LitHop 2022
Writer Bios

Listed alphabetically, by first name

Aideed Medina is a poet and spoken word artist. She is a UC CNP Certified California Naturalist and practices flor y canto as part of her poetic process and exploration of California's natural history. Her work has appeared in: Fresno State's Club Austral Literary Magazine, Chicano Writers and Artists Association Journal, La Bloga, Poets Responding, Art of the Commune, Split This Rock, Nueva York Poetry Review, Di-Lirio Revista Literaria, as part of a collection of original art songs composed for The Opera Remix, Fresno Grand Opera, and author of a forthcoming full-length poetry collection, Segmented Bodies, from Prickly Pear Press.

Albert Garcia is the author of three collections of poetry: Rainshadow (Copper Beech Press, 1996), Skunk Talk (Bear Starr Press, 2005), and A Meal Like That (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2015). His poetry has been published in former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s column, “American Life in Poetry” and on “A Writer’s Almanac,” as well as in numerous journals. A former professor and dean at Sacramento Community College, Garcia lives in Wilton, California.

Dr. Albert Valencia (he/him) is Professor Emeritus, Department of Counselor Education and Rehabilitation, California State University, Fresno where he served as Department Chairperson, Director of the University Mentoring Institute, and, of the First Year Experience Program. Formerly a member of the Governing Board of the American Psychological Association, former President of the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education, and, recipient of the University of California/ California State University “Excellence in Mentoring” Award. Dr. Valencia is widely published in academic journals and in the general media and he is the author of the books Latin Boy Shuffle (2020) and Armenian Genocide: Survivors and Heroes (2015).

Alberto Saldaña Uribe is a high school dropout, a college graduate, and is currently studying in the MFA program at Fresno State. Raised in a carniceria, he learned his cuts of meat alongside his ABCs, fluctuating prices alongside his 123s, and family stories alongside every rosary. Decent at some things, terrible at almost everything else, he makes a mean cocktail of maiz memories muddled in tequila and tears, with two shots of sleep deprivation, a half shot of stress, a dash of mourning, and kissed with salt, chile, and heartbreak on the rim; his liver is not a fan.

Alexandros Acedo (he/him) is a father, husband, activist, high school social studies teacher here in Fresno, California with a knack for baby-whispering and gardening. His poetry is influenced by hip hop and spoken word traditions. Freestyle sessions over beats in college, evolved into poetry writing as a way to process the world, its discontents, and its beauty.

A Fresno native, Alicia Rodriguez (she/her) grew up in the city's southeast side with a thirst for science and the arts from an early age. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Physics from CSU Fresno, not only the first female, but the first graduate of the program. She later obtained her Master of Science in Engineering at CSU Fullerton. After moving to and residing in Los Angeles, she returned to her hometown, continuing her career and beginning The Labyrinth Art Collective, a hub for live art, performance and expression in Fresno's Tower District, along with continued community activism.

Alison Mandaville (she/her) grew up in Oregon, Turkey, Massachusetts and Yemen. She has received two UNESCO grants for work with women writers and artists in Azerbaijan. Her literary translations have appeared in World Literature Today and Two Lines. Most recently, her poems have appeared in Terrain, Superstition, Grub Street, Playa Annual, and Fifth Wednesday. Her recently completed book of poetry explores human relationships to water. She is currently working on a series of lyrical essays about place, race, and memory. She teaches future English teachers at Fresno State.

Amber Carpenter is a lifelong Central Valley girl who writes about sex and love while inhabiting a fat body. In her work, she seeks to discover the uncomfortable truths behind the body, consent, and relationships. Her work can be found in Hobart and Entropy.

Andy Marin Contreras is a poet and journalist based in Fresno County. As an MFA student at Fresno State, Andy likes to explore womanhood, religion, and depression through her poetry and non-fiction essays. In her free time, she loves to feed stray cats, watch movies, and weightlift. She currently works as the Program Assistant for the Moreno Institute, an LLC focused on helping migrant and undocumented students throughout California.

Angel Dominguez is a Latinx poet and artist of Yucatec Maya descent, born in Hollywood and raised in Van Nuys, CA by their immigrant family. They now live amongst the Santa Cruz Mountains in Bonny Doon, CA. They’re the author of Desgraciado (the collected letters) (Nightboat Books, 2021), ROSESUNWATER (The Operating System, 2021) and Black Lavender Milk (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2015). Angel earned a BA from the University of California Santa Cruz and an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado. You can find Angel’s work online and in print in various publications. You can find Angel in the redwoods or ocean.

Angela Chaidez Vincent divides her time between writing, teaching computer science, and dance performance. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Fresno State, and her poems have appeared in Belleview Literary Review, Atlanta Review, 32 Poems, North American Review, and others.

Apryl Lewis is an English Instructor at Fresno City College. Her areas of interest are African American literature, Black Feminist studies, and trauma studies. Her first book, Black Feminism and Traumatic Legacies, is under contract with Lexington Books and she also has book chapters forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press and Routledge.

Arielle K. Jones (she/her) is a Black and queer writer from California’s Central Valley. She earned her BA from San Francisco State University, and her MFA from Fresno State University. She is a Tin House Summer Workshop alumna and Best of the Net Finalist with pieces in The Rumpus, Alternating Current, Blood Tree Lit, and others. Her work tends to portray intimacy and underrepresented identities through taboos, and fairytales.

Armen Bacon is an op ed columnist and author of three books: “Griefland – An Intimate Portrait of Love, Loss and Unlikely Friendship,” and “My Name is Armen” (Volumes I & II). Her essays have appeared in Maria Shriver’s Architects of Change, Entropy, Streetlight Magazine, Brevity Blog, Hybred Magazine and The Fresno Bee. She recently co-authored “The Words Between Us – A Pandemic Abecedarius” and is busy working on her next book project, “Daring to Breathe.” This summer she will be a guest artist/faculty to the esteemed CSU Summer Arts program, Writing from Life: Creative Ways to Tell Your Stories. 

