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EditorS-in-Chief

Olivia Jacobson is an MFA candidate in poetry at Syracuse University. She is the co-editor in chief of Salt Hill Journal, and is originally from Sheridan, Indiana. Her chapbook, On Junkyards, won the Etchings Press Book Prize for Poetry (Etchings Press, 2025). Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Shō Poetry Journal, Watershed Review, Cottonmouth Journal, Club Plum, The Shore, and SUNHOUSE Literary.

Macks Cook (they/them) is a queer poet from Houston, Texas pursuing their MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. They are the co-editor of Salt Hill. They adore their cats, Boo & Grackle, and homemade iced sweet peach tea. You can find Macks on Instagram (@mothmacks).

Managing Editor

Lily Lauver was last in Galesburg, Illinois. Lately, she writes about grief. She graduated with degrees in English literature and creative writing from Knox College, where she helped found the letterpress studio Prairie Moon Press. Most recently she managed the studio, waitressed and bartended at Budde’s Pizza & Spirits, and manned the Reference Desk at the Galesburg Public Library. Among things, she crochets in miniature.

Fiction Editors

Santiago Wilson Heredia is an M.F.A. candidate in fiction at Syracuse University. He graduated with a B.A. in Literary Arts and Behavioral Decision Science from Brown University in 2022. Since graduating, he has worked as a data scientist and quant researcher. He's originally from Peru but identifies as a Florida Man. His writing explores childhood, masculinity, and the psychology of goonishness.

Elena Asofsky is a writer, poet, and second-year M.F.A. candidate in fiction at Syracuse University. They graduated with a B.A. and honors in English from Bryn Mawr College in 2021, where they were awarded the 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize. Elena grew up in Maryland, where they learned to paint and raise tadpoles. Their writing is concerned with otherness, humanity’s relationship to violence, and the many forms of love.

Poetry EditorS

Kathryn Gilmore is a poet and current MFA candidate at Syracuse University. Her work explores themes of grief, Judaism, and coming of age as a young woman often set against the backdrop of the natural world. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but she has lived all over, including New England, the Midwest, and even Scotland and Italy. She recently graduated summa cum laude as a Gabelli Presidential Scholar from Boston College with a degree in English and a concentration in creative writing. While at BC, she served as communications director and senior editor of the Stylus literary magazine, and she received various honors for her creative endeavors and academics such as the Dever Fellowship. When not writing, you can find her working on a crochet project or playing the guitar.

Vasiliki Gkoulgkountina is a poet originally from Thessaloniki, Greece. She is an alumnus of UNC Charlotte where she received the Kurzeja Creative Writing Award in 2023 and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She completed a chapbook-length poetry collection entitled "Lovers, Resurrected" for her honors thesis and was awarded honors in English. Her poems have appeared in Roars & Whispers Literary Arts Magazine, Carolina Muse Literary Magazine, and Nova Literary Arts Magazine. Her poetry is driven by her Greek culture, ancient myths, various forms of art, feminist ideologies, and the aspect of womanhood. If you're interested in learning more about her and her work, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/vasilikigkoulgkountina/home?authuser=0

Ella Peavler is a poet and writer from Indianapolis. Her creative work is closely tied with her past road trips and studies as a journalist, and she enjoys using poetry to report from places and times far beyond those which she calls home. She earned her B.S. in Journalism from Emerson College in Boston, where she received the Academy of American Poets Prize, and is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at Syracuse University.

nonfiction Editors

Bee Brown-Sparks is a poet and essayist from Bloomington, Indiana. They graduated from Indiana University in 2023 where they graduated with a BA in Technical Theatre. They write about the people they love, Black aliveness, queerness, DIY punk, and limestone and the lake.

Jaden Ellison is a poet and nonfiction essayist from Huntington, WV, currently enrolled as an M.F.A. student at Syracuse University. He graduated from Marshall University with a B.A. in Creative Writing, where he served as Head Poetry Editor for Et Cetera, and received various departmental awards for his creative work. His writerly fixations often consist of linguistic / visual experimentation, ecological / social issues, family history, queer experiences, and Appalachian life.

Art Editors

Sam Stoeltje is a writer of fiction that plays with the constraints of genres, namely realism, fabulism, autofiction and theoryfiction. Having earned a doctorate in literature at Rice University, they are also a committed educator in the fields of Indigenous literature, U.S. literature, religious studies and decolonial theory. Their writing has appeared in Plantings, Hypocrite Reader, Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, and elsewhere. They currently teach for the College in Prison (CiP) program through Herkimer College. A longtime musician, they provide vocals and electronics for turin.mass, an experimental metal project. They are secretly trying to break into YA.

