KELP JOURNAL TEAM
David M. Olsen​ (he/him) is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and poet. He is a graduate of Stanford’s OWC program in novel writing and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside Palm Desert. He has published books of poetry, a novel, multiple anthologies, and various work in literary journals and magazines. He is at work on a crime novel series and a linked collection of short stories. He resides on California's central coast where he surfs regularly, and helps keep the ocean clean by volunteering with Surfrider Foundation's Monterey Chapter.
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Connect: editor (at) kelpjournal.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
AM Larks (she/her) writes fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, and drama. Her writing has appeared in Scoundrel Time, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Five on the Fifth, Charge Magazine, and the Zyzzyva and Ploughshares blogs. She has performed her stories at Lit Up at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette, California. She is the current photo/visual arts editor at Kelp Journal, a multimedia literary revue, and the former fiction editor at Please See Me literary magazine as well as the former multimedia editor of The Coachella Review.
AM Larks earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, a Juris Doctorate, and most recently a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University California Riverside Palm Desert's low residency program. She is a longtime patron of the arts and enjoys stories that capture the complexities of life on the page or screen.
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Connect: www.amlarks.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
MANAGING EDITOR & THE WAVE EDITOR
Chih Wang graduated from the University of California, Riverside in Palm Desert with a Masters Degree of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She also holds a certificate in Copyediting from the University of California, San Diego Extension. She served as Fiction Editor and Copyeditor at The Coachella Review and currently copyedits for Kelp Journal. She runs her own freelance copyediting business, CYW Editing, specializing in fiction. A San Diego native, she spends her free time working on her novel, a contemporary fantasy, or hanging in the air, practicing aerial silks and hammock.
COPY EDITOR
Maria Duarte is a poet and writer who received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside—Palm Desert. She has published poems in Verdad Magazine from Long Beach City College and in the anthology The Good Grief Journal: A Journey Toward Healing. She is currently the poetry editor for Kelp Journal.
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Connect: @AngieDuarte
POETRY EDITOR
Kate Hinterberger (she/her) is a writer and editor based in Seattle. She is the former nonfiction editor of The Coachella Review and the current nonfiction editor at Kelp Journal. She holds an MFA in writing from the University of California, Riverside and a BA from the University of Washington. She is at work on a novel and a collection of short stories and has been published in The Seattle Times.
NON-FICTION EDITOR
Shawna Pancharian Yaley writes fiction and nonfiction. She is the current Non-Fiction Editor at Kelp Journal and has an MFA in creative writing from UCR, and BA in English literature from SDSU.
NON-FICTION EDITOR
Leanne Phillips (she/her) is an award-winning writer, a certified book coach, and an editor. She is Kelp Journal’s fiction editor. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California at Riverside, Palm Desert. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Kelp Journal, The Coachella Review, the New American Studies Journal, Persimmon Tree, and GXRL. Leanne is a lifelong Californian. She makes her home on the Central Coast where she spends her days reading, writing, and beachcombing.
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Connect: leannephillips.com
FICTION EDITOR
Oliver Brennan (he/him) is a writer, editor, and educator. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for The Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside. He was the Short Story Editor for Close To The Bone Publishing, AKA Near to The Knuckle, consulted as an Online Editor for Out of The Gutter Online, did some Fiction Editing for Kelp Journal, and was an assistant Copy Editor for The Coachella Review. He also enjoys editing full-length novels and novellas. He's been spotted out in the wild teaching Creative Writing at Central Oregon Community College. He now resides in Marin Country, California, where he avoids sharks while surfing in the cold, like really cold, water.
He's currently working on a comic book and a crime novel. If you're so inclined, you can find some of his short fiction at West Wind Review, Out of the Gutter Online, Near To The Knuckle, and the first Kelp Journal Anthology. In 2020, he made a short horror film and entered it into a contest. Although he didn't win, he learned a lot.
FICTION EDITOR
Readers & Interns
Cierra Buchholz is currently a Northern Arizona University student pursuing her Bachelors in English. She has the pleasure to work doing what she loves at the Franke College of Business as a writing tutor and at the College of Arts and Letters on the marketing team. You may also see her name on the Flagstaff Green Zine as an editor and Terrain.org as a nonfiction editor.
Ella Boyd is a writer and photographer based out of San Clemente, California. Originally from Maine, she received her B.A. in philosophy and media studies from Scripps College. She now works as a writer for POWDER and SURFER magazine, as the surf columnist at the San Clemente Times, and as an editorial assistant to Matt Warshaw at the Encyclopedia of Surfing. Her work has appeared in DAYBREAK magazine, The Surftime Journal, and ROVA magazine, among others. Last year, she was shortlisted for the Follow the Light Surf Photography Grant Program, and in 2024 received honorable mention for two photographs in the Flow Trip Photo Contest. She mostly logs, but rides a surf mat or kneeboard if the conditions call for it.
Eduardo Jáuregui Martínez is an international student from Irapuato, Mexico, now finishing his undergraduate degree on Creative Writing at John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, California. When not worried by college assignments, he enjoys brewing coffee with his espresso machine, reading books of long-dead authors, and writing about faraway worlds and melancholic protagonists.
Angela Crowell is a writer, wife, and expectant mother, currently living in San
Diego County with her husband. When she’s not studying or working, she loves losing herself in conversations, landscapes, and used bookstores. She is finishing up her B.A. at John Paul the Great Catholic University and looks forward to a career in the publishing industry.
Kelp has many internship opportunities available year-round for Kelp Journal, The Wave, and Kelp Books for students and writers/artists. Contact kelpphotoeditor@gmail.com for more information.