Born and raised in a large family in eastern Pennsylvania, Lee Bukowski has always had an interest in reading, writing, and storytelling. She holds a BA in English and Secondary Education from Millersville University and taught seventh grade English and writing for fifteen years. In 2017, she obtained an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Currently, she teaches writing at the college level and freelances as a proofreader and editor. When she’s not teaching or writing, she loves reading and traveling, especially visiting her grown daughters in Boston and Fort Lauderdale. Lee lives with her husband in Reading, PA. A Week of Warm Weather is her debut novel.

Linda Murphy Marshall is a multi-linguist and writer with a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review, The Catamaran Literary Reader, The Ocotillo Review, Maryland Literary Review, Under the Gum Tree, Critical Read, American Writers Review, Bacopa Literary Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Sip Cup, Hobo Camp Review, and elsewhere. She was runner-up in the 2021 Blue Earth Review Flash Creative Nonfiction Contest. In addition, she is a docent at the Library of Congress, served as Translation Editor at the Los Angeles Review, and is a Trustee at the National Museum of Language.

Like his fictional hero, Torn Sagara, L.M. (“Mark”) Weeks was born in Alaska and practices law in Japan. Mark was Managing Partner of the Tokyo office of global law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP for over ten years. He has represented technology companies worldwide in matters of financing, intellectual property, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and related disputes. Mark speaks, reads, and writes fluent Japanese; has a black belt in aikido; and is an avid motorcyclist and tournament fly-fisherman.

Stephanie Cotsirilos writes about humor, injustice, and resilience. Tapping a multiracial family and her prior careers on Broadway and as a lawyer, she’s author of the novella My Xanthi, short stories, and essays. Her songs and scripts were produced in New York. Since then, she has produced and performed in live and videoed multicultural writers’ series in Portland, Maine, where she now lives. She was the inaugural Krant Fellow at the Storyknife Writers Retreat in Alaska.

FRIEDA HOFFMAN is a transformative coach and mediator, creative consultant, and entrepreneur with a passion for supporting women and courageous leadership. As a coach, she aspires to uplift her clients and break down the barriers that keep so many from stepping into their full potential. As a writer, she aims to cultivate compassion, strength, and a greater sense of connection, particularly for and amongst women. She holds an MA in social work and conflict management from Berlin’s Alice Salomon University, a dual BA in psychology and anthropology from Johns Hopkins University, and is an ICF Professional Certified Coach. Carry Me: Stories of Pregnancy Loss is her first book. She currently resides in Oakland, CA.

Rebecca A. Ward is the author of The Paper Tiger Syndrome. A Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, she specializes in grief & loss, trauma, stress reduction, and the psychological symptoms associated with chronic and terminal illness. Her work is informed by somatic-based practices, including as a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP) and also serves as a training assistant for the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute (SETI). She is also certified in Interactive Guided Imagery and the Integrative Enneagram and have received 20+ years of training in numerous relational, grief, ritual, and spiritual modalities. As an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Certified Integral Coach, her work as a management consultant includes nearly 30 years of combined experience in executive coaching and management consulting. She works with leaders across all levels to repair connections and build cohesion and is an expert in leadership presence and embodiment—connecting the work of somatics with the use of language and communication.

Taylor Hahn is a writer and lawyer based in Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and Fordham University School of Law. The Lifestyle is her first novel.

Brooke Lea Foster is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and HuffPost, among others. An alumna of The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, she is the author of three nonfiction books and the novels Summer Darlings and On Gin Lane.

Linda Stewart Henley is an English-born American. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Vince. She learned to write fiction by attending Vince’s fiction writing seminars, eighteen-week classes that he teaches every year. Waterbury Winter is her second novel.

Susan Speranza is the author of ICE OUT: A Novel, a modern fable of forgiveness and redemption after a woman finds herself caught in a sinister, dream-like forest habituated by women who have been betrayed by their partners. She was born in New York City, grew up on Long Island, and for a time worked in Manhattan, enjoying the hectic pace and cultural amenities of the City. Eventually, however, Speranza grew tired of it and exchanged the urban/suburban jungle for the peace and quiet of rural Vermont living. In addition to her latest novel, ICE OUT, she authored two other books: The City of Light, a dystopian story about the end of western civilization, and The Tale of Lucia Grandi, The Early Years, a novel about a dysfunctional suburban family. She has also published numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Along the way, she managed to collect a couple of master’s degrees. When she is not writing, she keeps herself busy exhibiting and breeding her champion Pekingese.

Eldridge C. Hanes—Redge to his friends—was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and graduated from Woodberry Forest School in Orange, Virginia, and then from Duke University in 1967 with a BA in Economics. He graduated from the Army Combat Engineering Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir in June of 1968 and served three years of active duty, the last of which was in the Republic of Vietnam and earned him the Bronze Star. After the army, Redge worked seven years for Hanes Corporation and then left to start Xpres Corporation, which eventually became The Russ Companies, for whom Redge served as chairman for three years before retiring in 2011. In addition to his business interests, he has served on a number of boards in the education, environmental and arts fields. Redge has published two novels, Billy Bowater and Justice by Another Name, in addition to contributing essays and articles to various publications. His essay “Helen of Marion” appeared in the recent UNC Press anthology, Mothers and Strangers: Essays on Motherhood from the New South. Redge has been married for fifty years to Jane Grenley Hanes. They have a son, Philip, and a daughter, Lara, and are grandparents of five lively and beautiful grandchildren. He lives in Winston-Salem, NC.

