Deb Vanasse is the author of Out of the Wilderness and Black Wolf of the Glacier. Co-founder of the 49 Alaska Writing Center, she writes fiction and nonfiction. She has reviewed for The Washington Post and Bookforum, and her novel A Distant Enemy was a Junior Literary Guild selection.

Don Rearden is an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska and board president for the 49 Alaska Writing Center. He is a produced screenwriter and recently New Bedford Whaling Museum scholar-in-residence. His novel The Raven's Gift reflects his up-bringing in Yupik communities in Alaska.

Melinda Moustakis is the author of Bear Down Bear North: Alaska Stories, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award. She was named a 5 Under 35 writer by the National Book Foundation and was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. Her story "They Find the Drowned" won a 2013 PEN/ O. Henry Award.

Leigh Newman is the author of the Alaskan memoir Still Points North. Her stories and essays have appeared in One Story, Tin House, Fiction, The New York Times, Vogue, and Bookforum. She co-founded Black Balloon Publishing and is the deputy and books editor of Oprah.com.

Seth Kantner wrote Shopping for Porcupine and the novel Ordinary Wolves. His writing focuses on the Arctic: animals, wilderness, and native villages. His essays have appeared nationwide. He’s the recipient of a Whiting and other awards, and presently is a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News.