Hayli May Cox (assistant nonfiction editor, she/her) is originally from Michigan where she earned her MA on the shores of Lake Superior. She is now a PhD candidate at the University of Missouri studying fiction, nonfiction, and gender studies. Her work and reviews have appeared in places like Grist Journal, DIAGRAM, Paper Darts, and Hippocampus Magazine.
What is your current concern?
Environmental justice and the unequal impacts of climate change across communities.
Books you’ve read more than once?
I always return to Toni Morrison’s Jazz, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and Lauren Redniss’s Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout.
Weirdest thing that scares you?
The Terminator, or any mean robot things. It’s a long story involving a traumatic childhood experience and resulting in many nightmares!
Something most people would never guess about you?
People always seem surprised to learn that I acted in a haunted house and frequented punk/metal/industrial shows for a period of my youth (though they’re never surprised about the folk band I sang in). Makes for a great never-have-I-ever icebreaker with my students!
What you’re writing at the moment?
Some short fabulist fictions about sexuality, bugs, and multi-species assemblages.
Amber D. Dodd (assistant nonfiction editor, she/her) is a creative nonfiction writer and freelance editor. Her nonfiction has appeared in Crepe & Penn Magazine. Amber received her Bachelors in Communication from Mississippi State University. She minored in Latin, solidifying her dream as a word snob. Amber enjoys seafood, thrifted, vintage clothes and quick-witted, dry humor. Born in Baltimore, she currently resides in Odenton, Maryland. In her free time, Amber enjoys zealously complementing Black womxn.
What is your current concern?
COVID-19. Our educational chair lady said send kids to school. This disproportionately puts BIPOC children in danger again after sending them home with laptops, not acknowledging the digital divide. Their caretakers are still the main victims of the virus as well. Lots of simultaneous crisis, and for what?
Best and worst movie you’ve seen recently?
Best: Rewatched Menace II Society in early June. I realized Caine is a crip adding to the phenomenal job The Hughes Brothers did in layering Caine’s character. A more recent honorable mention is The Invisible Man. Best thriller of 2020.
Worst: The Gentlemen. Cut it off right after they introduced the Asian antagonist and gave him a racist accent while narrating him. Cheap.
Your ideal writing space?
I always enjoy working around tranquil shades of greens, browns, and blues.
Another author’s voice you consider most in your own vein?
Maya Angelou. I hope to accomplish the juicy descriptors she gave us throughout I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing.
What you’re writing at the moment?
A hermit crab essay, I=N² and a short story, 88.
Frankie Martinez (blog editor, she/her) is a writer from Southern California. She edits podcast transcripts at Stereotype Life, writes stories for zines, and blogs about books, music, and her life at frankieiswriting.com.
What is your current concern?
The general state of the world, as well as how to structure my days in quarantine (I haven’t really gotten on a regular writing schedule since everything started)
Dog or cat person?
I was once exclusively a dog person, but I was able to let cats into my heart recently and I am very happy about it.
Song most likely to get stuck in your head at the moment?
Julien by Carly Rae Jepson or Aquaman by Walk the Moon
Top two items on your bucket list (if you have a bucket list)?
See aurora borealis and publish a novel
What you’re writing at the moment?
Lists, outlines, and short stories