Cary Holladay has published seven volumes of fiction, most recently Horse People: Stories and The Deer in the Mirror. More than eighty of her stories, novellas, and essays have appeared in literary journals and anthologies. Her awards include an O. Henry Prize and an NEA fellowship.

Gary Fincke founded Susquehanna University’s Writers Institute and directed it for twenty-one years. He won the Flannery O’Connor, Bess Hokin, George Garrett, and two Pushcart Prizes. His thirty books include Bringing Back the Bones: Selected Poems, A Room of Rain (stories), and The Canals of Mars (memoir).

Charlotte Holmes is the author of The Grass Labyrinth, a collection of linked stories, and Gifts & Other Stories. Her stories have appeared in The Antioch Review, Epoch, Grand Street, New Letters, The New Yorker, Story, and other journals. She directs the creative writing program at Penn State.

Lorraine M. López, Gertrude Conaway Chair, teaches in the MFA program at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of six books of fiction, editor or coeditor of three essay collections, and associate editor of the Afro-Hispanic Review. Her most recent publication is The Darling, a novel.

Rick Mulkey is the author of five collections including Ravenous: New & Selected Poems, Toward Any Darkness, and Bluefield Breakdown. His work has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Georgia Review, Denver Quarterly, and Poetry East, among others. He directs the low-residency MFA program at Converse College.