Volume 14: Illumination (2025)

Bella Aase (she/they) is a recovering perfectionist with Bipolar II disorder. She is a graduate student in the MFA Creative Writing program at Hamline University. Their work has appeared in Serotonin and This Was 2020. Bella lives in Minneapolis on Dakota land, with her husband, John, who is also a writer.

folaṣade adesanya (b. 1992) is a blooming neuro/quirky agender poet and curator. their practice is rooted in an ongoing self-study and co-creative process with their ancestors, intrinsically aligned with their spiritual practice. folaṣade is a current fellow with the Emerging Curators Institute and was selected for the “Go Back & Fetch It” mentorship program. she has published writing with Hair + Nails, The Kitchen and Minnesota Women’s Press. she is an aspiring flower farmer and beekeeper. she was born and raised on Ohlone lands and is currently living on Anishinaabe and Dakota lands with her cat parsley.

Ayan Ahmed is a sophomore at Humboldt High School in Saint Paul. She enjoys writing, discussions, and reading manga. She works hard in her classes, and her education is important to her and her family. Ayan is a first-generation child and is fluent in Somali. Ayan likes to write heartwarming poetry. She believes that her culture helped her express her love for literature.

Bjorn Arneson is a lifelong Minnesotan and current resident of the West Side neighborhood of Saint Paul. His family includes several professional and amateur musicians who never miss the opportunity to nurture a musical earworm. Some are long remembered and others soon forgotten.

Katie Bendickson (Wóokiye Wíŋ) is Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ Dakhóta. She is a student and teacher of Dakhóta language and a freelance artist, writer, and illustrator.

Alyssa Berry has been making up stories ever since she was a little girl. She was born and raised in Minnesota and currently lives in Inver Grove Heights. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and playing video games.

Mary Ann Boe is a community weaver and grief companion, inspired by the fourteen years she spent caring for her son, Déva. Following his death, she cofounded the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, a leading venue for global music and dance. As a healthcare visionary, Mary Ann cofounded the Journey Guide Project. This initiative leverages compassion, connection, and story stewardship to address gaps in modern healthcare. Mary Ann leads the Compassionate Communities UK movement in the US and created the nation’s first public health Compassionate City through NicBluCares. She coleads the Charter for Compassion’s Health Sector Team to create an environment where patients feel heard, understood, and respected, leading to improved patient experiences and better health outcomes.

Sreekanth Bhaskaran was born in India, where he spent the first half of his life. His poems and essays often deal with displacement and contemporary issues. His works have appeared in The Florida Review, The Bangalore Review, the Saint Paul Almanac, Kali’s Moksha and The Talking Stick. He has been a resident of the Twin Cities for over two decades and lives in Woodbury with his wife and two children.

Amy Bohlman (Klimoski) writes poems, essays, and stories. She received an MFA from Hamline University. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Conduit, Split Rock Review, The Rupture, and elsewhere.

Cristeta Boarini is a mixed-race Filipino-American writer and educator. Her journalism is focused on hyperlocal stories and connecting marginalized voices, and it earned her two top honors for her writing from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the Inland Press Association in 2014. An avid fiber artist, Boarini won a third-place ribbon for her knitting at the Minnesota State Fair. For seven years, Boarini was the program director at 826 MSP, a nonprofit youth writing center, teaching creative writing and leadership skills and curating the publication of six anthologies of youth writing. In 2024, she won the Mirrors and Windows Fellowship from the Loft Literary Center. She lives with her husband, daughter, and dog in South Minneapolis.

Stephani Maari Booker is surviving the fire, plague, and wrath of 2020s Minneapolis by creating works for the page and the stage in which she wrestles with her multiple marginalized identities: African American, lesbian, lower-class, and nerdy. She is a recipient of a 2024 McKnight Fellowship for Writers, administered by the Loft Literary Center, and a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant. For more information about Stephani’s work, go to www.athenapersephoni.com.

