Issue 155 Lead Editors

Ryan H. Smith
Managing Editor
West Coast introvert, Ryan H. Smith [he/him] is a Teaching Associate and MFA candidate in creative writing (screenwriting) at SJSU. Before stewarding Reed Magazine: Issues 154 and 155, Ryan served as Art/EVC Editor, and Community Outreach director. He also works as a part-time bookseller and has adjudicated contests for Cinequest Film Festival and NYC Midnight.

Seher Vora
Fiction Editor, Lead Copyeditor
Seher Vora is a Pakistani-American writer and editor. She holds an MA in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and previously worked at academic and news publications. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA in creative writing from SJSU. Her work can be found in the Baltimore Review.
.png)
Nicole Calande
Nonfiction Editor, Marketing Director
Nicole Calande (she/her) is a Bay Area-based short story writer and poet. She is a Columbia Publishing Course graduate and previously worked in the publishing industry. Her work has been featured in Catapult and F(r)iction. She is completing her MFA at San José State University.

Ume Ali
Poetry Editor
Ume Ali is a Teaching Associate and MFA candidate at SJSU where she studies fiction and poetry. She has served as contributing editor for Azizah Magazine, nonfiction editor at Reed, and is president of the Diasporic Peoples Writing Collective. Ume's work can be found in Azizah and Caesura.

Matty Heimgartner
Art & EVC Editor, Design Director
Matty Heimgartner is a queer artist and writer in California. He holds a BA in art and is currently studying for an MFA in creative writing. He is a resident artist of KALEID gallery in San José. His work has been published in CreativPaper, Content, Beyond Words, and Artist Portfolio.

Helen Meservey
Editor-in-Chief
Helen Meservey is a journalist and essayist who teaches writing at Menlo College in Atherton, California, and at San José State University. The editor-in-chief of Reed Magazine, Meservey in 2018 received
the first-place James Phelan Literary Award and a Solas Award from Travelers’ Tales for humor writing.