Editorial Team ||
Hannah Bonner
Editor-in-Chief || she/her
Hannah is a writer, film programmer, and educator. She was a 2023-2024 National Book Critics Circle Emerging Critics Fellow and the 2024-2025 CLAS Visiting Writer in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Iowa. Currently, she serves as the Editor-in-Chief for Brink as well as the Film Editor for TriQuarterly, and her writing has been supported by the Breadloaf Environmental Writers' Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, among others. You can find her criticism in BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Cleveland Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Literary Hub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Sewanee Review. Another Woman (EastOver Press 2024) is her first book. She is always on the brink of wanting to do without language altogether and take a modern dance class.
Mariah Eppes
Managing Editor || she/her
Mariah Eppes (she/her) is a writer based in New York City. By day, she is a managing editor on books for psychotherapists. She likes to spend her time reading, writing, walking, and practicing various ways of making her work exist. She is always on the brink of signing up for a too-expensive indoor pool membership.
Joshua Thermidor
Creative Nonfiction Editor || he/him
Joshua Thermidor is a writer and photographer of the Haitian diaspora. He believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of all oppressed people. His photos have appeared in TIME, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, NBC News, and his writing has appeared in River Styx and The Seventh Wave. He is an MFA Candidate in Poetry at The Iowa Writers Workshop. He is always on the brink of dropping everything to watch deer.
kim thompson
Fiction Editor || she/her
kim thompson is a queer Korean-American-adoptee interdisciplinary artist residing in Portland, OR after 25 years of living in Europe, South Korea, and Minneapolis, MN. She is the recipient of the 2023 Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship, as well as several other state (MN) and national grants, including the 2008 Jerome Travel Grant for Literature. Her essay, “Dear Mia*,” was recently translated and published in 자기 자신의 목격자들 / In Our Words, an anthology of essays by Korean adoptees that is available in all major bookstores in South Korea. Her previous work on the page and stage has been featured at venues like the Tin House Constellation Reading Series in Portland and the Loft Literary Center and Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis. It has also appeared in adoptee-centric publications, South Korean news outlets, such as Hankyoreh and The Korea Herald, and the feminist journal ILDA. She is currently in the very early stages of working on creating a memoir––an excerpt of which appeared in Brink (No. 8 “Boundaries") under the title “the year of the wood rabbit." kim is always on the brink of moving to another country or spending too much money on a really good meal.
Philip Runia
Associate Fiction Editor || he/they
Philip is a writer and editor based in Portland, Oregon. They are the author of the poetry collection Curses & Prayers. At the University of Iowa, they earned a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, English and Creative Writing, and a minor degree in Cinema. While engaging with the arts community in Iowa City, their work has been published in The Daily Iowan, Little Village Magazine, and Fools Magazine. Additionally, they have served as a Fiction Editor for Earthwords, a literary review. As an editor, they find purpose in facilitating the shine of underrepresented and innovative writers, all while growing in their own writing. Philip’s writing focuses on ideas of generational trauma and belonging, affectation, and the awkward balance between planes of existence. They are always on the brink of laughing, screaming, or singing at the top of their lungs.
Cory Hutchinson-Reuss
Poetry Editor || she/her
Cory Hutchinson-Reuss is the author of Triptych (Milk & Cake Press, 2025) and a collaborative chapbook of poems in conversation with the visual art of Giselle Simón (Prompt Press Gallery Series, 2022). Her poetry and hybrid writings have appeared in LIT Magazine, antiphony journal, Cherry Tree, the Offing, and elsewhere. Originally from Arkansas, she holds a PhD in English from the University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City, where she teaches in both university and community settings. On the elevator or down the aisles or in the kitchen, Cory is always on the brink of dancing.
Lisa Summe
Associate Poetry Editor || she/her
Lisa Summe is the author of the poetry collection Say It Hurts (YesYes Books, 2021). Her second collection, How To Make The Day Longer, was a finalist for the 2024 Write Bloody Publishing Jack McCarthy Book Prize. Lisa earned a BA and MA in literature at the University of Cincinnati, and an MFA in poetry from Virginia Tech. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bat City Review, Foglifter, Muzzle, Salt Hill, Underblong, West Branch, and elsewhere. You can find her running, playing baseball, or eating vegan pastries in Pittsburgh, PA. She is always on the brink of going back to school.
