Alexandra Naughton is a writer, publisher, and literary events producer. She is the founder and editor in chief of Be About It Press, an independent publishing house based in Philadelphia. Her first novel, American Mary, won the 2015 Mainline contest and was published in 2016 by Civil Coping Mechanisms. Her work has been published widely, online and in print. She writes “talk about it” on Substack. She is currently seeking representation for her second novel.

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Colette Walker is from New Jersey and will forever be a Jersey girl. She graduated from Drew University as an adult, and Wesley Theological Seminary, where she received her Masters in Theological Studies. An ordained minister, she considers sermon writing to be a unique form of storytelling. She is a grandmother, marathoner, and fitness enthusiast. She currently resides in St Louis. Her short fiction has been supported by Voices of our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA), and Community of Writers.

Larissa has taught high school English in the School District of Philadelphia for the past seventeen years. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and a National Book Foundation Teaching Fellow. She has published a book and related articles on teaching and learning, and is working on her first novel, which she has spent the past two summers workshopping at Community of Writers and the Fine Arts Work Center. She lives in West Philadelphia with her boyfriend, housemate, and five-year-old son.

Liz Moorhead is a watercolor artist and writer, born and raised in Philadelphia. A former English teacher, she's been writing professionally for fifteen years as a ghostwriter, essayist, and relationship advice columnist. Currently, she writes about motherhood and art and death at lizmoorhead.substack.com. She’s interested in exploring the intersection of all of these things, and their impact on one another. Liz has four kids, two cats, a fixer-upper outside of Philly, and a weakness for cheese fries.

Reema Rao is a Konkani American fiction writer from Chicago. A Best of the Net finalist, Wigleaf Top 50 longlister, and a Pushcart Prize nominee, her work can be found in Hayden's Ferry Review, Witness, The Los Angeles Review, Flash Frog, and elsewhere. She has been supported by residency at Storyknife Writers Retreat and grants from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and Boston Writers of Color, in addition to time and mentorship at notable residential writers’ workshops. She is mother to her short story collection-in-progress, one-year-old son, and five-year-old pup.

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Tori Lee is a writer and museum professional from Chicago. She has developed exhibits on everything from Permian Period mammals to Chicago’s first Black taxidermist. Currently, she writes stories about the arts, humanities and social sciences at the University of Chicago. Her work can be found in UChicago News, Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach, Third Edition, and the Field Museum of Natural History. She is the author of A Little Romance, a flash fiction newsletter, and is writing her first novel while nurturing her ever-growing rock collection.