Founder and Executive Director at Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts; Founding Editor & Consulting Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Stirring: A Literary Collection; President of the Board of Directors

Erin Elizabeth Smith (she/her) is the Executive Director of Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts and a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently DOWN (SFASU 2020), and the founder of the Best of the Net Anthology. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American, among others. Smith is a Teaching Professor in the English Department at the University of Tennessee.

Managing Editor of Sundress Publications; Treasurer of the Board of Directors; Managing Editor of Doubleback Review and The Wardrobe

Staff Director at Sundress Publications

Kanika Lawton is a writer, editor, film scholar, and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute and the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. Their research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and they have previously received support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Sawyer Seminars and the Queer and Trans Research Lab. They are also the recipient of the David Rayside Graduate Award and the Atom Egoyan Cinema Studies Scholarship. Their scholarly work has been published in Spectator and Media Fields. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee in poetry, they have received fellowships from Pink Door, BOAAT Writer’s Retreat, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts and have been published in Vagabond City Literary Journal, Longleaf Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Cosmonauts Avenue, and Parentheses Journal, among others. They are the author of four micro-chapbooks, most recently Theories on Wreckage (Ghost City Press, 2020). Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, they now live in Toronto.

Chapbook Series Editor at Sundress Publications

Ashley Elizabeth (she/her) is a queer Pushcart-nominated writer and educator. Her poems and essays have appeared in or are forthcoming from Honey Lit, SWWIM, Stanchion, Hellebore, and West Trestle Review, among others. Ashley’s first chapbook collection, you were supposed to be a friend, is available from Nightingale & Sparrow, while her sophomore collection, black has every right to be angry, is forthcoming from Alternating Current Press. When Ashley isn’t teaching, editing, or working as a chapbook editor for Sundress Publications, she habitually posts on Twitter and Instagram (@ae_thepoet). She lives with her partner and their cats in Baltimore, MD. Ashley is Black before she is anything else.

Acquisitions Editor at Sundress Publications; Associate Poetry Editor at Sundress Publications

Tierney Bailey is a loudmouth, a Libra, a lover of science fiction and poetry, and a dice-collecting gremlin. Currently, Tierney is the Acquisitions Editor and an Associate Poetry Editor with Sundress Publications, a copyeditor at Strange Horizons,, slush reader for PodCastle, Publishing Assistant with Escape Artists Inc., and a freelancer. She has earned a Masters Degree in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College. Tierney is most easily found screaming into the void on Twitter as @ergotierney.

Marketing Director at Sundress Publications; Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications; Poetry Editor of Craft Chaps; Managing Editor of Doubleback Books

Danielle Hanson strives to create and facilitate wonder. She is author of Fraying Edge of Sky, winner of the Codhill Press Poetry Prize, and Ambushing Water, Finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year Award. Her poetry was the basis for a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts. She is Marketing Director for Sundress Publications, and serves on their Editorial Board. She curated a poet/artist collaboration show Alloy at Arts Beacon in Atlanta, where she was Poet-in-Residence. Previously, she has also been Writer-in-Residence for Georgia Writers, Poetry Editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Poetry Editor for Doubleback Books. Her work has appeared in over 100 journals. She teaches poetry at the University of California, Irvine. More at daniellejhanson.com.

Associate Prose Editor at Sundress Publications

Samantha Edmonds is the author of the chapbooks Pretty to Think So (Selcouth Station Press, 2019) and The Space Poet (forthcoming from Split Lip Press). Her fiction and nonfiction appears or is forthcoming in such journals as The Rumpus, Ninth Letter, Mississippi Review, Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, among others. She has formerly served as the Fiction Editor for Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts and as the Community Outreach Director for Sundress Academy for the Arts; currently, she works as the Assitant Fiction Editor for Sundress Publications and the Fiction Editor for Doubleback Review. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA from the University of Tennessee. Originally from Ohio, she now lives in Columbia, MO, where she’s a PhD candidate in Fiction at the University of Missouri.

Associate Poetry Editor at Sundress Publications

Sherrel McLafferty is a first-year doctoral student with Rhetoric and Writing Studies at Bowling Green State University, where she also received her BFA and MFA in Poetry. Her poems have been featured in Requited Journal, Merrimack Review, ArLiJo, and Notre Dame Review. She is currently a poetry editor for Pidgeonholes, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, and Split Lip Magazine.

