Contributors
Sydnie Howard
the priest and the canary
Sydnie A. Howard is an undergraduate creative writing major at Susquehanna University, with minors in English and women & gender studies. She was born and continues to reside in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
On campus, Sydnie is the Assistant Poetry Editor for RiverCraft Literary Magazine, the Media Liaison for the Student Government Association, and a Student Ambassador at the Admissions Office. She is also a member of Zeta Tau Alpha-Iota Nu and Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society.
Sydnie is passionate about Margaret Atwood novels, slam poetry, and raving over her favorite films and two cats. She finds peace in writing poetry about childhood embedded with biblical and historical allegories, fiction about how love manifests in death, and rereading the classics for inspiration. Her motivation to write hides in spontaneous moments, on the brink of sleep, and when listening to other writers read aloud.
She likes to eat tofu poke bowls, and anything that’s sweet.
Her previous work has appeared in RiverCraft, Prometheus Dreaming, Sanctuary, and elsewhere. In 2023, Gilded Lily Press selected her first poetry chapbook, “Woven in the Womb,” for publication as runner-up.
Jake Price
annihilation and other recipes with oranges
Jake Price is a junior at Susquehanna University pursuing a degree in Creative Writing and a minor in Art History. He was born in Texas and currently resides in McConnellsburg Pennsylvania. He spends most of his time reading his work to his cat, Raven, who has yet to give him any feedback. Writing has been his creative outlet and passion for as long as he can remember, and his dream is to end up being a New York Times bestseller. He mostly writes poetry but hopes to branch off into writing long form fiction soon. His poetry has been published in Philidelphia Stories, The Poet Magazine, and The Viridian Door. His short fiction has been published in Cream Scene Carnival and Querencia Press.
View his portfolio here!
Runners-Up
Lunen Ryba
Lunen Ryba is a pen name for the author, a poet and writer from just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. An accidental recluse and overthinker by trade, Lunen writes to explore the world in all of its wonderful, terrible strangeness and come to terms with being part of it. When not writing, Lunen is probably reading, listening to music, or trying to learn more languages at once than is realistically possible. “preparatory evaluation for the apocalypse” is the first work published under this pseudonym.
Brooke Mitchell
Brooke Mitchell experiments in poetry, fiction, and essay. She is Head Editor of Apprentice Writer and periodically posts lyric essays on her Substack, Poems From the Notes App. In 2021, her chapbook Sunspots was chosen for publication by Treehouse Editions and her short story “Situationship” was awarded the Juliet Gibson Memorial Prize by RiverCraft. She was named Perry County’s Poet Laureate and received the Siggy David Award in 2022. This past spring she was awarded the Janet Weis Prize for Literary Excellence. Her most recent work can be found in Anti-Heroin Chic, New York Quarterly, and upcoming in Exacting Clam.