Indiana “Indy” Rotondo is a writer, athlete, and youth mentor. Inspired by his experience writing poetry in university, where he achieved the highest honors in his English degree, Rotondo was motivated by his professor to pursue the craft further. This would lead him to enter and win the BSA poetry slams for both 2020–21 and 2021–22, have his poetry featured in both high school and university curriculum, and have his poem “I Just” published and awarded one of the top poems in the Asheville cadenza. In hopes of motivating others, perhaps, this inspired him to pursue publishing his own poetry on his Instagram account “SoulWorx,” and to begin hosting his own poetry slams.

In addition to his writing, Indy has pursued basketball for a number of years—a previous NCAA athlete, he has been mentoring players of the sport since he was seventeen, and has gone on to create his own “SoulWorx” basketball team. Indy takes an active interest in basketball-related activities, and his writing is inspired, in part, by his experiences.