Carla Du Pree is an author whose fiction appears in literary journals and anthologies. She's the executive director of CityLit Project, former vice chair of the Maryland State Arts Council, a VCCA and Poetry Foundation fellow, a recipient of a Rubys Artist Project Grant, and is working on a novel.

Shawn Girvan received his MFA in creative writing from Goddard College. His work has appeared in The Pitkin Review, Wraparound South, and West Texas Literary Review. Shawn currently teaches and works at the Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, Virginia and is finishing his first memoir.

Jess Mann is a graduate of Goddard College's MFAW program. She teaches fiction to teens and adults at Grub Street in Boston, Massachusetts, and she really likes that moment when a writer takes a risk and it totally pays off.

Melissa Wyse is a fiction writer and essayist. She has held residencies at MacDowell, VCCA, and Ragdale. Her work appears in publications including Shenandoah, the Rumpus, and Urbanite. She is the founder and director of Idlewild Arts, and she serves as the writer in residence at Pomfret School.