
F(r)iction Staff Publications
Our amazing volunteer readers and editors hail from all over the world and bring unique perspectives and insights to our editorial process. But in addition, our staff members are also incredibly talented and award winning writers. Below you’ll find a showcase of their work running the gamut of literary styles and genres. Dive in and enjoy!
Thomas Chisholm
Assistant Web Editor & Associate Editor
Thomas Chisholm is an editor first and an aspiring creative writer second. When he works up the nerve, he writes a sort of auto-fiction rooted in the associative and dreamlike nature of memories. He’s particularly interested in false memories; the stories and photographs in our minds we swear were real, but everyone else from that time refutes. He’s also known to write essays from time to time.

Criticism
- Review of Heck, Texas by Tex Gresham, F(r)iction Log, Summer 2020
- Review of Intimations by Zadie Smith, F(r)iction Log, Summer 2020
- Review of Retablos by Octavio Solis, F(r)iction Log, Summer 2019
- Review of Plastic: An Autobiography by Allison Cobb, Drizzle Review, Fall 2018
Essays
- “How Memories are a Catalyst for Creative Prose”, F(r)iction Log, May 2019
- “Another Pair of Eyes: Writing as a Reciprocal Practice”, Inkwell Vol. 10, 2015
Fiction
- “Colony Collapse”, Inkwell Vol. 12, 2017
- “Familial Idiolect”, Inkwell Vol. 12, 2017
- “Spin Away”, Vanishing Point Magazine Vol. 2, Spring 2015
Multimedia
- Bing Bong TV, 2016
Ally Geist
Junior Editor
Ally has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil. She’s studied playwriting, directing, and publishing, and she just can’t seem to stick to one genre! She loves any piece of writing that takes convention and rotates it 45 degrees. Ally’s writing is very “speakable”—she tends to write how she thinks and how she talks, even if it looks weird laid out on a page.

Articles
- “Removing the Filter from my University Days”, Ethereal & Co., April 22, 2019
- “This Year, I Don’t Want a ‘New Me’”, Ethereal & Co., January 7, 2019
- “Succeeding in University Means Managing Mental Health”, The Dalhousie Gazette, September 2, 2017
- “Why I Hesitate to Call Myself ‘Recovered’ From Mental Illness”, The Mighty, February 12, 2017
- “When Mental Illness Becomes a Competition”, The Mighty, January 13, 2017
Interview
- “Mental health advocacy & the importance of storytelling with Ally Geist”, Wildflower Heart Podcast: Episode 9, March 2021
Poetry
- “Nostalgia”, The Dalhousie Gazette, January 29, 2018
Craig Hartz
Junior Editor
Craig is currently focused on writing fiction that brings disparate cultural mythoi into modern contexts to reflect healing and change. He is fascinated with the way magical realism, the sublime, and the grotesque can bridge the gap between literary fiction and the fantastical, manifest emotional spaces that are often hidden (even from ourselves), and interrogate the nuances of memory and trauma. He is interested in writing that bends language and structure to evoke rather than explain and in which bizarre realities or unrealities occur that can be interpreted differently by readers and characters alike.

Essays
- “Killing for Non-Majors”, Watershed Review
“Useful Fictions”, Witness Magazine. Won Witness Magazine’s 2022 Literary Award in Nonfiction.
Fiction
- “Towers”, F(r)iction #17: Memory, Fall 2019
- “Threnody”, the tiny journal. Won their “(re)tell me a story” contest.
Mia Herman
Creative Nonfiction Editor
The first poem Mia wrote, at the ripe old age of eight, raged against the unfairness of bedtime and the reality of growing pains. Since then, Mia has been fascinated by the way our bodies influence our minds and memories and the way we use our bodies to communicate. When she’s not writing, editing, or playing violin, Mia is most likely a) moonlighting as a matchmaker, b) curating the ultimate road-trip playlist, c) stress baking cookies and cupcakes, or d) watching obscene amounts of reality TV.

