Guy Melvin was born in North Philadelphia, and lives in Brooklyn. He has spent the majority of his career working for nonprofits that provide underserved young adults with education and career opportunities. When not working or writing, he enjoys cooking, reading, running, and producing music with friends. He has an MA in Literary Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. His fiction can be found in Sundog Lit, ANMLY, A Long House Magazine, Cerasus Magazine and other journals. His short story ‘Champagne Pools’ was a 2023 Finalist for Best of the Net. He’s at work on a novel as well as a book of short stories. http://www.guymelvin.com  

Darise JeanBaptiste is a writer born and raised in the Bronx. She earned her MFA from Rutgers-Newark and her MA in English from Brooklyn College. She is a board member with Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, a community arts organization where she attended youth summer camp. She also volunteers with Lampblack, an organization created in 2020 to support Black writers. Her work is featured at Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, Nature, Electric Literature, Green Mountains Review, and Aster(ix) Journal. When she’s not writing, Darise enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, traveling to her father’s homeland of St.Lucia with her sisters, or visiting dessert shops in Brooklyn, where she currently lives with her partner.

Eliamani Ismail – Eliamani Ismail is a writer and filmmaker from Washington, D.C., by way of Mali and Tanzania. She holds a B.A. in Film and Africana Studies from Scripps College and an MFA from University of Maryland. Outside of writing, Eliamani works as an educator, editor, and arts organizer. She teaches undergraduate writing at the University of Maryland, and serves as a fiction editor at Lampblack Magazine, a publication dedicated to uplifting Black writers. Her fiction often navigates African dignity, diaspora, and female agency with a strong commitment to anti-colonial perspectives. She has been supported by fellowships from the Aspen Institute, Brooklyn Poets, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Kimbilio for Black Fiction. She lives in Brooklyn and is at work on her first novel.

Karen Hill Crowell is a freelance writer and copywriter who collaborates with clients ranging from global retailers to emerging brands. She’s currently at work on her first novel, which follows a twenty-something navigating the aftermath of a friendship breakup as she reckons with burgeoning adulthood, belonging, and starting over. Karen’s creative interests go beyond the page; she’s been knitting for most of her life and also enjoys crocheting, painting and tending to her small-but-mighty garden. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and now resides in Jersey City with her husband and daughter.

Alicia Harrmon is a writer of fiction, poetry, and film scripts. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s in sociology and African American and African Diaspora Studies with minors in psychology, Spanish, and creative writing. Her work focuses on the rawness, complexity, and political nature of intimacy in its various forms: familial, platonic, romantic, and sexual. Her fiction is published in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, and her poetry is upcoming in the Praisesong for the People printed anthology. Additionally, she wrote and co-directed a short film titled White Dresses with filmmaker Musila Munuve. Now a fiction fellow at the Michener Center for Writers, she lives in Austin, Texas. Instagram: @aliciaharmon_

Racquel Goodison was born and raised in the Caribbean Island of Jamaica. She writes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and has been a resident at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio Center, Millay, Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Saltonstall Arts Colony, among others. She was also awarded the Astraea Emerging Lesbian Writer’s Grant. She is on faculty at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and was a New York Writers’ Coalition workshop leader for several years. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.  Instagram: @racquelgoodison

Kami Enzie is a New Orleans-raised, D.C.-based writer. His work appears in Chicago Review, The Glacier, Image, New American Writing, Obsidian, Passages North, and Quarter Notes, among others. He is an alumnus of Tin House Winter Workshops, VCFA’s Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Instagram: @yungwerther

Erica David was a bit of a Wookiee as a kid—hairy and prone to emitting ear-splitting sounds without reason. She has since learned to use her “inside voice” and authored over sixty books and comics for young readers. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn. As a writer, educator and administrator, she has a keen interest in the ways that language and narrative shape experience, particularly their roles in creating stereotypes that have been used to prop up systems of oppression. This has led her to serve as the Director of the ACES Program for non-native English speakers at St. Joe’s and, most recently, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica.

C.G. Crawford is a writer from Birmingham, Alabama, but he calls home the place of his maternal roots in the rural parts of West Alabama. He is an MFA student in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. He has a political science degree from Auburn University at Montgomery and a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt University with concentrations in American Studies and Black Church Studies. His writing attempts to wrestle with the soul, the South, and the surreal in ways that give shape to a collective human experience.

Ashley M. Coleman is a writer and music industry executive with over a decade of experience nurturing creative talent. Her passion lies in building supportive communities for writers and artists from marginalized backgrounds, work that extends far beyond her published writing. In 2017, Coleman founded Permission to Write, a thriving community dedicated to Black writers and writers of color. Through this platform, she creates safe gathering spaces and provides educational opportunities that empower emerging voices. Coleman’s music industry work centers on supporting artists and creators, where she applies the same community-building principles that drive her literary advocacy. She believes in the transformative power of community and continues to develop programs and initiatives that provide both creative and professional development opportunities for underrepresented voices in the arts. Outside of that work, you can find her writing, listening to playlists, somewhere outside on a walk or hike with her husband, being a part of a fabulous (and supportive) community of writers in LA or buying books to add to her “To Be Read” cart.  Instagram: @ashleymcoleman_

Stefan Bindley-Taylor is a Trinidadian-American author, musician, and educator born and raised in Maryland. His stories balance absurdism, futurism, and sentiment to showcase characters from the Caribbean diaspora through a nuanced, humorous, and empathetic lens. His work has been published in several outlets including Adda, Brooklyn Rail, and NY Carib News. He is the winner of the 2025 Chautauqua Janus prize, the 2025 DISQUIET Flowers fellowship, and the 2024 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Prize, as well as a short-lister for the 2024 Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize, and a finalist for the PEN 2023 Emerging Voices Fellowship. He currently splits his time between New York City and Virginia, where he is pursuing his M.F.A at the University of Virginia. Outside of writing, Stefan received his M.Ed From Harvard Graduate School of Education and has worked as a teacher for over six years. He has also been a performing musician for over a decade. He writes and performs in a punk project called FISHLORD and an alternative hip-hop project called Nafets. He is an avid chess player, a disgruntled Manchester United fan, and a Caribbean foodie. https://www.instagram.com/stef_b.t/ 

Emma Akpan is a writer who lives in Washington, DC, and was born in Toledo, Ohio. She is working on a novel about a thirteen year old girl in Toledo who uses hip-hop to navigate her difficult childhood, and a collection of short stories about women encountering gentrification in Washington, DC. She writes about girlhood, the unsaid, fugue and paths of escape, and agency for the powerless.  Emma loves exploring other creative pursuits by baking cookies, taking pictures, or making floral arrangements or finding the best cup of coffee. Emma has been awarded a residency at Blue Mountain Center. She has participated in Kenyon Review Summer Workshop, Tin House Summer Workshop and is VONA Voices Fellow.  Her writing has appeared in Reckon Magazine, New City Art, TBD Health, Rewire News, The Raleigh News and Observer and The Root. You can find more about Emma at emmaakpan.com, on Instagram @emmanism.  [Emma was scheduled for the 2024 retreat, but got waylaid by travel troubles.  We’re glad she’s able to join us for this summer’s retreat.]