Brenda Venezia is a queer Xicana writer and graduate of Fresno State's MFA program. She teaches at Fresno City College and founded Fresno Women Read. Her work has appeared in Yes, Poetry; The Boiler; Glass: A Journal of Poetry; The Collagist; Puerto Del Sol; Luna Luna Magazine; and elsewhere.

Brotha Kenneth Chacón (he/him/that vato) is the author of The Cholo Said Nothing & Other Poems. 6ixth Sun Xicano & Wannabe Mystic.

Brynn Saito (she/her) is the author of Power Made Us Swoon (2016) and The Palace of Contemplating Departure (2013), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award from Red Hen Press and a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. She has received grant support from Densho, Hedgebrook, and the Santa Fe Arts Institute. Her poems have appeared in the New York Times and American Poetry Review. Brynn teaches in Fresno State's MFA program and co-directs Yonsei Memory Project. Her third book will be published in late 2023.

C.E. Shue (she/her) is a third generation Chinese American who grew up in a rural, non-Asian farming community. A Kundiman Fellow, she writes poetry, fiction, and essays that reflect the kaleidoscopic nature of identity and how elements of race, gender, culture, and age recombine in one’s life and art. Her work has been published in Entropy, Drunken Boat, and Washington Square Review. A recipient of scholarships and grants from The University of San Francisco, The Provincetown Fine Arts Workshop, and The Vermont Studio Center, and The Kearny Street Workshop, among other venues. C.E. is currently working on a novel, Assimilation Mountain.

C.G. Hanzlicek was born in Owatonna, Minnesota, in 1942. He is the author of nine books of poetry: Living In It, Stars (winner of the 1977 Devins Award for Poetry), Calling the Dead, A Dozen for Leah, When There Are No Secrets, Mahler: Poems and Etchings, Against Dreaming, The Cave: Selected and New Poems, and The Lives of Birds.

Carlos Ornelas (he/him/his) is the author of Ketchup - Sopa de Gato, and first poet published by CLI in 2013. Ornelas produced and authored of two poetry albums combining HipHop and poetry, Legal Aliens (2015), and Adult School, Adult Store, and Adultery (2016). Ornelas has performed in multiple venues around Los Angeles, and is currently the press manager of the World Stage Press.

Carole Firstman is the author of "Origins of the Universe and What It All Means: A Memoir" (Dzanc, 2016). Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, South Dakota Review, Watershed Review, Lifestyle Magazine, The Valley Voice, and many other places. Honors include a Pushcart Prize Special Mention and two Notables in Best American Essays. She teaches writing at California State University, Fresno.

Carolina Mata (she/her/hers) is a queer Mexican-American writer, editor, and bruja from Fresno and the Coachella Valley. She earned her MFA in Fiction with an Emphasis in Editing from CSU, Fresno and is currently querying her collection of short stories, poems, and incantations titled Red in the Root(s). She's been published in The San Joaquin Review, The Painted Cave, the Wild Blue Zine, and Psychopomp Magazine.

Chuck Radke's (he/him) memoir, Stuccoville: Life Without a Net (WiDo), came out in January, 2021. His creative nonfiction has appeared in Stoneboat Literary Journal, Sierra Nevada Review, Palante, Showbear Family Circus, HASH, and others. His short fiction has appeared in Cold Lake Anthology, Mud Season Review, The San Joaquin Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Gulf Stream Magazine, and The South Dakota Review. He is the recipient of an AWP Intro Award for fiction and the Estelle Campbell Prize for literature from the National Society of Arts and Letters. He has worked at Fresno State in the Division of Research and Graduate Studies for almost 20 years.

Chelsea Jones (they/them) is a multimedia artist from Kingsburg, CA. They have an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media from UC Santa Cruz as well as a BA is in French Horn Performance with a Minor in Electronic Music. They have been published in Wicked Banshee Press, Black Napkin Press, Abridged Magazine, Noctua Review, and others. They are a big fan of cows and crows. More of their work can be found at chelseaejones.tumblr.com and chelseajones.bandcamp.com

Conney D. Williams (he/him/his) is co-founder of World Stage Press, performing artist, entrepreneur, renaissance man, and author of three books of poetry, Leaves of Spilled Spirit from an Untamed Poet (2002), Blues Red Soul Falsetto (2012), The Distance of Observation (2021) and two acclaimed cds combining music and poetry River & Moan and Unsettled Water.

Corrinne Clegg Hales' most recent book is To Make It Right, winner of the Autumn House Poetry Prize. Her poems appear in many journals and anthologies, most recently Nimrod, Miramar, and Packinghouse Review. Her awards include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Richard Snyder Memorial Publication Prize, the Devil's Millhopper Chapbook Prize, and the River Styx Poetry Prize. She taught poetry at Fresno State for many years.

Cristina Sandoval is a proud Chicana, and a Fresno transplant, originally from Modesto, CA. She is currently studying for her MFA in poetry at Fresno State. She works as a bilingual instructional aide at an elementary school. She loves working with kids and plans on working in the field after her MFA. Her writing is centered around family, trauma, and what it means to be a Mexican-American woman in America.

Crystal AC Salas (she/her/ella) is a Xicanx poet, essayist, educator, and community organizer. Her poetry chapbook Grief Logic is co-winner of the inaugural Alta California Prize, from Gunpowder Press. She has work in or forthcoming from Alta Journal, Northwest Review, [PANK] Magazine, World Literature Today, Chaparral Poetry, and Acentos Review. A founding member of the BreakBread Literacy Project, which elevates the voices of young creatives under 25, she serves as poetry editor for BreakBread Magazine.  She holds an M.F.A. from University of California, Riverside and is the recipient of a 2021-2022 California Arts Council Established Individual Artist Fellowship.

