Same Faces Collective
Our Team
We are currently looking for Nonfiction Readers! Inquire at samefacescollective@gmail.com
Creative
Deanna Whitlow
Founder, Creative Director
Deanna (she/her) is the founder of Same Faces Collective. She completed her MFA in Fiction at Columbia College Chicago. Pushcart-nominated, her stories, essays, and poems have been published by Torch Literary Arts, Raging Opossum Press, Allium Journal, Black Fox Literary, Identity Theory, and others. She lives in Chicago and works in the art museum space as a Curatorial Assistant. You can find her on Instagram @deannalwhitlow
Omar Garcia
Assistant Curator
Omar is a Mexican-American culture writer based in Chicago. He graduated from Illinois State with a degree in Marketing, where he began his writing career as a music columnist for the school newspaper. Since then his work has appeared on various independent blogs and newsletters, exploring the stories of countercultural movements, fashion, and music. He enjoys photography, biking, and rock climbing.
Ally Boyle
Assistant Curator
Ally (any pronouns) is an artist who grew up moving around, and whose artistic sensibilities have followed suit. Their primary focus lies in acting, direction and cultural criticism, and they have an interest in creating stories that combine folklore with queerness, self-hatred, isolation and romantic love. Ally is also interested in the dance between history and art, & they hope to continue using art to dig deeper into history, both as it’s been constructed and as it’s being written. In their spare time, Ally loves to cook, swim and explore New York, where they're currently based. @allisonm_b
Georgia Howe
Staff Writer
Georgia Howe (she/her) is a writer and creative based in Maine. She has a BFA in creative writing from Emerson College, where she wrote and worked for several magazines. She previously served as an Arts and Social Practice Fellow for Out in the Open. Her writing often explores queer identity, folklore, and the woods. When she isn't working her nonprofit 9-to-5, Georgia spends her time exploring the coastline. She thinks her three tattoos sum her up well: a willow branch, a lyre, and a starry mountain range.
Production
Alli Riechman-Bennett
Managing Editor
Alli Lee Riechman-Bennett is an author based in the Missouri Ozarks. Her writing has appeared in books, Vogue, many Instagram captions, and various literary magazines. Her portfolio can be seen at www.allisonleeriechman-bennett.org, and if you have any questions, Alli can be found in the back of the public library by the cookbook section.
Cara Hösterey
Managing Editor
Cara (they/them) is a graduate student of Comparative Literature born, raised, and based in Germany. They have spent the last few years trying to figure out what queerness means to themselves and in the world at large, whether that be through their academic research or creative writing. Cara has been a part of the Same Faces team from the first days of its inception, which has fundamentally shaped their understanding of the writing process and the importance of indie publishing (and also means that some of their growing pains have been documented publicly and candidly).
Kimberly Vazquez
Production Editor
Kimberly Vazquez was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, a scorching-hot border town where absolutely nothing happens—but it remains a town on the cusp of endless potential. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Creative Writing. Her collection of short pieces about the border-town experience, “Spare Parts,” was published in Allium Journal. She completed internships at Simon & Schuster’s Gallery imprint and Chicago Magazine.
Gina Gidaro
Production Editor
Gina Gidaro is a first-generation college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing, a minor in studio art, and an associate degree in arts and humanities from Ohio University. She received a graduate certificate from the Denver Publishing Institute, is an intern at Quill and Flame Publishing House and Epiphany Magazine, and serves as an editor for the Same Faces Collective and SeaGlass Literary Magazine. She is passionate about stories and anything spooky. Her publications can be found at https://ginagidaro.wordpress.com
Poetry
Dallas Knox
Poetry Reader & Staff Writer
Dallas (they/them) is a recent graduate from the University of Chicago and earned their B.A in gender-sexuality and religious studies. They are a proud Tennessean, a lover of sweet tea, and Toni Morrison's #1 fan. Outside of writing, they are an aspiring archivist and a *very* amateur photographer.
