Messy Misfits Club
Volume 5 Contributors
All of our contributors listed in alphabetical order for Volume Five! This list contains creators from both our physical and digital volumes.
Don't see yourself, or want an updated bio? Send us an email!
K. Angel
Featuring Three Nights in Suffolk, August 2022; Literally (Transubstantiation Lullaby); transcription of a voice note to listen to on repeat for nights when you can’t sleep and I am not yet with you
K. Angel (they/them/theirs) has been published by the Tin House Open Bar, PANK, and the New Flash Fiction Review. A two-time participant in the HBMG Foundation's National Winter Playwrights Retreat, their projects across genres are curious about consent, chosen community, and metamorphosis interruptus. They make homes in Austin and London, where they occasionally perform as the singing country drag king TrucK.
L. Jane Borjon
Featuring He Called Me An Animal
Jane Borjon (she/her/hers) exists between Chicago and Lemont each week, living as mother and human attempting to find a balance of the two. She builds homes and writes to survive life, and is currently questioning everything. She has a lifelong passion for self-improvement and recently was called “relentlessly hopeful” by her therapist, which immediately depressed her.
Emma Cholip
Featuring Shedding Old Skin
Emma (they/them/she/her) is an author based in Madison, WI. They have worked for several literary magazines and writing companies, but their heart lies with the Messy Misfits Club.
Selene Corbeau
Featuring How to Bake a Citrus Cake
Selene Corbeau (she/her/they/them) is a Chicago-based writer and poet. Outside of writing, she can be found teaching herself guitar, watching horror movies, or training in Renaissance swordplay. They are currently enrolled at Oregon State University where they are designing their own major of folkloric and popular cultural studies in mass media communication.
Emily Deadman
Featuring My Favorite Stranger
Wanda Deglane
Featuring lessons in growing pains and ode to Avatar Kyoshi
Wanda Deglane (she/her/hers) is a poet and therapist from Glendale, Arizona. She is the author of Melancholia (VA Press, 2021) and other books.
flower
Featuring where is your heart?
KP "P-Chan" Fujiwara
Featuring Flowers Can Bloom From The Rot and Stay Golden
Kira Pfilys Fujiwara. Pfil. P-Chan. KP. (they/them/she/her) All the above. She's a hot mess, but at least she's **hot**. They make cartoons and illustrations about being TGNC and having BPD. Stay rad. Stay Golden. Stay gay.
Sarah Hajkowski
Featuring legal tender
Sarah Hajkowski (they/them/she/her) is a poet and playwright based in Western NC. In alignment with the Messy Misfits, they believe in self-ownership and trying to be better, and they view literary arts as a cultural connective tissue. Sarah’s current projects include poetry collection "Brain to Pick: hostility and healing" and full-length play, "Bite of a Rattle Snake." They believe passionately in the power of the written word to change the world.
Tessa Kammer
Featuring I FORCE You
Tessa's (she/her/hers) inspiration comes from intangible and indescribable experiences, emotions and thoughts, as well as trauma. If something happened in her life it affected her art and she attempts to recreate those ideas. Tessa believes that her eyes and brain capture and store the information needed for her art. Tessa looks at and absorb everything around her with her eyes as the lens, then let it develop until the inspiration starts the process of art making. In this digital world, she takes pride in creating tangible and tactile pieces of art. The sensory experience is important to Tessa. She wants to engage all of the viewers senses, except maybe don't taste the art.. Another component of the art includes found items as well as recycled materials. Tessa believes that art can be made out of anything!
Delilah Khalsa
Featuring Real Dom(mes) Are Healers
Delilah Khalsa (she/her/hers) is a South Asian scholar and early-career writer based in Chicago. Her creative practice centers transformation of identity, especially through restorative experiences with queerness, kink, and spirituality (to name a few). You can find some of Delilah’s writing, a smattering of Community headcanon, and the occasional cat reblog at delilahkhalsa.tumblr.com. You can also reach out to her at delilah.khalsa@gmail.com.
dre Levant
Featuring werewolf teeth and The Devil Gives Me A Sunflower
dre levant (he/him/they/them) is a trans masc genderqueer artist & writer. dre loves wearing as much glitter eyeshadow as possible, making art that is both vibrant and macabre, and building wine cellars in minecraft. he is the author of "jack invites werewolves to the tea party" (alien buddha press '23) and "icarus rising" (kith books '23). for snippets of poetry & cat pics, follow @drethepiper on instagram and twitter.
