WHO WE ARE
✨
WHO WE ARE ✨
It is no secret that the literary canon and literary journals are largely comprised of heteronormative, patriarchal, cisgender, able-bodied white men.
So to Speak seeks work by writers, poets, and artists who want to challenge and change the identity of the “canonical” writer.
Our mission is to provide a digital and print platform to amplify the voices of BIPOC, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, nonbinary people, women, neurodivergent people, people of all different religions or none, migrants, refugees & immigrants (regardless of citizenship), and incarcerated writers.
MISSION
So to Speak was founded as a feminist journal in 1993 by an editorial collective of MFA candidates at George Mason University. As our journal has evolved over the years, so has our outlook on feminism.
We believe in an intersectional feminist outlook that includes, advocates for, and amplifies the perspectives & experiences of marginalized individuals.
HISTORY
EDITORS
SATORI GOOD (they/them)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Satori is a queer speculative writer and cat parent from Lawrence, Kansas. Their work appears or is forthcoming in the Baffler, Does it Have Pockets, M E N A C E, and elsewhere; they were named winner of Fugue’s 2025 prose contest and the Paul Radin Memorial Scholarship through the Community of Writers. They are currently working on a short story collection about bone currency.
SHAY MCINTOSH (she/her)
MANAGING EDITOR
Shay McIntosh writes about dyke drama. She's lived in the big city, the woods of Western Mass, and the only desert in Europe. She has been published in the Rose Books Reader and Slate Magazine, and was a Writer-in-Residence at Sundress Academy for the Arts. Besides being an acrobat, a babysitter, and a tin whistler, she is a first-year MFA candidate in fiction at George Mason University.
BEX PACHL (they/she)
NONFICTION EDITOR
Bex is from Colorado and writes nonfiction about gender and gendered violence through considering landscape, monuments and the subjectivity of individual interpretation. Bex works as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, a museum interpreter at a local historic site, and as a private tutor. They received their BA from Wellesley College. You can find them at @books4bex on Instagram.
Pari (پریا) is a queer immigrant poet from Iran. Their work has been featured in The Windward Review, Michigan Quarterly Review Mixtape, and elsewhere. At So to Speak, they look for poetry that pushes language in unexpected ways. In their free time they enjoy staring at the wall in a haunted fashion.
PARI SABTI (they/them)
POETRY EDITOR
FICTION EDITOR
EMILY WEISENBERGER (she/her)
Emily J. Weisenberger is a justice-forward speculative fiction writer for children and adults. Her short stories are published in Tales to Terrify, L’Esprit Literary Review, and The Vanishing Point, among others. Emily earned her MA in applied anthropology in 2018 and has recently edited an anthology.
ERIN HOSKINS (she/her)
BLOG & ART EDITOR
Erin is a first year MFA student in GMU’s fiction program. While attending Oregon State University, she edited Prism, the university's premier art and literary journal. Erin works as a foreign rights coordinator for a Maryland-based publishing company. Her short stories have been published in The Nature of Things, OxMag, and elsewhere.
MATTI BEN-LEV (he/him)
Matti is a queer nonfiction writer and poet based in Northern Virginia. His writing has appeared (or is forthcoming) in McSweeney's, Rumpus, CRAFT, X-R-A-Y, Ekphrastic Review, Jake, and elsewhere. His unpublished chapbook manuscript, "letters to jimi hendrix," was a semi-finalist in FLP's 2025 chapbook contest. His work has been supported by a summer residency with The Inner Loop in DC. Find him at mattibenbenlev.com
ASSISTANT NONFICTION EDITOR
RILEY JOHNSTON (she/her)
ASSISTANT POETRY EDITOR
Riley Johnston is a poet and fiction writer from Houston, Texas. Her work appears in Thimble Lit Mag and Screen Door Review. She is a first year MFA student at George Mason University in Virginia. When she's not reading, writing, or working, Riley enjoys crafting and spending time with her three cats.
YJ JUN (she/her)
ASSISTANT FICTION EDITOR
YJ has work in Atlas and Alice, Orca, Typehouse, Sci-Fi Lampoon, and The Quiet Reader. An alumnus of the Clarion Workshop class of 2025, she's now an MFA student and a graduate teaching assistant at George Mason. She lives in Virginia with her wife and fur babies. You can find more of her writing at https://yj-jun.com
Readers
Summer 2025 issue: Matti Ben-Lev, Katey Funderburgh, Jaime Goh, McKinley Johnson, Marissa Joyce, Lee Krauss, Judy Leserman, Elena Macdonald, Chris McGlone, Josie McKenzie, David McMullen, Elizabeth McWhorter, Eli Rahm, Taylor Franson Thiel, Lloyd Wallace
Previous Editors:
Judith Adkins, Nolde Alexius, Amy Amoroso, Renee Angle, Jacquee Austin, Danielle Badra, Sarah Batcheller, Jeanine Batchelor, Kim Bealle, Paula Beltrán, Amanda Bender, Holly Bergman, Miriam Beyene, Sarah Bloom, Anne Bloomsburg, Jamy Bond, Melanie Bonsall, Jessika Bouvier, Benjamin…