Our Readers:
Marissa Anne Ayala is a poet & artist based in Austin, TX. Her poetry combines language and visual art crafting color-drenched narratives informed by color-theory. Marissa's work has appeared in Poets of Queens Anthology, Fugue Literary Journal, Pen + Brush Literary Magazine, Pen + Brush Art Gallery, Tupelo Press, & more. She was featured in Poets & Writers March/April 2022 discussing her work leading the East Austin Writing Project (ig: @eastaustinwrites). Marissa earned her BA in Writing and Literature at Naropa University and her MFA in Fiction at the New School.
Emily May is an essayist and visual artist based in Austin, Texas. Emily’s work is centered around class, education, feminism, late capitalism, and opportunity. She has been published in Cagibi Lit, Entropy, espnW, and other venues. Emily's collection of essays Some Girls was shortlisted by Galileo Press, who will publish her first book in 2024.
Kelly Schirmann is a writer, musician, and ceramicist from Northern California. She is the author of the hybrid poetry and essay collections Popular Music (Black Ocean, 2016) and The New World (Black Ocean, 2020); and the co-author, with Tyler Brewington, of Boyfriend Mountain (Poor Claudia, 2014). Her debut book Popular Music was named one of the Top Poetry Books of 2016 by Catapult, Entropy Magazine, and the Chicago Review of Books. She received her MFA in Nonfiction from the University of Montana in 2020, where she currently teaches writing. Her poems and essays have been published at GRANTA, Vice, The Awl, The New York Tyrant, Territory, and elsewhere. She currently works as a full-time ceramicist and occasional writing professor in Missoula, Montana.
Kyle Schlesinger is a poet, printer, and professor. His publications include A New Kind of Country (Chax Press, 2020), Color & Light (Dusie, 2020), None of Us, a collaboration with Ted Greenwald (Kin Press, 2020), and A Poetics of the Press (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2021). He resides in Austin, where he serves as the proprietor of Cuneiform Press.
