Staff

Kazim Ali co-founded Nightboat Books with Jennifer Chapis in 2004 and served as its publisher from 2004-2007. He continues to edit books for Nightboat and serve as President of the Board of Directors. He is the author of sixteen books of poetry, fiction, essay and cross-genre work, as well as translator of works from French, Farsi and Spanish. He teaches at the University of California, San Diego, and lives in California.

Lina Bergamini is the Social Media and Operations Manager at Nightboat Books. They have a BA in writing from the New School and their work has appeared in Eleven and a Half Journal. Lina lives in New York.

Lindsey Boldt is the Editorial Director of Nightboat Books. Before joining Nightboat, Lindsey was Managing Editor of The Post-Apollo Press, co-publisher of the chapbook series Summer BF Press, and taught poetry in Bay Area public schools. She is the the author of Weirding (Dogpark Collective, 2022), There Are No Cops in America & The Streets Are Paved w/ Cheese (2020), Some Ennui (2019), <<(( ))>> (2016), and Overboard (2012). She lives in Olympia, Washington on Squaxin & Nisqually land.

Jaye Elizabeth Elijah is an editor at Nightboat Books. They previously served as the Publicity and Communications Coordinator. Their words have appeared in Polly Magazine and Rookie Magazine, and were recognized by the Cincinnati Arts Overture Awards. Jaye Elizabeth holds a BA in Literary Studies and a BFA in Illustration at The New School, and now lives in New Mexico.

Emily Lu Gao (she/they), or Em, is a neurodivergent poet, writer, educator, host and daughter of Chinese immigrants. Her poems are published in sine theta, poetry.onl, The Bellingham Review, Kissing Dynamite, The Good Life Review and Queer Rain. Em's prose lives in Mochi Magazine, Mashable, The Rumpus, Split Magazine and YLWRNGR. She has performed at The San Diego Art Institute, Historic Filipinotown LA and more. Currently they are a 2nd Year Poetry MFA student at Rutgers-Newark. When not writing, she is likely telling one too many jokes. Born on Kumeyaay Land (“San Diego”), she now lives on Munsee Lenape Land (“Jersey City”). Twitter & IG: @emdashsays

Gia Gonzales is the Managing Editor at Nightboat Books. She is also a poet based in New York City, where she was born. Her work has most recently appeared in Bæst: a journal of queer forms and affects, Femmescapes, Bomb Cyclone, and variously with the Poetry Project.

Trisha Low is the author of two books—The Compleat Purge (Kenning Editions, 2013) and Socialist Realism (Emily Books / Coffee House Press, 2019). She is an occasional contributor at tor.com and curates experimental film on celluloid as a member of the Light Field film collective. She lives in the East Bay of California.

Stephen Motika is the Director & Publisher of Nightboat Books. He was on the staff of Poets House in New York City from 2004 through 2017. The author of the poetry collection Western Practice (2012) and the poetry chapbooks Arrival and At Mono (2007), In the Madrones (2011), and Private Archive (2016), Motika is also the editor of Tiresias: The Collected Poems of Leland Hickman (2009) and co-editor of Dear Kathleen: On the Occasion of Kathleen Fraser’s 80th Birthday (2017).

Paloma Saint-Denis Lopez is the fall intern at Nightboat Books. They have a BA from Bennington College where they studied poetry, painting, and printmaking. Paloma grew up in Brooklyn, and has worked at Blue Stockings, Printed Matter, and was an editorial assistant for Bennington Review. They love syntax, etymology, logic, oil painting, letterpress printing, and writing difficult and occasionally visual poems for the silent reader.

Kit Schluter is the Design & Production Coordinator at Nightboat Books. He is author of Pierrot's Fingernails, The Good in Having a Nuclear Family, and 5 Cartoons. In addition to his work at Nightboat, he has worked as poet, translator, and book designer with New Directions, Wakefield Press, Ugly Duckling Presse, Canarium Books, Fonograf, & Other Stories, Dalkey Archive, Deep Vellum, Gato Negro Ediciones, & the Autonomous University of Mexico. He lives in Mexico City with his dog Xochi.

Santi is an editor at Nightboat Books. They previously served as a Fellow. They are a poet writing liminal states of consciousness at the intersection of Mexican ancestral ritual and queer futurity incubations. Santi holds a BA in Creative Writing from Reed College, where their poetry was recognized by the Academy of American Poets. They currently reside on Tsalaguwetiyi land in East Tennessee.

Naima Yael Tokunow is a writer, educator, artist, and editor, living in New Mexico. Her work focuses on exploring Black queer femme identity, kinship, and futurity. She is the author of three chapbooks, MAKE WITNESS (2016), published by Zoo Cake Press, Planetary Bodies (2019), out from Black Warrior Review, and Shadow Black, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown for the Frontier Digital Chapbook Prize in 2020. She proudly edits the Black Voice Series for Puerto del Sol and reads for POETRY Magazine. For selections of her work, visit naimaytokunow.com. She is blessed to be Black and alive.