Israel Favela is a poet and freelance writer. He received his B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration from the University of Houston. Overcoming abuse, addiction, guilt, and atonement are themes prevalent in his poetry. He first started writing about his experience growing up as an immigrant in the US in the manuscript for his last undergraduate poetry workshop. Aside from poetry, his manuscript featured prose vignettes revealing family secrets, and a translation/homage to one of his favorite poets, Pablo Neruda. He currently resides in Houston.

Edgar Fuentes is a librarian, freelance photographer, and poet living in Houston. His photographs and poems have appeared in The Bayou Review. He received a B.A. in English from the University of Houston-Downtown, where he won the Fabian Worsham Creative Writing Award for Redefining Religion, a collection of unpublished poems. He was the recipient of the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship from UCLA. He was born in the state of Tamaulipas in Mexico, and immigrated with his parents to the United States.

Jorge Galván is an artist whose artistic practice stems from his interest in social structures and the imposition of space on relationships. Found materials and traditional craft methods are important influences and are often catalysts in the initiation of his work. The Amnesty of ‘86 has, for him, been the ultimate artist residency. Born along the Gulf Coast in Mexico, he received a B.S. in industrial design from the University of Houston (2010) and is currently working on a visual survey project that documents the heavy trash piles in four Houston neighborhoods.

Mónica Teresa Ortiz is a writer and native Texan and based in Austin. She holds a B.A. from UT Austin, an MFA from UT El Paso, and a chapbook called On a Greyhound Straight from the 915. Her work has appeared in Palabra, In the Grove, Liberty’s Vigil: The Occupy Anthology, OCHO #22, and Latino USA, among others. She has been a three time finalist for the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, and a finalist in the 2012 Texas Observer Short Story Contest.

John Pluecker is a writer, interpreter, educator and translator. His work is informed by experimental poetics, radical aesthetics and cross-border cultural production and has appeared in journals and magazines in the U.S. and Mexico, including Mandorla, Aufgabe, eleven eleven, Third Text, Animal Shelter, HTMLGiant and Literal. He has published more than five books in translation from the Spanish, including essays by a leading Mexican feminist, short stories from Ciudad Juárez and a police detective novel. There are two chapbooks of his work, Routes into Texas (DIY, 2010) and Undone (Dusie Kollektiv, 2011). A third chapbook, Killing Current, will be published by Mouthfeel Press in 2012.

Sixto-Juan Zavala is a graphic designer, illustrator, and video jockey. He has a B.F.A. in Communication Design from Texas State University. He specializes in poster design, identity work, illustration, and their application in social media. He works full time at a San Antonio based graphic design firm and serves as art director and VJ for Essentials a monthly audio visual event. Sixto-Juan has been published in Graphis New Talent Annual for 2011, is the winner of the Sue Reynolds Memorial Award and a Ralph award at the 2010 Creative Summit, and the winner of the 2010 DSVC David Kampa Judges Choice Award.