CIONA ROUSE

Ciona Rouse is the author of Vantablack, the first chapbook of Third Man Books (2017). Her poetry has appeared in The Account, Talking River, Gabby Journal, Matter: a journal of political poetry and commentary and other publications. A literary citizen, she is poetry editor of Wordpeace, the curator of several reading series in Nashville, Tenn., including the monthly Lyrical Brew at Barnes & Noble at Vanderbilt and a teacher of poetry workshops and classes at Whitsitt Elementary School, The Porch Writers’ Collective, Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference and others.

In 2017-2018, she served as a resident poet for the “Nick Cave: FEAT” art exhibition at Frist Art Museum, culminating in a poem called “We,” which was named 2018’s “Best Poetry Performance” by Nashville Scene. Along with poet Kendra DeColo, Rouse cohosts the podcast Re/VERB, a Third Man podcast where literature and pop culture meet. A graduate of Columbia College of South Carolina, Rouse currently lives in Nashville, where she is working on her first full collection of poetry and a literary collaboration with poet and musician Adia Victoria. Some of their collective work was featured on NPR in August 2019.

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SARAH PINSKER

Sarah Pinsker’s fiction has won the Nebula, Sturgeon, and Philip K. Dick Awards, and her 50+ published stories include finalists for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and other awards. Her first collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea (Small Beer Press) and her first novel, Song For A New Day (Berkley), were published in 2019. She is currently the Kratz Center Writer in Residence at Goucher College. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

TARIA PERSON

Taria Person is an alumna of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she received a dual B.A. in English Creative Writing: Poetry, and Interdisciplinary Studies: Africana Studies. She is the author of Rainbow Elephant, and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including: O’ Woman a Tapestry of Loving You, and Voices of Warriors: Poems of Hope & Healing. Taria Person won 1st place at the regional Big Ears: Spoken Word Expo/The 5th Woman Poetry Slam (2017), the Regional Southern Fried Hip-Hop Slam (2013), and Knoxville Poetry Slam (2012). Also, she has been an actress and Production Stage Manager for The Carpetbag Theatre Inc., during its original series of stage productions that have been funded by The Roy Cockrum Foundation, in celebration of (CBT’s) 50th Anniversary. Recently, Person has been commissioned to write a book of poetry by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, won an Artistic Professional Development grant from Alternate Roots for her original stage play, Hangers, and became a member of the 5th Woman Touring Collective.

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[Photo by Daje Morris] 

HILARY LEICHTER

Hilary Leichter is the author of the novel Temporary. Her writing has appeared in n+1, The New Yorker, Harper's, Bookforum, and Conjunctions. She teaches at Columbia University. 

JESSE GRAVES

Jesse Graves is the author of four poetry collections, including Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine and the forthcoming Merciful Days. His work received the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Philip H. Freund Prize for Creative Writing from Cornell University. Graves has been an editor on several collections of poetry and scholarship, including three volumes of The Southern Poetry Anthology and The Complete Poems of James Agee. He teaches at East Tennessee State University, where he is Poet-in Residence and Professor of English.

JEREMY T. WILSON

Jeremy T. Wilson is the author of the short story collection Adult Teeth and a former winner of the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. His stories have appeared in literary magazines such as The Carolina Quarterly, The Florida Review, The Masters Review, Sonora Review, Third Coast and other publications. He holds an MFA from Northwestern University and teaches creative writing at The Chicago High School for the Arts.