Manil Suri is the internationally acclaimed author of The Death of Vishnu and other books. His work has been translated into twenty-seven languages and received several honors, including winning the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and being longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is a distinguished professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and lives with his husband in Silver Spring, Maryland. 

Andrea Leeb is a writer and advocate living in Venice Beach, California. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals, including Litro Magazine, the Potomac Review, Text Power Telling magazine, and HerStry. In 2025, she was a non-fiction finalist in the Tucson Festival of Books literary awards program. She has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, a JD from the Cardozo School of Law, and a BSN from Georgetown University. Previously, Andrea worked as both an attorney and as a registered nurse. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the UCLA Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House. She dedicates her time to advocating for survivors of sexual assault, mentoring young women from post-conflict and climate-challenged countries, and writing. Such a Pretty Picture: A Memoir is Andrea’s first full-length book.

Miranda Shulman attended Bard College, where she majored in human rights. Before pursuing a career in publishing, she worked at Planned Parenthood. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and still lives there. Harmless is her first novel 

Jess Cannon is the pseudonym of a failed academic who never made tenure but still manages to sleep great at night. She spends her days writing award-winning journalism and her nights plotting fictional murders. She lives with her family and an irascible blue heeler in Austin, Texas, where her funky community is a constant source of joy (and writing material). She has a PhD in literature from the University of Texas, teaches fiction and nonfiction at Wilkes University, and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue, among others. She also co-hosts “The Beautiful and Banned” podcast with Christine Renee Miller.

Melinda Leigh is the #1 Amazon Charts and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Echo Road, the She Can series, the Midnight series, the Scarlet Falls series, the Morgan Dane series, the Bree Taggert series, the Olivia Cruz series, and numerous short stories, as well as the Rogue series novellas and the Widow’s Island series novellas. Melinda has garnered numerous writing awards, earned two RITA nominations, and been an International Thriller Award nominee for Best First Novel. She also holds a second-degree black belt in Kenpo karate and has taught women’s self-defense. 

College admissions expert Jill Margaret Shulman is the author of College Essay Confidence and College Admissions Cracked. The founder of In Other Words, a college essay coaching service, she counsels students applying to a wide array of colleges and has evaluated thousands of applications for top college admissions offices. Shulman has taught writing at The New School, City University of New York, and NYU and has been featured in Forbes, LA Times, The New York Times, and Parents. She combines her experience as a teacher, writer, admissions insider, and empathetic parent to ease anxiety for students and families. 

Jay Neugeboren is the author of 25 books, including five prize-winning novels (The Stolen Jew, Before My Life Began,1940, Poli: A Mexican Boy in Early Texas, and The American Sun & Wind Moving Picture Company), three prize-winning books of nonfiction (Imagining Robert, Transforming Madness, and Whatever Happened to Frankie King), and four collections of award-winning stories. His stories and essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, The American Scholar, GQ, Hadassah, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and have been reprinted in more than 50 anthologies. 

Corinne Sullivan is the Senior News Editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers celebrity and entertainment news. She graduated from Boston College in 2014 with a degree in English and creative writing. She went on to receive her MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. Her stories have appeared in literary magazines such as Night Train, Knee-Jerk, and Pithead Chapel, among other publications, and her 2018 debut novel, Indecent, was included on several “best of” lists. Corinne lives with her family in Jersey City, NJ.

Judy Batalion is a New York Times bestselling author of award-winning nonfiction and fiction. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Vogue, among others. Judy has a BA in the History of Science from Harvard, a PhD from the University of London, and has worked as a museum curator and university lecturer. She lives in New York City with her husband and three children.

Garrett Curbow is the author of the Daughter of Light trilogy, which was short-listed for the Publishers Weekly Selfies Award. He lives in Savannah, Georgia. For more information, visit www.garrettcurbow.com 

PATRICIA HENLEY taught in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Purdue University for 26 years.  She is the author of three novels, five collections of stories, two chapbooks of poetry, and a stage play. Her first novel, Hummingbird House, was a finalist for the National Book Award and The New Yorker Fiction Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and other journals. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and other anthologies. Her new collection of stories, Apple & Palm, was published by Cornerstone Press. She currently resides in Kingston, Washington. Learn more at patriciahenleyauthor.com

Sarvat Hasin is a novelist and dramaturg from Pakistan. She has a masters in creative writing from the University of Oxford. Her first novel, This Wide Night, was published by Penguin Random House India and longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her second book, You Can’t Go Home Again, was published in 2018 and featured in Vogue India's and The Hindu's best of the year lists. Her third novel, The Giant Dark, was a runaway critical success, won the Mo Siewcharran Prize, and was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award. Strange Girls is her US debut. 

Mimi Nichter is an award-winning cultural anthropologist and a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Arizona. She is the author of four anthropology-related books and the recipient of the Margaret Mead Award for a book that appeals to a wide public audience. Her latest book, Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience was a finalist for the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Award. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, HuffPost, and Brevity.

Ellen Meeropol is the author of the forthcoming Sometimes an Island, a mosaic novel featuring a group of older women facing rebuilding after a climate disaster that changes everything. Her previous books include the climate fiction title Kinship of Clover, as well as the novels The Lost Women of Azalea Court, Her Sister’s Tattoo, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. She is guest editor for the anthology Dreams for a Broken World. Essay and story publications include Ms. Magazine, Lilith, The Writer Magazine, The Boston Globe, Solstice Magazine, Guernica, and LitHub. Her work has been a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a Great Group Reads. Ellen lives in western Massachusetts, where she is a founding mother of Straw Dog Writers Guild and a member of the WriteAnglesWriters Conference planning committee.

