Matthew Burgess is an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College. He is the author of a poetry collection, Slippers for Elsewhere (UpSet Press, 2014), and two children’s books, Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings (Enchanted Lion Books, 2015) and The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon (Knopf, 2019). He edited an anthology of visual art and writing titled Dream Closet: Meditations on Childhood Space (Secretary Press, 2016), as well as a new collection titled Spellbound: The Art of Teaching Poetry (Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2019). A poet-in-residence in New York City public schools since 2001, he also serves as a contributing editor of Teachers & Writers Magazine. 

Susan Karwoska is a writer, editor, and teacher. She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Fiction; a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace residency for emerging artists; and residencies at the Ucross Foundation and at Cummington Community of the Arts. From 2005-2014 she was the editor of Teachers & Writers Magazine and currently serves on its editorial board. She is also on the board of the New York Writers Coalition and has served on NYFA’s artist advisory board. She writes and edits for a variety of publications and organizations, works as a writer-in-the-schools, and lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is at work on a novel.

Meher Manda is a poet, short story writer, culture critic, and educator from Mumbai, India, currently based in New York City. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the College of New Rochelle where she founded the literary journal, The Canopy Review. Meher has taught poetry and writing workshops at the College of New Rochelle, Manhattanville College, Langston Hughes House, Central Library Queens, and as a teaching artist in public schools. Her debut chapbook of poetry, Busted Models, was published by No, Dear Magazine in Fall 2019. Her fiction and poetry has appeared in Epiphany Magazine, Los Angeles Review, Glass Poetry, Lumina, Newtown Literary, and is forthcoming in Hobart Pulp and They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Poetry. As a journalist, her work has appeared in Bustle, Scroll, Firstpost, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on her debut poetry manuscript and a short story collection, both centered around Indian women. 

Asari Beale is a writer, advocate for children’s literacy, and the Executive Director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Prior to joining Teachers & Writers, she served as a fundraising and communications professional at Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service and Reach Out and Read of Greater New York. In addition, she has taught literature and creative writing at Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Fordham University.

Joshua Garcia is a poet, writer, and the office manager at Teachers & Writer’s Collaborative. His debut poetry collection, Pentimento, is forthcoming with Black Lawrence Press (2024). His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, Ninth Letter, North American Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the College of Charleston and was a 2021-22 Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University. He lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York.