We proudly offer the bios of our accomplished teachers.
Quinn Adikes has published fiction in Lit Hub, Five Points, Epiphany, december, the Southampton Review, Shenandoah, and other journals. He taught for Stony Brook Southampton, where he also earned an MFA in Creative Writing.
Michael Backus is the author of the novels The Vanishing Point (Cactus Moon Books) and the chapbook Coney on the Moon (Redbird Chapbooks). His short stories and nonfiction have appeared in One Story, Okey Panky, Channel, Parhelion Literary Review, Jellyfish Review, Cleaver, Digging Through the Fat, Oyster River Pages, Prime Number, and Exquisite Corpse. He has taught at Columbia College and Marymount Manhattan College. He holds a BA from Purdue University and an MFA from Columbia College.
David Berner
is the author of the memoirs Daylight Savings Time (O-Books); Walks with Sam, October Song, (both Roundfire) and The Consequence of Stars (Adelaide); the novels Things Behind the Sun (Adelaide) and A Well-Respected Man (Strategic); and the novella Sandman: A Golf Tale (Roundfire). His essays and short stories have appeared in Chicagoland Journal, Clef Notes, Epiphany, Eunoia Review, Longshot Island, Under the Gum Tree, and Write City. He is a reporter/anchor for WBBM Radio-Chicago and a contributor to the CBS Radio Network. He is the producer/
Susan Breen is the author of the novels Merry (Alcove Press, forthcoming), The Fiction Class (Plume/Headline Review UK), and the Maggie Dove mystery series (originally published by Penguin Random House/Alibi and rereleased by Under the Oak Press). Her short stories have appeared in American Literary Review, the Chattahoochee Review, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, as well as the anthologies Best American Nonrequired Reading and Murder Most Diabolical, and she has won the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Competition. She holds a BA from the University of Rochester and an MA in Economics from Columbia University.
Adela Brito has published short stories in Acentos Review, the Sandy River Review, Litbreak Magazine, Hieroglyph, and Moko Magazine, and she is a former fiction editor of The Pinch literary journal. Her nonfiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Writer’s Digest, Cathexis Northwest Press, Underwood, Adelaide Literary Magazine, All About Jazz, c-nf, Counterculture UK, and Storyboard Memphis. She has taught at the University of Memphis and Nashville State Community College. She holds a BA from Florida International University and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Memphis.
Benjamin Buchholz is the author of the novels One Hundred and One Nights (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown) and Sirens of Manhattan (Bradley Publishing), and the nonfiction books Private Soldiers (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) and The Tightening Dark (Da Capo). His short stories have appeared in Storyglossia, Hobart, Mad Hatter’s Review, and Prime Number Magazine, and have been anthologized in the Dzanc Press Best of the Web collections. His nonfiction has appeared in Parameters, Military Review, Infantry, and The Writer. He has served as a foreign area officer and U.S. Army attaché in Oman, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Germany (in support of Ukraine) and lectured at Princeton University. He holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed the Omani Royal Air Force Staff College in Arabic Language, and holds MAs in Near East Studies from Princeton University and Strategic Studies from the US Army War College.
Carole Buggé (also writing as Carole Lawrence, C.E. Lawrence, and Elizabeth Blake) is the author of the Ian Hamilton mystery series (Thomas + Mercer), the Jane Austen Society mystery series (Crooked Lane Books), the Lee Campbell thriller series (Kensington), and the Claire Rawlings mystery series (Berkely Prime Crime). She’s also the author of Cleopatra's Dagger (Thomas + Mercer), The Star of India (Titan Press), and The Haunting of Torre Abbey (St. Martin's Press). Her short stories have appeared in anthologies from St. Martin’s Press, Doubleday, and the Mystery Writers of America. Her play Strings Attached was produced at the Kennedy Center, and her plays/musicals have been presented regionally and in New York City. She has taught at NYU, Duke University, the Royal Court Repertory Theatre, and the American Comedy Institute. Carole holds a BA from Duke University.
Omari Chancellor has published short fiction in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Brainwxsh, Still Life, and Soft Punk. He wrote and directed the short films The One, which appeared in several film festivals including the Ohio Valley Film Festival, and SwimLessons for The Believer magazine. He has taught at Spotlight Kids NY and the 52nd Street Project. He holds a BFA from Roanoke College and an MFA from New York University.
