MEET
THE TEAM
• JULIÁN ESTEBAN TORRES LÓPEZ
• AïCHA MARTINE THIAM
• NICOLE ZELNIKER
• AMANDA LOPEZ
• ROBIN GOW
• JAY AJA
• MONICA WANG
• JOE SPARKMAN
• OLGA GONZÁLEZ LATAPI
co-Founder, Publisher and Executive Director, co-Editor-in-Chief, Podcast Host/Producer
Julián Esteban Torres López (he/him/él) is a multiply neurodivergent, Colombia-born narrative designer, sound artist, public scholar, and liberation culture architect with Afro-Euro-Indigenous roots. He explores our being-in-the-world and how we engage and make sense of it. His trauma-informed work examines existential concerns with care and nuance through a decolonial lens. For over two decades, Julián has worked toward humanizing those Otherized by dehumanizing systems. He’s the founder of the social justice storytelling non-profit The Nasiona. As a partner at Conscious Thrive Consulting, Julián helps organizations to realign their policies and cultural spines so they are more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, while creating and sustaining healthy and empathetic relationships at the forefront of decision-making and intentional design.
He’s a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions nominee; a Trilogy Award in Short Fiction finalist; and author of two social justice books (Marx’s Humanism and Its Limits and Reporting On Colombia) and a poetry collection (Ninety-Two Surgically Enhanced Mannequins). Julián’s work appears in numerous publications, and his most recent storytelling albums (Sfumato and Hirˌīth(Ē)Ə) and experimental classical music album (Liminality) are available now.
Julián’s work centers on decolonization, liberation, empowerment, healing, and transformation. He has received recognition and awards for his community-building work and has founded, led, and/or been a guest speaker at dozens of social justice initiatives. He has also been the recipient of numerous research grants and fellowships to conduct work on corporate social responsibility, human rights assessments, and conflict resolution, and has presented original research at international conferences and analyses in the media. Julián holds an M.A. in justice studies and B.A.s in philosophy and in communication, and was a Ph.D. candidate focusing on political science and Latin American studies.
co-Founder, Creative Director, co-Editor-in-Chief, Podcast Producer
Aïcha Martine Thiam is a trilingual writer, musician and artist of color, and might have been a kraken in a past life. She’s an Editor at Reckoning Press, EIC/Producer/
Publishing House Director & Book Editor
Amanda Lopez (she/they) is a Latinx poet, editor, and MFA graduate from Antioch University Los Angeles, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the 16th issue of Lunch Ticket. Their work can be found in The Nasiona and The Redlands Review. She is now a book editor and the Publishing House Director of The Nasiona.
Podcast Producer & Managing Editor
Nicole Zelniker (she/her) is a writer, activist, and podcast producer at The Nasiona. Nicole is also the author of Mixed, a non-fiction book about race and mixed-race families, and Last Dance, a collection of short stories. Her third book, Letters I’ll Never Send, is out now. Check out the rest of her work at nicolezelniker.com.
Managing Editor
Robin Gow is a trans and queer poet and Young Adult author from rural Pennsylvania. In addition to their work at The Nasiona, Gow runs the reading series Gender Reveal Party and serves as a managing editor at MAYDAY magazine and Assistant Editor at Large at Doubleback Books. Gow is also the author of Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books 2020) and the chapbook Honeysuckle (Finishing Line Press 2019). Their first collection of essays Blue Blood, is forthcoming with Nasiona Publishing House, and their first Young Adult novel, A Million Quiet Revolutions is forthcoming Winter 2022 with FSG Books for Young Readers.
Publishing House Assistant & Assistant Editor
Jay Aja (they / them / she / her / hers) is first-generation Guyanese born to West Indian immigrants. Their writing places a focus on exploring her culture’s diaspora-identity within the U.S. She holds her B.A. in English from the University of South Florida and they are currently pursuing their Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing in preparation for their MFA. Jay Aja has had poetry previously published in Z Publishing House: An Anthology of Emerging Poets (2019) and IO Literary Journal.
Podcast Music Producer
Joe Sparkman decided to follow his dreams in music after he got his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. He started working with Ne-Yo and went on to produce several prominent artists, such as Rihanna, Mary J. Blige, Joe, Snoop, Christina Milian, Heather Headley, Emeli Sande, Nicole Scherzinger, Missy Elliot, Prince Royce, among others. He won several awards: Grammy, ASCAP Award, multiple Platinum and Gold plaques, and an African Music Award. After his music career, he continued to dream big and co-founded a million-dollar medical and pharmaceutical company (Medsav). He’s currently an advisor to the board at Roche, a district activist leader for the National MS Society, a member of the Government Relations Advisory Committee, and during the 2020 elections the Georgia Democrats delegated Joe as a precinct chairman. As The Nasiona Podcast‘s music producer, Joe returns to his musical roots.
Managing Editor, Translator, Transcriber, & Head of Writing Prompts
Olga González Latapi (she/her/hers) is a queer poet with an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts. Although her writing journey started in journalism, she is now pursuing her true passion: exploring the world of poetry with a mighty pen in hand. She got her BS in Journalism at Northwestern University. Her work has been published in Teen Voices Magazine, Sonder Midwest literary arts magazine, BARNHOUSE Literary Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Impossible Task, Genre: Urban Arts, Biscuitroot Drive, iaam.com and The Nasiona magazine, among others. Originally from Mexico City, she currently lives in Toronto.
Twitter: @Olga_G_L
Reader
Monica Wang (she/her, they/them) started writing at thirty and found herself a passenger in two car accidents two and six months later, respectively. When she recovered she moved to Germany. In calmer times her work appeared in various litmags and haiku competitions. She studied English and philosophy at Simon Fraser University and has received scholarship offers to two Creative Writing MA programs in the UK. She is currently working on her first novel and a collection of micros forthcoming with The Nasiona.
Your Name Here
Your Role Here
Interested in joining our team? We’re currently looking for BIPOC folks to mentor. If you have an idea for a project that aligns with our mission and you want us to help you develop and create it, contact us.
We’re open to numerous ideas, as long as it fits what we’re about. You have an idea for a podcast episode? A magazine series? A column? A documentary? A community event? We’re seriously open to any idea, whether we’ve done something like it before or have yet entered the space. We’re culture architects, so as long as it involves storytelling, personal stories, social justice, and culture, you’ll have our interest.
Send us your pitches and we may just select you to join the team.
If interested, send us a message with the following:
- A paragraph about yourself and your background.
- A description about the project you want to manifest and how we may help you. Please include the value, relevance, purpose, and meaningfulness of the project. At The Nasiona, everything we do is intentional. We look to not only interpret the world, but also change it. What’s the outcome you’d like to produce?
- Why The Nasiona is a good fit for you.
- Why you’d be a good fit for The Nasiona.
- Your availability.
- Where you would like to be in 5 years and how you think The Nasiona can help you get there.
