Executive
Dani Hedlund
Chief Executive & Founder
Helen Maimaris
Chief of Staff
Senior
Emily Brill-Holland
Editorial Coordinator & Internship Supervisor
Victoria Bruick
Administrative Assistant
Thomas Chisholm
Senior Editor
Ejiwa Ebenebe
Assistant Creative Director
Amanda Farbanish
Senior Editor
Sam Gladstone
IT Officer
Nate Ragolia
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
Evan Sheldon
Editorial Coordinator
Associate
Chase Bailey
Marketing Assistant & Grant Writer
Suzie Bartholomew
Outreach Assistant
Maribel Leddy
Assistant Editor
Dominic Loise
Content Creator & Staff Writer
Matt Peadon
Visual Identity Associate
Anya Prosser
Frames Prison Program Fellow
Eric Rowe
Education Fellow & Advisor
Valerie San Filippo
F(r)iction in the Classroom Fellow
Eileen Silverthorn
Assistant Editor
Natalie Wyatt
Frames Prison Program Instructor
Junior
Manal Ahmed
Staff Writer
Erin Clements
Junior Editor
Ally Geist
Grant Writer & Junior Editor
Gina Gruss
Junior Editor
Craig Hartz
Junior Editor
Jessenia Hernandez
Junior Editor
Esther Hsu
Junior Editor
Carolyn Janecek
Junior Editor
Asmaani Kumar
Junior Editor
Lauren Lopez
Junior Editor
Kaitlin Lounsberry
Junior Editor
Carl McDonald
Grant Writer
Sonya Minner
Research Assistant
Jaclyn Morken
Junior Editor
Aisling O’Mahony
Web Editor & Marketing Assistant
Samantha Samakande
Junior Editor
Miki Schumacher
Junior Editor
Amber Sullivan
Junior Editor
Carissa Villagomez
Junior Editor
Intern
Azalea Acevedo
Intern
Eliza Browning
Intern
Sam Burt
Intern
John Legarte
Intern
Consultant
Asa C. Garber
Legal Advisor
Zach Howard
Prison Book Art Director & Co-Creator
Andrew Jimenez
Advisory Editor
Michelle Lockamy
Website Artist
Stefanie Molina
Advisory Editor
Drew Nolte
Web Designer
Board
Suzanne Hickox
US Board Member
Jennifer Leong
US Board Member
Ian Leprino
US Board Member
Vivian Marr
UK Trustee
Harriet Moll
UK Trustee
Jon Schindehette
Board Member
Catherine Stihler OBE
UK Trustee
Eric Rowe
Education Fellow & Advisor
As an educator, Eric Rowe has spent the past 28 years providing motivational, emotional, and strategic supports to children and providing similar support to educators, librarians, and youth workers as they worked to cultivate relationships with their students. Eric serves as the Executive Director of Empower Community High School. Eric is also a Co-Founder and former Co-President of the Denver School Leaders Association – Colorado’s first union advocating for Principals and Assistant Principals – whose mission is to ensure fair and equal treatment of all DPS School Leaders and to advocate for anti-racist policies within DPS.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Anya Prosser
Frames Prison Program Fellow
Anya is a doctoral student of education at Columbia University’s Teachers College focusing on using superhero comics to address issues of mental health in the classroom. She taught language arts at a high school in Denver before moving to New York City to pursue higher degrees in education. Her central pedagogies are Hip Hop Education and dismantling the heteronormative white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Besides her academic work, Anya is a freelance editor. An avid Marvel fan, she will eagerly discuss why Illyana Rasputin and Lorna Dane are the best and why Scott Summers is the worst.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Valerie San Filippo
F(r)iction in the Classroom Fellow
Valerie San Filippo is a writer and educator from Long Island, New York. She received her MFA in Fiction from Stony Brook Southampton. Her work has appeared in F(r)iction, PANK, TSROnline, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and a recipient of George R.R. Martin’s Miskatonic Scholarship. When she isn’t teaching, or writing stories about angry young women, she spends her time playing TTRPGs, embroidering, and caring for her pet moss balls.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
CLOSE
Eliza Browning
Intern
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.
CLOSE
Sam Burt
Intern
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.
Pronouns: he/his
CLOSE
John Legarte
Intern
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.
