Albert Abonado is the author of JAW. He has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the co-host of New Grounds Poetry night which is every first Tuesday of the month at Equal Grounds. He teaches creative writing at SUNY Geneseo and RIT.

Saumya Deojain is finishing her postdoctoral work from Wallis Institute of Political Economy at the University of Rochester. She got her economics PhD in 2021 from Washington University in St. Louis. Poetry has been her close companion since she was 11 and she maintains a poetry blog that she started at 16 (www.to-words.blogspot.com). She is from Delhi, India.

Ian Dunn has always loved writing. At first he wrote short stories, but in 2018, he discovered a love of poetry. Living a life with ADHD, anxiety, and depression, poetry offered him a way to express himself in ways he couldn't before. Now, he writes poetry every day about the world around and inside him. You can find all of his work on his website at iandunnwriting.com.

Christina is a former neuro critical care nurse now involved in cerebrovascular research who has always had a passion for the written word. She grew up in Rhode Island and has been in Rochester since 2013. She currently lives in Lima, NY with her boyfriend Dan and bartends at Solera on Saturdays.

Hope Herting began her writing career at the tender age of 11. She became serious in high school and was accepted into the creative writing program at the University of Arizona, leaving three semesters shy of her degree to follow a man back east. Two kids, one divorce, and a career in social work behind her, Hope is now married anew and writing again.

Isabella works a mediocre service job and regrets it every day. She has yet to do a reading, publish her work, or really do anything at all yet. Isabella enjoys writing, obsessively over-thinking, and rewatching her favorite shows.

Joel David Lesses crafts poems in the landscape of our mind and life, capturing the mystical and spiritual elements of being human with the transformative power of self-inquiry, contemplative, and meditative practices. He has lived in Nepal and Israel. Joel was voted 'Buffalo’s Best Poet', founded WNY's 'Ground and Sky Poetry', currently working on his autobiography of poetry and prose.

Zoe Miles is a college student from the South wandering New York and writing things down. She's an avid lover of caffeine and all things bad for you.

Marjorie Power grew up in Connecticut and spent her adult life in various western states until the summer of 2020, when she and her husband moved to Rochester to live near family. She has been writing and publishing poetry since her mid-20's. Her newest collection is Sufficient Emptiness from Deerbrook Editions in Maine. It appeared last year. Find her at www.marjoriepowerpoet.com.

When not busy wearing many, many hats for Rochester Spoken Word, Scott Seifritz, writes plays and short fiction, His play, “Denny Killington, Master Detective!,” was selected for the 2016 Regional Writers Showcase, and he’s had plays performed as part of the Rochester Fringe. His play, “Treading Water,” will be produced by Green Buffalo Productions in July 2022 and he will be part of the cast of Listen To Your Mother on May 7.

Robert Shelton studied English in Northfield, MN, before working as a database engineer. As that profession decohered to its entropic end-state, he took up writing. His fiction and poetry appear in Lilac Magazine, Howling Mad Review and South 85 Journal, where he was a finalist for the 2020 Julia Peterkin Literary Award. Lovers of peace and quiet follow him on Twitter @kernelpanic442

George is a soon-to-be-retired high school English teacher and Navy veteran who is looking forward to having more time to write. His few readers (and his long-suffering wife) may not be as enthusiastic about the looming change in his employment status.

Walt Way was born and raised on the east side Rochester New York. During the day Walt Way is a poet, a pro songwriter, producer of listen to your mother 2022, founder of the Brister English Project. But by night, Walt Way turns into his alter ego, FormerLovePoet. He’s been seen across the web on platforms such as TikTok advocating for marginalized voices and connecting families.