About

Danny Judge's fiction has appeared in Litro, The Boiler Journal, Lunch Ticket, and other journals. His writing has been nominated for several awards, including two Pushcarts—which he clearly did not win, or this sentence would've started very differently. He was the Editor-in-Chief of  The Indianola Review from 2015-2017, has a BA in English, and works as a Marketing Director. He's one of the few living people to have read both Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest in their entirety, which aged him horribly. 

​

J. Courtney Reid has written plays that have been produced for the Unchained Theatre Festival in Long Island City and throughout the Capital District of New York. She has written essays published in the Oxford Journal of Public Policy, Maine Life Magazine, and Manifest Station. She has been a recipient of a New York State Artists Grant, a feature writer for a newspaper, and a bookstore owner. She is a novelist and an emeritus professor of English. Since girlhood, her passion has been reading and writing. By the ocean.

​​

Alexandra (Alex) Hall Miles is a millennial who loves books, dogs, and solitude. Her perfect day would be curling up with a good book, one or both of her senior dogs, and quiet. Originally from Canada, she now lives in North Carolina and hates the summer heat. If Alex won the lottery, she’d buy a house in the mountains, rescue dogs, and hoard books. 

​

LW Platt is an essayist and fiction writer from the Midwest who grew up in a trailer and now longs for the comforts of his family’s double-wide while he currently resides in some metropolitan hell-hole on the East Coast. He has published works in CNF and short fiction and now enjoys receiving weekly (and sometimes daily) encouraging letters of rejection from publishers and journals alike far and wide. Name a continent, he’s definitely been told by someone on that strip of rock that they loved his work but it wasn’t a good fit. I—He’s not bitter, not bitter at all. Feel free to talk to him about literature and be amazed at how quickly he shoehorns Flannery O’Connor or Raymond Carver into the conversation. It’s a party trick at this point—though not a very fun one for anyone but him. Has he mentioned how The Violent Bear It Away is the greatest American novel ever written? Because he will whether you ask him or not. Because it is.

​

​​Myranda Lockwood is an undeniable bibliophile who lives in Upstate New York. She has her BA in English Professional Writing and Rhetoric and is currently pursuing a Master's in Publishing at George Washington University. What she feels to be her most impressive literary feat, Myranda has read almost all of Stephen King's 98 novels and novellas and is willing to discuss the topic with anyone at all times. A polarizing opposite, Myranda also has a strong passion for 19th-century British novels and has spent time in London, England studying works of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Shakespeare, among others. Her ideal day is any day that she gets to read with no distractions.

​

Jay Barrett, a Jersey Shore native, recently graduated from Ithaca College with a BA in Writing. His creative nonfiction has been published in DIAGRAM Magazine. When he’s not reading, he’s daydreaming about opening a dog sanctuary.

​

Sophie Bookheimer is an idealist from South Carolina with a BA in Literary Studies from Roanoke College. She was born in Virginia and lived in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Virginia again, and she travels back to Vermont when she can. Basically, Sophie is convinced that she exists in some sort of Möbius Strip. Sophie is a fan of Steinbeck and Willa Cather, though her favorite stories include James Joyce’s “The Dead” and Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Third and Final Continent.” She also enjoys cooking, listening to music from the Classical and Romantic eras, and managing the chaos created by her pet rabbit, Schubert. If you ask her about Schubert—the rabbit or the composer—she could probably talk for hours, for both mean a great deal to her. 

​

​Susannah Rigg is originally from London but has lived in Mexico for fourteen years. After a decade as a travel writer published in BBC Travel, Condé Nast and others, she now devotes herself to fiction and working as a writing mentor. Her stories have been published by Inkfish Magazine, South 85 and The Westchester Review. She’s working on her third novel and hoping that third time’s the charm. Susannah currently lives in the magical mountain town of Tepoztlán, where stories seep from the stones. 

​

Zachary Shiffman is a fiction writer. He has a BA in Creative Writing from Susquehanna University, where he served as the fiction editor for the magazine RiverCraft. His fiction has appeared in the online magazines Variety Pack, Inspiring Fiction, and Rune Bear. When he’s not tinkering with a story or reading an Octavia Butler novel, he can be found watching sitcoms at his home in New Jersey.