Vice President of the Board of Directors; Associate Editor at Sundress Publications; Nonfiction Editor of Craft Chaps

Rita Mookerjee is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Worcester State University. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is the winner of the 2023 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award and the author of False Offering (JackLeg Press). A co-founder of Honey Literary, she serves as the Poetry Editor of Split Lip Magazine. Her poems can be found in CALYX, Copper Nickel, Passages North, Poet Lore, and the Offing.

Member of the Board of Directors; Associate Poetry Editor at Sundress Publications; Creative Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts

Alexa White is a mixed-race, neurodivergent writer and graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she earned her BA in creative writing and studio art. While attending, she won the 2022 Bain-Swiggett prize for traditional poetry forms and her poetry and art has appeared in The Phoenix, the school’s literary and arts magazine. Alexa lives in Knoxville, her semi-hometown, and is the Grants Manager at Sundress Academy for the Arts. She takes delight in backroads, quarries, and the last few seconds of sunset and redefines her bedtime nightly.

Associate Poetry Editor at Sundress Publications

By all accounts Ada Wofford is a witch, that’s according to an NPR poll surveying their neighbors (it was never aired due to runtime). They’ve earned advanced degrees in Literature and Library Magic from Rochester and Wisconsin respectively, though they refuse to rest on such pedestrian laurels. They catalog rare books and the such at Between the Covers Rare Books; they are an associate poetry editor at Sundress Publications and the non-fiction editor at Stirring: A Literary Collection. Their writing has appeared in several places such as Autostraddle, The Blue Nib, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and their chapbook, I Remember Learning How to Dive, was published in 2020, a selection of which earned them a Pushcart Prize nomination. Lastly, some people say that they’re the one who actually wrote the YA novel Loops of Willow available at Losgann Press. When away from their books, Ada can be found divining bottle caps and tending to their paper garden.

Associate Prose Editor at Sundress Publications

Assistant Chapbook Editor

Brendon Blair is an Appalachia-borne writer born and bred on trailer living on warm Mexican cuisine. Having a dual major in Psychology and English from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Brendon enjoys intertwining the experiences of queer and fostered people in poetry and prose. They also hold an administrative assistantship at the Office of Science and Technology Information in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. When not writing or working, Brendon enjoys playing strategy games, and dreams of owning a cat to call Eggs Benedict.

Assistant Acquisitions Editor

Assistant Staff Director at Sundress Publications; Member of Reader Board

Whitney Cooper holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University, where they served as editor-in-chief of Jelly Bucket, the graduate literary journal run by the university. They also work as a reader for Atlanta Review. A clerical error was made while earning their bachelor’s degree, and they have been passionate about poetry ever since. Their poetry appears in Glassworks Magazine, Stillpoint Literary Magazine, Calliope, Right Hand Pointing, and SHARK REEF. They live in Metro Atlanta with their partner, cat, and miniature schnauzer mix.

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications; Assistant Editor at Best of the Net

Lee Anderson is a trans writer with roots in the American -west and an MFA from Northern Arizona University. Their Pushcart-nominated work can be found in Brevity, Salt Hill Journal, The Rumpus, Gertrude, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. Currently, they are the Art & Floating Editor for Best of the Net, Journal Editor for Half Mystic Journal, and a reader for Sundress Publications, and was the inaugural nonfiction writer of the Mountain Words Writer-in-Residence program. You can find them on Instagram @lee.a.writes, at leemarlo.com, or living in Chicago with their partner Emily and a cat named Pretzel.

Member of the Board of Directors; Co-Coordinator of Poets in Pajamas

Member of the Board of Directors

Member of the Board of Directors; Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications; Editor-in-Chief of beestung

Sarah Clark is a mad crip genderfuck two-spirit enrolled Nanticoke editor, writer, and cultural consultant. They are Editor-in-Chief of beestung, Editor-in-Chief and Poetry Editor at ANMLY, Editor-in-Chief at ALOCASIA: a journal of queer plant-based writing, Co-Editor of The Queer Movement Anthology and the Bettering American Poetry series, a former reader at The Atlas Review, and a current Board member and Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications. They have edited folios for publications including the GLITTERBRAIN folio and a folio on Indigenous & Decolonial Futures & Futurisms at ANMLY, folios on Sound Art, “Desire & Interaction,” and a collection of global Indigenous art and literature, First Peoples, Plural at Drunken Boat. They were co-editor of the folio at Apogee Journal, #NoDAPL #Still Here folio, and their series WE OUTLAST EMPIRE and Place[meant]. Sarah is a former Executive Board member at VIDA and former Editor-in-Chief of VIDA Review, where they curated a series of essays by writers outside of the binary, Body of a Poem and the interview series, Voices of Bettering American Poetry. Sarah freelances, and has worked with a number of literary and arts publications and organizations, including the Best of the Net anthology, contemptorary, Curious Specimens, #PoetsResist at Glass Poetry, Apogee Journal, Blackbird, the Paris Review, and elsewhere.

