Featured Authors

Lisa Ko is the author of the new novel Memory Piece and the nationally bestselling novel The Leavers, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Ko’s writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories, McSweeney’s, and The Believer.

Growing up in a largely white community, National Book Award finalist, and bestselling author Lisa Ko listened eagerly to her parents’ family stories, but couldn’t find Asian or Asian-American protagonists in the books she devoured. “It’s that younger me,” she says, “hungry and breathless to see herself on the page, that I write for today.”

As the first-generation daughter of Chinese immigrants from the Philippines, Ko was, in her own words, “a good observer and a better spy.” That capacity for discerning details and illuminating subtleties is on full display in her novels, the National Book Award finalist The Leavers and her sophomore novel Memory Piece. The story of three Asian American women in New York City from the 1980s through the 2040s, Memory Piece follows its heroines as they fight expectations to pursue creative and meaningful lives in a future radically different from the one they were promised.

Learn more about Lisa Ko by visiting her website: http://lisa-ko.com/.

Kristen Radtke’s most recent book is the widely acclaimed Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness (Pantheon, 2021), which The Los Angeles Times praised as “[A] resonant, haunting volume of graphic nonfiction written and drawn in the key of Edward Hopper.” It is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and was on numerous most anticipated lists, including Vogue, The Washington Post and NPR. Her first book is the genre-smashing graphic memoir, Imagine Wanting Only This (Pantheon, 2017), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a Nylon Most Anticipated Book. The Chicago Tribune raved, "Imagine Wanting Only This [is] one of the most haunting graphic memoirs I've ever read. . . . There is a proud tradition of graphic memoirists—of those dually equipped to wield word and image—to tell the true and deeply considered story of a life. Alison Bechdel, Roz Chast, Riad Sattouf, David Small, Marjane Satrapi, Art Spiegelman and others have done it searingly well. And now to that list add Radtke, who proves herself an equal among equals with this debut book. . . ." Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, The Atlantic, The Guardian, GQ, Vogue, Oxford American, and many other places.

When asked to reflect on the experience of publishing her first book, Radtke explains, “I think the blessing of all of this is that I’m never going to write my first book ever again. First books are messy things. Next time I’ll be less concerned about making things as neat and tidy as possible, which was definitely a real fear for me on this first book. I’ll try to maybe not let it drive me so crazy.”

Radtke received an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. She is the former managing editor of Sarabande Books and is currently the art director at the Verge. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Learn more about Kristen Radtke by visiting her website: http://kristenradtke.com/.

Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an Associate Professor of English, Africana Studies, and Art & Design at Northeastern University. Previously they directed the MFA in Creative Writing at UMASS Boston. They have previously taught at St. Lawrence University, Ithaca College, and Williams College. They also direct the Chautauqua Institution Writers’ Festival. 

They are the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Negative Money (Soft Skull, 2023), and the poetry collections Travesty Generator (Noemi Press, 2019), winner of the 2018 Noemi Press Poetry Prize and finalist for the National Poetry Series. Travesty Generator received the 2020 Poetry Society of America Anna Rabinowitz Prize for interdisciplinary and venturesome work. They are also the author of Personal Science (Tupelo Press, 2017); a slice from the cake made of air (Red Hen Press 2016); and But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise (Red Hen Press, 2012), chosen by Claudia Rankine as the winner of the 2010 Benjamin Saltman Award. Bertram’s other publications include the chapbook cutthroat glamours (Phantom Books, 2012), winner of the Phantom Books chapbook award; the artist book Grand Dessein (commissioned by Container Press), a mixed media artifact that meditates on the work and writing of the artist Paul Klee and was recently acquired by the Special Collections library at St. Lawrence University; and Tierra Fisurada, a Spanish poetry chapbook published in Argentina (Editoriales del Duende, 2002). They collaborated with the artist Laylah Ali for the exhibition booklet of her 2017 art show The Acephalous Series. 

Bertram has published poetry, prose, and essays in numerous journals, their honors include a 2017 Harvard University Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Grant, a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, finalist nomination for the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, and fellowships to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Cave Canem, and others.

Bertram holds a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the creative writing program at the University of Utah, among degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Learn more about Lillian-Yvonne Bertram by visiting their website: https://www.lillianyvonnebertram.com/.

Kenzie Allen is the author of Cloud Missives (Tin House, 2024). She is a Haudenosaunee poet and multimodal artist, and the recipient of a 92NY Discovery Prize, an inaugural James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets, the 49th Parallel Award in poetry, broadside prizes from Sundress Publications and Littoral Press, and fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Aspen Writers’ Foundation, and In-Na-Po (Indigenous Nations Poets). A finalist for the National Poetry Series, her poems have appeared in Poetry magazine, Boston Review, Narrative magazine, The Paris Review’s The Daily, Best New Poets, Poets.org, and other venues. She is a first-generation descendant of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.

Kenzie’s most recent project is a multimodal book of poetry and creative ethnography that incorporates intergenerational histories and diasporic movements, Haudenosaunee traditions, and archival materials of the Carlisle Indian Boarding School. She received her PhD in English & Creative Writing from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, her MFA in Poetry from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, and her BA in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at York University, where her research centers on documentary and visual poetics, literary cartography, and the enactment of Indigenous sovereignties through creative works.

Learn more about Kenzie Allen by visiting her website: https://kenzieallen.co/.

KT Duffy is a new media artist, designer/developer, and arts organizer/curator from Chicago’s southwest side. They are currently an Assistant Professor in Art, Technology, and Culture at the University of Oklahoma. Duffy earned their MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Duffy conjures entities into existence via technology and collaboration. As a Neurodivergent-NonBinary person, the normative modalities of learning and making were not designed for them. They glitched and patched through these structures, resulting in visual outputs and curatorial presentations that manifest infinite possibilities. Ones that translate immeasurable connections and examine the impending demise of binary systems.

Their practice has been supported by residencies at Vermont Studio Center, ChaNorth, Acre, and Arteles, alongside numerous grants, including the Mount Royal Graduating Fellowship, Bromo Seltzer Studio Fellowship, and The Contemporary Baltimore’s Grit Fund, among others. Duffy’s work has been widely exhibited and screened at venues such as Header/Footer Gallery, Factory Obscura, Galleri Urbane, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, South Bend Museum of Art, Elmhurst Museum of Art, Mono8 Gallery, Vox Populi, and the Lightworks Film Festival, spanning locations from Oklahoma to Manila and beyond.

Beyond their individual practice, Duffy is deeply engaged in collaborative efforts, contributing to initiatives such as Langer Over Dickie Projects, CQDELab, and Mx. Studio. These collective endeavors further amplify their commitment to expanding dialogues around art, technology, and the dismantling of normative frameworks.

Learn more about KT Duffy by visiting their website: https://ktduffyprojects.com/.