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Founding Editors

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Editor-In-Chief: Sara Cutaia

Sara Cutaia was born and raised in Texas, but lives in Chicago now after receiving her MFA in Fiction from Columbia College Chicago. She is the Programs Director at the nonprofit literary center StoryStudio Chicago—whose goal is to build a community of writers—and an Editor-at-Large at the Chicago Review of Books. She has taught writing classes at Roosevelt University and Columbia College. Her work has appeared in South 85 Journal, 805 Lit, Punctuate., Chicago Review of Books, and others. You can follow her on IG @sncutaia.

Poetry Director: Chrissy Martin

Chrissy Martin is a Assistant Professor of English at Centenary College of Louisiana. She holds a PhD in Poetry from Oklahoma State and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in journals such as Gulf Coast, swamp pink, Harpur Palate, Cherry Tree, and Crab Creek Review, and Carve Magazine. Find her at chrissymartinpoetry.com and on Instagram at @chrissympoet.

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Fiction Director: Rachel León

Rachel León is a writer, editor, and social worker. She serves as Managing Director for Chicago Review of Books, and her work has appeared in Catapult, The Rumpus, BOMB, Publishers Weekly, LA Review of Books, and elsewhere. You can find her online at rachelleon.me and follow her on social media @rachellayown. 

Creative Nonfiction Director: Sophie Amado

Sophie Amado graduated with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago, where she taught undergraduate writing and rhetoric, and has a BA in English and Spanish from the University of Iowa. In 2014, she received a Fulbright grant to Madrid, Spain to teach English to high school students. Sophie writes content for her 9-5 and also runs a recurring reading series in Chicago called Read Some Shit. You may read her creative and professional work on sophieamado.com.

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Poetry Editors

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Bellee Jones-Pierce

Bellee Jones-Pierce is an Assistant Professor of English at Centenary College of Louisiana. She holds a PhD in English from Emory, an MA from the Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at the University of Alabama, and an MFA in Poetry from Georgia College & State University. Her work has appeared in Wordgathering, The Journal, and Doubleback Review. Find her at on Instagram at @hey_dr_jp.

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Sara Verstynen

Sara Verstynen is a poet, essayist, & book reviewer. Born in Busan, South Korea, she was raised in Rockford, IL but has lived in Colorado, New York, and Maine. She currently resides in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. Her work has appeared in Copper Nickel, Fugue, Reed Magazine, Cleaver, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in creative nonfiction from Northwestern University. Find her on Instagram at @thefinalnestingdoll.

Prose Editors

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Temiloluwa (Temmy) Ala

Temiloluwa (Temmy) Ala is a lover of art and creativity. She spent most of her childhood reading every book and piece of writing she could lay her hands on. She loves writing short stories and publishes book reviews on The Review Shop.

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Christopher Bigelow

Christopher Bigelow is a trans writer, former teacher, and metadata manager living in Chicago. He writes about the intersections of queerness, trans identity, the public school system, the full range of human emotion, and sometimes outer space. His work has appeared in such outlets as Tension Literary, Collider, and the Chicago Review of Books.

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Coryn Connelly-Cabreros

Coryn Connelly-Cabreros is a new prose editor with Arcturus, currently working on a short story collection. A Chicago native, she works in the technology industry and lives in Andersonville with her husband and French Bulldog, Belly. Coryn studied Communications at DePaul University and received her MA in Journalism from American University.

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Nathan Winer

Nathan Winer (he/him) is a writer and editor from Chicago. A former Kenyon Review Associate and fiction editor at MAYDAY Magazine, his writing has appeared in MAYDAY Magazine, the Cleveland Review of Books, and the Chicago Quarterly Review.

Digital Editor

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Angie Raney

Angie Raney is a graduate of DePaul University where she studied Creative Writing, Anthropology, and Spanish. She currently works as the Events Manager at StoryStudio Chicago. Her work has appeared in Crook and Folly, Fleas on the Dog, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Silver Birch Press, and the Chicago Review of Books. A native of the Twin Cities, she has been fortunate enough to call Chicago home for almost seven years.