Jennifer Murphy holds an MFA in painting from the University of Denver and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. She is the recipient of the 2013 Loren D. Milliman Scholarship for creative writing and was a contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference from 2008 through 2012. In 2015, her acclaimed debut novel, I Love You More (Doubleday, 2014), won the prestigious Nancy Pearl Fiction Award. Her love of art led her to start Citi Arts, a public art and urban planning company that has created public art master plans for airports, transit facilities, streetscapes, and cities nationwide. Her most recent book is The Ghost Women.

Cameron West was born in Chicago, married Rikki while working as a touring musician in Boston, and became a father while working as a recording artist in Nashville. He was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder in 1993. During the course of his treatment, 24 separate personalities emerged. Cam earned a PhD in psychology in the years following his diagnosis, and his condition is now largely under control. After years of living around the world, the Wests now reside on California’s Central Coast, where Cam is working on a new young adult novel. Learn more at cameronwestauthor.com.

Claire Heywood is a scholar of the ancient world, with a BA in Classical Civilization and an MA in Ancient Visual and Material Culture from the University of Warwick. Her first novel, Daughters of Sparta, was a national bestseller. The Wandering Queen is her second novel.

REYNA MARDER GENTIN grew up on Long Island and attended Yale College and Yale Law School. A former criminal defense attorney, she is the author of two prior legal romances, Unreasonable Doubts and Both Are True, as well as a middle grade novel, My Name Is Layla. Reyna’s personal essays and short stories have been published widely in print and online, and she is currently working on a collection of linked short stories entitled Open Twenty-Four Hours. Reyna lives with her family in Westchester County, New York. Learn more at Reynamardergentin.com

Rebecca Wolf is a former journalist whose fiction and essays have appeared in many publications, including Apricity and Tablet. She is a volunteer writing tutor for PEN America's Prison Writing Program, and she lived in Jerusalem as a foreign student before attending Barnard College. She lives in New Jersey with her family.

Amy Meyerson is the acclaimed author of the internationally bestselling The Bookshop of Yesterdays, The Imperfects, and The Love Scribe. Her books have been translated into eleven languages and are frequently chosen for best-of lists, including lists from Good Morning America, People Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, Library Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Texas Library Association’s Lariat List, among others. Meyerson completed her graduate work in creative writing at the University of Southern California, where she now teaches in the writing department. Her new novel The Water Lies--her first work of psychological suspense--will be published on January 1, 2026 from Thomas & Mercer.

Travis Baldree is a full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories. Before that, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. Apparently, he now also writes #1 New York Times bestselling books. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Tara Moss is an internationally bestselling author, human rights activist, documentary and podcast host, and model. Her crime novels have been published in nineteen countries and thirteen languages, and her memoir, The Fictional Woman, was a #1 international bestseller. One of her most recent novel is the The War Widow, which was also an international bestseller and is the first book in the Billie Walker series. Tara is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has received the Edna Ryan Award for significant contributions to feminist debate and for speaking out on behalf of women and children. In 2017, Tara Moss was recognized as one of the Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life. In 2021, she reported, wrote, and hosted the Audible Original true crime podcast The Man in the Balaclava. Moss lives in Vancouver with her family.

Alisa Kriegel, PhD is a psychologist with a private practice in New York City, working with adults and couples. She is on a mission to give people permission to seek pleasure and believes everyone deserves to experience incredible, mind-blowing sex.

Her debut memoir, From Sexless Marriage to Sex Goddess, tells the story of her own transformation. After twenty-five years in a marriage with little intimacy, her husband’s revelation of an affair with a man upended their life together. That rupture sparked a journey of self-discovery that pushed Kriegel to confront shame, challenge old beliefs, and claim her desires.

She writes candidly about solo exploration, dating, nontraditional relationships, and even her first visit to a sex club, while also navigating divorce and co-parenting. Interweaving past and present, she explores how childhood lessons about shame and a pragmatic marriage shaped her, and how she ultimately redefined intimacy, love, and self-worth.

Her story is both personal and universal, inviting readers to embrace vulnerability, authenticity, and pleasure. Kriegel also hosts the podcast Let’s Talk About Sex, Really and lives in New York, NY.

Suzanne Trauth is a novelist and playwright. Her novels include What Remains of Love (a first-place winner in Women's Fiction, Firebird Book Awards; a finalist in General Fiction, American Book Festival; and a finalist for the Hemingway Prize) and the Dodie O’Dell mystery series–Show Time, Time Out, Running Out of Time, Just in Time, No More Time and Killing Time. 

Her plays include Laws of the Universe (semi-finalist Premiere Stages New Play Festival), La Fonda (HRC Showcase Theatre; semi-finalist Premiere Stages New Play Festival), Françoise (nominated for Kilroy List; semi-finalist Boomerang New Play Festival), Midwives, Rehearsing Desire, iDream, and Katrina: the K Word. Ms. Trauth has co-authored Sonia Moore and American Acting Training and co-edited Katrina on Stage: Five Plays. Her most recent novel, The First to Die, domestic suspense, was released in November, 2025. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Dramatists Guild, and the League of Professional Theatre Women.

Sharon White is an award-winning author whose work spans nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. She has written extensively about nature, place, and memory, bringing a lyrical and reflective voice to her storytelling. Her books include Minato Sketches (Minerva Rising Press), The Body Is Burden and Delight (Cornerstone Press), Boiling Lake: On Voyage (Jaded Ibis Press), Vanished Gardens: Finding Nature in Philadelphia (University of Georgia Press), Eve and Her Apple (Harbor Mountain Press), Field Notes: A Geography of Mourning (Hazelden Press), and Bone House (Brickhouse Books, New Poets Series).