Creative Nonfiction
- “When I Replay the Night”, [PANK], Jewish Diaspora Folio, Fall 2020
- “Wings”, Potomac Review, Issue #66, Spring 2020
- “Leap of Faith”, Winning Writers, Tom Howard / John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest 2014, Honorable Mention
Interview
- “Interview with Dana Gioia”, Literary Conversations Series: Dana Gioia, December 2020
Poetry
- “Barren”, Hunger Mountain, Issue #25 (“Art Saves”), Spring 2021
- “Fertility Issues” & “First Date Follow Up”, Newtown Literary, Issue #17, Fall/Winter 2020
- “First Trimester Miscarriage”, Third Coast, issue #48, Spring 2020
- “What do you say”, Literary Mama, January 2020
- “How to Explain the Breakup to Your Overbearing Mother”, Atticus Review, October 2019
- “Men Are from Mars”, Barren Magazine, Issue #9, June 2019
- “When the Pregnancy Test is Negative (AGAIN)”, “Emergency Ultrasound”, “What People Whisper”, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, April 2019
- “Echoes” & “Nyctophiliac”, Buddy Lit Zine, Issue #3, October 2018
- “Migraine”, Narrateur: Reflections on Caring, Volume 7, Spring 2018
- “Cancer”, Bellevue Literary Review, V16#2, Fall 2016
- “For Michael Brown”, Minerva Rising, Sparrow’s Trill, December 2015
- “The Answer”, “Memory”, “Self Portrait”, F(r)iction #1, Spring 2015
- “The Life”, Narrateur: Reflections on Caring, Volume 2, Spring 2013
C.E. Janecek
Junior Editor
C. E. Janecek is a Czech-American writer, poetry MFA candidate at Colorado State University, and managing editor of Colorado Review. Janecek’s interests lie in embodiment, ecopoetics, and exploring the permeable membrane between us and nature.

Poetry
- “Oriolus Oriolus” in Entropy Magazine’s series “The Birds,” May 2021
- “War Boys” in vol. 8 of Lammergeier, December 2020
- “Herringbone Nocturne” long-listed in the 2020 Peach Gold Poetry Contest judged by Alok Vaid-Menon, published in Peach Mag, November 2020
- “The Feral Hog,” “Divine Emmy Destinn,” and “Vanitas” in ellipsis . . . literature & art, vol. 56
- “a stream of serpents” Permafrost Magazine, vol. 42.1
- “Come Gentle” and “Come Hollow” in The Florida Review, vol. 43.2, Fall 2019
Review
- Review of Pine by Julia Koets, Colorado Review
- Review of My Husband Would by Benjamin S. Grossberg, Colorado Review
Dominic Loise
Associate Editor
Dominic (he/him) is a bookseller living in Chicago, Il., with his librarian wife and three rabbits. He is open about and advocates for mental health awareness in his writing. Before coming to Brink Literacy Project, Dominic was the Store Manager at Open Books, Chicago’s first literacy nonprofit bookstore. He was also on the planning committee and created virtual sessions for the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum. Find him @dominic_lives on Instagram & Twitter.