Rita Chang-Eppig is the author of the novel Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea (Bloomsbury). Her short fiction has been selected for Best American Short Stories and published in Midnight Breakfast, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, the Rumpus, Clarkesworld, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Santa Monica Review, Conjunctions, and the Kenyon Review Online, among others. She received a Steinbeck Fellowship from the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University, and she has taught for the University of San Francisco and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. She holds a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Fiction from New York University.
Olivia Cheng has published short fiction, essays, and interviews in the Threepenny Review, the Georgia Review, the Boston Review, EPOCH, the Rumpus, and Ploughshares, among others. She has taught for the University of Michigan. She holds a BA from Swarthmore College, and an MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan.
Philip Cioffari is the author of the novels Night and Its Longings, If Anyone Asks, Say I Died From the Heartbreaking Blues, The Bronx Kill, Jesusville, Catholic Boys, and Dark Road, Dead End, as well as the short story collection A History of Things Lost or Broken, (all Livingston Press/University of West Alabama). His short fiction has appeared in the Southern Humanities Review, the Westchester Review, the North American Review, the Connecticut Review, Italian Americana, and been anthologized in Wild Dreams (Fordham University Press), 100 Percent Pure Florida Fiction (University of Florida Press), and Many Lights in Many Windows (Milkweed Editions). His plays have been staged or received staged readings at The Actors Studio, the Belmont Playhouse, the Gettysburg College New Plays Festival, and the Circle Repertory Lab, among many others. He wrote and directed the feature film Love in the Age of Dion, which won Best Director at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival, played at many film festivals including the Rhode Island International Film Festival and the Wildwood-By-The-Sea Festival, and was selected for the New Filmmakers NY series. He teaches at William Paterson University. He holds a Ph.D from New York University.
Elizabeth Cohen is the author of the memoir The House On Beartown Road (Random House), the short story collectionThe Hypothetical Girl (Split Oak Press), and the poetry collections The Economist's Daughter (Ecstatic Utterance), What the Trees Said (Split Oak Press), Bird Light, The Patron Saint of Cauliflower (both Saint Julian Press), and Wonder Electric (Kelsay Books). She is also co-author of the nonfiction book The Scalpel and the Silver Bear (Bantam). Her nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Newsweek, People, the New York Times Magazine, and Yale Review, as well as the anthology Walk on the Wild Side. She has taught at SUNY Plattsburgh, Binghamton University, University of New Mexico, the New School for Social Research, and Western Connecticut State University. She holds a BA from University of New Mexico, an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from Temple University, and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University.
Tom Cooper is the author of the novels Florida Man (Random House) and The Marauders (Broadway Books/Crown Publishing). His short stories have appeared in the Mid-American Review, Gulf Coast, Boulevard, Smokelong Quarterly, and Oxford American. He has taught at Florida State University, Nicholls State University, the University of Central Florida, and the University of South Florida-Tampa. He holds a BA from Florida Atlantic University, an MA in Literature from the University of South Florida, and a Ph.D in Creative Writing from Florida State University.
Anita Diggs is co-author, with Ida Keeling, of the memoir Can't Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race Against Time (Zondervan). She is the author of four novels, including A Meeting in the Ladies Room, (Kensington Books), and the nonfiction book Talking Drums: An African-American Quote Collection (St. Martin’s Press). She has served as senior editor and director of One World Books for Ballantine/Random House. She has taught at Salem College. She holds a BA from the State University of New York/Empire State College and an MFA in Creative Writing/Memoir from Hunter College.
Lyndsey Ellis is the author of the novel Bone Broth (Hidden Timber Books), and her short fiction has been published in Kweli Journal, Joyland, the Santa Monica Review, Parhelion, the Stockholm Review of Literature, and Orca, A Literary Journal, among many others. Her work has been anthologized in Golden State 2017: Best New Writing from California (Outpost 19 Books), Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest (Belt Publishing), and Crick! Crack!: Poems and Stories by Emerging Writers (The Bonfire Collective). She wrote the Memory Book column for Catapult magazine, blogged at For Harriet, and was fiction editor for The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought. She has taught for the Loft Literary Center, the California Writers’ Club, Your Words STL, and midnight & indigo. She holds a BA from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts.
