Jean Kwok is The New York Times and international bestselling author of the award-winning novels Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in eighteen countries and is taught in schools across the world. She has spoken at Harvard, Columbia, and many other schools and venues.

Mitchell S. Jackson’s debut novel The Residue Years won a Whiting Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, The Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel prize, and the Hurston Wright Legacy award.

Rebecca Makkai is the author of the story collection Music for Wartime and two novels, The Hundred-Year House and The Borrower. Her work was chosen for The Best American Short Stories in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, and won a 2016 Pushcart Prize. She is artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago.

Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer and Cutting Teeth and founder of Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, home to over 3,000 writers in NYC and online, named "New York City's Best Writing Class" (TimeOut NY) and "Top Alternative to MFA" by Poets & Writers.

Courtney Maum