Meagan Chandler holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Baldwin Wallace University. She currently attends the Poetry MFA program at Bowling Green University. Her works have been published or are forthcoming in Everyday Fiction, Inscape, Allium, and The Ekphrastic Review. She placed as a finalist and runner-up in the 2023 competitions for the Hollin’s University Literary Festival. 

Caleb Edmondson is a second year MFA candidate in Poetry. A lifelong Ohioan, he completed his undergraduate studies at The University of Akron. Caleb spends too much time thinking about college sports, horror movies, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, though he may claim otherwise.

Jamie Manias is a poetry MFA student. They earned both their BA in Creative Writing and their MA in Writing Studies at the University of Toledo, making them a Falcon/Rocket hybrid abomination - a Focket, if you will. Their current hobbies include playing D&D, watching Transformers, and giving away stickers.

Mary Robles is from El Paso, Texas. She is a second-year MFA candidate in poetry and Poetry Editor at Mid-American Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, AGNI, and The Adroit Journal.

Elly Luisa Salah is from Michigan. She earned a BA in Sociology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  At BGSU, she currently co-manages the Mid-American Review blog.  Her work has been featured in DeFunkt Magazine, Revolute Literary Magazine, Strange Horizons, Taos Journal of Poetry, among others.  In her free time, Elly enjoys spending time with her clingy cats.

Meg is a second-year MFA student in Fiction. She completed her undergraduate degree in English at Missouri State University, where she also earned certificates in Editing and Publishing and in Writing for Television and Film. Her short story “One-Way Ticket to the Big Pit” received the Missouri State University Student Fiction Award. Her fiction has appeared in Moon City Review, Unfortunately, Literary Magazine, and On the Run.  

Muhammad Sheeraz Dasti's most recent books are House of Treasures: Perspectives on Urdu Literature (Pakistan Academy of Letters, 2022—a collection of Aamer Hussein's writings that Dasti co-edited with Shahbano Alvi), Muntakhib Amreeki Kahanian (Pakistan Academy of Letters, 2022—the Urdu translation of selected contemporary American short stories with Umaira Aleem), and Lisaniyat: Aik Jame Taaruf (Oxford University Press, 2022—an introduction to linguistics in Urdu co-authored with Muhammad Numan, Bibi Ameena, and Liaqat Iqbal). His previous publications include his Urdu novel, Sasa (Aks, 2018), and his short stories “Kill All the Bats” (Scoundrel Time) and “Angelina Jolie’s Kiss” (Visions).

Haley Souders is an MFA student in fiction at Bowling Green State University. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, she attended Emerson College where she majored in creative writing with a minor in publishing. Her writing focuses on a myriad of subjects. When not writing, she enjoys reading, going on walks, and playing guitar.

Jane Wageman is an MFA candidate in fiction writing at BGSU and a Hank Center Fellow through Loyola University Chicago. She received an MA in English from the University of Notre Dame (2017) and an M.Ed. from the University of Portland (2015). She currently works as the managing editor for Mid-American Review. Her thesis project, a novel about a large Catholic family in the Midwest, explores the nature of the mind, the degree to which we know our own thoughts, and the tensions between belief and doubt. She also writes about teaching, reading, and writing on the Substack Quick Bright Things.

Carla (Liz) Barnett received their BFA in Creative Writing at Bowling Green State University in May 2023. In their undergraduate, they were the historian for the Bowling Green State University chapter of Sigma Tau Delta. During this time, Liz minored in Classic Civilizations and studied Latin even after graduating. Something Liz enjoys about writing is adaptation and focusing on how we can take myths, stories, legends, etc. and make them work in today's world. Outside of academics they enjoy drawing, playing video games, and spending time with their cats.

Serenity is an international MFA student from Freeport, Bahamas. She graduated with a BA in English from the University of the Bahamas in 2023. Serenity has a deep love of reading and writing. Her works focus on realistic fiction, speculative fiction, historical fiction, and postcolonial fiction. She enjoys writing about the Bahamian culture and life. Serenity is also inspired by her Haitian background. Serenity aims to become an English professor and publish her creative works in the future.

Nathan Fako graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor's in English. After participating in Teach for America in Greenwood, Mississippi, he moved back to Salt Lake City and has been teaching high school Language Arts/IB for the past four years.

Jaden Gootjes is an MFA poetry student from Grand Rapids, Michigan. She graduated from Northern Michigan University with her B.S. In English in 2024. Her work appears in Qua and Literary Veganism. Her poetry generally focuses on themes of feminism, animal rights, and mental health. She likes to spend her time knitting, reading, playing video games, and cuddling with her cat, Bear.

Hannah Goss is an MFA fiction student originally from Lancaster, PA. She received her bachelor's degree in English Writing from Duquesne University where she also minored in Sociology and Women's and Gender studies. Her writing often deals with family relationships and identity, and she enjoys playing with second person. Her short story "Say You're Ok" received Duquesne University's Carroll Creative Writing Award and her story "Fuzzy Head" was published in Fiction on the Web. She admires writers like Sally Rooney, Lorrie Moore, Ottessa Moshfegh, Carmen Maria Machado, and Deesha Philyaw. When she's not writing, she loves to read, hike, and buy overpriced coffees from local coffee shops.

Carolyn is a Pennsylvania native who's had the privilege of living all across the country in places like Colorado, California, and Hawaii through a range of unconventional work and volunteer experiences.

Following a several-year hiatus from college during which she reflected upon her interests and gained life experience, Carolyn recently graduated with her B.F.A. in Creative Writing from Penn State University, the Erie Campus. As an undergrad, she tutored English, co-led the Student Garden Club, and served as a fiction editor for Lake Effect, the college's literary journal. She looks forward to earning her M.F.A. in Creative Writing so she can pursue a career in teaching, editing, or both.

When not reading or writing, Carolyn might be found walking in the woods, doting on her friends' pets, or driving the 250 miles to her aunt and uncle's farm in Pennsylvania.

Sydney Koeplin is a first-year MFA student at BGSU with a particular interest in speculative fiction. Much of her writing explores girlhood, the body, and place as character. Her work has been published in small-press anthologies and journals like the Corvus Review, Qu Literary Magazine, and Hypertext Magazine, among others. She completed her undergraduate degree in German Studies and English with a concentration in creative writing from Colby College in 2021, where she won the Elmira Nelson Jones Prize for Creative Writing the same year. In her free time, you can usually find her swimming laps or sitting in coffee shops for hours at a time.

Garret Miller is a native of Northwest Ohio. He received a B.A. in English from The Ohio State University at Lima and writes poetry about people and place. He last placed work in the Lima anthology River and Rust. His interests include winter.

Melayna Pongratz is a poet and visual artist pursuing their MFA in Creative Writing. Their work explores themes like queerness, grief, family, and self-acceptance. Melayna was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and earned their B.A. in English from Robert Morris University.

Anna Vaughn is a first-year MFA student in poetry and holds a B.A. and M.A. in English from Kent State University. Her writing often guides her back to her childhood home near Lake Erie, as she finds the Great Lakes to be filled with literary inspiration. She aims to teach creative writing in the future.