Pronouns: he/him/his
CLOSE
Azalea Acevedo
Intern
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Dominic Loise
Content Creator & Staff Writer
Dominic is a bookseller living in Chicago, Il., with his librarian wife and three rabbits. He is open about and advocates for mental health awareness in his writing. Before coming to Brink Literacy Project, Dominic was the Store Manager at Open Books, Chicago’s first literacy nonprofit bookstore. He was also on the planning committee and created virtual sessions for the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Victoria Bruick
Administrative Assistant
Victoria Bruick is a marketer and podcast producer with a passion for education and supporting the work of nonprofit organizations. As a lover of lists and spreadsheets, she helps her clients reach their creative content goals through simple and streamlined processes. Currently, she is a co-host and producer of the podcast Book Club with Julia & Victoria and producer of The Pandemic Parenting Podcast. Victoria earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and Music from Valparaiso University. Her poetry has been published by The Academy of American Poets and in Indiana’s Best Emerging Poets (Z Publishing). Victoria enjoys reading, traveling, cooking, being outside, and trying local bakeries and breweries.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Asmaani Kumar
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Gina Gruss
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Jessenia Hernandez
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Manal Ahmed
Staff Writer
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Matt Peadon
Visual Identity Associate
Matt Peadon is a character artist and art director working in film and video games. As the only blonde Australian that can’t surf, he pivoted and opted for a more digital medium. He was part of productions like Game of Thrones, Aquaman, Underworld, and Ghostbusters and has collaborated with organisations like Weta Workshop, NASA, KikkiK, Epic Games, and Magic Leap. Matt pursues his interest in photography and Hedlund’s quips by camera-slinging for Brink.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Nate Ragolia
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
Nate Ragolia is an author, editor, publisher, and podcaster. He’s published two books, There You Feel Free (2015) and The Retroactivist (2019), and hosts the comedy trivia podcast A Vague Idea and the roleplaying podcast Roll For Blank. He has also dabbled in webcomics, e-zines, and music blogging, and works in community wealth development and nonprofit strategy. When he’s not doing the things listed above, he’s playing pub trivia, walking his dogs, and playing video games.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Carl McDonald
Grant Writer
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.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Aisling O’Mahony
Web Editor & Marketing Assistant
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Erin Clements
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Esther Hsu
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: they/them
CLOSE
Amber Sullivan
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Carissa Villagomez
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Miki Schumacher
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: they/them
CLOSE
Craig Hartz
Junior Editor
Craig is a writer and professional writing consultant based in Denver, CO. He holds a BA in English Writing with a minor in Philosophy from the University of Colorado Denver, and will be pursuing an MFA in Fiction from Oregon State University starting in Fall 2020. When he isn’t writing or editing, you can find him experimenting in his kitchen, snapping guitar strings with alarming regularity, exploring the mountains, or in various states of falling: down ski slopes, off rock walls, or in love with new (often old) stories. He believes that incisive, empathetic writing has the power to move, challenge, and heal us in ceaselessly surprising and beautiful ways. His nonfiction has appeared in Watershed Review, and his fiction is forthcoming in F(r)iction.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Harriet Moll
UK Trustee
Harriet worked for fifteen years as a TV journalist for Bloomberg, CNBC and MTV in London and in Italy before returning to her home country of Scotland to take up a fundraising role with a housing charity. Now, as Creative Director at Charlotte Street Partners, she works with businesses and charities from around the world to help them tell their stories so that everyone can understand. She is a proud bookworm, mum of two boys, Iyengar yogini, and novice mountain biker.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Ally Geist
Grant Writer & Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Jaclyn Morken
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Carolyn Janecek
Junior Editor
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.
CLOSE
Catherine Stihler OBE
UK Trustee
Catherine is the Chief Executive Officer of the Open Knowledge Foundation, a global not for profit advocating for a fair, free, and open future.
For 20 years she represented Scotland in the European Parliament where she was recognized for her digital policy leadership and as an ambassador for public libraries, accessibility, and citizens rights.
