Kristin Anahit Cass is a writer and multi-disciplinary artist. Cass’s work imagines the future, touches the past, and envisions a better world. As Tamar Boyadjian noted in Hyperallergic, Cass’s work “recognizes the lived experience of trauma, yet owns the ability of humans to individually and collectively reframe that experience in their hearts to make way for reparations.” In addition to her arts education, Cass has worked with women and minority owned businesses, artists, and nonprofits in her career as a lawyer. She is one of the founders of the LGBTQ platform Entanik (Family) where she’s active in supporting creatives in the global community. Cass is the author of Reparations of the Heart: Toward a SWANA Futurity, published by Fifth Wheel Press. Her Borderlands Under Fire project, including the books Borderlands Under Fire and The New Freedom Fighters: Women and Nonviolent Resistance, was a finalist for the 2018 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize. Her short story Zaruhi was published by antirrhinum. Cass has performed her work at 1001 Storytelling Nights, StoryLab and other venues. Her art work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions including Traversing Temporalities at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago, Reparations of the Heart at the Stamelos Gallery Center University of Michigan, Witness: The Artist’s Response at Elephant Room Gallery Chicago, as well as others. Cass is a graduate of the University of Chicago. Learn more about Cass at www.kristincass.com.

Jacob Budenz is a queer author, multi-disciplinary performer, and witch with an MFA from University of New Orleans and a BA from Johns Hopkins University. The author of queer magic realist short story collection Tea Leaves (Bywater Books 2023) and poetry chapbook Pastel Witcheries (Seven Kitchens Press 2018), Budenz has fiction and poetry in print journals including Slipstream and Assaracus; zeitgeisty online journals including Taco Bell Quarterly and Wussy Mag; and anthologies by Mason Jar Press, Unbound Edition, and more. A 2019 Baker Innovative Projects Grant winner for original experimental play Simaetha: a Dreambaby Cabaret, Jake is also the lead singer and lyricist of queer psychedelic pop darlings Moth Broth whose recent single “Willa” is supported through an upcoming remix by indie legends Xiu Xiu. Learn more about Budenz at www.jakebeearts.com.

Brent Love is an American memoirist and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. During his work as Roving Correspondent for the American Refugee Committee, Love covered stories across the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Love studied political science and international relations at Abilene Christian University and began his career in refugee resettlement in West Texas. He is the host of the surrogacy podcast Hope Works. Learn more about Love at www.heybrentlove.com.

J.P. Der Boghossian is the founder of the Queer Armenian Library – the world’s first library devoted to literature, film, and television by, about, and for Queer Armenians. He hosts the podcast This Queer Book Saved My Life which is a 2024 GLAAD Media Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow and his essays have appeared in We Are All Armenian (University of Texas Press), The Sun Isn’t Out Long Enough (Anamot Press), and Emerge (Lambda Literary). He additionally hosts The Gaily Show for AM950-KTNF in Minneapolis. He holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Minnesota. He resides with his partners, splitting their time between Minneapolis, MN and Barronett, WI. Learn more about Der Boghossian at www.jpderboghossian.com.