MIDTERM FIVE: Interlace / Intersect
For this issue, we were interested to see how poets play with the divide between interlacing things together and intersecting things apart. Our intention was to make this issue a highlight of how poetry can intersect with community, geography, class, identity, historical event, and different areas of study. Our hope was to pay respect to the identity of the poet while providing a space for their work to simultaneously amplify, interlace, and intersect with other works in order to create a stronger whole.
CONTRIBUTORS
ANASTASIA LE is a poet and student co-operative member from the Lake Chabot area of the East Bay. Her work appears in the 2021 Southeast Asian Student Coalition Anthology. Her poetry concerns reconciliation: political, sacramental, and otherwise. She received her BA in comparative politics from UC Berkeley. Anastasia is currently a 2021/22 Poetry & the Senses undergraduate fellow at the UC Berkeley Arts Research Center.DARREN DONATE is a first generation Mexican-American and visual poet. He previously obtained his MFA at the University of New Mexico. Darren is currently teaching high school and coaching wrestling in Tucson, Arizona.
DURE AHMED is a Pakistani poet who lives in Arizona. Her chapbook, Suddenly Fragrant, was a winner of the Jubilat Chapbook Contest in 2019.
ELISHA MYKELTI (she/her/hers) is dedicated to musical, dialectical, and innovative poetry that honors time and place, especially the South. Elisha is a 2nd-grade associate teacher and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee. She has been published in Berkeley Poetry Review (Issue 51), and she has hosted “Writin’ Rhythm – A Writers Workshop” for Sundress Publications.
ELIZABETH FENG is a visual artist, writer, and programmer from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the recipient of a 2021 Poetry & the Senses Fellowship from UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center.
IAN HOLOMBO Lillian, or Ian for short, (he/him/she/her) is an 18-year-old bigender queer college student currently studying English: Creative Writing at the University of Washington. He grew up in Santa Cruz, CA, and lived there his entire life before moving to Seattle this fall. She has been writing for multiple years and has always been delighted by the ways in which she can manipulate language and the world around her with words. Many of his works deal with emotions, human connection, and love in all its forms. Ian hopes to do some good through writing about these incredibly good things. Other good things she loves are her very perfect dogs, most if not all pasta/noodle dishes, and 99% of all shades of green. He thanks you for reading his work!
IRIS MORRELL is an artist, writer, and student living in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, where her work considers memory and language in Jewish mysticism.
JOHNNY T lives in the Pacific Northwest teaching writing in rural communities and working towards an MFA from University of Texas El Paso. When he can find the time, he likes to get lost in the mountains looking at mushrooms and talking to trees. Work by Johnny has won the Mikrokosmos Journal 2020 fiction contest and has appeared in West Trade Review, Allegory Ridge, Cardinal Sins, and more.
JULIA CUNNINGHAM is a queer, disabled writer from Los Angeles currently based in the Bay Area. She studies English and Disability Studies at UC Berkeley and loves practicing fiber art in her free time.
M. B. KRITIKOPOULOS is an upcoming poet and freshman at UC Berkeley. This publication is her first.
MIKAL WIX was born in Miami, Florida, of green-thumbed, hydrophilic parents. Growing up in the Melting Pot offered insights into other outlooks, and later, the visions of a revenant from the Appalachian closet. He holds degrees in literature and creative writing, and his poems have found homes in Beyond Queer Words, Tahoma Literary Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Angel Rust Magazine, and others. When not pruning kudzu, he can be found in the woodlot smoking bees.
PATRIZIA PEDRAZA (Madrid, 1995) is a Spanish writer and photographer. She is based in Toulouse, France, where she finishes her studies in philosophy. Lullaby is her first published poem. You can find more of her work at www.patriziapedraza.com.
SOPHIA ZUO (she/her) is a poet based in Taiwan, having lived most of her life in New York and being born to two immigrants, her poetry strongly focuses on identity and discovery. In her free time, she likes reading modern lit. and listening to good music.
TALIA FOX is a writer currently based in San Francisco. She did her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, where she studied Japanese and creative writing. Her work in interested in folklore, lineage, translation, and colour.