Masthead | Meet the Team

Cathleen Balid
C0-founder, Editor-in-Chief

Cathleen Balid is a senior from Queens, New York. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the New York Times, Adroit Prizes, Columbia College Chicago, and Roanoke Review, among others. She is an alumna of the Ellipsis Writing Summer Fiction Workshop, Iowa Young Writers' Studio, and Adroit Summer Mentorship Program. She can be found journaling, cuddling her dog, or buying copious amounts of cheesecake flavored candles. 

Mary Balid
Co-founder, Editor-in-Chief

Mary Balid is a senior from Queens, New York (and Cathleen's twin). She is the Managing Editor of her school's newspaper and the president of her school's Filipino Club. Perhaps ironically, her (more scientific?) work has been recognized by Genome Medical, the Student National Medical Association, and the World Food Prize Organization. In her free time, she loves to sing in carpool karaoke and claim her role as a boba connoisseur.
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Lauren Reyes
Executive Art Editor

Lauren Reyes is currently a sophomore from Long Island, New York. She is passionate about painting but mostly focuses on digital art. Most of her work focuses on semi-realistic portraits and colors. In her free time, she swims and runs for her varsity school track team. 

Yannah Guda
Prose Editor

Yannah Guda is currently a political science student at the Ateneo de Manila University. She was previously the Editor-in-Chief and Head of the English Literature department for SCREEVE, Colegio de Sta. Rosa Makati’s school magazine. In her spare time, she is an avid reader of queer novels, and a creative writer who puts queer characters in the center of her love stories, her family dramas, her gritty, historical fictions, and even her meditative, literary pieces. All she wants to do, at the end of the day, is write stories that make hearts bleed, and above all else, keep on beating. Her Twitter is @shadeandart. ​

Justin Cruzana
Poetry Editor

Justin Andrew Cruzana is a graduate of Literature at the University of Santo Tomas. His works have appeared in Alien Magazine, MudRoom, Cordite, Voice & Verse Poetry, TLDTD, & others. He lives in Metro Manila​.

Erica Galera
Art Editor

Erica Galera is a graduate of Silliman University with a degree in Fine Arts. She loves photography and is also pretty passionate about music.

Pia Diamandis
Art Editor

Pia Diamandis (Jakarta, 1999) is a versatile writer and art curator. After finishing her Art History studies at Istituto Marangoni Firenze, she now works as assistant to horror/action film director, Timo Tjahjanto. She writes screenplays, prose, and film & art columns for online media like Tirto.id, Broadly Specific, and ArtsHelp. Pia has co-curated exhibitions for Museo Salvatore Ferragamo (2022) and Museo Marino Marini (2022), assisted the curator of Forme Nel Verde (2018-2019), and consulted state museums in Jakarta (2019-2021). Find her on Instagram @pia_diamandis or check out her portfolio https://linktr.ee/Pia_diamandis.

Cristina Rebanal
Poetry Editor

Cristina Rebanal is a poet, essayist, and former student journalist from Cavite, Philippines. In a past life, she was the editor-in-chief for her junior high school’s student publication The Blue Post and wrote scripts for a performing arts club she co-headed in her senior year. Today, she continues to write poetry and participate in the local theatre scene. Anticipate her finally making an effort to share her poetry on Instagram @tina.ngka and on Tumblr @tina-ngka.​

Bella Majam
Prose Editor

Bella Majam is a sixteen-year-old writer from Manila. Raised on a diet of fairy tales and family stories, her writing focuses on women’s relationships to grief, memory, and myth. She is currently a student at the Philippine High School for the Arts. You can follow her @beelaurr on Instagram.

Mary Jo Patiño
Poetry Editor

Mary Jo Patiño is a Filipina poet who’s had her first poetry collection, ‘When I Lose My Words’, independently released upon her graduation in 2023 from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines with a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts in creative writing. She’s had one of her poems published by Aster Lit called ‘Nanay (mother)’ in their Fall 2021 issue. Most of her work is a personal attempt to unravel and reveal the cultural threads that bind her family together. She’s currently working towards being an educator in English and Creative Writing. She also enjoys photography.