Christian Barragan is a fiction writer from Southern California. He has previously read for Flash Fiction Magazine and Muse Literary Journal. His work mostly falls into science-fiction or horror, and often explores personal identity, memory, and the transformation of characters caught between worlds.
Sofia Escobar has published work in Rising Phoenix Review, Rectangle, The Academy of American Poets, Outrageous Fortune, and others. From 2022 to 2024, she was the recipient of The Anna Sonder Prize, and in 2023 won the Eleanor B. North Poetry Award. Her forthcoming chapbook, Sky Scorpion, will be published by Dancing Girl Press in 2026.
Kaley Hutter is a poet and essayist from Charlottesville, Virginia. Her work has appeared in Meridian and The Harvard Advocate, among other journals, and she has received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. When not writing, she teaches collegiate composition, wonders about space and place, and looks at trees.
Lena Kinder emerged from the mudflats of Alaska as an oddity. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her works can be found floating around out there. She is the editor-in-chief at Folklore Review.
James Lex is a writer from Washington, D.C. focused on short stories and creative non-fiction essays.
Samantha Rosenthal is a journalist, historian, and award-winning author who, at the age of 42, decided to quit her job as a tenured college professor and become a full-time student again. She loves playing piano, being gay, and writing genre-destroying experimental prose.
Zach Shea is a fiction writer from Massachusetts. His work is a little pulpy and a little gross. Prior to Hollins, he spent ten years working as a civil servant in Madison, Wisconsin. In his free time he organizes community storytelling events and stage-manages amateur theater.
Grace Shelton is a fiction writer and translator from Dover, Pennsylvania, where she gains inspiration from late nights and one song looped over and over. A graduate of the Susquehanna University Writers Institute, her work has appeared previously in Rougarou, the AUIS Literary Journal, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbook Thank You for the Beautiful Life was published by Treehouse Editions in 2022.
Stella Stocker is a poet from Chatham, Illinois. She received her BS from Bradley University. When not writing or reading, she enjoys baking, sewing little thingamajigs, and lingering outside in the hopes of spotting cool bugs.
Anna Tipton
Hollins MFA 