Jonathan Chibuike Ukah reads his poem "The Valley of the Living," and Maryella Desak Sirmon reads her poem "Uncertain Opposites."
Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics, Unleash Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets, and elsewhere. He won the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was shortlisted for the Minds Shine Bright Poetry Prize 2024 and the Second Poetry Prize Winner of The Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024.
Maryella Desak Sirmon believes life is a pilgrimage. Physician and lay eucharistic minister, she wrote her first poem in third grade. Her poetry has been published in Annals of Internal Medicine, Oracle Fine Arts Review, October Hill Magazine, Amethyst Review, Deep South Magazine, Delta Poetry Review, Ekstasis, Anomaly Poetry, and elsewhere.
