Robert James Russell is the author of the novellas Mesilla and Sea of Trees, and the chapbook Don't Ask Me to Spell It Out. He is a founder and the managing editor of the literary journals Midwestern Gothic and CHEAP POP. Robert currently lives and teaches in South Bend, Indiana.

Theodora Bishop is the author of the novella, On the Rocks and winner of The Cupboard’s contest for her prose chapbook, Mother Tongues. She holds an MFA from the University of Alabama and is pursuing her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Houston.

Juan Carlos Reyes is as an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Seattle University and is the editor of Big Fiction. His first book, A Summer's Lynching, won the Quarterly West Novella prize. His collection, Elements of a Bystander, won the Arcadia Press 2017 Chapbook Prize.

Lee Upton's most recent books are Visitations: Stories and Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles: Poems. Her other books include The Tao of Humiliation, Swallowing the Sea, and the novella The Guide to the Flying Island.