Alden Jones is the author of The Wanting Was a Wilderness, Unaccompanied Minors, and The Blind Masseuse, finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award. She is codirector of the Cuba Writers Program and teaches at Emerson College and the Newport MFA Program.

Tim Weed is the author of a novel, Will Poole’s Island—named to Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of the Year—and a short fiction collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing. He teaches at GrubStreet and in the Newport MFA, and is the cofounder of the Cuba Writers Program.

Ann Hood is the author of thirteen books, including most recently the novels The Obituary Writer and The Knitting Circle, as well as the memoir, Comfort: A Journey through Grief. She has been the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and Best American Spiritual, Travel and Food Writing Awards.

Dariel Suarez is the Cuban-born author of the story collection A Kind Of Solitude, winner of the 2017 Spokane Short Fiction Prize. Dariel is Director of Core Programs and Faculty at GrubStreet, the nation's leading independent creative writing center.

Suchita Chadha is a poet with a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, recipient of two senior writing awards: High Distinction in Poetry, and Honorable Mention in Nonfiction. She also represented Emerson at the Greater Boston Intercollegiate Poetry Festival.