Melissa Stein is the author of the poetry collection Rough Honey, winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. Her work has appeared in New England Review, Harvard Review, Best New Poets, and many others. She has received fellowships from Bread Loaf, Yaddo, and MacDowell.

Susan Orlean is the author of eight books, including The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, both New York Times bestsellers. She has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1992. She is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow in Creative Arts.

D.A. Powell's books include Repast and Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys, recipient of the National Book Critics' Award in Poetry.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench. In 2011, she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. Her second novel is Balm. She teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program.

Christopher Castellani