Messy Misfits Club
Volume 4 Contributors
All of our contributors listed in alphabetical order for Volume Four! This list contains creators from both our physical and digital volumes.
Don't see yourself, or want an updated bio? Send us an email!
Sadee Bee
Featuring A Dragon Reborn
Sadee Bee (she/her/hers) is ever-evolving as living with mental illness is never a straight line and hopes to be a voice and advocate for those like her. She uses art as an outlet as well, creating whatever comes to mind, and is heavily drawn to speculative and out-of-this-world elements. She is inspired by strange dreams, magic, and creepy vibes.
Adir Blüm
Featuring Deer Lord II
Adir Blüm (he/him/they/them) is a queer, trans, polyamorous jew who currently calls the Pacific Northwest region in the US his home. They studied English writing/journalism/editing and French at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. Their poetry can be found in Transcend, Ang(st), and The Fruit Tree.
Carly Chandler
Featuring “Less Than A Dream”
Carly Chandler (she/her/they/them) is a queer experimentalist from Louisiana. They are currently pursuing their MA from NSULA. They have been published in Words and Whispers, Toil and Trouble, and trash to treasure magazine, among others, and her work is forthcoming in Ilinix Magazine and Dollar Store Magazine.
Gayla Connel
Featuring “Beings Who Teach Me”
Gayla Connell (All Pronouns) is a new artist to Chicago and excited to share and connect with other queer artists! Besides making collages and illustrating, they are also a musician and currently studying tailoring to upcycle lonely unwanted thrift pieces into fabulous creations.
Natalie D.C.
Featuring “hopeless fairy dream girl”
Natalie D.C. (she/her/hers) is a 19-year-old artist and writer based in Pittsburgh, PA. Her writing grapples with her erratic mental health and paradoxical queer half-Moroccan identity. She has been published in the Rune, The Echo, Porridge Magazine, and elsewhere. When she isn’t busy working towards her BA in Public & Professional Writing, you can usually find her re-reading her favorite book over and over, watching K-dramas with her little sister or filling her walls with anything and everything that makes her smile. Her debut poetry chapbook, blue pearl, is available for purchase from Bottlecap Press and her work can be found at www.nataliedc.com.
Clem Flowers
Featuring “Monogram of the Aspic Queen”
Clem Flowers (they/them/theirs) is a poet, low rent aesthete, gorgeous monstrosity, pizza man lover, & poetry editor of Blue River Review with five chapbooks, a Best of the Net & Pushcart nominations to their name. Non-binary, bi, and generally queer as hell, living in a cozy apartment with their wonderful wife & sweet calico kitty. Found on Twitter @clem_flowers
Lillian Fuglei
Featuring “portal”
Lillian Fuglei (she/her/they/them) is a queer poetess based in Denver, Colorado. She began writing poetry in High School, after a lifetime of attending open mics thanks to their mother. They bounce between poetry, journalism, and academia, hoping to find a home for her writing somewhere in between the three. You can find them on Instagram at literary.lillian.
Ellen Harrold
Featuring “More than Hades's fruit”
Ellen Harrold (she/her/hers) is an artist focused on the human connection to science and nature. She is currently completing a master’s degree in Art, Science, and Visual thinking at Dundee University and has received a bachelors degree in Fine Art from IADT in Dublin. A core aspect of her practice is the use of painting, drawing, text, and textiles to explore the connection between decay and renewal in the world around us.
Featuring “the celtic cross story”
humza
humza (he/him/his) is a queer, trans, south asian healer and creative currently making a life for himself in chicago, illinois. humza loves many things including: astrology, friendship, tarot, crystals, his cat shadow, the art of drag, writing, soft blankets, divination, turning out looks, flowers, the sky and more. follow him on twitter (@KlNGHUMZA) or insta (@starlitinfinity) to keep up with his latest shenanigans!
Katrina Koski
Featuring “Wisconsin”
Katrina Koski (she/her/hers) is a Rhode Island-based marketing copywriter by trade. When she’s not whittling down headlines to fit character limits, she’s crafting storylines for her queer plants. You can track the plants’ physical and emotional growth on Instagram @in.the.dirt_stories
dre Levant
Featuring “if pluto was a poet in his 20s”
dre levant (they/them/he/him) has a fierce love for writing, their cat sochi, and veggie subway sandwiches.
