Martha Hall Kelly is the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls, Lost Roses, and Sunflower Sisters. She lives in Connecticut, where she spends her days filling legal pads with stories and reading World War II books.

Irena Smith was born in the former Soviet Union and grew up in Moscow in the waning days of the Brezhnev regime; in 1977, her family emigrated from the USSR and sought asylum in the United States as political refugees. She has been published in HIAS@130: 1+30: The Best of myStory, Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life, Literary Mama and Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis. She has a PhD in comparative literature from UCLA and lives in Palo Alto, California.

Kanchan Bhaskar, an Indian-American, is a first-time author of her memoir Leaving: How I Set Myself Free From an Abusive Marriage. She holds a Master's Degree in social work and a certificate in life coaching. She is also a certified Business Coach. Being a successful Human Resource professional, her expertise is in training and mentoring. She is a certified advocate, speaker, and coach for victims and survivors of domestic violence. Kanchan lives in Chicago.

Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann moved from Montreal to Jerusalem after studying theater, literature, and communications at McGill University. Starting out as a freelance journalist, translator, writer, and editor, she became a feature writer at The Jerusalem Post and, subsequently, editor of the paper’s youth magazines. Later, during a stint as a writer at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, she discovered how fulfilling it is to work for the benefit of others and moved to NGO work in East Jerusalem and the developing world. In recent years, she’s come full circle to her first loves and spends her best hours immersed in literary translation.

Patricia Leavy, PhD, is an award-winning, best-selling author. She was formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology, and Founding Director of Gender Studies at Stonehill College. She has published more than forty books; her work has been translated into many languages, and she has received more than forty book honors. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.”

The daughter of a law professor and a potter, Leslie Karst waited tables and sang in a new wave rock band before deciding she was ready for “real” job and ending up at Stanford Law School. It was during her career as a research and appellate attorney in Santa Cruz, California, that she rediscovered her youthful passion for food and cooking, at which point she once again returned to school—this time to earn a degree in culinary arts. Now retired from the law, Leslie spends her days penning the Sally Solari culinary mystery series, as well as cooking, gardening, cycling, and singing alto in her local community chorus. She and her wife and their Jack Russell mix split their time between Santa Cruz and Hilo, Hawai’i.

Candi Milo is a three-time Annie Award-nominated voice actor, singer, and comedian who is honored to have taken the mantle from the late June Foray as the voice of Granny for all Warner Bros. Animation's projects, including SPACE JAM 2: A NEW LEGACY starring LeBron James. She is best known for voicing Dexter in DEXTER’S LABORATORY and The Flea in MUCHA LUCHA, among other well-known characters in hundreds of film and television projects, including Looney Tunes Cartoons. On stage, Candi starred with Jennifer Holliday in the first touring production of “Dreamgirls,” directed by Michael Bennett. She also gives inspirational talks about her unusual childhood and how it informed her life as an actor, mother, and passionate advocate for people dealing with mental illness and homelessness. 

L.S. Stratton is a NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter who has written more than a dozen books under different pen names in just about every genre from thrillers to romance to historical fiction. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat.

Michael Schnabel is the author of Daddy's Girl, a memoir about the challenges and struggles of parenting through a medical crisis. A graduate of Northern State University, Michael developed his passion for writing and storytelling during his thirty-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Michael lives in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife, and when not spending time with family, you can find him tending to his 26-acre tree farm. Daddy's Girl is his first book.

Ms. Skolkin-Smith was born in Manhattan in 1952, and spent her childhood between Pound Ridge, New York, and Israel. She earned her BA and MFA and was awarded a teaching fellowship for graduate work, all at Sarah Lawrence. Her first published novel, EDGES was edited and published by the late Grace Paley for Ms. Paley's own imprint at Glad Day books. EDGES was nominated for the 2006 PEN/Faulkner Award by Grace Paley. Recently, her work has been chosen by Princeton University and the Department of the Humanities for their series: "Fertile Crescent Moon: Stories from the Middle East Diaspora." Her 2012 novel, HYSTERA was the winner of the 2012 Global E-Books Award and the 2012 USA Book Awards. Hystera is published by Fiction Studio Books. It was a Finalist in Literary Fiction in the 2012 International Book Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. Solkin-Smith was panelist at MAINE READS, The Haitian Cultural International Book Festival, The Miami International Book Fair, The Virginia Festival of the Book, and The National Women's Association. She was a contributing editor to readysteadbook.com and her critical essays have been published in The Washington Post, The National Book Critic's Circle's Critical Mass, Conversational Reading, the Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.

