826 Quarterly, Volume 27

826 Valencia, based in San Francisco, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Our services are structured around the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. Kiley McLaughlin is a poet and educator living in the Bay Area. She is the author of three chapbooks of poetry, and holds degrees from Harvard and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She’s had the privilege to work as a Programs Coordinator serving the students of 826 Valencia for three years, and is now moving on to pursue a doctorate at UC Santa Cruz, where she’ll be studying the literature of diaspora communities. Kristen Solecki is an artist and illustrator based in Charleston, South Carolina. Since earning her degree in illustration from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, Solecki has worked with a variety of clients to create editorial illustrations, book cover art and illustrations, marketing materials, paintings, and other projects. When she’s not doing client work, Solecki exhibits her art in galleries around the country, teaches workshops, and curates exhibitions. She is always on the lookout for out-of-the-box projects that use illustration in new and unique ways.