Prose Editor | Art Editor
| Cover Artist
Mackenzie Reinhart is a life-long artist from Colorado. She’s graduating with a BA in Visual Arts from Naropa University and works as an art instructor at Tinker Art Studio. Through her work with children, she has adopted a more care-free approach to creating, keeping her motivated through a degree that’s killed the passion of many artists before her. Though she isn’t as familiar with the literary world, she’s always had a great love for merging art forms, and has utilized this opportunity to consider the timeless relationship between words and images, poets and painters. As she wraps up her time at Naropa, she hopes to bring the University’s passion for mindfulness and ecological regeneration into her art and teaching practice. She will strive to secure her impact on this world by encouraging the artists of tomorrow and creating work that people can get lost in.
Visual Art Editor | Copy Editor
Quartz (Courtney) Klapp is a teacher, writer, editor, roadtripper, and collector of stone frogs. They write gathering places for prose and poetry, laughter and terror, and truth and hope. She is a graduating MFA candidate at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and will continue her time at Naropa as a faculty member. She lives in Lafayette, Colorado with her wife and their tuxedo cat.
Poetry Editor | Interview Editor
Stacie Moore (they/she) is a writer & poet, strange human, cat parent—preoccupied with matters of love, grief, & collective liberation. They are the 2025 Anne Waldman Fellow at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.
Poetry Editor | Copy Editor
estel franklin writes poetry and prose with equal passion. originally from Michigan, it now lives in Boulder, CO where it is pursuing an MFA at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. its work appeared in the 23rd Annual Café Shapiro Anthology published by the University of Michigan, where it received its BA in Creative Writing and Literature. estel is a film enthusiast and has watched one of its favorite movies The Nice Guys twenty-one times in two years.
Prose Editor | Archive Editor | Interview Curator
Charlie Tea is a singer-songwriter, one-man-band, busker, aspiring novelist, and poet. His first full length album, 22 Teas on Tap is available through Bandcamp or wherever you stream music. His poetry has been featured in Bombay Gin and Screaming at America, and his prose explores the possibilities of better ways of relating to one another and the natural world through the lenses of harm-reduction and food sovereignty.
Originally from the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, Charlie spent over a decade living in the Denver area before his recent move into the mountains near Nederland, Colorado. Tea plays shows in small venues around the front range, but his true passion is busking, and you can find him on Pearl Street Mall, the Louisville Farmers Market, and Downtown Nederland and beyond frequently. Charlie dreams of one day taking his busking act not only across the country, but also across the pond, to Edinburgh, Scotland’s Fringe Fest some summer soon after receiving his MFA from Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.
Poetry Editor | Archive Editor
Q. L. Williams is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist with over a decade of experience in community arts leadership, curriculum development, and performance coaching.
Q has made himself known by designing and facilitating engaging spaces that nurture creativity and community for a diverse range of settings including: public libraries, universities, museums, emergency shelters, correctional facilities, religious institutions, and cultural departments. These interactive sessions and performances often incorporate elements of creative writing, poetry, theater, visual art, and music—providing participants with a holistic-artistic experience.
Whether spending quality time with family, collaborating with fellow artists, writing, painting, or tending to community gardens, Q approaches each endeavor with curiosity, thoughtfulness, and care. As a current student at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, he hopes to further hone his craft and gain an extensive toolkit that can better assist him on his path of becoming a better human.
Prose Editor | Interview Curator | Archive Editor
wither-miryam jones
Poetry Editor | SWP Folio Editor | Online Features Editor
Kristen Richards is a poet and writer living in Denver, Colorado. She is a 2nd year Creative Writing and Poetics MFA candidate at Naropa University and holds the 2024 Anne Waldman fellowship. In 2023 she was awarded the Colorado College Grant in Writing where she explored the influence of nature on poetry writing while thru-hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail. Kristen is the author of the two full-length poetry collections As if to return myself to the sea (2023) and The desert is a woman too (2024), published by Indie Earth Publishing. Her work has previously been published in The Leviathan, The Elevation Review, and Cipher and her poem (self)love notes was published in the anthology GLOW: Self-Care Poetry for the Soul. She was previously a managing editor for Bombay Gin Literary Journal and is the founder of the soon-to-be independent press Solar Noon.
Prose Editor | SWP Folio Editor | Copy Editor
Huck Shine is a writer, a producer, and a performer of poetry and song. He is the founder of DarkLeaf Publicatio (darkleaf.org) A small local press. Huck is, as a writer and a publisher, focused on the shedding of much needed light into the least seen or spoken about aspects of humanity—holding close to a lifecraft of choosing to seek beauty even ~and maybe even especially~ inside of the encroaching darkness of this Capitalocene apocalypse.
He was a managing editor of Bombay Gin Literary Journal & has been published in Mountain Bluebird Magazine, The Pivot, Bombay Gin Literary Journal, & DarkLeaf Publicatio. Huck is currently an MFA candidate at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and he is the proud recipient of the Robert Creeley Scholarship.
Art Editor | Poetry Editor | Cover & Interior Artwork
Lily Munos
Faculty Advisor
Amy Bobeda is a multidisciplinary artist honored to oversee this issue of Bombay Gin Literary Magazine through our Small Press Publishing course. Together, students focus on every element of the editorial process, their own activist small press projects, CVs, artist websites, query letters, and how to build sustainable artistic communities in late capitalism.
Raised on the Amah Mutsun land of the Pajaro Valley, with a background in costume, wig, and makeup design, Amy’s work often focuses on textiles, the body, and the process of making/unmaking through the menstrual cycle. Amy is the author and artist behind Red Memory (Flowersong Press), What Bird Are You? (Finishing Line Press) and a Blood to Purify the World, (Spuyten Duyvil). Amy runs the Naropa Writing Center and teaches pedagogy, process-based arts, and gender studies.
Submission Call
Issue 50’s submission call “Illusion Frequency” was devised by Stacie Moore, estel franklin, DJ Chrem, kirkesque, and Meredith Patchett.
The editors would like to thank all who submitted for this issue and the online features along with Swanee Astrid and our faculty interviewee, Ramon Parish!