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications; Co-Editor-in-Chief of Best of the Net; Member of the Board of Directors

Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty poetry collections, most recently Tongues Out in the Garden of Spectacle (Newcomer Press, 2023).  He is the recipient of a Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal.  He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry.  He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications

Dr. Stevie Edwards is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University and Poetry Editor of The South Carolina Review. Stevie’s poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. They are the author of Quiet Armor (Northwestern University Press, 2023), Sadness Workshop (Button Poetry, 2018), Humanly (Small Doggies Press, 2015), and Good Grief (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). They hold a PhD from the University of North Texas and an MFA from Cornell University. Originally a Michigander, they now live in South Carolina with their spouse and a small herd of rescue pitbulls.

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications

Kathleen Gullion is a writer whose work has appeared in The Boiler, X-R-A-Y Magazine, and Coachella Review, and onstage at various theaters in Chicago. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is based in Houston, where she works in medical simulation.

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications

Ashley Hajimirsadeghi is an Iranian American multimedia artist, journalist, and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is the recipient of awards and support from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, the Fulbright Program, U.S. State Department, University of Arizona, and Brooklyn Poets. Her creative poems, essays, and fiction have appeared in Passages North, Salt Hill, Salamander, and The Journal, among others. She is the author of the chapbooks cartography of trauma (dancing girl press) and cinephile (Ghost City Press). Previously, she was a film & television critic at MovieWeb. Find her at www.ashleyhajimirsadeghi.com / Instagram: @nassarine

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications

Angel Leyba is a writer and creative from South Bay San Diego living in Oakland. They are the Social Media Director at Honey Literary and a former Managing Editor at Berkeley Poetry Review. Their words have appeared or are forthcoming in Dialogist, Mercury Firs, Dadakuku, The B’k, Honey Literary, Perhappened Mag, and elsewhere. Find them on instagram @_slutstation2 or twitter @xspacebar

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications

Brynn Martin is a Kansas native living in Knoxville, where she received her MFA in poetry from the University of Tennessee. She co-hosts Shitty First Drafts, a podcast made for and by writers. Her poetry has appeared in Contrary Magazine, Yes, Poetry, Rogue Agent, and Crab Orchard Review.

Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications

Elisha Mykelti (she/her/hers) is dedicated to musical, dialectical, and innovative poetry that honors time and place, especially the South. Elisha is a 2nd-grade associate teacher and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee. She has been published in Berkeley Poetry Review (Issue 51), and she has hosted “Writin’ Rhythm – A Writers Workshop” for Sundress Publications. She has also been a guest speaker for two poetry writing courses at the University of Tennessee.

Assistant Poetry Editor at Sundress Publications

Saba Syed Razvi is the author of the collections In the Crocodile Gardens and heliophobia, as well as the chapbooks Limerence & Lux, Of the Divining and the Dead, and Beside the Muezzin’s Call & Beyond the Harem’s Veil. Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Offending Adam, Diner, TheTHE Poetry Blog’s Infoxicated Corner, The Homestead Review, NonBinary Review, 10×3 plus, 13th Warrior Review, The Arbor Vitae Review, and Arsenic Lobster, and others, as well as in anthologies such as Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace (forthcoming), Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War Faith and Sexuality, The Loudest Voice Anthology, The Liddell Book of Poetry, Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity, The Rhysling Anthology, and Dreamspinning. Her works have been nominated for the 2017 Elgin Award, the Bettering American Poetry Awards, The Best of the Net Award, and the Rhysling Award, have appeared on the 2018 Stoker Award’s preliminary ballot and have received a 2015 Independent Best American Poetry Award. She earned her PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Southern California in 2012. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Houston in Victoria, TX, where in addition to working on scholarly research on interfaces between science and contemporary poetry, she is researching Sufi poetry in translation, writing new poems and fiction, and developing community based-programs to highlight poetry and contemporary literature in the Crossroads region of Texas.

Member of the Reader Board

Maya Chandrakasan is a senior at Tufts University studying English and Race, Colonialism and Diaspora studies with a concentration in anti-colonial literatures. She is also an editor of Future Histories literary magazine at Tufts. In her free time she enjoys meditation, ceramics, learning languages, and hanging out with her cat Tatiana.

