Editorial Team
Editors-In-Chief
Ismael Dones
Ismael is a creative writing graduate student at California State University—Northridge. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he represent his culture within magic realism and science fiction narratives. Now, he’s a consultant at the Radical Librarianship Institute in Northridge, CA.
Sam Card
With over 10 publications, Sam Card is a creative writer who graduated from California State University—Northridge. Sam is a fan of intricate and meaningful art, irreplicable by artificial intelligence. He is currently working on his Master’s Degree in Creative Writing.
Managing Editors
Patrick Smith | Prose
Patrick is a grad student who is constantly evolving and always looking for new ways to grow. His short story “Sunday Morning” was previously accepted into Northridge Review. Other works range from fantasy and auto-fiction to horror and surrealism—all of which he heavily draws from real life experience to feed his characters and themes. He enjoys blending and bleeding the realities of fiction with real life to uncover truths about the human experience. Some recurring motifs in his work include his cats Karma and Simba, his love for music like Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks, though he’ll take any opportunity to mention dinosaurs. He works with Sigma Tau Delta, an International English Honors Society, in creating spaces to help strengthen the writing community. He also works as Editor-at-Large for Northridge Review.
Diana Serrano | Poetry
Diana Serrano is a graduate of California State University—Northridge, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing in 2024. She has previously edited for Northridge Review and the first issue of Scarlet Review. She was a member of Sigma Tau Delta as an undergraduate student at CSUN.
Alexis Shrewsbury | Drama
Alexis Shrewsbury is a graduate from California State University—Northridge with likes that range from the joys of dragon-roaming fantasy to the thrills of heart-wrenching horrors. Driven by observations in popular culture and the importance of fandoms, Alexis aspires to impact others with the imaginative magic that only storytelling can achieve. She’s previously been published in the Northridge Review and the Scarlet Review for drama and prose, and was Lead Drama Editor for the Northridge Review.
Christina Marriott | Art
Christina Marriott is an old-testament angel in a pair of New-Balance sneakers. Their first marginally editorial position involved spell-checking resumes for friends, and the one time they got paid seventy bucks by an indie author to proof-read their manuscript. They have since gone on to hold various legitimate editorial roles, such as Graphic Illustrator for UCLA’s OutWrite NewsMagazine, Lead Student Editor for CAPTURED: Multi-Media Student Research Journal (2023-2024), and most recently Lead Typesetter for the Fall 2024 team behind the Northridge Review. Their writing has been published within the pages of Ghoulish Tales #1, Panorame Press: Summer 2023, and the coming Fall 2024 Northridge Review. Recently they have been awarded a transcription fellowship as part of CSUN’s Blank Spaces In The Archives. They have also self-published a number of zines online. The bulk of their personal work consists of strange body horror, the different forms angels take, and teeth.
Editors
Daniel Buck| Prose
Daniel Buck is an English—Creative Writing graduate from California State University, Northridge. He has been published in the Northridge Review. He is a writer with autism who likes writing fantasy and science fiction stories. In his free time, he enjoys writing, reading, playing tabletop games and video games.
Sheridan Collins | Prose
Sheridan is an autistic writer who graduated from California State, Northridge. Now, she writes a series of Fantasy and Horror YA novels and short stories. Sheridan loves video games and taking care of animals.
KM Fales | Prose
KM Fales lives in the San Emigdio mountains with his wife and their son. Currently a grad student at Cal State Northridge, he is also a Practitioner-in-training with Centers for Spiritual Living. He is proud to have spearheaded the reinstatement of Sigma Tau Delta at CSUN and to have self-edited and published their first publication. KM Fales writes short fiction and longer creative nonfiction.
Matthew Miehe | Prose
Matthew Miehe (he/him) is an undergrad student at California State University, Northridge, pursuing a B.A. in English—Creative Writing. He has lived in Southern California all of his life and it’s represented in the setting of his stories. He writes a verity of short stories with an emphasis in science fiction, disillusionment, and bizarre situations his characters appear in. As someone who has been published before, and as an editor of the Scarlet Review, he hopes he can help realize other writer’s dreams too.
Maya Vasquez | Prose
Maya Vasquez is a San Fernando-based fiction and graphic novel writer and editor who shares a love for activism, their community, and embracing their roots. Raised in the valley, they developed a better understanding of their Chicana background, especially from a queer perspective. Their current works in fiction provide commentary on the ever-changing political climate, social justice, and critique of heteronormative societies. While doing so, they also incorporate elements of gothic horror, science fiction, high fantasy, and speculative fiction to pursue these narratives. They’re currently writing two graphic novels alongside their older sister, Mina, a local artist. In their spare time, Maya enjoys attending local hardcore shows, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and spoiling their two cats, Loki and Hela. While they have a love for a variety of music, Maya has a soft spot for the emo scene. You can find them on Instagram @fantasticbxstrd.
Deanna Davidson | Poetry
Deanna is a creative writing major at California State University—Northridge. She has poetry and prose publications in online literary journals including Sword & Kettle Press and 101 words.org. When not writing, she can be found with a book in one hand and coffee in the other.
