We are proud to present our awarded program writers and guests to present their recent works.

Featured Resident Writers:

Yamilette Vizcaíno Rivera (2021) is a writer and educator based in Brooklyn. She has received fellowships from the HUES Foundation and Sundress Academy for the Arts, and was the inaugural writer in residence at Velvetpark Media. A Tin House and VONA alum, her words can be found online at Barrelhouse, Cosmonauts Avenue, and Liminal Transit Review, as well as in print in her chapbook "Little, Little, Little, Big, Big, Big." She holds an MFA from Hunter College as of literally last week, and she is currently hard at work on her novel.

Mai Tran (2022) is a writer and communications strategist. They were a recipient of Epiphany Zine's 2020 Breakout 8 Writers Prize and their work has appeared in Reductress, Apogee, The Margins, Vox, The Guardian, and elsewhere. They are currently a program coordinator for Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools.

Sarah Rohani Drepaul (2023) is a writer who merges poetry and filmmaking.They hold a dual BA in Film Production and English Literature from Drexel University and a documentary directing certification from Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV in Havana, Cuba. Her work has been shown at the King Manor Museum (NYC), Queer Women of Color Film Festival (San Francisco, CA), Chaya’s Chatpati Mela (Queens, NY) and more.

Guest Readers:

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is a recipient of the WGSS Award for Significant Achievement in Women’s & Gender Studies in Librarianship from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). She is also a 2020 nominee for the Pushcart Prize, She has a BS in Queer Women’s Studies from CUNY, an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction, and an MLS with a focus on Archiving and Records Management from Queens College. She is an Assistant Curator and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries.

Anne-E. Wood’s fiction has appeared in TLR, No Tokens, Gargoyle, Agni, The Chicago Quarterly Review, The Cream City Review, Tin House, Fourteen Hills and others. She teaches in the Writing Program at Rutgers Newark.

Panel Moderator:

Kayva Yang is a movement and visual artist, and named as one of 25 Leaders in Action by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. She holds an MA in Arts Politics at NYU TISCH, and is currently a producer at MoMA's Department of Media and Performance

Velvetpark is a 501(c)3 dedicated to the support and prosperity of LGBTQ+ visual artists, writers and creators in the humanities. velvetparkmedia.com