Thaddeus Rutkowski is author of seven books, most recently Tricks of Light, a poetry collection. His novel Haywire won an award from the Asian American Writers' Workshop. He teaches at Medgar Evers College and received a fiction writing fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Donna Hill has more than seventy titles in print. She has won numerous awards for her body of work. Three of her novels were adapted for television. She holds an MFA in creative writing and is an assistant professor of professional writing at Medgar Evers College.

Darrel Alejandro Holnes is the author of Stepmotherland and Migrant Psalms; his poetry has appeared in Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review, Callaloo, and elsewhere. He is the winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize and others. He is an assistant professor for CUNY, and he teaches at New York University.

Tonya Cherie Hegamin is the author of the picture book Most Loved in All the World and the YA historical novels M+O 4evr, Pemba's Song (written with Marilyn Nelson), and Willow, all of which have won national awards and recognition. Hegamin is the creative writing coordinator at CUNY Medgar Evers College.

Joanna Sit was born in China and grew up in New York City. She is the author of My Last Century, In Thailand with the Apostles, and most recently, Track Works. She teaches creative writing at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York.