Volume 14: Illumination (2025)

Bella Aase (she/they) is a recovering perfectionist with Bipolar II disorder. She is a graduate student in the MFA Creative Writing program at Hamline University. Their work has appeared in Serotonin and This Was 2020. Bella lives in Minneapolis on Dakota land, with her husband, John, who is also a writer.

folaṣade adesanya (b. 1992) is a blooming neuro/quirky agender poet and curator. their practice is rooted in an ongoing self-study and co-creative process with their ancestors, intrinsically aligned with their spiritual practice. folaṣade is a current fellow with the Emerging Curators Institute and was selected for the “Go Back & Fetch It” mentorship program. she has published writing with Hair + Nails, The Kitchen and Minnesota Women’s Press. she is an aspiring flower farmer and beekeeper. she was born and raised on Ohlone lands and is currently living on Anishinaabe and Dakota lands with her cat parsley.

Ayan Ahmed is a sophomore at Humboldt High School in Saint Paul. She enjoys writing, discussions, and reading manga. She works hard in her classes, and her education is important to her and her family. Ayan is a first-generation child and is fluent in Somali. Ayan likes to write heartwarming poetry. She believes that her culture helped her express her love for literature.

Bjorn Arneson is a lifelong Minnesotan and current resident of the West Side neighborhood of Saint Paul. His family includes several professional and amateur musicians who never miss the opportunity to nurture a musical earworm. Some are long remembered and others soon forgotten.

Katie Bendickson (Wóokiye Wíŋ) is Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ Dakhóta. She is a student and teacher of Dakhóta language and a freelance artist, writer, and illustrator.

Alyssa Berry has been making up stories ever since she was a little girl. She was born and raised in Minnesota and currently lives in Inver Grove Heights. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and playing video games.

Mary Ann Boe is a community weaver and grief companion, inspired by the fourteen years she spent caring for her son, Déva. Following his death, she cofounded the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, a leading venue for global music and dance. As a healthcare visionary, Mary Ann cofounded the Journey Guide Project. This initiative leverages compassion, connection, and story stewardship to address gaps in modern healthcare. Mary Ann leads the Compassionate Communities UK movement in the US and created the nation’s first public health Compassionate City through NicBluCares. She coleads the Charter for Compassion’s Health Sector Team to create an environment where patients feel heard, understood, and respected, leading to improved patient experiences and better health outcomes.

Amy Bohlman (Klimoski) writes poems, essays, and stories. She received an MFA from Hamline University. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Conduit, Split Rock Review, The Rupture, and elsewhere. She lives in Saint Paul with her spouse and sons.

Stephani Maari Booker is surviving the fire, plague, and wrath of 2020s Minneapolis by creating works for the page and the stage in which she wrestles with her multiple marginalized identities: African American, lesbian, lower-class, and nerdy. She is a recipient of a 2024 McKnight Fellowship for Writers, administered by the Loft Literary Center, and a 2024 Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant. For more information about Stephani’s work, go to www.athenapersephoni.com.

Sreekanth Bhaskaran was born in India, where he spent the first half of his life. His poems and essays often deal with displacement and contemporary issues. His works have appeared in The Florida Review, The Bangalore Review, the Saint Paul Almanac, Kali’s Moksha and The Talking Stick. He has been a resident of the Twin Cities for over two decades and lives in Woodbury with his wife and two children.

Cristeta Boarini is a mixed-race Filipino-American writer and educator. Her journalism is focused on hyperlocal stories and connecting marginalized voices, and it earned her two top honors for her writing from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the Inland Press Association in 2014. An avid fiber artist, Boarini won a third-place ribbon for her knitting at the Minnesota State Fair. For seven years, Boarini was the program director at 826 MSP, a nonprofit youth writing center, teaching creative writing and leadership skills and curating the publication of six anthologies of youth writing. In 2024, she won the Mirrors and Windows Fellowship from the Loft Literary Center. She lives with her husband, daughter, and dog in South Minneapolis.

April Bryant is a Creative. A Minneapolis native whose joy is found in her daughter’s love; Creating, Supporting, and Allowing. April the Author realizes that one of her most healing mediums is writing and storytelling. With over twenty years of experience in social work, social services, and the healing arts, she brings a perspective to individuals and collective narratives. April’s only desired intent in writing is to honor and share the magic of stories and holding space.

Elizabeth Carls is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in River Teeth, Split Rock Review, Great River Review, Under the Sun Literary Magazine, and Water~Stone Review. She is the recipient of the Deborah Keenan Poetry Prize. In the editorial space, she serves as the Assistant Editor of Creative Nonfiction for Water~Stone Review and as a reader for Craft Literary. She reads and writes in Saint Paul.

Jenna Carlson has lived in Minnesota for most of her forty-five years. She is a mother and an outspoken community organizer. As a lifelong lover of all things water, she can’t imagine a better place to live!

