Editor-in-Chief
Anna writes at the crossroads of science and the sublime, cyborgs and the surreal. A Poetry Editorial Co-Lead for Oxford Public Philosophy and a performer with the Poetry Society of New York, Anna is also Ninth Letter's 2020 literary award winner in Literary Nonfiction, Mikrokosmos 2020 Poetry Contest's 3rd place winner, Writer Advice Flash Fiction Contest's 2020 3rd place winner, and was long-listed for the 2020 Penrose Poetry Prize. Her prose appears in Brooklyn Magazine, Meetinghouse Magazine online, Rock & Sling, Gold Man Review, and others. You can find her poetry in Meniscus, Wild Roof Journal, High Shelf Press, Cathexis Northwest Press, OROBORO, and others. While attending Dartmouth College (which was the pits), she won the Stanley Prize for experimental essay and the Kaminsky Family Fund Award. She can be reached at passengersliterary@gmail.com.
Charles Fleming, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
After spending a decade in corporate retail, Charles returned to academia in search of a more fulfilling career. He now holds a BA with Honors in English Education and an MFA in Poetry from North Carolina State University. In his spare time, Charles agonizes over line breaks and collects rejections in his Submittable account. He also enjoys watching trashy horror movies with his wife and screaming at his TV while playing video games. For work, he teaches English at local colleges and runs the occasional poetry workshop. He can be reached at passengersliterary@gmail.com and followed @CharFlem37.
Andreea Ceplinschi, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
and Special Projects Coordinator
Andreea is a Romanian immigrant writer, waitress, and kitchen troll living and working at the tip of Cape Cod. She writes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her poetry and prose have been featured, among other places, in Solstice Literary Magazine, Cathexis Northwest Press, Hare's Paw Literary Journal, The Blood Pudding, 86logic, On The Run Fiction, and Women on Writing. Her work explores dysfunctional childhood family dynamics, various aspects of immigration, and trauma responses linked to abandonment issues and outsider syndrome. As part of the literary art community at large, she strives to create and maintain a safe space for writers who make use of creative expression as a means for survival. You can learn more about Andreea at www.poetryandbookdesign.com. She can be reached at passengersliterary@gmail.com.
Poetry
Molly Zhu, Poetry Editor
Molly Zhu is a Chinese American poet and attorney. She likes to write about alter egos, chasms, dreams, tears, rage, translation and the women in her life. She was twice nominated for Pushcart prizes and has been published in both print and online journals including Hobart Pulp, the Ghost City Press, and Bodega Magazine, among others. She is the winner of the 2021 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize awarded by the Cordella Press. Her debut chapbook, Asian American Translations, is now available for purchase. Find out more at MollyZhu.com. She can be reached at poetry.passengers@gmail.com.
Syd Shaw, Assistant Poetry Editor and Workshop Coodinator
Syd Shaw is a queer poet from the San Fernando Valley who writes about love, witchcraft, and body horror. She has a degree in creative writing from Northwestern University, and is currently a member of the Pride Poets typewriter poetry group. Syd has previously been published in Cathexis Northwest, Wild Roof Journal, Ember Chasm, Waxing & Waning, Eclectica Magazine, and Coffin Bell Journal, among others. She has forthcoming work in Under Her Eye, an anthology by Black Spot Books. Her passions include tarot, guitar, and aerial silks. Syd's work can be found on her website.
Dilys Wyndham Thomas, Assistant Poetry Editor
Dilys Wyndham Thomas [she/her/hers] grew up in Saudi Arabia and Belgium, studied in France, and has since lived in Germany, Jordan, the UK and The Netherlands. Her poems and short stories have appeared in journals including Prometheus Dreaming, Rust and Moth, Treehouse Literary Review, and Wild Roof Journal. She is currently working on a poetry pamphlet, Breakwater, which was longlisted for the Mslexia Women’s Pamphlet Competition 2022. Dilys also hosts writers’ workshops for Strange Birds Migratory Writing Collective. Find her online at dilyswt.com.