Sonia Feigelson is the northeast editor at Joyland. Her short stories and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, No Tokens, The Berkshire Eagle, Hobart, Puerto Del Sol, and the anthology Strange Attractors: Lives Changed by Chance (University of Massachusetts Press). Formerly, she was the fiction editor of the Washington Square Review, and has taught at New York University and Mingyang Education. She holds a BA from Bard College and an MFA in Fiction from New York University.
Serrana Laure Gay has published short stories in Sinister Wisdom, the North Dakota Quarterly, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, Red Noise Collective, Big Bend Literary Magazine, Silver Rose Magazine, and Prometheus Dreaming. She is the author of the illustrated book Fatty Fatty No Friends (Mind the Art Entertainment), adapted from her operetta of the same name, which was winner of the Best of Fest prize at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Her plays have been workshopped or appeared at the New York International Fringe Festival, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, the National Opera Center, the Frigid NY theatre festival, the HERE Arts Center, and Feinstein’s 54 Below. She has taught at the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute. She holds a BFA from Ithaca College and an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College.
Shari Goldhagen is the author of the novels In Some Other World, Maybe (St. Martins), Family and Other Accidents (Random House) and 100 Days of Cake (Atheneum Books for Young Readers). Her short stories have appeared in Indiana Review, Prism International, Beacon Street Review, and Wascana Review, and her nonfiction has appeared in the National Enquirer, Complete Woman, teenStyle, Ohioana, and Restaurants and Institutions. She is editor of the nonfiction anthology Witches Then and Now (Centennial), and editor-in-chief of Women & Weed magazine. She has taught at Ohio State University. She holds a BSJ from Northwestern University and an MFA in Fiction from Ohio State University.
Varud Gupta is the author of the graphic novel Chhotu: A Tale of Partition and Love and the nonfiction travel memoir Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan: Food of the Gods (both Penguin Random House). His food and travel articles have appeared in National Geographic and America's Test Kitchen, among others, and his short graphic fiction has appeared in Comixense and Inklab. He has worked as head of originals for the production studio Resting Kitsch Face, and taught for the Indian Institute of Art and Design. He holds a BS from New York University.
Brendan Halpin is the author of the novels Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Long Way Back, and Donorboy (all by Villard); the memoirs Losing My Faculties and It Takes a Worried Man (both by Villard); and the author or co-author of eight young adult novels, including Legacy (Gum Road), Forever Changes (by Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Tessa Masterson Will Go To Prom (Walker Books), and A Really Awesome Mess (Egmont USA). His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times (of London) Magazine, Best Life Magazine, Rosie Magazine, and Ladies’ Home Journal. He has taught at Emmanuel College, Bunker Hill Community College, and the Wentworth Institute of Technology. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Teaching from Tufts University.
Season Harper-Fox has published fiction, poetry, and book reviews in Cream City Review, Rocky Mountain Review of Modern Language and Literature, OnTheBus, and Primavera, and she has served as editorial assistant for Prairie Schooner. She has taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She holds a BA and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Scott Alexander Hess is the author of five novels, including Skyscraper, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, The Butcher's Sons, named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015 (both Lethe Press), and the novellas, A Season in Delhi, The Root of Everything & Lightning (all Rebel Satori Press). His work has appeared in HuffPost, Genre Magazine, The Fix, and Thema Literary Review. He co-wrote “Tom in America,” an award-winning short film, and curates Hot Lit, an LGBTQ+ themed monthly newsletter. He holds a BJ from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MFA in Fiction from The New School.
R. Dean Johnson is the author of the novel Californium (Plume Books) and the short story collection Delicate Men (Alternative Book Press). His short stories and essays have appeared in Ascent, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Louisville Review, New Orleans Review, Natural Bridge, Ruminate, Santa Clara Review, Slice, and Southern Review, and in the anthologies Agave (Ink Brush Press) and A Tribute to Orpheus (Kearney Street Books). He served as fiction editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review and editor of the anthology Teachable Moments: Essays on Experiential Education (University Press of America). He has taught at Arizona State University, Prescott College, Cameron University, and Eastern Kentucky University. He holds a BS from California State Polytechnic, an MA in English from Kansas State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.
K Hank Jost is the editor of A Common Well Journal. He is also the author of the novel MadStone and the novel-in-stories Deselections (both Whiskey Tit Books). His short stories and poems have appeared in Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, the Burning Palace, X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, and BULL, among others, and he is a regular contributor to the New Haven Independent. He has taught for the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research.
