Nen G Ramirez is a nonbinary Latinx writer from Adrian, Michigan. They are the author of All Women Are Born Wailing (Black Lawrence Press, 2023), which was awarded the 2022 Acentos Book Prize. Ramirez received their MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota, where they currently teach. They are an editor of We Are, a zine of unhoused art and words from the Twin Cities. Ramirez also plays keys and performs spoken word poetry in emo bands Virginia’s Basement and Cute Intentions. Their writing has been featured in Poem-a-Day, POETRY, Electric Literature, Barrelhouse, and elsewhere.

Bleah Patterson is a queer, southern poet from Texas. Much of her work explores the contention between identity and home. Her creative and academic work have been supported by organizations like Sundress Academy for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Kenyon Writers’ Workshop, McCormick (formerly TinHouse) writers’ workshop, and SWWIM Residency at The Betsy. Her work has also been featured or is forthcoming in various journals including Write or Die, Electric Literature, The Pinch, Grist, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Laurel Review, Phoebe Literature, The Rumpus, and Taco Bell Quarterly.

Aishatu Ado (she/her) is an Afro-German folklore ecologist obsessed with a question empire prefers unanswered: what does a story do when it refuses to stay dead? Drawing on African and diasporic cosmovisions, she traces how oral traditions survive rupture and seed liberated futures. Her collection, Black Box Flight Recorder, won the 2025 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. She has also won Fractured Lit’s Ghosts, Fables, Fairy Tales Prize and the Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest. A Clarion West graduate, she has received fellowships from Odyssey, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, Hurston/Wright, VONA, Roots Wounds Words, and Voodoonauts. Her fiction has appeared twice on Reactor Magazine’s Must Read list. Aishatu’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Nightmare, FIYAH, CRAFT, Obsidian, Baffling, Heartlines Spec, Kelp’s Ocean Poetry Anthology, Augur, and Flame Tree’s Afrofuturism Short Stories and Dreams Divine. More at aishatu.carrd.co.

Francis Dylan Waguespack (he/they) is a painter and Pushcart-nominated poet from New Orleans who writes about the politics of disasters and being from a place and in a body that both live under threat. He is 34, and therefore recently found out about birds. His work appears in many publications including ONLY POEMS DAILY, wildness journal, The Penn Review, and Foglifter. He was a finalist for the 2025 St. Lawrence Poetry Award and won the 2025 Button Poetry First Book Award for his debut collection, Tooth Gaps in the Archives, forthcoming from Button Poetry in the fall of 2026.

Ayanna Florence is a spoken word poet, author, and creative from Chesapeake, VA. A born writer and performer, she prides herself in creating work that is thought-provoking, emotion-evoking, and fearless. Since her introduction to slam poetry at 16 years old, she has become one of the most decorated and prominent voices in the space, touring the nation as a self-made artist while continuing to share her love and respect for the craft. Ayanna is the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam champion, the 2023 and 2024 Slam Charlotte Grand Slam champion, the 2023 and 2024 Queen of the South, a 2x Southern Fried Poetry Slam Finalist, and much more.

As a queer black womxn, Ayanna exists on the fringes and outside the box, and her artistry reflects this reality. She believes that living outside of the margins is an inherently revolutionary act that gives her a singular perspective on life and humanity. In both performance and prose, her artistry is raw, powerful, and poignant, magnifying issues that often go unheard such as the mental health crisis and the queer black femme experience.

Ayanna has been an avid participant in the theatre since the age of 3, majoring in Acting at Howard University, and actively incorporates her extensive theatrical experience into her poetic work. She debuted her one-woman show Moonchild in collaboration with BOOM Charlotte in 2023, and Identity Crisis at the Richmond Poetry Festival in 2024.

As dedicated to teaching as she is to learning, Ayanna has facilitated workshops at the likes of Harvard University, and has created programming and poetry curriculum for middle and high school students across the country. She believes in the necessity of art in all spaces, and the importance of accessibility to knowledge.

Ayanna is a Write Bloody book prize finalist, and her work has been published alongside legends such as Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez in literary magazine, African Voices. In 2024, she self published her debut chapbook, Oceans. Her forthcoming debut full length poetry collection, unreliable narrator (Button Poetry, 2026), seeks to relinquish the shame surrounding victimhood and to empower the sensitive black girl within.

Embraced as one of the most unique voices in spoken word and a standout in any room, Ayanna is proof that your greatest superpower is yourself. She believes in the power of walking in your purpose and loving yourself first, and is filled with eternal gratitude at the opportunity to instill that same belief in others through her work. Her confidence and conviction serve as both inspiration and reminder of what is possible when you dare to dream. Above all, Ayanna is passionate about using her poetry as a method of healing for herself and others.

Matt Mason served as the Nebraska State Poet from 2019-2024 and has run poetry workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus for the U.S. State Department. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times and Matt has received a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work can be found in Rattle, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and in hundreds of other publications. Button published Mason’s 5th book, Rock Stars, in 2023.