Meet Our Team

Eliza Browning

Eliza Browning is studying for her master’s degree in modernist literature at the University of Oxford. She recently graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts with a degree in English and art history. Her poetry and fiction appears in The Adroit Journal, Salamander Magazine, Contrary Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly and the Oxford-Cambridge Mays Anthology, among others. When not reading or writing, Eliza can be found painting, embroidering or baking with botanicals.

Sam Burt

Sam is a tutor and proofreader living in east London. Since graduating in 2021 with a master’s in creative writing, he has been a bookseller for Phlox Books and Waterstones, and started the East London Indie Book Club to champion innovative fiction from small presses. Sam is the founder and editor of POINT BLOC, a new online literary journal that will launch later this year, and has edited fiction submissions to Bandit Fiction, An Inkling, and The Manchester Anthology IX. His fiction has appeared in Popshot Quarterly, Bandit Fiction, and Ink, Sweat and Tears, and his essays/reviews in The London Magazine, 3:AM Magazine, and BookRiot. Off the page, he can usually be found baking, volunteering at a local LGBTQ+ charity, or missing shuttlecocks.

John Legarte

John Legarte is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign double majoring in Creative Writing and Science, Health, and Environmental Writing and minoring in English. In addition to his role as a Brink Intern, he also serves as the Communications and Outreach Intern for The Chicago Poetry Center and as the Investigative News & Longform Editor for The Daily Illini. (Yes, he can never get enough of writing.)

In Fall 2021, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize XLVII by Pareidolia Literary for his poem “The Petal Box,” and his other works have been featured in various other journals and magazines such as Dead Skunk Magazine and Third Iris Zine. He became a 2022 Anaphora Arts Fellow after being accepted for and attending the Summer 2022 Anaphora Arts Writing Residency.

He desires for his creative works to be spaces where others can reflect on and process their own emotions, experiences, and anything else within life itself.

Azalea Acevedo

Azalea Acevedo grew up in Florida, where she spent her childhood drawing portraits of her favorite characters from the books she read. In high school, she moved to South Carolina. She attended Trident Technical College and graduated from Converse University, where she studied creative and professional writing. She was an editor for The Concept Literary Magazine, the school’s literary journal, which piqued her interest in developing stories in collaboration with an editorial team. Azalea has been published in both The Concept Literary Magazine and Converse Magazine, the university’s annual publication.

Asmaani Kumar

Asmaani Kumar is a graduate in Sociology from Delhi University. Brought up in Guwahati, Assam and currently living in Delhi, she works as a writer for a media company. You’ll always find her taking the longer road for walks while blasting music in her ears. A hardcore postcard collector who spends too much time writing letters, reading poetry, gazing up at the skies and daydreaming of being in the mountains or a seaside village, these days she has been trying to learn new things like a language, an instrument, and cooking. What brings her happiness more than anything is stories, seen, read, or heard and she hopes she can spend a lifetime telling stories, sometimes her own but mostly of the people she comes across. She’s always ready to listen.

Gina Gruss

Gina Marie Gruss is an undergraduate student at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of FAU, double majoring in Creative Writing and Visual Art. She’s a born-and-raised south Floridian who hates the heat but loves her home state’s myths and nature. Her works have been featured by Amazon Prime Video, Mensa America, Wattpad, and FAU. She’s excitedly crafting her interdisciplinary senior thesis, which explores different Armageddons while centralizing disabled, queer, and diverse narratives. When not creating, she loves planning events, cooking and baking way too much food for said events, avoiding getting eaten by gators, and spoiling her cat Apollo.

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Jessenia Hernandez

Jessenia Hernandez earned her B.A. with majors in English and Communication Studies from Florida Atlantic University. She dabbles in writing poetry and short fiction and had her short story “Skin” published in FAU’s literary magazine, Coastlines. Her poem ‘Las Uvas Se Quedan Contigo’ was also published as part of Brink’s group-writing project, Dually Noted. She loves to read YA fiction, high fantasy (the kinds of books with a map of a made-up world at the front), historical fiction, and the occasional cheesy romance to get her through reading slumps. She has worked as a writing consultant and bookseller, and one day hopes to edit and/or market fiction novels. She also earned a certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from FAU, and constantly strives to advocate for the rights and representation of marginalized communities. When she’s not reading or writing, you can find her scream-singing to musical theater songs or experimenting with baking.    

Manal Ahmed

Manal Ahmed is a writer from Karachi, Pakistan. She recently graduated from Clark University where she studied English and Creative Writing. She writes short fiction, loves poetry, and is obsessed with alliteration. Her work has appeared in Dhoop Journal and lickety-split.

