Christopher McCormick (he/him) was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, where he completed his undergraduate degree in English with a French Minor. In recent years, he has completed an honors thesis on Philip Levine and produced a chapbook of his poetry through UT’s typography lab while working part-time at the Toledo Museum of Art. His writing concerns life in the Rust Belt, love, and hope in a fallen world. His work has appeared in The Mill and Working Artist Collective. When not reading or writing, Christopher enjoys cooking for his friends and taking long walks in nature. 

Tyler Michael Jacobs is the author of Building Brownville (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2022). His words have appeared in Plainsongs, Pidgeonholes, Sierra Nevada Review, Thin Air Magazine, White Wall Review, Funicular Magazine, and elsewhere. His poems have also been featured on Nebraska Public Media’s Friday LIVE! He is a second-year poetry MFA candidate at Bowling Green State University where he co-manages the Mid-American Review Blog.

Lucas Clark is MFA poetry candidate at Bowling Green State University. His hometown is a small farming community in eastern Ohio. He received his undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing from Malone University of Canton. His poetry is mostly concerned with meditating in the experience of nature and relishing the love of close friendships. You can probably find him out in the woods walking, rain or shine. 

Mary Simmons is a first year MFA poetry student from Cleveland, Ohio. She earned her BA in creative writing from Baldwin Wallace University with a minor in gender studies. While at BW, she served all four years on the staff of the undergraduate literary journal The Mill, including a two-year run as editor. In her free time, Mary enjoys playing lore-heavy characters in D&D, writing serialized sci-fi novels, singing, cosplaying, traveling, and painting acrylic landscapes.

Michael J Morris is a first year MFA student in poetry at Bowling Green State University. He studied Music Performance and English at SUNY Fredonia. While studying classical guitar, he fell equally in love with writing. His work has appeared in the campus literary journal The Trident. His interests include improvisational music, magic realism, the macabre, film noir, the esoteric, metaphysics and nature writing.

Gen Greer is a Creative Writing MFA student in Fiction. She holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Scripps College in Claremont, California. Her work has appeared in a handful of online publications and her short story "Fall of the Gladiator" was a top finalist for The Chestnut Review's Stubborn Writer's Contest. She is deeply interested in reclaiming the narratives of women whose life stories were stolen from them by their abusers such as Medusa and Dolores Haze. When she's not writing Gen can usually be found running, reading, looking for a new craft beer, or hanging out with her friends.

Caitlyn Mlodzik (she/her) is a fiction writer in BGSU’s MFA program. Though originally from the beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado, she got her B.A. in English at the University of Wyoming where she completed an Honors Thesis that explored fame, queer identity, and ghostwriting in New York City and led a very small but very spirited writing club called Cliché Can Kill. In her writing, she is fascinated by the everyday, the strange, and the fantastic. She dabbles in magical realism, fantasy, and multi-genre projects, but her latest interest is queer and place-based fiction for the emerging New Adult genre. When she isn’t writing, you can find Caitlyn reading books that challenge the traditional narrative, browsing thrift stores, or traveling to give her new places to write about. Her poetry, photography, and short fiction have appeared in publications such as The Pinyon Review, Furrow magazine, The Palouse Review, and others.  

Dan is a second-year MFA fiction student from Portland, Oregon. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California. Dan’s stories study empathy, ignorance, delusion, and sometimes, backyard neanderthals.

Mays Kuhail is a writer born and raised in Ramallah, Palestine. Mays’ writing is concerned with issues of displacement, identity and trauma, and is inspired by her lived experiences under occupation. She is a second year MFA student at BGSU and is a Fulbright Scholar. Mays holds a BA in Business Administration and Marketing from Birzeit University and has also attended Deusto University in Spain and McDaniel College in Maryland."

Meagan Chandler holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Baldwin Wallace University. She lived in Las Vegas, Nevada until her family moved to Wayne County OH in 2014. She plans to one day teach creative writing while also producing work of her own.