Cynthia Guardado (she/her/hers) is a Salvadorian-American poet and a tenured Professor of English at Fullerton College. She is the Editor-in-Chief of LiveWire an online literary magazine. she is the author of two collections of poetry: forthcoming Cenizas, (University of Arizona Press 2022) and ENDEAVOR (World Stage Press 2017). Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, U.S. Latinx Voices in Poetry, The Wandering Song. She won the Concurso Binacional De Poesia Pellicer-Frostin 2017 (Mexico) and Cenizas was a finalist for the National Poetry Series in 2019.

Dani Potter (she/her)is a graduate of the Fresno State MFA Creative Writing program, currently working as a teacher and continuing to write.

Danny Avila is an aspiring writer and poet from Fresno California. After dropping out from Fresno State he would go on to occasionally attend classes at Fresno City College and Clovis Community College, where he is currently studying as an English Major. Danny wants to one day achieve his dream of becoming a published author.

Danny Romero earned a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA from Temple University in Philadelphia, where he taught writing for many years. He currently teaches at Sacramento City College. Romero’s poems and short stories have been published in a variety of journals including Bilingual Review, Colorado Review, Drumvoices Revue, among others. His work can also be found in the anthologies West of the West: Imagining California, Pieces of the Heart: New Chicano Fiction, Los Vasos Communicantes: Antologia de Poesía Chicana (Spain), among others. He is the author of the novel Calle 10 (Mercury House, 1996), and two chapbooks of poetry, and Traces: a book of poetry (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2012).

David Borofka is the author of HINTS OF HIS MORTALITY (winner of the 1996 Iowa Short Fiction Award) and a novel, THE ISLAND (MacMurray & Beck). His latest collection of stories, A LONGING FOR IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, was recently released, as part of the Johns Hopkins Poetry and Fiction Series, and his novel, THE END OF GOOD INTENTIONS, will be forthcoming from Fomite Press in the next year. For more information, visit his website at http://davidborofka.com.

David Campos is the son of Mexican immigrants, a CantoMundo Fellow, the author of Furious Dusk (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015), and the forthcoming American Quasar (Red Hen, 2021). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and The Normal School. He's the winner of the 2014 Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, and the Annual Prairie Schooner Strousse Award for the best group of poems in Prairie Schooner. He teaches English at Fresno City College. He lives in Clovis, California

Devi S. Laskar is a poet and photographer, and author of The Atlas of Reds and Blues, a critically acclaimed novel that grapples with racism, misogyny, and being invisible in America. A native Tar Heel, Ms. Laskar now lives in California with her family.

Ethan Chatagnier (he/him) is the author of "Singer Distance," a speculative novel forthcoming from Tin House Books on October 18, 2022, and of the story collection "Warnings from the Future." His short stories have appeared in the Kenyon Review Online, Georgia Review, New England Review, and other journals, and have been awarded a Pushcart Prize and listed as notable in the Best American Short Stories. He lives in Fresno, California, with his family.

Francisco Duarte (he/him) is a Mexican-born poet. He emigrated with his family to California in 1980, where he supported his family as a farmworker for many years. Duarte is the author of poetry collections: Marcianos Bajo el Sol, Mañana Será Mejor, Espacios Vacios, Soy Campesino, and a collection of short stories, Los Últimos Fantasmas. Francisco is a proud member of the immigrant voices of the central valley. The poet lives in Fresno, Ca, with his wife, Soledad.

Gabi Cruz-Brittsan (she/her/hers) is a writer and educator from Fresno, California. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. Her writing is an exploration of self, centered around her experience as a mother and educator. For eight years, Gabi taught English. During this time she co-founded a poetry club on her campus. A passion of hers is to cultivate a sense of community through poetry for youth. Her dedication to her students has not gone unnoticed. In 2020, Gabi was honored as Teacher of the Year for Washington Unified School District and the Young Writers Conference at Fresno State.

Gary Thomas (he/him/his) grew up on a peach farm outside Empire, California. Prior to retirement, he taught eighth grade language arts for thirty-one years and junior college English for seven.  He has presented poetry workshops for statewide organizations, festivals, and conferences. His poetry has appeared in journals including In the Grove, Time of Singing, and The Comstock Review, and in the anthologies More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets and three of the Collision series. He is currently vice president of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center. All the Connecting Lights, published by Finishing Line Press, is his first full-length collection.

Gillian Wegener (she/her/hers) is the author of the chapbook Lifting One Foot, Lifting the Other (In the Grove Press, 2001) and the books The Opposite of Clairvoyance (2008) and This Sweet Haphazard (2017), both from Sixteen Rivers Press. President of the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center, Wegener lives and works in Stanislaus County.

Guadalupe Friaz (she/her) was raised in Lindsay and is the daughter of Mexican farmworkers.  She graduated from UCSC and obtained a doctorate at UC Berkeley.  She taught at the University of Washington in the Department of American Ethnic Studies in Seattle before changing careers.  She retired in 2018 as a LCSW in San José where she worked with children and families. This is a chapter from her memoir, Adventures in Burlington's Strawberry Fields, (in progress).  She was a 2022 finalist for her essay in The Bellingham Review.

Haley White (she/they) is a multi-disciplinary artist who primarily works as a a theatre practitioner, filmmaker, and producer. Her practice is based around the belief that art can be used as a transformative tool – for healing, growth, and change. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College, a BA in Theatre Arts from California Lutheran University, and works by day as the Director of Marketing at United Way Fresno and Madera Counties. Haley has called Fresno home for the past decade and only regrets it in the summer months. #towertothepeople

Hector son of Hector (he/him) lives in Oakland, CA. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, currently works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret.