Member of the Reader Board

Beth Couture is the Director of the Counseling Center at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Her clinical interests include grief and loss, LGBTQIA+ concerns, neurodivergence, existential issues, transitions, and creative concerns. Before working at UArts, she worked in community mental health and with adults with autism. Beth is also a fiction writer. Her novella Women Born with Fur was published by Jaded Ibis Press in 2014, and she has stories in Gargoyle, Drunken Boat, The Yalobusha Review, and other print and online journals. She is currently under supervision for her PTR (Poetry Therapy Registration).

Assistant Executive Director at the Sundress Academy for the Arts; Member of the Reader Board; Assistant Editor at Best of the Net

Sierra Farrare is a short fiction writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to a limited self-published run of her collection, Friday Night Hand Grenade, you can also find her work featured in Pretty Owl Poetry and University of Baltimore’s Welter. You can find her online at sierrafarrare.com.

Member of the Reader Board

Adriana Rambay Fernández is a writer, poet, and artist currently living in Virginia. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars where she was a recipient of the MFA Fiction Prize. She was also a Writers of Immigration and Diaspora Fellow for Jack Jones Literary Arts. Her writing has appeared in the American Literary Review, Hennepin Review, Four Way Review, and elsewhere. Born in New Jersey to Dominican immigrants, her writing explores the nature of absence, loss, and intergenerational wounds. Adriana is currently at work on a collection of short stories and a collection of poetry.

Member of the Reader Board

Em Fullenwider (she/they) is a queer writer/poet born and raised in Texas who received an MFA in poetry from Texas State University. You can find her work in Reverie Magazine. She is currently working on a full-length poetry collection. You can catch them making coffee and crafts or listening to good tunes in their free time.

Member of the Reader Board

Ghazal Faridi Haftkhani (she/they) is a Queer Iranian poet, activist for the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, and psychology student. Her work–inspired by her studies, Persian culture, and absurdism–has appeared in multiple publications such as  University of Louisville’s Miracle Monocle Review and Beyond Words Literary Magazine‘s Once in a Lifetime anthology. She was a Markham Talent’s acting category finalist and has been a featured reader at events all across Toronto. They also founded a new literary series called ‘poe-a-tea’ and an upcoming initiative named Baaft to provide a platform for suppressed Iranian artists. You can find her decomposing at Toronto Metropolitan University’s library or posting and lurking on Instagram: @cherry_vvine.

Member of the Reader Board

Kyla-Yến Huỳnh Giffin (they/them) is a queer and trans, biracial, Vietnamese American diaspora writer whose work revolves around themes of dreaming, fantasizing, and futurizing, and focuses on topics of diaspora, transness, ecology, colonialism, capitalism, and intergenerational histories. Originally from the Bay Area, CA, they now live in Cambridge, MA. Kyla-Yến’s work has appeared in The Offing, GASHER Journal, For Page & Screen Magazine, Beyond Queer Words, and more. They are a Fiction Reader for Okay Donkey and have been awarded residencies and/or fellowships from the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), Collections of Transience, The Hundredth Hill, and Abode Press. You can visit Kyla-Yến’s author page at www.kylayenhuynhgiffin.com, and find them on Instagram @yenshrine.

Member of the Reader Board

Institutional support can be invaluable and come at a cost; Anis Gisele’s writing has earned support from Row House Publishing/Generous Press, VONA/Voices, Planned Parenthood, Everyday Feminism, WA State Arts Commission, King County’s Equity and Social Justice Initiative, Seattle Public Library, 4Culture, Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Hugo House. They are disliked, disbelieved, and less and less afraid.

Member of the Reader Board; Assistant Editor at Best of the Net

Jen Gayda Gupta is a poet, educator, and wanderer who spent the last two years traveling across the country in a tiny camper with her spouse and their dog. She recently traded in her nomadic life for a home without wheels in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jen’s work has been published in Up the Staircase, Rattle, Whale Road Review, Ballast, The Shore and others. She is an assistant editor at Best of the Net, and works as a reader for Sundress Publications and The Maine Review. You can find her in the woods or @jengaydagupta and jengaydagupta.com.

Member of the Reader Board

Member of the Reader Board

Member of the Reader Board

Member of the Reader Board

Member of the Reader Board

Sienna Morgan is a literary artist born, living, and writing in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Currently a Reader Board Member for Sundress Publications, she is a 2025 Periplus Fellow. She was an emerging poet mentee in The North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2024 Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series. She is a 2022-23 recipient of a Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge, Artist Support Grant. She is the author of the poetry chapbook, Palmade Poiēmas: For This Is My Handiwork (self-published, 2023). She was the 2022 Sims Library of Poetry Bookmark Design Contest Winner. In 2021, she served as a guest judge for the Colorism Healing Writing Contest. Her poems, short stories, and essays are published or are planned to be published by Colorism Healing, The Black Light Project, Black Oak Society Magazine, Midnight & Indigo, The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture & Politics, The North Carolina Poetry Society, and more.

