CHUM’S NEW EDITORS
IN COZY DIGS, LUTHER HUGHES (POETRY EDITOR) AND NAOMI DAY (FICTION EDITOR) DISCUSS THEIR NEW CHUM NEWS GIGS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MERON MENGHISTAB | JAN 17, 2026
We’re growing! CHUM News is overjoyed to announce that Naomi Day and Luther Hughes are joining the team as CHUM’s Fiction Editor and Poetry Editor, respectively. Some brief bios:
Naomi Day (she/her) is a writer, editor, and teaching artist who writes speculative fiction about the Black body, social monstrosity, and generational trauma. Her critical writing and short fiction have been published in Lit Hub and FIYAH Magazine, among others, and she edits for The Seventh Wave. Naomi is part of the Clarion West class of 2022 and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Raised in rural New England, Naomi has recently returned to Seattle to give these gloomy winters another go.
Luther Hughes (they/them) is the author of the debut poetry collection A Shiver in the Leaves (BOA Editions), listed as a best book of 2022 by The New Yorker, and the chapbook Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018), recommended by the American Library Association. They are the founder of Shade Literary Arts, a literary platform for queer writers of color, and they co-host the Poet Salon podcast with Gabrielle Bates and Dujie Tahat. Their writing has been published in The Paris Review, Orion, American Poetry Review, and others. Luther lives in Seattle, where they were born and raised.
To start, Naomi and Luther will each commission one local writer and poet, respectively, per month. These works will be in conversation with the other pieces published that month in CHUM News. As CHUM’s budget grows through paid subscriptions, donations, and grants, Naomi and Luther will commission more work, pay a higher rate (currently $150), and dispatch poets and writers to attend and react to newsworthy local events in real time.
CHUM’s new dynamic duo met up last week at the Cedar Tea House, a cozy late-night salon nestled next to the Beacon Cinema on Rainier Ave. Under the soft glow of homey floor and table lamps, and cupping agave-sweetened brews, Naomi and Luther reflected on their relationships to Seattle’s writerly spaces, and shared their goals as stewards of CHUM’s literary efforts.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Luther Hughes: Last time we met, you briefly talked about wanting to branch out more behind the scenes in the arts. Can you talk more about that?
Naomi Day: I lived in Seattle before COVID, and I’ve come back recently. I know a lot about the speculative fiction side of the city, but relatively little about the rest of the literary world here, so I’m really excited to meet people who are working across genres in those spaces. I’m excited to act in this type of supporting role for the arts in Seattle. I think there’s a lot of really cool work happening at all levels of experience. I want to connect with all these folks.
“The poetry scene mimics Seattle in a way, and both are trying to get back up again.”
LH: Whenever I meet fiction writers or prose writers, I’m enamored by them. In my heart of hearts, I wish I was a fiction writer. I like the idea of storytelling through fiction, and I think often about the idea of lying for a living.
ND: I’m curious and thinking about poetry. You’ve been in the poetry world for a long time and in a lot of different spaces, and you’re from Seattle. I’m curious how you’ve seen the poetry scene in Seattle shift over the years, and what you’re excited to do with this position as it relates to that community.
LH: Growing up in Seattle, I wasn’t an out poet; I wrote poetry in high school, but primarily I was a dancer. I danced hip-hop on this dance team called Kutt‘N’Up Entertainment. I only started doing open mics around age 18, 19. Before the pandemic, the poetry space was so lively; there were events happening all the time.
ND: Yeah, I remember. I went to many of those.
LH: Yeah, it was cool to be part of that environment. But the pandemic made the poetry scene dissipate. I think it’s interesting: The poetry scene kind of mimics Seattle in a way, and both are trying to get back up again. There are a few poetry readings that have started that I think are pretty cool, like Other People's Poems, hosted by Ally Ang and Cody Stetzel, and Lit Lounge, hosted by Jodi-Ann Burey.
ND: I’ve been going to events at Seattle Arts & Lectures since moving back, and I’m excited to find new spaces and additional ways for people to come around literature and poetry. And I’m excited for people to come hang with us.
LH: What else do you want to accomplish as an editor for CHUM?
ND: I have a lot of experience on the speculative side of things, and a fair bit of experience in the nonfiction world. And I'm really excited to see work that crosses those genres — pieces that speak really specifically to place, the place of Seattle, the time of Seattle. That could mean thinking about what Seattle was like during the pandemic, or in the ’90s. Imagining what it might be like in the future, reflecting on what it has been.
“There’s a lot of really cool work happening at all levels of experience. I want to connect with all these folks.”
Like I said briefly, I’m excited to get to know Seattle again. I think it's really interesting to come in as a relative newcomer, and say, Hey, I'm a fiction editor at this journal that's focused on Seattle, so I'm looking to the community to lead me on what they want to read and what they want to publish and what they want to write. What about yourself?
LH: I've been a poetry editor for over ten years. I just love being a resource for people. And with CHUM, with its emphasis on Seattle and its a passion for Seattle, I’m looking forward to getting a pulse from poets and allowing the city to guide me as well. Being from Seattle myself, it feels like I’m giving back. And I’m excited to find new poets, love on them, and share their work. You know, Seattle has, like, a million writers, and I think poetry has so much to offer. CHUM is already a phenomenal place, but it’ll be even more lively once fiction and poetry are in there.
Visit the Cedar Tea House (we liked it!).
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To pitch Naomi and Luther, send an email to editors@chum.news