2017 Hot Dish Staff
Abigail Fellin
Abigail Fellin is a junior English major at Buena Vista University. She enjoys short walks to the fridge and can be commonly found wearing slippers as shoes. Abbe is the salt-shaker of Hot Dish’s spice rack, and she loves reading through the submissions and working with the submitters to try and grow as writers.
Sarah Nicholson
Sarah Nicholson is a Digital Media Major, English minor at Buena Vista University. She has been published in the 2014 edition of Lyrical Iowa and presently writes and takes photos for the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune. Her passions lean heavily between books and movies. Nicholson grew up in Iowa and if not for the help of a teacher who saw potential in her work, she may have never pursued her writing. She hopes Hot Dish can provide others students with a similar sense of validation.
Benita Kamikazi
Benita Kamikazi is currently a junior at Buena Vista University and is a Marketing major. Her home country, Rwanda, is a tiny but beautiful country located in East Africa. When she’s not listening to 90s hip hop, Benita can be found watching movies or obsessing over watches. With her creative side, she hopes to go into advertising in the future and that is what she does for Hot Dish Magazine. Something that Benita has enjoyed while working for the online magazine was using social media to raise awareness and attract people to Hot Dish Magazine.
Kacee Baker
Kacee Baker is a senior English major at BVU. She chose her major after seeing The Proposal and deciding she wanted to be an editor, and although she has since changed her career goals and her opinion on the movie, she loved living out her childhood fantasy by reading and editing the great submissions to Hot Dish Magazine.
Ranelle Irwin
Ranelle Irwin is a junior English major at Buena Vista University. Ranelle’s personality varies from cinnamon roll to cinnamon challenge. She enjoys studying Japanese, playing video games, and running her Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Ranelle does a little bit of everything for the magazine, but she especially enjoys reading the submissions from high school students and seeing the talents and perspectives they bring to the table.
Emily Wedell
Emily Wedell is a sophomore English and Spanish Major at Buena Vista University. Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Emily offers a slightly different perspective of the Midwest than her peers. While others provide the sweetness and saltiness in the magazine, Emily adds the spice. Besides her addictions to movies and a fantastic cup of coffee, she loves writing, being outside, hanging out with friends, and editing the many works submitted to Hot Dish by high school students.
Zainab Uwase
Zainab Uwase is a sophomore Marketing major at Buena Vista University. Her interests include listening to K-pop albums, reading historical tragedies and keeping up with politics. While working on the magazine she enjoyed reading the submissions from the high school students and being part of something that helps the youth indulge themselves more in literary works.
Joanna Isimbi
Joanna Isimbi is a junior Marketing and Communication major at Buena Vista University. Born and raised at the heart of Africa, Rwanda, her love for helping others is her reason to live. She passes her time listening to music, watching her favorite TV show, Friends, and reading Danielle Steele books. While gaining experience with the marketing world when promoting the magazine through different platforms, Joanna’s favorite part of Hot Dish Magazine is the team that inexplicably works very hard.
Gwen Hart
Gwen Hart is an Associate Professor of English at Buena Vista University. She is the author of two books of poetry and numerous short stories in literary magazines such as Litro, Heater, and Calliope. Her second poetry collection, The Empress of Kisses, won the 2015 X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize from Texas Review Press. She enjoyed seeing the inaugural issue of Hot Dish Magazine come together through the creative work of BVU students majoring in English, digital media, and marketing.