Laiana Farias – Editor-in-Chief
Empathetic, energetic and enthusiastic, Laiana somehow has too much and too little on her plate and is perhaps a little too good at always finding the time to squeeze everything in. You can always count on her to embark in an adventure with you or to entertain you with some amusing story of a ridiculous situation she got herself in – like the time she unknowingly stole a bike. Currently learning to find her place in this wild world with a lighthearted and hopeful mindset, she always finds the optimistic undertone of every situation.
Julia Kaczmarek – Editor-in-Chief and Graphic Designer
What you should know about Julia is that she is a person in a constant rush somewhere, fuelled on coffee – which is also one of her new interests, she might be sometimes late here and there, but she always tries to make it and will definitely make it up to you, probably with some strange story from her unsettled life. She is an extraordinary, creative person, who derives inspiration from oceanic nature that strangely calms her. She’s a feminist, who loves sustainable fashion and design and obsessing about her favourite designers. She loves to get into discussions about art, the 90s and the extraordinary everyday life. In her free time she tries to practice yoga, draw designs, watch fashion shows and RuPaul Drag Race or create new playlists, especially with electronic, house and dance music. She tries to focus her articles around fashion, movies and soundtracks, and she is looking forward to writing more about sustainable advice.
Arthur Mulder – Secretary
English Literature student who prefers novels in which next to nothing happens because far too much happens in real life for it to also be hectic in literature. He has been writing novels since he was seven in which things do tend to happen, much to his dismay, and later in life he has started composing overly sentimental sonnets for his girlfriend. His novels are a combination of magical realism and the classical literary genre ‘imperfect people in imperfect situations managing to have an okay time’, inspired by his literary heroes Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Wilde. His essays reflect his tendency to overthink even the most banal of things. In his free time he consumes an unhealthy amount of films, argues about art, and lifts weights.
Merel Langeveld – Treasurer
Merel is a second-year English student whose main goal in life is to always be the hottest girl at the grocery store. When she isn’t too busy trying to look mysterious by reading books in public places or falling in love with every other pretty person on the train, she spends her free time writing and convincing herself she’d be a bestselling author if she ever actually finished a project. In terms of personality, she really tries to be smart and considerate but in reality will probably forget anything you tell her within a few minutes. Her interests include petting random cats she passes on the street, accidentally killing every houseplant she buys, and using big words like “however” and “nevertheless” so she can feel intelligent. She also enjoys pretending to have a distinguished taste in media by listening to Hozier and reading Austen novels even though she loves Taylor Swift and terrible rom-coms just as much (if not more). She is a firm believer in physical books over e-readers and will defend wired earbuds until the day she dies.
Lhya Munive – Final Editor
Literature and writing enthusiast who will say yes to almost anything if it means she can get a good story out of it. Existential dread drove her to write poetry at the tender age of thirteen and thankfully, she never stopped. On slow mornings, she enjoys going on her favourite writer’s Twitter and kicking the day off with a laugh. Her room is full of plants she tries hard to keep alive and she genuinely believes she would be the happiest with a cat. Lhya is chaotic and also a control freak; an odd and at times interesting combination. She still hasn’t quite figured out who she is and she’s glad she never will.
Amy Larsen – Final Editor
Amy is an aspiring journalist and writer, currently in denial that this is her final year of university. She loves writing poetry, making art prints and underlining quotes in her favourite books. She can normally be found in a pretty cafe, people watching instead of writing her essays or planning her third to-do list of the day. Amy is always on hand with a cringey dad joke or sarcastic comment, but approach with caution if she looks hangry or it’s before 9am. Her favourite pastimes range from discussing feminist and philosophical issues to excitedly spinning her friends round on the dance floor.
Léa Vandervorst – Social Media Manager
Léa is a second-year English student who spends half her time saying that she doesn’t read as much as she should and the other half saying that she needs to find herself a hobby. In her free time, she likes to bake, read or just go on random walks around the city. A special interest of hers is to pick up new hobbies and invest herself fully in them before giving them up a week later. She also absolutely loves cats. She is very curious and loves to check random facts no one cares about such as someone’s biography or where a word comes from. She never really went past that stage in childhood when you keep asking random questions such as why the sky is blue. She doesn’t wear any jacket most of the time even if it is freezing outside but there is no need to tell her or you will be the third person doing so that day. She is always described by her friends as very chill and always smiling.
Anouk Roest – Website Manager
An English student that likes her own space and freedom to do her own things and if you tell her no she will do it just to spite you. She is generally a very happy person, but not in the mornings before she has had a cup of tea. People sometimes call her easy-going but this girl is very stubborn on specific topics, like the fact that unicorns do not have wings. Her bad habit is that she will keep arguing, even though she has already realised you are right, just to avoid having to admit she is wrong. She likes to cook all kinds of things as long as it is not part of the Dutch cuisine. Additionally, she tries to watch movies, but often gets bored halfway through, because this student has the attention span of a goldfish. And of course, as a final free-time killer – as you would have guessed from a literary student – reading. The genres or text types do not matter. As long as there are letters on a piece of paper she will be content. Overall Anouk would define herself as ‘organised chaos’.
Writer's Block Magazine 