Member of the Reader Board

Dorie Palmer (they/them) is a lifelong reader and has been editing since 2015 with a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in English Literature and Philosophy. They were born and raised in Wisconsin and currently live in the Washington DC area. In their free time, Dorie loves to analyze obscure media and play Sudoku.

Member of the Reader Board

Amanda Mae Perez (she/her) is a proud Californian who earned her B.A. in Communication from the University of Southern California, with a focus on popular culture and health communication. While in college, she was involved with the USC Helenes, served on the Troy Philippines executive board, and worked as a Community Health Organizer. Currently, Amanda works as a tutor while also nourishing her career aspirations to work with books in any capacity. Outside of reading, she can be found at the movie theater or collecting memorabilia for her scrapbooks and journals.

Member of the Reader Board

Neha Peri holds a BA in English from Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, she also tutored for the Rutgers Writing Program and completed internships with the Rutgers English Department and the University of Mississippi Press. Her work has been featured in The Anthologist. Currently, she works in academic publishing. In her spare time, she enjoys running, writing, concert-going, reading, and photography.

Member of the Reader Board

Binx River Perino is a genderqueer poet from Texas with an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. A participant in the Sundress Academy for the Arts’ 2024 Trans/Nonbinary Writers Retreat, their work has appeared in Tyger Quarterly, Hooligan, Door is a Jar, Cold Mountain Review, and elsewhere. Based in Chicago, they are a staff writer for Third Coast Review.

Member of the Reader Board; Assistant Editor at Best of the Net

Robin LaMer Rahija is originally from Kansas City but has lived in Kentucky for over a decade. She received her MFA from the University of Kentucky, where she is currently the Department Manager Associate in the Department of English. In 2010, she co-founded and edited Rabbit Catastrophe Press, a handbound, feminist, book arts micropress, which closed in 2020. In 2015, she co-founded Workhorse Writers Collective, a publishing and education platform for poets outside of academia. Her poems have appeared in Puerto Del Sol, FENCE, Guernica, and elsewhere. Inside Out Egg, her first full-length book, will be published by Variant Lit in 2024.

Member of the Reader Board

Member of the Reader Board

Member of the Reader Board

Writer in Residence, Sundress Academy for the Arts

Staff Director, Sundress Academy for the Arts

Erin Cantrell is a senior at the University of Tennessee, finishing up her BA in Creative Writing. She will begin attending the University of Tennessee College of Law in the fall. When she is not studying, you can find her on the volleyball court coaching middle school and high school girls, who keep her laughing and on her toes. She is also a poetry enthusiast, an avid pickleball player, and a devoted fan of bad reality TV.

Literary Arts Director, Sundress Academy for the Arts

Denise R. Ervin is a creative writer hewn from the streets, classrooms, and boardrooms of Detroit. She has spent two decades as a teaching artist, performing poetry around the country, and leading workshops for the likes of Midnight & Indigo and University of Michigan. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Vagabond City Lit, Harbinger Asylum, Third Wednesday Magazine, and others. She is a Graduate Fellow for The Watering Hole and a semifinalist for America’s Next Great Author. When she’s not serving as a Program Manager for a local youth writing organization, Denise is working on several novel projects and her first full-length poetry manuscript, tentatively titled Palimpsest.

Development Director, Sundress Academy for the Arts

Bleah Patterson is a queer, southern poet from Texas. Much of her work explores the contention between identity and home and has been featured or is forthcoming in various journals including Electric Literature, Pinch, Grist, The Laurel Review, Phoebe Literature, The Rumpus, and Taco Bell Quarterly.

Development Director, Sundress Academy for the Arts

Lead Grant Writer, Sundress Academy for the Arts

Caroline Webster lives and works in Raleigh, NC. She is a graduate of Davidson College, where she earned a BA in English and Classical Studies and wrote a lot of poems about slugs. She likes to sing and watch squirrels from her back porch.

Raised in Oak Ridge, TN, Joseph Minarick received his Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Excelsior College in Albany, New York. He enlisted in the Army in 1999 and commissioned as an Armor Officer in 2004. He is currently the Plans Officer for the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, headquartered in Knoxville. Minarick’s interests in Appalachian history and sustainable development led him to co-found Firefly Farms with Dr. Erin Elizabeth Smith in 2012.

