Poet of the Week

Kevin Chesser lives in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. His writing can be found in places like Hobart, elsewhere, drDOCTOR, Pithead Chapel, Press Pause, Empty House Press, and others. He is the author of one full length collection of poetry - Relief of My Symptoms (Ghost Palace Press, 2023), plus numerous handmade chapbooks and zines. He earned his MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan University, and occasionally records music under the name Wizard Clipp. Send him a hi hello how are you anytime at www.kchesser.com or @sweat_michaels on Instagram.

Elise Powers is a poet whose work explores the complexities of womanhood, relationships, and the quiet intersections of joy and sorrow. Her debut collection, The Size of Your Joy, is forthcoming next spring. She lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter where she writes, collects sea glass, and savors life’s tender joys.

Maya Salameh is the author of Mermaid Theory (Haymarket Books, 2026) and How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, The Rumpus, AGNI, and Mizna, among others. She can be found @mayaslmh.

Jeremy Radin is a writer and actor. His poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Poem-a-Day,Ploughshares, The Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, The Sun, and elsewhere. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Belly God (Orison Books, forthcoming 2026, selected by Ellen Bass), Dear Sal (Not A Cult, 2022), and Slow Dance with Sasquatch (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012). He has worked as an actor in film, television, and theater. He is the founder and operator of Lanternist Creative Consulting, through which he coaches writers and performers. He likes to point at birds and try to remember their names. Follow him @germyradin.

Anastasia K. Gates is a writer, editor, and artist from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, and awarded the shortlist for the inaugural Oxford Poetry Prize, her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Oxford Poetry, The Penn Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Only Poems, Plainsongs and elsewhere. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry from Columbia University in the City of New York and she is currently at work on her debut and second collections of poems.

Nina C. Peláez is a poet, educator, and cultural producer based in Maui, Hawaiʻi whose work explores themes of adoption, dislocation, diasporic identity, mythology, and ecology. A Best New Poets nominee, her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Narrative, Electric Literature, Rattle, Willow Springs, Pleiades and swamp pink, among others. She was awarded the Coniston Prize by Radar Poetry and has been supported by Tin House, Yaddo, AWP’s Writer to Writer Program, and the Key West Literary Seminars. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and is a mentor for The Adroit Journal. Follow her on Instagram @ninacpelaez.

Merilyn Chang is a writer and journalist based between New York and Berlin. Her poetry and fiction have been featured in InkFish, Literary Shanghai, Eunoia Review, Singapore Unbound, and more. She studied comparative literature and creative writing at NYU and has since been working on her first novel.

Bobby Elliott is an award-winning poet and teacher. His debut collection of poems, The Same Man, was selected by Nate Marshall as the winner of the 2025 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. Raised in New York City, he earned his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and his M.F.A. from the University of Virginia, where he was a Poe/Faulkner Fellow. His writing has appeared in BOMB, The Cortland Review, Poet Lore, Poetry Northwest, RHINO, Smartish Pace and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and sons.