The Coven
Masthead
Amarantha da Cruz
Founder/Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Amarantha is a queer Latina writer, editor, curator and witch from NYC, and the founder and designer of OyeDrum. She serves under many hats, including Director, Art Editor, Jury Chair, Head Witch and WordPress monkey. She obtained her Master’s degree from Pratt Institute in Arts and Cultural Management, and an MFA in Creative Writing from City College of New York. Amarantha has worked in the arts, curation and multimedia, for various organizations including the U.N., and has collaborated with curators. Her writing has been granted awards and residencies, including the Danielle and Larry Nyman Award and the Jiwar Barcelona residency. She’s been featured in the New York Times for her work in the intersection between art and technology, and her writing has been published in Minimus, Punchland, and Promethean. She loves women, coffee, tarot, magic, Prince and Yoko Ono. She was most recently a guest speaker for a class in literary magazine editing at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA Watch her interview here on the podcast Coffee with BAO.
allia abdullah-matta
Poetry Editor
allia abdullah-matta is a poet and Professor of English at CUNY LaGuardia. She currently serves as our Poetry Editor, selecting poetry for volume five and our open themed section. She writes about the culture, and history of Black women and explores the presence of Black bodies and voices in fine art and poetry. Her poetry has been published in Newtown Literary, Promethean, Marsh Hawk Review, Mom Egg Review Vox, Global City Review, and the Jam Journal Issue of Push/Pull. Her do-si-do double chapbook, washed clean & blues politico was published by harlequin creatures (hcx) 2021. She has written critical essays on motherhood, composition, writing center pedagogy, and poets Jessica care Moore (The Fight & The Fiddle Furious Flower Poetry Center, 2020) and Dominique Christina (The Operating System & Liminal Lab, 2021). She has served on various poetry editorial review boards and selection panels before joining the OyeDrum editorial collective. She is working on a poetry/hybrid collection of poems and images entitled blackprint.
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Neda Zahraie
Founding Member/Volume Jury & Editor
Neda is a writer, musician, painter, filmmaker and actress based in NYC. She has served as a Poetry and Fiction Editor for over two years, and was most recently the fiction editor for volume five. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, Bar Scraps & Bathroom Confessionals (2010), and Anamnesis. Neda writes and performs original music under the moniker Kamalata. She is a founder and member of an all-women synth techno rock trio, Chic Choc. She holds an M.A. in English Literature from the City College of New York, is a Persian/English interpreter and translator, and has a certificate of French Language & Civilization from Université Paris-Sorbonne.
CORINNE SHEARER
Book Review Editor
Corinne is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. She works predominantly in dance and theatre as a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist. After receiving a BFA in Dance Performance with a concentration in Composition from SUNY Purchase, she began sharing work, both live and for film, at local venues in New York and abroad. She has been featured as an artist-in-residence at The Triple Nine Festival, named “Director’s Choice” at Spoke The Hub’s Winter Follies, and was recently commissioned to create new work for Dixon Place and One Day Dance. Corinne is also the founder and curator of Spitball, a performance series for artists of varying disciplines. Corinne is currently working towards an MA in English Literature at The City College of New York and has had her poetry published by the East Jasmine Review, Great Weather for MEDIA, and recently read at KGB Bar.
jo reyes-boitel
Writing & Hybrid Works Editor
jo reyes-boitel is a poet and playwright, queer mixed Latinx, amateur hand percussionist, and parent now working on their MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley and serving as a teaching assistant. Their publications include Michael + Josephine, a novel in verse (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and mouth (Neon Hemlock, 2021). “she wears bells”, their hybrid opera, was chosen as a finalist for Guerilla Opera’s 2022 annual virtual festival. Recent or forthcoming publications include Zocalo Public Square, Huizache, Acentos Review and OyeDrum. For more information about jo and their work visit joreyesboitel.com.