In 2014 she was elected unopposed as the 52nd Rector of the University of St Andrews, being awarded an honorary doctorate in 2018.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Samantha Samakande
Junior Editor
Samantha Samakande graduated from Allegheny College with a BA in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Community and Justice Studies (a.k.a Values, Ethics and Social Action). She chooses to exist in the margins, among those that speak the languages of struggle and resistance, justice and witness, love and resilience. Her lifelong love affair with literature, as well as her experience as an immigrant, existing in the borderlands of things, have made her a poet—an observer, a listener, and a storyteller.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Natalie Wyatt
Frames Prison Program Instructor
Natalie moved to Denver in the fall of 2018 after being born and raised in Northern California. She received her BA in Anthropology from Saint Mary’s College of CA and is now getting her Master in Curriculum and Instruction from The Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. With a mantra of feeding the mind, body and soul, when Natalie is not in school learning or sharing her love for learning, you can find her spending time outdoors, taking photos, baking, or exploring new coffee shops and breweries.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Ejiwa Ebenebe
Assistant Creative Director
Ejiwa Ebenebe (called Edge by most) is a Nigerian-Canadian artist creating ornate, figurative illustrations. Though they currently live in Canada, Edge grew up in varying places across the globe, gifting them with a variety of experiences that deeply influence their creative work. Themes such as mystery, horror, whimsy, and opulence combine within their work in varying degrees (no doubt nurtured by a steady diet of fairytales, folklore, whodunnits and ghost stories throughout their childhood).
In addition to creating beautiful things, Edge is focused on adding to the representation of black, LGBTQ folks in the creative world. Their work has featured in varying publications including ImagineFX Magazine, Spectrum and Brink’s very own F(r)iction.
CLOSE
Emily Brill-Holland
Editorial Coordinator & Internship Supervisor
Emily is a proud Kiwi, hailing from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She is a real-life Bard, spending her time immersed in stories, whether it be reading, editing, writing, running her DnD campaigns, or acting/producing/directing stage and film. Or talking the ears off her friends and family. When she’s not soaking in stories, you can find her out in the wilderness, enjoying everything Nature has to offer.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Chase Bailey
Marketing Assistant & Grant Writer
Chase Bailey is a baker living in Columbus, OH. He holds a BA in Professional Writing from Miami University and he enjoys learning about the evolution of colloquial language. Chase is a fiend for any book with magic or queer characters—don’t even get him started on queer characters with magic. When he’s not spamming your feed with F(r)iction-related content, Chase enjoys listening to the birds, sharing apples with his dog, and doing yoga. Eventually—eventually—he will put together a chapbook of poetry.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Vivian Marr
UK Trustee
Discovering words and language and finding out what words mean and how they are used in multiple languages, have fired Vivian’s career. She was involved in dictionary-making for nearly three decades, working for some of the world’s most iconic dictionary publishers, with most of her time spent at Oxford University Press.
Starting out as an editor on bilingual dictionaries for the print market, she moved firmly into the digital world, leading a team of lexicographers and editors who were responsible for creating and acquiring lexical content for use in the wide and diverse range of technologies that seek to bring universal human communication ever closer.
Proud of her Scottish roots in an Aberdeenshire farming family, she is now based in Edinburgh and loves taking advantage of all the many cultural and social opportunities the city offers.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Asa C. Garber
Legal Advisor
Like many writers, Asa spends most of his time writing drafts, then editing to the point of loving, then hating, then loving what he’s written. A select few read and appreciate his work; the general public either ignores or does not understand it. But such is the life of a lawyer. Asa is the founder of Reason Legal, LLC, providing legal services and consultation to businesses and entrepreneurs. He is a proud supporter of Brink’s many good works.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Zach Howard
Prison Book Art Director & Co-Creator
Zach Howard is a freelance professional illustrator of seventeen years. His most notable employers include Marvel, Disney, DC, Warner Bros., Image, IDW, Boom, Simon & Schuster, Webtoons, and Steve Jackson Games. Zach’s most popular projects are Wild Blue Yonder, Shaun of the Dead, Spiderman, Wolverines, GI Joe, The Cape, and Detective Comics. He has been nominated for an Eisner award, multiple Indie awards, and received an Amazon Book of the Month selection for Wild Blue Yonder. In addition to his professional work, Zach is passionate about supporting young artists and has dedicated much of his time to helping nurture the next generation of creators.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Michelle Lockamy
Website Artist
Michelle Lockamy is an award-winning illustrator sailing between the realms of kidlit and fantasy illustration. Inspired by nature, fairytales, and art history, she aims to bring meaningful stories into the world that will help people remember how beautiful it is. She believes it is her duty as a visual storyteller to contribute to the dialogue of our human condition. Her work has shown in Philadelphia and New York and has appeared in a variety of publications and games.