Hillary Adams writes across the creative nonfiction spectrum, from hybrid personal essays to reportage, with a keen focus on experimental forms. She holds an MFA from Sierra Nevada University where she also worked as managing editor for the Sierra Nevada Review. She is a Community of Writers alumna and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Entropy, The Normal School, and This Is Not a Punk Rock Anthology.

Hiram Sims (he/him/his) is President of Sims Library of Poetry, Community Literature Initiative, & World Stage Press.

Isaias the Hero (he/him), Richard "Rich with words" Willis IV, was born in Ogden, Utah. His family moved to Fresno when he was age 6. In 2009 Richard met Bryan Medina, where he first started performing slam poetry in the Smokehouse, now known as Cockies, at the age of 17. In 2019, tragedy struck, leaving Richard devastated with a major depressive disorder. After three years, he's resurfaced to chase the passion of poetry. Since his poetry focuses on identifying with those suffering in silence with mental disorders, and the fight it took to preserve his own life, he has taken the name "Isaias The Hero," Isaias coming from his favorite book of the Bible. He is part of the Mid-valley Mystics, hoping to reach and encourage those enduring their own fight.

Itzel Xochicuicatl is originally from Mexico City. At 18 years old, she migrated to the United States. At that point, poetry became her refuge and medicine as she attempted to adapt to her new country and culture. The themes of Xochicauicatl's writing touch upon strength, mysticism, motherhood, love, culture, migration, and nature. Her most passionate role is that of being a mother of three children. She is also a co-founder of CSUF Club Austral Literary Organization, a  Spanish teacher, and a jewelry artisan. Her published poems appear in Revista Raices, Artivismo Anthology,  and  Festival Comala 2021.

James Espinoza's writing has appeared in the anthology Windows Into My World (Arte Publico Press, 2009) and various other newspapers and literary journals, such as Metro, Yellow Medicine Review, turnrow, among others. In 2011, Slipstream nominated his poem “The Patience of Beans” for a Pushcart Prize. He currently teaches at College of the Sequoias. 

J.J. Hernandez is a poet in Fresno, California. He holds an MFA in poetry and served as the inaugural fellow in the Laureate Lab: Visual Wordist Studio under Juan Felipe Herrera. His work has been supported by the Community of Writers Workshop, he reads for The Offing Magazine, and you can see some of his work in Tinderbox, Queen Mob’s Tea House, The Acentos Review, Crab Orchard Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, The McNeese Review, and The American Poetry Review.

Jack Chavoor (he/him) had a full career as an English Teacher and coach for Roosevelt high school before completing the MFA in Creative Writing, Nonfiction, and continuing his lifelong avocation/passion for writing.

Jackie Huertaz received her MFA in Creative Non-fiction from California State University Fresno. She teaches at Reedley College, in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Her work has been seen in The 45th Parallel, Entropy Magazine, and The Rumpus. She writes about pop culture, the working class, and Mexican American identity.

Jacob Simmons (he/him/his) is a teacher of tenth and eleventh grade English at Kingsburg High. He earned his credential from Fresno State in 201.  Jacob is currently enrolled in the university’s MFA program studying creative non-fiction, and he writes about his experiences with friends, family, food and strangers in the places he calls home. He’s a collector of dirt, a road-tripper, a musician, a John Prine fan, and he’s trying to become less of a scoundrel every day. 

Jaie Noelle is an Alabama native transplanted to the Central Valley. A recent 2022 graduate of the Fresno State MFA program, she has been performing slam poetry for more than a decade, including competing in two international poetry slam competitions, Women of the World Poetry Slam Competition, and the Individual World Poetry Slam Competition. Her poetry can be found in the Anthology Out Loud HSV: A Year in Review. She is currently working on completion of her third novel, Black Magic.

Janet Nichols Lynch is the author of 15 books, including the novel CHEST PAINS and the young adult novels MY BEAUTIFUL HIPPIE, RACING CALIFORNIA, and MESSED UP, an ALA Quick-Pick for Reluctant Readers. Born and raised in Sacramento, Janet began her artistic career as a pianist. She graduated with a BA in Music from Sacramento State, an MM in Piano from Arizona State, and MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. She has set the personal goal of cycling in every state and has 16 to go. Her website is http://JanetNicholsLynch.com.

Janice Lobo Sapigao (she/her) is a daughter of immigrants from the Philippines. She is the author of two books of poetry, microchips for millions (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc., 2016) and like a solid to a shadow (Nightboat Books, 2022). She was a VONA/Voices Fellow and was awarded a Manuel G. Flores Prize, PAWA Scholarship to the Kundiman Poetry Retreat. She is a co-founder of Sunday Jump in Los Angeles's Historic Filipinotown. She was the 2020-2021 Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, and she founded the Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program.

Irrevocably in love with the San Joaquín Valley, Jasmine Leiva (she/her) is a queer, disabled Salvadoran American writer and community organizer. She dreams in mosaics and practices tenderness while assembling poems about fruit trees, pop music, and liberation. Her essay “Capricorn Twins” was recently published in the journal Flies, Cockroaches and Poets.

Jeff Knorr is the author of five books of poetry, Fire Season (forthcoming in 2022), The Color of a New Country, The Third Body, Keeper, and Standing Up to the Day. His work has appeared in A Writer's Country; and The River Sings: An Introduction to Poetry (Prentice Hall, and Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America, among others. Jeff was the Poet Laureate for the city and county of Sacramento from 2012-2016. He was the founding co-editor and poetry editor of the Clackamas Literary Review. He currently directs the River City Writer’s Series at Sacramento City College. He lives in Sacramento, California and is Professor of literature and creative writing at Sacramento City College.

