Managing Editor: Jess Masi

Jess Masi  is a writer, educator, and beadwork artist based in Chicago, IL. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University, where they received the Ross Lockridge Jr. Prize for Short Fiction. Their writing can be found in Adi Magazine, So To Speak Journal, and elsewhere. An oral storyteller at heart, Jess has participated in literary performances across the Midwest. They currently teach writing at City Colleges Chicago and Loyola University Chicago. They belong to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. 

Currently Reading: Second Nature by Chaun Ballard and Opened Ground by Seamus Heaney

Film Editor: Hannah Bonner

Hannah Bonner is the author of Another Woman (EastOver Press, 2024) and the creative nonfiction editor for Brink. Her criticism has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Another Gaze, BOMB, Cleveland Review of Books, Literary Hub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, and The Sewanee Review, among others. A graduate of the Creative Nonfiction MFA at the University of Iowa, she currently lives in Philadelphia.

What Hannah is looking for in a submission: “Films that complicate my understanding of how to collage images and sound. Films whose form complements its content. Films that break open new ways of seeing and listening. Films that are affective. “Multiple manifestations,” as Barbara Hammer said, "of abstractions.””

Currently Reading: We Do Not Part by Han Kang, The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi, and A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Nonfiction Editor: Starr Davis

Starr Davis is a skilled writer and devoted mother whose work features in notable literary venues like The Kenyon Review and Poem-a-Day by the Academy of Poets. She has received fellowships at The Luminary and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Starr holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York and a BA in Journalism and Creative Writing from the University of Akron. Her personal-political reporting has earned recognition, appearing in Longreads' 'Top 5 Longreads of the Week.’ Her storytelling shines on podcasts such as What You Didn't Expect in Fertility and Truth to Power. A survivor, Starr supports women writers and participates in literary communities. She has been nominated for awards including the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Based in Houston, she volunteers with organizations empowering women and is a 2024 Writing Freedom Fellow with Haymarket Books. Starr passionately speaks on domestic violence and economic injustice against Black mothers. Her upcoming poetry book, AFFIDAVIT, will be released by Hanging Loose Press in 2025, showcasing her resilience and commitment to marginalized voices.    

What Starr looks for in a submission: “Creative nonfiction is such a unique genre built on utter literary disturbance and freedom. I am always looking for someone who can challenge form, craft, and voice—tell me something that you are still learning to tell yourself, give me something personal, political, and unruly. Share with me something that scares you, something raw and electrifying, but most importantly, something that has the power to shake the world or shift perspectives. I want a submission to chart unmarked territory, to reveal truths in ways I haven’t seen before, and to linger long after the final word. Show me what makes you human and why that story matters.”

Currently Reading: “Right now, I’m reading a few things that have deeply resonated with me. I’m rereading THICK, the essay collection by Tressie McMillian Cottom. I’ve also just started Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend, a novel. Additionally, I’ve been immersing myself in Black Women Writers at Work, edited by Claudia Tate.”

Poetry Editor: Daniel Fliegel

Dan Fliegel teaches and lives in Chicagoland with his wife, missing their three grown children. His chapbook, How Music Works On Us, was published by Main Street Rag Press in 2024, including poems that previously appeared in The Dodge and Jet Fuel. Poems from other manuscripts are published in Adirondack Review, African American Review, Cold Mountain Review, Free State Review, The South Carolina Review, and elsewhere. As a drummer/multi-instrumentalist, he has recorded with Amalea Tshilds, Bright Eyes, the Eternals, Marvin Tate’s D-Settlement, Tom Ze, Tortoise, and others. His ongoing musical project is Scurvy Jazzby.

What I look for in a submission: I read and love so many different poets, eras, and styles of poetry and am constantly trying to read and experience more. In my more than ten years at TriQuarterly, I am frequently delighted and amazed by the poetry we receive, which is submitted and not solicited. Every submission is read by multiplereaders and by myself; we enjoy/admire far more than we can accept. In each issue we try to present a diversity of poets and poetics. Ultimately, we look for the poems that move us after repeated readings with their ideas and feelings, and most importantly with their ability to play with language. We want to be stunned by the poem again and again. My hope is that reading past issues will demonstrate this range and will also be a pleasure for potential submitters. 

Currently reading: Various fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. And news, mostly bad.

Fiction Editors:

Jennifer Companik, Patrick Bernhard, Emily Mirengoff, Laura Joyce-Hubbard

Jen Companik is a longtime fiction editor at TriQuarterly and holds an M.A. in Creative Writing from Northwestern. Her book, Check Engine and Other Stories, was featured on the CLMP's “Reading List for National Hispanic Heritage Month 2021.” Some of her other accomplishments include: first prize, The Ledge’s 2014 Fiction Awards, a Pushcart Prize nomination from Border Crossing, and writing appearing or forthcoming in: The Northern Virginia Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and Allium. You can read some of her work at jencompanik.com.