April Bryant is a Creative. A Minneapolis native whose joy is found in her daughter’s love; Creating, Supporting, and Allowing. April the Author realizes that one of her most healing mediums is writing and storytelling. With over twenty years of experience in social work, social services, and the healing arts, she brings a perspective to individuals and collective narratives. April’s only desired intent in writing is to honor and share the magic of stories and holding space.

Elizabeth Carls is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in River Teeth, Split Rock Review, Great River Review, Under the Sun Literary Magazine, and Water~Stone Review. She is the recipient of the Deborah Keenan Poetry Prize. In the editorial space, she serves as the Assistant Editor of Creative Nonfiction for Water~Stone Review and as a reader for Craft Literary. She reads and writes in Saint Paul.

Jenna Carlson has lived in Minnesota for most of her forty-five years. She is a mother and an outspoken community organizer. As a lifelong lover of all things water, she can’t imagine a better place to live!

Fun Fun Cheng has lived in various Saint Paul neighborhoods over the last thirty years. Her final years of residence were in the Summit Hill neighborhood, which is the setting for her story. She continues to stay connected to Saint Paul through community gardening, visits to her favorite spots, and visits with her Saint Paul friends.

d.d. costandine has an MA in Adlerian Psychotherapy. She is an art therapist (ATR) and a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS). She likes to dabble in writing and art of all types. If you or someone you know is a victim of childhood trauma and in need of help, please reach out to your local social services, Minnesota Haven, Standpoint (for legal assistance), the National Boarding School Healing Coalition, and/or www.thankyoufortellingmethat.com.

Lynda Cramer has published and edited poetry and short stories in several online anthologies, including The Magic Diary, which included her coming of age story, “Lila and the Bear.”

Jameelah Crawford, a proud Saint Paul native, celebrates her Mexican (Aztec) and African American heritage. A lifelong writer of poetry and prose, she seeks to connect with others through her words and faith. Jameelah’s work has appeared in the Aya Collective’s Finding the Voice Within anthology and Saint Paul Almanac’s digital magazine. In 2024, she completed a Community Editor Apprenticeship with Saint Paul Almanac, a milestone she calls a “full-circle blessing.” An aspiring filmmaker, Jameelah is building her portfolio and honing her skills in visual storytelling. She continues to grow as a creative writer, poet, and storyteller, embracing collaborative and solo projects to deepen her artistic voice.

Kristin Dawkins, better known as Murph, lives in the Railroad Island neighborhood along Payne Avenue on the East Side. She is an energy organizer, currently campaigning with Unidos to replace gas heat with nontoxic geothermal sources, neighborhood by neighborhood, starting where the dilapidated housing stock burdens lower income households with the highest energy bills. A neighborhood institution can kickstart a local geothermal network by digging a few wells and sharing the bounty with nearby households and shops as a cooperative business venture. Murph also teaches piano lessons at the Recovery Cafe of Frogtown and coordinates a neighborhood chess club

Holly Day ‘s writing has recently appeared in Analog SF, Cardinal Sins, and New Plains Review, and her published books include Music Theory for Dummies and Music Composition for Dummies. She currently teaches classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota, Hugo House in Washington, and the Muse Writers Center in Virginia.

Martin Devaney is a lifelong Saint Paul resident and writer of songs, stories, and poems. He has toured the country, releasing eight albums of original songs since 2002, and in recent years has returned to his roots in short fiction and poetry. He lives in the West Seventh neighborhood of Saint Paul with his wife and their dog. More info at www.martindevaney.com.

Louis DiSanto was a keeper at Saint Paul’s Como Zoo for over twenty years before retiring in 2005. He was also a writer/photographer for the City of Saint Paul and the weekly Sun Newspaper. Interests include writing children’s stories, old movies, classical music, and getting together with friends. Along with having stories published in the Almanac, Louis is especially honored to be one of the winners of the 2011 Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest.

Sara Dovre Wudali (she/her) is a 2023–2024 Poetry Fellow in the Loft Mentor Series and has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Her poems and essays have been published in literary journals and anthologies such as under the gum tree, Barrelhouse, Blood Tree Literature, and Saint Paul Almanac. With Suzanne Swanson, she is the coeditor with of the hybrid anthology chapbook All You Need Is One Avocado. Sara grew up on a farm in southwest Minnesota, where wind blows through the cottonwoods and box-elder bugs rule. You can learn more and read her work at www.saradovrewudali.com.

