Marita Golden a novelist and nonfiction writer and co-founder, President Emeritus, and Interim Executive Director of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, which since 1990 has honored and presented workshops and programs in support of the national and international Black writing community.

Tayari Jones is the author of three novels, most recently Silver Sparrow. She is an associate professor at Rutgers-Newark University and the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, National Endowment for the Arts, and United States Artists Foundation.

Ravi Howard won the 2001 Hurston-Wright College Award. He received the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence in 2008 for Like Trees, Walking, and he was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His second novel is Driving the King.

Abdul Ali worked for several years as a freelance writer and arts administrator for numerous nonprofit organizations in Washington, DC. He is the 2014 winner of the New Issue Poetry Prize.