The Empty Chairs of February is poet and translator Carlos Reyes’ 16th volume of poetry. He is a world traveler but makes his home at the base of a dormant volcano in Portland, Oregon. Learn more about Carlos here: carlosreyespoet.com.
Dale Conrad is a medical student at Carle Illinois College of Medicine who takes inspiration from both work and personal life to describe human emotions.
Jean Gordon Kocienda is a former Silicon Valley geopolitical risk analyst. Now retired, she volunteers with refugees in the San Francisco Bay Area, translates Japanese poetry, and finishes up her first novel, Girl in a Box: The Story of Yosano Akiko, Japan’s Feminist Poet. (www.accidentalfeminist.net)
Tara Zafft is a US poet. She is a mother, wife, dancer, seeker, who tried to embrace the ups and downs of life with curiosity, love and wonder.
Mary Jane Philpy-Dollins’ work appears in The Poetry Machine: Volume 2 (2021), The Poetry Machine: Volume 3 (2022), and the Waco WordFest Anthology (2023). She is the 2023 President of the Austin Poetry Society. She is a nurse living in Texas.
Grace MacNair is a poet, teacher, and healthcare professional. A 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Poetry, her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, Poetry Northwest, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. Grace’s micro-chapbook, Even As They Curse Us, is available from Bull City Press. IG: @ecarg_enna_m. Twitter@GraceMacNair.
Kimberly Hall (she/her) is a queer and neurodivergent poet based in Southeast Texas, with a master’s degree in behavioral science. Her work has appeared in publications such as Sappho’s Torque, Equinox, and The Ekphrastic Review.
Srikantha Rao is an anesthesiologist at a tertiary care medical center in a University teaching hospital.
A vocalist, pianist, and internal medicine physician, Eki Shola uses her music as a conduit for healing. ASCAP Plus winner and selected ’23 people to watch in 2023′ by the Press Democrat, Eki Shola has shared the stage with Dr. Donald Byrd, Steve Turre and more and and has opened for various artists including Habib Koité, Bebel Gilberto, DakhaBrakha, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Lucky Otis, and Kitaro.
The five-time NorBay Music awardee was selected to participate in the OBRAS foundation, Portugal artist residency and recently completed a Japan tour for her 5th solo album, 還 (Kaeru), recorded with local artists drummer Hidenori Tsugita, shamisen and shakuhachi musician, Uma Ebina, and Mongolian Morin Khuur musician, Tatsuya Okabayashi.