Anika has earned multiple awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board and from the Jerome Foundation, and her writing for adults and children has appeared in numerous publications including Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Nonfiction, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, and Boundless: Twenty Voices Celebrating Multicultural and Multiracial Identities, as well as Travel + Leisure magazine. 

With a Masters in Library Science, she is a former librarian and also the founder of the author collective, MN BIPOC Kidlit Creators. When she’s not writing, find her teaching at Augsburg University’s MFA program or interviewing authors on her podcast Gobblefunking with Words. Anika lives with her family in Minneapolis.  

Winnie M Li is an American author and activist living in the UK with her partner and young son. A Harvard graduate, Winnie has written for travel guidebooks, produced independent feature films, programmed for film festivals, and developed eco-tourism projects. Her first novel Dark Chapter was nominated for an Edgar Award and translated into ten languages, followed by the critically acclaimed Complicit. A survivor and advocate against gendered violence, she holds a PhD from the London School of Economics in Media Studies and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing.

Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author known for her fearless explorations of trauma, identity, and personal transformation. Her latest book, “Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader,” showcases her signature blend of lyricism, insight, and unflinching honesty.

Her previous titles include “Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul,” winner of the IPPY Silver Award and a finalist for two Foreword INDIE Book of the Year Awards in the self-help and reference categories. She is also the author of “How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences,” which received the gold Foreword INDIE Book of the Year Award and the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature. Earlier works include “Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction,” adapted into a Lifetime TV movie; “Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You,” winner of the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction; and “The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew.”

Silverman co-chairs the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a frequent guest in national media. Her appearances include “The View,” “Anderson Cooper 360,” and “PBS Books.” 

H. Lee Barnes is the author of ten books, including four novels and four short story collections. His short fiction has received the Willamette Fiction Award and the Arizona Author's Association Fiction Award. His last collection, Life Is a Country Western Song, garnered the 2019 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award for Fiction Other. In addition, Barnes was honored by the Vietnam Veterans of America with an Excellence in the Arts Award for his Vietnam War books, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. He earned his MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University and taught English and creative writing at the College of Southern Nevada, retiring emeritus in 2017. Barnes lives in the Hualapai Valley in northern Arizona. 

Stephen Greenblatt is the Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. He has written extensively on English Renaissance literature and acts as general editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature and The Norton Shakespeare. He is the author of fifteen books, including The Swerve, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and Will in the World, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Dark Renaissance is his latest. 

Kathy Watson is a chef and author. But she wasn't always. Before opening her two restaurants and writing her first books, she spent twenty years as a journalist and public relations executive. The Orphans of the Living is her debut novel. In her previous life, she was press secretary to the Oregon State Senate Democrats, and director of communications for two state agencies. She served a brief (but disastrous) stint as press secretary to the mayor of Portland, Bud Clark. She was also as editor-in-chief of Oregon Business magazine for six years. In 1998, she started a media relations firm with her husband and fellow writer, Stu Watson. In 2004, she said goodbye all that and became the chef and owner of Viento in Bingen, Washington, and the acclaimed Nora's Table in Hood River, Oregon. In addition to Orphans of the Living, she has written a memoir, Last Morning at Nora's Table and is at work on a second novel, A Place Far Down the River.Her community activities include serving as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children. Kathy attended the University of Oregon School of Journalism, but left one term shy of graduation to take her first newspaper job at the Lake County Examiner in Lakeview, OR. She lives in Hood River, OR and runs and hikes the trails in the Columbia River Gorge with her dog, Satchel and husband, Stu. 

Stacy has been capturing the essence of place through an intuitive use of light, color and composition for almost two decades. Her signature images of architecture, interiors and gardens have resulted in three solo exhibitions and numerous awards. Her photography has been featured extensively in books and magazines including at home (where she was lead photographer for more than 10 years), Garden Design, Luxe Interiors + Design, House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Veranda, AD, Horticulture, Living Etc., British Homes & Gardens, The Wall Street Journal and many more. She is the author of two bestselling and critically acclaimed monographs celebrating the American landscape: In the Garden (Melcher Media/Perseus Books, 2012) and Gardens at First Light (Moffly Media, 2015). 

Lightkeeper is her first memoir.

Melissa Fraterrigo’s memoir, The Perils of Girlhood is published by the University of Nebraska Press in Fall 2025. She is also the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press), which was named one of “The Best Fiction Books of 2017” by the Chicago Review of Books as well as the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies from storySouth and Shenandoah to Notre Dame Review, Sou’wester and The Millions. A graduate of the University of Iowa (BA) and Bowling Green State University (MFA), she teaches creative writing at Purdue University, and is also the founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers’ Studio in Lafayette, Indiana, where she offers classes on the art and craft of writing. She lives with her husband and two daughters in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World. Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Today Show, Wired, Fox News, and BBC.

Peter Rosch is the author of multiple dark fictions born from the various addictions he chased while living in New York City as an award-winning writer and creative director. He’s many years sober now but remains an addict’s addict. WHAT THE DEAD CAN DO is his debut novel.  

Peter grew up in the Southwest, lived in New York for nearly 20 years, and now resides midway between Austin and San Antonio in Wimberley, TX where he works as an author, freelance creative director and copywriter in advertising, and most importantly, full-time dad. 

Learn more about Peter Rosch at www.peterrosch.com and on IG: @Peterrosch; Facebook: @AuthorPeterRosch; BlueSky: @Peterrosch; and Threads: @PeterRosch.     

