Born in Utah and raised in North Carolina, Esther Milanzi is half Black South African and half Caucasian American. Spending most of her life in America with her mom, dad, and 2 sisters. She was estranged from her biological father who was deported from the US when she was 3 years old. The only time Esther was able to visit South Africa was 23 years later at his grave site. The opportunity to visit the birthplace of humanity arrived after she finished graduate school from Florida State University with a degree in International Education Development.

She was then awarded a Fulbright grant to teach leadership and literacy skills at a FET college in Vereeniging, South Africa, an Afrikaans town 40 minutes south of Johannesburg. To share her teaching abroad experiences with family and friends back home in the states, she started a blog. Unintentionally, it became a journal of her healing journey as she documented her experiences understanding the post-apartheid racial climate, visiting her father’s grave, and meeting her paternal family including a younger brother and sister. It was there that she received, from her cousin, her South African name, Ubuntu, meaning humanity -”I am who I am because of who we all are.”

Inspired by her journey, she began to write magical realism, poetry, and daily morning pages, as a way to continue to heal, elevate, and to empower others. For the last 5 years, she has been traveling, teaching, writing, & radiating bread crumbs for other creatives.

She is the co-founder of the Surat Warrior Writers group in Surat Thani, Thailand. Weekly writing workshops were held and a community of creatives was cultivated in a time and place where people were looking for alternative ways to connect other than partying.  Eventually, Esther co-led 3 writing retreats in Thailand. The first one focused on unlocking creativity and getting rid of the inner critic, the second one focused on healing through love and letters, the third one focused on developing an individualized blueprint as a creative.

In Vietnam, Esther was a member of a writing society and eventually led the group with exercises. techniques, and insights she’d learned, discovered, and created in South Africa and Thailand.  For the last 3 years, Esther taught grade 6 literacy and a 6-week intensive novel-writing course at the Green School. Most recently, she has taken a sabbatical to focus on writing full-time and to start a writing coach business.
Esther manifests abundance and happiness with her life partner and husband, Lo. She is in the middle of writing the first draft of a novel: The Enchanted Elm, the sentence summary reads: A woodcarver’s life is changed forever when she discovers an enchanted tree and its connection to the oppression of one family.

Esther is excited to lead and empower you on a journey to uncover the true source of your own unlimited creativity.

I am a Black Disabled writer who recently moved to Goldsboro, NC. I am not picky about what I write and am interested in learning how to write new things/forms. Am also interested in revision, critique, and accountability. Also some fun! (because like the saying goes... "all work and no play...") I have participated in NaNoWriMo and NaPoMo. I enjoy writing poetry, fiction, and CNF. I have projects that I wish I could finish (as in publish) and would love a virtual group to write with that may transition to in-person as restrictions around COVID-19 begin to lift in Wayne County. 

I was born in Taiwan. Moved to Argentina when I was 6 and spent my formative years in Buenos Aires. I now live in New York City. My writing reflects the multiple subjectivities I hold. I write mostly creative non-fiction now. I used to be a research professor at the University of Virginia where I studied immigration, religion, race and ethnicity. I'm the author of Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream (University of North Carolina Press, 2020). It's an ethnography of Latin American immigrants who converted to this form of Christianity as a way to become Americans. My first work of fiction are stories inspired by the people I met through my research. They are a series of stories of immigrants who met their challenges with their faith to varying results. 

Professor Darius Frasure is a highly sought-after speaker, workshop facilitator, poet, and coach. He specializes in helping high-functioning individuals and teams create, nurture, and develop sustainable presence and engagement practices. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from National University, with a specialization in poetry.  His poetry appears in many literary journals, and select readings are on youtube. He has one spoken word album, Spoken Pieces (2010), and two collections of poetry: stained glass medusa (2015) and of stone and rope (2019).

Megha Sood is a New Jersey-based Pushcart Nominated Award-winning poet, editor, writer and blogger. She earned her Postgraduate Degree in Computer Application (M.C.A)and Bachelors in Computer Sciences (B.Sc.) from India. She is an Assistant Poetry Editor for the UK-based Arts and Literary Journal MookyChick, Literary Partner in the “Life in Quarantine” Project by Stanford University, USA, and Associate Editor with Literary Journal “Life and Legends”. She is the author of a chapbook (“A Potpourri of Emotions”, Local Gems Press, NY). Chapbook ( “My Body is Not An Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length ( “My Body Lives Like a Threat”, Flower Song Press,2021).She co-edited anthologies (“The Medusa Project”, Mookychick) and ( “The Kali Project”, Indie Blu(e) Press).

Her 600+ works have been featured internationally in literary journals, magazines, anthologies, newspapers, podcasts like Rising Phoenix Review, SONKU, Better than Starbucks, Poetry Society of New York, WNYC Studios, HUDSON Reporter, LILIPOH, PBS American Portrait, Kissing Dynamite, Adelaide Awards Anthology, American Writers Review, Dime show review, Rainbow Project among others where she received her Pushcart 2020 Nomination.

Her literary partnership “Life in Quarantine” with Stanford University has been presented in the Open Education Global Forum 2020 and received mention in Stanford Daily.Her sonnet publication with Poetry Society of New York has been accepted as a Summer Reading curriculum in University High School, Indiana, USA.  She also has been featured on the PBS American Portrait. Her works has also been selected in the literary publication of various US universities like (Temple University, Philadelphia), Stanford University, University of Albany, Kent State University, Chicago University and Arkansas University.

Megha is a Three-time NAMI NJ State Level Poetry Contest 2018/2019/2020 winner and National Level Spring Robinson Lit Prize 2020 winner. Shortlisted in Pangolin Poetry Prize 2019(USA), Adelaide Literary Award 2019 (USA), Erbacce Prize 2020(UK), iWomanGlobalAwards 2020(India), TWIBB Beyond Black Sakhi Awards 2020(USA), Poetry Super Highway 2020(USA).Nominated for “Publication of the Month” and “Author of the Year 2020” by Spillwords Press Awards 2021,NYC.

Her works have been selected numerous times by the Jersey City Writers Group and the Department of Cultural Affairs for the Arts House Festival. Chosen twice as the international panelist for the Jersey City Theater Center Online Series “Voices Around the World”. and “The Box : Reinvention 2021”. 

She has been a featured poet in Oceanside Library Poetry reading 2020 , NY alongside Brooklyn Poet Laureate and Fellow of Academy of American Poets Maria Lisella. She was also a featured poet in BrownStone Poetry Reading 2020 along side LA Based Joshua Corwin and Chad Parenteau.

Anthologies featuring her works have been mentioned in the Huffington Post and showcased in the Poets House, Manhattan as part of the summer reading 2019. Anthology (“SMITTEN” , Indi(e) Blue Press) has been a Finalist in the Indie Excellence Awards 2020.