Masthead

Jadyn Nguyen

Jadyn believes the key to this universe is being your full self. His experience includes working with leading philanthropic foundations and serving as a founding team member for three Denver-based non-profits.

As the founder of Penkhay J, LLC, he supports organizations with social media strategy and content distribution. When more people know about the great effects of youth development, then more individuals can be positively impacted.

Jadyn is a Denver Public School alumni and serves as a board member for the Colorado Youth Congress. He loves learning, playing card games, and spending time with loved ones. He’s a bigtime fan of the Chainsmokers!

Madden Oliver

Madden grew up in Washington D.C. They are a prior Division 1 athlete who loves hedgehogs, piercings, and Disney. They are an advocate, activist, and student. Their passions include creating connections through shared lived experiences and mental health resourcing. They believe storytelling is a powerful avenue to destigmatize and uplift minority narratives. They create content on social media, write poetry, and enjoy using mixed media to depict life. They are a current volunteer with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. They love trying new sports, the latest being: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Rock Climbing and Trail Running. They aspire to be an Ironman. As a queer neurodiverse person, who values humor, they hope that sharing stories can capture struggle and highlight hope.

Ann Hickox

Ann is an undergraduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder pursuing a BS in Accounting. She is also pursuing a minor in Art History which feeds her love of museums and historic studies. Also an accomplished musician, Ann has received merit awards from the Royal British School of Music and has played in multiple orchestra ensembles and quartets. She enjoys busy college life and looking after her two pampered rabbits. Outside of school, Ann can be found reading historical novels, rock climbing, and finding fun places to eat.

Eva Reish

Eva Reish is a student at the University of Colorado Boulder studying Marketing and Creative Technology and Design. She is a Diverse Scholar, a brother of Delta Sigma Pi Professional Fraternity, and member of Business & Engineering Women in Technology. Eva grew up in Aurora where she played basketball, was the president of DECA, and curated recipes for NASA through her high school. She is passionate about discovering the world through travel, cultural immersion and meeting new people. In her free time, she likes to connect with friends and family, participate in outdoor activities like hiking and fishing, improve her graphic design skills, and watch Breaking Bad.

Luis Diego Rodriguez

Luis Diego was born in Little Rock AR, his family being from Venezuela and Spain. He’s an avid runner, as a part of his high school cross-country team, completing his first marathon at age 15. He has a love for history, especially military history. He interviews veterans and does in depth research into their stories, publishing them in his YouTube channel “Military History Unveiled.” He seeks opportunities for community service—including spending a month in Egypt helping communities have access to water and shelter—and he enjoys attending school and traveling. His other interests include reading, mainly non-fiction and science-fiction, playing classical and electric guitar, and water and snow skiing.

Vishnu Gonzales

Vishnu Gonzales is a dedicated professional with a strong foundation in the music industry, particularly as a rap artist known by the stage name “The Sun Vishnu.” At 19, he has already made significant strides in his career, showcasing his talent and creativity through multiple successful releases. With 5 years of experience honing his craft, Vishnu has developed expertise in songwriting, performance, and music production. His professional journey is marked by his ability to connect with audiences through powerful lyrics and dynamic performances. Vishnu’s commitment to excellence and passion for music continue to drive his pursuit of creating impactful art that resonates with listeners globally.

Skyler Boudreau

Skyler Boudreau graduated from the New Hampshire Technical Institute with an AA in English and AS in General Studies. During her time at NHTI, she served as an editor and webmaster for The Eye, NHTI’s student literary journal. In 2023, she produced a digital special edition of The Eye with a focus on literary censorship, which went on to win the first place Change the World award in the New Hampshire Humanities Collaborative’s HUGEmanities contest. She is currently working on her BA in Creative Writing and English with a concentration in fiction at Southern New Hampshire University. Find Skyler on BlueSky: @skylerboudreau.bsky.social.

Lydia Layton

Lydia Layton is an aspiring novelist and filmmaker pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. Her literary interests include contemporary working-class fiction, narratives of trauma, and depictions of masculinity in media. In her free time, you may spot her jumping waves on the beach, musing over which language to learn next, and attempting to skateboard. 

Ainsley Louie-Suntjens

Ainsley Louie-Suntjens (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian writer, editor, student, and artist from Calgary. She is working towards her undergraduate in English and History at the University of Calgary. Her writing is gothic, horror-inflected, and full of weird women who get up to strange activities. You can find her work in Deathcap, Lida Literary, Wyrd & Wise, Undressed Society, and Nowhere Girl Collective. She is also a passionate dance artist, cinephile, watercolor painter, and avid thrift-shopper. You can find her social media below: 

Instagram
Twitter
Letterboxd
Goodreads

Stevi Sargas

Stevi Sargas is a queer, spec-fic author from Aotearoa, New Zealand. They graduated NorthTec: Tai Tokerau Wānanga summa cum laude in 2024 with a Diploma in Creative Writing. Their work can be found in journals such as bad apple and A Part of Me. Stevi edits for F(r)iction and freelances in publishing, where their recent project won the 2023 Australian Game Developer Award (ADGA) for Excellence in Narrative. They are an unflappable welfare advocate, using their experience of chronic illness and neurodivergence to increase accessibility and awareness. Stevi writes about messy little guys new to the human condition—which, honestly—aren’t we all? 

