Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of Waiting for the Night Song (Jan. 12, 2021, Forge Books, Macmillan) and The Last Beekeeper (coming in 2022.) She is a Tin House alum, 2021 Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference fellow, and graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator. She is a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League and is a frequent speaker at universities, bookstores, and writers conferences on the topic of Fiction in the Age of Climate Crisis. Julie also owns a small farm in rural New Hampshire.

Dr. Kellie Brown has been a member of the Milligan University music faculty since 1998 and holds the positions of Chair of the Music Department, Professor of Music, and conductor of the Milligan Orchestra. She is a frequent clinician and performer throughout the country and serves as the assistant conductor and associate concertmaster of the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra.

I am a retired trial lawyer having practiced for over 40 years. I was involved in all kinds of civil litigation in state and federal courts throughout the United States, and tried over 100 jury trials, including civil rights actions involving Sections 1981 and 1983.I was also a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps practicing in administrative and criminal law as it relates to the UCMJ. I also worked for Legal Aid representing some of America's most vulnerable populations. I have taught legal studies and American and military history at the college level. I am currently a volunteer speaker for the ACLU.

Donna Rifkind is the author of The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler's Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood (Other Press, Jan. 2020) Her book reviews appear frequently in The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.

Joan Gelfand’s reviews, stories, essays and poetry have appeared in over 150 national and international literary journals and magazines including the LA Review, PANK! The Huffington Post, Rattle, Levure Litterarie, Voice and Verse, Sycamore Review, Prairie Schooner and The Meridien Anthology of Contemporary Poetry.

Barry Eisenberg is the author of Primal Calling, his debut novel. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, among others. An associate professor of health care management in the School for Graduate Studies at the State University of New York Empire State College, he is also a health care management consultant and a former hospital administrator. An avid bicycle rider, Eisenberg lives in New Jersey with his wife, Amy.

British born Mary-Rose Hayes is the author of nine novels, most recently WHAT SHE HAD TO DO, including the TIME/LIFE bestseller AMETHYST and two political thrillers co-authored with Senator Barbara Boxer.   

Melissa Payne is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Lost Stones. For as long as she can remember, Melissa has been telling stories in one form or another—from high school newspaper articles to a graduate thesis to blogging about marriage and motherhood. But she first learned the real importance of storytelling when she worked for a residential and day treatment center for abused and neglected children. There she wrote speeches and letters to raise funds for the children. The truth in those stories was piercing and painful and written to invoke in the reader a call to action: to give, to help, to make a difference. Melissa’s love of writing and sharing stories in all forms has endured. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and three children, a friendly mutt, a very loud cat, and the occasional bear.

Leslie Brody is an author and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Redlands. Her books include Irrepressible: The Life and Times of Jessica Mitford, Red Star Sister – a memoir that won a PEN USA Creative Nonfiction Award, and her latest Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, available December 1, 2020 from Seal Press/Hachette.

Fashion designer and author Marina Makaron has come out with her debut illustrated chapter book for children, Mashka and Mishka Get Trapped in a Rainbow. Launching November 18, 2020, the illustrated work delves deeper into questions of gender identity and the conflicts that underline issues of gender equality.

Emma Palova was born in the former Czechoslovakia. She is a Lowell Michigan-based author now and is very excited to share her memoir, "Greenwich Meridian" with readers. Her memoir comes out on November 12th and talks about her and her family's epic emigration to the U.S. Some of her previous works include her collection of short stories that she wrote during her studies at ICS in Montreal and at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Currently, she is participating in the National Novel Writing Month where she will be working on the third book in the Shifting Sands Stories series: Steel Jewels. In addition to being a novelist, Palova is a screenwriter and journalist who has written for a number of publications, including Czechoslovak Newsweek and Prague Reporter.

Liza Wiemer is an award-winning educator with over twenty years of teaching experience. Her second young adult novel, The Assignment, was published by Delacorte Press on August 25, 2020. To date, The Assignment will also be published in Russia, Poland, Italy, and South Korea. Hello?, her debut contemporary YA novel, was named a Goodreads Best Young Adult Novel of the Month. In addition, Liza has had two adult nonfiction books published and several short stories included in the New York Times bestselling Small Miracles series. She has had articles published in various newspapers and magazines. A graduate of UW-Madison, Liza has two married sons and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, Jim.

Carole Stivers was born in East Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She went on to post-doctoral work at Stanford University before launching a career in medical diagnostics. She now lives in California, where she's combined her love of writing and her fascination with the possibilities of science to create her first novel, THE MOTHER CODE. While sheltering in place from COVID-19, she’s working on another near-future science fiction novel, this one set largely in Iceland—with gratitude for having visited that amazing country before the pandemic!

Loren Rhoads is the author of five novels, including a space opera trilogy and a paranormal romance duet about a succubus who falls in love with an angel. She's also the author of a nonfiction travel guide to cemeteries, as well as a cemetery memoir called Wish You Were Here. Her most recent book is a collection of horror/dark fantasy/science fiction short stories called Unsafe Words.

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong-American writer. She holds degrees from Carleton College and Columbia University. Yang is the author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir winner of the 2009 Minnesota Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir and Readers’ Choice, a finalist for the PEN USA Award in Creative Nonfiction, and the Asian Literary Award in Nonfiction. The book is a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read title and on the roster of the American Place Theatre’s Literature to Life Program. Her second book, The Song Poet won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction Memoir, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chautauqua Prize, a PEN USA Award in Nonfiction, and the Dayton’s Literary Peace Prize.

Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong (Sourcebooks, 2014) and co-editor of Hong Kong Noir (Akashic Books, 2018). She is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books and the Asian Review of Books. Her work has also appeared in The Frisky, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and the South China Morning Post. She received an MPhil in Government and Public Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she researched emerging women’s rights over 100 years ago. Born, raised, and now based in the Chicago suburbs, Susan is an elected trustee of her public library.

Melissa Ferguson lives in Tennessee, where she enjoys chasing her children and writing romantic comedies full of humor and heart. Her favorite hobby is taking friends and acquaintances and turning them into characters in her books without their knowledge. She is confident you should read all her novels, starting with this one.

David Kouri was born in Houston, Texas in June of 1975. He studied at Los Angeles film school from 2001-2003 and at the Oklahoma City University where he studied under Grey Fredrickson, Academy Award-winning Executive producer of The Godfather parts one and two, Apocalypse Now and The Outsiders. While attending school in Oklahoma he also studied under Fritz Kiersch, director of the original Children of the Corn, Tuff Turf, and many other notable films. David lives with his wife and family in the Texas Hill Country.

Dr. Marcia Morris is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Florida, where she has worked with college students for over twenty-five years. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a graduate of Harvard University and Yale School of Medicine. Through media, and public speaking, she is committed to promoting wellness for university students. Her book, The Campus Cure: A Parent's Guide to Mental Health and Wellness for College Students, was published in 2018.

Blake D Bauer is the author of the international bestselling book You Were Not Born To Suffer. Each year he helps thousands of people who cannot find effective support from conventional psychology, medicine, or religion. Blake is a world-renowned teacher and speaker with an extensive background in psychology, alternative medicine, nutrition, traditional healing, and mindfulness meditation. Based on both his personal experience overcoming deep suffering, addiction, and adversity, as well as his professional success with over 100,000 people worldwide, Blake’s pioneering work integrates what he’s found to be the most effective approaches to optimal mental, emotional, and physical health.