OKD Staff 

STEVE CHANG (he/him) is the Fiction Editor. He is a Taiwanese writer and MacDowell Fellow from the San Gabriel Valley, California. His work has been published in Guernica, North American Review, The Southampton Review etc. and supported by Ragdale, Loghaven, MASS MoCA and a bunch of other stuff that would hook you up too if you’d apply. Chat with him at Lit Match Collective, a writers community led by editors.

CAROLENE KURIEN (she/her) is the Poetry Editor. She is a Malayali-American poet from South Florida whose work has garnered support from MacDowell, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Key West Literary Seminar. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Poetry London, Passages North, Sixth Finch, The Cincinnati Review, RHINO, Southeast Review, and elsewhere. You can learn more at carolenekurien.com.

HEIDI MARJAMÄKI (she/her) is the Managing Editor and Associate Fiction Editor. She grew up in Finland, studied in Scotland, and worked in Oxford and London before making her home in Berlin. Her short stories have been published by ergot., Crow & Cross Keys, and others. She’s working on her debut novel. Read more at heidimarjamaki.com.

ERIC LOCHRIDGE (he/him) is an Associate Poetry Editor. He is the author of My Breath Floats Away From Me (FutureCycle Press, 2022) and three poetry chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The Daily Drunk, DIAGRAM, Ghost City Review, Kissing Dynamite, Slipstream, and UCity Review. He lives in western Washington between the mountains and the sea. You can find him on Twitter @ericedits and at ericedits.wordpress.com.

JONAH MEYER (he/him) is an Associate Poetry Editor. He is a poet, writer, and editor based in North Carolina, and his creative work has appeared in numerous publications, both in print and online. Jonah serves as Poetry Editor for Mud Season Review, Assistant Poetry Editor with Random Sample Review, Staff Writer for The US Review of Books, and Copy Editor at Under The Gum Tree. When not penning poems, Jonah jams on guitar, banjo, and piano, shoots street photography, and studies neuroscience and Buddhist philosophy.

CHRISTINE SALEK (they/them) is the former Social Media Manager. They are a writer, musician, and web developer in Wisconsin with a master’s degree in library and information science. You can find them posting sporadically at @cms.bsky.social.

DANI KUNTZ (she/her) is the interim Social Media Manager. Dani has an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from UNR Lake Tahoe. Outside of Okay Donkey, Dani is Senior Poetry Editor at Sierra Nevada Review and a reader for ONLY POEMS. She adjuncts and conducts ABA therapy in Norfolk, VA, though she was born and raised in Hot Springs, AR. During her free time, she enjoys true crime, PC games, and her cats.

CASSEY ABELLA (she/they) is a Filipino writer and creative pursuing a BA in English and American Studies at the University of Graz. She seeks to explore the multifaceted human experience with her visual and written work. Her writing has been published in Scribbled, The Creekside Magazine, mothertongue magazine, rûm, and elsewhere. Cassey also volunteers as a social media assistant for Tint Journal and as an editor and reviewer for SeaGlass Literary.

EMILY AFIFI (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Emily is a writer and publicist based in Central New Jersey. She graduated from Rutgers University-New Brunswick with her B.A. in English Literature. Her work has previously appeared in Parentheses Journal and Eunoia Review.

MILEVA ANASTASIADOU (she/her) is a Fiction Reader. She is a neurologist, from Athens, Greece and the author of “Christmas People” and “We Fade With Time” by Alien Buddha Press. A Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction and Best Small Fictions nominated writer, her work has been selected for the Best Mirofiction anthology 2024 and Wigleaf Top 50 and can be found in many journals, such as the Chestnut Review, HAD, BULL, New World Writing, Ghost Parachute, Milk Candy Review, Necessay Fiction, Passages North, and others. You can find her on Twitter (X) as @happymil_ and on Instagram as @happilander

MEAGAN ARTHUR (she/they) is a Fiction Reader. She holds an MFA in Prose from the University of Washington and is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Utah. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, River Styx, The Journal, Puerto Del Sol, Quarter After Eight, Cream City Review, and elsewhere. She serves as the Senior Prose Editor of Quarterly West. More can be found at meaganarthur.com.

ALYSSA ASQUITH (she/her) is a Fiction Reader. Her stories have appeared in Okay Donkey, X-R-A-Y, the Adroit Journal, the Atticus Review, HAD, and elsewhere. She lives in Iowa City with her cat and husband and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

WILL DURHAM (he/him) is a Poetry Reader. He is a poet and teacher living in Seattle. His work appears in Birmingham Poetry Review, HOOT, RHINO, THRUSH, and other journals. He received his MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle.

