Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has published four books of poetry, including The Glory Gets. Most recently, she received a poetry fellowship from the Witter Bynner Foundation and a fiction fellowship from Aspen Summer Words Conference. She is associate professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.

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.

Bernice L. McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, and Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012).