​

Olivia Wieland is a writer and recent graduate of Kenyon College. Her publications include a chapbook, To Be the Candle or the Mirror That Reflects It, published by Bottlecap Press, as well as creative nonfiction and fiction pieces in VERDANT Journal and 805Lit. She is working on a manuscript, in the sense that all writers are working on a manuscript. Beyond the written word, she is passionate about solo traveling, playing guitar, boxing, and cats. She is a proud scorpio sun and scorpio rising. 

​

Sophia Craig is an English PhD candidate at the University of Iowa interested in 19th/20th century American novels and short stories. Before graduate school, Sophia earned her BA at Purdue University where she studied English literature, creative writing, and classics. At Purdue, she acted as Editor-in-Chief for The Bell Tower, where some of her poems are published. Her poetry can also be found in Meow Meow Pow Pow. In her free time, she enjoys procrastinating on her novel and critiquing movies with her cat. Find out more on her website.

 

L. Erickson likes working in pen and ink because "there are no-take backsies." Flaws are human; humans are weird and imperfect and interesting. Hopefully like her art.

​

— Assistant Editors —

​​​​​​

​Mora Donggur is an aspiring editor and writer from Charlotte, North Carolina. After receiving her BA in Sociology at the height of the COVID pandemic, she rediscovered her love of reading fiction after four years of dense, nonfiction during undergrad. In her free time, she is in a group for Montagnard writers, enjoys embroidering, looking at the fluctuating price of plane tickets on KAYAK, and is trying her hand at gardening in her backyard.

 

Ryan Fallon is a writer and editor from New Jersey. He is a recent graduate of Rutgers University with a BA in English, and his fiction has appeared in Volume 4 of Writers House Review. His favorite books are The Haunting of Hill House, Lincoln in the Bardo, and The Remains of the Day.

 

Taylor Ikehara is a writer and a critic, if you consider Goodreads and Letterboxd reviews “critiques.” Since getting his BA in English literature he has interned for a literary agency, graduated from the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford, and currently works at his local library and bookstore. If you can’t find him on a Tuesday night, it’s because Cinemark sells tickets at half-price on Tuesdays and he wanted to see the newest 3/5 horror movie.

 

Alicia Maskley is a former Floridian / poet / writer / part-time swamp witch now lurking in Queensland, Australia. She holds a master’s degree in 19th-century U.S. history and has spent an unreasonable amount of time documenting cemeteries. She writes (and reads) Southern Gothic, weird fiction, thrillers, and cyberpunk—anything with a little darkness. Her work has appeared in Eye to the Telescope, Witcraft, and Australian Wildlife Magazine. These days, she’s a stay-at-home mom who listens to far too many podcasts and occasionally remembers to drink her coffee before it goes cold.

 

Saty Mukherjee is an emerging copyeditor and writer born in India but raised in the quiet suburbs of New Jersey. They currently work part-time as an English Tutor and as a reader for Wallstrait, Chestnut Review, and The Common. They take inspiration from many places, ranging from the quiet aisles of a grocery store, the sprawling landscapes of the videogames they play, and the powerful stories in the books they read. Although their work is yet to be published, they look forward to sharing their voice with a broader audience in the near future. On the days they aren’t working, they can often be found immersed in needlework, lost in their favorite game, or reading by the warm glow of a lamp clamped to their windowsill. 

​​

Emi Ruff is a writer, photographer, and ex-tech worker based outside Detroit. She is presently working on her second novel while pursuing next steps on her first, and looks forward to updating this sentence to something more definitive in the near future. She also writes about real life in the age of machine intelligence on her blog, Emi on Earth.

 

​​​​​Zalak Shah decided that after a decade of corporate work, it was time for Career 2.0. So she quit her job, moved to a new city and started feeding her creative alter-ego. Now she spends her days reading, writing, getting rejected for publishing internships and sending cold emails to not receive any responses. In short, living the dream! 

​

Carolina Simionato grew up on a small farm in the southern Brazilian countryside. A writer and musician, Carolina’s long form fiction writing has been supported by Curtis Brown Creative's Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Writers of Colour, and they’ve attended the Tin House Winter Workshop. Carolina also holds a bachelor’s degree in literature, arts and cultural mediation, with a focus on 20th century Latin American literature and decolonial theory.

 

Caroline Tuss graduated from the University of Montana with a BFA in Creative Writing. Her poetry can be found in Scribendi, The Oval, and Mosaic, and she spent time as a poetry reader for the High Desert Journal. When she's not bouncing between prose, poetry, and playwriting, she can be found onstage or backstage for her local community theatre. She lives and works on Montana's Hi-Line with her partner. Her favorite word is spelunk. 