Jessika R. Torres (she/they) is an English major at Clovis Community College. Mostly a short story writer, she’s dabbling her hand in poetry. She plans on transferring to Fresno State to become an English teacher.

Jim Schmidt’s main interests have always been music, literature and technical pursuits. After studying philosophy at UC Berkeley he got involved with racing motorcycles, then pursued a career as a jazz musician and builder of saxophones. Presently he is stretching his ideas to the limit in the form of a science fiction novel.

John Hales is the author of Shooting Polaris: A Personal Survey in the American West (University of Missouri Press), and his essays have appeared in the Georgia Review, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Southern Review, Ascent, and Hudson Review. Awards include the Missouri Review Editors Prize in Nonfiction, and a Pushcart Prize. John taught at Fresno State for a really long time, most recently in the MFA program.

Joseph Rios (he/him) is a Xicano writer and the author of Shadowboxing: Poems & Impersonations (Omnidawn, 2017), winner of a 2018 American Book Award. He lives in Fresno, California, on Yokuts land.

Josiah Luis Alderete (he/him) is a full blooded Pocho Spanglish speaking poeta breed and spread in La Area Bahia. He was a founding member of outspoken word group The Molotov Mouths and is the host/curator of La Area Bahia's  long runing monthly Latinx reading series Speaking Axolotl. His book "Baby Axolotls & Old Pochos" was published in 2022 by BLack Freighter Press

Juan Flores (he/him) is the author of a novel titled Manuel y su Grandpa. He has published his autobiography titled When the Student is Ready…: Memories of an Immigrant. With his mother, he published his father’s biography, titled Las Vivencias de Ramon Flores: Un Joven Nacido en la Provincia. He publishes biographies because it is important to tell our immigrant stories because they should be acknowledged as an important part of our American history.

Juan Huerta (they/them) is a Chicane prose writer that tends to focus on the effects of post-colonialism through literary or speculative fiction. They take pride in their intersectional identity, which they believe allows them to view the world through a lens founded in complexity. Also, as a self-proclaimed hedonist, they believe that all art must scratch a certain itch that only subversive pieces can.

Juan Luis Guzmán (he/him) is a poet, professor, actor, director, and community organizer who earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State along with a BA in English and a BA in Mass Communication/Journalism. With fellowships from Macondo Writers Workshop and CantoMundo, his work has appeared in Huizache, PANK, Assaracus, Pilgrimage, The Santa Ana Review, and The Rumpus, among other journals, as well as the Letras Latinas Blog and Poet’s Quarterly, and he has been three-times nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Karissa Ellison (she/her) is a fiction writer from the sweaty depths of California’s Central Valley. She has an MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in editing and publishing. Karissa has a background in teaching composition and creative writing at CSU, Fresno, and as an editor and social media coordinator for literary magazines and community organizations. Karissa has published short stories in hais: a literary journal and Flies, Cockroaches & Poets. Currently, she is adding the final touches to her young adult contemporary fantasy novel before slipping into the trenches of the traditional publishing world.

Kirk Stone (he/him) grew up on the California coast near strawberry fields and the ocean. Except for a brief stint in Poland teaching English, he has lived in Fresno for the past 2 decades. He has an M.F.A. in Creative writing and is the Assistant Director of California State University, Fresno's, Writing Center where he focuses on facilitating small writing groups.

L.S. Arévalo (she/her/ella) is a Xicana-Indigenous poet, playwright, and writer originally from Cali's Central Coast. She has been featured in Rogue Festival 2020 + 2021, Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets, Mujeres de Maíz, The San Joaquin Review, Fresno City College Review, and University of Nevada at Reno's Basta! 100 + Latinas Against Gender Violence. Her play The Light in the Dead was included in Teasers: An Evening of 10-Minute Plays. She enjoys writing about indigenous cultures, gender, identity, nature, spirituality, and all relations. She also loves to sing, dance, spend time in nature, at concerts and music festivals, and have quality time with her life partner, family, and friends.

As a self taught artist and writer, Laura Splotch (she/we/us) has been creating something out of nothing for many years. She paints, draws, builds, and makes magic. She's creative and a little bit crazy. Laura is currently the artistic director of Fresno's Storyland. As a class b driver, she wrote about her experiences as a city bus driver called "the captain's bus blog; come ride with me" that sold tens of copies on Kindle. She is also an actor at Hobb's Grove in Sanger during the haunt season and has been an extra as a zombie in the movie "The Electric Man". Her multi-disciplinary art practice also includes painting murals and creating stained glass windows.

Linda Scheller (she/her/hers) is the author of two poetry books, Fierce Light (FutureCycle Press, 2017) and Wind & Children (Main Street Rag, 2022) as well as a chapbook, Halcyon. Now retired from teaching, she programs for KCBP Community Radio and serves on the boards of the Stanislaus County Arts Council and Modesto-Stanislaus (MoSt) Poetry Center.

After retiring as a professor of English at California State University, Fresno, Linnea Alexander (she/her) entered Fresno State’s MFA program. She finished her memoir, The River of Mercy, last May and is currently sending it out for publication. Her work captures the ambivalent spirit of the 60s in stories of her life in Yosemite and Mexico, waitressing in New Orleans, and working on a passenger ship. Her desire to travel has continued to shape her life. Until the pandemic grounded us, she considered London her second home and can’t wait to get back. 

Lisa Lee Herrick (she/her) is a Hmong American writer, artist, and media producer. She is a 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices fellow, co-founder of LitHop, a regular contributor at The Rumpus, and the editor at large at Hyphen magazine. Follow her latest work at www.LisaLeeHerrick.com, and on Twitter: @lisaleeherrick

Lisa Lieberman is a freelance writer/editor and instructor at Fresno City College. She has published over 2,500 newspaper articles and magazines, including the San Francisco Examiner, Backpacker Magazine, and Working Mother.  She is completing her book, All my Bad Boyfriends. She also writes a column, “Sex in a Small Town” for the Valley Voice in Visalia.

