Elena Macdonald (they/she) is a lesbian writer from Northern Virginia. Elena is the Managing Editor of Poetry Daily. They are also the website editor for Phoebe Journal, and they read for Phoebe Journal, So to Speak Journal, In Short: A Journal of Flash Nonfiction, and Off Season Mag. They received their MFA in Creative Writing & BFA in Creative Writing from GMU. Their work has been featured in The Ekphrastic Review, Kitchen Table Quarterly, The Table Review, and Twin Bird Review. You can find more about Elena’s work at www.elenamacdonald.com.

Elena is currently working on miscellaneous poems and a book-length essay about Felix Gonzalez-Torres, art, and their queer identity.

Faith Palermo (she/her) is a writer from Eastern Massachusetts. She received her MFA in Creative Writing with a specialization in Nonfiction from George Mason University, where she was the Nonfiction Editor at Phoebe Journal. She also holds a BA in English and history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She reads for CRAFT Literary, Phoebe, and Off Season Mag. Her ekphrasis can be found in The Rumpus, Brink, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and New Delta Review. More broadly, her work has also been featured in The Offing, Puerto del Sol, Mulberry Literary, and other journals. A full list can be found on her website: www.faithpalermo.com. 

Faith is currently working on a book of lyric nonfiction that interrogates the cultural, scientific, and historical context of international nuclear disasters.

Elena

• Music: Hayley Williams, Paramore, Power Snatch, CMAT, Mannequin Pussy, Clairo, Arlo Parks, Magdalena Bay
• Visual Art: Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jenny Holtzer, “Carnival Mask, Green, Violet, and Pink (Columbine) (1950)” by Max Beckmann
• Poetry: Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Rob Macaisa Colgate, Richard Siken, Kim Hyesoon, Don Mee Choi, Wisława Szymborska, Solmaz Sharif, Song of Gray by Asha Futterman, frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss, What good does it do for a person to wake up one morning this side of the millennium by Kim Simonsen, translated from the Faroese by Randi Ward, Black Bell by Alison C. Rollins, The Wild Iris by Louise Glück, What Good is Heaven by Raye Hendrix, “The Orange” by Wendy Cope
• Nonfiction: Alex Marzano-Lesnevitch, Maggie Nelson, Carmen Maria Machado, Amanda Montell, Hanif Abdurraqib, Melissa Febos, Sophie Calle, Jen Percy, A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause by Shawn Wen, The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch, Little Weirds by Jenny Slate, Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green,
• Fiction: Chain-Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, Good Girl by Aria Aber, The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai, Big Swiss by Jen Beagin, Kristen Arnett, Emily Austin
• Film: Chef (2014), Ratatouille (2007), Whip It (2009), Moonstruck (1987), Sorry to Bother You (2018), Whiplash (2014), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Sinners (2025), I Love Boosters (2026)

Faith

• Music: Fontaines DC, Käärijä, Ashnikko, Lambrini Girls, Bob Vylan, Gabber (genre), MCR-T, Wet Leg, Gespuys, Lola Young, Hyphen, Otyken, Chumbawumba, Triple J Like a Version series
• Visual Art: Edna Andrade, Bjørn Nørgaard, Ismar Cirkinagic, Lulu Lin, Josef Albers, Yves Klein, Helen Chadwick
• Nonfiction: The Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth from the Margins by Zoë Bossiere and Erica Trabold, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer, The Hotel by Sophie Calle, Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky, Reality Hunger by David Shields, Sbrang Gabba Gang! Ricostruzione Gabber Dell’Universo (A Gabber Reconstruction of  the Universe) by Riccardo Balli, Perfect Sound Whatever by James Acaster, Want by Gillian Anderson, Pain Studies by Lisa Olstein
• Fiction: Milkman by Anna Burns, The Employees by Olga Ravn, The Metamorphoses by Frans Kafka, Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E Kirby, The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey, Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss, Here by Richard McGuire, Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi, Weather by Jenny Offill, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirely Jackson
• Film: Pom Poko (1994) directed by Isao Takahata, Mirotvorac (Peacemaker) (2025) directed by Ivan Ramljak, Les glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) (2000) directed by Agnès Varda, House M.D (2004-2012) directed by David Shore