Sherisa de Groot, Founding Editor
Addie Tsai, Associate Editor
Addie Tsai is a queer, non-binary writer and artist who teaches courses in literature, creative writing, humanities, and dance at Houston Community College. She collaborated with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater on Victor Frankenstein and Camille Claudel, among others. Addie holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and a doctorate in Dance from Texas Woman’s University. Her queer Asian young adult novel, _Dear Twin_, is forthcoming from Metonymy Press this fall. Her writing has been published in Banango Street, The Offing, The Collagist, The Feminist Wire, Nat. Brut., and elsewhere. She is the Nonfiction Editor at The Grief Diaries, Senior Associate Editor in Poetry at The Flexible Persona, and Assistant Fiction Editor at Anomaly.
Julia Mallory, Senior Editor, Poetry
Julia Mallory is a poet, children’s book author and founder of the creative literary arts brand, Black Mermaids. Her latest book, Survivor’s Guilt, takes an unflinching look at grief. She is the mother of three children: Julian (deceased), Jaya, and Kareem. She lives in Central Pennsylvania. Most recently, her work was featured in the special Barrelhouse Magazine edition, I’ve Got Love On My Mind: Black Womxn On Love.
Tanya Manning-Yarde, Ph.D, Senior Editor, Creative Nonfiction – Issues
Tanya Manning-Yarde, Ph.D., is a writer from New York City. A graduate of Rutgers University and University at Albany, she has worked as an editor, contributing writer, and blogger. Prior to pursuing a career as a writer, she was a high school English/Language Arts teacher, assistant professor, instructional coach, and an educational consultant. Her writings have been published by the Huffington Post, Calmgrove, Literary Mama, Memoryhouse, Neworld Review, and Random Sample Review. She published her first book, Every Watering Word, through Wasteland Press (2017). She has also recently completed several manuscripts of children’s stories and poems.
DW McKinney, Senior Editor, Creative Nonfiction – Columns
DW McKinney is a Black American essayist and interviewer living in Nevada. She writes about life and graphic novels for CNMN Mag and is an avid book reviewer. Her creative nonfiction and fiction have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction. And DW’s work has been featured in Los Angeles Review of Books, Narratively, JMWW Journal, wigleaf, [PANK] Magazine, The New Southern Fugitives, Raising Mothers, and elsewhere. She’s always interested in meeting new people.
Kim-Ling Sun, Senior Editor, Fiction – Columns
Kim-Ling Sun was raised in Singapore before immigrating to the States. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in English at the University of Houston where she studied under the award-winning writer Allen R. Gee. As a mixed race Chinese American writer, her life experiences living in the margins inform her work. Her most recent poem “Dirt Spawn” was published in the chapbook “Faceless Brown Masses: A Blackout Response to Flatiron Books”.
In addition to her writing life, Kim-Ling Sun has been an educator for the past seventeen years. She is currently a Dual Credit English professor at a local Houston high school. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher of the Humanities Award for the state of Texas. As part of the local writing community, Kim-Ling Sun also teaches creative writing camps for WITS (Writers In The Schools) inspiring young adults to find their voice.
Cassandra Orion, Illustrator
Alex Beguez, Illustrator
Laxmi Hussain, Illustrator