Letter from the Editor
Dear Reader,
The key to writing a punchy editor’s note is addressing the same reliable fact that eases small talk with an enemy or a stranger: we live in a weird time. Recently, I’ve found the only solace in our noisy political landscape is the shared understanding that our world is a little fucked up. I feel this “weirdness” hanging over my generation like a child’s mobile hangs above a crib: comforting and just out of reach. When I accepted the position as Editor-in-Chief of The Catalyst last spring, I had no idea where I’d take the magazine, or if I’d even successfully print the pages you now hold in your hands. However, when our 2024 Spring Launch opened with the reading of a raunchy piece about nipples and hair loss, my mission as incoming EIC became clear to me: Make “T he Catalyst” weird. Come fall quarter, and the problem was, I wasn’t entirely sure how to instruct students, or even myself, of how to achieve this goal. As the quarter progressed, I found myself using “weird” interchangeably with “honest,” urging students to invite absurdity into the very real stories of fear and obsession from their lives. I’ve grown to admire how the truth lies shamelessly in the cracks of fiction. Fiction allows us to better understand our own world by inhabiting a new one, by becoming agents in the story. I hope this magazine inspires you to be a little weirder today. Admire your cluttered bedroom, befriend a bug, fall down and don’t stand back up, tell someone you love them, tell the truth. I hope that you find this magazine weird and I hope that you love it.
Ali Korahais
Editor-in-Chief
Poetry
Claire Trask (she/her)
Ali Korahais (she/her)
Lucy Rothbardt (she/her)
June Padera (she/her)
Emily Yoon (she/her)
Simone Rotman (she/her)
Ashley Evans (she/her)
Charlotte Landon (she/her)
Kaia Boyer (she/her)
Zewen Gao (he/him)
Isis Casteñeda (she/her)
Melayah Terrell (she/her)
June Padera (she/her)
and It Told Me to Go Get Help
Kate Lewis (they/them)
Natalie Riley (she/her)
Matteo Shahar (he/him)
Srijita Karmakar(she/her)
Liv Brebes (she/her)
Eleanor Feighery (she/her)
Leslie Mills (she/her)
Jeovany Tzilin Gomez (he/him)
Prose
Emily Yoon (she/her)
Miles Trachtenberg (he/him)
Ruby Galuszka (she/her)
Kellan Nguyen (all pronouns)
Eleanor Feighery (she/her)
Milena Seymour (they/them)
Jakob Post (he/him)
Ruby Galuszka (she/her)
Lauren Ludwick (she/her)
Adam Griffin (he/him)
Margo Salmonson (she/her)
Ella McKhann (she/her)
The Team
Editor in Chief
- Ali Korahais
Managing Editor
- Adam Griffin
Literature Editors
- Natalie Riley
- Claire Trask
Design Editor
- Amanda Lerma
Editorial Team
- Isis Castañeda
- Adam DeMars
- Ashley Evans
Faculty Advisors
- Olivia Bievenue
- Brian Donnelly
Writers
- Kaia Boyer
- Liv Brebes
- Isis Castañeda
- Akela Craig
- Ashley Evans
- Eleanor Feighery
- Ruby Galuszka
- Zewen Gao
- Andrea Gaona
- Jeovany Tzilin Gomez
- Jocelyn Gomez
- Adam Griffin
- Rewind Hamilton
- Srijita Karmakar
- Allison Korahais
- Charlotte Landon
- Kate Lewis
- Lauren Ludwick
- Ella McKhann
- Leslie Mills
- Kellen Nguyen
- June Padera
- Jakob Post
- Natalie Riley
- Simone Rotman
- Lucy Rothbardt
- Amanda Rossiter
- Margo Salmonson
- Matteo Shahar
- Danielle Shin
- Milena Seymour
- Miles Trachtenberg
- Claire Trask
- Melayah Terrell
- Emily Yoon
Artists
- Sarah Baldwin
- Olivia Bievenue
- Liv Brebes
- Akela Craig
- Ashley Evans
- Eleanor Feighery
- Ruby Galuszka
- Jocelyn Gomez
- Adam Griffin
- Ali Korahais
- Amanda Lerma
- Ella McKhann
- Madeline Miller
- Leslie Mills
- Ingrid Murphy
- Emily O’Brien
- Ashley Reckers
- Natalie Riley
- Amanda Rossiter
- Margo Salmonson
- Niam Schade
- Milena Seymour
- Julia Shepherd
- Danielle Shin
- Beau Strickland
- Miles Trachtenberg
- Claire Trask
Fall 2024 Launch