Cameron MacKenzie is the author of the short story collection River Weather, from Alternating Current Press. His other books include the novel, The Beginning of His Excellent and Eventful Career, and monograph Badiou and American Modernist Poetics.

Jennifer Fliss (she/her) is a Seattle-based writer with over 200 stories and essays that have appeared in F(r)iction, PANK, Hobart, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She was a Pen Parentis Fellow and recipient of a Grant for Artist Project award from Artist’s Trust. She has been nominated four times for The Pushcart Prize and her story, Hineni, was selected for inclusion in the Best Small Fictions 2019 anthology. Her flash fiction collection, The Predatory Animal Ball will be published in late 2021. She is an alumna of the Tin House Summer and Winter Writers’ Workshops.

Briana Cole is an acclaimed author, motivational speaker, sex educator and actress. Her novels are known for exploring unconventional relationships and making readers question all expectations about love, lust, and monogamy – her latest release is Couples Wanted. An Atlanta native, she graduated cum laude from Georgia Southern University and is a proud member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Her motto and ultimate drive toward success is a famous quote from Mae West: “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

KAREN E. OSBORNE’s  novels followed a forty-year career, first as an academic administrator and then co-owner of The Osborne Group, serving as a consultant, trainer, and motivational speaker. Now Karen writes women’s fiction/suspense novels full time.

Getting It Right, published by Akashic Books, came out in June 2017, and was featured in Essence Magazine and Poets & Writers. Tangled Lies, Black Rose Writing, was released on July 22, 2021. It was chosen as a 2021 BestThriller.com finalist. Reckonings is due out on June 16, 2022.

Prior to writing Sometimes Shells Make Sand, author Julie Doyle Cullen spent thirty years as an executive, mostly in the media business. During the pandemic, Julie transitioned her career to a company of community-based healthcare centers focused on senior adults. Julie currently resides in St. Clair Shores, Michigan with her husband Mark. They have three adult daughters between them that they love dearly: Kylie, Caitlin, and Erin. Unfortunately, Winnie the Labradoodle recently passed away, and is currently running wild in heaven reunited with her previous owner, Suzanne, Julie’s mother.

Gina Yates’s debut novel NARCISSUS NOBODY was released in April 2021 by Three Rooms Press. As the youngest daughter of the late American literary master Richard Yates, Gina always felt a natural impulse to craft stories that illuminate shared human vulnerabilities. After attending the University of British Columbia in the early nineties, she sidestepped higher academia, opting instead to hone her fiction writing skills along a less conventional path of world travel and entrepreneurship. Gina currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her two rescue dogs Fannie and Scarlett, and she is the owner/operator of an eclectic vintage clothing shop.

Kelly Ann Jacobson is a prolific author and editor specializing in queer fiction and unique twists on genre fiction. In addition to Tink and Wendy, her recent books include the linked story collection An Inventory of Abandoned Things: Stories, winner of the Split/Lip Chapbook Contest, Miranda (Storylandia!), and Cairo in White (Musa Publishing). Her short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction has been appeared in more than fifty publications. Kelly earned her PhD in fiction from Florida State University and teaches as the Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of West Alabama and as an instructor of speculative fiction for Southern New Hampshire University's online MFA in creative writing. She lives in Livingston, Alabama.

Pamela Seelig is a yoga teacher and the author of Threads of Yoga: Themes, Reflections, and Meditations to Weave into Your Practice. She began her yoga and meditation journey in 1991 when an illness interrupted her Wall Street career. Along with helping recovery, the impact of her meditation led to a lifelong pursuit of perceiving and sharing yogic wisdom through practice, teaching, and writing. She completed her teacher training in 2006 at Integral Yoga Institute in New York. Pamela considers Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral, as her primary teacher (root guru), but she has trained with many of the top yoga luminaries in the world today. Pamela is a fervent student of yoga and continues to deepen and expand her yogic knowledge and understanding. Along with Hatha yoga, Pamela also studies Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and is a certified Raja Yoga instructor. While grateful for so many brilliant teachers along the way, she regards the practice itself as the greatest teacher. She lives in New Jersey where she practices yoga, teaches yoga workshops, writes, and empty-nests with her husband, Bob, and dog, Bodhi.

Jenn Bouchard's debut novel First Course was published by TouchPoint Press in 2021. It was named a finalist in the American Fiction Awards. Her short stories have appeared in the Bookends Review, Litbreak Magazine, the Penmen Review, and the Little Patuxent Review. A high school social studies teacher of twenty-two years, she is an avid cook and devoted Red Sox fan. She is a graduate of Bates College and Tufts University. She lives in the Boston suburbs with her husband and two children.

Christine Nolfi is the bestselling author of twelve novels of women’s and book club fiction, including The Road She Left Behind, Sweet Lake, and her 2021 release, The Passing Storm. Her award-winning books delve into the extraordinary moments in seemingly ordinary lives. She is the adoptive mother of four children, all now grown. Today Christine lives in South Carolina’s Lowcountry with her husband and crazy Wheaten Terrier, Lucy.

Joan Schweighardt writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent work is a trilogy that moves back and forth from the New York metro area to the South American rainforests between the years 1908 and 1929. In addition to her own projects, she has worked as an editor/ghostwriter for more than 25 years.

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.