Meet The Editors
Evan Wang
Editor-in-Chief
王潇/Evan Wang (he/him) is the author of Slow Burn (Northwestern University Press, 2026), winner of the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, and the 9th Northeast Regional Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. His work has appeared in POETRY Magazine, The Kenyon Review, Waxwing, and elsewhere. He is a two-time National YoungArts Winner in poetry, a 2024 Scholastic National Gold Medalist, and a commended 2024 Foyle Young Poet of the Year. Evan has performed his work at various venues such as the U.S. Department of Education, Oval XP, Love Park, the Miami Book Fair, Kelly Writers House, and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been featured at and recognized by the White House, TEDx, NPR, WXPN, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Governor Josh Shapiro, and more.
Leander He
Poetry Editor
Leander He is a queer Chinese writer, studying linguistics at Yale University. What he has to offer includes obscure language facts and the occasional poem; the latter can be found in Couplet Poetry and CORTEX Magazine. He also reads poetry for The Yale Review.
Brian Chan
Poetry Editor
Mingyu (明宇) Brian Chan is a writer in New York. His work appears or is forthcoming in The Emerson Review, Beaver Magazine, The Shore, and more. When he’s not writing, you can probably find him in a record store, searching for a new vinyl to add to his collection. He’s on Instagram @briantea__.
Madina Tuhbatullina
Poetry Editor
Madina Tuhbatullina is a poet from Turkmenistan, whose work has been published or is forthcoming in Aster(ix), Tar River Poetry, Spoon River Poetry Review, New American Writing and elsewhere. Currently, Madina is a Creative Writing MFA candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a Managing Editor at Interim.
Claire Daylo
Prose Editor
Claire Daylo is a Filipina-American writer from Washington state. Her work appears in Maudlin House and has been recognized by GASHER, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and DePaul University. She’s a big fan of the absurd, Kafka, and David Lynch films.
Payton McCall
Prose Editor
Payton McCall (she/they) is a fiction writer pursuing an MFA at Randolph College where she also serves as Fiction Editor for Revolute Magazine. If she isn't reading or writing, she's probably listening to music, drinking too much coffee, talking to the moon, and cuddling her four cats. You can find her on Instagram @paytonmccall.
Ancci
Poetry Editor
Ancci (b. Arasi Kamolideen Oluwapelumi) is an English Language and Literature undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. His critical writing has been featured in The Republic, The Shallow Tales Review, and Afapinen, a magazine of Nigerian criticism. In 2020, he was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Academic Writing Prize. He is the winner of the 2023 E. E. SULE/SEVHAGE Prize for African Literary Criticism.
Jaiden Geolingo
Interim Editor-in-Chief
Jaiden Geolingo is a Pinoy writer based in Georgia, United States, and the author of HOW TO MIGRATE GHOSTS (Kith Books, Forthcoming). He has been publicly recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, The Poetry Society of the UK, and The Alliance For Young Writers and Artists, among others. Jaiden’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Diode Poetry Journal, Dishsoap Quarterly, Eunoia Review, The Shore, and elsewhere. Outside of writing, he is passionate about public speaking, culture, advocacy, and the humanities. He hopes you’re doing well.
Michelle Li
Executive Prose Editor
Michelle Li has been nationally recognized by Scholastic Art and Writing, the Rising Voices Awards, and Apprentice Writer. She is an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop and her work is forthcoming or published in Aster Lit, wildscape. literary, and Blue Marble Review. She edits for The Dawn Review and The Incandescent Review. In addition, she plays violin and piano, loves Rachmaninoff and blackberries. You can find her website at michelleli.carrd.co.
Isaac Salazar
Poetry Editor
Isaac Salazar (he/him) is an Austin-born and Houston-based poet. His work is published or forthcoming in AGNI, Honey Literary, orangepeel, The Acentos Review, Where Meadows, among others. He is a graduate student at Rice University.
Vale Prosper
Play Editor
Vale Prosper (they/them) is an artist, editor, and problem-causer. Currently embroiled in a doctorate programme— Theatre & Performance Studies, with emphases in Feeling & Embodiment and Monsters— their ongoing practice-based scholarship and creative work explores demonic possession and making Realities. Previous exploits include: taking their play, Your Servant Mephistopheles (co-written with their wife) to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival / poems published in bodyfluids: TEETH, Troublemaker Firestarter’s Sad Poems 4 Horny People, Moonflakes: Sanctuary / a power point in Rat World Magazine Issue No. 4 / and a bag of dirt in Bullshit Lit’s HORNS. If they exist, you can find them by the username: @evillittlevale
Othuke Umukoro
Poetry Editor
Othuke Umukoro, poet, playwright, and educator, was born in a small fishing village in south-south Nigeria. He is the winner of the 2021 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. An Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, his poems appear in Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, Poets.org, Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland, and elsewhere. He currently teaches at the University of Iowa.
Julia Liu
Poetry Editor
Julia Liu is a writer based in New England. An American Voices medalist and Pushcart Prize nominee, she has received recognition from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Pulitzer Center, and Connecticut Poetry Society. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Gone Lawn, Eunoia Review, CUTBOW Quarterly, among others. When not creating, she enjoys cafe hopping, doing crossword puzzles, and collecting too many Smiskis. Find her on Twitter/Instagram @byjulialiu.
