Author Bios

SAILEE CHARLU is a writer, spoken poet, and visual artist based in Orange County, CA. She has spent five years studying in an arts conservatory for creative writing and visual arts. She is a 2026 YoungArts Winner in Poetry, 2026 California Poetry Out Loud State Runner Up, a Scholastic Gold Key Winner in Poetry, Orange County and Los Angeles Regional Youth Slam Poet Champion. Her passion and work is in promoting the Multilingual Education Initiative. Her poetry often focuses on the issues of the South Indian diaspora dealing with inheritance, disruption, language, culture and choice.

SIMON DIAZ-ORDAZ is a student at CSU Long Beach currently studying cinematic arts. In his spare time, he is an avid music producer and poet, and is a recipient of the Scholastic Arts and Writing Senior Portfolio Silver Key award

PAIGE KAVERT: I am a multidisciplinary artist practicing writing, drawing, painting, ceramics, theater, and photography. I have completed 9 art classes across high school and college, and I received a score of 5 on my AP Drawing portfolio as well as a nomination for OC Artist of the Year. My ultimate goal is to become a high school art teacher; however, I enjoy writing poetry and hope to publish a book of poems.

K L KRAMER is a survivor of writing programs at UCLA (B.A.) and University of Oregon (MFA), winner of NEA and AFI prizes for filmmaking, and started at Saddleback in the English department. Overjoyed to teach film and writing courses for our Emeritus Institute, which produced the Edoardo Ponti webinar I directed. 

JENNIFER J. MEYER is an award-winning journalist with a career spanning more than three decades. Her fiction has appeared in 101words.org, FridayFlashFiction.com and the Kelp Journal literary magazine. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Elmhurst College and a Master of Science from Loyola University and completed the prestigious creative writing workshop with Richard Bausch at Chapman College. More at jenniferjmeyer.com