Staff

Zenzelé (she/they) is a writer, film-lover, and good-time-haver from South Florida. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University with a BA in Multimedia Studies and a minor in Spanish, they moved to Brooklyn, NY where they worked in publishing and film distribution. They can be found attending film screenings in the park and reading Black feminist theory.

New Yorker by way of New Orleans, Allison Escoto received her BA in Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz and closed out the 90s as a bookseller in Greenwich Village. After several years in publishing, she pursued and received her MLS from Queens College. Since then she has worked as a librarian for 15 years in various libraries in and around NYC and has been moonlighting as a poet and copywriter. She reviews books for Booklist and serves on the ALA RUSA Notables committee. From 2017-2020, she was the Associate Editor for Newtown Literary Journal, a publication dedicated to featuring writers from her beloved Queens.

Melanie has worked in bookstores and publishing since 1971, including the dearly departed independents WordsWorth in Cambridge, The Chinook Bookshop in Colorado Springs, and Endicott Booksellers in Manhattan; and at Random House, Soho Press and Picador USA. She is also a partner in and buyer for Arcadia Books in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Gabor (they/them) made their way to NYC after growing up in San Francisco and then attending Vassar College for Computer Science and Chinese. Since moving to NYC, they’ve lived in Brooklyn and spend a lot of time outside of work reading, playing tabletop games, and cooking.

Born and raised in New York, Zaya (any pronouns) earned their undergraduate degree in Linguistics at The University of California, San Diego. Since returning to New York after a year abroad in Tokyo, Japan, they have resided in their hometown of Mount Vernon, and recently moved to Brooklyn. When they are not reading, they can most often be found studying languages, playing tabletop games, or working on their next big cosplay project.

Born and raised in NYC, Abbie Martin Greenbaum returned to the city after graduating from Oberlin College in 2017. Since then, she’s lived in Brooklyn, where she worked as the Arts and Culture Editor for Dandelion Chandelier until 2023. She recently received her MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and her writing can be found in Playbill and Five Points Journal. She’s friendly! Say hello!

Kristin Henley spent several years working at nonprofits and in the publishing industry before joining the staff of The Center for Fiction in 2006. She has worked on events, programs, and the website for The Center, and is now Managing Director. She received her MFA in poetry from Columbia University. She likes to take credit for the fact that so many poets have been hired at The Center for Fiction.

Born, raised, and famously still residing in New Jersey, Ceara Hennessey is a multidisciplinary writer, artist, and cocktail designer. They fell in love with the restaurant industry in high school, and worked as a hostess, waitress, cook, and busser before getting into cocktail bartending, which brought them to The Center. They graduated with a B.A. in fiction writing from Seton Hall University in 2019, where they won the 2019 South Wind Thesis Prize. They have received fellowships from Lighthouse Writers and Brooklyn Poets, and their work appears in Hobart, Angel Food, and Paloma. When not at The Center, they’re probably reading a book, doing the crossword, or harvesting crops in Stardew Valley.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Matt Kafoury received his BA in Communication from Trinity University in San Antonio. After graduating, he taught English at an elementary school in Madrid for one year before moving to Portland, Oregon in 2014. After four years as a graphic designer in Portland, he relocated to Brooklyn and joined The Center. Matt is an avid reader, filmgoer, and doodler.

Sebastian Mazza has spent nearly a decade working in literature, first at Bauman Rare Books in Manhattan; then as a graduate student at WashU, where he received an MFA in fiction, served as editorial assistant at Dorothy, A Publishing Project, won a fellowship at the Humanities Digital Workshop, and copyedited the journal of Medieval and Early Modern literature, Exemplaria; and now at The Center for Fiction, where he works as Writing Programs Associate.

Melanie McNair is a writer who first found her love for the literary world at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in her home town of Asheville, NC. In her first iteration as a New Yorker, she worked in the director’s office at the Brooklyn Museum and discovered the magic that is The Center for Fiction in a writing workshop at the old midtown location. After a hiatus from the city to earn her MFA from Rutgers University and spend some time with family in NC, she is thrilled to call Brooklyn home again.

