TOYON STAFF - VOLUME 67 - Fall 2020

LEADERSHIP TEAM
Managing Editor
Theressa Lopez

Assistant Managing Editor & Community Liaison
Alice Jiang





EDITORIAL TEAM
Editorial Team Leads  & Acquisitions Editors
Emilio Medina and Cammie Eilers

Division Editors, Fiction and Playwriting 
Sheryl Colgrove and Ariana Alexander

Division Editors, Creative Nonfiction
Lisa Salcido and Connie Pearson

Division Editors, Poetry
Robin Freiberg and Cammie Eilers

Division Editors, Literary Criticism
Josie Blubaugh and Julia Sisk
SPOKEN WORD, EJ, & WEB TEAM
Team Leads & Social Media Managers
June Banks and Nate Yandall

Archive Editor
Kevin Rios

Division Editors, Environmental Justice Award
Kaitlyn O'Dell and Savannah Sonia


PRODUCTION TEAM
Production Team Leads & Multilingual Proofreaders
Josh Lamason

Visual Art Editor and Cover Designer
Martin Lopez

Typesetters & Book Designers
Maya Fielding and Alyssa Mendoza


Alice Jiang studies English at Humboldt State University, with a concentration in literary studies. She doesn’t do a lot of writing, and, if she’s being perfectly honest, she doesn’t even do a lot of reading either, but she is really passionate about analyzing texts and making literature more accessible. Her other interests lie in anthropology, cooking, video games, snakes, drawing, the tingly sensation when you use a lip balm with peppermint extract, and drinking way too much Yerba Mate.
Alyssa Mendoza is an English major concentrating in literary studies at Humboldt State University. She is the Typesetter/Book Designer with Maya Fielding. She has been attending Humboldt State for the last year after transferring as a junior from Merced College with an A.A. in English. She plans to attend law school next fall after completing her bachelor's degree. She is most interested in practicing corporate law to help everyday people in navigating the United States judicial system in a way that upholds all it stands for.
Ariana Alexander is an English (Writing Practice) Major. She’s been attending HSU for 4 years, and worked at Jolly Giant Cafeteria. She is skilled in using Canva and creating her own websites through Weebly. She’s skilled in reading various novels and writing short fiction, poetry, and environmental writings. The picture above was taken at her home in San Diego, California.
Cammie Eilers is Editorial Team Lead and Division Editor of Poetry for Toyon Literary Magazine. She received her A.A. in English from Cuesta College in Spring of 2020 and recently transferred to Humboldt State University to complete her B.A. in English. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and running. After college she would like to pursue a career in editing and writing.
Connie Pearson is Co-Division Editor of Creative Nonfiction for Toyon Literary Magazine. She is a writer with an emphasis on Creative Nonfiction, as well as a freelance editor of all genres. Connie has had a broad and varied career history, from childbirth educator to plant seller to homebirth attendant. She is happy to have landed on editing and being a Writing Practices major at HSU. In her spare time, Connie enjoys taking photos of rusty signs far off the beaten path, as well as being a determined animal rights activist.
Emilio Medina is the Editorial Team Lead for Volume 67 of the Toyon Magazine. He graduated from Cabrillo College with a AA in English for Transfer and AA in Liberal Arts and Sciences. He plans to graduate from Humboldt State in the spring of 2022 with a degree in English, focusing on Writing Practices. He hopes to make a career writing scripts for movies and video games. In his free time he enjoys writing, biking, being around his friends, video games, and occasionally jumping out of planes.
Josie Blubaugh is the Division Editor of Literary Criticism for Toyon Literary Magazine. She received her A.A. in Social and Behavioral Studies from Los Medanos College in 2019. Currently, she is a senior at Humboldt State University working towards her B.A. in English Literary Studies. Her photo was published in Humboldt State’s 2019-2020 edition of “The World the Way We Saw It.” In the future, she aspires to continue working in the publishing industry as an editor.
Julia Sisk is one of Toyon's Division Editors for Literary Criticism.  She received her AA in English for Transfer at Ohlone College, and is now in her final semester at HSU, pursuing a BA in English: Writing Practices.  She previously worked as an English & ESL tutor, and then an Instructional Assistant at the Ohlone College English Learning Center.  In 2019, she participated in the local publication ideaFest.  She has also participated in and managed multiple independent collaborative creative writing groups online since 2012.
Three-time published poet and singer-songwriter, June E. B. shares her love for literature and digitizing arts media on staff of Toyon Literary Magazine. Curious as to where her colorful upbringing from the California Coast and her vivacious Vegas personality will lead her on this excursion of narratives, she seeks to diversify the voices’ cantor.

Kaitlyn O’Dell is a junior this year at Humboldt State University and is pursuing a BS in Botany with a minor in English: Writing Practices. She has a passion for science and literature from a childhood filled with exploring national and state parks, while still finding time to binge read books. Her hobbies include reading, writing poetry, painting, and collecting vinyl records. She hopes to establish her future career around conservation.

Kevin Rios is an English major concentrating in Teaching the Language Arts at Humboldt State University. He is the Archive Editor for Toyon Literary Magazine and has been attending Humboldt State University since August 2020. Kevin graduated from San Diego Miramar College withan A.A. in English on May 2020.He is interested in creative writing, specifically with novel writing.
Lisa Salcido is the Division Editor of Creative Nonfiction for Toyon Literary Magazine at Humboldt State University. Lisa is a Business major minoring in English Writing. She enjoys writing creative nonfiction in her spare time and reading about vedic philosophy. Some of her favorite reads include Be Here Now by Ram Dass and The Stranger by Albert Camus.
Martin Lopez is the Visual Art Editor and Cover Designer for Toyon Literary Magazine at Humboldt State University. Martin is a English major minoring in Art studio. He enjoys writing poetry in his spare time and skateboarding in the local Arcata skatepark. Some of his favorite things to do include skateboarding with his friends, camping, and road tripping.
Maya Fielding is a typesetter and book designer for Toyon Literary Magazine. They are studying English with a concentration in Literary Studies at HSU. Outside of class, they like to write poetry, rollerskate, craft, and read. Maya is an aspiring optimist, and her favorite thing about the pandemic is that online classes give her more time to cuddle their cat, Gato.
Robin Freiberg is a Division Editor in Poetry for Toyan Literary Magazine. This is Robin’s first year at HSU after transferring from Riverside City College. She is working toward her B.A. in English Writing Practices and aspires to work as an editor and writer in the future. Some of Robin’s hobbies include playing the banjo, making ceramics, and watching cartoons. Robin hopes whoever is reading this has a wonderful day.
Savannah Sonia is finishing up her senior year at HSU as an English major with a concentration in writing practices. In her free time, Savannah likes to read, journal, explore in the community forest, and spend time with her cat, Jasper. Some of her favorite books include The God of Small Things and Let the Great World Spin. This is her first time working with Toyon, and she is looking forward to serving as one of the division editors for environmental justice writing.
Sheryl Colgrove is an English major in her third semester at HSU after transferring from SoCal last autumn with a plan to graduate in the fall of 2021. She is on the writing practices pathway with the hope of being published by a major publishing house. In the meantime, she is looking forward to her first semester with Toyon and learning skills that will help starting a delayed career in editing.
Nate Yandall is an English Major at HSU and is a Social Media manager for Toyon Literary Magazine. He's a transfer student from San Diego and his goal is to become an English teacher. He is a big sports fan and was initially interested in Toyon because of an interest in Sports journalism. His favorite teams are the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Clippers.

Previous Staff Members of Toyon