MASTHEAD
UPPER MANAGEMENT
Miranda Ramírez
Press Director
Miranda Ramírez is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and writer born and raised in Houston, Texas. She's the founder and director of Defunkt Magazine & Press, a literary columnist for Public Poetry, a guest editor for Teachers and Writers Collaborative, and a co-organizer of the Houston Poetry and Arts Festival. You may find her work in Atticus Review's–The Attic, Coffin Bell, Cowboy Jamboree, Cutthroat Journal's anthology Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, and Ripples in Space. She is drafting her first novel as an MFA candidate at Sam Houston State University.
Bleah Patterson
Editor in Chief
Bleah (blay-uh) Patterson is a queer, southern poet born and raised in Texas. Much of her work explores the contention between identity and home and has been featured or is forthcoming in various journals including Electric Literature, Pinch, Write or Die, Phoebe Literature, and Taco Bell Quarterly.
Jessica Ballen
Managing Editor
Jessica Ballen is a disabled poet currently completing their MFA in creative writing at Antioch University, where they serve as Editor in Chief of Lunch Ticket Literary Magazine. They're also Managing Editor of Defunkt Magazine and a guest editor for Frontier Poetry. Their work can be found or is forthcoming in RHINO Poetry, Ghost City Review, and Harbor Review (among others). You can find them compulsively posting on their Instagram stories @_j___esus and on Bluesky @jessicaballen.bsky.social . Ceasefire now!
William Whitmire
Director of Development
William “Will” Whitmire is a queer fiction writer and graduate candidate in Sam Houston State University’s MFA/MA program in Creative Writing, Editing & Publishing/English. Will enjoys writing about queer experience, music, and the obscure moments that never vanish. When he isn’t writing, he’s researching and experiencing the wide range of queer literature, and spending time with his husband and three dogs. Will aspires to be a professor of English and Creative Writing — something he is sure will make him rich one day.
POETRY TEAM
Sarah J. Gill
Poetry Reader
Sarah J. Gill is a San Antonio based writer. She holds a BA in Mass Communication and English Literature. She is a staff writer for The Art Grove Newsletter, a member of the [untitled] collective, and was a MidMountain Fellow. She writes poetry, personal narrative, and nonfiction exploring the themes of agency, reclamation, joy, and grief. She draws from mysticism, the Romantics, and her personal journey with chronic illness and deconstruction.
Parker Logan
Poetry Reader
Parker Logan is from Orlando, Florida and lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His work has been featured in Split Lip Magazine, Gulf Coast, HAD, and elsewhere. He works as a teen library tech at the East Baton Rouge Public Library. You can read more about him at parkerpoetry.org.
FICTION TEAM
Jennifer M. Pena
Fiction Reader
Jennifer M. Pena Martinez is a Houston based Chicana Poet and soon to be graduate of the University of Houston. She is currently serving as Executive Poetry Editor for Glass Mountain, her university's undergraduate literary journal, and is a fiction reader for Defunkt Magazine. When she’s not reading or writing poetry, Jennifer prefers to spend her time at coffee shops with loved ones chatting her days away or tucked into bed enjoying a good television show. Post-undergrad, she has big dreams of pursuing an MA in literature/English or an MFA in Poetry close to home or somewhere cold
Christina Ellison
Fiction Reader
Christina Ellison is an MFA candidate from Texas. Her research focuses on the crossover of realism and folklore through the lens of the coming-of-age narrative. Her work appears in journals such as Subtext, tiny wren lit, and Hyacinth Review. She can be found hunched over her laptop in your local coffee shop.
LaKyndra Bridges
Fiction Reader
LaKyndra Bridges (she/her), 26, is a first-year MFA student who enjoys writing contemporary fiction and prose poetry. Her work touches on femineity, love, and societal issues. Through her work, she aims to shed light on important topics and evoke deep emotions in her readers. Her literary interests span various types of fiction, mainly adult contemporary and historical fiction novels. To learn more about LaKyndra, you can check out her website www.kyndranicholle.com
CREATIVE NONFICTION TEAM
Dominique Leon
Senior CNF Editor
Dominique Leon is a wife and dog mom, a military brat, a behavioral health care professional, a leadership buff, a lover of nature, animals, and books, a traveler, a dreamer, and at the depths of her soul, a writer. Her short stories have appeared in Roar and Thunder Magazine, The Lorelei Signal, The WiFiles, and Romantic Shorts. She has a master's degree in English and Creative Writing and recently achieved her dream of landing a job that pays her to read books (writing literature study guides). She's slowly but surely working on her debut novel.
FIELD NOTES TEAM
Lizeth De La Luz
Senior Field Notes Editor
Lizeth De La Luz (she/they) is a poet, writer, editor and educator from California. She holds a Creative Writing degree from Chapman University and is pursuing an MFA and MA degree at San Francisco State University. She writes about the frustration of language barriers, learned barriers, anxieties of living/loving/grieving in a Mexican body and is always searching for home as she crafts bits of life on the page. Her work can be found in City Works, Short Vine, Folio, Calliope, and Transfer magazine.
ART, MUSIC, & REVIEWS
Jonathon Hinojosa
Chief of Design
Jonathon Hinojosa is a multidisciplinary artist. He was born in Edinburg, TX, but spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Latin America. He earned his bachelor's degree in drama from Trinity University. He has had poems published in the San Antonio Express News and an anthology. He has focused on a wide range of arts through the years, but lately has been concentrating on printmaking techniques, alternative photographic processes, and some woodworking. He draws most of his inspiration from nature, emotion, and the blending of cultures he grew up in. He currently lives in Grass Valley, California with his wife and children.
Bri Chapman
Interior Design and Social Media Manager
Bri Chapman (she/her) is currently an MFA candidate for fiction. Her research focuses on the human condition seen in mythology, fairy tales, and urban legends with a lens on the representation of women in these stories. She is a designer and editor for numerous literary magazines and her work is featured in TTU Harbinger and the upcoming Surreal Confessional Anthology from Defunkt.
Noemi Solis
Art Editor
Noemi was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Although she believes she is destined to live in a bigger city one day (she's hoping it's Chicago). She has a dog named Felix who inspires a lot of her work and he also motivates her to stay curious. Drawing has been a huge part of her life and it's provided some of the best people to connect with. She's really excited to be a part of this magazine and to meet so many other creatives!