Quinton Li
Featuring “Parallel Polyamory”
Quinton Li (they/them/theirs) is a Melbourne-based non-binary novelist, poet and fiction editor. With a love for fortune-telling, angelic beings and the human condition, it's no wonder that many of their works across fiction and poetry touch on these subjects. Alongside these themes, they strongly resonate with queer and Asian diaspora works and believe that art can change a perspective or enhance it.
Mirjana M.
Featuring “Dreamworks”
Mirjana M. (they/them/theirs) is a digital artist and writer from Belgrade, Serbia. Their work focuses on exploring the juxtaposition of elements through mixed media of photography, double exposure, textures and light. Their work most often explores concepts of duality and has appeared in magazines and other places. You can see more of their work at their blog olorielmoonshadow.wordpress.com, https://ello.co/oloriel, get in touch on Twitter (@selena_oloriel); they are also the creator of Suburban Witchcraft Magazine
Cassie McDaniel
Featuring “I Tell Myself Not To Worry”
Cassie McDaniel (she/her/hers) has published Pushcart-nominated poetry and fiction in several journals in the US and Canada. She lived in England and Ontario for more than a decade before resettling in Orlando and trying to grow fruit trees, none of which are yet bearing fruit. She is working on her first poetry book, Letters to Dead People. Say hello at www.cassiemcdaniel.com.
Nina Nazir
Featuring “meander” & "Ultra Violet"
Nina Nazir (she/her/hers) is a British Pakistani artist, poet and avid multi-potentialite based in Birmingham, UK. She has had work published in Black Flowers Arts Journal, Ink Sweat & Tears, Unlost Journal, Green Ink Poetry, Harana Poetry, Visual Verse and Free Verse Revolution among others. When she isn’t making art, she’s making poems. She’s also working her way through her ever-increasing book tower these wet howling months.
Featuring “Symptoms of Rebirth [Unredacted]”
&“Vicious Dreams & Unforeseen Beings”
Rachel Orta (she/her/hers) is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she lives with her spouse and her dog Mumford. She gravitates towards dream-like themes, often inspired by the mysteries of nature and lyrics that are moving. Along with writing poetry and flash fiction, she enjoys walks with her pup and Maggie Rogers latest album.
Suzy Pasqualetto
Featuring “Aphrodite Goes to the Moon”
Suzy Pasqualetto (she/her/they/them) is a multidisciplined writer, media producer, and performer based in Los Angeles. Find her at www.suzypasquzy.com and @suzypasquzy everywhere else.
Phoebe Rodriguez
Featuring “in absentia” &
"I had this terrible dream in which"
Phoebe Rodriguez (she/her/they/them) Originally from California, Phoebe now calls the Upper Midwest her home. She is a recent Viterbo University graduate with a B.F.A. in Theatre and a minor in English. Their poetry and prose have been featured in 30 North Literary, Feminist Writes Zine, Sunbow Zine, and Touchstone. Their debut poetry chapbook, Fatherland, Motherland, is forthcoming.
Sasha
Featuring “Dweller of the Deep”
Sasha (any pronouns) is pursuing a degree in theatre technology at Columbia College Chicago. He was born in Chicago and raised in the suburbs. They love writing in all its forms, as it is the most freeing way to express himself. Recently they have been figuring out who they are and how they want to express their identity. When she is not writing, he spends his time either watching movies with their friends or reading.
Emma Thompson
Featuring “Rotten Bananas and Other Tragedies”
Emma Thomspon (she/her/hers) is a trans writer who has been writing fiction for as long as she’s been reading it. Originally from Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas, she moved to Austin for university and decided to stay. She holds a degree in sustainability studies and a minor in cultural anthropology. Her work has appeared in Bleed Error.
Art Vettori
Featuring “There Was A Little Saboteur” &“No More Chances for Last Chances”
Art Vettori (he/him/his) is a dreamer, photographer and pixel wrangler from Chicago's South Side. With a Bachelors from U of I and a Masters from Gov. St., he uses surreal inspiration and eccentric symbolism to tell the stories of his quirky life and seek a new paradigm for appreciating the beauty of the human body
Devon Webb
Featuring “God Complex”
Devon Webb (she/her/hers) is a full-time writer & creative curator based in Pōneke. She has been published locally & internationally, is the two-time Wellington Slam Champion & the Youth Poetry Representative of the NZ Poetry Society, & is currently working on her debut novel.
