Sandra Williams has worked with Mountain Writers Series since it began in Oregon in 1973. Her collection of poems, Detours, was nominated for an Oregon Book Award in 1995.

David James Duncan is the author of the best-selling novels The River Why and The Brothers K, as well as several works of nonfiction. His books have won three Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Awards, the American Library Association’s Award for the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom, and other honors.

Joseph Millar has three collections of poetry, most recently Blue Rust. He teaches in Pacific University Low residency Program. He is a recent Guggenheim recipient.

Maxine Scates is the author of three books of poetry, Undone, Black Loam and Toluca Street, and co-editor, with David Trinidad, of Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford. She has received the Starrett Prize, an Oregon Book Award, and a Pushcart Prize.