Essays
- As The Incredible Hulk Turns Sixty, Let’s Talk about Anger Management, F(r)iction, June 2022
- Reframing Clown Imagery: Anxiety and Bozo the Clown, F(r)iction, May 2022
- Regenerations & Celebrations: DOCTOR WHO & Being Present In All of Time & Space, F(r)iction, Nov 2021
- At The End of THE CLOSER: Show Credits, Mixed Messages, And Self-Love Through Disco Music, F(r)iction, Nov 2021
- Plastic Man Turns 80: Playing My Respects to Jack Cole a Second Time, F(r)iction, Sept 2021
- Bookmarks, Pulp Fiction, Paved Roads & LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, F(r)iction, July 2021
- Unmasking Mental Health & Masculinity in THE BOYS: Season Two, F(r)iction, July 2021
- “Woo-Who Am I?”: DUCKTALES & Identity, F(r)iction, June 2021
Interviews
- Interview with Sam J. Miller, F(r)iction, April 2022
- Interview with Drea Washington, F(r)iction, March 2022
- Interview with Daniel Kraus, F(r)iction, Oct 2021
- Harley Quinn and Mental Health: An Interview with Stephanie Phillips, F(r)iction, Sep 2021
- THE WILLIES: An Interview with Adam Falkner, F(r)iction, June 2021
- Joe R. Lansdale, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, March 2021
- David Ebenbach, Author of HOW TO MARS, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, March 2021
- NASA’s Dr. Sarah Milkovich, PhD on the Mars Rover, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, Feb 2021
- Steve Darnall, Host of THOSE WHERE THE DAYS, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, Jan 2021
- Daniel Kraus & Michael Moreci, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, Oct 2020
- Optimism in Dystopian Futures, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, Oct 2020
- American Library Association & Banned Books Week, Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, Oct 2020
Poetry
- Pickles on Potatoes, Studio Ouch! – Issue 8: Plants, May 2022
- Destroying Angels, Studio Ouch! – Issue 8: Plants, May 2022
- The Mandrake, Studio Ouch! – Issue 8: Plants, May 2022
- Flea Bitten Unicorn, Burnt Breakfast – Issue 5, May 2022
- Merrily, the lickety split, April 2022
- Black Beyond the Basement Wall, table/FEAST Literary Magazine, February 2022
- My Robot Friend, Studio OUCH! Gazette, November 2021
- Picking Up Penny Magic, Analogies and Allegories, October 2021
- Tea Leaves, Analogies and Allegories, October 2021
- The Angernaut Management, Goat’s Milk Magazine, October 2021
- Weekend Dads Whirlwind, Goat’s Milk Magazine, October 2021
- The Food Anti-Processor, Goat’s Milk Magazine, October 2021
- Poorly Dressed Deity, Analogies and Allegories, July 2021
- Buggy, Goat’s Milk Magazine, July 2021
- A Smirk on the Clock’s Face, Goat’s Milk Magazine, July 2021
- Trashed Sunsets, Goat’s Milk Magazine, July 2021
- Folding Hands, Goat’s Milk Magazine, July 2021
- Lemonade Stand on Mars, Studio OUCH! Gazette, June 2021
- Old School Nerd, Analogies and Allegories, April 2021
- Process, Push Up Daisies!, March 2021
Reviews
- WHAT IF WE WHERE SOMEWHERE ELSE by Wendy J. Fox, F(r)iction, Nov 2021
- Who Defends the Defenders? The Hulk, Hip Hop and Sean Avery Medlin’s 808S & OTHERWORLDS, F(r)iction, Sept 2021
- BARBARIC #1 Or Come for the Talking Axe, Stay for the Eternal Asks, F(r)iction, Sept 2021
Short Stories
- After The Goats Have Gone By, Analogies & Allegories – Issue 8: Hope, April 2022
- Chiseling The Eclipse, Analogies & Allegories, Jan 2022
- The Clearing, Analogies & Allegories, Oct 2020
- The Season, Mulberry Literary, Jan 2021
- Floating Lullabies, Push Up Daisies!, Nov 2020
- Gloria Has Questions, Raven Review, July 2020
Lauren Lopez
Junior Editor
Lauren spent most of their childhood writing fiction which then worked its way into their major in college. Since becoming more heavily rooted in the slam scene in Boston, they have been writing a lot more poetry, mostly focused on identity and queerness. A lot of their recent work has been looking at baseball and queer identity especially as it relates to their childhood as a very devoted baseball fan. Whatever they’re writing, it’s bound to be gay.

Poetry
- “I want to give Glenn Burke a High Five”, Hobart Pulp, April 20, 2021
- “ode to watching hot chelle rae’s “I like it like that” music video over and over because the
lead singer and I had the same shirt”, Freeze Ray Poetry, December 27, 2020
Jaclyn Morken
Junior Editor
Jaclyn writes fantasy and speculative fiction, most often about dreamers fighting their way out of darkness. Her stories typically start from the random snippets of dialogue and description that appear suddenly in her mind, which she’ll poke and prod until she has a story. She loves a good mix of ancient libraries, ominous forests, mountaintop castles, and unconventional heroism—and one day she’ll write a novel that features all of that.

Articles
- “Late to the Party: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin”, F(r)iction Log, 9 April 2021.
- “Lamenting the Remnants: Complicated Nostalgia in the Work of Heather Benning”, BlackFlash Magazine 37.2., September 2020
- “Women on the Rise: Ten Emerging Female Authors”,F(r)iction Log, 16 March, 2020
Fiction
- “Eight Cents.” Tethered by Letters: Dually Noted, 21 Mar, 2019,
- “Hidden” and “Nowhere” antilang. no. 1, page 34 – 35, 2018
Reviews
- “There is a Man by Pete Hsu”, F(r)iction Log, 12 Feb, 2021
- “Eerie Eloquence: A Review of Imaginary Museums by Nicolette Polek” F(r)iction Log, 23 Mar, 2020
Nate Ragolia
Director of Communications
Nate has always enjoyed writing about worlds that don’t exist… at least not yet. He’s long loved the potent allegory and contemplative power of science fiction, where idealism and real, human experience cross paths to give us a glimpse of possibility. He enjoys eavesdropping as a font for realistic and unexpected dialogue. You’re likely to find him petting dogs, playing video games, or exploring the world on foot.