George Jreije is the author of the Shad Hadid children's fantasy series, the novel Bashir Boutros and the Jewels of the Nile, and the forthcoming graphic novel Tarik’s Bazaar Adventure (all HarperCollins). He has also written short stories published in collaboration with UNICEF. He has taught for the Concord (Massachusetts) Library System, the Orlando Libraries, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. He holds a BS and an MBA from Clark University.
Jaime Karnes has published fiction and nonfiction in Granta, Adirondack Review, Opium Magazine, and PopMatters. She is an editor-at-large in fiction at The Utopian. She has taught at Rutgers and Southern New Hampshire University. She holds a BA from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark University.
Z Kennedy-Lopez is the fiction editor of the Atticus Review, and their own fiction and essays have appeared in Catapult, Foglifter, Autostraddle, Have Has Had, Storm Cellar, and A Velvet Giant, among many others. They have taught at the University of California, Davis, Rutgers University-Camden, and the Cooper Street Writing Workshops. They hold a BA from Southern Oregon University, an MA in English from the University of California, Davis, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden.
Megan Kruse is the author of the novel Call Me Home (Hawthorne Books). She has published short stories and nonfiction in Narrative Magazine, Drunken Boat, Witness Magazine, The Sun, Bellingham Review, and Psychology Today, and her short fiction is included in the anthologies Portland Noir (Akashic) and Portland Queer (Lit Star Press). She was named a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Awards. She has taught for Eastern Oregon University, the University of Montana, Ashford University, Badgerdog in Austin, and Hugo House in Seattle. She holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana.
Angela Lam is the author of the memoir Red Eggs and Good Luck (She Writes Press), the novels Friends First, The Divorce Planner, and the Women of the Crush series (all The Wild Rose Press), and Blood Moon Rising (Eternal Press), and the short story collections Water Baby and Other Stories (Gross Productions), and The Human Act and Other Stories (All Things That Matter Press). Her nonfiction has appeared in The Sun, the San Jose Mercury News, SFGate, the Portland Book Review, and the Bohemian. She holds a BA from Sonoma State University.
Cleve Lamison is the author of the science fiction novel Full-Blood Half-Breed (Penguin Random House), and he is a contributing writer to Suvudu.com, a science fiction and fantasy blog at Random House. He is consulting producer of the short film Superman Doesn't Steal, which won Best Film at the Diversity In Cannes Short Film Showcase and the A Day In the Sun Film Festival, and was selected by the Cleveland International Film Festival, among many others. He was a staff writer for the television show Craig Ross Jr.’s Monogamy (Urban Movie Channel), and he wrote and directed the feature film Following Bliss, which won Best Feature Film at the Global Arts International Film Festival. His short film "The Story" won the Denver World Film Festival, and his short film "Jack for President" was a runner-up in the New York 24-Hour Filmmaking Contest. He was the artistic director of the BlackBird Theatre Company in NYC; created, wrote, and drew the cartoon strip Rick the Roach for the Richmond News Leader; and is a veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves. He holds a BA from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Mengyin Lin is the author of the short-story collection The Memory Museum (Graywolf Press, forthcoming). Her short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Joyland, Pleiades, Epiphany, Fence, swamp pink, and Best Debut Short Stories (Catapult Books), and essays and interviews in the New York Times and Guernica. She holds a BFA in Film from New York University and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College.
Casandra López has published short stories in the Packinghouse Review, Flyaway, Potomac Review, California Journal of Women Writers, Unmanned Press, and the anthologies Best Small Fictions and Dimestories. She is the author of the poetry collection Brother Bullet (University of Arizona Press) and the chapbook Where Bullet Breaks (Sequoyah National Research Center), and her poetry has appeared in Bellingham Review, NewBorder, Malpais Review, Hobart, Indian Country Today, Más Tequila Review, and Hamilton Stone Review. She is a founder/managing editor of the literary journal As/Us, teaches for the University of California at San Diego, and has taught at the University of New Mexico, Northwest Indian College, North Seattle Community College, and for Upward Bound. She holds a BS from Cornell, an MA in Educational Counseling from the University of Redlands, and an MFA in Fiction from the University of New Mexico.
