Issue 3 Contributors
Jennifer Ho
Jennifer Ho is an Australian-born, London-based illustrator and writer. Her visual work is inspired by folklore, gothic mysticism and the natural world. She often employs a monochromatic colour palette with intricate line work to explore themes of femininity, beauty and fragility.
Eishar Kaur
Eishar Kaur is a born-and-bred Londoner, an expert horoscope writer and a stereotypical Aries.
Find her on Twitter and Instagram @eisharkaur.
Alyssa Alarcón Santo
Alyssa Alarcón Santo is an illustrator and cartoonist, origi- nally from Los Angeles. She currently lives in Portland, OR where she fosters a coffee addiction with her writer husband. Art can be found at alyssalarcondesign.com.
Armeghan Taheri
Armeghan Taheri is an Afghan/German writer and activist working on the intersection between art and social justice. In her literary and artistic practice she aims to turn legacies of trauma, loss, survival and immigration into intellectual and political knowledge. She traces this knowledge in order to break binaries of race, gender, femininity, sexuality and body. She lives between New York and Berlin.
Andrea Pippins
Andrea Pippins is an illustrator and author who has a passion for creating images that reflect what she wants to see in art, media, and design.
Andrea is the author of: I Love My Hair, a coloring book featuring her illustrations celebrating various hairstyles and texture; Becoming Me, an interactive journal for young women to color, doodle, and brainstorm their way to a creative life; and We Inspire Me, a collection of essays, interviews, and advice on cultivating and empowering one’s own creative community. She also illustrated Young Gifted and Black and Step Into Your Power.
Andrea is based in Stockholm.
Elizabeth Lovatt
Elizabeth Lovatt is a writer of short stories and creative non- fiction living in London. She is currently part of ‘Futures in the Making’, an Arts Council funded LGBTQ+ collective of writers. She is also the creator of ‘the tiny narrative’, a bi- monthly newsletter for narrative obsessives.
Chloe Smith
Chloe Smith is a disabled and autistic writer and poet from the UK. She is a Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2015, and her poetry has been published in the ‘Great British Write Off: Whispering Words’ anthology, Rose Quartz Journal and Cauldron Anthology. Her flash fiction has been published in Ellipsis Zine, TRAIN, Three Drops From a Cauldron and The Ginger Collect. For more about her writing, please visit her website: https://chloesmithwrites. wordpress.com/. You can also find her on Twitter, @ch1oewrites.
Sabba Khan
Sabba Khan is an architectural designer and a storytelling artist. Her work is an exploration of first world city life through the lens of a working class second generation Pakistani Muslim migrant. She explores themes of belonging, memory and identity in hopes to bring unity and inclusion to at times tormented narratives. She is currently working on a full length graphic novel on the subject and aims to have it published by mid 2021.
Instagram; @sabbakhanart
Twitter: @sabbakhan_ facebook: sabbakhan.art
Jamia Wilson
Jamia Wilson is many things: An activist. A feminist. A storyteller. A mediamaker. But more than anything, she is a natural-born thought leader. As Executive Director and Publisher of Feminist Press at City University of New York, the former Women, Action, and the Media Executive Director, TED Prize Storyteller, and former Vice President of Programs at The Women’s Media Center, Jamia has been a powerful force in the social justice movement for nearly a decade. She’s also a staff writer for Rookie and has contributed to several books such as Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop, and I Still Believe Anita Hill. But what we’re most excited about is her own book that she’s currently writing about Beyonce and feminism. (Yes, really.) It’s no surprise she was named in Refinery29’s “17 Faces of the Future of Feminism”.
Kirsty Capes
Kirsty Capes is a Penguin Random House WriteNow mentee, and was a recipient of the H W Fisher Scholarship in 2017 (Curtis Brown Creative) and a Creative Future Literary Award in 2018. Her fiction and poetry have been published in Mslexia, Thrice Fiction, Rising, Roulade and Astronaut. She is current- ly a PhD candidate at Brunel University London. She lives in London.
S.Niroshini
S.Niroshini is a Sri Lankan-born writer and odissi dancer. Her work engages with themes of gender, cultural history, migration and memory. Her poetry, essays and writing can be found on Bedtime Stories for the End of the World, 3 of Cups’ anthology On Bodies, and Wasafiri. She lives in London.
@_ nishasoma
Nicholas Hayden
A non-smoker who loves to laugh, Nicholas maintains an avid interest in realms that feed his sartorial appetite and Modern American fiction fixation. His favourite authors include though are not limited to Tom Spanbauer and Truman Capote. Astrologically he is a Capricorn-Sagittarius Cusp which is just as thrilling as it reads.
Louisa Adjoa Parker
Louisa is of Ghanaian/English heritage, and lives in the west country. She writes poetry, fiction, BAME history and opinion pieces. Her poetry collection Salt-sweat and Tears and pamphlet Blinking in the Light were published by Cinnamon Press. Louisa’s work has appeared in publications including Envoi; Wasafiri; Bare Fiction; Ink, Sweat and Tears; Open Pen; Writing Motherhood (Seren Books); and Closure (Peepal Tree). She has been highly commended by the Forward Prize and shortlisted by the Bridport Prize. Her third poetry collection is due to be published in 2019. She has completed a first short story collection, and is finishing her first novel.
Joelyn Rolston-Esdelle
Joelyn is an intersectional feminist, hip hop lover and part-time essayist working in Children’s publishing full-time.
