Joseph D. Heidenescher is an experienced visual design specialist with a graduate-level education in English Language & Literature. As an editor, Joe's op-ed writing earned him a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2017. Joe's written and design work appears in The Bloomsbury Handbook to Octavia E. Butler, HUMANITIES Magazine, Mammon Magazine and The Independent Collegian. Joe earned his Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature at the University of Toledo, where he also served as the Editor of The Mill Literary Magazine. Joe is currently a PhD candidate in English Literature at Howard University with a research emphasis on apocalyptic sci-fi narratives of extinction and an Afrofuturist resistance to the colorblind politics of the 'Anthropocene.'