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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

Yashwin Sajja

Co-CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Yashwin is a passionate junior in high school from Long Island, New York, with an interest for business, coding, and technology. He enjoys spending time with friends and family, sleeping in, and playing soccer. When relaxing, Yashwin loves immersing himself in music and may be seen listening to anything from pop to hip-hop. Apart from that, in his free time, he enjoys giving back to his community by tutoring young children and fostering a love of learning in them.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Yashwin Sajja)

Tane Kim

Co-CEO & Editor-in-Chief

Tane Kim is a 16 year-old creator from Irvington, New York. As a poet and essay writer, his work has been recognized by The Poetry Society of the UK, The New York Times Editorial Contest, and Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Being impacted by creative writing himself, Tane hopes to empower the youth nationwide through both the communion, and individual freedoms, that come from creating art and voicing oneself. His ultimate goal is to help make the teenage publication industry mainstream in schools all across the country. Apart from writing, Tane can be found harboring Boba spots across the New York and New Jersey area, or eating his weight in watermelon.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Tane Kim)

Saanvi Tatipalli

General Manager

(She/Her/Hers) is a high school student living in northern Georgia who loves bringing her ideas to life. She is an avid creator who enjoys advocating for causes dear to her heart and is primarily focused on creative writing. She is also fascinated with media and technology and hopes to learn more about it in the coming years. She always loves to meet new people and learn more about the world around her!

She started out with Incan’s Film and Spoken word branch as a spoken word creator on her 14th birthday and after around a year or two, she also joined the Creative Writing team. Today, as the General Manager of the review, she enjoys working deeper with all of Incan’s branches!

Enya Goonetilleke

Assistant General Manager

Enya is a rising freshman at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Physiology and Neurobiology. In 2020, her work was published in Short Story UNC, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's publication. She is also a Regional Scholastic Arts and Writing recipient and has been working at the Incandescent Review for two years. She enjoys writing, reading, gymnastics, and playing with her dog, Logan. You can find her on Instagram @enya_grace_04.
Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Enya Goonetilleke)

Devkartik Anne

Web Design Director

Dev is a rising junior at Jericho High School. He is passionate about many aspects of web and design. He uses his creative ability to create visually appealing designs and websites. He is an avid basketball player and has traveled the nation to play many top level teams. He loves to spend time with his friends and relax when he gets the chance. He is very happy to be a part of the Incandescent Team and can’t wait to see what adventures it will take him to.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Devkartik Anne)

Kiran Johar

Art Director

Kiran is a rising senior at Jericho High School. She is passionate about every aspect of art and design, especially engineering and robot design. She uses her creative eye to virtually create different iterations of robots to compete with in tournaments. She has received regional and national recognition for her robot designs, colored pencil drawings, and paintings throughout her time in high school. She is competitive by nature, but loves to relax and have fun with her friends. She is an avid swimmer, so when she isn't working, you can find her exercising in the gym or the pool. She has an unwavering love for biology, marine studies, and paleontology, and is currently conducting research in the field of genomics, computational biology, and nephrology. She is very happy to be a part of the Incandescent Review Team, and can’t wait to see where it will take her!

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Kiran Johar)

Rohail Khan

Finance Director

Rohail Khan is a 17 year old from Jericho, New York. Since the recent pandemic, he has found his love for finance through crypto and investing within the stock market. He enjoys playing sports such as volleyball, as well as playing musical instruments such as the drums and piano.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Rohail Khan)

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)

Fatema Rahaman

Creative Writing Director

Fatema Rahaman is the creative writing team director and a poet 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.

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Fatema Rahaman)

Gargi Salunke

Marketing Director

Gargi is a rising senior at Jericho High School. She is passionate about issues regarding the environment and society. Throughout her high school experience, she has won multiple awards and publications for her poems and short stories. She enjoys spending time outside and walking her dog. She is a very active member in her clubs and tries to academically excel in all her classes. Her favorite subject is History. When she is not doing her work, she is hanging out with her friends or taking pictures of absolutely anything she sees as somewhat aesthetic. She is a very dedicated member since 2021, and she is always willing to help out!!