ZOE REAY-ELLERS (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. She owns 20 plants and is currently an undergraduate student at Cornell. She’s the EIC of the best dish soap-themed mag worldwide. Her work has appeared in a number of places, including HAD, JAKE, Stone Circle Review, and Fish Barrel Review.

MEGAN M. GARWOOD (she/they) is a Fiction Reader. Megan is a writer originally from Metro Detroit. Her fiction has appeared in Misery Tourism, Okay Donkey, and X-R-A-Y Lit and her essays on art have appeared in publications like Triangle House, White Hot Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. You can find her online at www.megan.wtf.

JUSTIN GIBSON (he/him) is a Fiction Reader. He grew up in the Dallas suburbia, but has since transplanted to the D.C. area. He was schooled at Southern Methodist University, which was nice. He currently is employed as a marketing copywriter, but longs to one day mostly garden. He’s previously had work published with Drunk Monkeys and The Pinch. 

KYLA-YẾN HUỲNH GIFFIN (they/them) is a Fiction Reader. They are a queer and trans, biracial, Vietnamese American diaspora writer whose work revolves around themes of dreaming, fantasizing, and futurizing, and focuses on topics of diaspora, transness, ecology, empire, and intergenerational histories. Kyla-Yến is a Press Editor for Half Mystic Press, the Director of Culture & Programming at Rawhead, and a Member of the Reader Board at Sundress Publications. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Oroboro, Beyond Queer Words, Vănguard, and other publications, and they have been awarded residencies, workshops, and/or fellowships from Tin House, the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), Seventh Wave, Abode Press, and more. You can visit Kyla-Yến’s author page at www.kylayenhuynhgiffin.com, and find them on Instagram @yenshrine.

KYLA GUIMARAES (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Kyla is a writer and student from New York City. She is an alum of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and the Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program, and a poetry editor at Eucalyptus Lit. Her work has appeared in The Penn Review, SUNHOUSE Literary, Aster Lit, and elsewhere. In addition to writing, Kyla likes puns and going on walks in the rain. 

MEGAN HANNAY (she/her) is a Lead Fiction Reader. She is a writer, reader, and designer. She has won the Willie Lavonsa Moore Prize in creative nonfiction, and you can read her fiction in The Madcap Review. She has also dabbled in screenwriting in L.A. You can find her scribbling, daydreaming, and talking to her cat (of course) in Chapel Hill, NC.

JESSICA HERON (she/her) is a Poetry Reader and Lead Fiction Reader from Staten Island living at the Jersey Shore. Her creative work has appeared in Hot Pink Mag, BRUISER, Let’s Stab Caesar!, Horror Sleaze Trash, Tiny Spoon, and other publications. Jessica is Poetry Editor at Blood+Honey and Staff Writer at MovieJawn in addition to her career in applied linguistics. Find her at jessicaheronpoetry.com, @sixheronstyle on ig, or xpsychoxlinguistx on bluesky if you’re feeling up to it.

JACOB JING (he/him) is a Poetry Reader. Jacob is a writer studying visual arts at the University of North Texas. He is a part of the 2024 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship cohort and an attendee of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. His poetry has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers and the Pulitzer Center. He has been published in Spellbinder Magazine and is forthcoming in the Eunoia Review and Dishsoap Quarterly. In his free time, he enjoys photography, naps, and the $3 milkshakes from the student union.

LIZ KINGSLEY’S (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Her poems appear in New Ohio Review, The Round, The McNeese Review, Cagibi, Euphony Journal, Sweet: A Literary Confection, and other magazines. Her fiction has appeared in The William and Mary Review, and her essays have been published in New Jersey Family Magazine and the anthology Blended: Writers on the Stepfamily Experience. She is an MFA candidate (2025) at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. When not writing, she works as an elementary special education teacher. Liz lives in New Jersey with her wife, some (thankfully not all) of their grown children, and many, many nonhuman animals. Her poems live at lizkingsleywriter.com.

TIFF M. Z. LEE (they/she) is a Fiction Reader. Tiff is a Canadian living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they contemplate fairytales and sea creatures. Their writing has been published in HAD, Full House, Your Impossible Voice, and Brilliant Flash Fiction. They can be found online at tiffmzlee.com.