Kelly Jones (they/she) is the author of two out of print chapbooks (Worry the Dead and Pull the Blinds) and a lot of poems about life in the anthropocene, toxic masculinity, dead animals, and dreams. Some of their poems have recently appeared in Hymn for the Living Poet Vol. III, Peauxdunque Review, Ghost City Review, Dead Mule School, and Bone Parade, and their essay on why the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer film is actually great recently appeared in Drunk Monkeys. Kelly currently lives in New Orleans, earns their living as a librarian and freelance editor, serves on the Operations team for TELEPHONE (an international arts experiment), and spends their free time trying to keep houseplants alive, acquiescing to most of their cat's demands, and reading aloud to said cat (plus their spouse). Prior to working in libraries, they worked a variety of positions within the service industry, academia, the nonprofit sector, and were a web content ghostwriter. Some of Kelly's favorite things are manatees, glitter, and drinks with crushed ice in them. You can find them on Instagram @glitter.feast, where they feed the algorithms by posting photos of graffiti, good light, street cats, and other random scenes.
Will Freeney, Poetry Reader
Will Freeney (he/him/his) is a dabbler in poetry and a writer of creative nonfiction, with an MA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Sacramento State University (2008) and an MFA in Creative Writing (CNF) from Fresno State University (2022). He has been published in Blue Mountain Review; Kithe; and Flies, Cockroaches and Poets. Besides writing (and reading, the prerequisite) he enjoys cycling, jogging, and hot yoga. Will practices Nichiren Buddhism (since 1985) and an innate worship of the Sun.
Felix Torres, Poetry Reader
Felix Torres is a writer living in Brooklyn, NY. His work has previously been supported by the Parlamentarisches-Patentschafts Programm, during which he was based in Dresden, Germany. He has previously studied with the Institute for American Literature at the Technische Universität Dresden and with the Berlin Writers Workshop.
Daniel Mills, Poetry Reader
Daniel Mills is a poet and writer from Phoenix, AZ. He works as a wine professional and sommelier by trade and frequently writes about food and wine. He has received awards from and worked in collaboration with the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. In addition to poetry and writing, he enjoys being outdoors in nature and studying Spanish as a second language. You can view his work at danielmills.co.
Mila Rae Mancuso, Poetry Reader
Mila Rae Mancuso is a Brooklyn-based poet, screenwriter, and experimental filmmaker. She is haunted by girlhood, Antonin Artaud's theatrical scenarios, and a white rabbit with a monocle. She received her BA from Emerson College in Creative Writing, Analog Filmmaking, and Photography. Her work has been featured in Hobart Pulp, Revolutions Per Minute Film Fest, Old Pal Magazine, Inferno, and Millennial Pulp, among others. Find more of her world at milaraemancuso.com.
Emerald Barnes, Poetry Reader
Emerald is a poet, storyteller and songwriter from Sylvester Georgia. Emerald has no published work so far, but is currently working on her first poetry book. In her free time she enjoys volunteering with Letters Against Isolation and Letters For Hope. She also enjoys collecting vinyl records, mindfulness meditation, and Afrobeats workouts.
Prose
Maxwell Suzuki, Prose Editor
Maxwell Suzuki is a queer writer who lives in Los Angeles. He is on the staff of The Rumpus and has read for Guernica, Split/Lip Press, JMWW, Counterclock, and Sepia Journal. Maxwell is the author of the fiction chapbook, 'Voyager 2, This is Voyager 1, Over' (Gold Line Press, 2024) and the poetry chapbook, 'Bust of an Athlete' (Iron Horse Literary Review, 2024). He was a finalist for the Tin House 2023 Winter Residency and a semi-finalist for the 2024 American Short Fiction Halifax Ranch Prize. Maxwell's work has appeared in Craft Literary, Lunch Ticket, The Normal School, and South Dakota Review. You can find him on Twitter @papasuzuki or his website www.maxwellsuzuki.com. He can be reached at prose.passengers@gmail.com.
Holly Allen, Assistant Prose Editor
Holly Eva Allen is a writer currently living in California. She has an undergraduate degree in linguistics and English from the University of California and is currently pursuing a graduate degree in English with Claremont Graduate University. Her prose has been previously published in magazines and sites such as Farside Review, Obelus Journal, and Storgy. Her poetry has been published in a variety of sources, such as Levee Magazine, Funicular, Snarl, and Dunes Review. She has presented at and actively assists with various academic and writing community conferences, including those of the PCA (Popular Culture Association) and the AWP. Holly’s English specialization is Postmodern American Literature, though she also studies Queer Literature, Women’s Literature, and Disability Studies. Holly is a member of the American Studies Association and The Emily Dickinson International Society.