Co-Editor in Cheif, Best of the Net Anthology

Managing Editor, Best of the Net Anthology

Poetry Coordinator, Best of the Net Anthology

Sarah A. Chavez, a mestiza born and raised in the California Central Valley, is the author of the poetry collections, Hands That Break & Scar (Sundress Publications, 2017) and All Day, Talking (dancing girl press, 2014). Her most recent work can be found or is forthcoming in Xicanx: Mexican American Writers of the 21st Century, IDK Magazine, and Five:2:One #thesideshow. Her new poetry project, Halfbreed Helene Navigates the Whole received a 2019-2020 Tacoma Artists Initiative Award. She recently joined the faculty at the University of Washington Tacoma where she teaches creative writing and Latinx/Chicanx-focused courses. A proud member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, Chavez serves as the poetry coordinator for Best of the Net Anthology and is currently in the market for her first multispeed bicycle.

Fiction Coordinator, Best of the Net Anthology

Assistant Fiction Coordinator, Best of the Net Anthology

Heather Leigh (they/them) is a queer, disabled, Chicago-based professor, editor, and writer. They have worked with the editing team of Uncanny Magazine, as a fiction and poetry editor for Curbside Splendor, and as managing editor of Lacerta Publications. Their most recent publication, “Netflicks and Chill,” was published in CultureCult’s anthology, Bloodlet. Their writing has been greatly influenced by working with students from marginalized backgrounds throughout Northern Illinois, and currently teach using the theme of analyzing how diverse identities are represented in American culture and entertainment. Their rescue cats strongly approve of her genre-mashup critiques of late-stage capitalism and the harm it is doing to humans living in America and elsewhere.

Nonfiction Coordinator, Best of the Net Anthology

Descended from ocean dwellers, Ching-In Chen is a genderqueer Chinese American writer, community organizer and teacher. They are author of The Heart’s Traffic: a novel in poems (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press, 2009) and recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry) as well as chapbooks to make black paper sing (speCt! Books) and Kundiman for Kin :: Information Retrieval for Monsters (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, Leslie Scalapino Finalist). Chen is co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities (South End Press, 1st edition; AK Press, 2nd edition) and currently a core member of the Massage Parlor Outreach Project as well as a Kelsey Street Press collective member. They have received fellowships from Kundiman, Lambda, Watering Hole, Can Serrat, Imagining America, Jack Straw Cultural Center and the Intercultural Leadership Institute as well as the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers. They are currently collaborating with Cassie Mira and others on Breathing in a Time of Disaster, a performance, installation and speculative writing project exploring breath through meditation, health and environmental justice. They teach in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and the MFA program in Creative Writing and Poetics at University of Washington Bothell and serve as Writer in Residence at Hugo House.

Visual Arts Coordinator, Best of the Net Anthology

Laura Page lives and works in Eugene OR. She studied English and Writing at Southern Oregon University and is the author of Dove, Coyote, (Ghost Peach Press, 2020). Laura has worked as a literary editor, a poet, and in more recent years, an artist, visually collaborating with writers and small presses in the poetry community.

Managing Editor, Craft Chaps

Hannah Olsson holds a double BA in Cinema and Creative Writing English from the University of Iowa. During her time in Iowa, Hannah was the president of The Translate Iowa Project, an organization devoted to publishing translated poetry, drama, and prose. Her work, both in English and Swedish, has been featured in boundless, earthwords magazine, InkLit Mag, and the University of Iowa’s Ten-Minute Play Festival, among others. Hannah enjoys works that tell stories of ordinary, distorted wonders.

Fiction Editor, Craft Chaps

Sohini Basak is a freelance editor and writer from India, and currently the poetry editor at Words Without Borders. Her first poetry collection We Live in the Newness of Small Differences was awarded the inaugural International Beverly Manuscript Prize and published in 2018. She studied literature and creative writing at the universities of Delhi, Warwick, and East Anglia, where she received the 2015 Malcolm Bradbury Grant for Poetry. Other honours include a Toto Funds the Arts writing award (2017) and a Vijay Nambisan Sangam House fellowship (2022).

Prose Editor, Doubleback Books

Rebecca Youé is a professional editor from Worcestershire, England. She has a degree in English and American Literature from Keele University and has worked in the publishing industry since graduating in 2012. In 2020 she was a reader for the Highland Book Prize. She is working on her first novel in her spare time.