JINGYU LI (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Jingyu was born in Beijing, China, immigrated to the United States at the age of three, and grew up in Wyoming with her younger brother. She graduated with her B.A. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s interested in myth and metamorphoses in her poetry. Her work appears in Rust & Moth, Palette Poetry, Okay Donkey, Humble Pie Mag, and was longlisted for the 2023 Frontier Poetry Hurt & Healing Prize. She loves dogs of all sizes and her favorite food is hotpot.

ILANA LINDSEY (she/her) is a Fiction Reader. She lives in South London. She loves tigers, forests, alt-rock, and dark stories that dig into the depths of human experience and emerge with a beacon of hope. Her stories have been published in Mystery Tribune, Tangled Locks Journal, Formercactus, and The Squawk Back and her novel, The Black Parade, will be published by Ninestar Press. You can find her at @IlanaMiraL on social media platforms.

JOSEPH LINSCOTT (he/him) is a Lead Fiction Reader. He is a writer living in Providence whose work can be found online and in print. He can be reached on social media @prosephlinscott.

GRACE MARIE LIU (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Grace is Chinese-American poet from Michigan. She is a 2024 YoungArts National Winner with Distinction in Poetry and an alumna of the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship and the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Minnesota Review, Sundog Lit, AAAW, and Up the Staircase Quarterly, among others. She serves as an Editor-in-Chief for Polyphony Lit and The Dawn Review.

SAROSH NANDWANI (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. She loves her dogs, anthropology, biking, hiking, reading, experimenting with her curly hair, skating, strawberries, outer space, baking, gaming, engineering, drawing, making to-do lists, and yoga. She has been published in the Cauldron Anthology, Corporeal, Dear Damsels, Bitter Melon, and was nominated for Best of the Net for her Hellebore Press piece and made the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist for her Susurrus piece. You can follow her on Twitter/Instagram @saroshnandwani.

TIMOTHY ARLISS O’BRIEN (he/they) is a Poetry Reader. Timothy is an interdisciplinary artist in music, writing and visual arts, and has premiered music ranging from opera to film scores to electronic ambient projects. He’s published several books of poetry, including The Art of Learning to Fly, Happy LGBTQ Wrath Month and The Queer Revolt, and has had his writing featured with Look Up Records, Zines and Things, and Deep Overstock. He also founded and curates the podcast and small press publisher, The Poet Heroic, and hosts the new music podcast Composers Breathing. In addition, he showcases his psychedelic makeup skills as the phenomenal drag queen Tabitha Acidz. Find more online at his website: www.timothyarlissobrien.com.

DAMILOLA OMOTOYINBO (she/her) is a Fiction Reader, a Nigerian Creative Writer and Software Engineer. She is a fellow of the Ebedi International Writers’ Residency, the winner of the Spring Writing contest, a co-winner of the Writing Ukraine Prize, the winner of the 2023 Writivism Poetry Prize, shortlisted for the Bridport prize, a joint winner of the SEVHAGE-KSR Hyginus Ekwuazi Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2022 African Writer’s Awards. She has been nominated for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes. Damilola has work published or forthcoming on POETRY Magazine, Lolwe, Olongo, The Deadlands, Ake Review, AHC, Torch Literary Arts, Agbowó, NND Poetry Column, Mande, Midnight & Indigo Lit, The Nigerian Tribune NewsPaper and elsewhere. Damilola studied Biochemistry, and her happy places are Pinterest, YouTube, and The Church. Tweets @_Damilola_O. 

RINA PALUMBO (she/her) is a Lead Fiction Reader. A recovering academic (Ph. D. Johns Hopkins), she is working on a novel and two nonfiction long-form writing projects alongside short fiction, creative nonfiction,  and prose poetry. Currently living in Southern California, she gets her best story ideas while hiking or walking her dog.  Some of these ideas appear in The Hopkins Review, Ghost Parachute, Milk Candy, Bending Genres, Identity Theory, Stonecoast Review, et al. Find her online at https://rinapalumbowriter.com  or follow along on Instagram/Threads @rina_palumbo and BlueSky @rinapalumbo.bsky.social 

AMANDA ROTH (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. She is a writer, folklorist, and multimedia artist living near the Salish Sea. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, her writing is published in West Branch, HAD, Portland Review, South Carolina Review, Whale Road Review, and elsewhere. Online at www.helloamandaroth.com.

PAUL RUTA (he/him) is a Lead Fiction Reader. He’s an old Canadian ad guy who’s now based in London. He lives by the river. He writes for kids under the pen name Andy Spearman, and keeps his website surprisingly up to date. You can find it at paulthomasruta.com.