Maya Afilalo, Assistant Prose Editor
Maya Afilalo is a queer writer based in Philadelphia. The recipient of the 2022 James Hurst Prize for Fiction, her stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in the New Ohio Review, Lilith Magazine, the anthology queerbook, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and elsewhere. She attended a residency with Sundress Publications and was a Tin House Summer Workshop 2023 participant. Maya completed her MFA in fiction at North Carolina State University. She is working on a short story collection and a novel, which explore themes of Middle Eastern Jewish identity, family, sexuality, and friendship. Find out more about her on her website.
Mickey sells software to Wall Street. She is a poet, writing a memoir. Her work appears in Please See Me, Cagibi, Poydras Review, Passengers Journal, Poets’ Choice, and Cross Cultural Poetics. She has read in downtown New York venues St. Mark’s Church, Zinc Bar, and Poets & Writers. Follow her on Instagram @mickeygreaves, Twitter @xyzmickey, and see more writing on www.mickeygreaves.xyz.
Andrew, Prose Reader
Andrew is a recovering scientist based out of Los Angeles. He holds a B.S. in English Literature from Caltech and is currently working on a collection of minimalist short stories focused on life and the experience of growing up in America. Andrew is originally from Denver, Colorado, and spends his free time fencing, taking photos, and exploring LA for its best diners, drive-ins, and dives. He lives by the quote: “a writer is the sum of their experiences. Go get some.”
Corley Longmire, Prose Reader
Corley Longmire spent her childhood fending off mosquitoes and sipping honeysuckle. She holds an MA from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi and is an associate project editor with University Press of Mississippi. Her fiction has appeared in journals such as West Trade Review, KAIROS, Little Patuxent Review, Passengers, The Westchester Review, and Brink, among others. Recently, her story "No Good Grief" was selected as an honorable mention in the 2023 Phyllis Grant Zellmer Prize for Fiction. She can be found on Twitter @Corley_Longmire and online at writercorleylongmire.weebly.com.
Amelia Mwale Eilertsen, Prose Reader
Amelia Mwale Eilertsen (pronouns: she/they) is a queer, Zambian-Norwegian mixed-race writer with a BA in Creative and Professional Writing from Bangor University. Currently enrolled in an MA program at the University of Oslo, her life is a cosmic swirl of insomnia, travel, and the brief spaces between the makings of a moment and watching it pass by. She has had poems published with Landlocked Journal, High Shelf Press, Passengers Journal, Temenos and Poetry Wales, among others. She can be reached at @ameliaconny on Instagram.
Jedah Mayberry, Prose Reader
Jedah Mayberry was raised in southeastern CT, the backdrop for his fiction debut. The Unheralded King of Preston Plains Middle won Grand Prize in Red City Review’s 2015 Book Awards and was named 1st in Multi-Cultural Fiction for 2014 by the Texas Association of Authors. In 2018, he completed a Hurston-Wright Foundation Workshop in Fiction resulting in a second book, Sun Is Sky, due from Jacaranda Books. His work has appeared at Linden Avenue, Brittle Paper, Black Elephant, Passengers Journal, Akashic Fri-SciFi Series, Solstice Magazine, A Gathering Together, Mosaic Literary Magazine, and Permission to Write. Jedah resides with his wife and daughters in Austin, TX.
Jacqueline Parker, Prose Reader
Jacqueline Parker studied words at Queens University in Charlotte, NC where she currently resides with her boyfriend and dog. Her fiction often explores broken family structures and female identity, but occasionally she writes something funny. She is prose editor for The Dawn Review, and her work has been featured in Prime Number Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, MacQueen’s Quinterly, After Dinner Conversation, and elsewhere. She can be found on Instagram/Twitter @onmytangent.
Kassie Sarkar, Prose Reader
Kassie Sarkar is an emerging multi-genre writer, artist, and community organizer who specializes in prose, poetry, visual art, and hybrid forms of storytelling, such as performative and nongenre writing and visual poetry collage. As a multiracial queer Dalit feminist committed to intersectional liberation, she seeks to center marginalized voices in order to resist oppressive societal structures and to reimagine a more just and liberatory world. She has studied creative writing through her Master’s in Humanities from the University of Chicago and her Bachelor’s from Emory University. Within the literary world, Kassie is actively reading, writing, and seeking publication for her work and acting as a freelance editor in addition to reading for Passengers Journal. Outside of the literary world, she wears hats as a preschool director, oral historian, and independent researcher. She currently lives on the colonized lands of the Munsee Lenape peoples, what is known as New Jersey at the moment.
