Editor-in-Chief
Kelly Ward (she/her) is an Appalachian writer and a fiction candidate in West Virginia University’s MFA program. Her work has appeared in Button Eye Review and with Appalachia Book Company. She enjoys exploring speculative themes set in the central Appalachia region, and is quite lucky at finding four-leaf clovers.
Roles: Editor-in-Chief, Fiction Editor, Creative Nonfiction Editor
Poetry Editors
Winner Olubunmi (she/her) is an MFA student of poetry at West Virginia University. She is a Nigerian poet whose works surround the Art of Dance, Africanism and Traditional Re-awakening.
Role: Poetry Editor
Pilar Randolph (she/her) is a poet from Pennsylvania. She is interested in environmental poetry, liminality, and connection in the midst of disaster.
Role: Poetry Editor
Sam Stebbins (she/her) is a poet from Michigan. Her work can be found in HAD, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. She is particularly interested in prose poems, micros, hybrid genres, and the apocalypse.
Roles: Social Media Manager, Poetry Editor
Ella Wisniewski
Role: Poetry Editor
Prose Editors
Brent Cronin (he/him) is an MFA student in Creative Writing at West Virginia University. He writes autofiction with a direct, deadpan style. Originally from Seattle, you might find him riding his motorcycle or feeding the local stray cats.
Roles: Creative Nonfiction Editor, Fiction Editor
Peter Krch (he/him) is a second-year student in the Professional Writing & Editing MA program at WVU. Prior to grad school, he wrote for Morgantown Magazine, West Virginia Living, and other local lifestyle magazines. After graduating from West Virginia University, Peter would like to pursue work in the publishing industry as an editor or literary agent.
Roles: Creative Nonfiction Editor, Fiction Editor, Art Editor, Website Manager
Elise Zukowski (she/her) is a fiction writer from Metro Detroit and current MFA student. Her stories often center around death, complicated families, and the immortality of art. Her work can be found in Every Day Fiction and elsewhere.
Roles: Website Manager, Social Media Manager, Fiction Editor, Creative Nonfiction Editor, Art Editor
Prose & Poetry Editors
Camille Gazoul (she/her) is an MFA candidate in Fiction. Her work tends toward the whimsical and surreal and often explores the dangerous advances of technology in familiar but imagined worlds. Originally hailing from the Detroit area by way of Austin, she enjoys live music, tacos, and exploring her new home in West Virginia.
Roles: Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor
Gia Joyce (she/her) is a first-year master’s student studying literature. She explores the analogous relationship between post-modern literature, the economy, and culture.
Role: All-Genre Editor
Marvellous Taiwo (he/him) is a first-year graduate student in the literature program at West Virginia University. His areas of interest encompass the intersection of literature, culture, and the environment. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music and exploring the outdoors.
Role: All-Genre Editor
Cameron Patterson (he/him) is a fiction writer and and aspiring academic advisor with an interest in exploring abstractions and sentimentalities in everyday life. He has been published in Down and the Dirt Magazine and has previously worked on Calliope at WVU. When he isn’t lesson planning or writing, he enjoys spending time with family or watching a football game.
Roles: Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, Social Media Promotor
Hellbender Magazine 