Dani Dykstra writes: I faced countless instances of discrimination from law enforcement for having a mental health condition. This was the beginning of my psychosis, hearing police sirens every minute of every day. Police are not terrible, but the people who don’t uphold the rights of United States citizens . . . that’s terrible.

Bergen Christoffer Eibs is a writer who graduated from St. Catherine University with a bachelor’s degree in English back in 2021. She hopes to have more writing published in the near future, including a novel that has been in the works for several years. When she’s not writing or working at a grocery store deli, she is reading, playing video games, collecting enamel pins, and spending time with her fiancé.

Julie Gard’s prose poetry collection I Think I Know You received the 2024 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award. Additional collections include Home Studies, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, and Scrap: On Louise Nevelson. She has published essays, poems, and stories in Inside Higher Ed, Clackamas Literary Review, Blackbox Manifold, and other journals. She lives at the northeastern edge of Duluth, Minnesota with her partner, the poet Michelle Matthees, and teaches writing at UW Superior. www.juliegard.com

Elizabeth Goihl has lived in Saint Paul for over forty years and continues to develop her knitting skills.

Catherine Boebel Grotenhuis worked at Women’s Advocates, ran a community center for senior citizens, facilitated a team of immigrant and Indigenous youth at the Science Museum of Minnesota, volunteered with RECLAIM, for LGBTQ+ youth, and cared for her elderly parents. Grotenhuis is the grandmother of a large, blended family in Saint Paul. Publications include The Edge Magazine, Saint Paul Almanac Volume 13: A Path to Each Other, and Saint Paul Almanac’s Courage Contest. “In Person” is from her manuscript Gramzie’s Theory of Relativity and Compassion.

Tara Flaherty Guy is a freelance writer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her work has been published in the Saint Paul Almanac, The Talking Stick, Miracle Monocle, The MacGuffin, Emerge Literary Journal, Exposed Brick Literary Magazine, and Longridge Review, among others. After retiring from a forty-year career as a rural county zoning administrator, Tara received her BA in Creative Writing from Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, where she grew up. She still calls that river town home, and always will, along with her husband and their four aging, incontinent cats.

Amina Hasan is an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota. She frequently contributes to the Post Bulletin’s Tuesday Poem column, which has recently become the home for many of her poems. Amina enjoys reading the poetry of Sara Teasdale, Nizar Qabbani, and Lamia Amara. Although a poet at heart, she loves writing short stories.

Margaret Hasse is a longtime resident of the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of Saint Paul. She enjoys walking and reading poems on the sidewalks, including one of hers, about a meadowlark. Belongings, her ninth book of poetry, was published in 2024.

Elizabeth Hawes is the recipient of the Keely Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize. Her work has been published in The Rumpus, Santa Claire Review, Lux, Black Lipstick, and Truthout. In 2022, her quotes were projected onto the Rockefeller Center for PEN America’s art installation, Speech Itself.

Mike Hazard is a filmmaker, photographer, and poet. Nine of his films have been broadcast nationally on public media; two hundred twenty-eight play on social media. His work is in many museums, including MoMA (NY). A collection of Hazard’s poems about people, This World Is Not Altogether Bad, was published by Red Dragonfly Press. Hazard likes to say, “Everything I make is a love story.” To learn more, visit www.mikehazard.org.

Pete Heiden has been published by such entities as Great River Review, Midwest Quarterly, and Red Bird Chapbooks. He lives in the North Shore area of Cook County.

Annamary Jeffery Herther is a retired school secretary in love with Saint Paul. Her heroes include her children, librarians, teachers, caregivers, nurses, bus drivers, and anyone who puts their phone away and talks to a stranger. She likes to garden and color outside the lines. (She would like to add that the episode involving the four hooligans took place in the spring of 2024, before Metro Transit added TRIP Agents, whose presence seems to have calmed the atmosphere onboard.)

