2025-2026 Staff

Katy Didden

Katy Didden is an associate professor and director of the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, where she teaches workshops with a special focus on poetry and creative writing and the environment.

Managing Editors

Rowan Hartje

Rowan Hartje is a current Junior at Ball State, majoring in Creative Writing and minoring in Sustainability, Social & Environmental Justice, Philosophy, and Spanish. They are currently one of the Managing Editors for The Broken Plate. Outside of The Broken Plate, they can be found hiking in Turkey Run State Park or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Rowan hopes to become the editor for an environmental literary journal, be a climate advocate, and publish a poetry collection (or two!).

Taylor Dennis

Taylor Dennis is a junior at Ball State University with a major in Creative Writing and minors in American Sign Language and Communications. She is currently one of the Managing Editors for The Broken Plate. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in publishing and writing, as well as certification to be an ASL interpreter. When she’s not busy writing, she enjoys acting in and directing theatre productions.

Promotions Team

Ava Joniec

Ava Joniec is a senior at Ball State University, majoring in creative writing and minoring in screenwriting.  She is a member of the Promotions Team of The Broken Plate. After graduation, she plans to go into editing and publishing or video game narrative writing. In her free time, you can find her searching for a park or forest to explore the remaining wilderness with friends, working on her novel, or reading a fantasy novel.

Chloe Alexander

Chloe Alexander is a Senior at Ball State University, majoring in an English Degree with a concentration in Creative Writing. She will be working on the Promotions Team and hopes to get a job in either publishing, editing, or copywriting after she graduates. Outside of class you can find her either in her dorm playing video games or snuggled up to her cat Daisy who she affectionately nicknamed “The Menace,” due to always causing some kind of chaos, on the weekends. 

Emma Carlson

Emma Carlson is a junior at Ball State University, majoring in English Studies with a minor in creative writing, and she is part of the Promotions Team for The Broken Plate. In her free time, you can find Emma curled up with a good book or hanging out with her friends. With the experience gained from The Broken Plate, Emma hopes to join the publishing industry as a book editor specializing in fiction after graduation.

Savannah Anderson

Savannah Anderson is a junior at Ball State, majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. She is part of the Promotions Team for The Broken Plate. You can also find her reading anything she can or hanging out with friends, always laughing her head off. In her free time, she can also be seen writing her novel or poems. After graduation, she hopes to become an author and go into publication, dreaming of one day having her own publishing house. 

Social Media Team

Daniela Cruz

Daniela Cruz is a third year Ball State Student majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Spanish. This is her first time working on The Broken Plate as a part of the Social Media Team. In her free time she likes to read and write short stories, novellas, and screenplays. She also spends a huge amount of time chasing and spending time with her toddler niece. After graduation she hopes to pursue a career in the publishing industry as an editor, working specifically in the literary fiction genre.

Jade Coffey

Jade Coffey is a junior Creative Writing major at Ball State with double minors in Marketing and [second minor]. She’s part of the Social Media Team for 2025–2026. When she’s not drafting posts, Jade is probably off exploring something new, or reading and writing way more than she should. After graduation, she hopes to find a career that uses all of her skills, and maybe publish a few books.

Johanna Zamora

Johanna Zamora is a senior at Ball State University, majoring in English creative writing with minors in professional writing and Spanish. This is her first year working on The Broken Plate, where she is a proud team member of the Social Media Team. After graduation, she hopes to get her master’s degree and work as an editor for a book publishing company. When she does have some free time, you can find her reading, crocheting, or being bossed around by Turbo, her orange cat. 

Mack Reed

Mack Reed is a Junior at Ball State studying English with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in screenwriting. They help run the Social Media Team for The Broken Plate ‘25-’26, and hope to use their experience to work in publishing in the future. They published their first book, “Where It Ends” by Mack Beckett their freshman year of college and spend most of their time writing sci-fi and dystopian stories.

Maela Cole

Maela Cole is a senior at Ball State University, double majoring in Women’s & Gender Studies and English (Creative Writing concentration), and triple minoring in History, Sociology, and Literature. She is a part of the Social Media and Poetry Editing teams for The Broken Plate 2025-2026. After graduation, she aspires to become a Sociology and Gender Studies professor and might publish some of her works between now and then. Outside of class, you can find her over-analyzing gender in various forms of media and writing her own queer dystopian fiction.

Website Team

Ashe Steiner

Ashe Steiner is a senior Creative Writing major at Ball State. She’s a member of the Website Team as well as Lead Poetry Editor for the 2025-2026 edition of The Broken Plate! Outside of this, Ashe can be found reading (so much), writing and working as a librarian. After graduation, she hopes to continue a career as a librarian, as well as publish a follow-up collection to her poetry anthology Queer Thing, I Love You. She would also love to go on to grad school one day and probably read even more.

Jalen Batiste Waddell

Jalen Batiste Waddell is a senior at Ball State University, double-majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and Media with a concentration in Production. He is currently a member of the Website Team as well as Lead Prose Editor for The Broken Plate 2025-2026. In his free time, you can find him at the movie theater, reading comic books, or editing videos. After graduation, Jalen plans on traveling abroad and then going to grad school for film directing. 

Natalie Byers

Natalie Byers is a senior at Ball State University, majoring in Professional Writing with a minor in Creative Writing. She serves as the Design Team Lead and is proud to be part of the Website Team for The Broken Plate 2025-2026. Natalie likes to spend her free time listening to music, marching with the Pride of Mid-America, spending time with friends, or writing poetry. After she graduates, Natalie hopes to pursue a career in either technical writing or copy editing.  

Tarek Hariri

Tarek Hariri is a Senior at Ball State, majoring in Creative Writing. This is his first year with The Broken Plate, and with the Website Team. He hopes to use his experience gained from his time at BSU and the Broken Plate to get into book editing. Any time he isn’t reading, he enjoys finding things to be a huge nerd about.