Wilding Our Damage, an Offering: A Rail Reading curated by Sophia Terazawa

Sylvia Chan is an amputee-cyborg writer, educator, and activist. Her debut poetry collection is We Remain Traditional, published by the Center for Literary Publishing in 2018, and her foster care essays appear in The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, The Cincinnati Review, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, with her essay, “If It’s My Time” a Best American Essay 2023 Notable. She is a National Poetry Series finalist and Zoeglossia fellow. She lives in Tucson, where she teaches at the University of Arizona and works with crossover youth.

Fatima-Ayan Malika Hirsi wants Palestine and all oppressed people to be free. She is a Black mother who spends time with forests and waters. Her poems are forthcoming in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora and Elysium Review. Her first full-length collection, DREAMS FOR EARTH, is forthcoming from Deep Vellum Publishing.

Aria Pahari is a Nepali American poet. Her poems can be found in literary journals The Georgia Review, The Margins, and Waxwing, among others. She received her MFA in Poetry from The University of Arizona, and currently works as Library Specialist at The University of Arizona Poetry Center. For her writing, Aria draws inspiration from animals, friendship narratives, goddess mythology, and the Internet. She has been awarded residencies at Monson Arts, the Hambidge Center, and the University of Arizona’s Southwest Field Studies program.

A recipient of support from the Vermont Studio Center and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Leah Tieger (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the University of Southern California’s Literature and Creative Writing program. As a 2023 Wrigley Institute fellow, her ecopoetic practice led to a qualitative study of communities surrounding the Santa Susana Field Lab. Recent related work appears in Poetry Northwest, Waxwing, Blackbird, and Tupelo Quarterly. Her first full-length manuscript, Disaster Tourist, is a 2023 National Poetry Series finalist.

Sophia Terazawa is the author of Winter Phoenix and Anon. A debut novel, Tetra Nova, is forthcoming. A third collection of poetry, Oracular Maladies, is a finalist for the 2023 Noemi Press Book Award and will be published in 2026. Sophia’s favorite color is purple.