Raesin Caine is a Black, queer, and autistic writer from Chicago. When not analyzing data as an epidemiologist, she enjoys solving puzzles from the New York Times Games package and browsing local yarn shops. Her writing has been supported by Lambda Literary, McCormack Writing Center, and Abode Press.

Born in a refugee camp and the first in her family to graduate college, Kim Loan Chu writes to traverse lineage, light, and transformation. She has received support from the McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House) and Corporeal Writing and you can find her writing diaCRITICS, Saigoneer, and KHÔRA. Kim Loan is now breathing life into her memoir-in-progress to explore the relationship between gambling addiction, survival, and play. She loves her plant babies dearly. Kim Loan received merit scholarships from Columbia University (MBA/MIA Dual Degree) and the University of Southern California (BS).

IG: @kimloan531
LinkedIn: kimloanchu
Website: kimloanchu.com

Christina Lee (she/they) is a disabled and chronically ill Korean writer hibernating on Lenape land (Brooklyn) with her partner and senior rescue dog. She has been awarded generous fellowships by the Unexpected Shape Writing Academy and Abode Press, and is an alum of the McCormack Writing Center Workshop. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Turning Leaf Journal, 8ball, WE THE SOIL and more.

Website: christinaylee.net

M.E. Macuaga is a Japanese Bolivian storyteller and puzzle nerd whose diverse work has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Epiphany, HAD, Seventh Wave, Luna Station Quarterly, and elsewhere. A VONA Fellow and recipient of the 2026 Elmaz Abinader Founder’s Scholarship, M.E. has received generous support from residencies and communities including Tin House, Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Storyknife, SmokeLong Quarterly, International Thriller Writers, and the Key West Literary Seminar. Her current projects range from speculative novels to a memoir-in-flash.

Website: curiousstoryprods.com
IG: @memi_writes
linktr.ee/memi_writes

Ednin Martinez is an Afro-Latina writer who has spent her life at the intersection of storytelling and justice. From an early age, she felt called to create change — a drive that led her to a career in public interest and civil rights law, even as she continued nurturing her voice as a writer through workshops like Kweli, VONA Voices, Writing Our Lives, the Kenyon Review, and Tin House. Her essays have appeared in Harvard University’s Palabritas and The Acentos Review, and her piece “El Día de Los Reyes” is forthcoming in Iron Horse Literary Review. Her TEDx talk, “How Systemic Racism Followed Me,” draws on her personal experiences with racism and colorism in the Dominican Republic and beyond. She is currently writing her first memoir.

Sharleen Mondal (she/her) is Associate Professor of English at Ashland University in Ohio, where she teaches writing and literature courses. She is a Bread Loaf and VONA alum and her recent short fiction appears in NELLE and Allium. She is working on a novel as well as a series of nonfiction essays that draw on her experiences as a second-generation Bangladeshi immigrant to the U.S., exploring issues of immigration, intimacy, and identity. Mom to a lively nine-year-old and two sweet rescue cats, she makes her home in Akron, Ohio.

Website: ashland.edu/faculty/sharleen-mondal-phd
bluesky: @sharleenmondal.bsky.social
Twitter: @SharleenMondal
Instagram: @sundarchobi
Facebook: sharleenmondal

Martha Pitts is a writer and Assistant Professor of English at Washington College in Maryland, where she teaches African American literature and creative writing. She is a 2026 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellow in creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in the Ms. blog, Washington City Paper, Mom Egg Review, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Rae Rowe is a queer, non-binary, gender-fluid, Viet-Am, child of a boat person-refugee, writer, movement worker, creator, and future ghost who uses hir work to explore inherited trauma, liminal spaces, auntie whispers, and connect with community. Rae is a 2025 Periplus fellow, a 2025-2026 Loft Mentorship Series fellow in Creative Nonfiction, and a 2026 Ragdale resident. Rae has received support from Studio Luce and McCormack Writing Center. Rae is also the co-founder of The Paper Lantern Project: An AAPI Gender & Reproductive Justice Mutual Aid Fund and Arts Movement. Rae currently lives on unceded, ancestral lands of the Dakota people in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Sarah J. Woo (she/her) is a Korean American writer living in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and eighteen fruit trees. Her work has appeared in The Penn Review and North American Review's Open Space, and she writes about creativity and grief on her Substack, Middle Place. A former attorney with degrees from Yale and UCLA, she has participated in workshops with VONA and the McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House).

Substack: sarahjwoo.substack.com/profile/posts
IG: @sarah_j_woo