Aleah Kennedy is a Missouri native with BA degrees in English and French, and she is currently in the Graduate Teacher Education Program at Portland State University. She is well versed in creative fictional and nonfictional poetry, however she occasionally challenges herself with creative prose. Photo by Sara Swaty.

Helen Amirian is a visual and performance artist in her junior year at Portland State University. She plans to work in the social justice field as a grant writer for organizations that work to end gender-based violence. Helen is also the proud puppeteer of The Magical Genderqueer Croatian Unicorn which, she says, is by now “a phenomenon greater than you or I.”

Natalie Gulgren is a sophomore pursuing her degree in Child and Family Studies at Portland State University. Her hometown is Portland and she has enjoyed creative writing since she wrote her first piece in the 8th grade.

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Syd Porter is a student of art and creative writing at Portland State University. She is interested in all ranges of art, and she keeps a blog to record her creative journey: The toxxicduck Pond.

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Thea Prieto studied creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently earning her MFA in creative writing at Portland State University. She is also a fiction reader for the Portland Review, and a writer for Oregon Music News. Learn more at theaprieto.com.