Join writers of speculative fiction for an "en plein... ear" narrative and drawing live experience.

D.A. Xiaolin Spires  writes from the snowy Finger Lakes, but has stepped into portals and reappeared in sites such as NJ, Manhattan, Chicago, Hawaiʻi, various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. She has a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology from Cornell University, has conducted National Science Foundation-funded research and instructed youth and college students writing. She writes speculative fiction, non-fiction and poetry, teaches martial arts and languages, crafts fantastical paintings and ceramics, draws comics and relishes gastronomic adventures. Her multifaceted writing reflects her interest in the cosmos, sentience, food systems, ecology, technology and society. Her 100+ short stories have been published in Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Nature Journal, Vice Magazine, MIT Press and chosen for Year’s Best anthologies. Select stories can be read in Japanese, Estonian, Spanish, German, Vietnamese and French translation. Her 75+ poems appear in magazines such as Strange Horizons, Analog and Star*Line—and she served as guest editor for the Aliens issue of Eye to the Telescope. Her poetry has been nominated for the Dwarf Star, Rhysling, Best of the Net and Pushcart Awards. Wintry ecologies of residences past and present inspire her first contact sci-fi novella ELLIPSES from Infinivox. She can be found on Patreon @daxiaolinspires, Facebook @daxspires, Instagram/Threads @spireswriter and Bluesky @spires.bsky.social. 

Don Pizarro subsists on coffee and yacht rock. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Lakeside Circus, and in other places online and in print. He is also a graduate of the 2016 Viable Paradise Writing Workshop, and lives in upstate New York where he works as a health administration factotum. You can find him at donfoolery.com.

Brett Williams is an Ithaca Resident and aspiring author. Brett reads and writes mostly speculative fiction and poetry.

Keegan Young is a systems-impacted fiction writer/poet who earned two degrees while incarcerated. He works with systems-impacted people as a community educator, and he performs poetry at local open mic nights and helps host monthly Punk & Poetry in Ithaca, NY.