Trans poet, artist, and curator, Anaïs Duplan is the author of a book of essays Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture (Black Ocean, 2020), a full-length poetry collection, Take This Stallion (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016), and a chapbook, Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus (Monster House Press, 2017). He was a 2017–2019 joint Public Programs fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. In 2016, he founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color, based at Iowa City’s artist-run organization Public Space One.

Writer and critic from Cairo, Hazem Fahmy runs the media criticism newsletter Zam Zoum, on Letterdrop. His debut chapbook, Red//Jild//Prayer won the 2017 Diode Editions Contest. A Kundiman and Watering Hole Fellow, his poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2020, AAWW, The Boston Review, and Prairie Schooner. His criticism has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Mubi Notebook, Reverse Shot, and Mizna. His performances have been featured on Button Poetry and Write About Now.

Aristilde Kirby is quite a few things. She has published chapbooks with Best American Experimental Writing 2020, Belladonna, & Black Warrior Review. Her book, [Daisy & Catherine²] (2022) from auric press will be back with a reissue in the spring. Her work, currently covering the bases of writing, art, & performance, has been featured in Miguel Abreu Gallery, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Entrance, Smack Mellon, Texte Zur Kunst’s Velvet Voice Club @ Roter Salon & soon at The Poetry Project. You can call her Aris, like Paris without the P.

Queer Palestinian-American performance artist, Fargo Tbakhi’s writing can be found in Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, The Shallow Ends, Mizna, Peach Mag, and elsewhere. His performance work has been programmed at OUTsider Fest, INTER-SECTION Solo Fest, the National Queer Arts Festival, and has received support from the Arizona Commission on the Arts.