Charlie Espinosa
Originally from Virginia, Charlie lives with his partner and two cats in California. Prior to joining UCI, he worked as a nonprofit consultant and journalist covering mineral extraction in Latin America. He enjoys ambient electronic music, the fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, and the marshes and open waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Find his writing in Catamaran, The Fourth River, Strange Horizons, Flyway, and more.
Chen Gu
Chen Gu was born in Chengdu, China and raised in Dallas, Texas, which probably explains their obsession with spicy food and parking lot hangouts. Their stories highlight unconventional families and queer love, a minute into the future and decades into the past. Once upon a time a playwright, painter, and hotel receptionist, they now moonlight as a bobarista. Come cha with me sometime.
Desi Isaacson
Desi Isaacson grew up in Portland, Maine and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing, and later from Georgetown University with an M.A. in English Literature. His fiction explores causes of shame. His fiction, nonfiction, and academic work can be found in Allium and Down East, among other places.
Elijah Aquilina
Elijah Aquilina is a writer from the Los Angeles area. Before joining the Programs in Writing, he worked in landscaping and building maintenance. His other projects include poetry, zines, and video art.
Ferdia Burke
Ferdia spent twenty-five years as a union concrete laborer in NYC and attended classes at night at Queens College, CUNY. He is a former wannabe writer who has worked his way up to aspiring writer in the hopes he can one day be a (fingers crossed) failed writer. His attempt at delivering poignant revelatory insight into a person or a people never gets in the way of his firm belief that story is king.
