mEET THE CONTRIBUTORS OF ISSUE V: INDULGENCE

These authors, poets, and artists taught us what it means to be rash, rebellious, and indecorous.

mikey harper

Mikey Harper is a 16-year-old transgender artist and aspiring journalist from Houston, Texas. He is a creative writing student with a focus in poetry and creative non-fiction, and has been previously published in Augment Review and Paper Crane Journal. He was accepted as a member of the Cathartic Youth Literary Magazine editorial team after being published through them twice, one of which as an editor's choice writer. He is the founder/managing editor of BLUNT FORCE JOURNAL, and his creative influences include Paul Tran, Warsan Shire, Richard Siken, and Nicole Sealey. When he isn't reading or going to concerts, he's learning a new song on bass or adding more CDs to his collection. You can find him on Instagram at @sororityjeans, or you can check out BLUNT FORCE JOURNAL at www.bluntforcejournal.com.

Saesame

Sarah is a 17-year-old writer from Vancouver, B.C., Canada. She published a poem and cover art in the Paddler Press Volume 4. She also loves to draw digitally and paint, specifically watercolor, and of course, reading is another one of her hobbies. She likes a wide range of genres in books and is a huge empath, especially toward side characters. Drawing and painting inspire Sarah to new, unique ideas to write about, and her goal is to pursue animation as a career. Link to published pieces: https://paddlerpress.ca/product/paddler-press-vol-4-light/

nickolas vaccaro

Nickolas Vaccaro is a student in New York. His interests are Early Modern literature and twentieth-century poetry, the crossing of poetry and play, and the development of theater in Medieval Europe. Yet literature, for him, transcends academic interest, for it is his art, through which he discovers and studies the world. Nickolas intends to publish a book of poetry. Instagram: @vaccaro.nickolas

naomi carr

Naomi Carr is a young writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Though she dabbles in poetry and journalism, she has found a home in creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Blue Marble Review and grain of salt mag, and is forthcoming in Apprentice Writer, Ice Lolly Review, and The Firefly Review. When Naomi isn't writing, she likes studying art history and taking long walks through parks.

marion hawthorne

Marion Hawthorne (any pronouns) enjoys whispering the stars' secrets to pebbles (so they can grow up to shine just as bright). He's a 14-year-old European-American poet. They're an appreciator of purple, a circle enthusiast, and a space lover, and like reading, music, and creating art. This is the first time her work has been published! You can find her at marionhawthorne.carrd.co

kate rowberry

Kate Rowberry is a writer who is inspired by words she encounters, scenarios she imagines, and events she lives through. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Global Youth Review and Anthropology News and has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest.

claire fox

Claire Fox is a 17-year-old writer from California's Central Valley. She is a book addict, an obsessive proofreader of all things from text messages to public signs, and an editor for Polyphony Lit. Her work can also be found in Kalopsia Literary Journal, on Write the World, and in her school's literary magazine.

hilary tam

Hilary Tam (she/her) is a student and sandwich entehusiast from Hong Kong. Her work appears in Kissing Dynamite, Wine Cellar Press, The Lumiere Review, Fahmidan Journal, Celestite Poetry and more. She can be found playing duotrigordle at ungodly hours or taking long walks. She is on Twitter @hiilarytam.

william bittner

William Bittner is a high school junior from Birmingham, Alabama. He enjoys writing absurdist and nature-inspired poems, essays, and short stories. He has been published in Parallax, fingers comma toes, and Cadence, ​and has been recognized by the Alabama Writers' Forum.

nicol milev

Nicol Milev is an eighteen-year-old poet and student based in the Southern US. In her writing, she hopes to capture what is familiar through unusual and unexplored worlds. When she's not scribbling away, she enjoys baking and snapping photos with her film camera.

vivian huang

Vivian Huang is a sixteen-year-old poet from Irvine, California. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in The Lumiere Review, The Ice Lolly Review, Detester Magazine, and elsewhere. She is obsessed with blueberry scones and crying over film soundtracks.

arushi katyal

Arushi Katyal is a rising freshman at Boston College. Some of her favorite books are The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, What I Was by Meg Rossof, and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. In her free time, she likes baking and rewatching Big Bang Theory. ​

natasha bredle

Natasha Bredle is an emerging writer based in Ohio. She likes sunsets and the quiet, and is the caretaker of several exotic pets. You can find her work in Peach Mag, Full House Lit, and Anti-Heroin Chic, ​to name a few.

ziyi yan

Ziyi Yan is a student at Greenwich High School. Her work has been recognized nationally by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, dancing, and annoying her younger sister.