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The Founders

The Incandescent Review was founded by artist & writer Ariel Kim as the CEO & Editor-in-Chief and a founding executive board committee of the following members:

Esther Kim (Founding Creative Writing Director), Sofia Miller (Founding Art & Design Director), Ocean Wei (Founding Critical Writing Team Director), Minnie Zhang (Founding Director of The Incandescent Studio), Ethan Phan (Founding Finance Manager), Samson Zhang (Founding Video & Spoken Word Director ), Emily Huang (Founding General Manager), and Annie Guo (Founding Director of the Marketing Team).

The Incandescent Review has only been made possible thanks to the strenuous contributions of our alumni.

Think you'd make a great addition to the team?

JOIN US!

Executive Board

Kevin Zhu

Co-CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Kevin Zhu is a 17-year-old Chinese-American writer and musician from Long Island, New York. As a poet and journalist, his work has been nationally recognized by the Scholastic Writing Awards and is a SAS scholarship recipient for the University of Virginia Young Writers Workshop. As a pianist, he has performed at global venues which include Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center, Spain, and France. A COUNTERCLOCK Arts Collective Music Fellow and Julliard School of Music precollege student, Kevin is an alum of the Ellipsis Poetry Workshop and the Manhattan School of Music. He is often confused with a college student going through a quarter-life crisis.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Kevin Zhu)

Jennifer Baek

Co-CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Born and raised in New York, Jennifer Baek is a Korean-American writer who is currently a senior at Jericho High School. In her spare time outside of the Incandescent, she can be found baking, going on walks with her friends and scouring the web for various lofi playlists. Jennifer is a Kenyon Young Writers Workshop and Iowa Young Wrtiers Studio alum and her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Heritage Review, The Red Pocket Magazine and many more . She hopes that you enjoy reading through all of the issues and blogs on our website and that you will join us in our journey to amplify youth voices!

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Jennifer Baek)

Katie Tian

Creative Writing Director

Katie Tian is a seventeen-year-old Chinese-American writer and journalist from New York. A Scholastic Art & Writing National Medalist and two-time Adelphi Quill Awards First Place winner, her work is published or forthcoming in Rising Phoenix Review, Blue Marble Review, and Eunoia Review, among others. She is an Ellipsis Writing Workshop alum and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of her school’s literary magazine Pegasus, as well as the Junior Managing Editor of her school newspaper The JerEcho. Apart from writing, she has various talents, such as singing in the shower and eating her weight in brown sugar boba bars. Her favorite things are peanut butter, her fat cat, and poetry (in that order).

Yaalni Chandirasekar

Critical Writing Director

Yaalni is a staff writer at the Incandescent Review. She is a high school student studying in Singapore. She is interested in an array of things, including writing, reading and most things related to the social sciences and humanities.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Yaalni Chandirasekar)

Michelle Dong

Art & Website Design Director

Michelle Dong is 17 years old and is from New York. She loves programming, design, art, and music. Her passion for website design and research led her to qualify for nationals at NHD, which is situated in Maryland. As of 2019, she won the Lowell Milken award grand prize for her website about an unsung hero, Caroline Ferriday. Her hobbies for art and music have led her to become a late-night doodler and an avid earbud breaker.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Michelle Dong)

Rhea Dharia

Video & Spoken Word Director

Rhea is a senior that attends Jericho High School. Outside of school, She enjoys softball, baking, writing, and music. One of her poems, called “Summer,” was published in a book and online.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Rhea Dharia)

Ada Wang

Marketing Director

Ada Wang is a 17 year old from Long Island, New York. She's currently a junior at Jericho High School. In her free time, she enjoys binge watching C-dramas and listening to music. She has held various leadership positions, which have all provided her with strong and varied experiences in business, specifically marketing.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Ada Wang)

Carolyn Wang

Fundraising & Finance Director

Carolyn Wang is a senior at Jericho High School. She is currently 17 years old. She enjoys listening to music and playing volleyball.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Carolyn Wang)

Min Hur

Fundraising & Activism Director

Min Hur is a current junior at Jericho High School. She has been playing music since elementary school and has played at many different concert halls. Although experience in writing and business fields were limited, her hard work and organization allows her to take on difficult challenges.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Min Hur)

Noreen Chen

General Manager, Reader & Contributor

Noreen Chen is a Chinese-American high schooler from New York. She enjoys
experimenting in the arts, especially writing, drawing, painting, and graphic design. She strives to educate herself and incorporate various social issues into her works. When she’s not obsessing over an occasional kdrama or Netflix show, she can be found listening to music and podcasts, bothering her siblings, or spending way too much time on Notes and Canva.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Noreen Chen)

Minnie Zhang

Incandescent Studio Founder & Director

Raised in Richmond, Virginia, Minnie Zhang is a Chinese-American writer and amateur astrologist studying at Brown University. Her work is published and/or forthcoming in The Lindenwood Review, Ephimiliar Journal, and The Best Teen Writing of 2020.

