Luanne Smith lives in New Jersey, works in Pennsylvania, but she is a born Kentuckian. She is an Associate Professor at West Chester University outside of Philadelphia where she has taught creative writing and film there for nearly 30 years now. Her work, usually short fiction, has appeared in Puerto del Sol, The Oxford Review, The Texas Review and other literary journals.

Michael Gills is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels West and Emergency Instructions (Raw Dog Screaming Press), and the short story collections The House Across from the Deaf School and The Death of Bonnie and Clyde (Texas Review Press). Gills' work has won numerous prizes. His undergraduate novel writing workshop has been featured on USA Today, and several of his students have gone on to publish books of their own. Gills teaches for the Honors College at the University of Utah.

Lee Zacharias is the author of three previous novels, Lessons, At Random, and Across the Great Lake, a 2019 Notable Michigan Book, as well as a collection of stories, Helping Muriel Make It Through the Night, and a collection of essays, The Only Sounds We Make. She has received two silver medals from the Independent Book Publisher Awards, won North Carolina's Sir Walter Raleigh Award, and held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council. Her work has been reprinted and frequently cited in the annual volumes of The Best American Essays. You can read more about her at www.leezacharias.com.