Contact: editor@theincandescentreview.org (Subject Line – Attn: Gargi Salunke)

Charlotte Hensley

Video & Spoken Word Director

Charlotte Hensley is a student at the Chicago High School of the Arts (ChiArts) in the creative writing conservatory. She is an Adroit Journal Editorial and Outreach Fellow and an alumna of the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, where she studied fiction under Ben Loory. She has also studied fiction at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Charlotte has received the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Randall Albers Young Writers Award and multiple awards from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. Through her work with the Steppenwolf Young Adult Council, The Incandescent Review, Urban Gateways, and Room to Read, she is an advocate for equitable arts access and effecting social change through art. In her spare time, she loves listening to vinyl records, hanging out with her Persian cat named Freddie, watching films, and reading books, especially by J.D. Salinger and Virginia Woolf.

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 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

Creative Writing Team

Avah Dodson

Creative Writing Manager

Avah Dodson’s short fiction and poetry have won prizes and recognition in the Bluefire 1,000 Words Contest, the Royal Nonesuch Humor Contest, the Scholastic Writing Awards contest (National Gold Medalist), the Sarah Mook Poetry Contest, the Kay Snow Poetry & Fiction Contests, and the Betty Award Contest, among others. Her works have appeared in Incandescent Review, Echo Lit, Parallax, Voices de la Luna, Stone Soup Magazine, Highlights Magazine, Skipping Stones Magazine, DePaul’s Blue Book: Best American High School Writing, and others. She enjoys reading, going on walks with her cats, and k-pop (a little too much). She despises grapes with seeds and ukuleles. You can find her holed up in her room listening to Stray Kids or spending time with her family and friends.

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.

Aamna Rehman

Writer

Aamna Rehman is a seventeen year old student, writer and bookish influencer. She likes to frequently post her reading updates on Instagram (@aamnaiswriting_). She likes to think that she inhales boos and exhales words. She is part of organization for young writers such as The Young Writers Initiative as a content writer and at Sea Glass Lit as an editor.

https://aamnarehman.wixsite.com/bookwkrmsexpress

Myesha Phukan

Writer

Myesha is a junior at Mountain View High School in California. Her work has been published in K’in Literary Magazine, 1455 Literary Arts, Detester Magazine, and more. She is a 2022 Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Finalist and a 2022 Youth Speaks Unified Poetry Slam Champion. In her free time, she enjoys reaching and spending time with friends and family.

Daniel Kim

Writer

Daniel Kim is a senior from Maryland. His work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and the Just Poetry National High School Poetry Contest. He is also an alumnus of the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop. In his free time, he enjoys playing lacrosse, reading magazines or books, and watching movies with friends.

Tien Hoang

Prose Writer & Reader

Tien Hoang is a sixteen-year-old writer from Richmond, VA. They write way too much about relationships and cultural food, definitely not because they constantly crave smoothies and spring rolls. An Adroit Journal Mentorship alumnus, Tien's work has been recognized by Ringling College, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and occasionally, their relatives. Apart from writing, they enjoy streaming Spotify on the regular, going on unhealthy K-Drama binges, and watching really, really bad movies. They're also a part-time Costco fanatic.

Luna Vallejo

Writer

Luna Vallejo is a writer who hails from New York. A New York City Youth Poet Laureate finalist and the editor-in-chief of Neverland Lit, her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and literary magazines such as Kalopsia Lit and Moonflake Press. When she is not writing, you can find her dissecting song lyrics, re-reading her favorite novels, and collecting vinyl records.

Jisu Yee

Writer

Jisu Yee is a high schooler from New York. Her favorite genres to write are poetry, short stories, and the occasional essay. She enjoys Model UN, tutoring younger students, and working on student-led publications at school, though she also secretly wishes to try the improv club. She always wishes she has more time to read.

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.

Laurel Reynolds

Poet

Laurel Reynolds is a 19 year old poet from Minnesota. Her work often explores queerness, mental health, trauma, and relationships. Her main goals with poetry are to write poems that would have helped her younger self and to write poems people can see some version of themselves in. As a disorganized Virgo, Laurel also loves poetry as a way to organize her thoughts. She has competed in the Be Heard Slam series since 2017, advancing to semifinals three times and advancing past finals once. She represented Minnesota on the Be Heard 19 cohort at Brave New Voices in 2019 where they made it to semifinals. Laurel’s poems have been published on The Current, Truartspeaks’ website, and in Truartspeaks’ anthology Be Heard, Dig Deep. She currently attends the University of Minnesota for Psychology and English.

