Brit Washburn is the author of the essay collection Homing In: Attempts on a Life of Poetry and Purpose (Alexandria Quarterly Press, 2023), and the poetry collections Notwithstanding (Wet Cement Press, 2019) and What Is Given (Wet Cement Press, 2025). She is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at Interlochen Arts Academy in Northern Michigan, where she was born and raised, and of Goddard College in Vermont. Brit has been awarded an artist's grant by the Vermont Studio Center and for many years served on the boards of the Poetry Society of South Carolina and the Low Country Initiative on the Literary Arts (LILA).  She co-directed the salon Poets House South and has worked as a freelance writer, editor, and indexer, a Montessori teacher, and instructor in the Great Smokies Writing Program at University of North Carolina Asheville.  A mother of four, Brit has lived in Asheville since 2017.  Her work can be found in print and online via www.britwashburn.com. 

Nickole Brown is author of Sister as well as Fanny Says, which won the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry. Currently, she lives in Asheville, NC, where she volunteers at several different animal sanctuaries. Since 2016, she’s been writing about these animals. To Those Who Were Our First Gods, a chapbook of these first nine poems, won the 2018 Rattle Prize, and her essay-in-poems, The Donkey Elegies, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020. Her poem “Parable” won the 2024 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize. Every summer, she teaches as part of the low-residency MFA Program at the Sewanee School of Letters. She’s a Fellow of the Black Earth Institute and works full-time as President of the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, a nonprofit organization that aims to nurture a community hellbent on finding the words that protect and repair our climate-changed world. Hellbender's first annual poetry festival is set to launch in Black Mountain, NC, in October of 2026. 

Chelsea White-Hoglen, MSW, is a proud Appalachian mama, storyteller, community weaver, and political healer. In 2022, Chelsea gave birth to Rednecks Rising Media -- first as a podcast publication, which has since evolved to include publishing essays, podcast episodes, videos, zines, and beyond -- dedicated to unveiling Appalachia's shared experiences of radical struggle and survival, and reclaiming revolutionary solidarity to bring about collective liberation. Rednecks Rising is publishing their first ever full-length book, Fromthe Holler to the Sea: An Anthology of Words & Images by Survivors ofHurricane Helene, on the anniversary of Helene. Created in partnership with Dandelion Scribes, the anthology features over 30 contributors in a collection of beautiful, heartbreaking works that speak to the impact of Helene in Southern Appalachia. You can find the latest releases from Rednecks Rising, Chelsea, and our co-conspirators at www.rednecksrising.com. You can reach out to partner or collaborate with Rednecks Rising by sending an email to rednecksrising@proton.me. 

Daniel Suber is someone that appreciates each and every person on this planet and he is thankful for his time here. He is a graduate of Asheville High School, AB-Tech, and UNC Asheville with a focus on sociology and biology. He likes how nature takes care of us and respects the power that it carries. Daniel is someone who was affected by and lost a family member to Hurricane Helene. So especially in this time, he really enjoys connecting with friends, family, loved ones, and people that carry love.