A passionate advocate for accessible education, she founded the Incandescent Studio to empower emerging writers with opportunities to expand their technical and creative skillsets while engaging with youth across the world.

Her favorite poem is "California" by Rafael Campo.

Contact: theincandescentstudio@gmail.com

Andrea Salvador

Incandescent Studio Curriculum Director

Andrea Salvador is a Filipino student and writer, split between Manila and Melbourne. Her work appears in [subliminal], Élan Literary Magazine, and Galliard International Review among others, while it has been recognized by Ringling College of Art + Design, Columbia College Chicago, and Interlochen Arts Academy. She has participated in creative writing programs hosted by Amherst College's The Common, UMass Amherst's Juniper Institute for Young Writers, and The Adroit Journal.

Ariel Kim

Founder & Advisor

Ariel Kim is a seventeen-year-old artist and writer. Through The Incandescent Review, she hopes to empower adolescents to express their honest, unapologetic identities as heirs to an uncertain world. Ariel’s work appears in or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, The National Poetry Quarterly, The Apprentice Writer, The Daphne Review, and Parallax Literary Magazine, among others. She is a finalist in the Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition, a three-time runner-up for the New York Times Summer Reading Contest, and a double National Scholastic Medalist.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject line – Attn: Ariel Kim)

Creative Writing Team

Tane Kim

Creative Writing Manager & Poet

Living in Westchester, New York, Tane is a Korean-American freshman in high school. He loves the communion of art more than anything, and enjoys writing poetry and prose. His work can be seen in various literary reviews and magazines; it has also been recognized by the American Library of Poetry and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In his free time, Tane can often be seen munching down some delicious foods and describing their tastes.(The next Anthony Bourdain?)

Kristine Ma

Creative Writing Manager

Kristine Ma is a high school junior hailing from Michigan. She received two national gold medals and several regional recognitions from the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her work is forthcoming from Bridge: The Bluffton University Literary Journal. Kristine is an editor for her school's award-winning literary magazine as well as the English section editor for her school's academic journal. She also loves music, and can be found listening to a variety of music, from Chopin and Ravel to Seventeen, 88rising, and anime openings. When she isn't writing, she can be found playing piano, hugging stuffed animals, watching anime, and dreaming.

Molly Green

Executive Editor & Prose Writer

Molly A. Green is a HS senior, writer, and filmmaker from the
Pittsburgh Metro Area. She has been published in the literary
journals The Raven Review, CP Quarterly, The WEIGHT Journal,
Ample Remains, and Burnt Breakfast Magazine. She has been
writing and editing for the Creative Writing Team of The Incandescent Review since 2020. In addition, her work has been
recognized by the Lake Effect National High School Poetry Competition, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest, and the All American
High School Film Festival. Molly is a host for Bridges & Books, a lit podcast created by teens, for teens, where she interviews acclaimed YA authors and discusses her favorite YA novels.

Fatema Rahaman

Poetry Reader & Contributor

Fatema Rahaman is a poet who writes regularly for the Incandescent Review. Her work is often inspired by her culture and love for imagery and nature. She has been previously published by Hey Young Writers and her work has been recognized by New York Times and Molloy College.

Catherine Park

Editor & Poet

Catherine Park is a senior at the Bergen County Academies in New Jersey. high school newspaper. She is a National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medalist and a recipient of the New Jersey Governor's Awards in Arts Education and has earned recognition from the Live Poets Society of NJ. Her work is forthcoming in Aerie International. Besides poetry, her passions include politics, international affairs, and advocacy, and she holds a strong interest in various social and cultural issues of the 21st century. In her free time, she enjoys reading (everything from news articles to YA novels), listening to lo-fi music, and watching Netflix documentaries.