Fall 2022

Sylvie Baumgartel has published two books of poetry: Song of Songs (FSG, 2019) and Pink (FSG, 2021). Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the Financial Times, Harvard Review, Subtropics, the Nation, and elsewhere. 

A. J. Bermudez is the author of Stories No One Hopes Are About Them (Iowa UP, 2022), winner of the 2022 Iowa Short Fiction Award and a 2023 Lambda Award Finalist. She is a recipient of the PAGE Award, the Pushcart Prize, the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Award, and the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her writing has received support from the Steinbeck Fellowship, the Bethany Arts Community, the Watermill Center, and the Nawat Fes Residency in Morocco. Bermudez currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Miami.

Eric Borsuk is the author of American Animals (Turner, 2020), the memoir featured in the acclaimed motion picture of the same name. His writing has appeared in such award-winning publications as the Marshall Project and VICE Magazine. Borsuk works with organizations around the US to spotlight the stories of currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. He lives in Brooklyn, where he serves on the board of directors of Die Jim Crow Records, the nation’s first nonprofit record label for justice-impacted musicians. 

George Butler is an award-winning illustrator who reports on the ground from conflict zones, climate hot spots, and humanitarian crises. He is the author of Drawn Across Borders (Candlewick Studio, 2021). Butler’s Fall 2022 story for VQR, “Drawn to War,” was the recipient of the 2023 National Magazine Award for Best Illustrated Story.

Simon Han is the author of the novel Nights When Nothing Happened (Riverhead, 2020). His stories and essays have appeared in the Atlantic, the Texas Observer, Guernica, the Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at Tufts University.