Robin Farrar Maass is a lifelong reader and writer who fell in love with England when she was twenty-two. She enjoys tending her messy wants-to-be-English garden, painting watercolors, and traveling. She lives in Redmond, Washington, with her husband and two highly opinionated Siamese cats. The Walled Garden is her first novel, and she’s already at work on her next novel set in England.

Since 1969 Tom Miller (Washington, D.C, 1947) has lived in Arizona, where he initially wrote for the underground anti-war press, then for sea-level publications such as Smithsonian, Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Chicago Quarterly Review, The New Yorker, LIFE, and many other outlets. His books include The Panama Hat Trail, about South America; On the Border, an account of his travels along the U.S.-Mexico frontier; Revenge of the Saguaro, about the American Southwest; and about Cuba, Trading with the Enemy. He has been a member of the Thornton Wilder Society and the Cervantes Society of America and served as a Fellow of the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History.

Maggie Anton is an award-winning author of historical fiction, as well as a Talmud scholar with expertise in Jewish women's history. She was born Margaret Antonofsky in Los Angeles, California, where she still resides. In 1992 she joined a women's Talmud class taught by Rachel Adler. There, to her surprise, she fell in love with Talmud, a passion that has continued unabated for thirty years. Intrigued that the great Jewish scholar Rashi had no sons, only daughters, she started researching the family and their community. Thus the award-winning trilogy, Rashi's Daughters, was born, to be followed by National Jewish Book Award finalist, Rav Hisda's Daughter: Apprentice and its sequel, Enchantress. Then she switched to nonfiction, winning the Gold Ben Franklin Award in the religion category for Fifty Shades of Talmud: What the First Rabbis Had to Say about You-Know What, a lighthearted in-depth tour of sexuality within the Talmud.

Catherine Drake lives with her husband in Stowe, Vermont. The Treehouse on Dog River Road is her first novel.

Prior to Gary Lee Miller beginning his writing career, he was a successful businessman and entrepreneur. His writing is rooted in life experiences and people who have crossed his path in his life’s journey. He draws on his ability to translate his observations into very relatable stories by readers. His book Finding Grace has been recognized as the winner of 5 different national book awards, including the Literary Titan Silver Award, Southern California Book Festival Award, Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, Firebird Book Award, and the Maincrest Media Book Award. Finding Grace has also been recognized internationally with the 2nd place award by the London Book Festival. Gary’s favorite hobby is occasionally acting in movies and TV and he has appeared in almost 3 dozen movie and TV shows, including “42”, Hunger Games-Catching Fire, Anchorman 2, Avengers-Endgame, MacGyver, and many others. He is listed in IMBD (Internet Movie Data Base).

Amy Lea is a Canadian bureaucrat by day and contemporary romance author by night (and weekends). She writes laugh out loud romantic comedies featuring strong heroines, witty banter, mid-2000s pop culture references, and happily ever afters.

When Amy is not writing, she can be found fan-girling over other romance books on Instagram, eating potato chips with reckless abandon, and snuggling with her husband and goldendoodle.

Sophia R. Tyler hopes to reintroduce the timeless message of the Golden Rule to young children. Currently a senior at Hope College, she will begin the Master of Social Work program at University of Denver in Fall 2023. Sophia also interns for Ready for Life, a nonprofit organization which fosters an inclusive community and provides creative and engaging opportunities for college students with disabilities. Her children’s picture book, The Friendly Mouse, launched March 21.

Leslie Johansen Nack’s debut, Fourteen, received five indie awards, including the 2016 Finalist in Memoir at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Before she started writing, she raised two children, ran a mechanical engineering business with her husband, took care of her aging mother, and dreamed of retirement when she could write full-time. She did everything late in life, including getting her degree in English Literature from UCLA at age thirty-one, only two years after she married for the second time. She lives in sunny San Diego and enjoys sailing, hiking and reading.

SARA RAUCH is the author of WHAT SHINES FROM IT: STORIES and the autobiographical essay XO (forthcoming). Her fiction and essays have appeared in Paper Darts, Hobart, Split Lip, So to Speak, Qu, Lunch Ticket, and other literary magazines, as well as in the anthologies Dear John, I Love Jane; Best Lesbian Romance 2014; and She’s Lost Control. She has covered books for Bustle, BitchMedia, Curve Magazine, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and more. In 2012, she founded the literary magazine Cactus Heart, which ran through 2016. She holds an MFA from Pacific University. Sara teaches writing at Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop and Grub Street and also works as an independent editor and manuscript consultant. She lives with her family in Holyoke, Massachusetts.