Neeki Chitsaz
Neeki is currently a multidisciplinary designer, working within concept illustration, branding and graphic design. She aims to produce high quality designs and illustrations, that profoundly communicate concepts and ideas. She loves allowing room for viewers to connect and interpret their own meaning. She is immensely proud to once again be part of TOKEN Magazine, as it gives her the opportunity to work alongside extremely talented creatives in order to together, communicate a story.
Aditi Joshi
Aditi is a designer, researcher, educator, and activist. Her work focuses on making design inclusive and work for everyone, not just the privileged few who can afford it. She holds degrees from the Glasgow School of Art and Olin College of Engineering.
Anike Idowu
Anike Idowu is a British-Nigerian writer and editor from Enfield. Her work has appeared in gal-dem and she is currently working on her first novel.
Sara Jafari
Sara Jafari is a British-Iranian writer who works in book publishing and runs TOKEN Magazine. She is also an awardee for the London Writers Awards, and Faber Academy graduate. She is currently working on her first novel. You can follow her on: @sarajafari.
Naomi Marika
Naomi Marika is a Okinawan-American photographer based in Washington, D.C. She enjoys steamed dumplings, denim overalls, and playing her ukelele.
Shristi Uprety
Shristi Uprety is a Nepali writer who grew up reading stories in English. She writes fiction, non fiction, and an experimental brew of the two. She currently lives in Vancouver.
Rakaya Esime Fetuga
Rakaya Esime Fetuga is a British-born writer of Ghanaian and Nigerian heritage, currently starting the Fiction Pathway MA at Royal Holloway. She read English and Creative Writing BA at the same university where she was awarded the Creative Writing Prize twice in 2015 and 2016. Rakaya won the Young Poet Laureate for London’s Poetry Competition in 2017, was shortlisted for the Out-Spoken Poetry Prize 2018 and won the Roundhouse Poetry Slam 2018. She tutors on weekends and lives in with her family London.
Natasha Dutta
20 years old Natasha Dutta was born and raised in India. She’s learning to draw everyday, loves indie music and is a sucker for arthoe aesthetics. New York is her dream. If she’s not stressing, she’s probably sleeping.
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is the author of Harmless Like You—the winner of The Authors’ Club First Novel Award and a Betty Trask Award. It was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an NPR 2017 Great Read. Her short work has appeared several places including Granta, Guernica, The Guardian, and The Atlantic. She is the editor of the Go Home! anthology.
Laura Bui
Laura Bui is a criminologist and lives in Liverpool.
Simi Abe
Simi Abe is a recent Creative Writing graduate with a long- standing love for art and design. She draws inspiration from the surrealist art movement and channels that playfulness into her own work. More of her art and illustration can be found on Instagram: @the_simiverse.
Raahat Kaduji
Raahat Kaduji is an Oxfordshire-based illustrator and recent English and Creative Writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. Her work reflects her love of nature, adventure and culture. She uses both traditional methods as well as digital processes to create her illustrations. Please don’t hesitate to contact: raahatkaduji@gmail.com.
Asha Mohamed
Asha Mohamed is a British-Somali Illustrator, writer and Co-Producer of @LiteraryNatives (a platform dedicated to championing writers of colour). Her short stories, one of which has been translated into Spanish, have been published in online literary magazines.
Her illustrations focus on differing aspects of the everyday, many of which, though universal are seen through her Somali lens. Much of her work is inspired by mental health and Somali proverbs and folktales. Her artwork is mainly through the medium of Pen & Ink.
Twitter: @baahramewe
Instagran: @baahramewe
Website: www.ashaillustrates@gmail.com
Melissa Smith
Artist and Community activist are two titles that have been bestowed on me since becoming poorly with a rare spinal condition and ME/CFS in 2014. Doodling helps to refocus my mind away from my pain and anxiety, it gives me a sense of achievement and also a way to get my story out there. Due to my illness, I had to stop teaching, creativity has helped me find a new career and start my own social movement - Feel Good Com. I am passionate about the benefits creativity can have on a person’s health, wellbeing and happiness.
https://feelgoodcom.org
Insta: @FeelGoodInsta
Twitter @FeelGoodMel
Facebook @FeelGoodCommunity
Raahat Kaduji
Raahat Kaduji is an Oxfordshire-based illustrator and recent English and Creative Writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. Her work reflects her love of nature, adventure and culture. She uses both traditional methods as well as digital processes to create her illustrations. Please don’t hesitate to contact: raahatkaduji@gmail.com
Asha Mohamed
Asha Mohamed is a British-Somali Illustrator, writer and Co-Producer of @LiteraryNatives (a platform dedicated to championing writers of colour). Her short stories, one of which has been translated into Spanish, have been published in online literary magazines.
Her illustrations focus on differing aspects of the everyday, many of which, though universal are seen through her Somali lens. Much of her work is inspired by mental health and Somali proverbs and folktales. Her artwork is mainly through the medium of Pen & Ink.
Twitter: @baahramewe Instagran: @baahramewe Website: www.ashaillustrates@gmail.com
Melissa Smith
Artist and Community activist are two titles that have been bestowed on me since becoming poorly with a rare spinal condition and ME/CFS in 2014. Doodling helps to refocus my mind away from my pain and anxiety, it gives me a sense of achievement and also a way to get my story out there. Due to my illness, I had to stop teaching, creativity has helped me find a new career and start my own social movement - Feel Good Com. I am passionate about the benefits creativity can have on a person’s health, wellbeing and happiness.
https://feelgoodcom.org/
Insta: @FeelGoodInsta
Twitter @FeelGoodMel
Facebook @FeelGoodCommunity