Lisbeth Coiman (she/her) is a warrior of internal battles and a trekker of intersecting paths. Her debut book, I Asked the Blue Heron (2017) explores the intersection between immigration and mental health. Her poetry collection, Uprising / Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, 2021) raises awareness of the humanitarian crisis in her homeland. Coiman lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Liz Scheid is the author of The Shape of Blue. She writes about motherhood, fears, ghosts, and loss. Her essays and poems have been published in several literary magazines. Currently, she teaches full-time at Fresno City College. She's also currently obsessed with all things astrology related.

Lizard Person (n): the descendent of the reptilian bloodline that lives in the California woods writing poems.

Mariah Bosch (she/her) is a queer Chicana poet and visual artist from Fresno, CA. She is a graduate of Fresno State’s MFA program in poetry where she worked with Juan Felipe Herrera as a graduate fellow in his Laureate Lab Visual Wordist Studio. Her work can be found on Poets.org, Hobart, Cosmonauts Avenue, and elsewhere.

Marisol Baca is the author of Tremor from Three Mile Harbor Press. She was named Fresno’s first woman and first Chicana/Latinx Poet Laureate for 2019-2021. Marisol’s poem about the naming of Fresno has been designated the city’s official poem. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University where she won the Robert Chasen poetry award for her poem, Revelato, and she won the Andres Montoya poetry scholarship prize. Currently, Marisol is an English professor at Fresno City College and has established a community for women writers of color that seeks to support and uplift their writing endeavors. 

Maritza "La Mariposa" Ruby Altamirano (she/her) is a Latinx poet who writes of women empowerment, dismantling systems of oppression, and her cultural reflections. Raised in Porterville, California, La Mariposa’s passion for reading and writing short stories and poetry stemmed at the age of 8 when her mother encouraged her to purchase a chapter book instead of a doll. She has a newfound purpose to speak her truth onto the verses for her dad to hear from Heaven. As part of the Loud Mouth Poetry Jam, Mid-Valley Mystics team, she is grateful to expand creativity, expose Mid-Valley realities, and empower new and existing poets.

Masiel Monserrat Corona Santos (she/her) was born in Hidalgo México, but raised in Santana, California. She holds a M.A. in Hispanic Literature, Linguistics, and civilization from California State, University of San Bernardino. She recently published her first poetry collection, Cantos Revolucionarios. Her poetic work also appears nationwide and internationally in different digital and printed journals and anthologies. Masiel has participated in various poetry events locally and in México. This year, she was awarded the Premio de Poesía Juana Goergen by DePaul University in Chicago.

Matt Sedillo (he/him) has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle." He was the recipient of the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award and has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press among other publications. Sedillo has spoken at Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba, at numerous conferences and forums such as the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, and at over a hundred universities and colleges. He is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press, 2022).

Megan Anderson Bohigian is the City of Fresno's Poet Laureate. She is the author of two poetry collections, Sightlines and Vanishing Point, and is at work on revision of a third full collection. Her work has been anthologized (Shadowed: Unheard Voices) and published in many journals, including The Atticus Review, The Comstock Review, and In the Grove. She curates the writer portion of the 7-month annual reading series, Respite by the River.

Melinda Medeiros (she/her) is a writer, wife, mother (by choice) of three humans (and five cats), native of the San Joaquin Valley, granddaughter of Azorean immigrants, and professor of first-year writing at Clovis College. She earned an MFA in Creative Nonfiction with an emphasis in publishing and editing from CSU Fresno, where she served as president of the San Joaquin Literary Association, Senior Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Normal School, and a Teaching Associate. She has written for The Odyssey Online, and has been published in hais: a literary journal and the Reedley College journal Symmetry.

Melody Rose (she/her) is a valley native who grew up around the South Valley. She received her BA in English Literature from Fresno State in 2017, took a short stint in the Fresno State MFA program in creative writing before deciding to pursue a Masters of Theological Studies at GTU, Berkeley. Currently in thesis continuation, her work focuses on LGBTQ inclusivity in Christian spaces. Her work includes political poetry, rape culture, and relational trauma and grief. 

Mialise Carney is an MFA candidate in creative writing at California State University, Fresno. She is the fiction editor at The Normal School and her writing has appeared in Hobart, Barren Magazine, and Maudlin House, among others.

Michael Cantu is a poet from Reedley California. He is currently an MFA student at CSU Fresno working on his poetry manuscript.  When not writing, he is teaching High School English at the School Of Unlimited Learning, a division of the Fresno Equal Opportunity Commision.  He is supported in art by his loving wife, daughter, and extended family, all long time inhabitants of the California Central Valley.

Mimi Tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and daughter of California. She has a MA in Literature from Mills College, and is currently a doctoral student in the Creative/Critical PhD in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Her debut collection of poems, the monumental misrememberings, is published with Co-Conspirator Press (2020). She was chosen as a finalist in the Creative Nonfiction Prize for Indiana Review in 2020, and is a creative fellow at The Ruby in San Francisco. She was selected for participation in the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices for poetry in 2021. Her works can be found in Foglifter, Apogee Journal, Interim Poetics, and The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Monique Quintana is the author of the novella Cenote City (Clash Books 2019) and the chapbook, My Favorite Sancho and Other Fairy Tales. Her book reviews, interviews, and personal essays appear at Luna Luna Magazine, where she is a contributing editor.