Stephanie DeMer
Art Editor || she/her
Stephanie Dowda DeMer is a lens-based and expanding media artist born in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently, she is the Iowa Idea Visiting Artist and Visiting Assistant Professor in Photography at The University of Iowa. DeMer received her MFA in Photography + Film from Virginia Commonwealth University and BA in Philosophy from Georgia State University. Her forthcoming textbook, Material Encounters, will be published in 2021. Her first book, Oblivion Seekers, was published with Ultraterrestrial.xyz. DeMer is a Vermont Studio Center Fellow, Golden Dome Fellow, Hambidge Fellow, and Cabin Time Alumni. Her work and writing have been featured in Dialogue, Numbers Inc., Oxford American, Bad at Sports, ArtsATL, and BurnAway. Her solo exhibition, Sandbagging, premiered at WhiteSpace Gallery and at Eve Drewelowe Gallery. She is co-founder and organizer of The Letters Festival, a contemporary literary arts event. DeMer was the Artist in Resident for Biomimicry Project with ASU’s Electrical Engineer and Fungal Topography research collaboration. In 2020, Practice x Practice launched as a nimble curatorial initiative collaboration with Rachel Cox seeking to elevate womxn’s artistic research. Stephanie is always on the brink of creating a farm sanctuary and artist residency.
clayton scofield
Associate Arts Editor || they/them
Intermedia artist and poet, e clayton scofield (they/them) facilitates play- and process-based collaborations. They create multimedia work that threads poetic narrative, performance and moving image. clay’s work has been featured in publications including Number and Wussy. They have performed and exhibited nationally and held residencies with Cucalorus and The School of Making Thinking (SMT). They have MFAs in digital art (Indiana University, Bloomington) and poetry (the Iowa Writers’ Workshop) and serve on the board of directors of SMT. clay is always on the brink of over-caffeination.
Sarah Minor
Video Essay Editor || she/her
Sarah Minor is a writer and interdisciplinary artist and the author of Bright Archive (Rescue Press) and Slim Confessions: The Universe as a Spider or Spit (Noemi Press). She teaches writing at the University of Iowa. Sarah is always on the brink of professionalizing the role "hype man."
Stacia Rain Stonerook
Designer || she/her
Stacia Rain is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator living in Iowa City. Stacia attended the University of Iowa where she earned a degree in Psychology while also serving up pancakes for Iowa City's finest breakfast diners. In addition to freelancing, Stacia has spent several years in the nonprofits arts community. In that time, she has served as the Graphic Designer at both The Englert Theatre and Riverside Theatre. Currently, she is the Marketing Manager for FilmScene, a nonprofit arthouse cinema. As an illustrator, Stacia creates hand-drawn work that is abstract, colorful, and organic. Find more of her work at staciarain.com. Stacia is always on the brink of adopting a pile of ferrets.
Em Gray
Digital Media Editor || they/he
Emory (Em) Gray is a writer and artist based in Portland, Oregon, originally from Iowa. They are the Practice Coordinator for Cultivating a New Life, which offers culturally-affirming mental healthcare. Em has illustrated the covers of TRANZ by Spencer Williams and Curses & Prayers by Philip Runia. You can find their portfolio here. They design posters for various local events including the ongoing series "Church of Film," and they are currently illustrating a queer/trans-inclusive tarot deck. Em is always on the brink of eating frozen Junior Mints at their many local arthouse movie theaters.
Mason Hamberlin
Outreach & Engagement Director || they/them
Mason Andrew Hamberlin is a writer, designer, educator, and cursed earring-maker from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They’re currently at work on an essay collection about amateurism and queerness—from subreddit labels to Punisher memes to Bionicles to gym culture. Their writing can be found in The Cleveland Review of Books, Ninth Letter, Entropy, The Rumpus, Adroit, Shenandoah, and more. They live in Iowa City, Iowa. Whether road-tripping or picking up furniture from FaceBook Marketplace, Mason is always on the brink of crying to Kate Bush in someone's car.