In her teens, Nikki Nash studied acting, took piano lessons, and wore a nun’s habit to buy alcohol so she wouldn’t get carded. She began working in TV as a gofer on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and ended up an Associate Director on a variety of shows, including Soul Train, Love Connection, Jimmy Kimmel, and Conan. In her free time, she’s tried skydiving, playwriting, screenwriting, stand-up comedy, swing-dancing, poker, and painting. She likes eating toast and still watches a lot of TV. Learn more about Nikki at www.nikkinash.com/bio.

Leigh Dunlap is the screenwriter behind the hit movie, A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff.  She also wrote Spy Girls, based on the popular teen book series, for producer Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting) and Camp Rockaway for Sony Pictures and producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher (Gladiator, Stuart Little).  Her movie, 16-Love was one of Gravitas’ and Warner Digital’s top titles and The Standoff, starring Olivia Holt and Alex Wolff, was released on Netflix. 

Micah Thorp is a physician, writer, and lifelong Oregonian. His research has been published in numerous medical journals, and his literary works have appeared in Blind Corner, Cleaver Magazine, The Raven’s Perch, and The Write Launch. His debut novel, Uncle Joe’s Muse, won a 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award and a Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award. His sequel, Uncle Joe’s Senpai, was published in 2023 and was a finalist for the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award. Aegolius Creek, Micah’s forthcoming novel, is the recipient of a 2025 IPPY Independent Publisher Book Award: West-Pacific Best Regional Fiction.

Kate Hash is a Chapel Hill, NC-based debut novelist who enjoys creating and consuming stories about dynamic women, unexpected relationships, and the complexity that comes with entering midlife. She has lived in Italy, run a business, and even appeared on an episode of House Hunters International (one of her favorite "two truths and a lie" facts). During her four years abroad in the early 2010s, Kate operated a popular travel blog and contributed guides to the much-beloved Design*Sponge. Kate is currently the Assistant Vice Chancellor for IT at the University of North Carolina and is mildly obsessed with college towns and the creative energy they produce.

Bernice L. McFadden is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University and the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Sugar, The Warmest December, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, Glorious, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction), and Praise Song for the Butterflies (long-listed for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction). She is a five-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Kate Russo, author of Until Alison and Super Host, grew up in Maine but now divides her time between Maine and the UK. She has an MFA in painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, and while living in London, she worked with the theatre group, Love Bites, who presented two of her short plays (“The Blind” and “Bernie's Night Off”) at the Calder Bookshop Theatre.  She exhibits widely in the United States and England. Learn more at KateRusso.com and connect on Instagram @RussoKate.

Wendy is a seasoned memoir-writing coach whose clients have come from Entertainment Weekly, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Simon & Schuster, Seal Press, Wiley, NBC, National Geographic Wild, and Nickelodeon. 

The author of the memoir Avoiding Prison and Other Noble Vacation Goals (Three Rivers Press/Penguin Random House), Wendy lives with her husband and two bunnies in Cusco, Peru. 

Ashley Ream is a former journalist and the author of two previous novels. Losing Clementine, was a Barnes & Noble debut pick, a Sutter Home Book Club pick, and is being made into a major motion picture. Her second book, The 100 Year Miracle, was named an Amazon Best Book of the Month and selected as the Whidbey Island All-Island Read. Her most recent book is The Peculiar Gift of July.

Megan Abbott is the Edgar-winning author of the novels Beware the Woman, The Turnout, Give Me Your Hand, You Will Know Me, The Fever, Dare Me, The End of Everything, Bury Me Deep, Queenpin, The Song Is You and Die a Little. Her most recent is El Dorado Drive. 

Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and The Believer. Her stories have appeared in multiple collections, including the Best American Mystery Stories of 2014 and 2016.

Jeffrey Konvitz is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Sentinel (Simon and Schuster-  Random House/Ballantine Books). He also wrote its bestselling sequel, The Guardian (1979, Bantam), and a third bestselling novel Monster: A Tale of Loch Ness (1982, Random House/Ballantine). Konvitz is an entertainment attorney, screenwriter and producer. In the 1980s and 90s, he became one of the top independent production executives in Hollywood, where he still resides to this day. His latest novel is Circus of Satan.

LINDA DAHL began writing as a freelancer about two passions, jazz and Latin America, before turning to fiction. She has written ten published books, including the novels Tiny Vices, An Upside-Down Sky, Gringa in a Strange Land, and The Bad Dream Notebook, and the nonfiction works Stormy Weather and Morning Glory. Her books have consistently garnered awards and praise, including a Notable Book of the Year nod from The New York Times Book Review for Morning Glory in 2000. She lives in Riverdale, New York. Find her online at lindadahlbooks.com

NELL JOSLIN is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina and received her MFA from North Carolina State University. Besides a fiction writer, she has been a public school teacher, medical librarian, copy editor, freelance journalist, stay-at-home mom, and attorney (although not all at the same time). She currently lives in Raleigh. Find her online at measureofdevotion.com

Kristen Perrin is originally from Seattle, Washington, where she spent several years working as a bookseller before moving to the UK to do a master's and PhD. She lives with her family in Surrey, where she can be found poking around vintage bookstores, stomping in the mud with her two kids, and collecting too many plants. Her middle grade novel Attie and the World Breakers was published in German, Dutch, and Polish. The nationally bestselling How to Solve Your Own Murder was her adult debut, and How to Seal Your Own Fate is its follow-up.

