Laura Jamison is the author of the debut ALL THE RIGHT MISTAKES (She Writes Press), an uplit novel about the relatable messiness of adult friendship and life ambitions in the vein of Camille Pagán’s I’m Fine and Neither Are You and Allison Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It. Jamison is an attorney from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband and their four children. When she is not practicing law or writing, she is driving her kids to one of their many activities in her minivan. Laura is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan Law School. This is her first book.

Gretchen Eberhart Cherington is the author of Poetic License: A Memoir (She Writes Press).  In the vein of Small Fry by Lisa Brennan Jobs and Famous Father Girl by Jamie Bernstein, Poetic License explores the life of a Pulitzer prize winning poet’s daughter: how she confronts her family’s myths and her beloved father’s betrayals while finding her voice and establishing her own legacy. It’s an extremely engaging account of growing up in an academic family that had a constant stream of famous poets and writers through their door, and the winding journey to understanding how her own father’s early childhood trauma plays out over generations.

Miriam Feldman is the author of HE CAME IN WITH IT:  A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness, as well as an artist, writer, and mental health activist who splits her time between her Los Angeles studio and her farm in rural Washington state. She has been married to her husband Craig O’Rourke, also an artist, for 34 years and they have four adult children. Their 33-year-old son, Nick, has schizophrenia.

Margaret Thomson is a journalist who worked in London for twelve years, during which time she reported on a variety of subjects, from war in the Middle East to the British royal family. Upon returning to the United States, she has continued to write for a number of print and online publications. The World Looks Different Now, a memoir about the death of her older son by suicide, is being published by She Writes Press in July.

Rebecca Winn is the author of One Hundred Daffodils; Finding Beauty, Grace, and Meaning When Things Fall Apart (Grand Central/Hachette), a memoir that chronicles her psychological, emotional and spiritual journey to self-reinvention at midlife after a significant life upheaval. Incorporating a deep dive in Jungian psychology and global spiritual practices, Winn learned to trust the wisdom of the divine in nature, as her sanctuary and sage teacher. 

Michelle Cameron is a director of The Writers Circle, an NJ-based organization that offers creative writing programs to children, teens, and adults, and the author of works of historical fiction and poetry: Beyond the Ghetto Gates (She Writes Press, 2020), which won the Silver Medal in the 2020 Independent Publishers Award (IPPYs), The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz (Pocket, 2009), and In the Shadow of the Globe (Lit Pot Press, 2003). She lived in Israel for fifteen years (including three weeks in a bomb shelter during the Yom Kippur War) and served as an officer in the Israeli army teaching air force cadets technical English. Michelle lives in New Jersey with her husband and has two grown sons of whom she is inordinately proud.

Eddy Boudel Tan is the author of two novels, After Elias and The Rebellious Tide. His work depicts a world much like our own — the heroes are flawed, truth is distorted, and there is as much hope as there is heartbreak. He lives with his husband in Vancouver, Canada. 

Cindy Rasicot’s life has been a spiritual journey since she was a small child. At four she asked her older brother (who was five at the time): “Where is God?” His answer: “Everywhere.” Puzzled, she looked all around her, but didn’t find evidence. She kept her brother’s words in her heart while growing up, and figured she’d have an answer someday. In the meantime, she got her master’s degree in marriage, family, and child counseling, married, and held management positions in non-profits for twenty-five years―all while exploring her passion for dance, art, and writing.Cindy’s spiritual journey took on new dimensions when she, her husband, and their son moved to Bangkok, Thailand for three years. She met her spiritual teacher, Venerable Dhammananda Bhikkuni, the first fully ordained Thai Theravada nun―an encounter that opened her heart and changed her life forever. This deepening relationship led to writing her memoir, Finding Venerable Mother: A Daughter’s Spiritual Quest in Thailand, which chronicles her adventures along the spiritual path.Her other writings include an article in Sawasdee Magazine in 2007 and essays featured in two anthologies: Wandering in Paris: Luminaries and Love in the City of Light (Wanderland Writers, 2013) and A Café in Space: The Anaïs Nin Literary Journal, Volume 11 (Sky Blue Press, 2014). She currently resides in Point Richmond, California, where she writes and enjoys views of the San Francisco Bay.

Megan Kate Nelson was born and raised in Colorado; she is now a writer and historian living in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She earned her BA from Harvard University in History and Literature and her PhD from Iowa in American Studies. Her new book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, was published by Scribner in February 2020. This project was the recipient of a 2017 NEH Public Scholar Award and a Filson Historical Society Fellowship.

Dr. Nelson is the author of two previous books: Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012) and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005). She has also written about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Preservation Magazine, and Civil War Times. Her column on Civil War popular culture, "Stereoscope," appears regularly in the Civil War Monitor.

Sarah Lahey is a designer, educator, and writer. She holds bachelor’s degrees in interior design, communication, and visual culture, and works as a senior lecturer teaching classes on design, technology, sustainability and creative thinking. She has three children and lives on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, Australia.

A bit about GRAVITY IS HEARTLESS: What will the world look like in thirty years’ time? How will humanity survive the oncoming effects of climate change? Set in the near future and inspired by the world around us, Gravity Is Heartless is a romantic adventure that imagines a world on the cusp of climate catastrophe.The year is 2050: automated cities, vehicles, and homes are now standard, artificial Intelligence, CRISPR gene editing, and quantum computing have become a reality, and climate change is in full swing—sea levels are rising, clouds have disappeared, and the planet is heating up. Quinn Buyers is a climate scientist who'd rather be studying the clouds than getting ready for her wedding day. But when an unexpected tragedy causes her to lose everything, including her famous scientist mother, she embarks upon a quest for answers that takes her across the globe—and she uncovers friends, loss and love in the most unexpected of places along the way. Gravity Is Heartless is bold, speculative fiction that sheds a hard light on the treatment of our planet even as it offers a breathtaking sense of hope for the future.

