JUDGES

Art

Rachel Campbell is originally from Christchurch, New Zealand. She has lived in the USA since 2003. She went to the Otago School of Art in Dunedin, New Zealand and the Central School of Art in Toronto, Canada. Rachel has lived and exhibited in the United Kingdom, Germany, and New Zealand, as well as in the USA. She has received numerous awards and fellowships including the Emerging Artist Grant for Durham in 2013 and 2022, Southern Arts Grant in the UK, and fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, and the Key West Artist Residency. Most recently she was in New American Paintings South Edition #160 2022. Her work is in public and private collections in many countries, including Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fidelity Investments, and UNC Rex Hospital. Rachel is like a visual poet who writes about the everyday, but she is expressing her experience of life in paint. She frequently explores the urban landscapes of the American South and of her homeland, New Zealand. Her images also invariably presuppose narratives. These often then combine to evoke the sense of belonging that we all long for no matter what our particular environment might be.

Fiction

Jacqui Castle is an educator and novelist living and writing in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. Castle has been published in a variety of publications including Mountain Xpress, WNC Woman, Asheville Grit, and Explore Asheville. Her novel The Seclusion, which School Library Journal called “a must-have for all libraries and fans of sci-fi,” garnered Castle the title of 2020 Indie Author of the Year through the Indie Author Project (a collaboration between Library Journal and Biblioboard). Castle currently teaches creative writing through the Great Smokies Writing Program. When not writing, Jacqui can be found hanging out with her family and consuming far too much caffeine.

Nonfiction

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Olivia Gatwood has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Olivia’s performances have been featured on HBO, Huffington Post, MTV, VH1, and BBC among others. Her poems have appeared in Sundance Film Festival , Lambda Literary, The Missouri Review, and on The Poetry Foundation website, among others. She is the author of two poetry collections, NEW AMERICAN BEST FRIEND and LIFE OF THE PARTY. She is the co-writer of the film THE GOVERNESSES alongside director Joe Talbot. Her debut novel, WHOEVER YOU ARE, HONEY, will be released in 2023.

Poetry

Jaki Shelton Green is the first African American and third woman to be appointed as the North Carolina Poet Laureate. When he appointed her in 2018, Governor Cooper stated that “Jaki Shelton Green brings a deep appreciation of our state’s diverse communities to her role as an ambassador of North Carolina literature. Jaki’s appointment is a wonderful new chapter in North Carolina’s rich literary history.”

Staff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ABIGAIL WELCH

ART EDITOR

HOPE MUTTER

FICTION EDITOR

XENIA WEAKLY

PUBLICITY EDITOR

ANISTYN GRANT nonFICTION EDITOR

MEREDITH WHITLEY

POETRY EDITOR, Treasurer

ZOE NICHOLS

WEBSITE editor

ISABELLA REILLY

DESIGN editors

JANE DURDEN

LUCY SMITHWICK

Art Staff

JAQUELINE ARI

CHARLOTTE BRECKENRIDGE

ISABELLA GAMEZ

LIZZIE HERRING

ALICE HUFFSTETLER

ESMÉ KERR

GEORGIA PHILLIPS

MADI SPEYER

LILLI TREPPEL

nonFICTION STAFF

LUNA HOU

EMMA NELSON

ASHLEY MCGUIRE

ANNA MARIE SWITZER

CIARA RENAUD

JESSICA HOFFMAN

MACON PORTERFIELD

Publicity Staff

SA’TIA BROWN

ELISABETH JORDAN

CARLY BARELLO

Fiction Staff

NEHA JONNALAGEDDA

KASEY PRICE

PAULINA LOPEZ

JESSICA JONES

RYAN PHILLIPS

RIO JANISCH

DELANEY PHELPS

GEORGIA CHAPMAN

Poetry Staff

EMMA KAPLON

VIVIAN WORKMAN

ANNA VU

AMELIA LOEFFLER

ADAM TATUM