Donna Isaac, poet/teacher, lives by a Minnesota pond with her husband Matt. She works through the League of Minnesota Poets to promote literary events across the Twin Cities communities and continues to write and publish. Her chapbooks include: Tommy (Red Dragonfly Press); Holy Comforter (Red Bird Chapbooks); and Persistence of Vision (Finishing Line Press). Her full published collection of poetry is Footfalls (Pocahontas Press), and another full-length book, In the Tilling (Finishing Line Press), is out in 2025. donna@donnaisaacpoet.com

Eviah Jackson is a feisty nine-year-old student at Sullivan STEAM Elementary School in South Minneapolis. She has always had a quick wit and a keen ability to tell an engaging story. She loves swimming and basketball, dancing, singing and playing piano, animals, and spending time with her family.

Kathryn Jackson is a retired healthcare professional and enjoys daily journal writing. This is her first short story. She writes, “I have a deeply valued lifelong friendship and wanted to document some of my small-town memories.”

Lawrence W. Johnson is incarcerated at Stillwater State Prison. While in prison, Johnson graduated from high school and obtained a BA degree summa cum laude from Metropolitan State University. Through Department of Corrections vocational programs, he has also completed courses in welding, carpentry, and forklift operation. A peacetime veteran of the United States Navy, Johnson taught himself how to crochet in prison and has taught crocheting to other inmates. He is sixty-five years old and is eligible for parole.

Mindy Johnson is a Saint Paul–based digital collage artist who enjoys writing poetry. She is inspired by urban nature, fleeting moments, and the small, beautiful details in life that often go unnoticed.

Mary Christine Kane works in marketing and volunteers for animal rescue organizations. She is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program. Her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Cream City Review, HuffPost, Bluestem, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Plainsongs, and elsewhere. Between the stars where you are lost is the title of her poetry chapbook. She can be found online at www.marychristinekane.com.

Kathleen Kimball-Baker is a poet and dogsledding enthusiast in Minneapolis. Her poems appear in Nimrod, Poet Lore, The Hopper, Pangyrus, The Nature of Our Times (poetsforscience.org), two anthologies, and other journals. She is a three-time finalist in the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series for creative nonfiction and fiction and is compiling a hybrid chapbook about being a biracial Latina dogsledder obsessed with extreme cold and wilderness.

Evelyn D. Klein’s work has appeared in publications such as the Family Housing Fund’s Home Sweet Home Again exhibit; Saint Paul Almanac; The Wind Blows, the Ice Breaks; Minnesota Jung Association’s Elements; and This Was 2020. Her memoir in verse, From Here Across the Bridge (illustrated by her father, Wolfgang Klein) and her poetry and prose collections, Once upon a Neighborhood and Seasons of Desire (both illustrated by her), were placed in the Minnesota Historical Society’s permanent library collection. Her other works are Fear and Promise and Power Behind Your Writing: What Every Writer Needs to Know.

Bob Komives grew up on Van Buren Avenue in Saint Paul and graduated from Cretin High School, Dartmouth College, and Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning. He spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. He was Executive Director of Martha’s Vineyard Commission. His work includes consulting with the Kickapoo Indians of Texas and Mexico and communities around Colorado. He has self-published three works of poetry, one book on economics, and one book of vignettes from his youth. Over three decades, he completed bicycle tours in the USA, Canada, and Europe with his family. His website is https://sites.google.com/view/bob-komives/home.

Betsy Leach is a retired teacher and advisor, community organizer, and nonprofit director. She spends her time in her food garden, caring for her grandchildren, traveling, working as an election judge, and writing. Her current project is a book exploring privilege and oppression through examination of the lives of women who colonized the South and then moved across the Southwest before becoming Midwestern and finally settling in Minnesota—her matriline.

Sherry Quan Lee is the author of Chinese Blackbird, How to Write a Suicide Note, Love Imagined (Minnesota Book Award Finalist), And You Can Love Me, a story for everyone who loves someone with autism spectrum disorder, and Septuagenarian. She is the editor of How Dare We! Write: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse.

