RIVERS SOLOMON is an author of literary and speculative fiction. Their home is in the realm of the imaginary, where Blackness, queerness, gender desertion, and disability become sites of insurgency. In addition to appearing on the Stonewall Honor List and winning a Firecracker Award, Solomon’s debut novel, An Unkindness of Ghosts, was a finalist for a Lambda, a Hurston/Wright, and a Locus Award. Solomon’s second book, The Deep, was the winner of the 2020 Lambda Award. Sorrowland, Solomon's third book, won the Stonewall Award and was shortlisted for an Ignyte Award. Originally from Turtle Island, they currently live in the United Kingdom.

*Photo by Oluwatosin Daniju

FARIHA RÓISÍN is a multidisciplinary artist who was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, Degrowth, and queer identities. She is currently the deputy editor of Violet Book, sits on the advisory board of Slow Factory, and frequently writes essays on her Substack. She owns Studio Ānanda. Róisín published a book of poetry entitled How To Cure A Ghost, a journal called Being In Your Body, and her novel, Like A Bird. Her first work of nonfiction, Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who it Leaves Behind, was released in 2022. Her second book of poetry, Survival Takes A Wild Imagination, is out Fall of 2023."

*Photo by Rebecca Storm

PAUL TRAN is the author of the debut poetry collection, All the Flowers Kneeling, published by Penguin. Their work appears in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. They earned their BA in History from Brown University and MFA in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis. Winner of the Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize, as well as fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Stanford University, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Paul is an Assistant Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

DAWNIE WALTON is the author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, winner of the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the Audie Award for Fiction. Her debut novel was also named one of the best books of 2021 by The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, and President Barack Obama. She is the cofounder and editorial director of Ursa, an audio production company celebrating contemporary writers of color, and co-hosts its accompanying podcast. Formerly an editor at Essence and Entertainment Weekly, she has received fellowships from MacDowell and Tin House, and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

C.L. CLARK is a BFA award-winning editor and Ignyte award winning-writer, and the author of Nebula-nominated novel The Unbroken, the first book in the Magic of the Lost trilogy. They graduated from Indiana University’s creative writing MFA and were a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. They've been a personal trainer, an English teacher, and an editor, and are some combination thereof as they travel the world. When they're not writing or working, they're learning languages, swinging swords, or reading about war and [post-]colonial history. Their work has appeared in various SFF venues, including Tor.com, Uncanny, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

PUTSATA REANG is an author and journalist whose debut memoir, "Ma and Me" (MCD/FSG May 2022) was awarded the 2023 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association prize for nonfiction. She was a 2023 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her writing has appeared in national and international publications including the New York Times, Ms magazine, the San Jose Mercury News, Politico, and the Guardian. Putsata is an alum of Hedgebrook, Mineral School and Kimmel Harding Nelson residencies, and has been a fellow of the Jack Straw Writers program and Alicia Patterson Foundation.

JENNY TORRES SANCHEZ is a full-time writer and former English teacher. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, but has lived on the border of two worlds her whole life. She is the author of several young adult novels, many of which have landed on Best of Lists and won various honors. Her latest, We Are Not from Here, is a Pura Belpré Honor book and has been described by the New York Times as “a novel precisely for this moment.” Jenny has also contributed to several short story and essay anthologies. And her debut picture book, With Lots of Love—about a girl who moves from her home in Central America to the United States—was released in both English and Spanish and is a Jumpstart Read for the Record selection. She is currently working on her first middle grade novel about a girl named Filomena who visits and finds comfort from grief in a surreal sea.

Anna Meyer, the Founder of Formation Healing Arts, has worked in local and national LGBTQ and BIPOC communities for over 25 years. Anna’s healing justice practice supports restorative connections with ourselves, each other, our natural world, and the systems we all live within. Anna is trained in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Ecotherapy, Alchemical Alignment: Somatic Tools for Resolution of Trauma & Embodiment of Spirit, Usui Reiki Rhoyo, & HeartMath. Anna is the co-chair of the MN Healing Justice Network’s board of directors. Anna is a light-skinned mixed race (white, Mexican, and Native), non-binary disabled queer who lives, loves, and works on Dakota land in South Minneapolis.

Laia Bové (she/her/ella) is an Afro-Catalan former professional athlete living with a chronic illness. Having gained valuable insights into the benefits of self-care and slowing down, she is dedicated to sharing accessible and sustainable yoga and meditation practices to help people create a more harmonious life. As a writer and creative, Laia is passionate about supporting other creatives and innovators and fostering a genuine community dedicated to finding balance while staying productive and inspired.

Bix Gabriel (she/her) is a writer, creative writing teacher at Bucknell University, editor at The Offing magazine, inaugural Periplus Fellow, co-founder of TakeTwo Services, occasional Tweeter, and seeker of the perfect jalebi. She has an M.F.A in fiction from Indiana University-Bloomington, and her writing appears in the anthology A Map is Only One Story, on Longleaf Review, Catapult, Guernica, and Electric Literature, among others. Her debut novel, Archives of Amnesia, was a finalist for the 2021 PEN Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She was born in Hyderabad, India, and lives in Queens, NY.

