379. Meet Volume 42 Grand Prize Winners writer Michael T. Kuester and Illustrator Bafu

Golden Pen Award Winner Michael T. Kuester from Cincinnati, Ohio, with his story “In Living Color,” and Golden Brush Award Winner Bohuslav “Bafu” Argalas from Ruzomberok, Slovakia, with his illustration of the story “Saffron and Marigolds.” Michael is an engineer by day, a science fiction writer by night. An avid hiker and cooking enthusiast, he is a passionately curious individual and lives his life by the motto “In the twenty-first century, there’s no excuse for an unanswered question.” His story, “In Living Color,” evolved into a surprisingly personal allegory for social isolation, generational misunderstanding, and neurodivergence. Bafu began drawing before he learned to read or write. That passion led him to study art at the private school of Applied Arts in Zilina and later at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, Czech Republic. Bafu creates illustrations and comics filled with humor, emotion, and a touch of the strange, hoping to make people smile, think, and drift away from reality—even just for a moment. Michael can be found at https://michaeltkuester.com/ Bafu can be found at https://www.bafu.art/