Brenda Covarrubias, Prose Reader
Brenda Covarrubias is a freelance writer and editor from Southern California. Her work is influenced by culture, community and the hardships people overcome. Her work can be found in Modern Women, ZU Media, and Beyond Words Literary Magazine. When she is not working, she enjoys visits to botanical gardens and a good book.
Emilio Cabral, Prose Reader
Emilio is a Dominican-American writer, student, and bird watching enthusiast from League City, Texas currently living in Evanston, Illinois. He writes fiction and creative nonfiction. His fiction is forthcoming in Miscellany and Sand Hills Literary Magazine. His work explores the intersection of queerness and the speculative, focusing on the way they complicate stories of boyhood and adolescence. He can be reached at emilioandrescabral@gmail.com.
Visual Arts
Lauren Viar, Visual Arts Editor and Social Media Specialist
Lauren Viar is a Virginia native turned Floridian who currently works as an Admissions Coordinator at the University of North Florida. She has earned her Master of Arts in Art History from American University where she concentrated her studies in European Modernism while focusing on issues of gender, social history, and media studies. She also has earned a Bachelor of Science in Humanities with minors in English and Art History from Jacksonville University. She is fueled by art that questions how we see the world, desserts, and French Reds. Lauren currently lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her cat Dobby. You can find her on Twitter @laurenmviar and reach her at visualarts.passengers@gmail.com.
Audio
John oversees both the narrated pieces for every issue of Passengers Journal, as well as produces each audiobook for Passengers Press. He has been performing for close to four decades all over the world including on Broadway and National Tours, in Film and TV, in industrials, in regional theaters, on cruise ships, in arenas, in amphitheaters, on cruise ships, and as an improvisor. He has been seen and heard in over 100 radio and TV commercials and won several audiobook awards. Favorite role? Dad. Find out more about his work at https://johnebrady.wixsite.com/mysite. He can be reached at audio.passengers@gmail.com.
Joe Cusimano, Assistant Audio Editor
Joe Cusimano has done a bit of everything. Hailing from Buffalo New York, then Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, he has worked in computers, and cafes, broadcasting, and property management, studio recording, and parenting, and (quite briefly) (without training or skill) as a lumberjack. Enjoying audio engineering now, having been mostly in front of the microphone as a morning DJ for years at radio stations, his favorite pastimes are hanging out with his kids and their kids, reading, hiking, biking, and diving. Also very happy to be hanging out, as an Assistant Audio Editor for Passengers Journal, with definitely his best, medium height, male, friend from High School, who is Irish (John Brady).
Joshua Dickson is an egg who gained sentience in February of 2021 after a heavily botched attempt at making Tiramisu. Since then, he has gone on to lead a war against the existence of potato salad, claiming it to be "of nefarious origin". No one is certain of Joshua's goals, but we are sure of one thing: he is very egg-centric.
Lucy has been a poet (more or less) since she was 9. What started as simple, slapdash rhymes evolved into more meditated, free verse. Lucy is an ardent enthusiast of poetic movements like Romanticism and Surrealism. She is a crossword and comedy aficionado and a rock music zealot, but most of all, she loves cake. Lucy’s poetry anthology “Sub Rosa” is available on Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. Follow her on Instagram @lucy-dhr.
Diana Angelo has always been interested in how the use and evolution of language influence thought and behavior. She's a writer, editor, teacher, and now an audio narrator who enjoys crossing genres and forms in her writing; she believes there oughtn’t be borders. In language and literature, she has taught English to speakers of other languages in the food and hospitality industry in the New York City metro area, edited and written for The 12th Street Journal published by The New School’s Riggio Honors Program: Writing and Democracy, and edited and written for Jersey City Writers 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Angelica Allen is a lifelong bookworm who dedicates her days to storytelling across multiple mediums. A writer, musician, actress, and educator, Angelica hails from California, where she currently resides with her rescue cat, Quentin (although they both love to travel as much as possible). She graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley with a BA in Peace & Conflict Studies and English Literature, studied Creative Writing and International Affairs at the University of Cambridge, completed her MPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford, and spent a decade researching and writing about sexual violence in conflict zones. She’s also taught classrooms full of high school students, UC Berkeley undergrads, and inmates at San Quentin State Prison. Angelica’s photography has garnered multiple IPPAWARDS Honorable Mentions, and she’s currently writing a book based on her grandmother’s life. Classically trained in piano and voice, Angelica taught herself guitar in college and has been songwriting ever since—stay tuned for her forthcoming EP. Although Angelica worked in the West Wing of the Obama White House for two years, she’s perhaps most proud of playing Beatrice in her high school English class production of Much Ado About Nothing. When Angelica later taught 10th grade English, one of her students admitted she had “the best poetry reading voice [she’d] ever heard,” inspiring her to become a narrator. Follow her on Instagram (@quigglescrumpets) if you enjoy scrolling through thousands of cat photos (Quentin is really, really, ridiculously good looking).
