The Crew

Jay Aja

Jay (they / he) is nonbinary, queer, second-generation-immigrant Guyanese. He is currently an MFA candidate in nonfiction at the University of South Florida, yet (paradoxically) mainly writes poetry and draws comics. Jay is fascinated by the confluence point of text and image, how the two in tandem may lead to more nuanced storytelling, and how these mediums may allow them to continue exploring the diaspora-identity of Caribbeans within and outside the U.S. Jay is currently working on a graphic memoir that navigates the effects of childhood sexual trauma alongside gender identity in a West Indian household. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter @comicsbhaijay.

Emerging Voices Poetry Editor, Board Member

Eneida P. Alcalde

Eneida immigrated to the United States as a child, transplanting her Chilean-Puerto Rican roots into Pennsylvanian soil. She is obsessed with courage, a recurring theme in her stories and poems which have appeared in literary outlets such as The McNeese Review, Zone 3 Literary Journal, Magma Poetry, Small Orange Journal, and Huizache. She graduated with an MA in Creative Writing & Literature from Harvard University’s Extension School and is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. Eneida lives in Singapore with her daughter and partner.

Creative Nonfiction Editor

Brian Borchard

Brian Borchard’s college apartment was crowded with antique typewriters — a testament to his English major. As a recent Skidmore College graduate, he was the head tutor at the writing center, where he edited student essays and creative pieces. He also brought his semantic and syntactic know-how to the reader’s reports he wrote during his yearlong internship at the InkWell Management literary agency. Simultaneously, he crafted an award-nominated thesis on queer refugee poetics while sitting as president of the honors forum and serving as captain of the varsity swim team. Today, he works as a managing editorial assistant at Penguin Random House and is interested in creative nonfiction that examines generational impacts on the psyche and highlights marginalized perspectives.

Meredith MacLeod Davidson

Meredith is a poet and writer from Virginia, currently based in Scotland, where she lives with her partner and cat. Meredith has work published or forthcoming in Cream City Review, Poetry South, and elsewhere. In her poetry, prose, and hybrid work, she explores themes of inheritance, death, boundary, memory, naming, necropolitics, and millennial pop-cultural figures and phenomena, as well as the relationship between punctuation and these themes as they emerge specifically on the page: read and held in the mind, or spoken aloud and filling a physical space. Meredith also serves as a senior editor for Arboreal Literary Magazine and recently earned a Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow.

Alaa El Fadel

Alaa is a world traveller who has spent many years in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education from Kingston University (United Kingdom). Alaa is also a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy. She is a freelance writer and editor in Singapore and is currently writing a fantasy trilogy and science fiction novella series. Alaa is the coordinator of the Singapore Writer’s Network.

Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge

In people, as in books, Jonathan (he/him) values those who simultaneously take us out of ourselves and give us permission to be fully ourselves. A graduate of St. John's College and Bread Loaf School of English, he writes and edits on the shores of the Delaware Bay. His work appears or is forthcoming in What We Didn’t Expect (Melville House, 2020), Italian Americana, More Queer Families (Qommunicate Publishing), Embark Literary Journal, and Hippocampus Magazine. He is represented by Chris Kepner.

Hannah Hirano

Since one summer working alongside artists facilitating Idyllwild Arts’ seasonal programming, Hannah (she/her) has loved to connect with and learn from artists and their singular voices through their individual and community practices. Her art history, painting, printmaking, and digital art background combined with her Editing Certificate from the University of Washington allows her to practice viewing and querying for understanding an artist’s intent and overall practice, while staying open to ambiguous meaning. She is excited by all media and in witnessing the relationships of power, interplay of gazes, and personal stories art can enter into and transform through expressive choices. Hannah is based in the unceded traditional lands of the Duwamish People past and present, the first people of Seattle. She has been a longtime art museum administration worker, most recently in managing image reproductions and archival assets. Hannah loves to walk through the nearby wetlands, listen to shoegaze and jazz, and mother her two cats.

Devin Lewis-Green

Devin Lewis-Green is a current undergraduate student pursuing his passion for poetry and storytelling as a BIPOC creator. Studying at Wayne State University, he was the 2023 first-place recipient of the Phillip Lawson Hatch Jr. Memorial Award. His work has been published in Arboreal Literary Magazine (Issue 3) as well as Poets' Choice's "Quintessential City Life" poetry anthology. He hopes to blossom as a published author while uplifting young BIPOC creators in his local area.

Abigail Michelini

Abigail’s life has been defined by poetry in many ways, starting at age eight when she and her dad memorized Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" together. Now, she reads to and writes about her own kids, hoping to pass on those sweet memories to them. Abigail holds a B.A. in English - Creative Writing, a master's in Post Secondary Education, and a Ph.D. in English. Her research focuses on using poetry to promote listening across political differences. As an Assistant Professor of English, she teaches creative writing, literature, and composition at Northampton Community College. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Main Street Rag, Speckled Trout Review, The Voices Project, Topic Journal, One Person’s Trash, America’s Emerging Poets of 2018, and The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, among other publications. Visit her East 40 Poetry Walk and find out more here.

Anna Jordan Romanelli

Anna (she/her) spends the majority of her time traveling the world and collecting gems, hiking, camping, connecting friends, or on her beloved road bike. A small-town girl (the same small town that Jonathan grew up in), she has called fifteen places home over her forty years; she now lives in Dallas with her partner and their two rescue dogs. Born, raised, and educated in Pennsylvania, she holds a BA from Gettysburg College and an MS from Shippensburg University. These formative experiences have instilled in her an irrational love of the Keystone State. She is a technology consultant by day.

Michelle Tanmizi

Michelle is a second-generation Chinese born in Indonesia. She has travelled extensively and lived in the United States, France, Hong Kong and Tanzania. Singapore is currently her home. Respect for self and others is a guiding value in her life, and the human spirit in their various forms is her passion. Michelle has an MA in Creative Writing, achieved with Distinction from Lancaster University (United Kingdom). Her speculative fiction novel, Late Dawn, was an Amazon bestseller. She writes all forms of fiction, including climate fiction, which reflects her concern about the environment and the planet. Her work is forthcoming in Imprint (the annual anthology of Women in Publishing Society of Hong Kong).

Lindsey Walter

Lindsey Walter is a creative writing major and studio art minor at Hollins University. Originally hailing from a small town in Delaware, she enjoys writing horror and fantasy stories based on folk lore that deal greatly with interpersonal relationships and trauma. She also has a deep appreciation for the visual arts, like the Baroque and Art Nouveau periods where drama is key.

Fiction Editor

Carolyn Wilson-Scott

Carolyn is a Midwesterner by way of the West Coast and Hiroshima, Japan. A former high school creative writing teacher and two-time Stanford graduate, she now lives in Denver with her family. Her work has been recognized by Stanford University's Bocock/Guerard Fiction Prize and published as one of ORP's own Emerging Voices in Fiction.