Xenia Gianiotis Turner
Poetry Reader & Staff Writer
Xenia Gianiotis Turner is a freelance writer, singer/songwriter, and self-professed existentialist torn between awe and dread. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College and is a poetry manuscript reader for Tiger Bark Press. A contributing music writer for Vermont's independent voice, Xenia's creative work has appeared in Same Faces Collective and Inkwell.
Devon Riddick
Poetry Reader
Devon Riddick is a 22-year-old poet and recent HBCU graduate. He enjoys collecting vinyls, reading and gaming.
Isabella Rayner
Poetry Reader
Isabella (she/they) is a writer from North Carolina. Most of her work revolves around memory, identity, love, and grief. When not at the library, you can usually find them drinking matcha, singing, or playing guitar.
Michaela Godding
Poetry Reader
Michaela Godding is a 26-year-young creative writing high school teacher and private vocal coach. Her debut chapbook, dwelling, was published by Bottlecap Press and can be tangibly or digitally purchased on their website. More of her work can be found in Rabble Review Issues 4, 5 and 7 as well as in the Connecticut Bards Poetry Review Book of 2022. When Michaela’s not writing, singing or teaching, she is most likely eating mac and cheese out of a pan next to a freshly lit candle. You can follow her current projects and upcoming publications on Instagram @god.ding.
Lili Panahi
Poetry Reader
Lili (she/they) is a second-year university student, studying Architecture at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. Outside of their studies, they like to write and illustrate short stories and poems, with the goal of publishing illustrated children's books.
Madison Petaway
Poetry Reader
Madison Petaway is a performance poet and teaching artist hailing from Houston, Texas. She was Houston’s 2020 Youth Poet Laureate and her piece “To Be a Black Girl” was featured in the New York Times.
Anne O'Leary
Poetry Reader
Anne is a recent graduate of a Creative Writing BFA from Emerson College based in California. She enjoys writing thrillers with queer protagonists along with performance based poetry. If she isn’t writing, is exploring along the coast taking pictures of nature with her camera.
Fiction/Nonfiction
Dee Harper
Fiction & Nonfiction Reader
Dee is a writer of short fiction and poetry; her work exists within the sphere of the nostalgic and the macabre and the intersections of queerness and black womanhood. Her work has been published in Same Faces Collective, Runt Magazine, Screen Door Review, and The Malu Zine.
Lauren Lagasse
Fiction Reader
Lauren Lagasse is a Connecticut-based short fiction writer and alumna of Marist University. She previously served as Editor-in-Chief of her campus literary magazine, Marist Mosaic, and currently is trying her best at writing a novel. Find her on Instagram @laurensydd.
Chidera Nwume
Fiction Reader
Chidera Nwume is a Nigerian writer. Her fiction and nonfiction center on modern femininity, mental health, alternative living, complicated relationships, and the lived experiences that often go unspoken. She is a recipient of many awards and scholarships, including the Friends of American Writers Chicago Scholarship and the 2025 StoryStudio Chicago Emerging Writers Award. Her story, “Welcome to Iya Mosun’s Midnight Club,” won the 2024 Journal of African Youth Literature Prize for Fiction. You can find more of her work in Allium Journal. Chidera holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago.
Evan Robertson-Brown
Fiction Reader
Evan is a fiction writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in Creative Writing from Beloit College. Born in Peoria, Illinois, he now lives in Andersonville, Chicago, with his partner and their two cats. His fiction has appeared previously in marrow magazine, and Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose.
Kat de Jesus Chua
Fiction Reader
Kat de Jesus Chua is a Pushcart Prize–nominated short story writer. Born in Manila, she drifted steadily east through Singapore, Berkeley, and other cities before making a home, lakeside, in Chicago. Her years in entertainment data science and civic transparency activism deepened her love of stories and her belief in storytelling as a necessary human ritual. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.
Emma Gustafson
Fiction Reader
Emma is a fiction writer and NYU graduate based in Southern California. She is currently working on her first novel.