Alice Martin is the author of the novel Westward Women (St. Martin’s Press, forthcoming), and her short stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Reed Magazine, the Writer’s Foundry Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, and been anthologized in North Carolina’s Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction. She has worked as a junior literary agent at Writers House, and taught for Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University. She holds a BA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an MA in English literature from New York University.
Christine Meade is the author of the novels The Way You Burn (She Writes Press) and The Moon, Her Crown (LitSet Books). Her personal essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Chicago Literati, HuffPost, the Manifest-Station, and Writer’s Digest. She has taught for 826 Boston, Lasell College, and Curry College. She holds a BA from Northeastern University and an MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts.
N. West Moss is the author of the memoir Flesh and Blood (Algonquin), the short story collection The Subway Stops at Bryant Park (Leapfrog Press), and the middle-grade novel Birdy, (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little Brown Books for Young Readers, forthcoming). Her short stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Stockholm Review, Blotter Magazine, and Westchester Review. Her nonfiction has appeared in Salon, the New York Times, Brevity, River Teeth, Dorothy Parker's Ashes, and Ars Medica. She has taught at William Paterson University, Montclair State University, and Passaic County Community College. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, a Master of Secondary Education from Mercy College, an MFA in Creative Writing from William Paterson University, and a CPA in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University.
Benjamin Obler is the author of the novel Javascotia (Penguin UK). His short stories and essays have appeared in The Guardian, London Times, Mirror, Electric Literature, Long Reads, Puerto Del Sol, The Junction, Belle Ombre, Qwerty, Sundress, Thirty-Two, Cottonwood, and Evansville Review. He has taught at the Loft Literary Center. He holds a BA from the University of St. Thomas and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow.
Dalia Pagani is the author of the novel Mercy Road (Delacorte). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Story, Portsmouth Review, Green Mountains Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Omnificent, and Cruising World. She has taught at Plymouth State University, Lebanon College, and Johnson State College. She holds a BA and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College.
Kristin Rockaway is the author of the novels Smart Girl Summer, Life, Unscheduled (both Montlake), How to Hack a Heartbreak, She’s Faking It, (both Graydon House), and The Wild Woman’s Guide to Traveling the World (Center Street), as well as the young adult novel My Epic Spring Break (Up) (Underlined). She’s written essays and blog posts for Fresh Fiction, Frolic, Novel Novice, We Heart Writing, and Women Writers, Women’s Books. She holds a BA from New York University.
Lynda Sandoval is the author of numerous novels including Unsettling, (Rayo/Harper Collins), the young adult novels Who’s Your Daddy?, Chicks Ahoy (both Simon Pulse), and Father Knows Best (Bold Strokes Books), and the Amgias Y Amor romance series (Bold Stroke Books) and the Return to Troublesome Gulch series (Silhouette Books). She is a former police officer with the Wheat Ridge (Colorado) Police Department and a former 911 and fire department dispatcher with the Littleton (Colorado) Fire Department. She has taught Constitutional rights classes for middle school students and has served as a novel writing mentor with the Nevada Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She holds a BS from the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Alanna Schubach is the author of the novel The Nobodies (Blackstone Publishing). Her short stories have appeared in the Iowa Review, Sewanee Review, Massachusetts Review, Juked, and Electric Literature's Recommended Reading. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Jacobin, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and the LA Review of Books. She has taught at the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, the College Readiness Program, the Westchester County Department of Corrections, and Girls Write Now. She holds a BA from American University and an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College.
Radhika Sharma is the author of the novel Mangoes for Monkeys and the short story collection Parikrama, (both Frog Books/Leadstart Publishing). Her short fiction has appeared in the Santa Clara Review and The Fanzine, and her essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Times of India, the Economic Times, Pacific Time, Perspectives, In the Fray, and the Forum on KQED FM, among many others. She is a former assistant fiction editor for 14Hills literary magazine, and she has taught for San Francisco State University, Milipitas Adult Education, and the Learning Bee. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
Tatjana Soli is the author of the novels The Lotus Eaters, a New York Times bestseller, The Removes (Sarah Crichton Books), The Forgetting Tree, and The Last Good Paradise (both St. Martin’s Press). She has published short stories in StoryQuarterly, Confrontation, Gulf Coast, Other Voices, Nimrod, Third Coast, Carolina Quarterly, Sonora Review and North Dakota Quarterly, and her work has been twice cited in Best American Short Stories. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA in Fiction from Warren Wilson.