Nancy Townsley lives in a floating home along the Multnomah Channel near Portland, Oregon. Her debut novel, Sunshine Girl, was inspired by her long career as a newspaper journalist. She continues to have a keen interest in the cultural and political changes altering the media landscape, channeling that fascination into writing fiction and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Hippocampus, The Big Smoke, Nailed magazine, the Timberline Review, Elephant Journal, Mountain Bluebird Magazine, and several anthologies. “Leaving Tulum,” an excerpt from her first book, can be found at unleashcreatives.com.

Ling Ling Huang is a writer and violinist. She plays with several ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and the Experiential Orchestra, with whom she won a Grammy Award in 2021. Her debut novel, Natural Beauty, was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction. Her latest novel is Immaculate Conception.

Clay Stafford is an American bestselling and award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, and playwright; film and television producer, director, showrunner, actor; book, film, and stage reviewer as well as public speaker. He has sold nearly four million copies of his books overall and has had his work distributed in sixteen languages. He is founder and CEO of the annual Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference and a contributor to Writer’s Digest magazine with his monthly online column, “Killer Writer”. In addition, Clay is the founder of theBalancedWriter.com, a creative learning platform for writers. For more information visit, www.claystafford.com.

Robert Bailey is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Jason Rich series, which includes Rich Justice, Rich Waters, and Rich Blood; the Bocephus Haynes series, which includes The Wrong Side and Legacy of Lies; and the award-winning McMurtrie and Drake legal thriller series, including The Final Reckoning, The Last Trial, Between Black and White, and The Professor. He also wrote the inspirational novel, The Golfer’s Carol. 

Alex Kenna is a mystery writer, prosecutor, and amateur painter. Before law school, Alex studied painting and art history at Penn. She has also worked as a freelance art critic and sold art in a gallery. 

Originally from Washington DC, Alex lives in Sierra Madre, California with her husband, two sons, and giant schnauzer, Zelda, who is frequently mistaken for a bear. For the past ten years, Alex has prosecuted a variety of violent and white-collar crimes. Her fiction is heavily informed by her law enforcement and fine art background.  

When she’s not writing Alex can be found nerding out in art museums, exploring flea markets, wrangling toddlers, and playing string instruments badly.  

Alex’s debut novel, What Meets the Eye, was nominated for a Shamus Award for best first PI novel. Her second novel, BURN THIS NIGHT, was released in November 2024. 

Nancy Kricorian, who was born and raised in the Armenian community of Watertown, Massachusetts, is the author of four novels about post- genocide Armenian diaspora experience, including Zabelle, which was translated into seven languages, was adapted as a play, and has been continuously in print since 1998. Her essays and poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, Guernica, Parnassus, Minnesota Review, The Mississippi Review, and other journals. 

She has taught at Barnard, Columbia, Yale, and New York University, as well as for Teacher & Writers Collaborative in the New York City Public Schools and for the Palestine Writing Workshop in Birzeit. She has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a Gold Medal from the Writers Union of Armenia, and the Anahid Literary Award. She lives in New York City. 

William Luvaas has published four novels: The Seductions of Natalie Bach (Little, Brown) Going Under (Putnam), Beneath The Coyote Hills (Spuyten Duyvil), and Welcome To Saint Angel (Anaphora Lit. Press); and three story collections: A Working Man’s Apocrypha (Univ. Okla. Press) Ashes Rain Down: A Story Cycle (Spuyten Duyvil), The Huffington Post’s 2013 Book of the Year and a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards – and his most recent, The Three Devils.  His new collection The Three Devils And Other Stories is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press at the Univ. of Wisconsin.  His honors include an NEA fellowship, first place in Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open Contest, The Ledge Magazine’s 2010 Fiction Awards Competition, and Fiction Network’s Second National Fiction Competition.  Over one hundred of his stories, essays, and articles have appeared in many publications, including The Sun, North American Review, Epiphany, The Village Voice, The American Literary Review, Antioch Review, Cimarron Review, Short Story, and the American Fiction anthology.  He has taught creative writing at San Diego State University, U.C. Riverside, and The Writer’s Voice in New York and has also worked as a carpenter, craftsman, community organizer, and freelance journalist.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Lucinda, an artist and filmmaker.

Elizabeth Rose Quinn is a novelist and screenwriter. She graduated with a BA in English from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.  Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Elizabeth lived in Los Angeles for fifteen years while working in production and writing for television.  She is married with two children and currently lives in New Mexico. In addition to traveling and exploring nature with her family, Elizabeth loves rolling fresh pasta, swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and looking for rainbows in the desert sunsets.

Dennis James Sweeney is the author of How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small Presses (New World Library, February 2025, Paperback). He has an MFA from Oregon State University and a PhD from the University of Denver. Originally from Cincinnati, he lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he teaches Creative Writing at Amherst College.  

Stuart Nadler is the author of Wise Men, The Inseparables, and Rooms for Vanishing, and the short story collection The Book of Life. His work has been named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus and Amazon, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writer selection, a finalist for the Mark Twain Prize for the American Voice, and has been translated across Europe. He is a recipient of the 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation. He teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College.

A native of Traverse City, Michigan, STEPHANIE CARPENTER is the author of Missing Persons: Stories, which won the 2017 Press 53 Award in Short Fiction; her work has also appeared in journals including Copper Nickel, The Missouri Review, and Witness. She's an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan Technological University. Moral Treatment is her debut novel.

Acclaimed as the Oliver Sacks of fiction and the Michael Crichton of brain science, Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of More or Less Maddy, Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens, and Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. Still Alice was adapted into an Oscar–winning film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She is featured in the documentary films To Not Fade Away and Have You Heard About Greg. Her TED talks on Alzheimer’s disease and memory have been viewed over eleven million times. Her latest novel is More or Less Maddy.