Rachel Alarcio

Prose Reader & Contributor

Rachel Alarcio is a 20-year-old poet who was born and raised in the eternal summer of Los Angeles, California. Their work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, featured in two award-winning WriteGirl anthologies, included in Exposition Review, and displayed for millions of people in transit at LAX’s Terminal 7-8. She is currently working towards her B.A. in English from Kalamazoo College. Find them @raechillout on Instagram.

Yaejun Myung

Yaejun is a current high schooler in the New Jersey area. She has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Association, the National Council for Teachers of English, and the New York Times. She enjoys reading and writing poetry. Besides poetry, she loves to play tennis and watch Netflix.

Critical Writing Team

Megan Pitt

Columnist & Critic

Megan Pitt is editor-in-chief of the Lions Roar. Her passions include writing both journalistically and creatively and she pursues them in her role at the Lions Roar as well as in her roles as an editor of Cathartic Literary Magazine and a staff member of Aspects Literary Magazine at Cherry Hill West. One day, she hopes to continue her career in France.

Annabelle Smith

Columnist and Critic

Annabelle is a student at Franklin and Marshall College, where she studies Creative Writing and French. She is an avid reader and pianist and lives in Maryland with her family and her rambunctious chocolate lab. She has received national recognition from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and is the author of Self Portrait. Find her on Instagram @a.b.marie_

Cailey Tarriane

Blog Writer

Cailey Tin is a southeast Asian-based staff writer and podcast co-host at The Incandescent Review. She is also a columnist at Paper Crane Journal, Spiritus Mundi, Incognito Press, and more publications. Her writing has been featured in Cathartic Lit, Fairfield Scribes, Halu Halo journal, and elsewhere. When not attending a poetry workshop, she can be found reading about history and other questionable things or shamelessly watching cartoons on Netflix.

Summer Feng

Columnist & Critic

Summer Feng is a staff writer at the Incandescent Review and a high school student from New York. She is interested in fashion and psychology, and loves writing about social issues. In her free time, she is often found listening to music or starting a new crochet or sculpture piece.

Art & Web Design Team

Rithik Trehan

Art & Web Design Manager

Rithik is a rising junior at Jericho High school. He is passionate about many aspects of web and design. He uses his creative ability to create visually appealing designs and websites. He loves to spend time with his friends and relax when he gets the chance. He is very happy to be a part of the Incandescent Team and can’t wait to see what adventures it will take him to.

Anish Pylla

Art & Web Design

Anish is a web designer from Jericho, New York. He is in his junior year of high school. He is an avid tennis player and loves learning more about web design.

Film & Spoken Word Team

Serina Wang

Video & Spoken Word Manager & Graphic Designer & Outreach

Serina Wang is a student artist and pianist from Scarsdale, NY. She is passionate about global issues from racism to environmental sustainability to humanitarian crises, and often discusses them with her peers. Serina often engulfs herself in reading about philosophical subjects that bring to light the essence of human nature, and new innovations that will shape the future. She is often found listening to lofi beats while sketching random objects, coding graphics, spending time with friends, binging Netflix shows, or contemplating wild ideas.

Kara Lawson

Video Editor

Kara Lawson is a high school senior from Baltimore, MD. She has been creating art for as long as she can remember. Besides film and videography, she is interested in drawing, painting, and recently animation. Some of her favorite hobbies include reading, writing, and having random urges to bake at 2 AM. So far, her greatest accomplishment is probably winning a Silver Medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Her greatest weakness is probably math homework.

Cailey Tin

Video & Spoken Word

Cailey Tin (she/her) is an Asia-based staff writer and podcast co-host at The Incandescent Review, a columnist in Incognito Press and Spiritus Mundi Review, and her work has been published in Fairfield Scribes, Alien Magazine, Cathartic Lit, and more. During her free time, she enjoys piano, journaling, and swimming.