Rose McCoy
Featuring in high school I learn to love myself because no one else is willing
Rose McCoy (she/her/hers) is a writer from West Virginia who identifies as queer in both senses of the word. She’s had work in Passionfruit Review, Ghost Girls Zine, OutWrite Journal, and more. Her debut chapbook, Sink or Swim: Reflections on an Ending, was released in 2023 by Bottlecap Press. Rose can be found on Twitter @24hrmccoy and wants you to know that she loves you.
murray Marz mirror
Featuring cock inflation superfantasy 5000 and To be Cracked open Wider for the tongues of fire of life!!"
murray Marz mirror (xe/xem/xyrs) is a vessel for holy nonsense. xe is an artist and poet nestled in the bluffs of the driftless.
Binx River Perino
Featuring Past Selves In Drag
Binx River Perino (he/him/they/them) is a queer poet from Texas. He holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College and is the author of his debut chapbook, “Pure Light” (Bottlecap Press, 2023). His work has appeared in new words {press}, Variant Literature, Cold Mountain Review, and elsewhere, and is forthcoming in Beyond Queer Words: A Queer Anthology and Door=Jar. He lives and works in Chicago with his dog, Maya.
Bella Rotker
Featuring High on a beach somewhere
Bella Rotker (she/her/they/them) studies at Interlochen Arts Academy. Their work appears in JAKE, Full Mood Mag, Fifth Wheel Press, The Lumiere Review, Neologism, and Best American High School Writing, among others. When she’s not writing or fighting the patriarchy, Bella’s hanging out with friends, watching the lakes, and looking for birds.
Nina Smolarski
Featuring Late Bloomer
Nina Smolarski (she/her/hers) is a poet in Chicago, Illinois.
Theo Sullivan
Featuring (yes, I am scared)
Theo Alexander Sullivan (he/him/they/them) is a poet, editor, and educator located in Chicago, IL. His work is focused on the Black queer experience, the body and the digital world, examination of power structures in the United States, mental illness in the Black community and the human condition. Having grown up on the fringes of their own communities, they bring a sense of the alien and otherworldliness to their work, which they attribute to a love of speculative fiction.
E.C.B. Terry
Featuring The Pit
E. C. B. Terry (they/them/theirs) is a trans, queer, and disabled writer and artist based in Chicago. They grew up in Minneapolis, MN in the performing arts scene. They love creating works that speak to and for their communities. E. is working on their bachelor's in disability studies and hopes to keep writing and advocating for the rest of their life.
amber wood
Featuring Outside (23)
Hongwei Bao
Featuring Wildest Dreams
Hongwei Bao (he/him/his) grew up in China and lives in Nottingham, UK. He uses poetry, short story and creative nonfiction to explore issues of queer desire, Asian identity, and transcultural intimacy. His work has appeared in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Ponder Review, Shanghai Literary Review, The Autoethnographer, the other side of hope, Voice & Verse, Write On and Words Without Borders.
S. Elliot Bowers
Featuring Oogle Me This! and Who Are You Calling A Tranny
S. Elliot Bowers (they/them/he/him) resides in Chicago, IL, they are in their third year as a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts and have three more years until completion. Bowers received their Master of Fine Arts at Northern Illinois University in 2019. Bowers received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2016. Bowers is currently working on a dissertation around polyphonic gender and challenging Judith Butler's performativity theory. They are the co-founder of UnPacked Mobile Gallery and Dispatch Mobile Gallery. They exhibit a keen interest in fostering the growth of emerging artists, while also advocating for cultural diversity and under-represented artists. Bowers is a transgender artist who depicts a creator in a sociopolitical culture currently under threat and oppression due to misinformation about the transgender community.
A. Regan Clifton
Featuring Tepeyi-Atzin
Alexis (she/her/hers) is an indigenous writer currently living in NC. She adores the mundane, the extraordinary, the way the trees speak, and the whispers of the rivers. She writes because it is what has always carried her through her life, and she hopes to convey some of her emotion to all her readers.
Elizabeth Crosswhite
Featuring The Botanist
Elizabeth (she/her/hers) is a writer, a photographer, a Twitch streamer, and energy drink sommelier from wildfire country in Northern California. In her dreams, Elizabeth is haunted by human machines, and leviathan cities stretching into the horizon. She is a grad student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Arthur DeHart
Featuring Trans Man Daisy
Arthur DeHart (he/him/his) is a trans man from the Appalachian mountains. He is EIC of Naked Cat Lit Mag and owner and head writer at Deep Wood Productions.
duckrabbit
Featuring slime mold study 1
duckrabbit (they/them/theirs) is a chicago-based carbon-based life-form. they make prints and written things that are small, weird, and usually about nature. you can find more of their work at are.na/duck-rabbit.
