Ellen Cassedy is the author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust, which won the Grub Street National Nonfiction Prize, a Prakhin International Literary Foundation Award, and the Towson Prize for Literature last year.

Sheri Joseph is an NEA fellow, winner of the Grub Street National Book Prize, and the author of three books of fiction: Where You Can Find Me, Stray, and Bear Me Safely Over. She teaches in the creative writing program at Georgia State University and serves as fiction editor of Five Points.

Rick Barot has published two volumes of poetry: The Darker Fall and Want. He teaches at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto is the author of Hiroshima in the Morning and Why She Left Us. A U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellow; Hedgebrook alumna; and Goddard College faculty member. She has been interviewed on The Today Show, 20/20, and The View. Her articles have been published globally.

Christopher Castellani is the author of three novels, most recently All This Talk of Love, and numerous essays on writing. He is the artistic director of Grub Street and on the faculty of the MFA program at Warren Wilson and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.