Kyndall Flowers is a poet from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Flowers competed in the international youth poetry festival, Brave New Voices, in 2017 and 2018. She has been published in HEArt Online’s “Let Me Love Me” edition, Auburn Avenue’s 2018 Spring/Summer edition, and the Pufferfish anthology. Flowers has been featured on National Public Radio and in 2017, Flowers co-authored "Joy, Despite." She is a Scorpio, and she while she is lactose intolerant, she is very stubborn.

Daphne Arko-Dadzie is an Architecture major at Howard University and unlike the people that share her brilliant skin color, she arrived in America on an 18-hour flight from her home in Accra, Ghana. Not on a boat. She takes great pride in the beautiful sub-Saharan nation she hails from and is hoping to return in the future to help introduce sustainable, eco-friendly housing for her people. She is the current Art Director of The Amistad Literary Journal and considers herself somewhat of an artist, hence the position. She is genuinely looking forward to giving upcoming artists of any background the opportunity to display their art.

Tre Merritt is an English major from St. Louis, Missouri. He likes learning languages and drinking iced coffee and posting blurry pictures on his instagram. He wants to own a used bookstore. Tre is not his real name. 

Jayden McClam (b. 1999) is a poet, community organizer, and learning healer from Buffalo, New York. They are currently studying Psychology and Creative Writing at Howard University, and can be found on twitter @rootlesbian06.

Vivien Rudisell is a freshman English major at Howard University. She’s had a love of learning and reading since childhood. She is a native of Salisbury, North Carolina. She loves podcasts, history, English, and pop culture, and she will talk forever about any of these topics if you let her.

Maya Simmons is a freshman English major at Howard University. She is a poet. Simmons was a frequenter of the Just Buffalo Literary Center, a place dedicated to the empowerment of young voices, through its workshops, teaching artists, and speaker series. Simmons spent her summer as an intern at JBLC, assisting to facilitate its first ever writers’ summer camp. She also completed an eight week creative project, a collection of poems, which she read in her fellowship showcase at the beginning of August.

​Nick Seifert is a writer and Master Instructor at Howard University. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing with a fiction concentration from George Mason University and a Master of Arts in English from St. Cloud State University. He has lived in the twin cities, the big apple, the land of morning calm, and the nation’s capital. With over a decade of experiences, Nick has actively taught many age groups from kindergarten to higher education all over the world including literature, composition, and creative writing. His fiction has appeared in various online and print publications. 

Abdul Ali is a lecturer in Howard University’s English department. He is the author of Trouble Sleeping, winner of 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize selected by poet Fanny Howe. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing at American University and did his undergraduate studies at Howard University. His poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous publications including National Public Radio, The Washington Post magazine, Poetry Foundation, Poet Lore and the anthology Full Moon on K Street, among others.