Kara Briggs

Kara Briggs was a career journalist for two decades telling the stories of Western United States from two leading regional newspapers before launching a popular column in ICT about cancer in tribal communities while she battled cancer and survived. She has worked with tribes from Arizona to Alaska in various professional roles and now serves as Vice President of Tribal Lands and Waters Stewardship at Ecotrust, a non-profit for which she works with tribes across the West Coast. This is her first collection of poetry.

Website: https://www.karabriggs.com/

Kelly Lenox

Kelly Lenox’s poetry and essays are inspired by our Earth and cosmos. Her first collection of poetry is The Brightest Rock, and she publishes a new essay each month at Mama Ephemera’s Muddy Feet, on Substack. Other writing has been published in the US and abroad. Most recently, Kelly served as a science editor and writer for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She’s also worked at Oxford University Press, Powell’s Books, the Environmental Protection Agency, and as a poet in the schools in the Portland area, where she lives.

Website: https://kellylenox.com/

Claudia Castro Luna

Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018 – 2021) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). She is the author of Cipota Under the Moon (Tia Chucha Press, 2022) and Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press, 2017) both shortlisted for the WA State Book Award in poetry, 2023 and 2018 respectively. She is also the author of One River, A Thousand Voices (Chin Music Press, 2020) and the chapbook This City (Floating Bridge Press, 2016). Her most recent non-fiction is in There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis (Vintage) and in Memory's Vault: The Poetic Heart of Fort Worden (Empty Bowl). Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna lives in English and Spanish, and she writes and teaches in Seattle on unceded Duwamish lands.

Website: https://www.claudiacastroluna.com/books

Speakthunder Berry

Master Salish Artist · Drum Maker · Cultural Educator Native American artist with 26+ years of experience specializing in Coastal Salish formline design. As a multigenerational horseman, my resilience was forged in the traditions of the Nakota Sioux, the Columbia River people, and the Aztec, with the Puyallup tribe serving as the foundation of my intertribal style. The grit of the rodeo—of broncs and bulls—taught me the humility required to serve. Today, I use my inheritance as a multigenerational drum maker and artist to advocate for those transitioning out of treatment and seeking a new path.

Website: https://speakthunderart.app/