KAYLA BLATCHLEY is a fiction writer and writing teacher living in Syracuse, NY. She teaches fiction, non-fiction, and everything in between, with the goal of exposing writers to different ways of reading, writing, and revising.

TIM CARTER is the Director of Writing Workshops at the Writers Voice of CNY. He is the author of Remains (2022) and The Pigs (2023).

CHRISTOPHER CITRO is the author of If We Had a Lemon We'd Throw It and Call That the Sun (Elixir Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Antivenom Poetry Award, and The Maintenance of the Shimmy-Shammy (Steel Toe Books, 2015). He has taught at the University of Kansas, Indiana University, The Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, the Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference, and SUNY Oswego. He is an editorial assistant for the Seneca Review and lives in Syracuse, New York.

GEMMA COOPER-NOVACK is a queer writer, play-wright, literacy scholar, and writing coach whose work has been published in over 50 journals. She's the author of the poetry collection We Might As Well Be Underwater.

CHRIS DELGUERCIO is a writer, teacher, editor, and lecturer. His new collection of short stories An Unsettled Score (2023) is available. Visit him at www.CDelGuercio.com.

SUZANNE FRISCHKORN is the author of four po-etry collections, most recently Whipsaw. She’s an editor for $-Poetry is Currency, and is an assistant poetry editor for Terrain.org.

LEN FONTE’S plays include SALT Award-winner Werewolf, Wasted Bread, Melagrana, and others. He taught playwriting at Syracuse University and is a theater critic for the Syracuse Post-Standard.

ONA GRITZ‘s memoir, Everywhere I Look, explores sisterhood, true crime, and family secrets. Helen Fremont calls it “profound.” Lilly Dancyger says it’s “Stunning and fearless.” Ona’s earlier books include Geode, an MSR Poetry Award finalist.

GLORIA HEFFERNAN is the author of two full-length poetry collections and three chapbooks. She won the 2022 CNY Book Award for Nonfiction for her guide, Exploring Poetry of Presence.

SUSAN KEETER is an children’s book illustrator and author and writes non-fiction for all ages. Sunday’s Wheels was published in Ghana and received the CNY Book Award. Keeter has an MFA from Syracuse University.

PHIL MEMMER founded the Downtown Writers Center in 2000. His sixth book of poems, Cairns, was published in 2022.

SARA PARROTT is the author of Tipping the Water Jar of Heaven. Her poems have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Dappled Things, and Light on the Walls of Life.

DEREK POLLARD currently serves as the Poets on Poetry Series Editor at the University of Michigan Press. He’s a widely published poet and critic, as well as a longtime educator and workshop leader.

GEORGIA A POPOFF is the author of five books of poetry, most recently, Living with Haints (Tiger Bark Press 2024). She currently serves as Poet Laureate of Onondaga County.

DANIEL SIMPSON’s poetry collection, Inside the Invisible, won the Propel Poetry Prize and was nominated for the American Academy of Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.

VIRGIE TOWNSEND is the author of the fiction chapbook Because We Were Christian Girls, which won the 2022 CNY Book Awards for Fiction. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, and others.