Dr. Carrie Jarosinski is a registered nurse, wellness coach, educator, inspirational speaker, and author of Reclaim Your Story: Renew Your Health and Wellness through the Power of Storytelling and the Nursing Assistant textbook educational series. She lives in Wisconsin with her two furry companions, Winn and Xena. She likes to hike, explore, meet new people, laugh, and continuously build upon her pollinator garden in her free time.

Fran Hawthorne has been writing novels since she was four years old, although she was sidetracked for several decades by journalism. During that award-winning career, she wrote eight nonfiction books, mainly about consumer activism, the drug industry, and the financial world. For instance, Ethical Chic (Beacon Press) was named one of the best business books of 2012 by Library Journal, and Pension Dumping (Bloomberg Press) was a Foreword magazine 2008 Book of the Year. She's also been an editor or regular contributor for The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, Newsday, and many other publications. But Fran never abandoned her true love: Her debut novel, The Heirs, was published in 2018 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. With the publication of I Meant to Tell You, and firmly committed to fiction now, Fran is at work on two new novels and also writes book reviews for the New York Journal of Books.

Susen Edwards is the founder and former director of Somerset School of Massage Therapy, New Jersey’s first state-approved and nationally accredited postsecondary school for massage therapy. During her tenure she was nominated by Merrill Lynch for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. After the successful sale of the business, she became an administrator at her local community college. She is currently secretary for the board of trustees for her town library and a full-time writer. Her passions are yoga, cooking, reading, and, of course, writing. Susen lives in Central New Jersey with her husband, Bob, and her two fuzzy feline babies, Harold and Maude. She is the author of Doctor Whisper and Nurse Willow, a children’s fantasy. What a Trip is her first adult novel.

Amy Turner was born in Bronxville, New York, and holds a degree in political science from Boston University and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School. After practicing law (rather unhappily) for twenty-two years, she finally found the courage to change careers at forty-eight and become a (very happy) seventh grade social studies teacher. A long-time meditator and avid reader who loves to swim and bike, Amy lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband, Ed. They have two sons and a rescue dog, Fred. On the Ledge, A Memoir, (She Writes Press) is Amy's first book.

Aaron Philip Clark is the author of the novel Under Color of Law and a screenwriter from Los Angeles. In addition to his writing career, he has worked in the film industry, higher education, and law enforcement. 

A former European security specialist, Suzanne now writes historical fiction about the Soviet Union. She studied Russian at Purdue University and the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. After earning a Master’s from Princeton University, she began a career in public service with the US Department of Defense focused on Europe and the Soviet Union. While at the Pentagon she helped negotiate the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, the first security agreement of the Gorbachev era. She raised a large family and taught university, eventually landing in the wonderful and welcoming city of Portland, Oregon. There, she coached high school cross country and track for fifteen years before embarking on a writing career. A veteran of several dozen marathons on six continents, Suzanne now runs slowly and not very far. She remains convinced that raising four children was as difficult as negotiating with the Soviets.

Stephen Policoff is the author of Beautiful Somewhere Else, which won the James Jones Award, and was published by Carroll & Graf. His second novel, Come Away, won the Dzanc Award, and was published by Dzanc Books in 2014. He was writer-in-residence at Medicine Show Theater Ensemble, with whom he wrote Shipping Out, The Mummer’s Play, Ubu Rides Again, and Bound to Rise, which received an Obie. He was also a freelance writer for Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, New Age Journal, and many other publications. He helped create Center for Creative Youth, based at Wesleyan University, and has taught writing at CUNY, Wesleyan, and Yale. He is currently Clinical Professor of Writing in Global Liberal Studies at NYU, where he has taught since 1987. His latest book is Dangerous Blues ( Flexible Press, November, 2022).

Judith M. Ford is a widely published writer whose short work has appeared in over thirty magazines, including Connecticut Review, Evening Street Review, Southern Humanities Review, and many others. Her work has been nominated three times for Pushcart prizes. She was a psychotherapist for thirty-five years and also taught creative writing in a private elementary school, at the University of Wisconsin Extension, and in a teen runaway shelter. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Fever of Unknown Origin is her first book.

Lenore Borja grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. She attended Arizona State University before moving to New York City to study acting at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After a brief career as an actress, she spent several years working in executive search and human resources in both New York and San Francisco. She now resides in Fort Collins, Colorado, with her husband and a bossy feline named Maximus. When she’s not writing, she enjoys adventure travel and anything that gets the heart racing, whether it’s hiking, running, or getting lost in a good book.

T.J. Champitto is the author of The Medina Device and The Shadowmaker. In 2020, Champitto was given the PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence, the Maxy Award for Best Thriller, and was a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award. Born in Troy, New York, the author currently resides in Greenville, South Carolina with his wife and two dogs.

Yvonne Martinez is a retired labor negotiator/organizer. She has been published by ZyZZyVa, Crab Orchard Review, Labor Notes, and NPR. She also formerly wrote a local labor blog in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her forthcoming memoir in essays, Someday Mija, You’ll Learn the Difference Between a Whore and a Working Woman, covers her childhood in Salt Lake City/South Central/Boyle Heights and her work as a labor negotiator/organizer in California and the Pacific Northwest. Her play Scabmuggers is based on her experience as a National Fellow of the Harvard Trade Union Program in 1994. Yvonne lives in Berkeley, CA, and Portland, OR.