Rich Lindell is a songwriter and folk musician. He was born in and still resides on Saint Paul’s East Side. His father owned Lindell’s Upholstery on the former Seven Corners intersection downtown; Rich often worked there as an indentured servant. He is a graduate of Hamline University. He was part of a musical trio, showcasing many of his original tunes in coffeehouses and farmers markets throughout the Twin Cities. A highlight was having “The Wood-Tick Song” played on the morning show on Minnesota Public Radio. Rich has dabbled in art, photography, and now story writing.

Maggie Lorenz (Dakota/Anishinaabe) is a resident of Saint Paul’s East Side. She wrote her poem in honor of all the sacrifices that have been made for her people to live.

Dr. Margaret Ponder Lovejoy, a lifelong resident of the Rondo neighborhood, was taught by community elders to care for and love one another. The lifelong lesson to care for the community has always lived in her heart. She has lived most of her life in the Rondo neighborhood and lives on the same property her parents bought before she was born.

Raymond Luczak is the author and editor of over thirty books, including twelve full-length poetry collections, such as Animals Out-There W-i-l-d: A Bestiary in English and ASL Gloss (Unbound Edition Press) and Far from Atlantis (Gallaudet University Press). In 2024, he edited the books Yooper Poetry: On Experiencing Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (Modern History Press) and Oh Yeah: A Bear Poetry Anthology (Bearskin Lodge Press). An inaugural Zoeglossia Fellow, he lives in Minneapolis.

Pacyinz Lyfoung is a French-born, Minnesota-grown, Hmong/Asian American poet, attorney, and activist. She has published in many journals, such as Paj Ntaub Voice, Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, Split This Rock, Stonecoast Review, and Cultural Daily. Her work appears in Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans; To Sing Along The Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present; and They Rise Like a Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets. She continues to be involved in human rights work to help recover the remains of her grandfather, Phagna Touby Lyfoung. In 2025, she plans to participate in commemorations of fifty years of Lao and Hmong American diaspora in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC, and present her first published poetry manuscript.

Julie Martin, a poet and public school teacher, lives near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. Her work has recently appeared in the following journals: The Talking Stick, Pasque Petals, Plants & Poetry, Agates, and The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative. With poet and artist River Urke, she cohosts Up Close: Meet the Poet Behind the Verse, a quarterly program that showcases the work of local poets in the Twin Cities and beyond. Read more of her work at juliemartinpoet.com.

Robert McClain was born in Philadelphia, PA, moved to Saint Paul to attend college in the late sixties, and has been here ever since. Robert spends much of his time in the creative and Afrocentric cultural communities of the Twin Cities, primarily in the Summit-University, Rondo, and Frogtown neighborhoods. Robert explores other creative endeavors through photography, writing, and music. He has written and published poetry, short stories, prose, and essays in local publications such as Saint Paul Almanac and news media. Robert is a cofounder of a motivational writers group called Soapstone Writers Collective.

John Medeiros is an award-winning queer poet and memoirist. His memoir, Self, Divided (Howling Bird Press) is the winner of the Howling Bird Press Nonfiction Prize. It was selected as a finalist for a 2022 Minnesota Book Award and won an honorable mention for the 2021 Forward INDIES Book of the Year Award. An excerpt of the memoir was named a Notable Essay by Best American Essays and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Formerly a writer-in-residence for the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts and co-curator of the Queer Voices Reading Series of Intermedia Arts for twelve years, John is the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board grants. His work is published in literary journals throughout the United States.

David Mendez (he/him) comes from Saint Paul’s West Side community. His works reflect upon his blue collar roots and ChicanX identity. He has performed throughout the state and other parts of the country. He has been and continues to be involved in youth work across the Twin Cities, working with schools and educators, trying to help students reach their goals. David’s work has been published in previous volumes of the Saint Paul Almanac, as well as in the Ramsey County Library publication This Was 2020. He aims to have a book of his own and break down barriers in the process. Through the tools of education and activism, David hopes to inspire others to find their voices and share their stories. He joined the Palabristas in 2012.