Fun Fun Cheng has lived in various Saint Paul neighborhoods over the last thirty years. Her final years of residence were in the Summit Hill neighborhood, which is the setting for her story. She continues to stay connected to Saint Paul through community gardening, visits to her favorite spots, and visits with her Saint Paul friends.

d.d. costandine has an MA in Adlerian Psychotherapy. She is an art therapist (ATR) and a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS). She likes to dabble in writing and art of all types. If you or someone you know is a victim of childhood trauma and in need of help, please reach out to your local social services, Minnesota Haven, Standpoint (for legal assistance), the National Boarding School Healing Coalition, and/or www.thankyoufortellingmethat.com.

Lynda Cramer has published and edited poetry and short stories in several online anthologies, including The Magic Diary, which included her coming of age story, “Lila and the Bear.”

Jameelah Crawford, a proud Saint Paul native, celebrates her Mexican (Aztec) and African American heritage. A lifelong writer of poetry and prose, she seeks to connect with others through her words and faith. Jameelah’s work has appeared in the Aya Collective’s Finding the Voice Within anthology and Saint Paul Almanac’s digital magazine. In 2024, she completed a Community Editor Apprenticeship with Saint Paul Almanac, a milestone she calls a “full-circle blessing.” An aspiring filmmaker, Jameelah is building her portfolio and honing her skills in visual storytelling. She continues to grow as a creative writer, poet, and storyteller, embracing collaborative and solo projects to deepen her artistic voice.

Holly Day ‘s writing has recently appeared in Analog SF, Cardinal Sins, and New Plains Review, and her published books include Music Theory for Dummies and Music Composition for Dummies. She currently teaches classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minnesota, Hugo House in Washington, and the Muse Writers Center in Virginia.

Martin Devaney is a lifelong Saint Paul resident and writer of songs, stories, and poems. He has toured the country, releasing eight albums of original songs since 2002, and in recent years has returned to his roots in short fiction and poetry. He lives in the West Seventh neighborhood of Saint Paul with his wife and their dog. More info at www.martindevaney.com.

Louis DiSanto was a keeper at Saint Paul’s Como Zoo for over twenty years before retiring in 2005. He was also a writer/photographer for the City of Saint Paul and the weekly Sun Newspaper. Interests include writing children’s stories, old movies, classical music, and getting together with friends. Along with having stories published in the Almanac, Louis is especially honored to be one of the winners of the 2011 Saint Paul Sidewalk Poetry Contest.

Sara Dovre Wudali (she/her) is a 2023–2024 Poetry Fellow in the Loft Mentor Series and has received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Her poems and essays have been published in literary journals and anthologies such as under the gum tree, Barrelhouse, Blood Tree Literature, and Saint Paul Almanac. With Suzanne Swanson, she is the coeditor with of the hybrid anthology chapbook All You Need Is One Avocado. Sara grew up on a farm in southwest Minnesota, where wind blows through the cottonwoods and box-elder bugs rule. You can learn more and read her work at www.saradovrewudali.com.

Dani Dykstra writes: I faced countless instances of discrimination from law enforcement for having a mental health condition. This was the beginning of my psychosis, hearing police sirens every minute of every day. Police are not terrible, but the people who don’t uphold the rights of United States citizens . . . that’s terrible.

Bergen Christoffer Eibs is a writer who graduated from St. Catherine University with a bachelor’s degree in English back in 2021. She hopes to have more writing published in the near future, including a novel that has been in the works for several years. When she’s not writing or working at a grocery store deli, she is reading, playing video games, collecting enamel pins, and spending time with her fiancé.

Julie Gard’s prose poetry collection I Think I Know You received the 2024 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award. Additional collections include Home Studies, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, and Scrap: On Louise Nevelson. She has published essays, poems, and stories in Inside Higher Ed, Clackamas Literary Review, Blackbox Manifold, and other journals. She lives at the northeastern edge of Duluth, Minnesota with her partner, the poet Michelle Matthees, and teaches writing at UW Superior. www.juliegard.com

Elizabeth Goihl has lived in Saint Paul for over forty years and continues to develop her knitting skills.

Catherine Boebel Grotenhuis worked at Women’s Advocates, ran a community center for senior citizens, facilitated a team of immigrant and Indigenous youth at the Science Museum of Minnesota, volunteered with RECLAIM, for LGBTQ+ youth, and cared for her elderly parents. Grotenhuis is the grandmother of a large, blended family in Saint Paul. Publications include The Edge Magazine, Saint Paul Almanac Volume 13: A Path to Each Other, and Saint Paul Almanac’s Courage Contest. “In Person” is from her manuscript Gramzie’s Theory of Relativity and Compassion.

Tara Flaherty Guy is a freelance writer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her work has been published in the Saint Paul Almanac, The Talking Stick, Miracle Monocle, The MacGuffin, Emerge Literary Journal, Exposed Brick Literary Magazine, and Longridge Review, among others. After retiring from a forty-year career as a rural county zoning administrator, Tara received her BA in Creative Writing from Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, where she grew up. She still calls that river town home, and always will, along with her husband and their four aging, incontinent cats.