Kara Laurene Pernicano is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, and poet-critic. Her multimedia work characterizes auto-fictional stories upon moving to NYC by plane with a tangle of memories. Venturing from a closet-like space, she captures resonances in the porous mind to awaken an interpersonal approach to trauma, grief, healing, and mental health. She revels in the power of art assemblage and musical texture. Through embodied rehearsal, the activation of text and image inspires new signs of movement and patterns of breath. She has an MFA from Queens College CUNY and a MA from the University of Cincinnati. Kara’s writing has been published by Snapdragon, Waccamaw, Rabbit, The Humanities in Transition, Full Stop, the winnow magazine, and ang(st). Her visual art has been on view in the Whitney Staff Art Show and LIC Artists’ Plaxall Gallery. She has performed for New York Theatre Workshop, Poetic Theater Productions, and the Poetry Society of New York. She teaches writing at CUNY. Find out more about her work on her website: http://kara-pernicano.squarespace.com/.
Rosina Baxter is a multi-disciplinary creative, hailing from Aotearoa, New Zealand. She has written poetry as a way to understand the world since her early years and is an active member of the live poetry scene in her homeland. Other strings to her bow include song-writing and singing, and she also holds an Honours degree in Textile Design. She spends most of her afternoons hanging out with her Gran, gossiping, drinking tea, and spinning woolen yarn from her mother’s sheep. To follow her writing head to @rosinaandtheweavers, or for textile work you can find her under @annarosecarpenter.
Nina’s exploration of voice started on stage, while singing in London’s West End revival of "The King & I" in 2000. This was followed by brief TV work in Seoul and cliché auditions in Los Angeles—until her professional interests started shifting toward public relations. Nina is currently based in Southern California, working in communications, practicing yoga and making slow but hopeful strides in her own nonfiction writing practice.
Kaitlyn McClung is a musician, photographer, and poet from Huntsville, Alabama. Presently a first-year writing instructor and M.A. candidate in English at The University of Alabama, she holds a B.A. in English from Alabama A&M University. Kaitlyn’s research and writing interests predominantly include womanist queer theory. A Southern poet at heart, she is inspired by her roots in Wilcox County, Alabama, to explore such intersections in Black kinship and the flesh. Her passions include personal narratives, documentary films, and binge-watching TV.
Chiara Bertrand (alias Berta) is a versatile queer artist whose educational training includes acting, music, and writing. A deep regard for the voice, perceived by the UK-based creator as an inner instrument of expression, enlightens her freelance career. She is currently seeking talent representation while giving birth to her first novel, A Gap. You can follow her on Facebook and Instagram @bertamusician.
Muraya Ranieri is a vocalist, actress, artist, dancer with a long career in tech sales and marketing from the San Francisco, Bay Area, CA. Mother of 5 other musicians and actors as well as married to one, being creative is like breathing in her family. She has always been the chosen one to read out loud in front of the class since elementary school. She has used her voice for DJing on radio, children’s stories, short stories, and animated film in addition to acting live in off-broadway productions and independent short films. As a teen of the 80’s, and lead singer for rock bands since the age of 12, she carries a wealth of pop and music culture knowledge and carries it with her in every performance she does. Forever youthful inside and out, hobbies are teaching Zumba, working out, playing the drums, healthy cooking, traveling, and getting lost in her VR games You can find her on IG @muraya5 and on Facebook under Muraya Mamanta Ranieri.
After teaching high school and middle school English in Arkansas, Leah Olson is now earning her masters in English Literature at Claremont Graduate University. She also works as a private tutor, providing academic support to individuals ranging from elementary school to adulthood. Her passion is helping others share their stories and work towards achieving their goals. Growing up in Southeast Asia and attending a different school for nearly every year of her secondary education, Leah is enjoying settling down in Southern California with her husband and rambunctious pup.
