Paul Reyes is the editor of Virginia Quarterly Review and author of Exiles in Eden: Life Among the Ruins of Florida’s Great Recession. His essays and reporting have appeared in VQR, Harper's, The Oxford American, The New York Times, Mother Jones, and Slate.

Johnny Temple is the publisher of Akashic Books and one of the main organizers of the Brooklyn Book Festival. He also plays bass guitar in the band Girls Against Boys who have toured extensively across the globe. His writing has appeared in The Nation and Publishers Weekly, among other publications.

Amanda Johnston is the author of Another Way to Say Enter. She is an Affrilachian poet and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is a cofounder of Black Poets Speak Out, founder of Torch Literary Arts, and faculty with the Stonecoast MFA program.

Meara Sharma is a writer, radio producer, and senior nonfiction editor for Guernica magazine. She has reported from India, Liberia, and Rwanda and has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, Matador, WNYC's On the Media, and elsewhere.