Director & Editor-at-Large

David Gessner is a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other magazines, and his prizes include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay “Learning to Surf.” He has also won the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, “The Call of the Wild.”  

Managing Editor & Microbursts Editor

Lexi Lilly is a second-year MFA candidate in Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is also pursuing her Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Publishing. You can find her stories and essays published or forthcoming in Broken Anter and CRAFT. She is currently working on an environmental essay collection and a science fantasy novel. When she’s not writing, you can find her trying (and mostly failing) to improve her pickleball skills and drinking way too many cups of coffee. 

Social Media Manager & Microbursts Editor

Zoe Hiemstra is a first-year MFA Candidate in Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She received an Honorable Mention in the Winning Writers 2024 Essay Contest, and you can find more of her writing at Cellar Door or on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s archives. She is currently working on a collection of essays about love, grief, and the natural world. If she’s not writing, you can find her swimming in the ocean or looking for rocks to collect. You can reach her at zghiemstra@gmail.com  

Poetry Editor

Katie Moino is an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She received an Honorable Mention in Poetry for the 2024 Northwind Writing Award, and her poems have appeared in Empty House Press, Isele Magazine, Shoegaze Literary, Vagabond City Lit, and elsewhere. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys practicing yoga and being outside. You can connect with her on Instagram @katiemoino. 

Nonfiction Editor

Josepha Natzke (she/her) is a nonfiction writer and artist whose writing has appeared in publications including Sundog Lit, Sixty Inches from Center, Laminator, and Newcity. She is also a zine editor, printmaker, beach walker, and wannabe gardener. Josepha has lived in Oregon, Chicago, and now North Carolina, where she is pursuing an MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Founding Editor & Fiction Editor

Sara Byrnes is an MFA candidate at UNCW studying nonfiction. She earned a BA in strategic communications and creative writing from Elon University. She is the managing editor of Ecotone. She’s been published in Hobart. 

Founding Editor & Heat Index Editor

Justine Payton is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where she is a recipient of the Philip Gerard Graduate Fellowship, the Bernice Kert Fellowship in Creative Writing, and the Robert H. Byington Award. Her writing can be found in Bellevue Literary Review, Isele Magazine, The Masters Review, Terrain, and others. She is a freelance editor, the University Partnership Director for Chill Subs, and a guest editor for The Masters Review, CRAFT, and Uncharted. She is co-editing the anthology Between Our Legs, forthcoming from University of Iowa Press in 2026.