Desiree Zamorano is an award-winning short story writer and the author of the critically acclaimed The Amado Women. Her work has appeared in numerous publications; she is also the director of Occidental College’s Community Literacy Center.

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the 2013 poetry winner of the Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange. She has work published in American Poetry Review, CALYX, and Acentos Review. She is the creator and curator of the quarterly reading series Hitched and a cofounding member of Women Who Submit.

Ashaki M. Jackson is a social psychologist and poet who has worked with at-risk and post-incarceration youth through research, evaluation, and literary mentoring for over one decade. She is a Cave Canem alumna and VONA/Voices alumna, local #blackpoetsspeakout curator, and Women Who Submit cofounder.

Cathy Linh Che is the author of the poetry collection, Split, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies.

Melissa Chadburn has written for Buzzfeed, Poets & Writers, Al Jazeera America, and dozens other places. Her essay, “The Throwaways,” received notable mention in Best American Essays and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Her first novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, is forthcoming.