Serene Hakim is an agent at Ayesha Pande Literary. She represents authors in a variety of genres, from MG fantasy to adult literary fiction to contemporary YA. Serene is particularly interested in both YA and adult fiction that has international themes, highlights a variety of cultures, and focuses on underrepresented and/or marginalized voices. Specifically, she’s looking for writing that explores different meanings of identity, home, family and parenthood and is currently prioritizing projects in the kids' space, though she is still selectively taking on adult writers. Her educational background is in French & women’s studies, and she holds an MA in French-English translation from NYU.

Michal ‘MJ’ Jones (they/them) is a poet & parent in Oakland, CA. MJ serves as the Editor-In-Chief of Foglifter Press, a premier literary journal publishing trans and queer writers. Their poems have appeared in Anomaly, Kissing Dynamite, TriQuarterly Review, & RHINO Poetry, wildness. They received their MFA in Poetry from Mills College. They founded & facilitated Litany!, a workshop for a cohort of Black queer poets. They have a debut full-length poetry collection HOOD VACATIONS from Black Lawrence Press, and a chapbook, SOFT ARMOR, from Nomadic Press.

Kayla Lightner is an agent at Ayesha Pande Literary who represents adult upmarket fiction, literary fiction, and nonfiction. She also managed APL’s subsidiary rights department for two years. Her client list includes award-winning actor, Delroy Lindo; award-winning journalist and food writer, Annabelle Tometich; astronaut Joan Higginbotham, and more. Kayla loves writing that straddles the line between great storytelling and teaching her something new, especially speculative fiction, BIPOC family sagas, compelling, well-researched narrative histories, and platform-driven memoirs. She also represents a small, select group of illustrators and middle-grade titles.

B. Sharise Moore (she/her) is an author, curriculum developer, and Poetry Editor for FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. In 2020, she received the Sustainable Arts Foundation Award for YA Fiction, and her poem, Black Beak, was nominated for a 2022 Dwarf Star Award. In 2022, she edited and published Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook for Middle and High School Students. Moore is a writing workshop facilitator, writing coach, and the 2023 Writer in Residence with The Hurston Wright Foundation. B. Sharise Moore’s forthcoming books include Fangs, Feathers, and Folklore, a middle-grade field guide of African mythological creatures from Algonquin Young Readers in 2025, Fatimah’s Fantastic City and Golden: a Story of Yaa Asantewaa from HarperCollins in 2025 and 2026. She lives with her husband and two children in Baltimore, MD.

Mariah Stovall is an agent at Trellis Literary Management. She previously worked at Howland Literary, Writers House, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and Gallery Books. She represents adult literary and upmarket fiction and narrative nonfiction, with an emphasis on original voices, styles, and subject matters. Mariah has volunteered with Periplus and VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts. She is also the author of the novel I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both. She is based in Newark, New Jersey.

Mayookh Barua (he/him) is an LA-based writer from India currently a Ph.D. candidate at USC. His work explores themes of queerness, art, education, and family and appears in The Audacity, The Third Eye, and elsewhere. Mayookh was a 2023 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Apoorva Bradshaw-Mittal (they/she) is a gender/queer author from northern India. Their short stories and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, Catapult, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. They teach fiction at Ohio University. Apoorva was a 2023 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Celeste Chan: Queer Rebels co-founder, Sister Spit performer, MIX NYC guest curator, Celeste is a 2023 Periplus fellow. A RWW alum, she’s currently writing her family memoir. Celeste was a 2023 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

C. G. Crawford (he/him) is a writer from Birmingham, Alabama. His work focuses on the life, love, and liberation of southern Black folks. He is currently writing a collection of stories and multiple novels. C.G. was a 2022 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Naseem Jamnia (they/them) is the Judith A. Markowitz award-winning author of The Bruising of Qilwa and the upcoming Sleepaway (Aladdin '25). In addition to the inaugural Samuel R. Delany fellowship, they've received fellowships from Bitch Media, Lambda Literary, and Otherwise. Follow them on IG @jamsternazzy.

Yollotl Lopez (she/her) is a doctoral candidate at NYU, an award advisor at the Office of Global awards and a creative writer. She has published in Tin House, Drizzle Review and Intervenxions. Yollotl is a 2022 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Leinani Lucas (she/her) is a storyteller based in Seattle via the illegal annexation of Hawai'i and the dreams of her sharecropper grandparents. Leinani is a 2022 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Joy Notoma (she/her) is a fiction writer & essayist. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Epiphany, Catapult, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She has attended workshops at Kimbilio, Tin House and Hurston/Wright. Joy was a 2023 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Pegah Ouji (she/her) is a writer from Iran who writes short stories and poems in Farsi and English. She is currently working on a short story collection set in various regions of Iran that highlights local traditions and customs in light of the contemporary problems in each locality. Her work has appeared in Isele Magazine and Hamilton Stone Review. Pegah was a 2023 RWW Words of Resistance & Restoration Fellow.

donia salem harhoor is a Disabled egyptian-american anthophile. Executive director of The Outlet Dance Project, they have been deeply nourished by Roots. Wounds. Words. Sonia was a 2023 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.

Leo Smith (they/them) is a Black, queer, trans poet from Inglewood, CA. They're the author of The Body’s Owner Speaks (Black Sunflowers Poetry Press, 2023). Follow Leo’s IG @leosmithwrites. Leo was a 2023 RWW Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color Fellow.