Jazzmin Joya

Jazzmin Joya (she/her) is an enthusiastic young writer who is currently attending the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in English and Media Studies. She enjoys reading short fiction, poetry, and horror/mystery thrillers but is open to all genres. She spent her high school career participating in an organization called WriteGirl where she was published in one of their anthologies, This Moment. She also wrote for her school’s advocacy newspaper and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate two years in a row. She plans to continue her passion in writing and exploring the publishing industry.

Ciena Valenzuela-Peterson

Ciena Valenzuela-Peterson is a writer, artist, and editor from Los Angeles, CA. She currently works as an Artist in Residence for the nonprofit organization Light Bringer Project, providing arts education opportunities to high school students. She graduated from USC with a master’s in Literary Editing and Publishing and a bachelor’s in Creative Writing and Political Science with a concentration in Race, Gender, and the Politics of Justice. Ciena is passionate about the transformative power of art, from the visual to the verbal, and believes everyone deserves access to the tools to help their creativity flourish. A lover of all things gothic, she is fascinated by the macabre and the horror genre’s underrated literary merit. Her work has been published by F(r)iction, Pornstar Martini Magazine, ARC South Pasadena, and Systems Change Alliance. In her spare time, you can find Ciena drawing in her sketchbook, eating takeout with friends, and building elaborate houses in Minecraft.   

Asma Al-Masyabi

Asma Al-Masyabi is a poet, writer, and visual artist based in Colorado. She is a Scholastic Silver Medal Poetry winner and ruth weiss Foundation Emerging Poet Award winner with publications in The Cincinnati Review, Subnivean, the Santa Clara Review, and more. In her spare time, she spends too much money on manga, watches competitive cooking shows with her family, and gets lost on Pinterest while trying to draw all the pretty outfits. She’s pursuing a degree in creative writing at the University of Colorado-Denver and looks forward to a career filled with words and art, her two biggest passions. 

Ari Iscariot

Ari Iscariot is a queer, neurodivergent, chronically-ill author and artist living in Florida. They graduated from Florida International University summa cum laude, with a BA in Literature and a minor in International Communications. Among their many hobbies, they DM for an insatiably chaotic DND group, attend weekly meetings with their (somewhat) less chaotic writing group, “Seaquills,” and regularly fall down research rabbit holes from which they’ve always emerged unscathed. (So far.) But mostly, they write. Their writing centers intense queer relationships, indulges in the power of ravenous love, and explores the transgressive nature of gender-variant bodies.   

Sara Santistevan

Sara Santistevan is an emerging poet and the 2021 Recipient of the Reyna Grande Scholarship for her chapbook The Root from which Freedom Blossoms (Fauxmoir). Her poetry has been published in Shō Poetry Journal, The Acentos Review, Latin@ Literature, Akéwì Magazine, The Porter Gulch Review, and elsewhere. 

She first fell in love with speculative fiction when she read Edith Pattou’s East as a child and is thrilled to discover fresh and boundary-breaking narratives through her work with F(r)iction. In her free time, she can be found at a cafe, a nearby beach or pool, or her local library. She has a soft spot for walkable cities, flavored lattes, quirky earrings, and anything cute—especially cats! Learn more about her at sarasantistevan.com. 

Inanna Carter

Inanna is a recent graduate of Kutztown University with a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in English/Professional Writing. She’s currently undertaking an online MFA in Emerson College’s Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing program and freelances for a gaming journalism site. With her two wild cats Remy and Mouse constantly on the run, Inanna’s been doing her best to outline and write her first novel, all while crocheting, reading (more like collecting) any romance books she can find, and happily listening to BTS or Stray Kids. 

www

Haley Lawson

Haley Lawson is a writer and educator, having taught English in the U.S.A., Mongolia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Currently, she works as a Program Coordinator for AmeriCorps. A lover of all things make-believe and magick, she writes genre fiction under the pen name H. M. L. Swann. Some of her works are published in The Manchester Anthology IX and Quibble Literary. She received her master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester in December 2021. When not writing, she can be found reading tarot cards and hiking along the shores of Lake Superior. 

www

Simon Kerr

Simon Kerr (he/they) is a writer and bookseller from Colorado. His home turf is fantasy and sci-fi, his passion is queer representation in media, and his opinions about tea are many. 

