Poets

Check out the poets who are gathering at the 2025 Festival to celebrate Pittsburgh’s literary community!
Learn more about each poet by clicking on their name.

  • Violeta Garcia-Mendoza is the author of SONGS FOR THE LAND-BOUND (June Road Press, 2024). Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and been nominated multiple times for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. In 2022, she received a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant. Violeta lives with her family on a small certified wildlife habitat outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

  • Jessica Manack holds degrees from Hollins University and lives with her family in Pittsburgh. Her writing has appeared widely in literary journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and she was the recipient of a Curious Creators Grant and Getaway Artist Fellowship. Her poetry collection GASTROMYTHOLOGY was published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions in 2024. http://www.jessicamanack.com

  • Richard St. John’s newest poetry collection, "Book of Entangled Souls," was published in 2022 by Broadstone Books. He is also author of "The Pure Inconstancy of Grace" (published by Truman State University Press in 2005, as first runner-up for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry), and "Each Perfected Name" (Truman State University Press, 2015). For more information, visit: richardstjohnpoet.com.

  • Shaheen Dil was born in Bangladesh and lives in Pittsburgh. Her poems have been widely published in literary journals and anthologies and nominated for the pushcart prize. Dil has published three poetry collections, Acts of Deference (Fakel 2016) and The Boat-maker’s Art (Kelsay Books 2024) and Letters to My Younger Self (Gyroscope Press March 2025). Website: https://shaheendil.com.

  • Sheila Carter-Jones is a fellow of Cave Canem, the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and a Walter Dakins Fellow of the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. She has authored two books; Three Birds Deep and Every Hard Sweetness and two chapbooks; Crooked Star Dream Book and Elegy-ish. Sheila has an MFA from Carlow University and teaches in their Madwomen in the Attic Program.

  • Bonita Lee Penn, Managing Editor of Soul Pitt Quarterly, poetry workshop facilitator; author of When the Trees Finally Testify and Every Morning a Foot is Looking for My Neck. A Where We Stand contributor, her work appears in various journals. A Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Fellow and Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh awardee, she serves on Sweetwater Center for the Arts Board.

  • Varun Ravindran was born in Chennai, India. He has been published in various journals, and a full-length collection, BETWEENNESS is forthcoming in the fall from Baobab Press.

  • Michael Simms is a poet, novelist and publisher. He is the founding editor of Vox Populi and the founding editor emeritus of Autumn House Press. His novels include the YA fantasy series The Talon Trilogy. His recent poetry collections include Strange Meadowlark and Jubal Rising. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Scientific American and Poetry Daily published by the Academy of American Poets.

  • miss macross is the pen name and stage name of Sheena Carroll. Her most recent chapbook, LATE TIGHT IN A NIGHT SPACE, was published by Alien Buddha Press in 2022. Their work has appeared in over 40 publications, including Sheila-Na-Gig, Taco Bell Quarterly, and FreezeRay. Carroll is currently a Writer-in-Residence at City Books and is the former organizer of the Hell’s Lid Reading Series.

  • Torli Bush is a poet from Webster Springs, WV. They hold a MFA in Creative Writing from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Torli is currently a poetry editor for Heartwood Literary Magazine. Their first collection, Requiem for A Redbird, is available from Pulley Press.