Jordyn Taylor is the former deputy digital editor at Men’s Health magazine and the award-winning author of the young adult novels The Paper Girl of Paris, Don't Breathe a Word, and The Revenge Game. She is also an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Jordyn was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and now lives in New York. Her latest noel is Wicked Darlings.

Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 – October 2018) has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen Press. Her most recent book, What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria, was called “witty, sultry and thoughtful” by the Washington Post, and her bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, was called a “fantastic collection” by The Washington Post, “impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable” by The Midwest Book Review and Shelf-Awareness said, “These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer power of her wit and irreverent style.” Air Kissing on Mars, Kim’s first collection, was described by the Los Angeles Times as, “sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combining humor and heartache,” Slice of Moon was called “unexpected and sublime,” by “O” magazine, and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in numerous literary journals including Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac," and her poems are included in several anthologies. She teaches poetry workshops for UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, CA. To learn more about Kim visit her website: www.kimdowerpoetry.com

Jessica Soffer is the author of This Is a Love Story and Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. She grew up in New York City, attended Connecticut College, and earned her MFA at Hunter College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing to small groups and in the corporate space and lives in Sag Harbor, New York, with her husband, young daughter, and dog.

Philip Kenney is an author and psychotherapist. His most recent work is a novel entitled, The Mercy Dialogues. That work examines the power of dialogue, in the service of love, to bridge seemingly impossible divisions between people. Prior to that, in 2022, his chapbook of haiku entitled, Only This Step, was published by Finishing Line Press. In 2018, his first non-fiction book, The Writer’s Crucible: Meditations on Emotion, Being and Creativity, was a finalist for The Red City Review Non-Fiction Book of the Year. That work was written to support writers with the emotional vulnerabilities they face living a creative life. On occasion, Philip gives workshops based on The Writer’s Crucible at The Attic Institute in Portland.Those workshops enable authors to understand and work with the emotions that complicate the creative process. In 2018, his essay, The Rebirth of Masculinity: What We Can Learn from Harvey Weinstein and Co. was published in issue #7 of The Timberline Review. 

Rachel Kaplan, MA, MFT, is a licensed psychotherapist with a thriving practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Healing Feeling Sh*t Show, she is active on a variety of social media channels and has published multiple features in Common Ground. Kaplan has studied yoga, meditation, and hands-on healing practices in India and Nepal, earned a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and trained in cutting-edge trauma modalities such as EMDR. Her first book is, Feel, Heal, and Let That Sh*t Go: Your Guide to Emotional Resilience and Lasting Self-Love.  She divides her time between Oakland and Joshua Tree, California. More information at TheFeelingsMovement.com.

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Memoir of Bisexuality & Spirit, now in its second edition; the novel Hannah, Delivered; a collection of personal essays, On the Threshold:  Home, Hardwood, and Holiness; the chapbook, A Map to Mercy, due out winter 2025; and three books on writing: Writing the Sacred Journey:  The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir; Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice, winner of the silver Nautilus Award; and The Release: Finding Creativity and Freedom After the Writing is Done.  She is a founding member of The Eye of the Heart Center, where she teaches writing as a transformational practice and hosts an online writing community.  She is a recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board artists’ fellowships, the Loft Career Initiative Grant, and is a Minnesota Book Awards finalist.  She lives in Minneapolis with her wife, daughter, and two rambunctious cats.  You can learn more about Elizabeth at www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com and www.spiritualmemoir.com.

Kate Winkler Dawson is a seasoned documentary producer, podcaster, and true-crime historian whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WCBS News and ABC News Radio, “PBS NewsHour,” and “Nightline.” She is the creator of three hit podcasts (BB has about 1.5 million downloads a month): “Tenfold More Wicked” and “Wicked Words,” and the cohost of the “Buried Bones” podcast on the Exactly Right network. She is the author of American Sherlock, Death in the Air, All That Is Wicked, The Sinners All Bow, and is a professor of journalism at The University of Texas at Austin.

Nancy Slonim Aronie has been a commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She was a Visiting Writer at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, wrote a monthly column in McCall’s magazine and was the recipient of the Eye of The Beholder Artist in Residence award at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Nancy won teacher of the year award for all three years she taught at Harvard University for Robert Coles.

Bill Kenower will be hosting an in-person Fearless Writing Retreat January 26-31 in Portland, OR.
Space is limited! Hope to see you there:
Bill's website: https://www.williamkenower.com/
Retreat website: https://www.portlandretreathouse.com/fearless-writing-with-bill-kenower

GARY GOLDSTEIN is an award-winning writer for film, TV, and the theatre, with  more than 30 produced screen and stage credits. His first novel, the romantic  comedy The Last Birthday Party, won an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Fiction. Gary's second novel, the family drama The Mother I Never Had, was named one of the "Must-Read Books of Fall 2022" by Town & Country  magazine. His latest book, the coming-of-age romantic dramedy, Please Come to  Boston, was published in September. A New York native, he resides in Los Angeles, where he is also a contributing film reviewer and arts feature writer for the L.A. Times.

Since coming through Clarion West in 2005, Cat Rambo’s 300+ fiction publications have included stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and frequently appear in year’s best of collections. They work across genre, writing literary, thriller, science fiction, slipstream, fantasy, magic realism, historical, and humor with fluid ease, making them one of the leaders in American story writing. In 2013, Rambo’s short story, “Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain” was a Nebula nominee and 2020 Rambo won the Nebula Award for their fantasy novelette Carpe Glitter, published by Meerkat Press. They have edited several anthologies as well as Fantasy Magazine, and received a World Fantasy Award nomination for their work with the latter. They have also written the writing book Moving from Idea to Finished Draft and co-edited Ad Astra: The SFWA 50th Anniversary Cookbook.

