Claire McGoff 

Claire McGoff is a poet, wife, mother and grandmother. Her work has appeared in Image Magazine, Innisfree Poetry Journal, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, and has been included in Snowdrops, a collection of winter poems by Wingless Dreamer. Claire enjoys participating in several writing circles, including a group of poets who have met bi-monthly for the past 15 years. She is a 2018 graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Claire grew up in Colorado and in the Texas panhandle. After college, she moved to New York state where she completed an internship in Dietetics, worked as a Registered Dietitian while getting married and starting a family. After several years in New York, she and her husband settled in Maryland where they expanded their family and raised six children and many pets. During these years, Claire served in various volunteer positions in her children’s school including the school lunch program and chair of hospitality. In addition to poetry, Claire relishes her family, friends, traveling, live music and being in nature. From These Outskirts is Claire’s debut collection.

Evan Wang 

王潇/Evan Wang is the first Youth Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His work has appeared in COUNTERCLOCK Journal, Violet Indigo Blue, Etc., Philadelphia Stories, National Poetry Quarterly, and elsewhere. He is an alumnus of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and an Anaphora Fellow. Evan has performed his work at various venues such as the Oval XP, ArtWRKD, and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a featured artist at the Our America Now: Expressions of Freedom event as part of the Wawa Welcome America festival, performing with legendary poets such as Ursula Rucker. A frequent reader at local art centers and organizations, he has read alongside MacArthur Fellow and 2x Pushcart Prize-winning poet, Eleanor Wilner, and Rita Dove Poetry Prize winner, J.C. Todd. He was invited to read at the 26th Annual Poetry Ink, succeeding Frost Medalist, Sonia Sanchez, and the 7th Poet Laureate of the United States, Rita Dove. His work has been featured at and recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Button Poetry, the Poetry Society of Virginia, Philadelphia Contemporary, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Moonstone Arts Center, and the ruth weiss foundation. He is a sophomore at Upper Merion High School.

Seoyon Kim

Seoyon Kim is a sophomore at the Wheeler School in Providence, RI. She is the 2021 Scripps Spelling Bee state champion and an avid Prussian history enthusiast. She has been published in the JUST POETRY!!! National Poetry Quarterly, won first place in the 2022 Bob Oberg Poetry Contest, and received silver and gold keys for poetry in the 2022/2023 Scholastic Writing Awards, respectively. She also received a notable mention in the Write Rhode Island! 2022 Short Fiction Competition and won first place in Rider University’s 42nd Annual High School Writing Contest for short story.

Richard Scott

My name is Richard Scott, and I am a senior at Gonzaga. I have been writing since my freshman year and have submitted and won numerous poetry contests. In 2021, I was published in the InLight magazine which is a magazine run by high school students in the DC Metropolitan area that uses art from the youth to showcase their thoughts on race. In 2022, I was published in the "Understanding & Dismantling Privilege Journal" spring edition. I am also a three time winner of the Langston Hughes Poetry Prize. I have also had the privilege to work with 4th and 5th graders from the Bishop Walker School in Southeast DC to write poetry with them and create great connections with them. 

M. Mack
Final Judge of the 2023 Jacklyn Potter Young Poets Competition

M. Mack is a trans and disabled poet, editor, and fiber artist in Virginia. They have an MFA from George Mason University, where they are now an instructional associate professor of international English. They are the author of Theater of Parts (Sundress Publications, 2016) and the chapbooks Mine (Big Lucks Books, 2017), Imaginary Kansas (dancing girl press, 2015) and Traveling (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2015). Their work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, cream city review, FENCE, Gargoyle Magazine, Menacing Hedge, and elsewhere and has been anthologized in Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2017), Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity (Sundress Publications, 2016), and The Queer South (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014).