Tara Stillions Whitehead is a filmmaker and author of three books: Blood Histories, The Year of the Monster, and They More Than Burned. She has 8,000 hours of production and producing experience, and is assistant professor of film, vdeo, and digital media at Messiah University in Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Penton edits the journal Unlikely Stories and its print arm, Unlikely Books. He is the technical director for the New Orleans Poetry Festival and Rigorous, and has worked in management and technical roles for a number of arts organizations. His most recent chapbook of poetry is Backstories.

Rosalyn Spencer, educator and advocate holds a BA in English, MLS in public library and MEd in educational leadership. She directs youth art programs and teaches ELA in Greater New Orleans. She is a grant writer, advocate, and supporter of the arts in education and equitable curriculum.

Rone Shavers is author of the experimental Afrofuturist novel Silverfish, recently shortlisted for a CLMP Firecracker Award. His writing has appeared in Big Other, Black Warrior Review, Bomb, and elsewhere. Shavers is also a fiction editor at Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora.

David Byron Queen has an MFA from the University of Montana, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow. His work has appeared in VICE, Paste, Split Lip magazine, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Hobart, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. He lives in New York and runs the publishing company word west.