Divya Sood is the author of the novels Find Someone to Love and Nights Like This (both Riverdale Avenue Books). Her short stories have won the New Jersey Arts and Letters First Prize for Short Fiction and appeared in The Masters Review. She has taught at Rutgers University and Southern New Hampshire University. She holds a BA from Rutgers University, an MA in English, and an MFA in Fiction, both from New York University.
Nelsie Spencer is the author of the novel The Playgroup, (St. Martin’s Press). She wrote the feature screenplay A Girl's Best Friend and co-wrote the feature film Valley Inn, which debuted at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. She wrote, produced, and co-hosted the radio show The Radio Ritas, (Greenstone Media) and hosts the podcast Losing It. She co-wrote and starred in the play My Heart Belongs To Daddy, produced at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and Duke University’s Pre-Broadway series. She performed her one-woman show Day of the Dead Daddy at the Chain Theatre in New York City, at the Denver Fringe Festival, and it won an honorable mention in Solo Fest at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco. She studied dance and theater at Orange Coast College, and fiction at The New School.
Jessica Sticklor (also writing as Jessica Stilling and J.M. Stephen) is the author of the novels Just So Many Places (NineStar Press), After the Barricades, The Weary God of Ancient Travelers (both D.X. Varos), The Beekeeper's Daughter (Bedazzled Ink Press), and Betwixt and Between (Ig Publishing), and the young adult Pan Chronicles series and The Rise of Runes and Shields, book one of her Seidr Sagas young adult fantasy series (all D.X. Varos). Her short stories have appeared in The Paper Nautilus, Open Wide Magazine, Conclave, The Skyline Review, Chiron Review, and Kudzu, and her nonfiction has appeared in The Writer, Ms., and Tor.com. She has worked as an editor at The House of Books. She holds a BA from The New School and an MFA in Creative Writing from CUNY.
Justine Teu has published short fiction in Passages North, Storm Cellar, The Offing, Pidgeonholes, VIDA Lit, LEVEE magazine, and Pigeon Pages, among others, and her essays have appeared in Craft Literary, the Binghamton Journal of History, and Binghamton Writes. She has taught for WriteOn and for BuzzFeed. She holds a BA from the State University of New York-Binghamton and an MFA in Fiction from the New School.
Arlaina Tibensky is the author of the novel And Then Things Fall Apart (Simon & Schuster). Her short stories and nonfiction have appeared in One Story, SmokeLong Quarterly, Reckon Review, The Dodge Magazine, Stanchion, Thimble Lit, @TheKeepThings, The Razor, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Madison Review, The Dinner Party Download, and New Stories from the Midwest, 2018. She has received "The Best of the Net," "Best Small Fictions," and Pushcart nominations for her flash fiction. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University.
Cab Tran has published short fiction in Vagabond: Bulgaria's English Monthly, The Oleander Review, and Black Warrior Review, among many others. He is the co-editor and translator of the anthology The Colors of April (Three Rooms Press, forthcoming), by and about the Vietnamese diaspora in the wake of the Vietnam War, and he is the translator, with Quan M. Ha, of the short-story collection Hanoi at Midnight by Bao Ninh (Texas Tech University Press). He co-founded the literary magazine Cedilla, has worked as a tutor with the Michigan Mentorship Program, and taught for the University of Michigan. He holds a BA from the University of Montana and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Michigan.
David Yoo is the author of the young adult novels Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before (Hyperion) and Girls for Breakfast (Delacorte), the middle grade novel The Detention Club (Balzer + Bray), and the essay collection The Choke Artist (Grand Central). He has published short stories and nonfiction in Massachusetts Review, Rush Hour, Maryland Review, and the anthology Guys Write for Guys Read (Viking). He is also a columnist for KoreAm Journal. He has taught at Pine Manor College, Eckerd College, and CU-Boulder. He holds a BA from Skidmore College and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Irene Zabytko is the author of the novel The Sky Unwashed (Algonquin), and the short story collection When Luba Leaves Home (Algonquin). Her short stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and her nonfiction has appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, the New York Times Book Review, and the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine. She received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award in Ukraine for an upcoming novel based on the life of Nikolai Gogol. She holds a BA from Vermont College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College.
