Meet The Diverse Baseline's 2026 Team

We (Margherita & Brittany) are excited to announce the newest members to The Diverse Baseline reading challenge team !!!

Read below to get to know each of them: a new co-host, along with 10 new Discord moderators.

If they’ve decided to share their social media accounts with yall, they are linked below.

Mylynn (she/her/hers) is a multiracial (CHamoru, Filipina, white), chronically online, neurodivergent reader. She grew up super sheltered in Arizona and Guam, but 8 years in the Air Force radicalized her (much to her parents’ dismay).

As a textbook Scorpio with a lot of water in the rest of her chart (or so she’s told), you can find her: oversharing, feeling too much, and subsequently disassociating. She has strong opinions on pickles (Grillos whole dill or spicy Bubbies or Trader Joe’s cornichons, and NEVER sweet pickles), and loves pineapple on pizza.

Her hobbies include: video games (current favs: OW2, Valorant, Hades 2), napping, unsuccessfully trying to convert her friends into whatever her current hyperfixation hobbies are (mainly: Love and Deepspace), hehehaha-ing with friends, and using excessive exclamation points and parentheses.

A few of her favorite 2025 TDB reads are: The Cage of Chaos by Wren Blackburne, The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem, Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis, and Witch You Would by Lia Amador.

Hi I’m Kate (She/They)

I live in Florida, I’m a 27 year old zillennial, sagittarius sun pisces moon, and virgo rising. Some of my favorite non bookish activities are making art, talking to my tarot cards, thrifting things your grandma thinks are cute, and baking.

Books I Recommend:

Discord: readingwithtemperance3990

Erika (she/her/hers) is a Dominican-American high school librarian from the San Francisco Bay Area. She was born in Washington state, but has lived in many places, including NYC and Hawaii.

Her favorite genres to read are fantasy and romance.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling, going to the library, and playing/watching sports with her husband and their 4 boys!

Some books she would recommend are “On The Hustle“ by Adrianna Herrera, “Legendborn“ by Tracy Deonn, and “The Message“ by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

You can find her on Instagram at @booknerderika

Discord: erikan19

Andrew (he/they) is a photographer and barista from metro Atlanta that lives for a good flat white. When they’re not reading, they’re probably daydreaming about their next trip or obsessively following the Eurovision Song Contest. He shares book reviews at @andiironda.reads, travel photos at @andiironda, and writings here.

Books I Recommend:

Discord: andiironda

Hi, I’m Jenny (she/her)! I live in Canada, and as a teacher and parent I’m the Mom Friend in most groups. Reading and talking about books are my main hobbies.

I mostly read fantasy and/or queer books, plus nonfiction, but I’ll read all kinds of genres.

My favourite books that I’ve read for TDB are:

Discord: jenny.loquor

Hello, I’m Candace and I’m 28!

I prefer she/her pronouns. I’ve been reading a lot of YA horror lately and my favorite books by racialized authors are The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones, We Don’t Swim Here by Vincent Tirado, and White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson. I think I’m 5’1 (and in my opinion, 3 quarters). I have the incredible burden of being so hot and having such great music taste.

Discord: candycanelane

Hi, I’m Monique (she/her/hers)!

I’m a cat lover, food scientist, and triple Virgo who recently became a mom! I’m an avid hobby collector! Reading, watercolor, gaming, singing, buying books, barre, cooking and trying new things.

My TDB recs are:

Find me on IG @bookishlymonique where I’ll eventually get around to more grid posts.

Discord: iridium.crystal.gem

Allison (she/her/hers) is a Los Angeles-based reader, writer, and host of book gatherings that celebrate connection.

She works in diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion within the entertainment industry and is passionate about exploring the intersection between romance, entertainment, and community.

She’s excited to serve as a moderator for the Diverse Baseline Challenge, celebrating stories and storytellers across genres and identities!

Discord: allisonambili

Hi, I’m Kayla! (she/her/hers)

You can find me on Instagram: @emoxacademia

Hobbies: Reading (obvi), writing, pure barre, playing poker, cuddling my cats

My Diverse Baseline Recs:

Discord: emoacademia

Peach (they/them) is a 31 year-old, Indigenous doctoral student studying in the Eastern USA. Though their research interests lie primarily in Victorian literature and literary theory, they also love to read fantasy, horror, and other forms of speculative fiction.

Their favourite food is tacos but they also love frybread tacos. Their favourite book of all time is Dracula and they collect different editions, but their favourite book that they’ve read from the Diverse Baseline is Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot.

Online, you can find them primarily on twitter @narcophelia or on Bookstagram @menage_a_livre

Discord: menage_a_livre

Marietere (she/her/hers). 33. Puerto Rican. Full middle child that loves to read romance. Hobbies include watching and talking about sport (formula 1 and futbol). Happily support my national team in any sport.Books I recommend:

Discord: thisboricuareader

We encourage you to reach out to the moderators on Discord if you have a question or concern about activity in the server. If you haven’t joined the server yet, you can do so here.

Margherita is a queer and disabled reader and indie author from Italy.

Xe has a passion for languages, a tendency to sleep in, and never a clue what to do with xyr life.

Some of xyr favorite books are: I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang, The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado, A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert, If You’ll Have Me by Eunnie, and Single Dads Club by Therese Beharrie.

Margherita now publishes books as Robin Jo Margaret and R.J. Margaret.

Discord: robinjomargaret

Brittany is a voracious first-generation Filipina & Chinese reader, theatre nerd (lol she was in the chorus), & cringey millennial from the SF Bay Area. Her background is in education, but feels proudest of her arsenal of pop culture knowledge from being perpetually online.

She is a renowned pet sitter, notorious ClassPass hoe (Pilates & Lagree are her favorite), & professional giggler. Her meme folder is unparalleled, her crash outs are impressive, & she unfortunately loves icebreakers.

She is bi, demi, neurodivergent, chronically ill, & to top it all off, an insufferable Virgo. Her main hobbies include watching the excitement fade from her loved ones’ eyes as they wait for her to finally stop talking about her hyperfixations.

You can look at her StoryGraph currently reading, but if you ask her about it, she just might scream. She is forever recommending White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad.

Discord: bookishmillennial

Stay tuned for more information on the 2026 iteration of the challenge, which we will share on November 8th :)

This was also sent on Instagram here:

The Diverse Baseline is a reading challenge focused on uplifting racialized authors and stories all year long.

Recommendations

We have recommendation lists on libro.fm and bookshop.org. If you would like highly recommended books from us, check out our links and support local/indie bookstores in the process (if it’s an accessible option for you).

About the organizers

Brittany is a reader from the San Francisco Bay Area. She hosts the SF Bay Area chapter of Cassie’s Walking Club on Strava. She can be found on substack, instagram, storygraph, bluesky, and has resources here.

Margherita is a reader and indie author from Italy. Xe can be found on instagram, tiktok and substack. Xyr author website (pen name) with xyr books and editorial services can be found here.

Mylynn is a reader from Guam/Arizona. She can be found in the kitchen after midnight like the gremlin she is and also on instagram, storygraph, and more here.