Claudia Cortese is the author of Wasp Queen (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Award for Emerging Poetry from Southern Illinois University. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in Blackbird, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, and The Offing, among others, and she writes reviews for Muzzle Magazine. The daughter of Neapolitan immigrants, she grew up in Ohio and lives in New Jersey where she teaches at Montclair State University. Cortese was awarded a 2018 OUTstanding faculty ally of the year certificate from the LGBTQ Center at Montclair State. For more about Cortese, visit claudia-cortese.com.
Omotara James is the author of Daughter Tongue, selected by African Poetry Book Fund, in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2018 New Generation African Poets Box Set. She has been award fellowships from Lambda Literary and Cave Canem, and received the Nancy P. Schnader Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Her poetry has appeared in Literary Hub, Poetry Society of America, The Recluse, Nat.Brut, Winter Tangerine, Cosmonauts Avenue and elsewhere, including various anthologies. Omotara is currently an MFA candidate at NYU. She writes, teaches and edits poetry in New York City.
Grey Vild writes, “Grey Vild is a goddamned transsexual.” His work can be found at Them, Vetch, EOAGH, Harriet, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from Rutgers-Newark.