Faylita Hicks (she/they) is a queer Afro-Latinx writer, spoken word artist, and cultural strategist. Newly based in Chicago, Illinois, Hicks is the author of the critically-acclaimed debut poetry collection HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Julie Suk Award, and the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize.

Kwaneta Harris is a former nurse, business owner, and expat, now an incarcerated journalist. In her writing, she illuminates how the experience of being incarcerated in the largest state prison in Texas is vastly different for women in ways that directly map onto a culture rooted in misogyny. Her stories expose how the intersection of gender, race, and place contribute to state-sanctioned, gender-based violence.

Jessica Schulberg is a senior reporter at HuffPost, covering the criminal legal system and immigration. Her work has led to legislative change, people being released from prison, and one man being spared from execution. She is the winner of a 2021 Deadline Club award, 2023 Writers Guild award and a 2025 New York Press Club award. She is a contributor to Scalawag and Haymarket Books’ The Press in Prison, a guidebook for working with incarcerated writers. She is a proud HuffPost Union shop steward and councilmember of the Writers Guild of America East.

Mari Cohen is senior politics editor at Jewish Currents and an award-winning reporter on American Jewish politics, Palestine/Israel, and the criminal legal system. She edits and coordinates the magazine’s work with incarcerated writers, a practice she piloted soon after joining the staff in 2020.