The 30/30 Project: Volunteer Poets

Brigid Cooley (she/her/hers) is a Texas-grown poet, journalist and storyteller dedicated to highlighting the stories of others, while also carving out a space to share her own. She previously served as co-host for the Sun Poets Society’s weekly poetry readings in San Antonio and currently hosts virtual readings and teaches poetry workshops. Her poetry has been published internationally in anthologies, magazines, collections and websites. Her debut collection of poems, titled “family recipes” is being released in August 2023.

Elizabeth G. Howard (“Zed”) is a interdisciplinary writer and educator working in raw responses to our disposable culture; namely, patriarchal violence on women and marginalized peoples; human life wasted by the military industrial complex; and the bludgeoning of our planet by mindless consumption. Her work is service-based: she writes and gives away Demand Poetry at live and virtual events, teaches empowering workshops for those who feel they can’t write — or feel disempowered to share their voice. And she supports arts and social justice nonprofits in marketing their messages. She’s been publishing for decades, nationally and internationally, including “Letters from Home,” Boston Literary Magazine, American Craft, eMerge, and Bentlily. She a Writer’s Colony of Dairy Hollow resident, a 2023 Artists Leadership Fellow, and a 2022 Artists Inc. Fellow. She teaches Writing Workshop at Art School KC. Her chapbook “No Wonder” will be published in 2023.

Bridget Kriner (she/her) is a community college professor in Cleveland Ohio. Her work has appeared in Rattle (Poets Respond), Book of Matches, Shelia-Na-Gig, Whiskey Island and Split this Rock, where she won First Place in the Abortion Rights Poetry Contest in 2012. She published a chapbook, Autoethnography, with Guide to Kulchur-Green Panda Press, a local project in Cleveland in 2014.

Dennis Mahagin is a poet from Washington state. He is the author of the poem collections, “Grand Mal,” published by Rebel Satori Press, and “Longshot & Ghazal” published by Mojave River Press. His poems have appeared in journals such as “Exquisite Corpse,” “Absinthe Literary Review,” “Verse Wisconsin,” “Frigg Magazine” and “Stirring: A Literary Collection.”

Anna Priddy is an Instructor at Louisiana State University. Her poems have appeared in descant, Five Points, Connecticut Review, and other publications. Her first chapbook, King of Infinite Space, was published by in June by Finishing Line Press. She is a proud alumnus of the 30/30 project, having first participated in February 2021.

Named Georgia Author of the Year for her novel, 3 WOMEN WALK INTO A BAR, Linda is the creator of THE CARGO SERIES with Down & Out Books and the founder of WRITE BY THE WATER writing retreats. Her award-winning short stories, flash fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Walton Sun, Skirt!Magazine, Dogplotz, Moronic Ox, Best of North Georgia Mountains, various anthologies and too many dead lit magazines. 

   Hard at work on a mountain in North Georgia, Linda is putting the final touches on two novels, GET COZY and BAD FAITH while writing poetry inspired by her art, and weird, wild Mother Nature.

Bill Abbott has been involved in Poetry Slam since 1992 and is the author of Let Them Eat MoonPie, the history of poetry slam in the Southeast, and his first poetry collection, (My Life and Other) Famous Train Wrecks of Ohio (Milk & Cake Press). He has attended regional and national competitions, hosted three regional events, and organized and hosted poetry events across multiple cities and states. He has been published in Radius, The November 3rd Club, Flypaper Magazine, Jokes Review, The Broken Plate, Ghost City Review, and The Sow’s Ear. Having earned his MFA from Miami University in 2018, Mr. Abbott lives in Ohio and teaches creative writing at Central State University.

