Bill Abbott is the author of Let Them Eat MoonPie, the history of poetry slam in the Southeast, and the poetry collection, (My Life and Other) Famous Train Wrecks of Ohio. He has been published in Front Porch Review, Radius, The November 3rd Club, Flypaper Magazine, and The Sow's Ear. Mr. Abbott lives in Ohio and teaches creative writing at Central State University. 

Amanda Banaszak enjoys words–written, spoken, sung, whispered, confided, and shared.  She takes comfort and inspiration from John O’Donohue, Mary Oliver and Marge Piercy, among others.  With an affinity to the natural world, she draws upon her life experience as a mother, partner, sister, and caregiver for both writing and sharing her experiences through poetry and community engagement.  Her work has been published in We Moon and Sinclair College’s Flights Journal.

Leroy D. Bean is a Dayton native who has self-published his first book, a verse novella, The Love and Theory of Womanology, a chapbook, has been published in various literary journals, and most recently premiered his spoken word one-man show, Baritone Hue. He has spent the last 3 years developing young poets through his work at Stivers School for the Arts. Leroy has traveled across the ocean to Paris, walked in the footsteps of James Baldwin, and attended a prestigious James Baldwin Writer’s conference while he was there.  

Jane Blakelock has only occasionally published poetry over the last 5 decades. Still, she finds she hid much away in the half-century since the acceptance of her first submission, to Spoon River Anthology. Having veered from a university science track, she wound up teaching poetry and English at Wright State University for over 32 years.  

Terrilyn Meece pays attention to any green or red or purple harboring promise of another world that she could build herself where feels get felt and smells get smelt and any good rhythm could start a dance in the street. 

Holly Brians Ragusa (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary writer, poet, speaker, activist, and awarded author of Met the End, Dying to Know Myself In Time and poetry collections Inverse; Informed Thoughts By An Unfit Poet, and Tilt a World. President for the Ohio Poetry Association, HBR also serves a range of nonprofits and literary endeavors. Global citizen and Cincinnatian, she lives with her loves in historic Over-the-Rhine. Hollybriansragusa.com 

Rita Coleman’s publications include a full-length poetry collection, In the Near Distance (2024), and two chapbooks, Mystic Connections (2009) and And Yet (2017). Numerous anthologies have published her work as well: Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, and Living and Dying With COVID-19 (UK). Rita lives amidst farmland in Southwest Ohio. 

Madelyn Fischer is an African-American author and poet from Ohio. She's loved reading and writing since a young age. There was no place she would go without a book in her hand and her love for reading soon blossomed into a talent and passion for writing. Madelyn is always working on a new project, as she plans to write many more books, and hopes to inspire people throughout her life. You can find more of the author at madelynfischerpoetry on all socials. 

Fred Kirchner’s been a Dayton poet and librarian since 2005 when he moved to the Gem City for a job on Dayton Metro Library’s brand-new bookmobile.  His chapbook, Platform of an Unacknowledged World Legislator, won the Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest.  He’s run two different reading series—one in Delaware, OH and the Gem City Poetry Stage here in Dayton.  Journals publishing his work include Pudding Magazine, North Meridian Review, and Main Street Rag.  He also had two poems in The Art of Bicycling:  A Treasury of Verse—a 350-page anthology of cycling poetry put out by Breakaway Books.  While he understands that every poem is not a bike ride; he fervently believes that every bike ride can become a poem.