Carl McDonald

Carl McDonald is a grant writer from Greeley, Colorado. He received a BA in English attending the University of Northern Colorado, where he enjoyed learning rhetorical theory and about the different types of stories that people tell. Carl has spent his whole life immersed in one type of storytelling or another, whether it was in the form of a book, graphic novel, or his weekly D&D games. But when not engaging with the stories around him, Carl enjoys board games and adventures into the woods with his family. 

Aisling O’Mahony

Aisling is a recent graduate living in London. She studied her BA in English and History at University College Cork, followed by an MA in English Literature. She loves all things theater and has directed, acted and set-designed for various productions (though not all at once!). When she’s not reading or writing, she loves taking pictures for her Bookstagram account and indulging her recent hobby, candle-making. Her written work has appeared in the Honest Ulsterman, Poetry in the Time of Coronavirus Anthology and the Cornerstone Anthology. 

Erin Clements

Erin Clements is an Ohio-based editor and writer who holds a graduate certificate in Publishing from New York University and a BA in English from Ohio Christian University. She loves everything literary, from Shakespeare to the newest fantasy bestseller, and she’ll happily tell you her opinions on everything from Shakespeare’s Dark Lady to how stories could and should be more diverse. When she’s not working as the Senior Community Manager for John Green’s charity book club, Life’s Library, she’s probably listening to podcasts, buying more books than she could ever read, or getting emotional over dogs.

Esther Hsu

Esther Hsu is a high school English teacher based in California. They graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a BA in English and Japanese and from SJSU with their Master’s in Educational Curriculum and Instruction. When they’re not thinking about ways to upset the current educational system or include diverse voices in curriculum, they can probably be found playing a board game, immersing themselves in video games, binging Netflix, trying to get their cat to love them, or studying languages.

Amber Sullivan

Amber is a writer and professional writing consultant based in Denver, CO. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Writing with focuses in comics and film from the University of Colorado, Denver. She can often be found lurking in the darkest alleys, reading comics to cockroaches. When she is not dreaming of life as an octopus, she writes and performs ridiculous lyrics to heal her friends during short rests.

Carissa Villagomez

Carissa Villagomez is an undergraduate at The University of Chicago, pursuing a B.A. in English Literature and minors in Digital Studies and Human Rights (though that list of studies may extend). Her past experiences in publishing have taught her much, but she’s always looking to learn more! Her passion for storytelling has only intensified over the years, and she looks forward to doing her bit to uplift authors’ voices everywhere.

Miki Schumacher

Miki Schumacher is based in Minneapolis and is a student at the University of Minnesota. They will be graduating with a B.A. in English with minors in creative writing, teaching ESL, and Asian American studies. They love learning languages and reading and creating poetry. When they’re not busy teaching or writing, they’re probably cooking, working on a painting, playing an RPG, or starting a new book.

Ally Geist

Ally is a quirky little Canuck living in Toronto, Canada (yes, they do have a lot of maple syrup up there!). She graduated with a BA in Theatre Studies (specializing in Playwriting and Dramaturgy) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. She also has a post-grad certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. When Ally is not reading, crying over cute puppy videos on the internet, defending the merits of the Oxford comma, or watching reruns of Schitts Creek, she is most likely lip-synching for her life in her bedroom, pretending she is one of the fabulous Drag Race queens.

Jaclyn Morken

Jaclyn is an aspiring writer and editor from Saskatoon, Canada, where she completed an MFA in Writing and BA Hons in English at the University of Saskatchewan. Her work can be found in antilang no. 1, Dually Noted (March 2019), and River Volta Review of Books. Jaclyn writes fantasy and speculative fiction.

Carolyn Janecek

Carolyn Janecek is a Czech-American writer and MFA student at Colorado State University whose poetry has been featured in The Florida Review, Permafrost, and ellipsis… literature & art, among others. Before the pandemic, Carolyn could be spotted at Sephora, covered in glitter; buying flowers at Trader Joe’s for Instagram photoshoots; and petting every dog within visible range. For now, they make do with updating their bookstagram and social distancing in the park.

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Kaitlin Lounsberry

Kaitlin Lounsberry graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and a minor in fiction writing. She recently earned her master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University with distinction. While working towards her master’s, Kaitlin was a managing editor for The Garica Boy, published through Big Shoulders Book. She has bylines in publications in The State Journal-Register, The Columbia Chronicle, Pop’Stache, and Chicago Talks. Kaitlin is currently working on her first novel and loves to listen to true crime podcasts and learn about wine in her spare time.

Sonya Minner

Sonya Minner is a self-proclaimed writer from western Pennsylvania. She successfully graduated from California University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing in 2015. Since then, she’s bounced around from place to place. She currently works in an office by day and writes YA fiction (and sometimes hockey articles) by night. If she’s not writing, she’s probably tweeting. One day, she hopes to pay off her student loan debt and publish a best-selling YA novel, just maybe not in that order.