2023 Fellows

Johanna Bear

Jo Bear (she/her) is a queer and disabled poet and scholar based in Dublin, Ireland. She recently graduated from University College Dublin with her MA in Drama & Performance Studies and received her BA in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Theatre from Franklin & Marshall College. Her poetry has been published in ROPES Literary Journal, Oakland Arts Review, and Killjoy Literary Magazine. She is an incoming MFA candidate in poetry at North Carolina State University. Follow her on IG: @johannabear35 or FB: Jo Bear

Image description: Jo, a white person with short brown hair wearing a blue, yellow, and green patterned shirt, is standing on the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Below her are hexagonal rock formations and behind her is the quiet raging of the Atlantic. She is smiling softly into the camera with her hands in her pockets and one leg slightly in front of the other to help keep her balance.

Kwame Sound Daniels

Kwame Sound Daniels (xe-xir) is a traditional and fiber artist based out of Maryland. Xe are an Anaphora Arts Residency Fellow and an MFA candidate for Vermont College of Fine Arts. Xir first collection of poetry, Light Spun, was published in 2022 with Perennial Press. Xir second book, the pause and the breath, was on Lambda Literary’s Most Anticipated for January and came out in 2023 with Atmosphere Press. Kwame learns plant medicine, paints, and makes what can tentatively be called potions in xir spare time. Follow xir on IG: @the.okra.winfrey

Image description: Kwame Sound Daniels looks into the camera. Xe are a round-faced black femme with black curly hair dusted with copper. Xe are wearing silver earrings and a silver septum piercing. Xir clothes are a charcoal gray wrap over a black button-down. Xe are standing in front of the entryway to a kitchen.

Rel Feannag

Rel Feannag (he/him) is a queer, trans, and multiply disabled writer who survived a rural childhood of religious cults and institutional violence. He focuses on building narratives across mediums to explore how stories communicate with and through each other. His work explores PTSD, disability/bodily autonomy, abuse, and the survival power of rage in art. He writes in spite and with hope. Follow him on IG: @relfeannag

Image Description: A white person with black-framed glasses wears a black N95 mask over a white surgical mask. He has dark brown hair that falls below his ears, a pair of black headphones around his neck, a black thread necklace, and a light grey ombré sweater on. In the background is a blue sky, green trees, and a metal fence. His eyes are crinkled, indicating that he is smiling under the mask.

Jonathan michael Fletcher

Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher (he/him), a disabled poet of color, currently resides in New York City, where he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Columbia University School of the Arts.  His work has been featured by The League of Women Voters of the San Antonio Area and at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.  He has served as a poetry editor for Exchange, Columbia's literary magazine for incarcerated writers and artists. Follow him on IG: @jonathan.fletcher9 or Facebook.

Image description: Photo of poet Jonathan Fletcher, only the outline of his stubbled face visible, reflecting the common yet inaccurate perception of him as a non-disabled writer--a perception that discounts his real struggles with expressive aphasia, OCD, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.  Despite such daunting and chronic challenges, Jonathan has learned to find joy in the everyday, such as the busy traffic, congested sidewalks, and immense digital screens and billboards of Times Square at night, all of which he sees and savors and for which he smiles in deepest gratitude.

Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine

Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine (she/her) is an Arab disabled queer spoken word poet / PhD candidate at University of Illinois Chicago studying the use of spoken word poetry as critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about ableism and disability justice in healthcare. Sabrina serves on the board of directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities and has performed a TEDx spoken word poem on her experience with Islamophobia, xenophobia, and identity-based self-hatred of minorities [go.osu.edu/tedxsabrina]. Follow her on IG: @sabsie_ali or Facebook.

Image description: A brown skinned Arab woman with large chocolate brown eyes, long eyelashes, natural black eyebrows, dark brown natural curls that are straightened and parted on the side, nude lips, and a defined jawline. Sabrina’s head is tilted, she wears a gold Arabic necklace slightly covered by her extended arm that’s resting on her leg covered with mother’s hand-me-down white pants from the 70s. She wears a black tank top and is situated in front of a grey backdrop at a studio. 