Nina Lohman
Publisher || she/her
Nina Lohman is the author of the book The Body Alone (University of Iowa Press, 2024), a lyrical nonfiction inquiry into the experience, meaning, and articulation of pain. Originally from California, she lives in Iowa City and is the founder and publisher of Brink. Lohman serves as the Literary Programming Director for the Mission Creek Festival, an annual immersive music and literature festival honoring independent expression. A 2023 Iowa Artist Fellow, she is currently working on a collection of micro-essays on the subject of release. Nina is always on the brink of wanting to cut off all of her hair.
Editors At Large ||
Sarah Haas
Nonfiction Editor At Large || she/her
Sarah Haas is a writer living off-grid in the woods of northern New Mexico. Her recent work has been published in Literary Hub, Adroit Journal, and Tupelo, among others. She is represented by Mina Hamedi at Janklow & Nesbit and is always on the brink of asking to pet your dog.
Rachel Yoder
Editor At Large || she/her
Rachel Yoder is the author of the novel Nightbitch (Doubleday, 2021). Raised on a Mennonite commune in Appalachia, she now lives in Iowa City. With Mark Polanzak, she is the founding editor of draft: the journal of process. A former Iowa Arts Fellow and Trias Writer-in-Residence at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Rachel currently serves as Assistant Professor of Screenwriting in the Cinematic Arts Department at the University of Iowa. She is always on the brink of getting three kittens.
Brink Books ||
Alisha Jeddeloh
Editor in Chief || she/her
Alisha Jeddeloh is a writer and editor based in Iowa City. As a writer, she explores community, belonging, and the fault lines in the stories we tell each other and ourselves. As an editor, she enjoys being surprised by characters and prose. She is always on the brink of starting a new book when she's already reading several others.
Christina Wood
Editor || she/her
Christina Wood is a fiction writer with short stories appearing in The Paris Review, Granta, McSweeney’s, The Sewanee Review, and other journals. Her story “The Astronaut” won the 2018 Shirley Jackson Award for short fiction and her nonfiction appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books. She earned an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and is now a PhD candidate in English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia. In the past, she worked as the assistant editor of Dorothy, a publishing project, and she’s a current graduate editor for The Georgia Review. She is always on the brink of buying an old farmhouse, sight unseen, in Sweden.
Jess Sullivan
Marketing + Outreach || she/her
Jessica (Jess) Sullivan is a writer and reader based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work has appeared in decomp review, Fiction Writers Review, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at American University. She has worked as a bookseller, marketing and event coordinator, and editorial assistant, and is passionate about connecting books with readers. In her freetime, she is usually reading, starting another hobby, or staring at the sky. Jess is always on the brink of borrowing another book from her local library.
Alexandra Rae
Intern || she/her
Alexandra Rae is a feminist writer, editor, and re-visionist from Ohio. She obtained her BA in Creative Writing with a minor in Public Relations, Advertising & Social Media from Point Park University. Her experience within independent publishing and literary magazines includes working for The Young Writer's Initiative, Ken Sherman & Associates, Spiritus Mundi Review, Pie Press Publishing, Narratively, and now Brink as a Brink Books intern. As a hybrid writer interested in breaking genre and gender boundaries with the power of the pen, her work is rooted in unnatural feminist narratology -- so much so that she presented her research on this branch of literary criticism at the 2025 National Conference of Undergraduate Research. Her writing is published or forthcoming in Spiritus Mundi Review, The Mag Practicum, Same Faces Collective, Queer Gaze Magazine, Zines & Things, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, and Daughter Zine. She is always on the brink of saying yes.
Readers ||
Fiction
Nonfiction
Poetry
Hannah Bonner
Cory Hutchinson-Reuss
Lisa Summe
Abby Bishop
Madeline Riske
Alisha Jeddeloh
Philip Runia
Mackenzie Pitcairn
Kenna Prottsman
Carly Reynolds
Meredith Siemsen
Isabella Bonner
Jumi Bello
Alyssa Villasenor
Grace Davidson
Jamila Osman
Sarah Haas
Haley Johannesen
Lauren Sanyal
Reneé Bibby
Sarah Rogers
Catherine McCourt
Advisory Board ||
Julián David Bañuelos
Erin Connors
Steven Leyva
Susan Hill Newton
Marjorie V. Pond
Past Editors ||
Jamila Osman