Nancy Hernandez is a Chicana poet who grew up in Fresno, California.  She writes about her experiences with her Texan/Mexican Chicano father and her Mexican immigrant mother. Nancy received an MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State, is a VONA alum, and her work has been published in The Acentos Review. She currently teaches English composition part-time and is a Child Care Worker for therapeutic homes. When she isn’t teaching, working, or writing, she is sewing, cooking, or somewhere in nature.

Nicholas Reiner (he/him) is an American poet of Mexican heritage. His debut poetry chapbook Levitations is co-winner of the inaugural Alta California Chapbook Prize,  available in a bilingual edition from Gunpowder Press. His poems appear in Spillway, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, Western Humanities Review, Zocalo Public Square, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Nicholas is also a sports writer, educator, and communications professional, and has taught writing in high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and juvenile halls. He is Director of Communications at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), where he lifts up the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated people and edits a quarterly newsletter that reaches tens of thousands of incarcerated people in California prisons.

Optimism One is a Buddhist, an Ironman triathlete, and a tenured English professor who has been clean and sober for over twenty years. His essays have been anthologized by Peter Lang Publishing and In Fact Books, and published in The Normal School, among others. He is currently completing a memoir, Dying to Live, aka Goodbye, Suicide, aka How to Swallow a Black Cloud and Exhale Light.

 Phyllis Brotherton, a memoirist and essayist, received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Fresno State University. Her work is published in numerous literary journals, including Under the Gum Tree, Entropy, Anomaly, Pithead Chapel, Essay Daily, and Brevity Blog; has received two Best of the Net nominations, and most recently won 3rd place in Streetlight Magazine’s Essay/Memoir Contest, with co-author, Armen D. Bacon. She lives with her wife of twenty-seven years in Reno, Nevada, where she watches for bears at the birdfeeder from her writing desk.

Preeti Kaur Rajpal is a Sikh poet. She grew up in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Preeti first began writing as a student of June Jordan in her Poetry for the People program. Preeti’s poems can be found in The Lantern Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Jaggery Lit, and other publications. She is a recent Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Literature. Her first book of poems is forthcoming.

Rachelle Cruz is the author of God's Will for Monsters, which won an American Book Award in 2018 and the 2016 Hillary Gravendyk Regional Poetry Prize. She co-edited Kuwento: Lost Things, an anthology of Philippine Myths with Lis P. Sipin-Gabon. The second edition of her comics text resource, Experiencing Comics: An Introduction to Reading, Discussing and Creating Comics, was published in 2021. Her work has also appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Yellow Medicine Review, among others. She currently teaches Genre Fiction in the low-residency MFA program at Western Colorado University.

Rebecca Evans (she/her) is a memoirist, poet, and essayist. She mentors high school girls in the juvenile system and teach poetry for those in recovery. She co-hosts a radio program, Writer to Writer, and her poems and essays have appeared in Narratively, The Rumpus, Collateral, Entropy Literary Magazine, War, Literature & the Arts, and elsewhere. She co-edited a forthcoming anthology of poems, WHEN THERE ARE NINE, a tribute to the life and achievements of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Moon Tide Press, July 2022). She has earned two MFAs, one in creative nonfiction, the other in poetry. She lives in Idaho with her sons, my Newfie, and my Calico.

René Rodríguez Astacio (he/him/él) was born and raised in Humacao, Puerto Rico. A professor of secondary English Education at Fresno State and writer, his work, writing, and interests are fueled by his experiences and identity as a bilingual queer Puerto Rican. He is an avid reader and die hard fanatic of young adult literature. He also writes in his spare time about fantastic worlds, Puerto Rican queer teens and culture, and the occasional spur-of-the-moment poem. You can always find him hanging out at bookstores and comic shops.

Ronald Dzerigian earned his M.F.A. in poetry from California State University, Fresno. He balances his long-time interest in the written word with a strong attachment to the visual arts (painting and sculpture). His first book of poems, ROUGH FIRE, was published in 2018 and he is currently working on three follow-up manuscripts. One can find his individually published poems in the Australian Book Review (where he was a finalist for the Peter Porter Poetry Prize), Prairie Schooner, RHINO, Salamander, South Carolina Review, Zone 3, and many others. He resides in Fowler with his wife and two daughters.

Rosie Angelica Alonso was born in East LA and received her MFA from Cal State San Bernardino. She is the chief editor of Acid Verse Literary Journal published by Los Angeles Poet Society. She is currently learning sustainable agriculture in Los Altos and lives on a farm with cows and chickens. She has a venus in Taurus and loves art, food, and fashion. You can find her skating, hiking, and learning about astrology. Her first full length book, The Cockroach Manifesto, is forthcoming.

Rosie Bates is a third-year MFA candidate in nonfiction at Fresno State University, the Managing Editor at The Normal School, and has been published in Alpinist Magazine. If she is not writing or working, you will most likely find her out climbing in Yosemite!

Ruben Quesada is editor of Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (University of New Mexico Press, 2022) and author of Revelations (2018), Next Extinct Mammal (2011), and translator of Selected Translations of Luis Cernuda (2008). Quesada has served as an editor for AGNI, Pleiades, and The Kenyon Review. His writing appears in Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, Guernica, and Harvard Review. He is an Associate Teaching Fellow at The Attic Institute and teaches for the UCLA Writers’ Program. He lives in Chicago.

sami h. tripp (they/m) is a braider of words. A poet and librarian privileged to be creating and communing on Yokuts land, they’re completing an MFA at Fresno State. Influenced by their mixed identities, they are working and writing towards reconnection.

Sara Borjas (she/her) is a Xicanx pocha and a Fresno poet. Her debut collection, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff (Noemi Press, 2019) received a 2020 American Book Award. Sara was featured as one of Poets & Writers 2019 Debut Poets. She has received fellowships from MacDowell, CantoMundo, Sewanee, Postgraduate Writers Conference, and Community of Writers. She believes that all Black lives matter and will resist white supremacy until Black liberation is realized. She teaches creative writing at Cal State East Bay and the UCR Palm Desert Low Residency MFA Program, but stays rooted in Fresno.

