Samantha Stevens
To my whole self in every time in relation to no one else - 1st place
Samantha Stevens is a queer, black writer and educator from the East Coast living in San Francisco. They are a current MFA candidate in poetry at the University of San Francisco and have received fellowships from Winter Tangerine, The Watering Hole, Community of Writers, and Kearny Street Workshop’s Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab. Often occupied with finding new ways to dream and exist, she is working to build an integrative practice centering writing, creativity, community, movement, wellness, healing, and ritual. She currently teaches writing and is working on her first collection of poetry, writing through the body, diaspora, ancestral inheritance, mental health, illness, and queer love and desire.
Elias Udo-Ochi
WILD NOSTALGIA - 2nd place
Elias Udo-Ochi (He/Them) is a queer Nigerian poet and literary critic of Igbo descent. They have poems published in Heroin Chic Mag, African Writers, Poetry Column-NND, Mojave Heart Review, Salmon Creek Journal, Feral Poetry, Olùmo Review, Woodward Review and another forthcoming from Black Warrior Review. A 2018 Wawa Book Review Young Literary Critic Fellow, their manuscript FLOWER BOYS was a finalist for the Kissing Dynamite 2021 Micro chapbook contest. Their poem was recently longlisted for the 2022 Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest judged by Diane Seuss. In November 2022, they hosted a virtual conversation with Romeo Oriogun and Eghosa Imasuen for the Benin Arts and Book Festival (BAABFEST). Most of their writing intersects where the body is sacred, individual and accompanied by a trauma of place. They are a member of The Deadliners, a collective of badass Nigerian creatives. Elias tweets @Eliasandrevn.
D’mani Thomas
wedding annotations in case of future possibilities - 3rd place
D'mani Thomas is a writer from Oakland, California (Ohlone territory). He’s interested in the tiny moments that capture attention spans. He has received invitations to fellowship from The Watering Hole, Foglifter, Afro Urban Society, and UC Berkeley’s Art & Research Center via The Engaging the Senses Foundation. Their work can be found in : The Auburn Avenue, The Shade Journal, The Ana, and elsewhere. D’mani’s chapbook, “Grown-up Elementary”, is now available via Nomadic Press. Outside of poetry, catch them studying horror movies, dancing, and eating too many fries.