What Jen looks for in a submission: “I look for well-groomed fiction that addresses all the senses and takes me places I might not otherwise go. Or that shows me someplace I've been in a way I've never seen it before. A good opening hook is crucial—and so is a strong, satisfying ending. Endings are hard. I can’t tell you how many stories don’t make the cut because the author wrote past the ending or failed to deliver on conflicts set up earlier in the narrative.”

Currently Reading: Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

A native of the Chicago suburbs, Patrick Bernhard received his BA from Oberlin College and his MFA from Northwestern University. His work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Maryland Literary Review, quip Literary Review, Bryant Literary Review, Midwest Review, and Coffin Bell Journal, and is forthcoming in Cottonwood. He currently teaches English at College of Lake County.   

What Patrick looks for in a submission: “I am looking for pieces that teach me something new about the way stories are told. I want my perspective on fiction challenged with characters and settings that refuse easy categorization.”

Currently Reading: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Emily Mirengoff has published fiction in STORY, The Santa Monica Review, Yemassee, and elsewhere. Prior to working at TriQuarterly, she served as a reader for Electric Literature, Ruminate, and the Center for Fiction. She has attended the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the Kenyon Review Writers Conference. She earned her Bachelor’s in History from Dartmouth College and her Master’s in Communication from the University of Miami. She lives just outside of Washington, D.C. with her husband and infant daughter.

What Emily looks for in a submission: “I am very attracted to character-based stories. I love reading about people who feel too specific, self-contradictory, and recognizable to be made-up (even though they are, obviously!) I always enjoy fiction set in an unfamiliar place, time, or subculture--including fantastical settings!--that imbues me with the wonder of discovery. And I can't resist stories that hit the sweet spot between drama and humor. If your story makes me laugh out loud, I will always advocate for it.”

Currently reading: The Art of Perspective by Christopher Castellani, Leave, A Postpartum Account by (TriQuarterly's own) Shayne Terry, and The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Laura Joyce-Hubbard’s poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Iowa Review, Chicago Tribune, with work selected as “Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction” in Best American Essays 2022 and 2023. She’s won awards from AWP and The Iowa Review, and her work has been supported by Ragdale, Fine Arts Work Center, and the National Endowment for the Arts’s Veteran Fellowship at VCCA. A retired Air Force pilot, Laura is currently serving on the Ragdale Curatorial Council and as the inaugural Highland Park Poet Laureate in Illinois. 

What Laura looks for in a submission: 

1. I recommend this interview with Christine Sneed at New England Review for valuable story tips and insights—dialogue, first sentences, scenes, and more: https://nereview.com/?s=sneed

2. Tension. I recommend applying a strategy from Rebecca Makkai. Pause at commercials or every 20 minutes in your favorite TV episode or movie and ask yourself: What have the writers added to keep us watching? Apply this when reading your story (in shorter pauses).

3. I love this quote from Nami Mun: "Observe interplay between acute and chronic tension in your story. Acute = more immediate. Chronic= pre-existing tension before the story opens. Note how these are resolved or unresolved in the ending. This might spark something in revision.

Currently reading: The Dry Season by Melissa Febos, The 33 by Héctor Tobar’s , and Many Small Fires by Charlotte Pence 

Faculty Advisor: Sarah Shulman

Sarah Shulman is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer and AIDS historian. She is the author of 21 books, including novels in multiple genres: historical fiction, literary fiction, experimental work, detective novels, speculative fiction. Sarah’s work as a journalist, activist, and novelist is extensively discussed in “Queer Kinship in Sarah Schulman’s AIDS Novels” (Routledge 2024), a research monograph juxtaposing the works about the AIDS epidemic. She was a member of ACT UP, New York from 1987 to 1992, and a co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers. Today she serves on the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace and is co-director of The ACT UP Oral History Project. At Northwestern University, she is the Ralla Klepak Professor of English and Director of the Litowitz Graduate Program in Creative Writing.

Staff Advisor: Colin Pope

Colin Pope is Assistant Director of Creative Writing at Northwestern. His most recent collection is Prayer Book for the New Heretic (NYQ Books, 2023), a finalist for the Louise Bogan Award and the St. Lawrence Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, Slate, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, Plume, AGNI, and Pleiades, among many others. He also works on the editorial board of RHINO and lives in Chicago.

Readers

Fiction: Nathalie Bonds, Erika Carey, Eleanor Colligan, Liz Howey, Nathaniel Forester, Jess Limardo, Claire Moacdieh, Sarbani Mukherjee, Amanda Norton, Paula Nwosu, Andrew Stojkovich, genea tafesse, Amanda Vitale, Jeremy Wilson, Eileen Zampa

Nonfiction: Jodi Cressman, Amanda Dee, Kristi Ferguson, Susan Lerner, Jenna Mather, Andi Myles, Sarah Minor, Kathryn O'Day, Lauren Short, Yvonne W, Kelsey Werkheiser, D.S. Winters

Poetry: Christine Barkley, William Ward Butler, Daylyn Carrigan, Abigail Chang, Cindy King, Jessica Manack, Amanda Maret Scharf, Tanya Young

Summer 2025 Interns: Sarkis Antonyan, Helen Gu, Ethan Kwak, Ocean Teu