Laura Joyce Davis won the Poets & Writers Exchange Award for fiction and a Fulbright scholarship. Her work has received honorable mention with Glimmer Train, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has recently appeared in the Arroyo Literary Review, Hobart, Runner’s World, and elsewhere.

Vernon Keeve III is a Virginia born writer that California molded into an educator. He lives and teaches in Oakland. He holds a MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts and a MA in Literature Education from Bard College. His book Southern Migrant Mixtape is available from Nomadic Press.

Nina LaCour is the nationally bestselling author of five novels. She is the recipient of the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award and William C. Morris Honor and won the Northern California Book Award. Her novels have been published or are forthcoming in over a dozen languages.

Shanthi Sekaran's recent novel, Lucky Boy, was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Library Journal, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Canteen Magazine, and The Rumpus. She's a Distinguished Visiting Writer at St. Mary's College of California.

Zahra Noorbakhsh is a comedian, writer, and cohost of the award-winning podcast, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim. The podcast was deemed a "must-listen" by Oprah Magazine. The Pop Culture Collaborative has named her a Senior Fellow on "Comedy for Change." Find out more at ZahraComedian.com.