POETS
Flower Conroy’s (Dear Blue Comb; Serpentarium Or…; Impaled Heart; I Am The Medusa; Facts About…; Matrix Of…) first chapbook, Escape to Nowhere, was selected as first runner up in the Ronald Wardall Poetry Prize and was published by Rain Mountain Press. Her second chapbook, The Awful Suicidal Swans, is forthcoming from Headmistress Press. Her poetry is forthcoming/has appeared in American Literary Review, Poydras Review, Jai Alia, Sierra Nevada Review, and other journals.
Carrie Meadows (Like A Saw, O Mamma…, Have Mercy, Cedar Creek Charlie…, In The Head) is a graduate of Virginia Tech's MFA program. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Mid-American Review, and other publications. She was a finalist in the 2010 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. She currently teaches writing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Anna Meister (What, On Practicing…, Through The Window…, A World In Itself, What I Love…) is an MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bodega, Sugar House Review, The Boiler, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and elsewhere. Anna lives and works in Brooklyn.
Rachel Richardson (Of Whales…; Nature Show, 3 A.M.; I And Thou) is the author of Copperhead (2011) and Hundred-Year Wave (forthcoming, 2016), both from Carnegie Mellon University Press. She has been awarded fellowships from the NEA and Wallace Stegner Program at Stanford, among other honors. Her work most recently appears in Guernica, New England Review, and Swarm.
Mai Der Vang's (Meditation of the Lioness; Three; At Birth…; In The Swallow's…; Phantom Talk; Terminus) work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, The Missouri Review Online, The Collagist, Weave Magazine, Apogee, Red Branch, The Boiler, the Lantern Review, and Troubling Borders: An Anthology of Art and Literature by Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora, among others. As an editorial member of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle, she is co-editor of How Do I Begin: A Hmong American Literary Anthology. She is also a Fellow of Kundiman, and she completed residencies at Hedgebrook. She received her MFA in Poetry from Columbia University where she was awarded the Corrente Poetry Fellowship.
VISUAL ARTISTS
Erin Case (Cavesongs, Third Quarter, Juice, Out Of The Cold, Vogue, Hymn/Him) is an award-winning visual artist based in Midland, Michigan, with a focus in collage. Her work was featured in 42 separate locations across Canada for Art in Transit's International Collage Exhibition. She exhibited for Patchbox Project (Rome) and has had features in the widely-circulated Lola Magazine of Brazil, in Prototype Magazine (UK), and in the prominent Las Vegas-based magazine, Vegas/Rated, among others. Erin is currently in pursuit of dual degrees in fine arts and psychology. She is a die-hard supporter of the arts, regularly organizing and hosting events throughout Michigan. Learn more about Erin's work at erincase.weebly.com.
Merritt Cates (Feral Child) was born in Columbia, South Carolina and showed an intense interest for the arts at an early age. Brought up in a neighborhood full of different cultures, lifestyles, and religions allowed him to have experiences to relate his work to a larger audience. He has always been intrigued by iconography and began working with depictions of martyrs. This idea later led to a broader exploration of other archetypal imagery. Learn more about Merritt's work at merrittcates.com.
Shannon Estlund (Meet Me There, Coquina Gates, Distance II, Mirror Pond, Bobcat Lane) is currently an Adjunct Instructor at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a Visiting Assistant Instructor at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. She holds an MFA in Visual Studies from MCAD and received her BFA from the University of Florida and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Shannon is a Minnesota State Arts Boards grant recipient for 2014, and upcoming shows include Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis and the Crisp Ellert Art Museum in St. Augustine, FL. Learn more about Shannon's work at shannonestlund.com.
Julie Farstad (Prairiesummerheartbreak, Stunt Girl's Sweet Reward, The World Afire, Yellow Rose) is an artist and Associate Professor of Painting at the Kansas City Art Institute. Born and raised in Elmira, New York, Farstad earned a BFA in Painting from the University of Notre Dame and an MFA in Painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has shown her work nationally and is represented by Byron Cohen Gallery in Kansas City and Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago. Learn more about Julie's work at juliefarstad.com.
Jeremy Miranda (Untitled, Ice Wall Gold, Bridge) is a painter based in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire. His current work combines elements of landscape/seascape with manmade architectural elements in an attempt to generate a fragmented narrative space. Learn more about Jeremy's work at jeremymiranda.com.
Valerie Roybal (Transmutation 1, Transmutation 5, Little Grief Machine, Transmutation 3, Intersection, Big Big Blood) was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She currently lives and works in Albuquerque. She has a BA from the University of New Mexico where she did extensive study and practice in printmaking at book arts. She has shown her work in a number of exhibitions and venues including The 2nd National Book and Paper Arts Biennial at Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts in Chicago, Tributaries, Unraveling Tradition, New Mexico Showcase at 516 ARTS in Albuquerque, and Biennial Southwest '08 at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. Her work can be seen in the books: Cutting Edges: Contemporary Collage (Gestalten, 2011) and CUT and PASTE: 21st Century Collage (Laurence King Publishers, 2011). Learn more about Valerie's work at valerieroybal.com.