Willy Palomo
Willy Palomo (he/they/she series) is the son of two immigrants from El Salvador. In 2018, he graduated with an MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and an MFA in Poetry from Indiana University. In 2017, he received the City of Bloomington Latino Leadership Award and the MLK Building Bridges Graduate Student Award for his work serving undocumented communities in Indiana. He has taught literature, creative writing, and the Poetics of Rap in universities, juvenile detention centers, community centers, and high schools. He has performed his poetry (inter)nationally at the National Poetry Slam, CUPSI, and Festival Internacional de Poesía Amada Libertad in El Salvador. His writing has been featured in Best New Poets 2018, Latino Rebels, The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, and more. He is a founding member of Plumas Colectiva, a collective of Latinx literary and art creators in the 801. From 2019 to 2022, he directed the Utah Humanities Book Festival.
sarah may
Sarah May (she/hers) is a biracial Salvadoreña artist, weaver, storyteller, and community organizer based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah with her BFA in Photography & Digital Imaging and her MA in Community Leadership with an Emphasis in Art & Culture from Westminster College. Sarah has led designated spaces of healing, connection, and empowerment for BIPOC communities in Salt Lake City utilizing art, knowledge, and wisdom from BIPOC and Indigenous communities. She creates work through cyanotype photography, writing, weaving, and retablo ofrendas to reflect her journey exploring identity as cyclical and evolving, and connecting to ancestry as a healing ritual and ceremony. Sarah has completed 4 national and international artist residencies with her most recent artist-in-residency completed at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, New York.
Frances Ngo
Frances Ngo (she/her) is multiracial Mexican-Chinese poet, artist, and zoologist. You’ll find her roaming through fields, forests, and fens in search of birds and a good nature metaphor. She often combines her writing with illustrations, exploring the interplay between poetic form and paintings. She loves collecting new poetry words from sci-fi/fantasy novels and biology textbooks alike! While most of her writing lives in softbound sketchbooks, with the support of Plumas, Frances is also learning to breathe fire on the slam stage! Her work has been published in the Mobile Moon Co-Op Zine, Lesbians Are Miracles: Nostalgia Issue, and Starshine & Clay (a Woke Words publication).
Melissa Salguero
Marilyn Melissa Salguero (she/ella) is a Disabled, Guatemalan poet who puts the SALT in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the human equivalent of red wine, crushed velvet and using humor as a poor coping mechanism. Melissa's work centers on her life, relationships, and identity. She has been featured in numerous publications including Write About Now Poetry, Ink & Nebula, Rising Phoenix Press, and Crepe & Penn. She was a 2020 nominee for the Pushcart Prize in poetry and a recipient of the Academy of American Poets student contest for 2020. When not yelling about white boys or making God metaphors, Melissa can be found feeding her online shopping addiction, blasting Gloria Trevi, or living up to her title as the quintessential “bitter ex girlfriend poet”. Her work (along with her emotional overflow) can be found on twitter @_Miss_Marilyn, or in her chapbook "Cannibal".
Monica Lisette
Monica Lisette (she/ella) is a Chicana poet from West Jordan. She is a poet, baker, and lover (although not always in that order). She has competed with Plumas Colectiva and Salt City slam. She’s placed nationally at NPS in group pieces and performed/competed/taught around Utah. Her work centers around her culture, generational trauma, and navigating the world as a Latina. Monica is almost exclusively a notes app writer and will definitely ask you your sign.
Chelsea Guevara
Chelsea Potupchik Guevara (she series) is a poet and spoken word artist from West Jordan, Utah. As a Salvadoran-American, her work focuses on examination of overlapping cultures, mixed identity, and Latinx and immigrant struggles. Her poetry has been featured on Write About Now, Mapping Literary Utah, and KRCL’s RadioActive. She represented the state of Utah on the stage of the international Woman of the World Poetry Slam competition in March 2020.
Lin Flores
Lin Flores (she/they) lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah as a full-time poet and creative writing student. They are currently enrolled in the online Creative Writing Masters’ Program at the University of New Orleans. Her debut poetry collection, Reflections While Living in Utah, was a bestseller for both 2021 & 2022 at Under The Umbrella. Lin also teaches poetry at the McGilis School in SLC where she strives to make a difference in the lives of young people seeking an outlet for self-expression and creativity. Flores works as a freelance writer as well and works closely with LGBTQ+ organizations. She is a featured blog writer for Celebrate Therapy, an LGBTQ-owned and operated therapy office.
Laura Ruiz
Laura Ruiz (she/her/ella) is a Mexican bilingual poet, translator, and interpreter. She is the mother of two beautiful Chicano boys. Her works have been published in Unmmute Magazine in San Francisco, the French editorial Short Edition, as well as Consecrate Desecrate: An Anthology to Save Our Great Salt Lake. She published her first book in Spanish in 2022: Inventario de mis Musas. In her free time, she likes to play guitar, bike, and run to help her mind create more universes and muses.