Amina Hasan is an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota. She frequently contributes to the Post Bulletin’s Tuesday Poem column, which has recently become the home for many of her poems. Amina enjoys reading the poetry of Sara Teasdale, Nizar Qabbani, and Lamia Amara. Although a poet at heart, she loves writing short stories.

Margaret Hasse is a longtime resident of the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of Saint Paul. She enjoys walking and reading poems on the sidewalks, including one of hers, about a meadowlark. Belongings, her ninth book of poetry, was published in 2024.

Elizabeth Hawes is the recipient of the Keely Schenwar Memorial Essay Prize. Her work has been published in The Rumpus, Santa Claire Review, Lux, Black Lipstick, and Truthout. In 2022, her quotes were projected onto the Rockefeller Center for PEN America’s art installation, Speech Itself.

Mike Hazard is a filmmaker, photographer, and poet. Nine of his films have been broadcast nationally on public media; two hundred twenty-eight play on social media. His work is in many museums, including MoMA (NY). A collection of Hazard’s poems about people, This World Is Not Altogether Bad, was published by Red Dragonfly Press. Hazard likes to say, “Everything I make is a love story.” To learn more, visit www.mikehazard.org.

Pete Heiden has been published by such entities as Great River Review, Midwest Quarterly, and Red Bird Chapbooks. He lives in the North Shore area of Cook County.

Annamary Jeffery Herther is a retired school secretary in love with Saint Paul. Her heroes include her children, librarians, teachers, caregivers, nurses, bus drivers, and anyone who puts their phone away and talks to a stranger. She likes to garden and color outside the lines. (She would like to add that the episode involving the four hooligans took place in the spring of 2024, before Metro Transit added TRIP Agents, whose presence seems to have calmed the atmosphere onboard.)

Donna Isaac, poet/teacher, lives by a Minnesota pond with her husband Matt. She works through the League of Minnesota Poets to promote literary events across the Twin Cities communities and continues to write and publish. Her chapbooks include: Tommy (Red Dragonfly Press); Holy Comforter (Red Bird Chapbooks); and Persistence of Vision (Finishing Line Press). Her full published collection of poetry is Footfalls (Pocahontas Press), and another full-length book, In the Tilling (Finishing Line Press), is out in 2025. donna@donnaisaacpoet.com

Eviah Jackson is a feisty nine-year-old student at Sullivan STEAM Elementary School in South Minneapolis. She has always had a quick wit and a keen ability to tell an engaging story. She loves swimming and basketball, dancing, singing and playing piano, animals, and spending time with her family.

Kathryn Jackson is a retired healthcare professional and enjoys daily journal writing. This is her first short story. She writes, “I have a deeply valued lifelong friendship and wanted to document some of my small-town memories.”

Lawrence W. Johnson is incarcerated at Stillwater State Prison. While in prison, Johnson graduated from high school and obtained a BA degree summa cum laude from Metropolitan State University. Through Department of Corrections vocational programs, he has also completed courses in welding, carpentry, and forklift operation. A peacetime veteran of the United States Navy, Johnson taught himself how to crochet in prison and has taught crocheting to other inmates. He is sixty-five years old and is eligible for parole.

Mindy Johnson is a Saint Paul–based digital collage artist who enjoys writing poetry. She is inspired by urban nature, fleeting moments, and the small, beautiful details in life that often go unnoticed.

Mary Christine Kane works in marketing and volunteers for animal rescue organizations. She is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program. Her poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Cream City Review, HuffPost, Bluestem, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Plainsongs, and elsewhere. Between the stars where you are lost is the title of her poetry chapbook. She can be found online at www.marychristinekane.com.

Kathleen Kimball-Baker is a poet and dogsledding enthusiast in Minneapolis. Her poems appear in Nimrod, Poet Lore, The Hopper, Pangyrus, The Nature of Our Times (poetsforscience.org), two anthologies, and other journals. She is a three-time finalist in the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series for creative nonfiction and fiction and is compiling a hybrid chapbook about being a biracial Latina dogsledder obsessed with extreme cold and wilderness.

Evelyn D. Klein’s work has appeared in publications such as the Family Housing Fund’s Home Sweet Home Again exhibit; Saint Paul Almanac; The Wind Blows, the Ice Breaks; Minnesota Jung Association’s Elements; and This Was 2020. Her memoir in verse, From Here Across the Bridge (illustrated by her father, Wolfgang Klein) and her poetry and prose collections, Once upon a Neighborhood and Seasons of Desire (both illustrated by her), were placed in the Minnesota Historical Society’s permanent library collection. Her other works are Fear and Promise and Power Behind Your Writing: What Every Writer Needs to Know.

Bob Komives grew up on Van Buren Avenue in Saint Paul and graduated from Cretin High School, Dartmouth College, and Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning. He spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. He was Executive Director of Martha’s Vineyard Commission. His work includes consulting with the Kickapoo Indians of Texas and Mexico and communities around Colorado. He has self-published three works of poetry, one book on economics, and one book of vignettes from his youth. Over three decades, he completed bicycle tours in the USA, Canada, and Europe with his family. His website is https://sites.google.com/view/bob-komives/home.