Trail Markers

Mona Gazala is a Palestinian American artist living in west central Ohio. She holds a MA in studio arts with a specialization in city/regional planning from Ohio State. Her multidisciplinary and socially engaged practice explores and exposes dynamics of power and systems of oppression that often manifest in the built environment. This includes what is visible and what has been erased in structures, neighborhoods, and geographies. Gazala is the recipient of numerous grants from the Ohio Arts Council, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Franklinton Arts District, Puffin Foundation West, Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, Decapital, and the Hishmeh Foundation to undertake creative work centered on community building, social justice, and activism.

Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is an Alabama-born Appalachian and Palestinian-American writer who calls Columbus, Ohio, home. Their essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in the New York Times, Electric Literature, Rumpus, and others. They are the winner of the Porter House Review 2024 Editor’s Prize in Poetry and are supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. Their first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, was released in July 2024 from Belt Publishing, and their second book, a poetry collection titled We Had Mansions, is forthcoming from Diode Editions in 2025. Read more at mandyshunnarah.com.