Zaji Cox has been creating stories since she started reading at age three, discovering her passion for writing when she wrote her first short story at nine years old. She started with self-publishing at a young age, completing a fantasy adventure book at age thirteen and a collection of short stories in high school. She quickly realized the value of relating fantastic events - some joyful, some dark - to how we experience the world as we think we know it. She was the winner in the poetry category of Submission PDX’s reading series in 2020, and has been invited to participate in several events including the Portland Book Festival, PDX Poetry Festival, Survival of the Feminist reading series, Moved By Words: New Voices of Color, Corporeal Writing’s LOOP, the 50th annual Northwest Folklife Festival, XRAY FM's Amplify Women teach-in for International Women's Day, and more. She holds a BA in English, and her writing can be found in Pathos Literary Magazine, Entropy Magazine, The Portland Metrozine, Cultural Daily, CARE Covid Art REsource, 2020: The Year of the Asterisk (released October 2021 from University of Hell Press) and others. Her memoir, Plums for Months, was released from Forest Avenue Press in May of 2023.
Matan Gold (he, him, siya) is a Black & Filipino(x) writer from the San Fernando Valley. His essay 'We Real Cool' was selected for the 2020 Best American Essays 'Notable List'. His essay 'Wade in the Water' was a finalist for Black Warrior Review's 2020 Non-Fiction Prize. He's probably walking his dog.
Jessica E. Johnson (she/they) is the author of the book-length poem Metabolics (Acre Poetry Series), the chapbook In Absolutes We Seek Each Other (New Michigan Press), and the memoir Mettlework (Acre Books).
Jessica is a career community college instructor based in Portland, Oregon. They are interested in inclusive learning environments, knowledge production, radical care, and the relationships between art, friendship, community, and social change. They work to make spaces for thinking, feeling, and learning together.
She is a contributor to Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, and her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, The New Republic, Poetry Northwest, 32 Poems, Prairie Schooner, River Teeth, DIAGRAM, Annulet Poetics, Dream Pop, Terrain, The Southeast Review, and Sixth Finch, among others. She co-hosts the Constellation Reading Series.
Their honors include an Oregon Literary Fellowship, many Pushcart nominations, and a Best of the Net nomination. “The Ghost Road” (Southeast Review) was a Best American Essays notable. In Absolutes We Seek Each Other was a DIAGRAM chapbook contest winner and In Absolutes and Metabolics were finalists for an Oregon Book Award in poetry.