Aarna Tyagi

Video & Spoken Word

Aarna Tyagi is a fourteen-year-old who resides in Long Island, New York. She attends Jericho Senior High School as a freshman. She loves to write melancholy yet oddly romantic poems and read books, like classic Russian literature, in her free time. Her work has been recognized by the Adroit Journal, the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. In addition, Aarna was selected as a finalist to become the first ever New York State Youth Poet Laureate. If you can’t find her poring over Dostoyevsky, she’s probably trying to curate the perfect Spotify playlist to fit her expanding musical needs and tastes.

Brooke Reynolds

Film and Spoken Word

Brooke Reynolds is a student, aspiring actor and writer. She is part of Top Teen which is a non-profit educational, humanitarian organization committed to providing service to “youth and adults”. She is also part of the creative writing program at The Chicago High for the Arts where she writes everyday to strengthen her writing and help her develop an individual voice. Not only does she express herself through literature she but also acting, volunteering, and figure skating. Brooke loves her two shih tzu dogs named Chloe & Max. She enjoys hanging out with her brother and journaling in her free time.

Shruthi Medicherla

Video & Spoken Word

Shruthi Medicherla is a student at South Forsyth High School, and you would usually see here either hanging out with her friends or at home painting or sketching out a new piece of art- while listening to her favorite k-pop playlist and drinking boba milk tea, of course. She enjoys creating causes that she advocates for, and outside of her artistic bubble, she likes to play the piano, and go shopping at the mall occasionally. When it comes to learning, she is passionate about healthcare/medicine, visual arts, web and game design, coding, and communications.

Ashkay Lakharam

Video Editor

Ashkay is a student at South Side High School. An aspiring surgeon, he likes to spend his time making music, reading, and playing video games. An avid fan of the arts, he's tried everything and realised everything he's bad at. But, that doesn't stop him from trying. He also likes Star Wars... A LOT.

Daniella Procaccini

Video Editor

Daniella Procaccini is a 16 year old from New York. You can always find them either sitting in the sun at a park or curled up in their room, drawing and watching YouTube. If you think you see her—but their not wearing headphones—it’s not them. She has won an Honorable Mention from the Scholastic Art and Writing awards and has been featured on MET Teens’ Art Submissions Contest.

Koushiki Malani

Podcast & Video Editor

This is Koushiki and those who can't pronounce it call her couscous. She is 17 and from Nashik, Maharashtra. Other than writing for school debates, elocutions, etc. she has developed a lil thing for copywriting and creative writing. She was in Ryan International School and if she learned anything from there it is that it's not spelled R-yan. She also went to France for a year on a student cultural exchange program through Rotary International. She likes to interact with and meet new people and also change her hair color from time to time.

Marketing Team

Kelly Lu

Business Strategist

Kelly graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2020 with degrees in Architecture and Business Administration. She is fueled by bubble tea, loves books, and enjoys lifting.

Fundraising & Activism Team

Nancy Zoria

F&A Manager

Nancy Zoria is a 17 year old who goes to Jericho High School. She is an extremely extroverted, energetic, and talkative person who loves spending quality time with friends and family! In her free time, Nancy loves reading fiction books, swimming, and shopping! In school, she is actively involved in many clubs such as peer tutoring, science olympiad, jericho red cross, environmental club, sunrise club, etc. Some of her passions are science research, latin, bullet journaling, and carvel ice cream cake! Nancy is an optimistic member of every community she is in and tries her best to form close relations with everyone!

Fundraising & Finance Team

Arnav Hak

Fundraising & Finance Manager

Arnav Hak is a 16-year old who was born in Brooklyn and currently resides in Long Island, New York. When it comes to his writing, although limited, Arnav was finalist for the Stony Brook Young Investigators Writing Competition and published in the Fall 2020 edition of the Young Investigators Review. Arnav has a variety of interests, such as programming, in which he was the regional winner for the Congressional App Challenge, while also awarded a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for his web application. Paired with his interest in computer science, Arnav also enjoys finance, in which he is the Logistics Officer of his school Investing Club and in his free time, he enjoys playing volleyball and spending countless hours scrolling through Netflix without ever being able to choose something.