A frequent reader for podcasts, Rambo is part of the team behind the If This Goes On (Don’t Panic) podcast, and has worked with it since its beginning in 2020. They are a former two-term President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and continue to work with the organization as a mentor. Their most recent work is space opera Rumor Has It (Tor Macmillan, 2024); upcoming in 2025 is Wings of Tabat (Wordfire).

For more about Cat, as well as links to fiction and popular online school, The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, see their website at catrambo.com 

Georgia Jeffries is a writer of Emmy Award winning drama and critically acclaimed noir fiction. Honored with multiple Writers Guild Awards, Golden Globes and the Humanitas Prize, her work in film has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “standing ovation television.” The Los Angeles Review of Books described her short stories in the national anthologies, Odd Partners and The Last Resort, as “firecracker tales” and “domestic tragedy brilliantly segueing into comic farce.” She has also written biographical profiles for HuffPost and UC Press, including “The Last Gun of Tibercio Vasquez,” which can be viewed on the KCET-TV website, Artbound. Born in the Illinois heartland, she worked as a journalist for American Film before writing and producing ground-breaking female-driven dramas, Cagney & Lacey, China Beach and Sisters. Her screenwriting career has been distinguished by extensive field research, from patrolling the mean streets of Rampart with the LAPD to crashing a Vegas bounty hunters’ convention to reporting from a Walter Reed Army Hospital surgical bay, each investigation the basis for one of her many docudramas and series pilots for CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO and Showtime. A cum laude UCLA graduate, Jeffries is a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where she created the first undergraduate screenwriting thesis program at an American university.  The Younger Girl is her first novel.

Jan Gangsei is an award-winning author of books for young adults and tweens. Her debut YA thriller, Zero Day, was named to several state award lists and was one of Bank Street’s Best Books of the Year. She’s also penned several middle-grade books, including Project Me 2.0, The Wild Bunch, as well as series fiction under various pen names commissioned by book packagers and publishers. Her latest YA novel is Dead Below Deck 

LILLY DANCYGER is the author of First Love: Essays on Friendship (2024), which Leslie Jamison called "fiercely felt and finely etched;" and the memoir Negative Space (2021), which was selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards; and the editor of Burn It Down (2019), a critically acclaimed anthology of essays on women's anger. 

Dancyger's writing has been published by New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and more. She writes the Substack newsletter The Word Cave.

A 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in nonfiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts, Dancyger lives in New York City and teaches creative nonfiction at Columbia University School of the Arts and Randolph College. She has taught creative writing workshops for Tin House, Corporeal Writing, Catapult, Barrelhouse, and more; and she is a nonfiction editor at Barrelhouse Books. 

Adam Plantinga’s first book, 400 Things Cops Know, was nominated for an Agatha Award and won the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best nonfiction crime reference. It was hailed as “truly excellent” by author Lee Child and deemed “the new Bible for crime writers” by The Wall Street Journal. His second book, also nonfiction, is Police Craft. Plantinga is currently a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department assigned to street patrol. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, daughters, and Chow Chow named Ziggy. The Ascent is his debut novel. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, was a USA Today bestseller, and was recently optioned by Universal for television. 

KIRBY LARSON is the acclaimed author of many books for young people, including the 2007 Newbery Honor Book Hattie Big Sky; Dash, winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction; Duke; Liberty; Code Word Courage; Audacity Jones to the Rescue, and Audacity Jones Steals the Show, and the new Shermy and Shake chapter book series, to name a few. 

QUINN WYATT has lived with Crohn’s for most of her life and is encouraged by all the progress that has been made over the years in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. This is her first book. A mother-daughter writing team, both Quinn and Kirby live in Kenmore, Washington.

Cherry Lou Sy is a writer and playwright originally from the Philippines and currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BA at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and her MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College, where she has been an adjunct lecturer in the English and American Studies departments. Cherry is also a teacher with PEN America’s DREAMing Out Loud. She has received fellowships and residencies from VONA, Tin House, and elsewhere. Love Can’t Feed You is her debut novel.

Andrew Bridgeman’s debut novel has it all – characters you fall in love with, a plot that keeps you racing from page to page, twists that leave you dumbfounded and thrilled, a satisfying conclusion, a final wish when you close the book that you could start all over again. Fortunate Son, by Andrew Bridgeman (Mission Point Press, September 24, 2024), a “propulsive, brilliantly executed thriller that will keep readers guessing . . .” (Kirkus Reviews) is more than just a wild, suspenseful ride. It’s a fascinating study of an American Family – of their secrets, corruption, greed, and betrayal. It’s a story about trust and sacrifice, and the risks we take in order to succeed.

Sebastian Smee is an art critic for the Washington Post and the author of "Paris in Ruins: Love, War and the Birth of Impressionism" (Norton) and “The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art” (Random House), which was translated into a dozen languages. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism while at the Boston Globe in 2011, after being runner up in 2008. Living in the UK between 2000 and 2004, he worked for the Daily Telegraph, The Art Newspaper, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Financial Times, Prospect, and The Spectator. In Australia, he worked as the art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian. He was awarded the Rabkin Prize for art journalism in 2018 and was a MacDowell Fellow in 2021. He taught the Garis Seminar for Creative Non-fiction at Wellesley College between 2010 and 2022. 

