Patricia Cannon has been a Registered Nurse at UCSF since 2001. She has worked in cardiac critical care, neurointensive care, hemeoncology, school nursing, and currently, in research. Her passion is her faith, photography, and the written word in all its forms. Brave Hearts was written during the pandemic and was previously published by Passagers Books.
Theodora Ziolkowski is the author of the novella On the Rocks, winner of a Next Generation Indie Book Award, and the short story chapbook Mother Tongues. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Glimmer Train, The Writer’s Chronicle, and Short Fiction (England), among other publications. Previously, she has served as Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast and Fiction Editor for Big Fiction. She teaches creative writing as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Biographical excerpt from her website: “If this were a resume, I would say that I went to Seattle University intending to become a nurse, but failed emotionally and turned instead to literature. A few years later I earned my Master’s Degree in English. While we lived in Illinois I pursued a Master’s in Library and Information Science and worked as a professional librarian for many years. After caring for my mother through a long illness until her death, I re-careered as a RN specializing in Hospice and Geriatrics, work I continue to practice. I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother.”
Shalini Rana is a poet from Virginia and an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation. Her poems appear in Copihue Poetry, Salt Hill, Pile Press, Rappahannock Review, wildness, Line Rider Press, Feels Blind Literary, and Anti-Heroin Chic. Find her at shalinirana.com.
Cynthia Parker-Ohene is an abolitionist, and therapist. She is an MFA graduate in Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California, and the Chester Aaron Scholar for Excellence in Creative Writing. She is a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, winner of the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Poetry Prize. Her recent work has appeared or forthcoming in Best American Poetry 2022, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily.
Summer Poetry Contest: Winner to Receive $200 Dollar Amazon Gift Card (July 1-Sept 30th)
Amy Haddad, PhD, MSN, MFA, FAAN has educated nurses and pharmacists at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska since 1988 where she also held the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Endowed Chair in the Health Sciences. In addition, Amy served as Director of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics at Creighton University from 2005 – 2018 and now holds the rank of Professor Emerita.
Ms. Jesse Kercheval is a poet, writer, translator and comic artist.
She is also a Creative Writing Professor at UW-Madison and Editor of the Wisconsin Poetry Series
Lane Falcon’s poems have been published in American Poetry Journal, Rhino, Rust & Moth, Spoon River Poetry Review, and many others. Her manuscript “Deep, Blue Odds” was selected as a finalist for the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Prize and the Lightscatter Press Prize, and semi-finalist for the 2022 Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize and the Inaugural Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Prize. She lives in Alexandria, VA with her two children and dog.
Rosalie Moffett is the author of the poetry collections Making a
Living (Milkweed, 2025), Nervous System (Ecco), which was chosen by
Monica Youn for the National Poetry Series Prize and listed by the New
York Times as a New and Notable book, and June in Eden (OSU Press). She is an assistant professor at the University of Southern Indiana.