Former Seattleite, formidable poet, genre-crossing artist, TEDx speaker, and podcaster Anastacia-Reneé's funky, feminist collection Side Notes from the Archivist: Poems illuminated Black femme culture through coming-of-age poems set in '80s Philly, and it had me awe-inspired just last year. ("The deft tonal shifts of Anastacia-Reneé’s words and delivery amuse, disarm and devastate," said the Seattle Times.) She's somehow already back with Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere, a "bold hybrid collection of poetry, flash fiction, and Afrofuturism sci-fi," which sounds incredible. Show up to her talk with fellow author Noni Ervin to become a super fan. by Lindsay Costello