JEANETTE SMITH (she/her) is a Lead Fiction Reader. She is a copyeditor, writer, and cat Instagrammer based in Dallas, TX. Her work has been published by Glassworks, Jelly Bucket, and Sheepshead Review, among others. In her spare time, you can find her teaching a scuba diving class or wondering if inanimate objects have feelings. You can find her online at jeanettethewriter.com or on TikTok @Jeanettediting.

NEDJELKO SPAICH (he/him) is a Lead Fiction Reader. He is a Serbian-American writer living in Los Angeles, California. His fiction has been published in Jellyfish Review, Maudlin House, MoonPark Review, Tiny Molecules, and elsewhere. His non-fiction work has appeared in LAist, LA Weekly, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He is also a reader for Pidgeonholes, a graduate of Bennington College, and is at work on his first novel. You can visit him at nedjelkospaich.com and find him on Twitter @Nedjelko.

MIRANDA STEINWAY (she/her) is a Fiction Reader. She is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her stories have appeared in Across the Margin, Bending Genres, Bullshit Lit, Maudlin House, Timber Journal, and others. Her script was a semi-finalist in the 2024 ScreenCraft Comedy Competition. You can find her at mirandasteinway.com.

GINA THAYER (she/they) is a Lead Fiction Reader. Gina’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barrelhouse, Cotton Xenomorph, Sundog Lit, Five South, Lunch Ticket, trampset, Bullshit Lit, and HAD, among others, and her short story “Only Willow” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Gina holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is currently working on a collection of speculative stories. After several years in the Pacific Northwest, Gina now lives in Minneapolis with their partner and cat.

CYDNI THOMPSON (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Cydni is a poet from Queens, New York. She is a recent graduate from Purchase College with a degree in Creative Writing and Psychology, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Poetry from Queens College. She’s interested in poetry that uplifts the mundane, working-class, and marginalized. She has work forthcoming from Bear Review.

NELLIE VINOGRAD (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. Nellie is a poet and labor organizer based in Philadelphia, PA. She received her MFA in Poetry from Temple University and a BA in English from Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. Her writing has previously appeared in LADY zine, Stirling Spoon, and THAT Literary Review.

STEVEN C. WRIGHT (he/him) is a Poetry Reader. He is a queer poet and prose author from Edison, New Jersey. After taking too many creative writing classes, he finally graduated with a B.A. in English at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, and has since been running a small poetry workshop group every week for 3 years. His work has appeared in Serotonin Press, BRAWL, Cathexis Northwest Press, and elsewhere. He can be found at @stevencw.bsky.social on Bluesky.

NICHOLAS YANDELL (he/him) is a Poetry Reader. Nicholas is a Portland, Oregon-based composer, musician, writer, and visual artist. He holds a Masters of Music Composition and a Bachelors of Music from Five Towns College in Dix Hills, NY. He also passionately explores the world of fiction, poetry, and essays, and is the author of the poetry zine, Of Restless Wonder, and the photo zine, The Lost Drinks of Las Vegas. Nicholas has had his works published in RFD Magazine and Deep Overstock, as well as being featured in a Beyond the Veil press anthology How to Heal a Bloodline, and the zines Art of Learning to Fly and Handbasket (no. 13). He is also an editor and frequent podcast guest, contributor, and host for The Poet Heroic.

SHARON XUANLING ZHANG (she/her) is a Poetry Reader. She is an author and poet from Melbourne, Australia. She writes on queer memory / your stupid situationship / English post-punk, but really — it’s all about love. Her works can be found in Frontier Poetry, Asian American Writers’ Workshop: The Margins, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, Mother Bird, was published last year with Fifth Wheel Press. In 2022, she was selected by the Poetry Society of the UK as a Foyle Young Poet. Her writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prizes, Best of the Net, and Best New Poetry. She studies History at The University of Oxford.

 

OKD Editors Emeritus

GENEVIEVE KERSTEN (she/her) is the Founding Poetry Editor. Genevieve is a poet, romance writer, and professional semi-finalist. Her poetry has appeared in The Feckless Cunt Anthology, HAD, Heavy Feather Review, Hypertrophic Lit, No Contact, and Pithead Chapel. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner.

ERIC ANDREW NEWMAN (he/him) is the Founding Fiction Editor. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner and works as an archivist. His stories have been nominated for the Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction anthologies, and have appeared in Atlas and Alice, Bending Genres, Exposition Review, Pithead Chapel, Quarter After Eight, and Wigleaf, among others.