​​​

Alexandrea Watson grew up between Southern Ohio and Nassau, Bahamas. She has since lived in Portland, Paris, Beirut, and London. Curious about language and Karl Marx, she earned a BA in Linguistics from Reed College and a MSc in Development Economics from École d’économie de Paris. An avid reader and a writer, Alexandrea particularly enjoys both absurdist and 19th century romance fiction.

​

Kylee Youngstrom is a poet and fiction writer from Minnesota. She recently graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in English and International studies. Her poetry has been published in Foothills Magazine as well as Half and One. When she’s not raving about the most recent book she’s finished you can find her outside with her doggo, watering her plants (objectively she has way too many), or watching some incredibly niche video on YouTube (who knew aquascaping was so interesting?).

​​

— Readers —

​

Emma Atkins is a poet, novelist and avid snail keeper currently studying for her PhD at Middlesex University. Her poems and short stories have been featured in publications including the Stony Thursday Poetry Book, Amsterdam Quarterly, Mad Like Us, t'ART Online, StepAway Magazine and others. Her writing is best described as experimental, but equally well described as just a bit weird.

 

Tamar Burrows is a writer and night owl living in the bountiful Hudson Valley with her son. She is currently finishing up a degree at The New School, writing poetry, essays, and working on a feminist historical recovery project. Her work explores the relationship between remembrance and self-liberation.

 

ZE Coonen resides in America’s heartland. Retired because of disabling chronic illness, she writes poems and short stories, often drawing from her career in psychiatric care and crisis intervention. Her two dogs claim to be in talks to co-star in a film based on her private memoirs. Poems and short stories appear in Breath & Shadow, Wishbone Words, Toad Shade Zine, and Head First Into the Maw. She is an associate editor for The Skull & Laurel.

 

Taylor Grace Flowers is a writer from Minnesota. She particularly enjoys stories about art, fear, greed, isolation, language, and writing itself, as well as stories in translation. She lives in New York.

 

Reece Ludwig holds a degree in English with a specialization in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University where she was awarded the R.L. Stine Creative Writing Scholarship Award and served as a reader for The Journal. Her work appears in Ghost City Review, Deal Jam Magazine, and Sink Hollow.

 

Brooke MacDonald is a writer, an MFA in Creative Writing student, and a Michigander currently residing in Arkansas. A lover of all things science-fiction, she is currently concocting an out-of-this-world novel of her own while writing short stories and flash in the meantime. Her work appears in Hunger Mountain Review, NUNUM, The Phoenix, the Oxford American, and the Vortex. When she’s not writing, she might be obsessing over Dungeon Crawler Carl or some other speculative masterpiece.

 

Doreen Masika (she/her) is a Kenyan writer, filmmaker & poet rooted in Kilifi, and shaped at Daystar University, Nairobi. Her work maps the territory between surreal and intimate, gracing pages in Flash Fiction Online, Lolwe, Isele, Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, Afrocritik, and elsewhere. The co-writer of a psychological thriller Run Mary Run (2023), she is currently at work on a collection of short stories. Follow Doreen's adventures on her Instagram.

 

Claire Hamner Matturro was raised on tales of unhinged kith and kin—and other whoppers—and decided early on to become a fiction writer. Instead, she became an attorney. After a decade of lawyering, she jumped ship, taught for a time at Florida State University College of Law, grew organic blueberries for farmers’ markets, wrote several novels (including four published by HarperCollins), and rescued strays. Her poetry appears in SLANT, Glassworks, One Art, and other journals. She is an associate editor at Southern Literary Review and lives with her husband in Florida, along with their bossy black cat.

 

Michael Miller resides in The Sorrowful Midwest, outside Columbus, Ohio. He is pursuing a doctorate in Education while wetting his feet as an Adjunct teaching Composition and holding down the banal but obligatory nine-to-five (or rather ten-to-six) job to cover his beer, bread, and rent. Hobbies include cooking, writing, and waiting patiently for success. Previous Publishing: Moonstone Press, Remembering Charles Bukowski; Quarter Press, Laughter and Tears; Black Horse Review, Like Teenagers; Wingless Dreamer Publisher, Hampton’s Tragedy; WILDsound Writing Festival, Harris’ Crossroads.

 

Danielle Mundy has had a passion for writing since she was little and enjoys capturing snapshots of life in her stories. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, drinking coffee, and spending time with family.

