Born in Brooklyn and raised by the beach in Santa Monica, California, Max (James is his government/occasionally penname name) Bell is a writer/journalist/Bukowski addict going into his senior year at the University of California, Berkeley. When he’s not dropping knowledge in the English department, he writes for The Daily Californian, Passion of the Weiss, and for himself.

He is currently dividing his time between devouring the two canons—Hip-Hop and English literature—and trying to contribute to them in any way he can. Let’s just hope he doesn’t pick up a mic.