Sue (she/her) is an actress, producer, director, and a mom. (She is also, coincidentally, married to PJ’s audio editor.) An actor for forty years, her resume is extensive - as she has acted across the globe in every venue imaginable. A breast cancer survivor, Sue has always been an advocate for women’s causes. She created, and was the Artistic Director of, THE NO FRILLS COMPANY - a company whose mission was to create theater for women over 40. That said, she believes her greatest accomplishment has been her son, Donovan.
Paulina loves to tell a good story. Based in NYC, she’ll spend her free time singing a breakup ballad, writing a thrilling crime novel, or narrating an e-book. Since graduating from Boston University, she has studied vocal technique, performance and songwriting. Ater training with Shelly Shenoy, she developed an interest in commercial and narrative voiceover. Follow her on Instagram and possibly a TikTok!
Xiomara Ossorio (she/her/ella) is a Xicana actor, poet, playwright, director, and storyteller, she has performed in LA & New York. Originally from Southern California, she is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She is writing and producing her own work including her visual art film "Not All Mothers Are Saints" featured in the Whitney's Westside Exposure Staff Art Show. Most recently she has performed in NYC Poetry Festival, virtual open mics, theatre festivals, and as a featured artist on WhyOpenPandorasBox Creative Showcase. Find her at xiomaraossorio.com and on IG @lilyx_13.
Martina Sykes is a native of St. Petersburg, Fl graduated from Gibbs PCCA High School and received her bachelor’s in Public Relations from the University of Florida (Go Gators). She is currently playing Shenzi in Disney’s The Lion King National Tour. Her favorite credits include Disney’s The Lion King (National Tour), Motown The Musical (Broadway, National Tour), Rent (regional), and Raindogs (US premier). She has performed and recorded with Emmy nominated Tituss Burgees on his gospel album Welcome. She is the featured soloist on the song Stand Back. She founded The heART Mission Inc., a community service-based nonprofit organization to help feed and clothe the homeless, veterans, domestic violence victims, and families in crisis.
Forest VanDyke is a recording artist from Austin, Texas. When not sitting in front of a microphone, he can be seen in the Broadway Tour of The Lion King! Off-Broadway: Dog Man: The Musical. Regional: Mystic Pizza: A New Musical, Choir Boy, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Comedy of Errors. He is so pumped to be in front of a microphone again!
TyNia René Brandon is an NYC-based performance artist. A Charlotte, NC native whose performance experience has taken her across the world with Disney, to the Broadway stage, and most recently voice acting. Represented by Clear Talent Group, TyNia enjoys collaborating with artists of all types to bring their work to life. IG: @thetybrand.
Iman Ayana is a performing artist that has been recording, acting, dancing, and singing for years. She loves telling a story, whether it be through her voice or expressed with movement. Ultimately, she wants to connect with her audience and “feel the feels.”
Eric Bean II, Voice
Originally from the island of Bermuda, Eric Bean Jr received his formal training at University of the Arts (Philadelphia, PA). Graduating with distinction and a degree in Dance Education & Choreography, he joined the world-renowned Koresh Dance Company where he served as a soloist and principal dancer for six seasons. Now a resident of Las Vegas he has become a sought-after performer, choreographer, and artistic director with credits that include Don Arden's Jubilee, Cirque du Soleil, Viking Cruise lines, & the touring cast of Disney's The Lion King.
Yael Pineda-Hall, Voice
Yael comes from the Philippines and now lives in North Carolina. An actress/singer, she has been a performer for the past 49 years. She has done various TV shows, commercials, and musicals: in the Philippines, in different parts of the world, on the West End, and on Broadway.
Danae Jimenez, Voice
Originally from Defiance, Ohio can be found painting faces on Disney’s The Lion King Musical- Rafiki Tour as a Hair/Wig and Makeup Assistant. Danae has designed and ran crews for hair/wigs and makeup on many productions, so stepping out of her comfort zone to record new works is exciting and fun. Thank you for the opportunity. ¡Sígale!