Caleb Edmondson is an MFA Poetry student from Stow, OH. He graduated from The University of Akron with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Throughout his writing, Caleb explores various aspects of genre, while drawing inspiration from his experiences growing up in a complicated 21^st century. In his free time, Caleb enjoys spending time with friends, staying active, cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers, watching movies, and attempting to lower his golf score – something that has been a work in progress for some time now.

Jamie Manias (they/them) is a poetry MFA student. They earned both their BA in Creative Writing and their MA in Writing Studies at the University of Toledo, making them a Falcon/Rocket hybrid abomination - a Focket, if you will. Their current hobbies include playing D&D, watching Transformers, and giving away stickers.

Debrah Miszak first-year MFA student in fiction. She graduated from Michigan State University in December of 2021 after obtaining dual degrees in Journalism and Comparative Cultures & Politics. Originally from Metro Detroit, much of her work deals with gender, class, and space in the Midwest. Her fiction has appeared in Wrongdoing Magazine, Unfortunately, Literary Magazine, and Spoonie Mag. Her creative non-fiction has been published in Tikkun, The National Catholic Reporter, and U.S. Catholic. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the Toledo Metroparks with her husky/boston terrier rescue, Frodo.

Mary Robles is from El Paso, Texas. She earned her BFA in poetry at Bowling Green State University. She was a featured poet in the Emily Dickinson Museum’s 2021 “Phosphorescence” Poetry Reading Series and was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship in Literature from the Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) in Cleveland, Ohio. Her poems have been published in Salt Hill Journal, The Rio Grande Review, Glass Mountain, Cactus Heart, and Strange Horizons, among others. She is a longtime professional in animal protection, interned at Animals Asia’s moon bear sanctuary in Sichuan province, China, and was formerly Corporate Responsibility Officer at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.) She is currently working on a poetry collection about chili peppers, the forces of grief, and family magic.

Elly Salah (she/hers) was born in Michigan and has lived in over six states (including North Dakota and New Hampshire), and she is excited to be living in Ohio now.  Elly attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, where she completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Creative Writing,  Her poetry has been featured in DeFunkt Magazine, Xylem LIterary Magazine, and Zeniada Literary Magazine.  Her poetry explores form, social structures, and gender relations.  Elly is a first-year MFA candidate, and she can usually be found spending time with her clingy orange cats.  

Meg (she/they) is a first year MFA student in Fiction. She completed her undergraduate degree in English at Missouri State University, where she also earned certificates in Editing and Publishing and in Writing for Television and Film. Her short story “One-Way Ticket to the Big Pit” received the Missouri State University Student Fiction Award. Her fiction has appeared in Moon City Review, Unfortunately, Literary Magazine, and On the Run.  

Muhammad Sheeraz Dasti's most recent books are House of Treasures: Perspectives on Urdu Literature (Pakistan Academy of Letters, 2022—a collection of Aamer Hussein's writings that Dasti co-edited with Shahbano Alvi), Muntakhib Amreeki Kahanian (Pakistan Academy of Letters, 2022—the Urdu translation of selected contemporary American short stories with Umaira Aleem), and Lisaniyat: Aik Jame Taaruf (Oxford University Press, 2022—an introduction to linguistics in Urdu co-authored with Muhammad Numan, Bibi Ameena, and Liaqat Iqbal). His previous publications include his Urdu novel, Sasa (Aks, 2018), and his short stories “Kill All the Bats” (Scoundrel Time) and “Angelina Jolie’s Kiss” (Visions).

Haley Souders is an MFA student in fiction at Bowling Green State University. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, she attended Emerson College where she majored in creative writing with a minor in publishing. Her writing focuses on a myriad of subjects. When not writing, she enjoys reading, going on walks, and playing guitar.

Jane Wageman is a first-year MFA student in fiction. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she received the Ernest Sandeen Poetry Award. An English teacher for eight years, she holds an M.Ed. from the University of Portland with a concentration in ESOL. Her writing explores how community, place, and media impact narrative voice and the self.