SHOSHANA SUREK earned her MA and MFA in Creative Writing from Regis University in Denver. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have been published in literary magazines in the United States, Canada, Australia, England, and South Korea. Shoshana received a Fiction Pushcart Prize nomination in 2017 and a Poetry Pushcart Prize nomination in 2020. She is a 2019 Curt Johnson Prose Award finalist from december Magazine and placed third in the 2020 Voyage First Chapter’s Contest, judged by NYT Bestselling Author, Melissa de la Cruz. She was a first reader for Vestal Review and Inverted Syntax literary magazines. Her debut poetry collection, b’siyata d’shira is a prayer song set to the rhythm of memory. Family ghosts haunted by the Holocaust exist at the intersection of tragedy and modern society. Surek’s debut is not told from a singular lens but one she has unraveled, questioned, and rediscovered. By rooting imagery in prayer, Surek braids together a history of old and new worlds shrouded by ancient traditions and personal history, mining memories around culture, elegy, family, and faith. Through lyrical language and meditation, b’siyata d’shira seeks to raise the dead while fiercely honoring a lineage with a horrific past so stunning we will all be left questioning the beauty behind human brutality. Published by Finishing Line Press. She and her family reside in the beautiful foothills of Colorado. Book orders: Finishing Line Press
GUEST READERS
JAY HALSEY’s poems and prose have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. His photography has been used as cover art for poetry collections and novels, and was part of a touring exhibit featured at libraries and bookstores throughout France to represent Editions Gallmeister’s American authors. His photography and multi-form prose and poetry collection, Barely Half in an Awkward Line, was published by Really Serious Literature in October of 2022 and is available anywhere that sells books. Book orders: Bookshop and Barnes & Noble
CRISOSTO APACHE is originally from Mescalero, New Mexico, on the Mescalero Apache reservation, and currently lives in the Denver area with their spouse. They are Mescalero Apache, Chiricahua Apache, and Diné (Navajo) of the Salt Clan born for the Towering House Clan. They hold an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and are an Assistant Professor of English. Crisosto’s debut collection is GENESIS (Lost Alphabet). Their second collection is Ghostword (Gnashing Teeth Publications). They are also the Associate Editor of The Offing Magazine. Book orders: Ghostword / Website: crisostoapache.com
CHIP LIVINGSTON is the author of the poetry collections, Saints of the Republic; Crow-Blue, Crow-Black; and Museum of False Starts. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in Poem A Day, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Cincinnati Review, and other journals and anthologies. Chip is the editor of Love, Loosha: The Letters of Lucia Berlin and Kenward Elmslie. He teaches in the low-rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. Website: chiplivingston.com
AKUSUA AKOTO is a poet, essayist, spoken word artist and memoirist originally from Dallas, currently residing in Denver. She is working on a manuscript of poetry based on Black mother-daughter relationships, insanity, poverty and survival.