Long Fiction:
- One Person Can’t Make a Difference (2022, Spaceboy Books LLC)
- There You Feel Free (Second Edition 2021, Spaceboy Books LLC)
- The Retroactivist (2017, Spaceboy Books LLC)
- There You Feel Free (First Edition 2014, Black Hill Press)
Short Fiction:
- “Script Doctor” (Oct. 2021, Outside In Wants to Believe: 156 New Perspectives on 156 X-FILES Universe Stories by 156 Writers, ATB Publishing)
- “Is It an Acute Shared Psychosis, or Is Your Boss A Monster of the Week?” (Oct. 2020, Outside In Trusts No One: 156 New Perspectives on 156 X-FILES and KOLCHAK Stories by 156 Writers, ATB Publishing)
- “God Damn You, Henry Ford” (Feb. 2020, The Future Will Be Written By Robots, Spaceboy Books LLC)
- “Support Group” (2018, Outside In Takes A Stab: 139 New Perspectives on 139 Buffy Stories by 139 Writers, ATB Publishing)
- “Ensign Friend” (Sept. 2017, Outside In Makes It So: 174 New Perspectives on 174 STAR TREK TNG Stories by 174 Writers, ATB Publishing)
- “Ruination” (2016, The Stoneslide Corrective)
- “Finleymania” (Sept. 2016, Boned: A Collection of Skeletal Writings)
Poetry:
- “Alphabet Soup” (2020, South Broadway Ghost Society, Thought for Food)
Other:
- “A Companion Piece” (2018, Low Orbit Podcast, story read by Rachel Trignano)
- Boned: A Collection of Skeletal Writings (Editor-in-chief and contributor)
Samantha Samakande
Junior Editor
Samantha grew up the daughter of Zimbabwean diplomats. Her experience of being an immigrant and of a life of transience is what made her a poet, an observer, and a daughter of many tongues and in-betweens. She returns over and over to moments of belonging and unbelonging throughout her life in her poems, always paying close attention to the ways we affect and are affected by the people in our lives. She writes about family, love and connection, mental illness, and such mundane things as waiting in line at the immigration office, riding the New York City subway, going to the dentist, and pantry moths.

Poetry
- “For My Love Two Weeks After Quitting Your Job”, The Indianapolis Review, February 2022
- “Looking for Brooklyn”, The American Journal of Poetry, January 2022
- “Self Portrait”, Sugar House, issue no. 23, December 2021
- “Talking Small”, Poetry South, issue no. 13, December 2021
- “Doing Family”, Gerard Rochford, September 2021
- “From an Almost Empty Tube of Toothpaste to its Replacement”, South Florida Poetry Journal, issue no. 22, August 2021
- “What It Means To Be Living”, Gordon Square Review, issue no. 8, May 2021
- “The Winter Shed”, Hobart Pulp, February 4, 2021
- “On the Thing I Cannot Explain to My Husband”, Frontier Poetry, January 13, 2021
- “Waiting in Line at the Immigration Office”, Pif Magazine, issue no. 282, November 2020
Miki Schumacher
Junior Editor
Miki mostly writes gentle poetry and subtle horror. Their first love was poetry, but they also find themselves poking around different styles of prose. They’re especially drawn to mythology and folklore.

Fiction
- “Timelines”, Sinister Wisdom, Spring 2021
- “Chokecherry Burial”, The Tower, Spring 2021
Poetry
- “De / Re / Formation”, The Offing, Spring 2021
- “After the Onion Skins Have Dried”, The Tower, Spring 2021
- “Soy Kitchen Origin Story”, The Tower, Spring 2021
- “Cicada Song”, littledeathlit, Spring 2020
Evan Sheldon
Editorial Director
Evan has been writing strange things for a very long time now. He likes to write contemporary fiction that plays with structure and deals with those odd occurrences that might, or might not, be real—depending on the reader. He is interested in deserted buildings, dark woods, dying towns, and the characters who frequent such places.

