Matthew Batt is the author of the memoir Sugarhouse and the recipient of a McKnight Fellowship and an NEA Individual Artist Grant. His work has appeared in Tin House, Mid-American Review, and the Huffington Post. He is an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

David Shields is the author of fifteen books, including Reality Hunger, named one of the best books of 2010 by more than thirty publications; The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead, a NYT best seller; and Black Planet, a National Book Critics Circle finalist. His work has been translated into twenty languages.

Vanessa Veselka is the author of the novel, Zazen, which won the 2012 PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize for fiction. Her short stories appear in Tin House, YETI, and Zyzzyva. Her nonfiction is found in GQ, the Atlantic, the American Reader, Salon, and is included in the 2013 Best American Essays.

Amy Leach

Nicole Walker