CLOSE
Drew Nolte
Web Designer
Drew Nolte is a professional designer who decided to take time off work and get an MFA in poetry. Using his web and design knowledge, he looks for projects and opportunities to help the literary world anyway he can. He has been a marketing designer, college web designer, partner in a ruby on rails company, and now leading design for a luxury travel company.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Kaitlin Lounsberry
Junior Editor
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Thomas Chisholm
Senior Editor
Thomas Chisholm is a freelance editor, creative writer, and an alumnus of The Evergreen State College. He received a year of formal copyediting training from the University of Washington’s editing certificate program, though he especially enjoys cracking a story open and getting into developmental edits. Originally from suburban Detroit, he’s called Seattle home since 2009. His creative work has appeared in Inkwell, Drizzle Review, and Vanishing Point Magazine.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Jennifer Leong
US Board Member
Jennifer is a Calirado native (a person born in California that now lives in Colorado) who leads a Fortune 100 global marketing team by day and sits on Brink’s Board of Directors, also by day (her days are long). She’s passionate about creating community and bringing people together for a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Her obsessions include rock climbing, coffee, traveling, and storytelling.
CLOSE
Ian Leprino
US Board Member
As a graduate from the Denver School of the Arts, Ian Leprino has been impacting the Denver art scene from a young age. Since then, he’s gone on to develop a career in business, dance, and philanthropy. With more than eleven years of experience in business management and development, Ian owns and operates Ovation Academy of Dance and works as the COO of Leprino Home Inc. In his free time, he contributes his expertise to an array of Denver-based nonprofits (though Brink is his favorite), fighting for the importance of art in our community.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Jon Schindehette
Board Member
Jon is a veteran of the marketing, gaming and publishing industries. Through the years, he has worked with clients such as: Disney, Fox Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, ThinkGeek, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, Kodak, Price Waterhouse, Atari, Activision, Nintendo, Pokémon, Sony Entertainment, CBS, Bioware, Bethesda SoftWorks, Crystal Dynamics, and many more. In his spare time, Jon creates lots of sawdust while building fun woodworking projects.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Suzanne Hickox
US Board Member
Suzanne’s real estate career began in the late 80s, when she started buying distressed properties, renovating, and reselling for a profit. Suzanne has also managed large REO portfolios for Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Chase, Wilshire Capital, Ocwen and Barclays. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Children’s Advocacy Center in Colorado Springs, and is currently on the Business Development Committee for the Rocky Mountain MS Center. Suzanne also has a BS degree from the University of Northern Colorado, is married to the wonderful Steve, and has several incredible children along with many amazing family members.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Eileen Silverthorn
Assistant Editor
Eileen is a bookseller at the Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Colorado State University with a BA in English Creative Writing and minors in History and Women’s Interdisciplinary Studies. Inspired by her work with CSU’s undergraduate literary magazine Greyrock Review, Eileen decided to explore a career in publishing through the Denver Publishing Institute. She enjoys spending her time traveling, editing her friends’ fanfiction, reading ten books at once, spending her whole paycheck at her place of employment, and cuddling her cats whilst writing bios about herself in the third person.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Helen Maimaris
Chief of Staff
With a background in writing and BA in English Literature and Creative Writing, Helen joined Brink in 2016, soon rising to the rank of COO, a position she held for nearly five years before becoming Brink’s Chief of Staff. When she’s not madly consuming any comic she can get her hands on, she oversees Brink’s large scale education projects, granting, and fundraising, and heads up staff management. She also frequently speaks on panels and at events, specializing in discussing positive and ethical internships in the publishing industry, increasing accessibility, and how to manage a volunteer taskforce ethically and effectively.
