Alison Stine is the author of TRASHLANDS (MIRA Books, October 26, 2021) and ROAD OUT OF WINTER (MIRA Books), which won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. She writes regularly for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others, and has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship. After growing up in rural Ohio, where she lived for most of her adult life, she now lives in Colorado with her partner and son.

Rektok Ross is the pen name of Liani Kotcher, a trial attorney turned award-winning young adult author and book blogger. An avid reader since childhood, Liani writes exactly the kind of books she loves to escape into herself: exciting thrillers with strong female leads, swoon-worthy love interests, and life-changing moments. She graduated from the University of Florida School of Journalism and obtained her juris doctorate at the University of Miami School of Law. Originally from South Florida, she currently splits her time between San Francisco and Los Angeles with her husband, stepkids, and her dogs.

Lucretia grew up in the Bahamas on a remote out-island. She spent summers with her father who was in a cult. Her professors at Sarah Lawrence College taught her how to write. Her travel writing has appeared in many publications, including Conde Nast Traveler, Islands, Saveur, and the Los Angeles Times Travel Magazine. She lives in Westbrook, CT, in a grand old shingle style house on the shores of Long Island Sound. Beyond Absolute Love is her 4th novel.

Gabrielle Selz is an award-winning author. Her books include the first comprehensive biography of Sam Francis, Light on Fire, and the memoir, UnStill Life. Her articles have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

Diane Wald’s novel Gillyflower was published in April 2019 by She Writes Press, and won first place in the novella category from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, first place in the novella category from American Book Fest, first place in Fiction: Novella from International Book Awards, and a bronze medal from Reader’s Favorite. Diane has also published more than 250 poems in literary magazines since 1966. She the recipient of a two-year fellowship in poetry from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and has been awarded the Grolier Poetry Prize, The Denny Award, The Open Voice Award, and the Anne Halley Award. Her newest novel, My Famous Brain, published in October 2021 from She Writes Press. 

Dave Tamanini lives in Pennsylvania. His life experiences, combined with a desire to entertain, shape his writing. As a former civil rights investigator, and an attorney for 30 years, he learned a lot about human strength, frailty… and hypocrisy.

Christina Consolino is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in multiple online and print outlets. Her debut novel, Rewrite the Stars, was named one of ten finalists for the Ohio Writers' Association Great Novel Contest 2020, and she is the co-author of Historic Photos of University of Michigan. She serves as senior editor at the online journal Literary Mama, freelance edits both fiction and nonfiction, and teaches writing classes at Word's Worth Writing Center. Christina lives in Kettering, Ohio, with her family and pets.

Beth Kirschner grew up in upstate New York, and thought she knew everything there was to know about winter snows until she moved to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula for college. There she discovered an average snowfall between 200 and 300 inches, and a record winter snowfall of 390 inches. In addition to the harsh winters, she found a place rich with history, personality, and the world’s only known source of pure, native copper. The Keweenaw Peninsula is the setting for her debut novel, Copper Divide.

Her writing has moved from poetry to travel journals, short stories, and novels. When not writing, she works as a software engineer, flies single engine airplanes, and enjoys exploring Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She has two grown children, two large cats, and a room of her own for imagining her next story.

James A. Stewart was born in Baton Rouge, LA. After graduating from Louisiana State University with a BS in Industrial Technology, he spent twenty-five years on active duty with the U.S. Navy. He also holds a BA in English from National University and an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside. He lives with his family in San Diego, CA. The Blue Sea Cottage is his first book. 

Bradley Sides’ writing appears at Chapter 16, Chicago Review of Books, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, The Rumpus, Southern Review of Books, and elsewhere. He holds an MA in English from the University of North Alabama and is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte. He lives in Florence, Alabama, with his wife. Those Fantastic Lives, his debut collection of short stories, is forthcoming from City of Light Publishing (2021).

Rishikesh Upadhyay, aka RK Upadhyay, was born and raised in a small Nepalis’ hamlet, Bhanjang Basti, via Mahadev Tilla, Haflong, the district headquarters of North Cachar Hills, India. He is a research writer, author and assistant professor. He is the author of “The Secret of Plants in the ENVIRONMENT.” His writing has appeared in several international journals of repute, mostly in Elsevier science, Springer science and Taylor & Francis. He’s recently awarded the Albert nelson lifetime achievement award, the Pencraft literary excellence award and the literary titan award.

Ramsey Hootman is the author of Courting Greta, Surviving Cyril, and Cyril in the Flesh. Her fiction is often set in the northern California town of Healdsburg, where she was born and raised. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two rambunctious boys.

Michael Rose was raised on a small family dairy farm in Upstate New York. He retired after serving in executive positions for several global multinational enterprises. He has been a non-executive director for three public companies headquartered in the U.S. The Sorting Room is his debut novel. He lives and writes in San Francisco.

Sarah Echavarre Smith is a copywriter-turned-author who wants to make the world a lovelier place, one kissing story at a time. When she’s not writing, you can find her hiking, eating chocolate and perfecting her lumpia recipe. She is the author of Faker, Simmer Down, and On Location.

A native of Western Pennsylvania, Tammy Pasterick grew up in a family of steelworkers, coal miners, and Eastern European immigrants. She began her career as an investigator with the National Labor Relations Board and later worked as a paralegal and German teacher. She holds degrees in labor and industrial relations from Penn State University and German language and literature from the University of Delaware. She currently lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with her husband, two children, and chocolate Labrador retriever. Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash is her first novel.

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of eight novels including THE ANCESTOR and THE MENTOR, currently in development as a film off his original script, and the YA series RUNAWAY TRAIN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the Prix du Polar. STALKER STALKED will be out in Fall ’21. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared as a contributor in Pipeline Artists, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, Necessary Fiction, Hypertext, If My Book, Past Ten, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.

Jacqueline Friedland is the author of the award-winning novels Trouble the Water and That’s Not a Thing. Her newest release, He Gets That From Me, comes out September 14. She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from NYU Law School. She practiced as an attorney in New York for a hot second before transitioning to writing full time. She lives in New York with her husband, four children, and two very bossy dogs.

Codi Schneider is the author of COLD SNAP: A Viking Cat Mystery (SparkPress). She was raised in the snowy mountains of Colorado on a steady diet of books. She is a mystery-loving animal enthusiast who, when not writing, can be found traveling the world on horseback. She lives in Denver with her husband, two horses, and a cat who is not a Viking but a lover of REM sleep.

Linda C. Wisniewski is a former librarian who shares an empty nest with her retired scientist husband in Doylestown, PA. Linda teaches memoir workshops and produces webinars for the Pearl S. Buck Writing Center. She was born in Amsterdam, New York and is a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo and the library school at Villanova University.

Her work includes fiction, memoir and personal essays and has been published in numerous literary magazines and anthologies both print and online. Her credits include publications as diverse as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Massage, The Quilter, the Christian Science Monitor, gravel and Foliate Oak.  

Barbara O’Neal is the bestselling author of fourteen novels of women’s fiction, including The Lost Girls of Devon, When We Believed in Mermaids, The Art of Inheriting Secrets, and How to Bake a Perfect Life. Her award-winning books have been published in more than a dozen countries, including France, Great Britain, Poland, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Israel, Croatia, Russia, and Brazil. She lives in the beautiful city of Colorado Springs with her beloved, a British endurance athlete who vows he’ll never lose his accent.