Issue 137 Contributors
Juliet Cook doesn't fit inside an Easy-Bake Oven and rarely cooks. Her poetry has appeared in a peculiar multitude of literary publications. Her two most recently published poetry chapbooks are REVOLTING (Cul-de-sac of Blood, 2024), and Blue Stingers Instead of Wings (Pure Sleeze Press, 2025). She is brimming with black, grey, silver, purple, and dark red explosions. You can find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.
BCV Dieujuste is a Haitian writer residing in New York. When she’s not taking pictures of pretty skies (every sky), she’s obsessing over research on occupation health. Her work is featured in The Hemlock Journal Anthology Volume II, the album emerge “n” see by shemar, St. Joseph’s ACES, and @bcvbaby on instagram.
Rodney Gomez is a poet and urbanist. His books include Arsenal with Praise Song (Orison Books, 2021), recipient of the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for best book of poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and Geographic Tongue (Pleiades Press, 2020), winner of the Pleiades Press Visual Poetry Series. He serves as advisory editor for FlowerSong Press.
Jen Karetnick is the author of 13 collections of poetry, including Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award and semi-finalist for the PSV 2025 North American Book Awards. Forthcoming books include Organ Language (Lit Fox Books, September 2026) and Domiciliary (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, October 2026). Her work has won the Press 53 Poem Summer Challenge, Sweet: Lit Poetry Prize, Tiferet Writing Contest for Poetry, Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition, Hart Crane Memorial Prize, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, among other honors, and received support from more than a dozen residency and grants organizations. Jen holds an MFA in poetry from the University of California, Irvine, and an MFA in fiction from the University of Miami. The co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, she has forthcoming work in Crab Orchard Review, New Ohio Review, North American Review, Plume, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. See jkaretnick.com.
Robin Messing’s poetry manuscript, The Icy Couch, was a finalist for the 2024 Levis Poetry Prize and the 2026 Lit Fox Poetry Award. Her poem, “A Higher Power of My Understanding” won the 2026 Poetry of Courage Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. Her poems were awarded the 2022 Zoetic Poetry Prize and the 2023 Claire Keyes Poetry Prize. Messing is the recipient of fellowships from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Yaddo.
Naz Noktehporkar is a Persian-American poet writing about what the body knows that language arrives too late to name. Her work has been featured in Rattle. Find her on Instagram @naz.noktehporkar.
Stella Rhame is a poet and high school senior from The Woodlands, Texas. Her work has appeared in Lilith’s Diaries and Lone Star College–Montgomery’s SWIRL. She is the head editor of The Woodlands Caledonian and will attend the University of Texas at Austin as a journalism major. She shares her writing online through TikTok (@wordslikehoney) and Instagram (@stella.rhame).
Krista Speicher Sarraf writes poetry and nonfiction. She holds a PhD in Composition and Applied Linguistics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and teaches writing at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Originally from Western Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Morro Bay, California.
Makela Shen is a sixteen-year-old from California. Her work has been recognized nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, NCTE, Blue Marble Review, The WEIGHT Journal, Writers of the Future, and more. You can find her curled up with a good book or falling out of her turns in a dance studio on most days.
Delia Tramontina is originally from Flushing, NY. She received her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University in 2001. For 3.5 years, she co-hosted Poet As Radio, a weekly show on writing and poetry, streaming online on San Francisco Community Radio/KUSF In Exile. In 2018, her chapbook CONSTRAINT was published by Dancing Girl Press. Her work has most recently appeared in Inverted Syntax, Tinfish, and Oversound. Her chapbook RIGHT LEFT is forthcoming from Wind Wagon Press. She has work forthcoming in Invisible City.
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