Long Fiction
Creative Nonfiction
- “As good as another”, Hypertext Magazine (forthcoming)
- “Blood Linguistics”, Barren
- “Casually Human”, CHEAP POP
Fiction
- “On the suggestion of roadkill walks”, X-RAY
- “Notes left hanging”, Necessary Fiction (forthcoming)
- “Like Wonders Much Reduced”, Cowboy Jamboree
- “Out of the Mouth”, After the Pause
- “Turning into Ratigan”, Emerge Journal
- “Eyes like Pistils”, Weird Horror Magazine (forthcoming)
- “On the way there”, DreamForge
- “It tastes like the mouth of a cave covered”, No Contact
- “First Fire”, Ghost Parachute
- “Origin Stories” & “We come out at night”, Garfield Lake Review
- “A prayer for fireworks”, Schuylkill Valley Journal
- “The Light of Distant Fires”, Antipodean SF
- “Night Work” “Some boys sink”, Scissors and Spackle
- “Falling is flying”, Feed
- “From Underneath”, Random Sample Review, The Dread Machine (reprint)
- “Beneath the skin”, The Maine Review
- “Like a hunger”, Five on the Fifth
- “By any other name” & “A Refresher”, Schuylkill Valley Journal
- “The Ascent”, Reflex Press (Nominated for Pushcart)
- “Saying the same thing”, New Flash Fiction Review
- “Don’t touch the lava”, Menacing Hedge
- “In the house, it grows”, FlashFlood
- “For the good of those who love him”, The Waking – Ruminate online (Nominated for Best Small Fictions)
- “Higher Learning”, Rougarou
- “Through the window”, Ghost Parachute
- “And sings the tune without the words”, Cabinet of Heed
- “Hunting”, American Literary Review (Flash Flood Winner)
- “Given to rust”, Anti-Heroin Chic
- “The woods have always been thinning”, Lammergeier
- “The river at dawn”, Ghost Parachute (Nominated for Pushcart)
- “This Shattered Sky”, Twist in Time Magazine
- “How close the fire, how hot the oven”, The Cincinnati Review
- “What our fathers have killed”, After the Pause
- “Out among the aspen”, Bowery Gothic
- “Games at Twilight”, Ghost Parachute
- “Under the rope swing”, Masque & Spectacle
- “Houses of Water and Flight” and “Solicited Crossings”, Leopardskins & Limes
- “Small favors”, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Doubleback Review (reprint)
- “Swing You Sinners”, Bleached Butterfly
- “There’s a city, he told me”, Metaphorosis
- “Real flames lick”, Dime Show Review
- “The opposite of an echo”, Gone Lawn
- “Mr. Ratite’s Avian Conservatory”, New Plains Review
- “Moths and Lightning”, Gingerbread House
- “The flavor of sky and sea”, The Airgonaut
- “To catch a ride”, Ellipsis
- “And all the ghosts sang Halleluiah”, Folitate Oak
- “The boy found a bone”, Cease, Cows (Nominated for Best Small Fictions)
- “To dig deep enough”, Fearsome Critters
- “The world tastes like metal”, Rhythm & Bones
- “Thicker than a sliver”, Scribble
- “The lovers found a lighthouse in a field of chokeberry bushes”, Aji Magazine
- “Before the Gallop”, Fictive Dream
- “An American Fire”, Typehouse
- “The shadows we make”, South Broadway Ghost Society
- “Golem and Ghost”, Levee
- “Bernadette and the Soul Surgeon”, Silver Needle Press
- “Swallow”, Speculative 66
- “The Owl Lady”, Dually Noted
- “A First Kiss”, Spelk
- “Tastes Like Grappa”, Flash Fiction Magazine
Poetry
- “Fold the jaundiced light”, “Do my own eyes glisten?”, “Some stories are true”, Night Picnic
- “everyone knows what manna means”, Third Wednesday
- “I wanted my skin”, Little Rose
- “Elegy for my former self”, Ice Pop Poetry
- “Eidolon High,” “Night Sounds,” “Clear Cut Plastic,” “Some Graves,” “Peacocks & Lions”, Eunoia Review
- “My insides are burning”, Lucent Dreaming
- “I’ll Create”, Buddy: A lit zine
- “Untitled (with the hard edge…)”, Stain’d
- “When I lived on the moon”, Ghost City Review
- “Small Complaints”, Pithead Chapel
- “Yous and Mes”, Pif
- “Bats in the Sanctuary,” “He lights a fire”, Roanoke Review
- “1994, in L.A.”, The Esthetic Apostle (Nominated for Pushcart)
- “Tiny Sorcerers”, Poetry Super Highway