Bill Abbott has been involved in Poetry Slam since 1992 and is the author of Let Them Eat MoonPie, the history of poetry slam in the Southeast, and his first poetry collection, (My Life and Other) Famous Train Wrecks of Ohio (Milk & Cake Press). He has been published in Radius, The November 3rd Club, Flypaper Magazine, Jokes Review, The Broken Plate, Ghost City Review, and The Sow's Ear. Having earned his MFA from Miami University in 2018, Mr. Abbott lives in Ohio and teaches creative writing at Central State University.

Rita Coleman lives in rural, southwest Ohio, with her husband and a small menagerie of pets. Her work has appeared in journals such as Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Soul Poetry, Prose, and Art, For a Better World, Mock Turtle Zine, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing,  From the Tower, and Rhyme and Rune. Rita has written 3 books of poetry: Mystic Connections (2009), And Yet ((2017), (chapbooks), and In the Near Beyond (2024), a full-length collection.

Steve Abbott was a founding member in 1984 of The Poetry Forum (Columbus), which over its 39 years became a respected and widely known reading series. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published five chapbooks and two full-length collections, A Green Line Between Green Fields (2019) and A Language the Image Speaks (2020). He has co-edited three poetry anthologies and edits Ohio Poetry Association's annual journal Common Threads. www.steve abbott.us.

Jim Brooks taught English and Creative Writing for 37 years at Chaminade Julienne High School and the Ohio Writing Project at Miami University for 12 years.  He instituted Poetry Out Loud (a national poetry recitation contest) at CJ, and his students won state titles on four occasions.  He teaches a poetry workshop each fall for the University of Dayton Osher LIfe-long Learning Institute (UDOLLI, for ages 50 and over) and writes periodically for the Dayton Daily News.  His poems have appeared in English Journal and many other publications.

Amanda Nicole Corbin is an award-winning Ohio-based poet who has had her work published or forthcoming in The Notre Dame Review, Contemporary Verse II, The London Magazine, Door is a Jar, Palette Poetry, and more. She is the winner of the 2025 Mississippi Review Poetry contest and her work was nominated for Best Microfiction 2024 & 2025. Her debut full-length collection, addiction is a sweet dark room, was published by Another New Calligraphy in 2024. You can find her playing Magic the Gathering or on Instagram and Threads @ancpoet.

Grace Curtis is the author of three full-length poetry collections, The Shape of a Box, Everything Gets Old, and Even-Turn, published by Dos Madres Press. Her chapbook, The Surly Bonds of Earth, was selected by Stephen Dunn as the winner of the Lettre Sauvage Press 2010 Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals. More about her writing can be found at N2Poetry.com.

Arvilla Fee lives in Dayton, Ohio, teaches English for Clark State College and is the lead poetry editor for October Hill Magazine. She has published poetry, photography, and short stories in numerous presses, including North of Oxford, Rat’s Ass Review, Mudlark, and many others. Her poetry books, The Human Side, This is Life, and Mosaic: A Million Little Pieces are available on Amazon. To learn more, visit her website and check out her new poetry magazine: https://soulpoetry7.com/

David Lee Garrison is a Wright State University Professor Emeritus. His poetry has been read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac, featured by Ted Kooser in his blog, American Life in Poetry, and read by “Game of Thrones” star Tara Fitzgerald on the BBC. He won the Paul Laurence Dunbar Prize in 2009 and was named Ohio Poet of the Year in 2014. His most recent book is Light in the River.

Judy James has retired from a long career in the U.S. Air Force. Originally from Massachusetts, she has called Yellow Springs home for the past 7 years. A relatively new creative writer, Judy began writing poetry in 2014 after attending a Creative Writing Workshop just for fun. A long-time yogi, she also enjoys reading and dabbling in art.

Carol Pohly’s poetry draws on her connections with nature, growing up on Lake Erie, care-taking her parents, aging, and spirituality. She is a published lyricist, co-author of a book of poetry and photography, and her poems have been published in anthologies such as Vita Brevis Press, Mock Turtle Zine, Rhyme and Rune, “Welcome Home” by Yellow Springs Home, Inc., Soul Poetry, Prose, and Arts Magazine, and “For A Better World” by Greater Cincinnati poets.