Abigail Stewart is a fiction writer from Berkeley, California. Originally from Houston, Texas, she studied Literature and Art History at Sam Houston State University, before going on to earn an M.Ed at Lamar University. She is the author of a novel, The Drowned Woman (Whiskey Tit Books), and a short story collection, Assemblage (Alien Buddha Press). Her third book, Foundations, will be released in spring of 2023.

Kwame Sound Daniels is an artist based out of Maryland, USA. Xe are an Anaphora Arts Residency Fellow and are pursuing an MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Xir first book, Light Spun, was out with Perennial Press August of 2022. Xir second book, the pause and the breath, was out January of 2023 and on Lambda Literary's list for Most Anticipated of January. Xe enjoy reading, learning plant medicine, and sitting in the sun in xir spare time.

Alison Schaffir is a social media strategist and young adult author living in New York City. A lover of contemporary fiction, Alison developed her debut novel, Your Dream for Me, fusing two of her favorite interests, fashion and theater, together. She graduated from University of Richmond with a major in business marketing and a minor in psychology. When she’s not making up stories in her head, she loves indulging in Trader Joe’s lava cakes, belting early 2000s pop hits, and spending time with her friends and family.

Carmen Peone is an award-winning author of Young Adult and Contemporary Western Romantic Suspense and lives with her husband in Northeast Washington and on the Colville Confederated Indian Reservation. She weaves threads of healing, hope, and horses into her stories. With a thread of romance.

Roxana Arama is a Romanian American author with a master of fine arts in creative writing from Goddard College. She studied computer science in Bucharest, Romania, and moved to the United States to work in software development. Her short stories and essays have been published in several literary magazines. Extreme Vetting is her first novel. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her family.

Neville Frankel is an Emmy award-winning writer of literary and historical fiction.

A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, Neville Frankel immigrated to the US with his family at the age of 14. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and did his doctoral work in English literature at the University of Toronto.

Before becoming Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer of the nation’s largest military shipbuilder, Chad Boudreaux served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he advised Secretary Michael Chertoff on almost all significant matters facing the newly established department. Before working for Homeland Security, Boudreaux served in several high-ranking positions at the U.S. Justice Department, where he was hired the night before the September 11, 2001 attacks. During his time at the Justice Department, Boudreaux focused most of his time on matters relating to terrorism and homeland security. Boudreaux graduated from Baylor University in Texas in 1995 and from the University of Memphis School of Law in 1998, where he was Managing Editor of the law review.

Chad lives in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with his wife and four children.

Angela Woodward is the author of the novel Ink (2023), part of the University Press of Kentucky New Poetry and Prose series. Her other books include the novels Natural Wonders (winner of the Fiction Collective Two Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize) and End of the Fire Cult, and the collections Origins and Other Stories and The Human Mind. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in many literary journals including Kenyon Review, Agni, Conjunctions, Ninth Letter, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She’s won a Pushcart Prize for short fiction and grants and awards from the Illinois Arts Council, the Council for Wisconsin Writers, The Writers Center, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and others. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Chelsea Stickle’s debut flash fiction chapbook Breaking Points was the Editor’s Choice in the Spring 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition and was released by Black Lawrence Press on October 2021. A second flash fiction chapbook is forthcoming from Thirty West Publishing in January 2023. It contains stories of strangeness.

Derek Dwight Anderson is an independent high school history teacher and librarian with 35 years of teaching experience. He is also a dedicated world traveler who loves museums, large and small. Improbable Voices is Anderson's first book and represents the cumulative integration of his professional and personal interests.