Valley With No Name by Sara Shaheen

Sara Shaheen was born in Haifa in May 1996 and raised between the mountains of the Galilee in Northern Occupied Palestine, holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and is currently doing her clinical internship in Jerusalem, where she lives today. Her passion for writing poetry started when she was ten, and she’s been writing ever since. 

a waterbottle in gaza by Sara Shaheen

Sara Shaheen was born in Haifa in May 1996 and raised between the mountains of the Galilee in Northern Occupied Palestine, holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and is currently doing her clinical internship in Jerusalem, where she lives today. Her passion for writing poetry started when she was ten, and she’s been writing ever since. 

AFTER THE SKY RAINED MEN AND HOSPITALS CLOSED DOWN by Katherine J. Williams

Katherine J. Williams, art therapist and clinical psychologist, was the director of the Art Therapy Program at George Washington University, where she is now associate professor emerita. Her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies such as Poet Lore, Passager, the Northern Virginia Review, 3rd Wednesday, the Delmarva Review, the Broadkill Review, the Widows’ Handbook, How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, and The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal. Her first poetry collection, Still Life, was published in 2022. Some of her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

On Agadez by Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo

Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo is a Nigerian poet and the author of the micro-chapbook Sidiratul Muntaha (Ghost City Press, 2022). His work has been published or is forthcoming at Ambit magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Obsidian: Literature and Art in the African Diaspora, Oxford Review of Books, Stand magazine, Roanoke Review, Louisiana Literature, Olongo Africa, the Citron Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best New Poets anthology. Fasasi explores trans-Mediterranean migration, loss, sex trafficking, and, recently, transatlantic slave trade.

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Child Therapy by Laine Derr

Laine Derr holds an MFA from Northern Arizona University and has published interviews with Carl Phillips, Ross Gay, Ted Kooser, and Robert Pinsky. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming from J Journal, Full Bleed + The Phillips Collection, ZYZZYVA, Portland Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.

Phenomenology by Stephanie Niu

Stephanie Niu is a poet and digital storyteller from Marietta, Georgia. She is the author of Survived By, winner of the 2023 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, and She Has Dreamt Again of Water, winner of the 2021 Diode Chapbook Contest. Her poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Waxwing, Ecotone, the Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She is currently completing a Fulbright scholarship on immigration and labor history on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

The Score by Diane Raptosh

Diane Raptosh’s collection American Amnesiac (Etruscan Press), was longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award in poetry. The recipient of three fellowships in literature from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, she served as the Boise Poet Laureate (2013) as well as the Idaho Writer-in-Residence (2013–2016). In 2018 she won the Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. She teaches literature and creative writing and codirects the program in Criminal Justice/Prison Studies at the College of Idaho. Her newest chapbook, Hand Signs from Eternity’s Yurt, was published in June 2022 (Kelsay Books).

The Stages of Grief: A Guide by Kim Curts Mattheussens

Kim Curts Mattheussens studied German and English literature at Ball State University, the Katholische Universität Eichstätt, and Westfälische-Wilhelms Universität Münster, and creative writing at the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. She is an alum of the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon. Her work is published or forthcoming in the Athena Review, Punt Volat, Southword Literary Journal, and the Common, among others. She lives in Los Angeles.

Photo by Sabian Symbols

To Sing in the Presence of Quaking by Diane Raptosh

Diane Raptosh teaches creative writing and co-directs the program in Criminal Justice/Prison Studies at the College of Idaho. Her eighth book, Hand Signs from Eternity’s Yurt, was published by Kelsay Books in June 2022.  Her collection American Amnesiac (Etruscan Press) was long-listed for the 2013 National Book Award in poetry. The recipient of three fellowships in literature from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, she served as Boise Poet Laureate (2013) and Idaho Writer-in-Residence (2013–2016). In 2018 she won the Idaho Governor’s Arts Award in Excellence.