Ellen Birkett Morris

A native of Louisville, Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Lost Girls (June 26, 2020), a short story collection, and Surrender, a poetry chapbook. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Queens University - Charlotte. Her short stories have appeared in Antioch Review, Shenandoah, South Carolina Review, Upstreet, and elsewhere.

Aletha Fields - Naked Poets

Aletha Fields, an LLA member, is an African American Indigenous poet and essayist who resides in Louisville, Kentucky. For over two decades, Fields has written and performed her poetry across the United States. She was honored to meet and perform alongside one of her favorite poets, African American poet Dahveed Ben-Israel (David Nelson). Currently and in conjunction with the Louisville Story Program, Fields in co-authoring a book on the effects of mass incarceration on five Louisville families, including her own. The book will include Fields’ poetry and prose. She will also serve as editor-in-chief of the final project. Fields is the mother of two adult children and is married to Jai Everette.

Erv Klein

Erv, a life-long resident of Louisville, published the historical fiction mystery, Subterfuge, in 2019. In 2020, it won the Imadjinn Award for Best Historical Fiction at the Imaginarium Writers' Fest. His second book, Squat, set in small-town Kentucky, will be published in late 2020 or early 2021. He is working on a manuscript tentatively titled What Joan Knew, and hopes to have it published in 2021. Erv has been on the Board of Directors of Louisville Literary Arts since January, 2020 and is currently its President.

Kri Magesty - Naked Poets

A poet, sister, friend, and shapeshifter, Kri Magesty bends to let sounds in and thru, creating new pathways for understanding and compassion thru words and vibration. She’s also saucy, stepping on stones and tippy toes to get the message to the back of the room. She’s a Spiritualist who sometimes has a dirty mouth. She has survived this pandemic by selling Willie Nelson baked goods and High Vibe pet snacks.

Kelly McKerras

Kelly McKerras earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Memphis, where she was awarded the Moss Fellowship, and went on to spend more than a decade working in the magazine industry, serving on the editorial staff of publications in both the outdoors industry and the science/technology category. Her poetry has appeared in the Beloit Poetry Journal, and her short story “How to Get Over a Pilot” was a finalist for the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers. She currently lives outside Louisville, Kentucky, with a very patient husband, two children, two dogs, and more cats than her husband agreed to live with.

Rheonna Nicole

Rheonna Nicole is a spoken word artist and writer from Louisville, KY. Her poetry is a direct reflection of her: bold, black, and unapologetic. She created Lipstick Wars Poetry Slam, an annual competition that offers a soapbox for women, trans women, and girl poets all over the nation to speak out against injustice and celebrate womanhood through the art of slam poetry. Rheonna has been a featured speaker at The National Council of Negro Women's Martin Luther King Jr. brunch, Girls IdeaFest, World Festival, Kentucky Women's Writers Conference, Louisville Literary Arts InKY Reading Series, and the Indiana University Poetry Festival. Rheonna and her work have been featured in Today's Woman Magazine, Leo Weekly, Insider Louisville, The Courier Journal, and Spalding University’s Art & Literary Hotel journal. She has won  multiple poetry slams in Lexington, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Brooklyn. Most recently, the Women of the World Poetry Slam ranked Rheonna sixth place amongst ninety-six female spoken word artists in the nation. 

Marta Miranda Straub - Naked Poets

Marta Miranda is a Latinx Afro-Caribbean Queer Woman who has spent her life working towards equity, inclusion, and creating systems change. She lives, loves , and works at the intersection of identities, ethnicity, race, gender, and sexualities, applying an intersectional feminist lens to all she does. Marta was inducted into the Affrilician Poets in 2009. She has performed her work at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Carnegie Center for Literacy, Eastern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, University of New Mexico , Appalachian Women Rising, Holler Poets Series, 21C Hotels, The Kentucky Museum for Arts and Crafts, Louisville Metro City Hall, Women's March Ali Center, LGBTQ Center LA, Centerlink , Rochester NY , and numerous conferences, marches, and rallies. Her bilingual memoir , Cradled by Skeletons, A Life in Poems and Essays (Shadelandhouse Modern Press) relates her experience of trauma, resilience, activism, family, love, and transformation. 

Ron Whitehead

Poet, writer, editor, publisher, professor, scholar, activist Ron Whitehead is the author of 24 books and 34 albums, including the poem “Never Give Up” with His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Ron has produced thousands of events and festivals in Europe and the USA, including the Official Hunter S. Thompson Tribute featuring Hunter, his mother Virginia, his son Juan, Johnny Depp, Warren Zevon, Douglas Brinkley, David Amram, Roxanne Pulitzer, and more. He has presented readings, talks, and performances around the world. The recipient of many awards, Ron was named Kentucky’s Beat Poet Laureate, was the first U.S. citizen to be named UNESCO’s Tartu City of Literature Writer-in-Residence, and was honored by Louisville mayor Greg Fischer with a Lifetime Achievement for Work in The Arts Award. He is co-founder and Chief of Poetics for Gonzofest Louisville. A documentary about his life, "Outlaw Poet: The Legend of Ron Whitehead" will be released by Storm Generation Films/Dark Star TV in 2021.