BYRON F. ASPAAS. Raised within the four sacred mountains of Dinétah. Aspaas’s first published work was included in Yellow Medicine Review and since then his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Aspaas’s writing revisits the destruction of sacred land and engages his readers in a dialogue about preserving Diné culture and land. Byron is faculty at San Juan College’s English Department and Western Colorado University’s Creative Writing Program.

5:00-5:05- Akeemi Martinez

5:05-5:10- Cara Talamante

5:10-5:15- Shannel Garcia

5:15-5:20-Danielle Burbank

5:20-5:25-Lambert Martin

5:25-5:30-Danielle Emerson

5:35-5:40-Chris Hoshnic

5:40-5:45-Rowie

Yá’át’ééh! Shí éí Akeemi Martinez yinishyé. Tsi'naajinii nishłį́. Tódich'ii'nii bashishchiin. Táchii'nii e’da shi cheii. Chishi Haltsooí dashinalí. Ákót’éego Diné Asdzáán nishłį́. I am an interdisciplinary Artist currently living and making art on the Rez in Bááháálí. In my creative process I aim to be sovereign and curious about life; I use this intrigue to fan my passion for creating and imagining.Lambert Martin, Jr, was born and raised in Shiprockland, NM. He currently serves as a writing tutor at Dine College, where is also pursuing his BFA in Creative Writing.

Chris Hoshnic is a Bachelors of Arts in English student from Arizona State University. He has been a recipient of the 2023 Indigenous Prize Poet for Hayden’s Ferry Review and has work featured in Yellow Medicine Review and El Portal Journal. Hoshnic has also been a Translator of Diné Bizaad at Thousand Languages Project, a Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing initiative. He was also a 2023 Screenwriting Fellow with the Native American Media Alliance’s Writers Seminar and a 2023 UC-Berkeley Arts Research Center Poetry & the Senses Fellow.

Roanna “Rowie Shondeen” Shebala is a Native American of the Dine (Navajo Tribe) and Shiwi (Zuni 

Tribe). Shebala is Tsenjikini (Cliff Dweller clan), Born for Deeshchii’nii (Start of the Red Streak clan). Her maternal grandparents are the Tótsohnii (Big Water Clan), and her paternal grandparents are the Naasht’ezhi Dine’e’- Dakkya:kwe (Zuni-Frog Clan). Currently living in Albuquerque, NM. Shebala earned her B.S. in Theater at Northern Arizona University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing - Poetry at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM.

Danielle Shandiin Emerson is a Diné writer from Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation. Her clans are Tłaashchi’i (Red Cheek People Clan), born for Ta’neezaahníí (Tangled People Clan). She has a B.A. in Education Studies and a B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University. Danielle writes fiction, poetry, plays, and creative essays.

Shannel Garcia is a twenty-seven-year-old Diné and Hispanic student and writer from Shiprock, New Mexico. Shannel's pronouns are she/her. She is Áshįįhí (Salt People Clan) and born for Tódích’íi’nii (Bitter Water People Clan).

Danielle Burbank, originally from Crystal, NM, currently resides in Farmington. Interests include libraries, children’s literature and cats.

Shaina A. Nez is Táchii’nii born for Áshįįhi. She serves Diné College as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and English. She is a doctoral candidate in Justice Studies with the School of Social Transformation and Inquiry at Arizona State University. She earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Her work has appeared in 'A Gathering of Native Voices' (The Massachusetts Review), 'Nonwhite and Women: 131 Micro-Essays on Being in the World,' winner of the 2023 Silver IPPY award in the category of Adult Multicultural Nonfiction, 'The Languages of our Love: An Indigenous Love and Sex anthology' (Abalone Mountain Press), Issue 14: Indigenous Ecopoetry (Green Linden Press) and elsewhere.

Esther G. Belin is an author of two collections of poetry: Of Cartography, and From the Belly of My Beauty, winner of the 2000 American Book Award; and is one of the co-editors of The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature, winner of the 2022 American Book Award.  She teaches in the Native American and Indigenous Studies department at Fort Lewis College and is a Poetry faculty mentor in Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing MFA program.

Rachael Johnson is a disabled, neurodivergent Diné writer/poet from the Navajo Nation. She belongs to Táchii’nii, the Red Running into the Water people, and is born for Kinyaa’áanii, the Towering House clan. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico

Dr. Amanda R. Tachine is Navajo from Ganado, Arizona. She is Náneesht’ézhí Táchii’nii (Zuni Red Running into Water) born for Tł’ízí łání (Many Goats). She is an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership & Innovation at Arizona State University. Amanda’s research explores the relationship between systemic and structural histories of settler colonialism and the ongoing erasure of Indigenous presence and belonging in college settings using qualitative Indigenous methodologies.