New Voices Fellows

Kate Bromley is a mobility and hearing disabled writer who writes primarily to shape and understand her world. After years of teaching and practicing massage, she turned her attention to writing, primarily poetry and flash non-fiction. She writes to maintain community and her sanity. She enjoys writing with the Virtual Hard Times community regularly as well as Body of Words and Queer Creatives. For the past six years, she has facilitated a free Weds night virtual Qigong and meditation class that formed spontaneously at the beginning of pandemic years. Besides writing about disability topics, Kate is particularly interested in eco-poetry as a form of support for our beleaguered natural world, and she often writes and shares haiku and senryu to help process depressing or distressing news that diminishes the rights and dignity of any group, especially those she identifies with. Being homebound now, her front window is often a portal to the world at large and many poems are flights of imagination beyond the physical constraints of her lift chair.

Liza Michelle Bevams (she/they) is a poet, maker, and visual artist whose creative practice and poetics is rooted in improvisation and experimentation. Raised in Altadena, California, she holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College and is a frequent volunteer in her local arts and bookmaking communities. She is an alumna of the Poetry Collective at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and has poems forthcoming in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora.

Shannon Malloy is a neurodivergent, crip poet. She studied poetry at the College of Santa Fe and English Lit and Sociology at University of Denver, though after an accident where she was internally decapitated, a traumatic brain injury erased most of that education. She has been writing poetry for as long as she can remember, but after she regained some of her brain power post-injuries, shifted from love angst and depression based work to poetry that centers more around trauma—from sex, gender, and emotional trauma, to the trauma that causes and lives in a broken body. She has battled mental illness and addiction for much of her life. She has found writing as a way to process tragedy and answer, “Why me?” She believes poetry is her way to connect to and give a voice to other survivors, but also often to make others as uncomfortable as she is. She lives in Denver with her crazy pups, Gertie Stein and Fanny Howl. She comes with her own trigger warning.

In her creative nonfiction, Erica Blumfield explores the highs and lows of living with bipolar disorder. She finds humor in the face of adversity and confronts society's perceptions of mental health. She also writes flash, noir fiction, and narrative poetry. Through her writing, teaching creative writing to elementary and middle school students, and producing the true storytelling show Revealed (true and personal storytelling), she amplifies voices, advocates for understanding, and inspires others to find strength in their challenges. She is a 2024 Writer of Note Grantee through the de Groot Foundation. She is a 2023 recipient of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s New Voices Fellowship. Her work appears in All The Lives We Ever Lived, in Bellevue Literary Reviews’ online series “Can Storytelling Prevent Gun Violence?” and on her podcast Telling Mental Health. Website: ericablumfield.com

Sahar Elhallak's poetic voice springs from her Palestinian heritage, intertwined with her Lebanese roots. Her verses resonate with the profound struggles she has faced, and the complexities of her mental health battles. Through her poetry, Sahar embodies resilience, guiding readers on a journey of introspection and spiritual transformation. With each word, she invites us to witness the beauty born from pain and experience the healing power of poetic expression.