POET, PAPER BOAT
C. Rees
(they/them)
A nonbinary poet, educator, and bookseller. They were raised in Pennsylvania (Lënapehòkink) and currently live on Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Jumanos, Lipan Apache, Sana, and Tonkawa land, what is called "Austin, TX." C. holds an MFA in Poetry from the New Writers Project. They are ideologically and materially committed to a free Palestine.
POET, OPEN ACCESS MEMORIAL
August Smith
A poet, musician, and editor. He received his MFA from University of Massachusetts Boston in 2017 and is the author of Visitors from the Red Star (Apocalypse Confidential, 2024), a collection of poems about the UFO/UAP phenomenon. In addition, he's published nine chapbooks, released a book of Icelandic translations, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Post-Pop Lit, an online avant-garde literary journal. He lives in Austin, TX, where he organizes literary events and performs music under the name Plum Wooer. His work can be found at augustsmith.net.
POET, MOVING MEMORY
Sara Roma
A multi-media artist, writer, and animator who creates works of video, performance, poetry, stop-motion, printmaking and installation. Recent poems of theirs have appeared in Austin zines, Nopal Mag, and AS IT IS.
For the last 7 years they have lived and worked primarily in Texas, collaborating with local art orgs (Such as MOHA, Dadalab, Concept Animals), showing work, hosting events, making zines, leading art theory discussions and compulsively writing.
They recently were awarded the Pixel Prize by Carrie Gabel Art Gallery (NY) for their short film “A Problem” and were awarded 2nd place in A Space’s (NY) online juried exhibition Beyond the Borderlands for their drone stop-motion piece “circlers”.
Their substack can be found at chromarag. Their archive of work at chromaglyphs.xyz. Their studio at And&And.
POET, ORYZA
Prudence Arceneaux
The author of two chapbooks-- DIRT (2018 Jean Pedrick Prize) and LIBERTY-- and the full length PROPRIOCEPTION (2026 Texas Institute of Letters Honor Winner of the Naomi Shihab Nye Award for Best First Book of Poetry). Her work has appeared in numerous creative spaces, such as The Academy of American Poets’ Poem- A- Day, Texas Observer, and Inkwell. She is the Department Chair of Creative Writing at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.
POET, FOUNDERS PILLARS
drea brown
A poet-scholar whose writing has been published in creative and scholarly journals as well as edited collections including Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, About Place Journal, and Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin & Marissa Alexander. drea is the co-editor of Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, and the author of dear girl: a reckoning, and Conjuring the Haint: The Haunting Poetics of Black Women.
POET, HUMBLE MONUMENTS
Sarah Matthes
A poet and performer from central New Jersey. Her debut collection Town Crier won the Lexi Rudnitsky first book prize, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She lives in Austin, TX where she teaches poetry at UT and runs a storytelling showcase called The Pupa.
