Todd Fredson is a poet, a critic, and a translator of Afro-francophone and West African literature. He is the author of two poetry collections, The Crucifix-Blocks (Tebot Bach, 2012), which won the Patricia Bibby First Book Award, and Century Worm (New Issues Press, 2018).
He has made French to English translations of two books by Ivorian poet Josué Guébo, My country, tonight (Action Books, 2016) and Think of Lampedusa (African Poetry Book Series, University of Nebraska Press, 2017), a collection for which Guébo won the Tchicaya U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry. Fredson has translated from French two collections, as well, by Ivorian poet Tanella Boni, The future has an appointment with the dawn (APBS, UNP, 2018), which was a finalist for the 2019 Best Translated Book Award and the 2019 National Translation Award, and There where it's so bright in me, a collection for which Boni was awarded the Prix Théophile Gautier from the French Academy (APBS, UNP, 2022). Fredson's translation from French and Bété of Bété poet Azo Vauguy's poetry collections Zakwato and Péril loglêdou appears as the double-translation Zakwato & Loglêdou’s Peril (Action Books, 2023), which was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle's Barrios Book in Translation Prize.
Fredson's poetry, translations, nonfiction, criticism, and editorial curations appear in Agni, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Indiana Review, Jacket2, Research in African Literatures, Best American Experimental Writing, Warscapes, Modern Poetry in Translation, and other journals, anthologies, and blogs. He holds an MFA from Arizona State University and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. Fredson specializes in 20th and 21st century poetry and poetics, transnational and decolonial studies, African literature and poetics, and literary translation. His work has been supported by Fulbright and NEA fellowships, a Virginia G. Piper Fellowship for Cultural Exchange, and other kindnesses.
Josh Rathkamp was born in Saginaw, Michigan. He received a BA from Western Michigan University, an MFA from Arizona State University and an MFA in Translation from Drew University. His books include A STORM TO CLOSE THE DOOR and SOME NIGHTS NO CARS AT ALL. He has been awarded numerous awards for his writing, including the Georgetown Press Poetry Prize and grants from the Arizona Arts and Letters Society and the Arizona Commission for the Arts. His work and translations have appeared in a multitude of literary journals and public art projects, including American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, Narrative, Poet Lore, and Rattle. He founded the Creative Writing Certificate Program at Mesa Community College and directed the Creative Writing Program from 2007-2020. He now happily spends his time focused on teaching creative writing classes at MCC.
Jeremy Broyles, a member of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing community, is an Arizona native originally from the Cottonwood-Jerome-Sedona high desert. He earned his B.A. from Doane College, now University, in 2001, his M.A. from Northern Arizona University in 2008, and his MFA in fiction from Wichita State University in 2011. His stories have appeared in The MacGuffin, Santa Clara Review, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, Pembroke Magazine, Red Rock Review, BULL, Blue Earth Review, and Reckon Review amongst many others. His novel, Flat Water, was published at the end of 2023 by Main Street Rag Press. His short story collection, Gutshots and Second Thoughts, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2026. He is an aging rider of bicycles, a talentless surfer of waves, and a happily mediocre player of guitars.
Dexter L. Booth is the author of Abracadabra, Sunshine (Red Hen Press, 2021), Scratching the Ghost (Graywolf Press, 2013), and the chapbook Rhapsody (Upper Rubber Boot Books, 2019). His poems have been included in numerous anthologies including The Burden of Light: Poems on Illness and Loss, The Golden Shovel Anthology honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, and The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry. Booth received his MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University and his Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.
Amy Lerman, by way of Florida, Illinois, England, and Kansas, enjoys teaching Developmental Writing, Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at MCC. Her Ph.D. and Masters in American Literature are from the University of Kansas, and she received her B.A. in English from the University of Illinois. Her chapbook, Orbital Debris, won the Jonathan Holden Poetry Prize, and her poems and fiction have appeared in a number of journals including Solstice, Atticus Review, Rattle, Euphony, Common Ground Review, Radar Poetry, Slippery Elm, Smartish Pace, Prime Number, and Burningword, among others.