Shane Lara Jr. (he/him) was raised in Fresno, CA. Through many difficult situations in his life he developed a love for music and poetry as a getaway. Shane has been rapping since adolescence and has just started recently competing in poetry competitions. As he grew older he discovered his Native American roots with the Natchitoches Tribe of Louisiana and has then grew his artistic talents as a spoken word artist throughout his Native community. Being part of the Loud Mouth Poetry Slam team, Mid-Valley Mystics, has continued his journey. His hopes to becoming a better poetry artist has flourished.

Shelly Wong is a queer, fourth-generation Chinese American poet from Long Beach, California, who currently lives in San Francisco. She is the author of As She Appears (YesYes Books, 2022), winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize, and the chapbook RARE BIRDS (Diode Editions, 2017). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry 2021, Kenyon Review, and The New Republic. She is an artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, along with fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and Vermont Studio Center. She is interested in radical beauty and queer femme abundance.

Stella Beratlis (she/her/hers) is the author of Alkali Sink (2015) and Dust Bowl Venus (2021). Her poems have appeared in the anthologies The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems from the San Francisco Bay Watershed and California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology. Alkali Sink was a nominee for the 2016 Northern California Book Award in Poetry. Beratlis served as Modesto’s poet laureate from 2016-2020 and works as a community college librarian.

Steven Church (he/him) is the author of six books of nonfiction, most recently the collection of essays, I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part: On Work, Fear, and Fatherhood. His essays have been published and anthologized widely including in the Best American Essays and The Best of Brevity. He's a founding editor of The Normal School, and teaches in the MFA Program at Fresno State and for the low-residency program at Sierra Nevada University.

Steven Sanchez’s debut book, Phantom Tongue (Sundress Publications, 2018), was chosen by Mark Doty for the Rochelle Ratner Memorial Award. A CantoMundo Fellow, Lambda Literary Fellow, and winner of the Federico García Lorca Poetry Prize, his poems have appeared in Agni, American Poetry Review, Missouri Review, and elsewhere.

Sydney Hinton (she/her) is a fat writer from the Midwest, transplanted to Fresno. She’s a recent MFA graduate in creative nonfiction with an emphasis in editing and publishing. She served as the Managing Editor for The Normal School literary magazine for two years and worked in the MFA office at Fresno State for longer. When she’s not working or writing, she likes to conjure neighborhood cats, add to her houseplant collection, and read in the sun. She has been published in Under the Sun literary magazine.

Sylvia Savala (she/her) is a professor, a poet, an essayist, and artist extraordinaire with deep roots in Pinedale.

Talia Lakshmi Kolluri (she/her) is the author of “What We Fed to the Manticore,” a collection of short stories published by Tin House in September 2022. It’s available now everywhere books are sold. Her short fiction has appeared in The Minnesota Review, Ecotone, Southern Humanities Review, The Common, Orion, One Story, and others. She was born and raised in Northern California and currently lives in California’s beautiful Central Valley with her husband and cat.

Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta (they/them) is a nicaragüense jewish artist, poet, and anarchist living in the Mission District of Yelamu, in the unceded ancestral lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone.

After spending 35 years teaching high school English at Orosi High School, Thomas Nance (he/him) has entered his retirement years – enjoying acting for various theaters around the valley, continuing writing his poetry, and enjoying the company of his family and friends. A poet since high school, he has had the privilege of studying under Philip Levine, Ernesto Trejo, and Lee Herrick. Creating poetry during these uncertain times is a struggle, but even knowing W.H. Auden’s realization that “poetry makes nothing happen” creating poetry keeps him focused on never giving up on the perpetual struggle to be free.

Tim Kahl [http://www.timkahl.com] is the author of Possessing Yourself (CW Books, 2009), The Century of Travel (CW Books, 2012) The String of Islands (Dink, 2015) Omnishambles (Bald Trickster, 2019) and California Sijo (Bald Trickster, 2022). His work has been published in many journals in the U.S and abroad. He is also an editor of Clade Song [http://www.cladesong.com]. He is events coordinator of The Sacramento Poetry Alliance. He builds flutes, plays them and plays guitars, ukuleles, charangos and cavaquinhos touches on many other instruments from around the world. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.

Tino Rayos (he/him) was born in Texas, raised in Central California, reconnecting with Indigenous ancestry. In recovery, but still addicted to chocolate, coffee, and tacos. graduated Fresno state with a B.A. in English and Ethnic Studies, Substitute teacher, Drug & Alcohol Counselor, Activist, Poet, comedian singer, Hip-Hop artist, Aztec dancer and drummer. Member of Visalia Loudmouth Poetry Team. Follow “Tino Rayos” on social medias.

Victor Trejo was born and raised in California's Central Valley. In childhood, he was exposed to music, theatre, and the beauty of poetry, and has been writing ever since. He received his B.A. from UC Santa Barbara. Victor considers himself a lapsed writer, and works as a teacher and photographer of events and people in his corner of Fresno.

Von Torres (he/him/his) was born in Fresno, California and raised in Clovis, California with parents who immigrated from the Philippines. He teaches at Clovis Community College in the English & Reading Department. He started as a student of poetry at Fresno City College in 2008 and earned his BA (2011) and MA (2014) in English: Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Currently, Torres is writing poetry that explores and clarifies family, friendship, skin, and health through questions, declarations, and imaginations toward freedom. He has forthcoming work in the Sage Encyclopedia of Filipina/x/o American Studies.

Will Freeney (he/him/them) is a recent graduate of the Fresno State MFA in Creative Writing program and a writer seeking to express Truth in the form of nonfiction.