Judith is a poet, fiction writer, and former journalist from Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY. Before joining The Center in 2024, she served as the Director of Special Programming and Communications (and occasional workshop leader) at NY Writers Coalition. In her 10 years as a journalist, she worked on staff as a reporter, writer, and editor at Refinery29, Cosmopolitan, and Inc. magazines, and freelanced for several others. Judith has performed at Lincoln Center’s “Poets on the Plaza” summer reading series, was a Fellow with poet Shira Erlichman’s “portable creativity school” In Surreal Life (ISL), and been published in the 2023 and 2024 Best Microfiction anthologies as well as other literary journals.

Denisse Griselda Reyes (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker. Suspended between tragedy and pleasure, they use humor as a performative strategy to process the grief and absurdity that comes with recreating transhistorical subjects. They love reading theory and philosophy for their research on Latinx ontology and fiction about memory, identity, and death. Their films and work have been exhibited at White Columns, A.I.R. Gallery, Artforum, NoBudge Films, Film Diary NYC, Lenfest Center for the Arts, The Wallach Art Gallery, Velvetpark Media, MODA Critical Review, and internationally. Before joining The Center for Fiction, they received an MFA in Visual Arts (New Genres) from Columbia University and a BA in Art History from Wesleyan University. They are currently an A.I.R. Gallery Fellow and live and work in Brooklyn, NY.

Ann is a born-and-raised Brooklynite, from Williamsburg to Crown Heights, who has worn many hats in her career: retailer, personal shopper, reading/writing tutor, and after-school teacher. She loves books and being a bookseller. (Seeing a child’s face light up at their favorite book or author is priceless.) Ann fell in love with books in elementary school when one of her favorite teachers introduced her to Langston Hughes, and now she is never without a book or two (and it’s not unusual for her to be reading two at the same time). Ann is always looking for a good-to-great story that can keep her turning a page till the last one. As a reading/writing tutor and after-school teacher for K-12 students, she has been able to share stories of her own and wonderful books with children who enjoy reading or are just getting started. Ann believes a good book is a piece of great art and her favorite genre is Mystery. She studied English and Professional Writing at Medgar Evers College

Grace Shields grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee with a book in her hand. A recent graduate of the New School’s MFA program, she joined The Center for Fiction as an intern in 2021 and has been there ever since. You can often find her reading literary fiction or narrative memoirs, and she will gladly discuss whichever book she has in her backpack that day with you. In her spare time Grace is also a writer who hops between essays, short stories, and graphic memoir pieces. Her work has been featured in the Sun magazine and the Rumpus, among others.

Jory has worked in independent bookstores since moving to New York from Australia four years ago and deciding to fulfill his childhood dream of working in a bookstore. He started as a bookseller before moving to manager and then general manager of a number of Manhattan bookstores. Prior to that he worked as a journalist and a copy editor. He spends his free time cycling, swimming, and reading. He particularly enjoys meandering books about nothing, and matriarchal family sagas.

Melanie Wu is an artist and filmmaker from Miami, FL who recently graduated from the New School with a BA/BFA in Screen Studies and Fine Arts. During her studies, she worked at the college’s library where she developed an interest in archives and cataloging which have shaped her video and sculpture practice. When she’s not wearing her artist cap she enjoys bouldering, reading, and organizing public film screenings.

Melissa has centered her career in nonprofit leadership, with a particular love for the arts and literature. Prior to joining The Center for Fiction, she held leadership roles in arts and educational nonprofits, most recently as the Chief Advancement and Communications Officer for The Quad Preparatory School, where she drove increased funding for neuroinclusive learning. She is the author of Artists in Residence: Seventeen Artists and Their Living Spaces, from Giverny to Casa Azul from Chronicle Books. She has held fellowships and residencies at MacDowell, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Ruby Grant from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the Myra Sklarew Award for fiction. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys adventures in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.