Claudia Arevalo was born in 1967 in Bogota, Colombia. She holds a B.A. in Modern Languages from Los Andes University and an M.F.A. in Nonfiction writing from Columbia University. She speaks English, Spanish, Italian and French. She has also started learning German. In 1993, she made her literary debut as a writer with the publication of her children’s book “The Chicken Tree” published by DG A&C Editores. Claudia has written three books “Body Parts” edited by her daughter Maria Jose Roa and self-published in 2022, “Green Mangoes with Salt” and “End of Life Love” which will be self-published in 2024. Her pieces are short stories that read like poems, poems that read like short stories. Fragmentary memoirs. She is currently working on a new piece titled “Feline obsessions”, “A tormented soapoperish latino drama”, “Purgatorio”, and a photo project titled “Sleeping Beauties”. Claudia Jane also works as a freelance translator and a creative writing professor. She’s the proud mother of Ana Maria, Maria Jose, Juan Pablo and Sophia Isabella, her most cherished creations. The latest member added to her tribe is Elena, her first grandkid.

Zoe Berger is a queer, multi-racial, Jewish writer from London. Her work arranges ideas of displacement and loss in earnest compositions. She lives and works in New York City.

Born and raised in Northern New Jersey, Isaiah Diaz-Mays is an Afro-Latino poet, novelist and screenwriter who loves music, film and theatre. An avid fan of Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Sade and Mary J. Blige, rhythm and blues heavily influences in his writing and everyday life. Isaiah loves the outdoors and activities such as hiking, white water rafting, snowboarding and fishing. He loves soul food, long walks along a river, and family visits to his native island of Puerto Rico.

Cathy Ferrell is a poet, writer, and educator from Central Florida. She finds inspiration in walking (anywhere), family, and the Sandhill cranes in her yard. She enjoys simplicity of form and complexity of language, torrential downpours, and tiny cups of Cuban coffee–the stronger the better. Her work can be found online at Red Noise Collective, Quibble.Lit, sinkhole, and Compulsive Reader, and in the scholarly collection, Shakespeare and Latinidad, edited by Trevor Boffone and Carla Della Gotta. Connect with Cathy at ferrellwords.com.

Michelle Frost lives and writes in Arizona. Her poetry has been published online recently in Write On Downtown and Tales From the Pandemic. She wrote business feature news for Southeast Examiner in Portland, Oregon for 3 years. As a former bookseller and Kids’ dept. manager, and her book reviews appeared in Portland Parents Magazine. She taught creative writing in the schools with Literary Arts, Young Audiences and Community of Writers while living in the Northwest. Her goal is to publish her children’s stories and a collection of essays about the follies of being human and how nature is saving us. Photography, gardening, and coffee factor in.

Laura Jean Henebry is a creative writer working on her first collection of poetry. She lives life at too high of a pitch, and often is writing well past an appropriate bed time. When not writing she is conjuring the ghosts of her most embarrassing moments and cuddling with her dogs. She resides in Troy, NY and can be found on Instagram under the handle @betweenthelinesandspaces.

Alex Moni-Sauri is a poet and artist in Washington state. She holds a BFA in interdisciplinary sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she minored in creative writing and graduated with a self-published book of drawings and writing (Do Not Pick At The Scab, 2015). Her interest in hybrid works, especially those combining text and image, led her to study poetry at the University of Washington and complete an MFA in creative writing. Her first chapbook of handwritten poems and drawings was published by GASHER Press (From the Shore, 2021).

Erika Seshadri lives on an animal rescue ranch in Florida with her family. Her short story, “Your Every Breath,” placed second in the 2022 Dreamer’s Creative Writing Magazine Flash Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared/is forthcoming with: Stonecrop Magazine; Burningword Literary Journal; Funicular; Button Eye Review; Quibble Lit; Hare’s Paw Literary Journal; The Closed Eye Open; and others.

Beth Suter started publishing poetry in 2013 and has since appeared in over forty publications including Colorado Review, New American Writing, Barrow Street, DMQ Review, and Birmingham Poetry Review. She won first place in the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Contest, Nature Category, in 2013 and was chosen as a finalist in the Pat Schneider Poetry Contest in 2015. A 2016 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference alumna, she has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and once nominated for a Best of the Net Prize in 2020. She participates widely in workshops and readings both in Davis and at the Sacramento Poetry Center. Her 2022 debut chapbook Snake and Eggs was a finalist in Finishing Line Press’s New Women’s Voices Contest. You can follow her at facebook.com/bethfsuter/