Laura van den Berg is the author of two novels, most recently The Third Hotel, and two story collections. Her third collection, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, is forthcoming. Her honors include the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Bard Fiction Prize, and an O. Henry Award

Justin Torres has published short fiction in The New Yorker, Harper's, Tin House, and other publications. He is the author of We the Animals, which was recently adapted into a film and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He is an assistant professor of English at UCLA.

Nina McConigley is the author of the short-story collection Cowboys and East Indians, winner of the PEN Open Book Award. She teaches at the University of Wyoming and at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Alejandro Nodarse holds an MFA from the University of Miami. An alum and former staff member of the VONA Writers Conference, he was recently the Fiction Artist in Residence at The Deering Estate in Miami. A former independent bookseller, he now teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska.