Earlier this spring, we opened up applications for our Editors-in-Chief for our 2025 Community Anthologies program, which gives Seventh Wave’s editorial keys to curators in the community to edit and publish their own digital anthology on our site. Over the course of 7 months, our EICs will work together in a cohort as Seventh Wave guides them through the process of curating their individual anthologies, each comprised of 6 to 8 writers and artists.
This year, we selected 5 Community Anthologies. In previous years, we’ve published 4 Community Anthologies, but this year, we’ve added a fifth, which means we’re publishing more new voices — a total of 40 writers and artists — across our 5 anthologies. We’re thrilled to announce our selected EICs today, as well as the Finalists, for our 2025 Community Anthologies. Get to know these voices below.
Announcing our 2025 Editors-in-Chief
Naomi Day, Sanam Sheriff, Emilio Carrero, K-Ming Chang, Hairol Ma, Jody Chan, and Noa Sanders
We are thrilled to announce the 7 editors who will be at the helm of this year’s Community Anthologies. These 5 anthologies — and the 7 EICs — stood out for the searing depth and texture of their proposed topics, the rigorous yet invitational nature of their calls and questions, and the ways in which they boldly reimagine what’s possible.
- Naomi Day, editor-in-chief of “On Separation.” Naomi is a teaching artist and interdisciplinary storyteller working with Black speculative fiction and film photography. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School and has been published in LitHub, Uncanny Magazine, and Black Warrior Review, among others. She’s a current Editorial Fellow at Teachers & Writers Magazine and believes that art making is world making. She invites you to join her in this effort.
- Sanam Sheriff, editor-in-chief of “On Liminality.” Sanam is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Tin House, the Fine Arts Work Center, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and Seventh Wave. Sanam’s work has been published or is forthcoming in POETRY, Indiana Review, The Rumpus, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, The Adroit Journal, The Offing, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. For the past three years, they have served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College. Currently, Sanam curates The Poets’ Studio at Twelve Gates Arts and is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.
- Emilio Carrero, editor-in-chief of “On Collapse.” Emilio is a contributing editor for Southeast Review, and the author Autobiography of the [Undead] from Calamari Archive (2025).
- K-Ming Chang & Hairol Ma, editors-in-chief of “On Girlhood.” K-Ming is a Lambda Literary Award winner, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and an O. Henry Prize Winner. She is the author of BESTIARY (One World/Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the Otherwise Award. In 2021, her chapbook BONE HOUSE was published by Bull City Press. Her story collection GODS OF WANT (One World/Random House) won a Lambda Literary Award, and her books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, German, Turkish, and other languages. Her most recent books are ORGAN MEATS (One World, 2023) and a novella titled CECILIA (Coffee House Press, 2024). Hairol Ma is a writer from California based in Brooklyn. She is at work on a novel and a short story collection. She is very excited to read your work.
- Jody Chan & Noa Sanders, editors-in-chief of “On Repetition.” Jody (they/them) is a poet, grief and death worker, and community organizer based in Toronto/Tkaronto. They are the author of three books of poetry: sick (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), impact statement (Brick Books, 2024), and madness belongs to the people (Brick Books, forthcoming 2026). Jody is a member of the Daybreak Poets Collective, and co-host with Sanna Wani of the podcast Poet Talk. Noa Sanders is an archivist, writer, and community organizer. They were the founding editor of in:cite journal, an academic publication by and for youth of colour, and co-curated The Resemblage Project, an award-winning digital humanities initiative. Noa currently works at a digital archive of feminist activism in Canada and brings their experience in organizing to liberatory archival practice. They are a graduate student at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.
The above 5 anthologies are now open for submissions. The deadline to submit work is July 27, 2025. To read their calls in full and submit your work to one of our 2025 Community anthologies, see here.
Announcing our 2025 Finalists
Each year, our selection committee has the challenging task of selecting just 4 to 5 anthologies, often from a pool of 150+ applications. This year was no different. Our selection committee was in awe of the work submitted. This year, our applicants delivered some of the most pressing, insightful, and expansive applications and proposed topics we’ve ever read. We want to acknowledge our 15 Finalists below, whose voices are so very needed in today’s conversation.
- AD Lauren Abunassar, On Inheritance/Voyage
- Alishya Almeida, On Nourishment
- Sylphia Basak, On Imagination
- Stevie Billow, On Trans Healing
- Shlagha Borah, On Monsters
- Aquina Dicha, On Roots
- April Dobbins, On Connectivity
- Itiola Jones, On the Divine
- Rogelio Juarez, On Structures
- Zoë Luh, On Disabled Dreaming
- Jenika McCrayer, On Rage
- Lyndon Nicholas, On Revolt
- Luke Sutherland, On Animals
- Anri Wheeler, On Caregiving
- Nicole Young, On Forgetting
Keep an eye out for these voices, as each year, we invite and commission our Finalists to write a piece on their proposed topic for our Insights column. You can see some of last year’s pieces here.
Thank you to everyone who applied to be an editor-in-chief for our 2025 Community Anthologies. We never quite know who our calls will reach, but each year, we are reminded of the collective power of putting pen to paper and key to publication. We can’t wait to share our 2025 Community Anthologies with you, and look forward to continuing this program in the coming years.