Nwanne Agwu
Prose Editor
Nwanne Agwu is from Ọkpọsị, Nigeria. He has twice been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. He was also shortlisted for The Isele Nonfiction Prize. Nwanne has been or will be published in Bending Genres, The Revolution, Rigorous, Southword Magazine, The Isele Magazine, The Mukana Anthology of African Writing and elsewhere. On X (Twitter), he is @NwanneAgw.
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Ella Baker
Prose Editor
Ella Baker (she/they) is a writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently, they study English and Theology at Susquehanna University. On the best of days, you’ll find them reading Shakespeare by a river, dancing with their sister, playing half-lousy tunes on the violin, or psychologically analyzing The Beatles. She’s entranced by crabs—although, she’s allergic to them—and finds beauty in the inexplicable aspects of human nature. Somehow, always, they are writing about the interaction between the ocean and the moon.
Helen Gu
Poetry Editor
Helen Gu is a Chinese-American writer based in California who writes to integrate the external with the internal through the medium of language. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work appears in Narrative Magazine, The Inflectionist Review, and The Shore, among others. She is probably re-reading Pride and Prejudice, drinking a matcha latte, or saying something cryptically threatening.
Chisom Eze
Poetry Editor
Chisom Eze is a writer, poet and artist residing in Port Harcourt. He was the winner of the 2024 Best Of Shallow Tales for poetry, and a finalist for the 2024 Kofi Awoonor Poetry Prize and Verdant Poetry Prize respectively. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Martello Magazine, Resurrection Magazine, Akwodee Magazine, Ghost City Review, The Shallow Tales Review, Rough Diamond Poetry Journal, Isele Magazine and elsewhere.
Oluebube Ogoke
Prose Editor
Oluebube Ogoke is a writer, editor, and history nerd with a passion for the literary arts and their influence on cultural norms and societal values. With her background in law, Oluebube has developed a knack for ardent research on societal issues which are considered taboos. She is currently working on her first novel, which is themed around the treatment of divorced women in African societies. Find her on Instagram @oluebube and Twitter @OChinazor.
Roark Petermann
Poetry Editor
Roark Petermann is a writer from the Hudson Valley. He is a Davidson Fellow in Literature for the historical project Centripetal Agonies.
Sami Helgeson
Poetry Editor
Sami Helgeson was raised in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, an area untouched by the glaciers of the last ice age. Helgeson calls upon her background in earth science and personal experiences of trespasses on the body to examine the parallels of a person and a landscape. Sami was chosen by Ariel Francisco as the winner of the 2023 Patty Friedmann Writing Contest and by Forrest Gander as a 2024 Finalist for the Lit Fest Fellowship for Emerging Writers. Their work has received support from the Lighthouse and Kenyon Review Writers Workshops.
Owen Edwards
Prose Editor
Owen Paul Edwards is from Southern Maryland. He lives and teaches in Baltimore. His writing has appeared/is forthcoming in HAD, BRUISER, Apocalypse Confidential, and the Rose Books Reader.
Eric Baker
Poetry Editor
Eric Baker (he/him) is a Korean American writer from New York City, currently living in the Washington D.C. area, where he studies and teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park. His work explores themes of diasporic identity, loss and intergenerational trauma. When he's not making, he's usually busy walking his dog, wandering around the NGA or catching a screening at Suns.
Sarosh Nandwani
Prose Editor
Sarosh Nandwani (she/her) loves her dogs, anthropology, biking, hiking, reading, experimenting with her curly hair, skating, strawberries, outer space, baking, gaming, engineering, drawing, making to-do lists, and yoga. She has been published in the Cauldron Anthology, Corporeal, Dear Damsels, Bitter Melon, and was nominated for Best of the Net for her Hellebore Press piece and made the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist for her Susurrus piece. You can follow her on Twitter/Instagram @saroshnandwani.
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Liv Albright's writing has been nominated for The Best American Essays as well as a Pushcart Prize. Her work is published or forthcoming in Harvard Review, The Millions, Chicago Review of Books, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Electric Literature, Full Stop, and Ligeia. She is a soon-to-be graduate of Goucher College's Nonfiction MFA Program.
Liv Albright
Prose Editor
Editors Emeritus
Jonathon Truong, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Katherine Wong, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Jess Smith, Prose Editor
Sarkis Antonyan, Art Director
Marie Bong, Prose Editor
Melanie Huq, Prose Editor
Christopher Schwarting, Poetry Editor
Caitlin Villacrusis, Poetry Editor
Lael Watson, Prose Editor
Jessica Kim, Poetry Editor
Heath Wooten, Poetry Editor
Annalisa Hansford, Poetry Editor
V. Clark, Poetry Editor
Valerie Hughes, Prose Editor
Divyasri Krishnan, Poetry Editor
Bianca Layog, Prose Editor
Gaby Mikhail, Prose Editor
Christina Miles, Poetry Editor
May Hathaway, Prose Editor
Annie Cao, Poetry Editor
Ben Wales, Prose Editor
Trenyce Tong, Art Director
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