone Left and Strange Horizons. He has a story forthcoming with Cast of Wonders.
Their favorite genre to work in is historical fantasy, but they’ll never say no to a good romance.
He resides gratefully on the homeland of the people of the Council of Three Fires. In his spare time, he enjoys Kate Bush, hiking in the woods, and his cats Jolene and Spaghetti. He can be found at seoungkim.com and @chimneyfalls on Twitter.
Shannon Kelley is a screenwriter who writes comedies about unrequited love, failed idealism, and the lure of nostalgia. Specifically, many of her stories focus on honestly depicting gay people in the American South (although she doesn’t shy away from banjos either).
Shannon recently received her MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University. While there, her script “Unitarians” won Faculty Honors and she received the Alex Sichel Fellowship. In her spare time, Shannon organizes with the New York City Dyke March, which brings dykes from all over the world together each year to celebrate.
Born in Atlanta, GA, she currently lives in Brooklyn. She is tentatively on twitter @shangoskel.
