C. Fausto Cabrera is an artist and writer whose work has appeared in Denver Quarterly and The Antioch Review. He co-authored The Parameters of Our Cage with photographer Alec Soth, reviewed by The New Yorker. His Inherited Scars series has been exhibited at the Weisman Art Museum and the Cargill Gallery, and his pastel work has been featured on the cover of The Washington Post Magazine. Cabrera’s art practice, which transforms trauma into handmade paper and visual narrative, was highlighted in Kim Johnson’s documentary series, Sustainability. His work embodies Outlaw Excellence where survival, imagination, and beauty collide.

Author of nine books of poetry and prose Heid E. Erdrich is a curator and teacher. Erdrich edited the anthology New Poets of Native Nations and co-edited the newly published Boundless: Abundance in Native American Art and Literature. She served as the inaugural Minneapolis Poet Laureate supported by an Academy of American Poets award. Erdrich held the 2025 James Welch Distinguished Visiting position at University of Montana Missoula. Erdrich’s on-going project is Poetry Service Announcement (PoeS.A.) which promotes poetry as public art. She serves her communities through formal and informal mentorship, poetry interventions, and in activating collaborative response between communities.

Deborah Keenan is author of eleven collections of poetry, a book of writing ideas, from tiger to prayer, and has been giving readings from her new collection, The Saint of Everything. She’s been a teacher for half a century and lives close to the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers..

Brendan Stermer is a poet from Montevideo, MN, now living in East Grand Forks. He is the author of two chapbooks: Forgotten Frequencies (NDSU Press, 2023) and Semi-Finished Goods (Prairie Sea Flotilla, 2025). He is also the host and co-producer ofInteresting People Reading Poetry, a short, sound-rich podcast where artists &luminaries read a favorite poem and share what it means to them. Learn more at www.brendanstermer.com.

Carolyn Williams-Noren writes poems, essays, and the free recipe/memoir/comic newsletter “This is good.” She has two poetry chapbooks: FLIGHTS (2020) and Small Like a Tooth (2015). Carolyn freelances as a copy editor for publishers and academics and as a writer for small businesses and artists. She enjoys cooking, running, cycling, and messing around with watercolors and colored pencils, and she’s learning to use a riso printer

Sara Dovre Wudali grew up on a farm in southwest Minnesota, where the wind blows through the cottonwoods and box elder bugs rule. She was a 2023–2024 Poetry Fellow in the Loft Mentor Series and has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Her poems and essays have been published in literary journals and anthologies such as under the gum tree, Barrelhouse, North Dakota Quarterly, and Sweet. She is the co-editor of the chapbook, All You Need is One Avocado and a mentor with the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop. Dovre Wudali lives in Saint Paul with her family. You can learn more and read her work at saradovrewudali.com.