Donald Morrill’s debut novel Beaut won the Lee Smith Fiction Prize and is forthcoming in 2018. The author of three volumes of poetry, including Awaiting Your Impossibilities (2015 Florida Book Award), and four books of nonfiction, he teaches in the low-residency MFA at the University of Tampa.

Lisa Birnbaum is the author of the novel Worthy, from Dzanc Books. She teaches writing at the University of Tampa, where for many years she served as fiction editor of Tampa Review and at the University of Tampa Press.

Pede Hollist is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, and associate professor of English, specializing in African literature, at The University of Tampa.

Mildred K. Barya teaches creative writing and literature at UNC-Asheville and is a board member of African Writers Trust (AWT). She has published three books of poetry and short stories. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Denver and blogs on literary matters.