Dr. LaVonne Moore has a doctorate in nursing practice and is a certified Nurse Midwife, Women’s Health Care Nurse Practitioner, and International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant. She is CEO and founder of Chosen Vessels Midwifery Services and the Chocolate Milk Club (CMC), which provides breastfeeding education and support for African American families. She believes the African proverb, “She who learns must teach,” and that good health begins with breastfeeding.

Will Neuenfeldt studied English at Gustavus Adolphus College, and his poems are published in Capsule Stories, Months to Years, and Red Flag Poetry. He lives in Cottage Grove, home of the dude who played Steven Stifler in those American Pie movies and a house Teddy Roosevelt slept in. @wjnpoems on Instagram.

Theresa (Thompson) Nix is an artist, advocate, and soul medic for communities served and underserved. Her passion is to rebuild health and wellness for everybody, one breath at a time.

Sook Jin Ong 翁淑君 (she/her) is a Minnesota-based Malaysian Chinese poet. Poetry reading and writing is part of her rest practice. Her poems have appeared in Portside Review, Blue Earth Review, The Paper Lantern Project, and Malaysian Places and Spaces. Sook Jin currently resides in Minneapolis.

DeAnne L Parks is a painter, sculptor, writer, and storyteller who builds the occasional giant puppet. Her work has appeared in magazines and on book and CD covers and is collected internationally. She lives in Saint Paul with her husband, two dogs, and a ridiculous number of garter snakes, the latter of which enjoy swimming in her backyard water feature.

Jesse Powell is an incarcerated writer born, raised, and currently a guest of the State of Minnesota. When not in prison, he enjoys bass fishing, golfing, good food, and spending time with his loved ones. When in prison, he still enjoys those things (even if he can’t partake in them) and spends as much time reading and writing as possible.

Kait Quinn (she/her) was born with salt in her wounds. She flushes the sting of living by writing poetry. She is the author of five poetry collections, and her work appears in Anti-Heroin Chic, Exposition Review, Full House Literary, Watershed Review, and elsewhere. She received first place in Sad Girl Diaries’ 2023 Fall Poetry Contest and the 2022 John Calvin Rezmerski Memorial Grand Prize. Kait is an Editorial Associate at Yellow Arrow Publishing. She enjoys cats, repetition, coffee shops, tattoos, and vegan breakfast. Kait lives in Minneapolis with her partner and their very polite Aussie mix. Find her at kaitquinn.com.

Mary Kay Rummel’s tenth poetry book, a collection of new and selected poems, Little River of Amazements, was recently published by Blue Light Press of San Francisco. Previous books have won awards from New Rivers Press, Bright Hill Press and Blue Light Press. She is professor emerita at University of Minnesota Duluth and lives in Saint Paul, near the West Seventh neighborhood, where she grew up. She divides her time between Saint Paul and Ventura, CA, where she taught at California State University Channel Islands and was Poet Laureate of Ventura County.

Bryana Saldana is a Black and Puerto Rican lesbian writer from Florida who recently settled down in Saint Paul. She currently has a column in the queer magazine Watermark, based in Florida. She is also a poet with a few publications scattered around the internet. If she is not working or writing, then she is going to the gym and preparing beautiful food.

Mary McCready Schulz was born in Western Pennsylvania, reared in Carnegie libraries, and now wrestles with words in Saint Paul. A winner of the 2023 Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest, she is published in After Happy Hour Review, CURE, Wildfire, Medical Literary Messenger, So It Goes, and the Chicago Tribune. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University.

Anne Sexton —no, not a resurrected one—is a lawyer by day, a mother always, and a woman who scribbles poetry late into cold Minnesota nights while sipping coffee.

Gordon Shumaker is a retired Minnesota Court of Appeals judge and occasional amateur poet.