Helen also serves as F(r)iction’s Managing Editor, overseeing the submission pipeline, senior editor team, volunteer training, and production of the journal. She lives in Bristol, UK, and has traveled extensively, with past adventures including training as a professional scuba diving guide, participating in scientific fieldwork with humpback whales in Ecuador, and assisting at a rainforest animal rehabilitation center in Bolivia.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Dani Hedlund
Chief Executive & Founder
After the publication of her first novel at the age of eighteen, Dani Hedlund founded the international literary nonprofit Brink Literacy Project (formerly Tethered by Letters). Over the course of the last decade, Brink has grown into one of the largest independently-funded literary nonprofits in the nation, with bases across the US, UK, and Southeast Asia. She is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of F(r)iction, an art and literary collection specializing in boundary-defying work. Since its inception in 2015, F(r)iction has risen to critical acclaim, becoming one of the fastest growing literary journals in the world. In her ever-elusive free time, Dani lectures about the ins and outs of the publishing industry, writes very weird fiction, and runs a strange little board game company called Bad Hipster Games.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Andrew Jimenez
Advisory Editor
Andrew Jimenez is a freelance writer and editor living in Brooklyn, NY. His nonfiction work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review Daily, Luna Luna, and Curlew Magazine. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School and is currently working on a novel about the early life of Abraham Lincoln.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Amanda Farbanish
Senior Editor
Amanda Farbanish is an adult and YA fiction editor living in Brooklyn, NYC. She earned her B.A. in English from Drew University with a concentration in communications and media, a creative writing minor, and an Asian studies minor—yes, it is quite the mouthful. A habitual tea drinker, she loves words in all languages, queer stories, and dismantling flawed institutions (though not necessarily in that order). When she’s not working as a bookseller or writing or editing, she’s probably chasing her cat around the apartment to force it to listen to her newest YA novel idea, or buying way too many comics, or playing a rogue in D&D.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Sam Gladstone
IT Officer
Sam gave up studying English at the age of sixteen and would never have guessed that he would end up involved with an organization like Brink! Instead, he specializes in the languages of machines, working as a full stack developer by day and helping Brink with any tech-related queries at all times in between. He graduated with a Master of Mathematics from the University of East Anglia and is a passionate diver, helping to introduce people to the underwater world at a local club in Norfolk, UK.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Stefanie Molina
Advisory Editor
Stefanie lives in California in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is a freelance developmental editor specializing in fantasy and romance. She earned her BA in English with an emphasis in creative writing and a BA in Communications from the University of California at Davis. She’s one of those maddening people who buys five new books and then rereads Harry Potter instead. These days, Stefanie is more focused on editing than writing, but between projects she is steadily building a pile of half-finished stories and hopes (someday!) to complete one.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Suzie Bartholomew
Outreach Assistant
Suzie Bartholomew hails from Indiana and works for the Indianapolis Public Library. She earned her BA in English from Purdue University North Central (now Northwest) and her MFA in Creative Writing from Butler University. Having fully embraced her inner grandma, she loves to crochet, embroider, and live off of tea while cuddling with her cat. When she’s not working or being crafty, Suzie is focused on writing stories and indulging in serial killer documentaries.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Maribel Leddy
Assistant Editor
Maribel Leddy graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Writing Seminars. She’s originally from Buffalo, New York, but she now lives in Chicago where she works as an Associate Content Strategist at Yakkety Yak, a digital marketing agency. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and eating.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
Evan Sheldon
Editorial Coordinator
Evan lives in Denver, CO and is a graduate from the Denver Publishing Institute. He is the author of Shed the Midnight (Ghost City Press, 2019). His creative work has appeared in over forty different publications and has been translated into Russian. When he is not writing or editing, he is most likely reading to his young daughter or studying the history of weird literature and fairy tales.
Pronouns: he/him
CLOSE
Lauren Lopez
Junior Editor
Lauren is a native New Yorker who graduated from Emerson College’s Writing, Literature, and Publishing program in 2018. At any given time, they’re probably running around Boston working with nonprofits like 826 Boston Writers Without Margins, or Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam. When they’re not doing all things writing and publishing, you can find them missing New York bagels, cross stitching on public transportation, or planning ridiculous spreads for their bullet journal.
Pronouns: they/them
CLOSE
Sonya Minner
Research Assistant
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.
Pronouns: she/her
CLOSE
