Janice Gary is the author of Short Leash: A Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance. She is the recipient of the Christine White Award for memoir and the Ames Award for Essay and is a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Aimee Liu is author of the novels Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face. Nonfiction works include Gaining and Solitaire. Her short stories and essays have appeared in more than a dozen anthologies, magazines, and literary journals. She teaches in Goddard College's MFA program in Creative Writing.

Richard Hoffman is author of five books, Half the House: A Memoir, the poetry collections Without Paradise, Gold Star Road, and Emblem, and Interference & Other Stories. He is Senior Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College.

Jerald Walker is the author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption, recipient of the 2011 PEN New England/L.L. Winship Award for Nonfiction. His essays have appeared in numerous publications, including three times in The Best American Essays.

Meredith Hall is the author of the bestselling memoir Without A Map. She is listed on Flavorwire's "17 Women to Read" and was awarded the Gift of Freedom Award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and Kenyon Review. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of New Hampshire.