Qurrat ul ain Raza is a Pakistani writer whose work explores shame, collective amnesia, and matrilineal histories. A Tin House Fellow and recipient of the Melanie Hook Rice Award in Nonfiction, her current project is a memoir tracing Partitioned women, Sufis, and her intimate connection to Lal.

Instagram: @qurratulainrazaabbas
Bluesky: @qabbas.bsky.social

Ashfia Alam is a storyteller with a passion for capturing extraordinary and ordinary moments in her community and her own life. She enjoys all mediums of storytelling—whether through words, photographs, or videography. She often reflects on the intersections of past and present, childhood and adulthood, nostalgia or reality.

She is also the editor-in-chief of Children of 1971, a nonprofit organization she helped launch during the pandemic with a focus on preserving stories from the Bangladesh diaspora.

Ashfia is excited to be a part of the VONA community and to grow as a writer among those who celebrate life through a creative lens.

Instagram: @fleurdeash
Children of 1971: @childrenof1971

Born in Miami, Betty Cruz attributes her curiosity and wonder to her immigrant parents. The Cubanidad they instilled brought to life her love of language and culture. Betty finds refuge in nature, joy with her partner and two rescues, freedom on her bike, and peace through writing and meditation.

shannon garth-rhodes (they/them) is a Black and queer, educator, organizer, and writer living in Detroit. They hold a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of Houston and a Master of Education from Harvard University. They have essays forthcoming in Beyond Ancestors (Fall 2025) and the anthology Black Summers (Spring 2026).

Sabina Letang is a writer and teacher currently living in Oakland, CA.

 Sabina teaches English composition at Merritt College and serves as the co-coordinator of the Puente Program. She has been a teaching fellow of creative writing at the University of San Francisco, a Rooted and Written fellow at the Writer’s Grotto in San Francisco, and was part of the inaugural cohort of the Muses and Melanin professional development fellowship. Sabina is currently writing a memoir that explores her family history of dementia, as well as the practical realities and random hilarity of elder care.

 When Sabina is not writing or preparing for class, she enjoys listening to music, eating comfort food, and going on long walks with her dog.

Lilliana Mendez-Soto, Pharm.D.(she/her) is a Cuban-American novelist, poet, and essayist currently working on her memoir. She is an alum of the Community of Writers Fiction Workshops, Las Dos Brujas Workshop, and a San Francisco Writer’s Grotto Rooted and Written Fellow. Her work has appeared in Peregrine Journal: The Caregiving Issue 2024, and The Writing Coven Anthology: Women’s Stories of Healing and Resistance Vol 1. She practiced clinical pharmacy for over 30 years, and tries to cultivate compassion and empathy with her writing. An essay was published in Bi Women Quarterly and her novel No Perfect Choice is forthcoming in 2026. She can usually be found outside with her pack of hounds.

Marlee Alcina is a multidisciplinary artist with a special focus on writing and performance. Her work explores the dreamscape, love in all its many forms, and radical vulnerability. She attributes a large part of her artistic influence to dancing with her queer chosen family, Audre Lorde, and writing her signature love letters.

Marlee Alcina’s writing strives to subvert the idea that the genre of poetry and lyric must function separately from that of nonfiction. Marlee Alcina also has an MFA in Narrative Nonfiction from the University of Georgia and she is the author of a poetry chapbook titled “Mommy Issues: Love Poems for the Fragile Queer Heart.” Her work has also appeared in Black Joy Unbound: An Anthology published by BLF Press.

Penda Mbaye Z. Smith is a creative writer, educator, and thinker living and breathing in New Orleans. Her work focuses on mother-daughter relationships, coming-of-age narratives, and African diaspora studies. In 2023, she obtained an MFA in Poetry and Creative Writing from Louisiana State University. She has received support from the Cave Canem Foundation, Hedgebrook Writing Residency, Hurston/Wright Writers workshop, and you can find her work at Muzzle Magazine, Root Work Journal, and Obsidian Journal. Aside from writing, she loves hot yoga, roller skating, and twerking her trauma out. She teaches at Loyola University and loves her cat, Prudence.

Keshni Naicker Washington’s (she/her) stories evolve definitions of identity & community. A scatterling of Africa and a lighter of signal fires, she is a Tin House, Roots.Wounds.Words., 3D Space & VONA 2020 alumnus. Publications include Yellow Arrow Journal, Mer Vox Online, Grace & Gravity Journal.

Website: www.KeshniWashington.com
Bluesky: @indigokesh.bsky.social
Instagram: @KNWauthor