Inside Look

Our alumni editor for issue #13's special section: Non-Binary/Trans Voices is Edy Thomas!

Edy Thomas is a nonbinary lesbian artist from rural Appalachia with an MFA in Creative Writing from the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. Their work has appeared in EKU’s literary journal Aurora, as well as EKU’s Archives After Dark 2020: Unlocking Possibilities, The STAY Project’s Appalachian Love Story zine, and is forthcoming in Kentucky Philological Association’s Kentucky Philological Review and Improbable Quarterly. They were a finalist in fiction for the Bluegrass Writers Studio’s 2020 Emerging Writer Awards, a semi-finalist for Ember Chasm Review’s novel excerpt contest, and a James Still Short Story Contest judge for the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival.

Lydia Conklin has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, three Pushcart Prizes, a Creative Writing Fulbright in Poland, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative Writing Fellowship from Emory University, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, the James Merrill House, and elsewhere. Their fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, The Paris Review, One Story, and VQR.

Bailey Vandiver is a third-year student in Creative Nonfiction at Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writers Studio. Born and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, she now lives in Lexington with her two cats, Leo McGarry and George O’Malley. She owns 16 typewriters and too many books that she hasn’t read. She writes mostly about civil rights pioneer and fellow Kentuckian Alice Dunnigan.

Our guest editor for Jelly Bucket #12's special section, Indigenous Voices— Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle!