Literary Artists 2026
Chris Dean January 21, 2025
Indiana Beat Poet Laureate (2025-2027)
Chris is a storyteller, graphic designer and Magpie Poet who writes from the heart of Indiana where they live with their husband and too many cats to mention.
Along with Wendy Cartwright, Chris is co-founder of Keeping the Flame Alive Press.
Their work has been featured online, in multiple print anthologies and they are the author of “tales from a broken girl,” “we're all stories in the end,” and the forthcoming “pyre” from Keeping the Flame Alive Press.
Neil Daswani
February 11, 2026
Neil Daswani, a former career banker and relatively recently minted poet wrote sporadically in his youth, followed by a “lunga pausa”. Working from his pandemic purgatory, wrote six books of poetry. His work has been showcased at the Singapore Writers Festival, and at the Jaipur and Bangalore Literature Festivals as well as in poetry anthologies published in the US, UK and South Asia.
Melia Reddick (Koetry)
March 11, 2026
Melia Reddick has been writing and sharing poetry under the stage name, Koetry, for 6 years.
At 19, Koetry is finalizing their first manuscript for publication and hopes their words will plant seeds of connection that say: “You are not alone”.
Koetry loves being active in local theater, making music and reading. They currently run poetry workshops for youth and adults at the Hardin County Public Library.
Connect with Koetry on instagram: @among.the.koa.trees
R. Nikolas Macioci
April 01, 2026
R. Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University, taught for Columbus City Schools for thirty years. OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English, named Nik Macioci the best secondary English teacher in the state of Ohio.
Nik is the author of twenty-three books. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize, and twice for a Best of the Net award. He won First Place in the 1987 National Writer's Union Poetry Competition, judged by Denise Levertov, First Place in The Baudelaire Award Competition, sponsored by The World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets (1989), Second Place in Zone 3's first annual Rainmaker Awards, judged by Howard Nemerov (1989), Second Place in the Writer's Digest annual competition, judged by Diane Wakoski (1991), and he received the Blaine R. Hall Award for best poem of the year in Kentucky Poetry Review (1991).
April 01, 2026
R. Nikolas Macioci earned a PhD from The Ohio State University, taught for Columbus City Schools for thirty years. OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English, named Nik Macioci the best secondary English teacher in the state of Ohio.
Nik is the author of twenty-three books. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize, and twice for a Best of the Net award. He won First Place in the 1987 National Writer's Union Poetry Competition, judged by Denise Levertov, First Place in The Baudelaire Award Competition, sponsored by The World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets (1989), Second Place in Zone 3's first annual Rainmaker Awards, judged by Howard Nemerov (1989), Second Place in the Writer's Digest annual competition, judged by Diane Wakoski (1991), and he received the Blaine R. Hall Award for best poem of the year in Kentucky Poetry Review (1991).
Sandra Rivers-Gill
May 13, 2026
Sandra is an award-winning poet, playwright and teaching artist. Her work often addresses themes of family, race and society, and has been nominated for the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She has led poetry workshop for women in recovery, as well as creatively aging adults. Her work has been featured in journals and anthologies; Rattle, ONE ART, Sheila-Na-Gig, Silver Birch Press, Rise Up Review, As It Ought To Be; and Ohio: The Body Poetic/River Roots poets, A Letter to Our Children, Poets for Peace, Death Never Dies, and others. She is the inaugural Poet Ambassador of Northwest Ohio for the Ohio Poetry Association (2024-2026), and editor of poetry anthologies, Dopeless Hope Fiends (Radio Room Press, 2018), Vibrant Voices (PP&P Press, 2025) Her debut poetry collection, As We Cover Ourselves With Light, (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2023), was a finalist for the 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award.
www.sandrariversgill.com Facebook @ Sandra Gill, Instagram @Sandra.Gill.52
June 17
James Borders
July 15, 2026
James Borders is a poet, husband, grandfather, and recovering curmudgeon. After decades of writing pithy, satirical poems and grocery lists, he decided to get serious about poetry. James is a member of Bistro Poets and former host of Peripatetic Poets based in Columbus, Ohio. Recent poems have appeared in Meniscus Literary Magazine, Madness Muse Press, and several in collections from Poetry is Life Press. James released his first book of poetry in 2022, Resurrecting Onions, Kung Fu Treachery Press. He is currently working on a memoir in poems about his childhood to published sometime in 2026.
Tommy Sheffield
August 19, 2026
Tommy Sheffield is a disabled, neurodivergent writer who lives in Washington, DC, where he teaches high school English in Southeast DC. His poems, stories, and essays have been published in ucity review, Adelaide, Sanitarium, Ghosts City Review, and a number of other publications. His chapbooks From Whom We Trace the Bones, Ashore, Where God Has Gone, and These Things Are Often Sealed Within were published as a four-book series by Voice Lux Press in March 2022. He has served as the Poetry Editor for Stillhouse Press for a number of years, editing and publishing five critically acclaimed poetry books, and helping to oversee new projects.
Karen Scott
September 09, 2026
September 09, 2026
October 14th
Mandy Hayden
November 18, 2026
November 18, 2026
December 16th