Mertz: - R/B Mertz (thee/thou) is a genderqueer non-binary butch poet and artist. She/they wrote the essay, "How Whiteness Kills God & Sprinkles Crack on the Body," the forward for John J. McNeill's Freedom, Glorious Freedom: The Spiritual Journey for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone Else, and poems, including "(We all end up in) the CAN" published by American Journal of Poetry. Mertz taught writing in Pittsburgh for eleven years and was honored to be a finalist for City of Asylum's 2020-21 Emerging Poet Laureate of Pittsburgh. On January 1, 2021, Mertz left the US for love, and they now reside in Toronto, Ontario, traditionally the territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.