Keana Aguila Labra
Co-Founder, Co-Editor in Chief, Publisher
Keana Aguila Labra (they/them/she/her) is a Cebuana Tagalog Filipinx poet & writer in diaspora residing on stolen Ohlone Tamyen land. She works to provide a safe literary space for underserved & underrepresented communities as the Editor-in-Chief of literary magazine, Marías at Sampaguitas and the co-Founder of the BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ focused publishing press, Sampaguita Press. Outside of MAS & SamPress, she is the Interview Lead for the Walang Hiya Project, an arts collective centering Filipinxaos of marginalized genders & LGBTQ+ folks. She is also a fellow of the Kearny Street Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab cohort of summer ’21 & currently a Barangay Tanod intern with the Bayanihan Center in San Francisco. In her free time, she is a book reviewer with City Book Review. She is the author of the chapbooks, No Saints (Lazy Adventurer Publishing) & Mohilak (Fahmidan Co. & Publishing) and Kanunay. She served as one of the Honorary Santa Clara County Poets Laureate of October 2021 alongside Lorenz Mazon Dumuk. Her biggest secret is that Tagalogs can’t tell she’s Cebuano when she speaks Tagalog. Unfortunately, all Bisayans can tell she’s Tagalog when she speaks Cebuano.
Kelly Ritter
Co-Founder, Co-Editor in Chief, Publisher
Kelly Ritter (she/they) is an avid reader, DIY crafter, and content creator of the Indianapolis area. She graduated from Ball State University and currently juggles two gigs while reviewing manuscripts for Sampaguita Press. When she’s not reading or tweeting, she’s probably outside looking for cool rocks. You can find Kelly on Instagram, Twitter, & TikTok @KellyLovesLit
Maria Bolaños
Co-Founder, Co-Editor in Chief, Publisher (currently on leave)
Maria Bolaños (she/they) is a Filipina American poet, book reviewer, and co-Founder of Sampaguita Press. She is committed to building spaces to nurture and showcase Filipinxao literature as well as Black, Indigenous, and POC literature. Her poems were nominated for Best of the Net in 2021 and 2022, and her writing has been featured in US publications such as Touchstone, Cut Fruit Collective, and the International Examiner. Their international publications include Antigone and Yuzu Press, among others. She is the author of SANA, the inaugural poetry collection of Sampaguita Press. See more of their work on Instagram @mariabeewrites.
Noreen Ocampo
Editor
Noreen Ocampo (she/her) is a Filipino American writer and poet from metro Atlanta. She is the author of two chapbooks, including There Are No Filipinos in Mississippi (Porkbelly Press, 2025) and Not Flowers (Variant Lit, 2022). Her poems appear in Frontier Poetry, Poetry Northwest, the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy, and elsewhere. She is grateful to have received scholarships and support from Tin House / the McCormack Writing Center, Monson Arts, the Longleaf Writers Conference, and the University of Mississippi, where she earned her MFA. She is at work on her first full-length collection of poems.
Belana (Lana) Labra
Administrative, Publishing, & Social Media Coordinator
Lana Labra (she/they) is a freelance graphic designer, digital and creative marketer, and is an Administrative, Publishing, & Social Media Coordinator at Marías at Sampaguitas and Sampaguitas Press. She is a graduate from the University of San Diego, with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and minor in Accounting. She is currently back in school pursuing UX/UI Design.
Mack Ibrahim
Editorial Assistant
Mack Ibrahim (they/them) is a Filipino-Egyptian short form writer and skier hailing from the country of New Jersey. They earned their B.A. in English Writing and a minor in American Ethnic Studies from Wheaton College. In their free time, you can find them exploring the American Northeast, reading essays on contemporary West Asia/North Africa, and watching Red Bull Snow videos on YouTube.
Bella Ramos
Editorial Assistant
Bella Ramos (she/her/hers) is a proud Filicana (Filipino-Mexican) American writer and aspiring editor. She is currently a student at California State University, Fresno pursuing a double Bachelor’s Degree in English Creative Writing and Asian American Studies, where she’ll be one of the first graduates with the latter. She loves getting lost in global mythology, reading novels just about anything from fiction and non-fiction, and napping with her cat son Snoopy.
David Anderson
Operations Coordinator
David Anderson (he/him) is an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy novels. He is an aerospace engineer living and working on the Gabrielino, Tongva, Kizh land also known as Los Angeles. He is a mixed-race person of Native American and European ancestry, on a personal decolonization journey to reconnect with and honor his Yaqui, Hopi, Tongva and Chumash roots.
Eric Asuncion
Editorial & Social Media Coordinator
Eric Asuncion (he/him) is a pop culture essayist, comic writer, and Social Media Coordinator of Marías at Sampaguitas and Sampaguita Press. He is the co-director of the BuliLit Zine issue, Nostalgia is in the Heart, which is forthcoming Fall 2022. He is a graduate from San José State, holding a Bachelor’s degree in English. His work may be found in the CAMP: glitter in our eyes issue published by Marías at Sampaguitas. As a writer and creative, he caters to the audience with a keen attention to detail, as well as the ability to use insight to simplify otherwise more complex ideas.
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