Volume 65 - Fall 2018 Staff

Managing Editor: Anthony Alonzo-Pereira
Assistant Managing Editor: Erika Andrews (Managing Editor for Volume 66 in 2019-20)
Secretary: Salina Jimenez
Treasurer: Destiny Wright

Outreach Team Lead: Madeline Bauman
Social Media Managers: Madeline Bauman and Kayla Stark
​Literary and Artist Community Liaison: Asha Galindo

Editorial Team Lead / Acquisitions Editors: Ashley Alvarez and Mireille Roman
Division Editors, Critical Analysis: Gloria Pearlman-Warren and Zach Weaver
Division Editors, Creative Nonfiction: Liliana Del Rio and Jasmine Nazario
Division Editors, Fiction/Playwriting: Drew Ahlberg and Joel Segura
Division Editors, Poetry: Theressa Lopez and Heather Rumsey

Spoken Word / Web Team Lead: Erika Andrews
Division Editors, Spoken Word: Deanna Abate, Quinn Dobbins, Dean Engle
Archive Editor: Hannah Hoskisson

Production Team Leads: Sarah Godlin and Carter Solomon
Visual Art Editor: Noelle Peterson
Typesetter: Max Hosford 
Book Designers: Sarah Godlin and Carter Solomon

Meet the Fall 2018 Staff

Anthony Alonzo-Pereira is a senior from Inglewood, CA. As a native Spanish speaker, he feels a duty to utilize his bilingualism to emphasize the multilingual aspect of Toyon. His goal is to own a small restaurant or cafe, where he can promote the use of writing as a powerful tool for change. He enjoys the work of satirists and cartoonists such as George Carlin and Lalo Alcaraz, who have inspired him to continue blurring the line between “low” and “high” art. He is in school to reclaim knowledge and advance identity through writing. He is an okay tennis player, a good pebble skipper, and an excellent pizza maker. You can follow him @tonytoodown ​
​Asha Galindo is a senior at Humboldt State University and plans to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing after she completes her BA in English: Writing Practices. She has an AA in Liberal Arts from San Diego City College, as well as a certificate in Creative Writing. Asha is a lifelong storyteller, her work has been featured in City Works literary journal, on The Rumpus, and as part of the VAMP series from So Say We All in San Diego. When she isn’t being a student or working as a tutor, she enjoys movies, cooking, and cuddling her pup, Penny Lane.
Carter Solomon has attempted writing, board game designing, and soon he will have attempted business owning. He lives in Humboldt County, and plans to move to a more southern part of California where he’ll no longer be able to use the excuse “there’s no work up here” as a reason to watch his savings account dwindle. He is working on the production team of Toyon this Fall 2018 semester.
Dean Engle is alive while writing this, and will hopefully still be alive when you read it. He is an award winning writer and an award nominated actor (both by default rather than skill), who is currently a senior (at Humboldt State) (obviously). He formerly attended Diablo Valley College, coming first place in the 4th annual literary contest and dead last in the beauty contest. He wrote and directed Real Fun for Onstage Theatre, a one-act dark comedy that was so dark, several theater goers worried about his mental health. In his spare time Dean collects perforated scraps of paper torn from notebooks. He is allergic to fire. ​
Deanna Abate is in her senior year at Humboldt state. She transferred from San Diego to explore more of the west coast. On school breaks she road trips to nature spots she's never seen before. Deanna’s writing began in emotional middle school journaling. Her writings continue to be self centered. She hopes to travel the world teaching creative writing. ​
Destiny Wright is a Senior at Humboldt State University. She is the Treasurer and co-Outreach Team Lead for Toyon. Her main interest is in creative writing with a particular focus on historical fiction. Destiny is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Communication as well as a minor in English Writing. Having grown up in Southern California, Destiny eagerly awaits her return to the warm climate of the desert but not leaving without her new appreciation for Humboldt’s redwoods.  ​
Drew Ahlberg is junior transfer student from Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California. They are excited to start their first semester at HSU as a Writing Practices Major, and are one of two division editors focusing in fiction. After focusing in creative writing for large part of their academic career, they are now attempting to branch out and feed their growing interest in the editing and publishing industry. An avid reader of graphic novels, short fiction, and plays, they hope that they can help Toyon pursue it’s goal of being a diverse artistic platform.
Erika Andrews is a Senior at HSU. Her major is English: Writing Practices with a minor in Comparative Ethnic Studies. She is the current Member at Large in her sorority Delta Phi Epsilon Inc. Erika is the author of the upcoming Y.E.S. House 50th Anniversary novel. Erika is a functional introvert who loves cooking tasty vegan food for non-vegans. Erika enjoys writing poetry, even though it torments her soul. Erika aspires to sleep enough to maintain her immaculate vessel, this is a continuous effort.
Gloria Pearlman is a junior at HSU, double majoring in Multicultural Queer Studies and English with an emphasis in writing practices. In addition to being on the Toyon staff, she also serves on the board of the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, as Secretary. In her free time she does yoga, photography, plays the cello, and fusses over house plants. She hopes to get an mfa in writing and be a published essayist. ​
Heather Rumsey is the author of various songs and poems, alive, and living in her closet. Her favorite genre is Creative Nonfiction. Moving forward, she hopes to contribute her writing and music to the creative arts community. She uses her writing as activism for social equality, critical thinking and music. This is her senior year at HSU, where she’ll be working on Toyon as the Division Editor for Poetry. She is excited to encourage writers, from diverse locations, to submit their work and have their voice heard.