Min Soe San is a poet, writer, and translator who came to Minnesota from Burma in 2001. While living in the Thai-Burma refugee camp, San obtained training for adult literacy and basic community engagement classes and was involved in the development of the Eastern-Pwo Karen Culture and Literature Preservation Committee (EPKCLPC), contributing as the secretary. He has written children’s stories and short stories, such as “People’s voices from the ashes” in Pwo Karen for New Eyes Journal for Burma Issues. He has written articles and poems and created videos in Karen/Burmese on social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Isaac Sonquist is a queer writer based out of Minneapolis. He is currently a student at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, going for his bachelor’s in creative writing. When Sonquist is not doing schoolwork or writing, he can be seen watching reality television, eating Chipotle, or sitting outside on his patio listening to music. Sonquist is also currently working on his book of queer short stories.

Susan Kathleen Spindler has lived in Minnesota most of her life. She has explored the beauty of its landscape via kayak, canoe, hiking boots, and horseback. She has published in the journals Talking Blues, The Talking Stick, Proud to Be, and in anthologies Saint Paul Almanac and Open To Interpretation.

Debra J Stone is a writer of essays, poetry, and fiction. She is a 2023–25 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Literature and was a 2023 Loft Literary Center Mirrors and Windows Fellow. Her work has been published in Blue Earth Review, Indiana Review, Jarnal, Brooklyn Review, Under the Gum Tree, Random Sample Review, and Saint Paul Almanac. She’s received residencies at Storyknife in Homer, Alaska; Vermont Studio Center; Callaloo; The Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; New York Mills Arts; and Tofte Lake Center; and she is a Kimbilio Fellow. Debra’s forthcoming novel is available in 2025 through the University of Minnesota Press. She resides in Minneapolis with her husband and Ruby (Australian Cattle Dog, Red Heeler). debrajeannestone.com and @debra2036 on Instagram.

Thomas Strong was born in Saint Paul, the oldest boy of ten children. He attended St. Mark’s grade school and Saint Paul Central High School. After high school he tried attending college (three times) but dropped out and spent four to five years traveling. He finally graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BS in chemical engineering in 1981, got married, and spent the next thirty-five years working and raising a family. Thomas retired in 2017.

Hedy Tripp is an award-winning poet, writer, and memoirist. Her writings have been published in Lyricality; Asian American Press; KULARTS; Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder; #MinneAsianStories; Minnesota Women’s Press; and Stearns History Museum’s Crossings. Tripp is a Singapore EurAsian American and longtime resident of St. Cloud. She served on the governor’s Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans and as the national chairperson for the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. She is currently the antiracism director at Lyricality. She received the prestigious City of St. Cloud Legacy award in 2022 in recognition of her work as a social justice activist and multicultural artist and her engagement with the community for over thirty years. Hedy enjoys being a botanist gardener and spending time with family, especially her two grandchildren.

Mary Turck lives and writes in Saint Paul. She published extensively as a journalist after working in a variety of jobs, ranging from gym teacher to attorney. Her poetry has been published in Poets Reading the News, Cold Mountain Review, Saint Paul Almanac, and two chapbooks, Forest City Poems and Covid: Year One. Her literary and journalistic blogs can be found at maryturck.com.

Caris Uşoară is a queer, disabled artist, scholar, and emerging poet. She rests on and creates from ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Dakota homelands (Dakota County). Read her poetry in in BarBar and The Louisville Review (forthcoming).

Kenneth Qian Vigne (钱锟, Qián Kūn) (he/him) is a musician, composer, and poet based in Minneapolis. He does his best work when trying to capture creative flow in musical improvisation or stream of consciousness writing. He thinks things that are traditionally considered mistakes in art or music to be the flavor or color that makes each piece unique and inimitable. His recent projects aim to tell immigrant stories through music and words, finding common links and themes to tell the world that nobody is truly alone. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Music at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.

Beth L. Voigt’s passion for writing is only exceeded by her love of family and friends. She has always felt compelled to write and finds great joy in it. Her essays focus primarily on her relationships with her big Saint Paul family and her friends. She began writing as a child to entertain her siblings, and more recently to share essays in Christian Science Monitor, Midwest Home & Garden, Months to Years, Saint Paul Almanac, Minnesota Moments, The Talking Stick, MyVillager, and Parenting.