R.L. Maizes is the author of the novel Other People’s Pets (on sale July 14, 2020) and the short story collection We Love Anderson Cooper (paperback on sale July 14, 2020), both from Celadon Books (Macmillan). Her writing has aired on National Public Radio and has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere.

Jill Sherer Murray is a TEDx speaker, author, influencer, coach, and founder of Let Go For It®, a lifestyle brand dedicated to helping individuals let go for a better life. She is also an award-winning journalist and communications leader who can trace practically every success she’s had in her career, love life, and more to letting go. Her TEDx talk, “The Unstoppable Power of Letting Go” has been viewed by millions of people, many of them reaching out to her from all over the world for advice on how to let go in their own lives. Murray also coaches and consults with business leaders on how to let go for better business results with a focus on communications. She spent a year studying improvisation comedy at the famous Second City Training Center in Chicago, and another five years writing a popular blog called Diary of a Writer in Mid-Life Crisis for Wild River Review. She also let go of just about everything to put her weight in Shape Magazine—twelve times—as part of a year-long assignment to document her weight loss journey for millions of readers.

Robert Steven Goldstein retired from his job as a healthcare information executive at age fifty-six and has been writing novels ever since. His first novel, The Swami Deheftner, about the problems that ensue when ancient magic and mysticism manifest in the twenty-first century, has developed a small cult following in India. Cat’s Whisker, his second novel, will be published soon; an excerpt from it, entitled “An Old Dog,” was featured in the fall 2018 edition of Leaping Clear, a literary journal. Enemy Queen is his third novel. Robert lives in San Francisco with his wife of thirty years and two rambunctious dogs.

Dorothy Rice is the author of Gray Is the New Black: A Memoir of Self-Acceptance (Otis Books, 2019) and The Reluctant Artist (Shanti Arts, 2015), an art book/memoir about her father. After raising five children and retiring from a career managing environmental protection programs, Rice earned an MFA in Creative Writing at 60 from UC Riverside's low-residency program. In addition to writing, she now works for 916 Ink, a youth literacy nonprofit, and co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, a literary performance series.

Sarah Z. Sleeper is an ex-journalist with an MFA in creative writing. Gaijin is her first novel. Her short story, “A Few Innocuous Lines,” won an award from Writer’s Digest. Her non-fiction essay, “On Getting Vivian,” was published in The Shanghai Literary Review. Her poetry was published in A Year in Ink, San Diego Poetry Annual and Painters & Poets, and exhibited at the Bellarmine Museum. In the recent past she was an editor at New Rivers Press, and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Mason’s Road. She completed her MFA at Fairfield University in 2012. Prior to that she had a twenty-five-year career as a business writer and technology reporter and won three journalism awards and a fellowship at the National Press Foundation.

Originally from upstate New York, Debra Thomas has lived in Southern California for most of her adult life. She holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s in English from California State University, Northridge, and attended the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She has taught literature and writing at a Los Angeles public high school and English as a Second Language to adults from all over the world. Her experience as an advocate for immigrant and refugee rights led her to write Luz. She is currently at work on her second novel.

Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Lost Girls. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, The Antioch Review, The Notre Dame Review, and The South Carolina Review, among other journals. Her commentaries have been heard on public radio stations across the United States. She is a winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for Short Fiction and the recipient of a 2013 Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. Morris holds an MFA from Queens University-Charlotte.

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of 12 novels. Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow were both New York Times bestsellers. Pictures of You was also a Costco "Pennie's Pick," A San Francisco Chronicle Editor's Choice "Lit Pick," and was one of the top 20 books published so far in 2011, as named by BookPage. It was also on the Best Books of 2011 lists from The San Francisco Chronicle, The Providence Journal, Bookmarks Magazine and Kirkus Reviews.

Is This Tomorrow was also a San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick/Editor's Choice, a Jewish Book Council Bookclub Pick, a WNBA National Great Group Reads, a May Indie Next Pick, A Best Book of 2013 from January magazine, on the longlist for the Maine Readers' Choice Award, and the winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award.

Dr. Daniel Lee: I am a historian of the Second World War and a specialist in the history of Jews in France and North Africa during the Holocaust. My first book, Pétain’s Jewish Children: French Jewish Youth and the Vichy Regime, 1940–42 (OUP, 2014) explored the coexistence between young French Jews and the Vichy regime. My second book, The SS Officer's Armchair (Jonathan Cape, 2020), examines the life of a low-ranking SS officer from Stuttgart whose personal documents were recently discovered sewn into the cushion of an armchair. I am concurrently working on a history of the Jews of Tunisia during the Second World War, and am also the Principal Investigator on a British Academy GCRF Sustainable Development Programme project entitled, “Traces of Jewish Memory in Contemporary Tunisia”.

Highly sensitive, a natural empath, healer, teacher and scribe, Darlene Green has followed her heart's direction in discovery of the sacred in life. After many years of spiritual practice and study, Darlene experienced an invitation by the Masters of the Council of Light to sit with them as scribe, daily, for one year and one day. The result is the extensive body of work that is In Service to Love, relayed through three books: In Service to Love Book 1: Love Remembered, In Service to Love Book 2: Love Elevated and In Service to Love Book 3: Love Now.