Jasmine Nazario has taken on the shared position of being the Toyon’s Division Editor for Creative Non-fiction for this years 65th Volume.  Jasmine is a senior at HSU studying English on the pathway towards teaching of the Language Arts. She strongly believes that art and literature can have positive impacts on our youth, which makes her job here at the Toyon even better because she gets to oversee a diverse selection of creative works of art and literature that will benefit in the upbring of our youth.  If you happen to run into Jasmine on her day off you might see her smiling, watching movies, singing, dancing and playing with her handsome cat Mitzon. ​
Joel Segura is a senior at HSU majoring in English and minoring in Teaching English as a Second Language. He is currently serving as one of the editors of the Fiction and Playwright genres for Toyon. While working at Toyon he hopes to better understand the working functions of a literary magazine to prepare him as he begins preparing his works of poetry and fiction for submission. When not on campus Joel is out hiking in our local community forest or out in Trinidad. He also enjoys playing video games when given the free time.
Kayla Stark shares the position of Social Media Manager and Media Liaison with her fellow teammates. Together they work to spread the word of Toyon and build a following and encourage people from all over to submit for the journal and share their passions. She herself has a passion for writing fiction and criticism essays on nerd culture, specifically on anime in hopes that the community will start to become less toxic. “If you love something you shouldn’t be afraid to criticize it and encourage it to improve”. During her free time outside of writing she enjoys watching anime for fun, listening to music, reading (of course), browsing Instagram, trying new things with her friends, and hanging out with her cats and dog. And with easy access to so much outdoors hiking and exploring beaches are a great way for her spend her weekends at HSU.
Madeline is studying English Writing Practices at HSU, and will be graduating in the Spring. This is her first semester working for Toyon, and she is  serving as the Social Media Manager. Madeline is looking towards teaching English as a foreign language abroad, writing for various Environmental organizations, and going to Massage School. She is happy to explore more about the Publishing process, as well as Social Media, through working with Toyon. Madeline has been living in Humboldt for the past three years. Throughout her time living in Humboldt, she’s nurtured her passions for biking, yoga, running, hiking, singing, ocean-swimming, long-hand journaling, zero waste living, and emotional communication. Madeline has interests in language, dance, hoola-hooping, photography, massage, and much more. She looks forward wandering the world in years to come, continuing to learn, grow, and to write/sing/laugh about it all.
Max Hosford is a senior at Humboldt State studying writing. He is a member of Cooperation Humboldt, which is working to build an alternative economic system in Humboldt County that is not based on exploitation and accumulation, but rather on cooperation, solidarity, and mutual aid.
Noelle is a Psychology major with Art and English minors. This is her senior year at Humboldt, and she plans on going to graduate school for art education and becoming a teacher or photographer. She loves to dance, and serves as the president of the HSU Swing Dance Club.
Quinn Dobbins is a senior at Humboldt State University, majoring in English with an emphasis in Writing Practices. Originally from Elk Grove, California, he earned his AA-T in English at Cosumnes River College. During his two years at CRC he played for the men’s tennis team, earning a trip to the state tournament in Ojai. He was published in CRC’s literary journal in his second year. Since transferring to Humboldt State, he has worked on campus in the Accessible Resource Center, helping to make HSU’s coursework accessible for students with disabilities. He enjoys books, comics, photography, film, and the sad acoustic guitar noises of The Microphones. Right now he is halfway through the second volume of Swamp Thing. That is all you need to know about him. Quinn is left handed.
Salina Jimenez is a senior at Humboldt State University. She is the secretary and out-reach team co-lead for Toyon. She is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in English (literature studies). Originally from Antioch, California, she received her AA-T in English at Los Medanos Community College. In her free time, she likes to binge watch shows on netflix and hulu such as Bob’s Burgers and Gilmore Girls while trying to accomplish the readings that she should have done much earlier. She is also a huge Kingdom Hearts fan.
Sarah Godlin is the co-creator / former managing editor of Savage Henry Magazine and the author of Catty Mean Girl, Awful Thoughts on Everything. She likes hot weather and Cool Runnings, the iconic bobsledding movie starring John Candy and Doug E. Doug.
Hannah Hoskisson​ is a senior at Humboldt State and the Archiving Editor/Webmaster for the Toyon. She is an English major with a background working in Special Education. Hannah also works in the Writing Studio as a Writing Consultant. When she is not forcing herself to complete class assignments, she can usually be found reading weird stuff, struggling to sleep, telling people about leftist politics who are definitely not interested, making playlists with 700+ songs on them, watching movies that scare off other people and make her seem like an elitist, watching reality television that definitely confirms she is does not have elite taste, hiking (walking aimlessly), or playing with her cat. She feels awkward writing about herself, especially in the form of staff bios.
Theressa is a Sophomore at Humboldt State University. She is pursuing a degree in English with a Writing Practices emphasis. She was drawn to the university by two things her hometown of Fresno lacks: redwoods and cool weather. She is excited to see how the same environment that lured her to HSU may influence the work her peers submit to Toyon. When she’s not working, she enjoys playing Werewolf (or any game like it, really) and laughing with nice people.
Zach Weaver is a senior at Humboldt State studying to become a high school English teacher. He serves as one of the Toyon’s division editors for the Critical Writing genre. He’s a coffee addict, and is rarely seen without a cup. Having transferred from Southern California, Zach appreciates the rain, the fog, and the local beaches. When not at the beach or hiking in the forest, he spends long hours reading horror and weird fiction, watching tv, and composing short stories to read to his dog, Ben.