Joey Vossen is a mid-adventure, hopeful storyteller who spends her days as a public health law attorney. She lives in Saint Paul with her two kids and the occasional irreverent family of field mice, both of which are good for maintaining perspective.

Louise K. Waakaa’igan is an enrolled member at Odaawaa-Zaaga’iganiing in northern Wisconsin. Her first chapbook, This Is Where (Aquarius Press), was published in 2020. She was also the first-place winner of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop’s broadside competition in 2016. Louise’s work has been previously published in PEN America, 21 Mythologies, The MOON Magazine, Night Colors, 27th Letter, Words in Gray Scale, and Doors Adjacent. She is ready to publish her second collection and has recently moved back to her beloved Minneapolis.

Vx Wenham is a twenty-one-year-old welder, artist, activist, and poet from Saint Paul. Their writing is influenced by classic lyrical poetry as well as hip-hop, and they are an alum of TruArtSpeaks’ youth advisory board. Vx is also a 2022 recipient of the Rose Rees Peace Award from the National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota for their social justice efforts at Edina High School and for creating a youth mentorship program with the former non-profit Just Action Coalition. Currently Vx is the vice president of the Saint Paul College chapter of SkillsUSA. When they’re not welding or writing, you can find Vx at a coffee shop, hiking with friends, or reading poetry, of course.

Clarence White is a writer, typewriter poet, curator, arts administrator, ice skating instructor, and former bookseller at the Hungry Mind Bookstore. His publications are included in several volumes of the Saint Paul Almanac; Suisun Valley Review; The Cortland Review; Poetry in the Windows (Lake Street, Minneapolis); Barstow & Grand; Public Art Review; and Mountain Bluebird Magazine. His essay “Smart Enough for Ford” appears in the anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota. He is a recent recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Scholarship at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program and was a finalist for the flash fiction contest miniStories. He lives in Saint Paul.

Sara Wilcox once saw blue ink drip from a ballpoint pen and has been fascinated by the shapes liquid makes since then. She enjoys drinking coffee, gaming her way out of depression, and writing in most forms, as long as it is absurd or uncomfortably personal. Floridian by birth and Minnesotan by chance, she currently lives in Spring Lake Park with her tall husband and a fantastically neglected houseplant. Her book of weirdo poetry, Francine: A Collection of Dead Ends and Other Oddities, can be found for free on sarawilcox.net.

Pamela S. Wynn is a poet, librettist, and amateur photographer. She was significantly shaped by her childhood in North Carolina; Minnesota has been her home for the last forty-three years. Her poems wrestle with physical illness, fears, social injustice, death, and a fierce search for joy and redemption. She is the author of Diamonds on the Back of a Snake (Laurel Poetry Collective, 2004), and her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Wind Blows, the Ice Breaks: Poems of Loss and Renewal by Minnesota Poets (Nodin Press, 2010) and Out of the Depths: Poetry of Poverty, Courage and Resilience (Holy Cow! Press, 2015).

Grace Xiong is eleven years old and resides with her mom, two aunts, grandmother, and their tiny Yorkie in Saint Paul. She has a background in creative writing and owns a business under the moniker Gracie’s Misfortunes; patrons can purchase unfortunate sayings that tell of the past, present, or future. Her Aunt Youa encouraged her to begin her business by taking things that she is presented—fortunes from cookies—and turning them on their heads. She was the youngest person to submit a poem for the Sidewalk Poetry Contest in 2023. Her Hmong poem talks about her family’s immigration from Laos to Saint Paul, where she was born.

Isla Zimmerman is a fourteen-year-old artistic ninth grader. She attends Creative Arts Secondary School. Her poem in this book was a school assignment, but she went above and beyond.

James Zimmerman lives in the West Seventh neighborhood of Saint Paul with his kids and his cats. His writings have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies, including several volumes of Saint Paul Almanac. He is the author of the book Deliverance at Hand!: The Redemption of a Devout Jehovah’s Witness.