Jackamo is an incredible local group with songs that confront nostalgia and longing, Jackamo shares lessons lived firsthand. Lush blood harmonies and delicate arrangements revisit the footsteps of singer/songwriter troubadours (Lucinda Williams, First Aid Kid, Damien Rice), while still leaving room to discover new sonic landscapes. The trio, consisting of sisters, Alison and Tessa Wiercioch (vocals), and Jimmy Showers (guitar), released their latest single "Second Best" in My 2025.Patricia Clark
Patricia Clark is the author of O Lucky Day (Madville, 2025) and Self-Portrait with a Million Dollars. A poem from O Lucky Day (“What My Father Wished For”) won a Pushcart Prize and will be published in the Pushcart Anthology vol L in 2026. She has recent work in Plume, Sheila-na-Gig, and North American Review. Her poem “Astronomy: ‘In Perfect Silence’” was launched to the moon as part of the Lunar Codex on a Firefly Blue Ghost flight in January 2025. After teaching in the Writing Department at GVSU for 30+ years, Patricia retired in 2020 to work on her writing projects. She was the GVSU poet laureate and City of Grand Rapids poet laureate from 2005-2007.Cindy Frenkel
Cindy Frenkel is the author of The Plague of the Tender-Hearted, from Finishing Line Press. Her writing has appeared in numerous places, from The New Yorker to Vanity Fair to The New York Observer, where she was a columnist. She was a writer in residence for InsideOut Literary Arts Project, and her essay "Sharing Voices, Acting Crazy" appears in the project’s anthology To Light a Fire. She was the writer/editor for the Detroit Institute of Arts magazine (DIA) and coauthored 100 Essential Books for Jewish Readers with Rabbi Daniel B. Syme. A Hambidge fellow, for over a decade she taught college; her essay “15 lessons From 9 years of Teaching” appeared in Writers in Education.Maureen Aitken
Maureen Aitken’s short-story collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, received a Kirkus star, the Nilsen Prize, and the Foreword Review INDIE Gold Prize for General Fiction. It will be reissued in September, 2025 by Wayne State University Press. Her stories have earned a Minnesota State Arts Board’s Artist Initiative Grant, a Loft Mentor Award, an award from Ireland’s Fish Short Story Prize, and two Pushcart Prize nominations. The book was a finalist in the Minnesota Book Awards. Her stories have been published widelin journals such as Prairie Schooner and New Letters. Most recently, she was a finalist for The Missouri Review’s Poff Prize. Maureen has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and Hamline University. Suzanne Scarfone
Suzanne Scarfone is a poet from Michigan. Influenced by English Romanticism and French Surrealism, her writing paints the visionary musical moments found in the smallest details of everyday life. Her work has appeared in such journals as New Feathers Anthology, Cider Press Review, Phoebe, Coe Review, Frigg, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Cirque: A Literary Journal for the North Pacific Rim, and in the anthology To Light a Fire: 20 Years with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project . She has also co-authored Lessons from Afghanistan: A Curriculum for Exploring Themes of Love and Forgiveness. Her chapbook Walking in Sound was published in 2025.M. L. Liebler & The Magic Poetry Band with Brigitte Knudson, Ted Nagy & LouDLou