Alan Lessik is a novelist, Zen practitioner, LGBT activist, and NWU member. His debut novel, The Troubleseeker, was a finalist for Publishing Triangle 2017 LGBTQ Fiction Award. His nonfiction works have been published in Lambda Literary and The Advocate, He is the treasurer of the AWP LGBTQ Caucus.

Viet Dinh teaches at the University of Delaware. He has received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as two O. Henry Prizes and the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction. His debut novel, After Disasters was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize.

Carter Sickels is the author of the novel The Evening Hour, and the editor of Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity. He is assistant professor of creative writing at Eastern Kentucky University.

Brandy Wilson