Chela Yego
Featuring “Disjointed”
Chela Yego (she/he/hers) is a visual artist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work is mostly drawn from literature which she considers as her main source of inspiration. She loves using illustration as a form of storytelling.
Jerome Berglund
Featuring “Pileated” and “wounds”
Jerome Berglund (he/him/his) has published many haiku, senryu and tanka, in the Asahi, Bear Creek, Bamboo Hut, Cold Moon, Failed Haiku, Haiku Dialogue, Haiku Seed, Poetry Pea, Scarlet Dragonfly, Triya, Under the Basho, Wales Haiku Journal, and the Zen Space. His photos have been shown in New York, Minneapolis, and Santa Monica galleries.
Julia Bortolussi
Featuring “phase”
Julia Bortolussi (she/her/they/them) is in her fourth year of Creative Writing & Publishing at Sheridan College. Her work has been published in Serendipity, and she is the founding Head of Design and regular contributor for the speculative fiction publication, IntroSPECtion. When she is not amidst the books at her library job, she enjoys composing poetry, short stories, non-fiction essays, and more.
Martina Teeny Collender
Featuring “A Whore's Heart”
Martina Teeny Collender (she/her/hers) is a Queer, Disabled, Award Winning, Playwright, Poet and Writer. She's been published in The Waxed Lemon, The Munster Express, The Lonely Voice run by the Irish Writer's Centre, Pride Of The Deise Supplement, Shallot Journal of Mental Health, Art and Literature and The News and Star.
Skye Cowley
Featuring “Visitation”
Skye Cowley (they/them/he/him) is a member of the Choctaw Tribe and a senior at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, OK. They are pursuing a degree in English with an emphasis in writing. They find inspiration for their writing from breezes through open windows, cold lake water, vacant fields, and wind chimes.
K. DeCristofaro
Featuring “epigram for bisexual tension”
K. DeCristofaro (she/her/hers) is a poet and multidisciplinary artist from Boston, Massachusetts. She is an amateur kitchen witch and her apartment's resident horror movie expert. She enjoys nature walks and roleplaying games and, true to her bisexual form, loves her dog and cat equally.
F. Ffrench
Featuring “Bad Day in utopia”
F. Ffrench (she/her/hers) is real and your friend. She made some scary drawings for you.
Ash/ley Frenkel
Featuring “Apotropaic”
Ash/ley Frenkel (they/them/she/her) is an artist of dabbling and educator from Brooklyn. They like to doodle, sew books, read, kiss, write poetry, play in the kitchen, observe and laugh. They recently self-publishing a handbound collection of erotic vegetal poems.
Haley H.
Featuring “Portrait”
Haley H. (she/her/hers) is a queer multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago. Her work usually explores themes of self identity and emotional expression. She experiments with painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography- all in an attempt to translate inner thoughts, perceptions, and sensory experiences into something tangible and communicable.
Alayna Hinson
Featuring “Erotic Grace”
Alayna Hinson (she/her/hers) works with kids in Colorado when she is not geeking out or cuddling with her dog. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Stetson University. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, her work has appeared in The Dime Show Review, Lamplit Underground, Minerva Rising, and other publications.
Sara Jenko
Featuring “the old cherry tree”
Sara Jenko (she/her/hers) is a poet, a writer and an avid reader who studies law at university. A tad old-fashioned, she loves film noirs, college libraries and can't function without coffee.
Muskan Lamba
Featuring “flow”
Muskan Lamba (she/her/hers) is a Master's student in Ísafjörður, Iceland. She likes filming, singing, and cooking for loved ones, and adores the company of cats, Mary Oliver poetry, winter, and water bodies. Her art experiments tend to revolve around themes of mood, seasons, movement, and human nature.
Joseph Lezza
Featuring “in Defense of the Apple”
Joseph Lezza (he/him/his) is a writer in New York, NY. Holding an MFA in creative writing from The University of Texas at El Paso, his work has been featured in, among others, Variant Literature, The Hopper, Stoneboat Literary Journal, West Trade Review, and Santa Fe Writers Project. His debut memoir in essays, "I'm Never Fine," is due out February 2023 from Vine Leaves Press. When he’s not writing, he spends his time worrying about why he’s not writing. His website is www.josephlezza.com and you can find him on the socials @lezzdoothis.
