Masthead

Iris Cai (she/her) is a freshman at Stanford University. Her poetry has been recognized by YoungArts, the Adroit Prizes, Poetry Society of America, and the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and appears in COUNTERCLOCK, Rattle, On the Seawall, and elsewhere. She is an alumna of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, and Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program. When not writing, Iris plays piano and takes too many pictures of her cat.

Felix Chen (he/him) is a freshman at Harvard College. He serves as editor of the National Junior Classical League's Torch, and has experience as an editor of his school’s newspaper, the Winged Post. Dedicated to spreading the joy of reading and writing within his community, he also heads his school's library-affiliated organization and history journal. His work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. An alumnus of the Stanford Summer Humanities Institute, he is also three-time state champion of the National History Day competition. His work appears in The Concord Review.

Jessica Wang (she/they) is a freshman at Northwestern University. She is a California Arts Scholar and has been recognized by the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. In her free time, she can be found working on a draft of her first novel while attempting to cajole her cat into loving her back.

Nina Stadermann (she/her) is a Bay Area-based senior. She is a strong believer in experimental, abstract writing; she strives to take the silly seriously and the profound at face value. As a CSSSA and IYWS alum, Nina's talents include opening oranges in a single peel and thinking too hard. Her work is published or forthcoming in Ember, ETERNAL, Fleeting Daze, The Malu Zine, and elsewhere.

Kyla Guimaraes (she/her) is a senior from New York City. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from SUNHOUSE Literary, The Penn Review, Dishsoap Quarterly, and elsewhere. Kyla is an alum of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and the Adroit Journal’s Summer Mentorship Program. She is a poetry reader at Okay Donkey. In addition to writing, Kyla likes bad puns and the rain.

Sophia Lee (she/her) is a junior from Dallas, Texas. Her work is featured or forthcoming in The Expressionist, Abstract Magazine: Contemporary Expressions, The Sandy River Review, Moonbow Magazine, and more. Her poetry collection, Between Entrance Veins, is currently awaiting publication by Bookleaf Publishing. She is also a district and state-recognized cellist. In her free time, she likes dabbling in sketch art, querying her two upcoming books, and plowing through Donna Tartt novels.

Lara Chamoun is a high school student from Toronto, Ontario. She is the author of the chapbook Bleeding Ghosts (Cathexis Northwest Press) and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Denver Quarterly, LIT Magazine, PRISM International, Queen's Quarterly and elsewhere. She has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and was a 2024 Adroit Summer Mentee in Fiction.

Julia Liu is a writer based in New England. A Scholastic American Voices Awardee and Connecticut Youth Poet Laureate finalist, she has received recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation, Pulitzer Center, Interlochen Center for the Arts, among others. When not creating, she loves whisking matcha, analyzing films, and going on long walks.

Madeleine Moon-Chun (she/her) is a high school junior. A Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national medalist, she is published/forthcoming in Fleeting Daze and Mukoli: The Magazine for Peace, among others. Her debut poetry collection, Not Made of Lines: Poetic Meditations on Time, Space, & Other Matters, has been published by Eastwind Books of Berkeley. She loves writing due to its immense versatility to showcase the most beautiful and vulnerable parts of being human and how it serves as an inclusive, freeing, and connective art form. 

Ela Kini (she/her) is a student based in New York. She has been recognized by YoungArts, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Prize, and the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, as well as others. Her work appears in Palette Poetry, The Margins, Rust & Moth, and elsewhere. She loves good lattes.

Filiz Fish (she/her) is a high school senior from Los Angeles, California. Her work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the National Poetry Quarterly, and the National Council of Teachers of English. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Adroit Journal, and more. In her free time, she enjoys reading, listening to Blood Orange, and searching for the best matcha in her area.

Rishi Janakiraman (he/him) is a sophomore who writes from Raleigh, NC. His work has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, The New York Times, Young Poets Network, and the Poetry Society of the UK. A Top 15 Foyle Young Poet of the Year, his poems appear in Rust + Moth, Blue Marble Review, and eunoia, among others. He is an alum of the Arvon Course and the 2024 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program. Outside of writing, he enjoys red skittles, red M&M's, and hour-long video essay binges.

Claire Jiang (she/her) is a junior from Atlanta, Georgia. She enjoys various forms of art, from painting and pottery to photography and mixed media. Her art has been featured in the High Museum Atlanta, recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, and displayed at the Chinese American Museum in DC. She currently serves as the co-Editor for her school’s literary magazine, Knight Gallery, and the editor of A Taste of the Past, a bi-annual historical publication. She is a nap enthusiast, an avid philosophy reader, and a supporter of cereal without milk.

Yueyao (Eva) Li (she/her) is a senior from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her artworks have been recognized and displayed by collectors from China, Canada, and US. She is also the designer behind HELM, her school's literary and arts magazine.