Paloma Maria Freitas
Featuring Growth, I Guess
Paloma Maria Freitas (she/her/hers) is an emerging american-Latinx writer. She received a BFA degree in creative writing from Southern Oregon University. She currently lives in London, England post completing an MA in children’s literature. Paloma is currently a member of the editing team at Dark Onus Lit and Press. Her short play "Delights" was performed at the Old Red Lion Theatre Pub in London this past July.
Featuring Flight
Caspian G-H
Caspian (he/him/his) is a writer, illustrator, and chronic zinester with far too much passion for the Saga of Arrow Odd. While at first glimpse he may appear just one amongst the unending legions of Seattleite transmascs, he also holds the prestigious title of the worlds #1 The Chatterer fan. Currently on the lookout for a Magic Earring Ken at a reasonable price since he wasn't able to get one before the movie jacked the prices lol
Emma Janke
Featuring You Don't Own Me
Emma Janke (she/her/hers) is a fearless student writer who marches to the beat of her own creative drum. With boundless confidence and a passion for words, she fearlessly explores the realms of storytelling. Emma's writing reflects her unapologetic spirit, always daring to push boundaries and challenge conventions. Her words are a testament to her unwavering commitment to authentic self-expression, embodying the essence of a writer who fearlessly does whatever the fuck she wants.
Jen Kennedy
Featuring Homegrown Sorrow
Jen (she/her/they/them) is a lover, writer and is probably in her feelings. They write about everything, nothing and all that exists between.
Anna Kolczynska
Featuring A Tale of Two Poets
Anna (they/them/she/her) is a Jersey girl raised in Florida who has been writing poetry since they could hold a pen. They’ve always been told they’ve had too big a heart, but they have channeled that into poetry that they hope resonates with others.
Mazzy
Featuring Bus Reflections
Mazzy (they/them/theirs) is a queer artist living in Guadalajara, México, and making comics that tell stories about their life. Themes in their work include: living life in a second language, reparenting, friendship, and the intersection between queerness, disability, and neurodivergence.
David Milley
Featuring Smile into Sunlight
David Milley (he/him/his) has been writing verse and prose since the 1970s, while working as a technical editor and web applications developer. His work appears in Bay Windows, RFD, Friends Journal, Capsule Stories, and Feral. Retired now, David lives in southern New Jersey with his husband and partner of forty-seven years, Warren Davy, who's made his living as a farmer, woodcutter, nurseryman, auctioneer, beekeeper, and cook. These days, Warren tends his garden and tends honeybees. David walks and writes.
Lara Morgan
Featuring Hypotheticals With My Younger Selves
Born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand, Lara (they/them/she/her) writes poetry, procrastinates, and sometimes makes art. They’re currently working towards a museum studies degree. They’re usually found behind the desk of a community library and sometimes they like to act as well.
sunflower quinn
Featuring angsty about personal growth
sunflower (they/them/fae/faer) is a queer and nonbinary witch who loves running and making art!
Sophie Potocsnak
Featuring Fiestware
Sophie (she/her/hers) is a 25-year-old Chicago-based photographer and writer. She focuses on nostalgic themes and art that alleviates anxiety.
Brandon Shane
Featuring Mine
Brandon Shane (he/him/his) is a Japanese-American alum of California State University, Long Beach, where he majored in Creative Writing. He's pursuing an MFA while working as a writing instructor and substitute teacher. You can see his work in Acropolis, Grim & Gilded, Livina Press, Bitterleaf Books, Remington Review, Salmon Creek, BarBar Literary Magazine, Discretionary Love, among many others.
Leon T.
Featuring Tendrils
Leon T. (they/them/he/him) is a writer, PhD student, and first-generation Slavic immigrant based in Germany. They create speculative fiction centring queer protagonists who fight oppressive systems in search of belonging, and are currently revising their epic fantasy novel about pirates fighting an oppressive empire. In their time away from the keyboard, you can catch them at the gym, dancing, or sipping an iced oat milk latte. Find them on Bluesky @leont.bsky.social.
Avery Thomson
Featuring Push
Avery (she/her/hers) was born and raised on the Jersey shore, now living in Madison. Her analog collages are always handmade, often absurd and deeply queer. She believes anyone can make art and encourages everyone to explore unconventional mediums. (Like collage!)
Devon Webb
Featuring WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN
Devon Webb (she/her/hers) is a 25-year-old poet & writer based in Aotearoa. She writes full-time, exploring themes of femininity, intimacy & vulnerability. She shares her poetry online, through live performance, & has been widely published both locally & internationally. She is the two-time Wellington Slam Poetry Champion & is currently working on the final edits of her debut novel The Acid Mile. Her work can be found on Instagram, Twitter & TikTok at @devonwebbnz.
Tanya Verver
Featuring Story of Paula Yates