Masthead

El J Ayala is from the Northeastern US and currently studies Creative Writing, Literature, and Legal Studies at SUNY Purchase. She has a passion for experimental fiction, tattoos, and the New York Mets. You can find her work in Gandy Dancer. When not writing, working, or winding down, you can find her perusing shelves at any local bookery. 

“Be like a cat and leave the past behind.”

– Jay Heinrichs

Kirry Kay hails from Queens, New York, and has been writing stories and poems ever since she learned how to hold a pencil. She is currently studying Creative Writing at SUNY Purchase, with a concentration in both fiction and poetry. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys calligraphy, making stained glass, playing bass, and designing costumes. Her works have been found on her mom’s Facebook page,

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

Michael Abramson grew up in the Catskills and now studies Creative Writing and New Media at SUNY Purchase. He spends most of his mornings working on campus, perusing the stacks beneath the library for books and imagining characters he’s created in worlds he hasn’t yet written. When he’s not lost in thought and contemplating how many days should be in a week on a different planet in a different galaxy, he can be found playing dungeons and dragons with his friends or in the woods starting a fire. 

“To love the journey is to accept no such end. I have found, through painful experience, that the most important step a person can take is always the next one.”

– Brandon Sanderson

Cielo N. Howell is a Creative Writing major from Westchester County, New York. She has an intrigue for the unanswered, the chaotic, and the underrepresented. Her writing dabbles in love and the swirling mysteries of the universe. When not writing she can be found in trees, antique shops, and feasting on seasonal goodies.

“You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.”

– Walt Whitman

Juliana Warta is a fiction concentrated creative writing major from Long Island New York. She first started writing in middle school mostly short stories and scripts from her favorite shows. Her favorite themes are magical realism, horror, and romance. When not writing you can find her cooking or drawing.

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon.”

– George Orwell

Sebastian Rios-Rodriguez is from the Bronx and a senior Creative Writing major at SUNY Purchase. He is a fiction concentration and loves science fiction and fantasy. When he isn’t writing or sleeping, you can find him watching anime and drawing in his spare time. He finds joy in writing worlds he creates from the ground up.

“Go beyond.”

– All Might

Natalie Çelebi is a Creative Writing major with a minor in Literature. She has two dogs she loves at home in Massachusetts, but here at Purchase her friend Laine is teaching her how to paint boats. (It is difficult.) To relieve stress from this affair she often dances and drinks tea.

“A pig’s gotta fly.”

– Proco Rosso

Savannah Meyer is from the Hudson Valley and is a junior creative writing major with a concentration in poetry at SUNY Purchase. She likes writing about horror, forests, and sex. Savannah is a mother to two baby tree frogs and when they aren’t writing they can be found sleeping and antiquing.

“You said once that the life of a poet oscillates between ecstasy and agony, and what mitigates those extremes is the necessary daily business of living. Yes. Friends, conversation, gardens. Daily life. It’s what we have. I believe in the world. I trust it to provide me.”

– Louise Glück, from an interview with Poets & Writers

Agota Petrauskas is a poet from Queens, New York, and currently studies Creative Writing at Purchase College. Her childhood in both New York and Lithuania greatly influence her poetry, which tends to be in the writing style of confessional poetry. She occasionally travels between the two places and looks after her four cats, who sit beside her while reading or writing.

“So much working, reading, thinking, living to do. A lifetime is not long enough.”

– Sylvia Plath

Aaron Noriega is from Queens, New York and a junior Creative Writing Major at SUNY Purchase. When they aren’t writing, you can find them searching for the next creative project in illustration, gore or music. They have a deep passion for the intricacies of poetry and you can often find them hugging a tree.

“Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.”

– Ram Dass

Pamela Trevisan is a creative writing major at purchase with a minor in literature. These studies have shaped her mind in learning about the intricate details that the mundane presents while also looking at the world through a birds-eye view with all its metaphysical qualities. Her parents are from Brazil and she speaks Portuguese. She enjoys traveling, learning languages, and seeing the world for all its beauty along with writing on all the existing platforms.

“If you do not push the boundaries, you will never know where they are.”

– T.S. Eliot

Rachel Garrison is a junior at Purchase majoring in Creative Writing. She has been coming up with stories since childhood and has a passion for magical realism. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading a book or playing Animal Crossing surrounded by stuffed animals.

“Anyone who says women are weak is afraid they’re too strong.”

– Cassandra Clare

Blake Coniglio is a Bronx native and a Creative Writing major at Purchase College. They’re been in a love affair with modern fantasy and old speculative fiction since birth. If they’re not holed up somewhere writing like a maniac, you can catch them at assorted concerts and coffee shops across NYC.

“Make as many unfinished verses as you like! Let the next intense voice ring out, please.”

– Nayutan Seijin

Brandon Dennis is from Long Island, New York and studies Creative Writing and History at SUNY Purchase. He spends his time jumping from fantasy novel to fantasy novel, with the occasional absurdist poetry collection sandwiched between. When he’s not writing, or reading, or thinking about writing or reading, he spends his time playing D&D, video games or board games. Catan, anyone?

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings