Evan Karp is the creator and executive director of Quiet Lightning, which the Los Angeles Review of Books has called “collective alchemy,” and the founding editor of Litseen, recognized by the New York Times as a go-to, near-comprehensive source for Bay Area literary events. He’s covered literary culture in columns for the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, SF/Arts, and SF Weekly, and his writing has appeared in Guardian UK, BOMBlog, Eleven Eleven, and many other places. Also an events producer, Evan has managed front of house at SOMArts Cultural Center and at The Emerald Tablet, where he developed both of their interdisciplinary performance series, Under the Influence and Call and Response, and is currently events manager at Booksmith, The Bindery, and Berkeley Arts & Letters. He combines music and writing with his brother Miles as Turk & Divis and with Maw Shein Win as Vata & the Vine.
Meghan Thornton is a WGA award-nominated writer of video games, poetry, short stories, and novels. She wrote for Telltale Games on Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Batman, and Guardians of the Galaxy; and is currently a Narrative Director at the game studio, Hangar 13. She first became involved in Quiet Lightning as a reader, performing at the inaugural show in December 2009, and now serves as a board member.
Kelsey Schimmelman holds a bachelor’s degree in literature from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, where she specialized in creative writing and literary theory. Kelsey is a compulsive diarist, community enthusiast and conference organizer. Former contributing editor to Spectrum Literary Magazine, she currently curates and manages GitHub’s San Francisco event space and produces events designed to galvanize the local open source and art communities. Kelsey serves as Quiet Lightning’s Secretary.
Christine No is a Korean American poet, filmmaker, and daughter of immigrants. She is a Sundance Alum, VONA Fellow, two-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Nominee. She has served as Assistant Features Editor for the Rumpus, as Fellow, then as a Program Coordinator for VONA. Currently, Christine is board member with Quiet Lightning, a Bay Area literary nonprofit and works as the Advocacy Program Manager at ARTogether, an organization committed to using art and storytelling to build and empower newcomer immigrant and refugee communities; and to promote healing, cultural humility, and intercommunity connection. She lives and works in Oakland, California with her dog, Ruthie Wagmore.
Anna Allen, from Stockton, California, is a performance poet. She’s been published in Sparkle and Blink, little death lit, Chronicling Lit and others. Her poetry reflects the darkness and light that has been part of her life from the beginning.
Rhea Dhanbhoora lives and writes in Upstate NY. Her work has appeared in various publications including Five on the Fifth, Chronogram, Peripheries Journal, Artsy, Broccoli Mag, sPARKLE & bLINK, and JMWW. She’s currently an editor at NutriSense, is on the Board for Quiet Lightning, and is working on several creative projects, among which is a linked collection about women, based in the underrepresented Parsi Zoroastrian diaspora. She’s the author of the chapbook, Sandalwood-Scented Skeletons (Finishing Line Press, 2022). Follow her work at rheadhanbhoora.com.
Kevin Dublin is a writer of poetry, prose, scripts, and code originally from Smithfield, NC. He is committed to helping nurture emerging writers and developers of all ages. Kevin is founder of the Living Room Reading Series & Salon, a space for intimate poetry performances, ideas, and community conversation. His words have recently appeared in The San Franciscan, Cincinnati Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and he is author of the chapbook How to Fall in Love in San Diego (Finishing Line Press, 2017). He holds an MFA from San Diego State, leads workshops all over the bay area, including Litquake’s Elder Writing Project, and enjoys making video adaptations of poetry and developing web apps for writers.
Since 2007 Brandon Loberg has published The 16th & Mission Review, a submission-based literary journal featuring writing performed at the 16th & Mission street arts workshop and distributed free of charge. To facilitate production of the Review, Loberg organized seven7h tangent, a collective of volunteer artists and writers, which published several books from writers in the Mission literary community. Loberg also performs graphic design work for The Beat Museum, where he’s worked since 2006. Brandon serves as Quiet Lightning’s designer.
Connie Zheng is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker currently based out of Oakland, California. She has presented scholarly work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and exhibited her visual work at venues around the U.S., including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Minnesota Street Project (San Francisco), and C24 Gallery (New York). Her writing has appeared on SFMOMA’s Open Space platform, Art Practical and in the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, and she has been awarded residencies and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, and the Headlands Center for the Arts, where she is currently a Graduate Fellow. Connie serves as Quiet Lightning’s Art Director.
Natilee Shock recently graduated with her bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She finds joy through writing, taking in and creating art, reading, understanding humans, playing with her puppy, and seeing new places. This past year, Natilee published a poetry collection titled Aimless as a way to relieve her poetry into the world. Natilee hopes to continue writing and giving her time and energy to the writing community, which includes being an intern at Quiet Lightning.
Gabriela Pires is pursuing her MA in English Literature at San Francisco State University. Gabriela’s research delves into the intricacies of detective narratives, tracing the evolution of the lady detective archetype across historical periods and mediums. Gabriela also serves as the editor for the Sutro Review and Interpretations—both of SFSU’s on-campus publications.