Elaine taught middle school Language Arts for thirty-six years, co-authored The Great Debate Project and Educators Take Charge, and her plays won the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival and the Premiere Stages New Play contest. She’s a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Dramatists Guild, NEA and NJEA, and is an avid tennis player.
Originally from Austin, I grew up in Dallas and Waco and attended Texas Tech University, where I received a BA in Spanish with a minor in public relations. After teaching Spanish in Midland and Richardson ISD, I received a master’s degree in curriculum. Bruce grew up in West Texas and attended school in Wichita Falls and the University of Houston. We retired together in 2020 after returning to Texas from Brazil and currently live out in the country near Horseshoe Bay.
I’m Tinu Abass, a UK-based writer with a passion for telling stories that uplift, educate, and reflect the beauty of African culture. I write both children’s books and fiction, with recurring themes around confidence, identity, healing, and the celebration of self.
Angelino Donnachaidh is a Mexican-American father, author, and Japanese-English translator, and longtime resident of Osaka, Japan. His works include the middle grade historical fiction illustrated novella Tamiu: A Cat’s Tale (North Street Prize Winner), the YA post-cyberpunk AI heist adventure screenplay Brother, and an upcoming samurai scifi-fantasy action-thriller novel entitled The Mayhem Protocols.
Victoria Lopez is a writer, poet, and educator passionate about inspiring individuality and fostering creative exploration. As the Executive Director and Founder of Unfolded: Poetry Project, she has been a driving force in creating accessible spaces for self-expression and connection through poetry in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.
Ron MacLean is the author of the story collections Apocalypso (forthcoming), We Might as Well Light Something on Fire, and Why the Long Face?, as well as the novels Headlong and Blue Winnetka Skies. His fiction has appeared in GQ, Narrative, Fiction International, Best Online Fiction, and elsewhere. MacLean is a recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short Fiction and a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee. He holds a Doctor of Arts from the University at Albany, SUNY, and teaches at Grub Street in Boston.
After attending a grammar school in the East End of London, Keith joined the East London Advertiser newspaper at the age of 20. After working on newspapers in Oxford, Sheffield, Cardiff, Bristol, and Essex, he eventually went to work on The Sunday Times in London.
Rebecca Lake-Bonenfant lives in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, minutes from Lake Winnipesaukee. She lives with her supportive husband, book-crazy daughter, and old-soul little boy. She enjoys spending time in nature, reading, writing, and being a wife, mother, and dog mom to her two doggies.
Tracy Carter graduated from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, with a Master’s degree in History. Her lengthy career as a legal assistant has included stints at international law firms and prosecutors’ offices, followed by jobs as the Horse Identifier at two thoroughbred racetracks―all while training dogs in obedience and rally. Tracy’s first book is the Gold Medal winner in the 2023 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest in the Fiction-Animals genre, and her second book is a 2024 BookFest First Place Award Winner in the Fiction-Detective-Women Sleuths genre.
Laurie Bowler is a bestselling author based in Hampshire, UK. She is known for weaving compelling stories across fantasy, young adult, and sci-fi genres. Her books resonate with a wide audience, drawing in readers who crave richly imagined worlds and deeply layered characters.
Jamie Lynn House grew up in Pennsylvania before heading west to study film and fashion in California, where she later earned her degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills. Now living in North Carolina with her husband and two children, Jamie brings a passionate voice to fiction, writing stories that center strong, complex women navigating personal and social upheaval.
J.F. Hopper writes mythic fantasy through the voice of Lirian Ever-Weaver, a bard born of firelight and fading memory. Rooted in Celtic myth and shaped by a love of storytelling, his work blends the epic with the intimate—where ghost-kissed warriors rise, ancient powers stir, and the long echo of song may yet shape the fate of a world. He lives in Kansas City, where he writes, teaches, and keeps the storyfire lit.
A life spent in Texas led to a relocation adventure, and native Texas author Russell J. Sanders now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He and his husband were compelled to set out for parts unknown, and that led them to Vegas, where they are supremely happy. But they don’t stay put. They’ve traveled the world, journeying to England, France, Italy, Japan, India, Bali, Jakarta, Toronto, Quebec City, Nova Scotia, Vancouver, Alaska, and Hawaii. And his novels are infused with locations as near as Ft. Worth, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, and as far away as Halifax. Who knows where he will lead readers next?
River 瑩瑩 Dandelion walks with his ancestors. He is a practitioner of ancestral medicine through writing, teaching, energy healing, and creating ceremony. He is the author of remembering (y)our light, (Dandelion Books, 2023), a debut chapbook on honoring matriarchs and ancestors across generations, which was a finalist for the 2025 North Street Book Prize. He is the winner of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers.
Brandon Keith Osborn is a filmmaker, photographer, and storyteller based in Los Angeles. After years of visual storytelling through commercial and documentary work, he began developing long form narratives that blend grounded sci-fi, philosophical inquiry, and emotionally raw character arcs. His debut novel, The Panatharta Chronicles: Shadow Falls, was accepted for publication in 2025, though he later decided to pursue a broader creative rollout—including cinematic development and agency representation.
Rebecca (Becky) Cartwright is a nursery practitioner and primary school teacher in Warwickshire, England, and mum to Grace with a baby on the way.
Barbara Fischkin is the author of three books of narrative nonfiction and fiction and is currently writing an autism-related historical novel (working title “The Digger Resistance”). The book spans the years 1900–present and takes place in Ukraine and other European and American locales. She holds a SUNY interdisciplinary Master of Liberal Studies Degree in “Autism Past and Present,” and has taught journalism at three universities. Her books include Muddy Cup: A Dominican Family Comes of Age in a New America—published by Scribner and considered a landmark work about Dominican immigration to the United States—and two satiric novels published by Bantam Dell at Random House: Exclusive and Confidential Sources.
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, or Diosa X for short, is a multilingual and multidimensional spoken word artist, workshop facilitator, and international poetiza. She is a seasoned language arts educator with a Bachelor’s in English and a Master’s in Cross-Cultural Teaching. Diosa X was selected Regional 2nd Runner Up in Inlandia’s Hillary Gravendyke’s Poetry Prize in 2023 for her poetry collection titled When the Leaves Come Tumbling Down: An A to Z Poetry Collection About Loss. She was also selected as finalist for Somos en escrito’s Best Raza Short Story Award in 2023 for her piece titled The Weight of the Scales.
I’m a queer femme feminist, a politics lecturer by day, and a seashore wanderer whenever I can sneak away (with my gorgeous dog). My teaching spans sustainable development, human rights, gender, sexualities, intersectionality, and research methods. I have a particular interest in creative approaches to research—especially storytelling. In my work, I explore power relations—from institutions to intimate relationships—using a queering approach to experiment with possibilities and challenge norms. I use she/her or they/them pronouns.
Hailing from Somerset in the UK, Gen is a writer of short stories, poetry, and fiction novels. Her romantasy novel Fayte & Blood has been called “immersive, gripping and romantic” (Bigreads). Both Gen and her husband can “work from anywhere,” and she can often be found writing in underground bunkers in Seoul, bridge-side coffee shops in Vietnam, and beach bars in Thailand. Fayte & Blood is the start of a series; the second novel, Fayte & Bone released in late May 2025. She can be found on TikTok and Instagram @worldofvieve.