Tala Khanmalek | mecca monarch (all pronouns) is a queer Iranian writer, editor, and scholar as well as a former reader for Split This Rock. Tala earned a PhD in ethnic studies from UC Berkeley and is a graduate of VONA, RAWI’s SWANA Mentorship Program, and the Tin House Summer Workshop. Tala’s creative writing has appeared in the American Academy of Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Seventh Wave, Indiana Review, Epiphany, Meridian, and more.