Reviews Editor

Gabby Grinaway is a poet hailed from the Poconos, Pennsylvania and a first-year MFA candidate at Syracuse University. She graduated from Susquehanna University in 2023 with her BA in Creative Writing and Publishing & Editing. Her works are centered mainly around place, sound, and the sentiment of home.

Readers

Caroline Berg writes fiction and songs. Born in St. Paul, she was an honors recipient from Mills College, where she graduated in 2018 with a double major in Literature and Legal Analysis. In 2022, she attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Summer Program instructed by Tom Drury. Inspired by the work of Clarice Lispector and David Lynch, she writes metaphysical stories about love, technology, and survival. Her default to absurdity is a coping mechanism that she’s trying to grow out of. She enjoys the produce section, political organizing, and mosh pits.

Tessa C. Berman is a poet and literary scholar from Virginia. In 2025, she earned her BA in English Literature from the University of Virginia, where she co-curated the special collections exhibition Anne Spencer: I Am Here! and completed a thesis on poets and their avian emanations under Mark Edmundson. She also spent considerable time working as an auditory neuroscience researcher. Tessa’s poetry seeks to strike a balance between exploring the self and striving to illuminate intersubjective truths. Her pieces have previously been included in Literary Matters, FERAL, and Neologism, among others. When not reading or writing, Tessa is likely collecting vintage items, drinking an iced London Fog, or tending to her pet finches, Ruby and Thirteen. To learn more about her work, visit her website, tessacberman.com, or follow her on Instagram @t.c.berman.Website link: https://www.tessacberman.com/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/t.c.berman/

Zachary Dankert is a poet and naturalist from Indianapolis, Indiana. His work is largely inspired by religion, wildlife, and sexuality (not always in that order). Zach's poetry has been published in Tofu Ink Arts Press, West Trade Review, and Kitchen Table Quarterly, among others. His goal in life is to write a single funny poem.

Marissa Fretes is a first-year MFA candidate at Syracuse University. Originally from New York City, her fiction explores the factors that form identity, how different identities intersect, and how identity is performed. Her work has received support from the Jenny McKean Moore Workshop at George Washington University, the Hurston/Wright Foundation, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and Tin House. She was also a 2024 Periplus Collective fellow. When not writing, you can find her learning new languages, going to concerts, or watching basketball.

Joel Henry Little is a writer, musician, and first-year fiction M.F.A. candidate at Syracuse University. He was born and raised in New York City and received a B.A. in English from Hunter College, where he graduated summa cum laude with departmental honors in 2023 and was the first-place winner of the Edith Goldberg Paulson Memorial Prize for Creative Writing. His short stories, sometimes described as weird silly tragedies – or weirsallgedies – have previously appeared in Ghost City Review, Maudlin House, and Heavy Feather Review, among others. Joel has also been releasing original music professionally since the age of eighteen, and has played widely in N.Y.C. and Paris, France. Outside these pursuits, he is a devoted father to two cats and has been, at various times: an after-school teacher, a bookseller, a teenage championship bowler, a stage actor, a repertory cinema habitué, and a not particularly accomplished baker with a lot of promise and a lot of heart. Keep up with Joel and his work at joelhenrylittle.com or by following him on Instagram (@joelhenrylittle).

Grace Morris is primarily focused on weaving horror into every piece they write, even the love poems. Working in both poetry and fiction, Grace explores queer issues, grief, and trauma through evocative and unique language. Grace graduated cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in Spanish at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and they are currently studying poetry at Syracuse University. Their poetry has been published in two issues of the Metrosphere, and on the Metrosphere website. Grace firmly believes that any subject worth exploring should be explored in a weird and off-putting way.

Katie Pelkey is a third-year MFA candidate in poetry and teacher at SU. She often writes about humanity's enduring preoccupations: sex and death.

Sojin Shin is a writer from South Korea. She writes about how the memory of loss is preserved, reenacted, and amplified within the Korean community. In her free time, she paints and solves math problems.

Jackson Springmann is a poet from Arkansas who recently graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in English and Textual Studies, Creative Writing, and Recording and Entertainment Industries. He completed a chapbook of poetry entitled Master of None for his honors thesis and received various departmental awards for his creative and scholarly work. He writes about rivers, friendship, the American Songbook, deer, and myth.

Krys Toyota from Canada, from Toronto/Vancouver, writing fiction on friendship, ridicule, ressentiment, cruelty, solitude, discretion, decorum, noble tantrum, flower arrangement, gymnastics, tattletales, aristocratic leisure, dignity, disgrace, spontaneous forgiveness, baltimore ravens, good impression/likeness, good dancing, crossdressing, oyster, octopus, feline, other animal, friend, fountain...

Intern: Rebecca Beaumont
Founding Editor: Michael Paul Thomas
Advisory Editor: Jon Dee
Website Design: Ally Young, Ariel Chu
Design and Layout: David Wojciechowski

Based on a design by NIETO Books

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