Ashley Wurzbacher's debut short story collection, Happy Like This, won Iowa's 2019 John Simmons Short Fiction Award. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama and teaches creative writing at the University of Montevallo. She is at work on a novel.

Anthony Varallo is the author of a novel, The Lines, as well as four short story collections, including This Day in History, winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. He teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at the College of Charleston, where he is the fiction editor of Crazyhorse.

Allegra Hyde's first book, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, as well as fellowships from the Lucas Artists Program, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Fulbright Commission. She currently teaches at Oberlin College.

Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer won the Iowa Short Fiction Award in 2018 and the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 2004. She is the author of a story collection, The Water Diviner and Other Stories, and a novel, The Mask Collectors.

Emily Wortman-Wunder is an award-winning essayist and fiction writer who has published in Kenyon Review, Creative Nonfiction, Nimrod, High Country News, and elsewhere. Her book of stories, Not a Thing to Comfort You, won the 2019 Iowa Short Fiction Award.