Marizel Malan

Marizel Malan was born and raised in South Africa and graduated from the University of Pretoria with an Honours Degree in English Literature. She is working towards a graphic design qualification and drafting her first fantasy novel. Marizel is currently working as a ghostwriter, writing nonfiction books in various niches including history, hobbies, and crafts. Whenever she isn’t caught in the world of words, you’ll find her flexing her green thumb, glued to her headphones, or peacefully growing her connection to Mother Nature. 

Sam Burt

Sam is a tutor and proofreader living in east London. Since graduating in 2021 with a master’s in creative writing, he has been a bookseller for Phlox Books and Waterstones, and started the East London Indie Book Club to champion innovative fiction from small presses. Sam is the founder and editor of POINT BLOC, a new online literary journal that will launch later this year, and has edited fiction submissions to Bandit Fiction, An Inkling, and The Manchester Anthology IX. His fiction has appeared in Popshot Quarterly, Bandit Fiction, and Ink, Sweat and Tears, and his essays/reviews in The London Magazine, 3:AM Magazine, and BookRiot. Off the page, he can usually be found baking, volunteering at a local LGBTQ+ charity, or missing shuttlecocks.

Azalea Acevedo

Azalea Acevedo grew up in Florida, where she spent her childhood drawing portraits of her favorite characters from the books she read. In high school, she moved to South Carolina. She attended Trident Technical College and graduated from Converse University, where she studied creative and professional writing. She was an editor for The Concept Literary Magazine, the school’s literary journal, which piqued her interest in developing stories in collaboration with an editorial team. Azalea has been published in both The Concept Literary Magazine and Converse Magazine, the university’s annual publication.

Gina Gruss

Gina Marie Gruss is an undergraduate student at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of FAU, double majoring in Creative Writing and Visual Art. She’s a born-and-raised south Floridian who hates the heat but loves her home state’s myths and nature. Her works have been featured by Amazon Prime Video, Mensa America, Wattpad, and FAU. She’s excitedly crafting her interdisciplinary senior thesis, which explores different Armageddons while centralizing disabled, queer, and diverse narratives. When not creating, she loves planning events, cooking and baking way too much food for said events, avoiding getting eaten by gators, and spoiling her cat Apollo.

www

C. E. Janecek

C. E. Janecek is the internal newsletter wizard of the Brink team, keeping the staff up to date on happenings, deadlines, and projects each month. C. E. recently got their MFA in poetry at Colorado State University and is now a freelance editor and writer—having work featured in Poetry , Booth ,Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Online at  www.cewritespoems.com. 

www

Chase Bailey

Chase Bailey is a baker living in Columbus, OH. He holds a BA in Professional Writing from Miami University and he enjoys learning about the evolution of colloquial language. Chase is a fiend for any book with magic or queer characters—don’t even get him started on queer characters with magic. When he’s not spamming your feed with F(r)iction-related content, Chase enjoys listening to the birds, sharing apples with his dog, and doing yoga. Eventually—eventually—he will put together a chapbook of poetry.

Ally Geist

Ally is a quirky little Canuck living in Toronto, Canada (yes, they do have a lot of maple syrup up there!). She graduated with a BA in Theatre Studies (specializing in Playwriting and Dramaturgy) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. She also has a post-grad certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. When Ally is not reading, crying over cute puppy videos on the internet, defending the merits of the Oxford comma, or watching reruns of Schitts Creek, she is most likely lip-synching for her life in her bedroom, pretending she is one of the fabulous Drag Race queens.

Jaclyn Morken

Jaclyn is an aspiring writer and editor from Saskatoon, Canada, where she completed an MFA in Writing and BA Hons in English at the University of Saskatchewan. Her work can be found in antilang no. 1, Dually Noted (March 2019), and River Volta Review of Books. Jaclyn writes fantasy and speculative fiction.

Amber Sullivan

Amber is a writer and professional writing consultant based in Denver, CO. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Writing with focuses in comics and film from the University of Colorado Denver. She can often be found lurking in the darkest alleys, reading comics to cockroaches. When she is not dreaming of life as an octopus, she writes and performs ridiculous lyrics to heal her friends during short rests.  

Erin Clements

Erin is an Ohio-based lover of words with a graduate certificate in Publishing from New York University and a summa cum laude BA in English. Outside of her work with Brink, she works as a Strategic Proposal Writer, a personal assistant to a literary agent, and an editor. 

She loves everything literary, from Shakespeare to the newest fantasy and romance bestsellers, and she’ll happily tell you her opinions on everything. When she’s not working, she’s probably buying more books than she could ever read, talking about how she previously worked for bestselling author John Green, or getting emotional over cute dogs. 

Sonya Minner

Sonya Minner is a self-proclaimed writer currently residing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She successfully graduated from California University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing in 2015. Since then, she’s bounced around from place to place. These days, if she’s not writing, she’s probably doomscrolling. One day, she hopes to pay off her student loan debt and publish a best-selling romance novel, just maybe not in that order.