Poetry Editor, Doubleback Books

Bethany Milholland resides in Southern Indiana and is a research analyst assistant at global law firm. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Evansville and loves thrift shopping and petting cats.

Assistant Prose Editor, Doubleback Books

Bayleigh Kasper recently graduated from the University of Evansville with a creative writing degree, where she was the co-Editor-in-Chief of The Evansville Review. She dreams of owning a tiny home in her native Colorado where she can adopt cats, make music, write, and eat very judge-worth amounts of chocolate without actually being judged.

Assistant Editor-at-Large at Doubleback Books

Robin Gow is a trans queer poet and Young Adult author from rural Pennsylvania. Gow earned their MFA from Adelphi University where they also teach. Gow runs the trans & queer reading series Gender Reveal Party and serves as a Managing Editor at MAYDAY magazine and The Nasiona. They served for four years as the production editor of the Lantern literary magazine. Also working to produce several zines, Gow loves DIY publishing. Gow is also the author of the chapbook Honeysuckle by Finishing Line Press and the collection Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy by Tolsun Books. Their first collection of essays, Blue Blood, is forthcoming spring 2021 with Nasiona Publishing House, and their first Young Adult novel, A Million Quiet Revolutions, is forthcoming Winter 2022 with FSG Books for Young Readers. Their chapbooks have been finalists for competitions hosted by New Delta Review, Glass Poetry, Black Lawerence Press, Digging Press, and Thirty-West Publishing House. Their poetry has recently been recognized by Best New Poets, Brooklyn Poets, Brain Mill Press, and Fearsome Creatures.

Coordinator, Poets in Pajamas

Aslan Gossett is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of North Carolina–Wilmington. They serve as poetry editor for Ecotone and are the coordinator for Sundress Publication’s Poets in Pajamas Reading Series. As well as being a Tennessee native, Aslan is a lifelong lover of coffee, meditation, and corduroy.

Co-Coordinator, Poets in Pajamas

thandiwe adofo is a writer/director and recent graduate of Howard University. thandiwe is spending Fall 2024 to Spring 2025 attending six international artist residencies, including Momentum Berlin and Chateau d’Orquevaux. Their publications include The Amistad, The Bellingham Review, The Woven Tale Press, and more. thandiwe is also a 2025-2026 CUNY Writers’ Institute Fellow. They explore their passion for storytelling through visual narratives and creative writing while integrating the intersectionality of womanhood and blackness, tragedy, and trauma, overall examining the black interior

Social Media Manager

Sundress Reads Editor

Blog Contributor for We Call Upon the Author to Explain

Marah Hoffman grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania. Since graduating with her bachelors in English and creative writing in 2022, she has lived in Tennessee, Michigan, and now North Carolina. She is an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at University of North Carolina Wilmington and the Creative Director of Sundress Academy for the Arts. She enjoys genre fluidity, whimsicality, cats, lattes, distance running, travel, and adding to her personal lexicon. Her list of favorite words grows every week.

Lead Designer at Sundress Publications

Kristen Camille Ton is an artist and graphic designer with five years of experience as a professional designer in the world of small business. She holds a double BA in Literature and Creative Writing with minors in Graphic Design and Anthropology. In 2021, Kristen uprooted from Chattanooga, Tennessee and moved to Japan. She lives on the lush southern island of Kyushu, where she enjoys cycling through fields of rice paddies and painting her surroundings.

Graphic Designer at Sundress Publications

Lori Tennant is a poet pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Georgia College and State University. Her undergraduate degree is in graphic design and that merges with her poetry to become Crankies. She is prone to chasing butterflies, storytelling, and pretending to be a mermaid. Nature and myth play a large role in her work.

Managing Editor of Stirring: A Literary Collection

Luci Brown is an Appalachian highlander currently pursuing nonprofit work in the bourbon barrel hills of Louisville, Kentucky. Her chapbook, Home Brew, was published in 2015, and her work has appeared in Moon City Review, Rogue Agent, Menacing Hedge, and others. She is the managing and poetry editor for Stirring as well as a reader for Best of the Net. She lives with her tall partner, particular child, and strange dogs.