Donna Gentry-Birnbach, Voice
Donna Gentry Birnbach is a writer, actress, producer and comedienne based in New Orleans. Once a long-time resident of NYC, Donna performed stand-up at Carolines, Who’s on First, and ran the open mic of the Duplex for many years, and appeared in productions at Schreiber Studio, Joe Quintero, Westbeth, and West Bank Theaters. Most recently Donna was the founder and artistic director of Chehalem Players Rep, the resident company of the Chehalem Cultural Center’s Black Box Theater in Newberg, Oregon, the very heart of Oregon’s wine country.
Lyric Danae, Voice
Lyric is a graduate of the Ailey/Fordham BFA program and her favorite credits include The Bodyguard, Oscar At The Crown, and the NBA Boston Celtics. She is excited to be part of the Passengers family as she loves recording and all kinds of new challenges. She can be found at @lyricdan.
Christopher Sams, Voice
Christopher is an actor, singer, and voice artist who is currently on the North American tour of the Lion King. Nat’l tours: Ragtime (Coalhouse Walker Jr.), Rock of Ages (Mayor/Ja’Keith),The Color Purple (Ensemble/Buster). Regional: Smokey Joe’s Cafe (Drury Lane Theater). Many thanks to Shirley Hamilton Talent and the ever-endearing Lowery-Harts.
Colette Samman, Voice
Colette Samman is a Deputy Commissioner with the City of New York. Colette is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years of experience working with immigrant, homeless, and formerly incarcerated New Yorkers. Throughout her career, she has fought for social justice, and most recently led the launch of IDNYC, the nation's largest municipal identification card. Colette taught at Hunter College School of Social Work prior to joining Columbia University as a Faculty Advisor in the School of Social Work. However, these days she is mostly known as Scarlett and Hudson's mom.
Maia Schecther, Voice
It is an honor to join the audio family at Passengers! Training: University of Maryland Baltimore County, BA. Credits: The Met Gala: “In America,” English with An Accent (GALA Hispanic Theatre), The Missing Fruit (Sadler’s Wells Digital Season). Love to her family and friends.
Meghan Tanaka, Voice
Meghan Tanaka is a poet from Jackson, MS. She recently got her MFA in poetry from NC State University and is now living in Raleigh, NC.
Hannah Newman, Voice
Hannah Newman is an Atlanta-based writer with a master’s in Professional Writing. She likes to write about dark or bittersweet things (big surprise) all in the shapes of short stories, flash fiction, or poetry. Her work can be found in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Nuance Magazine, and The Loch Raven Review. In her free time, she’s probably recording a podcast episode with her sister or staring out of windows.
Katie Bausler, Voice
Katie Bausler is a writer and podcaster. Published written work includes columns, poems and essays in literary magazines, journals and articles in publications including the Alaska Dispatch, Edible Alaska, Stoneboat, Tidal Echoes, Cape, Cirque, and Insider. She also hosts and produces the 49 Writers Active Voice podcast with writers and artists on these pivotal times, writes a newsletter focused on alpine skiing, and is a volunteer public radio DJ and host. She worked as a public media host, reporter and producer and then in marketing specializing in radio spots. Her first work as a professional voiceover artist put her through college in San Francisco. She is working on a collection of essays and poems, working title: Live Like You’re Dying. Katie and her husband Karl live near their children and grandchildren on Douglas Island along a saltwater alpine fjord in Juneau, Alaska’s capital.
Judy Malloy, Voice
Judy is committed to bringing healing to this world. As an actress, author, singer, and massage therapist, she believes that gently listening to one’s own story and paying close enough attention to truly hear the stories of others, even if they are only whispered, is the greatest privilege we share as humans on the journey together.
Looking for a voice you don’t see here? See our Vox Emerita
Founder
Zac Furlough
Zac is a poet and the founder of Passengers Literary Press. His poetry has been published in Still: The Journal, Prometheus Dreaming, Hare’s Paw, and Wild Roof Journal, amongst others. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram @furlough43 or reached at passengerspress@gmail.com.
Book Reviews
Interested in having your book reviewed on our site?
Reach out to Anna Winham at passengersliterary@gmail.com with your request.
Join our team.
At Passengers, we are seeking enthusiastic readers who want to be involved with sculpting our quarterly issues, from reading and voting on submissions to working with authors on pre-publication revisions.
We are also seeking narrators/voice actors who are able to offer a wide variety of accents and dialects to the pieces of poetry and prose that we publish.
All editors, readers, and voices donate their time and effort. We are publishing pieces that are compelling and important and we would love for you to take part of our mission.