Amelia Zachry was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After graduating from Curtin University in Kuala Lumpur with a degree in marketing, she worked in public relations and marketing until she met her American husband, Daniel, when he was traveling through Malaysia with friends on a short vacation from their job in Japan. Since then, they have lived together in Japan, Canada (where Amelia obtained a second degree in human ecology from the University of Western Ontario), and Kentucky, and had two daughters together. Now a full-time writer, Amelia is also an advocate for sexual assault survivors and those who suffer from mental illness. She was recently published on HuffPost and Moms Don’t Have Time to Write, and weekly blogs, where you can find a list of her recent appearances and more information about her and her work. Amelia lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Linda Moore: The first time I visited the Prado Museum in Madrid, I followed my Spanish art history professor around the hallowed but stuffy galleries. The actual masterpieces, El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez, Goya, became part of a tumultuous year I spent at the Complutense University of Madrid.

In those times, Franco, the Fascist dictator who controlled Spain fought anyone who wanted to end his tyranny. University days were spent running from police on horseback swinging clubs hitting anyone in their path, until the government closed the university -for four months. I learned that leadership matters, that society is not separate from politics and I pursued a major in political science. I went on to graduate school to study Latin American politics at Stanford University.

Patricia Grayhall is a medical doctor and author of Making the Rounds: Defying Norms in Love and Medicine as well as articles in Queer Forty and The Gay and Lesbian Review. After nearly forty years of medical practice, this is her debut, very personal, and frank memoir about coming out as a lesbian in the late 1960s and training to become a doctor when society disapproved of both for a woman. Patricia chose to write using a pen name to protect the privacy of some of her characters as well as her own. She lives with the love of her life on an island in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys other people’s dogs, the occasional Orca and black bear, hiking, and wine with friends.

Isidra Mencos was born and raised in Barcelona. She spent her twenties experimenting with the new freedoms afforded by the end of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, bouncing from man to man and job to job while immersing herself in books and dancing. She freelanced for prestigious publishing houses, traveled the world as a tour leader, and worked for the Olympic Committee. In 1992 she moved to the US to earn a PhD in Spanish and Latin American contemporary literature at UC Berkeley, where she taught for twelve years. She also developed her own business as a writer and editor for Spanish-speaking media. From 2006 to 2016 she worked as Editorial Director of the Americas for BabyCenter, the leading global digital resource for parents, and managed teams in several countries. In 2016 she quit her job to dedicate herself to writing. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Quarterly Review, Front Porch Journal, The Penmen Review, WIRED, The Huffington Post, and Better After Fifty among others. Her essay "My Books and I" was listed as Notable in The Best American Essays Anthology. Today Isidra lives in Northern California with her husband and son.

Alli Frank has worked in education for over twenty years, from an overcrowded, cacophonous public high school to a pristine private girl’s school. She has been a teacher, curriculum leader, college counselor, assistant head, co-founder, sometimes pastor, often mayor, and de facto parent therapist. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford University, Alli lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters. She is the co-author of Tiny Imperfections and Never Meant to Meet You.

Asha Youmans: The daughter of an education pioneer and Children’s Hospital administrator, after attending UC Berkeley Asha spent the next twenty years teaching elementary school. Asha continues to work in schools in the Pacific Northwest believing children keep her youthful, as do her husband and two sons. She is the co-author of Tiny Imperfections and Never Meant to Meet You. 

Brennen Matthews is the editor of ROUTE Magazine, the leading Route 66 and classic Americana magazine, and the former Editor-in-Chief of Destination Magazine, East Africa’s premiere lifestyle publication. After obtaining his Master of Arts in International Development Studies with a minor in Creative Writing, and bachelor's degrees in Sociology and Community Development Studies with a minor in Literature, Brennen worked with some of the world's largest nonprofit humanitarian organizations, including World Vision, CARE, Red Cross, and Tearfund UK. Brennen’s first book is Miles to Go: An African Family in Search of America along Route 66, the unique story of a foreign family's great American road trip featuring vignettes of Americana — one-of-a-kind vintage roadside attractions and insightful encounters with locals and fellow travelers — culminating in a vision of America as a land defined by diversity, individuality, and possibility. Originally from Mombasa, Kenya, Brennen lives with his family in Toronto, Canada.

Barbara Rubin writes this story of joy and sorrow mixed with humor and rage as both mother and advocate for her daughter Jenn. In this role, she witnessed firsthand the battles that come when a person is the most vulnerable, but she also saw the gift of human kindness and the difference it can make in another person’s life. She hopes that her journey, lived through her daughter’s injury, will help others understand the lessons that can be learned from tolerance and will give hope to families whose paths have also been darkened by tragedy. This is her first book. Barbara resides in Washington Crossing, PA.

Jody Keisner’s (she/her/hers) memoir Under My Bed and Other Essays explores the fears that keep us up at night, their origin stories, and our struggle to keep them from reaching out and pulling us under. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Los Angeles Review of Books, Fourth Genre, The Normal School, Threepenny Review, AARP’s The Girlfriend, and many other literary journals and magazines. She lives in Omaha with her husband and two daughters.

Christine Nolfi is the bestselling author of fifteen novels, including The Passing Storm, cited by Publishers Weekly as “Tautly plotted, expertly characterized, and genuinely riveting” and gold medal winner in general fiction, International Book Awards. A Brighter Flame is her September 2022 release. A native of Ohio, she now resides in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and their crazy Wheaten terrier, Lucy.