 

Ally Okun is a writer of nonfiction and fiction, exploring the gray area between the two. Her essays have been published or are forthcoming in The Broken Teacup, TrashLight Press, and Wishbone Words. Diagnosed with autism as an adult, she is happiest when immersed in her special interests, such as perfume and horror movies. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner and their spoiled tuxedo cat.

 

Juan Ramirez is a writer of distinguished anonymity. He was born with ten fingers, ten toes, and a full set of teeth which he carries with him today. His blood type is B negative, and he has no identifiable tattoos or scars, save the slit in his upper lip put there by a rat terrier in the year 2020. He is considered to be armed and cancerous. If found: kill on sight.

 

Anna Rogers is a writer who loves prose and can't narrow that down much further. Primarily a journalist, they're currently an editorial fellow at Mother Jones and have previously written for Slate, Scientific American, Teen Vogue, and Sierra magazine. Their short stories have been published in Flash Fiction Magazine and Thimble Lit Mag, and a personal essay of theirs is part of a forthcoming anthology. They used to be a biologist who forgot they wanted to be a writer, and now when not writing, they can be found trying to photograph tiny slugs in tide pools or looking up facts about creatures on the ocean floor.

 

Alecander Seiler is a Creative Writing major with five years of experience crafting poetry, scripts, and short stories that center LGBTQ+ identities, mental health, and sexuality. Their writing explores raw, emotionally charged narratives with a focus on intimacy and complexity. Alec has contributed cultural and literary commentary to platforms like Imperfect Fifth, Bookstr, Redlands Review and their personal Substack, and has served as a staff member for Neurodrama, where they honed their editorial eye. Across their creative and critical work, Alec is passionate about amplifying marginalized voices and crafting stories that resonate, challenge, and inspire.

 

Isaac Sonquist (he/him) is a queer writer based in Minneapolis, MN. He writes from his experiences as a gay man with an irritating but hilarious amount of anxiety. He hopes to further the accessibility and relevancy of queer stories through his work which is featured in the Saint Paul Almanac 20th Anniversary Print Anthology, and on “The Gaily Show: Queer Poetry for Valentine’s Day” and “This Queer Book Saved My Life” podcast, which has been listened to globally. Isaac has worked as managing editor for his university's Art and Literary Magazine, Haute Dish and is the current managing editor for Speck Magazine. Isaac is often listening and dancing to SZA, sitting on his balcony reading when the Minnesota weather behaves, or eating his daily Chipotle burrito.

 

Cajetan Sorich is a writer and performance artist who grew up beside a soybean field in Illinois. Across from her home was a forest, where she liked to spray paint cartoons on abandoned metal sheds. Today she tutors English in Chicago. She uses her writing to explore issues of power, class, and nature. Her work has appeared in Scapi Magazine, MAKE Literary Magazine, Open Heart Chicago: An Anthology of Chicago Writing, and Always Crashing. 

 

Madeline Spivey can't quite decide what she is. Her work has been published in the North American Review, The Oswald Review, and The Peregrine Review, as well as recognized as a runner-up for the North American Review’s 2024 Terry Tempest Williams Prize in Creative Nonfiction and longlisted for The Florida Review’s 2023-2024 Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award. She holds an MA in English and is greatly intrigued by CNF, poetry, autotheory, medieval mystic writings, affect theory, and somatic movement/body studies. She also loves lists, both as an object and a form.

 

E Townsend would live on a Washington State ferry if she could—but living ten minutes away from the nearest boat slip will do. Co-founder and managing editor for Four Palaces Publishing, she is also the managing nonfiction editor at Chaotic Merge Magazine. Her works, mostly written while listening to Death Cab for Cutie, have been published in Orion, South Dakota Review, carte blanche, cream city review, and others. A previous nominee for a Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, and Best of the Net, she is currently tinkering with essays and poems in Puget Sound.

 

Hannah Weatherford is a recent graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is currently also finishing her Master’s in English. When she’s not writing, she’s reading whatever she can get her hands on, preferably curled up next to her two adorable but mischievous cats.

 

Haley Young is a freelance writer, full-time traveler, and—above all—an insatiable dog nerd. Her words have been published in a few places and rejected by many more, so when in doubt she shouts into the void from her own dog-centric blog. She lives in a bright yellow van named Hermes with her partner and blue heeler, always searching for the next small joy. (Spoiler: The next small joy is usually another game of tug.)