2026-2027 Staff
Editor-in-Chief – Alice Tyszka
Alice Tyszka is a second-year MFA candidate at Northern Arizona University focusing on eco-poetry, poetry of place and spirituality, and feminist poetry. She shouts and whispers truths in poetry collections Finding My Light, Embracing the Storm, and Loving this Life, as well as her motivational and self-help book titled Abundance. Alice’s work has also appeared in The Echo Visual Arts & Literary Magazine and The Paladin. In addition to writing, Alice pursues connection and storytelling as the founder and publishing consultant of her company: Alice’s Authoring Agency LLC. Alice is thrilled to serve as the editor-in-chief of Thin Air Magazine and cherishes every moment of the Thin Air experience!
Creative Director – Kaela Loftus
Kaela Loftus is an Angolan-American painter, printmaker, and poet based in Flagstaff, Arizona. With a background in creative writing and visual arts, Kaela is concerned with the combination of mixed genres and materials as a means of documenting histories, with an emphasis on investigating colonization, queerness, and art as a means of liberation.
Community Director – Svea Conrad
Svea Conrad is the author of poems and nonfiction. She is a former arts reporter and current MFA student at Northern Arizona University where she also serves as the community director of Thin Air Magazine. Conrad’s work explores themes of memory, heritage, the natural world, and other strange and hard-to-place phenomena.
Web Editor – Kate
Kate is an aspiring novelist from Arizona, currently working on her debut novel. She loves using speculative fiction to explore sociological and anthropological ideas, with inspiration taken from the works of Octavia E. Butler and Ursula K. LeGuin. She is studying for her MFA at Northern Arizona University.
Poetry Editor – Ben Norris
Benjamin Norris is a nonfiction writer based and musician out of Flagstaff, Arizona. His work appears in a Gasher Press publication and Turpentine Literary Magazine, 2025. A wannabe beat writer, he concerns himself with trying to pick apart and diagnose the everyday insanities and mundanities of life in post–Americana America. He is the head editor of poetry for Thin Air Magazine, a teacher on the side, an avid conspiracy theorist, and a pizza maker on weekends.
Fiction Editor – Isaiah Acevedo
Isaiah Acevedo is what the clerk from 7-11 once called, “a real guy, like a human guy, I think,” to which Acevedo humbly agreed. On said occasion, Acevedo spilled his mega goofy big jacuzzi slurpee in his car, and just sat there for a while, contemplating as one does. Rumor has it that his car is now haunted by sad slurpee smells (yes, multiple).
Nonfiction Editor – Svitlana Libet
Svitlana Libet is a journalist and writer from Kyiv, Ukraine. Her work mainly includes interviews, art critiques, and essays, widely published in various Ukrainian cultural magazines. Currently, Svitlana is an MFA candidate at Northern Arizona University, where she is working on her debut novel. She is also the Nonfiction Editor of Thin Air Magazine.
Assistant Poetry Editor – Dani Conner
Dani Conner, originally from Baltimore, is a first year MFA candidate at Northern Arizona University. She frequently writes under her pen name Strega Clare Manning. Her work appears in Wishful Thinking Press, Fifth Wheel Press, Bi Women Quarterly, Indie Blue Publishing, Bullshit Lit, and Voicemail Poems. Her poetry focuses on relationships, family, and mental health. When she’s not lamenting over her next line, she spends her free time lifting weights, playing with her cats, and hiking with her partner.
Assistant Fiction Editor – Belton Pham
Belton Pham is a writer from Arizona. He is also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Interstice Journal. He received a BA in English Literature and a BS in Psychology, and is a first-year MFA Fiction candidate at Northern Arizona University. His fiction and essays have been published in the NAU Lumberjack Writing Showcase, Neon Star Literary Magazine, and Positive Altitude. He also publishes Belton’s Bookshelf on Substack. In his free time, he loves to shop for books, skincare, and perfumes.
Assistant Nonfiction Editor – Kaytera Steah
Kaytera Steah is concerned you’re not reading her name correctly. That’s Kay-tare-uh StEE-uh. Kaytera is a first-year MFA student at Northern Arizona University. Her works can be found in Interstice journal and as part of the Museum of Northern Arizona’s Museum on the Go collection. In her free time, Steah enjoys annoying her cats and watching her freshwater shrimp colony grow.
Assistant Web Editor – Antonio Folcarelli
Faculty Advisor – Lawrence Lenhart
Lawrence Lenhart teaches creative writing at Northern Arizona University. He is the author of three essay collections, including Backvalley Ferrets. In 2025, he wrote, composed, and produced the cowpunk fantasia, Pop Goes the Ferret! With Will Cordeiro, he is the author of two textbooks, most recently Experimental Writing. Lenhart is an editor at DIAGRAM and Executive Director of the Northern Arizona Book Festival.
Thin Air Magazine Readers:
Natalie Ibarra
Caleb Rosenthal
Malek Derhammer
Cooper Smith
Neha Haque
Keegan Grau
Aldo Gomez Zamora
Cole Logelin
