Joshua Merchant (they/them) is a Black Queer native of East Oakland exploring what it means to be human as an intersectional being. A lot of what they’ve been exploring as of late has been in the realm of loving and learning what that means while processing trauma, loss, and heartbreak. They feel as though it has become too common to deny access to our true source of power as a means of feeling powerful, especially for those of us more marginalized than others - a collective trauma response if you will. However, they’ve come to recognize that without showing up for ourselves and each other, everything else is null and void. Innately, everything Merchant writes is a love letter to the unapologetically Black and unabashedly Queer. Because of this they've had the honor to witness their work being held and understood in literdtaary journals such as 580Split, Roi Fianeant Press, Snow Flake Magazine, Corporeal, Anvil Tongue, Verum Literary Press, Ice Floe Press, Mongoose and elsewhere. They have also received the 2023 San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award for poetry and have been nominated for the 2024 Best of the Net Poetry Award.