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Meet Our Staff
Co-Founder & Executive Editor
Nic Cazin
Nic Cazin (they/them) is a third-year student pursuing a B.A. in Creative Writing and Ancient Civilizations, as well as a minor in French and a certificate in sustainability. In their free time, they love to read, hike, and hang out with their cat. Nic grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and hopes to create a safe space where queer people can express themselves freely in this time of uncertainty.
Co-Founder & Managing Editor
Riley Babel
Riley Babel (any pronouns) is a third year double majoring in English & Creative Writing on the publishing track and Anthropology. Riley is a horror movie enthusiast and avid defender of strange and unhinged women. Riley is passionate about women's rights and advocating for queer people to be able to
express themselves and always have a voice.
Design Editor
Ben Van Gorp
Ben Van Gorp (they/them) is a 3rd year 3D Design student who enjoys making things, drawing, and rock climbing. Ben's post-graduation plans include (hopefully) making cool things for a living, potentially pursuing a graduate degree, and most definitely climbing rocks.
Design Editor
Solomon Wong
Solomon Wong (he/they) is a first-year English/Creative Writing and Screenwriting Arts major from the Chicagoland suburbs. His hobbies include knitting and crochet, guitar, photography, going to open mics, and making Pinterest boards. Their favorite genres include speculative fiction, period dramas, and spoken word poetry.
Social Media Manager
Kat DeBauche
Kat (she/they) is a writer via technicality only, as she finds herself increasingly drawn to the publicity side of the literary world rather than her own work. Somehow her response time is the speed of sound despite being everywhere at once. She is also the Managing Editor of earthwords and the Vice President of the English Honors Society, ATI, between working her two (and a half) jobs.
Website Editor
Jessica Pfeifer
Jessica Pfeifer (she/her) is a second-year Theatre Arts and English & Creative Writing major who appreciates the little things in life! She is also the Cover Designer for Catharsis and works as a Production Assistant at Hancher Auditorium. In her free time, you might find her junk journaling in her hammock or birdwatching by the river.
Fiction Editor
Peter Nitsche
Peter Nitsche (he/him) is a third year English and Creative writing major on the pre-med track. He loves writing, cowboy stories, Radiohead, Frank O’Hara poetry, and trying to keep his basil and bamboo plants alive. He hopes to advocate for and create queer stories that are not just commercially palatable but authentic and real.
Fiction Editor
Caitlin Heidgerken
Caitlin Heidgerken (she/her) is a third year studying English and Creative Writing (publishing track) and Ancient Civilizations. Her work has been featured in Wilder Things and Mangrove Journal. She’s fond of tea, folklore retellings, and the magic of a rainy day.
Poetry Editor
Audrey Meason
Audrey Meason is a third-year Creative Writing student in the Publishing track from Tulsa, Oklahoma. When she’s not reading or writing, they’re listening to or making music.
Poetry Editor
Emma Triaureau
Emma Triaureau (she/they) is double majoring in Creative Writing and Philosophy, where her favorite book is Toni Morrison's Beloved. They most enjoy chatting with friends over tea and is often in the company of cats.
Poetry Editor
Charlie Graves
Charlie Graves (Any/All) is a first-year poet currently pursuing their double major in criminology and psychology, along with a certificate in Creative Writing. In their free time, they enjoy writing – if you can believe it, spending time with their friends, playing D&D and other games, and performing when able. Charlie hopes to uplift queer voices and encourage others to use theirs.
Drama Editor
Ella Crosby
Ella Crosby (she/her) is a fourth-year Creative Writing and Theater Arts major on the Stage Management track. When she’s not living and breathing theater, she can be found going on walks while listening to the same 3 songs on loop and occasionally writing fiction.
Nonfiction Editor
Atharva Upadhye
Atharva Upadhye is a senior majoring in human physiology. Jumping around between a half-dozen ideas at a time, he usually splits up his writing into small-scale stories about people living their lives and writing mini-essays about writing for newer writers. If you ever want to make him rant for 10 minutes straight, ask him about character psychology or queer representation in writing.
Nonfiction Editor
Brooklyn Berglin
​Brooklyn Berglin loves writing just as much as she loves making playlists, cozy hangouts with friends, rainy or chilly weather, fantasy books, which inspired her to write fiction of her own, and obsessing over music lyrics, which sparked her love for poetry. Studying English and creative writing on the publishing track, she is also enjoying helping run the Iowa Gymnastics Club.
Art & Photography Editor
Annabelle Muñoz
Annabelle Muñoz (she/they) is an honors political science (pre-law) student at the University of Iowa and the author of Scribblings of a Madwoman (2024). Additionally, their work is featured in the Lincoln-Way Art and Literary Magazine, Ink Lit Mag, snapshots, New Moon, the little things and Horizon. She loves sparkling water and the color pink.
Our Beta Readers
Peyton Braynen
Peyton is an aspiring writer and double major in English & Creative Writing and History. They love reading all genres of fiction and are always happy to see and support more queer fiction. In addition to writing, they enjoy photography, drawing, sports, hiking, and being out in nature.
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Addison Long
Addison is an English and Creative Writing major on the Publishing track with a minor in Anthropology. She loves reading, writing, playing video games, and watching anime. They hope to go into the publishing industry in the future!
Brooklynn Wolfs
Brooklynn is a second-year from Kansas City double-majoring in Linguistics and English with a minor in Translation. She loves rereading her favorite realistic fiction novels and watching Sims 4 videos on YouTube.​​​​​
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Leah Peña
Leah Peña (she/her) is a senior studying English and Creative Writing and Social Work with minor in Psychology. When she is not working through her massive TBR list, you can find her perusing the shelves of the Haunted Bookshop. Her goals are to celebrate queer creativity and foster large-scale understanding of the community's diversity, resilience, and beauty.
PJ Jenkins
Parker, also known as “PJ” (they/them), is a second year English and Creative Writing major from Traverse City, MI. They are often found walking through a park with their dog, reading too many books at once, or making delicious coffee.​​​
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Riana Howells
Riana Howells is a second year English and Creative Writing major who enjoys speculative fiction and poetry.
Thomas Jackson
Thomas Jackson (he/him) is a third year studying English & Creative Writing on
the Literary Publishing track. An aspiring editor, he also enjoys overanalyzing video games and pretending to understand
Beijing Opera.
Pierce Lovelace
Pierce Lovelace is a sophomore at Uiowa and is a Secondary Education Major on the Foreign Language track, along with a Major in French and Minors in Arabic, Italian, and Translation. He enjoys writing songs, poetry and short stories, playing the piano, and learning different languages (as you can tell)!
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Meredith DeLong
Meredith is a fourth-year English & Creative Writing and Translation student. At any given time she is probably petting a cat or thinking about petting a cat. She also enjoys fiber arts, reading weird stories, and learning about linguistics.
Lexi Shaffer
Lexi Shaffer is a second-year English and Creative Writing major from Minnesota. He enjoys reading, writing, video games, knitting, and the mac and cheese bites from the dining hall.