Petra Kuppers

Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist. Her third poetry collection, Gut Botany, was named one of the top ten US poetry books of 2020 by the New York Public Library, and won the 2022 Creative Book Award by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. She is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. Learn more on her website and follow her on IG: petraturtledisco and FB: Petra Kuppers.

Image Description: Petra Kuppers, a white queer cis disabled woman of size, head tilted, smiles with twinkling eyes. She has yellow glasses, a shaved head, pink lipstick, purple scarf, polka-dot top, and one of her hands caresses the handlebars of Scootie, her mobility scooter, in front of an urban building with colored glass windows.

恖霝 Si-Ling

恖霝 Si-Ling (they/佢) is a Hong Kong-born writer who lives between cultures. In their artistic practice, they often explore the living and spirit worlds, philosophy, and translingual poetics. They studied Creative Writing and Art History at Hollins University. Their essays and poems can be read on Substack and in Bed Zine. Drawing from Narrative Practice, they are developing a series of anti-disciplinary workshops for the poet in everyone. Follow 佢 on IG: @wonton.zipx or Substack.

Image Description: 恖霝 Si-Ling, a Chinese person with black and blonde hair, stands in front of a video projection of a humpback whale’s tail. They are holding a microphone by their chin, looking downwards and smiling. The video casts a green tint over both people so that they appear to be underwater.

Ren L[i]u

Ren L[i]u ((they/he/他) is bracketed (for now). In figuring out how to translate [their]self, they are grateful for the spaces where they do not have to—those rooted in disability justice, their QTPOC poetry/spoken word families, and of course, their grandma's kitchen. In Ren's work facilitating community accountability processes and responding to crisis, they have grown to always turn to poetry as survival and pleasure in imagining our collective sick/disabled QTBIPOC liberation. Follow them on IG: @renallegedly and FB: Ren Liu

Image description: Ren is standing in front of brick wall in a pair of olive green overalls and a leather jacket. Ren is wearing an earring made from a real acorn and a felted green acorn on a necklace, and their glasses on a chain around his neck. Ren is an Asian trans masc person with shaved sides. 

Bri Joy Yakshini-Moore

Bri Joy Yakshini-Moore (ze/zir) is a podcaster, poet, and political agitator. As the Executive Producer of POWER NOT PITY, a podcast about the lives of disabled people of color, ze has contributed words and audio to many conversations about disability, race and gender within the podcasting industry and beyond. Bri is a proud Jamaican-American, queer, non-binary trans, disabled alien-prince from The Bronx. Follow zir on FB, IG, and Twitter @powernotpity.

Image Description: A photo of Bri Joy in front of a purple galaxy background. Ze is wearing a chartreuse robe, a lavender choker, lavender hexagonal glasses and a crown with resting leopards embroidered on it. 

Olivia Muenz

Olivia Muenz (she/her) is the author of poetry collection I Feel Fine (Switchback Books, 2023), winner of the 2022 Gatewood Prize, and chapbook Where Was I Again (Essay Press, 2022). She holds a BA from NYU and an MFA in creative writing from LSU, where she received the Robert Penn Warren Thesis Award in prose. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in New England Review, The Missouri Review, Poetry Daily, Michigan Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Follow her on FB, IG, and Twitter: @oliviamuenz.

Image description: Olivia Muenz, a white woman with long brown hair and brown eyes, is smiling and wearing a navy sweater. She is in sunlight in front of rows of evergreen trees.

karĩmi Ndwiga

Karĩmi Ndwiga (she/they) is a cultural worker, independent researcher, and archivist based in so-called orange county, california. Her writing explores Blackness, grief, and place. Inspired by the stories she heard her elders share as a child, they use poetry to process what is and imagine what could be. Follow them on social media @wangamiro.

