Ted Scheinman is a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine and the author of Camp Austen: My Life as an Accidental Jane Austen Superfan (FSG Originals, 2018).

Ellen Meeropol is the author of four novels, Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. Recent and forthcoming essay and story publications include Lit Hub, Solstice, Lilith, Ms. Magazine, Mom Egg Review, The Boston Globe, and The Writers Chronicle. Ellen is a founding member of Straw Dog Writers Guild and leads their Social Justice Writing project.

Chelsea Hanson is a nationally recognized grief educator and founder of With Sympathy Gifts and Keepsakes, which is an online memorial gift store and grief support center.

Hanson found her true purpose in grief support and legacy work and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison as a grief support specialist with certifications in holistic life coaching and life legacy preservation. By connecting her 20 years of business expertise with her true calling, she is an entrepreneur who specializes in grief products and programs to help others transform personal setbacks into opportunities to live a meaningful life.

Chelsea transcended unexpected loss over time, losing both her father and mother at a young age. She now lives and works in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with her husband and son.

Ann Marie Ackermann is a former American prosecutor now living in Germany. Her award-winning historical true crime, Death of an Assassin, solves mysteries on both sides of the Atlantic. She also participates in ornithological field research and is active in her local German historical society.

Katya Cengel has written for New York Times Magazine and Washington Post among other publications and teaches journalism at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is the author of Foreword Indies 2020 Finalist “From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union” (Potomac, 2019); “Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back” (Potomac, 2018); and “Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life” (Nebraska, 2012). Cengel has been awarded grants from the International Reporting Project, International Women’s Media Foundation and International Center for Journalists. She has reported from Africa, Europe, Asia and Central and North America.

Jewelle Gomez, (Cape Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway) is a novelist, poet and cultural worker. She’s the author of eight books including the first Black Lesbian vampyre novel, THE GILDA STORIES, which has been in print more than 25 years. She’s playwright in residence at New Conservatory Theatre Center which commissioned and produced her trilogy of plays.

Marissa Moss has written more than seventy children's books, from picture books to middle-grade and young adult novels. Best known for the Amelia’s Notebook series, her books are popular with teachers and children alike. Her young adult novel, A Soldier's Secret: the Incredible True Story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, a Civil War Hero, won the California Silver Book Award. Barbed Wire Baseball, a picture book biography won the California Book Award, Gold medal and was named an ALA Notable Book and a Notable Book for Social Studies this year. Her books have been translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, and Polish. Her first adult book, Last Things: a Graphic Memoir of Loss and Love, won the Cowan Award.

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