Beth Spesia is a native Midwesterner enjoying the early spring, bookstores, and lit life of DC. She is inspired by people fighting for compassion and truth and by the resilience of her unwatered plants. As an Inner Loop intern, she hopes to expand her literary imagination and learn from the artists who keep DC's heart beating. When she moves to Mars, she is bringing Virgil, for the heavenly guidance and the dactylic hexameter. Reem Nadeem is a teacher and a journalist. She is