Mary F. Rockcastle is the author of the novels In Caddis Wood and Rainy Lake. She is director of the creative writing programs at Hamline University and executive editor of Water~Stone Review. Her awards include a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in prose and a Bush  fellowship.

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the bestselling memoir Wild, the novel Torch, and Tiny Beautiful Things, a collection of her Dear Sugar columns. Her essays have appeared in Best American Essays, the New York Times Magazine, Vogue, the Sun, Tin House, the Missouri Review, and elsewhere.

Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the anti-memoir The Chronology of Water, the debut novel Dora: A Headcase, three books of short stories, and a critical book on war and narrative. Her writing awards sit next to her swimming awards. She writes and swims in Oregon. 

Honor Moore is the author of The Bishop's Daughter: A Memoir, The White Blackbird: A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent By Her Granddaughter, and of three volumes of poems: Red Shoes, Darling, and Memoir. She coordinates nonfiction and teaches in the New School graduate writing program.

Susanne Paola Antonetta’s most recent book is Make Me a Mother, a memoir of adoption. Awards for her poetry and prose include a New York Times notable book, an American Book Award, a Library Journal best science book, a Pushcart Prize, and others. She is co-author of the nonfiction text Tell It Slant.