Emily Brandt has been a storyteller her entire life. From the stage to the page, sharing dreams and telling tales of adventure and love are her biggest passions. She graduated with a BFA in Musical Theatre from Millikin University and currently resides in Belgium with her husband and their dog, Suki.
Follow Brandt on Instagram and read her poem, I haven’t been sleeping well.
Julie Weissman-Steinbaugh was the first physically disabled student to attend her local high school and discovered the power of words as an eighth grader, when her letter to the editor of Newsday against the portrayal of disabled people by the Cerebral Palsy Telethon was published. Today, she lives with her husband and teenage daughter in Las Vegas, where she chairs Nevada’s Statewide Independent Living Council.
Read Weissman-Steinbaugh’s essay, Lessons in Belonging.
Mugabi Byenkya is an award-winning writer. In 2018, they were honored as one of fifty-six writers who has contributed to their native Uganda’s literary heritage in the fifty-six years since independence by Writivism, East Africa’s largest literary festival. Check out the rest of their work on their website, mugabibyenkya.com.
Follow Byenkya on Twitter and Instagram and read their poem, Seizure #774.
AM Rodriguez is a writer, adult, and cat lover.
Follow Rodriguez on Twitter and Tumblr and read her poems, Ghosts and Untitled #1.
Julian R. Vaca is a first generation Mexican American and a first generation college graduate. His writing has appeared in The Nerd Daily, Writer’s Digest, and more. He is a PEN/Faulkner Writers in School author, a member of the SCBWI, and a Hey! Young Writer mentor.
Follow Vaca on Instagram and Twitter and read an excerpt from his sophomore novel, The Recall Paradox.
Jess Barselow lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with three cats. For years, Jess only wrote and edited formal, technical academic papers, but they recently found their way back to poetry as a way to process and express their complicated feelings about death and neurodivergence.
Read their poem, free.
Amba Elieff has been a closet poet most of her life. She has always used poetry as a way of capturing the challenges and celebrations of life. She writes about the little things and big things that make up life.
Follow Elieff on Instagram and read her poem, Spoon Tattoo and Vertigo.
Cait Gordon is an autistic, disabled, and queer Canadian writer of speculative fiction that celebrates diversity. She is the author of Life in the ’Cosm, The Stealth Lovers, and Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space (2023). Cait also founded The Spoonie Authors Network and joined Talia C. Johnson to co-edit the Nothing Without Us and Nothing Without Us Too anthologies.
Follow Gordon on Instagram and read her short story, Searching for Bunker Norms.
Nicole Zelniker (she/they) is the author of several books, including Until We Fall, which was a finalist for the Forward Indie Awards in LGBTQ+ adult fiction. Check out the rest of her work at nicolezelniker.com.
Follow Zelniker on Instagram and Twitter and read their essay, Food: A Relationship.
Jamieson Wolf has been writing since a young age, when he realized he could be writing instead of paying attention in school. He currently lives in Ottawa Ontario Canada with his husband Michael and their cat, Anakin who they swear has Jedi powers. You can find him at www.jamiesonwolf.com.
Follow Wolf on Instagram and read his short story, To Thrive in Darkness.
Clara Olivo (she/her/ella) is an Afro-Salvi poet and the author of The Whisper, The Storm and The Light In Between. Clara lives in a quiet home on unceded Duwamish land with her partner, dog, and an ever-growing number of plants.
Follow Olivo on Instagram at @HijaDeMilagro and @TheDiasporicConnection and read her poems, Try to Understand, Ode to Chronic Illness, and Notes From A 10 a.m. Appointment.
Amanda Cessor is a historical fantasy author and ghostwriter living in southern California with her husband, her dogs, and her cat. She has words in Full Mood Mag and drafts the serial The Hollowed Wilds.
Follow Cessor on Instagram and Twitter, check out her author interview with Knee Brace Press, and read their short story, Summoning Serotonin.
Artist and writer Julián Esteban Torres López is a Turtle Island-conceived, Abya Yala-born, multiply neurodivergent with multiple chronic conditions and Afro-Euro-Indigenous roots. He is the founder of The Nasiona, managing director of consulting and strategy at Conscious Thrive, and architect of numerous other initiatives. His work has centers existential concerns of decoloniality and the reclamation of agency.
Follow Torres López on Instagram and Twitter and read and listen to his work, Neurodivergent.
Poet Lara Haynes Freed holds an MA in linguistics from the University of Kansas and studied screenwriting and technical writing at the University of Washington. Interests in psychology, mythology, and subculture inspire her creative work.
Read her poem, Resection.
DMV-based poet Sojourner “Hughes” Davidson enjoys exploring politics, identity, relationships, the mind, and the body in their work. Davidson believes poetry is felt both emotionally and physically, and a poem is great when it reaches the reader in both places.
Follow Davidson on Instagram and read their poems, Ache Awake and Staying Sparkly.
Knee Brace Press 