Katya Cummins earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She participated in a year-long residency in the Iowa Writers' Living-Learning Community, and attended Iowa's 25th Annual Summer Writing Festival where she participated in a short story workshop under the direction of Rick Hillis.  Her book reviews and nonfiction pieces have appeared or are forthcoming at Inside Higher Ed,  Sleet Magazine,  Prick of the Spindle, Under the Gum Tree, and Six Minute Magazine.  She is the founding editor of Niche.  She can be reached at editorsnichelit@gmail.com.

Shannon Hewson graduated with Honors from the University of Iowa, where she earned Bachelor's degrees in both English literature and Studio Art. With focuses in creative writing and drawing/painting, she also completed a minor in American Indian and Native Studies and participated in a year-long residency in the Iowa Writers' Living-Learning Community. She has worked as a freelance illustrator for several years, and plans to pursue her Master's in Studio Art at the University of Texas next fall. She has also worked in Austin as a teaching assistant at ACE Academy, a private school for children of accelerated intellectual development, where she also instructs two after-school workshops on comics and sequential art. Her other passions include poetry, art history, singing, oral storytelling, and live music.  She is the Art Editor for Niche, and can be reached at Shannon.Hewson@nichelitmag.com.  You can view Shannon's art at her official site.

Beth Cohon graduated with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was also an editor for Montage, the University’s only literary arts journal. Besides writing creative fiction and a thesis on Virginia Woolf, she has made several short films, one of which was featured in the Champaign’s Feminist Film Festival. She has also interned with a national literacy nonprofit called 826 National, and is currently pursing her MA in Film Studies from King’s College London. She can be reached at Elizabeth.Cohon@nichelitmag.com.

Julie Herndon earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. She is a defacto fictionist weaving with a prose-poet spindle, yarn supplied by the mystic tradition. She adores impossible stage directions, epic supporting casts and brushed-upon mythologies, words that creak, Freud's Burning Child, and the perfect pencil-paper grit ratio. She operates on any number of Gnostic assumptions. It is always raining in her head. She is an assistant Poetry Editor at Niche Magazine, and can be reached at herndon_julie@yahoo.com.

Katie Cantwell is currently earning her Bachelor’s degree in Classics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, working with both Latin and Greek. She has translated epic poetry, elegiac poetry, tragedy and history. She participated in Young Chicago Authors’ Louder than a Bomb youth poetry festival for two years, performing both years. She is currently working on a play, short stories, flash fiction, and she is always working on poetry. She can be reached at Katie.Cantwell@nichelitmag.com.

Mary Keutelian earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mary has been a lifelong active patron at her local library and has been writing short stories since the sixth grade. She is currently working on her own writing projects, and plans to enroll in a publishing graduate program within the next year.   She in charge of Niche's marketing and can be reached at Mary.Keutelian@nichelitmag.com.

Matt Atkinson is Niche's multimedia editor. He graduated with a degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to reading submissions to Niche, he is the executive editor of the online magazine Fear.less, does freelance copy writing, and blogs at his site. He can be reached at Matthew.Atkinson@nichelitmag.com.

Rebecca Kaplan is currently earning her Bachelor's in Rhetoric at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.  Freshman year, she participated in the year-long Iowa Writers Living-Learning Community.  She blogged about her experiences as a student for the University of Iowa Admissions.  She read her narrative essay (later published by the University of Iowa's Daily Palette) at Writers Gone Public.  She won first prize in the Iowa Writers Living-Learning Community's playwriting contest. Her short story,  Incommunicado, won second  place in the Council for Disability's Annual Writing Contest.   She also loves drawing, poetry, playing the viola and internet memes. She can be reached at rkapla3@illinois.edu.

Rochelle Liu earned Bachelor's degrees in English and Chinese from the University of  Iowa. She dabbles in short stories, experimental fiction, and play-writing.  She enjoys long walks on the beach, jogs in the park, and naps in the sun. In the upcoming months, she will be teaching English in Thailand, and plans to visit 1/3 of the countries in the world before she is 35.  She is currently working on several short stories, experimenting with the relationship between time and point-of-view.   She believes that writers should not be hindered by tradition.  As long as writers find their voice, and believe in them,  style will come.  Also, she’s a nerd. A big one.  And screamin’ it from the rooftops.  She can be reached at Rochelle.Liu@nichelitmag.com.