Erin Kroncke | Poetry
Erin is a multidisciplinary writer, poet, artist. Her poetry can be found in The Jaded Ibis Press, The Closed Eye open as well as Poet's Choice to name a few. Her screenwriting and directorial projects have been featured in The Topanga Film Festival as well as the iconic North Hollywood CIA. She will publish a small zine titled SALT with original poetry while continuing to work on her first novel.
Francesca Nardi | Poetry
Francesca was a former president of Sigma Tau Delta, graduating from CSUN in spring of 2024 with a BA in psychology and a minor in creative writing. Francesca, born and raised in Milano, Italy, lived in Los Angeles for four years and now resides in the bay area. Her fiction was featured in Blue World Magazine and Festival for Poetry.
Joseph X Casillas | Drama
Joseph X Casillas is a Glassellland native and writer, director, and founder of the sketch comedy group Gladlyinsane. He has experience producing media at nonprofits like Inscape Magazine, NALIP, and Our Turn. His shorts have screened at festivals like The Bad Student Film Fest and PCC’s 2017 Short Film Showcase. His feature screenplay Pink & White Skies has placed in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship as a quarterfinalist, Austin Film Festival as a second-rounder, and his short I’m So Tired of the Hero's Journey won best drama script in the 2023 Creative World Awards. Joseph’s In The Brush of Today has been published by Big Table Press, and he currently reads for Shore Scripts. His Latino heritage and experience at an indigenous charter school have influenced his work with themes of identity and LA’s rich cultural tapestry.
Reviewers
Jesse Illanes | Prose
Jesse Illanes is a mass communication graduate student at California State University, Northridge, with a bachelor’s in English—Creative Writing and a minor in journalism. Being the Culture Editor of The Daily Sundial, he is passionate about storytelling across poetry, short fiction, and journalistic articles.
Dom Laughlin | Prose
Dom Laughlin is a creative writing graduate from California State University of Northridge and former treasurer of Sigma Tau Delta Iota Chi. People call them the ‘dragon tamer’, but on a normal day, Dom writes poetry and short fiction experimenting with various genres, with previous publications featured in the Northridge Review and the Scarlet Review.
Hanna Davis | Poetry
Hanna Davis is a California State University—Northridge Creative Writing undergraduate student. She’s the current managing editor of Northridge Review, and has also been published in Northridge Review as a poet. Outside of school and work, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, writing poetry, and watching horror movies.
Maddy Trujillo | Poetry
Maddy Trujillo despised the thought of reading and writing due to bad past experiences with teachers. Yet, when a Professor of hers assigned F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to be read a myriad of times; Maddy found a passion while her classmates found animosity. Fitzgerald inspired her current goal of teaching literature and composition at a community college. She builds her academic repertoire by researching for Dr. Irene Clark’s Literacy Narratives. When she is not completing coursework, she enjoys baking from her sourdough starter named Doughmingo, reading psychological thrillers, listening to true crime podcasts, watching reruns of The Office, and playing with her two cats, Luna and Nova. She is delighted to be on the Scarlet Review team!
Caroline Urbina | Poetry
Caroline Urbina is a graduate student earning her Master of Arts in English with an emphasis on creative writing and an aspiring narrative fiction and poetry writer. As an artist, she is captivated by fantasy & realism stories and free verse poems. Caroline worked as the Lead Social Media Editor for the Northridge Review and plans to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree beginning fall 2025.
Design
Rin Hiruma | Book Cover Artist & Graphic Design
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Rin Hiruma is an artist with a fascination for the unconscious world. In her middle and high school, she was selected to create posters for her campus. She is currently attending California State University—Northridge as a music major.
Administrative
Sean Pessin | Execute Advisor
Sean Pessin has lived in Los Angeles his whole life. He is an interdisciplinary scholar and artist who attended Otis College of Art and Design as well as CSU Northridge. He has studied Literature, Creative Writing, Pedagogy, Critical and Cultural Theory, and Book Arts at these institutions and in Los Angeles broadly. He is currently working on a PhD in Information Studies at UCLA.
Kalan Cordell | Publicity Manager
Kalan is a black, queer writer based in Los Angeles. He is currently the president of Sigma Tau Delta. His favorite authors include Clive Barker and Scott Heim. Kalan gathers most of his inspiration from Queer cinema and literature produced in the late nineties. He has featured works in Beyond Queer Words, From Whispers to Roars, and others. During his free time, Kalan can be found rewatching Gregg Araki films in his room.
Independent Services
Ysabella Gonzalez | Web Designer & Database Technician | Copy Editing
Ysabella is a published reporter, writer, and editor. She is on her way to earning her third degree, a Master of Arts in English, after obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in English and Communication at California Lutheran University. She has written for the student newspaper The Echo at CLU, been employed as a sports writer for CLUSports, held the title Assistant Director of Strategic Communications for CSUN, and most recently works as the UCLA-CSUN Book Arts Lab Student Assistant. In addition to these roles, she has also previously been the Managing Editor for the Northridge Review. Her research has been presented at several conferences around the United States. As an experienced writer, editor, researcher, and archivist, Gonzalez is aspiring to work in Public Relations for a professional sports team. In her off time, she likes to read fantasy and fiction.