 He has authored books on Mark Bradford and Lucian Freud and contributed essays to books on an array of other artists. He has been invited to speak at, among other places, Harvard University, Boston College, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. 

As a mythopoeic scholar, Nadia Salem researches mythic structures in narrative throughout literature and film. By understanding mythology’s influence in creating classics, bestsellers, and blockbusters, she studies cross-cultural, genre-bending, marginalized stories for popular and political impact. Nadia has a doctorate in Creative Writing and has taught mythic structure at Georgetown and Northwestern Universities. She is a produced playwright, and the author of The Monomyth Reboot: A Transmodern Update for Mythopoeia.

David Rocklin is the author of The Luminist and Foreward LGBTQIA award-winning The Night Language. He also wrote The Write Formula: Twelve Weeks From Concept To Completion, a craft book which accompanies his editorial and book coaching services. He hosts and curates “Roar Shack,” a long-running Los Angeles reading series, and has established a writers’ retreat based in Idyllwild, CA. The Electric Love Song of Fleischl Berger is his latest novel. 

Molly Giles is an award-winning fiction writer. Her first collection of stories, ROUGH TRANSLATIONS won the Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers award. Four subsequent collections—CREEK WALK, BOTHERED, ALL THE WRONG PLACES, and WIFE WITH KNIFE, have also won awards, including the Small Press Best Fiction Award, the California Commonwealth Silver Medal for Fiction, the Spokane Short Fiction Award, and the Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize.  She published her first novel, IRON SHOES, in 2000, and twenty-three years later, published its sequel, THE HOME FOR UNWED HUSBANDS. Giles has taught fiction writing at San Francisco State University, University of Hawaii, San Jose State University, the National University of Ireland at Galway, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and at numerous writing conferences, including The Community of Writers and Naropa. Her work has been included in many anthologies including the O.Henry and Pushcart Prize (three times), and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arkansas Arts Council. She has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Book Reviewing, been awarded residences at MacDowell, Yadoo, and The House of Literature in Paros, Greece. Life Spans is her first memoir.

Bill revisits his conversation with Andre Dubus last year after his release of Such Kindness.

Andre Dubus III’s nine books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie, a #4 New York Times bestseller and a New York Times "Editors Choice". His work has been included in The Best American Essays and The Best Spiritual Writing anthologies, and his novel, House of Sand and Fog was a finalist for the National Book Award, a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. His 2013 novella collection, Dirty Love, was listed as a “Notable Book” by The Washington Post and The New York Times, and was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice” and a Kirkus “Starred Best Book of 2013”.  His 2018 novel, Gone So Long, was named on many “Best Books” lists, including selection for The Boston Globe’s “Twenty Best Books of 2018” and “The Best Books of 2018, Top 100”, Amazon. His most recent novel, Such Kindness, was one of Amazon’s “The Best Books of 2023, Top 100”. His acclaimed collection of personal essays, Ghost Dog: On Killers and Kin, was published in March 2024. He is also the editor of Reaching Inside: 50 Acclaimed Authors on 100 Unforgettable Short Stories, 

Miles Harvey is the author of The Registry of Forgotten Objects: Stories, which won The Journal Non/Fiction Prize and was published by Mad Creek Books, the trade imprint of The Ohio State University Press. His fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Conjunctions, AGNI, North American Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Nimrod, Fiction Magazine, and others, and has received a Distinguished Story in The Best American Short Stories, 2004, a Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXXVII: Best of the Small Presses, 2013, and the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award from Mid-American Review, 2015. His most recent work of nonfiction, The King of Confidence (Little, Brown & Co., 2020), was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and was named as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice selection. He also wrote The Island of Lost Maps (a national and international bestseller for Random House, 2000) and Painter in a Savage Land (Random House, 2008). His play, How Long Will I Cry, premiered in 2013 at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. 

Harvey teaches creative writing at DePaul University in Chicago, where he chairs the Department of English and is a founding editor of Big Shoulders Books, a nonprofit, social-justice publisher. 

Jeffery Deaver is the award-winning #1 international and New York Times bestselling author of the Lincoln Rhyme, Colter Shaw and Kathryn Dance series, among many others. Deaver’s work includes forty-seven novels, one hundred short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages.  

Isabella Maldonado is the award-winning and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Nina Guerrera, Daniela Vega and Veranda Cruz series. Her books are published in twenty-four languages.  

Their co-authored book, FATAL INTRUSION, is the launch of a new series featuring Homeland Security agent Carmen Sanchez and Professor Jake Heron. 

Maribeth Fischer is the founder and executive director of the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild. She has received three Delaware Division of the Arts Fellowships and two Pushcart Prizes for her essays. Her two previous books, The Language of Good-bye and The Life You Longed For, have been sold in six foreign countries. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her latest novel is A Season of Perfect Happiness. 

Bill welcomes poet and fiction writer Emily Jon Tobias to the show. Emily is an American author and poet. She is an award-winning writer whose work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, along with other honorable mentions, and has been featured in literary journals such as Santa Clara Review, Talking River Review, Flying South Literary Journal, Furrow Literary Journal, The Opiate Magazine, The Ocotillo Review, Jerry Jazz Musician, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Tahoma Literary Review, Big Muddy, Spoon Knife, Peauxdunque Review, and elsewhere. Midwestern-raised, she now lives and writes on the coast of Southern California and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University Oregon. MONARCH: STORIES (Black Lawrence Press, 2024) is her debut collection and winner of the 2024 American Book Fest International Book Awards in the short story collection category.