Louise K. Waakaa’igan is an enrolled member at Odaawaa-Zaaga’iganiing in northern Wisconsin. Her first chapbook, This Is Where, Aquarius Press, was published in 2020. She is also the first-place winner of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop’s Broadside Competition (2016). Louise was an Art For Justice Fund Grantee. Her work has been previously published in PEN America, The Sentences That Create Us, 21 Mythologies, The Moon Magazine, Night Colors, 27^th Letter, Words in Gray Scale, Doors Adjacent, and most recently with Another Chicago Magazine.

Bao Phi is a Vietnamese American refugee, a Minnesotan, spoken word artist, poet, children’s book author, and single co-parent father. He has two poetry collections, Song I Sing and Thousand Star Hotel, and authored four picture books, including A Different Pond and You Are Life. He was on the editorial team of the AANHPI poetry anthology We The Gathered Heat. His work is anthologized in collections such as A Good Time for the Truth, Octavia’s Brood, and a special 2025 issue of McSweeney’s. Among the recognitions he’s received are multiple City Pages and Star Tribune Artist of the Year awards, and the 2024 Kay Sexton Award for contributions to the literary arts community in Minnesota. His fifth children’s book is forthcoming from Capstone in fall of 2026, and his first book of creative prose is forthcoming from Coffeehouse Press in winter of 2027.  

Cindy Jiban‘s novel about a mother’s secret suspicions, The Probable Son, was published in December 2025 by Lake Union. After years in education as a teacher, researcher, and writer, she was awarded a 2023 Loft Mentor Series Fellowship as an emerging fiction writer. Cindy’s favorite thing is book clubs; she would love to come to yours.

Debra J Stone Debra J Stone is a Jerome Hill Arts Fellow in Literature 2023-25 and The Loft Mirrors and Windows Fellow 2023, and a recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant.  Her debut novel, The House on Rondo, is currently a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in the Middle Grade Fiction category. The House on Rondo is published by University of Minnesota Press. Debra resides in Minneapolis with her husband and dog Ruby, an ACD Red Heeler. https://www.debrajeannestone.com and debra2036 Instagram

Tommy Frank is an Autistic essayist living in Minneapolis. Their work can be found in the Under Review and three years of book reviews, unsigned, in Publishers Weekly–many of which were blurbed on the back of mediocre film books. Tommy’s first book, Every Autism an Architecture, is forthcoming from Spout Press in Autumn 2026.

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.