Image description: An image of Karĩmi sitting crossed-legged on the floor. She is wearing a green outfit, a white tie, and black boots. They are surrounded by books and newspapers. The backdrop is orange. 

Olivia Pepper

Olivia Pepper (they/she/he, interchangeable) is a mystic practitioner, cultural theorist and avid naturalist who currently resides as an uninvited guest on chihene land, far from city lights, beneath and amidst the stars. Olivia is perhaps deliberately hard to describe, carries many names, tells many stories and wears many hats. most of the time lately Olivia tries to find stillness; sometimes succeeds. Follow them on IG: @oliviapepper

Image description: [olivia does not have accurate pronouns in english; it is acceptable to use they, she or he interchangeably.] in this photographic portrait, taken by jonah welch, Olivia stands on the green metal deck of a ferry boat with both hands clasped near their mouth. the horizon is vagued by fog in the background. his jacket is blue and grey with a vining pattern, and on his head is an antique crown made of seed pearls. Olivia's eyes are downcast, and she appears contemplative and perhaps sorrowful.

Kris Ringman

Kris Ringman (she/they) is a deaf queer poet, novelist, and artist. They are the author of Sail Skin: poems (Handtype Press, 2022) and two Lambda Literary finalist books: I Stole You: stories from the fae (Handtype Press, 2017) and Makara: a novel (Handtype Press, 2012). Kris is currently working on their next poetry collection and lyrical fiction novels that play along the boundaries of magical realism, fantasy, and horror. Find them on their website or follow them on FB or IG.

Image Description: A femme-looking non-binary person with wavy auburn hair, hazel eyes, and a gold hoop nose ring wearing a black tank top with a piece of fox skin over their right shoulder is sitting in front of a marsh of green cattails with tall pine trees along the horizon looking at the camera with sunlight streaming through the photo and a shaggy tan colored dog with a black nose and ears and its tongue out in the lower right corner.

Armaan Sing

Armaan Singh is a Neurodivergent TransMasculine Artist, Comedian and Survivor. Armaan traces his ancestral roots to East Punjab, officially located in Northern India. Armaan has been writing poetry in his native language- Punjabi- from the age of 13. Over the years, his craft has evolved into spoken word pieces, songs and comedy. He is passionate about using his voice to say what is not said enough. Centering Queer voices, and Survivorship is what drives his work, and he believes his life's purpose is to leave the world better than he found it. Follow him on IG: @armaan_thpoet.

Image Description: Armaan Singh (he/him) smiling at a friend; wearing a green jacket over a white sweatshirt that has blue + pink splash colors, and a blue bandana with white patterns. Image also vividly captures several plant in the background, orange/yellow flowers on the table and a white mug.

Su Zi

Su Zi (she/her) is a Poet-Writer, Artist, Equestrian, Second Generation Eco-Feminist, Disabled by both genetics and unhappy events. Publications in poetry, essay, review, fiction and art. She has published books that are available for you to read, please. SuZi is also a solo artist/editor of Red Mare, an eco-feminist, artist-made, hand sewn, art cover, numbered limited poetry chapbook series. She feeds birds and tries to garden. Follow her on Twitter and IG: @xsuzi00.

Image description: A Pinto Chincoteague pony hitched to a road cart and driven by Su Zi, who is wearing a light jacket and hat.

Norah Tafere

Norah Tafere (she/they) is a 27-year-old self-diagnosed autistic woman who writes primarily free-form poetry and short stories. She was born and raised in east Africa, and now resides in Canada where they are working on putting together a poetry anthology to submit for publishing. Norah operates from an anarcho-communist and empathy-driven framework and hopes to help even one person feel acceptance and envision a better world through her writing. Follow them on IG and FB.

Image description: Norah is standing in a park with the sky, trees and a picnic table behind them. Norah is dressed in a black blouse and wearing red lipstick.