Editor of Rogue Agent

Jill Khoury (she/her) is a disabled poet. She is a Western Pennsylvania Writing Project fellow and has taught poetry in high school, university, and enrichment settings. She holds an MFA from The Ohio State University and edits Rogue Agent, a journal of embodied poetry and art. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Copper Nickel, CALYX, diode, and The Shore. Winner of the Gatewood Prize from Switchback Books, her second full-length collection earthwork is forthcoming in 2024. Connect with her at jillkhoury.com.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Academy for the Arts

Katherine Carroll is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature. She has a particularly deep appreciation for Irish literature and works that involve whimsical, lyrical, and natural aspects. She enjoys going for walks, cooking new recipes, and watching anything related to beauty and skincare.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Noor Chang is a writer and aspiring editor with a rich, multicultural background. Half-Syrian and half-Korean, she spent most of her life in the Middle East, specifically Syria, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, to pursue higher education. She is a student at the University of Tennessee, double majoring in English Literature and Jazz Studies. Noor’s diverse upbringing has shaped her perspective and fueled her passion for storytelling, leading her to explore a variety of creative avenues, including writing, music, and cultural exploration. An avid pianist, Noor enjoys playing music with friends and immersing herself in different genres. Her love for travel allows her to experience new cultures and she hopes to continue traveling for the rest of her life. In her free time, Noor is often found with a good book, making music, or working out to stay active and grounded.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Aylli Cortez (he/they) is a transmasc Filipino poet and creative writing graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, where he received a DALISAYAN Award in the Arts for Poetry in 2024. His work has appeared in VERDANT Journal, en*gendered lit, Bullshit Lit, HAD, and like a field, among others. When he isn’t attending art exhibits or small press and DIY publishing events around Metro Manila, he reads poetry for ANMLY and looks at pictures of horses. Find him on Bluesky and Instagram @1159cowboy or visit his website.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Isabeau J. Belisle Dempsey (they/them) is a proud Chicagoan, Belizean, Lesbian, and Capricorn. They hold a BA in International Studies and Spanish and are currently earning an MA in English Literature and Publishing, and they hope to eventually put their obsession with commas to good use as an in-house editor. History book co-author, amateur poet, freelance copyeditor, and generally just along for the ride, you can find Isabeau in your local bookstore surreptitiously fixing the shelves—they were once a bookseller and never quite broke the habit.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Natalie Gardner is a trans writer hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee. She is currently pursuing a BA in English with a minor in philosophy from the University of Tennessee. She loves transgressive fiction, hiking, and schlocky, B-tier horror movies. When she isn’t working, you can find her haunting the coffee shops of Fort Sanders and DIY shows across East Tennessee. Her work in the field of linguistics can be found in Feedback Review in Second Language.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Farrah Liu is the president at the Cinema Studies Student Union (CINSSU) and is completing her Honours BA at the University of Toronto, specializing in cinema studies. She is also a Toronto-based cultural critic who has recently published in the Toronto Star.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Academy for the Arts

Rachel Mekdeci (she/her) is a foul-mouthed, mixed-race, Caribbean-immigrant Taurus with a bleeding heart passionate for the arts. As an undergraduate Literature student at the University of Tennessee, she takes every opportunity to write about queer literature and intersectional feminism. Her number one mission in life is to further the reach of the arts and maybe own a house?

Editorial Intern at Doubleback Books

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Annabel Phoel is a junior studying English and Government/International Relations between William & Mary and the University of St Andrews, where she currently resides. She is a staff writer on St Andrews’ Not Applicable Magazine and helps on their editorial board. When not writing or studying, Annabel is rowing on various lochs in Scotland. You can check out some of her writing at https://xoxoirisalder.substack.com/.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Academy for the Arts

Meg Pinkston is a maker of crafts, stories, and foods from East Tennessee, her creations all heavily influenced by her Appalachian roots. She is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee pursuing a degree in English with a minor in Political Science. In her free time, Meg can be found scuba diving and writing essays exploring the complexities of the American South.

Editorial Intern at Sundress Publications

Jahmayla Pointer is a three-time National Goofing Around Award winner and specializes in consuming gothic literature and horror films. Jahmayla’s playful and observant nature, and deep love of horror, magic, and literary thrills led her to pursue an English and Creative Writing degree four years ago. She began taking creative writing workshops in her senior year of high school and fell in love with working with others on various projects. She’s also done mentee and beta reading work for authors local to Cincinnati, most notably Victor Velez, author of a Triduum of All Hallows, during her sophomore and junior years at Southern New Hampshire University. Jahmayla was an ACES member briefly, through which she received several beneficial developmental opportunities, including courses through the Poynter Institute. During her downtime, she likes to spend time with friends and family, dance, write short stories, and, of course, read in copious amounts. Something that means a lot to Jahmayla is grassroots work and helping people directly through mutual aid and acts of service. She puts this passion into action by working with a group of good friends to develop education tools and encourage high literacy in her local neighborhoods.