Bailey Lingen
Featuring “Lisa Frank is Dead”
Bailey Lingen (they/them/theirs) (b. 1992) is a Chicagoan sculptor, painter, jeweler, poet, author, and musician. Their art and poetry have been featured in a variety of zines, including the first issue of Messy Misfits Club.
Melissa Martini
Featuring “The Letter My Mom Left When She Unexpectedly Flew to Florida Takes Its Coffee Black With a Slice of Lemon on the Side”
Melissa Martini (she/her/hers) is the Founder & EIC of Moss Puppy Magazine. A Capricorn from New Jersey, Melissa received her Master’s in English with a focus in Creative Writing from Seton Hall University. Her debut chapbook, Faded Fur & Stripped Skin, was published by Bottlecap Press.
Abby Moeller
Featuring “sertraline stigma”
Abby Moeller (she/her/hers) is a writer based in WNY who explores her writing in forms varying from poetry to dramatic monologues to epic fantasy stories. Currently, she lives with her growing zoo of pets and endlessly teetering piles of books. She can be found rambling on Twitter at @abbym823.
Ivan de Monbrison
Featuring “The Human Specie”
Ivan de Monbrison (he/him/his) is a schizoid writer from France born in 1969, he has published some poems in the past, he's mostly an autodidact.
Phoenix Ning
Featuring “Dream Girl”
Phoenix Ning (she/her/hers) is a twenty-year-old Chinese writer of sapphic antiheroines and queer found families. She is currently a senior studying human-computer interaction. When not writing, she can be found concocting beats and penning raps. A fierce advocate of diversity in books, she hopes that readers will feel empowered after reading her words.
Annalise Palatine
Featuring “Lucid”
Annalise Palatine (they/them/theirs) is a trans non-binary actor, singer and writer from Chicago IL. They have just begun sharing their poetry publicly and would love for you to check out their page!
Ashley Robles
Featuring “Before Sonora”
Ashley Robles (she/her/they/them) is your average chronically ill Hispanic bisexual and the only person you know that still wears fingerless gloves. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Austin and has been published in The South Carolina Review, The Poet’s Billow, Unstamatic, Grim & Gilded, and is forthcoming in the Alebrijes Review. She is a recipient of The Bermuda Triangle Prize and a part of Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Poetry Collective. She can be found online everywhere @mzashleypie
Ruthenium
Featuring “Burning Neon Kaleidoscope”
Ruthenium (they/them/theirs) is an artist currently living in the state of uncertainty. They believe creativity is real-life magic, and are obsessed with texture, context, light, and the question “what if?...” Their art has been published in Rabble Review, Celestite Poetry, Vulnerary Magazine, Snowflake Magazine, and Warning Lines Literary, among other wonderful places. Their various presences and publications can be found at https://linktr.ee/Ruthenium
Elyssa Tappero
Featuring “Burned for Boldness Before”
Elyssa Tappero (she/her/hers) is radically queer, vocally pagan, and writes a lot of weird shit she hopes will leave you feeling vaguely disturbed. She enjoys alliteration, run-on sentences, killing characters, and making obscure references to historical events. You can find her work at onlyfragments.com and on Twitter at @OnlyFragments.
Ashley Varela
Featuring “pleasantries”
Ashley Varela (they/them/theirs) is a queer writer & author based in Seattle, Washington.
Monica Viera
Featuring “The Gray Balloon”
Monica Viera (she/her/hers) is a Latinx author from East LA.
Brian Watson
Featuring “Positive”
Brian Watson (he/him/his) has been a leader and mentor within the rainbow community for more than thirty-five years. His essays and book reviews appear in Brevity, Hippocampus, White Enso, the online journal, JETs on Japan, and the newsletter of the New York-based Japan Local Government Center. @iambrianwatson on Twitter and Instagram
Laila Woozeer
Featuring “Cymry”
Laila Woozeer (they/them/theirs) is a queer mixed writer musician and performer based in London. Their first book Not Quite White, a magical realism memoir, is out now.